The girl, looking haggard, gave the name 'Leafa.'
With her Japanese features, it seemed unlikely to be her real name...
'Judging by her state, she must have been subjected to things too horrifying to even think or speak about. As a woman, I sympathize.'
Leafa, seemingly a teenage girl, had likely had countless precious things trampled upon as a girl her age.
Perhaps she had adopted a different name to escape it, protecting her true self by becoming someone else.
"I am... no, Leon-sama will not lose. So won't you believe in that, and lower your sword?"
"I can't. No one can defeat that man... Lord Zolgia."
At Sylpha's words, Leafa weakly shook her head and drew the longsword at her waist from its sheath.
Looking closely, the blade appeared to be wrapped in airflow.
"That is..."
"This is what they call my Sacred Gear. A sword that transforms me into a race that controls wind... the 'Fairy Wind Blade.'"
Why would she deliberately reveal her ability?
Faster than an answer could be given, Leafa stepped in.
Closing the distance like the wind itself, Leafa struck at Sylpha.
However, Sylpha reacted to that speed, evading and countering with crossed swings of her twin blades.
Leafa dodged this lightly, moving quickly.
Sylpha followed with ease.
Against Leafa, who was using her Sacred Gear, Sylpha used no magical power, no magic, and no ki.
To be precise, she couldn't.
She had barely a pittance of magical and magical power; using even basic magic once would leave her completely drained.
In that state, her consciousness would become hazy, so Sylpha never used magic or magical power.
She also had no talent for ki, so she didn't use that either.
Yet she matched Leafa's speed equally.
What was truly terrifying was that Sylpha, since her human days, had been able to fight on par with or even surpass High-class beings without any supernatural power.
Two shadows raced across the drawbridge.
The two speeding figures ran silently and rhythmlessly at high speed, leaping across the ground, sometimes using building walls, and even the air itself as footholds, their entire bodies in motion.
The scenery cutting past them changed in the blink of an eye. The super speed, trailing afterimages, was a masterful technique of shukuchi that even experts could not visually track.
As a longsword approached her in a straight line, Sylpha's silver hair streamed as she deflected it with a horizontal sweep of her twin swords, glinting with silver light.
In one fluid motion, she turned, adding centrifugal force to another sweep of her twin blades, cutting at Leafa, who was wrapped in green wind and approaching from the left.
Without stopping her dash, Sylpha shifted to intercepting countless figures filling all directions.
Leafa attacked from all directions using shukuchi.
What seemed like countless figures were illusions created by her high-speed movement, mixing fast and slow speeds.
They approached Sylpha from all directions, unrestrained and at super speed.
'Do not underestimate them as mere illusions.'
Each individual strike was light, but carried by the wind, they were more than enough to bring down an opponent.
If she defended, she'd be exposed to the impact; if she evaded, gaps would gradually form in her defense against the continuous attacks. Like a game of shogi, she would inevitably be put in checkmate.
Furthermore, if she took too long, they might cross the bridge and the Old Maou Faction Devils might break into the castle.
'I doubt they could break through Leon-sama's barrier, though.'
Sylpha mused to herself.
Therefore, the only option was interception.
Against the dancing afterimages, Sylpha unleashed a chain of sword flashes with rapid wrist movements.
Silver flashes ran from front and back, left and right, above and below, even diagonally, transforming her into an impregnable fortress of interception.
The blooming flowers of slashing attacks, sharp-edged and swift, caught Leafa easily, cutting her down in rapid succession. The shockwaves released from the tips of her twin swords continued to bisect the second and third waves of afterimages without stopping.
Then came the heavy blow of green wind from above.
A single flash of light fell upon Sylpha like a hammer, unleashing a tremendous roar and impact.
All those illusion attacks had been for this moment.
The true aim was to induce the post-move lag that inevitably occurs due to human anatomy—even for Sylpha, who was still human.
If she didn't intercept, she would be overwhelmed by the army of afterimages anyway, so the result was the same.
In other words, this was a move that guaranteed a hit no matter which option she chose.
With true defense and evasion rendered impossible, Leafa descended from above.
Creating footholds with wind, she used the momentum of her dash, amplified by gravity and her own weight, to deliver a greatsword flash.
The blade swung down from a high overhead stance struck Sylpha—no, that wasn't right.
Her blue eyes widened, but there was no trace of Sylpha in sight.
Yes, Leafa hadn't struck Sylpha—she had struck an illusion of her.
Langlis Style Shukuchi Technique: "Utsusemi."
Having deceived her target, Sylpha had evaded the sharp blade.
Sylpha then stepped in toward the stunned Leafa and unleashed a silver flash.
Leafa was in a compromised position, and the approaching blade would surely strike.
With no way to evade the counterattack due to the post-move lag induced by the unexpected evasion, it seemed Leafa would be struck down in that instant—but then…
Leafa deflected the blow with fluid motion.
Yes, Leafa still had reserves.
The one most surprised by this was Leafa herself.
"Good movement."
Sylpha praised her as well.
That movement just now was Leafa's original style.
The kendo movements she had trained in as a young girl who knew nothing.
It was Leafa's own swordsmanship.
Driven into a corner, her body must have moved unconsciously.
"You have devoted yourself earnestly to the way of the sword."
"I see... I haven't... lost myself after all."
Through the battle, Leafa understood the meaning of Sylpha's words, and light returned to her eyes.
"I am... my real name is Kirigaya Suguha. If you can beat me, I'll believe what you said earlier."
She couldn't believe that someone who couldn't even beat her could possibly stand against that cunning old Devil.
Leafa—Suguha—declared this to Sylpha.
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