5: The Mock Battle, and…

The buzz and heat of a massive crowd filled the arena to capacity. Today, countless spectators had packed the stands to watch the fireteam coached by Yuri in action.

Apparently, the Head of the Guardian Department had publicized the mock battle to make sure Kanata would have no excuse to hide behind once he lost. Naturally, the match had been billed as: “Yuri Flostre of the Royal Guard takes command as an instructor to bring down Mistgun’s traitor, Instructor Kanata Age!”

“How are we supposed to keep an eye out for the serial attacker after they’ve packed this many people into the stadium…?”

Compared to the sheer size of the crowd, the number of security personnel on hand was woefully inadequate.

Making her way through the packed stands, Chloe let out a weary sigh.

Originally, she had been supposed to patrol the venue alongside Lloyd. Unfortunately, he was currently tied up handling the disappearance of a researcher from the 5th Research Institute.

An F-rank fireteam notorious as the weakest in Mistgun squaring off against a B-rank fireteam—even though the outcome of the matchup was a foregone conclusion, the arena was packed wall-to-wall with spectators.

Not a single person in the stadium even entertained the possibility that Misora and Fireteam E601 might actually win.

No—it wasn’t just that they couldn’t imagine it. Nobody wanted it to happen. Everyone here had come expecting to watch Yuri, the champion of justice, crush Kanata the villain.

Yet the crowd had forgotten one crucial truth.

That the traitor shone brightest when his back was against the wall…

And that the reason the legendary Chronos had been able to overturn impossible odds time and again was because he never gave up on a match until the very last second.

∆∆∆

The arena measured roughly a thousand meters across in every direction, with a ceiling height of around three hundred meters at its peak. Even more striking than its sheer scale was its centerpiece: a massive spherical monument floating in the center of the bowl-shaped stadium.

The moment Yuri soared into the arena at the head of Fireteam B227, the runes carved into the monument flared to life, deploying a Sorcerer Field that transformed the entire airspace into a non-lethal combat zone.

A heartbeat later, a deafening roar of cheers engulfed the stadium.

Following right behind her, Yuri’s fireteam treated the crowd to a dazzling display of aerobatics. The flashy maneuvers—skills rarely seen outside high-level exhibitions—sent another wave of applause rippling through the stands.

“Why the heck did they hype up a simple mock battle like this?! Gah…! There are even live broadcast cameras out there!”

Out in the competitors’ waiting area—a tunnel-like staging bay carved into the outer rim of the bowl-shaped arena that led directly onto the field—Misora and the others were peeking out at the stands. Even a quick glance from the tunnel mouth was enough to gauge the mood of the stadium.

To put it mildly, Fireteam E601 had virtually zero allies in the building.

Sure enough, the moment Misora and her teammates stepped out onto the field, a chorus of jeers and boos rained down from every corner of the stands.

“U-Um… Kanata-san! Why are there so many people staring at us…?! ”

“Take it easy, Lecty. The way you are now, you’ll be just fine. Besides, with the stands that far away, they can’t touch you out here.”

“Auu… K-Kanata-san!”

Kanata reached out and ruffled Lecty’s bangs until her hair was thoroughly mussed. Instantly, the nervous tension drained right out of her shoulders. Looking around with a calmer breath, she spotted Misora letting out a deflated sigh beside her.

“Well, I guess this was bound to happen…”

Truth be told, deep down inside—just a tiny, secret part of her—Misora had harbored a faint hope that they might be greeted with big cheers just like Yuri’s fireteam.

Reality, however, wasn’t nearly so kind.

In stark contrast to the crestfallen Misora, Rico swept her hair back with the haughty grace of a noblewoman.

“Hmph. Every last one of them may prostrate themselves before my divine beauty.”

She spoke as though the entire stadium had gathered solely to catch a glimpse of a goddess like her.

Unlike Misora, Rico had effortlessly converted the crowd’s booing into fuel for her own ego.

Then again, she actually had the talent and brains to back it up…

“Just stay calm and focus on moving the way you always do,” Kanata told them. “Keep a close eye on each other’s positioning, call out right away if anything happens—and whatever you do, win out there.”

Leaving them with those words, Kanata strode confidently off the field.

Even instructors were strictly forbidden from coaching from the sidelines once a match began. All he could do now was watch over them from the stands.

Making his way to the front-row seats reserved for academy staff, he found Yuri already waiting there.

“Wouldn’t it be wiser for you to slip out of the venue now before you humiliate yourself in front of the entire city?” she asked coolly.

“Heh, talk all you want. You’re the one who’s gonna be eating those words soon enough.”

Ordinarily, the instructors of opposing fireteams would never dream of sitting right next to each other—depending on how the match played out, tempers could easily flare into a brawl. Even so, Kanata casually dropped into the seat right beside Yuri.

At that exact moment, a red smoke flare shot high into the air—the signal for the match to begin.

＊＊＊

Apparently deciding there was no need to feel out an inferior opponent—

Lily’s fireteam scattered the instant the starting signal sounded, fanning out with the practiced coordination of a pack of seasoned hunters closing in on their prey.

A yellow magic bullet streaked past Misora in the mid-guard position, grazing close enough to brush her cheek.

“Oh, so close! I missed?!”

Far back in the enemy rear guard, Lily clicked her tongue in frustration, her Magic Gun raised in one hand.

What kind of insane sniping range is that?! She just sniped our mid-guard all the way from their rear guard!

Even across a distance of well over five hundred meters, her very first shot had been dead on target.

Had Misora been a fraction of a second slower, she would have been shot down before doing a single thing, deciding the match on the spot. The sheer gap in their baseline physical performance was staggering.

Thrown off balance right out of the gate, Misora anxiously scanned the airspace to check on her teammates.

…Found them!

Fierce sword pressure whipped across Lecty’s cheek.

“…I’ll finish this in an instant.”

Up on the front line, Lecty was already locked in a furious exchange of blows with the enemy vanguard, the Magic Swordswoman Sasha.

Brimming with quiet fighting spirit, Sasha raised her double-edged one-handed sword high.

She intended to take down the enemy vanguard in short order and earn Lily’s praise.

A sharp—and blindingly fast—slash came whistling down straight toward Lecty without hesitation.

Yet Lecty tracked the trajectory of the blade with her eyes and met the strike with rock-steady form.

“I-I… can’t afford to lose yet, either!”

Klaaaang! Forged Mythril shrieked against forged Mythril as their blades clashed.

With fluid grace, Lecty knocked Sasha’s blade upward, pivoted on the return stroke, and unleashed a rapid flurry with her Magic Twin Swords.

“…Wait, is this girl seriously from the F-rank fireteam everyone laughs at?”

Assailed by a relentless storm of slashes from both left and right, Sasha was forced onto the defensive, giving ground as she parried each strike.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down her forehead…

“Sasha-san, covering fire incoming!”

Greg’s voice rang out from the mid-guard. That same instant, three glowing magic arrows streaked toward Lecty.

Trailing ribbons of light, the arrows homed in on Lecty while her blades were still locked with Sasha’s.

Waiting until the very last split second to draw the arrows in close, Sasha kicked back and disengaged—leaving the projectiles right in front of Lecty’s nose.

Lecty twisted in midair to evade, but the arrows had been enchanted with homing magic.

As they curved upward in pursuit, Lecty dealt with them in a flash.

She swatted the first and second arrows out of the sky with crisp swings of her twin blades, then crossed her swords in an X to block the third.

A split second later, the magic arrow detonated on impact, the blast wave hurling Lecty backward through the air.

“…Wide open.”

Sasha lunged in mercilessly to capitalize on the opening.

“Guh!”

Unable to bring her guard back up in time, Lecty braced herself to be shot down—

“Lecty, fall back!”

Rico’s voice cut across the comm link just as a pale-blue magic bullet lanced across the sky, intercepting the enemy swordswoman mid-charge.

Forced to break off her attack and evade, Sasha grimaced as though she had bitten into something bitter.

And Rico wasn’t done yet. Threading the needle between engagements, she also shot down two more Homing Arrows that Greg had loosed in the interim.

“Hmph. Keep your hands off my teammates.”

Immediately, a long-range shootout erupted between Rico and Greg.

Both of them traded fire from afar, though in terms of sheer rate of fire, Greg held an overwhelming advantage.

Intersecting magic bullets and magic arrows collided in midair, scattering shockwaves across the arena.

∆∆∆

For now, the battle appeared to be a back-and-forth stalemate.

Holding their own on even footing against a B-rank fireteam was certainly impressive in itself—but stalemate alone wouldn’t cut it. To win this mock battle, they had to either shoot down the enemy fireteam leader, Lily, or snatch the pendant from her neck.

Lily Lancaster—a third-year preparatory student in the Sky Wizards Division and the leader of Fireteam B227. By all accounts, she was one of the prep division’s brightest rising stars.

Her greatest strengths were the decisive leadership with which she drove her squad forward and her superhuman physical performance. When it came to sustained high-mobility combat, her stamina was unmatched even among the endurance specialists of Fireteam B227.

“Uwah! Sh-She’s coming right at me!”

While her two teammates were already locked in combat, Misora couldn’t afford to engage.

After all, if Misora went toe-to-toe with Lily, her odds of winning were flat zero.

Rico or Lecty might have stood a chance, but for someone as hopeless at technical combat skills as Misora, fighting Lily head-on was out of the question.

Which meant…

Gritting her back teeth in frustration, Misora turned tail—and bolted straight for the rear airspace.

Instantly, the stands erupted into raucous laughter.

Pointing at the sight of the academy’s biggest washout fleeing without trading a single blow, spectators doubled over laughing, jeering that she was living up to her F-rank label.

Seeing the crowd’s reaction, Misora pouted.

“I-It’s not like I’m running away because I want to…!”

“Don’t let them get to you, Misora-san! Right now, we’re running in order to win!”

“Indeed. Has the old adage not always held that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day?”

“U-Uuu! Y-You guys…!”

“Though personally, I detest anything as unsightly as fleeing in disgrace.”

“N-Not helping, Rico-san! Even if you think that, you’re supposed to keep it to yourself right now…”

“H-Hey! What kind of pep talk is that at a time like this?! …Kuh!”

Mid-flight, Misora suddenly threw herself into a hard break turn, heavy G-forces slamming into her frame.

That very instant, several magic bullets tore through the air right at the edge of her vision.

Behind her and to the right, Lily hovered with her Magic Gun leveled, clicking her tongue in annoyance.

“Tch, darting around like a little bug! Stop running and fight me properly!”

Barking out the challenge, Lily squeezed off several more rounds. Aimed with dead-certain precision, the magic bullets closed in on Misora.

Sensing them on pure animal instinct, Misora jinked wildly—and somehow managed to dodge every single one of Lily’s shots.

“Guh—aren’t you a lucky one!”

By completely ignoring textbook flight theory, Misora’s erratic trajectory had actually worked in her favor.

The more seasoned a combatant was, the more deeply ingrained the fundamentals became—and the more easily they were thrown off by movements that defied all conventional logic.

“Nice aim, slowpoke! What are you even shooting at?!”

Misora’s frantic flight path was nothing short of a masterclass in running for her life.

After all, during their real-combat encounter in the outer airspace, she had been forced to flee from an absurd swarm of Achernar-class Armored Insects.

The art of scrambling to survive by the skin of her teeth had been hammered into her bones back then.

“Fine by me if you have no intention of fighting! You’ll never beat us just by running away!”

Riding her momentum, Lily taunted her.

Granted, simply running forever wouldn’t overturn their overwhelming disadvantage.

Under these conditions, the only way to pull off a comeback was either to snatch the pendant hanging from Lily’s neck, or to swiftly shoot down Lily herself as the opposing team leader—and the odds of the latter were virtually zero.

Sure enough, it looked as though Misora and her squad had opted for the former.

Gotcha!

Like a well-trained hunting hound, Lily pursued Misora with sharp, economical movements—completely unaware that Misora was luring her right into a trap…

“Who said I was just running away?! The way we are now, we’ve got more than enough strength to fight through a team battle!”

“Hmph! Bluffing at this point won’t save—”

“Better watch yourself! We’ve got a crack-shot Magic Gunner locked right onto you!”

The split second Misora shouted the warning, a piercing magic bullet lanced across the airspace straight toward Lily.

Even while trading fire with Greg, Rico had threaded a sniper shot through a gap in the exchange.

“What?! She read this girl’s erratic flight path and threaded a shot straight at me?!”

Lily hastily altered her trajectory, relying on randomized evasive maneuvers to weave through the follow-up shots streaking her way.

“Kuh, she caught me off guard! Looks like I pushed a little too deep into enemy territory!”

“Hmph. Evading a shot like that—I suppose I should expect no less from a B-rank fireteam,”

Rico murmured, her gaze shifting from Lily to Misora scrambling wildly across the sky.

“…Still, her movements are as erratic as ever. No one short of myself could possibly provide covering fire for Misora.”

Without missing a beat, Rico hammered several more magic bullets toward Lily.

“For an F-rank fireteam, they sure have a skilled Magic Gunner on their hands!”

Magic bullets tore through the airspace directly across Lily’s flight path—pinpoint precision fire.

Slamming on the airbrakes, Lily kicked into reverse thrust, calmly moving to retreat toward her own territory. And right at that moment—

Misora, who had quietly circled around high overhead, plunged straight down at Lily.

“You’re way too distracted! I’ll be taking that pendant!”

Diving in at full speed, Misora lunged straight for the pendant hanging at Lily’s collar.

If the pendant bearing the team’s crest was snatched away, Lily’s squad would lose on the spot. It was a two-pronged trap: lure Lily deep into their territory, pin her down with Rico’s sniping, and have Misora swoop in for the ambush.

Yet as though she had anticipated the move all along, Lily calmly materialized a Magic Sword on her left arm and whipped it upward in a lightning-fast counter-slash as Misora closed in.

“Kyaaah!”

Misora threw up a magic barrier by reflex. Though she narrowly avoided a direct hit, the impact sent her tumbling back, clutching her side with a pained groan.

“Heheheh! Did you really think our instructor wouldn’t see right through a cheap trick like that?!”

Planting a hand on her hip, Lily puffed out her chest in triumph.

∆∆∆

Down in the front row of the arena stands—

Amid the roaring crowd all around them, the space occupied by Kanata and Yuri alone seemed wrapped in an eerie stillness.

Breaking the silence, Yuri spoke in a flat, unimpressed tone.

“Is this really all you have? How thoroughly disappointing.”

“Huh? What’s disappointing?”

“…The fact that despite being an instructor, Kanata-senpai, this is the extent of the tactics you managed to come up with. Honestly, I knew there was a limit to what an F-rank fireteam could pull off, but even so, this is just sad. Even if you can’t beat a B-rank squad head-on, a two-stage ambush aimed at the pendant is downright childish.”

A mock battle was a contest between students, yes—but it was also a battle of wits between their instructors.

Reading the opponent’s thought process, outmaneuvering their strategy, and striking where they least expected it—

Letting inexperienced students focus on the fighting while crafting the overarching strategy was an instructor’s duty. Outreading the opposing instructor was a matter of professional pride.

Yet despite having cleanly read and countered Kanata’s play for the pendant just moments ago, Yuri’s expression was far from bright.

In fact, her entire body was trembling faintly, as if she were struggling to hold back rising fury.

“Kanata-senpai, I served in the vanguard just like you. That’s why I know—the weak have their own way of fighting to bring down the strong! I know how much you loved pulling off upsets against superior odds!”

“…”

“I was actually looking forward to seeing how you would try to catch me off guard—and how I would crush your strategy! To think this was all you could muster…”

Enough of this farce. It’s nothing more than a formality now. As if echoing Yuri’s thoughts, Lily and her teammates moved in to wrap up the match.

“Come on, everyone, just a little further! Let’s finish this off!”

“…Right. I’m on it.”

“You’ve got this, Lily-san! Just one final push!”

“It seems the match is about to be decided, Kanata-senpai. In the end, a traitor like you could only resort to cheap parlor tricks—”

Yuri’s words cut off mid-sentence. Out of nowhere, Kanata’s shoulders had begun to shake, a low, muffled sound escaping his lips before steadily growing louder. Realizing that the sound was actually laughter, a jolt of unease shot through Yuri.

“Wh-What is so funny…?!”

“Oh, nothing. It just hit me that you actually thought Misora and the girls—and I—were only capable of this much. Anyone whose best plan begins and ends with grabbing the pendant is a total amateur.”

“Bluffing at this stage?! You’re embarrassing yourself, Kanata-senpai! The match is seconds away from ending, and when it does, it’s all over!”

“Oh, you’re right that the match is seconds away from ending. Question is… which side is gonna win?”

“I just told you my fireteam has already won! I saw right through your entire strategy!”

Kanata flashed her a fearless grin—even though Misora and her squad were still pinned on the back foot without mounting a single real offensive.

“Say, Yuri. When did I ever say my plan was to steal the pendant?”

“…Another bluff?!”

Exasperation and scorn colored Yuri’s voice.

Misora’s ambush moments ago had clearly been executed on Kanata’s orders—anyone with eyes could see that. That was precisely why Yuri had anticipated the pendant grab and drilled Lily’s squad on how to counter it beforehand. The match was already decided.

Even so, Kanata’s easygoing composure didn’t waver an inch.

“Knowing you, Yuri, you always play it textbook and rock-solid. For instance, the moment you realize the other team is gunning for the pendant, you have your squad shift into a V-formation.”

Right on cue, high up in the arena, Sasha and Greg moved into a two-front vanguard formation to screen Lily.

Just as Kanata had said.

“G-Guessing a single move correctly proves nothing—”

“And once they do that, Misora’s squad shifts into an I-formation—Lecty on point, Rico in the middle, Misora in the rear. Lined up single-file like that, from Lily’s vantage point, it gets a whole lot harder to keep track of what Misora’s doing in the back.”

As if answering Lily’s squad in real time, Misora and her teammates slipped seamlessly into line formation without missing a beat.

Word for word, exactly as Kanata had just described…

“I-It’s a coincidence! Just a string of coincidences!”

There’s no way this is happening.

It was only natural for Yuri to think so. Even for a former ace like Kanata, reading two steps ahead of an opponent’s counter-strategy wasn’t something anyone could pull off overnight.

In official ranking matches, high-level tactics were born only when a skilled tactician spent days painstakingly analyzing an opponent’s habits and thought patterns.

Yuri had spent three full days refining her counter-strategy to outfox Kanata. She had been completely confident in her preparation. To be outread like this anyway was unthinkable…

Yet having just demonstrated an almost miraculous read of the battlefield, Kanata wasn’t finished.

“And now that Lily’s eyes are off her, Misora preps our trump card in the rear while Rico and Lecty fight tooth and nail to buy her the time she needs.”

He laid out the prediction in a calm, matter-of-fact voice.

Up in the sky, there wasn’t a shred of hesitation in the movements of Misora and her teammates.

“Th-That’s impossible… W-Wait… What is that—?!”

Yuri’s eyes locked onto the field.

High above, the cylinder-type Magic Degeneracy Reactor built into the Magic Cannon Sword in Misora’s hands spun around with a heavy mechanical clack.

Unbelievable. Everything is playing out word for word the way Kanata-senpai said it would…

As far as Yuri knew, something like this simply shouldn’t be possible. Because if it was, that meant Kanata had genuinely foreseen every step—

Right down to how this battle would end.

“It’s happening right in front of your eyes, isn’t it? Why’s that so hard to accept?”

“…!”

“Hm? Didn’t I tell you? Every single move in this mock battle so far has gone right according to my script.”

“E-Every single move…?!”

“Next up, Lily’s gonna break formation and charge in solo to crush Misora herself.”

“Ridiculous! Lily is an outstanding Sky Wizard. To split Misora-chan’s attention, she’ll coordinate with her teammates to harass—”

“Nope. Lily sees herself as a master hunter—and Misora as easy prey she can drop with a single shot from her rifle. That’s why she’s gonna go in alone. She figures she doesn’t even need her teammates’ help to finish the job.”

True to his word, Lily broke away from her vanguard and surged forward solo to finish Misora off.

“The moment you fail to realize you’ve become the prey, you’ve already lost the match. Right now, Misora’s the hunter—and Lily’s nothing more than a charging beast.”

Before she could stop herself, Yuri bolted to her feet and screamed toward the sky.

“Lily! Stop! Don’t go that way—!!”

“Alright, here’s the moment of truth. …Go get ’em, Misora!”

Unable to contain the surge of excitement in his chest, Kanata shouted encouragement from the stands.

∆∆∆

As Lily closed in fast, Misora whipped around once more and fled at full throttle.

Another wave of boos rose from the stands, but Misora didn’t have the luxury of caring.

Not losing focus for a fraction of a second, she kept her senses locked onto Lily’s presence—hovering right behind her like a ravenous beast.

“Come on, what’s the matter?! You’ll never win if all you do is run!”

“…I know that already!”

Misora pitched forward into a steep dive straight toward the arena floor. At the exact instant the ground filled her entire field of vision, she hauled back on her posture, skimming across the turf close enough to kiss the dirt.

“…How do you like this?!”

“Do you really think a stunt like that is enough to scare me off?!”

Even against a hair-raising acrobatic maneuver, Lily stayed glued to Misora’s tail without breaking a sweat.

Yellow magic bullets streaking in from behind detonated right on Misora’s heels. One explosion after another tore up the ground around her, churning the arena floor as though it were under carpet bombardment.

Yet not a single round scored a direct hit on Misora.

Lily still hadn’t noticed the subtle discrepancy throwing off her aim—an “optical illusion” born from the extraordinarily short time it took Misora to accelerate from initial impulse to top speed, hidden beneath her clumsy, amateurish flight path.

Ugh, seriously! Isn’t doing nothing but shooting at someone from behind super cowardly too?!

Kicked-up gravel stung Misora’s cheeks.

Even so, she held her ultra-low-altitude flight line.

There was no denying that Lily was strong. In a straight-up duel, Misora would almost certainly lose.

However, Misora had teammates fighting with everything they had to buy her the seconds she needed to finish converging her magic—holding the line against superior opponents so she could deliver the decisive blow.

With both Rico and Lecty putting everything on the line, there was no way she could start whining now. Clenching her jaw, Misora held out until the exact right moment—and kicked into a vertical climb.

“Hmph! Pinned against the boundary line and resorting to a Vertical Boost?! Talk about a desperate move!”

Assuming that Misora’s continued flight meant her magic convergence was still incomplete, Lily immediately pulled up into the exact same vertical trajectory in pursuit.

A vertical climb was the maneuver that fought hardest against gravity. No matter how skilled the wizard, airspeed inevitably bled off at the apex. Consumed with bagging her prey, Lily had overlooked that basic law of physics.

“This ends now!”

Certain of a guaranteed hit, Lily began to squeeze her trigger.

Right then, however, Misora did the unthinkable.

Having climbed right to the edge of the arena’s altitude ceiling, she flipped over midair and plunged straight back down—looking directly down at Lily from dead overhead and leveling the muzzle of her weapon at the girl surging upward like a charging bull.

Her magic convergence had been finished long ago. All Misora had been waiting for was the timing.

The exact split second where her shot could not possibly miss.

“…Oh, no!”

In aerial combat, the greatest advantage of holding the high ground lay in potential energy. Someone diving from above was inevitably faster than someone climbing from below.

Which meant there was no escape.

Every law of physics in the world was now on Misora’s side.

Lily tried to throw herself into an emergency break turn, only to hesitate for a fatal split second—against an opponent this fast, should she break left or right? In that instant of indecision, every last avenue of escape vanished.

Misora squeezed the trigger without hesitation.

“Gotcha!”

Magic Cannon Sword Combat Art—Strike Blaster!

A deafening roar split the air, the recoil hitting hard enough to feel as if it might wrench both her arms right out of their sockets.

A torrent of silver-white light erupted across the sky as though to scorch the heavens themselves.

Brimming with her refusal to lose, the swirling vortex of light swallowed Lily whole before she even had time to flinch.

As her consciousness faded into white, a single thought crossed Lily’s mind.

W-Why on earth is a squad this strong being called a bunch of F-rank washouts…?!

And with that, she went down in defeat at the hands of that very F-rank fireteam.

A hush fell over the stands.

Moments ago, the arena had been in such an uproar that not even a direct warning from the Academy Director could have quieted it.

Now, however, you could have heard a pin drop.

Some spectators sat with their jaws slack; others furrowed their brows in disbelief or stared with their eyes wide as saucers.

Then, the very next instant, everyone who had forgotten how to breathe found their voices all at once.

Screams and jeers overlapped in a deafening wave. Shaken by the unthinkable upset, some spectators actually fainted on the spot, while others dropped to their knees in stunned silence.

“N-No way… Lily and her squad lost…?”

Sitting in the front row, Yuri wore the exact same look of utter disbelief at what had just unfolded before her eyes.

Because she had been so certain she could beat Kanata-—because she had never once doubted her victory—

She had marched into this arena with her head held high, and yet…

Maybe I’m still asleep in bed having a nightmare.

Even the urge to escape from reality began bubbling up inside her chest.

“Well, that’s how it goes sometimes,” Kanata said. “Being stronger on paper doesn’t guarantee a win. A gap in raw stats can always be overturned—what really matters is how you fight.”

Confronted with an impossible sight, Yuri’s mind went completely blank. She couldn’t find a single word to say back.

Right then, a voice whispered directly into her ear.

“Heheh, Yuri. Your face looks positively lovely steeped in despair, too.”

It was a creepy, skin-crawling line that triggered an instant visceral revulsion.

“Wh-Who are you?! What are you doing here…?!”

Met with Yuri’s fierce, furious glare, the boy who had whispered those eerie words lightly hopped backward—

Landing neatly on the row of seats several tiers behind them.

Sensing the ominous presence that had appeared out of nowhere, the surrounding spectators turned to stare in confusion.

“Come on now, it’s me. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me, Yuri?”

The one speaking was a slender boy with eyes gleaming with an unsettling, feverish light—Real.

Gazing down at the dumbfounded Yuri, he beamed from ear to ear.

“Ahh, I love you, Yuri. The way I am now, I’m leagues stronger than you. Come on—accept my love!”

Before the words had even left his mouth, he materialized a Magic Sword and lunged straight at Yuri.

With blinding speed that made it look as though he had teleported right in front of her nose, he thrust his blade straight at Yuri’s throat—only for a figure to step right between them.

“Tch, what gives? And right when we were getting to the good part, too. Here I was about to have a nice little moment with Yuri…”

Holding a dagger in a reverse grip, Kanata had caught the deadly blade mid-swing.

“Anyone who doesn’t want to get caught up in this, get out of here now,” Kanata called out. “I don’t know what his deal is, but this guy is seriously bad news.”

Making sure the nearby spectators were scrambling for the exits, Kanata shoved Real’s Magic Sword back.

As Real’s posture broke, Kanata whipped a crisp roundhouse kick into his side. Slammed into the spectator seats, Real slowly—yet completely nonchalantly—picked himself back up.

Without wasting a beat, Kanata vaulted over the railing toward the arena floor.

Naturally, he grabbed the still-dazed Yuri by the hand and pulled her along with him.

Snapping out of her stupor mid-fall, Yuri activated her flight magic alongside him, both of them flipping gracefully in midair before touching down smoothly on the turf.

“Heheh, Yuri! Where are you? Where did you run off to? Ahh, there you are! Hold tight, I’ll be right there to shower you with affection!”

Wearing an ecstatic smile, Real leapt straight off the spectator stands—dropping more than thirty meters to the arena floor without using a shred of flight magic.

He had already lost his sanity, his mind steadily being swallowed whole by the power dwelling within his body—Cursed Power.

“Wh-What is with him?! How is he moving that fast…?!”

“Stay calm, Yuri. I’ll handle this guy—you stay back behind me.”

“A-Are you telling me to cower behind your back and tremble in fear, Kanata-senpai?!”

“The Sorcerer Field is still active down here, so we’ll be fine. Just—”

Without warning, Real snapped the fingers of his left hand.

Kamaitachi wind blades tore through the air, slicing the floating monument generating the Sorcerer Field into pieces and sending massive chunks of rubble crashing to the ground in a billowing cloud of dust.

“H-Hiding behind your back is something I could never bring myself to do, Kanata-senpai!”

“I’m telling you, I’ve got this. Would it kill you to just listen to your senpai for once?”

This is bad, Kanata thought grimly. Yuri’s worst habit is kicking in right now.

Blinded by her one-sided rivalry with Kanata, she was failing to read the danger of the situation.

“Heheh, now there’s nowhere left to run, Yuri! Look how much I love you—the least you could do is return my feelings properly!”

As if teleporting across the field, Real materialized right in front of Kanata and Yuri. The fact that he hadn’t used his Kamaitachi meant he had no intention of killing her quickly.

“He’s gunning for you—dodge, Yuri!”

“Eh?”

By the time she registered the warning, Real had already slipped right behind her.

With strength far belying his slender frame, he wrapped an arm around her from behind in the blink of an eye, locking his forearm tight across her throat.

“Kahh…!”

A choked, rasping gasp escaped her lips. The next thing Yuri knew, Real’s face was pressed right beside hers, his madness-clouded eyes staring fixedly into her own.

“Heheh, Yuri. You’re so cute, Yuri.”

Fighting desperately through the suffocating pain, Yuri summoned her pride and shot him a fierce glare.

Seeing that defiance only stoked Real’s twisted desires, sending a shiver of euphoria through his frame.

Even when escape was completely impossible, she still refused to submit—

Just like a little bird thrashing helplessly inside a cage it could never hope to escape.

Real looked every bit like a sadistic killer savoring the sight of a helpless pet he could crush at any moment.

“Ahh, right now, Yuri and I are sharing our love!”

Slurp. Overcome with impulse, Real dragged his tongue up the side of Yuri’s neck toward her left ear as she writhed in disgust. The clammy, revolting sensation made Yuri’s cheeks stiffen in horror.

“…You bastard!”

“Whoops, don’t move a muscle, Kanata Age.”

Real pressed the edge of the Magic Sword in his right hand straight against Yuri’s throat.

“Take even a single step, and I can’t be held responsible for what happens to Yuri. Aha, ahahahaha!”

As Real let out an eerie cackle, Kanata froze, swallowing hard.

Even if he unleashed his full power right now, doing so would only put Real on high alert—and at this range, he wouldn’t be able to save Yuri in time. What do I do? How do I get Yuri out of his grip…?

And then it happened. Out of nowhere, a silver-white blast of magic artillery slammed into Real’s Magic Sword, knocking the blade clean out of his hand.

Where did that come from? Who fired it?

Before his mind could even finish the thought, Kanata’s body was already in motion.

Not missing the split-second opening, Kanata surged toward Real radiating blistering killing intent. Thrown off balance by the sudden turn of events, Real let go of Yuri and leapt far backward. Kanata immediately stepped in front of the coughing, gasping Yuri to shield her.

“Who did that?! Who dared tear Yuri and me apart?!”

Real’s gaze snapped toward a single point across the field.

Standing atop a massive chunk of rubble from the monument Real had just sliced apart were three familiar figures.

“Hmph. Here I thought that was my cue to fire the opening shot…”

“I-I know, right?! Um, Misora-san…? Weren’t you supposed to fire a warning shot just now?! Y-You actually hit him dead-on!”

A girl whose beauty rivaled a goddess’s and a petite blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl both wore expressions of utter exasperation. Standing right beside the two of them, her Magic Cannon Sword tucked tightly under her right arm with wisps of gunsmoke curling from the muzzle, was a girl with glossy crimson hair whose cheeks were twitching in sheer disbelief at what she had just done.

“I-I actually hit him…!”

She had meant to fire a warning shot—yet with a stationary-target accuracy hovering just over fifty percent, where every other shot missed its mark, Misora Whitale had somehow bullseyed the blade.