“Your Highness Valencius. I am ashamed.”
Lady Trentia bowed her head with a gloomy expression.
She was wearing platinum plate armor, which was too heavy and dangerous for a small assault ship rushing into enemy territory.
Of course, the platinum armor had the function of encasing the body in ice and allowing it to surface above the water, but it was clear that the sea was not a battlefield suitable for heavily armed knights.
I chuckled, unconcerned.
Lady Trentia would surely scream if she realized I was going to persuade pirates.
“Protecting me is your job. Just keeping your eyes wide open so that white shark doesn’t gobble me up is enough.”
“Um… Your Highness, my eyes are not blue.”
“Did you understand what I meant?! I’ll be back!”
I climbed down the rope ladder to the assault ship.
Whoosh!
Cariosa waved her hand lightly, and wind gusted from behind.
I met the wind like a living sail and headed straight towards the ship with a red flag ahead.
Whooosh!
A pirate corpse, still not fully burned, scraped against the deck.
I shuddered in disgust, shivering, and forced a smile as I lifted my head.
The mind is merely a slave to the body.
“If you eat serpent horn leaves, you’ll laugh while having your arm cut off, and if you consume black-spotted thorn tree juice, you’ll be connected with the person you love in the morning, yet wish to die in despair after searching for gold in the evening.”
Take what is visible, what can be grasped, and what can be counted as the light of your heart.
“I was born to live like that.”
I clenched my teeth against the throbbing headache and tried to force a smile.
“Hahaha!”
My head ached even more.
Still, after laughing a few more times, laughter came out like inertia.
“Ha, ha. Right.”
I felt a chill smile forming at the corners of my mouth.
I confidently lifted my head and glared at the ship with the red flag.
The pirate captain, clad in red Eastern-style armor and wearing a stag-horned helmet, stood at the sign with his subordinates, glaring at me.
“Huff, huff!”
“I guess this is where I end.”
“Take! Don’t give up!”
I wondered why they weren’t fleeing as I looked around, noticing that some pirate warriors were still returning to their respective ships after running on the water earlier.
They had initially aimed to burn and kill us all, but it seemed their firepower was weak.
The ships with red flags circled around Tempesta, pulling up the surviving pirate warriors.
“Unusually for pirates, they have some loyalty.”
Not bad as future pawns.
I grinned wickedly and drew on my mana with an incantation.
“The captain sacrificed himself as bait to protect his subordinates? What a sight.”
A yellow aura gathered on my palm covered by a black glove, while the surrounding mana surged towards me, and I commanded the mana firmly.
“If you set a bait, you must take it. Set the ship ablaze.”
Three fire spirits, materialized through the mana, smiled as they soared into the sky.
They took the form of a boy with spiraled horns, and he was shirtless.
It felt strange as the spirit seemed to resemble me more and more.
Whoosh!
The spirits circled around the pirate ship, spewing fire, while colorful bows and ballistas shot from the pirate ship.
Screech! Screech! Screech!
“Capture them!”
“Aaaah!”
“Hit the head!”
I could have burned the entire ship, but I didn’t want my magical tools to be damaged in my flames, nor did I want those Eastern pirates to die.
They might be terrified and trembling, but they could also surrender.
Before I knew it, the assault ship I was on arrived directly beneath their pirate ship.
Warriors in black iron masks looked down at me.
Their eyes were burning with finely honed murderous intent.
“Surely, things won’t go that smoothly for me.”
I regretted thinking of such a possibility and crashed the assault ship.
“Anima!”
Boom!
A fierce wind surged from beneath my feet, and my body soared into the sky.
Whoosh!
The pirate ship, more than 60m in length, looked like a fortress on the water, but I flew through the sky like a bird up to the sign.
“Hahaha!”
The fire spirit ignited the sails, just as a warrior pulled the sail upwards, spitting out seawater, and dozens of warriors in Eastern-style armor looked up at me in shock.
Clang!
The helmeted figure kicked, and a woman in black clothes pulled him back.
Bang!
I landed gracefully on the sign.
The helmeted man opened his mouth.
“Are you Duke Valencius? I am Tarti, a noble from the East…”
“Call me ‘Your Excellency, Duke.’ You lowly creature.”
Inside my hand had already transformed into an Az shard, while the back of my hand cracked like broken pottery, revealing red crystals that pulsed with my heartbeat, resonating back and forth with fire energy.
Both my body and head felt pleasantly hot.
I spoke as it came to me.
“I can turn you and your ship into ashes with mere gestures. If you want to live, kneel before me and bow your head.”
* * *
Tarti gazed at the duke before her.
He appeared much younger than expected, but there was no hint of youthfulness.
Though she prided herself on having seen all sorts of monsters from the sea, she had never encountered a monster like this.
‘Can I win?’
The inhuman yellow eyes and the protruding red crystals on his left hand served as ample warnings not to charge recklessly.
Thus, Tarti asked.
“If I kneel and bow my head, will you spare my life?”
Valencius was about to answer affirmatively.
After all, he came to recruit her into the imperial court’s private fleet.
At that moment, a useless thought caught his ankle.
‘But is it okay for me to answer right away? The judicial authority here is all in Cariosa’s… damn.’
The silence stretched too long, and Tarti took it as a rejection.
‘I’ll end this in one blow.’
He took a large step forward, raising his sword.
Swoosh!
The green blade glowed softly against the contrast of his red armor.
Evil!
The sword, swung like the wind, targeted the young duke’s neck.
The young duke twisted his body in shock, and the sword grazed his neck to a depth of a couple of finger joints before angling down like a meteor and deeply cutting into his shoulder.
Swish!
At that moment, Tarti and Sayah Yan were confident of their victory.
‘If I severed the neck that deeply, it’s over.’
‘Even if he survives the instant death, he will bleed out… huh?’
However, Valencius didn’t even blink.
Sizzle, sizzle!
Instead of fresh blood, red flames and crystals erupted from his neck, healing the wound, while the torn edges of his uniform seemed to seam themselves back together at that instant, and inside his shoulder was filled not with human flesh, but brown scales.
In that moment, the young duke transformed into the Bandit Duke.
“Did this insect dare to swing a sword before receiving an answer to its question?!”
This was a dirty tactic even the average mercenaries of the empire would not employ.
Even the previous Valencius had not been fond of using such tricks.
Whoosh!
An inhumane aura burst forth from his body, and the atmosphere changed once again.
The pirate warriors involuntarily took a step back.
‘What is that?’
‘This is not right.’
‘Is the blood of the royal family truly like that? Are they genuinely ruled by heterogeneous races?’
It felt like facing a colossal alien being straight on.
Valencius’ voice fluctuated from androgynous to exceedingly deep.
It sounded as if dozens were shouting simultaneously.
“I will kill you painfully! I’ll burn your hair, melt your eyeballs, and incinerate the fat layer beneath your skin, turning you into a living candle!”
‘Refusing my hand? I’ll teach you a lesson with a sharp whipping.’
Tarti and the warriors felt intense headaches.
“Ugh!”
“Captain!”
“I know this is…”
Their vision blurred, colors distorted, heads throbbed, and bodies felt itchy and prickly.
It resembled symptoms from mental contamination or psychic waves rather than an illness.
Valencius sent forth incantations and flames of resonance to the spirits tied together by invisible threads.
Boom!
Scales of dragons erupted all over the spirits, doubling their size.
Whoosh!
The three spirits simultaneously spat fire from both the front and sides of the ship.
“Aaaah!”
The salt-crusted and moisture-soaked timber burned slowly, and like a large sailing ship, it had fire-resistant magical formations, but Valencius’ flames ultimately overcame that resistance, piercing into the wood.
Whoooosh!
The green aura of fire resistance scattered, and at that spot, bright red flames flicked their tongues.
A warrior beside Tarti raised his sword and charged.
Thud!
“Milord! Get down!”
A gentle green mana blade shimmered atop the sword, and the thrust trajectory precisely targeted the heart.
Valencius did not evade, but rather stepped forward.
The sword collided with the Bandit Duke’s body, causing a loud crashing sound.
Clang, clang!
It sounded as if someone was scraping a forged iron lump with a kitchen knife.
The warrior groaned in pain as his wrist felt a numbing sensation, and he groaned again from the eerie feeling.
“Ugh!”
He withdrew the sword, preparing for a rapid attack, but Valencius was faster, lightly wave his right hand.
Swoosh!
A purple aura distinctive of telekinesis glimmered sharply from the adherent black glove, and the warrior crumbled.
Thud, thud.
A white, red, and viscous liquid poured from his nose.
“What the—?”
“Beware! He’s not just a magician that handles flames!”
“This bastard dares!”
He had directly rummaged through the warrior’s mind with telekinesis.
Those stepping forward and retreating created a stark contrast as the Bandit Duke delivered a fair death sentence to them all.
Whoooosh!
He thrust forward with his left hand, now boiling with intensity.
“I’ll make good use of that wonderful magical tool.”
“Strike him!”
Tarti raised her sword and the eastern warriors, following their lord, smashed the deck.
The green mana blade flared up, and superb warriors capable of striking more than eight times in a breath charged at just one person.
Swoosh!
The swords wailed, leaving behind green trajectories in the air.
The attacks were sharp enough to behead a fully mutated infiltrator in an instant.
Valencius glared haughtily at the warriors, raising his chin.
“Die.”
In his golden eyes, the helmeted figure at the forefront and the swords trailing behind him reflected shimmering light.
Swoosh!
The next moment, a translucent red wave erupted from his left hand, spreading like a fan.
Boom!
The pirate warriors hit by the wave flew backward as if kicked by a ball.
Neither the massive man nor the tall man could withstand the crimson wave.
The only one who could dodge was Sayah Yan, while Tarti alone braced herself in that spot.
“Ugh? What?”
“Was it not fire?”
“But why… my head? Ugh!”
The fallen warriors expressed their confusion, and the one most surprised was Valencius himself.
His seething anger momentarily dissipated.
‘Why did I not produce flames but rather shockwaves?’
He had undoubtedly unleashed a tremendous resonance of fire energy.
‘It was intended to blow them away, not to burn them to ashes. But why is it a wave, not flames? They don’t seem dead yet?’
Despite their curiosity, the pirate warriors once again raised their swords, and so did Tarti.
“I don’t know what it is, but just kill him!”
“Let’s taste that half-blooded one!”
“The royal family must have tender skin, right?”
Valencius reflexively reached for Black Tear, but it was unnecessary.
“Aaaah!”
“Graaaah!”
“Ugh!”
Clang, clang!
The pirate warriors who had been hit by the shockwaves dropped their swords and rolled on the ground, clutching their heads with both hands.
Some seemed to feel an overwhelming heat, scratching their entire bodies, while others suffered convulsions and sprayed blood from their noses like a fountain, and some just stiffened in place.
Even Sayah Yan had never seen a scene like this.
‘Poison?’
At that moment, Tarti experienced a vision of her body engulfed in flames.
“You, what kind of monster are you?”
Valencius laughed as if he didn’t understand anything.
“Who knows?”
‘Ah. I didn’t plan to kill.’
His red lips parted, revealing white teeth.
“I honestly don’t know now.”
‘For now, let’s first take that magical tool.’
In the next moment, he charged forward, kicking off the ground.
Thud!
Tarti gasped and swung her sword.
Slash, slash! Slash!
The green mana blade rose, forming a sharp wall.
“I’ll throw you into the water and think more about this afterwards!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Valencius struck with his elbow, fist, and heel, shattering the wall Tarti had erected.
His body, having absorbed Az’s crystals, boasted the strength of armor on its own.
Clang!
Tarti startled and drew a shorter dagger.
‘This isn’t martial arts suitable for a combat magician. No, he’s even more skilled!’
Slash!
And whoosh!
He executed a dual-attacking technique, transitioning from slashing to stabbing, while Valencius charged like a drake covered in rocky scales.
“Hahaha!”
Even Sayah Yan could not intervene in this fierce battle.
Tarti cut down with her sword, targeting Valencius’ wrist.
Clang!
At that moment, Valencius caught the dagger with his scaly hand while deflecting the sword with his forearm.
Bang!
The sound of breaking glass echoed, Tarti’s sword was knocked away from Valencius’ forearm, causing fragments of scales to scatter.
“Ugh!”
The green mana blade shattered into pieces, and Tarti spat a mix of groans and blood.
Whoosh!
Valencius, having dashed swiftly, grabbed Tarti’s ankle and flipped her upside down.
Hanging by her ankle, Tarti trembled.
“W-What are you doing?”
It was an unimaginable humiliation for a warrior, and a valid protest, but…
“You swing your sword without even hearing my answer?”
Valencius’ eyes turned wild.
![[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come](https://i3.wp.com/darkmtl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407792-8993-TS-The-end-of-magical-girls-has-come.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come")