Vol 5. Chapter 30: This Magic Has Muscle!

Vinny’s eyes flickered uncertainly.

Aesphyra had not only seen through his movements. She had even incorporated what Margaret would do into her judgment. Everything had unfolded within her predictions.

The fact that she had foreseen the entire thing was not even the most terrifying part. The most terrifying part was her control over magic.

Leaving aside just how terrifying an affinity with the fire element at the [Shackle-Breaking] level truly was, Aesphyra could release and withdraw it at will. The temperature changed entirely according to her will. Raising it, lowering it—she had done all of that in less than a breath. One breath, all was calm and still. The next, it was a towering sea of flame.

There was a saying that the stronger a person was, the more clearly that person could feel their own weakness. In the past, Vinny might have thought this was indeed very impressive, but he would not have been able to say exactly how impressive it was. Now, however, as an Intermediate Magus, he understood far too well how terrifying a degree of magical control and manipulation that required.

All he could say was that Aesphyra was the fate heroine beyond all dispute. So much so that the geniuses born in the same era as her all seemed ill-fated by comparison. They just had to be born in the same age as her, leaving every trace of brilliance covered over and dimmed.

“Ah, are they finally moving? I was almost falling asleep watching them.”

“Huh? They already exchanged a round? What just happened? Why didn’t I see anything clearly?”

“As expected of Student Aesphyra. She pushed Vinny back so easily.”

Because the exchange between the two of them had been far too fast, lasting only a few breaths, most people had not clearly seen their earlier movements.

Although most people were still in the dark, some had captured the entire thing and seen clearly which side had been stronger in that exchange.

Isatia stood with both arms folded, her gaze fixed on the match field between Vinny and Aesphyra. The slightest, nearly imperceptible furrow appeared between her brows.

She had seen many things from that earlier exchange. Naturally, she could also tell that Vinny had purely been at a disadvantage. Every single one of his actions had been predicted in advance by Aesphyra.

Isatia often trained against Aesphyra on the training field, so of course she knew Aesphyra could not possibly be that simple.

Vinny dusted himself off and stood up again.

He glanced at his damage-taking belt. Although the number had gone up, it had not reached the point where he would be eliminated.

Just now, the fire-element magic Aesphyra had released had not been some especially profound magic. It had only been a fireball spell that could be learned at the Sorcerer realm.

Aesphyra was already going easy on him.

Vinny looked at his own face reflected on the blade’s surface and fell silent.

If the gap was this obvious, then what was he even saying about taking the championship in the Chosen One Granted by God Tournament?

That was simply a joke.

He drew in a deep breath.

Vinny did not choose to summon [Armor Fortress], because not only would it be useless, it would also slow him down.

This was the reason [Armor Fortress] had been eliminated. Its limitations were too great. The male-type [Armor Fortress] was meant for bullying weaklings. It was only useful when bullying weaklings. Against opponents who did not know magic, the male-type [Armor Fortress] truly was an indestructible fortress.

But his opponent was Aesphyra. Under this kind of high-intensity magical bombardment, [Armor Fortress] would be as fragile as paper. Summoning it would instead increase the opponent’s hit rate, properly giving himself a debuff.

Vinny stared fixedly at Aesphyra, watching her every move. The look in his eyes as he gazed at her was also filled with an unusual light, as if he were saying to her, Don’t go easy on me anymore. I want to witness your true strength.

Seeing this, Aesphyra, whether she understood Vinny’s signal or not, curved the corners of her mouth and gave no indication at all.

That one probe had almost gotten him taken down along with it.

Now, Vinny felt that drawing Aesphyra in this training match was actually pretty good. Some problems were better discovered early than discovered only in an actual duel.

Very soon, Vinny’s heart leaped into his throat, because Aesphyra, who had been standing in place just a moment ago, suddenly vanished.

Vinny’s pupils constricted. The sword shadow that seemed to appear out of thin air at his neck layered over itself, throwing out countless phantoms.

Vinny froze for a brief instant.

This was different from every enemy he had ever seen. The experienced Vinny had always been accustomed to observing an enemy’s subtle movements and judging from them whether that enemy had the intention or tendency to attack.

But this time, his danger warning sounded first. Yet Aesphyra had still moved. By the time he reacted and realized Aesphyra had vanished from her original spot, the biting sword edge was already about to overlap with his neck.

Not only that, but in his field of vision, that sharp-edged holy sword had transformed into countless afterimages. Vinny did not know whether it was because her sword-swinging speed was too fast, or because of Aesphyra’s unique sword art, but the trajectory of her attack could not be captured by the naked eye at all.

If he had followed his past experience at a time like this and judged her attack intent and movement trend only by the opponent’s movements, Vinny most likely would already have lost.

There was no trend to Aesphyra’s movements at all. Before she attacked, there had not been the slightest signal. She was not like other people, who would bend their knees slightly and push off from the ground.

She truly seemed to vanish from where she stood out of thin air, then appear behind and to the side of Vinny in the very next instant.

That position was extremely tricky. It was impossible to guard against.

With speed this fast, Margaret did not even have time to release magic. Naturally, helping Vinny was impossible as well.

However, Vinny had one advantage that he did not know could be called an advantage. He did not believe his instincts every time, but when he chose to believe them, he chose the right option every time.

“CLANG, CLANG!!”

Aesphyra’s frost-silver lashes, thin as cicada wings, blinked once. At that moment, her eyes widened slightly.

At the crucial instant, the spear blade that should never have had time to return for defense miraculously changed direction.

The holy sword was less than half an inch from the side of Vinny’s neck. Its biting edge seemed almost ready to graze Vinny’s skin in that instant.

And at that same instant, the spear shaft braced against the incoming sword edge.

Aesphyra was slightly surprised. She had already been prepared to withdraw her strength and lightly place the sword against Vinny’s neck. After that, she would wait for the referee to announce her victory.

The result was something she had not expected.

Logically speaking, Vinny should not even have had room to turn around. How exactly had he done this?

Aesphyra looked down, and her eyes shifted slightly.

Vinny had not turned around. He was still facing forward. It was only that he had both hands behind his back, one hand gripping the end of the ice spear, and at the very last instant, he had forced the spear shaft into position and blocked her sword.

Of course, blocking with a spear in a reverse grip like this made it very difficult to exert force. It definitely could not compare to the ease of exerting force with a sword held normally.

But the problem lay precisely there. Aesphyra had already intended to withdraw her strength. She had never imagined Vinny would still have time to defend.

She had put enough offensive pressure into that strike. The sword shadows changed in a thousand ways, making it impossible to distinguish which sword was real. Among students of the same year, aside from Isatia, no one should have been able to receive this sword.

Yet Vinny had done it.

However, Aesphyra had also observed that Vinny had not reacted in the first instant.

So that was it. He had not been deceived by combat experience. Instead, at the most critical moment, he had made the most correct decision and chosen to trust his instinct?

The corners of Aesphyra’s mouth curved faintly.

It seemed she had still underestimated him.

[Virtue +50.]

[Current Virtue: 11989.]

That said, even so, he could not exert force like this.

Vinny did not want her to go easy on him. This was also within Aesphyra’s expectations. She knew that someone like Vinny would definitely reject the idea of her not using her full strength in the match and going easy on him simply because it was him.

He definitely would not care for that kind of victory. He would even feel that it was insulting him.

The training match was like that. The Chosen One Granted by God Tournament would be the same.

This was also one of the things Aesphyra admired about Vinny.

So Aesphyra had not really held back much in her duel with Vinny either. She also wanted to see, after all these years, just how long Vinny could last under her full-power offensive.

And Vinny had naturally expected Aesphyra to keep exerting strength. He knew that with his hands behind his back, it would be very difficult to exert force. Gritting his teeth, he braced his back against the spear shaft and stomped one foot heavily into the ground, changing his point of leverage from his hands to the ground.

Exerting force this way was equivalent to putting his entire body weight into it.

Oh?

The moment Aesphyra sensed the resistance, she understood Vinny’s leverage technique and wore the trace of a faint smile.

This year, he really had grown quite a bit.

However, even like this, Vinny still looked extremely strained.

Although it was humiliating to say, when he was not transformed into Vanessa, his strength was inferior to Aesphyra’s.

However, this was not a one-on-one duel.

Seeing Vinny gradually lose ground, Margaret did not just stand there watching. She reacted in time and added a buff to Vinny.

[Saint’s Envoy: Intermediate Strength-Source Blessing]

A scorching light covered Vinny. In an instant, he felt the strength in his body multiply and surge. The pressure Aesphyra was transmitting to him rapidly decreased. So he leaned backward, exerting force through the spear shaft like a heavy mountain, and slammed into Aesphyra’s sword blade.

Aesphyra took one step back. She knew Margaret had applied a blessing-type spell from [Saint’s Envoy] to Vinny.

[Saint’s Envoy] was the continent’s number-one healing Spirit Soul, but healing was not its only strength. Its ceiling was extremely high in many areas. For example, [Blessing]-category magic focused mainly on reinforcement was likewise one of [Saint’s Envoy]’s specialties, and it was also a function that other Spirit Souls could not replace.

One could say that the Church of the Dawn had lost the Dawn Saintess for as long as three generations, yet could still stand in the world and still receive the same respect from every faction as it had before. That absolutely could not be separated from the existence of the [Saint’s Envoy] Spirit Soul.

There were simply too many irreplaceable aspects to the [Saint’s Envoy] Spirit Soul. It could forcibly drag the gravely wounded back to the mortal world when they were left with only one breath on the battlefield. Saying it snatched people from Death’s scythe would not be an exaggeration.

It could also bless and strengthen. Its target could be an individual unit with extremely strong combat power, or even an entire army.

It was precisely because the [Saint’s Envoy] Spirit Soul left behind by the Dawn Goddess was so powerful that it had greatly elevated the Church’s status, causing the Church to remain unshakable even now.

In fact, in the era when the Dawn Saintess still existed, the Saintess could even bestow blessings upon weapons, blessing the weapons and equipment of the paladins.

In its prime, the Church of the Dawn had no equal. When striking the demon race and Demon Pillar cultists, it was like a heavy hammer. One blow was enough to shatter the opponent into pieces that could never be put back together no matter how one tried.

Logically speaking, if a force like this were a secular nation, no power would be able to obstruct its expansion.

Yet its leader, the Dawn Saintess, balanced this point very well. As long as the leader of the Church of the Dawn was still the Dawn Saintess, the Church would never possess aggression or offensiveness. It would only step forward and retaliate when all living beings needed it.

Every Dawn Saintess through the generations had followed this very well. They had absolutely never carried out external expansion in the name of the Church.

At this moment, there was only one sentence in Vinny’s heart after receiving the strength-enhancement magic.

This magic has muscle!

Margaret really did have some real substance. The effect of this strength-enhancement blessing magic was very sufficient. Vinny now felt as if his whole body was full of power.

Sure enough, one had to be the recipient of these spells to feel exactly how powerful they were.

Looks like I have to learn some of this too. I can’t put all my points into destructive magic. Wouldn’t that just erase [Saint’s Envoy]’s greatest strength—its functionality?

Vinny leaned back, forcing Aesphyra to retreat, and used the chance to turn around. With a swing of his spear, the spear blade seemed to drag the tail of a silver comet, leaving frost and snow wherever it passed.

[Rimefrost Full-Moon Slash]

Seeing this, Aesphyra neither dodged nor avoided it. Red-lotus flame ignited on the holy sword in her hand, and the terrifying temperature instantly burned the residual frost and snow on the ground into dew.

[Flame Cutting]

“BOOM, BOOM!!”

The spear wrapped in frost collided with the long sword burning with blazing flame. Ice and fire intertwined, producing a massive mana fluctuation.

The field beneath the two of them was scorched and carbonized by raging fire one moment, then frozen over the next.

And between those two powers, the blazing flame was clearly superior.

Of course, Vinny also knew that if this became a competition of raw numbers, he absolutely could not beat Aesphyra. Leaving aside the gap in realm between the two of them, Aesphyra’s affinity with the fire element was [Shackle-Breaking]. And as everyone knew, [Shackle-Breaking] was not a level, but a general term for magical strength that exceeded what crystal balls made with current technology could evaluate.

His affinity with the ice element was only [Excellent]. That [Excellent] was also thanks to the ice elixir Aesphyra had provided.

Yes, the phrase “only [Excellent]” sounded utterly absurd. Before the oppressive presence of the fate heroine, even [Excellent], the ceiling-level affinity that who knew how many people would envy to death, had to be described with “only.”

Fierce waves of heat struck one after another, crashing against the spear blade of [Frostfang] and sweeping over Vinny’s face. Soon, he would not be able to hold on.

But do not forget. Vinny’s [Rimefrost Full-Moon Slash] was granted by [Frostfang].

He himself had not yet released any magic.

A pair of sinister ice-demon masks rapidly formed over Vinny’s cheeks. Carrying [Sixfold Inferno], he was like a fierce ghost from the abyss as he spat an extremely cold fire from his mouth.

[Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame]!