“Well? What makes you think I can even duel you? Here’s a line— the truly strong don’t scream ‘I’ll kill you.’ When that thought rises like a blade through water, their bodies have already moved.”

Confusion swelled in Alicia like fog at dawn; she couldn’t see how that saying fit the wreck she was in.

Catching her puzzled stare, Ait’s gaze dimmed, his sigh drifting like winter mist.

“In the end, you’re the weak one… eh, whatever. In this world, only one person understands me.”

“What are you even saying?!”

He brushed past her words, his voice flowing like a cold stream across stone.

“Know why you can’t cut that iron pillar? Because you didn’t come at me to kill on your first step. You wasted breath, then time in a fight. In that fight, I gathered all your data; my Cage spun a web and learned you vein by vein. You humans have that old line: know yourself and your enemy, and you don’t bleed in a hundred battles. Right now I’m the one who knows everything, and you… still know nothing.”

Dread pooled first, then thought; Alicia pieced it together like shards of glass. He must’ve been recording her— her moves, her mana, her pulse. But could that be real? With a sliver of observation, he’s immune to her strikes, he reads her mana like lines on a leaf— is that even possible for a living thing?

“Tech’s the strongest partner. That’s my way to fight. Let me think… time should be enough by now. You’re tired, aren’t you?”

“You—?!”

“Don’t be shocked. Your mana’s already parsed. Look under your feet— from your first step here, the earth started decoding your mana. As long as your soles kiss this soil, the parsing won’t stop. Right before you knocked that big guy out, your mana was fully analyzed. From that second, your mana began feeding into our power.”

Alarm hit like a cold wave; Alicia snatched up the Demonblade that had been blasted away. If her mana was truly being drained, she’d black out— and then it wouldn’t just be her in danger; Ling would be dragged into the undertow.

Even a trap that caught her could snag Ling; Ling was tiers stronger, but Alicia couldn’t swear the net wouldn’t close on her too.

“Blueflame Burn!”

The fire dancing on Demonblade had shrunk to embers; Alicia poured mana, and the blaze rose like a blue tide, fiercer than before.

“Oh my, oh my— your mana well’s deeper than I expected. Even after this draw, you can still cast.”

She didn’t waste breath on his chatter. This was a cliff-edge moment; unlike that goat-headed fiend, this threat wasn’t a beast— it was a lattice of machines, a storm of numbers that could drown her.

She fed the blade till the fire burned sky-blue; no gaudy colors needed— blue flame was enough to scorch dawn.

She swung.

Like flicking rain off a blade, the blue fire flung free in an arc, a crescent moon of heat.

It struck the iron pillar. It should’ve chewed through soft metal. Instead, the flame guttered out after a heartbeat or two, and the pillar didn’t tremble.

“No… impossible!”

She knew that fire’s bite; this spit in the face of sense. She drove mana again, flooding the edge.

“Azure Netherfire!”

She swung again.

On a normal day, a ribbon of searing fire would cut open every obstacle ahead. Today, the blade flashed like a cold star— the lingering sparks winked out, and even the ember on the edge vanished.

“Oh my, oh my? Mana finally drained? You had more than I thought— even at max intake, it took this long.”

Alicia stopped hearing him; nausea swirled like a dark lake. Her head swam, her eyelids trembled like moth wings, and Demonblade dragged her wrist like an anchor; lifting it was the limit, much less striking.

“Damn it…”

Frustration cramped first, then breath; powerless, undefended— she was a sheep under the butcher’s shadow. In her whole life, Alicia had never felt this caged.

“Bastard… don’t let me… get the chance… to kill—”

The words broke like a frayed thread. Her body had reached the cliff edge; draining mana gnaws at strength, and she’d held on through a storm— falling now was only natural.

—What comes after I drop? Dragged to a lab? Or turned into ‘modern weaponry’? Alicia’s thought floated like a leaf.

She didn’t know. But a small, bitter comfort rose— at least she’d black out before hitting the ground, so pain wouldn’t bite.

A hand flashed out like a hawk’s swoop and caught her falling body; only her long red hair spilled to the floor, and hair doesn’t feel pain.

“It’s okay. I’m here.”

—See? No pain, just like I thought…

Alicia closed her eyes and let the dark carry her like night tide.