Chapter 540: Episode 540
Twenty minutes remaining.
Simon was also on the move. After defeating Pierre Buckler and seizing Team 1’s red relic, he had leisurely searched for more relics before returning to the starting area with twenty minutes left on the clock. A frontal approach would be too dangerous, so he circled around and observed the altar from a hilltop. A troubled smile touched his lips.
"Just as I thought."
Having lost his own altar and been forced to retreat empty-handed, Hector had resorted to the only tactic he had left: blockading Simon’s altar and holding his ground.
The final score was calculated based on the relics on each team’s altar at the very end of the test. No matter how many relics you collected, they were worthless if they weren’t in place at the last moment. Hector was trying to drag Simon down with him.
"It looks like Hector is serious," Toto panted, finally catching up.
"Toto!"
"I’ve been watching for an opening, but he’s barely moved from the altar."
It was a classic ’if I go down, I’m taking you with me’ strategy. At this rate, both Team 1 and Team 10 would end up with zero points.
"Hi, President! And Death Knight boy!" Eshe called, joining them.
Toto’s face immediately flushed. "I told you not to call me that!"
"Ahaha!’ Sorry, sorry! But Hector’s guys are still at our altar! I guess we have no choice but to fight, right, President?"
"Looks like it. What about the relics?"
Eshe smiled slyly and called her ghoul over. It spat out several relics onto the ground, including the red one from Team 13.
"Good job! You got Team 13’s red relic, too."
"Of course! Oh, but where’s Lorraine?"
"She’s on standby in the rear. She’s probably busy with Pierre Buckler right now, so we’ll have to go in by ourselves."
"Okay!"
Simon stretched his arms wide. "Well then, shall we get started—"
"SIMON POLENTIA!!"
The booming shout startled them all, and they looked down from the hill.
"AND YOU CALL YOURSELF NUMBER ONE?! ENOUGH WITH THE CHEAP TRICKS! FACE ME! TRY AND TAKE THIS ALTAR WITH YOUR OWN STRENGTH!"
"Whoa." A bead of sweat trickled down Eshe’s face. "He’s really out for blood."
"I-If he catches us, we’re dead," Toto stammered, his lips trembling.
Simon, however, just smiled calmly and started walking. "Let’s go."
"W-Wait up! Simon!"
Simon descended the hill, revealing himself. At the sight of him, Hector’s eyes twisted with rage. "You."
"Hello, Hector."
At Simon’s appearance, the other two members of Team 1 tensed, dropping into combat stances.
"Where’s your ghoul? You know as well as I do that we’re running out of time," Hector demanded, his voice overbearing.
Simon simply met his challenge with a slight smile.
’T-thwump!’
It happened in an instant. Simon’s ghoul, powered by ’Dirge’, burst through the fog from behind them. One of Hector’s teammates spotted it too late.
"Hector! Behind—!"
Hector’s gorilla-like ghoul shot forward and slammed Simon’s ghoul into the ground like a nail. Eshe and Toto turned deathly pale as they watched its head get crushed in a single, brutal blow.
’‘A ghoul enhanced with Dirge...!’’
’‘In a single blow?’’
"I won’t say it twice, Simon Polentia," Hector snarled, an eerie jet-black aura erupting from his body. His three ghouls mirrored their master, seething with the same dark energy. "Come at me for real."
Simon slowly raised his right arm. "If you insist."
---
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Pierre Buckler sprinted frantically toward Team 10’s altar, where Hector was already engaged in battle. "No! Hector! You can’t fight them on their home turf! Dammit all!"
He had to warn him. Simon’s ghouls possessed a weapon beyond imagination, a technique impossible to defend against without prior knowledge. Getting caught in it would send the situation spiraling out of control.
"I have to tell him... ’Argh’!"
With a sudden ’swish’, a ghoul dropped from a tree, its claws slashing through the air. Pierre’s ghoul barely managed to parry the attack with its forepaw. As his own creature was forced back, Pierre bellowed, "Who’s there?!"
’Rustle.’
A girl with hair as black as night emerged from behind a tree. Pierre’s expression instantly soured.
’Lorraine Archbold! Of all the times to run into her!’
"My apologies," she said, her red eyes gazing down at him with cold detachment. "I can’t let you pass."
"Get out of my way!" Pierre roared, sending a mental command to his ghoul, but Lorraine stood her ground. Their undead charged simultaneously, claws clashing in a shower of sparks that lit up the dim forest.
---
Simon raised his right arm.
Instantly, Hector tensed and dropped into a lower stance, while his two teammates exchanged confused glances.
"What’s he doing now?"
"He’s not summoning a ghoul? If an examiner is alone for a minute without one, it’s a violation of the rules..."
Just then, Simon’s palm began to curl inward, as if slowly clenching an invisible object.
’?!’
Hector’s watchful expression contorted with alarm. "Dammit! Get back!" he yelled urgently.
"...Corpse—" Simon began.
’Rumble!’
In that fleeting moment, three ghouls burst from the earth, their heads thrusting out of the ground around the altar. Simon snapped his hand into a tight fist.
"—Poison Explosion."
An earth-shattering boom ripped through the air as the ghouls’ bodies detonated in unison. A sickening green smoke, reminiscent of a large-scale alcheMikel attack, billowed out and completely blanketed the altar.
"Ugh’, what is this?!"
"The ghouls exploded?!"
It was Simon’s new secret technique: casting ‘Overload’ and ‘Dirge’ on the ghouls, then detonating them with their own putrefaction gas to unleash every toxic substance in their bodies.
Hector quickly clamped a hand over his mouth, his teammates scrambling to do the same.
’Did he just use ‘Corpse Explosion’?’
It was undeniably black magic, but this was a ghoul evaluation. As long as the technique was applied to a ghoul, like ‘Dirge’, it was permitted.
The green smoke filled a considerable area, but thankfully, it didn’t seem lethal. The team members were unharmed, as were their ghouls.
’The ghouls?’
They had frozen in place, as if time itself had stopped. The mental link was still active and the summoning circles were intact, but their jet-black energy was failing to extend.
"It’s Kabara’s Poison, the natural enemy of summoned creatures," Simon explained calmly. "It drastically dulls their sensitivity to jet-black. It’s normally a liquid, but I re-engineered it into a gaseous form."
"Grrgh!" Hector strained, trying to force his ghouls out of the toxic cloud, but they wouldn’t budge.
"You bastard!"
With a great rush of movement, the ghoul controlled by Toto charged forward—a creature Simon had personally modified to be immune to the poison. It passed through the noxious smoke and dropped a pile of artifacts onto the altar, including one of Hector’s red ones.
"Simon Polentia!!!" Hector roared, his eyes blazing with a fury that promised violence.
One of his teammates scrambled out of the poison cloud and summoned a new ghoul. "Bring back the artifacts!"
His ghoul charged into the smoke but didn’t get far before grinding to a halt in front of the altar. A moment later, Toto’s ghoul lunged, tore out its throat, and destroyed it.
"Ugh’!" The student staggered as the mental link shattered.
His teammate clicked his tongue in frustration. "Are you serious? They’re right there, but we can’t get to them."
"What happened? How can a ghoul use ‘Corpse Explosion’?!"
Having finally secured victory, Simon turned to his rival. "Give it up, Hector."
Hector remained silent.
"There are only about fifteen minutes left," Simon continued. "This poison smoke will linger for another twenty, and I still have three more poison ghouls. Do you really want to continue?"
Hector bit his lip so hard it nearly bled.
"Hector! Don’t fall for it!" one of his teammates urged.
"If it comes to this, we can wait it out..."
"...It’s over." Hector squeezed his eyes shut, his trembling fist dripping blood onto the forest floor. He knew it, too. "We’re retreating."
The match was decided.
---
Simon’s strategy had worked to perfection.
With the help of Professor Byelya and Venya, he had developed a new technique, ‘Corpse-Poison Explosion’, and devised a plan to maximize its effectiveness. He knew from the start that Hector would attack. He had also correctly predicted that giving the red artifact to Team 4 would trap Hector at their altar rather than letting him return empty-handed.
The detailed rules for the exam were key: an examiner could control up to three ghouls at once, and once summoned, they couldn’t be returned to the subspace. This meant that as long as they weren’t mentally linked, he could have other ghouls summoned in advance.
Toto had tested the rule, confirming it worked. Simon had then buried three ghouls near the altar.
After Hector took their altar, Simon waited until twenty minutes remained, then detonated the buried ghouls, blanketing the area in poison. Fortunately, the wind was calm, and he had plenty of explosive ghouls to spare. It was a flawless winning formula.
Hector conceded defeat and withdrew—a swift, pragmatic decision, just like him. If he had stubbornly clung to the artifacts, the situation would have only grown more complicated. Instead, he spent the remaining time securing what he could and returned to his own altar.
Meanwhile, Team 4 and Team 13 were still locked in a brutal fight, which ended with Team 4 successfully defending their artifact, though they hadn’t managed to secure many others in the process.
Finally, the timer ran out.
1st Place – Team 10 (40 points)
2nd Place – Team 4 (32 points)
3rd Place – Team 1 (9 points)
4th Place – Team 13 (5 points)
It was a decisive victory for Team 10.
"We won!" Esh shrieked, jumping up and down and waving her arms wildly.
Toto and Lorraine were beaming, and Simon finally let out a sigh of relief. It was a victory earned by everyone sticking to the plan.
As they exited the arena, the students who had been watching on the screens erupted in applause.
"Good work," Aaron said, gathering the students for a debriefing. "For Team 10, the key was that every single member fulfilled their role perfectly."
Simon’s new technique and strategy, Lorraine’s disruption and defense, Toto’s artifact acquisition, and even Esh’s deceptive empty-base raids had all played a part.
"A ‘Corpse-Poison Explosion’ using a ghoul..." Aaron looked at Simon as if he’d just invented another monstrously bizarre creation.
Simon offered an awkward smile. ’Still, this technique has considerable academic value. If I register it with the Pentamonium, it’ll be worth a fortune.’
A typical ‘Corpse Explosion’ had a crippling drawback: the zombie bomb was agonizingly slow. Simon’s new technique overcame that risk by using a ghoul. It was a revolutionary secret art—a gas explosion triggered after the blindingly fast movement of a ghoul enhanced by ‘Dirge’. Furthermore, the poison could be modified, and it could even be detonated after burrowing underground. The applications were limitless.
"There’s nothing more to say," Aaron declared. "A+. Well done."
"Thank you!" the four of them cheered, high-fiving each other and bursting into laughter.
Team 4’s mood was nearly as celebratory. They hadn’t taken first place, but they were thrilled to have defeated their rivals, Team 13, and surpassed Hector’s team to claim second.
"Thanks," the leader of Team 4 said with a wide grin. "Even if you were just using us, we won’t forget this!"
Finally, it was Hector’s turn for feedback.
"Hector Moore, the ghoul you developed was in no way inferior to Simon’s exploding one. In fact, its versatility was even greater." Aaron crossed his arms. "But as for why you lost to him... I believe you know the answer to that better than anyone."
"...Yes, sir," Hector replied through gritted teeth, his head bowed.
If he hadn’t been consumed by rage upon finding Team 10’s altar empty, if he had instead calmly tracked down and crushed the team that took the artifact, the outcome might have been very different.
As the debriefing concluded, two other matches had already begun.
A great roar went up from the students watching the screens as someone made a spectacular play. Curious, Simon wandered over.
"Oh."
The strongest team in the exam, Aseraz and White’s Team 8, was on screen.
"What is that?" Lorraine whispered, her eyes wide with disbelief.
The entire world visible on the screen was a blinding, uniform white.