He extended his hand toward her and roared with a cackle.
“Now, at last, I can claim you!!!”
From his outstretched fingers, a multitude of shadowy hands burst forth, swarming toward Claudia.
They were horrid things that flew through the air and slithered across the floor and walls. Each one stretched hungrily toward her, reaching for her throat, seeking to seize and devour her, both body and soul.
This is the magic designed to steal my soul.
Yet Claudia did not move. She glanced toward Noah, giving him a signal not to interfere.
Each shadowy hand that touched Claudia’s skin erupted with a pop, bursting apart into nothingness.
The first word to break through all the other sounds was an utterly confused “What?” from Sieghart. He frowned as he stared up at Claudia, who sat calmly atop the altar.
“Just as my mother warned,” Claudia said coolly. “A magic designed to control the magic of Adelheid within me.”
“Your vessel should be full,” Sieghart muttered. “Yet why...? Why can I not...?”
Her lips curled upward. “Indeed. As you can see, I am filled to the brim. But that magic will not work on me.” She firmly pressed her hand against her chest. “For within me, my magic has mixed with Noah’s.”
Sieghart’s eyes widened in shock. Then his face twisted in fury as he let out a guttural scream.
“Leonhard!!!”
Having received Claudia’s permission to act, Noah silently stepped forward. He maintained his composure, even as he stood before the enemy of his liege.
Claudia smiled as she watched him draw his sword and assume a loose stance, ready to shift at a moment’s notice for whatever the situation required of him.
He really has grown into such a beautiful young man.
While he was still the same boy she had always known, Noah now carried himself with a composed detachment that reminded her of the Leonhard she had met in her dream.
A crooked smirk appeared upon Sieghart’s face. “I had hoped never to see you again, Leonhard.”
Noah said nothing.
Sieghart’s eyes, the same color as Noah’s, narrowed in amusement.
The young man who stood before them bore little resemblance to the boy Claudia remembered from the Raushneur Academy of Magic. That boy had seemed to shine like the sun.
“Stand down,” Sieghart ordered. Magic surrounded his right hand as he conjured a sword. “I will claim Adelheid for myself!”
He paced forward within reach of Noah, who took the opportunity to knock Sieghart’s blade aside with his own. Sieghart sidestepped as Noah’s blade slashed through the air where he had stood. There was not a single wasted motion in Noah’s follow-up strike.
Sieghart let out an excited peal of laughter as their swords clashed, sparks darting outward with each blow. Once, twice, they exchanged strikes again, each echoing through the chapel.
“Just like six years ago! Isn’t that right, Leonhard?!” Sieghart cried.
They were both so familiar to her, but Claudia could see that both men had changed since then. They weren’t merely taller. They had grown in other ways too.
Now they both wield sword and sorcery equally as their preferred method of battle.
Both were masters of dark magic. Claudia remembered well a lesson she had given Noah when he was still nine years old.
“Noah, the magic you wield is offensive by nature,” she had explained.
The color of one’s eyes reflected their magical affinity. Those with obsidian eyes were bearers of dark magic.
“Your strength will lie in your power to attack, not in versatility. In return, you will no doubt find it difficult to shape or change spells quickly.”
“What should I do, then?” he had asked her.
“It’s simple. Keep your magic in a single, fixed form from the start of battle without trying to alter it. For instance, you could forge a sword from your magic and fight with that.”
Noah had not been the first to hear those words; five hundred years ago, Claudia had given the same advice to another conjurer who had stood by her side.
“What do you think, Reinard?” she had asked at the time.
“Yes, using a blade in this manner greatly improves my efficiency,” her first disciple had answered with a genuinely pleased smile. “I never doubted the instruction of our great witch.”
Claudia did not doubt that Reinard had passed that same knowledge down to Sieghart.
Sieghart’s longsword surged at Noah’s throat, yet Noah did not so much as flinch. Instead, he aimed his own counter: a precise thrust at Sieghart’s eye.
Steel clashed with steel. Sparks of magic burst forth with every parried blow, encircling the two in a small storm of energy. Sieghart sent a stream of flames toward Noah, only for it to be intercepted in midair by the jaws of an icy serpent. A seamless interplay of sword and sorcery unfolded in front of Claudia’s attentive stare.
Sieghart has improved remarkably.
As she observed every movement of the battle, Claudia’s thoughts turned within her head.
He has grown far beyond where he was as a child...and even far beyond what he was capable of when he was masquerading as “Lucas.” He is on a different level entirely than the version of him that I met in my dreams.
Sieghart’s father, the former king of Lemilsia, had passed away three years prior, just before Claudia had cast the sleeping spell upon herself. In the years that followed, Lemilsia had cut itself off from the rest of the world under the pretense of conducting a rite of mourning.
Something must have happened to Sieghart in those three years. It’s the only explanation.
Sieghart’s movements so closely resembled Reinard that Claudia couldn’t help but recall the memories of her past life.
It’s less like he resembles Reinard and more like he is him. However, I never got that feeling when watching Leonhard in the dreamworld.
Sieghart shared more of Reinard’s soul than Leonhard did. Whether that was because his soul more closely resembled Reinard’s, or whether it was a result of those three years in mourning, Claudia could not say.
Flames erupted from the chapel’s floor, forcing the two combatants apart—but not for long. Sieghart pressed forward, driving the flames toward Noah.
The flames were more than just an attack. They served as cover for Sieghart, hiding him from Noah’s eyes.
Even so, Noah has also grown over the past three years.
“You lack haste,” Noah said calmly as he lowered his center of gravity and then launched forward with a lunge.
Even Claudia was struck by the speed with which he cast his barrier and the skill with which he maneuvered his sword.
“Leonhard!!!” Sieghart cried in rage.
This Noah will lose to no one.
Noah knocked Sieghart’s sword from his grip, and it flew across the room at a terrifying speed.