The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

On the grasslands to the south of Eddo, the Capital of T’oued…

A group of warriors and mages stood around one man.

Amidst the tense atmosphere, one of the warriors lunged at the man in the center.

“ORA!”

“What the hell, Bruce!? We haven’t gotten the cue to start yet!”

Today was the day for everyone to adjust themselves to the strength they had gained from the rapid leveling they had been doing. Asley, Lylia, Irene, and Warren had decided that this was necessary, since the rapid increase in levels could lead to one not being used to moving their own body.

The first people to take part in this exercise were those in the Silver who were most well-acquainted with Asley.

“Consider that the cue to start, then! Hah!”

Betty leaped up and threw a dagger at Asley right after the latter dodged Bruce’s strike.

Asley spun his staff to flick the dagger away, then cast a spell at Blazer as the latter attempted to sneak up behind him.

“Rise, Fire!”

“Oh no, you don’t!”

Bruce deflected the ball of fire before it could hit Blazer.

Blazer proceeded to jump over Bruce’s sword and slash at Asley.

“Hah!”

Asley used his staff to flick the sword swing away.

“Ngh–!”

As Blazer staggered due to his sword being deflected, Ryan charged right past him.

“Ah, better watch your step, Sir Ryan.”

And right as Asley pointed it out, Ryan noticed something unusual underfoot.

“A fixed position Spell Circle!? When did you–!?”

“From the very beginning!”

Asley cracked a bold grin.

The trap Spell Circle was about to go off… but then it did not.

“Rise, A-rise! Parasitic Control!”

The one who had stopped the Spell Circle from taking effect was Natsu, Team Silver’s only mage, who now stood behind Ryan. Interrupting Asley’s drawing of Spell Circles was difficult, but it was relatively simple to disable a fixed position type Spell Circle that Asley had already taken his hands off of.

“Nice, Natsu!”

“Ehehe, praise me more!”

Natsu smiled happily — and as Asley looked on, happy for her, a perfectly calm yet enticing whisper sent a chill down his spine.

“…Excuse me…”

[That voice… it’s Haruhana. But why would she talk when going for a back attack? Oh, I know… it’s a misdirection technique!]

Seeing through the improvised trap, Asley gave no response to Haruhana and simply moved away… backward.

“Wha–!?”

Slamming his back against Haruhana — that was Asley’s method of dealing with her trap.

Keeping his eyes forward, he then saw Adolf and Reyna attempting to attack him from above.

Asley released a blast of arcane energy to intercept them, and then caught Haruhana’s katana with his armpit.

Then, noticing Betty approaching him from the side, he parried her sword swing with his staff.

“Gah, that hurt! What was that for!? You idiot!”

The impact caused Betty’s hand to go numb, prompting her to curse at Asley. Asley could not spare a moment to respond, however.

“I can see you two over there, Idéa and Midors!”

He unleashed an arcane energy blast past Betty, hitting the two and dispelling the effect of their Invisible Illusion.

“Tch–!? When did he even notice us!?”

“Let’s just go through with it, Idéa!”

“”Rise, A-rise! Earth Javelin!””

Two javelin-shaped rocks flew past Betty’s sides. Blazer, Bruce, and Ryan also approached Asley from the front.

“How about this, then!?”

Asley released Haruhana’s katana from his armpit, and at the same time, pulled Haruhana toward him.

Then he jumped backward over Haruhana, putting her at the spot he had been standing.

“Damn it!”

“Leader! He’s all yours!”

Bruce and Ryan caught the Earth Javelins before they could hit Haruhana, while Blazer leaped over Haruhana to pursue Asley.

Asley landed a short distance behind his original spot, and right then, two swords came at him.

“Gotcha, Asley!”

“One, two…!”

Reid and Mana swing at Asley. Asley used his staff to defend against both attacks at once, then swung it to redirect their swings at Blazer as the latter came at him from the front.

“Ngh–!”

Blazer was forced to stop and catch Reid and Mana’s swords, but then…

“…Leader, lend me your shoulder!”

“Go on!”

Haruhana stepped on Blazer’s shoulder and leaped at Asley — but then she was caught off-guard once again, as Asley had also jumped from Reid’s shoulder.

They clashed in mid-air, and Haruhana’s katana was easily intercepted due to her having not yet committed to the slash.

Asley proceeded to grab Haruhana’s arm, and then…

“Sorry!”

“Hmm!?”

He threw her at Idéa and Midors as they were in the middle of drawing Spell Circles, interrupting their attempted attack.

Asley then went for his next target — straight ahead a little distance away.

“Rise, A-rise! Transient Bla–!?”

Springboarding off a Magic Table, Asley closed the gap between him and Natsu in an instant, and proceeded to stop the swinging of her staff.

“Focus, Natsu! It’s about to explode, you know!”

“Huh!? Relly!? Uh…!?”

Natsu panicked and scrambled to fix her mistake.

Asley was about to let out a sigh of relief, but then another danger came from behind him.

Noticing that, he leaped away to dodge it.

The attack was from Betty, who went for Asley’s back, destroying Natsu’s failed-and-about-to-explode Craft Circle along the way.

[Whoa!? How’d Betty get here!?]

Asley was surprised for a moment, but then, in a corner of his eye, he saw Haruhana — holding her buttocks in pain — being caught by Idéa and Midors.

“Oh, so you jumped on Haruhana, huh!?”

“Her butt, specifically — pretty bouncy, you know~~?”

Asley had not even a moment to be exasperated by Betty’s joking tone, as Ryan and Bruce were attacking him. He proceeded to redirect their charge toward Betty and Natsu.

“Whoawhoawhoa–!? Damn it, Betty! Get out of the way!”

“What the– Ryan!? Can’t you put your hands somewhere else!?”

“Ugh, rock solid– I mean, I wish my leg muscles were still this nice, too…!”

“BRUCE! You’re so heavy!”

“Rise, Gravity Stop!”

With the four of them clumped together, Asley cast a gravity spell on them all, then turned to face Reyna and Adolf as they closed in on him.

“Yah-hah!”

Then he rushed forward and put his hands over their necks.

“AAH!?”

“W-wow…!”

“Okay, two down!”

Right after saying that, Asley disappeared.

Reid and Mana picked their weapons back up and tried to track Asley down, but they could not perceive him at his current movement speed.

“Annnddd… two more down!”

Asley placed his left hand over Mana’s neck, and nudged Reid’s head with the Drynium Rod in his right hand.

He then went for Haruhana, Idéa, and Midors right as they regained their bearings.

“Ora!”

Midors stepped forward to try and catch Asley’s attack, but Asley did not land on the expected spot, going further past it.

“What the–!? Levitation!?”

The Drynium Rod was pointed at Idéa’s neck.

Aiming to exploit this momentary opening, Haruhana swung her katana in an upward arc.

But then Asley twisted Haruhana’s arm back and used his knee to nudge her knee, causing her to drop her katana.

Then Haruhana felt a staggering blast of wind as Asley went for a powerful knee strike. Her expression stiffened, but then Asley stopped before his strike landed.

Midors tried to draw a Spell Circle, but as soon as he turned around, Asley released Haruhana and Idéa, and took Midors down with a body slam.

“Gwoh!? THAT… FREAKING… HURT!!”

Middors writhed, his hands clutching the back of his head.

“All right, that’s a wrap for the first round.”

Asley said, clapping his hands as he got up.

Idéa, standing behind him, tilted her head.

“Huh? What about our Leader?”

“Blazer? He’s sleeping over there.”

Asley pointed with his thumb at where Blazer was.

He was simply standing there, doing nothing else.

Just before Asley rushed over to Natsu, he had cast the Slumber Sleight spell on Blazer.

And now, Blazer was indeed sleeping, despite not falling over.

“Gah, and he’s got his eyes wide open…”

“Probably ’cause he’s got a ton of determination, huh…”

Reid and Mana, standing near Blazer, commented as they checked on him.

Idéa, hearing that, turned to Asley with her eyes twitching.

“Unbelievable. How did you even find the time to do this…?”

She groaned, totally dumbfounded.

Asley chuckled and turned to Haruhana as the latter sighed out of admiration for him.

“That was a valuable lesson learned.”

“And you didn’t even have to use that many spells… So cool!”

Reyna bowed to Asley, while Adolf was utterly impressed by the experience.

“H-hey, Asley! Since you’re done over here now, mind getting us out of this!?”

“My boobs are gonna get all squished up!”

“The hell are you saying, Betty!? You ain’t got boobs — that’s all muscle!”

“What– you’ll regret saying that, Brother!”

“Hahaha… But seriously, Sir Asley, Natsu may suffocate if we are stuck like this! Please hurry!”

“HNGGGGGG~~!!”

Asley chuckled and disengaged the Gravity Stop spell with a shake of his hand. Reyna and Adolf proceeded to help the four up.

“Whew… Man, I really felt the difference between our abilities! Hahaha!”

“I thought I was gonna last a little bit longer, though…”

Betty said, frustrated.

“But I also learned a lot, you know. You guys make a good team, even without planning anything beforehand.”

Team Silver had been one of the best in their line of work for some time now — and of course, Asley knew that well. However, they were in uncharted territory when they had to fight Asley, as they had no idea what the limits of his abilities were. Despite that, though, they had shown exceptional teamwork during the fight itself.

And that was why Asley was surprised by their lack of prior planning for today.

“Made a good team… Do you mean in the way we were uniformly destroyed by you?”

Ryan said, sarcastically crooking up an edge of his mouth.

That got Asley to reply with a dry chuckle.

“Ah… ahahaha…”

“Boo… I didn’t even have the time to call out Shiny!”

“Well, the Kisaragis will be here soon, and with Professor Minerva’s help, they’ll be able to mass-produce a better staff that lets you have more Swift Magic slots, you know? So how about you put the House spell into one of those additional slots?”

“Wait, I can do that!?”

“Well, yeah… probably.”

Asley answered without much confidence, scratching his cheek while looking up at the sky.

“Woohoo! That’s great!”

Natsu jumped around in joy.

Midors, now mostly recovered from the pain, put a hand over the bump on his head and heaved a sigh.

“Man, I’m not surprised by whatever the hell you pull off anymore.”

“Hahaha, right… Now, Hornel’s group is up next, huh?”

Asley muttered to himself while looking at Hornel, Irene, and the others a little distance away.

Pochi was not among them due to going with Lylia to the Scarlet Devil Wetlands in order to supervise the other mages’ training.

While waiting for Hornel’s group to walk toward him, Asley swung his arms and did some stretching.

[Everyone’s getting stronger at faster rates than I expected. Looks like our preparations for the Fetal Stage are going well!]

Asley was able to stay optimistic despite having faced the overwhelming might of Lucifer, and more recently, the even more powerful Gaspard.

For a moment, his eyes were full of hope — but then the next, the world was shaken to its core.

A thunderous explosion resounded through the mountains. The earth quaked. Extreme arcane energy pressure filled the air. Everyone present in the vicinity — except Asley — dropped to their knees.

Their bodies shook involuntarily no matter how hard they tried to stop it.

Natsu, despite having been over the moon moments ago, was now curling up like a turtle and seemed to have difficulties even breathing.

“Hah… hah… hah hah…!”

Bruce tried to say something, but the most he could manage was clatter his teeth.

The only one who could still move was Asley — and even then, he was close to panicking, his eyes cast down as his breath grew heavier.

“Ngh…! Rise, A-rise, A-rise. A-rise…! Magic Shield: Count 10 & Remote Control!!”

Asley cast the same spell as he had done the last time this happened.

The Spell Circles themselves were of the fixed position type, and were carried to various locations of Eddo and set up by Magic Tables. The Magic Tables’ excess arcane energy was then used to invoke the zenith-level support magic spell — something only Asley could currently do.

The Magic Shields combined into one gigantic dome that covered the entirety of the city.

“GAH!? Hah hah hah…! W-what the hell happened!?”

Midors asked, but Asley had no time to answer.

He immediately drew up a teleportation Spell Circle and stepped onto it, heading to Beilanea.

There were still some children staying at the Pochisley Agency, not to mention Itsuki, Tifa, and other friends like Duncan. All of them were surely unable to withstand this pressuring arcane energy.

Asley knew that because he had gone through this once before.

[This shaking and pressure… there’s no mistaking it! It’s the Devil King…! The Devil King has returned!]

That definitely was the sign of the Devil King’s actual resurrection, even though the Fetal Stage had yet to happen.

Asley wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and quickly set up another Magic Shield around Beilanea.

[But why now!? How!?]

Without answers, Asley kept on running.

But one thing that was certain was that, on this day, the world was forced to acknowledge the Devil King’s resurrection.

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