Flashback — Kingdom of Regnum
The rain clouds slowly dissipated above the elven kingdom. Sunlight began to break through, illuminating the rooftops, the wet cobblestones, and the black cars passing along the smooth stone road, as well as the tiny particles still floating in the air.
In this light, as beautiful as it was radiant, stood a mysterious figure, slightly leaning forward, dressed in a long white veil. Emilia Fena, 6 years old at the time, watched the man without being able to distinguish his face, hidden beneath that veil reflecting the light.
Emilia tilted her head slightly, trying to see his face out of simple curiosity.
— Who are you?
Her eyes, like water, were filled with questions.
Suddenly, the man handed her an amber-colored crystal, glowing with a golden hue and a strange, familiar presence. He spoke in a calm and serene voice.
— You can call me the Usurper.
Emilia, despite the strangeness of the situation, was completely captivated by the sight of the crystal. She could not clearly explain it, but she was certain she had seen this crystal somewhere before. Moreover, she felt naturally drawn to it, as if she had just recovered something she had been desperately missing.
The man calmly pulled his other arm from beneath his veil, gently took Her Highness's hand, and softly placed the crystal into it. Its light intensified, beginning to pulse, gradually imitating Emilia's heartbeat.
The man slightly raised his head. The young girl's eyes widened in shock: she had just glimpsed part of the individual's mask.
A skeletal metal mask, snow-white, from which golden light seeped through its openings.
— This truth… belongs to you, Your Majesty.
Emilia remained frozen, unable to look away from the Usurper's mask. She was overwhelmed by a mixture of fear and fascination she could not explain.
— PRINCESS EMILIA !!!
She suddenly turned around. Guards were rushing toward her at high speed, their faces filled with a rare level of concern for elves, as if an unprecedented catastrophe was approaching.
— GET AWAY FROM THAT MAN IMMEDIATELY !!!
Emilia looked at them. When she turned her attention back to the man, he had already straightened up, showing no sign of concern.
— We will have time to speak again another time, Majesty Eclipsa.
That name felt familiar… too familiar. Emilia quickly turned back, but the man had already disappeared, as fast as the wind, leaving no trace of his passage, as if he had never existed.
The guards rushed toward Her Majesty. One of them quickly knelt before the princess.
— Your Majesty, are you alright? Did he do anything to you?
Emilia, still shaken by how quickly everything had happened, replied to ease the soldier's fears:
— No… he didn't do anything to me, I'm fine.
The elven soldiers still looked deeply worried. But what they did not know was that this encounter had been no coincidence. Far from it.
Emilia had instinctively hidden the crystal behind her back, while it continued to align itself with her heartbeat—until it became perfectly synchronized.
Back in the present, in the middle of the ruins..
Emilia begins to understand how Power's Dérie technique works after observing it throughout the fight.
In reality, this technique allows him to use his own chaotic energy to create a stabilized imaginary matter, endowed with a structure that should not exist in this reality.
This mass does not obey any normal laws of the world.
Emilia then realizes that this information does not really help her. Innate techniques based on imagination are always unpredictable and difficult to anticipate, as they offer their user a wide range of possibilities.
But the difficulty before her does not discourage her. She smiles and asks Power to stop talking for three minutes. With that, she attempts an assault against him, but he conjures his black matter and uses it as a shield. She then decides to fall back.
A brief exchange follows.
An elven princess of a great royal lineage… Power mocks her slightly, asking if she will really be able to hold her own against him without using her full power. To him, it is a true insult.
— And words like that won't change my mind. I have no intention of going all out from the very beginning of the selections—it would be truly foolish of me. You should actually be glad about this. Think of it as having the advantage over me.
That is the last straw for Power, who begins to grow irritated by Emilia's superior tone, telling her that she reminds him of her cousin.
Emilia is not surprised that her opponent knows her cousin, Alfeas Fena. After all, he is one of the twenty generals, ranked fourteenth in power.
Without warning, Power makes his move, launching spikes that nearly impale the princess while she is deep in thought. The spikes explode the ruins behind her.
To her great surprise, Power is already in close combat. He has created a gauntlet from the black matter he controls and attempts to strike, but Emilia repels him with her scythe.
The boy then begins speaking about elves, who are known to have the greatest affinity with chaos among the eight primordial races. They are also formidable and efficient warriors.
He claims that he envies them—their natural talents and their strength.
Power raises his arms, then his hands, creating a black sphere that absorbs his energy and channels it into its core.
He states that, if circumstances had been different, he would have liked to be on the same team as the princess.
But she remains on guard, showing no concern for the orb he has just formed.
She moves like a dragonfly, striking swiftly and injuring the boy's arm.
Power praises her speed, but claims it is probably not her greatest asset.
Even so, a beam of energy is fired with surgical precision, but Emilia dodges it. The explosion that follows is massive.
Power has just released all the energy concentrated in the core of his orb into a single point to launch an energy attack.
Emilia then realizes she is not the only one hiding her true strength.
Power creates ten more orbs, each feeding on his energy in the same way as the first.
"If that attack had hit me, I would have been taken out instantly… He's really strong… and to think we're about the same age…"
But she remembers that she also has an advantage over him. She noticed that Power protects his oxygen mask more than his own body during attacks.
She suspects that the mask allows him to breathe properly. She had already brushed against it with her scythe, and it had truly angered him.
She will have to direct her attacks toward that mask, no matter what.
She then recalls why she wants to become a leader.
She remembers all the criticism, everything people said behind her back. Others claimed that it should have been Alfeas who belonged to the main lineage, adding that Emilia did not even have 1% of her cousin's talent, who had already reached S-Class level at that time before later becoming a Generals.
But at the same time, she also remembers Alfeas's words.
He had told her to become stronger, to be the pride of the family… and that he would wait for her at the top, no matter how long it took.
He believes in her. He knows she will make it.
She hides her worry behind a smile once again, surprising her opponent yet again.
But this time, she goes all out.
She throws herself into the fight completely. The pressure beneath her feet shatters the ground as she disappears from Power's sight.
Power barely dodges her strike. He launches himself into the air and fires lasers that destroy the ruins.
But Emilia had already positioned herself behind him and launches another attack.
Power blocks it again and sends her crashing to the ground with a kick. His black matter then grabs the debris from the explosion and hurls it at Emilia, who still manages to defend herself.
She then decides to go all in.
She throws her scythe at him. He easily dodges, unaware that the real attack is coming from his left.
A violent punch to the face worsens the crack in his mask, sending him into a rage.
The surface of the mask fractures further… while she herself suffers only a minor shoulder injury.
"I was right… Judging by his reaction, without that mask, he really can't breathe…"
Power drops to one knee. He can no longer breathe properly. He begins to run out of oxygen, his eyes gradually turning red as his body starts to tremble uncontrollably.
"And here it goes again… Always this damn weak body that won't even let me breathe…"
He hates this body. He hates it more than anything.
This body that never allowed him to reach his full potential, the one that has handicapped him since birth. He is tired of being so weak, simply because fate was not kind to him.
If he could, he would take that damn mask and destroy it with his own hands.
But strangely, Emilia urges him to get back up and continue their fight. She has no desire to win by default. She wants to win against a truly worthy opponent.
So, unsurprisingly, he does.
He stands back up.
And this time, he fully intends to finish the fight.
His black matter covers his entire body, forming an abyssal-black armor—his most powerful technique: Mangna Orient.
Now the two opponents charge at each other. A rapid exchange follows.
Emilia gets her foot caught while trying to block a strike, and the force of the impact forces her to drop her scythe. She quickly frees herself and creates distance.
From then on, a close-combat fight begins, perfectly mastered by the boy.
Yes… it has started again.
A true deadly dance unfolds. One might even wonder if they have forgotten that they are not allowed to kill their opponent. Every blow could be fatal.
Emilia does not flinch. She gives everything she has physically, refusing to yield.
But the clash quickly escalates to massive proportions.
Power blocks one of Emilia's strikes and prepares to fire a laser point-blank at her face. She manages to dodge, triggering an explosion that pulverizes the ground beneath them, creating a massive crater.
Emilia lands without issue… but her legs begin to tremble.
She is surprised by Power's agility despite his armor, and by the fact that he has retained his ability to use his lasers.
But she does not forget one crucial detail: his mask is still damaged… and he too is reaching his limits.
Power remains still for a moment. His body trembles, visible even beneath his armor. Underneath, the cracks in his mask worsen.
If this continues… he will lose consciousness.
And that is out of the question.
The silence grows heavy. Oppressive.
Then both charge again.
The fight turns into a true test of endurance: who will break first?
Emilia finds an opening.
A shifted strike.
A punch that damages the armor.
Power tries to retaliate, but is immediately overwhelmed.
Before he even realizes it, Emilia has already retrieved her scythe.
And in a single movement, perfectly calculated, with surgical precision…
She destroys Power's armor.
And his mask.
Which shatters into pieces.
Victory is hers.
Power can no longer breathe. He collapses, beginning to lose consciousness.
Even so, he can still hear the young girl's words.
She tells him that when he becomes a warrior of the kingdom of Garion… she would like to fight him again.
In a battle where she will give 100%, even using her true powers.
Power closes his eyes on that note…
And inwardly accepts her proposal.
In the LK team's observation room,
a teenager leaning against the wall in the shadows lets out a sigh filled with disappointment after the conclusion of Power's fight.
— Who the hell put me on a team like this, seriously… Would it kill you to be at least a little interesting for your debut…
"Otelo."
Next Chapter: The Immunity of the Honored