The reason The Fiend who pounced on opponents immediately, just stood on guard was because it knew that the woman in front of him was extremely strong. Incomparable to the golem from before.

Iris also realized that, so she deliberately let out most of her mana. Her mana surged like a tsunami threatening to swallow the earth itself. As her mana grew, the starlight surrounding her expanded as stars appeared here and there.

“What’s wrong? Not moving?” Iris said, and she then made a beckoning gesture. The Fiend clenched his teeth and dashed forward. Iris didn’t recognize whatever swordsmanship he was using, but it didn’t matter.

The starlight surrounding Iris became denser and created a barrier around Iris, The Fiend’s sword tried to slice through Iris, yet it was blocked by a lone, brilliant star.

“I don’t know why or how you learned my family’s sword technique. However, without starlight magic, it's always going to be incomplete swordsmanship.”

Iris said as she motioned into the same stabbing stance as The Fiend. Though unlike The Fiend’s, Iris's sword contains a great amount of Star Magic, compressed to its limit. The Fiend flinched and moved side to side to try to juke her, but it didn't matter.

“Take a good look. This is the real thing.”

[Celestial Stab].

The Stars inside the Starlight-filled sword crashed against each other and exploded, creating a bright light and a tremendous shockwave that knocked The Fiend back as his body crashed into the wall.

“Guargh!”

The Fiend groaned while Iris leisurely walked forward. If this was a normal [Celestial Stab] then rather than an explosion, it would be a straight pierce, but Iris didn't want to kill Wilhelm so she just made the stab release an explosion using her starlight magic.

‘When he said play with him, does it mean to leave him just like this? Damn it, at least don’t be so vague if you are asking a favor from me.’ Iris clicked her tongue.

The Fiend tried to attack Iris but Iris just manifested 4 stars above him and manipulated gravity with it to force The Fiend to crash straight to the ground, The Fiend gnashed his teeth as he looked at Iris trying to force himself out of this gravity prison.

Amongst Star Magic’s capabilities is the ability to control gravity. It is also one of the reasons why it’s so powerful. If there is one weakness to it, it drains mana like water, but all Felles Family members have insane amounts of mana so it is not much of a problem to them. Iris squatted in front of the fallen Fiend and smiled.

“The prince told me to play with you, so I guess I have to obey.”

The Fiend, who understood it as mockery, raised his mana to the limit to escape from the gravity prison and immediately attacked Iris with a fast stab, yet Iris just used her footwork and gravity to dodge it, before exploding a star right in front of The Fiend.

Boom!

The Fiend endured the explosion as he dashed forward swinging his sword in a beautiful arc. Iris’s sword blocked his sword, and the Fiend smiled, before shifting his sword to skillfully pull Iris’s sword, making her out of balance.

‘Oh?’

The Fiend smiled and then swung his sword again, precisely aiming at the opening. Iris’s body wouldn’t be able to regain balance due to the laws of physics and therefore she shouldn’t be able to dodge or block the sword swung by The Fiend.

Unfortunately for The Fiend, the woman in front of him is capable of destroying the laws of physics. Iris skillfully used gravity magic to stop the laws of inertia and ducked her head to avoid the sideswing of The Fiend’s. Iris then clenched her left fist wrapped in starlight and hit The Fiend in the face, knocking him back as he rolled onto the ground before standing up.

The Fiend’s face swelled a bit, as blood dripped from his nose. Yet he was smiling. Iris's eyebrows raised and The Fiend proceeded to dash forward again.

‘What the hell? I thought he had some kind of plan, but why is he just rushing at me again?’

Iris charged up four Star Bullets and fired them at The Fiend intending to blow him away, but The Fiend's sword flowed like a stream of water as he sliced apart the four stars.

Iris's eyes widened a bit before wrapping her body with the dense starlight, and Stars formed all around her acting like armor. It was the [Star Armor] spell used for close combat. Iris had it activated the whole time and increased the mana for it since The Fiend in close combat proved to be a lot more trouble than expected.

Both Iris and Wilhelm’s swords clashed, like an orchestra of steel. Iris’s swings ravaged The Fiend like a blur, each swing holding tremendous weight and speed, coming in at irregular angles, and positions with the help of gravity magic, yet, with precise, almost transcendental movement, The Fiend managed to parry, and deflect each of her every strike with fluid sword movement, and even managed squeeze in a counterattack or two.

It was phenomenal considering the wide gap between both of their mana and physique.

However, that's about it. Each time The Fiend’s sword is about to reach Iris, the stars always moved to meet his sword, and even if he managed to slice one or two, more and more stars to block and deflect his sword. With every attempt failed and passage of time, The Fiend's breathing grew heavier, his mana drying out bit by bit, as more sweat began to cling to his shirt. In contrast to Iris who is relaxed.

“Gosh, playing with you is quite hard.”

Although Iris said that, her expression betrayed her words, as she smiled brightly fully enjoying the fight. Each movement of the Sword Fiend sparked insight into the way of the sword, giving her a chance to grow, to adapt to the Fiend’s swordsmanship, and to further refine her own techniques. For Iris, The Fiend is a treasure of knowledge and is the reason why she is limiting herself solely to swordmanship.

The Fiend gritted its teeth and backed off since at this rate it would lose. It needed stronger moves, stronger ‘records’ that could crush the hateful woman in front of him.

The Fiend then took a stance, its muscles tensed, and mana surged violently as it enhanced its body. Even if the body is still too weak and mana too little, it needs to use this Sword Style. If not, it would never win against the woman in front.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The Fiend took a deep breath and charged at Iris. Iris felt something had changed and heightened her guard. Then a similar exchange commenced. The Fiend sent a flurry of swings, each strike precise, and deadly, Iris managed to keep up with her refined swordsmanship until a certain exchange forced Iris to be off-balanced and create an opening. The Fiend took that opening, yet Iris was relaxed as ever, assuming the many stars around would defend her.

However, she was wrong.

The Fiend’s sword mana twisted unnaturally, as it crashed into each other, and swirled like hellfire, before compressing itself as it surrounded The Fiend’s blade in a calm and brilliant azure blue. It was different than the light blue made of mana, that was…

‘Aura!’ Iris heightened her defenses and more stars started to surround her and gather in front of Iris acting as a shield covering her entire body. Although it was surprising that The Fiend unlocked Aura in the middle of battle, it was not that dangerous for Iris. However, The Fiend’s sword trembled weirdly, crying out, as the Blue Aura screamed, twisted, and began to warp the fabric of space itself.

Iris’s eyes widened, sensing something was wrong, and The Fiend swung its sword.

Overcoming Heaven Sword Style.

Slicing Heaven.

The sword created with the goal to tear through the heavens sliced through the fabric of space as the world trembled weirdly. The stars surrounding Iris were sliced off easily and effortlessly. The space trembled, as the sword left a wound on space itself.

The Fiend's body couldn't handle it as its fingers twisted unnaturally, and its hand muscles exploded due to using a sword style far above his level of physique, yet it laughed as it imagined the half-cut body of Iris. It looked around in delight before its face hardened. There was no corpse of Iris, not even a drop of blood. It looked at the scene in front with confusion until it heard a voice from above.

“Fool.” Iris’s voice rang out, in a cold and mocking tone,

“It was too obvious that you were preparing some kind of hidden move with all that bloodlust. I guess in the end, you are just a mere beast.”

The Fiend looked up and saw Iris floating in the air, surrounded by a vast expanse of starlight and innumerable amount of stars. It felt like nighttime had come as it swallowed the battlefield with sheer numbers.

“Well, the move itself was incredible. If it hit, even I would’ve been in trouble.”

Iris said with a cold smile.

“With that said, playtime’s over. It’s already been an hour so I will need to bring the prince back, therefore…” Iris continued as she flicked her hand towards The Fiend’s direction. “Go back to sleep.”

The sky fell and the vast expanse of night descended upon The Fiend like a tidal wave of stars. It crashed into The Fiend with an unstoppable force. His body crumpled, and consciousness slipped away as it fell to sleep.

***

“Sorry, and thank you,” Wilhelm said. He had just woken up and after Iris explained what happened, he thanked her.

“No problem. I will need you to explain a lot to me after this. What the hell is that power and how do you know a lot about this ruin when it's supposed to be your first time being here.”

“I will need you to explain a lot of things to me too.”

Wilhelm and Iris looked at each other and laughed.

“So, can you stand up straight now?”

“I mean…If it’s just standing up. Urgh!”

Wilhelm released himself from Iris' support and tried to stand up on his own before groaning in pain, yet he managed to stand up straight. His whole body is full of pain but because he drank a High-Grade healing potion, it was not as bad as before when he was scared as hell seeing his twisted fingers and arms as well as a bruised body.

Wilhelm could see traces of an intense battle as the room was destroyed all around except for one place that had almost no damage. The place has a very small box on it.

“It seems important, so I protected that place,” Iris said.

“Good job.”

Wilhelm walked towards the box and opened it. Just like the game, inside there is a contact lens case with 2 transparent contact lenses. He had come here just for this.

Wilhelm looked at Iris.

“It’s fine if I take this, right?” Wilhelm said.

“It's fine, you were still going to take it even if I said no right?”

Wilhelm smiled bitterly. He felt bad not giving anything to Iris for the work she had done, but he needed this much more than Iris.

Wilhelm put on the contact lenses and looked around. There were no changes whatsoever.

‘There are no spirits around. Well, this place is far from attractive for spirits that love nature.’

“What does that do?”

“It allows you to artificially see spirits.”

“Huh!? That’s insane.”

Wilhelm laughed. Usually, people react like that when they figure out what artifacts from the Ancient Empire could do.

“Then shall we go?” Wilhelm said.

“Ah, right. Let's do so, but can you tell me the password for this ruin?”

“Hm? Why?”

“Ah, well…”

Iris looked away, and she had a slight blush on her face. Wilhelm tilted his head before he realized it.

“Well, it's fine by me. But I don’t think it's necessary to be embarrassed about liking ancient ruins.”

“...A lady is supposed to like flowers, not ancient ruins.”

“Wow, what a stereotype.”

Wilhelm and Iris chatted like this while going back up. Despite going at a slower pace, it didn’t feel like much time had passed when they eventually reached back up to the top of the ruins. Wilhelm didn’t know what Iris thought, but it felt like they both were closer than before, though there were still many things to discuss.

“By the way, just a word of warning.”

Just before they went out of the ruins, Iris spoke.

“It would be better to not use whatever that form is called. At least before you control it. It gives me a really bad feeling.”

“Don’t worry. I intend to do that as well.”

Wilhelm had gotten much more than he had thought, especially the Overcoming Heavens sword style. Even now he could get a sense of feeling for it, and maybe he might be able to imitate it in one year.

“I see, then that’s good.”

Iris didn't say anything more, they both went out of the ruin and were greeted by Abraham’s face, which went from a slight smile to wide eyes and a gaping mouth the moment he saw Wilhelm's terrible condition. After all, despite his body somewhat healed, there were still bruises, and soot all over his body.

“Y-Your Highness! What the hell happened inside there!?”

Wilhelm sighed and said that he would explain later. Iris smiled, looking at the liege and knight duo before she whispered into Wilhelm’s ear. Her breath touched Wilhelm’s ears, making him flinch.

“Wilhelm, please invite me as soon as possible, okay? I also have a lot of things I want to talk about and want to know.”

“Well, sure, but…Your face is too close.”

Wilhelm can’t help but feel uncomfortable when the unrealistically beautiful face is too close to him.

“Hahaha! That’s a cute reaction.”

Iris separated from Wilhelm and then bowed her head with a grin.

“Then, let us see each other soon, Your Highness.”

Iris said as she wore her cloak, activated it, and disappeared.