Chapter 900: Stella Vermillion's One-Hit Kill! Ayatsuji Ayase Is Willing to Do Anything
Kurogane Shizuku stared at the strange, laid-back man sitting beside her.
'Stella Vermillion has far surpassed A-Rank?'
She couldn't fathom why he would make such an absurd claim. But her doubts didn't last long.
"Ugh! It's boiling in here!"
"What the hell is going on?"
The ambient temperature inside the dueling arena spiked violently. Spectators began tugging at their collars, sweating profusely under the sudden, oppressive heat. Shizuku's sharp eyes immediately caught the anomaly. Her gaze snapped toward her brother's opponent down in the arena—Stella Vermillion.
Crimson magic power surged around the princess like a roaring inferno. It was all coming from her. The sheer density of her unleashed aura was enough to turn the massive stadium into a suffocating oven.
Down in the ring, Kurogane Ikki gritted his teeth, a bead of sweat tracing the sharp line of his jaw. Standing directly in her path, he was the only one who truly understood the crushing, almost physical weight of that oppressive magic power.
Unbothered by the suffocating pressure she was emitting, Stella raised a delicate eyebrow. She shot a sideways glance at the stunned referee, her ruby eyes flashing with impatience. "Well? Isn't the match starting yet?"
"O-Oh! Right!" The referee jolted, hastily wiping a massive bead of sweat from his forehead. He raised his hand and slashed it down. "Begin!"
The very instant the word left his mouth, the air shattered.
Ikki, who had already dropped into his combat stance, widened his eyes in absolute shock. A blur of crimson and gold crossed the distance in a fraction of a second. Stella materialized directly in front of him, enveloped in a maelstrom of vast, scorching flames. Her expression was incredibly aloof, yet simmering with a dangerous irritation.
"I'm actually really annoyed right now," she muttered, her voice carrying a terrifyingly casual edge. "So... sorry, but you're going down!"
Up in the stands, Ren was casually sandwiched between two beautiful girls. Just catching a glimpse of that had inexplicably rubbed the crimson-haired princess the wrong way, leaving her with a burning urge to end this match as quickly as humanly possible.
Giving in to her petty frustration, she accidentally exerted a fraction too much power.
Stella simply raised her delicate hand and swiped it through the air.
For a split second, the very fabric of space seemed to fracture, a jagged black line tearing through the void before vanishing in the blink of an eye. The spectators blinked, dismissing the terrifying distortion as a mere trick of the light caused by the heat haze. Their eyes remained glued to Ikki.
"Gah—!"
Ikki didn't even have time to swing his Intetsu. A massive, invisible wall of kinetic force slammed into his chest. Stripped of any chance to resist, he was launched backward in a violent spiral. He flew completely out of the arena bounds, crashing heavily into the reinforced boundary wall before slumping to the ground, out cold.
Dead silence choked the massive venue. The crowd stared in dumbfounded disbelief.
This time, however, the referee recovered his wits quickly.
"M-Match over!" he bellowed into his microphone. "The winner is Stella Vermillion!!!"
"UWOOOOOOH!!!"
The stadium erupted. Even though ninety-nine percent of the audience had absolutely no idea how the exchange had ended so instantaneously, cheering for the overwhelming victor was always the right move.
Stella cast a brief, apathetic glance at the unconscious Ikki. With a dismissive toss of her long crimson hair, she turned on her heel and strode out of the arena.
High up in the VIP viewing area, a mature, black-haired woman in a crisp formal suit stared down at the ring. She held Stella's student file in her hands, her sharp eyes narrowed in deep seriousness.
"That magic power..."
The match had ended in a literal flash, but the sheer volume of magic Stella had casually leaked was enough to terrify anyone with an ounce of sense. This was especially true for Hagun Academy's Chairwoman, Kurono Shinguuji. She was perhaps the only person in the school who truly understood the depths of Kurogane Ikki's capabilities.
Kurono knew perfectly well that while the boy's magic capacity was pitifully low, his pure swordsmanship was nothing short of monstrous. also, he possessed a devastating secret technique—Ittou Shura—an ultimate skill that allowed him to compress and burn his minimal magic power to briefly unleash an overwhelming, superhuman force. In Kurono's calculating eyes, Ikki absolutely possessed the potential to stand at the apex of the academy.
Yet, against all her expectations, he had been swatted away like a fly.
Kurono didn't for a second believe that Ikki had been careless, nor did she think he was simply too weak. The chilling truth was far simpler: Stella Vermillion was leagues beyond what Kurono had estimated. The gap in raw, unadulterated power was so astronomically vast that Ikki was rendered utterly powerless to even mount a defense.
also, Kurono's elite perception hadn't missed that fleeting anomaly. When Stella waved her hand, a literal fissure had torn through space.
'Why would a flame-attribute Blazer possess traces of spatial manipulation?' Kurono pondered, tapping a manicured finger against her chin.
She didn't realize that the spatial rift wasn't a technique at all—it was simply the sheer, brute-force consequence of Stella's monstrously upgraded magic tearing the fabric of reality when she moved.
"How fascinating," Kurono murmured, a dangerous smirk playing on her lips as she watched the crimson-haired princess disappear into the competitor's tunnel.
Back in the regular stands, Shizuku shot to her feet, her hands gripping the railing tight enough to turn her knuckles white. "Ikki!" she cried out, panic lacing her voice after watching her brother get launched like a ragdoll.
"Relax. There's no need to get worked up," Ren said, his tone smooth and entirely unbothered. He didn't even shift from his relaxed posture. "He's just knocked out. Stella held back significantly; he hasn't suffered any actual injuries. Look down there—the medical staff are already hauling him off on a stretcher."
Hearing his calm assurance, Shizuku forced herself to take a breath. She followed his gaze, confirming that the medics were indeed handling her brother with practiced efficiency. Slowly, she lowered herself back into her seat. Her sharp eyes shifted to Ren, studying his relaxed profile with a deeply complex expression.
"Who exactly are you?" she demanded, her voice dropping to a guarded whisper.
Before Ren could offer one of his trademark vague replies, a soft, trembling voice interjected from his other side.
"U-Um... excuse me..."
Ren turned his head. It was the girl sitting to his right—a striking beauty with a notably full figure, her dark hair styled with a distinct side fringe.
"Are you... are you Stella Vermillion's friend?" she asked, her hands clutched tightly in her lap. "Can... can you teach me how she became so incredibly strong? Please! I'm begging you!"
Ren chuckled, leaning back in his seat. "Miss, when you're desperately asking a stranger for a life-changing favor, shouldn't you at least introduce yourself first?"
"E-Eh? Y-Yes, of course! You're absolutely right!" The girl flushed red, hastily bowing her head in a flustered panic. "I-I am Ayatsuji Ayase! A third-year student here!"
Ayatsuji Ayase.
Ren, naturally, knew exactly who she was. She was a fairly significant character in this world's storyline. Her backstory was a classic tragedy: her father, Kaito Ayatsuji, had fallen into a deep coma after suffering a brutal defeat at the hands of Kuraudo Kurashiki, a ruthless challenger who had come to crush their family's dojo. Ever since that day, Ayase had been consumed by a desperate, single-minded obsession to grow stronger and reclaim her father's honor, no matter the cost.
"Um, I sincerely apologize, Mr. Ren," Ayase continued, her voice trembling as she kept her head bowed. "I... I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Kurogane-san just now."
She felt deeply ashamed for eavesdropping, but the burning desperation in her chest refused to let her stay silent. She couldn't afford to let this miraculous opportunity slip through her fingers. After witnessing Stella Vermillion casually obliterate her opponent with a terrifying display of power—exactly as Ren had predicted—Ayase was thoroughly convinced. This mysterious man held the answers she sought.
She gripped the fabric of her skirt. 'No matter what it takes... as long as I can avenge my father and take back our dojo, I will do absolutely anything.'
"Don't sweat the small stuff," Ren said, waving a hand dismissively. "As for your question—yes, I am Stella's friend."
He leaned in slightly, a confident, magnetic smirk playing on his lips. "And yes, I do indeed possess a method to make people drastically stronger. In fact, it's incredibly simple."
Reaching out, he gave her trembling shoulder a reassuring pat. The casual contact sent a jolt of surprise through her. "If you truly want power, then follow me."
Without waiting for a response, Ren stood up, stretched his arms lazily, and began walking toward the exit.
A surge of wild hope flared in Ayase's chest. She immediately scrambled to her feet to follow him, but a firm hand suddenly clamped down on her wrist, holding her back.
"Ayatsuji-san, please calm down and think for a second," Shizuku warned, her tone sharp and serious.
Ayase blinked, looking back at the silver-haired girl in confusion.
Shizuku's eyes were narrowed in deep suspicion as she glared at Ren's retreating back. "That man is a complete unknown. He isn't wearing a Hagun Academy uniform, and I have never seen him in any of the campus facilities. You shouldn't blindly trust a single word that comes out of his mouth."
To Shizuku, Ren's smooth promises sounded exactly like the honeyed lies of a con artist trying to lure away a desperate, naive girl. There was no way she could just sit back and watch it happen.
However, when Ayase turned her attention back to the aisles, her breath hitched.
Ren was strolling through the densely packed, wildly cheering crowd with effortless elegance. The bizarre part was that the surrounding students didn't even seem to register his existence. They continued screaming and cheering for Stella, yet their bodies instinctively parted like the Red Sea, carving out a wide, unobstructed path for him to walk through.
Witnessing this casual, almost supernatural phenomenon instantly shattered any lingering doubts in Ayase's mind.
"I don't care who he is," Ayase whispered, her eyes burning with a feverish intensity. "He truly possesses miraculous power. To become stronger... to save my father... I am willing to do anything!"
With a forceful tug, she shook off Shizuku's grip and sprinted down the wide path Ren had effortlessly carved through the crowd.
Shizuku was left standing alone in the stands, her hand suspended in the air. She stared at the parting crowd, forced to admit that the strange man possessed an unfathomable, terrifying level of mystery.
"Damn it!" Shizuku cursed, grinding her teeth in frustration.
Refusing to let the situation play out unsupervised, she quickly bolted after them. It simply wasn't in her nature to turn a blind eye to something so suspicious. More, her own mind was burning with a hundred unanswered questions about exactly who—and what—Ren truly was.
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