The carriage continued to race forward, leaving the elven maiden and the cat-man youth to face off against one another amid the great snow.
"Whew——"
The stars gleamed.
The wooden sword in Ryuu's hand gradually shattered, dissolving into countless points of starlight that wreathed themselves around the maiden.
Her thoughts were gradually emptying themselves.
In this moment, facing an opponent of overwhelming strength, the maiden was not thinking of anything at all — she was purely, simply focused on what was right in front of her.
That was a must.
In a certain sense, Allen Fromel was a "senior" — he was an adventurer from the same generation as Riveria, Finn, and Gareth.
And what was more —
His strength was even greater.
As far back as the era of the [Great Conflict], when he had not yet been twenty years old, he had already been a Lv. 6 adventurer. The fact that he had not leveled up in all the years since was purely because his [Excelia] had not yet accumulated enough.
He was a senior with truly venerable credentials.
At the same time —
He was an absolute genius. Ryuu knew that — just like herself, just like Ais — being called a "genius adventurer" within the city was, in a certain sense, really just a matter of the Guild's promotional needs.
Compared with that, Allen's natural talent absolutely belonged in the very top tier.
Of course, the person she was now was also Lv. 6, but the reason she had leveled up so swiftly was entirely thanks to Isagi.
The opponent was strong. Very, very strong.
And on top of that —
His personality was nasty as well.
As Anya's older brother, beneath the cat-man youth's somewhat disheveled, ash-black short hair he always wore some expression of cold, irritable distaste.
His golden eyes drooped slightly, his face entirely set in the mold of one easily provoked to anger.
Even on a winter's day this cold, he wore only a tight-fitting vest and trousers, leaving both arms exposed; over his right shoulder was a decorative half-plate of silver-gray, and from it spilled the cape-cloak embroidered with the crest of Freya Familia.
He held a silver spear, his head tilted slightly to one side as he looked at her — plainly less than satisfied.
Allen was, in truth, rather angered at this moment.
He felt as though he had been looked down upon. Because, in the young man's view, the Astrea Familia should at the very least have sent Ais to face him.
As for Ryuu —
In the eyes of Allen, [Gale] — she who had reduced the underworld of the city to terrified whispers — was simply not quite up to the mark.
And the most important thing of all was —
The elven maiden was Anya's close friend.
More than once, in the tavern of the Hostess of Fertility, Allen had seen Ryuu and Anya speaking intimately together.
So even this kind of person could count as an adventurer?
As brother and sister —
The relationship between Allen and Anya was rather strained. That was something even Isagi and Ryuu knew about — namely, the matter of why the foolish cat-girl had retired as an adventurer, and how she and her older brother Allen had practically become strangers to one another.
When all was said and done —
The fault lay with Allen as the elder brother.
Ryuu drew another deep breath. In a certain sense, this battle was, on behalf of Anya, a way of giving this fellow a proper lesson.
The cat-girl might be a fool, but she was certainly no —
"The foolish one is you..."
Just as Ryuu opened her mouth, on the verge of saying something —
The slender, pointed ears of the maiden, on account of an ear-piercing detonation, briefly and altogether lost their hearing.
All around fell into deathly silence.
Even the originally howling blizzard seemed to cease to exist.
Everything had been forced aside.
The thickly piled snow, the woods along both sides of the mountain road, the cliff walls, and even… the very air?
Ryuu, with overwhelming clarity, saw the vibration that should by rights have been invisible, and on its heels, the shockwave bearing down upon her like the collapsing of mountains and the surging of seas.
Was it the wind?
No — not at all!
This was the simple result of speed: speed so sheer that it had brought about a bursting-apart and a warping of all around.
[The Goddess's Chariot] had launched its charge.
Long ago —
Both Isagi and Ryuu remembered Anya's straight-line speed all too well.
The cat-girl might have been a silly thing, but the moment she gripped her spear and came barreling head-on, her speed was such that even Ryuu could scarcely follow it.
And what was more, it wasn't merely a matter of being fast.
The enormous impact-force of her spear charge — even Ryuu of the same level back then would not have dared to take it head-on.
And Anya was, at most, only [Half-Wheel of the Chariot].
In this moment —
What Ryuu faced was [The Goddess's Chariot] itself. And so, in that single instant of dazed realization, the silver spear in the cat-man youth's hand had already arrived right before her eyes.
The fierce cold wind it dragged in its wake, in a mere instant, sliced open the maiden's cheek.
A bead of blood slid down.
In that moment, Ryuu's mind had already, in the space of an instant, rendered its judgment.
[Cannot be parried.]
So all she could do was dodge. Almost on pure instinct, the maiden hurled herself to the side, evading the strike in the most ungainly of postures.
She rolled several times across the snow and only then slowly stood up.
The icy snow clung to most of her body — especially her long, disheveled golden hair, and that pretty face streaked now with traces of blood.
"Trash."
As if confirming what he had already thought in his heart, Allen repeated himself for emphasis.
The weak should not set foot on a battlefield, even less should they become adventurers, and the most important thing of all —
The cat-man youth's eyes were turning steadily more savage. Because he had always worried that Anya would be influenced by Ryuu and her like and once again take up adventuring.
This matter —
The goddess had once mentioned it to him, and so he absolutely would not permit it to come to pass.
That idiot of a sister of his was certainly watching as well, wasn't she? Then she had better watch carefully — come to terms with her own strength, and stop forever entertaining those naive, foolish notions.
So —
"The next strike —"
"!!"
But Allen, who had been about to say something himself, only saw a crimson, raging fire suddenly flare up before his eyes.
Following that —
Only then did a swift gale come howling past, dragging his cape and his hair along with it, and bringing with it the hot-cold sensation of a blade edge slicing across his face.
The image came faster than the sound.
But in truth, the maiden's movement had been faster than all of these things.
"How interesting."
Ryuu, who only just now had been standing at no great distance, had vanished into an afterimage — she was already, at this very moment, behind Allen.
Drops of blood spattered through the air.
After that, the silver spear and the rapier wreathed in raging flame crossed and recrossed in mid-air without pause. Both of their weapons were ill-suited to defense, and so every strike was aimed straight at the opponent themselves.
Both their speeds were simply far too fast.
The gods and the majority of the adventurers, looking through the divine mirrors, could only see crimson and silver-gray colors crashing endlessly into one another within the wind and the snow. The figures of the maiden and the youth were like still frames, splintering into countless afterimages as they charged and crossed back and forth in midair, then sprang apart again with terrible speed.
Ryuu was murmuring an incantation in a low voice.
She had long since grown accustomed to it: the moment combat began, she would unceasingly invoke her magic, [Luminous Wind].
The deep-green orbs of light wound themselves around her friend's blazing fire as well, in concert with the rapier in her hand, bursting and burning all about them.
Before long —
The mountain woods cloaked in great snow were gradually melting — indeed, they were beginning to char black. The sky-scorching flames raised great billows of dense smoke that further obscured everyone's view.
Whatever the outcome of this battle —
This stretch of mountain woods would, in all likelihood, take on a wholly altered appearance afterwards.
The combat of upper-tier adventurers was just like that. A single moment of carelessness, and the leveling of cities, the obliterating of land, was nothing extraordinary.
And as the battle of the two grew ever more white-hot —
The atmosphere of the city was finally being whipped up; and just at this moment, on the other side, Isagi "added more fuel to the flames" once again.
The firework rose into the sky and burst once more.
While the battle between Ryuu and Allen was still nowhere near deciding a victor, the Astrea Familia, on the contrary, proactively applied to Loki and Freya for another [Duel].
"From the Goddess of Justice's side, the one being sent into the field is ——
"Lefiya Viridis!"
The elven maiden who was always, every so often, kicking up some great commotion and shaking the entire city, walked down from the carriage gripping her wand, an expression of utterly earnest cuteness on her pretty face.
And her opponent —
Soon enough arrived on the battlefield as well.
"From the Freya Familia, Hedin Selland!"
To the impassioned voice of the Ganesha Familia's broadcaster, the elven man, likewise holding a wand, appeared amid the snowstorm.
"What, not someone from Loki Familia? I'd actually thought we might see Gareth or Finn deployed."
"If only Riveria hadn't already taken the field earlier — we might have gotten to see a clash between the two great archmages, mightn't we?"
"What would be the point of watching that? Wouldn't they just be bombarding each other with magic? And if that were the case, wouldn't the entire Beio Mountain Range likely be flattened?"
"Hedin's not all that far off, really…"
[White-Spirit Wand].
Lefiya had never forgotten the words once spoken by her old friend — and also the same-race kin who had been the first to teach her magic — Filvis.
She had said —
That she had once striven with Mr. Hedin as her goal.
Because both their magics were ultra-short-text magics, their fighting styles were similar —
"Well, the truth is I was simply learning from him."
So Filvis had once, somewhat embarrassedly, confided in secret.
"Eternal struggle, undying thunder-soldier."
[Carus Hild].
Thunder cracked and rolled.
His form was simply the very benchmark of the elven race: tall and slender, with a head of long golden hair, always standing perfectly upright and well-composed, wearing eyeglasses and clad in a robe of pure white, a wand in his hand.
Like one of the stern instructors of the Academic District.
This was not Lefiya's first meeting with Hedin. Long ago, back when she had not yet left the Academic District, he had come on behalf of the Goddess of Beauty to invite her to join Freya Familia.
[Because your soul is sufficiently special.]
Those had been the Goddess of Beauty's exact words.
At the time, Lefiya had felt only stunned and honored. After all, what she had been thinking back then was to join the Loki Familia, and now suddenly to be invited by Goddess Freya as well was equivalent to being given, all at once, a "passport" to the city's strongest familia.
That said —
"Lift the cup as a shield, bowl that shatters evil!"
[Dio Grail].
A deep-blue shield of light appeared from out of thin air, blocking the entire incoming volley of thunder-orbs.
Lefiya stood facing into the wind.
In this very moment —
The senior who, once upon a time, had been someone she could only "look up to" was now standing before her as her opponent. So she would have to give her very utmost to win this victory — both as a return for the trust of her companions, and as a mark of respect for this senior.
And in the face of all this, Hedin's expression remained unchanged.
As the "strategist" of the Freya Familia —
He was forever calm, forever silent.
He merely raised his wand again, and once more invoked an ultra-short-text spell.
"Eternal chastisement, undying thunder-soldier."
[Walian Hild].
A thick pillar of lightning materialized from the void, hurtling toward Lefiya in a posture poised to obliterate everything.
But faster even than the thunder was the elven man who had already appeared right before the eyes of the elven maiden, the blade at the other end of his wand poised to come sweeping down upon her.
Bearing with him the force of a thousand thunderbolts.
In this moment, in Lefiya's eyes, all she could see was the lightning bursting and crackling endlessly —
____
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