"Whoosh!"
Ignoring the silver sword locked against his black blade, Cid flicked his arm. Indigo-purple Magical Power erupted, and a black arc of his sword slashed across where Claire stood.
She reacted instantly and blocked it, but the overwhelming force of the indigo-purple Magical Power still sent her flying into the air.
Twisting her body midair, she flipped backward to absorb most of the impact. The moment she landed, she staggered back several steps. Her right hand drove the silver sword into the ground for support, while her left hand trembled uncontrollably from the shock.
"Aurora!"
Calling out the name of the one residing within her, Claire stepped forward to press the attack, only to suddenly stop. Shock flashed across her face as she lowered her head to look at her own body.
She tried to speak, but abruptly snapped her head to the right instead, raising her sword horizontally in front of her.
A black figure appeared before her. The blade flashed.
Claire was sent flying again.
"Clang, clang, crack!"
This time, she had nothing left to give. She staggered back two steps before her shaking legs gave out, dropping her to one knee as she gasped for air.
Just two blows had already pushed her body to its limit. Her hands trembled violently, and it felt as if her internal organs were shaking along with them.
Ignoring her condition, Claire frantically called Aurora's name in her mind. Yet she still couldn't sense Aurora at all, nor did any blood-red Magical Power surge within her.
Her calls went unanswered. Seeing Shadow move again, Claire clenched her teeth, a decisive glint flashing in her eyes.
"If you won't give it to me, I'll take it myself."
"Clang!"
Their swords collided once more. This time, Claire managed to meet Shadow head-on. Blood-red energy burst from her body, clashing directly against Shadow's indigo-purple energy.
"Ah!"
With a roar, the crimson magic power around her erupted again, this time faintly suppressing the indigo-purple magic power.
A violent impact followed. A sword strike tore across the ground, blasting out a massive crater and kicking up clouds of black mist. A figure shot out of the haze.
This time, it was Cid who had been sent flying.
"Wait… how did you manage to bypass me and control that power?"
A female voice filled with shock and confusion echoed in Claire's mind. It was Aurora, the very one Claire had been calling all along.
"Hey, hey, don't rush in. You can't beat him."
Ignoring her, Claire forcefully crushed the mental resistance within her that was competing for control. With a powerful leap, she launched herself forward.
Midair, Cid adjusted his posture. His gaze fell on the blood-red tentacles extending from behind Claire, and the terrifying crimson Magical Power surrounding her. The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed.
Honestly, her current state reminded him of two opponents he had fought before.
"Boom!"
With a casual swing, Claire, who had charged in with full force, was sent flying back along her own path. She slammed into an abandoned building, leaving behind a human-shaped crater.
Landing lightly, Cid flicked his sword and pointed it at Claire, who was struggling to get back up. His voice carried a trace of nostalgia.
"The power of an old acquaintance, huh… Then I suppose I should get a little more serious."
The indigo-purple magic power around him shifted into pitch black. His figure vanished from where he stood.
The next instant, Cid appeared in front of the crater Claire had created.
"Hm?"
Still holding the finishing posture of his swing, his crimson eyes stared at the empty crater before him. Then Shadow turned.
Behind him, the entire building split cleanly in two.
Natsuki Minamiya watched Cid with a pained expression, then glanced at Claire, who had just been teleported to her side. Claire's injuries were rapidly healing under the influence of her blood-red Magical Power.
Seeing that Claire could still fight, Natsuki Minamiya asked softly,
"How much longer can you keep this up?"
If she had the choice, she would not want to fight Shadow at all. She was not some idiot who gambled everything on a whim.
But she had no choice. Unless she could stand by and watch Claire die, she had to fight.
And could she blame Claire? No.
Anyone would panic if their younger brother suddenly collapsed for no reason. Not to mention Shadow had clearly been provoking her on purpose.
Fortunately, from Shadow's reaction earlier, he could not interfere with her spatial magic. Combined with Claire in this state…
They might actually… win.
"I can hold out a little longer."
After gauging the power within her and shutting out Aurora's voice in her consciousness, Claire spoke with confidence.
"Do you trust me?"
"…I do!"
"I'll take that as a yes. Just focus on attacking. I'll handle dodging and getting you in close."
Natsuki Minamiya forced herself to ignore the faint uncertainty in Claire's voice. Otherwise, the little confidence she had in winning might completely collapse.
The space around the battlefield rippled. In an instant, the scenery shifted. The fiery explosion site transformed into a deserted island in the middle of the ocean.
Seeing the change and sensing that Natsuki Minamiya and Claire were ready, Cid tossed his sword into the air, freed his right hand, and gave a courteous bow.
"Planning to team up? Ladies first, so please…"
Before he could finish, Claire appeared out of nowhere at Cid's side and delivered a heavy, forceful strike.
Cid tilted his head slightly to evade, caught the black sword with his right hand, and followed through with a slash toward Claire, whose attack had missed…
…but she vanished.
Claire reappeared on his right. After Cid blocked that strike, she disappeared again.
Every time Cid attempted a counterattack, Claire would emerge from another angle and continue her assault. This repeated for several exchanges, forcing Cid entirely onto the defensive, as if he had been driven into a corner.
But was that really the case…
A bit enviable…
As he blocked Claire's attacks, Cid glanced at the spatial technique hidden within the void, quietly admiring Natsuki-chan's seamless spatial movement.
It wasn't that he couldn't use spatial movement himself. It was just that, with his extremely one-sided magical aptitude, if he tried it, there was a good chance the destination point would trigger a spatial shock the moment he arrived.
Honestly, Cid had always felt the title "God of Magic" was misplaced. "Magic Slayer" would suit him far better.
Any magic before him would have its core structure seen through instantly. He could either destroy the spell outright or reverse-invade it through its own structure. In every sense, he was a natural enemy of mages.
Even against the strongest magical formation he had encountered so far, "The Law of Life," he was confident that, even with someone actively controlling it, he could dismantle all thousand-plus spells within three minutes.
In a way, based on the settings he gave to "Roland Augustus," excluding his anti-dragon specialty, "Roland Augustus" would actually be the weakest among the world's top five. After all, two of those top five were dragons, not mages.
So… Roland Augustus had only made a single move. Why was he already called the "God of Magic"?
Ah… mainly because that first move instantly took down the First Primogenitor. The feat was simply too overwhelming. On top of that, the magic-destroying ability he assigned to "Roland Augustus" had never been shown, so people naturally labeled him the "God of Magic."
Kind of amusing, really.
After that brief internal amusement, Cid raised his sword again to block Claire's attack. Before she could teleport away, he abruptly changed the direction of his strike. The Slime Sword melted back into liquid and merged into his black coat as he swung his fist backward.
At that exact moment, Claire appeared directly along the path of his attack.
Since he hadn't shown this ability earlier in their fight, Claire never expected Cid to predict her reappearance point. She had no time to defend.
The punch landed squarely in her stomach.
"Gah!"
"Bang!"
Claire's body slammed heavily into the sand, carving a long trail before coming to a stop at Natsuki Minamiya's feet. She spat out a mouthful of bile. With just a single blow, she had completely lost the ability to fight.
Looking down at Claire, who lay incapacitated at her feet, coughing up blood, Natsuki Minamiya's lips twitched slightly.
She knew this was how it would end.
She let out a heavy sigh and mobilized all the Magical Power in her body, already prepared to take Claire and escape via spatial teleportation.
…Why can't I find a way out?
"Trying to leave? Sorry, but this is a deserted island."
A frivolous voice rang out as Cid raised a single finger.
"Listen…"
Natsuki Minamiya looked up, her pupils shrinking. The blue sky above shattered like glass, fragments falling away to reveal a void of darkness behind it, a darkness so deep it devoured even light.
"Spatial abilities are troublesome, so it's much easier to just blow up the space itself."
It wasn't that he couldn't directly destroy the core of the spatial formation. He simply chose not to. That ability belonged to "Roland Augustus" in his setting. Shadow had no interest in using magic.
Cid didn't say the latter part aloud, but Natsuki Minamiya didn't need to hear it.
Pitch-black Magical Power erupted from the void, surging toward Natsuki Minamiya, no, toward the entire island.
"Ah…"
An overwhelming pressure slammed down on her, instantly crushing her into the sand as she cried out.
"Boom boom boom…"
The violent Magical Power rampaged across the entire deserted island. Under its impact, the island's surface sank, and everything on it was reduced to dust.
"Snap!"
With a snap of his fingers, the surge of Magical Power came to a halt. The dark void vanished, replaced once more by a blue sky, while smoke blanketed the island.
"Puh… ha, ha… this body is still intact?!"
Natsuki Minamiya pushed herself up from the ground, spitting sand from her mouth, stunned that her Magical Power body had survived that attack.
"Tap!"
Before she could recover, footsteps approached. A figure stopped in front of her.
Cid crouched down, imitating the cool, commanding gaze he once saw in the eyes of the Seven Shadows' "Zeta," looking down at Natsuki Minamiya with a cold expression.
"Remember this. Whether it's you, the Primogenitors, the gods, or the Cult of Diablos, you're all just mice in a game of cat and mouse. The only difference is size. And me… I'm the cat."
With that, Cid stood up and turned to leave. After a few steps, as if recalling something, he paused and spoke again.
"Do me a favor and pass a message to the Cult of Diablos. The game of cat and mouse has begun."
A sharp sonic boom exploded. The sand beneath his feet was blasted upward by the force of his takeoff, and his black figure vanished.
"The Diablos… Cult of Diablos…"
Lying on the ground, Natsuki Minamiya murmured the name. She quickly realized that this organization was the "mice in the darkness" Cid mentioned earlier, and was very likely the terrorist group she had been investigating recently, or at the very least closely connected to it.
Her gaze shifted to the side.
Claire lay there, completely unaffected by the attack that had just flattened the island. She remained in the same position she had fallen into earlier. Aside from coughing up some bile from that punch, there wasn't a single injury on her body.
Natsuki Minamiya's expression twisted.
Neither of them had died. Earlier, she had even deliberately provoked Claire to stir up her anger and force her to attack. This… this…
"What kind of troublemaking lunatic enjoys stirring things up like this?!"
That one sentence perfectly captured Natsuki Minamiya's frustration. From the looks of it, Shadow had no intention of killing them. That earlier provocation toward Claire was probably just a spur-of-the-moment whim.
What an absurd disaster.
After venting, Natsuki Minamiya slumped onto the ground, intending to rest and recover some strength. The island had already been flattened, so it should be safe.
Well… apparently not.
She cast an annoyed glance around. Massive waves were rising, encircling what remained of the island.
That earlier attack had forced the sea level downward, creating a deep basin. If they stayed here and rested, once the pressure holding back the surrounding water faded, the ocean would come crashing in and drown them.
With a sigh, she placed a hand on Claire. The damaged space had already repaired itself.
Activating spatial teleportation, they returned to Itogami Island.
...
Inside Claire's mental space, Aurora stared at her silently.
Claire avoided her gaze, twirling a strand of her long black hair around her finger, not daring to meet Aurora's eyes.