There was a time when what is currently known as the Rogfelas family upheld their royal duty as one of the five Dukes of the Empire. This was long before the family was referred to as the imperial family. Neither house had an exclusive claim to the throne, and instead would lead the Empire based on the strength of the current generation. In order to gauge this strength, the nobles of these five houses each raised soldiers. This was naturally no exception for the House of Rogfelas. Unlike other aristocrats, however, the Rogfelas family raised their soldiers in a unique way.

They gathered orphans from all over the country and fostered them into outstanding soldiers. The effect was outstanding. For children with nowhere to go, the sponsorship of the Rogfelas was a chance they could ill afford to squander, and the children trained desperately to stay there. Even though they were young, their eyes burned with fire and passion, almost as if they were possessed by demons. After rigorous training, the selected children became brave soldiers who devoted themselves entirely to the Rogfelas family.

Swan Katarina was one of them. She was born with overwhelming talent that no other child could compare with. Recognizing that talent, Guiltian Zedgar F Rogfelas spared no expense in cultivating her skills. With great talent, the best environment, and, above all else, a tremendous amount of effort, Swan improved her skill at a rapid pace.

She learned the intricacies of aura far quicker than anyone else, and by the age of twenty, she had reached the lofty heights all martial artists strived for: King Class. At the age of just twenty, she had become one of the most powerful women in the entire continent.

Soon after, Swan dealt with countless people on behalf of the Rogfelas family. She undertook countless missions and successfully completed all of them. Meeting Adjest was also a kind of mission.

The only daughter of the Rogfelas family.

She was the heir apparent of the house who had outstanding talent in both magic and swordsmanship.

It was for this reason why Swan knew about Adjest. The Empire was plunged into a revolution, but her relationship with the Rogfelas remained unchanged, even after they became the imperial family.

Around that time, the Empire recognized her as the strongest archer. She was soon appointed to the Royal Guard, after the civil war was quelled.

This was the life story of Swan Katarina.

She had already dedicated the majority of her life to the Empire, and was ready to die at any time, no matter what the cause was.

But there was still one thing she desired for herself.

That was…

* * *

Shouts filled the air. Weapons clashed, and magic was invoked, exploding with thunderous rapture.

There were numerous loud explosions.

The battle between the Side Guard and Outsiders was fierce. “Don’t hesitate!”

“We must break through their retreat without fail!”

The Outsiders’ power was no match for the Side Guard, the crowning glory of the Empire. The Side Guard was composed of high-quality knights and magicians, all of whom were very talented.

Nevertheless, the battle did not go as smoothly as expected. The Outsiders had superior numbers from the outset. This was to be expected though; they were behind enemy lines, and weren’t getting reinforcements any time soon.

It was a disadvantageous fight for the Side Guards from the moment their infiltration operation had been discovered.

“Front line, lift up the shield! Invoke artillery magic at the intruder!”

“We must get to the secured escape path!”

Just then, a silver-colored stream of aura flew from somewhere and penetrated the neck of several Outsiders.

*Crash*

The scattered arrows ruthlessly slaughtered Outsiders and eased the burden of the Side Guard. This was the work of Swan’s aura.

But her assistance wasn’t something the Side Guard could rely upon.

The upper part of the tower.

“Where are you looking at?”

“I value my men very much, unlike you.”

A battle was underway between Swan and Crow Mask. *Boooooooom*

As magic collided with aura, sound waves burst out threatening to rupture the eardrums of both parties. A huge shock wave would also follow up after each clash, vibrating the inside of the tower every time they exchanged blows.

Swan swiftly drew her bow and fired an aura arrow to strike a deadly and accurate blow. *Boom*

Crow Mask was also formidable. [Dimension Burst]

Powerful magic was invoked. His right hand arranged the formation rapidly. Even against Swan, a member of the Royal Guard, his magic held out firmly. It was a fierce war.

Just as Crow Mask tried to arrange another spell, aura arrows flew in and disrupted its invocation.

Swan couldn’t land a decisive blow, but she could continue to disrupt his spells and keep him on guard against her sneak attacks.

Allowing a rhythm to form, then suddenly disrupting it, an unexpected arrow flew right for Crow Mask. He began to calculate a spell to respond to it, an attempt to offset the incoming power with just enough of his own. But this attack was different from the aura arrows Swan had fired so far. It burst apart before making contact with anything. The aura imbued in the arrow spread out like a fine mist and mixed with the mana that the Crow Mask had gathered.

This was a phenomenon that could not occur naturally. “This is… !”

An explosion occurred at the same time as he recognized what it was. *Boom*

The building shook violently.

Crow Mask appeared a little further away. Just before the explosion, he instantly invoked magic and moved himself out of its range.

“You like it? This is my way of dealing with troublesome magicians like you.” Swan spoke while sneering.

This was her ultimate use of aura.

The aura accumulated in the arrow was freed at the right moment, and the mana that the opponent had gathered was forcibly detonated. The mana caught up in the explosion acted like gasoline in a fire, resulting in a formidable explosion of power.

“Why don’t you step down now?”

At this rate, Crow Mask would not have an opportunity to use magic conventionally. But Crow Mask spat out a response, dumbfounded at her arrogance.

“Nonsense.”

A bright light shone from his necklace.

Swan pulled on her bow once again, but surprisingly, the spell was invoked faster than she could do that.

Memorize.

An S-class artifact that could allow the user to invoke a pre-cast spell.

His spell fully manifested.

[Dream of a Desolate World]

At that moment, Crow Mask began to be distorted, as if he were a mere reflection of something behind a huge lens.

It wasn’t a mere illusion. It was the distortion of space itself.

This was entirely different from the type of defensive magic normally used by magicians. It was the ultimate defensive spell, capable of blocking all magic and physical impacts by distorting space itself.

It was impossible to overpower this spell through physical force. It was an absolute defensive magic for dealing with truly high-quality knights. A spell that could only be destroyed through magical means.

“I’ve never seen such magic before.”

“Of course.”

Crow Mask spoke gloatingly.

“That’s because it’s a spell I invented to deal with annoying holy knights.”

He made it a few months ago after killing Aaron, the most powerful knight of Divide.

No matter how much aura is poured into the attacks levied at it, they had no chance of piercing this curtain. With such a guarantee, Crow Mask was able to leisurely invoke his next attack. “This is the end.”

The spell was completed without interruption, behind the safety of the curtain.

There would be no point in expending all the effort put into his defensive spell if he invoked a simple spell that Swan could survive. Therefore, Crow Mask decided he had to exert himself slightly when he developed this spell.

[Awareness of Powerlessness] *Boom*

For a moment, a huge amount of gravity weighed down everything around her. Swan stood in the epicenter of the phenomena.

However, Swan remained upright. Crow Mask began to doubt his very eyes, but in just a moment he realized the reason why she was seemingly unaffected.

There was a subtle light emanating from Swan.

She had managed to hold out by desperately gathering all of her aura and coating her entire body in it.

‘Tch. How am I supposed to deal with this?’

For every moment she continued to resist, a vast amount of aura would be consumed. However, she really had no other choice.

She wouldn’t be able to stand up again if she was crushed by this enormous gravity. If that happened, victory would have been handed to Crow Mask.

‘Of course, I can’t allow that to happen.’

Swan felt a wave of fatigue flash over her. Her aura consumption was staggeringly large. “As soon as I cast this spell, victory was as good as mine.”

Just as Crow Mask voiced his victory speech, his hair fluttered in the air slightly. ‘Is this the wind? No, wait… ’

That was impossible.

‘Dream of a Desolate World’ was simply magic that distorted the surrounding space. It was not possible for outside forces to affect the inside of this bubble.

It couldn’t possibly have been the wind.

“If you’re the only one who’s fine in this mighty gravitational pull, then you must’ve excluded the space you’re in within the computational range. That means you can’t move, right?” Swan lifted her bow in demonstration. As her newly fired arrow, containing a mighty aura, came into contact with the distorted space, the aura was crushed without a trace.

*Ping*

But…

Once more, a gust of wind brushed against Crow Mask’s face.

“Let’s see if my aura will run out before that fine curtain of yours breaks, allowing your head to be smashed by my fist.” Crow Mask shuddered.

He realized that Swan had started to adapt to the intense gravity, and also figure out how to attack through the space distortion and influence himself on the other side of it.

This was not a battle he could afford to take lightly. He may have temporarily forgotten, but the prey he was mocking was a terrifying monster afterall. The most powerful archer in the Empire, a member of the Royal Guard.

“Haaahhhhh!”

Crow Mask began to gather mana once again.

A chilling sound emanated. The scenery around Crow Mask was instantly distorted to an extreme extent.

The spatial distortion had deepened, indicating an even more intense level of defense. But despite such a heightened defense, Swan’s arrows still couldn’t be fully mitigated.

She was trying to break through the spatial distortion through sheer violence by compressing her aura into an extremely dense shot.

This utterly shocked Crow Mask. If it was just one attack, he could have completely blocked it.

But…

*Boom*

Her relentless attacks shook the interior of the distorted space. Crow Mask had to mentally block out the distractions so he could concentrate on maintaining his defense and the intense gravity.

*Boom*

As the third arrow clashed with the curtain, space began to normalize slightly, and she could once again make out the shape of Crow Mask.

The gravity magic was still in effect though.

Swan fell to her knees. As the amount of aura supporting her entire body decreased, the strain on her bones and muscles increased. Her entire body was screaming in agony.

But Swan continued to fire her bow.

A fourth arrow.

The spatial distortion surely couldn’t hold out any longer. Crow Mask, having reached such a conclusion, gave up on the confrontation. He immediately invoked the space-movement magic he had preemptively stored in Memorize to escape.

*Boom*

Crow Mask reappeared on the thirteenth floor, exactly above Swan’s position. [Dimension Burst]

*Boom*

It was another spell stored in the square artifact that Crow Mask held. There was no way an opponent could respond to such an attack.

“That artifact… You can store up to five spells, right?” The direction in which that voice came from was above.

Swan, who should have been on the twelfth floor, had predicted his movement and headed him off.

“Now you only have two left? I wonder what other spells you’ve saved.”