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“To expose this hideous, vile form before you, Saintess…” Igoronak muttered, clearly dissatisfied with his current appearance, his teeth grinding together.

“I think you’re actually pretty handsome.”
“Spare me your flattery. Surely, you’re disgusted by this twisted, repulsive form. Or perhaps you’d rather laugh? Very well, I’ll admit it—there’s no chance I could ever rise to stand beside you now. But precisely because of that, I shall drag you down into the same abyss as me!”

“… (Sigh)” I couldn’t help but sigh.

Why are people who reach their own conclusions so exhausting?

“Oh, come off it! If that is what you call ugly, then most of the world’s men are plainly hideous!” Coppelia grumbled, her teeth grinding in frustration.

I couldn’t agree more. When someone can’t accept themselves, they can’t accept others as well. No matter how high their looks score might be, I can’t tolerate people this small-minded (…though I admit there are some parts of this that hit a little too close to home, which makes me both self-critical and annoyed). It’s just too off-putting.

“For crying out loud, you’re actually quite small (minded).”

“—” The second I let that slip, Igoronak froze, as if stunned.

“Awooooo! (Master, can I bite him?)” Vier’s mournful howl echoed through the night as she looked to me for instructions in the sudden silence.

“Yeah… I mean, getting called ‘small’ by a woman… even I would feel a little sorry for him,” Coppelia muttered, giving Igoronak a sympathetic glance.

With bloodshot eyes, Igoronak erupted in fury and bellowed, “You shall taste my wrath! Witness, my Enmity and Malice¹
— Wailing Dark Hole!”

A dark orb began to form in front of him, swirling with ominous energy.

“What, you are snapping back? This is why spoiled elites who have never faced failure are so unbearable…!” Coppelia’s relentless taunts carried on even at this critical moment, but I could feel a growing sense of dread within me.

(This… this might be bad…)

With the sudden shift in tension and the sheer amount of energy he was releasing—far beyond any of his previous attacks—I wasn’t sure even this shield (Bartholomew) would be able to withstand it.

“Fine, so be it! A woman needs courage, and a man needs whimsy! —Haaaaaa!”
“Hmph!”

As I let out a battle cry, Igoronak’s Wailing Dark Hole clashed head-on with Bartholomew whom I had launched using non-elemental magic. For an instant, Bartholomew’s once-dazed eyes seemed to spark back to life, and his massive obsidian halberd swung forth, seeming to cleave through the approaching darkness. Then, in that same breath, an overwhelming blast of magical energy surged, lacking sound, light, or shockwaves but nonetheless powerful enough to send me reeling. I instinctively clamped my eyes shut, covered my ears, and threw myself to the ground.

“Kyaaaaaaa!”
“Nyo-ga-ga-ga… unable to measure…! Error! Error!”
“Guh…”

It felt like an eternity, but it was likely only an instant.

As I cautiously raised my head, I found… nothing. The Wailing Dark Hole and Bartholomew were both gone, as if they had evaporated into thin air.

No way—could it be…?!

In that instant, as all the blood drained from my face, I heard a faint splash, followed by:

“Gaaaah! My feet… my feet cannot touch the bottom!!”

That aggravating voice carried by the wind spirit from the direction of Lake Quartz brought a sense of relief, and my shoulders relaxed all at once.

“Hmph… You seem to have managed to avoid that, but you’re out of defenses now, aren’t you? The next move will finish this.”

It appeared Igoronak had also regained his composure, as his left hand was now wrapped in that familiar black flame.

Perhaps he decided there was no need for another Wailing Dark Hole, or maybe he simply lacked the strength for it. I could only hope it was the latter, but it was hard to tell.

“Yes, that’s right. The next move will decide it.”
“Oh? Resigned yourself, have you? You give up rather easily, don’t you?”

In response, I opened my hand and showed him what I held. A small, black crystal, about the size of a coin, sat in my palm. It was a magic stone, refined from a B-rank monster’s magic stone and further purified. With a dozen of these, one could power a magic-powered ship for an entire journey.

“And what of it…?” Igoronak’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Indeed, while this was rare and valuable, it wasn’t one-of-a-kind, nor could it be consumed directly by humans to wield its power. Normally, it wouldn’t warrant any concern—under normal circumstances, that is.

“You can’t tell? This magic stone has been specially processed, with talisman art etched onto its surface.”

In this dim light, it was unclear whether he could make out the intricate symbols carved onto the stone’s surface, but I traced them with my fingertip, deliberately showing them to him.

“Talisman, you say? Ah, now that you mention it, one of those pesky insects who dared to oppose me used something like that… And? What of it?” Igoronak said arrogantly, raising his shoulders as if to suggest he had already seen through my trick.

“Oh, is that so? Well, this is actually based on a set of predetermined formulas inscribed onto a talisman. By flowing the specified activation incantation and magic power into it, it automatically reacts with the surrounding mana to produce the phenomenon known as ‘magic.’ Its potency, however, is limited to the brief moment before the talisman burns out and is proportional to the ambient mana.”

“I have assumed so, yes… So, you’re giving me a lecture on magic? Do you realize that you are basically preaching a sermon to a Saint? Wait, no, I guess you’re the Saintess here.”

“But you see, I fiddled around and instead used a higher-purity magic stone for the material.”

In truth, I had learned this technique from Cestlavie, who taught me to mix magic stone powder into ink to write spells on paper. My own magic power was often too intense, burning the talisman out before it could activate. So, I developed a way to reinforce the base material.

“It’s meaningless,” Igoronak replied, his tone dripping with disdain. “Even if you change the base material, it still relies on ambient mana. Altering the spark plug doesn’t change the fuel; the result remains the same.”

As expected of the so-called No-Life King, he quickly pinpointed the flaw.

“Exactly. It couldn’t increase the spell’s power. But instead, it greatly extended its duration.”

“Hm…” A faint flicker of interest and caution crossed Igoronak’s face.

“Talisman Art on its own only produces a uniform effect. However, by extending the activation time, I can combine multiple magic stones into one spell, allowing me to imitate a ritual spell typically performed by multiple people.”

“Huh…” This time, Igoronak’s expression turned visibly wary as he shifted his stance, but it was already too late.

“As a result, large-scale magic, which usually requires thorough preparation and a great deal of time, now can be performed all by myself… Perhaps you noticed how I’ve been moving in a circular path around you? And I’ve been embedding activated magic stones, like this one, into the ground at key points.”

“What!?” In a sudden realization, Igoronak’s eyes darted to the ground around him. I poured magic into the final shard in my hand and struck it into the ground at my feet.

If there had been a mage viewing from above, they would have seen the embedded crystals forming a six-pointed star with Igoronak at its center.

Raising my wand , I channeled all my remaining magic and released it.

“The stage is set! This is my trump card, a forbidden spatial spell—「I call upon you, Gods of Earth and Gods of Sky, let your Yoke be his Commandment!」 —「Lunatic Compression (Moonfall)」”

In that instant, an intense gravitational force, a hundred times the normal, crashed down on Igoronak.

“GRUAAAAAAAAGH!!!”

Unable to move, he roared in helpless fury.

1. Mab: I don’t understand what’s happening here.

   The kanji is 報仇雪恨
   報 = Information
   仇 = Foe
   雪 = Snow
   恨 = Malice

   It reads ほうきゅうせっこん which means Salary (especially of public employees) Cut.

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