Infinite Mage 2

Chapter 1

tenacity of his resistance only fueled Shirone's determination.

Then ...!

He ceased the Photon Cannon barrage and switched to a laser. A single red beam struck Dante's magic circles. Finding it weaker than expected, Dante snorted and began repairing his magic circles.

Within moments, the dozen magic circles were fully restored.

But then, Dante's expression twisted strangely. Unlike before, he sensed something, an energy even more potent than the Photon Cannon.

"W-What the ...!? "

The moment Dante gasped in shock, Shirone poured his entire focus into amplifying the laser.

The laser's beam began to thicken rapidly.

Finally, as all the power drawn from the infinite realm was unleashed, a massive crimson flash swallowed Dante's position whole.

The students gulped as they saw Dante's shadow writhing as if consumed by flames.

When the laser finally thinned and vanished, Dante stood motionless, his arms shielding his face. Not a trace remained of the defensive magic circles that had once blocked the Photon Cannons.

Shirone landed across from him. Slowly lowering his arms, Dante glared at Shirone, grinding his teeth.

"Damn it ...! "

His knees buckled as if shattered, slamming into the ground. He had tried desperately to endure, but the Photon

Cannon's destructive force was unstoppable. The anti-magic shockwave searing through his brain was unlike any spell he had ever faced in Icheonban.

"This can't be ... Dante's been brought to his knees again." If the first knockdown could be dismissed as Shirone catching him off guard, this one was undeniably a difference in sheer skill.

And that made the outcome all the more shocking to the students.

Even among the faculty, murmurs rippled through the crowd. Who could have predicted that Shirone, a student who had only studied magic for a year would knock down Dante, the kingdom's top-ranked mage, not once but twice? Ethella spoke up.

"His personality is sharp, but his magic is surprisingly heavy. The lack of finesse is a weakness, but his raw destructive power more than compensates."

A mage's spells revealed their nature, especially for an Unlocker, whose magic manifested through unique circuits. Ethella's praise made Thadd's mouth watered.

Though he wasn't particularly fond of Shirone personally given how he monopolized the affection of female students, he couldn't deny his skill.

"Well, he is serious about everything."

Dante's second knockdown only stoked the students' fervor higher.

Chants of Shirone's name filled the air, the echoes feeding back into the rising excitement.

Nade blinked rapidly.

"Was Shirone's magic always this ... brutal?"

Iruki shared the thought.

"Maybe he was holding back before. Or he's playing psychological games. Either way, he's changed since last semester. Something must have shifted in him."

Amy, resting her chin on her hand, smirked.

"Well ... he's been through some rough times."

Shirone had fought tooth and nail against the Parrot Mercenaries on Galliant Island. In Heaven, he had faced countless foes who transcended humanity.

If he were the same as last semester, that would have been strange.

"Good heavens ... Dante ... How is this possible ...? "

Reporter Killine was stunned by the result. Beyond Dante's undefeated record, no student had ever forced him to his knees so decisively.

Shirone? How has a kid like this never been featured in a magazine before?

According to his research, Shirone had only attended the magic academy for a year. If true, he hadn't even had time to stand out long enough for interviews.

When Killine first heard that, he hadn't believed it. Or rather, even if it was true, he assumed Shirone was just some overhyped student from a mediocre provincial school. But here he was, utterly dominating Dante. A rookie who had appeared like a comet.

Dante slowly rose to his feet. Unlike after the first knockdown, his face betrayed no emotion.

"A second knockdown. First time for me."

He spat out the words and shook his head. Counting them was meaningless now.

Because Shirone himself was unprecedented.

Offensive specialists were usually the easiest and most enjoyable for Dante to dismantle. But against someone with this level of brute force, the tables had turned.

A bitter smile curled at Dante's lips. He never thought he'd have to use this magic circle before even joining the graduating class.

He had never cast it in an official match. And even counting unofficial bouts, only twice.

The only ones who knew that those two instances had been against an active ninth-class mage and a seventy strong B-class bandit group were Closer and Sabina.

"My apologies. It seems I underestimated you."

At that moment, an enormous magic circle glowing crimson, engraved itself around Dante. Its clarity dwarfed any instant magic circle, and its size was tenfold.

Siena confirmed that Dante's mental energy gauge had suddenly dropped by more than half.

The vast reserves that had shown no sign of depletion throughout the battle, now half gone in an instant. She couldn't begin to guess what kind of magic circle demanded such a cost.

"Central Operation Magic Circle: Pascal."

As Dante murmured the name, the colossal circle flared red, and over a hundred smaller magic circles materialized simultaneously.

Shirone was stunned. Each circle was charged with a different spell, it felt like facing a hundred mages at once. "Immortal Function. I mocked it, but it's definitely impressive. The insight of an Unlocker, I suppose?"

Shirone had no breath to answer. Whatever this was, it was on a completely different level from instant magic circles. If he didn't analyze it quickly, the tide would turn against him. "Now, let me show you what I have."

Dante extended his hand, and from the hundred circles, a deluge of spells erupted.

Wind Cutters, Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, Ice Spears, and even Photon Output devoid of physical force.

Shirone was spellbound by the spectacle.

The most shocking part was that over ten different types of magic were being cast simultaneously.

Even Iruki, a Savant, could only manage two spells at once with his Double Spirit Zone. This felt like a dream.

Nade bit her thumbnail.

"It's ... parallel circuits."

Mark turned to her, wide-eyed.

"Huh? Parallel circuits? Those magic circles?"

"Magic demands extreme focus. Casting one spell leaves no room for other thoughts. But Dante's circles each have independent circuits."

"Is that even possible? Without multiple brains, you can only sustain one magic circle per circuit. Even passive spells are constructed sequentially."

Nade pointed at Dante's Pascal.

"That's exactly it. Dante created another brain. That central magic circle, it's converging his circuit and distributing it in parallel."

Nade's guess was correct. Pascal was a magic circle that stored a mage's circuit in a virtual memory, processing it through parallel computation.

With Pascal active, Dante was no longer defensive. Instead, he annihilated his opponent with overwhelming firepower. As if to prove it, every basic spell taught at the academy was now surging forth.

Shirone didn't relent. Creating virtual memory to unfold serial thoughts in parallel was a marvel.

However, strictly speaking, parallel circuits weren't inherently superior. If it is really a parallel circuit, then the individual power is bound to be weaker.

The fact that Dante's spells were all basic-tier was a proof. I don't have time. I have to end this now.

His time sustaining the infinite realm was running out. If he was going to crush Dante by sheer force, it had to be now. Shirone fired a Photon Cannon with all his might, but the moment it crossed a certain point, its speed began dropping drastically.

The near-lightspeed photons slowed to a crawl, and Shirone scanned ahead. Then he realized.

The hundreds of magic circles Dante had deployed were forming small clusters, exerting influence over specific spaces.

If the clusters were connected into virtual planes, they formed cube-like structures, a three-dimensional mansions, each activating a unique spell within.

Nade shouted in disbelief.

"A three-D Mansion? A student is pulling that off!?"

Dante had assembled two-dimensional magic circles into a three-dimensional structure.

Shirone's Photon Cannon had entered one such mansion, a space simultaneously governed by six Slow magic circles,

each five meters apart. In terms of how many circuits with different functions could be integrated into a confined space, a three-D Mansion was able to shatter the limits of planar arrays, achieving staggering efficiency.

Chapter two hundred fifty: System Operation three

Shirone finally halted his assault. While parallel circuits alone weakened individual spells, assembling them into a mansion structure allowed for amplification power unmatched by serial casting.

Moreover, the nature of three-dimensional circuits meant their distribution patterns appeared differently depending on the observation point. Thus, it was impossible to discern which six magic circles formed any given mansion. It was like trying to recognize a shape drawn in dots on a flat page, it's simple when two-dimensional, but incomprehensible when rendered in three dimensions. "How about it, Shirone? Still think you can dodge?" The moment Dante spoke, six air-attribute magic circles shifted, trapping Shirone in a Pressure Mansion. “Ugh!"

The instant Shirone felt the weight crushing his spine, a bluish bolt charged at the core of the Electric Mansion hovering above Dante's head.

A searing beam of electricity shot forth, scorching the air in its wake with a crackling discharge.

No matter where Shirone evaded, the attack pursued him. This was because the Photon Mansion's output tracked his coordinates in real time.

"Ah..."

Shirone's mind grew distant. This no longer felt like fighting a person. It was like battling a warship armed with countless weapons.

He rolled across the ground to avoid the Ice Spear hurtling down vertically. As the world spun, he heard the sizzle of burning earth. The moment he twisted mid-photonization, an Atomic Bomb detonated nearly on top of him.

The students were dumbstruck by Dante's overwhelming firepower.

"Good lord... What kind of magic is this?"

Even Mark found it unbelievable. Though Pascal handled parallel processing, the human brain still governed the whole system. Managing hundreds of magic circles was beyond human capability.

Iruki turned to Nade. His unusually grave expression suggested he'd already pieced it together.

"Nade, say something. I'm honestly lost here."

"That's... an automaton."

"Automaton?"

"An automated mechanism. Like interlocking gears, they turn the first, and the last outputs a fixed value. A simple concept, but scaled to astronomical proportions, it can achieve seemingly impossible tasks. Tracking Shirone's coordinates with Photon Output, swapping mansions at high speed... that sort of thing."

Shirone was experiencing the automaton's lethality firsthand. No matter how he countered, the self-calculating system of automaton was an impenetrable fortress. Though the spells were basic, their mansion-enhanced power was anything but. After dodging the barrage, Shirone scrambled to locate Dante, but he was buried under hundreds of circles, can't be seen.

The floating magic circles felt like the gaze of a monster with hundreds of eyes.

"Grrr...!"

A shiver ran down Shirone's spine as he wildly fired Photon Cannons. The automaton reacted instantly. A Lightning Cannon, fully charged in the Bolt Mansion, shot forth, its blinding discharge tearing through space and popping the Photon Cannon like a balloon.

The Lightning Cannon grazed Shirone's side, and that alone triggered anti-magic. Staggered, he was bombarded with every spell the automaton could unleash. Countless spells razed the entire vicinity.

Pascal, having exhausted its available energy, emitted a grotesque whine before shutting down. As the smoke cleared, Shirone emerged, clutching one shoulder. Then his knees buckled, and he crashed to the ground. "He's down! Shirone's down this time!"

A single knockdown wasn't the issue. The anti-magic direct hit meant Shirone's endurance had cracked, and that signaled the end of Immortal Function.

"Truly remarkable."

Even Alpheas couldn't help but be impressed this time. Dante's system, a parallel magic circles Pascal, power-amplifying three-D Mansions, and now automatic system via automaton, was a masterpiece pushing the limits of functionality.

To integrate automaton into information magic... Few professional mages could attempt such a feat. No. Even for Dante, the kingdom's top talent, this was beyond student-level capability.

Unless one assumption held true.

"Is he using binary?"

Olivia stayed silent. But Alpheas understood. He had to be using binary. Only one race came to mind, beings who wielded a magical system of one and zero.

"Since when... has Dante learned the dragon's tongue?" A smile curled Olivia's lips. If he'd already guessed, there was no point hiding it.

"What's wrong? Dragon magic is binary-based, but it's not exclusive to dragons."

"Humans can comprehend binary. But wielding it at the level of language is another matter entirely."

Suddenly, Alpheas realized.

"Don't tell me... he was born with it?"

"I didn't believe it at first either. But it's true. Like Shirone's insight or Iruki's Savant Syndrome, Dante's information-processing ability is innate."

Olivia recalled her first meeting with Dante ten years prior.

During her tenure as headmaster of the Royal Magic

Academy, Olivia received an invitation to a tea party at a social gathering in Baschka.

The hostess was Bianca, matriarch of the Airhaine family. Six women were present, all married except Olivia.

The noblewomen sipped imported tea and exchanged pleasantries.

Olivia participated in topics that interested her, but as always, the conversation inevitably turned to children. Bianca sighed heavily.

"It's been dreadful. My youngest just submitted a leave of absence and came home."

"Oh? Dante's such a model student, though. Did something happen at school?"

Bianca shook her head, her expression dark.

"I don't know. He won't speak at all these days. He came home with bruises on his face, saying he'd fought with his friends. From what I gathered, it sounded like several of them ganged up on him."

The noblewomen's faces flushed with indignation. The thought of their own children suffering such treatment made their hands tremble with fury.

"You just let that slide? You must report it to the school at once."

"I did go to the school. But what I heard there was shocking. They said Dante hadn't spoken a single word to his classmates. No matter how they tried to engage him, he wouldn't even look at them. His homeroom teacher thought he'd gone mute at first."

"Oh dear... Could there be some underlying reason?"

"No matter how much I ask, he won't tell me. I went there ready to demand justice, but I left feeling like the sky had fallen. In the end, I just brought Dante home." Olivia paused mid-sip. As someone without children, she had stayed silent, but a possibility had just occurred to her. Bianca rested her chin on her hand and continued.

"Haa ... So now he's withdrawn from school, and I'm keeping him at home. But what worries me is that he just sits in the garden all day, staring at the ground. He won't answer no matter how much I ask why. I have no choice but to watch over him helplessly."

The woman beside her took Bianca's hand.

"Don't worry too much. Dante's only ten. It's an age when thoughts start to weigh heavily. Noble children hit puberty much earlier than commoners, you know."

"If only it were that simple ... "

Bianca had no way to soothe her distress.

Dante had been a prodigy since childhood, bearing the family's highest hopes. Who would have thought such a precious child could cause her this anguish?

The noblewomen offered their sympathies. Though not all were sincere, as mothers themselves, they understood her pain all too well.

Olivia set down her teacup and murmured under her breath. "Overflow ... "

Bianca turned to her.

"Pardon? What did you just say?"

Olivia snapped back to attention. As an educator, she knew how dangerous it was to evaluate a child in front of their parents.

But with all eyes now on her, retreating would be difficult. Especially before noblewomen who couldn't bear unanswered curiosity.

She feigned nonchalance. "Ah, I was just thinking it might be Overflow."

"Overflow? What's that?"

"Well, it's rare, but it sometimes happens when a child awakens too young. Or rather, it's more psychological than physical factor. Their existing worldview collapses, and they begin to perceive a reality different from ours. Usually, they're plagued by extreme fear."

"So you're saying my son is ill?"

A cold sweat trickled down Olivia's spine. A misspoke here would brand her in social circles and haunt her with gossip for years.

"No, it's not an illness. It's something that often appears in prodigies. We have quite a few such children at the magic academy."

Reluctantly, Olivia invoked the one word no parent could resist. Magic.

As expected, Bianca and the noblewomen exchanged glances, their interest piqued.

Was there anything more thrilling to a parent than hearing their child called a genius?

Olivia was spared further embarrassment, but the price was steep.

Bianca, brushing aside the others, leaned in as if demanding a private audience. She bombarded Olivia with questions.

Was Dante truly a genius? In what field? How should he be educated if so?

Olivia gave vague answers, careful not to commit to anything definitive.

If it were that easy to diagnose, geniuses suffering from Overflow wouldn't meet such tragic ends.

"So ... so my Dante really is a genius? Hmm ... it does make sense. He's always been extraordinary. And genius children often struggle to fit in, don't they? That must be why Dante couldn't connect with his friends."

Olivia longed to leave. She couldn't bring herself to say this was merely a possibility to Bianca's face.

Before she could excuse herself, Bianca struck first.

"Would you ... be willing to speak with Dante?"

"Right now?"

This time, Olivia couldn't hide her reluctance. She had no desire to play teacher at a social event.

What if the boy turned out to be utterly unremarkable? How would she handle the fallout?

Bianca, nicknamed the socialite, couldn't have missed Olivia's hesitation.

With resolve, she stood and pressed her request again. This time with the perfect decorum expected before her peers. "Please. You are the headmaster of the Royal Magic Academy. If anyone can uncover Dante's hidden talent, it's you. He's in the garden of the annex right now."

Cornered, Olivia had no choice but to agree. She exhaled and rose from her seat, but not without securing an insurance policy.

"Very well. I'll speak with him. But don't jump to conclusions. If it is Overflow, it will require long, careful guidance."

"Of course, of course. I leave it in your hands."

Olivia made her way to the annex to meet a child she'd never seen before.

True to its status as the twentieth wealthiest family in Tormia, the annex rivaled a nobleman's estate.

A vast lawn, fragrant with spring, stretched like a sports field, beyond which lay a dense forest.

Dante sat at the forest's edge. Olivia observed him from a distance and sighed again.

Perhaps, as the noblewoman had said, it was merely early puberty. But she was certain it was Overflow. Twenty years as an educator had honed her instincts.