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Johann led Olivia to an area of grassland near the city. Though flat, it was surrounded by a good number of rocky crags and trees. He stopped and turned to Olivia as she hummed to herself.
“Out here, we can make a commotion without bothering anyone. I know I said it once before, but I am most sincerely grateful to you for acquiescing to my unreasonable request.”
“No problem. Like I said, you did buy me lunch,” Olivia said. “By the way, you don’t have to talk so stiffly. It makes me uncomfortable.” She shrugged apologetically.
“I appreciate that,” Johann said at length. “Honestly, I’m not used to having to be so formal. I usually only talk like that with particular people. Now, as I said back at the stall, I’m not from the Imperial Army, whatever Claudia’s suspicions.”
“I don’t suspect you,” Olivia said, straight-faced. “I think you’re probably from Mekia, right?”
Johann felt his heart leap in his chest as Olivia suddenly said the name of his homeland. But he forced the feeling down, keeping his expression cool.
“Why do you say Mekia?”
“The smell.”
“Smell?” Johann echoed. Without thinking, he sniffed himself and caught a faint whiff of perfume.
“Before I joined the Royal Army, I traveled with a human from the Holy Land of Mekia,” Olivia explained. “They smelled a bit like you do.”
Johann couldn’t just accept that. If she could really identify him by smell, she would have to have a nose as good as a wild beast’s.
“You’re very odd,” he said.
“Huh. Anyway, shall we do this? Claudia and Ashton are waiting for me, plus there are other stalls I want to look around.”
“You’re going to eat even more?” Johann asked in disbelief.
“I’m in a growth spurt!” Olivia puffed her chest up, and Johann chuckled.
“You did say that, didn’t you? You really are odd.” With that, he drew the sword at his waist. Olivia mirrored him, drawing her own. Already, black mist was coiling around the tip of the blade.
“There it is...” Johann murmured, “So that’s the famous sword. It’s even more sinister in real life. The perfect weapon for the one they call the Death God.”
Olivia giggled. “Isn’t it great? I’m not giving it to you, no matter how much you stare at it. It’s very, very precious to me.” She held the ebony blade to her breast, like a loving mother cradling her child.
“I’m not interested in depriving anyone of the things they care about,” Johann said. “Now, I know how powerful you are, so you’ll forgive me for not going easy on you.”
“Sure. You know I’ll go easy on you,” Olivia said. With that, Johann kicked off the ground. Olivia didn’t raise her sword, nor did she shift into a fighting stance.
She must be confident she can respond to anything I hit her with... he thought. All right, I won’t hold back. Keeping close to the ground, he shot past her, thrusting up with his sword. Its thin blade allowed him to strike lightning fast. Olivia twisted to one side to dodge it, then channeled the angular momentum into a strike of her own. Johann evaded by drawing back. Then he stepped in again to unleash his favored technique: a chaotic flurry of piercing blows. He wanted to pin Olivia down before she could move again.
Zephyr couldn’t have been more accurate when he described her sword work as something out of a nightmare. I didn’t expect there to be such a gulf between her abilities and mine. Next to her, I might as well be a child with a practice sword.
Olivia’s movements were ever-changing and impossible to pin down. It was growing harder for Johann to catch his breath. He hadn’t been soaked in sweat like this in any battle in recent memory. Now, it was all he could do to hold Olivia off. He couldn’t find a single opening to attack, even though he’d used magecraft on himself to enhance his physical capability.
Olivia, on the other hand, was the very picture of calm. Despite how much she’d moved, there wasn’t a drop of sweat on her. As if to add insult to injury, she wore a disconcertingly alluring smile. It was clear that, just as she’d declared, she was going easy on him.
She is dangerous after all, he thought. Sorry, Olivia, but I’m going to break your sword arm. He leapt back, and as he did so, clicked his fingers. Just as a little patch of flame ignited on Olivia’s right arm, something inconceivable happened. Olivia seemed to vanish before reappearing in the same instant a little way off. She’d dodged the flames.
“What?!” Johann cried. The instant his feet hit the ground he clicked his finger again, then again. Every time, Olivia wove like a dancer to evade the fire. Johann had never before met anyone who could dodge this attack. For the first time, he felt fear stir within him.
“Hey, is that—” Olivia began, but Johann ignored her. He poured all of his power into his Blazelight mage circle until it glowed like a furnace. Then he swept his left arm in front of him. A row of flaming pillars burst up from the ground, surrounding Olivia in a ring of fire.
“Huh...” Olivia gazed at the ring with great interest. She didn’t seem afraid at all.
You’re even more dangerous than I thought. It’s going to get me in hot water, but if I don’t put an end to you here, I’ll never get another chance. Know that I bear you no ill will. This is to build a shining future for the Holy Land of Mekia, and for the seraph. Johann pushed away the image of Olivia’s smiling face that appeared in his mind, squeezing his left hand shut. The flames writhed as the ring contracted, engulfing Olivia in the raging inferno.
It’s over... Johann thought, turning from the furious blaze and beginning to walk away. The news of Olivia’s death would undoubtedly give the Imperial Army its momentum back. He still wanted to believe he’d made the right decision, but he knew if nothing else he had gone against Sofitia’s orders. He was wracking his brain for how to explain himself when a voice came from behind him.
“Hey, that was magecraft, right?” That voice should never have spoken again. Johann whirled around and saw Olivia, swathed in rainbow light, stepping coolly out from the roiling flames.
“It can’t be! You’re a mage too?!” he gasped.
“Huh? I’m not a mage.”
“Then what’s that light around you?!” Johann demanded, brandishing his finger at her. It had to be the light that had protected her from the Blazelight Vortex. If not, she’d be a pile of ashes by now.
Olivia looked at her own body. “I’m doing magic, not magecraft,” she said lightly.
“Magic?! What the hell is magic?!” The phenomenon he saw in front of him could surely only be caused by some kind of magecraft. But Olivia insisted that it wasn’t. Johann had never even come across this magic that she was talking about. Sofitia’s words to him flashed through his mind. A woman’s intuition.
“You don’t know it?” Olivia asked.
“Of course I don’t!”
“Okay, just for you, I’ll show you so that you understand. Seeing as you bought me lunch.” With that, the light around her body vanished. Johann stared at her, waiting with bated breath for what she’d do next. Olivia raised a finger.
Huh? What’s that sound? Johann’s ears picked up a faint sound like the air was quivering. At the same time, tiny specks of light appeared around them, so many it was impossible to count them all, and all converging around Olivia’s finger. Little by little, they grew into one ball of light about the size of her fist.
“Here I go, okay?” she said, then flicked her arm to release the ball of light. It flew with terrifying speed, skimming past Johann’s cheek. Almost simultaneously, he was hit by a wave of force and heat, as though a lightning bolt had struck the ground behind him. Covering his face with his arm, he turned around and saw one of the rocky crags had been reduced to scattered dust with no trace of its original form.
“That’s magic,” Olivia indifferently as Johann stared, dumbfounded.
“I-Impossible! Raising that kind of power would drain all the mana in your body! For a mage, that means instant death! Don’t you understand that?!”
But even as he shouted it, Johann heard the contradiction in his words. Even Lara, who had vast reserves of mana, couldn’t release enough to destroy a crag of such monstrous size. Yet Olivia was standing in front of him, perfectly relaxed.
“I told you, I’m not a mage. Though from what you’ve said, it sounds like we’ll both die if we run out of mana. That’s why I draw in magical essence from the air to keep my mana from running out.”
“You keep your mana from running out? What is this magical essence?”
“You ask a lot of questions. You saw the blue lights before, right? That was the magical essence.”
“Th-That?! I’ve never heard of it before! All a mage has is their own mana!” Johann shouted, his voice cracking.
Olivia nodded a few times as though she’d worked something out. “Now that you mention it, long ago Z told me there were people out there who use cheap tricks.”
“You’re...You’re calling magecraft a cheap trick?!” Johann said, reeling. It felt as though Olivia had denied his whole existence.
“I mean, you don’t even know what magical essence is. And that mark on your left hand? I bet unless you use that as a catalyst, you can’t even use magic. You’d be helpless if I cut your arm off.” Olivia laughed, but for Johann, this was no laughing matter. If what Olivia said was true, the threat she posed had just skyrocketed. His power was dependent on mana. Hers was a totally different beast. Just the thought of a barrage of balls of light like the one she’d thrown past him set every hair on his body on end. With such overwhelming power, she could potentially even take on an entire nation on her own. And that was what puzzled him.
“If you have that kind of power, why don’t you attack with it? You could slaughter the whole Imperial Army without breaking a sweat.”
“Z told me never to use it on humans except when my life is in danger,” Olivia said.
“Z...” Johann repeated. “You said that name before. Is it this Z that taught you sorcery or whatever this is?”
“Yeah. Not just magic, but swordcraft and all kinds of other things. Z’s amazing. It knows everything,” Olivia said with real pride in her voice. It sounded like she had the deepest respect for this Z person.
“Z sounds like a good master.”
“Hmm. I wouldn’t call Z my master...” Olivia said. “Hey, do you want to keep going? I’m fine either way.”
“No, let’s leave things here. Like I said to Claudia before, I can’t beat you, no matter what I do—and you owls don’t do anything stupid!” he yelled for the owls who lay in wait around them. Zephyr stepped out from the shadow of one of the crags, his face pale, and immediately nodded.
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