"She really pushed her too hard."
Shiro, who had been quietly watching from the sidelines, sighed as the battle atop the city wall grew increasingly fierce.
Many members of Loki Familia had noticed Ais's problem.
Whenever she fought a humanoid opponent, she subconsciously held back.
Just as Alfia had said, when she suppressed Ais earlier, all Ais needed to do was aim Desperate at vulnerable areas such as the heart, throat, or brain.
Even someone as powerful as Alfia would have been forced to dodge or intercept those attacks.
Yet Ais never considered doing so.
Or rather, somewhere deep inside, she had already rejected the possibility.
That was why she had been completely suppressed by Alfia and unable to find a single opening.
Put simply, Ais's swordsmanship was a sword meant to kill monsters, not people.
Alfia had recognized that immediately.
That was why she deliberately provoked Ais, forcing her to stop holding back.
"Before the Corrupted Spirit appeared, Riveria probably believed Orario was already relatively peaceful, so I can't really blame her for never correcting this problem."
Shiro tilted his head and casually avoided a chunk of brick flying toward his skull.
"But this stopped being training a while ago, didn't it? They're practically trying to kill each other now..."
Broken stones scattered everywhere.
The ground was covered in craters.
Sword scars carved deep lines across the city wall.
Every attack exchanged between the two looked like it had been thrown with the intent to seriously injure the other.
Even enemies fighting to the death would hardly look more vicious.
"Good thing it's still early. If Ganesha Familia's patrol catches us doing this, we're going to have a problem."
Even as members of Loki Familia, one of Orario's two ruling Familias, destroying the city wall to this extent would still earn them punishment from the Guild.
At best, they would get away with a fine.
And trying to lie their way out after being caught would not work when gods were involved.
So Shiro could only hope the battle ended quickly while silently praying that Ganesha Familia's patrol arrived a little later than usual today.
Whoosh!
The hurricane wrapped around Desperate roared.
The silver-white blade tore through the air as Ais raised it head-on, aimed the tip directly at Alfia, and swung with all her strength.
However—
Clang!
Instead of slicing through flesh, Desperate returned the sensation of striking solid steel.
Alfia's left hand, reinforced with Magic, struck the flat of the blade and elegantly knocked it off course.
At the same time, she brought the fingers of her right hand together and launched an extremely fast hand chop toward Ais.
Ais showed no panic.
Imitating Alfia, she concentrated the wind around her left arm and formed it into a gauntlet before meeting the hand chop directly.
"Good idea."
Alfia's voice remained calm.
"But your technique is far too immature."
An enormous impact exploded through Ais's left arm and lifted her off the ground once again.
Just as Alfia said, Ais possessed extraordinary combat talent, but a technique copied only moments ago still required time before she could truly master it.
More importantly, Alfia's own talent was no weaker than Ais's.
Even though Ais had already managed to apply the technique in battle, from Alfia's perspective she was still merely imitating the form without truly understanding it.
But if Alfia understood that...
How could Ais not understand it herself?
The next instant, under Alfia's interested gaze, the hurricane that had originally been compressed tightly around Ais to form an armor of wind suddenly began flowing around her entire body.
Using the raging winds of Ariel, Ais twisted herself through the air.
The force Alfia had sent through her arm was redirected into her rotation and merged with the momentum of Desperate.
A hurricane surpassing a violent storm roared.
'Now!'
The moment the air current surged toward Alfia, Ais unleashed a godspeed slash.
If that strike landed cleanly, even someone as powerful as Alfia would undoubtedly suffer severe injuries.
But contrary to Ais's expectations—
"So that's the card you were hiding."
Almost at the exact instant Desperate was about to reach her, Alfia moved.
"Tranquility of the Soul."
"?!"
Clang!
Ais's blade struck Alfia's arm.
Sparks of Magic scattered in every direction.
Alfia simply swung her arm.
The motion hurled Ais away, casually erasing the finishing blow she had so carefully constructed.
Once Ais regained her footing, she stared in confusion.
"The wind... disappeared?"
"This is my magic, [Silentium Eden]."
Seeing the question in Ais's eyes, Alfia kindly explained.
"While it is active, all external magic that touches me is nullified."
She glanced at the transparent outline surrounding her body.
"Originally, it was only a seal I used to suppress noise. But now that my curse is gone, it works rather well for silencing unpleasant melodies too."
Just as Ariel served as Ais's armor of wind, [Silentium Eden] had once been Alfia's armor for shutting out noise.
Once activated, any external magic that touched that armor was immediately nullified.
For adventurers, magic often represented their finishing move.
From an adventurer's perspective, Alfia's [Silentium Eden] was undoubtedly one of the strongest shields in existence.
"Nullified..."
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Ais's forehead as she stared at the transparent layer surrounding Alfia.
The same kind of exchange had already repeated hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times over the past half hour.
Every time Ais launched a surprise attack, Alfia neutralized it without suffering any real danger.
On the surface, the two seemed evenly matched.
But Ais understood the truth.
They were not.
And the biggest reason was—
'I'm reaching my limit.'
Yes.
There was no way a spell as powerful as Ariel, which enhanced attack power, defense, speed, and short-distance flight while also allowing its output to be adjusted through different chant phrases, could come without drawbacks.
In reality, Ariel placed an enormous burden on its user while active.
And that burden affected more than Ais's body.
It affected her weapon too.
The aching throughout her muscles had already become impossible to ignore.
Desperate had also begun losing its original sharpness.
If this continued, her body would give out first.
Was she going to lose?
'No. I still have a chance.'
Ais endured the burning pain in her muscles and steadied her golden eyes.
If a spell like Ariel came with the drawback of placing tremendous strain on both body and weapon...
Then there was no reason a magic as powerful as [Silentium Eden] should be without limitations of its own.
She simply had to discover that limitation before her body completely failed.
Then defeat Alfia.
Across from her, Alfia watched the competitive fire return to the blonde girl's eyes.
For just an instant, a faint smile appeared on her face.
…