by Feng Yue
In a sudden, it seemed that everything dimmed. Pure light rushed forward like a canon and everything seemed dim in contrast. The sharp light stung everyone’s eyes. The light came like a tidal wave, causing Banner to freeze. His mind became blank for a few seconds due to the intense stimulation.
Just in an instant, the manticore, who was in the middle of projecting, screamed. The shadow trembled under the intense interference of the light. The strong light disappeared, but the world was still dark.
The soccer ball was already under the youth’s foot.
“Ye Qingxuan!” Banner roared while the beastly shadows around him paused. They screamed and the five shadows instantly turned into a consolidated blackness.
The five dark shadows quivered and suddenly rushed toward Ye Qingxuan’s direction. Although they were the manticore’s projections, they were all different. Some were like giant scorpions, some like pythons; others were silhouettes of dragons, or had the posture of a lion, the determination of eagles…These were the five animal characteristics that the manticore contained.
The five completely different kinds of beast fused together and formed the manticore’s strength. Now they split up and projected out, charging at the youth with five different forces. This was one of Banner’s special techniques.
In the previous games, Banner used this trick to defeat the other team’s offense right at the start. When he charged forward, his teammates also showed their abilities, pulling out instruments and alchemy equipment to play melodies surrounding the rest of Ye Qingxuan’s teammates.
In an instant, the whole frontline pushed forward like a boulder rolling from the top of the mountain. The history department’s situation became grave, but this was what most people had expected. With the music history department’s strength, it was taken for granted that they would be defeated at the opening. But this time they were destined to be shocked.
As the five shadows attacked, Ye Qingxuan leisurely advanced with the ball, going straight toward the shadows. His fingers played in the air. The next moment, a dark melody was produced unexpectedly.
Like sadness surging from the heart, it swept through the field, instantly chilling everyone’s hearts. The music sounded tortured and brought melancholy that was engraved in one’s mind. The five shadows froze abruptly. In the sound of the music, the beastly spirits became sluggish under the influence of the aether…
The stands were silent. Ludwig suddenly stood up with a startled expression. “Tragische Ouvertüre?” he mumbled blankly. “What’s going on? How can that kid play the Tragische Ouvertüre from the School of Summoning?”
Silence overcame the professors’ seats. Most of the professors who had identified the song were astonished. At the very front, Ingmar of Revelations seemed to think of something, and his face grew serious.
No way…
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At the same time, a startled feeling overcame Banner. In the School of Summoning, Tragische Ouvertüre was practically a compulsory course, but its extreme difficulty was also a big problem for graduate students. As an auxiliary music score, it could greatly enhance the phantom beast’s nature so that it could transform and enter into an upper level. It also produced the same effect on enemies. But now, the effect had been reversed. It was degeneration…degenerating in sorrow!
In that cold and sad melody, the five shadow beasts suddenly shook and involuntarily began to tremble. In the end, the shadows gradually blurred under the influence of the melody. The originally strong beastly nature was consumed bit by bit until it was eaten away and could not be maintained anymore.
How could he…How was it possible?
Banner’s face changed and he subconsciously swore. His eyes grew cold and he slammed his hands down. It was the same melody, the same Tragische Ouvertüre, with the same sound. The two melodies overlapped each other, but Banner’s performance was more intense and sharp.
“Marchosias!” he roared the phantom beast’s true name in a low voice. The aetheric wave strongly fluctuated around him. In the midst of the wave, a fire was ignited.
The illusory silver firelight tossed violently, and a large figure emerged from it. It was the demon named Marchosias, which was the most powerful phantom beast bred and fed by the Adrian family through the generations—the manticore!
The lion suddenly roared. Ye Qingxua’s melodies in the roar’s path shook violently and then collapsed?!
In both the East and West, lions had their own unique status. The monks said that a lion’s roars could silence all heretics.
Then the manticore jumped out of the void. This time, Banner no longer used projection, but directly put the phantom beast‘s seed in the aether and gave it a physical shape. After centuries of inheritance, it seemed to have grown abnormally old, but there was still a fierce light in its eye was a fierce light. It was a burning fire.
When it trampled on the field, the grass withered. When it breathed, a lion’s fierce roar echoed in the wind. This was the monster created by combining the generation power of the Adrian family and deep research of Summoning music theories. People familiar with it knew that it was created by the musician for their enemies—it was a musician killer!
It was good at finding the living and it could disturb the enemy’s music. With sharp claws, it could easily tear shields. Its speed was swift as a shadow…It was best at jumping from the dark, tearing through shields, putting all strength into one blow, biting off the enemy’s throat and pulverizing his skull!
The moment the old manticore landed, coldness flashed in its eyes. Suddenly it blurred and disappeared. Banner looked at the enemy and sneered. When the manticore appeared once again, it would be the moment the enemy was killed!
But Ye Qingxuan was not panicking as he had expected. Instead, he seemed to be hesitating, but soon, his hands swung down again. This time, he performed a sharp sound.
The disorderly music echoed around his body. It was like countless swords rubbing with each other, a wire being pulled by a winch, and nails scratching the blackboard. It made one’s scalp prickle. There was no rule to it. It was neither a music score nor a melody—it was pure cacophony.
The noise influenced the aether disorderly so that the aether zone in his perception fluctuated suddenly. Countless faint silver points of light collided with each other, producing crackling sound.
No one could understand his performance. Was this guy going to blow himself up?
But in the irregular melodies, the disappeared manticore vaguely revealed its figure. The illusory figure quietly moved forward. In the extremely chaotic noise interference, the aether changed without pattern and revealed the manticore’s trace.
The youth raised his wrist and put two rings on the forefinger and middle finger of his left hand. He pointed the two fingers at the manticore. Then, the two separated fingers slowly closed like a pair of small scissors.
211 Dig a Ditch, Add Some Dir
From how slowly the fingers closed, there seemed to be great repulsive force between the two. But the air solidified and thunder boomed out of nowhere, as if giant stones were rubbing against each other.
Red and white light appeared. They were the red-hot flames and cold frost. They appeared out of thin air as the two fingers moved and converged as the fingers closed. Though they crashed against each other, they did not put each other out. Instead, they began rubbing even more intensely, creating explosive sounds.
In the stands, even the teachers could only gasp in awe. This technique of polarization from the School of Modifications was flawless! The aether had been manipulated hurriedly and was not very powerful, but the hidden manticore retreated quickly. It escaped the moment the ice and fire exploded.
Banner’s expression changed. How did this b*stard know the manticore’s weakness? When it suddenly dawned on him, he ground his teeth. It was the library! That guy was the manager of the library. As long as he had Dominic’s permission, he could read about every musician school within Anglo…F*ck…why did it ha
ve to be him?!
The manticore became invisible by diluting itself and becoming a cloud of aether atoms, then melt into the environment like a chameleon. Because its body was so ghostly, no biological attacks could touch it. But if the environment changed too quickly, it would be unable to change with it and thus reveal its shape.
Furthermore, that white-haired b*stard had produced an alchemist armor from the School of Modifications! Any Modifications music score posed the greatest threat to an invisible manticore.
It was most wary of things as extreme as polarization. Once the extreme cold and heat exploded, it could cause the atomized manticore to lose part of its body. At that time, Banner would lose his opportunity and must put in great effort to project it back out. He might even face the manticore’s resistance!
This was the biggest concern for musicians of the School of Summoning. Their phantom beasts were usually more powerful than they were. Controlling this overly-powerful strength and ensuring it would not go out of control and hurt the musician was already difficult, not to mention the backlash that would follow.
When Banner first inherited the beastliness, he had practically turned into a zombie trying to stop his brain from creating more creatures. Thankfully, all effort was worth it. He had already seeped through the manticore’s surface awareness and branded it with his badge. The once-uncontrollable lion was now like his right hand.
The manticore only retreated temporarily. Soon, it charged forward again! Attacking while invisible was only one of the ways for the manticore to hunt…if it really wanted to kill, it would use its teeth and claws!
And the School of Royalty was best at…double majoring! Its unique rituals and techniques allowed the phantom beast to be modified and store music scores within. To the musicians who had become the ‘descendant of the phoenix,’ their phantom beasts were their instruments!
The giant phantom beast—as tall as a man—suddenly pounced, its body going up in flames. As it roared, lava flowed out of thin air like a waterfall. Covering its body, the lava transformed into a scalding dark red armor. The wild heat spread.
“Go die!” But in that instant, Banner saw Ye Qingxuan smile. The mocking smile gave him a bad feeling. The next moment, a whistle rang out.
“Goal for the history department!” the referee announced. Banner froze instantly.
Goal?! How was that possible?! The ball was—was right under Ye Qingxuan’s feet…But then the ball under his feet trembled, blurred and finally turned into a round stone.
It was fake…
Banner roared and looked back at his goal. And saw that the goalie was hanging on the post and a little girl stood before the goal, panting for breath. The white-haired girl was covered with sweat and breathed heavily, but one could not tell what had just happened.
She seemed to have teleported there. It did not make any sense!
Everything had been flawlessly arranged in the game plan. Banner would deal with Ye Qingxuan. As for the rest, Cullen would take the two strongest musicians to attack the mysterious guy with the headgear; two would focus on the difficult Charles; he had even arranged for someone to block the dog…but he had overlooked the girl.
He had arranged for some to keep an eye on changes, but no one had expected that this young little girl with a ponytail would suddenly transform into a beast.
“Pomp and Circumstance,” the principal sighed in the stands, shaking his head slightly. It was either a lament or praise. “As expected of that guy’s student. As expected of Pomp and Circumstance.”
When everyone’s attention had been on Ye Qingxuan and Banner, Bai Xi had sucked in a breath. And then the players before her saw that the girl’s eyes shone like the sun! The talent of the Dragon Bloodline, Zhaodang, had awoken.
A grand symphony had followed immediately after. The seal had been broken easily. Even though it was just the overture, even though it was just a few seconds…The girl had transformed into a saint crowned by the gods and advanced fearlessly with the holy power. She ran with the soccer ball, fast as lightning. And when she had reached the goal, she kicked.
The soccer ball had crashed into the goalie. Before he could react, he had been flipped over and hung onto the post. The electrified ball flew into the goal and practically broke through the net. That was when the ground-shattering resonance finally spread like thunder.
Everyone was stunned.
-
For the past few days, everyone had dug for information on the history department. This included the Eastern youth who had been in the limelight and offended countless people at the beginning of the year; Charles, who had been seen as a genius and then a failure; the evil dog that should not be crossed; and Bai Xi, who never went to class.
But no one had expected that the bad student who just ditched class to walk the dog was actually a Modifications musician! And she was such an expert that she could perform a heavyweight score like Pomp and Circumstance!
Everyone’s jaws dropped and their eyes fell out of their sockets. In the stands, all professors glanced subconsciously at their similarly stunned colleague.
“Egor?”
“You taught her Pomp and Circumstance?”
“When did you…”
“That girl is your student?”
Faced with all the eyes and questions, Egor felt that his head was going to explode. “I didn’t teach her!”
“Ha.”
“Really?”
“Lying straight through your teeth is unnecessary.”
It was obvious that no one believed him. Who else could teach Pomp and Circumstance in this academy, other than Egor from the School of Modifications?
“Shut up!” Egor was close to spitting out blood and had the urge to flip his seat over. “There are branches in Modifications too! That girl clearly played something closer to Classicism! It features God-given strength and becoming the physical embodiment of a saint!
“I inherited the school from Saint Liszt, which focuses on elemental change and transformation. There’s nothing given by God! Even if I play Pomp and Circumstance, it will only feature the changes of the four elements and a thunderstorm. How can I teach a student Classicism?”
Seeing Egor’s worked up expression, all the professors became more confused. Then who taught the girl? Abraham?
No way, that guy had come from the School of Abstinence, which naturally stood against all other schools. Even for the School of Summoning, he had just dabbled in it and did not count as an actual musician. It was hard to teach students…not to mention such a core music score from Modifications.
“Stop arguing.” At the front, the principal sighed. “I know her teacher. He isn’t from the Academy, but his status is sensitive, so just stop asking.”
Hearing this, everyone shut their mouths, but they could not help but let their imagination run wild. There were crazy guesses—maybe she was the bastard child of some important guy, or the student of a grand master, or the seed of the School of Royalty…In the end, everyone’s gazes landed on Abraham’s empty seat and grew strange. What exactly was this old guy’s background?
-
It was silent as death on the field as well. Banner held down the furious manticore and glared at Ye Qingxuan. “When?”
“Huh?” The youth’s voice was hoarse and strange, as if he did not understand.
Banner stepped forward. His eyes were filled with anger. “When did you switch the soccer ball?!”
And so Ye Qingxuan laughed. When? It was from the start…
The ball had been kicked to Bai Xi when the beam of light flashed past. Then, the prepared Bai Xi dug a hole and buried the ball…Yes, she buried it right under her feet. When everyone’s attention was on Ye Qingxuan, Bai Xi began to act according to plan.And so, she scored a goal logically and naturally. One point. It was so simple and so extremely easy, but no one else knew how to react.
“One thousand points.” Across from Banner, the white-haired youth opened his mouth without a word, but
revealed almost tangible mockery. Silent, Banner stared at his face and his own grew white as a sheet. He was just like a transparent wraith.
Angry fire continued to smolder in his beastly vertical eyes. The fury was sealed under his pale face and the fire hurt his brain.
That d*mn *sshole, that d*mn *sshole, that d*mn *sshole! That white-haired b*stard, lowly redneck, beggar in the palace…*sshole *sshole *sshole *sshole *sshole *sshole…
He covered his face, pushing down the wild beastly nature within. Once he could not retain complete sanity, he would easily be controlled by his beastly nature. The chaos was not completely bad though. It would at least make him wilder and more…powerful!
“Go into coherence with me.” Banner revealed an emerald eye between his fingers. His voice behind his hands was hoarse and unclear. “Haydn’s Symphony No. 8—Night!” His voice was like a choking beast.
212 Small Episode 1
“Haydn’s Symphony No. 8—Night!”
Hearing Banner’s voice, Cullen froze. All the players looked over. Cullen hesitated but he gritted his teeth and waved his hand. Do as he says!
The teammates were stunned, but they quickly followed the order. Instantly, melodies of the same frequency sounded from their hands. Their well-adjusted and arranged instruments played at the same tempo.
The aether between them worked in concert, connecting into a whole. The lack of a conductor resulted in some flaws, but they remained steady at the same frequency. Every player’s breathing quickened, and perspiration beaded on their foreheads. The pressure arrived.
The manticore roared and stood before Ye Qingxuan’s team, blocking their disruption. Banner’s hand slowly left his face and pressed down in front. A gleam of light shot out from his ring and a gentle sound spread from it. But suddenly, a sharp cacophonous melody rose out of the stillness. Instantly, all instruments resonated with it and created a mighty sonority. As if nine ripples formed in the water at the same time, they overlapped, combined, and created turbulent waves. Light dimmed in the snap of a finger as the melody spread out on the field. The sun seemed to disappear quickly.Darkness followed immediately. Immense aether was summoned and assimilated into the darkness. It transformed into a curtain, blocking out all light.