The Falling Sky Island(2)

Arin doubted her ears when she heard Professor Aria’s words.

What did she just say?

Cut down the Sky Island? Wasn’t that enormous island floating up there called the Sky Island? She’s going to cut that?

‘…Is it possible?’

Even though Arin herself was training to cut stones, boulders, and currently working on cutting cliffs, that Sky Island was at a size that would make cliffs look cute in comparison.

Could that really be cut with just two swords slightly longer than an arm?

Although she had seen plenty of things she thought impossible through Professor Aria so far, this was simply beyond imagination.

Cutting a stone with a mass-produced iron sword without using magic? She thought it was difficult even for herself, but not impossible.

She just thought it was difficult to the point of being nearly impossible, but still believed it was possible, and actually managed to do it.

The next task given was cutting a boulder. Although it was larger than a stone, having mastered the technique while cutting stones, she thought she could easily overcome a slightly larger boulder.

And in reality, she did overcome it easily. Boulders were no big deal. As her strength and skill proficiency increased, she was able to overcome it easily in just four days.

It’s just that the next task, cutting a cliff, was much more enormous, requiring not just increased proficiency but also application, so she was still stuck on it, but even so, she didn’t think it was impossible.

Someday. She felt she could cut it in the not-too-distant future.

“But that is…”

It’s too big.

It’s not a matter of whether it can be cut or not, but the very thought of trying to cut that with just two swords is wrong.

Even roughly estimating with her eyes, it seemed to easily exceed 1,000 times the size of the cliff she was currently challenging.

Who in the world would think they could cut the Sky Island with a sword?

But surprisingly, such a person was right in front of Arin’s eyes.

“Hmm… Even with the anesthesia magic, it’s still a bit stiff.”

“Umm… Is that so? Then should I cast a reinforcement magic too…?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be able to cut it even if I just swing roughly anyway.”

Professor Aria was stretching her body, ignoring the pain with anesthesia magic while still bleeding from wound areas that weren’t properly bandaged yet.

And beside her, Professor Meiyel was nonchalantly asking if she should cast a reinforcement magic or not.

Moreover, hearing Professor Aria’s answer to such a question, Arin doubted her ears once again.

‘Without even reinforcement magic?’

Could it be that she was going to say something like she could cut it sufficiently with just technique this time too? With this thought, Arin looked at her with shocked eyes, but fortunately, or should we say unfortunately, only half of Arin’s thought was correct.

“No matter what, cutting that with just strength would be a bit difficult. I’ll have to use magic power.”

It seemed that even for Professor Aria with her superhuman mindset, cutting the Sky Island with just strength and technique was too much.

Of course, if you ask whether anyone could cut it if they use magic power, that’s not the case either.

Whoosh───

With a sound like withering leaves, blue magic power envelops Professor Aria’s body.

A circulation of magic power so sharp and flawless that it couldn’t be compared to others.

Professor Aria moved the magic power wrapping her body a few times, then slowly bent her legs.

Crunch, the sound of muscles folding echoes eerily.

For some reason, there was no one on the street except Professor Aria, Professor Meiyel, and Arin herself, so that sound was even more striking to the ear.

Professor Aria bends her legs to the utmost limit, like forcibly bending a strong steel spring, to the highest point a human can bend.

“Phew…”

As she stops bending her legs and looks up at the Sky Island with a sigh, Arin unknowingly focused all her attention on her.

People call those who are born with talent and excel in one field prodigies.

And if there are those who surpass such prodigies and excel in various fields, people call them geniuses.

Lastly, people call those who outstrip even such geniuses and are always above geniuses in any field as exceptional talents.

For people, those who could be called exceptional talents might be the Pope of the temple and the Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Puhara.

However. Even such exceptional talents cannot surpass a certain fixed line.

There is something that could be called a goal line for anything.

Exceptional talents can only reach this line faster than others, but if someone dedicates their entire life to one field, they can catch up to exceptional talents in that one field.

That’s how talented individuals are.

But what if there were those who could surpass that line that even exceptional talents couldn’t cross?

What should we call them?

Boom───!!!

Professor Aria’s figure disappears along with the shattering of the paved ground.

Arin quietly muttered, seeing Professor Aria who had reached just below the Sky Island in an instant, leaving only an afterimage in front of her eyes.

“Monster…”

It could only be described as a monster.

To begin with, exceptional talents are beings feared by some people who don’t properly understand them due to their overflowing talent.

But someone like Professor Aria, who surpasses even such exceptional talents, can only be called a monster.

Although imbued with magic power, she jumps up to a height of nearly 1,000m with human leg strength, and now.

Crash…

She completely shatters the Sky Island that had cast a shadow over the Kingdom of Puhara by swinging the two swords in her hands.

The sound of the island collapsing and crumbling echoes throughout the Kingdom of Puhara.

Professor Aria fell towards the ground, easily turning the once enormous Sky Island into powder as if a baby crushing a cookie.

“Ugh…”

Arin squinted her eyes at the sun that started shining again after the Sky Island was destroyed, but even so, she clearly looked at her.

That falling figure, the act of confidently sheathing her swords, all of it clearly enters and imprints in Arin’s eyes.

It was behavior no different from usual, as always, but her actions clearly reprinted the faint footprints Arin had been following.

When what she had been following half-wanderingly until now became clear, the path became visible. And looking at Professor Aria’s back standing at the end of that path, Arin tightly grasped the two swords hanging at her waist.

At the same time, she steeled her heart so much that it might burst from gripping too tightly.

“Someday, for sure.”

It was the vow she made when she first saw her in the tent, but Arin softly muttered it again.

Determined that someday she too would become such a monster.

Arin admired the monster.

“Earth Flip”

A large-scale annihilation skill famous for being one of the most notorious techniques even in the game.

It was one of only three large-area techniques of the dual-wielding job class and was popular among users for its clean and neat effect.

Once, twice, thrice…

My arms, moving independently of my will, leave dozens of sword marks, literally pulverizing the Sky Island.

True to its name, as if flipping the earth, with one movement of my arm, the base and bottom of the Sky Island are reversed and chaotically mixed.

And as soon as the skill ends, my body starts falling down, pulled by gravity.

I create a foothold of magic power while falling, kick off to accelerate, and land on the ground much faster than the falling fragments. Then, while bringing the children who were staring at me blankly back to their senses one by one, I spoke to Mu.

“I’ll leave the rest to you, Meiyel.”

“Yeah… Leave it to me.”

Now that I’ve destroyed the Sky Island, what’s left is for Mu to handle the fragments of the Sky Island falling like meteorites towards the Kingdom of Puhara without missing a single piece.

And Mu showed she could solve this very easily with just one magic.

“‘Gravity Manipulation’.”

She perfectly controls the gravity around the collapsing Sky Island and compresses it.

Crunch── Crunch───

As if rolling a snowball with both hands, Mu compressed the fragments into a single mass, and was about to swing her staff greatly to throw it outside the castle walls, but before that, she turned to me slightly and asked.

“Should I… eliminate this or throw it…?”

“If possible, it would be better to eliminate it. If we throw it somewhere, it might cause trouble for the kingdom.”

“Yeah… I understand…”

If we carelessly throw such a mass of fragments outside the castle walls, it would probably consume a large amount of the kingdom’s manpower, so if it can be eliminated, it would be better to do so.

And hearing my words, Mu straightened the staff she had swung back and struck it down twice, firing a beam of light towards the floating mass of fragments.

“‘Annihilation'”

Annihilation. A magic that transforms anything made of magic power back into magic power.

It can’t be used on objects or living beings that contain large amounts of magic power, but in this situation, there was no better method of disposal.

Bang───

A beam of deep black light rises as if ascending to the sky and touches the mass of fragments. Then, the fragments of the Sky Island slowly melt into the air like a burning wick.

Eventually, when everything that could be called fragments disappeared, all that remained was pure and refreshing blue magic power that began to spread around.

The magic power that spreads and descends like snowflakes, then disappears.

The children who had been watching this scene from beginning to end each reached out their hands and muttered.

“Amazing…”

“It’s beautiful…”

“I’m not very knowledgeable about magic, but it’s extremely beautiful even to me.”

“What an incredible magic… Yeah.”

I too, following the children, looked at the beautiful visualized magic power and finally felt in my body that the incident had ended.

It could truly be said to be hellishly difficult if one were to say it was difficult, but anyway, we were able to bring the Sky Island quest to an end.

We gained a lot, and if we stay here, we’ll be caught by the knights and it will lead to troublesome matters, so it would be wise to leave this place now.

Well, I think it’s something we’ll eventually face anyway after showing ourselves like just now, but at least for now, right after the incident has ended, I wanted to rest thoroughly.

“Let’s return to the temple, Meiyel.”

“Yeah…”

So Mu and I quietly left the place with silent footsteps so that the children wouldn’t notice.

First, when we get to the temple, I need to change this body.

Ah damn, as the anesthesia magic starts to wear off, it’s becoming incredibly painful.