283 - Kaizen Palace Martial Arts
Everyone has their own private room deep in their heart. In that space, you can frolic like a pure child or curse out your boss for all the things you couldn't say in reality. How you decorate it is entirely up to you, but I had handed full authority over mine to these pitiful children.
Schadenfreude.
The "me" who had spent the longest time with me. It was the nickname the servants had given me in childhood, saying my misfortune was their joy. I awakened the core self that formed the foundation of my current memories.
Get me out of here.
Having lost all power and left only with instinct, Schadenfreude slumped and pleaded earnestly. It was a request I couldn't grant anyway, so I shook my head. I couldn't reveal my unique magic here.
"What I want is the Second Princess, Josephine Floria Kaizen."
Simple-minded bitch.
"Yeah, I know."
My Second Form unique magic, which remodeled jealousy into erosion, could copy the circuit magic formula of anyone I saw with my eyes. But that was just the function of the unique magic, not the power of erosion itself. Just as gluttony controlled metabolism, sloth altered the nature of aura, and wrath interfered with barriers, Schadenfreude could perfectly replicate the nature of aura.
But people don't die as easily these days, huh?
"..."
Only for those whose Aura Hearts she had personally destroyed and killed.
Jealousy: Aura Synchronization - Josephine
* * *
Oh Deok-jae's face showed unmistakable bewilderment.
The atmosphere has completely changed... Is it because of the aura?
Oh Deok-jae had long realized that judging Nami by age standards was pointless. But this was the first time he'd felt such a sensation, and it set off alarms in his mind. It was a beastly, ferocious vibe, reminiscent of Lee Min-young from their grade.
No matter how much aura she's using, she can't surpass the limits of the human body... No, keep all possibilities open. Can't let my guard down.
Nami brazenly cloaked her entire body in golden aura and kicked off from her spot. At the same moment, Deok-jae drew a magic circle.
Friction Coefficient Adjustment
Sinkhole
Nami steadied her breathing and glanced sideways at the magic circles activating on both flanks. Sharp aura spikes protruded from her shoe soles, anchoring her to the ground. She hopped lightly over the weakened spots, zigzagging to close the gap.
Stunned by the astonishing sight, Deok-jae dispelled his own magic circles and raised his guard to meet Nami's frontal assault.
Bam-! Boom-!
A merciless low kick, followed by a mid-kick spinning half-turn in the air to pierce his gut—the blows hammered Deok-jae's body without mercy.
Whoosh-!
Closing to point-blank range, Nami sliced through the air with a ruthless straight punch. Deok-jae's eyes darted everywhere, seeking a counter, but he lost his balance. With every attack from Nami, beastly golden aura swirled, tearing at his flesh. Each impact shaved off chunks of his particle barrier. If it had hit bare skin, his bones would have shattered.
In that instant, Nami's eyes flashed ferociously, her legs pressing hard against the ground.
Smoke Screen
She completed the magic circle amid the whirlwind of attacks. As Nami extended her left hand, a circle materialized right in front of Deok-jae's face. The casting time was drastically shortened. As he raised his arm to disrupt it and his guard broke, a harsh wind whistled past his ear, overwhelming him once more.
"Hup!"
Kwaaaang-!
A single strike plunged into the center of his abdomen. Aura flowed in higher dimensions from Nami's leg, through her waist, shoulder, and arm. Utterly simple, yet paradoxically the most powerful force, it exploded with a thunderous boom that shook heaven and earth, folding Deok-jae's body in half and sending him flying backward.
"Kuhk!"
Whoosh-!
At the same time, a powerful shockwave erupted around Nami, sweeping the ground.
"Urgh... Even with the barrier, that shit hurts..."
Deok-jae rose, supporting his knees with his hands on the rippling sand. His durability was impressive, but his tattered clothes made him look pathetic.
"Looks like your aura's running low now, huh?"
"Still plenty left."
"The display says 10%. Don't lie. Fair enough... Like that senior said, if not this year, I might never beat you."
"Even this year'll be tough. You shouldn't expect to beat me from the start."
"Hahaha!"
He slowly raised his arms, then burst into mad laughter.
"Haa... haa... Yeah, come at me with that confidence! Haaaa!"
Compression Coefficient Adjustment
Hydraulic Lift
With skilled double-casting, Deok-jae slammed his fist into the ground. A magic circle formed in a ring beneath Nami's feet, launching her high into the air with tremendous repulsion.
"Even you can't do much in mid-air...!"
Arc Discharge
Insulation Breakdown
Kwajijijik-!
Relentless bombardment from the sky. Kugugugugu-!
Dozens of large and small purple lightning bolts tore through the air, blanketing the earth. Humanity's desire to dominate nature had been passed down through oral myths, crystallized into written letters, infused with the wisdom of sages, and reborn as lightning magic embodying mankind's aspirations. As sparks scattered everywhere and the smell of burning filled the air, the purple mana began converging into a single point once more.
"What the—!"
Grounding
"Can a human really get stronger than the Earth?"
Nami used the Demon King's Horn as a lightning rod, completely nullifying the lightning magic. Pajijik-!
As the horn greedily devoured the lightning, she strolled forward leisurely. Just as Oh Deok-jae tried to draw a new magic circle, he suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed.
"My mana ran out first...!"
Forcing more magic would strain not just his Aura Heart but his actual heart. Without mana, he'd have to rely on aura.
"Hraaap!"
He propelled himself off the ground. His body sprang forward at speeds impossible for a normal human, swinging his fists wildly. Adrenaline surged madly, making time feel slow.
But Nami was the same. Thwack-!
Nami deflected the straightforward attack without a feint and kicked his side, completely destroying his balance.
"Hngh!"
A sharp cry escaped from deep within. Was it because his barrier was nearly gone? Click—
Deok-jae barely grabbed Nami's ankle and yanked hard, throwing her down.
"I won't give up...!"
Even with his mana nearly depleted, Deok-jae refused to abandon magic and drew his final formula.
"Arc discharge magic... You planning to self-destruct?"
"If I can't win, I'll make sure you can't either. Ha... haha!"
Nami lightly tapped his head with her small fist, but at point-blank, it did no damage. Moreover, he was pouring all his aura into gripping her ankle.
Just before the Maxwell equations were complete, Nami grabbed a handful of sand and flung it into his face.
"Argh! My eyes!"
"How dare you!"
Arc Discharge
Before the circle could even fully cast, Nami used line integrals over closed curves to derive the result and successfully disrupted it.
"What? Why isn't the magic working?!"
Oh Deok-jae rubbed his eyes in shock at the astonishingly fast disruption formula. And the backlash from a failed cast fell solely on the caster.
Soon, stinging agony wracked his body.
"Gaaah! Hng... aaagh!"
If she was going to disqualify him, now was the time. Her hair tie had snapped during the fierce battle, and Nami's long black hair fluttered in the wind. The observer camera zoomed in maximally on her face, as if predicting the battle's end.
Her white skin was smudged with sweat, sand, and dust, wrinkling her grimy face. Growl-
Aura cloaked shallowly over her skin blazed like furious flames. As if two suns couldn't shine under the sky, clouds covered the sunlight, casting the entire arena in shadow.
Uplift
Uplift
Uplift
Three pillars rose from the earth. Nami, light as a feather, stepped across them sequentially and leaped high into the sky. Golden aura replaced the sun.
Spinning once in mid-air to maximize rotational force, Nami extended her right leg fully and slammed her heel down onto Deok-jae's body.
Earth Cleaver
Kwaaaaang-!
The impact concentrated at a single point was indescribable. Crunch-
The immense weight from her slender frame crushed flesh and muscle. Shhh-
The transparent particle barrier compressed to its limit to protect the participant, but—crash!
It shattered like glass, forcing Deok-jae to endure the full brunt. He collapsed without a single scream.
As his male body sank into the sand mound and colorless smoke rose from friction heat, the girl who had wrought the miracle awkwardly sat on the ground, silently gazing at the vast sky.
A gentle breeze caressed her face and passed. Too lazy to spit out the sand grains in her mouth, she gathered saliva and swallowed them down.
She wiped her lips with a quick swipe and deeply inhaled the cool wind to its limit.
"Hup."
Her post-bout感想, exhaled with hot breath, was short and clear.
"The autumn breeze tastes sweet."
As she dusted herself off and stood, the four assistant referees and one head referee rushed over to check on the participants. With the historic bout's victor decided and the crowd's cheers echoing like thunder, it was finally autumn.