(The battlefield cracked and trembled under the fading echo of their last exchange—ice and fire dissolving each other in furious harmony. A layer of white mist rolled over the ground as Reyon stood in the midst of it, eyes fixed on the Marshal's sword.)
The blade was beautiful—dangerously so.
Long and narrow, forged with elegant symmetry, and yet...
Covered in thick, translucent ice that shimmered like glass.
Reyon's eyes narrowed. "So that's her sword."
It gleamed with cold brilliance, the frost upon its edge swirling as if alive. His hand twitched near his waist.
(He took a slow breath as the temperature dropped suddenly.)
A pulse of ancient mana spread through the air—serene, yet deadly.
His brows twitched. "That spell… she's casting Ice Age?"
(A dome of unnatural cold descended upon the field.)
White frost laced the soil beneath his boots. Even the wind seemed to falter, frozen in place. The sky dimmed under a sheet of falling frost.
The ground creaked. Trees hundreds of meters away shattered into frozen splinters.
Reyon's cloak stiffened from the forming rime.
"An 8th-circle ice domain… just like the records said." His lips curled, not in a smirk, but pure focus.
(He clenched his fists, letting the crackling heat of his mana gather at his palm.)
"I won't use the Vector Field. Not yet."
He looked forward, past the fog, where Serena's silhouette emerged like a specter—ice swirling around her, boots stepping lightly on frost-coated ground.
"I have to practice control," Reyon muttered, his fingers tightening. "I won't rely on safety nets."
(His right hand flared with scarlet light. He extended it forward.)
"Blaze Wave."
Mana pulsed violently, the Ring of Ferica humming with raw energy as eight σ symbols were instantly layered within the spell.
FWWOOOOOOSH!
An inferno burst forth, its temperature spiking in an instant.
Waves of fire spread outward in a violent arc, burning a bright orange against the white haze. The clash between elements happened midair, fire licking at an invisible wall of frost.
Reyon narrowed his eyes.
(The flame met the ice—two titans colliding, creating a thunderous hiss that shook the earth.)
"Impossible…"
His heart skipped a beat.
(The spells… dissolved each other.)
Steam rose. Neither side held dominance. Both had vanished into vapor.
"I stacked it with max σ through the ring. It should've overwhelmed most 8th-circle spells."
He stepped back slightly, scanning the haze.
"She's stronger than I thought."
(From the left, a shift in steam.)
He blinked once. There.
She moved like a phantom in fog.
The Marshal had vanished from his direct sightline, using the residual steam as cover.
But Reyon's eyes glowed with faint blue light—Vector Eyes, tracking the very flow of mana through the air.
He could see her.
The thin thread of mana trailing behind her footsteps made her position clear.
"Trying to flank me…" he whispered.
(Serena reappeared behind him—her icy blade angled for his back.)
Her face was calm, deadly, her strike silent.
But his lips were already moving.
"Laser."
A beam of pure light erupted from his palm, burning white-hot as it gathered into a single thread of concentrated energy.
A beam that was thousands of degrees—engineered to pierce.
(Fired at point-blank.)
CRAAACK!!
The Marshal gasped.
The laser tore through the sword's defense—her ice shattered upon contact, the beam slipping past it as if nothing stood in its path.
It pierced her shoulder with a hiss of evaporating blood and mana.
"AAAH!" Serena staggered back, groaning in pain, clutching her right side.
She hissed. "This spell…"
(She gritted her teeth, blood staining her pale glove.)
"How could you use that?"
Her eyes were wide now—no longer the calm of a Marshal, but the outrage of a woman bested.
"You were expecting to sneak up on me?" Reyon said quietly, still glowing with residual heat. "How dare you underestimate me."
Serena's teeth clenched. Her body trembled with effort.
"You… better give it your all next time," she snapped.
(She took a step back, and then her mana surged.)
Reyon paused, his fingers twitching. Something was wrong.
The air was changing.
(It wasn't just cold anymore—it was empty.*)
"Wait…" he whispered.
He could feel it. The very absence of heat.
His eyes widened. "You're not seriously casting that, are you?"
(Serena raised her sword, which now hovered above the ground, a vortex of frozen wind swirling around her body.)
Her lips moved.
"Absolute Zero."
(Time slowed.)
A wave of mana burst from her core—a blinding blue explosion of frozen light that spread like wildfire in every direction.
Except this fire froze everything it touched.
(The world died in that instant.)
Trees. Grass. Earth. Air. Clouds.
All of it turned to glass-like ice.
The very ground cracked and shattered, forming an endless tundra of white.
Dozens of miles around them—frozen in a blink.
(A spell used to annihilate entire battalions in a single cast.)
Reyon remembered sea of hellfire as an disastrous spell but it would die down in front of this
Reyon gasped. "This is…"
(The ground beneath him began to seize—his legs locking up from the frost.)
He bit his lip until it bled.
"No choice."
(He thrust both hands forward.)
"Vector Field—Layer One!"
(A glowing dome shimmered into being.)
"Layer Two!"
The mana strained through his arms, veins bulging.
"Layer Three!"
His body screamed from overuse. The Ring of Ferica pulsed erratically.
(Three full layers—each embedded with a different σ matrix to dissipate external force.)
It wasn't enough.
"He concentrated σ on the incoming force reducing the impact in his side"
He gritted his teeth as the Absolute Zero crashed into him.
(The field held—but just barely.)
Ice climbed across the outer barriers, fracturing them like glass.
Even with the £ symbol reinforcing efficiency, the ring trembled.
A sharp stab of pain exploded behind his eyes.
"Arghh!!"
(Blood ran down his nose.)
The backlash from Ferica's ring. Too much power output in too little time.
Still—he moved.
(Through the ice field, limping, clutching his head with one hand and forming a directional vector with the other.)
He reached the Marshal.
(Serena lay face-down, motionless. Her aura—gone.)
She had poured everything into that final spell.
Even an 8th-circle couldn't cast Absolute Zero twice in one day.
"She's unconscious," Reyon mumbled. "Her mana's completely drained."
(He looked behind. The Classers were catching up.)
"You three," he called. "Take her to the headquarters. Guard her cell. She's not to be harmed—but watched closely."
The Classers nodded and quickly carried her away.
(He turned his gaze forward—towards a hilltop still smoking from the earlier fire exchange.)
Julie.
(She stood far away, clutching her arm. Her clothes were torn. Her hair unkempt. Her face—completely blank.)
Commander Phillip knelt beside her, his armor scorched. A shattered artifact lay on the ground—its runes broken.
He had sacrificed his treasured item to shield her from Absolute Zero.
(But it wasn't Phillip she stared at—it was Reyon.)
He walked toward her—unscathed, cloak fluttering, face hidden behind the black-purple dragon mask.
(Julie's lips trembled.)
"…You're… still standing?"
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
(She collapsed to her knees, eyes wide and dead.)
"All of this… everything… and yet…"
(She looked down. Her hands were shaking.)
"…You're just… too far ahead."
(She closed her eyes.)
"Just kill me."
Her voice was hollow.
"I don't want to endure any more humiliation…"
(Reyon stopped in front of her. He looked down.)
"You're forgetting something," he said, his voice quiet. "I never initiated the attack."
(Julie flinched.)
"I never wanted this."
(He knelt, voice soft.)
"But you've tested my patience."
He placed one hand over her shoulder.
"But a few days ago… you didn't break your pact."
(She blinked slowly.)
"So I'll give you a choice."
(He extended his other hand.)
"Form a mana pact. Swear that you'll never again attack the Classers."
"In return… I'll ensure that we eliminate the corrupt nobles—one by one."
(Julie's mouth quivered. Her gaze shook.)
"You'll… do that?"
(He nodded.)
"They won't commit another crime like they did under Berth."
(She hesitated. But she knew the answer already.)
"…Fine."
(He activated a mana seal. She placed her hand within it.)
The pact was made.
He was thinking of killing her but remembered his past life where she saved him once.
(Reyon stood and turned away, the wind catching his cloak as he walked past her.)
He didn't look back.
(Not even once.)