After the weekend and two days of specialized classes, the midterm exams finally began. Simon forced all thoughts of Manus from his mind, dedicating himself entirely to his written tests.
"Don’t be nervous," Aaron said, his voice a low calm in the tense classroom.
"Just perform as well as you’ve prepared."
Exam papers lay facedown on the desks of the students, who all had their hands resting on their heads.
"Cheating will result in a zero," Aaron continued, a faint glint in his eyes.
"I won’t tell you not to do it, but by all ans, try if you think you can."
As befitting a Summoning Studies professor, Aaron had a unique thod for catching cheaters. Dragonfly-like summons with multiple, unblinking eyes floated around him, surveying the room. After a final check of the clock, he announced, "Begin."
The exams for their major were a grueling four-hour march—a battle of sheer concentration that forced students to endure even the most pressing calls of nature. Simon focused on the heavy stack of paper and the dense black text, working through the questions one by one.
During the midterm period, each professor had their own peculiar way of catching cheaters, which provided a small, dark source of amusent. The Summoning Studies professors deployed summons that enhanced their sight and hearing. Jane ticulously calculated the classroom’s dinsions to position her assistants flawlessly in the rear and on the flanks. Professor Hong Feng, anwhile, climbed onto her lectern to glower down at the students, as if ready to crush them with her gaze alone.
"Pardon for a mont, everyone," Bahil announced with a chilling smile.
He had cast a curse upon the very classroom itself. The students had to take their exams trembling in a room that had turned a ghastly crimson, like a scene from a horror novel. Their terror was amplified by their ignorance of how the curse actually worked. It would be a nightmare if it malfunctioned, even for those with no intention of cheating.
"Hmph."
Having entrusted the monitoring to his curse, Bahil pretended to patrol the aisles while diligently scrutinizing Simon’s exam paper.
’The pressure is imnse!’ Simon wanted to cry. When he was writing answers for the essay questions, Bahil stood so close behind him that Simon could feel the professor’s excited breathing on his neck.
’Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!’
With that kind of intense gaze boring into him, the back of Simon’s head prickled. Having completely forgotten his duties as a proctor, Bahil was eventually smacked on the back by the head assistant, Chehekle, who subdued him and dragged him away.
The most difficult subject, surprisingly, was Imperial Studies, which was held on the final day.
’Northern and Southern Baldwin Kingdom Style: Identify all incorrectly angled plates and utensils.’
’Identify the incorrect order of the course al. Note: The season is sumr and the dress code is black.’
’What in the world does the dress code have to do with the order of the courses?’ Simon fud internally. The etiquette of Imperial Studies felt like a malicious prank devised by bored nobles. He couldn’t understand why anyone would need to be so on edge during what should be an enjoyable al.
The easiest test, thankfully, was the one that followed.
"What are you doing?" Parahan, the professor of Defense Against Divinity, asked, his expression one of pure bewildernt.
"Ah," Simon mumbled, lifting his head. He had already closed his test booklet and laid his head on his desk just five minutes after the exam began.
"I finished."
A few annoyed glares were shot his way, but he was too exhausted to care. He simply put his head back down and closed his eyes.
An hour later, a clear bell chid.
"It’s over!"
"We’re free!"
Students cheered, tossing their exam papers into the air. Their faces were haggard and their eyes were hollow, but every single one of them was in high spirits. Simon, however, couldn’t celebrate just yet. He had one more test to face, one just as important as the midterms.
’I need to get back, quickly.’
He had given his all for the midterms; now it was ti to focus on the Manus Dullahan again. He had two days left. Instead of heading to the Mutants club, Simon made his way to Pier’s Ruins, where the Legion’s Ancient Undead resided.
"We have to dispose of sothing so horrific!"
When Benya had found out Simon had been injured while creating the Manus Dullahan, she had been furious, insisting that he destroy it imdiately. But Simon had shaken his head.
"Getting hurt was entirely my mistake. I think it’s too early to give up on the research."
Benya was still worried, but since Manus belonged to Simon, she hadn’t pressed the issue. Still, keeping it in the club’s basent was too dangerous with the first-years around, so Simon had decided to move it to the safety of Pier’s Ruins.
[Kuhuhu! You’ve co, boy!]
[You have arrived, Young Master.]
[Legion Commandeeer!]
Simon’s Ancient Undead—Pier, Akemus, and Erzebet—greeted him warmly. The lich staff, ’Herseva’, floated in midair, swaying from side to side in greeting.
"Has everyone been well?" Simon asked, nodding to them as he walked deeper into the ruins. He could see Manus’s skull resting on the central altar.
"Was Manus quiet during my exams?"
[Kuhuhuhu! Indeed. It remained silent,] Pier confird.
Simon sank down onto the stone floor and began to take out his Dullahan creation materials. Erzebet approached, her face etched with concern.
[Are you certain you will be alright, starting so soon after your exams? You should rest for today.]
"No." Simon’s voice was firm as he laid out his tools. "It’s already too late. Now’s the ti to get results, sink or swim."
He pulled a zombie out from his subspace.
"You want to co out, too, Prince?" Simon spoke to the gray ring on his left hand, then touched it to the zombie’s body. Instantly, black lightning crackled across the corpse, transforming it into Prince’s form.
[Hahahaha!] As soon as he appeared, Prince shot out a skeletal hand and pointed at Manus.
[Serves you right, Manus! How does it feel to be just a head?]
Prince and Manus had once fought for control of Death Land. Simon rely shook his head. "Manus’s consciousness has long since vanished."
Ignoring him, Prince continued to taunt the skull. Simon let out a small chuckle and pulled more materials from his subspace.
’Alright, let’s start over, slowly.’
---
Simon had successfully created a Dullahan using Abaddon remains, but that wouldn’t be enough. It couldn’t defeat Hector or Aseraz, let alone the other students who had obtained Guardians. He had to complete the Manus Dullahan, no matter what.
’Still, I managed to organize my thoughts during the midterm period.’
The Dullahan creation process could be simplified to two steps: First, draw two summoning magic circles, one on the head and one on the torso. Second, connect the two circles with a ’Rune of Connection.’ This allowed the head to control the torso despite being physically separate. There was a very good reason for this seemingly inefficient design.
The reason was the explosive power and output of a Dullahan.
When a Dullahan absorbed a massive amount of mana, its Jet-Black Engine would go berserk, flooding its body with power and placing an imnse load on its physique. If the summoning circle were inside the body, it would be consud by the rampaging Jet-Black and destroyed in less than a minute. The Dullahan would have beco a one-ti-use undead, like a ghoul after using Rino’s Golden Thread.
However, the modern Dullahan stored its core summoning circle safely in its head. This made it possible to let the body run wild without any risk of damaging the essential components.
’It’s amazing no matter how many tis I think about it.’ The creator of the first Dullahan had turned the disadvantage of a separated head and torso into a brilliant advantage.
This was all information he had learned in the professors’ special lectures. The problem was that the Rune of Connection only worked when the head and body belonged to the sa original entity. Simon remained stuck on this point, unable to find a breakthrough.
"Another failure." Simon collapsed onto his back, staring at the disastrous results of his latest attempt.
Just then, Pier approached with a low chuckle. [How about giving up on that ’Rune of Connection’?]
"What?"
Pier sat down with a thud next to him. [I don’t know the details of human black magic, but that rune can’t connect two different entities.]
"But," Simon said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, "that’s the very core of a Dullahan. Without the Rune of Connection and its formulas, you can’t even call it a ’Dullahan’."
He had considered assembling Manus as a skeleton, but attaching the body of another skeleton wouldn’t allow it to exert its full power. More importantly, he had promised Aaron he would create the most outstanding ’Dullahan’ among his peers in order to learn Bone Dragon. He absolutely could not give up on that, his ultimate goal for the second year.
[May I say a word, Young Master?] Akemus interjected. [The body one had in life is important, even for an undead. It is exceedingly rare for a different consciousness to move a body that was not its own. Of course, there is one exception—]
"An exception?"
[A Chira,] Akemus said, a strange light flickering in his eyes. [Specifically, an Abomination. As an undead myself, I don’t look favorably on such things, but do Abominations not move with different pieces of flesh stitched together?]
Hearing those words, Simon shot up from the floor.
---
"You want to know if an undead’s consciousness can move the body of another undead?"
Simon once again found himself in Grelion’s research lab, the sa cave he had reached by minecart during his first Summoning Materials Science class. The air was thick with a hazy mist and the heavy scent of sweat.
"Hoo," Grelion grunted, repeatedly lifting a massive barbell in the center of the cave. Boulders of equal size were attached to either end of the iron bar.
’How can a human possibly lift that?’ Simon watched, his mouth agape.
Grelion set the barbell down with a heavy thud and finally strode toward Simon. As he wiped the sweat from his neck with a towel, Simon noted that the professor was definitely slimr than before. He had been like this ever since the battle in the Frigod Autonomous Region, likely a backlash from using the technique that had turned his entire body into a chira.
"Why are you curious about sothing like that?"
Simon quickly stepped aside, realizing Grelion wasn’t approaching him but was heading for another piece of equipnt. This ti, he gripped a large, lever-like device connected to the cave wall and began to squeeze and release it.
The device creaked and groaned with each repetition, and the entire cave trembled as if it were screaming.
"I would think students should be focusing on creating Dullahans right now," Grelion grunted between reps.
Simon smiled awkwardly. "Actually..."
He explained the entire situation to Grelion—that the Guardian he possessed was only a body, and he wanted to use the head of another undead to control it.
Hearing this, Grelion threw his head back and laughed. "What an interesting idea! Most would dismiss such a thought as a re delusion, but the fact that you seriously ca to for help is fascinating!"
He dropped the lever and closed the distance between them. "It’s just as Aaron said."
"Pardon?"
"It’s nothing. To answer your question, yes, it is possible for an undead’s consciousness to link to the body of another, but only under certain conditions." He summoned several books from his subspace. "You probably ca here thinking of Abominations, right?"
’How did he know?’ Thinking that professors were truly on another level, Simon obediently nodded.
"First, the runic language used by Abominations looks like this."
Simon’s eyes widened. ’It’s... incredibly difficult.’ Not only was it complex, but its entire system was different from the runes he used.
"And while Abominations may look like a jumble of flesh, they are actually processed with chira technology so that multiple bodies function as one. It’s not the sa as moving two separate bodies."
"Ah."
Grelion slamd his fist against the cave wall. "I’ll ask you this, Simon Polentia."
"Yes! Please do."
"Your concept is undoubtedly radical." A corner of Grelion’s mouth lifted into a smirk. "So why isn’t your thod?"
Simon’s eyes widened.
"Why are you trying to reference existing summoning knowledge? Why are you only trying to follow the system of established runes?" Grelion raised a thick arm. "I think your idea is a delusion. But you are seriously trying to make that delusion a reality."
"Why? Because it would be cool? Because it would be amazing if you completed it? No."
"It’s none of those." His fingertip stopped an inch from Simon’s forehead. "It’s because you truly believe you can do it."
Simon said nothing.
"The answer is in your head, Simon. Can you truly say, with confidence, that you are using every ans at your disposal to create this Dullahan of delusion?"
The words struck him like a hamr blow. His heart began to pound in his chest. He hadn’t heard anything earth-shattering, but a spark had just ignited deep within him.
"Thank you!" A genuine smile finally spread across Simon’s lips.
"I think... I can do it."
Grelion smiled as he watched Simon’s retreating back.
’If Simon cos to you for help with his Dullahan, please point him in the right direction rather than giving him technical advice.’
’He’s his direct disciple, alright,’ Grelion thought. ’His diagnosis is spot on.’
And so, ti passed. Finally, the day of the ’Single Undead Operation’ performance evaluation arrived.
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