The Sponsored Heroines Are Coming for Me

Chapter 262

Despair.

No word described this situation better than those three syllables.

Silvia pressed her temples, desperately trying to force her sluggish mind to function.

But all she could see were disasters piling up.

“We can’t hold out any longer! All the barricades have collapsed!”

The eastern wall had fallen.

“The monsters are filling the river and crossing over! They’ll reach us any moment!”

From the north, creatures were using their own corpses to form a bridge across the river, relentlessly advancing.

The south was no better.

— Bang!

The door burst open, and strands of pink hair floated in the air.

Perked-up cat ears.

“Miss Danya.”

Even in such a dire situation, seeing Danya brought relief.

Fighting over Ian was only something they could afford to do in peaceful times. Now that Danya and her party had joined, Silvia felt reassured to have such a reliable ally by her side.

Most of all, she was relieved that Danya didn’t seem seriously injured.

Perhaps Danya felt the same way.

“Silvia!”

Danya ran toward her, her voice filled with familiarity—but her expression gradually darkened.

She had bad news. That much was certain.

“I managed to drive out Two… for now. But…”

Danya swallowed hard.

A faint trace of fear flickered in her eyes, and Silvia immediately sensed what she was about to say.

Something catastrophic was approaching from beyond the horizon.

That must be what she had come to report.

“Did you see it coming from far west? Is it visible to the naked eye now?”

“…Yeah. Just barely, but it’s starting to show. I still have no idea what it is, but one thing’s clear—it’s unbelievably big and unbelievably strange.”

“It doesn’t belong in this world.”

An entity beyond comprehension.

Silvia, too, had sensed it with her keen mana perception.

The thing approaching the academy wasn’t a mere monster—it was a calamity.

“And everything around it… are monsters.”

They were barely holding on as it was.

And now, an even greater disaster was looming behind the horde.

There was no clear way out.

Silvia shut her eyes tightly.

“…”

No solution came to mind.

In that case, they could only hold out and hope for salvation.

That was their best option—to endure as long as possible.

Silvia opened her eyes and spoke.

“We’re retreating for now. The Academy’s barrier is fully activated. Waiting longer will make it stronger, but…”

Danya was in rough shape. The students were covered in wounds.

They couldn’t afford to hold out any longer outside the barrier.

“From this moment, Plan B. We’ll switch to defensive combat inside the academy.”

The Academy’s barrier was strong.

But the enemies outside were even stronger.

Once the barrier broke, it would be complete pandemonium.

Still, they needed time to regroup.

The student messengers ran off to spread the word. Soon, all remaining forces would retreat into the academy.

“I’ll head west and deliver the message, too.”

Danya was about to leave but suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“Oh, and… there was a massive explosion in the Shadow Forest. You must have heard it.”

“Yes. It definitely wasn’t ordinary. I sensed a surge of magical energy.”

Danya hesitated for a moment before asking.

“Do you think… it might have something to do with Ian?”

Her cautious voice carried a flicker of hope.

There was no evidence that Ian was responsible for the explosion.

But… he had undoubtedly been taken to the Bloodstone Cult’s headquarters.

Ian couldn’t be sure what had happened—or if things had even unfolded the right way.

“Probably.”

Silvia nodded.

She had to.

Ian was their only hope.

◆

pure white light.

At the center of the explosion, all I saw was an endless, blinding whiteness.

It was like static noise.

A piercing ringing sound filled my ears, shaking my consciousness.

And then I realized—

The explosion had originated from me.

Its intensity was beyond what my sensory organs could process.

It had surpassed the limits of human perception.

I could only grasp my surroundings through my mana sensitivity.

— Beeeep…

The explosion, once overwhelming, was now fading like dust carried away by the wind.

My overstimulated senses slowly began to settle.

A soft, warm sensation wrapped around my entire body.

Someone was holding me.

It was the Blood Witch.

“…Are you okay?”

Sensing my gaze, she spoke.

A thin stream of blood trickled down her lips.

Now that I looked closely, her pale forehead was also streaked with red.

Even as her bloodied eyes blinked, she gazed up at me.

“You look worse off than I do.”

“Oh my, are you actually worrying about me? Have you finally decided to look my way?”

Even now, she was as sly as ever.

“If you can still run your mouth, you must be fine.”

“Ahaha—”

She let out a light laugh, and more blood spilled from her lips.

She must have taken some internal damage.

But since she could still joke, it probably wasn’t critical.

“Wasn’t that a bit too strong?”

“Even I wasn’t expecting it.”

“I shouldn’t be the one saying this, but Ian, sometimes you really have no sense of caution.”

It wasn’t like I had no plan at all.

I had tried to control the explosion’s direction—to keep both me and the Blood Witch from being caught in it.

To some extent, I had succeeded.

The problem was that even the weakened blast had been far too powerful.

…Come to think of it—

I had deployed a barrier at the last moment, but before that, I had felt layers of protective magic shielding us from the explosion.

“I was trying to save you, but in the end, I ended up being saved by you, Ian.”

The Blood Witch blinked slowly.

I looked at her in silence for a moment.

There was something I needed to say.

“I appreciate it.”

Honestly, this had been unexpected.

I hadn’t anticipated the explosion’s force.

There had barely been time to react.

If I had tried to block it alone, I wouldn’t have managed.

A mage who dies from their own spell—

I had nearly earned the title of Most Ridiculous Death of the Year.

If not for the Blood Witch, that was exactly what would have happened.

Her barrier had bought me just enough time to deploy my own.

Yet for some reason, her eyes had gone wide in shock.

“…Did you just thank me?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Ah.”

She let out a dazed sound.

What’s with her?

She opened and closed her lips a few times.

“F-For the first time…”

“Hm?”

“N-Never mind.”

And then, she fell silent.

She simply gazed at me, her expression unexpectedly soft and composed.

Was something on her mind?

For her to be deep in thought… That was rare.

Her slightly flushed cheeks—probably just the blood smudging on her skin.

“Hmph. Anyway.”

The Blood Witch stretched, then sat up.

Her gaze wandered toward the distant horizon, as if lost in thought.

Once I sat up as well, she finally spoke again.

Back to her usual, mischievous self.

“What will you name it?”

“…Name?”

“Yes. Your newly created technique. Or should I call it a spell? A martial art? Whatever it is, it needs a name.”

“Huh. I’ve never thought about that. It’s my first time creating something entirely original like this. Do I really need to name it?”

She responded immediately.

“Of course. A name gives it identity. If you want to develop it further, you need one.”

That made sense.

But I still scratched my head.

…Coming up with a name out of nowhere, though?

Noticing my hesitation, she offered a hint.

“When the sphere compressed and then erupted, its dazzling light was truly radiant. Why not emphasize that brilliance?”

Radiance, huh.

And since it was a sphere…

Maybe?

…Wait. No. What if I twisted it a little?

“How about Brilliant Sphere?”

Her expression turned ice-cold in an instant.

“Even I can’t pretend to like that one.”

A sharp wind whistled past.

Yikes.

I shrugged.

“I’m just not great at naming things.”

“…Hmmm.”

She furrowed her brows in deep thought.

It was almost comical—how seriously she was treating this, as if naming her own martial art.

Then, she spoke again.

“When that sphere exploded, I felt infinity. As if it contained the whole world within it.”

“I see.”

“And where does infinity come from? You merged two opposite extremes to create it. Infinity is boundless, and opposing extremes are cataclysm. So…”

She took a deep breath.

“Infinite Cataclysm.”

I repeated it in my head.

Infinite Cataclysm.

Not a bad name.

Certainly better than Brilliant Sphere.

Well, it’s not like I’d be shouting out attack names in battle anyway.

It felt right.

She had put thought into it, and I could respect that.

“I like it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“To think I could name such a brilliant technique… I’m so happy.”

She smiled like a child.

There were times when that purity of hers was unsettling.

But not this time.

Before I even realized it, I was smiling too.

And then—

“Those brats are really causing a mess.”

The Blood Witch and I instinctively leaped backward at the same time.

Boom—!

A massive axe slammed into the ground where we had just been.

“You dared to shatter the cult’s barrier. I hope you’re ready to face the consequences.”

Two.