"Hmph, you're quite early, aren't you?"
Perhaps having heard his sister's voice, Loki lifted his head and said that mockingly.
Though his words were meant to be sarcastic, they didn't stir up any irritation among the others.
Because Loki's tone was extremely weak, and his condition was far too terrible.
At this moment, Loki was kneeling on the ground, his face deathly pale, and the magic power fluctuating around him was violently disordered, making him seem like a bomb that could explode at any moment, stirring a sense of fear.
As Loki's automaton, Cherubim, had taken the form of a massive sword. Loki gripped it in his hand, plunging it into the ground to use as a cane to support himself, but it was battered and barely able to maintain its sword shape.
All around Loki and Cherubim, there were the remains of numerous automatons, either burned or severed, lying together with black-clad magus drenched in blood, almost covering the entire area.
Upon closer inspection, one could also see scorched patches of ground and massive cleaving scars, like fractured glaciers, telling of the fierce battle that had taken place.
On Loki's left wrist, a wound could be seen, as if his artery had been severed, but not a single drop of blood remained — it was as if it had completely evaporated.
"Ugh..."
Loki's figure swayed and then collapsed onto the ground.
"Loki!"
Frey hurriedly rushed over, tears welling up as she anxiously looked at the barely breathing Loki.
"How… how did you end up like this!?"
Charl approached with Henri clinging to her back, her face going pale at the sight of Loki lying there on the ground.
Loki's state was simply far too bad. His face was terrifyingly pale, and his body temperature had dropped so much that he almost seemed like a corpse. It was no wonder Charl was so frightened.
The reason he ended up like this was simple.
"He's lost a lot of blood, and his magic flow is extremely unstable. He could be in life-threatening danger at any moment."
Sigmund, perched atop Charl's head, spoke in a deep voice, giving this judgment.
"How… how could this happen…"
Henri covered her mouth in shock.
Only Rozen clearly understood what had happened.
"His machina heart must have been activated," Rozen directly revealed the truth.
Both Loki and Frey were victims of human experimentation. Their hearts had been mechanized, which not only explained their abnormal hair colors but also granted them extraordinary affinity for magic and outstanding magical aptitude.
However, with advantages come disadvantages — the machina hearts inside the siblings could run out of control at any moment.
When that happened, the machina heart would indiscriminately convert all their blood into mana, forcibly boosting their power but at the risk of their lives.
Setting aside the issue of massive blood loss, if the heart malfunctioned, it would mean certain death.
In the past, Frey had already experienced such a situation, almost losing her life, and was only saved thanks to Rozen.
Now, Loki had encountered the same problem.
However…
"This guy didn't lose control of his machina heart — he deliberately removed the heart's limiters and manually triggered its rampage, forcing it to convert blood into mana to gain power," Rozen ruthlessly exposed Loki's issue.
"Manually?"
Yaya was shocked.
"Is that even possible?" Komurasaki was also stunned.
But this was indeed the truth.
During the summer break, Loki and Frey had undergone special training. Not only had they improved their skills, but they had also learned to wield a trump card.
That trump card was the power of their machina hearts.
After two months of training, both of them had mastered the technique to manually trigger their machina hearts.
This decision had been made before the break, after witnessing Rozen's overwhelming strength.
Loki realized that Rozen's abilities were so extraordinary that he could never catch up through normal means.
Thus, Loki decided to utilize every available resource — including his own machina heart.
Upon seeing Loki's determination, Frey also chose to participate, unwilling to be left behind.
As a result, both learned how to cut open their arteries, evaporate their blood, and forcibly activate their machina hearts to obtain immense mana.
Faced with this crisis, Loki chose to use this trump card.
He had no choice.
"Ordinary automatons could not resist the control of the Multi-Controller. Only banned dolls could barely avoid being dominated. Loki-sama's automatons, being purely mechanical with no organic components, stood no chance — they would only fall into chaos under the effect of Multi-Controller."
"To reclaim control of Cherubim and to fend off the enemies attacking him, Loki-sama had to find a way to break through the dominance of Multi-Controller."
Irori spoke softly, explaining the entire situation.
That was why Loki had ended up like this.
To surpass the control of "Multi-Controller," one must have mana and dominance power greater than its suppression — this had already been mentioned before.
Thus, Loki activated his machina heart, massively converting blood into mana to meet this requirement.
Previously, Rozen had "seen" Loki's mana suddenly surge and wreak havoc all around — that had been the manifestation of his machina heart's activation.
During the time Charl was desperately fighting off attackers, Frey had also tried to cut her wrist to activate her machina heart and help.
Fortunately, Rozen had arrived in time; otherwise, Frey's heart would have malfunctioned again, leaving her bedridden in the hospital for who knows how long.
But Loki wasn't so lucky.
Having activated his machina heart while Rozen was still underground, Loki was now on the verge of death, suffering from massive blood loss, and his heart still hadn't stabilized, causing his mana to remain wildly unstable and violent.
"Loki! Loki!"
Frey cried, tears streaming down her face as she kept shaking Loki.
"Don't just stand there! Save him already!"
Charl pounded Rozen's back with her tiny fists.
"He needs to learn a lesson. Otherwise, he'll keep acting so recklessly and get himself killed sooner or later," Rozen said, clearly annoyed.
Rozen could understand Loki's desire to reclaim Cherubim's control, but once he had succeeded, Loki should have immediately withdrawn and found a safe place to stabilize his condition. That way, he could have kept his machina heart under control and stopped the blood loss without a major issue.
But instead, he chose to fight on recklessly after regaining control.
Who else could he blame for this mess?
Loki's pride was too high — letting him learn a hard lesson wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"If you want me to save you every time you mess up, just keep playing like this. One day when you finally die, I'll just take care of your sister for you. After all, she's pretty and has a great figure — it'll be a total win for me."
Rozen callously provoked Loki like that.
"Pretty…"
Frey, with tears still streaming down her face, blushed.
Meanwhile, Yaya was exuding dark energy from her entire body, and even Irori and Komurasaki looked unhappy, leaving Charl feeling strangely uncomfortable too.
Under these circumstances, Rozen used healing charms and blood-replenishing talismans, sticking them onto Loki's body for treatment.
At that moment...
"To the kind professors, diligent guards, and promising students of the Academy, greetings."
The voice of the witch echoed throughout the entire academy.