The news of an intruder in the Empire’s headquarters quickly spread throughout the building.

The intruder went straight to the basement without showing interest in any other space, which made it even more of an emergency.

The basement is a place filled with classified documents.

As well as ‘things’ that should never be released into the world.

Anyway, the Empire dispatched security to eliminate the intruder.

Whoever it was, it was very foolish to attack the headquarters alone.

How much did they look down on the knighthood to do that?

It’s a place of high importance, so it’s guarded by some of the best elite forces in the Empire.

So they will probably die.

Anyone who came alone.

Until then, Eve, the knight guarding the basement, thought so.

***

The intruder who broke into the Empire was stronger than expected.

She overwhelmed numerous knights with her small body.

It’s not an easy task for a single individual to wipe out a squad.

Unless the difference in strength is overwhelmingly large, it’s almost impossible.

But she did it.

So easily, without a single wound on her body.

She knew the intruder who reached this far, ignoring both weight class and numbers, was not ordinary.

Even so, she didn’t know it would be to this extent.

-Clang!!

The sharp sound of metal colliding fills the corridor.

Eve, the chief knight, was confronting the intruder with a sword.

The strike she blocked was heavy.

Was it possible to swing a sword with this much weight without using mana?

Moreover, the weapon she was holding was a small dagger.

It means she didn’t borrow the power of a weapon.

She was matching Eve’s mana-infused sword with pure physical ability.

It’s a sight that’s hard to believe, even when seeing it with her eyes and feeling it with her body.

If she’s that strong with pure power, what would happen if she also infused mana?

“…”

It was terrifying just to imagine.

She thought her opponent’s talent might be comparable to the Empire’s Sword Saint.

However,

“Oh flame.”

The intruder was not the only one who had surpassed the realm of humans.

Even if it hasn’t been long since she became the chief knight, Eve was also a veteran knight with a long career in the field.

With her short chant, flames were imbued into her sword.

The flames that burst out from the sword’s tip illuminate the corridor, and the fire that extends envelops the intruder.

Feeling something was wrong, the intruder tried to back away, but it was too late.

The moment she got close to Eve, she could no longer be unscathed.

“…?”

Eve took a short breath and detonated the stretched-out fire.

A dazzling flash occurred.

Then there was a loud noise.

A not-so-small explosion engulfed the intruder.

It’s a high firepower flame that would have burned an ordinary human to death and still have leftovers.

Utilizing the fact that she has a higher resistance to her own magic, Eve forces damage on the opponent through the explosion and expansion of the flames.

It may seem a bit extreme in that she damages herself simultaneously, but it’s the capacity of a chief knight to bear the risk and still do it.

Eve, who has trained endlessly, didn’t take damage from her own flames.

The only one who takes damage is the opponent.

In the place where the thick smoke cleared, the woman with blue hair was still standing.

Her hair and clothes were slightly burned, but she was still unscathed.

“…”

Eve silently gripped her sword.

It was a result she had somewhat expected.

It was a controlled firepower out of concern that the fallen would get involved.

“Anyone conscious, take the injured and evacuate.”

Personnel who can’t fight only get in the way.

Even more so for Eve, whose attack means are mostly wide-range.

As time passed like that, only the two of them were left on the 3rd basement floor.

The blue-haired woman showed no action until the others left.

She was just looking at Eve with cold eyes.

Standing there, without moving a muscle.

Is she showing mercy to the fallen?

No, it was a little different.

The woman didn’t even seem to have any interest in them.

Her golden eyes, devoid of any emotion, glanced at those leaving.

Her eyes were so eerily empty that it was impossible to read her inner thoughts, but it was clear that there was no emotion in them.

They were eyes that looked at pebbles on the street.

At least she’s not a murderous monster.

If one doesn’t attack first, she doesn’t attack either.

“Please step aside.”

The blue-haired woman’s mouth opened.

Her voice was as cold as her empty eyes.

Eve took a stance again and made eye contact with her.

It was to figure out her intention.

“I have business beyond this point. If you step aside, I won’t kill you.”

They weren’t eyes that were lying.

No hostility was felt either.

She honestly revealed her purpose.

Is it her way of saying that she can subdue her anytime she wants, since she didn’t take advantage of the gap while all the injured knights were leaving?

Eve gritted her teeth.

“I can’t do that.”

She straightened her sword, restoring her shattered pride.

Flames were imbued into the blade she gripped.

As a chief knight, she was responsible for preventing anyone from passing beyond this point.

So, she rejected the opponent’s request.

“Regardless of your purpose, I cannot let you pass beyond this point.”

Because protecting this place was her mission.

“Is that so.”

The woman answered briefly and raised her dagger.

As much as she lacked emotion, she was quick to give up.

She seemed to think that if unnecessary battles couldn’t be avoided and dialogue didn’t work, there was no choice.

A blue-green wind enveloped the woman’s body.

***

The swordsmanship that came from the same stance clashed.

It wasn’t just the swordsmanship that was the same.

The application of wrapping magic around the sword style also overlapped.

Eve wrapped flames around her sword, and Iria wrapped wind around her dagger.

The methods were different, but the techniques of the two originated from one person.

Eve received it as Leon’s successor when he was the chief knight, and Iria devoured him and all he knew.

That was the reason why the swordsmanship they used was similar.

However, the overall completeness of the technique was higher on Eve’s side.

Unlike Iria, who simply took what someone else had built up all at once, her swordsmanship was a tower she had built up directly from beginning to end.

In the place where they both showcased the same technique, Eve pushed forward.

Noticing her opponent used speed as her weapon, she spread her flames to block paths.

The heat that became noticeably stronger than before covered Iria.

She was stronger than Eve, but in terms of compatibility, it was the worst.

Because in front of Eve’s tactic of trapping the opponent with flames and self-destructing, speed was powerless.

If the opponent was fast, just limit where they could go.

Eve was slowly and carefully pushing Iria back.

She wasn’t letting her guard down because she was wary of her opponent.

When all the escape routes were blocked and there was no blind spot to avoid, Eve detonated the flames.

“Explode.”

Eve had already detonated the flames for the third time.

She was chipping away at the vitality of the suspiciously sturdy intruder.

A strong explosion occurred in the basement, loud enough to shake the entire building.

This time, too, the flames covered both Eve and Iria.

She thought she could take her down with this explosion.

Because it was a flame that she detonated while drawing out her mana to the maximum.

The flames engulfed both of them, but Eve had strong resistance to the explosion, while Iria didn’t.

So she expected victory.

“Kuh?!”

But the first one to cough up blood was Eve.

Because Iria’s extended dagger was piercing her abdomen.

Eve moved her trembling pupils to the pierced area.

She felt a terrible pain of something sharp digging into her flesh.

Then she moved her gaze towards Iria’s face.

For someone who stabbed a person, her expression was too nonchalant.

Iria pulled the dagger out of Eve’s body with a cold expression.

“How…”

She must have detonated the flames that spread out from inside her body right there.

There was no blind spot in the explosion, and the temperature of the flames near Eve’s body was especially high.

After penetrating that temperature, she jumped into the explosion and stabbed her?

Without even using mana?

It’s impossible for a human.

It was an absurd thing.

Eve pressed down on her slurred pronunciation and spat it out.

“You’re not human…”

“…”

I didn’t bother to deny it.

This silence could be considered a tacit affirmation.

“Ugh!!”

She stabbed Eve’s body with the sword once more and let her fall to the floor.

After finishing another battle, I discarded the blood-stained dagger and took out a new one.

It didn’t take long for Eve to lose consciousness.

Before moving on, I spoke while looking at the fallen Eve.

“Sleep well, Eve. Leon thought of you as a good junior.”

“…”

“You were a good junior. Not a romantic interest.”

The flames were extinguished.

I took the key to the 4th basement floor from Eve’s pocket.