Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Barick Hearts, the Metal Emperor.

A legendary figure who existed on the continent hundreds of years ago, wielding ten thousand weapons simultaneously with his supernatural ability of metal manipulation.

The 'Hearts' Family prospered, producing several great heroes, but as time passed, the blood of the Metal Emperor faded. At this point, the best they had left was the ability to bend spoons for talent shows at social events.

And so the Hearts Family faded into obscurity as a relic of the past. Or it did.

One day, a child was born with the pure blood of the Metal Emperor.

It was none other than Millena Hearts.

She possessed superior metal manipulation skills compared to her siblings and was the only one among them to inherit the family's unique dark magic.

The Hearts had devoted themselves to creating and refining this dark magic during the great era of necromancers. It was a curse that they placed on their supernatural skill, allowing them to control other substances besides metal.

However, while using this curse, of course…

"You can only control one substance at a time, right?"

Said Meilyn, looking at Millena on the ground.

Millena couldn't hide her shock.

'H-How did she find out…?!'

Meilyn was right.

Although the base was a metal manipulation, if she touched an object once and brought it to the soul-bound magic circle on her side, the curse's power intertwined with the supernatural abilities. It turned it into an ability that controlled the specific object.

Millena used this power to throw siege ladders then bricks against Rick, and dodged spells at will by touching ice when she went against Meilyn.

However, because she had switched to ice control, she couldn't do anything about the flames pouring down.

"I thought it's pretty odd that you could use tons of telekinesis effortlessly."

Meilyn's eyes darkened, jet-black dyeing her veins.

"You'll pay dearly for messing with me, Hearts Family."

"…Kugh!"

Millena scrambled to her feet and ran.

The situation had reversed. Meilyn was no longer using her dark magic to delay the inevitable, but to accelerate it.

{Dark Wisp}

Tiny balls of fire bounced after their target. Millena frantically dodged the attack, leaping through a glass window into an empty house.

"There's no point in hiding!"

Meilyn also shattered a window and entered the house.

'She's got some seriously quick feet.'

Meilyn couldn't locate Millena. But she would've sensed the surge of jet-black required for Millena to escape, so she had to be hiding somewhere close.

As Meilyn stepped into a narrow hallway, black flames burning in her dominant hand, Millena appeared and charged straight at her. Meilyn reached her arm out.

{Dark Blaze}

Fwoooooooosh!

The flame shot straight forward. Then, Millena grinned.

"!"

The flames failed to burn Millena, parting around her like she was a knight deflecting a dragon's breath.

'I touched the residual flames from the wisps and turned it into flame control!'

Millena rushed in, coming all the way up to Meilyn's nose without a single lick of flame touching her.

However, as she got face-to-face with Meilyn, Millena realized that something had gone horribly wrong.

Meilyn was still smiling.

{Cold Bolt}

An ice shard flew out of Meilyn's offhand, slicing down across Millena's chest and stabbing into her gut.

"Kuhugh!"

Coughing up blood, she went flying and slammed into a wall.

"You really thought I wasn't prepared for that?"

This time, Meilyn opened both hands. Different magic circles stacked up, ice on one side and flame on the other.

'Multicasting!'

It wasn't at the level of creating multiple copies of the same spell. Meilyn was casting two different spells at the same time.

Controlling this was extremely tricky, requiring the caster's left and right hands to work completely independently to draw two completely different shapes.

'Wh-What should I do?'

Millena had already tried shooting a curse at Meilyn earlier, but the budding necromancer had blocked it perfectly with Cancellation. Her understanding of curses was top-notch, too.

As expected, the Ivory Tower was strong.

Unlike her family, the Hearts, which was now a thing of the past, they were a monstrous family that still held tremendous authority.

Suddenly, Millena realized that she wasn't facing some small girl, but a mountain.

She turned and ran, leaping through another window in bloodied desperation. Meilyn immediately chased after her.

Fwoooooosh!

Rrrrrrrumble!

Frost and flame alike rained down on Millena in a burning hailstorm.

All she could do was run. She kept going, diving in and out of houses at random, but Meilyn was persistent.

'The only advantage I have over that Ivory Tower bastard is…!'

Millena threw herself through a window once more.

Meilyn followed right behind her but flinched and stopped for a moment.

They were on the third floor.

'My understanding of the terrain features!'

This was Millena's third time here. She was already falling down without a moment's hesitation.

Meilyn also jumped out the window without much hesitation, still casting spell after spell on her way down.

Fwooooooooooooosh!

Rrrrumble!

Millena's right arm was starting to char as her left went blue with frostbite.

Flame on one side, ice on the other. If Millena tried to stop and control one, the other would tear her apart.

"Millena, my daughter. The only light in our family. Go to Kizen. Go and show the world that the Hearts Family is still alive."

Millena clenched her teeth and spread her arms out wide.

"I'm a Kizen, too!"

Her eyes lit up.

"You think you're better than me??"

The soul-bound magic circle at her side and the magic circles on her palms vibrated in unison.

{Dual Control}

* * *

* * *

Fwooooooooooooosh!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrumble!

The flame and ice both stopped in front of Millena by a whisker. Seeing this, Meilyn's eyes widened at the sight.

'What?? Did she just control two elements at the same time?'

"Cough! Kugh!"

However, there was a reason why Millena didn't use this power.

The success rate was less than 10%, and once used, it put tremendous strain on the user's body. She was going beyond what the power in her blood was ever meant to do.

Nevertheless…

'I broke through the 10%!'

Despite coughing up blood, Millena was astonished at herself.

As soon as she landed on the ground, she howled and lunged at Meilyn, who was still falling down from the air.

'Crap!'

Meilyn quickly grasped her landing spot and remotely drew a magic circle on the ground.

{Wall of Ice}

Rrrrrrrumble!

A wall of ice shot forth, and Meilyn landed behind it.

But Millena did not slow down.

'The ice is thin because she was in a hurry!'

As she ran, Millena pulled a melting cube of ice from her pocket and stuck it to her side. The curse activated, switching the manipulating substance from flame to ice.

She couldn't do 'Dual Control' twice in a row, and she knew that jumping over that wall would leave her vulnerable to both of Meilyn's elements.

In that case…

'I'm going to break through from the front!'

She reached forward and touched the ice wall. As expected, the ice was thin.

Crack!

A long line formed through the ice, and then it began to crumble.

'If I can rush in with this momentum and touch Meilyn's body even once…!'

Pooooooooooooooooooooow!

Millena's eyes shook.

What she felt wasn't pain, but numbness as she was pushed backward. She couldn't breathe, and her legs threatened to give way.

Rrrrrrumble…

Soon, through the crumbling ice, she saw Meilyn, a closed fist raised in front of her as if she'd just thrown a punch.

"Combat dark magic…?"

Millena's face filled with confusion. Meilyn closed her eyes and slowly lowered her fist.

"Since you're trying to act all cool,"

Her blue eyes turned to Millena.

"you also motivated me."

{Hong Feng Original - Roaring River}

Thud.

Millena collapsed.

'To think she'd use her own ice as a wall to use a piercing skill.'

The Roaring River had landed cleanly, depleting Millena's barrier gauge to 0%.

Her arms and legs began curling together into a ball of shame.

"Don't cry too much after returning to your dorm~ Miss Hearts."

Said Meilyn, cockily placing a hand on her hip.

"Fighting that well against me is something to brag about to all of your neighbors."

Millena gave a bitter smile.

"Your pride pierces the sky, Ivory Tower."

With that bitter smile, Millena's body started vanishing.

[Millena Hearts eliminated.]

[Defending Team (15/15)]

[Attacking Team (13/15)]

Meilyn let out a carefree sigh and looked at her fist.

She heard Simon's voice in her head.

"Try to deliberately ignore the object before you and focus on what's beyond it."

She giggled and clenched her slender fists.

'Thank you for teaching me how to use Roaring River, Simon.'

It was a rather reckless attempt, but…

She thought combat dark magic maybe wasn't so bad.

* * *

A few days ago.

"Simon, I think your greatest weakness is your endurance."

Pointed out Meilyn in Rick's siege lecture.

"Of course, you're strong. You should definitely be able to take out one enemy in the siege. The problem is, you're the type of guy who just slams all their firepower down on whoever you're going against."

Meilyn sighed.

"The Overlord is simply like that, and especially the royal guards. But a necromancer who tires out quickly after defeating one enemy isn't much of a threat on the battlefield."

Hearing that, Simon agreed with Meilyn. He had come to a similar conclusion before.

The siege was a long battle lasting twelve hours. Simon needed stamina, the right jet-black allocations, and sustainable combat.

So he prepared a skeleton mage, and rather than overwhelming the enemy soldiers with firepower, he fought by setting fire to the surroundings with the oil fruits. He had fixed exactly what Meilyn had pointed out.

But on the other hand…

"…Ugh, I want to turn back time."

Meilyn's face burned with a belated sense of shame despite defeating an important opponent.

She chided others about stamina and sustainability, yet she depleted all her jet-black and stamina on her first proper foe.

"Ughh, this is embarrassing."

Of course, taking down Millena Hearts was something. No one on the defending team would blame Meilyn, but she just felt bad about what she'd said in the past.

She trudged onto the roof. With her jet-black depleted, going to the battlements would just have her be in the way.

While recovering jet-black, she had come to retrieve the arrow that Simon had shot.

Simon's school uniform was tied to the arrow. She assumed that it was there just in case Meilyn wouldn't see it.

"The reason why he shot an arrow instead of using the communication must be that, right?"

In fact, Rick's idea was to send information about Millena through a communication channel, but Simon thought differently.

An opponent would naturally notice if Meilyn talked over the communication channel.

If Meilyn was struggling because she didn't know her opponent, Simon wanted her to have even the advantage of knowing that information. So, instead of utilizing the communication channel, he attached a note to an arrow and shot it.

Simon planned to communicate through a communication channel if Meilyn didn't see it or if the situation didn't allow her to read the note.

Thankfully, Meilyn could see the note without much trouble and succeeded in getting her revenge by hitting Millena cleanly with the jet-black elemental fire magic.

Rustle rustle.

Meilyn untied Simon's school blazer from the arrow.

"…"

Meilyn briefly looked at the blazer, then casually tried it on.

She couldn't tell when they stood side by side, but it was very big on her considering the massive difference in physique. The jacket came down to her thighs, and even if she extended her arms as far as they could reach, she couldn't see her hands under the sleeves.

"…Simon is bigger than he looks, huh?"

She waved the big sleeves back and forth, giggling slightly to herself. It was like a baby playing with their older sibling's clothes.

Feeling her mind wander, she tried sniffing it.

She could smell Simon's scent on the sleeves and the collar. Although Simon didn't wear perfume, there was a delicate scent.

She boldly buried her face in Simon's clothes and closed her eyes.

"!"

It calmed her in an instant, and she felt her tense shoulders loosen.

A sense of complete peace.

As she breathed in Simon's scent, memories with Simon flashed through her mind.

"You're more important. I'll teach you, so get into position."

Meilyn's face heated up as she remembered the hours with Simon in their Combat Dark Magic lectures.

She quickly pulled her face away from Simon's clothes.

"…Ugh, honestly. I feel like a pervert."

As an honorable member of the great family of Ivory Tower, she had to keep her modesty.

She glanced around to ensure no one was watching and walked back to the castle wall, trying to look as if nothing had happened.

'But would it be odd to wear someone else's clothes like this?'

Meilyn took off the clothes and slipped them over her shoulders.

'This is nice.'

It felt like a gentleman had removed his robe on a cold day and draped it around his lady's shoulders.

Meilyn hummed and strode to the castle walls.

She still hadn't recovered her jet-black, but for a moment, she almost wished it would take even longer to recover than normal.

——