But Shirone didn't stop teleporting.
No matter how precise Dante's defense was, it couldn't overcome the inherent delay between stimulus and response.
'Now!'
The instant Shirone leaned forward in his photonized state, Dante transformed into light and retreated.
A superhuman reflex—but this time, it backfired. Shirone withdrew his feint and pulled back.
'Shit!'
By the time Dante realized Shirone's strategy, he was already mid-teleportation, flying backward.
With 20 meters suddenly between them, Shirone immediately fired a Photon Cannon.
Against the encroaching net of photons, even Dante's movements were useless. His only escape was downward. Landing on the ground, he deployed a defensive magic circle above his head.
Shirone gritted his teeth and cast spell after spell.
Immortal Function expanded a mage's mind infinitely, but reality was harsh. Fully unlocking the infinite would dissolve the self entirely.
Thus, Unlockers like Shirone drew power from the Spirit Zone—a barrier between reality and the infinite.
In effect, it granted endless mental stamina, but if the Spirit Zone's durability couldn't withstand the infinite's weight, the user would be swept away instantly.
Yet despite expending energy far beyond safe limits, Shirone remained unshaken. His mind had reached a diamond-like state, surpassing even the concept of endurance.
'More! More! More!'
Powered by his colossal mental strength, Photon Cannons rained down without pause.
"Ghhh—!"
Dante spread ten defensive magic circles like a roof over his head, straining to hold on. It made no sense—normally, any mage's spells would weaken with continuous casting. But Shirone's assault wasn't weakening—it was growing stronger.
'Damn it! What kind of monstrous firepower is this?!'
Even against the kingdom's hardest hitters, Dante had never felt so overwhelmed.
It hit him then—Immortal Function. What he had dismissed as a monk's mental exercise was now crushing him mercilessly.
The bombardment lasted a full two minutes.
Dante couldn't move an inch from where he stood. Even his famed evasion skills were useless against the hail of attacks.
The students glanced nervously at the training grounds' bracelets, which were growing unnaturally hot. The bracelets, which regulated information exchange within the arena, were heating up enough to burn—proof of the insane data flow between Shirone and Dante.
"They're not going to explode, are they?"
At Mark's fearful question, Amy reassured him.
"Relax. Even the graduating class didn't cause any issues. Even if the system overheats, the safety protocols will kick in before anything catastrophic happens."
Mark sighed in relief.
"O-Oh, good."
Amy added casually:
"Though it's pretty rare for them to get this hot."
Shirone was growing impatient. Over three minutes had passed, and Dante's defenses still hadn't broken. But Dante's stubborn resistance only fueled Shirone's determination.
'Then…!'
Shirone stopped the Photon Cannon barrage and switched to a laser. A single red streak struck Dante's magic circles.
When the attack proved weaker than expected, Dante snorted and began repairing his defenses.
Ten magic circles were restored to perfection in an instant.
But moments later, his face twisted oddly—and then, unlike before, an energy far stronger than the Photon Cannon began gathering.
"W-What is this…?!"
The instant Dante gasped in shock, Shirone poured everything into amplifying the laser.
The beam's thickness expanded rapidly.
Finally, as power drawn from the infinite realm fully manifested, a colossal crimson light swallowed Dante whole.
The students gulped at the sight of Dante's shadow, burning within the laser.
As the beam thinned and vanished, Dante stood motionless, arms still shielding his face. The magic circles that had blocked the Photon Cannons were gone without a trace.
Shirone landed opposite Dante. Slowly lowering his hands, Dante glared at Shirone, grinding his teeth audibly.
Dante: "Damn it..."
His knees buckled as if broken, slamming against the ground. No matter how hard he tried to resist, the destructive power of the Photon Cannon was overwhelming. The anti-magic shockwave hitting his brain was incomparable to any spell he'd experienced before in Arena #2000.
Spectator 1: "This can't be... Dante's on his knees again."
While the first knockdown could be dismissed as Shirone's surprise attack succeeding, this second one clearly demonstrated a gap in their abilities. The students watched in stunned silence - this outcome was shocking.
Even among the faculty, murmurs spread. Who could've predicted that Shirone, with only one year of magical training, would floor the kingdom's top-ranked Dante twice?
Ethela observed: "His personality is sharp, but unexpectedly his magic has heavyweight power. While lacking finesse is a weakness, his raw destructive force more than compensates."
A mage's spells reveal their nature. This is especially true for Unlockers whose magic manifests through unique circuits.
At Ethela's praise, Sade pursed his lips. While he didn't personally like Shirone (who monopolized female students' affections), he couldn't deny the boy's skill.
Sade muttered: "Well... he is serious about everything."
Dante's knockdown electrified the crowd. Students began chanting Shirone's name, the echoes further amplifying the excitement.
Neid blinked rapidly: "Was Shirone's magic... always this brutal?"
Iruki shared the thought: "Either he's always had this capability, or he's playing psychological games too. This is different from last semester - seems he's undergone some personal transformation."
Amy, resting her chin on her hand, smirked: "Well... he's been through some rough experiences."
Shirone had fought bloody battles against mercenaries on Galliant Island. In Heaven, he'd faced numerous superhuman opponents. It would've been stranger if he remained unchanged from last semester.
Reporter Kilaine was aghast: "My god... Dante... how is this possible...?" Beyond his undefeated record, no student had ever made Dante kneel so completely in any previous match.
'Shirone? How has someone like him never appeared in our magazines before?' Her research showed Shirone had only studied magic for one year. If true, he hadn't had time to make headlines.
When she first heard this, Kilaine didn't believe it. Even if true, she assumed he was just some overhyped provincial talent. But now he was completely overwhelming Dante - a true comet-like rookie.
Dante slowly rose. Unlike after the first knockdown, his face now showed no emotion.
Dante muttered: "Second knockdown. That's a first." Counting further was meaningless - Shirone himself was unprecedented.
Normally, offense-focused mages were Dante's favorite opponents to crush. But against someone with such monstrous punching power, that approach backfired.
A bitter smile twisted Dante's lips. He never expected to use this magic circle before graduating. He'd never deployed it in official matches, and only twice unofficially - against a active 9th-rank mage and a 70-strong B-class mercenary band (facts known only to Closer and Sabina).
Dante declared: "My apologies. I seem to have underestimated you."
A gigantic crimson magic circle, ten times larger than standard instant-cast ones, blazed to life around Dante. Siana noted with shock that his mental gauge - previously showing no depletion despite the battle - suddenly dropped by over half.
Dante whispered: "Central Calculation Array: Pascal."
The massive circle flared red, then spawned over a hundred subsidiary magic circles simultaneously. Shirone stared in shock at the different spells each circle prepared - it felt like facing a hundred mages at once.
Dante taunted: "How's that for an Immortal Function? Impressive, isn't it? That's an Unlocker's insight for you."
Shirone had no breath to reply. Though he didn't recognize the spells, their dimensionality surpassed instant-cast circles entirely. Without immediate analysis, he'd lose the advantage.
Dante announced: "Now I'll show you everything I have."
Simultaneously, the hundred circles unleashed a storm of magic: Wind Cutters, Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, Ice Spears, even non-physical photon emissions. Most shocking was the dozen-plus spell types being cast concurrently.
Even Iruki, a Servant capable of Double Spirit Zone, could manage only two simultaneous spells normally. This spectacle felt dreamlike.
Neid gnawed his thumbnail: "It must be... parallel processing."
Mark turned in shock: "Parallel processing? Those magic circles?"
Neid explained: "Magic requires extreme concentration - normally you can't spare a single stray thought while casting. But Dante's circles each have independent circuits."
Mark protested: "How? Without multiple brains, you can only maintain one spell per circuit! Even passives follow sequential activation!"
Neid pointed: "Exactly. Dante created a second brain. That central Pascal circle converges and distributes his circuits in parallel."
Neid's analysis was precise. Pascal stored a mage's circuit patterns in memory, then processed them via parallel computation. Once activated, Dante became relentlessly offensive, overwhelming foes with extreme firepower.
As proof, every basic spell taught at school came pouring out. Yet Shirone didn't relent. Creating virtual memory to parallelize serial thoughts was astonishing, but parallel processing had weaknesses - individual spell power decreased, as shown by Dante only using basic magic.
'No time. Must end this now.' Shirone's infinite domain wouldn't last much longer. His only chance was overpowering Dante immediately.
He fired a Photon Cannon at full power - but midway, the near-lightspeed photons slowed to snail's pace. Realization struck: Dante's hundreds of circles formed small clusters influencing specific spatial zones.
Connecting these clusters revealed cube-like "mansions" casting specialized spells within their boundaries.
Neid shouted incredulously: "3D Mansions? A student can do that?!"
Dante had assembled 2D magic circles into 3D structures. Shirone's Photon Cannon had entered a "Slow Mansion" created by six strategically placed circles.
3D Mansions offered efficiency surpassing planar limits through spatial circuit integration. But their shifting patterns made identifying component circles impossible - like trying to recognize a 3D shape from scattered dots.
Dante jeered: "How's this, Shirone? Still think you can dodge?"
Six air-element circles moved, trapping Shirone in a Pressure Mansion.
Shirone gasped: "Guh!"
As spine-crushing weight hit him, an electric mansion above Dante charged with blue bolts. The lightning strike scorched the air where it passed, pursuing Shirone relentlessly - the Photon Mansion tracked his coordinates in real-time.
Shirone's vision swam. This didn't feel like fighting a person, but a battleship with countless weapon systems.
Dodging a vertical Ice Spear with a ground roll, Shirone heard sizzling near his ear as an Atomic Bomb detonated where he'd just been. Students gaped at Dante's firepower.
Spectator 2: "What kind of magic IS that?!"
Even Mark was baffled. Though Pascal handled parallel processing, a human brain should be incapable of managing hundreds of circles. Iruki turned to Neid, whose grave expression showed she'd already understood.
Iruki demanded: "Neid, explain. I'm completely lost."
Neid answered: "It's... an automaton."
Iruki: "Automaton?"
Neid elaborated: "Mechanical automation. Like interlocking gears - turn the first, and the last outputs a fixed value. Simple mechanisms scaled astronomically can achieve seemingly impossible tasks - like that photon tracking or mansion switching."
Shirone experienced the automaton's power firsthand. However he countered, the self-calculating system responded flawlessly - an impregnable fortress. Though using basic spells, mansion-enhanced versions packed extraordinary power.
Dodging barrages, Shirone desperately sought Dante - but he'd vanished behind hundreds of floating circles, their gaze like some multi-eyed monster's.
Shirone roared: "Rrghh!"
Firing Photon Cannons wildly, the automaton instantly countered. A Lightning Cannon from a Bolt Mansion intercepted with blinding force, popping the photons like balloons. A grazing shot triggered anti-magic, making Shirone stagger as the automaton unleashed everything.
When Pascal finally sputtered out, smoke revealed Shirone clutching one shoulder. Then his knees buckled.
Spectator 3 gasped: "Sh-Shirone's down!"
One knockdown wasn't the issue - the direct anti-magic hit meant his durability was compromised, signaling Immortal Function's end.
Alpheas murmured: "Truly remarkable."
Even he had to admire Dante's system: parallel-processing Pascal, power-amplifying 3D Mansions, and automaton automation - a functional masterpiece.
Integrating automata with information magic? Most professional mages couldn't achieve this. No - at student level, it should be impossible... unless one assumption held true.
Alpheas realized: "Binary computation?"
Olivia stayed silent, confirming it. Only one race came to mind that used 1/0-based magic systems natively.
Alpheas breathed: "Since when... has Dante known Dragon Tongue?"
Olivia smiled - no point hiding what he'd already guessed.
Olivia shrugged: "What of it? Binary magic isn't exclusive to dragons."