////Sorry for not updating, had a heatstroke a few days ago and now fever... Been sleeping, feeling better now.////
When Rozen and his group returned to the surface, in another corner of the academy, a group of girls were desperately fending off the attackers.
"Wind spirits! Assist me!"
Charlotte shouted loudly, while enhancing her mana and calling upon the spirits nearby, gathering all the wind spirits around her. They whipped up roaring whirlwinds, sweeping outward in every direction.
There, numerous berserk and rampaging automatons were relentlessly pursuing Charlotte. Swept up by the oncoming whirlwinds, they were immediately blown away and vanished from sight.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
Having used Spirit Arts who knows how many times already, Charlotte was gasping for breath. Her mana seemed nearly depleted, and after repeatedly focusing intensely to summon spirits, she was on the verge of collapsing from extreme exhaustion.
Seeing this, Henri and Frey, who had been sticking close to Charlotte, hurriedly caught her as she staggered.
"Are you okay, onee-sama!?"
Henri looked at her with deep worry and anxiety.
"I... I'm fine...!"
Charlotte replied between breaths, but her utterly exhausted appearance clearly said otherwise.
"I'm sorry... we couldn't be of any help."
Frey bowed her head guiltily.
"Woof!"
"Woof woof!"
By her side, several Garm dogs whimpered in shame and frustration. Some even looked like they were about to fall over, clearly having exhausted themselves resisting the interference of Multi-Controller, and were now completely unable to fight.
"I'm sorry, Charlotte, it's us who dragged you down."
Sigmund also looked pained, lying atop Charlotte's beret, his voice low and full of regret.
When the academy was attacked, Charlotte, Frey, and Henri happened to be together, gathering information on the Thirteen. As a result, they were caught in the influence of Multi-Controller, making all automatons unable to use magic. If Charlotte hadn't been single-handedly using Spirit Arts to repel the attacking automatons, they would have fallen long ago.
Especially when facing off against the black-cloaked magus — with no automatons available, Charlotte stood no chance. She was nearly injured, and if not for the guardian spirit inside her suddenly appearing to protect her and evacuate them while fighting, there might have been casualties among the girls, or at least several automatons destroyed.
Now, everyone was depending solely on Charlotte.
If Charlotte fell, it would be over.
This left everyone feeling both powerless and deeply guilty.
But Charlotte immediately rebuked them.
"What are you talking about? How could it possibly be your fault?" Charlotte said firmly. "It's only because Sigmund has been protecting me all this time that I've managed to get this far. Otherwise, I'd have collapsed who knows where already. And Henri too — I couldn't protect you before, and you suffered because of it. Not to mention that time I stood by while Frey was in danger."
These were things Charlotte had always kept in her heart.
"Now that I finally have the strength to protect you all, I'm more grateful than anything!"
Saying that, Charlotte gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand once more, raising her mana.
"This time, no matter what, I will protect you all! You can count on it!"
Her pretty face was filled with determination.
"Onee-sama..."
Seeing Charlotte stand in front of them, trembling but still refusing to fall, Henri made a choked sound, unclear whether from being moved or from sadness.
"Charlotte..."
Sigmund's voice also grew even lower.
Because everyone could clearly see — Charlotte was already a spent force, unable to keep fighting for much longer.
And yet, the berserk automatons were still flooding in from all directions. More black-cloaked magicians leading panther-type automatons were also rapidly approaching.
In this situation, Charlotte truly could no longer hold on.
"Damn it!"
Charlotte gritted her teeth, her eyes full of stubbornness.
"Charlotte..."
Watching her, Frey hesitated for a moment, but then her gaze hardened with resolve. She pulled out a small knife from her bosom and pointed it at her own wrist, preparing to cut.
The berserk automatons closed in.
The black-cloaked magus rapidly approached.
The girls huddled close together, cornered with nowhere left to run.
Until...
"——————————"
At the moment space itself rippled, this chant echoed out.
"Clap!"
Immediately afterward, the sound of a palm striking rang out.
"BOOM————!"
A shockwave of mana surged out from Charlotte and the others as the center.
"BANG————!"
With a deafening roar, the berserk automatons and black-cloaked magicians were all struck by the surge of mana.
All the attackers were instantly reduced to trash, first blasted into the air and then crashing heavily to the ground. The automatons were shattered into pieces of scrap metal, and the black-cloaked magicians all spat blood and collapsed, never to rise again.
"Looks like we made it just in time."
Rozen appeared before Charlotte and the others, together with Setsugetsuka, and smiled calmly.
"Rozen!"
"Mr Rozen!"
Frey and Henri immediately cried out in joy.
"Rozen!"
Sigmund too brightened at the sight, lifting himself up from Charlotte's beret, while the nearby Garms barked excitedly one after another.
"Phew..."
Charlotte let out a big breath of relief, as if all the tension had left her, and her body sagged, about to fall.
Rozen quickly caught her.
"It's rare to see you hold out this long."
With his Spirit Vision, Rozen had long since seen that Charlotte's mana was almost completely depleted. Without hesitation, he pulled out a talisman and pressed it to her.
It was a talisman created by modifying a healing talisman — not to restore injuries, but to restore mana — and Rozen had named it the Spirit Restoration Talisman.
Thanks to the effect of the Spirit Restoration Talisman, Charlotte's mana began to rapidly recover, and her complexion visibly improved.
"Feeling better now?"
Rozen gave Charlotte a calm smile.
Charlotte finally came to her senses. Seeing Rozen's face so close as he held her, her face flushed red and her heart panicked. She hurriedly pushed him away.
"You're too slow!"
The words of gratitude that should have come out turned, under the influence of her confusing emotions, into a loud complaint.
"We almost died!"
Charlotte looked genuinely angry.
However...
"You're already considered lucky. The other guy is truly on the verge of death."
Saying this, Rozen snapped his fingers, and the space around them twisted, transporting them to another location.
Here, there was no fierce battle underway, no automatons or black-cloaked magus attacking.
Because they were already all dead, lying around as corpses.
The one who had wrought this devastation stood alone.
"Loki!"
Frey's face went pale and she cried out in panic.
Before everyone's eyes, Loki was in a truly miserable state.