Though You Might Die Here

I might even die here, but—

"Alright! Then, for our first match, will the contestants please prepare!"

What was that woman thinking?

As she readied herself for the first round, Asuka sank into thought. Ria Elfosis possessed outstanding magical talent, but she wasn't strong. Her physical abilities were average for a high elf, and while her mana reserves were respectable, they were still pitifully small next to Asuka's own. An unbridgeable gap. And yet, whether by design or by sheer accident, Ria had thrown down a challenge Asuka couldn't read at all — worse, she hadn't fled or withdrawn even knowing the odds were against her.

I don't know what her game is, but I'll just crush her.

That chilling aura from before still rankled, but it didn't matter. This friendly match was a duel fought at equalized mana levels, with nothing but spear and sword permitted. She could layer body reinforcement like Haste or Armor Charge over herself, but offensive spells like Fireball were off the table. In practice, ninety percent of Ria's true strength would be sealed away.

"You have to win!"

"...Right."

The gray-furred fox beastman who'd been promoted into their class pumped her fist and fired off a message of encouragement. Come to think of it, this match had only come together because of that woman in the first place. A beastman raised to Class A alongside Ria. She probably believed she was being subtle about it, but her attempts to keep Ria in check were glaringly, nakedly obvious.

Then again... maybe she engineered this whole thing on purpose.

Asuka resolved to interrogate the beastman after the duel, then turned her gaze to her own opponent.

A half-elf.

A half-bred, worthless mongrel.

"Now! Are both fighters ready?"

"Yes!"

"Mm."

The instant she answered the announcer-referee, Asuka drew her sword from the sheath at her hip.

A longsword of surprising length for her small frame — long enough that one might wonder whether she could swing it at all. And yet with that very blade, Asuka had brought everyone to their knees. Even the elders who had lived for more than three thousand years.

"Then, a word from each of our fighters, please!"

"An honor to face you, Your Highness."

So she's sending her minion out first to probe me, is she.

"...Your Highness?"

No telling what trick she has up her sleeve. I doubt she'd break the rules and spam spells, but...

"Your Highness!"

"?"

Only then did Asuka tear her eyes away from the far-off Ria. The wretch who'd been trembling with nerves a moment ago was now bristling with fury.

"Well? Aren't we starting?"

"You're supposed to say a word first."

"I already did."

Didn't I just say "Mm"? Asuka tilted her head, but the referee wore a slightly troubled expression and shook his.

"We... we agreed that both fighters would offer a word before the match begins."

"Ah. Let's just get this over with."

The princess waved her blade back and forth as if to hurry things along. A few of the students found her prickly demeanor strange, but it hardly posed a problem — mind games and provocations before a duel were more than acceptable.

First I'll land one strike, then read how she counters. Our bodies are in different leagues, but the mana is the same, so I'll assume no magic from her... but when do we even start?

The nameless mongrel had already ceased to exist in her field of vision. Her mind was already painting the battle with Ria, stroke by stroke — and the moment the referee's starting call rang out, she swung her sword at blistering speed.

To end it in a single stroke.

Asuka's longsword came down in one clean arc — and cut through her opponent.

"...?!"

"Hooooh..."

Screeeech...!

The spear twisted — and the single blow simply dissolved into nothing.

Flustered, Asuka furrowed her brow and swung twice more. Her specialty was speed: even wielding a longsword, her superior physique and mana control let her cut faster than anyone alive, and she bored straight through the storm of blades in a single breath, carving wounds into her opponent's shoulder and flank.

Unlike before, this time the girl took ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the wounds and gritted her way through them. So that earlier thing had been a fluke after all? Or perhaps a special artifact that blocked exactly one attack?

"Whatever it was—"

Slaash!

"—I'll finish this quickly!"

Asuka's sword burst with emerald light and split the storm in two.

And then—

KWA-GAGAGAGAGAGA!!!

A roar came crashing through the storm, swallowed Asuka whole, and shattered the barrier to fragments.

"Whoa."

'...What... is this?'

'The tip of the spear. Though honestly, it's more of a beginning than an end.'

No — maybe closer to a beginning, really?

Ria Elfosis answered without a flicker of expression, gazing out over the tattered remains of the pure-white space — with the ease of someone long since accustomed to this. Ene, by contrast, clutched her shabby spear in a white-knuckled grip and swallowed hard.

If this was truly possible—

Then maybe... just maybe, I really could beat everyone.

Ene Lizua had resolved to learn the technique Ria had shown her: Spear's Roar. She'd been stunned by its power, stunned a second time by the results it produced — but what stunned her most of all was the cost of wielding it.

'To make the impossible possible, you must first endure trials.'

A technique that reached beyond the body and touched the 'soul' — a realm once called unknowable. To master this absurd art, Ene had trained on and on: fainting dozens of times, being treated hundreds, thousands of times.

Of course, even all of that shouldn't have been enough. A half-elf cannot learn the techniques of the heavenly race. No — no race whatsoever can learn them without the blood of celestials or demons. That was accepted doctrine, and it had always held true.

'But this is a dungeon. We're inside the System's influence.'

Yena had learned Spear's Roar by exploiting the System's protection. The System actively safeguards the soul above all else — even if the body and mind are shattered, the soul will never be. That was exactly why Yena had been plunged into a brush with death the instant she used Spear's Roar after being transported to another space: that place lay beyond the System's reach, and the 'price' for wielding this mad race's technique was beyond imagination. It was only ever possible because the System shoulders that price in full.

I had resolved to exploit the very same thing. The method was simple — push the soul to its limits, right up to the threshold of the System's protection. When the soul grew unstable: treatment, a brief rest, then again. Unstable once more: treatment, rest, again. Repeating that process, steadily inflating the soul's total 'capacity,' until at last she could use it a single time.

Exactly one time.

One use, at a level that fell short of even thirty percent of its original power, at that.

"Whoa."

Once was enough.

"Wh... what just happened?! The barrier!"

The referee spun around, still clutching the voice-amplifying magic tool, hardly able to believe his eyes. Asuka lay sprawled carelessly in a corner, the barrier blasted apart around her. Her body was drenched in the blood that had poured out of her — but she wasn't dead; her life signs pulsed, clear and unmistakable. If anything, a dense emerald radiance flared from her eyes, as if the wounds had only driven ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her madder.

Students scrambled frantically for cover. Fortunately, several professors had been standing nearby, and I had laid down my own defenses as well, so the evacuation was complete before the attack ever landed.

They seem to have taken some injuries, though.

Even with her mana restricted, Asuka was the Elf Queen's second daughter — a heaven-sent genius, a confirmed Child of the World Tree. If a single blow had sent her flying with critical wounds, what chance did a handful of professors have? The healers were treating the professors as best they could, but the wounds refused to close.

"Why won't the healing take?!"

"Get your spell formulas right! You're the professor of healing arts, aren't you?!"

"No, why isn't recovery working—"

"Because I made sure it wouldn't."

Before the match, I had infused the smallest possible sliver of divinity into the spear Ene would be wielding — attuned so that it would react to nothing in the world except Spear's Roar.

Divinity heals all things — and yet, under the right circumstances, it can become a poison more lethal than any other. If demonic energy is a horrific toxin that corrupts everything it touches, then divinity is a poison of ruin that purifies everything it touches.

Crunch-crunch-crunch!

Asuka clawed her way out of the wreckage, breathing in great, ragged gulps. And even now, I could feel her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠never once violating the mana restriction, burning through her reserves strictly within the imposed cap.

She's casting healing magic.

She cast healing magic. When that failed, she smeared life mana thickly across her own body. When that failed, she drove both feet into the ground and drank in the World Tree's mana.

Nothing worked. Nothing at all.

The healers hovering awkwardly at her side didn't dare lay a hand on her; they could only stand there and watch.

"Sh-she's up! The princess is on her feet!"

The match wasn't over yet. If Asuka accepted treatment for even a single instant, she would be as good as defeated — and knowing Asuka's temperament, she would likely try to kill any healer who dared touch her.

"Hahh... hahh... hahh..."

And she wasn't the only one who needed treatment. Ene too stood with her spear planted in the earth, barely managing to hold onto it as she gasped for air. Her body was unharmed — but her soul was screaming. Sure enough, a month or so hadn't been enough. Not the time, and not the skill.

"But her opponent... E, Ene Lizua! The fighter also does not appear to be in normal condition! So who will be the victor?!"

Everyone watched with bated breath. Asuka, trembling from head to toe, raised her sword; Ene, wrenching her scattered wits together, pulled her spear free of the ground.

A hair-trigger standoff. Neither of them could fight another match after this — but the outcome of this match mattered enormously. It had already sent shockwaves large enough to rattle the seat of the flawless Child of the World Tree, Asuka Elphosis. If Ene won here, we could push Asuka out of that seat and put Ene in her place.

Yes — if she won, that is.

"...?! Ju, junior?!"

Light coiled around Ene and lifted her into the sky. Not content with that, I loosened part of the restriction and let a faint radiance of divinity pour out — and at the same time, reached out to enfold the exhausted Asuka in that same light.

But even that, he had apparently anticipated. Along with a surge of violet demonic power, the Release Sword carved straight down through the divinity.

In the end, Asuka fell into the intruder's hands.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Sword God. No — Lord Ranga."

"Ria Elfosis."

Before me stood the Sword God, holding the Release Sword — a blade that had no right to exist in the present day.

"Sword God oppa?!"

Someone behind us shrieked in horror, but the Sword God paid it not the slightest heed. He gently laid the unconscious Asuka down on the ground — then fixed a burning glare on Ene, who still hung there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blankly cradled in the light.

"And third-year Ene Lizua. I am placing the two of you under arrest on charges of attempted murder of the princess."

"...What?"

"Take your objections to the Elf Kingdom. That is, of course—"

Tap. Tap.

Ha.

So he had seen me all along, after all.

"—assuming you don't die right here."

"To think you would attempt to murder my little sister... how utterly shocking?"

Merni Elphosis. Asuka's elder sister, and the Sword God's prized disciple — she pressed a hand to her mouth, her face a portrait of sorrow.

And she was, quite thoroughly, delighted.