The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 190: [Boss Fight] Steam Rain (8)

Orléans’ body was wrapped in chains made of light.

“Kuh, huk.......”

Rosemary rolled her eyes. She thought quickly, wondering what was going on.

Orléans was a Great Mecha. A Cataclysm, in other words. It wasn’t possible to subdue him with chains alone without even using Flare.

“You wench, who the hell are you... Arrrghhh!”

Squeeeze.

The woman quietly tightened the chains, then raised the other hand not holding them.

There was something sharp attached at the ends of her fingers–a weapon called Iron Claw.

Shing! Thin strings shot out from the ends of the claws, and the metal strings pierced into Orléans’ inner core.

The vital point of all Beasts was the inner core. If one extracted the mana stone powering them that was there, they died instantly.

“N-no...! After all I did to g-get here......!”

The woman aimed exactly for Orléans’ vital point. Creak! The mana stone caught by the iron strings was forced out.

“Kwaaaaaah!”

Septimus screamed in despair. Slink! The strings retracted like a tape measure. A tourmaline sparkling in all its natural colors was pulled out by hooked ends of the string.

Orléans just collapsed. He then stopped moving. It was a death in vain.

Is that what’s going to happen to me...?

Goosebumps broke out all over. But before that, Rosemary analyzed the situation.

She took out Orléans in one go, and without a powerful weapon like Flare, at that.

Which meant she wasn’t human.

Who is she?

Elf, beastkin, dwarf? No, it was none of them. She neither had long ears, a tail, or arms that were longer compared to her body.

Her eyes were yellow but she didn’t seem to be a Golden-Eyed, because there were subtle mana waves flowing around her body.

She didn’t even smell like she used mana grass. That was that woman’s inherent mana.

How can a Golden-Eyed have natural magic....

Flutter. The woman settled in front of Rosemary who’d been pondering for a while. She still wasn’t saying a word.

Could it be.

Perhaps.

She put the situation together. Rosemary grimaced and squirmed desperately. A groan escaped everytime she shifted.

Panting, Rosemary fled to the corner. She was basically a trapped mouse. The woman slowly came closer with her feet hovering slightly above the ground.

She’s even using floatation magic.

Now she got it.

......This bitch is an Elemental. A Greater or Elite at that.

The woman repeatedly closed and parted her mouth. She was saying something, but Rosemary couldn’t hear her.

It was because she’d been corrupted. Corrupted Golden-Eyeds who’d offered their souls to the Demon King weren’t able to hear Elementals.

But she was able to take a guess from looking at the shape of her mouth.

Take... good care... of...... my... younger... brother.......?

What did that mean? Rosemary quirked her head and expressed her confusion. But perhaps taking it as an affirmative, the woman formed a white sphere in her hand.

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Flaaash! The surrounding area brightened. The rain was stopping, at least around the palace.

“...Ah.”

Rosemary let out a noise.

Her head was clearer than a moment ago. It had gotten easier to breathe as well.

Rosemary rubbed her stomach. The holes that had punctured it were healing. She still had trouble moving her limbs, but it was much better than earlier.

Who is this guy?

She stopped patting herself and raised her head, but there was nothing there.

Only a few feathers sat where the woman had been.

Blink, blink.

Rosemary looked up into the sky with wide eyes.

Her consciousness was cloudy, causing dizziness. It felt like the two personalities were mixed together. Aether grabbed her head, then let out a heavy sigh.

She reflexively felt around her sleeve. There should be a cigarette in here somewhere.

“Huu.”

When she smoked mana grass, it calmed her being. The feeling of a blurry afterimage clearing up. Something was assimilating.

Aether asked herself.

Who am I currently?

Mana began circulating in her for a moment. Aether flicked her hand, pulled out her staff from subspace and gripped it tight.

She looked up at her staff. The seven mana wave phases at the end of it could be seen clearly.

Almost all parts of the Eightfold Way were lit up.

I can use all the techniques I had in my prime.

Now, it wasn’t just electromagnetic forces. Weak interaction, strong interaction. Besides gravity, she could control everything.

Splitting neutrons into electrons and protons. Dividing or converting the nucleus.

Except for the ‘Eight Form’ that even she hadn’t been able to complete, anything was possible. She could manifest godlike powers.

Aether smirked. It was the relaxed smile of the powerful. Seeing her like this, Freyr paused her firing.

“You seem rather different.”

“Yeah?”

Aether smiled sheepishly.

“But maybe not on closer look.”

“I’ve always been this way, kid.”

She was starting to get a sense of it now.

The control was split 50/50. To be precise, there was a little more for ‘me’ who came from another world.

─ Until someone commits a foul betrayal, I’m using this body.

It was due to making this agreement with herself.

To explain, a little while ago when she had gone into the ‘Inner Mirror’ for a second time, she’d made an additional promise with herself.

And now, it was time to put that promise to the test.

“Hey! Don’t just stand there and help Vermel! He’s struggling up at the front!”

“...I should.”

Aether looked ahead. It was as Freyr said. Vermel was rushing around with the EMP generator she had made.

He moved while dodging Vanta Tortoise’s feet here and there. It looked like he was trying to find the right time to slip beneath its legs.

Boom! Booom! Booom!

The feet came down repeatedly. Its movements were on the slow side, so Vermel was able to avoid all critical hits.

However.

Thwack!

“Kugh......!”

He couldn’t dodge all the stone pieces that went flying from its stomping. A stone that flew like a volcanic clast struck Vermel right in the head.

It was a small rock, but it hurt more than he imagined. His head throbbed.

“Hey!”

Freyr yelled in panic, but it was hard to hear because of the rain.

Aether opened her eyes wide and gathered mana in her left hand. It was an automatic thing that she didn’t even think about.

[Eightfold Way Fifth Form, Charged Current]

Shwaaaaa!

A trajectory of light streaked through the excessive steam. Strong magnetic fields and pressure applied to all the particles within that path.

The nuclide wriggled. Unable to withstand the mana-turned-weak-force, the neutron changed its form.

What was forming was a beta ray, or the flow of electrons.

A particle too small to see reached Tortoise’s body. Beta rays were so weak that they couldn’t even penetrate a single sheet of paper. But the electron that Aether shot initially contained massive energy.

And that touched the shield.

Creak! Creeeak!

Tortoise stopped stomping and tipped over, because the electron ray that had stopped suddenly had transformed into a powerful, destructive x-ray.

It was the Bremsstrahlung phenomenon1. Wounded internally, Tortoise twisted its body this way and that. It burst the eardrums of many with its roaring. More water than ever burst from its shell with the turret. Thanks to that, Vermel was able to come to his senses in time.

Now’s the time.

And at some point.

Sliiiide!

Vermel slid right underneath Tortoise. Then he summoned his staff and stuck it in the ground.

Cla-cla-claaang! The ordinary staff took the load. It braked so hard that the middle joint snapped.

Vermel went all the way up to where the second leg was. His staff was broken but he avoided becoming a pancake.

That had been dangerous. Aether, who had been watching from afar, unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

Wait, why am I relieved?

Was what she thought for a brief moment, but–

Ah, shouldn’t I be? We’re the same people. Of course I should be worri.......

Thinking about it, it was weird that she had helped earlier, too. That elf surely had nothing to do with her. But why?

This time, she frowned.

It was like she had a personality disorder. It was an unpleasant, disorienting feeling.

Just then.

Boooom!

Tortoise just slumped on the spot. It wasn’t from being struck with too many spells, but it was clearly deliberate.

“Ah......!”

Aether sucked in a breath. Freyr also put down the rocket and screamed.

The one who panicked the most was Heerlein. She stopped warding off the other Beasts and sent two golems to where Vermel was.

“Vermel...!!”

Both were top-grade golems that had been guarding her. Her elites. The two yeti-looking golems stomped over in the rain.

However.

Crick! Scree! Screeek!

For some reason, Tortoise stopped sitting down and let out mechanical sounds. The thing got up again and stumbled on its legs.

Th-that was close.

In an instant, Vermel cut into Tortoise’s soft part with ‘Wind Cutter’. He was just coming out of hiding after using cutting magic in that spot.

And furthermore.

We’ve almost succeeded.

He even planted the EMP generator that Aether had made. Vermel called for the Status Window in his mind, and it showed Vanta Tortoise’s health bar.

Cut it down by two-thirds. It’s time for it to change its pattern.

As soon as he thought that, steam like never before erupted from Tortoise’s back.

1. "Bremsstrahlung or braking radiation is any radiation produced due to the acceleration (positive or negative) of a charged particle." - Wiki