Just as Aslan could channel fairy words into his forging hammer to strike the enemy while destroying their weapons, Estee Lauder in this world had clearly mastered the same technique. Aslan distinctly heard the sound of his shield cracking under the impact.
Because he had forged the shield himself, he could sense every shift and fracture within it.
Adjusting immediately, Aslan tilted the shield, letting the massive hammer slide off its surface before crashing heavily into the ground. The impact left a deep hole where it struck. Aslan raised his eyebrows. The girl's hammer had been inscribed with fairy words that increased its weight.
Of course, Aslan's own forging hammer bore similar inscriptions — though not nearly as potent as the ones in the girl's weapon. It seemed she had compensated for her naturally lesser physical strength with meticulous enhancements.
Then again, Aslan thought wryly, if her strength had been sufficient on its own, she would never have gone to such lengths with her hammer.
He shifted his stance, sword flashing toward Estee Lauder. She quickly dodged behind her enormous forging hammer, planting it vertically to catch the blow. Steel rang against steel as her hammer's handle absorbed the strike. With a deft motion, she drove the weapon into the ground.
The instant the hammer struck, fairy words ignited across the floor. A pulse of power rippled outward, and sharp earthen cones erupted from the ground, lancing toward Aslan.
He smiled faintly at the girl's effort. How should he put it? He too had mastered the fairy language — and had wielded and refined it for more than fifteen hundred years longer than she had.
He raised his right foot and pressed it lightly to the earth. A surge of magic swelled beneath him, inscribing its own lattice of fairy words across the ground.
The stone spikes rushing toward him crumbled at once.
Estee Lauder's eyes widened in shock. That this man — who bore such a striking resemblance to Aslan — could command the fairy language at all was unthinkable. Hadn't the servants of God always disdained the abilities of other intelligent creatures, relying solely on divine blessings?
But she had no time to dwell on the thought. Aslan's next attack followed swiftly, denying her the luxury of hesitation.
Estee Lauder ducked, shrinking her hammer back with a pulse of control. The sword's edge swept harmlessly over her head. In the same motion, she pulled a spear from her pocket and thrust it at Aslan's throat.
She underestimated him.
Aslan simply caught the weapon with one hand, halting its advance with casual ease.
Meanwhile, the smaller mecha units — each powered and guided by a fairy core — circled the Supreme Masterpiece. They carried spatial storage devices shaped like small boxes, which they hurled toward the towering red mecha.
The Supreme Masterpiece, a fusion of dragon soul and machine, possessed depths even Aslan himself had yet to uncover. In many respects it behaved like a human, yet in battle it was even more decisive and exact.
Raising both arms, it transformed its hands into twin machine guns, each ready to unleash streams of magical bullets. Its sensors locked onto the sub-cores of the smaller mechas. After all, their true cores were the fairies within.
The Supreme Masterpiece knew Aslan did not wish to kill either the girl or her fairies. It aimed accordingly, careful to avoid striking their vital centers.
But before it could fire, the spatial devices erupted in blinding light. They unfolded into lengths of enchanted cloth that whipped outward like living bandages, binding themselves tightly around the Supreme Masterpiece.
The fabric wrapped its cameras and sensors, obscuring its sightlines. Though its magic could normally compensate for such interference, this was no ordinary cloth. Its perception of the battlefield faltered, introducing small but dangerous deviations. And since even a minor miscalculation could kill the fairies, the Supreme Masterpiece was forced to change tactics.
The muzzles vanished. In their place, its hands sparked with electricity.
It struck the ground. Arcs of current raced outward in a web, seizing each small mecha and paralyzing the fairies within. One after another, they collapsed with metallic groans.
On the other side, Aslan's duel with Estee Lauder reached its conclusion.
With her spear caught and held fast, Estee Lauder could not break free. Aslan calmly tapped the magical device at his waist, and chains shot forth, winding tightly around her limbs.
He gripped the trailing end and infused it with power. The chains — modeled after the Hero King's Chain of Heaven — lacked the original's divine potency, but they still weakened the strength of whatever they bound.
The moment the enchantment took hold, Estee Lauder's knees buckled. She sank heavily to the ground.
-End Chapter-
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