Amy's Desperate Battle
Meanwhile, in another part of the gallery, Amy was fighting for her life.
Borrowing the power of the Diamond Armament mode, Zion's combat ability was comparable to that of a master swordsman at the official level. Amy didn't even have time to cast teleportation magic. Zion kept attacking her with sharp, precise strikes.
Seeing Amy's pale, frightened face, Zion felt satisfied and relieved. Armand, which was evaluated as an S-class object even among manufacturers, truly deserved its legendary reputation and value.
'Hard work and effort don't suit royalty,' Zion thought arrogantly. 'Of course, the same goes for natural talent. The reason why the royal family is noble is because of bloodline. And that bloodline is enough to buy both effort and talent from others.'
"Still, you're holding up quite well," Zion said mockingly.
He certainly hadn't expected the battle to last this long. He had thought Amy was just a weak wizard, but her movements were nimble and quick, almost like a trained swordsman.
"Hey, did you prepare thoroughly from a young age?" Zion taunted. "If so, that makes it even sadder. To be beaten by me—someone who never even learned swordsmanship, let alone proper magic training."
"Stop talking nonsense!" Amy shouted angrily. "I will never lose to a spoiled child who only relies on weapons like you!"
Amy gritted her teeth and charged toward Zion with determination.
She was so upset that tears were forming in her eyes. This battle represented the results of ten years of hard work and training. A human who had never truly suffered or worked hard in his entire life should not be able to defeat her with just one magical sword.
Amy used her schema body enhancement ability to the maximum, unleashing a series of distraction tactics and feints. However, Zion changed Armand's form and functions accordingly to counter her.
The reason why afterimages normally occur when things move fast is because the human brain remembers and holds onto images for one-tenth of a second after seeing them.
However, when Armand removed the retinal afterimage effect from Zion's vision, Amy's movements came into his view as clearly as if they were individual frozen frames—like watching a slideshow instead of a video.
Zion stood still for a moment, then suddenly moved at incredible speed. The sword mounted on his gauntlet slashed through the space, barely grazing Amy's collar as she dodged.
Zion himself was not a schema user who had trained his body. However, the Diamond Armament's body coordination ability reproduced the effects of schema perfectly, as if he had trained for years.
'No! I can never admit something like this is fair!' Amy thought desperately.
Amy bit her lip in frustration.
To avoid Zion's attacks, she needed speed that exceeded his cognitive and reaction abilities. But her own schema training hadn't reached that incredible level yet.
'Then...' Amy decided.
Amy activated her spirit zone, expanding her magical awareness.
In this confined space, even against an agile warrior equipped with short-range weapons, she didn't know how well her magic would work. But if direct physical attacks weren't working, changing to a magical strategy was the only way to survive.
'Take this!' Amy thought.
Amy created and spread fireballs in all directions around her. Instead of targeting Zion specifically, it was a tactical move meant to limit his movement and force him into a corner.
'Tsk! How annoying,' Zion thought.
Zion gave up charging forward and retreated backward instead.
There were numerous valuable objects and artwork in the gallery. As long as he had Armand, the other things didn't matter to him personally. But the problem was that most of the items belonged to Uorin, his sister.
'I have to protect these objects for now,' Zion decided.
After reading Zion's emotional state and intentions, Armand stretched out its tentacles in all directions from Zion's body.
As the tentacles clung to the walls and ceiling, Zion's body lifted off the ground and floated in the air.
As the tentacles pulled with tension, Zion's body flew through the air like a flying insect on strings. He swung his sword at tremendous speed, and each fireball split cleanly in two.
Amy snorted with satisfaction at her plan.
'Hmph, does he think he can stop my magic just by cutting it?' she thought.
Even if the fireball's form changed when cut, the heat energy didn't disappear.
As expected, as the split flames surrounded and hit Zion's body, a combustion reaction took place in Armand's organic matter covering him.
However, the charcoal-like burned outer layer of skin simply fell off. It was immediately filled and replaced with new organic matter growing from underneath.
Self-regeneration was one of the greatest strengths of living creatures. The reason The Demonic Sword Armand was ranked as S-class was because it possessed the combined strengths of both metal durability and living tissue regeneration.
Zion, who had successfully blocked all the fireballs, looked down at Amy while floating in the air above her.
"You have a surprisingly hot and fierce personality," Zion said mockingly. "But you won't be able to set up any more tricks like that."
Amy stepped backward and surrounded herself with a mist of fire magic. It wouldn't be able to turn the tide of battle particularly, but there was nothing better than intense heat to block a living creature's approach.
"Hmph, you're trying very hard to look threatening," Zion taunted.
Amy knew the truth too. It was miserable and pathetic that all she could do was improvise desperate tactics.
However, Zion's movements with Armand were completely unpredictable. And even her specialty technique—sniper mode precision shooting—was impossible to use effectively in such a small, confined space.
But the reason Amy didn't give up was because she had seen a glimmer of hope. For some unknown reason, Zion clearly seemed to hate the idea of destroying the objects and artwork in the room.
'These things don't look particularly expensive,' Amy observed with confusion.
It was questionable why he cared so much. But it was the only gap or weakness in the current situation that Amy could exploit.
As an experiment, Amy fired her Fire Strike spell openly and directly at one of the display cases.
As expected, Zion threw himself in the way to block it. A tentacle extending from over his shoulder intercepted the path of the Fire Strike.
A loud popping sound erupted as flames burned the tips of the tentacles.
Amy, who had been thinking about cutting off the tentacles completely, clicked her tongue at their durability, which was much stronger than she had expected.
But her magical assault had only just begun. Amy rotated her target-type spirit zone awareness and fired Fire Strike spells all around the room at different display cases.
Zion swung his tentacles frantically and blocked the attacks one after another. But even Armand's incredible durability had limits when facing continuous assault.
'Fine! Then I'll just catch the wizard directly instead!' Zion decided with frustration.
A tentacle shot out and pressed down hard on the nape of Amy's neck, pushing her backward. Her head hit against the wall with a painful thud. Her mind shook and grew fuzzy for a moment, but she activated her红Eyes ability and immediately tried to reset her focus.
"Keugh, if I can only hold out with something like this..." Amy started to say.
At that moment, a sharp needle suddenly protruded from the tentacle pressed against her neck. It pierced through her throat's skin. As her spirit zone disappeared from the injection, her magic connection was broken.
Zion heard Armand's system voice in his mind as he descended back to the floor.
The human body was like a huge chemical factory with countless reactions. Armand extracted specific hormones from Zion's own body and manufactured its own custom nerve-stabilizing tranquilizer substance.
Amy couldn't fight against her increasingly drowsy mind.
'Damn it...! What kind of sword can do something like this?' she thought in despair.
She tried to activate her Red Eyes ability, but she couldn't concentrate enough to form a spirit zone. The endless flow of tranquilizers made it impossible. Instead, even more chemicals flooded into her system and began poisoning her liver.
"Heh, as long as you distract and neutralize the wizard, it's all over," Zion said with cruel satisfaction. "Both you and Shirone are the same. What's so special about magic that makes you wizards so arrogant?"
Amy took a deep, shaky breath and looked up at the ceiling. It was difficult to lower her gaze back down because her eyes were rolling back in her head on their own.
"It must be very hard, so why don't you just pass out peacefully?" Zion suggested mockingly. "In the meantime, I'll play with your body however I want. Of course, don't expect to wake up with all your limbs still intact."
"Kuh! Keugh...!" Amy resisted desperately, trying to stay conscious.
"Ha ha ha! It's really quite a spectacle watching you struggle uselessly," Zion laughed. "Do you understand now? Do you see what happens when you dare to touch or oppose the royal family?"
Amy squeezed out every bit of remaining strength to try activating her Red Eyes ability one more time.
"Do you really think that will work?" Zion snorted.
He knew Amy couldn't get into the spirit zone state anyway with all those tranquilizers in her system.
But in the next moment, something amazing and unexpected happened. A small lump of flame suddenly appeared and burned in Amy's hand.
Before Zion could organize his thoughts or react, Amy fired the spark directly at one of the shelves with displayed objects.
"Shit! Stop it!" Zion shouted in panic.
As Zion's consciousness and attention focused completely on protecting the shelf, Armand automatically withdrew its tentacles from Amy. The living sword threw its master's body backward to intercept the attack.
Just before the display case would have exploded from impact, Zion managed to position himself to block the way. He held his breath in preparation for the searing heat.
But then the fireball simply vanished uselessly in midair before reaching him.
"What? What just happened?" Zion said with confusion.
It had been one of Jack-O-Lantern's fake spark illusions—a trick flame. Since the spirit creature Jack had its own independent spirit zone separate from Amy's mind, it could cast magic regardless of Amy's current drugged mental state.