I should have stayed longer, Dallion thought.

From a personal point of view, he’d love nothing better than finally getting to spend some quality time with Euryale. With the void gone, he missed her more than ever. As a noble, on the other hand, he knew he had to keep his distance for the sake of appearances. It was never simple when nobles of different countries had relationships, even when they were allies. At the present state of world chaos, having a fiancée from the Stone and Steel Alliance would put him under suspicion. Not that it made things impossible, he would just have to be a lot more careful about it.

“Do you think I should come back in a few weeks?” Dallion asked as Lux propelled him forward.

Thanks to a combination of spells, the effects of acceleration were barely noticeable even at his current speed. It also helped that he had cast a few barriers in front of him as well. Even with dozens of instances and his reaction speed, the last thing he wanted was to have something crash into him.

There’s no point, dear boy. Even if you get there days in advance, you’ll find that the Imperial House and the Order have beaten you to it. Back in my day, I’d say that the Academy would be present as well, but with everything that had passed, I doubt the emperor would risk them getting too much magic.

“Doesn’t hurt to check.”

“Good to see you haven’t changed,” Gleam said from Dallion’s shoulder. After her return to the real world, the familiar had used illusion to reduce her size to that of a standard butterfly. Ruby had as well, although in this case, a lot less effort was required. “Setting a colossus or two free, then rushing off to chase after something else.”

“It’ll be fine,” Dallion smirked.

On the positive side, though, apart from the Azures, the colossi would also keep Alien in check for a while, likely Euryale’s side as well. That was another reason why Dallion had quickly left. One might joke that being a noble had made him leave others to deal with the consequences of his actions, but the actual reason was to grant himself the time. By now, what had been celebrated as a clever means to turn the tides of the battle was probably cursed as a cure that was worse than the disease.

“Eury and Dark will handle things.” Dallion concentrated on tracking Tisaku.

While the battle mage had taken every precaution against being tracked: echoes keeping an eye on all item guardians he had with him, spells that would conceal any magic threads, and whatnot, there was one thing that remained out of his control: the flora and fauna of the wilderness.

With the current level of Dallion’s empathy trait, he could sense plants and animals for dozens of miles. More importantly, he could also combine scholarly and spellcraft skills to communicate with them from a distance. As such, he had been given a reliable account as to the general direction the battle mage was headed.

I think you should pick up the pace, dear boy, Adzorg suggested. You won’t be able to do anything if he gets to any of the Azure cities.

“He’s not going to a city,” Dallion said. One of the things he had memorized in the command room was the locations of all major towns and cities in the area. With the level eighty cap removed, Dallion’s mind stat had jumped past ninety, allowing him near flawless recollection.

The path that Tisaku was retreating on was directly southwest, almost without deviation. None of the federation capitals were there. There always was the possibility that a new city had been erected, but the fact that the mage had deliberately ignored a few border towns in relative vicinity posed questions. The only thing of any significance was the western ocean.

“Harp, think they might have found another nymph city?”

There are no nymph cities, the harpsisword guardian replied. Only ruins.

“The one we found before seemed in good shape.”

Technically, Dallion hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Back then, he and Eury were helping Jiroh explore her home cloud citadel, leaving the underwater ruins to the other hunters of the group. From what they had said, the ruins were well preserved, if mostly empty. That hadn’t kept them from gathering enough valuable artifacts to retire should they ever choose to.

“Is he heading towards one?” Dallion persisted.

He’s going to where one had been, Harp admitted.

With all the nymph spells and techniques the Azures used, Dallion suspected them having found a good haul of ancient artifacts. With the majority of the countries of the federation being on the ocean coast, they might well have been building up their arsenal of knowledge and equipment for decades, if not more.

“Tell Lux how to get me there,” Dallion ordered. “Gleam, get ready for a real fight.”

“More real than where we’re coming from?” The spectral shardfly laughed. “Nice to see you’re starting to appreciate me.”

Dallion didn’t respond. It was tempting to say that he always did, but that wouldn’t be the truth. More often, he had focused on Lux and Nox, and there had been times when he had appreciated no one at all. As much as the void within him could be used as an excuse, it didn’t change the facts, nor did it completely erase the guilt.

“Once we’re done with this, I’m going solo for a bit,” Gleam said. “There’s something I need to take care of back south,”

“Gleam, you’ve got nothing to prove.”

“I know. I just want to have the fun to slice him up for a change.” Waves of viciousness emanated from the creature. “I promise not to kill him, just cripple him enough, so he’ll have to spend the rest of his life hiding from anything that moves.”

It was clear that changing her mind would be impossible. After all, the fallen south was the place where Gleam had “died” at the wings of another spectral shardfly. Now that she had returned, and at peak strength, she wanted to settle the score.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Just be careful, alright? He might not be the only danger lurking there.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The strength of Lux’s thrust increased. For a few seconds Dallion felt as if he were on a rocket ship, as the landscape all around him changed. Even the world’s aether bubble darkened, making the void clearer to see.

There was no way to tell what the exact speed was. It was far from the speed of light, but likely a lot more than that of sound. Using his aura sword, Dallion cast a few more layers of protection, just in case.

A few minutes later, the acceleration suddenly stopped. The ocean had become visible in the distance, though that wasn’t the reason the firebird had come to a halt. A wall of aether barriers were floating in the air, glowing in their typical semi-transparent purple. What was more, the Azure battle mage was floating on the other side of them.

“You just won’t let go,” he said. Anger and fear could clearly be felt in his voice, even for those that didn’t have music skills. Yet, there was also a tenseness and determination that emanated from the person himself. “I told you that you’re a step behind. Catching up to me hasn’t changed that.”

“You’re lying,” Dallion said in his newfound confidence of a noble.

“Is that so, my Lord?” The mage mocked. “Then I guess you’ll have no problem finishing me off on your own?”

Before Dallion could even respond, Gleam flapped all four sets of wings, sending a torrent of slashes at the wall. Magic hit with magic, slashing the solid surfaces to bits. It was like watching shards of fast melting glass crumble in the air, leaving nothing behind.

“Sorry about that,” Dallion said with an amused smile. “One of my companions got overly eager.”

The battle mage remained silent.

“Are you sure you want to fight?” the noble asked. “You’re wounded and exhausted. Even your magic has become irregular. What was that you used to tell me at the Academy? Irregular magic doubles the chances of spells fizzling off?”

“Collapsing,” Tisaku corrected.

“You would know. Or are you considering using your Moonstone?”

“Use a Moonstone for this? Don’t be absurd.” His fingers moved, casting two seven-circle spells.

Dallion burst into instances, expecting an attack of some sort. Instead, the spells merely created a set of aether armor around the man’s body. Some of the elements looked vaguely familiar, but on the whole, the design remained unknown. If Dallion were to guess, he’d say that it was an attempt at recreating nymph armor.

“Surrender and I’ll guarantee your life,” Dallion said in each instance. “You know I’m good for it.”

“As a mage and noble, you probably are. But as I told you, you’re already too late.”

The aether armor became brighter, forcing Dallion to narrow his eyes a fraction. He could see the spell’s magic merging with the mage’s own, causing it to circulate throughout his body like a thunderbolt. A new sudden burst of light followed, increasing the intensity even more.

Careful! Adzorg warned, even if there was no need to. It didn’t take much for Dallion to recognize the incandescent glow of the Purple Moonstone, not just one, but three of them. In less than a second, the nearly defeated mage had transformed into possibly the most magic entity Dallion had ever seen. There was no way to tell whether the effects of multiple Moonstones stacked up, but at the very least, they would transform him into the magic embodiment of a Moon for a limited amount of time.

All one hundred of Dallion’s instances scattered throughout the sky, each casting a new set of spells. Meanwhile, so did Tisaku—a double sphere spell, so complex and intricate that it made anything but Adzorg’s castings look like a joke.

Nymph magic, Dallion thought. But was it?

While the spell itself was unfamiliar, all the symbols were clearly based on human magic. Thousands of them Dallion knew well enough to say exactly what they did. Only a few dozen he’d have to check later, but could still recreate them with ease.

A massive beam of purple light shot out from the aether armor, but instead of aiming towards Dallion, it flew in the opposite direction—right into the ocean.

“You focused on the battle, mistaking it for the war. It’s not even close. Everyone and everything so far is expendable.”

Crap! Dallion thrusted forward with half of his instances. Although he still couldn’t determine the exact purpose of the spell, he could see what it was doing to the caster. All the magic within the battle mage’s body, Moonstones included, was siphoned away, giving strength to the beam.

“Gleam, cut the beam!” Dallion shouted.

A wind slash more powerful than a line attack split the air, striking the beam. The moment it did so, though, the attack crumbled as if were a line of ash hiding in a marble column.

Unwilling to concede failure, Dallion flew up to Tisaku, performing a spark infused point attack at the man’s head from point blank range.

White energy shone within the harpsisword, combining with water to create the most powerful attack Dallion was capable of.

TERMINAL STRIKE

Damage dealt is increased by 1000%

A purple rectangle emerged in front of him as the force of the attack pierced the aether helmet along with the mage’s head. Sadly, that did nothing to disrupt the spell. The flow of magic kept on exiting what was left of the mage’s body, as if nothing had happened.

Dallion only had enough time for a split-second decision: pull back and let the spell run its course, or actively engage and attempt to weaken its effect if nothing else. In typical fashion, he chose the latter, letting go of his harpsisword and reaching into the hole created by his attack.

This is going to hurt, he thought.

Taking advantage of the only unarmored spot in his formerly living enemy, Dallion reached out with his internal magic threads in an attempt to consume what was left.

The magic flow hit him like a bolt of lightning, but Dallion refused to move away.

“Just like a vortex,” he hissed through gritted teeth. Two sets of healing symbols covered his body—courtesy of Gleam and Harp—while Lux enveloped him in blue flames to strengthen the effect.

There were times when such a degree of healing would have been enough against any enemy. Right now, it was barely sufficient, restoring Dallion’s right arm almost as fast as the absorption was charring it. The pain was so great that Dallion couldn’t move, let alone cast another spell with his free arm. The grip of his left hand loosened, causing the aura sword to slip out.

Don’t be a fool, Adzorg shouted. You won’t be able to absorb that much!

“What’s another eighty magic?” Dallion tried to say, his face twisting in pain despite his efforts.

Gleam, cut his hand off! The echo insisted.

“No!” Dallion hissed. As painful as the sensation was, he could feel its intensity decreasing. If he wanted to decrease the efficiency of the spell, he had to work faster.

Doubling his effort, he kept pulling the magic threads into himself… when suddenly the entire mage tore into two with a snap.

You have assimilated part of ARGUS TISAKU’s magic, increasing your magic trait to 103.