Once Earnest was close enough to cross swords with Lunaria, she realized her rival was emitting a completely different aura from before. A genius like her was usually free of cares, never revealing her true self—just one of her many galling traits.
Now, though, she had transcended that. Lunaria had this light, thin smile, like some sort of goddess statue—in fact, her whole aura had a divine feel to it.
“Ah, hello, Earnest. How are you?”
She picked up the hem of her skirt and gave an elegant curtsy. Earnest ignored her. The signal to begin had already been given. She could have cut Lunaria’s greeting short. Earnest wasn’t about to give her the same opening.
Lunaria didn’t seem entirely tuned in to this battle. Her eyes were looking straight at her opponent, but Earnest couldn’t tell if she was really watching her or not.
“I’ve finally reached it.”
…Earnest didn’t ask what she meant. In a strange way, she understood exactly what Lunaria was talking about. After Blade’s special training session, she had made a breakthrough. Things like that didn’t come from spending countless hours in combat—all you needed was the right trigger. The sort of trigger that had let Earnest become the Scion of Flame.
“Well,” Earnest said with a menacing smile, “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to waste any time breaking out my very best. I’m not about to hold back against the likes of you…! Asmodeus! In the name of Earnest Flaming, I command you to consume my body and make it your power!”
“At once.”
Flames leaped out from her fingers and toes. They burned away her clothes, her skin, her muscles, nerves, and bones as they made their way toward her torso. It was far from her first time, but she never got used to the excruciating pain. Some things, however, were more important than pain. Earnest could endure it. She needed to if she wanted to become a superhuman scion.
It was time to do just that. She wanted to beat Lunaria… No, she wanted to be even with her. She wanted to be recognized by her. She wanted Lunaria to leverage all her strength against her. She wanted Lunaria to see her as an equal.
I’m gonna wipe that smile right off her smug little face!
“Trans…form!”
Earnest turned into the Scion of Flame.
“You… You can’t do this, can you? Did you even know that the owner of a royal sword was capable of such a feat?”
Earnest tried to provoke her, even though she might be wrong. She had read a description of her current state in some old documents written by some member of her clan long ago. She thought, at first, that it was a metaphor. The idea of a sword burning you to death but also keeping you alive while dramatically boosting your power… It all sounded like a tall tale. Maybe Lunaria’s clan had similar tales, but Earnest was sure she thought it was nothing more than a fairy story. There’s no way she could have tried it for herself. There was a good chance Lunaria knew nothing of scionification.
However, “a good chance” didn’t imply certainty, as Lunaria’s next move demonstrated.
“Ah, yes, you mean this?”
Ice covered her entire body. She became a frozen statue, then shattered into pieces. She was destroyed once…then reassembled from the tiny shards. Standing before Earnest was the Scion of Ice.
“Thought you’d won? I reached this point months ago,” Lunaria boasted. “You’re beyond pathetic… How sad.”
She said it. She actually said it. Dripping with sarcasm, as always. See? She could do it! She could become a scion. And she’d learned it months ago?
This is exactly why I hate geniuses! Do you have any idea how much effort I put into learning this? How much effort I put into losing over two hundred pounds?
“Oh? I must admit I’m a little disappointed. If this was enough to surprise you, the results of my training won’t mean anything.”
“Training?”
Something snapped inside Earnest. Last night, this woman… She was doing something with Blade.
“Yes, there’s a ‘Scion of Ice II,’ you see.”
Her magic sprang up like a gust of wind and her icy body grew…and grew again, up to twice its original size, before it shrank back down again. A new Scion of Ice was born, slimmer and more elegant.
“This is it.”
“Huh? Whoa, whoa… Whoa! Wait, wait, wait!”
Earnest had never expected her to get this far. Earnest was still using Scion of Flame I. She had barely begun the next stage herself.
“No, I will not wait,” Lunaria said, looking pleased with herself.
And with that, the battle began.