“I will put an end to your indulgence with my own hands this time!”

The man in front of me—the First Prince—proclaimed this with such confidence.

An obvious provocation. But honestly, I didn’t have time to stress over that. There was only one thing I needed to do in this situation.

“Hoo…”

A light breath.

At the same time, I began circulating my mana.

No, it’s not just mana I’m circulating.

I’m also unleashing the energy of the World Tree. Its life force floods through my circuits like crazy.

I’m not even sure if this is the right approach.

After all, no human has ever handled the energy of the World Tree before.

It might not mix well with my mana, or I could end up with side effects. It’s a complete gamble.

But that doesn’t matter.

I never planned on prioritizing safety from the get-go.

I keep it flowing.

No need to protect my body.

I can feel the mana circuit on the verge of bursting from overload, but I’m not fazed.

In fact, I accelerate even more.

What’s it to me if the circuits break? Even if my heart is pulled out, it’ll grow back!

Pain? I didn’t even feel it, so why bother worrying?

What I need right now is pure power.

Power to smash those bastards!

With all my might, I sling myself towards the First Prince.

The sound of tearing air echoes through the atmosphere.

The scenery around me shifts in an instant.

“……!”

I can see the First Prince’s startled expression.

The confidence in his eyes, filled only with thoughts of victory, has disappeared, replaced by a ghastly pale face.

Well, it’s only natural if you think about it.

My maneuverability has always been enhanced by wings.

Combine that insane physical ability with the power of mana and the World Tree, and I’ve got speed like no other.

It’s no wonder he’s flustered.

He hurriedly constructed a spell.

Guess his brain works better than I thought.

While he was chattering on earlier with useless words, he was secretly crafting a spell to manipulate causality.

The spell was nearly complete, with just one line ready to trigger.

Light burst forth.

The laws of causality twist and warp.

The very fact that I charged at him seems to be incinerated. It was supposed to be like that, but…

“T-This is…”

His face turns to one of horror.

The spell had no effect whatsoever.

I wasn’t stopping; I was accelerating endlessly toward him.

The reason is simple.

To fix the actions of a human like that, there’s no way such magic could be used without restrictions.

The value of a human.

The weight of a soul. The amount of mana consumed vastly differs based on those factors.

I wasn’t just trying to absorb the World Tree for no reason.

I had an unusual soul not originally from this world, with bizarre traits and the burden of being a hero.

Would they be able to bind me when I’m like this? Especially since my mana isn’t fully recovered?

Not a chance.

He clenched his teeth.

Not just any ordinary mage, it seems; he quickly alters the spell.

Knowing that manipulating causality wouldn’t work, he shifted to building a barrier with his magic.

Hundreds, thousands of shields rise to block me.

Sure, that’s not a bad move. He’s optimizing mana usage while fulfilling a defensive purpose.

But one mistake he made…

He was far too wary of me.

In trying to maximize efficiency, he piled up shields solely facing my direction.

In other words… while he was focused on me, there was no way to stop Lien’s attack coming from behind.

Noticing this, he turned around and yelled in a panic.

“Carl! Protect me now!”

But that didn’t help.

Before long, the Prince’s face was covered in disbelief.

The greenery that looked like it had been taken from an ancient forest.

Flowers and trees blooming in the barren, lifeless land.

Those were binding Carl.

He must have been a bit careless, thinking elves could hardly be a threat. That Carl could rush in at any moment to support him.

But no.

The elves, gathered around their protector, unleashed magic fueled by their very lives.

Combined with Lucy’s curse, it was entirely possible to seize the Swordmaster.

Therefore, there was no way for him to save himself.

…Except for one thing.

The First Prince gritted his teeth. And just then, a woman sprang from the shadows.

The Weapon Master.

The Hero’s right-hand. A genius allowed to stand beside the center of the world.

With a shield forged from her magic.

That shield withstood Lien’s deathly strike.

The Prince’s pale face returned to its original color. He seemed to think his defense had succeeded perfectly, but…

What a delusion.

I’m still right here.

Unaffected by anyone’s interference, I stand here now.

Thousands of shields?

What does that matter?

I swing my sword with all my might.

A deafening sound as the barriers shatter in an instant.

Finally realizing what was happening, he starts to sweat and hurriedly constructs a spell.

A desperate blow prepared in haste, fully aware of the mana expenditure it would incur.

Meteor.

I know its power.

Stars from the heavens—something that shouldn’t touch humans falling from the sky.

A great magic that defies reason and logic.

But… I didn’t run away.

I closed my eyes.

The inscribed incantation. The complex patterns that seem impossible to understand.

After all, I’ve never learned magic properly, how could I grasp the principles of such advanced spells?

Yet still…

I know.

Even without understanding, I know.

Because I’ve seen it before.

Great magic?

What’s that to me?

To the people here, it’s a technique they couldn’t understand even if they spent their lifetime studying it, something nearly impossible to even learn.

But I’m different.

With just a few taps, I could grasp not just the shape of the spell but even its countermeasures.

Mana is overflowing, and I’m close enough to interfere with the caster’s position to not be worried about anything.

I constructed the spell in thin air.

Reversal Formula.

The act of dismantling all principles and defeating the very spell itself.

His face turned to shock.

But there was no time to prepare his next move.

The barriers were down to about one or two left now.

I swung my sword with all my power.

The air split painfully with a roar.

The shield that woman created absorbed the shock momentarily, but…

No matter how much it was a shield forged from her magic, it couldn’t block all the impact.

The First Prince screamed in pain as it hit him.

He was barely holding on, but blood trickled from his lips.

Given his condition and the remaining mana, it was almost safe to say he was nearly incapacitated.

But…

It was still too soon to let my guard down.

The Prince glared at me with gritted teeth.

After a moment of radiating hatred, he laughed.

Laughing, he said, “Fine, if you want to play that way, I can’t hold back either.”

The grotesque confinement on the corpse doll, those devices that limited power—they all shattered in an instant.

“Kill them. I don’t care if it breaks!”

A woman named Aria.

For some reason, she now appeared before me as a puppet of the Empire.

Lien looked at me, ready to rush in and support me at any moment.

But… I shook my head.

The trump card Balzac was trying to use at the last moment.

There was no guarantee Carl wouldn’t possess that kind of power. He was definitely not to be underestimated, so it was better to keep Lien close.

And most importantly…

That bastard was someone I had to face.

I had a feeling about that.

“…Don’t worry.”

I said that.

Not that I’m trying to sacrifice myself, nor am I declaring I’ll take her down with me.

Who goes into a fight thinking they’ll lose from the start?

I had confidence that I could win.

After all, I still had plenty of preparations left in store.

I immediately equipped a communicator in my ear. It was a magical engineering device to connect me to the key personnel hidden among the elves.

[…The first attack will come from the right.]

I heard Hayang’s voice.

A cheat using future sight to read the moves.

With this, I could bridge the gap in their techniques somewhat.

Plus, I had one more countermeasure I just thought up.

This kind of power should’ve been brought out earlier. But the Prince hesitated to use the corpse doll until the last moment.

Adding to that, the last time we met, how she’d pleaded with tears in her eyes for me to kill her—it all made sense to me.

“Aria… don’t you recognize me?”

As soon as I said that, I saw her trembling pupils.

I didn’t miss that opportunity and lunged at Aria.

I may have employed trauma attacks with cheats, but…

This was the start of a fair duel.