The area made of wood completely covered the arena.
As if trapping the very space itself, the ground where Yena and Geonseon stood transformed, and the dark ceiling disappeared, revealing the sky.
A sky filled with deep green.
Instead of an audience, bizarrely intertwined giant trees grew unafraid of the sky, and the spiritual power imbued in the entire world seeped into Geonseon.
As the spiritual power enveloped him like a storm, Geonseon, once a Level 4 Sorcerer, now radiated the aura of a Level 2 Sorcerer.
“Ah, ha ha ha…! This is exhilarating!”
“This place…”
“Branch of Mourak. The First Level Demon that brought disaster to the two kingdoms, a mythical artifact made by perfectly purging Mourak’s soul. This is also the space where Mourak’s demons unfolded.”
Swoosh!!
As Geonseon brandished the Branch of Mourak, the intertwined trees zeroed in on Yena like vines.
Yena dodged it with the unique movements of a Cat Beastman, but just as if it were a joke, hundreds, thousands of trees began to rise.
“Resistance is futile, cat girl. Back then, countless Level 1 Sorcerers rushed in but suffered numerous casualties before they barely managed to purge that ghost. Do you really think you can withstand this?”
“You won’t know until you try, meow.”
“…You’re overstepping your arrogance.”
Then, let’s see you handle it.
“…!”
Boom!!
The trees charged forward.
With every impact, the wooden attacks erupted like bombs, and Yena dodged as much as she could but soon found herself cornered.
Geonseon couldn’t hide his chuckle as he imagined Yena getting hopelessly entangled in the trees.
‘First, I need to educate her mind. Since she talked back so arrogantly, I’ll pull out her tongue…?!’
Creak…
Bang! The trees were flung away.
Hundreds of trees surged toward Yena, but as she murmured something and drew out her dagger, a strange harmony occurred.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just that they were being deflected…
Creak…
‘She’s deflecting them?’
I’ve heard of that ability.
Woohui had mentioned that the cat girl displayed a peculiar ability to effortlessly deflect spells and jewel attacks when facing her.
But that was only against a Level 4 Sorcerer.
With the power of a First Level Demon surrounding her, it was utterly impossible to deflect hundreds, thousands of branches.
‘A Level 6 Sorcerer… No, even a Level 3 Demon wouldn’t be able to do this!’
“What nonsense are you doing?!”
“Huff… huff… huff…”
“It can’t be! I will erase you without a trace!”
Kaboom!
The area shook.
The branches infused with Mourak’s power twisted sharply all at once.
Normally, it would require multiple incantations to use such spells, but here, within Mourak’s domain…
An.
Within the realm, Geonseon was able to activate spells without using verbal incantations.
The sharply transformed wood soon became a storm of blades, densely filling the surrounding space, and Yena’s form disappeared.
No, she did not vanish.
Kagakak!
Kagaang!! Kakang!! Kaang!
It only looked that way because she was rapidly swinging an invisible dagger.
As tens of thousands of trajectories stormed through the air, Geonseon laughed despite feeling a moment of dread.
Surely, that nonsensical counter would be impenetrable.
Given the situation, it was inferred she also possessed a first-grade jewel or spell, but every spell has its limits.
If she kept this up, focusing solely on defense without attacking, she would eventually tire and drop out.
Indeed, those insane trajectories were visibly decreasing.
Foosh!
Consequently, small wounds began to appear on Yena’s body.
“But the Branch of Mourak is famous for its tenacious life force. In the end, it’s you who will fall, foolish girl.”
“……”
“Now it’s over! Let me tear you apart—”
“Spell deployment.”
Woom!
“Absorb. Accumulate. Enhancement.”
Creeeak!
The domain of Mourak was sliced away from space.
■
-…!
-What the?!
-What just happened?
-M-Madness. The realm…
All the audience members were speechless, gazing at the split arena.
As soon as the match began, Geonseon’s domain covered the arena and separated the audience seating from the stage.
To lay down a domain filled with remarkably high-level spells and jewels meant that Geonseon was at least first-grade.
Thus, most of the audience, despite not watching the match, marveled at the domain activated from a first-grade jewel and assumed Yena’s defeat was inevitable.
Even though the ghost Yena summoned was strong, it was still merely third-grade.
There was no way to block a domain from a first-grade jewel.
But…
[Wow]
[Hahahahaha]
[Go Yena]
[???]
[It cut the arena…]
[Split in half ㄷㄷ]
-W-What’s happening…?
It got cut.
The domain that covered the stage split apart along with the black trajectories, and the arena was cleaved in two.
Countless spells and jewels were sliced apart like tofu, and standing amidst them was a single sorcerer, dignified and proud.
“…Hah.”
Yena.
Before her lay Geonseon, who had fallen, and his body was separated just like the arena.
In front of me lay Geonseon, his body separated like an arena.
The trembling sorcerers rushed in to heal him, and Yena looked up at the announcer with a face that seemed like it could collapse at any moment.
The announcer, who had been in a daze, muttered that it made no sense, but then noticed Yena’s gaze and shouted loudly.
“W-winner! The Level 1 sorcerer of the Red Door! It’s Yena!”
Wow, waaaah!!
The audience’s cheers echoed through the arena.
Yena faintly smiled and then collapsed, with recovery sorcerers rushing to her side.
They worked hard to heal her, but Yena showed no signs of getting up.
Looking at her, I felt awe as well.
“I didn’t expect her to have the enhancement of parrying left.”
Yena’s trait of parrying included something called “Counter Enhancement.”
The more she nullified her opponent’s attacks, the stronger she became, so she probably blocked countless attacks within her domain and unleashed them all at once.
Normally, with her level of power, she could easily unleash attacks of that caliber, but since her abilities were sealed, it seemed different this time.
Level 1 powers appear to have their limits.
“It seems like it could be quite dangerous. That level of power…”
[LOL]
[Yena for the win]
[Is that all?]
[How do you beat her?]
[Lily needs to be unsealed, lol]
Indeed, facing Yena with this body might be a bit risky.
The only saving grace was that Yena had currently collapsed, and whether the matches would continue was uncertain.
In reality, seeing her unresponsive despite the continuous healing, the recovery sorcerers were flustered and hurriedly moved her to another location.
There’s a separate recovery room next to the arena, so she’s probably being treated there.
I went down to the athlete waiting room to prepare for the next match, but it seemed there was an issue as the matches weren’t progressing easily.
It seemed the impact of Yena splitting the arena was quite significant.
After waiting for about 30 minutes…
The arena’s manager approached me and greeted me.
A man wearing a black serpent mask.
He had a long sword strapped to his waist, radiating a power akin to a blade.
His name…
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I am Geomhon, the manager of this arena.”
“Oh. Geomhon, nice to meet you.”
An unofficial Level 1 Sorcerer, he was a being more feared than a Level 1 Ghost by the audience.
It seems that since he had been mentioned a lot by others, he finally appeared.
He calmly conveyed his message without emotion.
“Due to the preceding event and the large number of waiting contestants declaring surrender, we’ve decided to cancel the remaining matches and hold the finals immediately.”
“Huh?”
“Please move now to prepare for the finals. The opposing player is waiting.”
“The contestant is waiting.”
[Huh?]
[Wait, is this happening right away?]
[What about Yena?]
[Huh?]
[Did Yena collapse?]
[???]
[Is this actually a sweet deal?]
“Are we fighting Yena the Sorcerer? Or someone else?”
“It’s someone else. Please go check the opponent.”
“Is surrendering allowed? According to Akal the Sorcerer, surrendering can’t be done carelessly.”
“Normally, that’s true.”
Thud.
Geomhon turned his head, which had been facing me, back towards me.
“But right now, it’s an emergency. We decided to allow some leeway for the arena manager and to handle the situation. It would be beneficial for the sorcerers, too.”
“Hmm…”
Well, nobody would want to face someone like me, who could unleash Level 2 Sorcerer’s spiritual power in the body of a Level 6 Sorcerer, or Yena, who split the area she created as a Level 1 Jewel in half.
“So what about Miss Yena? She didn’t declare her surrender.”
“That person has been injured to the point that she can’t participate in the next match. Normally, she’d be disqualified, but we will recognize her achievements and award her a prize that’s nearly equivalent to winning.”
“…Understood. Let’s go.”
I followed Geomhon, resigned to my fate.
I won’t be able to compete against Yena in the finals, but that’s just a secondary reason to persuade her.
The real focus is on checking out Ryuin Aban, who holds the prize and the Iron Soul Sword.
As I approached the stage, just as I had expected, Ryuin Aban was waiting, sword planted into the ground, looking at me while I grasped my hammer like usual.
Ryuin’s face looked somewhat anxious, a stark contrast to the ‘show’ he had previously shown.
He hesitated for a moment, then sent me a message.
“Who are you? Judging by how you’ve made it this far, I doubt you’re Aunt Niaz.”
“I’m Lily…”
“No. Ugh… that’s fine. You probably won’t tell me.”
Sre.
The Iron Soul Sword radiates rough spiritual power.
The battles until now seemed like child’s play compared to the overwhelming spiritual force surpassing Level 1.
I could feel the Iron Soul Sword shivering here.
‘Upon closer inspection, it’s not just shivering…’
“I’ll explain this later. But I have my reasons for doing so!”
“Huh?”
“That’s something you can’t get over there. No, if you hadn’t locked me up in the first place, none of this would have happened!”
“???”
“Just… until the end…! Domain Expansion!”
Kugugugu!!
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