Sisilia Subjugation Operation (2)
The magic circle stained red. Silence flowed, and the room filled with mana.
Sisilia immediately swung her sword wide at Sesilia.
Clang!
Sesilia blocked briefly with her short longsword and retreated. A long crater scarred the floor.
At the same time, they pointed their swords at each other.
"Wind Shear."
"Wind Shear."
Storm domain. But what manifested were formless wind blades, and the two Wind Shears met at the same point and shattered.
"Tempest."
Sisilia unleashed one of her main area skills, a short-range burst.
"Tem—"
Sesilia tried to counter with the same technique, but—
"!"
Her eyes widened at the unchanged air. She had only spoken the words; Sisilia hadn't actually deployed the skill.
The moment Sesilia realized this, she thrust her sword toward her blind spot. It wasn't reported intel—it was instinct. That's where she would aim if she were in that position.
Slash.
The sword grazed just above her forehead, close enough to shear off a lock of Sesilia's bangs.
In that stance, Sisilia murmured softly.
"Air."
Boom!
Compressed wind exploded from the blade's surface. Sesilia tilted her body at an angle but couldn't fully evade the attack.
"Ngh."
She was flung back, bouncing hard across the floor. She somehow regained her balance, but the blood trickling from her mouth was impossible to hide.
"That hurts like hell."
In truth, the spec difference between Sisilia and Sesilia wasn't that great. Sisilia was restricting her power to Sword Emperor level.
But even with the same talent and body, one gap could never be bridged: experience.
Sisilia had lived through ten years of combat. Even starting at age seven as a demonkin, a single year couldn't close that divide.
Sisilia held a clear advantage.
But Sesilia surely knew that too. And yet her boldness suggested—
'If she's plotting something, now's the perfect moment.'
The magic circle, now brimming red, was moments from activation.
She could destroy it. But if it was a spell that unconditionally manifests an effect upon destruction?
Conditional magic was exponentially harder to succeed but exponentially more powerful. As Sword Princess, she couldn't counter it—
It was a tactic Sisilia herself would have used.
'But she might have anticipated that and set up no gimmick at all as a reverse bluff.'
Sisilia weighed her options. But Sesilia's face revealed nothing.
She had always thought reading others' minds was easy. Yet facing her own younger self, all she felt was how cute.
But time was short. Three seconds until activation.
She had to decide: destroy it or not.
"That's definitely right."
"……."
"I would've done the same. Because you'd think you could counter any magic."
Sisilia chose inaction.
The reason? Exactly what Sesilia had just implied.
The magic activated successfully, and the surroundings blurred. Before blacking out, Sisilia furrowed her brow slightly.
"Disgusting."
Thud.
The scene shifted in an instant.
Sisilia scanned her surroundings.
"……Demon King Castle."
A similar magic circle sprawled across the floor.
'Was that one teleportation-based?'
Before she could dwell, Lumia stood at the circle's edge. The half-open grimoire exuded menace.
No time for assessment—Sisilia erupted with explosive sword aura and thrust fiercely.
"Normal human knights introduce themselves before swinging, but you've got no honor?!"
Clang!
A sharp ring, and a thin barrier blocked her.
'At least Mythic-grade magic. Blocking spellcasting with momentary True Name Release.'
Sisilia mechanically calculated counters.
True Name Release for an instant, undetectable by 'Darkness.' That could halt Lumia's casting.
But—
"A mage hiding in Demon King Castle out of fear, daring a one-on-one with me."
The sheer incongruity made Sisilia halt her True Name Release.
This whole situation defied her understanding anyway.
"……What the hell are you scheming?"
Lumia smirked and closed her grimoire.
"Putting a leash on the goddess's dog?"
Sisilia's impassive pupils dilated.
She glanced aside. A red cube hovered nearby, etched with pulsing vein-like runes. An eye even throbbed on it—utterly repulsive.
The problem? Sisilia knew exactly what it was.
"How...?"
Mythic item, Cube that Even Gods Can't Escape—Another World's 8th anniversary gacha item. It could seal any target once and release at will, Pokémon-style.
Thanks to that, Sisilia—already mistaken for an NPC—had suffered daily torments.
"……I get it. You meant to seal me."
Having endured it endlessly, she knew the countermeasures.
"But tough luck. It won't work."
The annoyance? Sesilia knew it too—
Why pull such an obvious stunt?
"Whatever you're aiming for, calculating—I'll just smash it all and overwhelm you."
The simpler, the better in these cases.
Sealing was the weak's desperate flail against the strong.
"You're all trash anyway."
If the gap was overwhelming—
Sealing was impossible.
"True Name Release."
As the cube spun furiously, Sisilia slammed her sword into the floor. The blade glowed endless blue, unleashing a fierce storm around her.
"Sword God Sisilia."
Absolute powerlessness. Lumia trembled at the forbidden sensation.
'That's... human?'
An unbelievably vast presence.
Sisilia's silver eyes gleamed as she slowly raised her sword. The world seemed to split in two.
Lumia snapped to, reaching to cast—
"…!"
Her arm was already severed.
Panicking, she tried with her remaining arm, but Sisilia was there, grabbing her hand and pressing it to her own cheek.
"Tell me everything you know, and I won't shatter your soul."
Fast. Unpredictable timing. Any obstacles in her path? Obliterated without compromise.
'This is Sisilia... No wonder His Majesty fears her.'
She finally understood why other humans were ignored while every sense focused on Sisilia.
But.
"……It's true."
Lumia felt something profoundly novel.
"True Name Release lasts exactly three seconds. And even though you could kill me in that time, you didn't."
Everything had unfolded just as Sesilia predicted.
"……."
Sisilia fell silent, glancing aside. From the shattered eyed cube, a thin black cloth wormed out like an earthworm, lunging for her neck.
Sisilia snatched it, smiling.
"Gotcha."
Shackling Spirit.
The most basic sealing method. Attach conditions to a medium; fulfill them, and seal the target's stats.
The cube was a bluff. They never meant to trap her.
Just seal her power.
"Lumia. How many conditions did I break?"
"One: Realize this is a sealing circle and harbor true killing intent."
Lumia regained composure.
"Two: Have the chance to kill Four Heavenly King Lumia but refrain."
Sealing magic was hard to trigger—but once conditions met, infallible.
"Final three: The entire gap spans exactly three seconds."
Sisilia still gripped the cord with a cold smile. But blood dripped from her hand.
She seemed unmoved, but her Sword Princess body was exerting unsustainable force.
"With these conditions—"
Taunting her, Lumia folded her arms behind her.
"Sisilia Windsor is sealed for three years."
With those words, the black cloth Sisilia barely restrained coiled around her neck, morphing naturally into a choker.
"Heh, but at the last second, you released True Name again to seal just the Sword God state."
"……."
"Still, now I can relax. You'll never match His Majesty."
Lumia shrugged.
"Not me either, obviously. You still look decently strong, though."
Sisilia toyed with the choker. Nice texture, at least. But her chest already felt tight.
True power hiding meant self-suppression. Third-party seals? Unhidable. She wasn't power-hidden anymore.
Just sealed.
However.
"……In this situation, it might actually be good."
"...What?"
Lumia paused her victory gloat, baffled.
"She doesn't grasp what just happened. Thinks you can't use that massive mana anymore."
"Yeah. That's why it's good."
Sisilia gripped her sword again. As Lumia pondered teaching her the reversed power gap—
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
Shhh—
Terrifying mana poured from Sisilia's body.
To mana-dependent demons, wasting it like this was incomprehensible.
"Finally given up on life?"
It just looked like a novel suicide.
Sisilia ignored her, continuing.
'Small mana pool makes dumping it all easy.'
Exhausting her internal mana took under a minute. Demon King Castle filled with her gale.
Sisilia raised her sword skyward.
"Extreme Art."
Power weakened? Now she could go all-out. No worry of shattering this soft world—she could pour her true heart.
Sisilia twisted her wrist, slashing diagonally at Lumia's neck.
"Heaven-Breaking Powerless Sword."