Taken by surprise and with his arms firmly restrained, Demetrius I could do nothing to block Aurola's punch.
But that should not have mattered.
King Demetrius was invulnerable.
At least, that was what practically everyone in the stadium believed…
Everyone except Demetrius himself.
With millimetric precision, Aurola's fist struck the coin that served as the right eye of the elephant-shaped headdress. Because she had been forced to use her left arm, the punch carried less strength than the one she had delivered earlier. Even so, it still contained enough power to knock unconscious—or even kill—a normal opponent.
A single millisecond felt like an entire minute to Aurola. In that suspended instant of uncertainty, the coin shattered under the force of her blow.
Another second passed.
Then a thin streak of blood trickled out from beneath Demetrius's headdress, sliding down past his right eye.
The audience gasped in shock.
Pure astonishment filled the ancient king's wide eyes, yet his broad smile only deepened, revealing unmistakable excitement.
"Fire Pillar," chanted the Indo-Greek king.
A large red magic circle immediately formed beneath both combatants. Aurola instantly understood his intention. She deactivated Earth Armor: Large Hand and stepped out of the circle's radius without hesitation. Demetrius, now freed from her grasp, moved out as well.
Almost in the very moment they cleared the circle, a towering pillar of fire erupted upward, rising at least ten meters into the air.
When the flames finally dissipated, Demetrius spoke.
"Lady—no, Minister Aurola—you have truly amazed us. Very few have understood that the only way to deactivate our History Magic was to aim specifically at that coin. We imagine that all that running was merely a way to make us lower our guard…" the king said, openly praising the Minister of Education.
"No, you are mistaken, King Demetrius," Aurola replied calmly. "If my colleague, the Minister of Defense, Scuro, had been in my place, he would likely have realized it much sooner and set a proper trap for you. He is the true tactical genius of the palace. They may call me the second most intelligent minister, but my intelligence is that of a scholar rather than a strategist."
She paused briefly before continuing.
"I only understood at the very last moment that one of the two coins engraved with your face was the source of your immortality—an option I had dismissed at first. When I had nearly given up and was preparing to launch what I believed would be my final attack in this tournament, I decided to take one last, careful look at them. And that was when I noticed something I had previously overlooked because it was so small."
"Engraved on the coins that replace the false eyes of your headdress, beneath what is clearly your likeness, there is the same inscription on both coins. Naturally, since it is written in a language native to your world, very few people here can read it. One of my principal hobbies—besides practicing and teaching my martial art—is studying as many languages as I can obtain. Not to boast, but I am familiar with practically every language native to this continent."
She inclined her head slightly before continuing.
"Languages from your world, however, are a different matter altogether, due to the obvious scarcity of manuscripts and native speakers—especially considering that the words of heroes are almost always automatically translated. Fortunately, because many Heroe come from eras similar to yours and speak and write your language, documents composed in ancient Greek are not particularly rare. It is one of the few languages from your world that I have been able to study and learn."
"So when I finally noticed the word engraved upon both coins, I was able to read it without much difficulty. It said 'Aniketos,' which you yourself declared to be your title and the name of your magic."
"Of course, that alone was not enough to give me absolute certainty that destroying one of the coins would deactivate your History Magic. After all, when I hurled you headfirst into the arena floor with my full strength, those coins were not even scratched. Moreover, the existence of two identical coins bearing the same inscription meant I could not know whether breaking only one would suffice."
She met his gaze directly.
"But I had no other options. So I took the risk. And fortunately… it seems my gamble paid off," Aurola concluded, her voice carrying unmistakable respect for her opponent.
Demetrius immediately began to applaud.
"Fantastic, truly fantastic. Aurola, you managed to deactivate our invincibility through a combination of knowledge and simple—but always essential—luck. We like that. We truly like that, far more than a cold and methodical strategy."
Even within his joyful tone, there was unmistakable respect for his opponent.
"So it seems only fair that, as a reward for deactivating our History Magic, we explain all of its details to you. As we have already said, this magic renders us—and the clothes we wear—completely invulnerable to any form of damage. However, this remains true only as long as the coin you just destroyed stays intact and in contact with either our clothes or our skin. In reality, the first of those two conditions is the most important, because once created, the coin attaches itself to a location of our choosing on our body or clothing and becomes literally impossible to remove unless we ourselves decide to do so."
He lifted a finger slightly as he continued.
"Furthermore, in order to destroy the coin, any being who intends to break it must consciously and precisely aim at that specific coin and nothing else. Indirect or large-range attacks do not work. However, this magic is not without restrictions. There are three. The first is that we cannot conceal the coin. The second is that we may create only one coin at a time. And the third—and final—restriction is that once the coin has been destroyed, we must wait at least an entire week before creating another. Until it is destroyed, however, it remains in this world indefinitely, without requiring any mana to sustain it."
The ancient king finished his explanation with regal satisfaction.
Aurola's gaze immediately shifted to the other coin on the headdress, the one that remained intact.
"But there are two on your headdress," she pointed out.
"That one is an ordinary coin," Demetrius replied lightly. "We had our finest craftsman mint it to be identical to the one created by our magic, precisely to confuse our opponents."
"I see… so it truly was luck that allowed me to succeed. There was literally a fifty-percent chance that I might have struck the fake coin instead, in which case nothing would have happened. That would have convinced me that my theory was wrong, effectively sealing my eventual defeat…" Aurola admitted, a trace of embarrassment coloring her voice.
"Minister Aurola, you need not trouble yourself," Demetrius said warmly. "As we believe we have already made clear, we consider luck to be a quality nearly as important as intelligence in combat…"
A wide smile of excitement spread across his face.
"But now that we have finished rewarding you for overcoming our Historyl Magic, shall we resume our match, Minister Aurola?" His voice now carried an unmistakable thrill.
The Indo-Greek king began walking forward, gradually closing the distance he himself had created.
To Lucas's surprise, a grin—one he was accustomed to seeing on Aislyra's face—now bloomed on the face of the Minister of Education. Aurola answered with equal enthusiasm.
"Certainly, King Demetrius. I have been waiting for this moment, because for me, the real match begins now!"
She cracked her knuckles as she stepped forward to meet him.
Now standing face to face, locking eyes, the two combatants entered the final phase of their prolonged battle. Only about three minutes remained on the clock.
This time, Demetrius attempted to strike with his mace of pure electricity using only one hand. As expected, Aurola seized his arm immediately. In a single fluid motion, she began lifting his entire body off the ground before slamming him downward, once again turning his own strength against him.
But before his body could complete its arc, the electric club vanished from his right hand. At a speed so great that the sound reached her ears only after his lips had already closed, he cast:
"Lightning Blade."
Aurola instantly understood what was coming and immediately released her opponent.
In the next instant, his forearm became enveloped in electricity, which solidified into the shape of a blade, razor-sharp along both edges.
When Demetrius had used Electric Tusk, most of the energy had been concentrated at the tip, as its primary purpose was penetration. In that case, Aurola could have simply reinforced her hand with Titanium Armor. But this spell was different. The king's entire forearm had transformed into an impossibly sharp blade of lightning—so sharp that even a hand protected by a dense layer of titanium would have been cleanly severed upon contact with the plasma edge.
In practice, the revelation of that spell had made her grabs—and consequently her throws—far more difficult to execute.
The minister immediately spun around. After being thrown, Demetrius had landed gracefully behind her.
"Lightning Blade," her opponent repeated, and his other forearm was likewise enveloped in a razor-sharp blade of crackling electricity.
Yet even with her primary weapon effectively sealed so close to the end of the match, the grin on Aurola's face did not fade. She looked like an entirely different person from the woman who, only moments earlier, had believed her defeat to be inevitable.
"Titanium Armor: Hands," she chanted, coating both hands in that pale, lightweight, yet extraordinarily durable metal. If she could no longer depend on her grabs and throws, then she would simply beat her opponent down directly—now that he could finally be harmed.
Demetrius moved first.
With blinding speed, he launched into a relentless assault, his blade-like arms slicing through the air in rapid succession, each strike aimed at cutting her down. But none of the attacks reached their target. Thanks to her near-divine reflexes, Aurola deflected every strike with precise, elegant movements of her titanium-covered hands. She took extreme care never to make contact with the sharpened edges of the Lightning Blades. Her movements resembled autumn leaves dancing in a powerful yet refreshing wind.
Even though Aurola had chosen not to rely on her grappling and throws techniques, her fighting style remained rooted in counterattacks. She waited patiently for an opening, observing her opponent's rhythm, searching for the slightest flaw.
However, contrary to her expectations, finding one proved far more difficult than anticipated. Throughout the earlier stages of the match, Demetrius had displayed numerous openings—natural consequences of relying heavily on is invincibility. Now, there were none.
One would think that a king accustomed to fighting within an invincible body would have allowed his defensive discipline to deteriorate, even slightly. Yet Demetrius fought as though a single blow from her could end his life. His guard was tight. His footwork precise. His awareness unwavering.
Still, no warrior was perfect. Sooner or later, even if only for the briefest fraction of a second, an opening would appear.
'Although I hope it happens soon… I am reaching my limit…' Aurola thought.
She had already consumed a significant portion of her mana and physical stamina. And though she had bound her wound tightly with bandages, it was not enough to completely stop the blood loss. Every movement grew heavier. Every breath slightly more strained.
And then, just as she had predicted, the ancient king made a mistake.
It was minuscule—so small and fleeting that it lasted no more than half of a millisecond. It took nearly another full minute of their spectacular dance of blades before she detected it.
The cause was simple: Demetrius was no longer fully accustomed to fighting in a body that could be injured. Even with his formidable skill, that subconscious shift in mindset created the tiniest misalignment in his guard.
Even for an veteran fighter, the opening would have been nonexistent.
But for the master of the Falling Leaf style, it was more than enough.
Her titanium-clad fist crashed into Demetrius's face with overwhelming force.
Had he been a normal opponent, his head would have been torn from his body and hurled into the arena wall. Instead, the king suffered only a shattered nose, a broken jaw, and a mild concussion. Painful, but survivable.
And exactly as Aurola had intended.
The concussion clouded his thoughts for a crucial instant, disrupting his focus. The Lightning Blades flickered and vanished.
In that single decisive moment, Aurola seized his arm and, summoning nearly all of her remaining strength, hurled him violently into the ground.
The impact carved out a large crater—less deep than the one at the beginning of the match, yet still impressive.
And thus, King Demetrius I of Bactria—posthumously known as "the Invincible"—was defeated in battle for the first time across both of his lives.