The Mage and the Swordsman
A volcano, by its mere existence, was a place overflowing with the elemental fire of nature.
Unlike Mana Herbs, which grew in a form that made them easy to absorb into the body, this was pure natural mana hanging free in the air itself — immensely difficult to take in, yet extraordinarily simple to harness for magic.
In other words, for mages whose specialty element was fire, a volcano was nothing less than a lesser Domain of Flame that nature itself had laid out before them.
In that sense, the woman standing before me — the woman who had introduced herself as Morana — could not have asked for a better place to cast her spells. The air around us was thick with the fire element born of the land, and she could gather that natural mana into her magic by the armful.
But she was hardly the only one who could make use of the natural mana saturating this volcanic zone.
My highest understanding is of the fire element too.
I was a fire-specialist mage myself, with ninety-nine percent elemental understanding of flame. Of course I could fully exploit the geographic advantage of this volcanic terrain. Which meant the terrain itself gave neither of us an edge.
What shackled this battle was the gap in raw capability between us.
My understanding may be higher, but the difference in Mana Circuits and total mana is far too severe…!
Elemental understanding at ninety-nine percent. That was only my estimate, but anyone with that level of comprehension had to be on the level of the Five Great Mages. After all, I had raised my understanding at an unnatural speed — more like reclaiming power I had originally possessed than learning something new. Morana, no matter that fire was her specialty, would almost certainly fall short of me in pure understanding.
But even if she lagged behind me in elemental comprehension, the sheer magical output I could see from her far surpassed my own. Which meant her Mana Circuit and mana reserves were superior enough to crush the difference in understanding flat.
At least an Upper-grade Mana Circuit, and mana reserves three times mine or more…
Probably not a Highest-grade Mana Circuit on the level of the Five Great Mages. I had faced my father often enough to know what the presence of someone with a Highest-grade Circuit felt like. But even so, to possess an Upper-grade Mana Circuit at an age that, being generous, looked no more than her early thirties — that was talent so vast it defied ordinary explanation. And with mana reserves that looked to be at least three times my own, there was only one path left for me to seize the initiative.
I have to use as many elements as I can and create an opening for Sigrun to strike…!
If I met her head-on with fire alone, I would inevitably be overpowered and lose. So I would weave all four great elements together — each at a level of understanding equal to another mage’s specialty — and force open a gap for Sigrun to attack Morana. That was the only victory I could see.
“Rage.”
“……!”
Morana’s magic cut through every thought I had been gathering.
Fwoooooosh———!
Whirlwinds of flame came surging in from every direction like coiling serpents. I drove my staff into the ground.
“Surge!”
With a heavy thud, a massive wave of fire erupted from the point where my staff struck, rising to meet the oncoming whirlwinds. But meeting them head-on, the wave was slowly crushed by their force and began to dissolve. I had only cast it to buy a moment — so I applied a short wind spell and leapt skyward.
Fwaat———
At the same time, I fed a thin thread of mana into the shoes Camilla had given me. My body glided through the air of its own accord, no flight magic required. Looking down at Morana as she watched me rise, I struck first.
“Pour down!”
With those words I swept my staff, and from the arc of its path a vast torrent of water shot straight at her alone — hydraulic force enough to cleave a person clean in two if it landed.
Morana stopped it with a single tap of her staff against the ground.
“Rise.”
As her staff struck the earth, a wall of rock several meters thick erupted before her. My water blade carved halfway through the stone before it was forced to a halt.
I had half-hoped that, standing on volcanic ground, she would lean on fire alone. Of course not. Against an opposing element she answered with another. And from the spell she had just used, her understanding of earth was nothing to dismiss either.
I clicked my tongue softly. Morana, as if reclaiming her turn, set the risen rock in motion.
“Shatter to pieces.”
Her staff brushed the stone lightly, and a boulder thick enough that ten grown men could not have linked arms around it splintered into hundreds — thousands — of rocky thorns. An instant later, without the slightest pause, those thorns launched themselves at me.
Even one hit would be bad…!
Thousands of shards, every one of them locked onto me alone. Take a single hit and that one would become ten, then a hundred. Worse, each thorn carried Morana’s mana — even a graze would let her interfere, however faintly, with my casting. So I drew up a heavy measure of mana without hesitation and poured it into my staff.
“Roar!”
What my staff unleashed was a colossal gale blasted straight ahead — a breath of wind with force enough to rip several trees out by the roots, funneled into a single forward line. The rocky thorns lost their momentum in that wind and fell clattering to the earth. An attack so fast and so powerful it had made me flinch instinctively — and I had stopped it clean.
A breath of relief slipped out of me before I could stop it.
“Haaaah…….”
And in that single heartbeat of relief, Morana — who until now had been mid-battle — stood lost in thought, as if turning something over carefully in her mind. Then she smiled, denser and deeper than before, and spoke.
“Mm. Better than I expected. No — past ‘better.’ You’re incredible, little one. Looks like we’ll have to get you into the Void Cult no matter what.”
“…….”
The words that left her mouth soured my expression on the spot.
“You could absolutely aim for a Cardinal’s seat in the Void Cult! It’s an honored position — serving our cult’s Saintess! So what do you say to joining—”
“Swirl!”
I cut off that worthless invitation before she could finish and swung my staff. Wind mana burst from the arc of the motion — the same element as before, but this time not in a straight line. The wind howled and raged around Morana from every side, closing in as if to tear her apart.
“……Seems you could stand to learn a little more about manners.”
Even inside that gale, Morana kept her easy composure. Wind magic was dangerous if it hit, but not particularly hard to block — from her perspective, she probably figured she could simply raise another wall of rock, the way she had a moment ago.
As if a child wouldn’t know that. As if I wouldn’t.
I had used wind for one reason only: to blind her eyes and deafen her ears.
Kwagagagagak———!!
The storm-force winds whipped her hair across her face, narrowing her vision, while the crashing roar of colliding air drowned out her hearing. And the instant those winds covered Morana’s eyes and ears, the one who had been holding her breath, waiting for a gap, charged in — Sigrun.
“Hup!”
A battle cry buried in the wind, and Sigrun kicked off the ground toward Morana.
Inside the howling wind, Morana kept her eyes fixed on the girl who looked so deliciously promising.
Fire, water, wind — all three elements are outstanding…!
She had only seen the girl’s spells once or twice each, but that alone was enough for Morana to feel it. The understanding the girl held in each of those three elements was beyond anything she had imagined. The only reason Morana currently held the upper hand was the difference in output born of her superior Mana Circuit and mana reserves. If their Circuits and reserves had been equal, Morana was certain she would have lost — the girl’s understanding was that exceptional.
She doesn’t even look twenty yet.
To display this level of comprehension across three elements at an age that, at a glance, was still in the teens? Even Morana, who had always been confident in her own talent, had never managed anything like it. Which only made the girl more desirable. If a mage of that caliber joined the Void Cult, the cult would take another firm step forward. The long-held wish that was now so close would be realized that much faster.
I have to bring her in no matter what…!
For the sake of the Void Cult, she would capture that girl alive. Having made that decision, Morana moved to raise a wall of rock before the winds from every side could tear her body apart—
Hwoong———!
A sound cut through the raging air, wrong and alien among the other winds. At the same time, a presence she had failed to notice under the assault from every direction pressed in on her senses.
“……?!”
Morana turned her head on pure reflex — and what filled her vision was a blade already sweeping toward her, sharp and gleaming. At the edge of her sight, the hand on that sword belonged to none other than the swordsman she had dismissed moments earlier as a mere beginner Expert, not even worth a second look.
“When did you—?!”
It was already too late to react. Before she could even think of casting a spell, the woman’s sword was arcing for her head — an attack no magic, however quick, could have blocked in time.
But of course, a mage of Morana’s standing was not without means to answer a surprise strike.
Kaang———!!
In the instant before the blade reached her, a translucent barrier unfolded around Morana and caught the charge. Then the barrier detonated a shockwave, hurling the woman backward. It was the effect of Morana’s defensive artifact — once a week, it would intercept an unexpected attack.
“Tch……!”
“Enfold!”
Even as she watched the woman go tumbling into the distance with startled eyes, Morana calmly continued the response she had originally intended.
Kurrrung———!
As her mana poured out, the ground itself surged upward and wrapped around her. A moment later the wind, which had closed to her throat, ground against the earthen shell with a nauseating scrape. It was not as thick as the boulder from before, but thick enough — the girl’s wind could not break through Morana’s spell.
“……Is it over?”
A few seconds later, the sound of the howling wind dying completely reached her. Morana drew up her mana in advance and dismissed the earth that had sheathed her. At a tap of her staff, the ground crumbled and collapsed away.
And the first thing that greeted her as the shell fell—
“Haaaah!!”
—was the swordsman from moments ago, already swinging her blade again, a mana-charged battle cry ringing out as she came straight for Morana’s throat.