Chapter 71 Genius

She closed her eyes with weariness, afraid that she had ruined the chance for Valerie to complete her casting.

But the crash that she had been anticipating never came. Her momentum slowed down and she came to a halt before the unthinkable could have happened.

When she opened her eyes, white color reflected in her retina as if she had seen something excessively bright.

She felt as if she had been blinded by the light but her sight returned to normal after that and she saw the light for what it truly was.

It was a white flame that felt bone chillingly cold and had a bluish centre with a snow-white exterior layer.

She was relieved to see the flame that was wrapped around her and was busy repelling the black flame.

Calista could have recognized that flame even if it had been one of her dreams. This flame had managed to beat the Black Flame of her student previously so she was aware of its prowess. It was an exact antithesis to Kyouko's.

The black flame was like a waterfall falling into an endless abyss as it was being devoured by the cold flame which managed to break the momentum of Calista as well and stopped her from interrupting Valerie in her cast.

Calista cast a glance at Zavier which was full of gratefulness. She knew that the White flame had come from him.

This slight interaction was witnessed by Kyouko who was already close to freezing point after her flame had been stopped.

She was not shocked that her flame had been stopped but that the thing that had stopped it was none other than "Cold Blaze". A skill that was even harder to master than her Black Flame and was enough to stop her flame from doing any damage at all.

Kyouko was afraid that the skill had belonged to Calista who had only revealed her trump card at that moment. But then she saw Calista looking towards Zavier at her back.

It was then that she found out who the skill actually belonged to. It was none other than one of the students standing inconspicuously at the back.

Kyouko didn't feel angry anymore. Rather she felt relieved at this outcome. Had it been Calista who had cast the skill, it would have ruined her fighting capability against her. Thankfully for her, that wasn't the case.

As for the puny Cold Blaze cast by the kid, Kyouko had the perfect way to crush his spirit.

Though he was on the opposite side, Kyouko had no choice but to acknowledge that Zavier was indeed a prodigy, a prodigy who could one day have surpassed herself.

Learning Cold Blaze at such a young age was no easy feat after all. His potential would have been endless had he not showed it to her then.

Kyouko didn't let her Black flame extinguish and gave it more magic power to fight against the opposing Cold Blaze.

Zavier had already started to sweat from the effort that it was taking him to keep the Black Flame at bay.

At the beginning it had been as easy as the flick of his finger but with the passage of time, the flame continued to grow stronger while he was unable to endure the increasing energy contained within his white bone-chilling flame after devouring the black flame repeatedly.

Kyouko on the other hand looked as leisurely as she could. She had been overpowering Calista without even breaking a sweat. And now even the "Cold Blaze" that had momentarily stopped her was close to losing its ground against the Black Flame.

Kyouko stared at Calista with a smile that hid her malicious intentions she was harboring.

"I have to say that I'm impressed. Hoh…do not be happy too soon…I wasn't talking about you; I was talking about that student of yours. It's not every day that you find someone this talented and accomplished at magic at his age."

Calista's face twisted in anxiety because she knew what would come out of Kyouko's mouth next. She felt that it would have been better had Zavier not helped them. Then she wouldn't have had to face a situation where she had to choose between her student and Valerie.

She gritted her teeth and stared at Kyouko with reddish eyes, looking for an opening to make her move.

But how could Kyouko have left any openings?

She was in perfect control of herself unlike Calista who was already drowning in a sea of worries. Worried about Valerie, worried about herself, worried about Alissa, and now she had to be worried about Kyouko killing Zavier too for he had shown his true potential that was threatening to Kyouko who wanted to strangle him in the cradle lest he grow up to be a threat to her safety in the future.

"I haven't seen "Cold Blaze" of this level in a long while. You must be very proud of yourself kid, for it is not something that just any genius can do. You have a talent that even I cannot ignore, and your potential is among the highest I have ever seen. However, unfortunately for the both of us, you are standing on the opposite side. So, if I were to let you go today, wouldn't that compromise my mental ability and my decision-making skills?

Therefore, I have decided that instead of ignoring you like I usually would have so you would die in the hands of someone crueller than myself; I will grant you the honor of being killed off by my own hands. Be grateful, it is your reward for being so talented. You have earned the honor with your own genius."

Kyouko burst into laughter after her monologue but nobody else found it funny, especially Calista and Zavier who found it rather gut wrenching that Zavier too had become one of her prime targets after he had shown what he was capable of.

Zavier had no energy in him to retort to her excessive gift. If he had had the energy to respond, he would have definitely returned the same courtesy to her.

He had his hands full trying to block the Black flame. But suddenly everything changed, the flame that had been trying to resist and fight back against his white flame, stopped resisting and allowed itself to be devoured endlessly by the white flame. It felt as if it had given up but the reality was far away from it.

The Cold Blaze was in fact more powerful when it came to the hierarchy of skills but the level that it had been developed to had been far shorter compared to the Black Flame. Zavier had just gotten it a while back while Kyouko had been practicing the same art for as long as she had been a mage which was quite long considering that she was older than even Valerie.

Not all mages advanced at the speed that Zavier was progressing. They had to hone their talent from their childhood and advanced step by step until they finally achieved their goal. He on the other hand had just become a mage in a single day without even lifting a finger. So, it was only natural to assume that Kyouko had practiced the skill since childhood just as Shiranui was doing after her.

Therefore, the output of skill was definitely greater than that of Zavier. Most importantly, her magic power was as vast as the sea while Zavier's was more like a little well. He was nowhere close to her league yet he had walked into the playground of the professionals somehow.