Aura smiled.
The Scales of Obedience hung in the air between her fingers.
Shamrock stood frozen beneath them.
The glow on his sword had faded.
The pressure of his mana was still there, but it had changed. It no longer surged with the same reckless certainty as before. It trembled now.
Aura looked at Frieren.
"Go on," she said.
Then she tilted the scales slightly.
"Kill her."
Shamrock's body moved.
His eyes widened.
His arm lifted against his will.
His feet turned.
Step by step, he faced Frieren.
His grip tightened around the sword.
"…No."
The word came out strained.
Thin.
His body took another step.
Then another.
Frieren watched him quietly.
Shamrock's jaw clenched so hard it trembled.
"This…"
He forced the words out between his teeth.
"…is disgraceful."
Aura's smile widened.
"How unfortunate."
Shamrock's sword rose.
His shoulders shook with the effort of resisting, but the Scales of Obedience did not care.
His eyes locked onto Frieren.
There was fury there.
Shame too.
And beneath both—
Fear.
"Frieren," Shamrock said.
His voice was rough now.
"Brace yourself."
Aura laughed softly.
Shamrock kept staring at Frieren.
"Go all in on me."
His arm jerked.
The sword angled toward her throat.
"If you have to kill me…"
Another step.
"…then do it."
Frieren looked at him.
Then at the sword.
Then back at his face.
"That won't be necessary," she said.
Aura's smile thinned.
Shamrock lunged.
Still very fast.
His body blurred across the ruined field, sword flashing straight for Frieren's neck in a clean, committed line.
Frieren moved one step to the side.
That was all.
Shamrock's blade passed through empty air.
His eyes widened.
Frieren's staff tapped lightly against his wrist.
A small spell circle flickered.
The force snapped through his arm and knocked the angle of the next swing off line before it even began.
Shamrock twisted and came again.
A horizontal cut.
Then a rising slash.
Then a turning step into a thrust.
Frieren slipped around the first.
Tilted past the second.
And with the third, she simply raised her staff and redirected the blade away from her body with a precise burst of mana.
Shamrock shot past her.
Boots skidding.
He turned instantly.
His expression tightened.
'She's reading everything.'
Aura folded one arm and watched.
Shamrock attacked again.
This time more aggressively.
His sword came down hard, then rolled into a second strike from the opposite side. He stepped through the momentum and kicked low, trying to break Frieren's balance before the next cut.
Frieren floated back half a step.
The kick missed.
The third strike came for her shoulder.
She raised one hand.
A small defensive spell flared.
Steel bounced off invisible force.
The impact knocked Shamrock back instead.
He landed, dug his heels into the dirt, and pushed forward again.
Aura's control made him relentless.
But his mana had changed.
The huge, radiant certainty from before was fading.
The pressure around him was dropping little by little steadily.
Because the Knight King was gone.
No—
Not gone.
Shaken.
The boy who had declared himself a king now stood as a puppet.
Shamrock came in low.
His sword snapped up for Frieren's ribs.
She moved her staff down just enough to catch the flat of the blade and guide it aside.
Then she touched two fingers lightly to his chest.
A pulse of mana burst outward.
Shamrock was blown backward across the field.
He hit the dirt, rolled, and sprang up again at once.
Aura's smile faltered slightly.
The boy's mana was dropping faster now.
Shamrock wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
Then he forced himself forward again.
His sword flashed.
Still fast enough to overwhelm most opponents.
Still skilled enough to kill men far older than him.
But this was Frieren.
And Frieren was not most opponents.
He cut for her throat.
She ducked under it.
He spun and came back with the pommel.
She stepped outside the line.
He thrust for her heart.
Her staff knocked the sword slightly off course.
The point passed by her side.
Frieren's free hand touched his shoulder.
Another burst of mana.
Shamrock's whole body jerked.
He flew backward again.
This time he tore through a patch of broken armor and skidded to a stop on one knee.
He gasped once.
Then looked down at his own hand.
The glow was weaker now.
Fainter.
His fingers shook.
'My mana…'
Aura noticed it too.
Her brows narrowed.
"What's wrong?"
Shamrock slowly rose.
His breathing was heavier.
His shoulders lower.
His sword felt heavier too.
"I told you," he muttered.
Then he looked at Frieren again.
His face twisted with self-disgust.
"This is disgraceful."
Frieren said nothing.
Shamrock laughed once.
A small, bitter sound.
"A Knight King."
He looked at the hand gripping his sword.
"At least that's what I said."
His body lurched forward again under Aura's control.
He grimaced and forced the words out while moving.
"What kind of king becomes this?"
Frieren watched him approach.
His next strike came slower.
She slipped past it and struck his forearm with the butt of her staff.
His grip loosened.
Shamrock turned the ruined motion into a kick.
Frieren stepped back.
Then lifted her hand.
A short restraint spell flashed under his feet.
Light wrapped around one ankle.
Shamrock tore through it by force of motion alone, but the delay was enough.
Frieren's staff touched the center of his chest.
A heavier spell detonated.
The force lifted him off the ground and threw him ten full meters back.
He hit hard.
This time he stayed down for a second.
Then two.
Aura clicked her tongue.
"Get up."
Shamrock's fingers dug into the dirt.
His body rose again because it had to.
He stood.
Barely.
His coat was torn.
His breathing ragged.
His mana diminished enough now that Aura could feel the difference clearly.
The bright, absurd mass from before had collapsed down and down and down, not to nothing, but to something manageable.
Something mortal.
Shamrock looked at Frieren.
Then gave a weak smile.
"You weren't joking."
Frieren's expression remained flat.
"No."
"That won't be necessary."
He laughed again, quieter this time.
"Right."
His body took another step.
Then another.
Sword lifting once more.
Frieren finally raised her staff fully.
A spell circle formed beneath Shamrock's feet.
Aura's eyes narrowed.
"A dispelling spell?"
Frieren did not answer.
Shamrock charged one last time.
His sword came down.
Frieren pointed her staff.
Light flashed.
The spell wrapped around Shamrock's body.
Shamrock's blade stopped inches from Frieren's face.
His arm locked.
Then shook.
Then dropped.
The light around him cracked apart like thin glass.
Aura's control snapped.
Shamrock collapsed to one knee, coughing hard, one hand braced against the ground.
The sword fell from his grip.
Frieren lowered her staff.
"It's done," she said.
Shamrock looked up at her.
"…Told you to go all out."
"I didn't need to."
"…That's rude."
Then he pitched sideways and lay there breathing.
Aura stared.
Then she laughed.
A sharp, cold sound.
"So that's your answer."
Frieren turned toward her.
Aura lifted the Scales of Obedience again.
"You can dispel my control. Fine."
Her smile widened.
"But that changes nothing."
The scales opened.
Mana flooded the field.
Aura's eyes sharpened with pride.
"You still have less mana than I do."
Shamrock, still on the ground, looked up.
Frieren stood still.
Aura's smile turned triumphant.
"Do you understand now, Frieren?"
The scales tilted.
"Your tricks mean nothing before overwhelming mana."
Frieren looked at her.
Completely calm.
Then, finally—
She let her mana rise.
At first it seemed like nothing.
Then the field changed.
The air grew heavy.
The ground itself seemed to hold its breath.
Aura's smile froze.
Frieren's mana kept rising.
And rising.
And rising.
What Aura had sensed before—
The restrained, modest amount Frieren showed the world—
That was gone now.
What stood before her was an ocean.
Vast.
So much larger than her own that the comparison became laughable.
Aura's hands trembled.
"No…"
Frieren looked at the scales.
Then at Aura.
"For a demon," she said, "you talk too much."
The scales tipped completely.
Aura's face went white.
Frieren's voice did not rise.
It did not need to.
"Kill yourself Aura."
Aura's body moved.
Her eyes widened in horror.
"No—"
Her own hand rose.
The sword at her side slid free.
"No, stop—!"
She fought it.
Pointlessly.
The Scales of Obedience did not care.
Just as they had not cared for Shamrock.
Frieren watched in silence.
Shamrock, still kneeling in the dirt, stared.
Aura's sword turned.
Then drove toward her own neck.
And the battlefield became very quiet.
---
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