This Ais was so strong!
Inside the Nightmare, of course, no one could die.
So Riveria could only feel the intense pain. If Isagi hadn't helped her, she would surely have been "torn to pieces" just now, wouldn't she?
Violent, freezing, utterly without any "pattern" to speak of.
This was the Strength of the Sword Princess wreathed in black wind.
And not only that—there was that enormous "hunter's weapon" that shifted its shape from time to time. Though it didn't target humanoid enemies, its power was nothing to underestimate either.
Isagi felt awkward too.
After all, who could ever have imagined that Ais would one day become an "enemy" as well?
Standing outside the courtyard, as long as she didn't step in, Ais wouldn't attack. With some difficulty, Riveria pushed herself up from the ground, replaying the fight that had just passed.
The girl was fast. Though that was to be expected, it still left one feeling somewhat… how to put it?
Ais was the type who liked to command the wind, fly through the air, and strike at her enemies from every direction.
Attacking and moving all at once.
Like a raging storm, overwhelming her foes with sheer, blistering speed.
This was the Ais she had first come to know.
Later on.
After spending a long time with Isagi, the girl's "wind" changed, shifting from its original green to gold.
That signified a deeper understanding of the "wind"—or rather, that she had grasped something closer to its very essence.
And so Ais became able to control the wind around her.
To be precise, perhaps it was the "air currents"?
Physically slowing her enemies, accelerating herself, commanding every "wind" in her surroundings—the Ais of this stage could even be called a mage-killer. Riveria had sparred with the girl and had spent almost the whole match pinned on the defensive.
But now, things were different again.
Ais's wind stirred a dread that reached to the very core.
Riveria remembered the moment she had stepped into the courtyard—that sky-swallowing darkness, as though it meant to devour her whole.
A groundless palpitation.
Then her body felt a bone-piercing cold.
Her thoughts were stripped away too, as if a small slice of time itself had been taken from her.
In an instant.
The girl was already right before her eyes.
Her sword swung so very slowly, and yet so very fast—it was a kind of dislocation. Sight, sensation, and—none of it lined up at all!
That dark wind was no physical interference—it was mental… no, it was something of the soul itself!!
In almost the same breath.
By the instinct of a veteran adventurer, Riveria threw up her magic barrier.
It wasn't the kind of ultra-short-verse magic that Lefiya used.
But through years of practice, she had long grown used to anticipating things, and had silently chanted the incantation the very moment she stepped into the garden.
And so.
A pale green dusk emerged, wrapping itself entirely around her.
"Gather, breath of the earth—my name is Alf!"
"[Gossamer Breath]!!"
Crack!
The sound the longsword made as her magic blocked it was especially jarring—and since the blade had been moving at tremendous speed to begin with, it sent Riveria's body flying in an instant.
But in that very moment.
An enormous pull struck her once more. Riveria knew it was Ais working the wind, sweeping her right back to the girl's side.
Sure enough.
The next second—no need to look, no need to listen.
By feel alone, Riveria could picture the girl standing in place, poised to swing her sword—a stance learned from Ryuu, a "slash" from the Far East.
The swordsmen of the Far East possessed a supreme technique called [Iai Slash]—paired with a special slashing magic, it could multiply the power of that single strike several times over.
Right now, Ais was crouching slightly, gripping the longsword in a reverse hold with her left hand behind her waist, about to draw it out with her right.
Riveria could already see, in that "future," the image of herself being cut clean in two by a single stroke.
And so, at this critical juncture.
She once again unleashed her "Explosion Magic." Mana burst abruptly before the girl, bringing that enormous pull to a halt.
Ais's ability to control the wind was, of course, also a use of magic.
So.
Riveria kept gathering tiny vortices of mana around herself and then detonating them, throwing the residual mana in her surroundings into complete disarray.
Even Ais couldn't use magic to affect her under such conditions.
Having finally steadied herself, the next thing to weigh was how to attack.
Riveria held her staff.
Even as she kept defending against Ais—who, once the magic failed, came charging straight at her face, swinging her sword in a ferocious assault—she thought over the fight ahead.
[Wait for Isagi's support?]
The boy seemed to want her to try first; he had no intention of lending a hand, so that option was ruled out from the start.
[Use magic…]
A mage's counterattack naturally required magic—and when it came to close combat, she honestly had no confidence she could beat the current Ais.
What's more.
The girl's speed and Strength had both climbed by more than a full tier.
Riveria now had, more or less, the genuine sense of fighting a "powerful boss."
Chanting her magic was a stretch; it demanded her full concentration, allowing not the slightest error.
Then—the counterattack begins!
First was—
Recovery magic, [Overflow · Erdis].
It could continuously heal her wounds, restoring stamina and mental energy. On that foundation, she first eased the pain that came from meleeing "Ais," so as not to be distracted.
Right after came a linked chant, continuing into the second stage of the recovery magic.
[Luna · Arutis].
It stored within her body a mana that could instantly close wounds—if she took damage, the mana would take it in her stead.
A double safeguard!
And next came that breathing cold wind.
"O omen of the end, O pure white snow. At the hour of dusk, whip up the raging gale. Sealed light, frozen earth, snow blowing across the whole sky, three harsh winters—my name is Alf!"
"Ecstasy · Fimbulwinter!!"
The first blast of snow-wind shoved the golden-haired girl before her straight back.
The second coiled and swirled, trying to freeze the girl in place.
And the third blast of snow-wind.
Fell from the heavens, turning the entire garden into a land of frost blanketed in pure white snow.
Like Lefiya, Riveria had of course begun learning how to "control" her own magic, using imagination as the key to shape it into the "form" she needed.
Right now, the Elf woman was crafting a favorable environment for herself.
The cold would lower Ais's mobility to some degree, and at the same time, the rising walls of ice would block the wind's flow.
On top of that.
Riveria won herself a brief moment to breathe.
So.
All at once, she poured every last drop of her mana into the magic that came next.
"—Soon, the flames shall be loosed, the silently encroaching fires of war, an inevitable destruction. The horn of battle blares high, and the tyrannical chaos of war descends, engulfing all—"
Unlike Lefiya.
The advantage of Riveria's continuous chanting lay in the overlong incantations, which let her pour a vast amount of mana into her magic.
This made the woman's magical bombardment terrifyingly powerful.
And now, she was at the same time gathering an incomparably violent "orb of mana" inside the ice wall towering before her.
She felt her mental energy draining away at a furious pace.
One slip.
And she might even black out from her mind burning empty before the magic was even complete.
But Riveria had prepared for this long ago.
As a mage, her role was to make full use of every single second her companions bought her, and then to chant out the strongest magic—one mighty enough to annihilate the enemy.
Settle it all in a single breath!
A mage's battles rarely turned into wars of attrition. In a sense, the "Explosion Magic" that Lefiya had invented was simply the strongest single strike—a grand invention that gave even an ordinary mage something like a "finishing move."
And beyond that—by colliding her original magic together with the Explosion Magic, that chaotic mana might even be enough to tear apart everything!
"Crimson-lotus flame, merciless blaze—thou art the incarnation of hellfire that sweeps away armies a thousand strong, that draws the final curtain upon great wars and burns all to ash, sword of Surtr—my name is Alf!!"
"[Advanced · Sword of Victory]!!"
The blazing red mana nearly drowned everything, and in the instant it gathered into a giant sword—
Because of the interference of mana.
It erupted violently, followed by roar upon roar rising and falling.
Countless fireballs burst apart, seemingly without end—even Riveria had no idea how long this frenzied feast of mana would go on.
And Ais, there at the very center of it—surely she'd be hurt to some degree?
Riveria was being conservative.
She wasn't certain whether Ais would be defeated just like this, but at the very least, this was the strongest strike she had, short of her third-stage attack magic.
This was "Heavenly Fire."
The justice that punishes all evil existence…
Ugh!
Why was she suddenly thinking such chuuni nonsense? She'd really been infected by Isagi and the others, hadn't she? It was all the fault of Ryuu and those friends of hers (meaning Alise and the rest), who spent every day going on about justice, and wings, and the future, and dreams, and whatever else.
But the result—
Was far from ideal.
Faintly, from within the thundering explosions before her, Riveria heard a soft song.
And for some reason, it gave her a strangely familiar feeling.
An Elf… or a Spirit?
The Elf and Spirit races knew each other well, for both loved nature. Many of the settlements where the Elves lived were shared with the Spirits, the two races living side by side—and it had been so for millions of years.
Even so.
For some reason, a certain matter surfaced in Riveria's mind.
It was a grievance she had once heard from the elder sages of her homeland, the Alf Royal Forest, back when Isagi had asked her to look into the "Dawn-Dark Moon," that Elf [Hero] of the ancient age.
Elves and Spirits were close.
But.
In the ancient age, the Spirits rarely blessed the Elf race. Because of that, the Elves had almost never produced true, renowned "[Hero]s" like "Frand of Water and Light" or "Little [Hero] Argo."
Why was that?
No one knew the answer.
But that wasn't important. What mattered was that between the Spirits, the Elves, and those blessed "[Hero]s," there had always been a very delicate relationship.
Why had this suddenly come to mind?
Because.
Riveria abruptly realized that something had appeared within Ais's "darkness."
It was the "Strength of a Spirit."
[The darkness of the end has devoured the Strength of the Spirit, and so all magic has been rendered useless.]
Riveria's eyes went wide with disbelief.
She saw the flames surging and roaring, yet Ais stood without a scratch, as though the girl were in fact standing in another world entirely.
What was going on?
Was this a pure, absolute severing of mana?
If that was the case, then how was she supposed to…
…
Riveria had failed.
After the fight just now, she more or less understood why Isagi, when he'd first woken, had worn that somewhat innocent look and sighed out those words: "I've never beaten her."
How was anyone supposed to fight this?
Why had Ais suddenly gained the ability to completely ignore mana?
Was one really meant to take her on with nothing but the blade in hand?
That was too absurd!!
As for all this, Isagi did more or less understand why Ais had become the way she was now—
A Corrupted Spirit was still a Spirit.
The girl had obtained the Strength of a Spirit—of that there was no doubt.
And through that Strength, something deep within her soul had likely been drawn out—perhaps memories, or perhaps sensations.
Now.
He and Riveria were inside Ais's Nightmare.
A world she had imagined—and so this pitch-black "wind of the end" was likewise a power she had imagined.
Why would she imagine something like this?
Could it be…
That the "darkness of the end" (the [Black Dragon]) had also once obtained the Strength of a Spirit… no—had it devoured some Great Spirit?
____
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