Madam Crowler — Grand Magician and founder of the Magical School of Advanced Learning.
She was an undisputed genius among geniuses, making her name across various star systems and inspiring many a generation to follow in her footsteps. If it were not for Supreme President Skadhi Bhattacharya’s presence, she would likely be the next in line for political legitimacy.
“How exhausting,” Atreides sighed. “I always get the most tiresome of missions despite being the weakest of the Problem Children. This is definitely a case of power harassment. Perhaps I should contact HR.”
“What are you muttering about, curr?” the Grand Magician said, tapping her armrest with unusual frequency.
Atreides glanced at his wristwatch, then fixed his gaze on Madam Crowler. “Ah, my mistake. I have an odd habit of talking to myself during stressful situations. Do forgive me, fair lady, and let us begin our duel.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Atreides closed the distance with a deadly thrust of the Imitation Tríaïna.
“Hohoho!” Madam Crowler guffawed. “You seem to be mistaken.”
Ting —
A metallic ring. With but one finger, the Imitation Tríaïna came to a crashing halt.
“You aren’t even worth the title of challenger.”
“—!”
Suddenly, a flash of white fire emanates, expands, and erupts.
“Close one…”
Had it not been for Atreides’ apprehension, he would have been killed instantly by the intense heat of the explosion. He was not entirely unharmed, however, as his hands were shaking from the intense pressure.
“What’s wrong, curr? Have you given up already?”
“Unfortunately, no. I have not.”
Taking on a defensive position, Atreides narrowly dodges the onslaught of flashing lights, each with the radiant intensity of a star. Any attempt to parry or block would result in yet another explosion, and the cramped clocktower wasn’t exactly an advantage for him.
As of now, he was out of options.
Or am I? Atreides questioned.
Let's think this situation through. My Imitation Tríaïna has seemingly no effect against her magecraft, and its blinding light, coupled with the intense heat, prevents me from closing the distance, even with my weapon’s enhanced range. Her magecraft simply counters mine. I cannot win in a 1v1 situation, and my body cannot take the strain of another Vector talisman, nor can I use a Healing talisman. My magecraft’s power is proportional to the sacrifice’s respective “value.” The healthier I am, the weaker I will become.
Wait…let’s rewind. What happened before this situation? Those ten mages, elites, supposedly, completely ignored me and focused their assault on Keresaspa. Why? In my current condition, I doubt I could take even two at a time before being killed, so why didn’t they get rid of me, the easiest of the lot, first? As of now, I can only think of two options…
1.) They were given express orders not to attack me, or at the very least, not to prioritize me as a target.
2.) Keresaspa’s fighting strength is absurd enough to invite the wrath of all ten of those elite mages.
On top of that, a mage of Crowler's caliber shouldn't need to disperse her strength. She must be protecting something incredibly valuable. So valuable, in fact, that only she can afford to protect it, while the ten mages deal with the mad beast known as Keresaspa.
In other words, Madam Crowler was forced to extend a significant portion of her fighting force away from the clocktower. It was a matter of both arrogance and necessity, oversight and hindsight. She isn’t taking me seriously as an opponent. Or perhaps…
She’s stalling this fight out until Keresaspa is dealt with, while she restores the world barrier spell that Lieutenant Sahyat and General Mai’wen had damaged.
“Alright, then,” said Atreides in a jovial manner. “I have no interest in playing with you any further.”
“Hm—?”
With a decisive downward strike, Atreides meets the burning light head-on, generating a burst of energy equivalent to a flashbang. It blinded both parties, yet only one took advantage of their numbed senses.
“No…” Madam Crowler regained her vision after a brief moment, yet Atreides was nowhere to be seen. “No no no no no no!”
She scuttered to the edge of the clock tower’s broken window in a panic, looking over the edge in rage. Atreides, spear in hand, was running down the base of the clock tower towards the Magical School of Advanced Learning!
“You pitiful mass of excrement!”
“Haha! Thank you for the compliment.”
Atreides was severely outmatched, and he knew it. There was simply no way for him to win a direct encounter, even if his body could handle an amplifying talisman. That is precisely why he deduced the true nature of Crowler’s plan.
“Hmph!” He vaulted over a rooftop, landing on a small balcony.
No competent architectural designer would construct the core of the global barrier system in such an exposed and vulnerable position. The most convenient location for such a complex network would be a ground vein, or rather, a leyline.
The clock tower was a red-harring.
His true objective rested beneath the school itself.
Not only was it placed in a suitable location, but it was also constructed beneath a research facility home to thousands of mages, the head of which remains the most powerful magician in the world. It was the perfect defensive measure.
That is, however, where Madam Crowler’s plan had exposed its deadly flaw.
She could not have possibly accounted for Keresaspa, who had been several districts away, arriving within minutes of her battle with General Squall, and running through countless high-tier mages by herself. She was simply too strong; a deviant among deviants.
“Damn you, human!”
Infuriated, Madam Crowler propels herself to the surface with explosive speed, the white fire melting the very earth beneath her.
“Chase him down, Balalaika! ”
Eagles of incandescent flames emerged from the Grand Magician’s sacred words, soaring through the air in search of Atreides.
“Not yet.”
Even a single direct hit would kill him. However, Atreides had a certain advantage when it came to dealing with the woman’s magecraft.
He ducked incoming fire, dived through classroom windows, and dodged the fiery birds by a hair’s breadth, all while the flames of destruction ravaged the academy. One of the magic beasts crashed into a bathroom, creating an explosion that obliterated an entire dormitory.
“Water…”
Atreides, having witnessed the destructive capacity of Madam Crowler’s magecraft, drew his spear, attacking the institute's toilets, sinks, drinking stations, water fountains, and food dispensers; it hardly mattered the source. Obtaining open water sources was his sole win condition.
“Your magecraft is Incandesence , isn’t it?”
“...”
“My magic affinity is water, granting me heightened control over the moisture in the atmosphere. I wanted to test my hypothesis, so I gathered some water particles at the time of my imitation spear. If it were merely a white-hot gas or plasma fire, it would have generated a steam explosion, and white-hot liquid fire, like lava or molten glass, would have created a thermal shock explosion.”
“You…!”
“But this time was different; it not only generated gas, but it also scattered burning metal particles everywhere. Some of them even burned me. The most plausible explanation, the only remaining explanation, was that your magic affinity isn’t fire at all, but earth. You manifest a substance similar to magnesium, then supercharge its magic circuits, generating an enormous amount of thermal energy.”
“Ha…” Madam Crowler covered her eyes with her palm and threw her head back in elation. “HAHAHAHAH! So what? Do you think you can win just because my magecraft has been discovered? I can withstand my own flames fine. You’re the one at a disadvantage!”
With the snap of her fingers, pillars of white flame erupt from the air, wisps of metallic particles scattering at random. She no longer had any qualms about destroying the institution she so loved. Killing this irritating, vexing human was her top priority.
Atreides erected barrier after barrier in an attempt to create space, yet Crowler’s magecraft was simply too overwhelming in explosive force. They shattered one after another, forcing Atreides into a tight corner.
The spear had broken, his remaining talismans useless. No options. No reversals. The situation had taken a turn for the worse.
“That was a long run, curr. You lasted longer than I thought. Now die.”
“Ah, you might wanna rethink that.” Atreides pointed towards the sky. “Take a look.”
“—!”
The world barrier, which had sustained only minor injuries during the invasion, was deteriorating across its surface. The degradation was small, minor, perhaps, to the untrained eye, yet they spread, and spread, and continued to spread without any means of stopping. Every passing second was a moment inching towards disaster.
“Shit!”
The world barrier was powered through the academy's leyline nexus. A structure of that scale could not rely upon magical energy alone. Like any living organism, it required circulation. Coolant. Conduits. A medium through which magical energy could be distributed throughout the network.
Water.
The fountains, pipes, sinks, and reservoirs scattered throughout the campus were not merely conveniences for students. They formed a vast circulatory system beneath the academy itself.
That was why Atreides had shattered them.
Madam Crowler’s magecraft served as an accelerant for the disaster. The intense heat of her flames, combined with her enraged rampage, significantly raised the area's temperature, exacerbating systemic inefficiencies.
With every passing second, the world barrier would gradually weaken until eventually, a hole would form, granting the remaining human forces free rein to enter the planet’s atmosphere.
Madam Crowler was faced with two options. Should she;
A.) Kill Atreides, at the cost of further damage to the world barrier, giving her enemy more time to invade?
Or,
B.) Leave Atreides and resolve the issue with the world barrier.
The young man was already on the verge of death, his weapon broken and his magic items exhausted. Even if she left him alone, he’d likely pass out or die on his own. Victory was effectively hers!
…Or so she thought.
She shifted her attention immediately, turning her back to Atreides as she erupted into a mad dash, her core destination as obvious as could be.
Having prioritized the world barrier, she made her way down a winding labyrinth through a hidden entrance in the west hall before finally arriving at the leyline. The leyline chamber was hot, unbearably so. With the coolant system failing, temperature regulation was failing.
Water flowed from the surface down the chamber’s depths, pooling at its floor. Indeed, it was ordinary water, water that anyone could use for drinking or toiletries. And yet, something seemed off. They formed complex geometric symbols.
“...!”
It wasn’t just any circle; it was a magic circle. A ritual.
“You—!”
“ Placidity .”
With the tap of Atreides finger, Madam Crowler’s world came to a crashing halt. Her thoughts and consciousness were active, yet her body seemed frozen in time.
“Hey there, Madam. You fought really well! Honestly, I didn’t think I could win against you.”
“...”
“It’s not like you made the bad choice, either. Heading to the leyline for immediate repairs wasn’t a flawed manner of thinking. Unfortunately for you, however, neither choice was correct. You would have lost either way.”
“...”
“Hehe, I almost forgot that I cast Placidity on you. You can’t talk, can you? It feels like I’m a villain monologuing his master plan.”
“...”
“I controlled both the water absorbed by your skin, as well as the water in the surrounding area, to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could I use the flowing water as a medium for Spondai , but thanks to this particularly sensitive area, you couldn’t activate your magecraft without destroying the leyline circuit, leaving you as defenseless as an old lady. You can’t move, and the leyline can’t circulate its energy properly. In other words, it will explode shortly.”
“...!”
“Now now, don’t be like that! It isn’t all bad! If it were any ordinary person, I would have simply stopped their heart’s blood flow, maybe even reversed it, causing them to explode as painfully as physically possible, but you’re a bit different. Even at your age, your magical ability is exceptional! I only have enough magic to freeze your muscles in place. Anything past that is beyond me.”
Atreides dipped his finger into the warm, no, hot water, tracing a magic circle. “Goodbye, Madam Crowler. We won’t meet again.”
With a final use of Spondai , Atreides teleported out of the leyline chamber and into the city streets, just outside of the blast radius.
A terrible tremor permeated through the earth, and then, a violent explosion of magical energy erupted from the earth.
“Ha…I’m beat. I’ll take a nap here, if Keresaspa doesn’t mind.”
He lay atop the broken roofs and shattered balconies of the city, the barrier overhead fracturing like fine glass.
With that, his mission was accomplished.
Atreides closed his serpentine eyes, his mouth curling into a childish grimace. “I wonder what Ereth is up to right now.”