If You're Prepared to Die, Nothing Is Impossible

Redberry.

Level 83. Rank 107 in the ladder.

Her class was the Flame Wizard, one of the 'tech trees' available to the Mage.

Fire-wielding mages were so common that they made up seventy percent of all mages, but among those countless players, Redberry stood alone in a class of her own.

Overwhelming firepower compared to other mages, and chained attacks built on multi-casting.

It was true that she didn't cast them herself, but the skills granted by the system were her strength all the same.

Under ordinary circumstances, she would have gleefully unleashed every ounce of her power and gone on a rampage...

But still...

Her opponent was the owner ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of an absurd ability — someone who had soloed a world boss.

Not a spearman, not a warrior with a blunt weapon, not a swordsman, not a mage.

No — maybe she was all of them at once.

Lily was versatile enough to master every single one of those paths.

Redberry and Lily faced each other across the arena.

Blue particles washed over them both.

I entered the match without any weapon at all.

There were two reasons. The first: both Karabus's hammer and the spear imbued with the Shadow Spirit had been destroyed by that copycat.

I'd asked Yena for a forge capable of repairing them and sent them off, but aside from the handles, everything had been blown away. The blacksmith who examined the state of the weapons had even told me it would be better to simply find new ones.

An obvious thing to say. Who on earth repairs a weapon that's nothing but a handle? Naturally, getting a new one was the better option.

But I was the one who knew the beings sealed within them, so I'd requested the repair anyway, insisting they be fixed even if it meant welding on entirely new material.

After all, those things weren't sealed in the 'weapon itself'.

"You don't have a weapon?"

"They all broke. But don't worry — I'll take this seriously."

"......"

The second reason.

'I'm more than enough without a weapon.'

A stage distinguished by its sweeping blue plains.

With custom mode, you could set up special maps and conditions like this on your own.

Fzzt.

"Huh?"

"Oh ho..."

The PVP Arena always enforced balance adjustments between users to keep fights on even footing.

In particular, the 'high rankers' — the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ones strong enough to cleave through massive boulders and take down over a hundred opponents single-handedly — were more than powerful enough to shatter any semblance of balance.

To keep duels from being drowned in needlessly excessive power, and to spare opponents from a hollow, one-sided defeat, the system shaved stats and equipment down below a certain threshold — even when both sides were nominally equal.

Redberry, too, was one of the ones who usually got 'shaved down'.

But she could only stand there, dumbfounded.

Her own abilities hadn't been reduced by a single point.

If anything, her mana reserves seemed even larger than before.

A chill ran down her spine.

If this was her state right now, it meant her opponent possessed abilities that far, far exceeded her own natural stats.

'Even when I ran into Leo in ranked duels, it was never this bad...'

"Hmm..."

Lily found it strange as well.

'I expected this, but still.'

Lately, she'd noticed the stat and equipment corrections between ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠herself and her opponents shrinking with every duel.

Originally, when she fought a ranker, the system would grant her an advantage and slap a penalty on the other side.

In ranked ladder matches, it was actually her own specs that got reduced.

And even then, her opponents still received some degree of adjustment...

'Twenty percent...?'

Her current state was roughly twenty percent of her true level.

Merely carrying divinity within her body had once cost her twenty percent — now it was costing her eighty, nearly four times as much.

Meanwhile, her opponent hadn't been reduced at all. She'd gotten stronger than her baseline.

A smile spread across Lily's lips.

"This is fun. I can see why you wanted to challenge me."

"...I swear, that's really not it."

"Shall we begin?"

Chwaaaak. The countdown began to tick away.

Redberry gritted her teeth and readied her spellcasting.

The first reason mages get called broken:

Mages can enter mental focus before the match even begins.

Of course, other classes could prepare as well, but the class whose post-preparation opening was the most explosive was, without question, the mage.

The countdown hit zero, and the incantation began at once.

And I — because I was taking this seriously — charged straight in and swung my fist.

"Phantom of Fire!"

Somewhere along the way, she had slipped away — my fist struck nothing but a hollow afterimage of flame.

The phantom detonated on the spot.

I was swallowed by the blaze.

"...Did I get her?"

The chat was not the least bit worried about me.

Naturally — they all assumed there was no way Lily, slayer of world bosses, could be done in by a skill with a cast time of less than a single second.

"Ring of Fire!"

And Redberry was of the same mind.

Hwa-reuk. Rings of fire coiled around my body even as I was still wreathed in the blaze.

It didn't stop there. From high above, a prison of fire descended and sealed me inside.

I studied each and every one of them carefully.

'Multi-casting. Four at minimum... Her main spell is still in preparation, but it's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠being severely delayed by her cover fire. This is probably her best play.'

Not enough.

Multi-casting was a magic of extraordinary difficulty.

Even students on the verge of graduating from the academy could barely manage three, at most a grudging four.

And even then, their cast times ballooned, and the power of each spell fell wildly out of calibration, all over the place.

In that light, Redberry's skill was genuinely impressive.

Her cast time was excellent compared to the students', and her power yielded nothing to theirs.

However.

'If she had cast them herself, that is.'

She wasn't casting directly — she was leaning on the comfortable shortcuts the system had built for her.

Her power and cast time were respectable, but she could never go beyond that ceiling.

Abilities granted by the system were strong, but their limits were sharply defined.

The only way forward was to learn a new method instead of the shortcut, or to acquire new abilities the system happened to hand out.

'Still, at this level...'

Never mind the power — if she could just bring her casting speed up to proper standard, and if she could simply move a little more proactively...

"You've still got a lot to learn."

The realm of a 'Grand Archmage' might not be beyond her after all.

She had sealed me in perfectly.

Using the 'reduced fire-magic cast time' granted by her Mage of Scorching Heat title and 'Phantom of Fire', she had evaded my attack while simultaneously blinding me.

Then, chaining 'Ring of Fire' into 'Prison of Fire', she had trapped her opponent and waited for the cast of her ultimate — 'Judgment of Fire'.

Mages were devastating, but their cast times were obscenely long.

Add in the drawback of having to chant, and yet because their firepower was so overwhelming, those weaknesses never quite rose to prominence.

For fire magic specifically, Redberry had somewhat compensated for those flaws — but 'Judgment of Fire' was so punishingly slow to cast that no amount of compensation could save it.

Six-hour cooldown. Ten-second cast time.

Her most devastating ultimate, the cornerstone of her hidden quest.

Multi-casting had stretched the cast time and shaved a little off the power, but even so — there was a chance here.

'At least a decent chunk of damage...!'

KWAAARURURUNG!

A wall of terrifying flame came crashing down behind her.

A colossal judgment, sculpted from fire.

It descended upon the enemy she had imprisoned — and

Fsshk.

"Eh?"

It vanished without a trace.

The Ring of Fire dissipated. The Prison of Fire dissolved.

Everything made of fire was cleaved apart, and through the seams she saw someone with a pure-white bird perched on their shoulder.

Not 'someone'. Lily.

And yet, the word 'someone' felt apt — this Lily was profoundly unfamiliar.

Her snow-white hand stroked the bird.

"I'll have to teach you how to counter a Dispel, too."

"H-how...?"

"Magic is a double-edged sword. It can conjure miracles into the world — but those miracles apply to everyone."

In other words —

"Like this."

The pure-white bird shot into the air and split its beak wide open — chwak!

Flames were visible deep down its throat.

To anyone else, it would have looked like ordinary fire. But to Redberry's eyes, it was different.

No way. That thing is...

"Judgment of Fire?!"

A Judgment of Fire far more powerful than the one Redberry had cast devoured everything.

After the match ended, Redberry sat slumped in place, staring at nothing, like someone whose mind had simply left her body.

She must have steeled herself for this, but the content of the fight was just that shocking.

In a way, it was only natural.

'She's still a raw gem.'

Yena, and Redberry too — both of them had limitless room left to grow.

On top of that, these were bodies that could not die, bodies that would never feel pain beyond their limits.

They had the ideal conditions for endless ordeal and training.

I held out a condensation stone to the girl still sitting there in a daze.

"Come to the classroom in three days. I'll be waiting."

"...Can I really do it?"

You're a ranker who died without landing a single thing — what do you think?

"Of course. If you're prepared to die, nothing is impossible."

For the record, I speak from experience.