6 – Sealing of the Mar Dragon

The Human’s black sword was stained an even deeper black, becoming a hole in the shape of a blade.

The Dragon Girl instinctively recognized it as the same [Sword Aura] that had cut her neck and, raising her guard, roared.

“———!!!!!!!!!!”

A roar imbued with Magical Power.

A sonic boom carrying a Shockwave struck the Human directly.

The nearby ground was blasted away by the boom.

But the Human held her ground, suspended in mid-air.

She had used Electricity to fix herself in the air.

The Dragon Girl had recognized that the Human possessed a natural-born talent, but she never imagined it would be the ability to equate herself with lightning itself.

The moment she saw the Human withstand her roar without being blown away, the Dragon Girl prepared her Magic.

The Electricity the Human used was a direct manipulation of lightning itself.

But this application of hanging in the air was beyond the scope of that manipulation. She was using a magnetic field by taking advantage of the properties of lightning.

It meant she wasn’t directly controlling the magnetic field.

The Dragon Girl saw through the Human’s ability in a single glance.

A Dragon was a being in which life and will had sprouted from Magical Power itself.

She could tell by the way the Human’s Magical Power was converted into Electricity.

Unfortunately, because the Magical Power was converted so perfectly into Electricity, she couldn’t interfere with the lightning’s effects, but she was able to indirectly understand the Special Ability through the phenomenon of its conversion from Magical Power.

She manipulates a magnetic field with Electricity.

If so, what about the reverse?

The Dragon Girl closed the mouth from which she had been roaring and manifested her Magic.

She used a magical effect to enhance the power of the magnetic field that held the Human’s body in place.

The ground wasn’t a good conductor like iron, but for the Dragon Girl, solidifying a phenomenon that had already appeared was simple.

The Human flinched, realizing the magnetic field wouldn’t dissipate.

She immediately generated more lightning to counter the magnetic field with one of her own. But a magnetic field only grew stronger as the lightning intensified, and there was no concept of quantity when it came to magnetic fields.

The moment she tried to raise the output of her lightning, she noticed a change of less than 0.01 percent and, in a reversal, completely withdrew the lightning.

But the Human didn’t stop.

Though it was less than when she had manipulated the lightning, she gathered Magical Power from the atmosphere and swung her black sword.

As the black sword was swung, sword ki formed, and that sword ki coalesced into Sword Aura.

Swordsmanship.

That technique, called the magic of the sword, was a different phenomenon from Magic.

The Sword Aura from the black sword, which looked as if it would slice through everything, space and all, was a technique made of Magical Power, but it would be difficult to halve its power.

That was because the phenomenon the Sword Aura created didn’t abide by concepts of strong or weak.

An absolute severance.

A sword that cut space.

The amount of Magical Power being used is small. It relies more on technique than Magical Power.

The Sword Aura manifested by that black sword.

Its consumption of Magical Power was extremely low.

That was why, even though the amount of Magical Power she could use was minuscule compared to before, she could still use that Sword Aura.

But a normal Sword Aura would be difficult for her.

The Sword Aura she had first fired, in the form of a magical power cannon, would have originally had enough power to blow away a mountain, but just now, its limit was barely carving a few meters into the ground.

Still, it was astonishing that she could produce that much power just by drawing in external Magical Power.

In any case, the Dragon Girl floated her body with Magical Power.

“How dangerous.”

“…”

She propelled her body with Magical Power, escaping the Human’s range.

This Human had gone to the trouble of waking her, and burying a talent with such an ability would be a loss for the world.

The ability to perfectly convert Magical Power into Electricity and wield it as if it were her own hands and feet.

She disliked talented children, but…

they were precious.

Besides, the talent itself was not a sin.

“Talent always brings about the advancement of Magic, after all. Don’t you agree?”

“…”

The Human once again used her legs, enhanced with Magical Power, to pursue the Dragon Girl.

And at the same time, the black sword was a hole.

It sucked in Magical Power.

The sword that cut space was like a hole, but what happened to the things that flowed into it?

She had no knowledge of what came next, but she could infer it from the flow.

The Dragon Girl judged that condensed Magical Power would emerge from that Spatial Slash.

Merely condensing Magical Power wouldn’t cause much damage, but the Human had to know that. Though only a few seconds had passed since they clashed, if she hadn’t realized that, she would have died long before honing such skill.

She was a growing monster who had survived and honed her skills, rising to the ranks of the strong, becoming great enough to covet a monarch’s throne.

But to the Dragon Girl, who was at a high level even among the near-monarch class, she was still a novice.

The Magical Power absorbed by the Spatial Slash.

So she’s storing it.

Is she trying to use it as a battery?

The Dragon Girl’s judgment was swift.

She could draw upon similar methods from past experiences.

The reason long-lived Dragons were inevitably wise was that their countless experiences reduced the number of variables to nearly zero, allowing them to instinctively grasp situational patterns.

She considered other possibilities besides a magical power battery, but for now, she formulated a countermeasure for the most convincing one.

She avoided a direct clash.

The magical power entity in her hand.

If she were to clash while holding this orb-like mass of the Human’s Magical Power, she would lose the very power she had gone to the trouble of stealing in her surprise attack.

This was a curse, and a Seal.

As long as she maintained this magical power entity, the Human’s Magical Power would never return.

And yet, the fact that she could wield Sword Aura with only external Magical Power was truly something.

It wasn’t just her ability with Electricity; her ability to command Magical Power rivaled that of a Dragon.

It only rivaled it.

The Dragon Girl used Magic.

No, this was a curse, and a Seal.

She held out the magical power entity she had stolen from the Human towards the Human.

A magic circle appeared before the clear, orb-like magical power entity.

A magical arrow that shot forward like a spear. A Magic Missile, a basic attack spell, flew toward the Human, and the Human struck it down with her Spatial Slash.

She can cut it, so she cuts it.

If she dodged while chasing the Dragon Girl, her speed would drop, so she must have had no choice but to strike it down.

But this was a curse, and a Seal.

A sword that cut space.

It was an astonishing technique, but…

“Space is a fundamental study in Magic. It seems you, a swordswoman, are unaware.”

“What are you talking about?”

The Human gathered Magical Power in her feet again.

Using the Magical Power she gained from dispelling the Spatial Slash, she kicked off the ground with far more strength than before and charged.

She closed the distance in an instant.

A movement technique using Magic.

It was within her expectations that she would be caught, as its acceleration was much slower compared to a swordswoman’s movement technique.

That’s why things like this exist, isn’t it?

Blink.

The moment the Human’s fist was but a hair’s breadth from her neck, the Dragon Girl teleported.

The Human’s Spatial Slash cut through empty air.

But perhaps her Magical Power had been read.

The Human immediately changed direction with her Mana-Enhanced legs, without even looking.

She charged straight for the Dragon Girl, but…

“…”

“…”

The distance between them only grew wider.

The Human’s speed was limited to the amount of external Magical Power she had drawn, but the Dragon Girl was getting faster and faster.

In response, the Human showed the application of storing Magical Power in her Spatial Slash, but she couldn’t create the Spatial Slash again once it had been dispelled.

A curse.

A Seal.

The Dragon Girl had processed the Human’s Magical Power to prevent the technique known as Spatial Slash from taking form, sealing the technique itself.

Never again. Unless the Seal was broken, she would never be able to use Spatial Slash.

Not unless she could improve the mechanism of the Spatial Slash technique by more than 80 percent, but at that point, it would be a completely different technique. Even the Sword God of the past took at least ten years to create a single new Sword Aura.

In effect, the Spatial Slash was sealed.

The Human had lost her Magical Power and her Sword Aura.

A genius of her era had lost what she had cultivated her entire life. It was highly likely she would fall into despair and seclusion.

That timing would come when her will departed from this magical power entity.

The will dwelling within the magical power entity follows its master’s will, no matter how far apart they are.

The moment the Dragon Girl could absorb it as her own Magical Power would be the moment the Human’s will was broken.

I’ll comfort you then.

The Dragon Girl flew far away.

No…

Crackle.

Crackle, crackle.

The sound of sparking Electricity could be heard.

---

The more strongly one generates [Electricity], the stronger the magnetic field becomes.

Reacting with the [Electricity] dwelling in her body, the magnetic field seized her.

It didn’t crush her, only fixed her in place, so there was no damage, but she couldn’t move.

She had no Magical Power.

[Magical Power] [0]

[Mana] [0]

What is this?

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t catch up by chasing without Magical Power anyway.

The more she drew out her [Electricity], the more immobile she became, but Amel still raised her [Electricity] to its absolute limit.

Originally, the output of her [Electricity] was determined by her Magical Power.

But it was different after she had achieved [Sword God].

She could even draw upon the Magical Power dwelling in objects.

She could see Magical Power with her eyes, and what she could see, she could grasp.

Give it all to me.

Amel gathered [Electricity].

She gathered Magical Power from everything she could see and feel with her skin, gathering [Electricity] and accumulating all of it inside herself, a being no different from the world’s greatest battery.

And then she reached out her hand.

Towards the Dragon Girl.

While she was charging, the Dragon Girl had fled as far as a mountain range, becoming a tiny dot, but any distance she could see was within her range.

Amel glared fiercely at the Dragon Girl.

Her hair stood on end.

Currents that had slightly strayed from her Focus sparked briefly from her eyes and legs to the ground.

She saw the Dragon Girl about to cross the mountain range, and Amel’s senses raced along the [Electricity] all the way to the mountains.

The electricity traveled at a speed comparable to light, rapidly transmitting information.

The mountain range became charged, and the electrons in every blade of grass stood on end, to a state where it wouldn’t be strange if they all sparked with static.

Suppressing that with her Awakened Ability, Amel generated a microcurrent from the mountain range and extended it toward the Dragon Girl.

A faint light of electricity. It writhed through the atmosphere like a tentacle, extending its arm.

It reached the Dragon Girl.

Die.

CRACK.

Lightning struck.

The Dragon Girl plummeted.

“…Tch.”

She defended.

There was damage, but not enough for her to get her [Magical Power] back.

Amel could feel her [Magical Power] through her senses.

Even after being struck by lightning, the Dragon Girl suppressed the release of the [Magical Power], and Amel felt her stagger as she descended the mountain range.

She wanted to hit her with another maximum-output blast of [Electricity], but at that distance, she couldn’t land a hit without the help of her eyes.

No, she could hit her by pinpointing the location of her [Magical Power] and using that to gauge the distance. However, since she had already shown the technique once, the Dragon Girl would block it with Magic.

“Why did you have to use a Seal?”

The Dragon Girl couldn’t show her full strength either, as she was busy sealing and maintaining the [Magical Power].

The Dragon Girl who had displayed a magical ability that stopped time. What would have happened if she had fought at full strength without sealing the [Magical Power]?

She had only used Magic for the sole purpose of escaping, so it was hard to even call this a fight.

Did I just end up putting the world in more danger?

“I said I’d protect it, but look at this mess.”

Sigh.

And her [Magical Power].

And her [Spatial Slash].

They were sealed.

“What should I do?”

Like this, she had no confidence she could win even if she had to fight Force again.

As expected of a monster from ancient times, she had used an outlandish method. Who would have thought it was possible to seal a Skill?

Was this her revenge?

The moment she struck the Dragon Girl with [Electricity], Amel felt a connection to her [Magical Power], and she didn’t miss that moment.

She coated her [Magical Power] with [Electricity].

The [Magical Power] was now able to be charged with electricity and would periodically discharge it to electrocute the Dragon Girl.

Release it if you don’t like it.

But she would probably block that with Magic, too.

Seeing as the Dragon Girl had sealed even something as intangible as [Spatial Slash], there was no way she couldn’t block a little electricity.

“…”

Amel looked back at her shadow.

“Force, are you going to betray me?”

“(…)”

Force poked its head out from the shadow.

It stared at her with a meaningful gaze.

“(You have freed the Magical Dragon from her Seal.)”

“You know her?”

“(She was Magic’s closest confidante. She was the one who attended to Magic’s side since I was a mere grunt in the Death Knight’s ranks.)”

“Magic…”

Come to think of it, [Magic] was among the Great Devils sealed by the Northern Empire.

“Is she like one of the Four Heavenly Kings?”

“(She is closer to a spouse.)”

The Dragon Girl was a married woman.

“(Magic was more proactive in changing the world than any other being I know. If Magic is released from its Seal, the peace you desire will face an irreversible turning point.)”

“…”

I have to catch her.

Amel chased in the direction she could feel the Dragon Girl.

Her adventure to find the Sealed Lands had suddenly turned into a chase.

It would be great if the Dragon Girl was also searching for the Sealed Lands to break Magic’s Seal, but… that was too much to hope for.

How would she even know the location of the Sealed Lands in the first place?

“…”

An idea came to her.

Amel could feel her [Magical Power] far in the distance.

Is it possible?

She focused, trying to remotely manipulate the electricity stored in her [Magical Power].

She focused and willed it.

Go that way.

Go that way.

She indicated a direction.

The Dragon Girl tried to suppress the [Magical Power] by clenching her fist around it, but Amel was not one to yield to a mere pressure on her heart.

She made the [Magical Power] emit electricity, creating a strong attraction to nearby objects, and used that attraction to indicate a direction.

Go.

Go.

Go.

It’s going.

The Dragon Girl, as if unable to win against the persistently resisting [Magical Power], changed her direction.

“Hoo…”

Amel placed a hand on her chest and applied [Electricity] to her heart.

The pressure transmitted from her [Magical Power] was squeezing her heart, trying to force it to stop. It itched, so she scratched it with [Electricity].

Her body creaked in pain, but the Dragon Girl was heading towards the Sealed Land.

This was no time to hesitate.