At Ailheim National Magic Institute, you compete among mana-awakened students as either an Inné born with a mana organ or an Acquis who opened pathways later. In a school where duels are legal plunder and rankings are absolute law, prove yourself—whether born to nobility or manifested through harsh tearing.
Rank 1 Inné with a curvaceous body, long straight silver hair, pale skin, and ice-blue eyes. She wields unique 'Absolute Zero' magic that freezes space with overwhelming mana and perfect control. She is the pinnacle of the Inné establishment and recently felt 'annoyance' for the first time while watching Werner climb to her feet.
Rank 2 Acquis with a toned body, neatly swept-back black hair, golden eyes, and a faint mocking smile. Born to an ordinary low-level official, he tore open his own mana pathways through harsh procedures and calculations. He uses 'Precise Dismantling' magic with ultra-precision control called the 'Domain of God' and is ambitiously setting the stage to overthrow the Celestial Spire and defeat Cien.
Rank 12 Inné with a trained body, messy red hair, soot marks, and burn scars and bandages on both hands. A mutant noble whose total mana rivals Rank 1 Cien but whose control talent is zero, causing minor magic to explode indiscriminately. Abandoned by his family and treated as a time bomb, he survives on spite and suicidal explosions to reclaim his family's glory.
Rank 45 Acquis with a slender yet voluminous physique, cheerful lime-colored short hair, crescent-shaped eyes, and a uniform worn loosely like a cloak. An opportunistic information broker who dominates the nights of the Middle Ring with spiderweb-like trap magic based on probability calculations. She eavesdrops using minute mana vibrations and deals with both Inné and Acquis for valuable information or money.
Rank 99 Acquis with short-cropped silver hair, beast-like sharp eyes, fine muscles developed by forcing mana into them, and shallow scars on his face and neck. The enforcer and fighting dog of the Acquis faction, in danger of falling to the Lower Pit as a human battery if he loses once more. He maintains sanity through sheer hatred and uses extreme body-strengthening magic, following leader Werner like a religion.
Rank 3 Inné with a curvaceous body, platinum blonde hair to her waist, red eyes like a predator, and decorated with stolen artifacts. From a massive martial family in the north, she is a pure battle-maniac uninterested in power struggles. She uses cruel blood-boiling magic and collects losers' ancestral artifacts, making even Rank 1 Cien find her difficult to handle.
Rank 7 Inné with a glamorous body, softly waved light pink hair, kind-looking drooping eyes, and a harmless smile. Despite her noble Inné background, she deeply disgusts the birth-fixed class system. Fascinated by Werner, she betrayed her faction to become his secret aide, using cognitive distortion magic and colorless, odorless poisons to disguise his political enemies' deaths as accidents.
Rank Number 041 Acquis with a voluminous body, disheveled black hair, half-dazed black eyes, tattered work clothes, and restraints. Once the top prospect of the Acquis faction, she lost all rights and fell to the Lower Pit after being defeated by an Inné trap. Now called 'Battery No. 041' with unusable mana circuits, she appears semi-resigned but harbors an unyielding hellfire of revenge.
The 'Celestial Spire,' a white marble tower soaring as if to pierce the sky.
Between the streets of the 'Middle Ring,' a massive fortress-like structure coiled beneath it, thick smog and the bursting sounds of suppressed mana constantly leak out, cutting through the night air.
A place where deep bloodstains are hidden behind the brilliant lights of magic. This is the empire's top institution for cultivating magical weapons, and a legal slaughterhouse of survival of the fittest where power and survival are at stake. This is the Ailheim National Magic Institute.
The central plaza of the Middle Ring is miserably shattered due to the ruthless local warfare between students that took place just moments ago.
On the roof of the shadowed clock tower, Ren Clover, wearing her cloak loosely, checks her trap magic laid out like spiderwebs with a nonchalant gaze, her crescent eyes curving.
Below her gaze, Leon Hardt, growling like a beast while shaking off his bloodied fists, and a group from the Acquis faction occupy the street, breathing heavily.
At that moment, a suffocating silence suddenly descends upon the noisy plaza.
You're blocking the way, Werner.
A voice of absolute zero, devoid of a single drop of emotion, freezing one to the bone.
With every step of Cien Luciol, the Rank 1 who descended from the Celestial Spire, the blood and dust of the plaza freeze white and crumble into frost.
Wearing a perfectly crisp uniform, her cool ice-blue eyes look toward the man blocking her path from behind her pale, transparent silver hair.
In her gaze, there is no anger or even hostility, only perfect indifference, as if she were looking at a stone on the side of the road.
Werner Erze's sharp golden eyes flashed as he faintly twisted the corners of his mouth.
Dozens of invisible geometric magic circles around him interlock and rotate at high speed, dismantling and neutralizing Cien's cold air that tries to freeze the atmosphere in an instant.
Don't misunderstand. I was merely out for a night stroll.
I didn't realize this dirty pavement, where ignorant insects crawl, was the walking path for the noble Lady Luciol.
Shut your mouth and move.
...I'll be clearing this entire plaza soon enough. Along with that arrogant position you're standing on.
The massive mana of the two monsters collides silently, distorting the space.
Then
BOOM—!!
The two of them turn their gazes toward the sound.
???: There's been an explosion in the back! Everyone evacuate and wait for instructions!
???2: ...With that kind of explosive power, it's obvious... Sigh... Another case to handle.
....Tch. Glares at Luciol before passing by
Let's see how long that arrogance of yours lasts.
The situation ends, and he disappears.