William—this duke's son, the most outstanding genius in the south of the deserted island—felt a deep helplessness well up inside him. Everything that had happened since he set foot on the path of the apprentice had left wound after wound on his heart, and today his pride had finally shattered for good. He looked at Adam sorrowfully and said, "Why? Don't you feel even a little grief? You came from the deserted island too..."
Adam cut him off; arguments like this bored him. "Why should I feel grief? And who told you the path of the Mage requires solidarity? Or have you ever heard of a single full-fledged Mage who advanced on someone else's help?"
William stared at him, utterly at a loss. "Randy was our companion too. We're still so weak—if we don't stick together, how can we possibly..."
Adam cut him off again. "I think you've got the wrong idea about something."
"What did you say?"
"The weak ones are you, not me. An alliance of the weak means nothing. This world has no rule that the minority yields to the majority, and the will and dignity of the weak aren't worth a single coin. If you aren't strong enough and get killed, who is there to blame?"
Ophelia couldn't hold back any longer. Adam's words grated on her, striking a raw nerve. "But you came from the deserted island too. To outsiders we're one whole—if we're rejected, doesn't that mean you're rejected too? Sooner or later they'll come for you!"
Adam was genuinely out of patience. "Why do you still not understand? Weakness is the original sin. You're rejected because you're weak, and that's why you take the rejection of idiots to heart. I've always been right here. I don't care to spend much time with idiots, but if anyone wants to come at me, then let them come. I'll show them their own stupidity."
Adam's words fell like a heavy hammer, punching straight through their fragile self-esteem and tearing off their last fig leaf. William staggered back several steps; Ophelia's face flushed bright red; Cristel sighed in sorrow, for she had realized just how vast the gap between the likes of them and Adam really was.
Only Quentin, maddened by rage, lost all reason and, without a thought for the consequences, flung a fireball at Adam—just like he had back on the ship.
Elliot had been listening to the whole exchange with amusement, but at this his brows knitted. At Mordo Mage Academy duels were permitted, but sneak attacks were taboo—a sneak attacker forfeited the protection of the academy's rules. He wanted to step in and teach Quentin a lesson.
The remaining three from the deserted island changed color at once; they too were remembering what had happened back then. "Stop! Please, don't kill him!"
But Adam's magic was faster than their voices. The fireball was canceled by a Water Screen that flickered out of existence in an instant, and before the vapor had even dispersed it condensed into a water arrow that knifed through the air and pierced Quentin's skull, leaving nothing but a splash of white brains across their trouser cuffs.
A strange light flashed in Elliot's eyes. It had been only a few months, and Adam's command of magic had already reached this level. In that instant Adam had cast Water Screen and Water Arrow, hitting and killing his target dead-on with his back to the enemy; the moment Quentin died the water arrow broke apart, not a trace of excess mana leaking away, nothing wasted at all. Even some senior apprentices couldn't manage that.
Ophelia and William stared blankly at Quentin's corpse. A moment later Ophelia exploded. "You monster! Don't you have an ounce of honor or pity in you? How could you—how dare you kill a companion again!"
Cristel pressed her lips together and caught hold of Ophelia, speaking in a tone Ophelia found utterly unfamiliar. "Enough, Ophelia. Enough."
Ophelia stared at Cristel in disbelief. "You...?"
Cristel looked at her gravely. "Adam is right. The path of the Mage is no game, and the weak need to understand how the weak survive." Then she let go of Ophelia, gave Adam a long look, and walked away without looking back.
Seeing there was no more of a show to watch, Elliot sidled up to Adam again. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. So heartless. That little girl's heart is shattered."
Adam shot him a glance. "Boring."
"Don't be such a wet blanket. I already told you, building a meditation method isn't that simple. And you don't need to grieve over James's business—every year, no, every single instant on the Mage Plane, countless apprentices like that fade away and leave. That's fate; it isn't worth getting emotional over."
Adam said seriously, "I'm not grieving. And I'm about to succeed."
Elliot shrugged. "Fine, fine. You're about to succeed." No sooner had he said it than that shameless grin returned. "Oh? You've got trouble again. I never would have guessed—are you really this annoying?"
Adam did indeed have trouble again: Sean, Howard and their crew had blocked his way.
A single victory had gone to Sean's head. He strutted up and barred Adam's path, speaking down at him. "So you're Adam?"
Howard frowned. He had some vague idea of Adam's situation and knew the boy wasn't someone to trifle with, but after a moment's hesitation he didn't stop Sean. Nothing serious will come of it anyway, Howard thought.
What he did not know at that moment was that Adam had just killed a man. If he had known, he would never have thought that at all.
Adam was rarely this irritated. It was like a supercomputer running calculations at full speed while viruses and Trojans kept trying to break in from outside. The feeling disgusted him, and because it disgusted him he neither answered nor stopped walking.
It was truly hard for normal people to understand how idiots thought. Sean's standing in his little clique had risen a great deal since he won his duel, so when two underlings saw Adam being rude, they planted themselves in front of him and swaggered, "Halt. He's talking to you—didn't you hear?"
Sean watched this smugly. In that moment he felt like a big shot.
Adam stopped and turned to Elliot. "If I kill them, will there be any trouble?"
Elliot blanked for a moment, then answered oddly, "Trouble? Nothing beyond this: they're the academy's property now. Kill them and you have to compensate the academy for its loss—five hundred energy stones a head." The reason Elliot looked so strange was that he could tell Adam truly meant to kill them, and with such a calm manner.
Adam thought it over. In two months he had drawn two thousand units of energy stones from James's lab and would soon get another thousand, and if the meditation method succeeded the reward would be considerable. In other words, killing them wouldn't put any strain on his finances.
Having worked it out, Adam turned back and told them, very seriously, "Move aside now, or die." If it wasn't necessary, Adam didn't want to kill anyone—energy stones were still precious.
Sean's group, having overheard the exchange between Adam and Elliot, were dumbstruck. They took Adam for an idiot—he actually meant to take on five people at once. "You want to duel us? All five of us?"
Adam's eyes lit up. A duel? He looked at Elliot again.
Elliot nodded with a look of pity. "Then there's no problem. This counts as a duel, except..."
Before he could finish saying except what, Adam struck.
Without any warning at all, a violent blast of wind pressure blew several of them off their feet. Adam swept his hand through the air; wind blades formed in an instant and slashed at the two underlings at a speed far beyond any ordinary apprentice. Then he pointed a finger at the sky and a skyful of streaming fire appeared out of nothing. He pressed his finger down, and the fire fell like rain, crashing down on them like meteors.
One against five, and he struck without a moment's hesitation.
Elliot jumped in fright, cast a spell and dodged clear, complaining as he went, "Damn it, are you trying to kill me too?"
Fire rode the wind's ferocity, and the wind fed the fire's force. By casting wind and fire elemental magic at the same moment, Adam had to some degree met the conditions for composite magic, and its power was far greater than casting either alone.
Facing Adam's magic head-on, the five were struck with terror. They were still in shock, unable to believe Adam would strike so decisively—weren't we supposed to agree on a time first?
Magic waited for no one. The five could already feel death upon them and hurriedly threw out every means they had, but their clumsy magic was a joke in Adam's eyes. The two underlings who had blocked his way were cut in half at the waist by the wind blades; before their blood could flow, the flames boiled it dry. Sean and one other underling held out for a second with their magic, then became ash without even leaving last words.
Only Howard was left.
He was the leader of the organization, with talent and resources far beyond the others. Facing Adam's magic, he activated four defensive spells in rapid succession in a single instant. Adam crooked a finger, and the streaming fire gathered and shot toward Howard.
The four spells shattered one after another. Howard went pale as death, breaking out in a cold sweat, and as he kept casting every defensive spell he knew he babbled out a plea, "Spare me! Don't kill me! I'll roll out of here and never show my face in front of you again!"
His heart was full of remorse and hatred for Sean. Why had they gone and provoked this monster? Magic like that has to be against the rules!
Adam didn't hesitate for even an instant. There was no full-fledged Mage coming out to save Howard's life this time. The streaming fire roasted Howard into a dried husk with ease, then smashed his corpse, along with a wide stretch of the ground, to pieces.
Only after killing all five did Adam turn to Elliot and ask, "Except what?"
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Elliot's forehead. You just killed six people. You used high-level magic and composite magic. How can you be this calm?
"Except... you'd better do it at the duel grounds. Damage done fighting here has to be compensated." Elliot looked at the several magic items Adam's spiritual power was gathering up, and sighed. "Forget it. Never mind. They weren't worth many energy stones anyway."