Death to Couples
Magic.
Mana — or divinity and demonic power used as fuel — given form as a manifested phenomenon.
Magic is surprisingly simple.
Plenty of mages and scholars treat it as something sacred, something only the trained and initiated can wield, but as far as I'm concerned, magic mostly comes down to what you were born with.
As for how it's cast? Think of the magic formula, pour in the right resources, and you're done.
Granted, you still have to calculate the aim, the flow of mana, the trajectory of the attack — but judged purely on the act of casting, magic sits on the very easy end of the spectrum.
Demons are born already having internalized nearly every magic formula in the world, so one of their lifelong ambitions is to create a spell no one has ever realized before. The Heavenly folk, on the other hand, are born without formulas at all — but they pioneered an entirely original school of their own, divine magic, built around the divinity they specialize in.
I was a Heaven-Scented Human myself, carrying a mere crumb of divinity, so divine magic was the first thing I ever mastered — but that doesn't mean I couldn't use ordinary magic.
In my travels around the world I had learned most of the formulas in existence, and about ten years after I'd set down the mantle of saint, people had taken to calling me a Great Mage.
Regardless — divinity and mana are both in desperately short supply right now, so I lack the resources to manifest anything. But I haven't forgotten the formulas themselves. Countless magic formulas still live in my head, and if only I had the fuel, I could summon those phenomena back into being at any moment.
And that fuel includes things like the power of spirits.
…Although, come to think of it, since you do have to memorize the formulas in the first place, I suppose the scholars are right — it really is only for the learned.
It may be nothing but rote memorization, but I had to pour in no small amount of effort to learn them myself, after all.
'…'
If I ever meet that one again, I will cut off their head without hesitation.
…If I can meet them again.
"…!"
A tremor rolled through the forest.
Yena had been cutting through the trees at a dead sprint when she felt it and snapped her head up.
Judging by the visual effect, a warrior-class skill, no doubt about it. Destruction on that scale at these levels — it had to be Sacrificial Guard – Shockwave.
One of the skills hailed as the entire reason for the shield warrior's existence — a class otherwise written off as garbage. Ally damage absorption chained into a shockwave; if you didn't know the combo, you had no choice but to take it standing still.
Shield warriors were one of the core pillars of team play — on any professional roster, every team raised at least one.
"This is why I told you to fight together!"
No word from her. Even Lily's stream wasn't showing the exact situation.
Haste, Swift Stride, Attribute Reinforcement.
The wind's blessing settled over Yena's body. On top of it, movement enchantments and stats quickened her every motion, restoring a fraction of the speed that her diminished stats and equipment had stolen from her.
FWOOSH—!
By the time the wind died, nothing remained where Yena had been standing except a swirl of scattered leaves.
Screeeech…!
"Lily!"
Yena crossed a distance of well over a kilometer in mere seconds, ignored the raw furrows her acceleration had torn into the ground, and hastily scanned her surroundings.
Between the wreckage of shattered trees lay the shield warrior, collapsed and dissolving into motes of light. Scars of battle, a forest blown to pieces, arrows strewn everywhere.
And then—
"…Whoa."
An archer skewered clean through by a spear — and Lily, letting out a small breath.
The archer dissolved into blue particles, Lily recalled her spear, and slowly turned her head.
Their eyes met.
For an instant a chill coiled around Yena's whole body like a living thing — and then the expression simply melted away.
She was beautiful to an almost unfair degree.
"…Are you okay?"
"Of course. Not a scratch."
Lily twirled her spear overhead as if nothing had happened.
…That shockwave must have been brutal.
With her body and gear degraded this far, if that shockwave had still burst out with that much force, it meant she was either armed with truly monstrous equipment or her skill level was absurdly high.
Which meant her opponent was, without a doubt, an over-spec alt character.
Undaunted, Lily had gone and beaten a two-on-one.
And with her health barely scratched, at that.
BLUE 1 : 0 RED
Next round begins in 1 minute…
The opponent has left the match. The duel ends with Blue's victory.
"Ah."
"They bailed."
They returned from the coastline to the Duel Stadium.
Lily looked a little disappointed.
"Do people always just leave like that?"
"In a best-of-three, if one side turns out to be hopelessly outmatched, most just walk out of the room instead of playing it through. They figure it's a waste of time to lose all over again."
It was even more common in normal matches, since there was nothing on the line.
Yena moved to approach Moco and queue up the next match — but by then, two coins were already sitting in Lily's palm.
Somehow, Lily looked thrilled about it.
"Let's do the next round right away."
"……"
"What?"
Lily tilted her head.
Was that really the same Lily who'd sent that chill down my spine just moments ago?
Yena shook her head and accepted the coin.
"Nothing. You're just cute."
"…I am not cute."
"Sure, sure~"
"……"
The second match began.
This time the map was a rocky hill, boulders jutting up in jagged humps.
Unlike the last round, where we'd had to hunt our opponents down, they were visible the instant the match started.
A male warrior with a greatsword, and a woman beside him wielding a sword a size smaller.
Black hair and black eyes, matching black outfits that looked deliberately coordinated — by the look of them, a duo who'd been playing together for a long, long time.
A couple, huh.
Lovers who fight side by side wielding the same weapon — people like that weren't exactly rare.
'The problem was that where I came from, unless your skills were genuinely good, every last one of them died.'
The world I'd lived in was no place you could stroll around playing dress-up in a matching couple concept. If luck turned against you, a dragon fleeing from demons would come screaming out of the sky and flatten an entire village — that kind of thing happened all too often.
And it wasn't just one dragon, either. There was a time when dozens of them went berserk like that.
'The reason, if I remember… was a magic experiment?'
A single demon toying with magical research had pulled that stunt, and the dragon population had plummeted overnight.
Then there was the Heavenly folk member who burned an entire city to the ground over a lost scarf.
Hm. Thinking about it again, demons and the Heavenly folk really were the cancers of that world.
"Looks like we can actually fight together this time."
Yena raised her dagger and flashed a grin.
I answered in kind and drew out my spear.
The couple, seeing us, exchanged a few startled words before settling into a defensive stance.
The man with the larger greatsword took point, the woman falling in behind him.
A pale brown glow bloomed around the man's center of gravity — a thread of brownish mana reaching back to connect with the woman behind him.
"That's a Bond."
"A Bond?"
Shink.
The dagger's blade turned crimson.
"A skill that can only be used between players of the same class. It boosts shared skills and stats — but in exchange, part of the damage is shared too. It normally takes a very high affinity between the two of you to unlock it, so…"