After the light and sound
faded away, the wall was engulfed in smoke and rendered invisible.
Then the smoke was swept away
by the wind and gradually revealed itself.
There it was, the top half of
the wall gone. I stood there speechless, just looking at the wreckage of the
wall.
(Are you not good at fire
attribute with this? A spear of hellfire? That’s not a spear. That’s a
castle-breaking battering ram, no matter how you look at it…) (Zack)
“Is this okay, Mr.
Lockhart?” (Ruspede)
The professor called out to
me, but I just nodded and was speechless.
One of the reasons I was
speechless was that I was simply amazed by the professor’s magic, but I was
also terrified by the existence of magic.
Professor Ruspede is a
high-ranking magician among the magicians belonging to the Magicians’ Guild,
but he is not the best magician in the world. He may be a top-notch researcher,
but he is not as experienced in actual battle as the magicians of Saltus – a
northern kingdom with many elves and a thriving magic industry.
Even so, he is able to use
magic with such power.
The enemy I may be dealing
with in the future is one that the gods are wary of. If that is the case, I
would be able to use something much more powerful than this level of magic.
Will I be able to fight such an enemy in a few more years? I was more chilled by
this fact.
I managed to squeeze out a
“thank you” and asked him about his current magic.
“I heard that magic is called
[Hellfire Lance].” (Zack)
“That’s right. The [Hellfire
Lance] is a powerful single attack magic for dragons and giants. Its weakness
is that it has a short range for its power.” (Ruspede)
The professor explained
casually, but I was stunned to hear that it was for dragons and giants.
(Dragons… Giants… are certainly
the only such opponents with this power, except for use in castle sieges…)
(Zack)
It was then that I finally
noticed something strange around me.
Sharon was still completely
stunned, and not only the fifth graders, but even the female instructor called
Mayhew was standing speechless.
Perhaps it is not often that
one sees magic as powerful as this.
Professor Ruspede smiles,
saying, “Well, let’s see your magic too.
I tap Sharon on the shoulder,
who has not recovered from the shock and bring her back to her senses for the
time being.
Then I decided to release
magic from me, and since it was a good opportunity, I decided to recreate the
Hellfire Lance I had just seen.
I knew the spell when I heard
it, but in order to solidify the image, I tried to recall the magic I had just
seen.
(A pillar of fire would be
possible. But it looked like it exploded the moment it hit the wall. If so, was
it a kind of explosion magic? If I were to recreate an explosion with fire
magic, gunpowder would be the easiest to imagine. …I can’t make something the
same size, so I’ll have to try to increase the density…) (Zack)
I imagined two things.
One is an artillery shell. One
is a cannonball, solidified with the power of fire spirits.
And the other was to increase
the temperature. The color of the professor’s [Spear of Hellfire – Hellfire
Lance], a spear of hellfire, was orange. The only way to increase its power was
to increase its density, i.e., temperature. I have a vague recollection that
the temperature of an orange flame should be about 2,000 degrees Celsius. If I
imagined a white flame, the temperature would be about twice as high.
I decided to use [Ball of Flame
– Fireball] and imagine a cannonball rather than a spear.
“I would shoot the
fireball with a slightly different image of the professor’s magic.” (Zack)
I said, and the professor
nodded with an expectant look on his face.
“O Ignis, God of Fire, commander
of the world’s fires. I seek thy fierce flames of your kin, spirits, I offer
the power of mine life to thee as payment. Burn my enemies, balls of fire,
Fireball!” (Zack)
I raise my right hand high,
and while chanting the incantation, I create a cannonball about 10 cm in diameter
and 20 cm in length. I used the word [Fireball] in the incantation so that the
professor would not think it strange, but the image is not in the shape of a
ball, but in the shape of a bullet. Then, to raise the temperature, I conjure
up a glowing white flame.
In about 20 seconds, a blazing
fireball appears above my raised right hand.
Then, when the bullet is
completed, I released the bullet with the image of adding a spin.
With explosive acceleration,
the cannonball flies straight and crashes into the wall created by the
professor. At that moment, it exploded just like the professor’s Hellfire
Lance, but it was still not powerful enough and only peeled off a part of the
wall.
(After all, the difference in
the absolute amount of magical power is huge. The image should be quite good. I
was remembering some kind of war footage, and the shell is also inspired by
slow-launch tubes and an armor-piercing shell, so it simply doesn’t have enough
penetrating power…) (Zack)
While I was disappointed,
Professor Ruspede clapped his hands and praised me.
“Oh no, you really are a
genius. You reproduced my [Spear of Hellfire – Hellfire Lance], with [Ball of Flame,
Fireball]. But what did you imagine those colors and shapes to be based on?” (Ruspede)
I was so preoccupied with
recreating the professor’s magic that I showed him an image that didn’t exist
in this world.
I regret that I screwed up,
but for now, I need to think about how I can get out of this situation.
“I looked at the professor’s [Hellfire
Lance] and figured it would be impossible to recreate the same thing. Then I
shortened the length and made it thinner. Since the shape is like a thick
arrow, I added rotation like an arrow to stabilize the trajectory. The color
was inspired by the color of a blacksmith’s furnace, which was white when it
was at its hottest…” (Zack)
The professor nodded, saying,
“I see,” and agreed with my painfully squeezed-out explanation. I
made a mental note to be careful from now on.
The professor ordered Sharon
to shoot magic, saying, “Well, Miss Jakes, shoot any magic you like.”
Sharon looked a little puzzled and looked at me, so I said,
“Sha–Miss Jakes, what’s
wrong?” (Zack)
“I was trying to imitate
Mr. Lockhart’s magic, but I can’t get the image properly…” (Sharon)
I talked to the professor and
told Sharon my image in a voice that only she could hear.
“’With my current magic, I
think it’s more like a bolt of flames, ‘fire bolt’ than ‘fireball’. I think you should imagine a crossbow or
an arrowhead. The color reminds me of the hot coals from blowing a blowtorch in
the workshop of Bertram – the dwarven blacksmith in the village of Rathmore.”
(Zack)
Sharon nodded at my
explanation and released the spell. The spell seemed to be a slightly altered
version of the [Fiery Arrow – Flame Bolt] spell, a thick arrow of flame.
“O Ignis, God of Fire, commander
of the world’s fires. I seek thy flaming arrows of your kin, spirits, I offer
the power of mine life to thee as payment. Burn my enemies, arrows of flame,
Flame Bolt!” (Sharon)
Sharon’s flame bolt was sleeker
than my cannonball, a thicker and shorter version of the [Flame Bolt]. Its
color was closer to orange than mine.
Because it was designed to
look like a crossbow, it flew faster than the [Flame Bolt] and pierced the
professor’s stone wall. As expected from the image of a thick arrow, it did not
explode, but despite being made of flame, it had enough penetrating power to
pierce the heat-resistant material called stone.
The professor nodded in
satisfaction at Sharon’s magic as well.
“Mm-hm, even with this
magic, it looks like it could penetrate the knights’ armor. It is powerful
enough.” (Ruspede)
After saying this, the
professor glanced at the fifth-year students.