The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 243

All of the monsters swept up in her attack were torn into pieces of flesh, scattering across the island. Once again, the sky became visible.

Lucy looked up at the sky, her eyes clouded with haze. She was on the verge of losing consciousness, but at least she had managed to land a decent attack on Velbrok.

There were very few people throughout history who were capable of using Ultimate Elemental Magic.

Most of them required several days and nights of preparation just to cast it.

So, to cast such a massive spell by herself on the fly… That was a feat that seemed to deny the very logic of magic itself.

However, Velbrok didn’t fall.

Velbrok’s scales possessed an enormous amount of magic resistance against every kind of magic… Its scales alone were able to negate even Ultimate Magic, which was said to go beyond comprehension.

However, with Lucy using all of her power to cast that Ultimate Elemental Magic, even Velbrok couldn’t help but scream in pain. But that was all. It had merely felt pain.

The countless monsters that had filled the sky also disappeared for a moment… But it didn’t take long for Velbrok to summon more monsters.

Even though it was an attack that had used all of her strength, her efforts became meaningless in an instant.

The Great Sage Silvenia stood upright atop the broken spire in the commercial district’s square.

She lifted her large wand and, with a single swipe, cast the Advanced Celestial Magic,Spatial Curtain.

It was a Celestial Magic spell that twisted space itself. It transcended nearly all laws of physics, creating a space that temporarily negated any attack.

The downside was its long casting time and short range. Since you were also trapped within the fractured space, it became difficult to judge the situation outside. In other words, it was like hiding in an invincible place with your eyes closed. However, the moment the magic was dispelled, you became vulnerable to attack.

Nevertheless, it was an absolute defensive spell that negated any form of attack—which was enough to offset its shortcomings.

She had survived Lucy’s magic, which destroyed everything in its path, without a single scratch. No matter how powerful Lucy’s attack was, it had been completely meaningless.

She looked down at Lucy from the top of the broken spire.

Lucy’s white blouse was completely soaked red, drenched in blood. Only the ends of her sleeves and the hem of her dress, which had been curled into a skirt, still retained traces of white.

The ends of her skirt were torn, and her white knee socks were barely holding their original shape.

From her usually absent-minded eyes, a sense of hostility began to emerge.

She looked up at Silvenia with fierce determination.

Lucy, who was always disinterested in everything and spent her days sleeping in a corner of the island, was now looking up at Silvenia and saying, “The speed at which you convert your magic power.”

Lucy had been born with extraordinary senses—sharp enough to grasp what Silvenia had just done.

Silvenia Robester was a pioneer of Celestial Magic. A genius who had achieved magical feats that no one else could compare to.

The same held true in combat magic. Her innate magic power, rapid calculations, and flawless judgment…

In terms of combat magic, she possessed the ability to surpass even some of the greatest warriors in history… It was difficult for Lucy, who was already exhausted, to contend with her.

However, normal magic power was fundamentally different from Celestial Magic power.

To use elemental magic, one needed to gather regular magic power. However, to gather Celestial Magic power, one first had to expel all regular magic power. It was an extremely inefficient process.

For that reason, it was incredibly difficult to use Celestial Magic and regular magic simultaneously.

The difference in speed compared to a normal magician might seem negligible, but against another magician who was among the greatest of all time, that subtle delay could become decisive.

It was only a tiny flaw—something one would normally only notice after dozens or even hundreds of exchanges—but… Lucy Mayreel had realized it after just a few.

Silvenia Robester’s Celestial Magic seemed overwhelmingly powerful, ignoring all rules and surpassing logic itself to defeat her enemies… However, it wasn’t without its flaws.

Lucy realized that she might have a chance to win if she used elemental magic, which Silvenia found difficult to handle. Once Silvenia was forced to cast defensive magic, she would need to begin gathering Celestial Magic again. In the brief moment required to switch between magic powers—if Lucy could land an attack, she might win.

During that period when Silvenia had been switching between regular and Celestial Magic before, Ed had managed to drive a dagger straight into her shoulder.

In terms of brute force, Lucy had no chance of victory.

All she could rely on were her skills and senses.

Lucy Mayreel had been born with the blessing of the stars. She existed in a realm far beyond ordinary people in both skill and perception. After quickly devising a strategy to defeat Silvenia, she began gathering magic power within her body.

However, there was very little magic power left.

After trading several blows with Silvenia, she had already exhausted herself, using most of her magic to temporarily neutralize Velbrok.

Even attempting to cast an intermediate spell—let alone an advanced one—made her head throb painfully.

At her peak, she could cast dozens of advanced magic circles as easily as breathing. Realizing how cornered she had become, she frowned.

The shadow of death slowly crept up Lucy’s back.

The end of her life.

If she wanted to survive by running away, this was her last chance.

Continuing to fight Silvenia beyond this point truly meant risking her life.

A life-threatening crisis.

A phrase that had never applied to someone as powerful as Lucy Mayreel.

However, it felt as though that blond fallen nobleman was standing upon her shoulders. Lucy could imagine the shadow of that man on her back—someone who was constantly on the brink of death, yet continued to clench his fists and move forward.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t run away. She had never cared about pride or honor.

However, to run away at that moment… It wouldn’t be polite to him. And so, Lucy Mayreel never even considered it.

She would continue fighting, relying solely on her skills and senses, gathering every last drop of magic power while clenching her teeth.

Six or seven beginner wind magicWind Bladesflew toward Silvenia.

Silvenia scoffed as she swung her staff, instantly negating them all.

It would take at least an advanced spell for Silvenia to even consider dodging. Beginner magic would never reach her body.

Lucy didn’t care. She continued swinging her arms, casting the beginner fire magicIgnite.

The flames obscured her vision. She then quickly cast the beginner earth magicEarth Wall, hiding herself behind the rising barriers.

That was when Silvenia noticed.

Lucy no longer had any magic power left. Even intermediate magic—which she had once cast effortlessly—now had to be used sparingly.

The constant use of beginner magic proved it. Lucy Mayreel, of all people, was resorting to beginner spells. It was like wielding a giant ballista only to fire the smallest crossbow bolts.

Lucy ran behind the walls she had created, thinking:

I can’t win.

I will probably die here.

If that was the case, then she needed to bring Silvenia down with her.

Ed Rothstaylor had said that he would find a way to stop the great calamity in the sky—Velbrok.

However, she had never heard anything from him regarding Silvenia Robester. It seemed that the resurrection of the Great Sage was entirely outside of Ed Rothstaylor’s calculations.

Magic duels were usually decided by firepower. However, there were many other factors that needed to be considered.

One of the fundamentals of combat was prioritizing one’s own safety.

Charging headfirst into battle with the intention of throwing your life away placed you in a completely different realm—one your opponent wouldn’t anticipate.

In other words, it was the perfect way to leave your enemy dumbfounded.

But only once.

If she could create an opening by wagering her own life…

If she could land a blow to Silvenia’s vitals in the process… Then she could at least eliminate that disaster. The cost would be her own life.

Velbrok would have to be dealt with by someone else, but…

Lucy never doubted Ed’s words. He would find a way. That was enough to define her role.

“Euk… Keuk… Keuuuuk… Heuk…”

Silvenia landed from the spire into the square, her expression hovering between laughter and tears.

Now that she knew Lucy Mayreel no longer had the power to fight back, there was no reason to hold back.

The mud walls lay scattered about, tangled like a maze.

They were meant to confuse an opponent—but they would never work against the truly strong.

Boom!!

With a mere release of her magic power, the walls formed from beginner magic crumbled apart.

Lucy’s labyrinth—constructed through layers ofEarth WallandIgnite—was instantly neutralized. Silvenia quickly spotted Lucy, limping away while drenched in blood.

Silvenia raised her arms, casting ice magic for the finishing blow. Lucy no longer had the power to resist.

And at the moment the ice spear was about to pierce Lucy’s body—

Her form shattered into pieces and vanished.

“……?”

Humans were supposed to bleed, their organs spilling out when struck by an ice spear. They weren’t meant to break apart like mechanical constructs.

It was an illusion.

And Silvenia—renowned as a genius—should never have fallen for such a simple trick.

However, Silvenia had lost her reason, consumed by madness. She was focused solely on destroying everything before her, failing to consider Lucy’s speed and improvisational skill.

The walls and flames had only been used to buy time—to set traps.

Lucy had cast the beginner ice magicIce Bladealong the ground. Upon its surface, she had layered a hallucinatory spell.

Lucy didn’t have enough magic power left to cast advanced illusion magic. All she could do was create small pieces of bait—mere tricks.

In fact, advanced illusions might have been less effective against someone like Silvenia anyway, as powerful magicians could detect them through the sheer volume of magic involved.

So Lucy had chosen deception through subtlety, gathering every last fragment of magic she had left.

This was the fighting style of an underdog.

Tricking the opponent, running away, throwing sand in their eyes, grabbing hair, digging in nails, biting—

A battle that relied on ingenuity to overcome an overwhelming difference in power. It was something Lucy had never experienced before.

That was because Lucy Mayreel had always lived as one of the strongest, crushing her enemies with raw power.

She hadn’t realized it herself—but she was now fighting like the weak.

Clang!!

Bleeding heavily, Lucy hid herself with camouflage magic and slowly stood behind Silvenia.

Startled, Silvenia unleashed her magic power behind her—but it struck only another illusion carved into anIce Blade.

Lucy was floating above Silvenia’s head, concealed within the rising smoke.

She looked like a corpse—her body soaked in blood—but she was alive.

Lucy extended her hand through the smoke, gathering every scrap of magic power she could muster.

On the trees in the camp, on the cabin roof, on the altar atop Right Mountain, within the Rothstaylor Estate, on countless battlefields…

She had always sat absent-mindedly, watching that man fight from above.

At some point, it had all become etched into her vision.

Her eyes shone brightly, as though filled with stars.

This wasn’t the honorable duel Glockt had taught her as a child.

Nor was it the etiquette-bound contest between Magic Tower magicians.

Lucy Mayreel had always been strong.

But Ed Rothstaylor had always lived as an underdog.

They were complete opposites. Their ways of living—and fighting—should have been incompatible.

And yet—

Against the Great Sage Silvenia, Lucy had become the underdog herself.

Exhausted and cornered, she finally understood what it meant to be crushed by overwhelming power.

However, nothing was ever certain.

Perhaps the greatest thing about life was that it was filled with unknown variables—you never knew how things would turn out.

Glockt’s back as he sat in his armchair, warming himself by the fire.

Her decision to nap in the North Forest, only to stumble upon a wooden shelter by chance.

Those coincidences—and the relationships born from them—had shaped Lucy Mayreel.

Feeling a strange sense of irony, Lucy gathered her magic power.

Whooosh!

Silvenia spun around, frowning. She raised her wand, noticing the dark red energy gathering around Lucy’s arm.

Celestial Magic Power.

She still had one final trick.

Celestial Magic consumed far more mental energy than normal magic. The fact that Lucy was gathering it now meant she intended to end the battle.

Since Lucy was already at her limit, using Celestial Magic was nearly suicidal. Silvenia could never have imagined Lucy attempting it at this stage.

Was she castingTime Prison? To subdue Silvenia in a single strike, Lucy would need a suppression-type spell.

But that only worked against those who couldn’t use Celestial Magic themselves.

Trying to fight Silvenia with Celestial Magic was absurd.

Silvenia could simply gather her own, disperse the attack instantly—and Lucy, left defenseless, would die.

And just as Silvenia began gathering her own Celestial Magic—

Whooooooooooosh!

The reddish energy around Lucy’s hands vanished.

Immediately afterward, Lucy began gathering elemental magic.

“What…?”

Silvenia doubted her eyes.

Converting Celestial Magic back into regular magic required discarding the previously accumulated power—a highly inefficient process.

Even at the pinnacle of magic, such a conversion would still create a brief opening.

In battles between extremes, even half a second was fatal.

Lucy’s strategy—forcing hesitation and exploiting it—was eerily similar to Ed Rothstaylor’s.

Still, how had Lucy converted her magic without any downtime?

Even Silvenia herself couldn’t manage such a feat.

But when Silvenia noticed Lucy’s arm, she froze.

Lucy had never gathered Celestial Magic.

She had only gathered regular magic power all along.

The dark red glow had never been magic.

Lucy had simply castIgnite—setting her own arm ablaze to create the illusion.

She had burned her own flesh for the sake of deception.

Silvenia noticed the scar forming on Lucy’s arm. It would likely never fade. The pain must have been unbearable.

Two layers of deception, combined with illusion magic, had forced Silvenia into a reckless decision.

Lucy instantly formed three ice spears with the magic she had gathered.

Though the strategy resembled Ed’s methods, only Lucy’s innate resonance allowed her to cast intermediate magic in mere seconds.

Silvenia had no time.

Misled by Lucy’s bluff, she had already expended her Celestial Magic. She had less than a second to gather more.

The amount she could accumulate was limited.

Still, if she could defend against the ice spears, she would survive.

Even without advanced Celestial spells, the power she had gathered could be released as a protective force.

Booooooom!

All of this happened in less than a second.

Lucy’s ice spears crashed into the square, sending clouds of dust into the air.

***

“K-Keuk…”

Lucy’s final attempt—using every means available to her.

Her last attack, for which she had been willing to burn her own arm…

It missed.

“Cough… Cough…”

Silvenia frowned, holding her breath.

The ice spear nearest to her had been forcibly pushed aside by Celestial Magic, piercing the ground beside her.

Had Silvenia made even the slightest mistake, it would have gone straight through her head.

In the end, Lucy’s attack failed.

The final variable Lucy hadn’t accounted for was luck.

To maximize her chances, Lucy had created three ice spears—but Silvenia twisted space itself, forcibly altering their trajectories.

Lucy collapsed to the ground, drenched in blood.

Silvenia stared down at her.

Silvenia surpassed Lucy in magic power, control, and strength.

But in extreme battles, quick thinking and improvisation could sometimes overturn even overwhelming odds.

A fighting style that chased victory with only a 0.1% chance.

That wasn’t something a magician could be taught.

Silvenia shook her head and aimed her wand at Lucy’s prone form.

She could not be allowed to live.

At that moment, Lucy’s bloodshot eyes snapped open.

Lucy glared at Silvenia, clenching her teeth as she tried to gather magic once more. Only a pitiful amount responded—barely worthy of being called magic.

Still, she used it to push herself upright.

Lucy struggled to lift her head, her school uniform in tatters. Her heavy breathing radiated fighting spirit.

Lucy thought:

Even with death right in front of him, he never ran.

Even as death crawled across his battered body, that man always stood tall.

And so would she.

She had received a life from him.

Now, it was her turn to give one back.

Even ten seconds—no, even one more second—stalling Silvenia would increase his survival chance by 0.1%.

She was willing to throw her life away without hesitation.

That resolve never wavered.

Even as Silvenia gathered her magic, Lucy stood firm, unshaking.

She wondered if there was any way left to fight.

There wasn’t.

Lucy gently closed her eyes as a brilliant light bloomed from Silvenia’s magic.

The warmth of a campfire.

She finally understood Glockt, whom she had once watched from beneath a blanket.

At the end of his life, he had thought it meaningless—

Yet he was glad he had lived.

The ability to say that proved how meaningful his life truly was.

She had met a man—and was dying for him.

How meaningful must her life have been, to allow that?

Lucy smiled faintly.

And her vision faded.

***

Boooooom!

When Lucy opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the afterlife.

She saw people bleeding, clenching their teeth as they fought to survive.

“Listen, Lucy.”

Amid the wreckage of the fallen spire, she realized she was being held by a man as injured as herself. Both of them were barely conscious.

Even through the overpowering stench of blood, she recognized his scent.

Grass.

It calmed her.

“No matter what happens… you can never die…”

Silvenia’s magic had been temporarily neutralized by Yennekar Palerover’s elementalism. Because it was an emergency spell, Yennekar was clenching her teeth just to maintain it.

When Lucy fully opened her eyes, she saw Ed collapsing beside her, having run to her side. Beyond him were the others, fighting Silvenia.

It was the same group that had escaped the royal residence.

“You held on, Lucy… You really did… You did great… Thank you… But…”

Ed, drenched in blood, held Lucy tightly.

It was a miracle they were both alive—but somehow, they had endured.

“Whatever it takes… don’t die… No matter what… You can’t die…”

Lucy looked at Ed.

Despite his injuries, he supported her, helping her stand.

“We need to retreat to Ophelis Hall… Reinforcements will gather there…”

He clenched his teeth as he spoke, barely able to hold her up.

Lucy looked at him and burst into tears.

Relief at seeing him alive.

Relief at surviving.

Perhaps both.

As her consciousness faded again, Lucy stopped crying.

Though her face was smeared with tears and blood, Ed gently wiped her tears away.