NOVEL NEXT Chapter 187: Entrance Test [III]
She didn't turn pink because she was embarrassed.
No, her face burned because Azel had struck the nail on the head.
This was her second life, after all.
Rain pressed her lips into a thin line, trying to hide the emotion behind her eyes.
"Should we check on him?" she asked, her voice quieter now. Her gaze flickered toward Reinhardt's broken body sprawled across the grass.
Blood seeped into the soil, turning the clearing into a grotesque painting of red and green.
Even from here, she could tell his wounds were nearly fatal. Bones bent in directions they shouldn't. Flesh ripped apart.
His life force wavered like a candle flame on the verge of going out.
A normal man wouldn't survive an hour like that. Even a prodigy would find healing such injuries close to impossible.
And yet, part of her hesitated. He had once been her everything.
But then again… why should she heal him?
"I thought you hated him in this life and the next," Azel said, breaking her train of thought. His voice was as casual as ever, carrying no pity for the young man.
He walked with his hands clasped behind his head as if they were merely strolling through a market instead of stepping over bodies in a trial meant to weed out the weak. "Would you really be worrying about someone like that?"
Rain flinched.
He was right.
Her lips pressed together again, harder this time, as if sealing away that tiny, betraying flicker of sympathy.
Azel didn't even spare Reinhardt another glance. His confidence was absolute. He was almost a hundred percent sure the boy would survive.
If not by skill or luck, then by the cruel intervention of the story's invisible hand. Plot always favored its chosen Hero.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets, already thinking ahead.
'That relic should show up right about now.'
Behind them, Reinhardt lay on the grass, blood spilling from his wounds, painting crimson streaks over the earth.
His chest rose and fell in ragged, uneven gasps. His vision swam, everything reduced to blurs of green and red.
'I'll kill you…'
The thought echoed in his mind, loud and raw.
'I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!'
The words beat against his skull like war drums.
He was the Hero.
The chosen one.
The savior of this damned world.
And yet he had been humiliated.
He had been treated like dirt by a nobody and insulted by a woman who was supposed to kneel at his side.
Why? Why should the Hero suffer this indignity?
Hatred boiled in his veins, hotter than blood.
Rage consumed his breath. All he wanted now was to kill.
'Do you want to kill your enemies?'
The voice entered his mind like a whisper from a god, smooth and sharp all at once.
It sliced through the chaos in his skull, piercing the storm of rage with eerie calm.
Reinhardt's wild thoughts stilled. His focus snapped like a taut string.
'Do you want to become the strongest?'
'Yes.' He didn't hesitate. The image of Azel's silver hair flashed across his mind, that mocking face, that disdainful tone.
Reinhardt's soul screamed.
'Yes! I want to kill them!'
He tried to shout the words, but his lips wouldn't move. His jaw trembled uselessly. His body was too mangled, too broken to obey.
The voice only chuckled, deep and amused.
'Good.'
From the corner of his eye, he noticed something rolling across the ground. An orb, small, smooth, faintly glowing with an azure radiance.
It hummed like a heart. It stopped inches from his head, then bounced once, as if alive, and pressed against his forehead.
Bzzzzt.
The orb sank into his skin.
In an instant, his entire body ignited with blue light.
His screams echoed silently in his chest as power surged through broken veins, knitting flesh with threads of pain and ecstasy.
The voice purred in satisfaction.
'Let's get to killing.'
…
Azel sighed as he shoved another examinee to the ground.
The poor boy twitched once before his eyes rolled back, foam bubbling from his lips.
A matching thud sounded beside him as Rain blasted a young woman into unconsciousness, her holy magic flaring briefly before dispersing.
The pair lay sprawled at Azel's feet, twitching faintly.
"That makes… what, twelve?" he muttered, scratching his head.
Rain ignored him, already preparing another spell, her lips moving in quiet incantation.
Light gathered around her like an aura, she had been unusually quiet after what happened with Reinhardt.
She looked almost ethereal in that moment, like the Saintess she was destined to become.
Azel clicked his tongue.
'I really need to get some holy spells in my arsenal,' he thought. They weren't just useful for blasting enemies into the dirt.
Rain had been using them creatively — as barriers, as detection tools, even for small conveniences like cleansing water or strengthening their footing on rough terrain.
But he wasn't about to use the Grimoire now.
No, Nyala would provide him with far better spells soon enough.
Until then, he could make do.
[Esteemed Husband,] Nyala's voice rang gently in his head. [I sense a huge amount of mana heading toward your location.]
Azel stilled, his silver brows furrowing slightly. He didn't need her warning; he could already feel it too.
'Yeah,' he muttered inwardly. 'It's her.'
He exhaled a tired sigh, one that carried both resignation and mild annoyance.
'I'm about to meet the Tryhard Heroine.'
Even in the game, she had been a menace. The type of character built to make the player sweat.
She was not a fan favorite but she was certainly hands down one of the best heroines in the franchise.
Compared to Reinhardt's arrogance and wasted talent, this girl was a genuine prodigy.
A mana genius — one of the youngest the empire had ever seen.
'Great,' Azel thought bitterly. 'Of course she shows up now.'
He turned to Rain, who had already felt it as well. Her hands glowed faintly as holy magic gathered in preparation.
Compared to Reinhardt, this was no joke. The protagonist had been laughably easy.
But this girl? She would take effort.
'Well,' Azel thought, rolling his shoulders, 'that's exactly why I wanted to meet her before the Academy starts. Better to gauge her strength early than get blindsided later.'
He looked ahead just as the air shifted.
A figure shot toward them from the horizon, moving at terrifying speed. Wind bent around her body, carrying her like a spear through the sky.
The grass bent, dust whipping upward in swirling spirals as the pressure of her mana compressed the air.
Every ounce of her momentum was directed at them. No… at him.
Azel's eyes widened.
"Fuck!" he cursed as she collided with the ground before him, the impact tearing through the clearing.
The earth buckled, sand and dirt exploding upward in a storm of grit that stung his skin and clouded his vision.
The whole area shook.