In the midst of oppressive pressure, where one’s concentration flagging for even a split second would mean defeat, Eliza swung her blade without losing focus.
He’s strong!
These were her true feelings towards Abel. The speed of his magecraft composition far exceeded what she’d believed to be possible. At first she’d thought he was hiding some kind of Regalia, but that wasn’t the case. He truly was fighting with nothing but his body.
It was hard to believe. The biggest advantage to Regalias was the fact that they could quickly produce magecraft. It almost made her question why she’d ever bothered to use them at all.
The next attack he fired off was abnormal. Usually, the more powerful you made an attack, the more information processing was necessary, making defects in the composition more likely. But for Abel, no matter how strong he made his spells, there was never the slightest decrease in quality.
He’s strong. So strong that it doesn’t even make sense.
But the overwhelming difference in strength only served to set her battle senses alight. She’d even begun to enjoy the situation of despair that she’d been thrust into.
“Burning Bullet!”
In the next moment, a total of twelve fireballs appeared before her. She instinctively understood that he had every intention of using this attack to end things. Each individual bullet possessed energy so large she couldn’t believe it. It was already a near impossible task for even the most veteran mage to create a fireball with the strength of a single one of the twelve Abel had produced.
But the truly scary thing was realizing that the power that Abel had displayed thus far was only a fraction of his true strength.
I guess I can’t be stingy with my power...
There was no way to dodge it completely. But if she tried to deflect the attacks, she’d be blown away, and the barrier around her would shatter. As she went back and forth between these choices, she ultimately landed upon a third option. She decided to use a forbidden art: Rose Madder Sky. This skill had been passed down by her ancestors, and she’d undergone harsh training to be able to use it. It was the ultimate hidden technique.
✦ ✦ ✦
My attack caused a huge explosion, making smoke billow out in plumes. Hm, I’m a little surprised. Even after taking my attack, it seemed she was okay. The fire from the explosion weakened, and it became easier to see. That’s when I saw Eliza’s silhouette through the smoke, her body bent over.
“Hey, are you okay?!” a proctor exclaimed, running up to her. “Your barrier has broken. You need to yield now!”
“No! I’m not done yet,” Eliza said valiantly, shooting a glare at the proctor who’d come to help her. The pressure she exerted from this look was enough to make him quiver in fear. “I may have lost the mock duel...but our personal duel continues.”
What a sore loser. It’s almost funny. To be clear, the person whose barrier broke first was the loser. Those were the rules. But it seemed that she now perceived this as a personal duel—the rules of which stipulated that we’d keep going until one of us was no longer able to fight. In other words, Eliza had tossed the mock duel out the window, and instead wanted to win on her own terms.
“I... I’m going to prove that I’m stronger than anyone.”
Eliza stood back up, using her Regalia for support. My attack hadn’t left her unscathed. Judging by the way she moved, it was obvious that she’d been weakened and was in pain.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked. “Why are you so fixated on being strong in this era of peace?”
A strong-willed girl like her might not have been so rare back in my day, but surely she was in the modern era. Even the older spoiled rich brat had said that people could live happily in this era of peace without using magecraft.
“Peace is fake,” Eliza spat out. “An era of tranquility... These past warless years... Were they really all that peaceful? The neighboring country, Khuldrea, has been preparing its soldiers for a war that could happen at any minute. And are demons even truly extinct? There was an incident involving them just a few years ago. In the name of ‘keeping the peace,’ it was all kept hush-hush.” It was as if her words had reignited the fire inside her. The strength returned to her eyes. “People say that our treaties will prevent wars. They say that the demon king’s soul was eradicated, so he’ll never come back. Who the hell decided that?! I will never, ever let peace make me complacent!”
She had a point. Even in this era of peace, dangers still existed. The embers of war were being stoked in various countries. And if an all-out battle with demons began, these mages would be wiped out easily.
“That’s why I’ll become strong! I will rebuild my family to its former glory!” Eliza said, her eyes becoming slightly moist.
So this is about her family, huh? Most likely, the old teachings of her family were incompatible with the modern world. People would treat you like you were crazy for preparing for battle in a time of peace. It was sad. People shunned those who had different values than them. It seemed that her family had mostly fallen to ruin because they’d been either unable or unwilling to adapt the values of the modern age.
“Forbidden art: Rose Madder Sky!”
The instant she shouted these words, Eliza’s body was surrounded by a magic circle. Is this some form of Body Fortification? I immediately began to analyze it. I was surprised by how complex it was. It definitely wasn’t something that a normal student would be able to pull off.
“Physical Flare!”
Okay. Now I see. Well, well. Color me surprised. A two-hundred-year-old spell managed to make its way to the modern age. I could fully imagine the kind of family that had raised her, and now that the nagging questions in my mind had been answered, a sense of relief washed over me.
Most likely she’d only been able to withstand my attack by a last-moment activation of the flame armor she was now wearing.
“Prepare yourself! This won’t go like before.”
This was certainly picturesque. Foulmouthed though she might have been, Eliza, or whatever her name is, looked good like this—a woman cloaked in flame. She appeared almost divine, eliciting sounds of surprise and awe from onlookers. In the next second, two wings of flame sprouted from her back, launching her into the air.
“Wh-What? She’s flying!”
“Flight magecraft?! I thought that was just an urban legend!”