“This sword feels wrong.” Medith’s heart pinched like a cracked bell at the chipped edge; Sip was forged by the Queen and elders, diamond-tough even without magic.

She’d expected at worst a sunburn of scorch marks, not a blade edge crumbling like brittle ice. “What’s the story behind your sword?” Medith asked despite herself.

Robert slapped his chest, forcing tar-dark clots out with a grim thud. He wiped the red from his lips—hurt deep, breath steady like a bellows. “Do I owe you that?”

Medith let it go, frost settling. “I’ve changed my mind. Leave the sword, and I’ll leave you a whole corpse.”

Robert laughed, rough as gravel. Then he shook his head, face split between self-mockery and murder; the failed ambush had stamped the outcome like sealing wax.

Dread cooled in his gut first. On sword and footwork, he couldn’t win—that truth hit within a few exchanges. Medith’s experience ran deep as an old forest.

Worse was the fog of her thoughts—you couldn’t read a leaf. That last cut looked reckless, guard wide open; in truth, it was an ambush from ten directions.

One hot half-step, and he’d have died on the spot. He read her first move, never expected her to pivot midair and cleave back like a hawk.

If not for his snap reaction, chains coiling like iron serpents, he might not have used his Lawbreaking Ability at all. “Medith… you’re fierce. Now I see why the Emperor fears you…”

“But don’t forget me.” His voice beat like a war drum. “I’m not rabble, not the Liberty Army. I’m a Commander of the continent’s strongest force. Come see.”

“Hm?!” Medith startled, body flaring like a rocket, then snapped to Robert in a blink and swung her greatsword down like thunder.

Too late. Robert’s body flickered; a sun-bright golden halo spun like a burning wheel. The air wrung dry in an instant; the ground turned scalding underfoot.

The hot sun seemed summoned, light striking tenfold, white fire draping the peak in a blinding shroud that swallowed stone and sky.

“Medith! Witness the greatest Magic Breaker of the Empire! You can’t leave this field without your Lawbreaking Ability, because… the Emperor’s Radiance never falls—Regido—”

Robert roared. In a heartbeat, all things fell silent; time congealed like sap, like a runner yanked back mid-sprint. The scene turned eerily wrong.

“Hmph. You—aren’t worth my Lawbreaking Ability.” Medith’s words fell—thoom—! boom-boom-boom—! A molten pillar punched skyward like a volcano spear, lighting the firmament.

The heavens boiled open. Within a hundred meters, a doomsday halo unfurled like a crown of ruin.

The sight was terrifying and sublime. Clang— Medith stood at the pillar’s heart, a tidal wall of pressure crashing in; she stayed calm and lifted her greatsword.

She layered it with Annihilation and ate the Magic Breaker’s bite, iron will against frost and flame.

Her blood ran hot today, a brazier stoked. She met many moves head-on, not her usual cold cut for results.

“Yaaah—ha—!” “KRAK-TOOM—!”

Medith roared, swung skyward, and hacked the Magic Breaker Circle sweeping her in two like a storm current. The backlash was savage, a cannon blast.

It hurled Robert out of the circle, flinging him more than ten meters; he skidded at the cliff’s lip, stones spitting like sparks.

But Medith’s sword was done. The blade melted clean through; even the hilt steamed thick like a geyser’s breath.

She flicked Sip away, went bare-handed, winter in her eyes, gaze sharp enough to flay snow.

“Mmm—” Robert wasn’t hurt much; in seconds he stood. Crimson armor wrapped him like volcano skin, molten streams flowing.

The red sword in his fist blazed like a comet. He looked like a god come down to walk the burning earth.