Peace Sign

The red-hooded man set his sights on Azu first.

"Annoying pest. You're first."

He ignited fire magic in both hands.

The flames blazed furiously, stained a deep blue.

He hurled them at Azu.

Azu sidestepped the spell.

Where the fire struck the ground, it gouged a crater and continued to smolder, refusing to go out.

The soil where the flames had landed was melting into a viscous ooze.

If something like that hit a human body, the result didn't bear thinking about.

"Get further back. I'll block what I can if it comes this way, but don't let your guard down."

Alexia barked the order and pushed everyone behind her.

Her expression was taut with vigilance.

Between the Anti-Magic Orb and the combined protection of Alexia and Elza, they had a formation that should have been reassuring against all but the most powerful mages, yet the fear wouldn't go away.

One look at the enemy's blue flames triggered something primal, as though they were remembering a fear etched into their very being.

Against all of that, Azu showed not an ounce of hesitation.

No matter how much the man's firepower had increased, if it didn't hit her, it meant nothing. And she dodged everything.

The spots where she'd been standing erupted in flame, but she pressed steadily closer all the same.

"Then how about this."

The red-hooded man stopped casting and raised his right foot, a magic circle materializing beneath his sole.

He stomped it.

A thin wall of fire exploded outward from the point of impact in every direction.

An omnidirectional attack.

The speed of its expansion was ferocious, and there appeared to be no way to escape it.

Azu dropped low the moment she saw it.

Just as Yohane wondered what she was planning, she launched herself upward.

She'd been crouching to coil for a jump.

The fire wall was taller than a grown man, but Azu cleared it with ease.

The wall of flame she'd vaulted over surged toward the rest of the group.

Alexia threw up a barrier around them, and Elza reinforced it.

The barrier was sturdy enough that even Yohane could tell, yet the instant the blue fire wall made contact, it began grinding through it.

Alexia clicked her tongue.

She poured more mana into the barrier, but the erosion was outpacing her.

"Definitely not normal fire."

"There's a trace of divine grace mixed in!"

The Fire Elemental burst from Alexia's brooch, passed through the barrier, and swallowed the flames that had broken through.

It absorbed most of them, but then spat a small gout of blue fire onto the ground.

Normally, the spirit never rejected fire it had consumed.

Even the Fire Elemental wanted nothing to do with these flames.

Alexia stroked the spirit's throat to soothe it.

"Could that possibly be…?"

Lady Anatia stared at the Fire Elemental in astonishment.

Spirits were famous as a concept, yet vanishingly rare to actually witness.

That held true even for nobility.

Some had tried to capture spirits by force to sell them, but such schemes invariably invited severe retribution.

The Water Elemental's giant rampaging through the city of Aquarius came to mind…

Letting word spread too far carried risks, but there was no helping it now.

No matter what anyone said, they had no intention of giving up the Fire Elemental.

Azu had closed the distance on the red-hooded man and was now just a few steps from sword range.

A mage's strength lay in bombarding from a distance.

The proof was that Azu had already overwhelmed the red-hooded man once before.

Even if the man had grown stronger, if the fundamentals hadn't changed, neither would the outcome.

She dodged a desperate spell and delivered a diagonal slash across his body.

But the instant the wound opened and blood appeared, it sealed itself shut and healed.

It was the second time he'd witnessed it, and it was still deeply abnormal.

When Azu's follow-through left her momentarily open, the man grabbed for her shoulder, but she slipped free and circled behind him.

She'd anticipated the instant recovery.

When it came to combat, her instincts were truly remarkable.

She circled behind him, bringing her face into view. The rainbow shimmer bloomed in her right eye.

Light spilled from the Sealed Sword Grungaus.

Even Yohane could sense the immense power gathering in the blade.

The red-hooded man wrenched his body around and conjured a sword of blue fire in his hand.

As Azu brought her blade down, he moved to intercept.

The moment their swords met, the power contained within each erupted outward.

The shockwave reached them even at this distance.

Elza's and Alexia's clothes whipped in the blast.

"He's pretty absurd as opponents go, but can Azu really win?"

"Even if the enemy is wielding a god's power, it's like a single drop of concentrate diluted in water. Inexperienced as she may be, Azu-chan inherited the Apostle's mantle, so she's stronger."

"I certainly hope so… hah!"

Alexia deflected the shockwave and re-established the barrier.

The clash of powers looked evenly matched.

Azu's rainbow force against the man's blue fire.

What decided the contest was the difference between Azu, who had adapted to the strain no matter how great, and her opponent, who was being consumed by the very power he forced through his body.

The red-hooded man's left arm was incinerated by blue fire, and from that moment Azu seized control of the fight.

His resistance lasted only an instant.

Azu drove forward without mercy, slashing from his right shoulder through to his left flank.

Then she immediately pulled the sword back, channeled the Sealed Sword Grungaus's power, and thrust the blade through his heart.

The rainbow force, intertwined with the blue flames, blasted the man's body apart.

His ankles remained standing for a moment before they, too, were consumed by fire and crumbled to ash.

The sword slipped from Azu's hands.

The strain must have been enormous. Her head dropped, and she stood there with her shoulders heaving.

But after a few moments spent catching her breath, she looked up, smiled, and flashed a peace sign at the group.

Yohane nodded firmly and returned the gesture.

"Phew, somehow we managed."

"Good work, everyone!"