"Why are those two just sitting there instead of fighting?"
"What do you know… I heard when two Root Mages meet, they usually don't fight right away."
"They both want to learn the other person's Root Magic."
"Damn… that's boring to watch."
"What's there to learn? Wouldn't fighting tell you everything?"
"Fighting? Can you really understand someone's insight just by fighting? Magic grows through exchange and discussion."
"I thought that rumor about Root Mages sitting down to chat first was fake."
Kanzaki Rei and Duskveil sat there for three full hours.
The ideas Rei explained about Root were not actually the philosophy behind his own Root.
Instead—
They were theories about Devouring, concepts that Xu Zhou had once shared with him.
After returning from that encounter, Rei had thought extensively about the concept of Root Devouring. In fact, after refining and expanding the theory in his own mind, he suspected his understanding might already be even more complete than Xu Zhou's original framework.
However—
Despite this deeper theoretical understanding, Rei still could not learn a second Root Magic.
Because he could not convince himself.
One of the most important aspects of Root Magic was personal conviction.
You had to truly believe:
This is the law of Root. This is the truth.
Only then could the magic exist.
Yet as Rei continued pushing Xu Zhou's theory further in his own mind—
He realized he could not truly believe in it.
Sigh.
Obtaining a second Root Magic was far more complicated than he had imagined.
Simply believing in another Root theory was already extremely difficult.
Believing in a system of laws completely opposite to your own Root Magic?
That was on another level entirely.
"Let's end the discussion here," Duskveil said after glancing at the time.
From his perspective, Rei's understanding of Root didn't seem particularly profound.
The spell "Void Reversal Devour" was indeed impressive.
But when Rei explained it, something about it seemed to lack a certain spiritual depth.
Still—
Rei could clearly use Void Reversal Devour, and he was able to articulate theories about Root Devouring.
Duskveil didn't believe Rei was lying.
Instead, he simply attributed the difference to Rei being only a Level-3 Mage.
Naturally, a Level-3 mage's comprehension of Root couldn't match that of a Level-4 Root Mage.
"Let's decide the outcome."
"This victory is very important to me."
"I'll defeat Luluvi for both of us."
Rei shrugged slightly.
"Oh. Alright."
Pfft.
Before Duskveil could even prepare—
A pale white beam pierced through his body.
「Instant White Flash」 × 8
Eight flashes in a single instant.
Duskveil's eyes widened in disbelief.
He had watched Rei's previous matches.
Every time Rei cast magic, there had been a brief chant beforehand.
But this time—
Rei had cast instantly, without any chanting at all.
The casting speed was so fast that Duskveil hadn't sensed even the slightest ripple of mana.
No—
It felt as though the mana had simply appeared out of thin air, forming magic and piercing his body directly.
There had been no warning whatsoever.
"No… this shouldn't…"
"This shouldn't be the outcome."
Duskveil clutched his chest.
But there was nothing there anymore.
A green glow flared in his hand as he desperately cast healing magic.
The Root Mage was also dual-classed as a Healer.
"Instant Flash of Light."
Rei recited the words in a flat, mechanical tone.
Swish!
The beam pierced straight through Duskveil's head.
That was easy.
Ending the discussion had been his suggestion, after all.
If he said they should determine a winner, attacking immediately was perfectly reasonable.
Besides—
The man had been surprisingly careless.
Talking with someone in the arena without even activating a defensive shield first.
Though Rei could guess the reason.
Maintaining a shield for long periods consumed mana.
Most mages constantly struggled with mana limitations.
Remaining in a sustained casting state meant slowly draining yourself.
[Winner: Kanzaki Rei]
[Your opponent is ready]
"Oh?"
"That match is already finished?"
Rei checked the match board.
The turtle-style warrior had won his fight after two hours.
But when he faced Luluvi afterward—
Luluvi won in 0.5 seconds.
"Half a second."
She pierced through that fortress-like defense?
The corner of Rei's mouth twitched slightly.
At that moment—
Luluvi appeared lightly before him.
Her expression was cold.
Her eyes were sharp as blades.
[Countdown — 10]
"I heard you've been arrogantly telling everyone you're going to defeat me as a Level-3 Mage and knock me to the ground."
Rei shook his head.
"I never said that. It's probably just a rumor."
He didn't like unnecessary misunderstandings.
Although he normally avoided unnecessary conversation during battle, misunderstandings were different.
If they weren't resolved now, they could easily become trouble in the future.
Luluvi chuckled softly.
"Then do you think you can beat me?"
Rei replied calmly.
"I think I probably can."
Luluvi studied his eyes carefully.
Her perception was extremely sharp. Rei's mask offered no real concealment to her senses.
There was no fear in his gaze.
Calm. Clear.
Like the surface of a perfectly still lake.
He truly believed he could win.
And yet he claimed it was a misunderstanding?
Wasn't he proving it through his actions?
Luluvi asked another question.
"You've already comprehended Root Magic. You've also created your own spells. So why haven't you advanced to Level-4 Mage yet?"
Rei thought for a moment.
He obviously couldn't reveal the truth about the Second Root requirement.
He sighed slightly.
"Because there are still things I must accomplish first."
Luluvi narrowed her eyes.
"Oh… is that so?"
Something you must accomplish…
Defeating me while still Level-3?
"Of course," Rei added quickly, realizing the misunderstanding, "that thing isn't defeating you."
That sentence only caused Luluvi's fists to tighten slightly.
"How arrogant."
[Countdown — 1]
Swish!
A staff appeared in Rei's hand.
The Staff of Astral Ring of the Void Spirit.
He had never used this staff in previous matches.
Ultimate Sense immediately triggered a warning.
[Battle Start]
The instant the fight began—
Four massive beams of light erupted simultaneously!
They shot toward Luluvi in a deadly flash.
At nearly the exact same moment—
A blazing white pillar of light roared toward Rei.
Fast!
She had been hiding her strength too!
In all her previous battles, Luluvi had calmly drawn her bow before firing that devastating beam.
But this time—
Rei hadn't even seen her raise her hand.
She had fired almost simultaneously with his Instant White Flash.
BOOM!
The beam struck.
Layers of multicolored shields appeared around Rei.
The arrow pierced through shield after shield—
Each one shattered, then regenerated instantly.
Ultimate Sense had already warned Rei about the attack.
He had also known beforehand that the shields could block it.
Ultimate Sense wasn't powerful merely because it predicted danger.
It also revealed how that danger could be neutralized.
As long as Rei possessed the means to resolve the threat, he would always avoid catastrophe.
There was no chance of making a fatal mistake.
"You really were hiding your strength…" Luluvi's voice echoed.
BOOM!
Magic surged like a tidal wave toward Luluvi.
Completely different from Rei's previous fights.
No chanting.
Hundreds of spells activated simultaneously.
But when Rei looked toward the sky—
Luluvi was already high above.
He calculated the distance instantly.
50 kilometers.
They had separated by fifty kilometers in an instant.
At that range—
Most Level-4 mage spells simply couldn't reach.
Almost all of Rei's attacks missed.
Meanwhile, Luluvi calmly drew another arrow.
「Bow Technique · Falling Shot」「Bow Technique · Burst Shot」
Swish!
The moment she released the string—
The arrow appeared directly above Rei, plummeting downward.
BOOM!
It struck Rei's shield.
Fifty layers shattered instantly.
"So you can block it."
Luluvi had already drawn her bow again.
This time, thousands of faint arrow-lights formed around the bowstring.
"Thousand Rainfall Barrage."
Rei's instincts screamed.
He vanished instantly.
「Origin Body · Instant White Flash」
The very spot where he had stood—
Was instantly struck by thousands of beams of light.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
The explosion blasted a massive crater into the earth.
Rei counterattacked immediately.
「Origin · Shadow Weaving Net」「Origin · Deep Frost Water Sphere」「Illusionary Mist Sea」
The Shadow Net appeared directly around Luluvi, binding her instantly.
Then the freezing water sphere surged forward to trap her.
Swish!
But she vanished the instant the net formed.
Rei located her again through perception.
His detection range was now 160 kilometers.
His eyesight could reach farther, but locating a person visually was inconvenient.
When his perception found Luluvi again—
It was accompanied by a terrifying warning.
Tens of thousands of arrows were falling toward him.
From 100 kilometers away.
How did she move that far instantly?
And she could still attack him from that distance?
Rei's body streaked through the battlefield like flowing light, dodging the storm.
The arrows rained down onto the ground.
Ruined buildings collapsed under the barrage.
Everywhere the arrows struck became dust and thunderous destruction.
When the dust settled—
Only craters and flattened ruins remained.
"You're quite good at dodging."
"For a mage, your movement speed is impressive."
Luluvi's voice echoed again from afar.
Rei cast Void Reversal Devour near her position.
But in the next moment—
Swish!
She disappeared again.
This time she reappeared even farther away.
150 kilometers.
That blink is absurdly fast.
She left the location the moment the spell formed.
Does she also have danger intuition?
Just as Iz Palut had warned—
She was a troublesome opponent.
Rei couldn't help thinking it might have been easier to poison her beforehand.
Her fighting style was the exact opposite of Kaiga's.
Kaiga loved close combat.
Luluvi, meanwhile, wanted to be as far away as possible.
Two completely opposite extremes.
Swish!
If she ran—
Rei would chase.
Spells flashed continuously around Luluvi.
「Origin · Soul Rending Grasp」「Origin · Flesh Curse」「Origin · Shadow Weaving Net」
Running that fast?
Then I'll use guaranteed-hit spells.
Soul Rending Grasp attempted to seize her directly—
A powerful tearing force appeared around her body.
But she flashed again—
Leaving behind an afterimage.
The spell grabbed the afterimage instead.
The Flesh Curse, which had begun forming black curse patterns on her body, also remained behind on the afterimage.
The curse symbols floated uselessly in the air.
Even the Shadow Net captured nothing.
Rei frowned.
What kind of skill is that?
Even target-locked magic could be dodged?
BOOM!
His Thunderfield Zone detonated—
But Luluvi had already left the area.
Rei suddenly laughed.
He was actually laughing out of frustration.
"That escape skill is ridiculous."
"Everything can be dodged?"
"What are you using—my Death Exchange Technique or something?"
Rei chased forward at extreme speed using Instant White Flash.
The arrow storm grew denser and denser, like standing in the heart of a hurricane.
Yet not a single arrow struck Rei.
Under Ultimate Sense and the combat intent Unbeaten Heart, the arrows seemed to slow down.
Rei could easily predict every trajectory.
All of Luluvi's feints.
All of her predictions.
They were completely transparent to him.
Luluvi frowned slightly.
A mage… moving like a streak of light?
This was the first time she had encountered an enemy her arrows couldn't hit.
Every arrow she fired was carefully calculated.
Even the dense arrow rain wasn't random.
It sealed every possible escape route.
Every possible movement path.
Yet Rei always found some bizarre angle to slip through.
He even saw through her decoy shots designed to mislead him into lethal zones.
This kind of battle awareness…
Even warriors who had mastered Combat Intent shouldn't possess it.
Even enhanced senses couldn't easily distinguish the true attacks from traps among these arrows.
What a troublesome mage.
Why is he so hard to kill?
Originally, Luluvi had planned to end the fight quickly—
To demonstrate the overwhelming power of a true expert to this arrogant mage.
Yet Rei proved astonishingly difficult to eliminate.
"So your combat style is distance control…"
Distance:
300 kilometers.
At that range, Rei's magic could no longer reach Luluvi at all.
Yet Luluvi's arrows still continued raining down on him.
Their battlefield had moved outside the city into a vast wilderness.
At this moment, Rei was essentially a living target.
Only Luluvi could attack.
He had no chance of hitting her.
If he couldn't close the distance—
The battle was effectively Luluvi's victory.
A completely one-sided slaughter.
"So this is the power… of an archer with 5,000 victories."
Rei expanded his shields while weaving through the chaotic storm of arrows.
"Your reputation really isn't exaggerated."
Perhaps he truly should maintain respect for the geniuses of this world.
They all had their own extraordinary strengths.
BOOM!
Rei blocked an arrow fired from 450 kilometers away.
A massive trench carved across the earth, stretching for an incredible distance.
Even after traveling hundreds of kilometers, the arrow still retained terrifying power.
This is getting absurd.
She had:
A nearly perfect escape movement skill
Attack range far beyond his spells
Movement speed even faster than his own
And devastating attack power
At this point, his magic couldn't even touch her.
Rei stared at the distant black speck in the sky.
While weaving through the arrow storm like a streak of light—
His mind sank into deep calculation.
Against an opponent this troublesome…
How should I deal with her?