Before long, Millicent and Botari stood facing each other.
"Draw your staff!"
Botari wielded Azur's Glintstone Staff, an ancient weapon traditionally reserved for the chief instructor. A massive blue glintstone was embedded in its head, retaining the original crystalline structure it had formed over billions of years in the depths of space. Its power could significantly enhance glintstone sorcery, while the light of wisdom contained within it helped shorten the time required to cast spells.
Such a staff was extraordinarily precious, practically a legendary weapon among sorcerers.
The swordswoman stood empty-handed. She raised her right arm, reached into empty space, and seized a ray of golden light. Then she drew forth a longsword as light and graceful as a drifting feather.
"That's your staff? Are you planning to hack at me with it?" Botari snarled. "This is a sorcerer's duel! Nonmagical methods are forbidden!"
"And here I thought you weren't afraid of dying."
Millicent angled the Spirit Sword toward the ground.
"This sword is my soul and my spellcasting catalyst. I won't use anything other than magic. Shall we begin?"
Siegfried sighed and stepped forward to officiate the duel.
He addressed Millicent with genuine concern.
"Young apprentice, are you absolutely certain you wish to duel the chief instructor of the Karolos Conspectus? There has never been such a precedent in the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Perhaps withdrawing now would be your wisest choice."
The fact that Botari had allowed matters to reach this point showed that he no longer cared about saving face. A professor challenging an apprentice was an obvious case of bullying someone far beneath his station, and the outcome would disgrace him regardless of who won.
Even if Botari emerged victorious, he would almost certainly face impeachment by the other Conspectuses. Losing his position as chief instructor was practically inevitable.
Of course, if Botari actually won, keeping his prestigious position would be the least of his concerns.
He would first have to figure out how to survive the wrath of a true god.
Millicent shook her head, declining Siegfried's kind offer.
Botari, meanwhile, had fallen completely silent and begun chanting a spell under his breath. He had passed the point of no return, and every muscle in his body was wound tight.
Siegfried sighed inwardly again.
How the hell had things come to this?
He straightened his expression and solemnly announced:
"Today, within the Debate Parlor, beneath the watchful eyes of our distinguished astrologer predecessors, before the representatives of the Carian royal family, and in the presence of the sorcerers of every Conspectus and the entire Academy, the new apprentice Millicent and Sorcerer Botari of the Karolos Conspectus shall engage in an ancient magical duel.
"May both participants uphold the spirit of the astrologers of old. I sincerely hope the victor will accept the defeated party as an apprentice, provide careful instruction, and work together to advance the flourishing art of magic."
Melina immediately rushed out of the Debate Parlor.
As she ran, she sent private messages through the Silver Network, desperately trying to notify Skyl.
Her footsteps were so swift that she practically vanished down the corridor, yet time was already running desperately short.
By the time she crossed the hallway, Millicent and Botari had exchanged their ceremonial bows.
By the time she passed through the building's entrance, Botari had already raised his staff and unleashed an enormous, dazzling comet.
The roaring comet bathed everyone's faces in a cold, frostlike radiance.
Millicent raised the Spirit Sword before her face, concealing half of her features behind its blade.
The power of the golden Shehai surged within her, establishing a connection with the Silver Tree's network of roots stretching throughout the multiverse.
Just before the comet's glintstone projectile struck her, a force field with an unusual frequency erupted from her sword.
A blue-green shock wave spread outward.
The comet, which had been flying in a perfectly straight line, was actually knocked off course by that faint, almost unnoticeable translucent wave.
It slammed into the magical barrier protecting the spectators with a deafening explosion.
The barrier nearly cracked under the impact, demonstrating just how formidable the spell's destructive power was.
[Thops's Barrier]!
Thops nearly burst into tears at the sight.
Millicent had just performed the sorcery to which he had devoted so many years of painstaking research.
It was a force-field spell capable of deflecting sorceries and incantations, much like a warrior using a shield to knock aside an incoming sword.
Millicent had practiced this technique repeatedly inside an instanced plane, so executing it now came almost effortlessly.
As it happened, the instanced plane she had challenged was called [The Raya Lucaria Rebellion], which recreated a historical period of internal conflict between the Academy and the royal family.
Millicent had even encountered a younger version of Botari inside it.
Back then, he had been a rather handsome young man.
Now he had become a half-mad old eccentric.
"You blocked it? Then try this!"
Botari muttered incessantly under his breath, his chanting increasingly neurotic.
Another enormous glintstone projectile followed his words, but it likewise failed to accomplish anything.
He recklessly expended his mental power, while the glintstone fragments embedded in his cheeks glowed faintly, continuously replenishing his reserves.
Millicent knocked aside the flying stars.
The old man unleashed five glintstone projectiles in rapid succession, and she deflected every last one.
Before long, the deranged Botari was muttering furious curses.
Then, under the horrified gazes of the assembled scholars and sorcerers, he unleashed the strongest primeval sorcery inherited by the Karolos Conspectus.
Comet Azur!
The magical power gathering at the tip of Botari's staff distorted the surrounding light. It resembled a black hole drawing in matter, compressing an immense quantity of energy into an impossibly small point.
When the compression reached its limit, a torrent of magical power as thick as a barrel erupted straight ahead.
[Thops's Barrier] had absolutely no chance of stopping this attack.
A shield might protect someone from arrows, but it wouldn't do much against a 200-millimeter howitzer.
Even Avada Kedavra couldn't hope to stop a comet like this.
Harry Potter's magic was like a welding torch, while the magic of the Lands Between was more like the Kamehameha. Their destructive power might occasionally be comparable, but the difference in the sheer scale of their attacks was enormous.
However, when it came to magical power and the destructive yield of spells, the sword magic of the ancient Ansei Sword-Saints was hardly inferior.
Their sword magic had once been capable of sinking an entire continent.
Across the multiverse, the magic of the Sword-Singers stood in a class of its own.
Millicent had only recently become a Sword-Saint, but her mastery of the Shehai was no worse than that of the Ansei who had spent decades honing their art.
The sword concealing half her face slowly turned.
Its broad blade became a slender line dividing her features down the middle, revealing Millicent's silent, sharp, and chilling expression.
She looked down upon her opponent with the dangerous air of a predator about to devour its prey.
In the instant before the torrent of comet magic erupted at nearly the speed of light, the Spirit Sword descended.
An immense arc of brilliant silver sword light flashed forth.
It resembled a cold, menacing crescent moon.
Millicent's entire body vanished as the sword wave surged forward.
The sword energy rushed upstream against the magical torrent, slipping through its structure as effortlessly as an impossibly thin blade passing through the tiniest opening.
It forced its way through the comet's devastating stream of magic.
Then it severed Botari's right forearm, the one holding his staff.
His upper arm followed.
Finally, the blade cleaved through his shoulder.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"AAAAAAAGH!"
Botari collapsed into a pool of blood.
The magnificent sword light gradually dissipated.
Millicent reappeared amid its fading radiance and calmly surveyed the deathly silent Debate Parlor.
"I am Millicent, Skyl's Feather, the Blade of Skyl. Remember this name, and pass it down to future generations."
The swordswoman gently loosened her grip.
The Spirit Sword dissolved into motes of light and vanished.
She walked leisurely toward the exit without sparing another glance at her fallen opponent.
Every gaze directed toward her, every suspicious look and mocking stare, had been replaced by silent trembling.
This was the Lands Between.
Power was what gave someone the right to rule.
Outside the classroom, Skyl was already standing there, waiting for her.
The atmosphere abruptly shifted from the grim determination of a life-or-death duel to the tranquil peace of an ordinary school day.
"All finished?" He waved at her.
Millicent nodded somewhat awkwardly.
"I think I messed up. I chopped up the exam proctor."
"Well, once school's out, we can take him a nice fruit basket and pay him a visit," Skyl replied with a mischievous grin.
Millicent glanced toward Melina, who was standing nearby.
She was still hesitating over whether she should embrace Skyl when he reached out and took her hand.
"Tell me what's on your mind. Anything at all."
The light in Melina's eyes abruptly went out.
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