She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

MIRA GAVE the seven sisters their orders: to lead her army for her and annihilate the enemy. Danblf had once ordered the sisters to learn the Troop Leadership ability. This allowed them to lead their own armies, which also applied to Mira’s other summons.

“Orders duly received. I solemnly swear that we sisters will bring you victory in this battle.” The seven sisters bowed deeply before spreading out and dividing the Dark Knights into seven formations. Then, they began their battle against the thousands of technomancy dolls closing in on them.

As expected of the seven Valkyrie Sisters, their forces cooperated much more intricately than when Mira had controlled them alone. They used the Dark Knights’ potential to the fullest.

“As usual, their skill is simply incredible,” Mira mused proudly. General Mira, her seven commanders, a thousand-strong army of knights—they were much like a real military, indeed.

Mira’s army pushed back the closing encirclement. When a Valkyrie saw the signs of an impending spirit bomb explosion, she would quickly launch the doll away. Now that the army was more tightly commanded, they moved like an elite force as they culled Gregorius’s horde of constructs.

Sensing her master’s intent, Alfina parted the sea of dolls between Mira and Gregorius. Mira proceeded through this open path and called out to Gregorius, “Now, why don’t we leave this battle to them and have our own little duel, general versus general?”

“You have the upper hand, yet you still come for a duel? You’re insane.” Gregorius still had the numbers advantage, but the troops led by the Valkyrie Sisters fought ferociously. It was clear to any who was winning this war. “But that’s perfect for me. Let’s do this.”

Gregorius instructed the dolls waiting behind him to fall back and silently readied his black staff.

“I simply want to settle the score from last time,” Mira replied. “The end was a bit disappointing.” Their battle at the Ancient Ring Gate had ended with Gregorius’s escape, leaving her unsatisfied.

“What the heck? Is that a dig at me for losing the Spirit King’s power and most of my spirit gear?”

From an objective viewpoint, failing his mission and losing or having his gear damaged would point to Gregorius’s defeat. But Mira had considered it a draw due to her own injury. Gregorius glared at her in equal parts consternation and anger.

Meanwhile, Mira stared back into his eyes with a fearless grin and pointed her white staff at him. “That matters not. What matters in a duel is who stands and who falls.”

“You have a more valiant way of thinking than your looks would suggest. Heh, not that I mind.”

After exchanging those words, the two moved simultaneously.

A rock wall shot up between them. It was Gregorius’s necromancy, aptly named Rock Wall. However, it was no obstacle for Mira, who ran through with ease using Shrinking Earth. She appeared in front of him out of seemingly nowhere. However, Gregorius hid himself with a second cast of the same spell.

“Hnh?!” Mira sensed something coming and reflexively jumped up. Instantly after, the first rock wall passed below Mira and slammed into the second.

“See if you can dodge this!” Gregorius glowered up at her and cast another spell, creating multiple walls at once.

Was the moving rock wall a new spell or did it work through some other means? Mira used Air Step to dodge and moved back to get a better look at this previously unknown attack.

Gregorius raised his black staff. The crowded rock walls floated upward and shot toward Mira. 

“Ooh, now that’s new!” she cried in amazement. Since she had the body of a little girl, Mira would be hurt pretty badly if they struck her. However, she was also a Wise Man, strongest of mages. She predicted the trajectory of the countless flying walls and smacked them away with her white staff. When they closed in from all directions, she used partial-summoned tower shields. Finally, she shattered them all using sage techniques and Dark Knights’ swords.

“You can move like that even in midair…?” Gregorius couldn’t help but compliment her mobility, spell activation timings, and explosive power when she went on the offensive.

Mira descended alongside the rubble and fixed her eyes on Gregorius’s black staff. “By my estimation, that must be the power of your staff. As I recall, those documents did say something about mana manipulation…”

Mana manipulation was one of the abilities listed in the documents regarding black mist ore that Johan had entrusted to Mira.

This came with the ability to control mana that had been manifested and given form. In other words, the user could take control of any spell activated by friend or foe. One could say that it was the perfect counter to mages, since it could turn their own magic back on them.

However, there were two things that it didn’t work on: summoning magic and mediums’ shikigami.

Summoning magic either gave mana physical form as man-made spirits or used mana to create gates that called primordial spirits forth. Man-made spirits, despite being made of mana, were still spirits at heart and could therefore not be controlled. Meanwhile, gates had some special phenomena that made it impossible to interfere with them. And as the beings they called were real, living things, they could also not be controlled.

As for shikigami, they were much like summons. Each had their own existence and volition, so the effect did not extend to them.

“How do you know that?” Gregorius demanded with equal parts irritation and surprise.

“Simple. An expert told me.” Mira smirked.

“Hmm. I don’t know when you came into contact with him, but it explains why that alchemist was acting so strangely. And why our experimental lab was attacked…”

As a top executive of Chimera, Gregorius of course had a grasp of all the latest goings-on—including how Isuzu had rescued Johan despite how well-hidden he was. The experimental lab was the place where they had confined Johan after his abduction. It was used to judge the effects of black mist ore-sourced equipment.

“But don’t think that simply knowing trivia means you’ve won the battle!” Gregorius roared. He used his necromancy to create ten golems at once.

“Oho,” Mira mused, impressed. Simultaneous creation of just five golems was worthy of joining an advanced party. Ten would be enough to gain a person entry into the Linked Silver Towers. “Quite the waste of talent, though.”

If nothing else, Gregorius could stand among the top necromancers in the world even without his spirit gear. What mattered most, however, was the willingness to use one’s magic to help the world. When Mira saw the darkness in his eyes, she muttered, “Truly a shame.”

The golems, each two meters tall, looked extremely bulky. They had stubby arms and legs, but their bodies were like giant rocks. It was clear that they would be quite sturdy if dedicated to defense.

However, Gregorius used them for offense.

He swung his staff, and one of the golems rose into the air and fired off like a cannonball. All around them echoed the low, dull sound of an impact. On top of the golem’s enormous mass, the creature had been fired with surprising velocity. It struck the Holy Knight’s tower shield with enough force to break its stance.

“Vanish!” Gregorius’s attack did not end there. He sent four more golems flying at Mira, promptly began concentrating mana again, and activated his next spell.

[Internment Arts: Scarlet Sear]

As the golems closed in on Mira’s Holy Knight, they suddenly glowed red with scorching heat. Shortly after, lava spewed from their torsos. It was like a volcanic eruption, shooting flames; then a boom, and a shockwave in all directions. It buried the Holy Knight in the blink of an eye. The heat was so intense that the knight, now too wounded to be healed, melted and sank into the lava.

The sight was like hell itself bursting open out of nowhere, a door to death that swallowed all it touched. The Holy Knight in the center of it all disappeared without a trace.

However, the target who should’ve been there—Mira—wasn’t.

“Damn it! Where’d you go?!”

That attack was Gregorius’s special technique. He had put countless skilled enemies to death with it. But now, he panicked—perhaps because he believed in this little girl’s strength. He couldn’t imagine that she’d been helplessly devoured by the lava.

He felt certain that his victory would not be secured until he saw her face warped in agony, until he personally stabbed her straight through the heart. So he searched for her—not out of concern for her safety, but because he feared what she might do next.

***

I see. He used his Internment Arts’ high effectiveness on heavyweight golems to make up for their slowness. What a delightful tactic.

Mira stood behind the five remaining golems. Her fully defensive Holy Knight had been crushed, and the world had gone red as golems continued to fly her way.

Mira knew her summons well now, so she’d opted to evade rather than rely on her Holy Knight for defense. Amid the raging, heated winds, she’d used Shrinking Earth to back off, slip through the rain of fire, and circle behind the golems.

Gregorius watched his surroundings warily. Mira peeked at him through his golems and put a hand softly on one golem’s back.

[Immortal Arts Heaven: Refined Thrust]

Mana condensed in her hand and instantly became a multi-layered shockwave that blew the golem away. The spell’s impact sent fissures through the creature; it burst and became rubble that showered down upon Gregorius.

“There you are!” Hearing the explosion, Gregorius whipped around. But the storm of rubble was right in his face, too close for him to evade or use his staff to control it. “Kh!” He held his arms up to defend himself, grunting in pain.

Mira blew away a second and third golem as payback for his previous attack. They became tidal waves of rubble that closed in on her foe. “Even without that suit of armor, you’re a sturdy one,” she mused.

“Hmph… It’s not as good, but I used this before I got that armor. Defending against this much is a piece of cake.” Even subjected to a storm of rocky debris, Gregorius withstood it and curled his lips up to grin at Mira.

Despite being made of cloth, the spirit-powered robe Gregorius wore was far sturdier than any ordinary metal armor. It seemed to absorb impacts as well, as even when large pieces of rock struck him, he didn’t budge an inch. Every piece of rubble that hit his robe lost its momentum entirely and fell to the ground.

Even with his lighter armor, Gregorius was as much of a brick wall as before. However, that did not mean Mira would give up. She held her white staff at her side and gazed at him, watching for an opening.

Gregorius stared back, clutching his own black staff. He raised his arm. The rubble around him floated and shot toward Mira like arrows.

So he can still control them even after they’ve shattered.

A dense shower of rocks rained mercilessly upon Mira. She protected herself from all of it by instantly summoning a Holy Knight.

Yet Gregorius’s assault was unceasing. Ten giant golems made for quite the volume of rubble, and using his staff, Gregorius accelerated every piece of it to incredible speeds. Each shard could be nearly fatal. Whenever they fell, they would rise again. Whenever they broke apart, they would rise as more pieces. The storm of rocks continued until they were little more than grains of sand. Even a Holy Knight could not withstand this, and the storm began to erode its defenses.

Just then, something came flying out of the rubble and struck the injured knight. It was a newly formed golem. With a powerful clang, the Holy Knight rose into the air—the golem had grabbed it. With Mira deprived of her shield, yet more rubble closed in, along with another golem. But she did not panic; she handled this too. In the space of a few seconds, a resummoned Holy Knight fended off the rubble with its tower shield and leapt upward. It swung its sword powerfully, destroying the incoming golem.

The incredible force of it stole Gregorius’s attention for a moment. But then, a chill ran up his spine. He looked back down at Mira.

Below the Holy Knight who rampaged in mid-air, Mira had slipped through and approached Gregorius. She was now right in front of him. “Think you can withstand this blow, hmm?”

“Damn!” He clicked his tongue at his own carelessness and promptly put a rock wall between them. However, Mira would not be stopped this time; when she touched it, the wall crumbled instantly.

Beyond the collapsing wall, Mira held out her staff theatrically and flashed a taunting grin.

Mira had discerned his armor’s features and found a way to beat it in no time. Even with his spirit gear’s functionality, Gregorius knew that taking a hit from her would be dangerous. Yet now that she was this close, it would be impossible to evade. Left with no other options, Gregorius raised his staff.

It was then that he realized that was exactly what she wanted.

***

Mira’s white staff and Gregorius’s black staff collided. When they did, there was a shrill sound, like metal breaking.

“No way… My Onyx Oni staff…” The black staff in Gregorius’s hands bent and fell apart. He opened his eyes wide in shock.

Mira was just as surprised. “It works better than expected…” she murmured. She then puffed out her chest and proudly said, “You implied it was made of oni bones just now, didn’t you? Did you think we wouldn’t devise a countermeasure, knowing that you had such weapons?”

She boasted as if she’d made the white weapons herself. After that, she backed off to be ready for whatever he might do next.

Gregorius did not respond to her taunt; he glanced at his pocket watch and grinned in delight. Though he remained wary of Mira, he slowly turned to survey their surroundings. Around Mira and Gregorius, the Valkyrie Sister-led army of Dark Knights fought against the technomancy doll horde. Unlike their composed duel, the large-scale battle was a chaotic mess on both sides.

In the heart of the brawl, one particular unit began to change tactics.

“We will bring victory! Everyone, charge!”

It was Christina’s troop. She had stolen several glances at Mira throughout the battle, even while she was occupied with the dolls. Now that her unit was closest to Mira’s, and the fight with Gregorius had settled down for a moment, she seized the opportunity, struck a cool pose, and ordered her troops to attack. It seemed she wanted Mira to see her exploits.

Christina’s unit chiseled away at the enemy’s numbers thanks to her leadership and the Dark Knights’ strength. Just as Mira had ordered, she kept an eye out for spirit bombs and led her unit to deal with the dolls when they were near detonation. As expected of a Valkyrie Sister, she did her job well even when the battlefield was a confused mess. Each time she succeeded, she looked to Mira with a smirk… Because of this, she had the lowest efficiency of all her sisters.

However, Christina did not mind. She was used to being in last place. More importantly, her desire to show Mira her successes overpowered any sense of inferiority. She may have looked like a child at an athletic meet, but it was an honor beyond any other to be praised by her master. Thus, Christina fought on valiantly. And though her order to charge had increased the speed of her unit’s doll kills, it also resulted in an opening in their formation.

A technomancy doll seized the opportunity and prepared to explode. Unfortunately, Christina happened to be looking at Mira just at that moment.

“Aah! Evacuate, evacuate!” When she realized it, she sent her unit back and closed in on the doll as fast as she could. Then, she punted the doll away as it activated its spirit bomb. White light swelled and wrought destruction on its surroundings, but thanks to Christina’s quick action, it did not destroy the Dark Knights as it had planned. However, because she’d rushed so much to get rid of it, she had no time to plan where it would land.

As a result, two Dark Knights that had been outside of the original blast radius ended up swallowed by the light.

“Aaah! Andrew, Ferdinand!” Two buff, handsome, protective Dark Knights (in Christina’s headcanon) fell victim to the cunning attack. She screamed the names she’d given them, horrified by the terrible tragedy of it all. She then thought back upon her fond memories of the two knights who’d died for her sake, ­despite…none of this really being true.

But Christina managed to bring herself back to reality, shuddered at her mistake, and timidly looked around. Every one of her sisters’ eyes had gathered on her, each saying without saying, What in the world are you doing?

Worse, Mira had heard Christina’s agonized scream and was also staring at her.

Oh, no… What do I do? Her sisters and master alike had witnessed her blunder. Though she was disheartened by the thought of the training Alfina would no doubt put her through later, she was most hurt by the possibility of Mira losing faith in her. She racked her brain as hard as she could.

In under a second, she hit upon a scheme to win her reputation back. Though Christina had blundered, everyone was watching her now; this was the ideal opportunity. She just had to fight harder than ever in order to cover up her failure. The key to victory was to always think positive, Christina told herself. Her fighting spirit burned hotter as she turned toward the dolls once more.

Throughout this, the battle between the knights and dolls had continued. But Christina struck a pose like the lead actress onstage. “How dare you take Andrew and Ferdinand away from us?! Odin may forgive your sins, but I will not!” After blaming the enemy for her own mistake, she declared, “I will avenge them!”

Mira found that an odd thing to say for a god-serving Valkyrie, but of course, Christina wasn’t actually thinking that much about it. She raised her sword, still shooting the occasional glance at her master.

“This hidden technique has been passed down through Valkyrie bloodlines since creation. Now, for Andrew and Ferdinand, I shall unleash it!” Christina yelled. Her sword began to glow upon those words. She then slowly drew an arc with it, leaving a faint trail of light like an awkwardly formed magic circle. The battle raged on around her throughout all this, but Christina’s theatrical build-up was not interrupted, like an ultimate finisher move that could not be stopped.

After performing a series of elaborate motions, her sword began to gleam brightly. Finally, Christina caught a glimmer of expectation in Mira’s eyes.

“Take this ultimate move!” Now was truly her time to shine. Christina roared and brandished her sword overhead. At the same time, the Dark Knights fighting ahead of her cleared a path.

“Christina Slaaash!”

She yelled and swung her sword down, manifesting a great blade of pure light.

Why did an attack that had been passed down through their bloodline bear Christina’s name? Don’t worry about that. The Christina Slash exhibited far more power than her undisciplined demeanor might lead one to think. Hundreds of dolls ahead of her were crushed by the attack.

She was frivolous and put more effort than anyone into avoiding training, but as the youngest sister of an elite set, Christina still had the natural talent of a Valkyrie. If pressed, one might say that she was head and shoulders above most veterans. 

However, she was still inferior in terms of concentration, observation, and situational awareness. Alfina’s ice-cold voice cut through the roaring heat of battle: “Christina. When this is over, we need to have a little talk.”

It was the perfect attack, the ideal strike. No doubt Mira’s appraisal of her was skyrocketing, Christina thought. But when she heard her sister’s voice, she shuddered. She slowly turned her eyes to the direction of the voice. “Ulp…”

The voice came from ahead—the very direction in which she’d unleashed her Christina Slash.

Christina saw tragedy before her. The very blade of light that had cut down her own foes had kept going—destroying enemies and allies alike, resulting in the destruction of a portion of Alfina’s forces. It was an even bigger blunder, the result of her attack simply having too much penetrative power for the job.

After saying her piece, Alfina returned to battle in silence. Christina wasn’t sure if she was just imagining it, but it seemed as though Alfina’s fighting was more violent and terrifying than before.

“I’ll just have to stay by my master’s side…” As long as she wasn’t dismissed, Christina hoped, she wouldn’t be lectured or receive special training. Unfortunately, her fate was sealed. “But I was doing so well…”

Things had been going great until she used that technique. But after that, she fell apart as Mira watched.

If only Alfina’s unit hadn’t been right in the way, Christina thought, shrugging off responsibility as best she could. She shuddered, imagining herself among the technomancy dolls being massacred by Alfina. Christina did her best to resume fighting, all the while internally crying over the knowledge that this round of training would be the worst yet.

***

That finishing move was rather cool. I didn’t think she’d have such techniques… Unfortunate that she overdid it.

After witnessing Christina’s spectacular rise and fall, Mira found her appraisal of her lower than ever. She turned her attention back to Gregorius.

Gregorius himself was clearly furious to see hundreds of his soldiers destroyed by a single combatant.

This miniature war was nearing its end. Despite losing some numbers, Mira’s side was still going strong. Meanwhile, Chimera’s dolls had been culled to less than half of their original numbers. Christina’s wide-range attack had only added to that. Gregorius knew that he had to do something before they could use anything so destructive again.

“Unfailing, unretreating. With you as my weapon, we seize victory!” he declared.

Mira hadn’t heard that mantra before. Believing it to be some sort of unknown incantation, she steeled herself.

However, it was no incantation; it was more like a passphrase—an order to his technomancy dolls. When Gregorius said the words, the dolls all stopped at once. Suddenly, light, heat, and an accompanying shockwave swept their surroundings.

“What?! A vocal override?!”

Individual spirit bomb detonations were being dealt with by the Valkyrie Sisters’ swift action. How could Gregorius counter­act this? By having many of them detonate at once, of course. In seconds, the majority of Mira’s army had been enveloped in the blast.

It was a simple yet powerful strategy, but it meant destroying the dolls in the process. Yet Gregorius actively chose the suicidal attack. What was he planning?

The simplest answer would be that he wanted to cut down Mira’s forces as much as possible before his own were eliminated. He’d started off with four times her numbers, and they’d been brought to even in no time. This was a sign of just how different in power each individual soldier in Mira’s army was. If it was just a matter of time before Gregorius went down, then he might as well take her down with him.

But Mira wasn’t satisfied by this answer. Gregorius had been constantly checking his pocket watch. Based on how he’d acted each time, and given the timing of the explosion, the answer was more than clear: the moment he’d been waiting for had arrived.

What now? Alfina and the other sisters gathered around Mira and kept their guard up…though Christina was also extra-wary of Alfina.

“Master, something ominous approaches,” the eldest sister declared.

Mira had anticipated Gregorius might use such a tactic and had warned them in advance. Thanks to that, all of the sisters had managed to escape the blast radius before they came to harm. However, the protection given to the seven summons had been damaged by the great power of the spirit bombs.

“Given the state of things, I assume it’s his final salvo. Be cautious,” Mira warned them.

“Understood.”

With one eye on her surroundings, Mira first healed their protection. Alfina assented, swiftly gave orders to her sisters, and formed a security circle around Mira to be prepared for an attack from any angle.

Suddenly, Mira heard the thunder of footsteps. She whipped around and saw that Gregorius had climbed onto a more svelte golem and was running off in the direction Kagura had gone. Farther ahead, something burst through the metal floor.

Even from afar, it was clear what it was. It was a giant, metallic box more than twenty meters tall and wide. No, not a box—it was a gigantic cage with extremely sturdy-looking bars.

The cage blew open with a violent gust of wind.

“Now I see why they were so confident…” Mira strained her eyes through the dust and spotted a fiendish, deformed being.

Gregorius stood at a safe distance and raised his voice victoriously. “Do you feel it? The pulsing of overwhelming power?!” His confidence was understandable if that thing was on his side.

“I see… It suits the name Chimera Clausen, indeed.”

The creature coming out of the cage was truly worthy of the title chimera. But there was something fundamentally different about this creature compared to the chimeras of legend and the ones who existed as monsters in this world. The famed mythical chimera was a beast with a lion’s head, goat’s body, and venomous snake’s tail. But the abomination before Mira now had entirely different features.

It had a lion’s head made of rock, a body lush with vegetation, a tail that writhed like a fiery snake, and bone wings clad in wind. Lightning crackled around its feet, while freezing, white breath poured from its fanged mouth.

“This pulsating power… Are they spirits?” Alfina murmured as she gazed upon the creature. Her sisters cried out in alarm.

“They must have forcibly combined them together,” Mira said. “Even worse, there’s a tremendous number of spirits locked within.” Thanks to the Spirit King’s blessing, she could feel the pulsations coming from the abomination ahead. Despite its twisted appearance, familiar beings swirled within.

Indeed, all of the power inside it was that of spirits.

In general, the term chimera or chimeric referred to a combination of things that are different, discordant, or of different origins. Likewise, this beast was made up of all kinds of different, unrelated spirits sewn together—an apt embodiment of the word.

“This is our magnum opus. No matter how strong, there’s nothing a human can do to stand against a chimera that wields the full power of nature!” Gregorius announced proudly. He was right; the ability of spirits to govern and control various elements and phenomena was essentially the power of nature itself. A spiritual chimera with all of those powers within was on par with a natural disaster.

The spirit chimera glowered threateningly at Mira and the sisters.

Mira looked back at it and grinned wryly. “I’ll certainly pass on head-on combat with this thing…”

“Agreed. We are at a clear disadvantage.” Alfina took a step forward and readied her sword to protect her master.

Mira trusted in her years of training, and she believed she had the power to defeat powerful spirits. But even she judged it reckless to fight a beast packed so full of them. No matter how strong a human might be, it couldn’t stand up to the force of a natural disaster.

As such, Mira reached one conclusion: like with like, a calam­ity for a natural disaster. She would match this enemy with a ­being far beyond human strength, once feared on the same level as an earthquake or a hurricane.

“Now, annihilate them!” On Gregorius’s orders, the abomination with the destructive power of nature roared and charged.

“I’m going to begin casting,” Mira said. “I’ll need you to handle things for a moment.”

The abomination closed in with an agility and swiftness that one would never expect from its size. Mira leapt away from it and created four summoning circles.

While Mira backed off, the Valkyrie Sisters readied their weapons and faced the calamitous beast. “Understood. We will hold this line with our very lives.”

Suddenly, the earth rumbled and thunder boomed, and fire and wind swirled about. The great spiritual power had become an incomprehensible storm that rained hell upon Alfina and her sisters.

Alfina arrested its fangs with her sword of light. Her sisters put their lives on the line to block its lightning claws, windstorm wings, and fiery tail. They were at a stalemate for a moment, but it didn’t last long. Multiple bolts of earth-shattering lightning flashed, followed almost immediately by ear-splitting thunder.

In the distant sky, closest to where the gods lived, the Valkyrie Sisters trained day by day. They were beyond human beings, yet even they could not stand against this incarnation of godly wrath. They were tossed away one by one.

Alfina alone kept the spirit chimera solidly in her focus and swung her sword powerfully. “Your skills have grown dull, sisters! We fought much stronger foes with our master long ago!” Alfina screamed, blocking and parrying the abomination’s fangs and claws. She was stuck on defense now that her sisters had been scattered, but her sheer determination was enough to make up for it.

As proof of that, she managed to break one of the beast’s fangs with her sword.

“I just tripped, okay?!”

“The sound just scared me is all!”

They fought nature itself, a being that provoked instinctual terror. But Alfina’s admonishment seemed to work; the sisters grumbled their excuses and stood back up. Their presences seemed different now, changing as if to prove Alfina’s words. Their dulled senses had returned to their former glory.

“This struggle is…nothing compared to Alfina’s training!” Among them, Christina was especially eager. If she added this to her list of failures today, her special training might never end as long as she lived.

The beast became a storm of wind once more. Its second charge came with those same violent winds, roaring thunder, and blazing flames as the first. Alfina and her sisters managed to fully withstand this round of nature’s fury.

Well done. That will do, girls.

Mira could feel the beast’s rampage even from this distance as she watched her reliable friends. She spoke the last words of her incantation.

Now, take to the skies, my beloved child. 

***

The magic circle, now a great ring of light, shone brighter. A being took form within it, one even bigger than the chimera when it spread its own wings. Divine silver scales shimmered, and golden reptilian eyes that harbored the aura of a being with absolute power shone from within.

The Imperial Dragon—the most feared dragon bloodline in all the world, destined to rule all dragons. One of these extremely rare beings, Eizenfald, had descended upon the battlefield.

Eizenfald emitted pure dread that overwhelmed all instinct. When the spirit chimera saw him, even that giant beast lost its previous fervor, backed away, and glared at the dragon as if sizing it up.

An enormous dragon had appeared from a great magic circle. Anyone could see that it had been called using summoning magic.

“No way… That can’t be…” Gregorius knew. Thus, he shuddered, speechless. He had never seen an Imperial Dragon before this moment, but the moment he was faced with it, he knew that it brought ruin. With this, he realized that Mira was a far greater mage than him. He’d always known that she was stronger, but he’d believed it a small gap, one he could make up for with the right spirit gear and tools. Now, however, he was faced with this cruel reality. Eizenfald’s presence was just that overwhelming.

The spirit chimera was wary, but it hadn’t been overcome by terror. It was now attempting to intimidate its foe. The summoned dragon might be a powerful beast, but he had a powerful beast in his control as well. 

Gregorius looked up at his reliable pet and managed to catch himself before he fell to despair. “No. I’m not done yet. It’s not over. They’re evenly matched… Yeah, they’re evenly matched now!” he shouted, as if in an attempt to convince himself.

Steeling his courage, he ordered the spirit chimera to annihilate his foes.