The confusion lasted only a heartbeat before Shiomi understood what was wrong.
Skadi still hadn't even processed it when Shiomi sprang to his feet as if he'd been burned, locking his full attention on Morgan as she approached at an unhurried pace.
"Stop."
Shiomi's voice had a childish pitch now, but the chill in it was anything but childish.
This Morgan didn't stop. She kept coming, her steps light and slow, like someone taking a leisurely post-dinner walk, closing the distance little by little.
Remembering what Shiomi had said earlier, Skadi finally realized what was happening. She summoned her wand out of thin air, aimed it at Morgan, and, without a moment to spare, traced a Rune through the air.
The Magical Power of the Primordial Runes detonated instantly, and a biting gust swept the riverbank.
It was Grand Magecraft, the kind that proved its scale through the smallest of motions. Even a top-tier Servant would have to brace against it with real intent. Dust and smoke billowed up from the blast, swallowing Morgan's figure.
Then the moon slipped free of the clouds, casting pale light across the land, and what it revealed made Skadi's breath catch.
In pure Magecraft skill, Skadi wasn't that far behind Morgan. With her divine status as the Goddess of Ice and Snow, a duel under equal conditions would be a true fifty-fifty.
Of course, that assumed a spar without malice. A fight to the death was another matter.
Even so, this was wrong.
Morgan hadn't shown any clear sign of defending herself. Skadi's Magecraft had gone off perfectly, yet it hadn't struck Morgan at all.
As the dust dispersed, Morgan casually flicked at her skirt as if brushing away lint, then continued walking toward them.
"Stop," Shiomi snapped again. "If you keep coming, that means you've accepted what comes next."
His voice dropped even colder than before, the killing intent sharpening.
It wasn't a tone he would ever use with his wife.
Morgan finally paused. "An empty shell of a god with no authority left, and you still dare to talk big."
"And where do you think my authority went?" Shiomi lifted a hand slightly, ready to fire off Magecraft at any moment. "Wasn't that all thanks to you?"
"Is that so?" Morgan's lips curved into a faint smile. She extended a hand toward him. "Then consider this my apology. I won't attack. Come here yourself."
Skadi jolted and turned to Shiomi.
He narrowed his eyes. "So you came here to take me. Why?"
"You don't need to know." Morgan's smile carried a trace of contempt, with a teasing edge. "Come along quietly, and I can guarantee the woman beside you won't be harmed."
"What a mouth on you," Shiomi said, eyes blazing. "You're nothing but a Servant. A filthy witch without even a Grand Servant Spirit Origin, and you think you can threaten me?"
With that, he raised his hand, and Grand Magecraft shaped itself in an instant through Runes.
'Thalassic Calamity'.
The river surged, waves exploding upward before hardening into a massive iceberg that shattered with a thunderous crack.
Countless razor-sharp icicles fell like a torrential downpour.
As the spell continued, the icicles gradually thickened into Ice Spears.
After a violent, disorienting tremor, the entire riverbank was coated in frost. Even most of the channel froze over, and the remaining flow turned viciously fast.
Skadi's gaze had already shifted to the river.
Even Shiomi's Grand Magecraft posed a real threat. Morgan deflected and evaded, then slipped onto the river itself. She stood on the surface as if it were solid ground, steady and unmoved.
"There." Skadi lightly tapped the ground with her toe.
A chain of ice spikes erupted and shot forward, racing toward where Morgan stood.
"Just that?" Morgan sneered, lifting her hand again.
Skadi's ice spikes were stopped cold and forced aside, spreading out to either flank.
Beneath Morgan's feet, the current turned unstable. A huge vortex began to form around her, the water rising as it widened, and several waterspouts spiraled up nearby.
It was clearly about to become a full-scale Magecraft battle.
Shiomi still didn't know why Morgan from Proper Human History had come here, or why she wanted to take him alive, but that wasn't the point right now.
He'd once thought that sharing the same face might make him hesitate, if he ever found himself forced to fight Morgan from Proper Human History.
But in reality, making that decision wasn't as hard as he'd expected.
"Fine," Shiomi said, drawing his Mana back into line. "Then I'll be your opponent. Let's see what Morgan from Proper Human History can really do."
He snapped his Magical Energy into motion. A gale roared over the river, ready to turn into countless invisible blades that would tear through Morgan's Grand Magecraft.
But it didn't happen.
His body wouldn't move.
"Stay put. I'll deal with you in a moment." Morgan licked her lips, looking at him like a predator eyeing prey.
Shiomi felt his limbs and throat tighten, as if an unseen hand had clamped down on them.
Spatial immobilization.
Morgan was still far out on the river, yet she only had to extend a hand toward him to suppress him completely.
Worse, it felt less like ordinary Magecraft and more like the use of authority.
Skadi moved to break the binding, but the waterspouts slammed down like countless drills, forcing her into the air. She shot upward over the riverbank to evade the onslaught.
Skadi wasn't the type to seek out battle, and she had little real experience in evenly matched fights. Still, at Chaldea, she'd often sparred with Shiomi and the others in simulations.
Even if she stayed stationed on Storm Border, if the front line ever collapsed, she would need to take the field herself and meet the enemy with her signature Rune Magic.
In the blink of an eye, the once-quiet riverside became a battlefield where Magi fought for their lives.
Skadi understood the situation now, and she held nothing back.
The problem was Morgan had no intention of letting her off either.
The two of them moved like mobile artillery, racing across the river and hammering each other with Magecraft and raw Mana. In barely a minute or two, the area was already being torn apart.
Something was wrong.
Unable to move, Shiomi thought at a frantic pace, trying to read Morgan from Proper Human History's tactics and find a way to tip Skadi toward victory.
Then, catching a faint sense of something off, Shiomi snapped his gaze sideways.
Another Morgan was walking out from a rift in the riverbank iceberg. Wherever she stepped, the ice dissolved and sublimated at once, and not even the hem of her skirt was damp.
A clone.
A clone that didn't feel any weaker than the original.
Morgan from Proper Human History could do that, too.
Skadi had been fooled.
So had he.
"Blinded by what's right in front of you, and you forget where the real thing is." Morgan chuckled, amused. She reached for Shiomi's face, fingers poised to press down. "You're valuable material. I'll make use of you, bit by bit, until there's nothing left to waste."
Cold sweat broke out on Shiomi's skin.
And in the instant before that hand could touch him, another hand seized Morgan's wrist.