Here is Sertia’s office.
Usually, a silence would fill this space, but today is a rarity with a guest present.
Not a student, nor a professor, but a guest nonetheless. No other than Sertia herself invited him.
“Ah, welcome! How did it go with what I asked before?”
The owner of the room stood up to greet the visitor. A striking woman with sky-blue hair.
Her name is Freya. A figure known as the Sword Saint, and currently considered the strongest human in the Empire.
Freya nodded slightly and took a seat opposite Sertia.
The response came soon after.
“If it’s about this generation’s Hero, everything is still going smoothly. He’s on par with active knights, you know. He’s fit for field missions, no problem at all.”
“What about the Hero’s starlight?”
“······.”
“Looks like it’s still not ready, huh?”
Sertia let out a sigh as if disappointed.
Ariel still hadn’t awakened his power as a Hero. Sertia thought if he dueled against someone stronger than him, he would break through that barrier, but it hadn’t gone as smoothly as expected.
With many personnel missing from the Empire, the Hero needed to awaken as soon as possible, but the problem was the unknown conditions.
Neither the Hero himself nor even Sertia, who fought alongside the previous Hero, knows.
That’s why they were even more stumped. The Saber mastery was quick, but if the Hero couldn’t awaken his power, it would mean nothing.
“You mentioned you had high hopes for this generation. After all, it’s a generation that has the direct child of the previous Hero Elion.”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t it all just relying on the Hero? Is this the generation you view that depends solely on one superhuman?”
“Not at all.”
Sertia lifted her teacup and took a sip of black tea.
“Of course, I acknowledge the hope placed on the Hero is significant. However, to say the Empire depends entirely on one Hero is incorrect. Just as with every generation before, facing calamities isn’t only the responsibility of one Hero. Just as I stood beside the Hero in the past.”
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Honestly, there’s a student with talent surpassing even the Hero. She reminds me of myself back in my school days.”
Sertia continued reminiscing someone from the second year.
“There are occasionally those with a unique constitution that holds a large amount of mana in their blood. Commonly referred to as Mana-Blood.”
“Was it a girl named Sera? Is she really that impressive?”
“The fact is, Mana-Blood isn’t all that rare. There are definitely others out there with that constitution, but the number that awakens it as a talent is extremely few. Including her, I think there are only two in the Empire?”
“Who is the other one?”
“Who do you think it is?”
Sertia smiled lightly.
There was once a child who awakened Mana-Blood at a young age and achieved legendary feats as a Mage.
That’s why she was interested in Sera.
The past wielder of Mana-Blood had achieved the incredible feat of beheading the Demon King.
“It’s me.”
“······.”
“Does this generation still seem hopeless? I see it otherwise.”
There’s always a genius in every generation.
Sertia didn’t think these individuals of the current generation fell behind those of the past who made great feats.
In fact, she believed they would grow even more.
At least more than herself, who waits for death without doing anything.
*
Sera’s mana amount stands at an impressive 8300, making her one of the standout students in her second year.
But her capability doesn’t merely end there. The measured mana amount is just a superficial figure.
Sera, with her unique Mana-Blood constitution, converts the blood she spills into mana. This amplifies her mana amount, surpassing even the professors at the Academy.
Sera placed a large amount of blood on the scale and turned it into mana.
A massive wave of mana flooded the dueling arena. A storm brewed from pure mana, without any augmentations.
The wave slightly pushed Iria back.
With her mana amplified by her blood, Sera’s total mana amount reached 28000.
That was more than enough to turn a dueling arena into hell.
After dispersing her massive mana, Sera stood in front of Iria.
The voices of the observing crowd became loud and boisterous. Even the referee was astonished. Many had already predicted Sera’s victory, but they didn’t expect her capabilities to be this grand.
And among them, the one most flabbergasted was Iria.
Mana-Blood was the nemesis of monsters, particularly against vampire monsters.
The scent of blood that enveloped the dueling arena stunned Iria’s reason. However, she couldn’t touch it; it would be extremely poisonous to her since she wasn’t human.
Of course, Sera didn’t intend for that to happen, but it made for an even more unfavorable situation for Iria.
For the first time during the duel, Iria furrowed her brows and bit her lips.
“I’m surprised, Iria. I didn’t expect you to be strong enough to overturn such a mana gap.”
“······.”
“So here’s the deal. This is something I didn’t even show to Ariel. To commemorate the time you broke my arm, I’ll show you now.”
Sera formed an Ice Spike with her dispersed mana and held it in her hand, surrounding herself with Blue-Green Wind.
She simultaneously deployed two types of attribute magic. Their aims were different. One for forming a weapon, the other for body acceleration.
“Wind Magic isn’t only for you, you know.”
She knew close combat against Iria might be risky. After all, she’d just underestimated and broken her arm.
However, she couldn’t back down. It was her style to respond by engaging in close combat rather than giving up distance and providing a favorable position for a mage.
It had been a while since they last met as rivals. Sera refused to let this duel end on a light note.
The mana enveloping Sera’s body formed a barrier.
Extreme body reinforcement using mana, a barrier made of mana covering her entire body, and with a sword in hand, she believed she wouldn’t lose in a confrontation against Iria.
At least, that’s how Sera seemed to think.
Holding the Ice Sword with bloodied hands, Sera wished she could respond with her fists as before, but unfortunately, her arm was broken.
“Isn’t it time to finish what we started earlier, huh?”
“······.”
She beckoned with all her might to come at her, but as expected, Iria didn’t fall for it. Instead, she stood there quietly, waiting.
Sera smiled in disbelief. It seemed that Iria’s personality wasn’t the type to be easily provoked.
In the end, Sera decided to take the initiative.
She kicked off the ground hard to leap forward. Sera’s basic physical abilities might be mediocre, but wrapped in massive amounts of mana, that made a difference.
So much so that the ground where she kicked off cracked.
Immediately after, she swung the Ice Spike, putting pressure on Iria. It didn’t matter if she didn’t land a hit. She would keep swinging until she did.
In the dueling arena, surrounded by her mana, Sera’s view was different from regular people’s.
After all, mana is, in the end, a bodily organ as well. Tracking Iria’s movements with human eyes was impossible. Yet, within the dense mana, Sera could read her movements.
Before following her with her eyes, she relied on the vibrations of the surrounding mana to understand her actions.
Under normal circumstances, it would’ve been impossible, but now she could keep up. She was already anticipating Iria’s actions from the subtle vibrations of mana.
Sera viciously pursued Iria, who was retreating.
She was slower than Iria, but after pouring in mana for acceleration a few times, she caught up.
To the eyes of ordinary people, the fight was hardly visible. They could only vaguely perceive there had been several exchanges between the two.
They had to guess that a fierce battle was underway, judging by the occasional crashing sounds and the flashes that erupted between them.
However, from the perspective of a superhuman, things were different.
Sera’s fierce sword strikes were survived by Iria with remarkable movements.
Iria had no proper weapon. Since blocking with bare hands was too risky, she guarded using her legs instead.
That was the origin of the crashing sounds that had been heard a moment ago. The unavoidably flying strikes that Sera dealt were counteracted as Iria lifted her leg to block.
Though Iria hadn’t solely focused on evasion.
Whenever she successfully absorbed Sera’s strikes, she would push with her legs to force Sera back.
Thanks to the enormous strength in her legs, it was enough to send Sera flying.
It only opened a distance that favored the mage, but it also opened potential angles for magical strikes.
ZZZAPP!
When pushed back, Sera unleashed a Lightning Strike toward Iria. That was the flash seen after the crash sound.
Despite how fast Iria was, she couldn’t evade both Sera’s strikes and the Lightning Strike simultaneously.
Thus, Iria unfurled wind and managed to deflect the brunt of it.
The duel had escalated far beyond student levels. Among the gathering crowd, many remained oblivious to what was happening.
Most students felt a wall between themselves and the duelists. It was no more surprising who would win at this point.
However.
“Ugh.”
The seemingly balanced duel was leaning to one side as time passed.
Sera’s movements were slowing down due to her overexertion, with her right arm’s bones shattered.
And Iria didn’t miss out on that gap. When facing Sera, she knew she couldn’t afford to give her any breathing room.
Since Sera was still relatively intact even with a broken arm, this time, she decided to break a rib.
“Creek!”
With sharp winds surrounding her, accelerated Iria threw a punch into Sera’s abdomen. Sera was covered in a barrier, yet the force behind it shattered that barrier.
With a huge impact, the wind’s blades tore into Sera’s body. Deep wounds were inflicted as it pierced through the barrier, and blood fell onto the dueling arena.
Sera now appeared to be severely injured.
Iria hadn’t held back as much as she thought she should have since Sera had kept pace better than expected.
As the only student who had taken Iria’s serious blows and survived, Sera could take pride in that.
Iria asked again.
“Want to keep going?”
No reply returned.
Sera was gasping for breath, drenched in her own blood.
Her body was covered in wounds; a few bones were shattered. She was no longer in a condition to continue fighting.
“Ha······.”
Sera even converted the blood she spilled back into mana and rose once more.
Her body might have been a mess, but the freshly born mana was sharper than ever.
She wrapped herself in the burning mana and directed it into her hands. Her right hand was broken, so this time she resorted to her left hand.
Sera spat blood mixed with mana while engulfed in flames. Iria was strong. Much stronger than Sera had anticipated.
The girl who had appeared small now loomed large in the dueling arena. After hitting each other a few times, Sera realized. Iria was stronger than her.
Although they were fighting in a manner advantageous to Iria, it’d probably be the same regardless.
Sera took a deep breath, deciding to acknowledge Iria as a stronger being.
Then it was simply a matter of measurement.
To gauge how much distance existed between them, she would see how far apart they truly were.
Once again, Sera charged at Iria. For a beaten body, that strike was quite fierce.
Flames erupted high.
And then.
THWACK!
Sera’s left hand broke as she lunged.
Iria countered with a punch, not holding back again. Of course, if she did hold back, Sera’s attack would just hurt her more.
Iria was also being cautious of Sera’s counter. If the difference had been as drastic as with Lucia, she would have outright toyed with her.
That’s why talented humans were so annoying.
“I think it’s better for you to stop now.”
Iria said as she intercepted Sera’s fiery punch head-on.
Wondering why it seemed this child was fighting so desperately over just one duel, she couldn’t understand at all.
Iria grabbed Sera’s flaming fist with her own hand. Since she was exerting strength, she wouldn’t be able to back off now.
“······.”
As Sera was losing consciousness, she gathered all the nearby flames around her. The flames that had spread converged in one place.
She was focusing all her mana into one last shot aimed at Iria.
The blood flowing turned into flames, increasing her firepower. The more she was torn apart, the more intense her firepower grew.
The flames this time were the maximum firepower Sera could muster. Among everything she had shown so far, it was the hottest flame burning before Iria’s eyes.
This was her full power.
Sera compressed all her mana into a single spell with her right hand.
With her left still being held, she aimed the spell at Iria. Pushing her body beyond its limits, Sera felt herself burning.
She exhaled heated breath.
“······You shouldn’t have let your guard down until the end.”
No matter how fast Iria might be, she wouldn’t be able to block this spell.
She couldn’t deflect it with wind, nor block it with mana.
They had aggregated more than enough mana to exceed 30000.
And with Iria holding onto Sera’s left hand, avoiding it would be impossible.
With victory assured, Sera smiled faintly. Just before detonating the condensed flame.
And then.
“If you were up against anyone else, you would have won.”
Iria let out a small sigh.
It wasn’t an empty remark; this flame actually posed a significant threat to her.
If hit directly, it would certainly hurt a lot.
However, before Sera cast her spell, their eyes met first.
“Being close isn’t always an advantage for you.”
The moment Sera locked eyes with Iria, her movements froze. Iria’s mind control is particularly difficult to resist when they are close to each other.
Sera, while still having a strong will, was far too weak to resist in her current state. Just standing there was a miracle.
In the end, Sera’s flame dispersed before reaching Iria.
“Good night.”
Iria whispered to the unconscious Sera.
For her, it had felt like the longest duel ever.
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