347: The Solitary Strongest ⑤ (Weiss)

Looking back, I realized I’d never actually focused entirely on defense until now.

Just then, the chime of the Glass Soul echoed from behind me.

I’d managed to withstand the hit. Besides, Malice was supposed to be launching her attack on the Shrine right about now.

So why isn't Teacher Milk even looking that way?

I glanced back, and what I saw in that moment left me speechless.

"—Master!"

The Shrine was engulfed in a ferocious blaze.

Malice had tried to strike it, but her attack was swatted away without question. I focused my Magic Eye and Dark Eye on the structure; at this rate, I could tell it would be reduced to ash in just a few minutes.

Teacher Milk was a human being, just like the rest of us. She didn't have a spare body, and she wasn't exactly a specialist when it came to Shields.

However, by burning her own Mana and the Shrine itself, she had granted the structure an overwhelming level of defensive power.

—At the cost of her own remaining time.

"Weiss, despite how I might seem, I do believe in my comrades," Teacher Milk said. "I'll admit, Coco and Chloe are merely workplace colleagues. But Darius is different. I've fought alongside that man countless times. We've shed blood together. If I take you down here, there won't be anyone left who can defeat him. That’s why I am going to defeat you. I’m not gambling on a chance. This isn't a match—it's an exam."

To my horror, I realized Teacher Milk had no intention of making it out of this alive.

The thought hadn't even crossed my mind.

That she, a woman possessed by such overwhelming pride, had already resolved herself to die.

The faculty didn't have Survival Points. If even a single one of them remained standing at the end, it would be their Victory.

And at that exact moment, the Magic Bird’s cry pierced the air.

—[Shari Elias: Eliminated. Duke. Virilian: Eliminated.]

"The Allen of right now can't win against Darius," she continued. "Unlike me, that guy isn't... kind."

In that moment, a memory of Teacher Milk’s words from our training days flickered through my mind.

“Surge your Mana as if you're prepared to die.”

True to her own advice, Milk Abitus wreathed herself in a Fighting Spirit fueled by enough Mana to kill her, throwing everything she had into the singular goal of defeating me, her disciple.