Saint Milis was an expert in magic.
It could be said that, in many ways, he had been the great predecessor of Support Magic.
In the stories and tales of his deeds, there were always mentions of his unparalleled Divine Magic, his Barriers, and his powerful Healing Magic. Although he was primarily remembered as a hero who wielded Ascalon, his abilities as a mage were in no way inferior to his swordsmanship.
Even so, despite being a god when it came to Barrier Magic, Milis found himself confused by the strange and devious techniques of that young woman with reddish-brown hair.
He retreated at full speed as a White Barrier formed around his body, protecting him from whatever Aisha had launched at him this time.
Space distorted.
A spatial rift simply emerged where Milis had been standing.
There was no ordinary explosion.
The space around him fractured, folded, and began collapsing inward, as though several different points in the world were attempting to occupy the same place at the same time.
Milis strengthened his Battle Aura to its absolute limit, but he knew it probably would not be enough.
This was not a force that could be blocked through sheer endurance or Battle Aura alone. His body was being compressed, stretched, and torn apart by something that did not even possess a clear direction.
Outside the distortion, even amid the chaotic battlefield, Aisha watched him with a calm and analytical gaze.
Even when facing someone called the most powerful human in history, she showed no hesitation whatsoever. Her eyes followed Milis's every reaction, studying the Barrier, his regeneration, and the way he attempted to escape the Dimensional Fracture within fractions of a second.
Milis could not help but think how wonderful it would have been if talents like these had been born in his era, under his command.
The young martial swordsman overflowing with talent.
The young mage wearing an enormous suit of battle armor and wielding completely unknown weapons.
And that young magic knight, capable of combining swordsmanship, Support Magic, and spatial manipulation in a way he had never witnessed before.
His heart burned with excitement.
And at the same time, his body was being shattered by the space collapsing around him.
The White Barrier began to break apart.
Cracks spread across its surface. Milis's armor warped in several places. Blood seeped between the plates as parts of his skin and muscles were torn apart by forces coming from different directions.
Even so, the Saint opened his heart, accepting the harsh reality before him within this profaned modern society.
His gaze burned even more fiercely.
Then he roared:
"Burn! Ignite, Ascalon!"
Amid the strange spatial collapse, flames surged forth like a tide.
They poured from Ascalon, passed through the White Barrier, and engulfed everything around him. The fire was not affected by the distortion in the same way as Milis's body.
Instead, it spread through the fractured space, filling the rifts and consuming the mana sustaining Aisha's technique.
Sándor and Alek, who were relatively close, were immediately forced to retreat.
The heat struck them before the flames could even reach them.
A massive explosion erupted from the point where Saint Milis stood.
The impact drove the desert downward and hurled sand, rocks, and light in every direction. Immediately afterward, a pillar of flames erupted toward the sky, rising like a warning that preceded divine punishment.
The flames, initially orange, began to change.
First gold, then white.
Their intensity increased with every passing instant, forcing everyone nearby to retreat as far as possible.
Sándor, Aisha, and Jino realized that something was terribly wrong with that fire, and Aisha in particular sensed an unusual formation of mana.
Until then, despite the difficulties, they had fought Saint Milis with some room for planning. They could combine techniques, create distractions, and use their numerical advantage to prevent him from focusing on a single opponent.
But Milis had not used this ability even once.
Jino retreated and advanced like a flash of light, crossing the battlefield as he watched the flames grow.
He frowned. The sensation of imminent danger was familiar.
Those flames reminded him of the fire of Doomsday, Rygar's blade.
But there was a clear difference.
Doomsday's blue and purple flames seemed to want to consume everything. They were violent, ravenous, and destructive, as though every tongue of fire carried the desire to devour the world around it.
Ascalon's golden and white flames seemed pure.
No less dangerous, but different.
It was as though they existed to extinguish everything they deemed impure.
Jino sent his Battle Aura coursing through his body and sharpened his senses to their absolute limit.
At that exact moment, he emerged from the trance he had fallen into without realizing it.
His eyes widened. Those flames did not affect only the body.
They could influence the mind!
The mere presence of that fire created a strange sense of inferiority, as though resisting Milis's light was inherently wrong. As though any being standing before him should silently accept their own purification.
Jino did not remain there for even another moment, retreating as the flames continued to spread.
The others did the same.
Rudeus recognized the danger through his Eye of Foresight and the sensors of his Magic Armor.
Everyone retreated using their own methods.
Everyone except the most impetuous fighter on that battlefield.
Aisha noticed where Atoferatofe was looking.
"Atofe, don't—!"
The warning came too late.
Atoferatofe laughed maniacally as she shot through the sky like a missile toward Saint Milis.
Her enormous sword was already prepared to cut the enemy in half.
Milis's overwhelming power and strength did not inspire caution in the Immortal Demon King. They merely fueled her battle instincts even further.
"Show me your strength, hero! GWAHAHAHA!"
Atofe flew through the flames without slowing down, and her skin began to burn.
Even so, her smile only grew wider.
"I, the Immortal Demon King Atoferatofe, never retreat before a powerful challenger!"
With her monstrous strength, she swung her greatsword through the air.
The movement caused the air to tremble.
A wave of pressure opened a path before the blade, splitting apart some of the flames and briefly revealing the figure of Saint Milis within the pillar.
Jino's eyes widened.
"Aisha!"
He did not even need to say it. Aisha was already moving.
Her mana spread across the battlefield, attempting to envelop Atoferatofe and remove her from that place through spatial displacement magic.
But it was too late.
From behind the pillar of white flames, Milis's voice rang out clearly:
"Good, demon... I can admire your resolve in the face of death."
The flames converged violently.
All the ambient mana, which until then had been running wild due to the absurd number of spells cast across the battlefield, began gathering around Saint Milis.
Even the remnants of the spells cast by the others were drawn toward Ascalon.
Aisha was stunned.
Her spatial displacement magic was interrupted before it could reach Atofe.
She attempted to reestablish control and failed!
During that brief interaction, she understood the reason. The ambient mana was under Milis's control. Aisha knew that this was theoretically possible.
Conceptually, the world's natural mana could be influenced. Her master had taught her about it.
But how could a living being manipulate the mana of the environment in such a manner? As far as she knew, not even her master could control it so directly.
Before her eyes, the mana of the world gathered within Ascalon's gleaming blade.
Milis swung the sword vertically.
"Divide. Purify, Ascalon!"
Atofe, her eyes shining with excitement, laughed as she struck in the opposite direction.
"GWAHAHAHA—!"
"Fervor of Freedom!"
Then all sound ceased to exist.
For a single instant, the combatants felt a violent force of attraction pulling them toward the source of the attack.
White sand, rocks, and debris were dragged toward the point of collision.
Even the air seemed to disappear.
Then came the shock wave.
BOOOOOOOM!
Ascalon's light tore through the world.
A blade made of pure light crossed the desert, as though it had been wielded by a God who had descended onto the battlefield solely to bring the fight to an end.
Everyone's senses were assaulted.
Their vision turned white, and their hearing vanished beneath the thunderous roar.
The Battle Aura and Mana within their bodies trembled violently. Even Jino had his senses confused by the light permeating the battlefield.
For several moments, the entire environment seemed to be completely under Milis's control.
When the brightness faded, Atoferatofe was no longer there.
There was no body, not even a trace of blood. There were not even enough ashes left to identify.
The Immortal Demon King had been reduced to dust.
Saint Milis ignored the enemy he had just destroyed.
He also ignored the enormous fissure crossing the desert, stretching for kilometers as far as the eye could see.
He looked around.
Ascalon still shone with that white and golden light.
Then he vanished.
Milis crossed the battlefield like a bolt of thunder.
The desert collapsed wherever he passed.
Sand exploded beneath his feet, and the pressure of his advance carved a straight path through the terrain.
In an instant, he was standing before Sándor.
The white and golden flames emerged once again, both from the blade and from deep within the Saint's pupils.
Ascalon was already cutting toward him.
Alek could barely process the situation.
Milis had reduced his grandmother to dust, and now his father, only a few dozen meters away, was about to meet the same fate.
Sándor himself was also unable to react.
When he saw Milis approaching, it felt as though those white flames granted the Saint control over the world itself.
Everything seemed to resonate with the ambient mana and favor Milis.
For Sándor, everything slowed down.
Ascalon approached his body, and he knew he was going to die.
Just as Milis was about to execute him, a hand suddenly grabbed the back of his armor's neck guard.
Surprise and shock appeared in the eyes of both Milis and Sándor as the latter felt himself being pulled away.
Jino Britz crossed the battlefield in an instant.
Fast enough, imperceptible enough. He tore Sándor from the path of the attack at the very last moment.
Jino's eyes were sharp as he observed every detail of that new magic. But Milis's attack was not interrupted.
Just as before, the light, the flames, and the desert ahead were swept away by Ascalon's unrestricted power.
Even after being removed from the attack's main trajectory, Sándor was still struck by its edge. His left arm disappeared, while a large portion of his torso was completely burned and melted away.
His armor fused with his flesh. His bones were exposed for an instant before being consumed by the flames.
The explosion echoed once again.
But in the following instant, Milis lost track of them both.
Jino and Sándor had disappeared.
For a moment, the Saint contemplated what had happened.
As long as that battlefield remained under the effects of his God-level Magic, Fervor of Freedom, none of his opponents should have been capable of moving in such a manner.
The mana of the environment was subordinate to him, while the energy flow of his enemies was being delayed and disrupted.
Their movements should have been slower, and their spells more unstable.
Even so, the Martial God had crossed that obstacle in an instant.
A subtle smile appeared on Milis's face.
His surprise lasted only a moment. He had no intention of stopping because of it. With another advance, he launched himself toward the most difficult and troublesome target on the battlefield.
Rudeus, wearing the Magic Armor, realized where he was going.
The mage shot forward like a projectile, using Explosive Fire Magic as propulsion.
An explosion erupted behind the Armor, launching it forward with enough violence to cause severe internal damage even to its occupant.
Kalman III also advanced to intercept Milis.
But the Saint did not divert his attention.
Aisha retreated at full speed.
She had no idea what that yellow and golden energy permeating the battlefield was.
She only knew that she could no longer use her magic with the same effectiveness, and remaining before Milis without complete control over her mana would be fatal.
She looked back and, to her dismay, Saint Milis was flying directly toward her.
Flames emerged from Ascalon in a golden light. And he was faster than she could run.
Aisha furrowed her brow.
She was about to use her final trump card.
Even beneath that strange yellow energy, she remained confident that she could activate it.
But she needed to do so immediately.
Her mana began to converge.
Aisha stopped retreating and spun around, intending to finish Milis at that exact moment.
With that decisive thought, she swung her short golden sword, Undertow.
"Axiom—!"
At that moment, Milis's voice sounded almost directly above her, carrying an almost amused tone.
"Disturb!"
Aisha felt her mana become chaotic instantly.
The mana flow she had organized came apart. The technique failed for an instant before it could be completed.
A cold sensation ran through her heart as she watched Milis approaching.
The Saint completed his sentence, sounding curious:
"So that was how it worked...?"
Saint Milis was considered the strongest and most talented human who had ever lived.
After observing Disturb Magic several times and being affected by the technique repeatedly, he had learned to reproduce a weaker version of it in the middle of battle.
Normally, that would not have been enough to interrupt the Divine Sorceress.
But Fervor of Freedom was already making it difficult for her to control her magic.
With both effects combined, a single empty instant emerged. An instant in which Aisha was left completely vulnerable.
She understood that her situation was terrible. Even so, she remained expressionless.
In the face of death, she had regrets. After all, she was still far too young to die like this.
As she watched Milis swing the blade covered in golden flames, while something resembling a small sun emerged above Ascalon, Aisha thought about everything she had built.
Her friends, her family, her master.
She clenched her teeth, refusing to let things end this way.
If she could not complete her magic, then she would attempt to deflect the attack with her own sword, even though she knew it was suicide.
Then, suddenly, she felt a powerful impact against her left flank.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her blood brother's enormous Magic Armor.
Without the slightest hint of gentleness, he kicked Aisha out of the attack's trajectory.
Milis slashed regardless of what he saw.
And once again, a burst of flames, light, and energy crossed the Ever-White Desert for kilometers upon kilometers.
The earth trembled, and the sky lit up once again.
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