### Chapter: 226
Charlotte is strong.
This was a fact everyone was well aware of.
And now, standing before Charlotte once again was someone who had truly felt that truth firsthand.
A girl with red hair and healthy skin.
Karanidis Poseus.
Her legs trembled like aspen leaves.
She had already rolled on the ground after clashing with Charlotte’s sword more than ten times.
Thanks to that, her body was almost in tatters.
“Hah, hah.”
Gasping for breath, she struggled to lift her head.
There, she saw Charlotte engaged with a man.
He was Aria Gramalte, someone who seemed to blend into the background, avoiding interaction with others even in the Special Class.
Despite not standing out in the elite class, he was performing better than expected.
He was actually blocking Charlotte’s sword head-on.
His sword was quite peculiar.
Surrounded by light, it was sometimes destructive, sometimes swift, and sometimes incredibly fluid.
As if he had lived countless lives in countless ways.
The techniques and know-how contained within him felt strangely disparate.
Yet somehow, they combined to create the remarkable Aria Gramalte.
Karanidis had never imagined anyone could ever stand up to Charlotte directly.
Maybe, just maybe, with Aria by her side, they stood a chance.
Chaeeng!
Just as she thought this and tried to catch her breath, Aria’s light scattered upon colliding with Charlotte’s sword.
As the light dispersed, Aria leaned back dramatically, lowering his guard.
“The output….”
With his opposite arm wrapped around the fist holding his sword, Aria opened his eyes in a delicate manner.
“Aria!”
Seizing that opportunity, Charlotte lunged at Aria.
Seeing this, Karanidis threw herself between them.
Zheung!
A water shield erupted on impact with Charlotte’s sword, only to be shredded to pieces.
However, thankfully, it prevented Aria’s sword from reaching Charlotte.
Behind Karanidis, Aria gathered the light back into his sword and readied it again to strike Charlotte.
The move was cleverly timed, taking advantage of Karanidis’s shield blocking Charlotte’s view.
Unfortunately, Charlotte made it all too easy to counterattack.
“Opportunity!”
Karanidis thought that now was her chance as she threw herself at Charlotte.
However, the sheer air pressure from Charlotte’s sword sent Karanidis flying back.
Despite the odds stacked against her, Charlotte showed not a hint of complacency.
Karanidis bit down on her lip.
Seriously, how could a monster like this even exist?
“…I owe you.”
At that moment, she heard Aria’s voice.
Aria had always regarded Karanidis with indifference, but today seemed different.
“What do you mean? If you pass out, I’m done for!”
Karanidis answered brightly, her spirits lifted.
“I’ll do whatever I can!”
Relying solely on her resilience, she kept charging at Charlotte without any fancy tricks.
She understood that, in Charlotte’s eyes, she was nothing more than a boar.
Had it not been for Aria, she would have retired ages ago.
Thus, she focused on fulfilling her role.
“If the output’s unstable, I’ll buy some time.”
After all, everyone has their part to play.
Even a boar can buy a second’s time.
“Getting in there is my specialty.”
In love or battle, she preferred a straightforward approach.
Just then, Aria glanced at Karanidis for a brief moment.
“So you’re that kind of person.”
Aria quietly murmured to himself.
Upon hearing this, Karanidis cheerfully retorted,
“Yes, that’s exactly who I am! So, let’s get to know each other better from here on out!”
He was a lone wolf in the Special Class, after all.
She figured it was a good time to forge a bond.
“Enough chit-chat. We’ve had our share of that.”
However, Charlotte began to advance toward them again.
Aria shifted his focus from Karanidis back to Charlotte.
“…Is this the influence of Kraush?”
He murmured again as his sword began to glow anew, this time a little brighter for some reason.
Suddenly, Charlotte halted, her gaze lifting slowly to the sky.
Kuguguung!
At that moment, the entire mountain shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Karanidis quickly regained her stance.
Soon enough, she discerned the source of the tremor.
It came from the sky above.
Where she lifted her head, there loomed a colossal fireball capable of engulfing the entire forest.
Its size was absurd, towering like the sun.
Karanidis’s eyes widened.
The heat pouring from this sun-like sphere caused her face to flush.
And she immediately grasped who was responsible.
Aslan Igrit.
A maestro of fire magic, being an Igrit heir, he had conjured the seventh-circle spell.
Seventh Circle Magic—
Parba Sola.
Such powerful magic had formed in the sky without a hint of its existence beforehand.
“Must be Haring’s doing…”
Karanidis realized Haring had concealed Aslan while he completed Parba Sola through her Invisibility.
In that instant, Aria zipped past her.
“Aria?!”
The speedy Aria dashed toward the sky-gazing Charlotte, sword poised to strike.
Chaeeng!
The gust from Aria’s sword met Charlotte’s blade.
But Aria pressed forward undeterred.
Charlotte tilted her head slightly.
Despite the wounds marking her body, he had somehow managed to breach her defenses.
“Planning to tie me up, huh?”
The plan was clearly to restrain Charlotte until Parba Sola descended, knowing that even she would be in trouble if caught in its radius.
“A!”
Realizing this, Karanidis sprinted after Aria, determined to help bind Charlotte too.
As Parba Sola neared, Aria and Karanidis unleashed their assaults on Charlotte.
Bang! Chaeeng! Bang!
With every swing of Charlotte’s sword, Aria and Karanidis sustained more injuries.
Nevertheless, Karanidis grit her teeth, relentlessly charging at Charlotte.
Her body had been bruised all over, and she was soon reaching her limit.
Yet, she pressed on with a fervor for at least one successful bind.
Karanidis threw herself at Charlotte with all her might.
Aria was doing the same, desperately wielding his glowing sword.
“What odd sword techniques!”
Even Charlotte noticed it was getting harder to escape from Aria’s grasp.
His light-infused sword continuously constricted around her.
Just like quicksand, it was drawing Charlotte in closer and closer.
The full azure length of Charlotte’s hair fluttered.
‘He’s really pulling me in.’
The light from his sword indeed creating an invisible vortex around her.
It felt as if Aria were at the center of the universe itself.
Kuguguuguug!
In that moment, Parba Sola hung directly over their heads.
As a result, their clothes and hair were tousled fiercely by the power of the magic converging above them.
“You’re gonna get caught up in this too!”
Charlotte warned Aria, realizing he would soon be caught in the wake of Parba Sola.
But, he replied with an inscrutable expression,
“Not a chance.”
His tone was filled with absolute conviction.
Wherever that confidence stemmed from, Charlotte found herself agreeing with him.
“Seems so.”
“Uwaaaaaahhh!”
Screaming as she charged forward, Karanidis’s face collided with Charlotte’s sword, sending her sprawling onto the ground.
The sight of her rolling around in distress was quite pitiful.
Then it occurred.
The air pressure shifted abruptly.
The currents intended for Aria suddenly snapped toward Charlotte.
In that fleeting moment, all sound ceased.
The chirping birds, the buzzing insects, swaying foliage, and crunching sand—all vanished without a trace.
In that void, Charlotte’s vibrant blue hair swirled slowly.
The azure aura surrounding her sword left everyone momentarily speechless.
It was overwhelmingly dominant.
Charlotte’s sword ascended slowly, almost intentionally, toward the sky.
Those watching could do nothing but gawk.
It had been predetermined.
The moment her sword extended to the sky’s very edge,
The heavens stirred once more.
Mujeondokjun (無天獨尊)
Wuyin (奧義)
Ryuchun (流天)
What unfolded was simply astonishing.
The core of the seventh-circle spell, Parba Sola, revealed an empty void amidst its fiery brilliance.
Just moments ago, it had been brimming with heat, on the verge of exploding, but in one swift motion, Charlotte shattered it entirely.
Kuguguuguuug!
As Parba Sola fractured and dispersed, the air filled with embers.
Beneath the raining fire, Charlotte wore a smile that demonstrated what true strength looked like.
It appeared both eerie and noble all at once.
Yet that smile wasn’t born simply from breaking Parba Sola.
Deep within the destruction of Parba Sola, Aslan was descending, having crossed his arms above and below.
The orb of fire he conjured was even more tremendous than Parba Sola.
Just as Charlotte maintained her fighting spirit against Parba Sola’s collapse,
Aslan too, did not waver.
He was merely preparing for the next move.
“Just like a friend of Kraush.”
Saying that, Charlotte felt Aria’s light-infused sword swing close beside her.
Charlotte tilted her head slightly, dodging the attack while chatting.
“Still, you seem to have some unfounded knowledge about Kraush.”
Before she knew it, her leg landed squarely in Aria’s side.
Having been caught off-guard, he toppled over, twisting away as he crashed to the ground.
At that very instant, something bound Charlotte’s leg.
It was a light thread.
Just as Aria reached her, the tether connected.
Thud!
In that moment, she felt as if an iron weight lodged itself at the end of the light thread.
The light thread attached to Aria’s sword sank deeply into the ground.
Just as Charlotte moved to sever the light thread binding her,
A tickle—
Instinctively, she swung her sword to the left.
Crack!
A face suddenly emerged from her left.
Kraush had used Invisibility.
Despite using Invisibility, Charlotte felt the tension as she deftly evaded the blade, striking Haring’s wrist with her sword grip.
With that blow, Haring instantly recognized her right wrist was crushed.
In that moment, teetering precariously on the brink of breaking.
She desperately gripped the dagger in her other hand.
In a flash, her left arm propelled forward.
Wrapping her left hand around the right hand gripping the dagger,
Haring focused all her strength to drive the dagger downwards.
“Ugh!”
Charlotte was caught off-guard and didn’t expect a follow-up from the now-broken right hand.
So, she was a fraction late in blocking with her sword.
Shwaak!
At that moment, icy venom from Haring’s dagger pierced into Charlotte’s blade.
Charlotte’s eyes opened slightly.
With a whirlwind,
Aslan, plummeting from the sky, unleashed a brilliant orb of heat.
Despite its small size, the power contained surpassed that of Parba Sola.
In the most desperate situation,
Charlotte wrapped her unarmed hand around Haring’s neck.
Kwang!
She immediately slammed her into the ground.
“Gah!”
With no time to react, Haring’s consciousness slipped away instantly.
Meanwhile, heat rolled in dreadfully close overhead.
Charlotte’s sword surged with aura once more.
In one swift motion, she redirected her blade to intercept Aslan’s bright orb descending toward her.
Ziiing!
The sheer sharpness of Charlotte’s sword cleaved the orb, splitting it in two.
The pulsing energy of the orb scattered wildly, melting into the ground, releasing an acrid smoke.
However, what the orb melted was more than just the earth.
The poison that had recently frozen Charlotte’s sword melded into the radiant orb.
Even Charlotte’s aura could not withstand such impactful power without sustaining damage.
As a direct consequence—
Crack!
A fissure appeared on her blade.
Her aura might have held up, but her sword was not as resilient.
The moment Charlotte recognized this, she immediately altered her sword’s trajectory.
Before she knew it, Haring’s dagger was firmly in her grasp.
“Yikes!”
Aslan only realized too late when he summoned his protective spell.
The dagger was already inches from his face.
Clang!
The dagger burst through his protective spell, plunging deep into Aslan’s side.
The force propelled him into the air, crashing into the distant forest.
In the blink of an eye, the situation had turned dire.
The once busy forest was now eerily quiet.
Charlotte stood there with not a single injury to show for it.
With the light threads binding him, Aria lay motionless on the ground.
Haring was buried underground, completely unconscious.
Aslan, nursing injuries along with a harsh landing, could no longer move.
“Phew.”
Charlotte exhaled, a light sigh escaping her lips.
Thud!
Without warning, her sword splintered apart, shattering completely.
Clang!
As she stared blankly at her empty sword hilt,
Charlotte realized she had never lost her sword since coming to Rahern Academy.
Yet today was her first time witnessing her sword break.
“Who does this fighting style remind me of?”
Charlotte squinted, a moment of recognition dawning.
At that moment, something softly nudged her from behind.
In an instant, her senses, dulled by the battle, flicked back to life as she turned.
There stood Karanidis, battered but still standing,
Panting as she poised her fist, yet utterly devoid of any power.
She had simply extended her arm in a gesture of challenge.
That was all she could manage at this point.
Karanidis was barely able to stand, leaving her completely unable to mount any real offense against Charlotte.
However, when Karanidis’s fist connected with Charlotte, it marked a first.
Charlotte blinked in surprise, having finally allowed a hit through.
And as Karanidis crumbled to the ground, it signaled the complete retirement of all second-years.
“Hmmm.”
With a short huff, Charlotte wisely surveyed the area, lifting the corners of her mouth.
“Our little friends did okay.”
That was the highest praise she could muster.
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