"What a cowardly fellow—only now do you dare show yourself... Are you really qualified to call yourself a devil? Cough, cough, cough."
His wounds weren't yet fatal, yet old Wilhelm lay sprawled on the ground, looking every bit the part of a man waiting to die. Not until a corner of a black cloak appeared in his field of vision did he—as though resigned to his fate—give a faint, indifferent smile.
"Sorry, sorry—as nothing but a tiny little devil who serves that one, I'm quite afraid of death." It was a woman's voice, carrying a touch of delight and mockery.
"The rest of the matter—you won't go back on your word, will you?"
As if in a final flare of life, old Wilhelm abruptly heaved himself upright, utterly heedless of the wound that was steadily gnawing away at his life.
"Of course, of course. It's written in black and white in the magic contract—I couldn't break it even if I wanted to. So hurry up and dismiss all those frightening magic circles of yours. Be a good girl and honor the agreement; let me take your old life."
"Then that will suffice." With a thud, the old man collapsed completely.
After giving a couple of kicks to old Wilhelm, who now lay utterly immobile on the ground, the black-clad devil picked up the thing that had fallen not far away.
"Do you regret it? Or do you have any last words?"
"Is that a joke you're making with me?"
"True enough. This is a destined sacrifice."
The final conversation came to an end.
At a place not yet far off, the battle still raged on.
Up and down, left and right—with every slight shift of those perfect muscular contours came swordplay as smooth and unbroken as flowing water, like a body-searing blaze from which there was no escape.
This time the Defensive Magic was not slashed apart—instead it disintegrated and dissolved of its own accord the very instant it drew near.
The pale-golden radiance was irresistible; all magic, the moment it touched the blade, would be neutralized as though by a reverse counter, and then from that very sword came forth Mana that Nanoda knew all too well.
It was her own Mana.
Even the Severance Magic—uncomplicated and close to a pure Mana attack—was forcibly absorbed.
This thing was downright more absurd than that super magic-computer, Frieren.
At least Frieren still needed time to study a spell in order to crack it, and sometimes a preparatory casting step as well.
The "Holy Sword" in Anhadī III's hand must possess an ultra-high-efficiency performance far surpassing any living creature, skipping every one of those processes outright.
What left Nanoda most speechless was that automatically cracking magic wasn't even the half of it—this sword was also continuously stealing her own Mana, providing bodily Mana enhancement to a warrior who couldn't even use magic.
Absorbing Mana during battle and turning it to one's own use—aside from her own body, Nanoda was seeing such a feat realized for the very first time.
Still, it wasn't only her opponent who kept growing stronger—so did she. If they dragged it out like this, it would simply come down to who reached their limit first. "—!"
Yet then an even more absurd thing happened. After Nanoda blocked Anhadī III's ever-heavier slash, magic circles, each one all too familiar, unfurled on their own all around her opponent.
Killing Magic.
Having watched Qual fiddle with this magic day in and day out, Nanoda naturally recognized it too—probably yet another masterstroke of this "Holy Sword."
Several bolts of Killing Magic came blasting in; the momentary opening created by dodging and parrying—
the searing sensation of the blade grazing across her skin, followed by a pain that pierced into the marrow.
Sure enough, it also contained holy power—super-effective against the Demon Race.
Without the slightest hesitation—Paradox Magic, motion and stillness.
This time Nanoda did not choose to strike first; instead she opened up distance from the Anhadī III before her, the one wielding the imitation Holy Sword.
"Honestly—I keep getting the feeling I'm being double-teamed by a budget-version Himmel-plus-Frieren, a husband-and-wife tag team."
As expected, the Paradox Magic was not neutralized; it was not of the same system. Just as an ordinary person cannot understand the elvish tongue of ancient ages, the magic pioneered by the Great Demons of the Mythical Era was separated from modern magic by a vast gulf; those ancient spell-formulas were not something that could be cracked by normal means.
"That strange magic again, is it."
Left standing where he was, Anhadī III gripped his sword in both hands and let out a turbid breath.
The ten-some-meter safety distance was all but nonexistent; the seemingly tireless warrior closed it in the blink of an eye.
"Let's give it a try—my improved Paradox Magic."
The blade came to a halt a hair's breadth before the utterly defenseless Nanoda.
[Can I create a Paradox Magic of my very own?]
[Well, it's not impossible—though in this one's view, your talent when it comes to magic, ahahahaha, sorry, I'm not making fun of you.]
[Then give it a try—take the one and only Paradox Magic you ever taught me, and remake it into something of my own...]
Thud!"
The "Holy Sword" that should have cleaved down onto her face instead landed on the ground, and the innocent earth instantly split open with dense, countless gashes.
The enemy was right there before him, and yet—"Why?"
Anhadī III was certain the other hadn't so much as blocked—had he swung his sword too many times, his hand trembling by accident?
Even with the doubt in his heart, his movements showed not a shred of hesitation—he raised his arm for another upward slash, and it cut through empty air yet again?
Meeting Nanoda's calm gaze, Anhadī III couldn't believe it.
In her eyes, was it that he had merely waved his sword about in front of her?
A distance of mere inches felt, in that moment, like a chasm stretched between them—impossible to cross.
"The tortoise takes one step first, and then the Human gives chase to the tortoise; for every step the tortoise takes, the Human catches up by one step too—but in fact, no matter how many steps pass, the Human, whose finish line is always the tortoise's previous step, can never catch up to the tortoise."
As Mana came pouring madly into her body, Nanoda watched the Anhadī III before her straining with all his might to land a cut on her, and spoke in a relaxed tone.
"What in the world is this nonsense you're spouting?! How could such a thing even be possible?!"
The King of War had already swung his sword no fewer than a dozen times; the gusts and waves whipped up by the blade came layer upon layer, and the Killing Magic triggered by the "Holy Sword" came bolt after bolt—yet none could touch the enemy in the slightest.
"And so—this is precisely a paradox!"
The situation had completely reversed; not even that imitation Holy Sword could crack Nanoda's Paradox Magic.
The Tortoise Paradox—a scientific paradox from another world, an improved version of motion and stillness—once deployed, it could place her in an untouchable, unreachable, near-invincible, undefeatable stance.
Unlike the motion-and-stillness Paradox Magic, whose enormous Mana consumption made it impossible to use the high-lethality Severance Magic while it was active,
the Tortoise Paradox Magic's advantage was that it conserved Mana—the Mana her body drew from the environment would exceed what was consumed in using the magic.
Its only drawback was that, in order to keep the spell-formula stable, she could not move while it was in use.
Nanoda had long since thought up a countermeasure for this: namely, to keep amassing power for the duration of the paradox, and then deliver him a big one the moment she ended the magic.
"Would you rather be short an arm, or short a leg?"
The Anhadī III before her had already hacked out nearly a hundred consecutive strokes; apart from his own footing, everything around him was a scene of utter devastation.
Seemingly aware too that he couldn't land a hit, her opponent gripped his sword and retreated a few steps, his gaze fixed unwaveringly, waiting for the moment the magic lifted to swing his blade.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Naruto: Is it reasonable to beat up an Otsutsuki with Hamon, right?
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