Gray was in a foul mood.
Hiccup...
Her head spun from the alcohol. Her stomach churned. The flu symptoms still lingered, that nagging discomfort came in waves. Every little tremor in her surroundings only added to her annoyance.
What she disliked even more was how bright the engine room was. Someone had turned on the lights—and left without turning them off.
“Annoying.”
What else could she do?
She had no choice but to drink.
She pulled out the fourth bottle hidden under her blanket. Then, gulp gulp gulp—poured it straight into her mouth.
“Haa...”
Cool. Intense. Slightly nauseating in that cheap liquor kind of way. She liked all of it. The irritation that had been creeping up melted away.
Rumble...
Was it because she was getting more drunk? The trembling of the building and her surroundings felt even more exaggerated.
Suddenly, a funny thought popped into her head.
This was the setting, she decided:
She was on a voyage...
Having run away from home in search of freedom, she’d snuck aboard a merchant ship...
The ship was taking her to a utopia she had never seen before...
A place with no competition, no conflict...
No reason to cling desperately to anything...
The temperature always a pleasant 23 degrees.
With gentle breezes, fresh water, and bountiful fruits and grains.
Where people were kind. And she too, in that place, was a kind and wonderful person.
What harm could a little storm do on the way to somewhere like that?
Gulp gulp gulp...
A cold breath burst out of her lips.
“Haa...”
Suddenly, everything felt perfect.
A warm place. A cozy home. Kind people...
Oh—and everyone recognized her [Illusion].
The lady on her left.
The old man on her right.
Even the cat standing in front of her.
They all gave her a thumbs up.
「 Gray’s illusions really are the best! 」
...Right?
Gray’s expression melted.
“Thank you... I love you... ♡”
Such a lovely street.
Then, as she turned her head—
There was a man with pink eyes.
...Uh?
...Professor Dante...?
「 Snap out of it, Gray Habanero. 」
Huh?
“Ah, fuck...”
Gray clutched the bottle to her chest, her eyes going wide.
She sobered up in an instant.
Her mood tanked.
“What the hell?”
Now that she thought about it...
She might’ve seen Professor Dante in her hazy state?
“Was that a dream?”
He’d come and mercilessly tormented her.
Pressed her down. Pinned her. Hurt her. Yelled at her...
“......??”
No, the more she thought about it, the more it felt like he really had come.
Why had Professor Dante tormented her?
Small, cute, weak, kind—and if that were a crime, her only sin was being too good at [Illusion]...
...Illusion?
Ah.
She realized it.
It must’ve been because of her [Illusion].
Apparently, Professor Dante had overheard what she’d said—and gotten jealous.
Sure, there were parts of his [Illusion] she couldn’t quite replicate. But what mattered was the whole package. Even Kaiser had acknowledged her. Who was Dante to deny that?
She hadn’t taken him for the petty type. But apparently, he had his insecure corners.
“If you’re weak, at least have the grace to admit it, right?”
It was ridiculous.
Even if he was jealous—
Was it really okay for a professor to violently torment a student?
And a man, no less—picking on a girl?
“......”
Then, a smile crept back onto Gray’s face.
It was the purest expression of victory.
“Pathetic ♡”
Sure, he must’ve worked hard all those years.
But in the end, he still lost to someone way younger?
What a pitiful guy...
“Dante is a pathetic professor... Right?”
She asked, and the lady, the old man, and the cat responded.
「 Right, right! Absolutely! 」
「 Gray’s illusions are the best, no doubt! 」
「 Total loser, meow...! 」
Delightful responses.
Gulp gulp gulp... She took another big swig and thought—so where exactly was this again? It wasn’t the hideout. Not the engine room either.
“Haa... ♡”
It was heaven.
***
Vyper swooped through the sky in two wide circles.
Shooooo—!!
Petrification beams rained down in a chaotic spray.
“Kgh!”
The beam grazed his hand, and his fingers began to harden into stone.
Following proper anti-[Petrification] protocol, he quickly clenched his fist. The stone encased his fingers as they fused together. That way, the risk of them snapping off was lower.
“I’m fine.”
The beast was targeting only him.
That had been Dante’s deduction.
If he struck first, one of the monster’s hands would lock onto him.
Even the senior professors had questioned the tactic at first.
Typically, giant monsters go after the strongest opponent.
But Dante had said—
This beast had seven arms. If each one chased a different target, the damage output would suffer.
If the first attacker kept drawing its attention, one hand could be effectively neutralized.
“I was skeptical...”
But now he understood.
Dante had been completely right.
Shoooooo—!!
“Ggh!!”
He narrowly dodged the ashen beam again, his body moving in large, sweeping motions. The battle accelerated.
Senior Professor Toy was placed under 『Domination』.
Kollider was stabbed by Toy and fell.
Leo, the assassination defense expert, began laying down traps.
Dante shattered the totem, sending Toy tumbling as well.
“Nice one, Dante!!”
The most troublesome figure, Toy, had finally been removed.
Meanwhile, Leo had been fidgeting, preparing his ace [Trap-Type] ability. One of the monster’s ‘Domination Hands’ snapped its fingers and triggered a tiger-shaped trap that clamped down and bent the arm back toward its own wrist.
Now it couldn’t escape.
From above, Angela struck with the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
At last, an overwhelming blow surged forth—『Reaper's Severance』—
KWAANG ───── !!
An earth-shattering impact exploded!
The entire forearm that had protruded from the fissure trembled. The shockwave crumpled Vyper’s face. At the same time, the magic flow in midair was obliterated.
< Hit confirmed! Direct hit! >
The result was clear. Half the eyeballs embedded in the hand were obliterated—shattered, gone.
In that instant—
A fragment of Jinksythe’s rocky body shot through the air and smashed into Professor Vyper’s skull.
THWACK –
The moment it felt like his skull had been shattered—
A few seconds later, as his mind flickered back into awareness—
Vyper realized he had made a mistake.
‘...I shouldn’t have allowed that hit.’
< Hey! Vyper, you bastard!! >
Leo’s voice roared out as the world reeled around him.
The ‘Petrification Hand’ turned toward Angela, who had been staggered and stunned from the earlier strike. Then the center of its palm split into six segments and fired a massive beam.
SHOOOOOOOO—!
The ashen ray engulfed the senior professor.
Angela was part of Black Abyss. She had once been Vyper’s master. Even with blood streaming from his head, Vyper stabilized himself midair using [Footwork] and launched himself upward again.
But the hands of Jinksythe were not mere cursed artillery.
Over the half-petrified Angela—
A colossal hand came crashing down.
Like swatting a fly.
WHAM —
A concentric sonic boom burst outward. Professor Angela was hurled like a ragdoll.
< Senior Angela—!! >
Vyper’s heart dropped. But the next instant, the body sailing through the air shattered like glass—CRASH!—and disappeared.
Ah!!
It had been [Illusion] all along?
When he looked for her true body, he saw she was slowly falling, a 「Parachute」 already deployed beneath her.
She must have been swapped out the moment she petrified. It was Dante. He had done it with an illusion—so seamlessly that even his own allies couldn’t tell.
Vyper was stunned by that level of finesse. How could an illusion crafted by a human be so precise...?
“This isn’t over yet.”
The real issue: even with five of the six fingers from the ‘Hand of Domination’ destroyed—
The index finger still remained.
And now—
It pointed toward Professor Leo.
Even now, he couldn’t use 『Blink』.
At that moment, Professor Leo gritted his teeth and launched himself into the air.
‘Shit!!’
He used [Footwork] to leap from the finger itself, stepping along invisible platforms to get outside of its range.
But Leo’s main specialty was [Trap-Type], and his support skill was [Combat-Based]. His footwork was nowhere near top-tier.
No matter how frantically he dodged—side to side, up and down—he couldn’t escape the finger’s tracking path.
It felt like a gigantic gun barrel was aimed at him.
And he? He was just a kitten caught in its sights.
‘Goddammit! Fuck!!’
He covered dozens of steps in mere seconds, darting every direction he could—but it was all within the Buddha’s palm.
Eventually, the movement path synced perfectly with Leo’s position.
< Help me! Please!! >
He knew everyone else was exposed, unable to assist—but still, Leo screamed.
< Please!! >
From the ‘Hand of Domination,’ Jinksythe’s eyes began to close.
And then—simultaneously—
── .
Something miraculous happened.
From the ground and all directions, thousands of mirrors erupted.
It happened faster than one could blink. A towering structure extended from somewhere and coiled around the ‘Domination Finger.’
And then, even though it was daytime, a blinding light erupted bright enough to illuminate the entire sky.
──── .
The light of 「Starlight Radiance⁺₊⋆」 blasted forth like a divine beam.
‘Professor Dante!!’
The light refracted and amplified thousands of times—before finally exploding through the remaining portion of Jinksythe’s ‘Domination Arm.’
< YES!! >
A shiver rose from deep inside Leo’s chest.
Riding that euphoric surge, he pulled himself back, grabbed the bleeding Vyper, and returned to the deck of the airship—behind Professor Dante.
“Thanks. Thanks to you...”
At that moment, Professor Dante widened his eyes and bolted off the edge of the deck.
Why?
Only then did Leo realize—the ‘Petrification Hand’ might still target them.
And this was an airship.
< Get out of there! Leo, Vyper! >
Dante shouted. “Damn it!” This had been his mistake. He too took flight, lifting Vyper in his arms—but it was a second too late.
SHOOOOO—!
The petrifying beam fired. They barely dodged it—but some of it struck the airship.
Among the impacted areas were the propellers—and some of the exposed levitation stones. As the metal frame, wood, and levistone were touched by the beam, they all began turning to stone.
< Ah, fuck, fuck!! >
The airship, having lost its thrust, began to fall.
***
I grimaced.
This was the last situation I’d wanted. Ever since identifying [Petrification] as one of its curses, I’d had a lingering fear.
Now that the entire beam had engulfed the airship, the engine room couldn’t be separated. And with levitation stones turned to stone—the ship lost its lift.
The massive airship began to fall.
Wuuuuuuuung...
In a rush, I used [Illusion] to distract the ‘Petrification Hand.’
I checked my mana and glanced downward.
< [MP]: 612 / 1,299 >
At the moment, I was gliding with invisible wings created via [Illusion]. But they were barely enough to carry my own 85 kg body—slowly, at that. Even then, they were delicately constructed, right on the verge of collapse.
Let alone that airship—1.7 tons with two people inside...
Then, someone burst onto the deck.
The pilot—and Gray.
At first, I was relieved.
But I was wrong.
Petrification was spreading along Gray’s forearm—and the pilot’s lower body as well.
Which meant the 「Parachute Magic Device」 I’d forcibly applied had also turned to stone.
As the ship tilted, Gray ran out and stumbled. The pilot slipped with a cry and nearly fell off the deck. Gray caught his wrist just in time.
But Petrification was still progressing. The pilot’s leg fused to the deck floor, and Gray’s arm, holding onto the vertical metal pole, was also hardening.
Then—Gray cast [Illusion].
As expected from the daughter ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) of an elite illusionist clan. Even now, she knew exactly what she had to do. In a bid to slow the crash, she projected two massive 5-meter-wide gliding wings on either side of the ship.
But there was a problem. She was still drunk. And the ship was far too heavy. With just 5 meters of wing, there was no way to overcome the mass and air resistance.
The [Illusion] shattered.
CRASH—CLANG—CLATTER!!
The wings splintered and scattered.
Like glass windows shattering across a skyscraper—like a great tidal wave bursting apart—everything broke into glittering shards.
Over <Comm>, I heard Leo and Vyper shouting again.
I recalculated—there was no way. With the mana I had, I couldn’t stop the fall. It was simply beyond physical and magical limits.
And then a thought hit me—
Why should I do this alone?
I released my gliding and dropped—
Onto the top of the falling airship.
Up close, I saw Gray bleeding from her nose—and even her eyes. Her expression was dazed. One arm had turned entirely to stone.
I dragged the pilot onto the deck and called out to her.
“Gray Habanero!”
As I got closer, her unfocused eyes turned toward me.
She didn’t seem to grasp what was happening.
“Try again. Just once more.”
“...I can’t.”
“You can. You can do this. I believe in you.”
“......”
“Let’s try just once more. I’ll help you.”
I said this kneeling beside her. Gray trembled. She nodded through her nosebleed.
Then—she cast [Illusion].
I held my breath.
If we were even a second too late—if Gray’s wings shattered first—this would be a meaningless effort. Gray and the pilot would die.
But I also trusted in the mastery of my illusion. That supreme, transcendent realm—I didn’t doubt it.
Her mana moved. The ripple of energy flared. The form of the illusion began to manifest—
And right then—
『World Forgery: Form Forgery [Heaven-Sky Thousandfold Wings]』
My ability spread across the heavens.
It happened nearly simultaneously with the unfolding of Gray’s 5-meter wings. I projected mine over hers—wings far greater than even the airship itself, spanning nearly 20 meters.
They were as massive as those of the Quetzalcoatlus, the giraffe-sized pterosaur, whose wingspan was 10 meters.
With Gray’s and mine combined, we’d created 40 meters of total wingspan.
Even I was awed by the sheer scale.
The massive wings clutched the airship tightly, slowing its descent.
< Professor Dante!! Are you insane—!? >
< You did it! The airship is gliding!! >
The two professors descending by parachute screamed in amazement from far below.
Sure enough, the combined wings followed my calculations—enough to glide this colossal airship to safety.
Meanwhile, nose bleeding, brain seared with the agony of [Overload]—I felt a gaze.
Gray was looking up at me.
Her eyes were hazy.
As if she couldn’t comprehend any of it.
And then—
She lost consciousness.
Right afterward, a surprising reward notification popped up.
┃ Relationship Level Increased: Gray [30] (▲30)
┃ Reward: Star Fragment ×30