The moment the wind spirit Sylph appeared, the alley filled with a shimmering pressure—almost playful in aura, yet suffocatingly powerful. The tiny figure hovered protectively in front of Yuno's unconscious body, wings fluttering like blades vibrating at impossible speeds.
"You… you're trying to do something bad to Yuno's grimoire!" Sylph snapped, her voice high and sharp, like the chiming of glass. "I won't let you!"
Lencar said nothing. His hand was still resting lightly on Yuno's grimoire, feeling the near-infinite reservoir of wind mana coiled inside it. His Replication Magic wanted it—hungered for it—yet he withdrew his hand.
"You should not interfere," he said simply. "I am not here to kill him."
"You don't have to kill someone for me to beat you up!" Sylph shouted, emerald wind erupting from her body. "Anyone who touches my human is an enemy!"
A violent burst of spirit wind erupted toward him.
Lencar immediately dropped low and let the blast tear across the stone wall behind him. The wall disintegrated like rotted wood, scattering into dust particles.
'Her strength… is far above what I expected.'
Sylph floated forward, eyes blazing.
"So? What kind of creep tries to steal someone's grimoire, huh? Why do you even want Yuno's magic? You already smell weird—like strange mana and something unnatural!"
He raised an eyebrow.
"You can smell my mana?"
"Yes!" Sylph puffed out her cheeks proudly. "Spirit noses are the best!"
Then her expression sharpened.
"And yours feels dangerous."
Without warning, she shot forward. Her form blurred, splitting into afterimages. Wind coiled around her like a spiraling tornado, compressing tighter and tighter into a single point at her fingertip.
Lencar's eyes narrowed.
'High-speed condensed wind. That alone could slice a captain-level mage.'
He dodged just before the compressed blast pierced the ground where his heart had been. The stone below didn't break—it vanished, severed so cleanly the remaining stone looked polished.
A grazing shot alone could take off a limb.
Sylph whipped around, another attack forming.
"Stop moving so much! You're annoying!"
Lencar slid backward, keeping the distance narrow but controlled. The confined space worked in his favor—wind lost some efficiency without open air to expand into.
But Sylph was not foolish.
"Oh, I see what you're doing," she said, narrowing her bright green eyes. "You think I'll lose power here? Wrong!"
She spun midair, forming a miniature hurricane that spiraled upward. The tight alley exploded outward—walls cracked, debris flew, the wind carving itself more space.
Now she hovered in an open pocket of air she created for herself.
"Better," Sylph said. "Now I can go all out!"
She pointed at him.
"Spirit Storm Arrow!"
The blast she fired wasn't a simple projectile—it was a spear of condensed wind wrapped in natural mana, screaming through the air with the force of a thunderclap.
Lencar swung his arm sharply.
"Composite Magic: Umbral Step."
He vanished into the shadow behind a half-collapsed crate, the storm arrow blasting through the space he'd been standing. The crate turned to confetti.
Sylph blinked. "Eh…? You can hide in shadows? That's cheating!"
Her wings fluttered, scattering green motes.
"But I can still find you!"
Natural mana surged around her like a tidal pool forming currents. She inhaled deeply.
Lencar felt it instantly—the entire area being scoured by a wind-enhanced detection wave.
Her voice rang across the alley.
"You can't hide from a spirit!"
Lencar's eyes sharpened.
'I underestimated her. Her combat level… Yes. Near arcane first stage. Her wind manipulation is not simply elemental; she uses natural mana to amplify it beyond normal limits.'
Even without a host, she was terrifying.
Her detection wave brushed over him.
"There!"
She shot straight toward his hiding place.
Lencar stepped out of the shadow, meeting her directly.
Sylph's fist, no bigger than a walnut, was wrapped in enough cutting wind to obliterate a boulder.
He brought his arm up, mana forming a dense reinforcing layer.
The impact sent him skidding backward, boots carving grooves in the shattered stone.
Sylph flinched in surprise.
"You blocked it? Humans aren't allowed to block spirit attacks!"
"Then I apologize for breaking the rules," he answered.
"You're not sorry at all!"
She fired again—an unending barrage of miniature wind bullets.
Lencar blurred, weaving through them, letting his wind magic dilute some attacks, letting his space magic distort trajectories, letting his concealment dull the target lock.
But she kept up.
The barrage grew faster.
Her small form flickered like a lightning bug, leaving trails of wind blades in the air.
'She's adapting to my movement pattern. At this rate—'
He narrowly avoided a wind spike.
'I need something else.'
Something more flexible.
Something multidirectional.
Something…
His stomach tightened as an idea struck him.
He had attempted it before. Failed countless times.
But under pressure—under life-threatening tension—his mind aligned.
Magic surged through his body.
His grimoire flipped open on its own, pages fluttering violently. The blank page he prepared long ago pulsed as if waiting.
Sylph halted midair, sensing the sudden spike.
"What are you doing? That feels dangerous again!"
Lencar extended his hand.
Magic circled his arm like intertwining threads of space and mana.
Wind, space, concealment—all tightened.
But this time, he did not separate them.
He wove them.
"Composite Magic—"
The air cracked.
Reality bent slightly, like heat distorting the air—but sharper, with a faint black rim.
"Void Weaving Discipline."
A ripple of spatial fabric tore open beside him—a small portal, swirling with dark violet edges. It hummed, stable, flexible, eager.
Sylph froze.
"What—what is that?!"
Another portal opened above him, then behind him, then beside her.
Lencar exhaled.
'It works…'
The Void Weaving Discipline.
A multidirectional, multi-element, multi-purpose magic that acted as both conduit and weapon. A system of woven rifts that could redirect, channel, absorb, reflect.
He smiled.
"Thank you, Sylph."
"For what?!"
"For helping me push past the barrier."
She screeched. "I didn't want to help you!"
The portals around him vibrated. He thrust his hand toward one.
Wind condensed—pure, sharp, cutting wind—flowed into the rift.
And from another rift positioned behind Sylph—
It blasted outward.
A perfect redirection.
"What—HEY!" Sylph cried as she was thrown forward by her own element.
She flipped and regained stability instantly, breathing heavily.
"No fair! You're using my wind against me!"
"Only because you offered so much of it."
He summoned three more portals.
From one: space-distorting compressions.
From another: sharp wind.
From the third: a vacuum of air pressure forming an implosive draft.
Combined, they formed a cross-pattern attack.
Sylph's eyes widened. "That's… not good."
She tried to dodge, but the implosive vacuum dragged her toward the center. She spun her wings furiously, but the redirected wind blast from a portal behind her struck again, throwing her off balance.
Then the spatial compression snapped shut.
Sylph cried out as her tiny body was slammed by interwoven forces.
Her form flickered—like a candle flame about to go out.
"No…! I won't… lose…! I'm a spirit…!"
Lencar stepped forward calmly, weaving another set of rifts.
"You fought well."
"Stop talking like you're my teacher!"
Another redirected wind strike hit her.
Sylph gasped, her light dimming.
But Lencar stopped abruptly.
He lowered his hand.
Sylph floated in front of him weakly, wings drooping. Her mana was unraveling. Her form shimmered like scattered glitter trying to hold shape.
"W-Why… did you stop…?" she whispered.
"Because the battle is over."
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
And then—
Her form scattered.
A swirl of green particles dissipated into the wind.
Not dead.
Not sealed.
Just forced to retreat.
Her mana reserves were exhausted.
Lencar watched the final motes vanish.
'A spirit that fights using its own mana… and natural mana. She was formidable.'
He closed his grimoire.
He had learned something valuable.
And he had gained data he needed for his next step.