One month later. A clearing in the woodlands behind the mountain range near Weise.
Brilliant sunlight spilled across the flanks of the vast mountain range, the peaks stretching low and long across the earth like a young dragon coiled at rest. Around them, the wilderness spread in every direction.
A breeze stirred the wild grass underfoot but could not so much as ruffle the heavy robes. White clouds drifted across the sky above, and a tall figure of the Demon Race — dressed in something that looked equal parts military uniform and formal wear — stood with a faintly vacant expression, head tilted back, watching a bird wheel high overhead.
After a moment, he lowered his gaze back to the ground before him, just as a black-winged butterfly lifted from a cluster of yellow wildflowers and swept past.
A figure emerged from the treeline.
The crack of snapping branches and the rustle of leaves broke the stillness.
"So you came."
Macht's face was expressionless. With one hand he pulled the cape from his shoulder and let it fall, while his other arm transformed into a blade of living gold — its edge catching the sunlight and scattering a spray of rainbow light, as though nothing in the world could withstand it.
"Solitir isn't with you?"
By the time Nanoda's hands emerged from her black robes, both broken horns were already gripped in her fists. At the same moment, the flow of Mana in the air shifted, converging toward her.
Her opponent was Macht of the Golden Realm — the strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction. She allowed herself not even a sliver of complacency.
"I said this would be one-on-one. I have no desire for her to interrupt us…"
Sensing the change in the natural Mana around him, a flicker of something finally crossed Macht's face. "Is that so. A most unusual magic — then let us see what it can do."
Even as he spoke, before Macht could move, Nanoda vanished from where she stood.
"…"
There was no sign of the broken-horned demon anywhere in his field of vision — as though she had turned invisible. But within his Mana Perception, she seemed to have split into countless copies; surges of Mana came pressing in from every direction at once, making it impossible to tell where the attack would come from.
The instant a killing edge came slicing toward him, Macht twisted his body on pure warrior's instinct and slashed out with his blade in the same motion.
Two arcs of light flickered through empty air — and met nothing.
In the next instant, Macht stamped hard off the ground and launched himself skyward.
As he rose, he tore several strands of hair from his head.
Empowered by his All-Things-to-Gold Magic, the hairs transformed into indestructible magic golden needles, which he hurled like throwing knives toward the figure materializing out of the void below.
A bright clatter of steel rang out as the broken horns deflected every needle with pinpoint precision. Nanoda's black robes billowed once, and her expression remained perfectly unmoved.
"This is the first time, right from the opening exchange, that someone has managed to wound me…"
Drifting in the air above, Macht glanced sideways at the gash carved into his shoulder — he hadn't managed to fully avoid that strike after all. His gaze then dropped to Nanoda, standing whole and unscathed below; his slash hadn't even grazed the hem of her robes.
"That kind of instinct and footwork — were you a warrior at some point?"
Nanoda let out a slow breath, watching Macht hover above her. She hadn't come away unscathed from that exchange either. One finger on the hand gripping the broken horn had gone completely numb.
She could feel it: that finger had been transmuted to solid gold at some point during the clash, frozen in the exact position it had been in mid-swing.
"Luck, nothing more. It seems I underestimated you — and for my part, this is also the first time I have encountered someone capable of resisting my magic."
After barely evading the blow that could have claimed his life outright, Macht had immediately activated his All-Things-to-Gold Magic, hoping to close the distance and transmute her completely before she could react — ending the fight in an instant.
But the magic that had never failed him before had barely made a dent.
Transmuting an ordinary human warrior to solid gold took no more than a heartbeat. Even a seasoned Mage would have lost at least one arm in that same instant. And yet this broken-horned demon had lost only a single finger.
Left with no other choice, he had immediately taken to the air and put distance between them.
"The curse of All-Things-to-Gold, then… it seems there's truly no countering it for someone like me."
Nanoda attempted to reroute her Mana flow, and tried applying Severance Magic in miniature to break the transmutation — but neither did anything at all.
It was fortunate that she naturally possessed an exceptionally strong resistance to magic; the brief contact had only allowed the All-Things-to-Gold Magic to erode the smallest sliver of her.
The two Great Demons regarded each other across the open air, and spoke — almost simultaneously:
"Then let's see whether I turn you to gold first—"
"Then let's see whether I put you on the ground first."
Nanoda pushed off hard from the ground and shot into the sky.
Macht drifted backward, widening the gap once more.
For a demon, flight was as natural as breathing — hardly worthy of being called spellwork.
"What a pleasure this is. It has been far too long."
Macht's eyes dropped to a half-lidded ease, and for the first time, a faint smile touched his lips. From this moment on, he gave himself over to the fight.
Mana surged from within him, kicking up swirling gusts and eddies of dust through the open air. Before him, a long, slender vortex of golden Mana materialized from nothing.
Macht reached out both hands with evident relish and closed them around it.
The golden vortex solidified and took shape — becoming a magnificent, dazzling golden trident. Its broad head rose higher than both of Macht's horns; its triple points gleamed with a fierce, blinding radiance.
It had been many years since he had last faced an opponent worth his full effort.
He swept the trident in a wide arc, and the points dragged a howling gale in their wake.
The branches and leaves of the trees below were torn away by the rampaging wind — and under the influence of the All-Things-to-Gold Magic, every last one transmuted into razor-edged, indestructible golden leaves, scattering through the air like shrapnel.
A tornado of golden leaf-blades, so dense it seemed almost solid, erupted from the ground and drove straight toward Nanoda as she flew to meet it.
"Tch."
The golden cyclone swallowed Nanoda whole, forcing her to deploy an all-encompassing Defensive Magic barrier.
The leaves hammered against the shield. The polygonal barrier screamed in protest, fractures spiderwebbing outward from every impact point.
With a sharp tearing sound, golden leaves drove through the gaps where the Defensive Magic had cracked, slicing into Nanoda's black robes — and then, trapped inside the barrier, they reversed direction again and again, cutting back and forth in a relentless crosshatch.
Nanoda swung her broken horns to deflect them, brow furrowing; even with Severance Magic applied, she still could not cut through those paper-thin golden leaves.
The gold conjured by Macht's All-Things-to-Gold Magic could neither be reshaped nor destroyed.
As the cracks in the Defensive Magic barrier multiplied, so did the leaves forcing their way through — until it was not only Nanoda's robes but the skin beneath, bare and exposed, that began to bear thin, stinging cuts.
No matter how fast she swung the broken horns, she could not keep up with the ever-growing swarm of golden leaves.
Watching Nanoda trapped within the storm, Macht shook his head.
"That kind of defense won't hold against this."
He swept the trident again, and the golden leaves that had been swirling chaotically around Nanoda suddenly snapped into perfect alignment — all driving in a single direction at once. The sheer concentrated mass of the assault punched clean through the Defensive Magic barrier and shattered it.
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