Looks like I’ve got to take this seriously—the swagger of a mere Holy Peak night-elf flaps like a crow against a storm, an insult to my crown as the Elf King.
Seeing Di Yue’er step out so openly, divine artifact in hand, Elyar felt a shard of ice in her tea; the audacity grated.
At that thought, Elyar’s eyes sharpened like drawn steel, and her aura rose like a typhoon shouldering the sky.
Wind King—Sever the Sky!
She surged forward; speed snapped the horizon in two. Only a blade of light skimmed Di Yue’er’s waist like moonshine on water.
Terror clamped her chest; that speed was monstrous—bad!
No hesitation—she detonated her full power, turned the blade on herself, and kicked free of Elyar’s lock like a spring uncoiling in the dark.
…
She slipped the strike by a hair, but pain still bloomed like frostburn; even if most of the impact sank into the earth, her ribs rang like bells.
Oh? Ruthless indeed, to cut yourself, Elyar said, voice flat as winter wind.
If I didn’t, one stroke from you would leave me crippled even if I lived. Sigh—an artifact is still an external thing; against a true Divine Realm power, it’s a paper lantern in rain.
Will you continue? Elyar’s tone stayed level, like snow falling. I don’t mind killing a Sacred Realm brat who dares provoke the Elf King.
If I could, I’d bolt like a leaf in a gale. But orders bite; I have to stall you for a little while, Your Majesty.
She shook once; her figure flickered like a candleflame and reappeared before Elyar.
This time she drew on Cold Moon, the artifact’s chill, and barely unfolded a domain of laws. One breath of time, a miser’s span of space—but enough for one strike.
Ice-Sealed World!
Ice-laws froze the world around Elyar, locking wind and fire alike; elements and laws fell silent like a lake under midnight. Di Yue’er thrust Cold Moon, blue and cold, straight toward Elyar’s heart.
Got her!
Joy flared, then faltered—the corner of Elyar’s mouth ticked up, a willow-leaf of mockery.
With such a leaky domain you dare parade it? Wind King—Rend the Void!
Her Wind King Sword flicked upward; a storm made purely of wind-law punched through the ice-laws like a spear through clouds, roaring to the heavens.
It caught Di Yue’er; the blast tossed her dozens of meters, a ragdoll in a squall.
Puh!
Blood splashed like plum blossoms on snow; Di Yue’er dropped and darkness folded her in.
Mm. Littlesky…
Elyar didn’t spare the fainted Di Yue’er a glance; she turned toward Yumigawa Nozomi. Seeing Nozomi steady as a pine, she sheathed the impulse to help.
Better to let her stack experience against a Holy Peak mage—especially with a high elemental spirit at her side, the Aerucia Bird, whose strength rivals the high tier of the Sacred Realm.
…
Oh, so this is a magic domain? Figures—nothing but dark-element here, no stars in this cave. Troublesome.
You’ll only talk like that for a moment!
Haidi’er ground her teeth and gathered the domain’s law-force, tension coiling like a bowstring, and cast.
Dark Death Ray!
Ten black orbs budded above Nozomi like ink-lanterns; they spun into lances of light and crashed downward like hail.
Is that so? I don’t think so. Shield of Darkness!
Nozomi sketched a dark defensive array with a flick, a black sun blooming, and the lasers shattered on it like waves on stone.
Your array craft is impressive—for someone so young!
Haidi’er’s face went slate-dark, but inside, fear and jealousy braided like thorns—fear, that Nozomi could lay a Sacred Realm array at this age; jealousy, that her contracts were a high elemental spirit and an Elf King.
Twelve or thirteen, yet a Spirit Oracle—fate felt crooked to Haidi’er, like a warped beam in a temple.
Why had years of bitter cultivation lost to a girl who hadn’t even begun to bloom?
She’d thought reaching Holy Peak at her age was enough to stand tall. One exchange with Nozomi, and that pride crumbled like dry clay.
No wonder people say: even if your talent and luck shake the heavens, never compare yourself to the Mizumi Clan.
She dropped the last restraint; the strongest spell rose in her chest like a black tide.
Reading her face, Nozomi’s heart stayed calm as a pond. Aer, stall that dark mage for about ten minutes. I need to lay a Divine Realm–level array, or this gets messy.
Chirp!
The Aerucia Bird tilted its head, then shot toward Haidi’er like a blue comet.
Damn it!
Haidi’er had to parry while preparing; under the bird’s claws and wing-blades, her casting slowed like thick mud.
Over ten minutes slid by like sand.
Death-Flashing Thunder!
All law-force in the domain heaped into three bolts above, white-hot and hungry; they tore toward Nozomi, space groaning, and the air froze like glass around them.
Been waiting for that. Reverse-Reflection Array—open!
A black-and-white round array spun into being before Nozomi, a yin-yang mirror, catching the three bolts like fish in a net.
It whirled, drinking their power like a maelstrom—then:
Reflect!
Impossible—agh!
Her own Death-Flashing Thunder hammered Haidi’er; she fell, a broken kite on stone.
In a way, she planted the seed and reaped the storm.
Haa… I’m beat. I need a nap.
With Haidi’er down, the magic domain unraveled like mist. Nozomi sprawled on the Aerucia Bird’s broad, soft back and drifted to sleep.
That Reverse-Reflection Array had hollowed her out; the burn went past her limits like winter through thin cloth.
Oh? So quick a win. No wonder she’s the one I chose.
Watching Yumigawa Nozomi asleep on the Aerucia Bird, Elyar smiled, gentle as moonlight through leaves.
…
