Chapter 117: Hagun Nearly Destroyed!
The earth cracked apart, and broken stones flew everywhere.
The academy's forest had turned into wreckage. At the edge of the explosion, trees scorched by the shockwave lay scattered across the ground.
At the center of that world-ending scene, a figure in a white uniform slowly appeared through the smoke.
"You escaped at the last second with your Noble Art, huh?"
Nene looked at the unharmed Shiro and sighed in admiration.
Back then, she and the old man had worried that he would rely too much on his ability, so they had made him first build a solid foundation in swordsmanship. Yet only a few years had passed, and his ability had already developed this far.
Nene had originally thought Shiro would be like Stella, foolishly failing to notice the true nature of his Blazer ability.
Shiro grabbed forward.
The concept known as distance was cut apart in that instant, and his sword silently slashed toward Nene.
"So this is [Twin-Wings]. I'm getting a little excited."
Facing the world's strongest sword technique, Nene's body trembled slightly. She showed Shiro a sweet smile, then elegantly moved the sleeves of her kimono.
Since ancient times, martial arts and art had been closely connected.
In this country, many martial techniques originated from dance.
The principle of dance and the essence of Torajirou Nangou's swordsmanship. Relying on her talent, Nene merged the two and created a combat dance that belonged only to her.
Likewise, when Nene used this dance, it meant one thing.
She was serious.
At this moment, Nene danced with light steps like a swallow returning to its nest, then flew sharply like a magpie startled in the night. Her graceful movements were soft and beautiful, yet beneath that beauty hid deadly killing intent.
Clang, clang, clang—
Seven irregular heavy and light strikes collided in a row.
Nene abandoned swordsmanship. When she swung depended entirely on her instinct, and this allowed her attack speed to reach the realm of true rapidity.
The gravity blade, accelerated by Nene's sword dance, had reached the point where it could cut all things. Yet against Shiro's unreasonable concept-cutting, there was still nothing it could do.
Crack—
After one clash, Nene's gravity blade was split in two.
However, there was no panic on her face. Instead, her smile became even more heated.
"Yes! That's it! Let's keep killing each other! This is exactly what my lover should be like!"
A pair of horns like swaying black flames grew from her forehead, making it feel as if the thing inside that body was not human, but some terrifying beast.
In the next instant, Shiro widened his eyes.
When the blade in his hand slashed toward Nene's left arm, its angle shifted slightly. Because of that, she used the advantage of her small body to slip out from under the sword.
'Did I miss?'
No.
Nene had used gravity to distort the space around herself.
Swish, swish—
At that moment, the gravity blade that had been cut apart and sent flying transformed back into Black Death Butterflies, attacking Shiro from behind.
Just as Shiro was about to cut the concept of distance again and escape, Nene, who had slipped out from beneath his sword, closed the distance at once. Her upper body spun, and she swept [Beniiro Ageha] toward him again.
Compared to the Black Death Butterflies behind him, Nene's strike that could cut all things was the true killing move.
After making his judgment, Shiro forcibly interrupted his half-finished action and swung his blade down at Nene.
Pssh—!
Shiro's sword arrived later but struck first, piercing her wrist and stopping her surprise attack. The concept of perfect stillness and perfect motion within [Twin-Wings] was displayed fully in that instant.
At the same time, the Black Death Butterflies Nene had released earlier reached Shiro's back. A massive impact struck him from behind.
Boom—!
Amid the deafening explosion, his body was thrown away like a torn rag.
"Now I have one more person I want to defeat at full strength! Shiro!"
The girl looked at Shiro, who had fallen to the ground, with eyes burning with heat.
'I thought I would never feel this annoying yet lovable feeling again after Kuro-chan left.'
'But there's still someone right here.'
'As expected, you really are the best choice!'
Nene's aura suddenly surged by a large amount. Facing Shiro, who was climbing up from the ground, she raised the folding fan in her hand high.
Blood slid drop by drop down Shiro's back.
Feeling the burning pain of his torn skin, he also became excited for the first time in a long while.
'As expected of the world's third. If I didn't have a Level 5 body and absurd magic power, anyone else who took that would either die or be badly wounded.'
'Sure enough, if I want to become stronger, I have to fight opponents like this.'
"Shiro, you'd better receive this next move properly. Yours truly would be very troubled if you died."
Even though his heart was already burning, after training under Edelweiss, Shiro still remained calm.
Combining Nene's words with her current movement, there was only one move she could possibly use.
Nene's secret technique—[Hadou Tensei].
Through her ability, she pulled down a meteor floating in outer space to attack. Because one mistake could destroy a country, the League had listed it as a forbidden technique.
If he failed to receive this attack, he would really die.
Shiro stared closely at Nene's movements while gathering all the magic power in his body, ready to act at any moment. His pupils turned vertical like a beast's, and two obsidian-black horns faintly appeared on his forehead.
Seeing this, Nene showed an obsessed expression and roared toward a place higher and farther than the sky.
"Crush all beneath me—! Hadou Ten—"
Crack, crack, crack—
Everything around them suddenly froze.
Just as Shiro was about to use [Unbound] to regain control of his body, he suddenly caught sight of someone from the corner of his eye.
It was Kurono.
Behind her were teachers and students who seemed to have been scared by something.
'Crap.'
Only then did he realize that he and Nene had supposedly been fighting a training match.
Before he noticed, it had turned into this.
Shiro moved his eyes and looked at the trees and buildings around them that had been reduced to ash.
Gulp.
'Yeah. I'm probably dead.'
In the next moment, time resumed flowing.
"You bastard! What kind of skill were you trying to release in my academy?!"
A deafening roar echoed through the ruins.
Kurono clenched her fist and punched Nene hard on the head. If she had arrived one step later, Hagun Academy would have been torn down by these two.
She had thought Stella and Shizuku destroying one classroom was already the limit. Who would have thought her school still had two hidden dragons like this?
If [Hadou Tensei] had come down, even if Kurono stopped it, the space around the whole academy would have been buried with that skill.
"Eh? K-K-Kuro-chan? Good afternoon...?"
"Good afternoon, my ***!"
The director finally lost her usual composure. She grabbed Nene by the kimono and began laying into her.
When she was done, she turned her head toward Shiro, who was preparing to run away.
"Where do you think you're going, Shiro-san~?"
Her voice was clearly gentle, but Shiro felt as if he had seen a vengeful ghost crawl up from hell to claim his life. He froze in place, then turned his head back with stiff, rusty clicks.
"If I said I wanted to go to the bathroom, would you believe me, Director...?"
"As expected, I should have dealt with you together with Stella back then."
"Um, I really need to go, so I'll be taking my leave first."
"Then take your first step into hell!"
"Nooooo!!!"
…
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