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Max didn't use his Domain.
He only strengthened himself with the Force, relying purely on his normal power to brawl with Thoru—flesh against flesh, blow for blow.
Thoru didn't revert to her dragon form either.
In human form, she couldn't use her full strength.
Their first exchange was just a test.
Their fists met.
Force and magic collided, eating away at each other. The shockwave from the impact blew a massive crater into the ground—for a second, even the air itself vanished.
After that one punch, both of them roughly understood the other's level.
In the next instant, Thoru's hands turned into dragon claws glowing with red magic. She lunged, slashing hard toward Max.
Max deflected her strike with his left hand and countered with a straight punch from his right.
Thoru blocked with her own left hand.
Another thunderous bang split the air, pressure waves rolling outward as Thoru slid backward, using the impact to create distance.
Then she opened her mouth wide.
A beam of blazing red dragonfire shot out, slicing through the air like a laser.
Max's eyes narrowed slightly. He channeled the power of the Golden Sanctuary into his fist—and punched straight into the beam.
The Sanctuary could both attack and defend.
Power gathered at a single point, like the "Death Punch" from an overpowered boss casually toying with a hero.
The dragonfire started to fade—inch by inch—until it was completely gone.
Seeing this, Thoru's eyes sharpened.
She stopped breathing fire, her figure flashing into a streak of light as she appeared right in front of Max, claws raised to strike.
Max twisted to the side, caught her arm, and drove his elbow into her joint.
One was a "human" with the instincts and experience of a martial arts master.
The other—a dragon that had lived tens of thousands of years, with battle experience that spanned eras.
They clashed again and again, trading blows at speeds the human eye couldn't follow.
Each collision echoed like thunder, shaking the sky.
The air itself rippled from the aftermath, turning into waves of cutting wind.
The shockwaves spread for miles, turning the whole area into a no-go zone.
The earth quaked. The sky trembled.
Their fight carried them thousands of meters high, scattering the clouds until only a bright blue sky remained.
They went at it for an hour.
Then, hanging in midair, Max and Thoru finally stopped, both smiling in satisfaction.
They'd had their fun.
Yeah—fun.
Neither of them had gone all out. It was just sparring—purely for enjoyment.
This wasn't a real fight.
To both Max and Thoru, a real fight meant fighting to the death. Anything less was just playing around.
Still—
You could learn a lot from play.
How far someone could "play" said plenty about their true power.
Take Thoru and Kanna's "play" fights, for example—to humans, they'd look like apocalyptic disasters.
After this hour-long "spar," Max had a rough idea of Thoru's strength.
Her base power was about equal to his.
Just relying on her physical body and internal energy—no spells, no abilities—she could easily wipe out a city.
If she went all-out?
She'd probably be on his level—able to obliterate a large nation with a single strike.
So when she said she could destroy the world...yeah, she wasn't bluffing.
Both of them were in the A+ class—nation-busters.
Of course, that was just an estimate.
The exact numbers could wait.
Looking at the mess they'd made of the desert, Max called on the rules of his Mirage Realm and used the Force to restore it to its original state.
"Huh?!"
Thoru's eyes widened as she watched the barren wasteland instantly return to normal.
Sensing her surprise, Max smiled.
"This is my subspace," he explained. "I'm planning to make it my base of operations—our home."
"So cool!"
Thoru blinked at the first part, clearly shocked that Max actually owned such a massive subspace.
She spread her magic senses and could faintly feel how vast this world truly was.
Then, when she heard "our home," her eyes softened, flickering with emotion, and a smile tugged at her lips.
After restoring the landscape, Max turned to her with a grin.
"Thoru, wanna look around my Mirage Realm for a bit?"
"Sure!"
Thoru nodded happily.
She hadn't been all that interested at first, but since Max called it their home...of course she wanted to explore it properly.
"I'll head out first," Max said, summoning the Gate of Mist.
"Ah… okay."
Thoru blinked, then smiled and nodded.
She thought he'd go with her, but Max just gave her a small grin and stepped through the mist, returning to his place on Earth.
"Alright then, guess I'll take a look."
Suppressing a hint of disappointment, Thoru turned back into her dragon form and began inspecting her new "territory."
Meanwhile—
Back on Earth, Max appeared in his bedroom on the second floor.
Aka-nyan (Akashiya Moka) was still sleeping soundly.
He sat down at his desk, turned on the computer, and logged into World Tree.
Just as he logged in, his phone lit up.
The message was from Emi Machida, one of the editors at Undead River Publishing—the same editor he and Kasumigaoka Utaha worked with.
Short-haired, professional, and confident—a classic office beauty.
Her figure was about the same as Utaha's.
He opened the LINE message:
Emi Machida: "Sensei, I've got good news! Wanna hear it?"
Max's given name included the character Bai, so his pen name was White Daydream.
Since they'd gotten close, Machida usually called him "Shiro-sensei" or just "Shiro."The same way she called Utaha "Shi-chan."
When he first debuted as a light novel author, she'd been a huge help—pulling strings, fighting for more publicity, and so on.
Max started typing back:
Max: "Good news? Don't tell me it's a third anime adaptation?"
Honestly, that was about the only kind of surprise his novels could still bring him.
His debut work, The Game of the Gods, wasn't finished yet.
It was on its tenth volume so far.
And it had already gotten two anime adaptations.
Thanks to solid funding and a fired-up production team, both had come out great—boosting the series' popularity big time.
Emi Machida: "Ugh, you guessed it again. You're no fun."
"But I've got another piece of good news. Wanna hear it?"
Max: "What is it?"
Emi Machida: "Guess."
Max: "No."
Emi Machida: "Come on, guess."
Max: "Not gonna."
Emi Machida: "Pleeease, just guess, Shiro-sensei~~~"
Max: "Yare yare… you really don't give me a choice."
Emi Machida: "Ehehe~"
Max: "Let me guess—Machida-san finally got herself a boyfriend?"
"That's amazing, congrats."
On the other end of the line—
"!!!"
Machida froze mid-scroll. Dressed in a fitted office suit, she stared at the message, her expression darkening.
Her jaw tightened.
She was this close to grinding her teeth.
Emi Machida: "You little brat—what kind of guess is that?! Of course not!"
Max: "See? I told you not to make me guess, but you insisted. Now that I did, you're mad about it."
Emi Machida: "…"
Max: "Alright then, what is the second piece of good news?"
"....."