The morning when the sky was slowly beginning to lighten."Clear.""Clear over here too!""Subjugation complete, Sir Loen."As the once-deep-blue sky gradually brightened and the dawn sunlight filtered through the dense tropical rainforest of the jungle, the battle with the Noble Alliance came to an end.The result, of course, was the overwhelming victory of my side and Silphiette’s alliance.With their retreat cut off and betrayed by the allies they had trusted, the Noble Alliance collapsed so quickly they could hardly put up a proper fight.Their rear was blocked by the collapsed earth, their front by Silphiette’s team that had betrayed them, and from both sides of the ravine, our detached units burst out and attacked in a pincer, so that said it all."S-stop!""We surrender! We surrender!"Students under the Noble Alliance banner, unable to regain their senses amidst the magic and arrows pouring in from both sides and the mass of dirt behind them.The combat forces of the Noble Alliance, thus surrounded, surrendered one after another without ever really getting to fight.Even though Esetra, the Noble Alliance host, and Yurkov tried their best to resist while their subordinates surrendered, they were, naturally, no match.Esetra’s summoned beasts and Yurkov’s barrier magic were fairly troublesome, but in the face of an overwhelming difference in strength, that didn’t matter.In the end, the Noble Alliance was completely subdued by my hand.The students who had surrendered had already had their Cubes taken away and were gathered in one place.All that remained was to take the host Esetra’s ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Cube and disband the team.Grrrr—."Stay still."I controlled the wooden vines to bind Esetra’s summoned beast, which was baring its teeth at me.Whine—.The large wolf pack that looked like Siberian huskies whimpered, tied up by the vines.The pink sparrow that had been flying around me, pecking at me with its beak, was also locked inside a cage-like structure I made out of vines.Chirp chirp—.The battle fully ended with all of Esetra’s summoned beasts, which had resisted to the very end, subdued.Silphiette approached and bowed to me."Thank you for your hard work, Sir Loen.""I didn’t do much. You’re the ones who worked hard."All I had done was transmute the steel ingots I had planted in the ravine ahead of time to cause a landslide and cut off the enemy retreat.The biggest contributors to this victory were, of course, Silphiette and the team members under her."Huff, huff."Then Esetra, bound by wooden vines and breathing hard, yelled at me."You piece of trash! When did you win Silphiette’s team over? And you—how dare you betray me?"Esetra bared her teeth at Silphiette, who was standing by my side, and Silphiette averted her eyes without saying anything."If you’ve got a mouth, answer me! Why did you betray me!""……."In place of the troubled Silphiette, I answered for her."She bears no guilt. I grabbed hold of her weakness and shook it. Silphiette was only used by me.""Ah, Sir Loen, you don’t have to put it like that……."When Silphiette saw me loading all the vice onto my own back, she tried to say something, but I reached out and covered her mouth."What? So you did use underhanded tricks!"Seeing Esetra’s I knew it expression, I shrugged."Underhanded? You’re the one who pushed Teon into forming a fake alliance with me. What right do you have to criticize me?""…….""I just moved a little more cleverly. Don’t pretend we can rank who’s good or evil here. Don’t spit in your own face."Just as I had blindsided them by making a backroom deal with Silphiette, Esetra had plotted with Teon to crack me in the back of the head.The difference between Esetra and me was simply that I had succeeded and she had failed."If anything, you’re the more pathetic one for pulling the same stunt and only getting thrashed. If you’re going to resort to something underhanded, at least make sure it works.""Kh."Snap—.I took Esetra’s Cube and student ID from her as she clenched her teeth.Then, looking down at her bound in vines, I thought.'Esetra is a pretty good piece of fighting power, but she’s hard to keep under my command.'Her ability to handle summoned beasts was undoubtedly useful.But for whatever reason, she was openly displaying hostility, and I couldn’t exactly keep someone like that as a subordinate.In a way, it was similar to when I recruited Tepes, but at this point, I had no need to take on the risk of recruiting her.I already had plenty of capable allies under me.Let’s just eliminate her.I handed Esetra’s Cube to Silphiette."Here, you eliminate her yourself. You’ll probably gain quite a lot of points.""Me……?""Yes."After that, I called over Silphiette’s comrades one by one and had them eliminate members of the Noble Alliance side.You gained points when you eliminated another student.This way, Silphiette’s team, which would be surrendering to me, could earn a decent share of points.It was the least I could do for Silphiette’s team, who had helped me subdue the Noble Alliance and would afterward come under my banner.Once I had distributed the points to everyone, I held out my hand."All right then, Silphiette, surrender to me.""Yes, Sir Loen."Without any sign of hesitation, Silphiette handed me her Cube.With that, I had crushed the Noble Alliance and accepted Silphiette’s team under my command.The final key to opposing Elena’s team was now prepared.***Elena’s camp.As Elena was soaking in a tub full of cool water to escape the heat, Adler came to her."Lady Elena, reporting. About the Noble Alliance and what happened at dawn today…….""Mmm~ Loen-kun won anyway, right?"Elena splashed the water and slightly pulled back the curtain.Seeing her wrapped in a towel, Adler nodded without any noticeable reaction."Ah. Yes, that’s right.""How large is Loen’s team right now?""Including comrades and subordinates, looks to be around five hundred.""And us?""We’re getting close to a thousand, but growth has slowed. There are hardly any students surrendering to us anymore."There weren’t many small teams left either, so the process of consolidating power was almost done.Out of all the students who had first been dropped onto the jungle island, about fifteen hundred remained now.And with those split between Elena’s team and Loen’s team, all that was left was a showdown between the two forces.Elena lay back comfortably in the tub again and spoke."Hmm, then this next battle will decide the outcome of the exam. Adler, are you confident?""Of course."Adler gripped the sword at his waist firmly and smiled."If you’ll allow it, I’d like to cross swords with Miss Ciel.""Oh my, are you telling me to take on Loen myself?"Elena’s Competition Battle ranking was 15th.For all her reputation, it wasn’t that high a rank.Elena, whose magic focused on healing, recovery, exorcism, and protective spells, was relatively weak in direct combat.He couldn’t be sure she would win if she fought Loen, whose stock was currently soaring.The way he’d fought when facing Ciel had been that of a fighter whose skill was almost among the top few in their entire year.An iron wall and the endless spears of steel rising over it.Even Ciel, known to be quite strong regardless of Competition Battle ranking, had been helpless.Their match-up hadn’t been favorable, but leaving that aside, the martial prowess Loen had shown then had been at a tremendous level.Adler shrugged."Well, you don’t necessarily have to step out yourself, Lady Elena. You could leave it to another student, or we could use a coordinated attack."His eyes sharpened as he continued."And…… if you went all out, Lady Elena, it’s not like you couldn’t take him down by yourself, is it?"Publicly, Elena’s combat ability wasn’t considered very strong, but Adler knew better.'If Lady Elena got serious…… even I wouldn’t be able to stop her.'The fact that she was maintaining a middling Competition Battle rank and hiding her combat power might very well be for the sake of image management."Tsk tsk, what a joke. What power would I even have.""……."Adler had plenty he wanted to say but held his tongue."Then shall we make our declaration of war soon? I want to leave this jungle island already and relax at the resort."Elena stretched in the tub.Even calling in students who had learned freezing magic to cool the room was at its limit.She didn’t want to stay on this sweltering jungle island any longer.She gazed outside from the fortress created by her Cube and smiled.***Near the Full Moon Archipelago. The naval base where the Empire’s fleet was stationed.Inside the lighthouse that illuminated the dark night sea."Yaaawn."Lieutenant Zvelin, who had taken this watch assignment along with the lighthouse keeper, let out a wide yawn.Guarding the invisible stretch of dark sea all night, watching for threats, was boring work to say the least.Leaning back comfortably in a chair and staring vacantly at the lighthouse’s beam, Zvelin thought of the Union sky-ship that had entered the Full Moon Archipelago a few days earlier.Apparently the second-year students had come for summer training camp or something. Must be nice.Zvelin slumped back in the chair and thought of the old days.'It was really fun when I attended Union too.'They were a graduate of Ishtal Academy, and in the past they too had once come to the Full Moon Archipelago for summer training camp.Back then, they’d taken some exam where factions fought each other using some kind of Cube, and they remembered it being pretty fun.As Zvelin was briefly reminiscing, they nudged the dozing watchman beside them to wake him."Yuron, which Union class are you?"At Zvelin’s question, the rookie Yuron snapped awake and answered stiffly."Sir, Class 507, sir!"Rummaging through hazy memories, Zvelin started telling the watchman stories from the past."Heh, rookie. Hey, back in my day……."They were killing time with idle chatter like that when,the lighthouse keeper, who had seemed to be almost asleep, suddenly opened their eyes wide and shouted."Hold on. Zvelin, I think I saw something strange over there?""What’s strange, come on. You think pirates showed up or something? Yuron, shine the light over there.""Yes, Lieutenant!"Creak—.Yuron worked with the lighthouse keeper to adjust the lighthouse beam.When they shone the light where the keeper had indicated, an unfamiliar island had appeared beyond the thick sea fog."An island? What the. Some kind of mirage?"The three of them rubbed their eyes and peered at the massive shape that had risen beyond the mist.But for some reason, it looked as though that island was slowly drifting toward the lighthouse."……Increase the luminance."The lighthouse beam grew brighter and brighter.The magical light of the lighthouse pierced the dense sea fog and illuminated the unknown presence.And then the gigantic form they had thought was an island was clearly revealed under the beam.Shaaah—.A colossal being rose above the dark sea, water pouring from its body.A monstrous life-form with a face like that of an octopus and long tentacles hanging like a beard emerged from the mist.A being in the form of the long-hidden Kraken, and one of the Demon God’s Twelve Apostles: Kral of the Deep Sea.Of course, neither the lighthouse keeper nor the watchmen spoke that name aloud."Uh…."The instant they took in that being with their eyes, a bizarre force that shook their heads began to gnaw at their minds.At the same time.[KRRRRRR-]The thing roared.With a roar that seemed to shake space itself and the flood of blasphemous mana that surged forth, the Imperial ships moored at the naval base began to be pushed back.Rumble—.Driven by the roar as if swept up by a tidal wave, the Imperial fleet slammed into the docks and began to break apart."Aaargh!"The lieutenant, the watchman, the lighthouse keeper, and the Imperial soldiers attempting to sleep at the naval base all clutched their ears and screamed.As everyone trembled in pain.Vmmm—.Suddenly, a translucent barrier formed, and the madness that had felt like it was shaking their brains stopped, allowing their senses to return."Huff, huff,""What was that just now……."As Zvelin caught their breath and stared blankly upward, a massive sky-whale floating in the dark night sky came into view.The floating ship dispatched from the Mage Tower.An old man stood proudly at the bow of that ark before Kral.He scratched his beard with a troubled expression."Mm, this is a bit of a problem. To think a monster from ages past has awakened. The end times must be upon us."Whoosh—.He even took out a staff he normally didn’t use and smiled."Since it’s come to this, I suppose we ought to reduce their headcount by at least one. Honestly…… isn’t twelve a bit too many? Heheh."

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