Ch.44Words Over Actions – 3

Serena, who had been pushed back quite a distance, instinctively tried to stab her World Eater into the ground to slow her momentum as soon as her body touched the floor, but the floor of this strange space wouldn’t yield even to a World Eater infused with mana.

Only a metallic “clang” could be heard.

It wasn’t entirely satisfactory, but it wasn’t inadequate either.

Maximizing friction between the tip of her World Eater and the floor while putting strength into her legs to somehow stop her body, Serena bit her lip as she looked at Charlotte.

Charlotte stood there, looking not much different from when she first entered this space.

“Such simple bait, yet you pounce on it like a wild beast. Truly amusing. Do you really possess intelligence not much different from an animal?”

The expression on Charlotte’s face as she looked at Serena was clearly one of mockery. As Charlotte walked toward Serena with clicking footsteps, countless magic circles spread out behind her.

Serena once again raised her World Eater and assumed her stance.

She wasn’t injured yet. Though she had been sent flying from the impact, no bones were broken, no muscles damaged.

Which meant she could still fight properly. Serena revised her strategy. The contest of raw strength was nearly even, but it would be meaningless if she couldn’t prevent teleportation.

In that case, she simply needed to cut.

The acceleration of time due to physical enhancement was affecting both Charlotte and herself equally.

Using it for extended periods made the flow of real time feel hazy, but that would apply to that woman as well.

Yes, whatever the case, she was a knight. It was enough to focus on the act of cutting itself. Faster and sharper.

Serena returned the World Eater to its scabbard.

Seeing this, Charlotte slightly furrowed her brows. She couldn’t understand what this action meant.

Instead, she brought her right hand in front of her left shoulder, preparing to swing sideways.

Simultaneously, all the magic circles shattered and disappeared.

A moment of silence hung between them.

“…What did you just do?”

Charlotte glared at Serena with piercing eyes. Her sharp gaze had figured out what had just happened.

The magic circles had been cut.

Even between magicians with significant skill differences, magic circles couldn’t be touched unless interfered with at the right moment. Yet they had been torn apart like pieces of paper.

Serena was somehow pointing the tip of her World Eater—which had been drawn from its scabbard—at Charlotte. The meaning was clear.

I couldn’t react? Me?

Charlotte’s expression twisted slightly. An unbearable sense of humiliation welled up.

She barely suppressed the urge to express her anger immediately. Prioritizing emotion over reason in this situation would only be disadvantageous.

Coldly assessing gains and losses, Charlotte forcibly calmed her boiling emotions.

When they fought at the edge of the continent a few years ago, Serena hadn’t yet reached the level of being able to cut magic circles.

Back then, Serena had only used the method of breaking through head-on, taking magic attacks with her absurdly sturdy physical enhancement ability.

That alone was threat enough, but overall, Charlotte had been slightly superior.

Even though it was a battle where victory couldn’t be easily declared for either side, looking deeper, it was a tug-of-war between Charlotte continuously casting spells and Serena taking them with her body while counterattacking.

Since Charlotte had the initiative, she naturally had the advantage.

“I cut them.”

“The magic circles? You cut them?”

“Yes.”

Serena put the World Eater back in its scabbard and crouched slightly, preparing to spring forward with a drawing slash.

Charlotte just stood there, clenching her fist. That woman had grown far more rapidly than she had thought.

Of course, Charlotte herself had grown tremendously, enough to be confident in facing the entire continent without losing by the age of 24.

But to have her magic circles penetrated by a mere 24-year-old after living for over 100 years? It was absurd.

“In that case…”

Charlotte’s hair began to flutter. It meant her mana release had been maximized.

Serena calmly maintained her stance. She felt no fear, no fighting spirit against a stronger opponent.

It had always been this way, and would continue to be.

No matter how strong that woman was, it wasn’t an issue for Serena. She had simply interfered with her lord’s and her happy time, so she would be cut down.

Just as she had done with other women. It didn’t matter if the target was the king of this country or a woman who had reached the pinnacle of magic.

Because a knight who protects her lord for life is such an existence.

“Go ahead and rampage all you want, you beast.”

Almost a hundred magic circles appeared in the air simultaneously. Serena crouched a bit more, then exploded forward with acceleration.

Hell awaited her with its jaws wide open. She felt the flow of mana she had vaguely experienced recently.

Purgatory.

It was the same magic Charlotte had written on a special scroll and handed over. Of course, the power of the current manifestation was incomparably greater.

Naturally, magic written on a scroll would be less powerful than directly drawing and activating the magic circle.

Serena drew her World Eater. And she leaped straight into the Purgatory spell.

Watching Serena dive into Purgatory, Charlotte activated all the magic circles drawn in the air.

Nearly a hundred spells poured toward the spot where Purgatory and Serena were entangled.

Mana was overflowing. To deplete Charlotte’s mana, one would need to plan a war of attrition lasting months, not just a single battle.

All the magic concentrated in one place shattered into pieces, and Serena emerged from within.

Charlotte wasn’t surprised. She had expected this. She calmly prepared the next spell, without drawing a magic circle or chanting.

The solution was very simple. If that woman could cut magic circles, then cast spells without drawing them.

Easier said than done—it was an act that shook the very foundation of magic from its roots.

Being able to cast magic without chanting or drawing magic circles was already amazing, but the fact that its power remained almost identical was an achievement more than sufficient to turn the magic academia and towers upside down.

Charlotte herself had simply done it because she found she could.

A transparent blade appeared out of nowhere and grazed past Serena. Serena was able to block the transparent sword purely thanks to her instinct.

Just as she thought there had been no magic circle, the next blade came flying.

This time she twisted her body to avoid it. A spell cast without chanting or drawing a magic circle, yet with power almost identical to one cast with a magic circle.

Serena widened her eyes. If there was no way to detect the activation of magic, she would just have to counter it by instinct.

And she actually did just that.

Watching Serena charging forward while blocking or avoiding all the magic suddenly appearing from nowhere, it was now Charlotte’s turn to widen her eyes.

Both were using physical enhancement at nearly maximum capacity, so there shouldn’t be much difference in their reaction speeds.

That meant she was doing this purely on instinct. And it was actually working.

At this point, there was only one feeling they had for each other.

If I don’t kill her now, she’ll eventually become my downfall.

Serena rushed toward Charlotte, dragging the tip of her World Eater along the floor. Blue flames rose from the tip of the World Eater as it scraped against the floor.

The blue flames quickly devoured the mana surrounding the sword, growing larger.

Charlotte teleported to create distance and drew seven massive magic circles in the sky. She was confident that while Serena was enveloped in those blue flames, she couldn’t cut magic circles.

From each of the magic circles drawn in the sky, meteors infused with hellfire began to fall. The endless black sky heated up.

Serena, her body wrapped in blue flames, leaped into the air, and the seven meteors were about to collide their massive bodies with their single target.

Suddenly, space itself folded.

Serena, who had been launched toward Charlotte, was somehow plunging her blue flames into the ground, and the meteors that had been falling toward Serena were exploding on the innocent floor some distance away.

In this completely unexpected situation, both Serena and Charlotte stared blankly at the spot where they should have collided.

“What is…?”

“What just happened…?”

Serena was bewildered that her instincts hadn’t detected anything, and Charlotte was shocked that no magic had been activated around them.

Who could have distorted this vast space without any precursor or change? And to do so without being detected by extraordinary beings like Serena and Charlotte?

Before they could properly assess what had happened, both of their bodies were ejected from the subspace.