Alice panted, rubbing her jaw. Thank the gods her [Perseverance] was active, she didn’t want to think about how bad she’d feel if that wasn’t the case. It still throbbed, but she took great satisfaction that at least she dealt more damage to the noble than he did to her.

She didn’t lower her guard though. While he looked, to be frank, pathetic at the moment, he was still a noble with combat experience under his belt. Alice wouldn’t put it past him to have one last devious scheme, one last desperate attempt to have her spare his life.

Honestly, Alice wasn’t certain what she was going to do with him. The ideology and the wrathful justice inside of her ordered her to end it right now. To end his life, and perhaps spare someone else’s life in the future. But still, Alice hesitated. If she really did the deed, this will be the first time she ever killed someone in cold blood. Would she be able to live with the guilt, carrying the weight around for the rest of her? Alice wasn’t sure. Her goal was to free everybody from the oppression of the nobility. If she started that goal by slaughtering a defenseless noble, would she really be changing anything?

This will be a much easier decision to make if the noble hadn’t opened his fat trap and made his blatantly racist remarks against Lily.

Speaking of the elf, Lily hadn’t moved from her spot. Taking a look at the noble and deducing that it was safe enough, Alice risked glancing towards Lilly.

There was an expression of pure shock on her face (understandable, she probably hadn’t expected someone to come rescue her. Alice shuddered to think that if she’d woken up later, she may have found Lily’s dead body instead). More than that though, there was almost a hint of something bordering reverence. And much to Alice’s worry, it appeared to be directed towards her.

Alice brushed the offer now. She was still locked in a duel with the noble, even though she had all but won. She could deal with whatever business she had with Lily later on, not to mention that she probably wouldn’t be staying at this village much longer.

“Well? Do you have anything else to say? Do you keep in mind, that any incriminating evidence will be used against you when I decide whether or not to kill you.” Alice warned. “No funny business. Do you understand me?”

The noble didn’t raise his head for a while. Alice narrowed her eyes; what were the chances he was simply pretending to act defeated, just to have a sudden resurgence? She kept her distance for now, instead drawing upon [Anarchy Flare].

“If you’re trying to make me come closer to you, it’s not going to work. Either say something, or I’m going to lob this fireball at you. You’ve already tasted the heat before, I’m sure you don’t want to experience that again.”

Even with the threats, she didn’t react. Alice found. From her fight with him, along with the fact that he decided to attack Lily when she was all alone, she had deduced that he was a coward. He only took on fights he was confident in winning, and when he started to lose that confidence, he quickly panicked. That had played a large part in why she was able to beat him. After all, he was still a noble, with far more experience in magic than she had. By all accounts, she should’ve lost. In fact, she would’ve lost, if only he had maintained a cool head.

After several seconds passed, and he still did not utter a single word, Alice was beginning to get frustrated. “Okay, screw this.” Raising her hand high, she threw the fireball towards him. It exploded in the dirt only a couple of feet away from his prone body. Debris and chunks of earth flew everywhere, and the flickering flames came dangerously close to igniting him. Unfortunately, he carried on ignoring her, like he had no idea just how close he had come to dying.

Alice growled, her frustration threatening to boil over. “Look here,” she began, stepping forward.

She had only taken a single step when he launched into action. With speed she hadn’t witnessed in the battle previously, he jumped to his feet and snatched up his sword. Pulling his arm back, he hurled his sword tip first straight for her.

Alice merely sighed. Was this the best he could come up with? If so, it was quite pitiful. She held up her hand, palm forward, and generated another batch of [Anarchy Flare]. The sudden pain in her stomach alerted her that she was beginning to push her Manergy reserves past the limit but she shouldered through. This was the last stretch, after all.

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She channeled the Skill into an outward funnel of black fire and directed it towards the sword. Alice was confident in her ability to stop the projectile; her flames were hot enough to melt the steel into molten slag and there was no way she would miss with the sheer amount of fire she outputted.

Sure enough, she caught the barest glimpse of the sword before it was practically drowned by the sheer amount of fire. Alice let the burst of fire dissipate a couple of seconds later, feeling the strain on her reserves worsen.

“Honestly, if that was your last ditch attempt, I have to say it—“

It was only luck that Alice saw what was coming next.

As she approached the noble, who looked completely broken now that his final attack failed, the sunlight just so happened to shine directly onto her face. Squinting, Alice covered her face with her hand and turned to glare at the sun.

Against the searing glory of the star, there was a miniscule imperfection; a fragment of gray that stood out against the white background. Alice nearly ignored it in favor of returning her focus to the noble, but whether it was luck or fate, something inside her told her to look again.

Alice complied with the strange urge, fighting the instinct to avert her eyes in the face of the sun. Her eyes widened as she realized that the fragment wasn’t an illusion, or a sunlight messing with her eyes. It was something else entirely.

It rapidly descended closer to her, allowing Alice to see what it was in clear detail. It was a piece of shrapnel isolated from the rest of the sword. She didn’t know how he had managed to separate a chunk of the blade and send it spiraling so it was out of the range of her fire attack, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that there was a piece of steel heading her way, and her reserves were spent.

Alice dodged to the side and hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Scrambling to her feet as quickly as possible, she whipped her head up and tried to locate the stray piece of metal. Cursing the rays of sunlight that obscured her vision, her eyes started from side to side frantically. The only thing she could find was the pure blue sky, nothing more.

I know I didn’t hallucinate it, and I didn’t hear it hit the ground either. Where the hell is this thin—!

Alice’s train of thought was abruptly cut off when a piercing sting rippled from her shoulder. Painstakingly, she rotated her neck and was greeted with a shard of metal embedded into her collarbone.

Whaa…how? Thoughts similar to this rampaged through her mind even as blood poured from the wound, soaking her clothes and staining the ground with red.

Seconds too late, her dulled instincts kicked in and she flung her arm up to stop the bleeding. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted a blur of silver dart towards her and another stab of pain registered.

What the fu—!? Alice cursed, staggering back as a knife lodged itself into her hand. The tide of the battle had changed in an instant. Looking up, the noble was now making a mad dash towards her once again, a ball of air gathering around his fist.

No no no no no! Alice drew upon her reserves but came up short; she was out of fuel. Panic set in and she turned and sprinted.

“You’re not getting away!” she heard him roar behind her. With her heart pounding in her ears and sweat trickling down her back, Alice felt the truth in his statement. She couldn’t outrun him.

I need more Manergy…but how!? Alice wracked her brain even as she heard the noble getting closer and closer. The only thing she had left was…

Her eyes snapped open. It was a reckless decision and it may not work at all, but it was all or nothing. Spinning on her heel, she suddenly turned around and found the noble just a couple of feet away from her. Shock flashed across his face at her sudden motion and that was all the time she needed.

Please. Give me a Skill, any Skill! Alice pleaded as the noble descended upon her. She brought her arms up in a last ditch effort to buy time for her plan to work.

//Criteria met. Skill Slot fulfilled. [Ray of Judgement] unlocked.

A beam of yellow light shot out from Alice’s outstretched palms, zooming at the noble with speed he couldn’t comprehend. His eyes widened with dull recognition of his fate and he opened his mouth to scream at the injustice of this all.

How unfair it was that a mere commoner dared to strike down nobility. He wanted to make the girl dread this act for the rest of her short existence; deep down, he was merely terrified and prayed his words would make the girl stop.

But judgement has no qualms of erasing evil in this world, and it does not bother listening to the screeches of the dead.

The ray cut through his neck and-