‘I don’t need to worry.’

Priscilla clearly remembered the fierce battle in Altea. He invoked spells from many different circles during that battle, but his power still fell far short of her recovery ability.

His draconic magic was definitely a setback. Moreover, Desir was still alive and kicking after using draconic magic twice in a row. She needed to proceed while accounting for the possibility of him using it again.

But she was not just going to meekly step back and allow him to use it. Its major weakness was in the amount of time it took to invoke those kinds of spells. So long as she could keep him occupied, or interrupt him when he attempted to calculate it, he would not be able to use it.

“Deal with it.”

It was Cardinal Ninahart who moved first at Priscilla’s order. As he creased his brow, a bludgeon that was tens of meters wide appeared in the sky and struck the ground as if it was trying to chop it up.

“I will make you regret coming here.” *BAM*

With the blast, the earth pulsed and screamed as if there had been an earthquake. As the whole area exploded outwards in some places and sunk in others, big clouds of dust billowed up restricting all visibility to zero.

This one blow was so amazingly powerful that it destroyed an entire academy district. It did not just stop at one hit though, but continued numerous times. The bludgeon appeared time and time again creating an endless series of dusty clouds.

Ninahart’s skill was to create objects of huge mass in any shape he desired. This skill was top-tier in terms of physical force. *BAAAAM*

Several ear-piercing explosions echoed one after another.

The gigantic bludgeon kept chopping away without break and flattened the ground without mercy. It seemed like overkill to deal with a single person, however, Ninahart could feel it: amid the countless explosions, Desir’s mana signature was calm and unshaken.

He could not help but look confused. Desir did not have the time to invoke any spell, nor could he block the attack with any other type of defensive magic.

‘How is he still alive?’

‘Is he using the Aurora System… ?’

With the improvements Desir and Zod made, it was definitely plausible. Fortunately for Ninahart, the magical device had a limit. As long as he continued to bombard Desir with attacks, the situation would naturally come to an end.

*BOOOM*

If his logical assumption was wrong, then it meant Desir’s ability was beyond all common sense.

“… ?”

After a dozen seconds of non-stop attacks, Ninahart noticed something was wrong. Amidst the dust clouds lied a haze of flame, distorting the atmosphere around it. Whenever his attack would come into contact with the flame, it would redirect itself, leaving everything within ten feet of Desir completely untouched. Recognizing the phenomenon, Ninahart’s had to physically restrain himself to prevent himself from gawking in front of his Saint.

“He can… control the space around him?”

Being able to directly distort space like this had only been done once before, to the best of his knowledge. The revolutionary, Icarus Quirgo, had reached this level of control over spatial magic after dedicating his life to perfecting his craft, only reaching it shortly before being defeated by the Starling Party.

Spatial distortion was the ultimate defensive technique. All magic spells and physical impacts could be completely negated by distorting the space around the user such that they were never in danger to begin with. Repeated weak attacks would be rendered useless.

Swan Katarina, the Bow of the Royal Guard, had found its weakness. She burnt the source of her power to create an attack so overwhelmingly powerful it completely overpowered the distortion and hit Crow Mask directly.

In other words, this defensive magic was ultimate, but not invincible.

But something was terribly wrong. Though Ninahart’s power didn’t rival Swan’s sacrificial play, it should have been more than enough to overcome the distortion’s barrier.

[Dream of Contradictory World]

What he was performing was enough to be called invincible. The ultimate magic that was created by Icarus had now been improved and completed by Desir. As long as the spell remained in effect, nothing could touch Desir, even if they kept at it for an eternity.

Desir raised his staff in silence. Some light seemed to flow out of the staff and numerous spell arrays occupied the sky outside of the distorted space.

Ninahart could not help but feel shocked again after seeing this. He had studied and pitted himself against all sorts of spells, all so that he could face great magicians like Zod and Desir. Proficient in many of these magic systems, he was able to deal with any magic if he saw even just a part of the technique. However, he could not possibly understand the technique unfolding before him no matter how hard he tried.

He could not understand it, but he knew one thing for sure. ‘This is dangerous.’

Ninahart and the other cardinals started preparing themselves, gathering their Blessings of Light capable of nullifying natural law. Their powers having synchronized, extraordinary energy began to emit from above the Academy.

----------------!

A ripping noise emanated from the sky before a massive chasm erupted above them. The air itself began to crack in agony.

*Crrrrck*

*Crrck*

The crevice began to bulge as something dark pressed into it from the other side. Pushing, tearing, before finally gushing out from the gap like a waterfall. Enormous black beads poured forth from the sky, wriggling as though alive, moving to consume everything they touched.

With each consumption they divided into two and multiplied endlessly. Within a few moments, several thousand large black beads occupied the space around the Academy, blocking out the sky as the tree Desir destroyed once did.

The sight before them was bizarre and unorthodox. It was divine punishment taken straight from the holy text of the church, a biblical event being reproduced in the real world. This was the Artemis Church’s final trump card they could use against Desir. Though it was meant to be paired alongside the Glance of the Father, they would have to make do.

In truth, the Church could not completely control the phenomenon. It took the gathering of all their strongest powers just to summon the attack, and the best they could manage was to adjust the direction it went. Anyone unfortunate enough to be along its trajectory would be treated as an enemy.

However, against a single Desir Arman, this was more than enough. The now innumerable black beads swarmed towards the mage, blotting out his existence on this planet.

*Craaack*

Beneath the rumbling pile of beads, Desir’s spatial distortion worked tirelessly. Each bead that came in contact with it was thrown aside or destroyed, the remains scattered into whatever oblivion it was summoned from.

Unfortunately, their rate of propagation exceeded Desir’s destructive capabilities, and the incrementing count began to surge into a singular giant sphere, expanding at a rampant speed. At this rate, it would easily swallow not only the Hebrion Academy but also the entire city of Dresden. And when that time came, Desir would not be able to protect either.

This was just common sense. [Supernova]

A streak of light leaked through the darkness caused by the black beads. The red-colored light started losing its red hue and the temperature of the air around the Academy began to soar. “Argh… !”

Though the cardinals tried to resist the heat with their aura, they could not even breathe when the color of the light shifted towards a blinding white. The scorching air melted the airways of those who breathed.

*Sizzle*

Those black beads that surrounded Desir began to bubble and ooze. The coagulated darkness began to ooze into the air, as though it was nothing more than melting snow.

The Artemis Church would have been melted away long ago if not for Priscilla’s ability. The translucent golden wings that had sprouted from her earlier began to shine even brighter, as though trying to match the heat and glare of the supernova before her.

“Lay down your life for Priscilla!” “Everything for the Saint… !” “Arghhh!”

Cardinals brought out their last handful of aura, and Ninahart was no different. He tried his best to protect Priscilla with intangible barriers.

“Is he… trying to die with us?”

If he were to perform a spell this powerful at such a close distance, it meant mutual destruction. The cardinals wanted to protect Priscilla no matter what. As long as she survived, they had a chance.

That was the only thought going through their heads.

A small blue sphere appeared behind Desir, the origin point for the spell, swaying freely in the air. A deranged smirk naturally took over Ninahart’s face.

“Ha… ”

It was strange if you thought about it. Thanks to Priscilla, they were holding out, but everything else beyond their domain should have been demolished by now.

The sheer heat in the area should have been enough to melt the entire Empire, or at least the entirety of Dresden, but that was not happening. For some reason, the heat was only affecting the several hundred meters around Priscilla.

Beyond that distance around them, all of the buildings remained intact.

This was because Desir was blocking the heat escaping the perimeter by encircling the area with spatial magic,while also managing the heat that should have melted himself.

Following the origin point’s shift in color, all the white flames around them began to grow hotter and hotter, evolving to be a brilliant sky blue.

For a brief moment, just when it seemed impossible to hold out any longer, the intense heat subsided. Ninahart’s gaze shifted up from the ground towards Desir, before rising even higher to see a thousands of blue meteors raining down on them.

‘Wait, this is ridiculous! No, seriously, what the hell… ?’ Ninahart could not think clearly.

Priscilla’s ability could not endure the blue blazes any longer. Her power began to wane. In the scorching heat, a scream emanated from someone whose mind had faded.

Bullets of pure blue flame raining down from the sky, smiting them for the sin of opposing Desir Arman.

That was her last memory.

* * *

Priscilla opened her eyes.

As she looked around, she found the horrendous aftermath of the battle. The ground had turned to magma. She heard bubbles popping below her feet. And there was nobody left standing. The cardinals who should have protected her until the end were all gone without any trace.

“Your sacrifice… ” *Cough*

Priscilla could not continue to speak and intensely coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. The strain on her body from exerting her skill so thoroughly was unparalleled by anything Priscilla had ever gone through.

She looked as horrendous as the surrounding area. Her face was as pale as a dead body and the burns that covered her entire body were more grotesque than Crow Mask’s face.

And she did not have a left arm. “Ahh… ”

This damage to her body had all been caused by a single one of the endless blue bullets that managed to get through the defenses that her subordinates created at the expense of their own lives.

She barely managed to pull herself up before placing her unscathed right hand on her grievous injuries.

A light covered her wounds, but nothing happened. She tried several times but her holy glow only flickered and faltered.

*Clomp*

Hearing someone approach, Priscilla gave up on her ability and icily glared at the boy who approached her.

“… So you figured out how to handle the language of the draconic tribe?” “No, that would be impossible unless I became a dragon.”

They spoke in a calm tone. If you ignored the burning surroundings, flaming corpses, missing limbs, charred flesh, life-threatening injuries, hostile glares, and serious undertone of the conversation, they just looked like two normal people chatting.

“Then you must’ve reached the same level as Zod?”

“I can’t get to that level as a third-rate magician.” “Then… ”

Priscilla frowned.

“Then what the hell is with that power?!”

Her cry burst out, filling the empty surroundings. It was a cry against a power that was close to the realm of pure irrationality, an unfairness that destroyed her plan as she was so close to success.

“Simple.”

*Drop*

Desir stood in front of Priscilla.

“… I abandoned draconic magic entirely.”

In front of him was a spell array. As he said, it clearly was not draconic in nature; it looked similar to the modern magical array, but there was something different about it. Priscilla strained her blurry vision, doing her best to discern what exactly led to her demise.

‘No way… ’

The frustration on her face disappeared for that moment. Instead, it was subconsciously replaced with awe.

Finally, she understood why she had lost.

What hung in the air before her eyes was a spell created using a new system of magic totally different from anything else she had seen before. What Desir had done was entirely different from applying modern magical principles to draconic magic, or arranging his calculations to optimize a spell.

It meant that Desir Arman had truly designed his own magical system.

“A returner’s magic should be special.”