Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 210

At the test's headquarters.

The two combative Crows had stopped their battle of nerves. They were sitting across from each other, enjoying cups of tea.

"Ah, you should've told me he was your direct disciple."

After taking another sip of his hot tea and glancing up at Bahil, Evangelos added,

"Then I would've gone easy on him."

"He isn't my direct disciple."

Evangelos looked surprised at that answer.

"What's the matter? I thought you were one of those people who has to have exactly what you want to feel calm."

"What are you talking about? Also, this school isn't exactly that easy."

Evangelos clicked his tongue.

"Huh! Seems like the wicked Bahil I know is all but dead now. If you don't like other professors interrupting, you can cast an invisibility curse on that Simon bastard."

Bahil also took a sip of tea, then removed the fedora from his head and placed it on the table.

"The S.A.1 is a student under the watchful eye of Nefthis herself. It's too dangerous to win such a student's heart with a curse. Besides…"

Bahil shook his head.

"I don't want to."

"Oho?"

"A genius is a complex thing. It's a combination of intelligence, experience, values, personality, parental teachings, and so on. If someone reaches a certain balance of these, a genius emerges. Why would I curse such a masterpiece and blemish it? I want to teach people, not puppets."

Bahil's face contorted into a monstrous grimace as he spoke.

"I want him to trust and follow me wholeheartedly. I want him to be the kind of disciple who respects me with all his heart, understands my philosophy and intentions from the depths of his soul, and can discuss the nature of the world without concern."

'What a perverted asshole.'

That's what Evangelos thought, but he didn't say it out loud.

"Seeing you so obsessed reminds me of when you were still a rookie professor. You were following that Poisonous Alchemy aspirant everywhere because you wanted to teach her."

"Ah, you mean Chehekle? She's my chief assistant teacher. She's very capable."

"You really are one crazy bastard."

Evangelos then looked at the screens and changed the subject.

"Anyway, the last step is out of my hands, even as the chief supervisor. What are you planning to do?"

The final hurdle to the Kizen campus awaited him.

"I've done my part. Now it's all up to him."

Said Bahil calmly.

"If he truly is meant to be my disciple, I have no doubt he'll be able to overcome this obstacle."

* * *

On his golem board, Simon was climbing a very familiar hill.

The road that connects the Kizen campus to Rochest. One didn't have to stray far from the path to wind up in the Forbidden Forest, where Pier's ruin was also located.

He had agreed to meet up with Pier and Elizabeth at the ruins after the holidays. He was looking forward to their reunion.

'I wonder if both of them are on Roke Island?'

It was quite unlikely that this was an Efnel attack, but if it really was, Simon would first check the situation on campus before heading straight for Pier's ruin.

It would be the great return of 'Pion' after his long absence. With both Elizabeth and Prince there, he planned to use the power of the Legion against the priests.

Growing impatient, Simon sped up the golem even faster.

Whoosh!

From the sky, a priest's Divine Spear shot toward him.

'It's just a single Divine Spear.'

Thinking that, he accelerated to dodge it. But without even moving that fast, the Divine Spear fell smoothly down and stuck into the golem board with a thud.

'…?!?'

His vision suddenly spun as he was flung off the board.

Before he knew it, the divine spear had pierced through the body of the golem board and fixed it onto the ground, sending Simon flying from the inertia.

'What? The spear changed paths?'

Thump! Bathump!

Simon soon landed and landed hard, bouncing several times like a ball before rolling across the grass. The taste of dirt and blood lingered in his mouth, and his head was spinning like crazy.

Thankfully, he stopped rolling fairly quickly. Simon coughed and pushed himself up from the dirt. His pristine school uniform was covered in filth, and every bone in his body ached. He might have to live the next few months with casts and splints.

'Kugh.'

The icing on the cake was that he couldn't move his left arm properly after the bad landing. But despite being in the worst possible condition, Simon diligently looked around for the culprit.

On the road leading to the Kizen campus was an old man standing in the center.

He looked like a mountaintop sage.

He was dressed in a white robe, one hand held behind his back as he fanned himself with the other.

He had a white beard, graying hair, and deep wrinkles all across his face. Simon sensed a vast quantity of divinity flowing from him.

'It's a priest. And one far more powerful than any regular priest I've ever met.'

The old man who felt like a final boss spoke up.

"Young necromancer, you may go no further."

His voice was dignified and benevolent, but there was a hint of foreboding in it.

"If you wish to spare your poor life, you must leave this place."

Simon clenched his teeth and crouched down, getting his legs ready to move and fight.

"I can't do that."

His subspace opened up, skeletons and zombies pouring out of it.

Several of the skeletons became Bone Armor on Simon's legs and his immobile left arm. He was radiating with fighting spirit.

"Please move aside."

'Wow.'

The old man's eyes brightened when he looked at Simon.

The young chap must've taken quite a lot of damage. But despite gasping for breath, his eyes were still shining.

'That's good. He's got an upright heart.'

It wasn't often you saw kids his age with that kind of look in their eyes. The old man chuckled a little before saying,

"Running away is also an act of courage. I'm sure you are not such a fool to be blind to the difference in our level."

Simon wordlessly brought his armored arms and legs into a fighting stance. It was the ready stance for the basic form of Combat Dark Magic.

The old man accepted the challenge.

Folding his fan and tucking it into the back of his belt, he brought his arms in front of him.

Divinity gathered in his hands, transforming into a longsword well over a meter long.

Slash! Slash!

The two practice swings cut the air, the sound not only showing the blade's unnatural sharpness.

Then, the old man held the Divine Sword out in front of him and said,

"Come."

* * *

* * *

Stomp!

Simon kicked off the ground and charged in. He jabbed at the old man, who swung his sword without moving an inch.

Claaaaaaaaang!

Sparks flew as the Divine Sword and Bone Armor clashed.

Simon's eyes widened. His Bone Armor had cracked from the clash, and the jet-black inside the cracked pieces had been extinguished.

'But!'

The jab was a feint. Simon spun on the spot, using his left arm to further gain momentum.

It was his signature move, a roundhouse kick with his right leg.

Clang!

But this time again, his bone boots were smashed to pieces by the old man's simple slash. He kicked Simon in the side, instantly knocking the poor boy to the ground.

"Your movements are too large."

The old man brought divinity into his palms.

Whirr!

A glass pane made of divinity formed in the air. The old man shattered it with his sword, shooting divine fragments in all directions.

'A ranged attack!'

Simon hurriedly pushed himself up off the ground and into the air. His heart sank as he watched the divine shards impale the dirt beneath him.

"It's not over yet."

The old man materialized several glass panes, and still with one hand behind his back he walked past them and swung his sword. A shower of divine shards rained down on Simon while he was still in the air from dodging the last attack.

Shk! Shk! Shk! Shk!

The bones forming his armor took the brunt of the force, many of them being chipped or cut open by the glass shards and losing their power.

A few shards also managed to hit Simon directly.

Caught in the air, he fell headfirst, face full of agony.

'Hmph. I made sure to avoid the core, but did I overdo it?'

The old man wore a solemn expression, but he felt slightly sorry inside.

And…

'…I mean, seriously?'

Simon, getting back up off the ground, trembled.

'…It really doesn't hurt at all. Is this alright?'

Desperate acting.

Since he tried it on Flema once, he had some experience with pretending to be damaged by divinity.

If this was actually a Kizen test, they'd be watching with an observer, and he didn't want to reveal more than he had to.

And if the old man was truly an Efnel priest, divinity not working was a trick he could keep up his sleeve.

Either way, it was best to fake being injured.

Simon clenched his jaw and said through gritted teeth,

"It's my turn now!"

Having bought some time, the skeletons he took out before had managed to completely surround the old man, swinging their weapons.

However, the priest kept his stance, swinging his sword from where he stood. Each silver flash of the blade sent numerous skeletons flying.

'Not yet!'josei

Simon heightened his focus once more.

'I'm not done yet!'

The skeletons blown back by the sword stopped in mid air and scattered into dozens of bones. All the undamaged bones were made to charge forward, the ones cut by the Divine Sword falling uselessly to the floor.

It was {Bone Nail}, one of Simon's special skills.

'Over here!'

Fwwwiiiip!

Six Overlord blades protruded from the subspace.

A combination attack between Bone Nail and the Overlord. An onslaught that no normal human could possibly dodge or block with only four limbs.

"It's good that you put me in a situation I can't dodge out of, but it's not a very good strategy against a priest."

The old man raised his Divine Sword into the air and drew the sign of the cross. A divine barrier shimmered around him, and every attack was deflected.

Simon gasped and retrieved his Overlord.

"And the reason you're trying to distract me like this is…"

The old man gazed into the treeline, looking for something.

"Must be those zombies you snuck off to the side earlier, huh? When are you going to use them?"

Simon's back was drenched with cold sweat.

'So he knew it all.'

The nonchalance born from overwhelming experience was terrifying. The way he didn't give his opponent any room to create unknowns…

'But still, I have one advantage over him.'

Simon slowly raised his right arm and extended it toward the zombies.

"This is the first time you've been to Roke Island, isn't it?"

The boy smiled. Eying him curiously, the old man replied,

"Hmm, that is true. Is that a problem?"

"It means you're not so familiar with the terrain."

A Corpse Explosion circle formed in Simon's palm.

This place was highly mountainous, and this road he had often traveled on his way down to Rochest had unstable ground. That was because, when it rained, mud used to surge through, leaving the road much worse for wear.

Servants had reinforced it by stacking wooden boards against the rock face, but…

'If I destroy it with this huge force, then!'

Simon clenched his fist as if pressing the ignition switch.

Kaboooooooooooooom!

Kaboooooooooooooom!

Kaboooooooooooooom!

Explosions sounded off one after another. The area around them shook violently like an earthquake, and a tidal wave of mud came down from the right.

"!!"

Rrrrrrrrrumble!

The mud arrived at the old man first. He formed another divine shield from where he stood in place, but the wave of mud blurred his vision.

'Hohoho! He got me!'

By the time the old man had created his shield, Simon had reformed his mud golem and was surfing across the mudslide.

"Just like this!"

Simon's eyes flashed with concentration.

"Till I reach Kizen!"

Sliiiiiiiide!

Actually, the mudslide wasn't that big or lasted that long, but the old man couldn't know that, so he formed a barrier instead of leaping above it just to make sure, and Simon turned that into an opportunity.

With that difference, the distance between the old man and Simon has increased significantly.

'I did it!'

Now it was a straight line to the Kizen campus. The familiar entrance was in sight, and the gate was wide open.

The moment Simon skated straight through the gate…

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

A huge cheer shook the earth like thunder, bringing Simon to his senses.

'?!'

Simon's eyes widened as he stopped the board and looked around.

——