The next day, Emily leads her friends towards the training hall after breakfast. They find Dante and Enzo waiting outside the hall’s closed door, Emily having invited them to watch as well in her final loop of the day before.

“Hey,” Dante calls as they approach. “Why did you want us here?”

Emily grins, deciding to keep her ascension secret for a little while longer to surprise the two mages.

“You’ll see. Just watch my spar and I’ll explain properly afterwards.”

Both of them shrug, greeting Emily’s other friends as she pushes the door open. Inside the room, Agnes is alone in the centre of the wide-open training space, swinging her sword to warm up.

“I was wondering why others were waiting outside. Decided to bring an audience today, did we?” Agnes calls over, not turning her head or halting her practice swings.

“Of course! I needed someone else to see me crush you,” Emily taunts back, walking over and dropping her robes to the floor as she turns her head back to her friends. “Stay at the side of the hall and watch.”

Without waiting for them to acknowledge her command, Emily turns her focus back to Agnes, stopping a few metres away and watching the woman closely while also doing some warm-ups out of habit. The two of them have a silent agreement to warm up before a spar, but to start at any point after they’re both in the room. Emily’s gaze never leaves Agnes as she gets her joints moving, watching her every muscle twitch in anticipation of an attack.

Looks like I’m initiating today.

Without any warning, Emily subtly points her right arm at Agnes. A loud bang sounds, followed by a harsh hissing, as a blade shoots towards the one-eyed mage. Agnes smoothly raises her sword and deflects the attack, before stomping down, activating a spell to weigh Emily down and slow her movement, before springing forward to close the distance.

With a small burst of machina, the reel attached to the Claw’s blade instantly halts, and Emily pulls her arm to the side, sending the blade in a wide arc around her as she bends backwards. Agnes’ blade sails over her, and Emily plants her hands on the ground behind her head as both her legs rocket up towards Agnes.

Agnes rotates to avoid one of Emily’s legs while driving her elbow down into the other. The two limbs smash against each other, flesh against flesh in a dull thud of impact. Reacting quickly, Agnes moves to grab Emily’s now stationary leg, but the blade finishes its arc, wrapping around Emily’s arms and approaching Agnes’ feet.

She leaps back to avoid the sweeping wire, breaking their close engagement and allowing Emily to spring off her arms, back into her feet.

“Those things are so annoying. Are you sure you won’t make me a pair?” Agnes asks with a grin, slowly circling Emily and staring at her exposed arms.

The Claws have undergone an upgrade since Emily used them in The Glade. The back of the bracers each holds a small reel of steel thread and a metal crystal underneath the protective plates. Each blade’s housing has been reworked to allow them to detach at will and, to complete the Claws’ transformation into a ranged weapon, there’s a small sliding rail depositing caps filled with gunpowder in the back of the housing to allow repeated shots.

“Sorry, the second generation isn’t for sale!” Emily answers with a smug grin, crouching down and digging the balls of her feet into the floor. “Also, you may want to switch spells. This isn’t the right choice anymore.”

As the words leave her mouth, wind wraps around Emily’s legs, and a blue magic circle forms behind her, filling her body with lightly crackling lightning. Though the two second circle speed enhancements don’t work perfectly together, the enhancement they give together, added to her strengthened agility, make Emily a deadly weapon.

She dashes forward, leaving a blazing trail of lightning behind her as she appears before Agnes in an instant. Agnes’ eye opens wide in surprise as she barely gets her sword between her abs and Emily’s knee in time. The air around them quivers from the impact as Agnes slides backwards several metres, gritting her teeth.

Emily stands calmly, a mad grin on her face as Agnes rubs her stomach with a frown.

“You got faster again. How?”

Emily simply stands in silence, waiting for her to realise. As if on cue, Agnes narrows her eye for a few seconds before letting out a chuckle of disbelief.

“You’re unbelievable! I thought I was being harsh when I gave you three years. It’s barely been one!”

Agnes spins her sword around and drives it into the ground before her, standing with both hands resting on the hilt.

“I stand no chance now with second circle spells, do I?”

Emily shakes her head. “Nope. I’ve already formed a connection with most of my useful ones in the Spellweave too.”

“Fine. I’ll show you why they call me The Iron Valkyrie then.”

Emily happily waits as the extra weight from Agnes’ spell vanishes from her shoulders. A large, silver magic circle spreads from Agnes. Everyone watches in fascination as shimmering liquid metal armour spreads across her skin. The armour curls around her head, wrapping it and hardening into a winged helmet with one eye completely covered.

As the spell nears completion, the back of the circle pulses brighter, and the armour on Agnes’ back bubbles before sprouting a wide pair of metallic wings, with hundreds of delicate, sharp feathers.

Emily sees Agnes’ still exposed mouth stretching into a manic grin, similar to her own, and quickly starts casting more spells. Both Claws are wrapped in glowing orange magic circles, and she lets machina pour into them as well.

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Both mages finish their preparations at the same time and spring forward to meet each other. Emily still moves faster than Agnes by a large margin, but as she extends her arm for a fast strike, a metallic wing sweeps down to meet her. The harsh grinding of metal on metal rings out as Emily’s blade glances off the layered feathers, leaving a deep burning gash.

Agnes’ sword rises from below while the other wing cuts across from the other side. Emily’s forced to disengage to avoid the dual strikes, leaping backwards while aiming her other Claw at a gap between the wings and firing the blade.

The wings of Agnes’ armour react faster than the mage’s body, curling together to close the gap and block the shot. Unbothered, Emily yanks the blade back before Agnes can attempt to cut the wire, a trick she’s pulled before. As the blade flies back past Emily, she drops the other blade from its housing and starts spinning them both around her, forming a mesmerising whirlwind of metal, fire, and lightning.

Her arms move so quickly that the flying blades turn into a blur. Utilising the immense momentum, Emily starts lashing out with the blades, forcing Agnes on the defensive and carving chunks in her armour.

They fall into a stalemate for a few seconds, Emily sending out dozens of slashes a second, each with the force to cleave a man in two, and Agnes skilfully deflecting them with her wings to take minimal damage. Agnes breaks the stalemate first when she manages to drive one of Emily’s blades into the floor before she can pull it back.

The moment the gap is exposed, Agnes charges forward raising her sword for an attack and trusting her wings to defend her. Her sword swings down, slashing through the wire of the still-free blade before sharply changing angles and sailing towards Emily’s body.

Emily simply grins, and steps forward to meet the sword before suddenly dropping from Agnes’ vision. Agnes has no time to react as Emily rapidly pivots on one foot, spinning around and driving her heel into the Valkyrie’s chin. The metal spikes sticking out of her boot crumple the flaps of metal guarding Agnes’ face, and she’s sent tumbling backwards to the floor, her spell falling apart.

Emily cancels all of her spells and pulls back the blade stuck in the floor, slowly rising to stand, relaxed as Agnes groans and tries to push herself off the floor. Agnes’ arms give way beneath her, and she hits the floor with a grunt before rolling onto her back and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Emily walks over, reaching into her storage pouch and pulling out a healing potion. She arrives beside Agnes and sits down, passing the collapsed woman the potion that she gladly gulps down.

“Urgh,” she groans as she sits up, rubbing her chin. “Damn, that was fast. I didn’t even see you moving at the end.”

“Haha, thanks. Your Iron Valkyrie spell is really cool. Are those wings acting independently, or are you controlling them?”

“It's all me. I’d usually use them as extra weapons or to increase my mobility, but my mind’s the only part of me that can keep up with you now, apparently, so they got relegated to defence.”

“I see. Well, I did promise to help you with your speed issue once I reached third circle, didn’t I?” Emily reminds her with an excited grin.

“Yes, you did,” Agnes responds with a matching expression. “First, though, go deal with your spectators.”

Emily nods and stands up, turning towards her stunned friends.

“Oh, and Emily?” Agnes calls after her, making her pause in her steps. “You should find a way to reinforce or protect that wire. It’s too obvious a weak point.”

With a smug grin, Emily flicks her wrist. A shimmering silver wire shoots from the empty Claw towards the discarded blade on the floor. The wire extends quickly, travelling unnaturally smoothly for a thin wire with no weight to it. It curls around a hole at the end of the blade before retracting quickly, pulling the blade back into place in its housing.

“I’ve added the option for a magical wire to give extra length, precision, and reparability mid-fight. But, it requires a little more conscious control and adds a trackable magical signature to the blade, so I don’t use it by default.”

She turns away as Agnes nods thoughtfully, approaching her friends.

“Well done on reaching third circle,” Enzo says enviously as she gets closer.

“Congrats!” Dante joins in with a cheery grin.

“Thanks,” Emily says before turning her attention away from the two boys towards her other friends. “So, do you see what Ivor meant now?”

Tom, Hester, and Juliana all nod, conceding her point.

“Fair play. That was terrifying. How did you move so fast?” Hester asks with a thoughtful gaze, bringing a smile to Emily’s face.

She got over the shock and went straight to trying to understand how I did it. The difference between these siblings just keeps becoming more obvious.

Glancing towards Tom, who’s still staring at her in disbelief, Emily sighs internally.

“I’m already faster than most mages should be thanks to my slightly odd cultivation,” Emily partially lies, unwilling to reveal the existence of machina yet, even to her friends. “And then I enhanced myself with two spells: wind rush, which just affects my leg speed; and lightning body, which affects my whole body’s speed and reflexes.”

“Whoa!” Tom lets out an exclamation. “How many spells can you cast at once?”

“Quite a few,” Emily admits bashfully, not having even considered her multicasting increase since her recent ascension, the use of multiple cores feeling so natural.

“So,” Emily says with a clap, forcing the conversation back on track. “Was that enough to convince you an expedition with just the seven of us is safe?”

“Wait, an expedition?” Enzo cuts in, confused.

“Yes. I want to plan an expedition to go into the depths of The Waters, leaving in a month.”

“I’m in!” Dante says immediately, drawing a chuckle from Emily.

“I thought you might be,” Emily says, looking towards the others pointedly.

“I’m in,” signs Ivor without a doubt.

“Same. I wouldn’t miss a chance to make history,” Enzo adds with a smirk.

“Make history?” Tom asks curiously.

“Yeah. No one’s ever made it much further into The Crystal Waters than we did on our last expedition. If Emily plans on going deeper, we’ll probably be going further than ever before,” Enzo answers with uncharacteristic enthusiasm.

“How come? Haven’t any fourth circle mages gone further?” Hester asks.

“As far as I’m aware, only once. Apparently, near the end of the last war with Morzea, there was a third circle dungeon discovered deep in The Glade and a few of our fourth circle mages went to fight for it. Other than that, they seem to avoid The Glade.”

Emily frowns at Enzo’s answer.

How odd. Are they scared of The Glade or something?

“Cool! If it’s a chance to be included in an important historical event, I’m in!” Tom says cheerfully.

“I can’t let this idiot get himself killed, so I guess I’m coming,” Hester says with a sigh. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure we’ll be fine after your display, Emily. But, knowing him, he’ll walk into the open jaws of a beast if I don’t watch him.”

“Hey!”

Everyone chuckles at her comment, and Emily turns to Juliana, the last member of the group yet to answer.

“I already asked to come with you. I’m not changing my mind. Besides, that was terrifying! How could you two attack each other so fiercely with real weapons? It’s no wonder you always end up with cuts and bruises,” Juliana complains with a frown, making Emily smile.

“Haha. We never aim for vitals, so unless we get really unlucky, we’ll never take more damage than a healing potion and a few days' rest can fix. Now, I still have some stuff to talk to Agnes about, and need some more sparring to get used to my new strength, so how about we meet up at lunch again and go register the expedition together afterwards?”

Everyone nods at her suggestion before wishing her luck and moving to leave the hall.

“Oh! Enzo, Dante,” Emily calls after them before they can leave. “I’m trying to keep my ascension on the down low for now. I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to anyone for a while.”

“Sure.”

“Okay.”

Emily nods and waves them goodbye as the training hall door slides shut. She turns back and approaches Agnes.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Now, let’s talk about this tattoo,” she says with an excited grin.