"Sever!"
The instant the golden-leaved cyclone closed in to swallow Nanoda whole, all that long-compressed mana erupted in a single explosive burst. Countless miniature Severance Magic blades scattered outward in every direction from her body.
The dense barrage of slashing arcs expanded outward as interlocking white spheres, filling the air with a sharp, staccato clatter. The golden storm collapsed from the inside out — every leaf that Macht's mana had been holding aloft was struck down and sent scattering, the mana coating each one severed and extinguished along with it.
"You expended that much mana — and your reserves haven't dropped at all. They're actually still rising?"
Macht's surprise was fleeting. In the same breath, the killing intent and battle-lust radiating off him surged even stronger. This was an opponent unlike any he had faced in his long life — and even his heart, long since grown indifferent to the prospect of any battle, stirred with something unfamiliar.
"You could have broken straight through my Defensive Magic in one go, and yet you still spent all that time probing. Arrogant creature."
The storm dispersed, and Nanoda emerged from within it — her clothing somewhat torn, but her bearing unchanged.
"You're one to talk," she replied, her voice unhurried. "Looking perfectly at ease over there. This is, for the record, the most serious and careful I have been in nearly a hundred years."
While speaking, Macht used the distance he had gained to launch his offensive once more.
"Honestly, this is the most troublesome situation I've ever found myself in," Nanoda said.
In the moment she had made contact with the golden storm just now, two more of her fingers had turned to gold. Even the black robe woven from mana was now flecked with tiny motes of golden dust. Macht's All-Things-to-Gold magic had accelerated its rate of erosion slightly during that last exchange.
At that moment, the earth began to tremble. Jagged, needle-thin spikes of soil burst through the ground like plants in a frenzy of growth, shooting straight up toward Nanoda where she floated in the sky above.
As they closed the distance, Macht's All-Things-to-Gold magic took hold once more. The spikes transformed from their tips downward into indestructible golden lances, driving upward to impale.
Having only just broken free from the golden storm, Nanoda was immediately forced to weave and dart through the air again, evading the assault rising from below.
She swung her broken horn — coated in Severance Magic — at the towering golden spikes. The blows produced a resonant hum, and nothing more. No effect whatsoever.
Seizing the opportunity while Nanoda was occupied dodging at range, two magic circles materialized around Macht — one inscribed in black runes, one in white. Killing Magic, alongside what amounted to a newly developed Ordinary Offensive Magic from the human school of sorcery — pillars of light poured from both circles and shot toward Nanoda's landing points at blinding speed.
In the years he had spent embedded in human society, Macht had picked up no small number of spells from the human magical tradition. The one he had taken the greatest liking to was this very Ordinary Offensive Magic.
Nanoda, having barely cleared the golden spikes, took the Ordinary Offensive Magic directly. The black-and-white mana cannon detonated in midair — but did not punch through.
The bulk of the mana was absorbed by Nanoda's mana-absorption ability. Only the residual force of the blast remained, delivering a jarring impact.
"Ordinary Offensive Magic from the humans? And there's some Killing Magic mixed into it too... ow, ow, ow — that stings more than the time with Qual."
The black robe was blasted through, wisps of white smoke curling from it. Nanoda's expression stayed perfectly calm. An injury, by her standards, this was not. It was the sensation of being shot at close range while wearing a bulletproof vest — painful, certainly, but nothing that would slow her down.
Faced with Nanoda's body that could simply endure magic tearing through it, Macht did not relent. Wave after wave of mana-saturated Ordinary Offensive Magic rained out from him in a relentless torrent, as though the cost were nothing at all.
If he could not deal real damage, then all he needed was to stall for time. His All-Things-to-Gold magic was, step by step, consuming his opponent — slowly, yes, but Macht was confident he could hold out until the end. As the strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction, over five hundred years — nearly a thousand — of accumulated mana was more than enough to sustain an assault of this intensity for the better part of a day. And his opponent's entire hand had already turned completely to gold, the transformation creeping silently upward from her wrist.
What a pain...
As more and more golden spikes filled the surrounding area, Nanoda felt herself growing gradually hemmed in. Between the enclosing forest of spikes and the constant harassment of Macht's Ordinary Offensive Magic, she — who was hardly an expert in aerial combat — was thoroughly pinned, unable to make a single clean move.
The sensation had already left one of her hands. The numbness was spreading up the entire arm. And still, Nanoda's mind remained still.
She hesitated for a moment — then accepted the inevitable compromise.
At this rate, she wasn't going to last until Macht's mana ran dry. She would turn entirely to gold before that ever happened.
There was no other choice. She would have to call on her suppressed true nature and power once more to turn the tide.
Even as she had been doing everything she could to avoid this approach — one that was difficult to control and carried severe side effects.
"Honestly..."
In that single instant, Macht — who had been sure victory was within his grasp — felt his entire body seize up without warning. An unprecedented sense of crisis pressed in on him from all directions at once. Breathing became suddenly difficult. The composure he had recovered moments ago was swept away by a rising tide.
From the moment he had summoned the Golden Trident and released his mana in full, he had not let down his guard — not once. So why?
The Defensive Magic before him was broken through with contemptuous ease. Before his body could react by even a hair, a slender obsidian broken horn materialized directly in his line of sight. On pure instinct he swung the indestructible trident in his hand with every last ounce of strength he had — to block.
The Golden Trident fractured and shattered into fragments. The broken horn rebounded. Some inexplicable, enormous force drove Macht from the sky and slammed him toward the earth below.
"How is this possible..."
The words weren't finished before Macht crashed into the woodland below, bringing trees down in a cascade of splintering timber, carving a long furrow of upturned earth. A rolling cloud of dark grey dust billowed up from the ground.
Nanoda caught the broken horn as it came spinning back to her. The golden spikes stopped pushing up from the ground. She rose upward, clearing the ring of spears that had surrounded her, and looked down from above — watching Macht grind to a halt far below after a long, ungainly skid across the earth.
Anything turned to gold by All-Things-to-Gold magic — or composed of it — could not be deformed or destroyed by any external force. That was an absolute magical truth.
And yet that absolute truth had just been shattered by a single strike.
Kneeling in the crater, his clothes shredded and undignified from the slide, Macht raised his expressionless face toward the figure drifting in the sky above.
The white hair parted, and golden slit-pupils were revealed — utterly unlike what they had been before. Ancient. Primal. A wasteland absolute predator, stripped of all pretense. In the single moment their eyes met, Macht understood: what stood before him now existed on a plane he could not currently touch.
"I see. I never imagined the day would come when even I would want to call what was standing in front of me a monster."
The last ember of his desire for victory extinguished completely.
And it was precisely at this pivotal moment — the moment the outcome was about to be decided.
An incongruous voice rang out.
"I've finally found you. Are you the one... the root of everything that changed?"
A tall, mysterious figure in a hooded cloak and a black mask stepped out from the far end of the battlefield.
____
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