[Ranni, open your eyes… You need to breathe!]
Ranni's eyes shot open, gasping for whatever air she could get, but the earth trap she was in was making that difficult.
Her entire body was encased in stone, like a volcano, with her head being where the peak would be. It was solid stone—no gaps, no leverage. She couldn't move an inch.
Her eyes were watery, each breath thinner than the last.
She couldn't even think about where the voice came from.
She could see someone standing in front of her, trying to pull off the rocks that were jabbing into her neck.
It was Sylvia.
Her hands were pulling on the mana-imbued earth, her own body filled with her mana. Ranni leaned her head back, leaving a tiny gap for Sylvia to dig her fingers into, though this put more pressure on her neck.
"I… can't get it off..!"
Sylvia was trying her best, yet she didn't have the strength. Ken's earth wasn't normal. It was reinforced—like iron pretending to be stone.
"Let me get this."
She heard a familiar voice, one she was relieved to hear.
Shinto had stepped up to the plate, saying,
"Alright, seeing you struggle like this is what I'd expect from a mage… Akari really is just different."
His body shivered when he thought about the tournament, where one kick from Akari was able to win her the match.
Sylvia's eyes narrowed,
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Shinto touched the earth snare for a moment before he froze, slowly turning to face Sylvia with an awkward smile,
"...Nothing?"
Sylvia pinched his side, her voice stern but expression teasing,
"It's not good to have such a prejudiced mindset; you might meet another mage who can punch harder than you."
"Alright, alright, stop that."
Shinto was smiling now, rubbing his side as he activated his soul weapon.
Black sludge began to flow from his arms, covering the rocks that surrounded Ranni's neck. He then asked,
"Sylvia, are you able to use any physical magic? Like earth or anything solid."
"Yeah, I can use Ice magic, why?"
Shinto formed a circle with his hands as he said,
"Make a sphere of ice around this size, I'm gonna connect these rocks to it, and you're gonna launch it at full strength! Great plan, right?"
Sylvia stared at him for a moment before breaking out into a grin, her voice filled with excitement,
"That's an amazing idea! Let's do it! Quickly, hurry up!"
Ranni's eyes were filled with doubt, the voice she heard earlier ringing in her head once more.
[Are they trying to save us or are they playing around…]
It was the voice again. While it reflected what she was feeling, it once again wasn't hers.
Sylvia raised her arms and created a sphere of ice. Since this wasn't an actual spell, she had no need to chant this, nor did it take long to create at all.
Shinto's hands connected the sludge to the sphere as he yelled,
"Fire!!"
Sylvia launched the sphere into the sky, her mana propelling it beyond the clouds.
As planned, the rocks that were pushing into Ranni's neck broke off, flying beyond the clouds.
Ranni took a deep breath,
"Finally… Thank you both."
Shinto grinned as he said,
"No problem… I'm just glad everything went well."
Sylvia smiled as well before realizing,
"Wait… she still can't move—only her head is free…"
"Shit…"
Shinto went back into thought. The only reason the previous plan worked in the first place was that the rocks poking into her neck were the thinnest point. Such a plan wouldn't work on the rest of the trap.
"Watch your profanity, Shinto."
Sylvia poked his side, still waiting for the next plan that flew from his mind.
"My bad…"
Sylvia smiled, glancing up at her Soul Weapon—the scales that floated around her whenever she had it active
"Y'know, I actually made a bet on whether this plan would work…"
"Oh, really? What'd you get?"
His attention had also been brought to the scales, noticing that they were tipped to the emerald side even further.
"My mana capacity just increased… Doesn't seem too useful right now."
Shinto stared at Sylvia for a moment before looking at the earth's snare.
"In that case, cover her in a coat of ice."
"Alright."
Sylvia placed her hands against the rocks covering Ranni, whispering,
"Sorry, things might get a bit cold for you. Just bear with it, okay?"
Ranni nodded, but her mind was elsewhere.
'Who… are you?'
She heard silence.
She'd heard that voice twice now.
It wasn't hers.
She couldn't truly acknowledge it before, as she was suffocating due to the earth snare, but now that she could breathe much easier, she decided to try figuring things out.
[I… am Rain. Your sister.]
'My… sister?!'
**
While Ranni finally caught her first full breath, the battlefield was already shifting.
"Blood lance!"
Akari's hand raised towards Vesper, Ken's snake.
Before she had joined the fight, Evvls was forced to handle it alone.
Its scales were too tough to cut—and the unnatural colors screamed that it had to be venomous.
Xtsy was helping everyone now, not just Evvls—but even with healing, Evvls wasn't sure he'd recover from a single bite.
He had to fight this snake while not getting bitten or hit a single time.
A single hit spelled his end.
But now things were different.
The spear of blood struck the snake from behind. While it did no real damage, its attention was turned away from Evvls.
Akari stood there, a bit surprised by the lack of damage her attack did.
'This… won't be an easy one.'
"Well then… blood daggers!"
Daggers made of hardened blood formed in her hands. She decided to change the structure of the blood weapon to mimic ice magic's structure.
Since ice was essentially hardened water, that structure should be compatible with blood.
"Since when could you use blood magic?!"
Evvls called out as he jabbed his sword into the scales, but instead of piercing the snake, it simply pushed it towards Akari.
Vesper did not try to stop the momentum from this attack. It allowed itself to move forward, opening its jaws to take a bite out of the girl.
"It was the first magic I learned!"
Akari called out as she blocked its fangs with the blood. She could see a dark purple substance entering the daggers as she continued,
"Careful, the fangs are venomous!"
"I know, we need to find a way through these scales…"
Evvls rushed in while Akari was holding the snake back. Thanks to the new structure of her magic, its durability was on a different scale.
While she still couldn't penetrate the scales of the serpent, she could at least defend against its attacks.
"Crimson greatsword!"
Akari called out, her excitement growing with each spell she cast.
"Crimson?"
"Yeah, saying blood every time would get boring, no?"
Evvls slashed at Vesper's tail, with the serpent clashing as if his tail were a blade of its own.
"Are you taking this seriously?"
Evvls asked, his voice full of doubt.
The sword created from blood rose above her head. While it was definitely harder for her to control, its strength was even more enhanced than her daggers were.
Packed to the brim with mana while having the density of ice led to this attack being her most deadly yet.
"Of course I am!"
As she said this, Akari swung the great blade in an executioner's arc.
The blade cleaved through the air with immense speed, causing Vesper to hiss and avoid it.
Yet the blade didn't touch the ground.
Akari grabbed the hilt with two hands, using both her mana-enhanced physical strength and natural control over her magic to halt the attack.
She then swung it towards Vesper's neck, with Evvls swinging from the other side.
"Damn it!"
Evvls groaned as both his and Akari's weapons were blown away.
Vesper, the snake that belonged to Ken, the warden of this prison, was capable of using magic.
However, this wasn't normal magic.
Akari could see that the energy the snake was using wasn't mana.
Instead, it was the same energy that filled the cores that surrounded her heart.
It was Spirit energy.
"Evvls… is that a… spirit?"
Evvls looked dumbfounded at Akari's question, his response coming after some hesitation.
"What… did you think it was?"
"A monster?"
Before Evvls could respond, Vesper had launched a blade of wind towards the two.
The two's eyes widened, but Akari was the first to act.
Akari's greatsword turned into a large shield. Instead of creating a new spell, she decided to simply change the shape of one already made and fill the gaps with mana.
It was a genius move, one that most mages wouldn't have the luxury of thinking about. But since Akari never had a teacher, she could think outside the box like this.
The shield was enough to protect both herself and Evvls from the slash, absorbing the impact with relative ease.
"Uhh, Evvls, give me ideas!"
"Chains, try to restrict its movements."
Akari nodded, the shield transmuting into a spiked chain. She handed one end to Evvls as she ran off to the left of the snake.
Evvls ran the opposite way, the two trying to capture the spirit. The chains wrapped around the serpent multiple times.
Vesper's scales began to glow, the wind breaking the chains in an instant.
Its tail then struck Evvls, his sword, Xtsy, blocking the attack. While the sword didn't waver, the same couldn't be said about his arms.
They throbbed intensely, his grip on his soul weapon loosening before he reaffirmed it, yelling,
"Akari, help me out!"
"Already on it!"
Akari was in the sky, spheres of ice, blood, fire, earth, and wind floating behind her.
After seeing the chains get destroyed, rather than despairing, Akari immediately put a different plan into action.
There was no way this snake could be resistant to everything, so she'd try to hit it with every element she'd seen to this point.
Inside her hands, lightning magic began to circulate.
She didn't fully understand how it worked so she decided to focus on this the most.
As she formed the spell, she launched the different spells towards Vesper, the snake launching waves of wind in response.
The winds coming from the snake were different from wind magic. While she hadn't observed someone use wind magic thoroughly yet, she could see that the effects of getting hit would not be pretty.
Even for her.
The spells clashed, the attacks neutralizing each other. While she couldn't test for any weaknesses, she could at least relieve some pressure from Evvls.
That relief didn't last long though.
Akari suddenly fell out of the sky, her eyes rolled back.
She'd been creating a lightning spell to hit Vesper with, trying to mimic what Ken had done when she was shot. The thing was, Ken hadn't used an actual spell.
What he did was change the nature of his mana to lightning and put said mana into the mold of a gun.
Trying to replicate that without a container would cause her body to become the vessel instead.
Thanks to her being unable to feel pain, she wasn't able to notice herself getting shocked, but luckily, she quickly regained consciousness.
"Akari, what happened?"
Evvls had caught her before she could hit the ground, Vesper chasing after the two.
He continued running as he stared at Akari's dazed eyes.
While she was just shocked alive, she didn't show any signs of discomfort, nor did she seem to understand what happened. Her eyes suddenly lit up.
"Wait… I think I get it…"
Her eyes began bleeding as she jumped out of his arms, using healing magic on herself to heal her body.
Since she hadn't received a fatal wound, she didn't need to use the stronger version. So she simply took a page from Ken's book and changed the nature of her mana.
It was easier said than done.
Lightning magic and healing magic were so different that it was like night and day.
But, that didn't matter to Akari.
Beforehand, her regenerative aura had been her just using healing magic on her entire body, so in a sense, it'd been more similar to a spell.
But now, her mana in itself was changing. Her body could heal as naturally as her mana flowed through it.
This truly was a,
"Regenerative aura!"
Evvls stared at the girl before clashing with Vesper again, calling out,
"Awesome, now could you get your head back into the game? Conqueror's Strength!"
His primary soul weapon had been summoned once more, a light blue, eastern dragon wrapped itself around his torso as the bright light faded away.
"Bite it!"
The dragon roared, its head growing beyond the size of Vesper's head as its jaw widened.
Yet it could never completely close.
Sparks flew off the teeth of the dragon, the scales of Vesper being impenetrable.
"Dismissed…"
"Hissssss"
Evvls jumped back, his soul weapon, Conqueror's Strength, fading away as well.
While he hadn't expected to defeat the spirit with that, he did know that every creature had one weakness.
Its eyes.
Vesper had its eyes gouged out by the fangs of Conqueror's Strength, leaving the serpent effectively blind.
"Lightning beam!"
A beam of light flashed through the courtyard.
*ZRACKKK!!*
Lightning struck Vesper's cheek, the snake's head getting slammed into the ground.
Akari's body was smoking, yet she didn't seem harmed.
Her eyes were bleeding, yet she could still see clearly.
Her lips were shaped into that of an ecstatic grin.
While the lightning temporarily destroyed her body, her regenerative aura was able to bring her back into the fight in moments.
It was the first time she couldn't use a spell without thinking, but…
"Now this is progress!"
The snake, Vesper, a spirit that was controlled by Ken, had finally taken damage.
The scales on the right side of its face had fallen off.
The beam of lightning shot by Akari, using her body as the vessel for unimaginable power, was able to pierce through the defenses of Vesper.