Chapter 540

[ Giselle Fisher ← If you’re truly grateful, give me a thumbs up lol ]

( Giselle Fisher crying as she exits the Stadium.gif )

With an unprecedented advantage and private evaluation match, she took down Monica Rich and Nathan Chen one after another,

But is everyone grateful for Giselle Fisher who fell to Nona-Me with a North Mountain ending?

Honestly, it was annoying to pull her hair with bad hands,

But if she willingly becomes a stamina potion for our Nona-Me’s finals, I’ll acknowledge her lol

[Comments]

– This guy just said give a thumbs up

– Nona-Me up

– Wow, she’s really good at crying lol

– Even though they barely made it to the semifinals, do you underestimate Nona-Me?

– Except for the first six minutes, there was no tension at all lol

– Come to think of it, Nona-Me had a tough matchup too

└ 32nd round Luruoan also had to face Katsuhata in the group stage

└ They met a championship contender right from the group stage, how dare lol

└ If Levi had still been alive, he would’ve wiped out in the quarterfinals. Clearly, he fell due to adaptation issues.

[Just now) Giselle Fisher’s yellow card scene.gif]

( Bad hands pulling Nona-Me’s hair.gif )

[Comments]

– Wow, she should get a red card for that, so shameless

– The whole world is against Nona-Me

– Did all the French referees get bribed?

– Let’s just throw away the second half with a 5-minute mark

– Seriously, how did she even make it to the semifinals lol

[ Giselle Fisher returning after enlightenment lol ]

( Entering the training hall for the second half.jpg )

Right, where is the semifinal lol

If you beat three champion candidates, you should be satisfied.

Honestly, I want to give Giselle Fisher a high evaluation.

Holding a 55-minute match against the American champion?

Her mental strength is out of this world.

[Comments]

– Do the kids from the Middle East and South America make fouls passively?

└ She seems nice, but her hands go first

– Watching Giselle Fisher makes me feel sorry and cute

└ I really dislike it;; There are rules for a reason, the mindset of saying she’ll take a yellow card is irritating.

└ But she apologized, so let’s drink~

└ Of course, if she didn’t apologize, she’d be disqualified lol

– Let’s finish well while controlling Nona-Me’s strength. Save stamina well.

└ Whether it’s Japan-Korea War or Korean Civil War, it makes my heart swell.

* * *

It was an average first half.

Compared to the time with Cecilia, there weren’t any significant crises, and the wall situations were reasonably good.

“Can you handle the match?”

“…”

She clearly seems upset about something.

Teenagers are often full of thoughts and express little.

“I’ll kill you.”

I’ll correct that. There’s a lack of warm expressions.

Giselle bared her white teeth menacingly.

It’s finally time to bring out the beast she had hidden away.

Despite her looks, her intelligence has definitely increased, not decreased.

When she uses her aura, her brain works well too.

Before the match began, I gave her some simple advice.

“Don’t burn yourself to fuel your fire. You’ll die early doing that.”

“… I won’t do it if I don’t want to.”

“I understand that feeling. It’s something I say to myself.”

“?”

I chuckled lightly.

“If you can beat me here today, I’ll teach you the delicious way to consume potions. Do you know I majored in potion studies in college?”

“That’s nonsense.”

“I was serious.”

Of course, she wouldn’t be able to beat me, so it was a joke too.

I’m a bit disappointed I couldn’t share this sophisticated humor out loud.

“To be honest, I motivated myself by momentarily equating you, Nona-Me, with my friend Himena. I’ve been fighting all this time for Himena, who has been waiting in the semifinals.”

“Why me of all people?”

“Because you’re short, frail, self-centered, and your speech is rude like Himena.”

“What did you just say?”

“And because you believed in me. I kept saying I would defeat everyone and come out on top…”

Giselle closed her eyes for a long moment and then opened them.

To think, the white of her eyes almost disappeared.

What a surprise, I thought she was a Mazzak.

“But now my goal is to win the national exchange tournament. You’re no longer Himena. I’ve truly respected you, Nona-Me, all along, but…”

“That means you see me differently now?”

<[Prêts?]>

Giselle sighed and glared at me.

“Yeah. You’re the bastard rapist I want to kill.”

“Boy, you’re a funny friend.”

The hostility Giselle sends my way is entirely sincere.

Yes, it’s a ‘real madness’ that is on a different dimension from the fake madness of Hiroki Naita.

It projects inner imagery onto the outside, perfectly deceiving even her.

<[Allez!]>

[Semifinal Match 125]

[Time: 15:01]

Maybe I have been underestimating that power.

Woo-Ooh—

Now I had nothing shy to hide behind.

Giselle pulled squishy tentacles and sharp thorns from her palms.

Murky aura rushed in like a tsunami.

Creeeak—!

[Separation Sword Engraving – Skiabona]

What is a mirage has become clear now—

Creeeak—!

[Giselle Fisher (Argentina)] [37% / 63%]

[Nona-Me (South Korea)] [70% → 64% / 75%]

I thought I could distinguish them, but what is this?

Boom!

Thirteen thorns pierced through my wall in an instant.

Even when I dodged all, clear traces of damage remained on the micro-particle wall.

The number of mirages she can handle is only one.

This cannot be increased by tenacity or effort.

“Ahhh!”

[Activation: Momentum Adjustment]

[Co-cast: Angular Momentum Adjustment]

An acceleration magic circle forms beneath my feet.

Cha—!

The short-distance running practice wasn’t for nothing.

I ran with all my might to stretch the gaps between the thorns.

[Activation: Demon Lord’s Horn]

Bam—!

[Nona-Me (South Korea)] [64% → 62% / 75%]

Once again, I couldn’t dodge everything, but one significant fact was revealed.

‘Giselle can select and move mirages at will.’

That’s a truly ridiculous ability.

Real becomes illusory, and illusory becomes real.

Everything is as she intends.

This moment revealed why countless participants had no choice but to kneel before her.

Even if you struggle not to get caught by the aura, you eventually will.

And mirages are not limited in form; they can freely convert between thorns and tentacles.

A thorn barely slipped past my shoulder, bending as it did.

The black tentacle wrapped around my armpit and gripped me tightly.

And it became a solid thorn in that bent shape, making it difficult to escape.

In this situation, I mustn’t hold back my magic.

[Activation: Canus’s Barrier]

[Random Number Generation: a<=U6MpGJgeP/?]

Bang—!

With forced random conversion, my aura is scattered into the waiting zone.

At the same time, I realized.

In the 16th round, Giselle Fisher was countered by the inherent weakness to Monica Rich.

With Monica having an overwhelming mana capacity, targeting Giselle Fisher would have been a piece of cake.

But what does it mean that she still lost in the match?

It means that Giselle Fisher's battle sense is several steps ahead, even if her knowledge may be lacking.

My heart swells with excitement.

Why has she been hiding her abilities until now?

No.

She probably just never had the chance to display her true skills.

[Activation: Demon Lord's Horn II - Ejecting Horn]

[Activation: Demon Lord's Horn II - Vacuum Wings]

[Activation: Demon Lord's Horn II - Grasp of Judgment]

“...!”

Three magic circles perform cosmic movements.

With the aid of magic, I maximized the sum of my physical body from my last life.

It’s amazing how the magic prepared in case I lost my body could be so useful this life.

I must live long enough to see it.

“Let’s clear away those troublesome tentacles. You don’t like looking this ugly either.”

Grasping the streamlined flowing magic stream with my claws.

Basic magic of Ignis series.

The compressed mana turned red and erupted into flames.

Fwooosh—!

The boundaries between mana and aura are unclear among Mazak.

The sparks from the black tentacle quickly spread throughout.

Crack—!

With my other hand, I uprooted all the tentacles.

Creeeak—!

To prevent me from acting, Giselle unleashed a barrage of thorns.

Ping—!

I instantly brought the mana pressure to zero through the vacuum wings.

While different spells might struggle, thorns make it just perfect to block with wings.

The thorns that lose momentum unraveled like threads.

I instinctively realized it was time for me to move my body.

Whoosh—!

I leapt and stretched my leg toward Giselle’s head.

My body rotated in the air, one foot crashing against Giselle's neck while the other sliced through the air.

In the moment my body crashed against Giselle and slammed her down,

A massive downward pressure crushed her alongside me.

Kaboom—!

I landed softly and heard Giselle’s body hit the ground hard.

“I can't lose again...!”

“Eh?”

“I won’t be late twice!”

“Hmph, come on in!”

Giselle released her aura with an all-consuming ferocity.

A black avalanche enveloped the gold.

As golden sunlight shone down on it again.

With every punch Giselle threw, waves pulsed that struck at my heart.

At this close range, dodging was no longer an option.

Giggity-gig!

We sacrificed our walls like crazy.

We stretched our hands and feet solely to inflict more damage on each other.

I lifted my forearm to block Giselle’s right hook.

Yet my barrier shattered with a loud crash.

Simultaneously, I checked the incoming calf kick from below and rotated half a turn on the pivot foot.

With a rear kick, I delivered a solid blow to Giselle's neck.

Bam—!

“Guh...heh.”

“Are you laughing? This isn’t the time to laugh?”

With my massive claws, I pressed her body down to the ground.

Her form, embedded in the muddy pile, was a sight to behold.

Bam—!

I stomped on those ominous sprouts protruding from the ground again and struck her head hard.

“Heh...heh...”

She laughed softly, still making eye contact.

“Wow, those eyes look fierce?”

In a moment of distraction, Giselle seized my collar and flipped our positions.

[Activation: Ventus Aleb-]

[Dispel: Ventus Alevio]

Bam—!

“How could you be faster than me...to predict?”

A curse almost slipped out.

Giselle Fisher plays this duel with luck.

Even within the same sector, I can use over a hundred different spells; what would I do if it were real combat?

Is her mindset that if it doesn't work, she’ll just die?

[Weaving: Barrier Setting]

[Activation: Rosario’s Prison]

The sky, pushing back the red sunset, and the ground mixed with grass and dirt—

Everything turned black.

‘First, dispel techniques and now a mirage barrier... what a lot of tricks she has.'

A young girl’s scream for help reverberated in my skull.

[Activation: Diagnosis]

[Emotion Synchronization Barrier Technique]

I could call it somewhat cheap if I had to.

Giselle Fisher seems to be using her painful memories to suppress me now.

It must be an overwhelmingly effective strategy against a ten-year-old child.

'I’m not the one for it.’

However, I still have enough remnants of a barrier, so how about taking a minute for some stamina recovery and watching?

Splash—

I stepped into a puddle filled with blood.

I saw a male with a massive hole in his abdomen spilling his entrails.

I don’t think I’ll be eating tripe for a while.

On my way there, I unfastened the spell techniques and approached the being of emotion.

The girl was crying, clutching her friend’s cold corpse.

Clearly, that man had caused harm.

“Why aren’t you sad?”

The illusory barrier that looked like Giselle Fisher spoke.

Describing it as “spoke” was questionable.

Though the words were absent, I understood the meaning.

Since she would be listening from outside, I crouched beside her and said.

“Sadness is a kind of rest. A small shelter for the weary soul to take a breather. But if you keep lying down, your body will stiffen; you shouldn't stay there forever.”

Then I weave a dispel technique.

“When your heart is ready to move again, muster the courage to stand up. Eventually, we must move forward, and even the shelter where you rested will become part of your growth when reflected upon.”

Using a small aura heart to downgrade a 5-circle spell is impossible.

But what if I applied the principles of simplified casting to lower the complexity of the magic one level?

For instance, what if I displayed the spell that stores wishes, ‘Alchemist’, in 2D?

I felt a strong assurance that it would work.

I inscribed 64 runes, half of 128.

[Simple Casting: Alchemist (Dimensional Downgrade)]

[Dissolve: Rosario’s Prison]

While immersion might fall far short of the original spell,

Squeak-squeak—

For some, even such an experience can feel special.

Meanwhile, Giselle, who was engulfed in the illusory barrier, fell into a deep sleep.

Tick—

Gently placing a light tap on the dreaming Giselle’s forehead, I concluded the semifinal duel.

“Hunh!”

“The match is over.”

[Semifinal Match 125]

[Time: 29:59]

[LOSE: Giselle Fisher (Argentina)] [☠9% (Total Annihilation) / 30%]

[WIN: Nona-Me (South Korea)] [⚠19% (Incurable Recovery) / 35%]