Arisuin Nagi looked utterly disheveled as multiple slender swords pierced through his chest, draining all his strength. He collapsed heavily to the ground.
"Alice!"
Kurogane Shizuku scread.
Without a second thought, she rushed forward.
But suddenly, a fierce gale swept through like a typhoon. Caught off guard, Shizuku was sent flying, bouncing several tis across the ground before finally coming to a stop.
"Shizuku! This ability is...!"
Ikki tensed imdiately, his gaze snapping toward the source of the wind.
"Brother Ouma, was this really necessary? Shizuku is your own sister!"
For the first ti, the usually kind-hearted Ikki directed anger toward the elder brother he had always admired.
"Shut up. I told you—I have no sister."
Kurogane Ouma's figure materialized like a mirage, his tone devoid of emotion, showing not an ounce of remorse for injuring his sister.
"What a sha. If not for the skilled prophet on our side, your plan might have succeeded."
One after another, seven figures erged from seemingly empty space.
Reisen Hiraga looked down at the fallen Nagi and let out a pitying laugh.
Kurogane Ouma, Amane Shinomiya, Sara—none of them had fallen. Each stood unhard, their cold eyes fixed on the unfolding performance.
"It should have worked..."
Nagi, lying on the ground, couldn't comprehend it.
His decision to betray them had been made just last night. He hadn't told Reisen Hiraga, so there was no way the mbers of Akatsuki Academy could have known his intentions or prepared counterasures.
"How...?"
Stella glanced at the seven figures sprawled nearby.
Their appearances, auras, and even their magical equipnt—everything was identical. They were unmistakably the real deal, not fakes.
"Are these clones too?"
Her face was filled with disbelief.
Eiji shot her a sharp glare.
Why did she have to say that out loud?
"Not clones. Illusionary Portraits."
Sara brushed back her ssy golden hair and spoke indifferently, "The figures I paint are more lifelike than the real thing!"
In her hands were a paintbrush and palette.
With a snap, as she cut off her magical energy supply, the seven figures on the ground dissolved into smoke, leaving nothing behind.
"Sara created the illusions, and I manipulated them with Hell Spider's Silk. Impressive, isn't it? Did we fool you completely?"
Reisen Hiraga raised his hands, fingers entwined with nearly invisible threads, his gleeful laughter echoing in the air.
The expressions of everyone present darkened.
"But who would've thought you'd actually betray us? If the One-Ard Swordsman found out, he'd be furious, wouldn't he?"
Reisen Hiraga lowered his head, his hollow eyes fixed on the helpless Nagi. His tone was almost regretful.
"Too bad. In the end, you fell just short."
"Why...?"
"Hm?"
"I never gave myself away...!"
Nagi was filled with frustration.
The plan had been flawless—it should have worked without fail. He couldn't fathom how it had gone wrong.
"Let answer that for you."
Amane Shinomiya was casually tossing several slender silver swords in his hand—identical to the ones embedded in his body. These were his Noble Arts.
"Because my ability is to foresee the future! So of course your plan wouldn't work!"
He smiled serenely.
Foresee the future?
Nagi's brain short-circuited for a mont.
No.
Impossible.
And here's why—
"How many more lies are you going to tell?"
A cold voice cut in from the side.
Amane Shinomiya's smile faltered slightly before he turned toward the source of the voice with an awkward grin.
"No, no, no! I'm not lying at all! And how could I ever lie to you, Eiji?"
"Yes, you are lying."
Eiji's gaze was icy.
"Long before this operation, we contacted the Student Council Vice President, Misogi Utakata, and borrowed his ability to adjust the success rate of the ambush to one hundred percent. So your plan of playing along was never going to work!"
Exactly.
Misogi Utakata's ability was to manipulate probabilities. Even if the chance of sothing happening was just one percent, he could adjust it to one hundred percent—an absurdly overpowered ability that even Eiji envied.
The likelihood of Arisuin Nagi successfully betraying and ambushing them was far greater than one percent, so Utakata had readily agreed and activated his ability for this purpose.
Yet, the ambush had still failed.
"Interference with fate is sothing ordinary people can never resist. Even if you can foresee the future, you'd only see the absolute future where you're defeated—the chance of avoiding it is zero."
Eiji's eyes bore into Amane Shinomiya.
"There's only one way you could have broken free from a one hundred percent probability—by using an even stronger fate interference to override the Vice President's!"
Exactly.
Though Misogi Utakata's probability manipulation fell under causality interference, it was essentially the power to alter fate—an incredibly formidable ability.
But if soone possessed an even stronger fate interference, they could easily dismantle his probability adjustnts!
Amane Shinomiya's six mock battles at Kyomon Academy had already proven this.
With just the ability to foresee the future, he couldn't have made all his opponents withdraw before the matches. But if his power was fate interference, he could easily make them disappear for various reasons beforehand.
Utakata could have done the sa, but he respected the rules and refrained.
Amane Shinomiya, however, had done it.
The smile on Amane's face gradually faded.
"I see. So you've got soone like that on your side too. What a miscalculation."
He smacked his forehead in exaggerated frustration. "I should've just dropped the act from the start. Would've saved so much trouble."
"Wait, so his fate interference is even stronger than the Vice President's?!"
Stella looked utterly unable to accept this, staring at Amane Shinomiya as if he were a monster.
Misogi Utakata had already seed like a monster in her eyes, but now there was sothing even worse—a monster surpassing a monster!
"Then what exactly is his ability?"
"No idea."
Eiji's expression remained stern.
Stella was left speechless.
***
Well.
That was fair. Fate interference was just too abstract to pin down.
"An ability to interfere with fate… Hah. No wonder I lost."
Nagi's expression grew even more bitter.
Blazers were just that kind of creature.
You never know just how absurd or unbelievable your opponent's abilities are until the very last mont!
His shadow manipulation was already formidable enough, but it proved utterly powerless against soone who could interfere with fate.
"Regardless, this matter no longer concerns you, Black Assassin."
Reisen Hiraga crouched down and lifted Arisuin Nagi's body.
"Everyone, I'll be taking him back to Akatsuki Academy to be dealt with by the One-Ard Swordsman. I leave the rest to you all—don't disappoint our client!"
***
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