"Let's throw away any kind of pretenses."

The green hawks hovering above and behind Dramia bore their talons toward Pierre.

"You will die."

Peering at the countless magical creatures, Pierre took a step back and swallowed his saliva loudly.

Dramia was the perfect person to instill terror into someone. Her care for appearance was crucial to inking her figure deep into their mind.

A short woman with wings and an unusual hair color. At first, anyone would get the impression that this frail fairy would be helpless.

But in reality, they would fall in a state of shock. She was perfect at pretending to be weak.

With the latent power in her veins, all she had to do was throw away her fears, and change her ways.

From a gentle wind that rarely covered this world, she reshaped it into a ravaging cyclone ready to engulf all in its wake.

"Now. Dance for me."

Lifting her right hand above her head, she smiled at the man with a smirk on her face. The instant her hand dropped, the magic fired in his direction, leaving him barely any time to prepare.

Pierre turned around, and ran away at full speed. Green hawks crashed wherever he went by, exploding into spheres of sharp wind that shredded anything that came in contact with them.

Around him, the hawks crashed incessantly, slowly narrowing his freedom of movement.

Feeling cornered, he turned around with his feet scraping the dirt as he came to a stop.

The two red arms behind his back stretched widely, before the left one punched the magic falling on him.

With a crackling noise, the two magics clashed, shredding each other in the process.

Pulling back the electrical appendage, Pierre glanced at it. Everything past the elbow was destroyed.

Yet, he smiled as another hawk approached. Repeating the same action, he punched the incoming magic with the other arm.

While the same result happened, he managed to patch up the previously destroyed arm, making it possible to continuously defend himself.

With less than a second between each attack, a long battle of attrition took place, where mutual destruction continued for five long minutes.

Dramia sent waves after waves of wind hawks with the thought of rapidly removing Pierre from her sight, while her opponent suffered continuous strain just to survive this onslaught.

The first one who stopped would be the loser; The one with the deepest magic storage would be the winner.

And, as she was expecting it, Dramia came on top. Not only was her magic energy limitless compared to Pierre, she was also incredibly cunning.

Occasionally, while he was defending head-on, a few hawks attacked his flanks, breaking his attention. These small changes forced Pierre to constantly watch his surroundings to avoid getting hit.

Still, Dramia was holding back. She was playing with him, watching him struggle. It was the price the man had to pay for entering this plane, threatening her kingdom, and her friends.

There was no way she would let him off the hook without making him suffer.

When Pierre finally appeared to struggle, she deviously smiled. Feeling the sharp gaze of his opponent, he glanced toward her, only to see even more hawks besides her.

The color on his face rapidly turned to a white, as he felt the cruelty in her eyes. His four arms dropped slightly, as his stamina was reduced to a depleted state.

Watching as the hundreds of magic missiles came crashing on top of him all together, he understood that his survival until now was simply a caprice of the woman.

Now that she forced the man into his last sparks of hope, Dramia was ready to crush them in one swift motion.

Green and violent wind drowned his sight, while the buzzing noise of shredded matter entered his ears.

Agony filled his mind, as his entire body disappeared into a sea of green hawks, merging into one giant pile of destruction.

Not even his screams escaped the magic.

Releasing a tired sigh, Dramia closed her eyes.

Rarely had she used this amount of magic energy before. Even though she felt lethargic all of a sudden, a feeling of accomplishment came over her.

'I hope I'll get praised later.'

'...'

Hearing her own thoughts, she frowned.

'What am I even thinking?'

Lifting her shoulders in exasperation, she turned her back on the desolation she had created, and looked up.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

'Drania, it's your turn.'

Through the connection between them, Dramia called to her sister.

'I'm coming!'

From a hundred meters above ground, Drania looked at her sister. She pressed her wings tight against her back, before her body fell toward the earth.

After a few seconds, Drania opened her wings before coming into contact with the ground, and stopped next to her sister.

"You really should stop playing with fire."

"No. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean I have to."

Dramia thought for a brief moment, before shrugging it off.

"Fair point."

Opening her wings and crouching slightly, Dramia took off for the sky, leaving Drania to deal with the second phase.

"Huh? Did sis seriously backed off without getting into an argument?"

Bewildered, Drania looked at the back of her sister, her mouth wide open and a shocked look in her eyes.

"She's either in a terribly good mood, or I'm going crazy."

A faint smile replaced her previous expression as she turned around to look at the shredding half sphere of wind.

Letting out a whistle escape her mouth, she fell in awe in front of her sister's ruthlessness.

'Sis has a really nasty personality. I'm not sure anymore if going out with Orion was such a great idea.'

From her memories, the very few times Dramia ended up being the nastiest she could be being when Drania's safety was in peril, the day they met Noah, and the day they lost Noah.

Now, she would add 'Orion's enemies' into the list of things that infuriate Dramia.

'Meh. Who cares! If she's happy, that's all that matters.'

'Cut the connection, damn it! I don't have such a nasty personality!'

Hearing the angry voice of Dramia in her head, Drania frantically cut the connection and looked in the air.

'Oops...'

Seeing the cold glare of her sister looking down at her, she quickly looked away.

'I should focus for once. I don't want to be the only one being looked down when the others are working hard.'

Uncharacteristic of this energetic woman, Drania calmed down.

Her mind, who was rarely at peace in response to her desire to avoid facing her own emotions, suddenly went quiet.

Drania closed her eyes, letting the magic flow freely in her magic circuit.

From above, Dramia's eyes softened, seeing the brown energy surround her sister. Attaching her hair back into a ponytail, she watched as Drania became serious.

A rapier formed from a piece of metal in front of Drania. With her eyes still closed, she grasped the handle of the sword, and stayed motionless, controlling her breathing.

Slowly, metal appeared around her arms and legs in the form of sheets. They wrapped themselves around her limbs, turning into durable armor seconds later.

The sheets stacked against one another, creating layers of metal protecting her. What made this armor special was that it was weightless for her.

Unaffected by their weight, Drania turned into a flying fortress, with the same mobility she had until now.

Unlike a warrior's armor, only her arms and legs were covered. The sheets stopped appearing after they had formed thin plates.

The reason for this change was that Drania's speed was too dangerous for her own safety. In normal conditions, Drania was but a playful woman, without care for responsibilities or appearance.

Yet, when Drania finally met the internal peace she needed, she changed. Like her sister mellowing after their date with Orion, her, too, obtained a different answer.

Drania opened her eyes. Inside of them, the gentle gaze had vanished, replaced with a focused and intent glare.

Her sharp gaze fell on the wind magic, as it slowly collapsed into itself.

Revealing a puddle of dark blood in the grass, Drania leaned on her right foot.

Inside the blood, a black sludge arose, creating the edges of a human being. Pierre reappeared in his corrupted form, shivering from the memories of his recent death.

"I-"

Dramia appeared behind him, holding her rapier next to her hip.

Pierre's glanced to the side, before his arms fell to the side. Without being able to say a single sentence, he felt the pain return, breaking his mind even more.

His screams entered her ears, which made Drania frown in disgust.

"Shut that mouth."

With a swift movement, she turned around and plunged her blade into the back of his head. The piercing blade went through his nape, and out of his mouth.

Dark sludge exploded out of Pierre's wounds as he gasped with the blade in his mouth.

Still, he was an Apostle. Even after suffering this much, he wasn't done.

Lightning crackled around him, forcing Drania to remove the blade from his body, and distance herself.

With a cold expression, she looked at Pierre re-attaching his missing limbs and closing his wounds, as two red limbs appeared once again behind his back.

"Come at m-"

"..."

Before finishing his sentence, Drania vanished. She appeared above him, before slashing down at a frightening speed.

Her feet touched the ground before any changes were registered by Pierre. Drania straightened, and as Pierre turned around, she walked past him.

While trying to punch her with his magical arms, he found it difficult to do so. The instant he looked behind him, the two limbs were nowhere to be seen.

"Huh?!"

Instantly, he recreated them, and returned to the assault.

"You don't know when to give up, do you?"

The cold intonation in her voice froze Pierre in his tracks for a few seconds. Terror filled his mind, as a terrible feeling, stronger than the one felt against Dramia, crept into his heart.

Shaking it off, Pierre ignored her words, and tried to punch her face.

Drania appeared to his left, before being seen on his right. A long cut formed on his chest as she vanished once again.

A sound of shattering metal echoed as Drania continued to appear and disappear in and out of sight, each time causing more damage to Pierre's body.

Her speed gradually sped up, until Pierre's regeneration ultimately failed to keep up.

Limbs flew off, organs were skewered on the rapier, and oozing black blood sprayed everywhere.

That day, Pierre, a human Apostle, learn that the two fairies residing in Horizon were ruthless monsters.

As his body fell into pieces, his mind stopped processing the pain, which was felt in rapid succession.

With his mind broken, Drania finally stopped, her back turned against a kneeling shadow, gazing with a blank stare at the sky.

His body was a mess, trying to heal the many cuts and missing parts as best as possible.

Drania, without giving the man a glance, snapped her fingers.

As she moved, the plates of metal around her arms and legs cracked, before breaking in half.

Bruises appeared under those protections, showing that the speed at which she went backlashed on her.

As the plates fell into the grass, the ground on both sides of Pierre broke free from the rest.

Two large walls of dirt and rock closed on the broken body, before crushing the man between them.

From the loud gushing noise emitted, and the dark matter leaking out of it, Drania confirmed that she had killed the man once and for all.

"Sis..."

"I'm here."

Dramia rapidly dropped next to her.

"I did it."

"I saw. You did well."

"Thanks."

Dramia felt strange. In front of her, Drania looked exactly like herself. The uncanny resemblance made her self-conscious.

"Return to normal... I don't like it when you act like me."

"It's a bit too late for that. We're twins."

"Stop with the snarky remarks, and be normal!"

As she let out a sigh, Drania relaxed. Her carefree demeanor appeared in her movements, and her gaze returned to its usual cheerfulness.

"Better?"

"Naturally."

Dramia pulled her sister's hand, and walked away with her.

"Alright, let's go back to Tiohr."

"Hahaha~ Sure."

Knowing that her sister was concerned about her, Drania giggled and smiled. Feeling the warm feeling on Dramia's hand, she walked alongside her.

They returned to the fairy army, before they all walked back to their village.