Chapter 126

The height of the training arena exceeded 15 meters.

Blue lightning and red flames danced up to the ceiling.

The two deadly elemental masses, baring their fangs at each other, dispersed as if they had never been there when the clear sound of the ground echoed twice.

Sererassie and Parnesia chuckled, as if they expected each other to be capable of this level.

Dispel.

It was the most important element in a one-on-one duel between mages.

Contrary to common perception, defense using magic was quite difficult.

“Fire Arrow.”

Parnesia sent forth six fire arrows with just the incantation.

Instead of chanting a spell, Sererassie slammed her staff onto the ground, simultaneously tracing a circle and complex formula in the air with her left hand as if pulling it sharply.

Flash, and then whoosh.

The six fire arrows melted into the air, and a hollow circle erupted with lightning from her left hand.

Parnesia also struck the ground with her staff, dispersing the attack.

“Using only animal forms, that’s a level four spell. Impressive, Your Excellency.”

Once again, they cast Dispel.

After exchanging spells twice, they observed each other, tracing circles.

While destructive mages handle pure force or use barriers and prickly shields, most elemental mages lacked any significant defense spells.

Contrary to its name, the Wind Barrier was an offensive technique, and the Earth Wall was far too slow to erect for defense.

Given that barriers were so inefficient, even the destructive magicians were reluctant to use spells for defense, mages were effectively left defenseless without magic tools or knights.

In other words, the combat style most mages practiced.

Even if it took a bit longer, relying on knights and soldiers while preparing strong magic became futile in a duel.

“How about this, Your Excellency?”

Parnesia readied a Dispel with her staff while raising her right hand to draw an animal form.

Dressed with the epithet of “flames flying like a bird,” it was her guided spell, “Wings of Fire.”

Three birds made of flames, the size of ravens, surged into the sky.

Two circled to the left and right, targeting Sererassie.

One remained steadfast in the middle, waiting for Sererassie to use Dispel.

While breaking things was easier than creating, doing it consecutively was still work, and both were skilled enough to strike each other with shadowless spear spells given even the slightest opening.

Sererassie smirked and clenched her fist in an instant.

Flash!

Three streams of lightning burst forth like branches, and the three flaming birds plummeted to the ground, transforming into smoke.

In that moment, Parnesia’s single crimson eye gleamed as she struck her obsidian staff four times in succession.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

A cutting whirlwind shot out in the shape of a red crescent blade.

The fusion of wind magic and fire magic, “Blade of Fire.”

Sererassie’s yellow and blue gemstones flickered as she struck her yellow sapphire staff down hard.

Thud!

The tremendous power of Dispel scattered the mana in an instant, causing the four blades to vanish as if they had never existed.

Considering she had once cast Dispel with long incantations just half a year ago, it was an absurd level of growth.

While Parnesia attempted to unleash her spell again, she was aware that she could take a hit in the brief moment of breathless anticipation.

Sererassie felt like she would stop breathing just dispelling four spells from a mage like Parnesia at once.

The two mages faced each other in the training arena, circling while keeping an eye on each other.

“……”

“!”

“!!”

Both had experienced battles without proper protection from knights.

Both had cast Dispel continuously with shadowless spears, squeezing their spells without the opponent noticing.

Thus, their fight was one of the few remarkable duels among mages.

Flash, and then whoosh.

Flames scattered and burst without respite.

Considering most mages would inadvertently fall in a duel regardless of their circle, it was quite an impressive feat.

* * *

Sererassie, with a bitter smile, unleashed Dispel.

‘I’m clearly going to lose at this pace.’

The amount of mana needed to cast Dispel was greater than that required to unleash the spell itself.

In other words, assuming both sides had similar amounts of mana, an incessant barrage of attacks could overwhelm the defensive side.

Let alone the fact that Parnesia’s mana exceeded Sererassie’s.

No matter how much of a genius she was, the amount of mana accumulated over time could not be surpassed overnight.

Lightning was fast, powerful, and consumed a lot of mana.

Both Sererassie and Parnesia knew this well.

Desperately dispelling the incoming “Spear of Fire” and immediately countering with “Lightning Arrow,” but the “Lightning Arrow” shot with less power than usual within less than 0.1 seconds.

Parnesia easily dispelled her magic and launched the next attack.

“Your Excellency, I hope that cloak has flame resistance.”

With a child-like voice and a distinctly cruel smile.

Sererassie recognized the animal form that Parnesia’s right hand was tracing.

The spell that granted her fame, her improved version of “Wave of Flames.”

She had increased the efficiency of that advanced spell, which had been familiar to all from the battlefield, by 20%.

It had become an eyesore to the predecessors who relied on fire magic tools and scrolls to make a living and had received attacks for it.

Though she had suffered burns and lost limbs and eyesight, she ultimately triumphed over three predecessors and survived, becoming a notable figure.

Sererassie had grown up hearing this tale like a legend.

The protagonist of that legend was not who she had expected.

‘Why are you so obsessed with such worldly power? Enough to make an enemy of a fellow mage like me.’

She looked into Parnesia’s remaining red eye.

That eye was blazing with the passion and ambition for victory.

It seemed to harbor no other thoughts.

In that moment, Sererassie was reminded of her half-brother Valenciaunos.

Despite the terrible atrocities he had committed against her, it was undoubtedly because of this that she could not hate him.

It wasn’t just that he had rescued her from the red-light district; sometimes, Valenciaunos also bore that kind of gaze.

Over the dilapidated yet cunning glint in his eyes lay an inhuman yellow pupil filled with flame-like longing.

As if he could do anything for that.

‘He would sometimes talk of me as his emperor.’

“Wave of Flames.”

The cruel incantation echoed with a child-like voice, as a fan-shaped fire surged forth.

It was too strong a spell to dispel with Dispel.

Sererassie grimaced and recited her incantation.

“Lightning Enhancement.”

A combination of blood magic and lightning magic.

It was a spell that enhanced muscles with lightning.

Unlike acceleration through wind that had severe aftereffects, it also had great effectiveness.

Given she could still use it with just the incantation, it must have been a favored spell.

Though she hadn’t used it much since leaving the Ivory Tower.

Whoosh, Sererassie blinked and leapt 10 meters to avoid the “Wave of Flames.”

Parnesia bent the flames like a snake lifting its head, twisting the tip.

It was as if the flames would fill the training arena with a diameter of 50 meters.

At that moment, Parnesia smiled in a very mage-like manner.

As if she could do anything for this.

In that moment, Sererassie realized.

‘I see.’

While there is only one mountain peak, one can ascend from any direction, and though there is only one truth, there are many paths to it.

It was what she had heard often enough at the Ivory Tower to almost cause her ears to bleed.

She loved lightning.

In fact, she had talent in most elemental and destructive magics as well as all sorts of strange spells, but she chose lightning.

Being born as one of the uneasy royalty among her brother and sister, she lived a life where she never knew when she might die.

Was that why?

A single flash cutting through the darkness, shining and moving forward, looked that magnificent even at her young age.

She wanted to live like that.

Lightning shines and vanishes in an instant, yet that flash remains a fearful yet mysterious memory in people’s minds.

If she was destined not to live long anyway, she wanted to become a flash that would be remembered in this world.

She felt like she understood why her twin half-brother and that Parnesia had chosen fire.

Sererassie’s truth lay in the moment, but theirs lay in the process.

Just as she lived for that brief moment of shining brilliance, they lived for the moment they could blaze for something.

Whether it be money, power, strength, or the trust of their twin siblings, they were all creatures that needed to covet something to survive.

Lightning could shine and be done, but fire had to burn.

‘I understand now.’

What she wished to be was lightning, not fire.

In an instant, Sererassie’s mind accelerated greatly.

* * *

‘Right now, I can’t use an incantation.’

It took minutes to cast when gathering all her focus, and she was fighting in increments of 0.1 seconds.

‘Ordinary spells will definitely be reflexively dispelled.’

Whether pressing down with firepower from a distance or rushing in close with speed.

This time, she chose the latter.

Become a flash.

Sererassie recalled her master’s spell.

Transforming her body into crimson lightning, like Gestarte running across the sky.

How could she not admire someone who had literally become a lightning bolt?

Sererassie attempted to recreate that spell, with no knowledge of its circle, from memory.

“You’re fast, Your Excellency!”

To avoid being engulfed by Parnesia’s flames, she flew as fast as she could using “Lightning Enhancement.”

Even if there was fire magic cast, those flames might burn her robe if they touched her.

Now, the flames were nearly filling the entire training arena.

Where her half-brother was buried, she could not tell.

Time was short.

For Sererassie to summon and shoot lightning was as easy as breathing.

However, following the lightning with her body was an entirely different matter.

As she thought this way.

‘Researching the old.’

Materializing the immaterial and dematerializing the material.

By reversing the formula that creates a body from mana, she could use it to guide her body along with the lightning.

Sererassie began to write the formula in her mind.

She thought she could hear a sound like chattering.

‘If I set “Lightning Spear” as the basic formula, I need to overlay it with research on materializing the immaterial. Tuning it should be done intuitively.’

That tuning alone would produce more than three grimoires.

Brilliant talent, relentless effort, and a passion that had become part of her daily life achieved miraculous feats.

Mages loathe miracles they cannot reproduce.

In the ultimate moment, Sererassie thought.

‘Tomorrow, I will regret not having remembered at least a rough formula based on what this heated feeling and talent has given me.’

They would become a flash of lightning and be remembered.

‘That’s not so bad, right?’

Her body blazed with yellow light.

The current surging from her heart coursed through her arms and legs, absorbed and then radiated, covering her whole body.

“Lightning Spear—.”

Sererassie recited the incantation with slightly slurred speech.

Flash!

Sererassie, who had been cornered by the flames, transformed into a beam of yellow light, striking Parnesia and crossing the training arena.

It was several times faster than the blink of an eye.

“Your Excellency?”

Parnesia murmured with a voice tinged with doubt.

In an instant, the controlling force of the mana slipped from her hands, and the flames that had filled the diameter of 50 meters and the height of 15 meters vanished like a lie.

With a crack, Parnesia realized she was falling after hearing the sound of her prosthetic limb breaking.

‘What kind of magic…?’

If both led lives with the same talent and desires, then.

Only one thing could be desired more deeply.

While she sought wealth and worldly power, Sererassie desired only magic.

‘It was only natural for me to be cast aside.’

* * *

A few days later, in the carriage returning from inspecting renovations in the old slums workshop.

“Are you okay?”

Sererassie asked with a playful smile.

“I’m fine. I have nothing to worry about. I haven’t lost anything. I received plenty of gold from Master Parnesia and Legislator Marcus,”

Valenciaunos shrugged and nodded.

The old slums were receiving a lot of investment, and Konel had to prove that the fire would not break out due to the negligence of the workers and construction managers there.

Otherwise, other investors would leave.

Valenciaunos once again sold his name.

The complex entanglement involving Konel, Marcus, Sererassie, and Parnesia was not worth revealing.

After all, leveraging his infamy proved to be the most efficient approach this time as well.

“Whether you cry or laugh, if you have to do it, then do it.”

It was rumored that he had attempted to destroy the workshop out of jealousy towards Sererassie, and following a fierce duel, she had badly injured Valenciaunos.

News had come that was worth a sense of satisfaction to people after a long time, and the fact that Sererassie had established the workshop built with such achievements had caught the eyes of many wealthy individuals and regional lords.

“Moreover, I still have my share. If sister’s magic tools sell well, my pockets will fill up too.”

Sererassie looked at her half-brother.

He seemed to genuinely not care about such evaluations from the world.

It seemed that he was indifferent to the fall of his name.

“Let’s go buy some magic tools with the money I received. I don’t know much, so you have to go with me tomorrow.”

“Don’t you have hands? Don’t you have feet? Can’t you go by yourself?”

“You’re a royal who knocked out a non-mage without hands, feet, or eyes just the other day.”

“What are you saying? Do you want me to become a bandit like you?”

Sererassie replied with her signature smirk.

While she didn’t know how to use mind-reading magic, she could tell Valenciaunos was trying to smile.

And then Valenciaunos smiled back.

For just a moment, it seemed that his cunning demeanor faded away.