“Surrender now, and I’ll see that you receive preferential treatment during my reign as dictator. For example, you could be my slave-in-chief.”
“Non, non. Hard pass... For that matter, dare I ask what a ‘slave-in-chief’ is supposed to even mean?”
Atop the clock tower, Maxwell smirked, feeling secure in his victory.
“Hah... Foolish woman.”
He could feel an entire city’s worth of mana filling his body, granting him power beyond measure. As a fairly run-of-the-mill Mage (give or take the body-swapping that had kept him alive for an eternity), this was power the likes of which he had never felt before.
He raised his arms high into the air—
“Then take this! Firestorm!”
—and swung them down, summoning a veritable tornado of hot flame that engulfed Tanya and Laplace.
“Nngh...!”
Firestorm was always an advanced-level spell, but at Maxwell’s current power level, its strength had magnified tenfold. He reeled, in love with his own omnipotence. He had already drained Laplace of all her mana back in the underground laboratory; after all, the spell he used had been designed to absorb her mana specifically. She couldn’t possibly survive this attack.
“Heh heh... Hahaha... Oh, Laplace, you didn’t stand a—wha?!”
But when the dust settled, two figures remained standing.
“Hey, so, uh... was that actually Firestorm?” asked the one with the pink hair.
Unfortunately for Maxwell, he had made one grave miscalculation.
“Because it seemed a lot more like a beginner-level spell. Are you sure it wasn’t just Fireball?”
These were no ordinary Mages.
“Just kidding!”
“What...?!”
“Now then, I think it’s time for me to bust out my fancy sword and get to work!”
“Sword?! Where did that come from?! You didn’t have any sword earlier!”
Maxwell stared in shock. Meanwhile, the golden ring on Tanya’s finger sparkled in the light.
This woman—Tanya Artemiciov—had imbued her sword with Water Magic in order to block his Firestorm. This was the warrior who fought in his daughter’s name.
“Damnit...!”
Maxwell, the Court Grand Mage. Granted, yes, he was a garbage human being, but he was more cunning than he let on, and he wasn’t altogether incompetent with battle magic. Definitely not to be underestimated, or so Tanya had decided. In which case—
“We’re going to defeat you—whatever it takes!”
Because that’s all there is to it.
“...Hey, Laplace?”
“Hmm? What is it, Tanya?”
“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”
“...What makes you say that?”
It all started the day they first met. I can’t use any of my attack spells, Laplace had told her, thereby forcing Tanya to have to defeat the Wyvern single-handedly. Then Laplace stole a kiss from her to awaken within her the power of a Magi-Knight... or so she claimed.
Normally Tanya would have complained about the non-consensual nature of the situation... but her lips were so sweet, she just couldn’t complain.
“Why would I hide something from you?” Laplace asked, wearing her usual relaxed grin. Meanwhile, the soles of her feet were still bleeding, unused to walking directly on the stone pavement.
Laplace almost never lost her calm, cheerful composure. She was so strong.
“You actually can use your attack spells—you just choose not to. Isn’t that right?” Tanya asked.
At this, Laplace’s shapely lips curled in a perfect crescent.
“...Remember how you gave me a portion of your mana?” Tanya continued.
Magi-Knight: a master-level class that combined sword skills with magic. Unlike Mages, however, Magi-Knights could circulate mana directly into their sword to cast, no incantation required. Plus, with elemental attribute magic serving as stat buffs, Tanya was essentially “a Mage who could punch people”—and she was nigh unstoppable.
But wasn’t it all sort of... too good to be true?
Could a single kiss really streamline her mana circuits and upgrade her to a Magi-Knight, totally for free? Surely not... unless, for example, she had just been lent power, power equal to that of an ancient, mythical Great Sorceress.
“What gave it away, Tanya?”
“Back when that magic circle was draining us...”
“Hmm?”
“It just kept draining and draining and draining... almost like there was a lot more inside me than I remembered having.”
Laplace’s mana was etched into her blood. Hence, it was pretty much impossible to transfer it to another person. But through contact with their mucous membranes, one could lend their mana to a recipient—for example, the exchange of saliva through a kiss.
“And I always wondered why you kept trying to kiss me at any given moment!”
“Hee hee... Looks like the cat’s out of the bag. But before you judge me, do try to put yourself in my shoes. Can you really blame me for taking an interest in a hard worker like yourself?” Laplace smiled softly.
“Laplace...”
“Listen closely, Tanya. I’m going to draw his attention to buy you some time. I need you to get out of here before his spell activates and starts draining the whole city’s—mmmmph?!”
Her eyes widened in surprise as she felt something soft touch her lips. Then she saw strands of pale pink hair and realized that Tanya had seized her by the front of her dress and pulled her in for a kiss. A long kiss.
All this time, Tanya had always thought of Laplace as too physically affectionate. She would always spring kisses on Tanya, be it when they were drunk, late at night, or in the middle of the afternoon. But looking back, what she was really doing was topping up Tanya’s mana so she could keep using her Magi-Knight abilities.
“Haah... There. You can have your mana back now, Laplace.”
Of course, Laplace had only performed these transfers because she was absolutely confident in Tanya’s magical prowess. After all, it was the mana of a Great Sorceress. A lesser Mage might lose control of it and endanger themselves.
And that trust meant the world to Tanya.
She pulled away and gazed into the eyes of her partner in crime.
“I want you to punch him with your own two fists!”
The mana from inside her body—a mingled fusion of Laplace’s mana and her own—was now inside Laplace.
Slowly, softly, Laplace began to float into the air. Her long dark hair billowed around her as if she were underwater.
“Now then... I think it’s high time you gave me back my sweet little adopted sisterrrr!” she declared in a singsong voice as she savored the feeling of the mana swirling around inside her.
Granted, this was just a drop in the bucket compared to the inexhaustible stockpile she was used to... but to Laplace, it felt more like Tanya had lent her the freedom to express her rage. And that thought made her heart flutter in her chest.
“You whelp! You still seek to oppose me?!”
“Oui, oui.”
For Arianora and the injustice she’d suffered. For Tanya, who never gave up on her. But most of all... for herself and her long-suppressed anger. She would be unstoppable.
“Just warning you, but... at the moment, I’m afraid I can’t use anything but attack spells! I hope you’re prepared!”