Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 309

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 309

Test (4)

An overwhelming display of violence unfolded.

Isabelle’s magic, with its dazzling, iridescent flashes, painted everything around her in her colors, defying any attempt to comprehend it.

As the ambient mana became saturated with her hue, the natural energies, once belonging to no one, began to obey the will of a mere human.

Thump!

Kugugung─!

A bombardment rained down from above.

The sky, like the natural energies, had long been stained with Isabelle’s colors.

Where the clear blue of the sky and the pure white clouds had been, something blacker than the night sky shimmered. Almost ink, almost black. The power to stain everything it touched black had finally reached the heavens.

“Though it’s merely an abstract concept, she’s managed to develop it this far,” Seungwoo muttered, looking at the sky and the ground.

This place was no longer a field.

It was more accurate to consider it another world, dyed black.

And the creator of this world was none other than her.

Isabelle was the god of this world.

“Can you tell what it is?”

“…Your domain is to propagate blackness.”

He who is near ink becomes black [a proverb meaning one is influenced by their surroundings].

It was an obvious statement, but not the answer Isabelle wanted.

“And?”

“…Whatever touches black becomes stained with its deep hue.”

“What’s next?”

“…It becomes stained black. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the act itself. The problem lies in the meaning that the phenomenon of becoming stained black imparts.”

As the expressions “authority” and “domain” were attached, 「Near Ink, Near Black」 did not end with staining everything it touched black.

To stain black, to stain with one’s own color, meant that the object had fallen into one’s grasp.

Even if it were concepts like fields, trees, grass, the sky, or natural energies, as long as they were in Isabelle’s grasp, she could control them as she pleased. But there was an even greater effect.

“Anything else?”

“Even concepts or functions that you can’t control, you can stop them.”

This was still in the realm of hypothesis.

Because he hadn’t witnessed it directly.

So, he decided to confirm it.

「Pyrokinesis」

A clear flame blazed, aiming for Isabelle’s nape.

The flame, persistently targeting her neck, was like a wolf, but as soon as it encountered the black hues lingering near Isabelle, it was stained black.

It wasn’t as if the flame was imbued with any special curse.

The black-stained flame eventually broke free from Seungwoo’s control.

Whirr!

Breaking free from control, the flame instead targeted Seungwoo’s neck.

What blocked it was a larger, clearer, purple flame.

「Foxfire」

Clear will-o’-the-wisps blazed, swallowing all the flames and increasing in size.

As the house-sized flame targeted Isabelle, she couldn’t stain the flame black. 「Foxfire」 was too powerful to stain its color and claim it as her own.

So, Isabelle reached out her hand.

Clank.

A huge sound was heard, and at the same time, the flame stopped in mid-air.

There wasn’t even the slightest movement.

Whirr.

The flames were so intense that they seemed ready to devour the girl in front of them, but they were fixed in place, frozen.

After that, the flames slowly began to extinguish.

Isabelle, who had stopped the movement of 「Foxfire」 first, stained it with her color. Black-stained 「Foxfire」. With this, the cursed will-o’-the-wisp fell into Isabelle’s hands, but its operating principle was still in an unknown realm that she did not yet understand.

She lacked the knowledge to handle this 「Foxfire」.

Judging so, Isabelle gradually stopped the elements that made up the flame.

“Oh, interesting.”

An exclamation of admiration escaped her lips.

Following her touch, the flame was slowly disappearing.

This was not the dissolution of magic.

She was touching and stopping, one by one, the concepts that she could not understand and could not handle. There was no need to know the constituent principles and concepts of 「Foxfire」.

Since it was taking the form of a flame anyway.

The fundamental concept would be the same as fire. Suppress the oxygen supply and control the factors of ignition.

“Suppress the supply. Control the factors.”

Isabelle, having clearly established what she needed to do, erased 「Foxfire」 in an instant. Considering the damage that Seungwoo’s enemies had suffered from 「Foxfire」 until now, this was an amazing result.

Even though the firepower of 「Foxfire」 was weak.

The opponent was a student. A freshman at that.

Even if it was during class, it was worth praising that a student without much experience had blocked 「Foxfire」 head-on.

“You’re much better than I thought.”

“…Is that a compliment?”

“Of course. Do you know how many people have been turned to ashes by my flames until now?”

“It’s just a flame with reduced firepower and curse strength. I don’t know the principle well, but I understand it because I stain it with my color and stop the functions one by one. This isn’t even half of the maximum power.”

Skill, 「Foxfire」 basically has a purple color.

「Foxfire」 that burns the soul using mana as fuel and grows in size.

When the soul and curse are burned to the fullest, and the resulting wailing begins to burn thickly in the flames, the color burns in a bleak and dark black.

The maximum power that Isabelle was talking about referred to that flame.

“Huh, how arrogant.”

Seungwoo said in a dumbfounded tone.

“The maximum firepower of the flame melts even the bones of demons in an instant. The 5th Circle mage can’t even approach it, and even the 4th Circle mage can’t withstand it for more than 5 minutes. That is the limit of my 「Foxfire」.”

The eerie flame, which combined the curse in the 「Foxfire」, which was originally only A-grade, with the knowledge he had accumulated so far to maximize its power, was by no means something a student could handle.

Among the active players, there would be few who could withstand this flame. Even fewer would be able to block it perfectly.

A flame that even active players couldn’t handle.

Isabelle was discussing that.

“Certainly, your talent and effort are amazing. Your current skills would be among the best in the academy.”

He knew very well because he had watched her growth from the side throughout the first semester. He had watched her explosive growth from the closest place, but what wasn’t, wasn’t.

“But you have to aim for the realm you can reach.”

Even if it hurt Isabelle, he had to say what he had to say clearly.

She was still a young student, and Seungwoo was a teacher.

“Is that so?”

“…Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“No, I just wanted to show you that I can do it too.”

He was trying to speak firmly, but the black sea rippled, swaying.

Starting from Isabelle’s feet, the black sea, spreading widely in all directions, stained everything it touched with its color, but the speed increased. The sea, which had been moving gently like the rippling waves of a river, suddenly became a storm, violently ravaging all directions.

All the grass and soil in the field were stained black.

The sky and the mana in the atmosphere, even the lush vegetation that sprouted in the distance, turned a murky black.

The range was getting wider and wider.

The domain was expanding without stopping.

“…This is.”

Watching the scene, Seungwoo was convinced.

‘I can’t do this either.’

A domain is the expansion of the mind. To spread the worldview that one has established so far to the world as if to show off is [Domain].

And if this is deepened and one can reign like a god within the domain, this is soon a sphere of influence called [Sanctuary].

There are few people who can handle a sanctuary.

Even Seungwoo, who had entered the ranks of the Archmage, could barely unfold a domain, so who would dare to unfold a sanctuary?

‘I thought, but she unfolds it as if to show off.’

“It wasn’t arrogance.”

He readily acknowledged Isabelle.

Her words and actions were by no means arrogant, and she had every right to be arrogant. She wasn’t quite called an Archmage yet, but she would soon reach the same level as Seungwoo and have plenty left over.

‘But she’s still not as good as Seungwoo.’

‘The lesson that child needs now is none other than a signpost.’

He could present concrete directions and paths to other students, but the only lessons he could give to a magician who had pioneered her own path like Isabelle were negative examples or signposts.

Negative examples were not a role that he could play just because he wanted to.

Showing the signpost to the Archmage was the best Seungwoo could do.

─────!

Mana condenses at one point.

If it exploded as it was, an enormous amount of mana would be concentrated to the point where a mushroom cloud would occur. The mana in the atmosphere was not mixed in the middle of that mana.

The mana in its natural state was already under Isabelle’s control, so that vast amount of mana originated solely from Seungwoo’s heart.

That alone was enormous, but.

─────!!

The amount of mana condensing at one point was still increasing.

An unbelievably enormous amount of mana and mana recovery speed.

“Is that what it takes to be called an Archmage?”

Isabelle smiled slightly as she watched the scene.

Shiver.

Unlike her expression, her hands and feet were trembling.

Without any special skill, she shrank herself with only the amount of mana.

Indeed, it was an Archmage. Before discussing high-dimensional skills and knowledge, the basics were very solid.

“Interference doesn’t work well either.”

「Near Ink, Near Black」 that dyes everything in the area and makes it its own.

The storm of black waves reached out to the mass of mana with a rough wind, but only the surface could be stained black.

Access to the huge mass gathered inside was impossible.

Of course, Isabelle realized that the amount of mana she could use had increased by as much as 20% with just the mana on the surface.

‘The surface alone is this much. How much mana is gathered inside?’

She trembled and throbbed.

The condensation of mana is a preparation process for great magic.

How great and magnificent would the magic of the Archmage be, performed with this scale of mana? It was a golden opportunity to observe from the closest first row.

Perhaps, if the target of that magic wasn’t herself, her heart would have been pounding to the point of bursting.

‘I didn’t think I could win from the beginning.’

She had already sensed defeat.

But she wants to show a different self.

With that one thought alone, Isabelle showed off the maximum power of magic she could unleash now.

Woo-oong.

Black mana descends onto a small palm.

The black mana absorbed the things that had been stained black.

The mana that had absorbed everything that had been stained so far became a small dot.

That was the omen.

Pazzzik.

The small dot, which made a rough noise like an electric current sparking, suddenly became huge.

“…….”

No, it wasn’t that it had become huge.

The size was the same, but it just felt big because it had reached right in front of her.

A very fast speed.

The metaphor of the speed of light suddenly came to mind.

“Amazing.”

It’s really amazing.

The black mana flew to annihilate Seungwoo.

Perhaps a student would have died without even reacting.

Most of the teaching assistants wouldn’t be able to react either.

That’s the level of power, and that’s the level of perfection.

“But you’re still too young to set foot in this realm.”

Vast mana and countless processes.

What Isabelle unfolded was so complex that it was on par with the ranks of great magic.

It was not a category that one ordinary magician could devise and use.

However, the only people who can fully unfold great magic are the Archmages.

There were still many flaws in Isabelle’s magic.

So much so that.

Whirr─!

A small spark ignited at the tip of his finger.

A flame of a size that felt appropriate to light a cigarette.

He felt that he could respond sufficiently with this.

……indeed.

‘Is a student still a student after all.’

Isabelle’s magic was clearly approaching the ranks of greatness.

But she couldn’t deviate much from the category of student.

Seungwoo even felt regret at that fact.