Shirone closed his eyes and took a deep breath, spreading his legs shoulder-width apart and slowly bending his waist. His fists lowered to about a hand’s width above the ground.
Tess tilted her head.
There was no immediate visible change.
The peaceful atmosphere continued, as if it were okay to relax even in the midst of a fierce battlefield. Then, Amy’s eyes widened.
Tess: "What’s wrong, Amy? What’s Shirone doing?"
Amy: "...We should step back further."
Understanding Shirone’s intention, Amy pulled her friends much farther back than their previous position.
Tess felt puzzled at the much greater distance.
Tess: "Explain. What do you see?"
Amy: "No, it’s not what I see but what I feel. The changes happening to Shirone."
Amy: "His Spirit Zone. Even though he’s standing still, Shirone’s Spirit Zone is pulsating at an incredible speed."
Even as she spoke, Amy couldn’t believe it.
How much mental endurance would one need to make their Spirit Zone expand and contract so rapidly?
’It’s incredible. Even through synesthesia, I can feel the afterimages. This might actually work...’
Shirone wasn’t satisfied.
During magic school tests, he had to expand his maximum radius to 20 meters in diameter, but here, the magic circle’s 5-meter diameter was enough.
The speed would naturally increase, but the question was whether his mind could handle it.
’Focus. Use compulsion...’
The moment Shirone’s brow furrowed slightly, Amy spoke in a trembling voice.
Amy: "It’s getting faster."
To put it simply, counting from 1 to 5 and back to 1 was one cycle.
Shirone’s mind was currently racing at 20 cycles per second, or 1,200 RPM.
An ordinary mage would have collapsed long before reaching this point.
But Shirone, with his indomitable mental endurance, maintained his focus until the very end, steadily repeating the pulsations.
Shirone glared forward fiercely, gritting his teeth.
The maximum expansion radius of his Spirit Zone perfectly aligned with the magic circle’s border.
Now, all that remained was to imbue the compulsively pulsating Spirit Zone with a special spell.
Omniscience and omnipotence combined.
At the same time, sparks seemed to fly from Shirone’s eyes as he activated his self-developed spell.
Now even Tess could see it. The radiant particles of light enveloping Shirone’s Spirit Zone.
The golden sphere, pulsating with afterimages, began to shine so brightly it hurt the eyes.
It was too terrifying to simply admire as beautiful.
The mass contained in each particle of light pushed against the air, creating a gust of wind.
At the same time, a low dust cloud rose from the ground Shirone stood on, and cracks began to form.
Tess: "It’s... breaking."
The moment Tess spoke, the ground split into a massive chunk, then exploded into thousands of pieces.
As sharp fragments shot out, Rian and Tess finally understood Amy’s words.
The Photon Burst continued.
The mass barrier relentlessly pounded the thousands of rocks, crushing them to the size of grains, and the hollowed ground gradually took on a hemispherical shape.
Buried in the ground, Shirone’s face was pale from enduring the cycles.
Even with his indomitable mental endurance, it was difficult to withstand, but the power was equally outstanding.
Finally, after 20 seconds, the Photon Burst stopped.
Shirone’s Spirit Zone no longer sensed the magic circle’s mana.
Shirone climbed out of the pit, wiping his sweat.
Shirone: "Whew. Amy, is this good enough?"
There was no answer. Everyone was speechless, staring at the result Shirone had created.
Amy spoke with a bitter expression.
Amy: "That’s a ridiculously brute-force spell."
Shirone: "What? I worked hard on it. Anyway, the magic circle’s destroyed, right?"
Amy: "...Yeah. Probably."
Everything within the Photon Burst’s radius had been reduced to dust, so there was no need to even enter the Spirit Zone.
’Amplifying photons using mental pulsations.’
Though she called it brute force, it was a testament to the spell’s impact.
’Imbuing divine particles into mental pulsations. The medium is photons. The effect is roughly crushing the ground within 20 seconds.’
The mass contained in a single photon wasn’t significant, but the incredible speed and repeated cutting action made it devastating.
Above all, without Shirone’s mental endurance, this spell wouldn’t have been possible in the first place.
Amy: "What made you think of a spell ?"
Shirone: "I didn’t think I’d use it in a situation . The Photon Cannon is powerful, but I lack defensive spells. So I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Then the idea of mental pulsations came to me, and I combined it with divine particles."
Amy: "Hmm, a defensive spell."
Since it’s a spell centered around the mage, there’s no room for argument, but the result was excessively violent.
With the ground being shredded in tens of seconds, any living being within the area would be crushed in moments.
Tess: "Shirone, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Unfamiliar with magic, Tess checked Shirone’s body first.
The Photon Burst was the most destructive spell she had ever seen, and Shirone, who had been at its center, seemed oddly fine.
Shirone: "I’m fine. It’s not as dangerous as it looks."
Tess: "Not dangerous? Do you know how worried I was that something might happen to you?"
Shirone: "Yeah, I’m fine. A spell that harms the mage can’t be called a defensive spell, right?"
Shirone looked at his friends.
Shirone: "We’ve found a way, so let’s do this properly. With this, the strategy of destroying the magic circles should work, right?"
Even Amy, who had been skeptical, changed her mind after seeing Shirone’s spell.
Amy: "Yeah, with this, we can isolate the enemies. Let’s avoid combat as much as possible and focus on destroying the magic circles. If we take out more than ten, the enemies will go crazy. Then we can wipe them out in one go."
Shirone’s party split into teams of men and women and activated teleportation.
Two flashes of light darted through the forest, searching for the second magic circle.