The decisive strike landed—but there was no sound of claws tearing flesh.
Shiomi's body shattered completely, yet he didn't fall. He hung suspended in midair, like a mirror broken into a thousand fragments. From the shards, countless snowflakes scattered outward, weaving together in the air.
Not good.
Wryneck realized too late that he'd been deceived. The one he'd been fighting all along wasn't the Sage himself, but a substitute.
The fragmented body lost all color, turning into transparent shards of ice before contracting into a glowing sphere the size of a fist.
A tremendous surge of Mana erupted in an instant. Wryneck, reacting on pure instinct, threw himself aside with everything he had.
The explosion that followed could have killed in one blow. The blast tore through the icy plain, sending Wryneck tumbling across the ground again and again before he finally stopped. Gasping, he forced himself up, terror flashing through his eyes.
Inherited Defense and Star Lung—one repelled all attacks that weren't fatal, and the other could restore life itself. Together, they made Wryneck believe he was unkillable.
And yet, for the first time, he felt fear.
That kind of single-strike, fatal power—the Sage could replicate it as many times as he wanted. He might dodge once. But twice? Thrice?
What if the next strike came before the wounds from the last had healed? Even the Star Lung's regeneration couldn't keep up forever.
The ground trembled.
Thick layers of snow split open as two long, slender ice dragons burst forth. Shiomi stood calmly between them, looking at Wryneck from afar, his chin slightly raised.
The dragons lunged forward, roaring as they pursued their prey.
Retreat was not an option.
Wryneck spread his arms wide and charged head-on, weaving between the dragons' claws and tails with agile precision. Mana built up in his arms, and beam after beam of light burst forth, piercing the dragons' icy bodies.
But even with holes punched clean through them, the dragons didn't falter. They were constructs of ice—creations of Magecraft. Unless their creator was destroyed, they would never stop. The holes simply refroze as their forms repaired themselves.
So in the end, the Sage had to die.
Wryneck swung his claws outward, slicing through the air. Blades of Mana carved deep gashes into the dragons' bodies, throwing the massive creatures—each more than ten times his size—off balance. They toppled to the sides with thunderous crashes.
Now was his chance.
Wryneck unleashed a barrage of ranged attacks while advancing, closing the gap step by step. Whether this Sage was real or another decoy, he would find out by force.
"No need to test it. I don't have the time to keep making substitutes."
Shiomi's voice reached him just as Wryneck closed in.
Whether true or false, he was close enough. If it was a decoy, he'd destroy it and retreat before another explosion. That was the plan.
He struck upward toward Shiomi's vital point—but his claws froze mid-swing.
Not because he hesitated, but because his arm couldn't move any further.
Shiomi's raised hand had caught the blow, effortlessly stopping it. In the next moment, he twisted his grip and hurled Wryneck aside as though throwing away a rag doll.
Wryneck spun through the air, narrowly avoiding the ice dragons as they converged again. Using one of their bodies as a foothold, he flipped, pushed off, and shot back toward Shiomi.
This time, his twin claws tore through the air in a relentless flurry. Lines of Mana crisscrossed, forming a deadly web of attacks. Against any other Sub-Bell of equal power, he was certain he could have torn them apart.
But he had forgotten—just how fast Shiomi truly was.
Even the eyes of a Sub-Bell couldn't follow his movements. Distracted by the storm of Magecraft, Wryneck had overlooked the overwhelming physical prowess hidden beneath it.
"Hurricane Blizzard."
After sidestepping the assault, Shiomi flicked his sleeve, summoning a storm of wind and snow. The frigid gale and razor-sharp ice shards tore across Wryneck's body like countless blades.
The relentless onslaught left Wryneck frozen in place, and the two ice dragons still lingering above brought their massive feet down together.
Another deafening crash shook the entire Reality Marble.
Silence followed.
Shiomi stood atop a slope, gazing down at the aftermath. This was the first time he had ever used his Reality Marble in actual combat since its completion.
Perhaps his eagerness to see how far the Reality Marble could go had unconsciously turned his fighting style into that of a true Magus.
"Awooo—!!!"
A sharp, piercing howl tore through the clouds. Violet Mana cleaved through the storm like a blade and exploded from below. The frost dragons' massive bodies shattered, their movements growing sluggish.
The Fang Clan were fairies born in beast form—and as their chieftain, Wryneck was a white wolf.
Driven to the brink, he abandoned all restraint and unleashed his final trump card. A compressed sphere of Mana, no larger than his fist, formed in his hand.
Sensing the surging power, Shiomi's expression finally shifted.
That amount of Mana was undeniably on par with a Noble Phantasm—perhaps even carrying a firing velocity rivaling Wryneck's own.
He could have evaded with all his strength, but doing so would show a lack of respect for the battle before him.
Then—
Shiomi raised his left hand and grasped the air. An icy longbow took form within his grip.
"From where my hand reaches, to where my eyes can see."
A slender arrow, also forged from ice, materialized upon the bowstring.
The bowstring drew taut.
Wryneck fired his charged Mana bullet. Shiomi loosed his arrow at the same instant.
"White Night · Ice Blossom』."
The bullet and arrow met across the frozen field.
The seemingly fragile arrow did not shatter under the pressure of the expanding Mana bullet. Instead, it pierced through with unstoppable momentum, tearing apart the roaring, turbulent Mana from within.
The Mana bullet destabilized instantly.
As the arrow pierced through the bullet and sank into Wryneck's chest, the projectile detonated in a chaotic series of explosions.
"This… level…"
Though the arrow had pierced his heart—a fatal wound—Wryneck refused to yield. So long as the Star Lung remained, even his heart could regenerate.
"What level?"
Shiomi descended before him.
Wryneck coughed up blood. "The Star Lung… the Star Lung actually…"
"When I killed the previous Fang Sub-Bell, I already understood the workings of the Star Lung completely." Shiomi pointed a finger at Wryneck's head. "So I know exactly how to temporarily disable it. Do you still wish to continue?"
His Reality Marble inherently suppressed fairies on a conceptual level. Combined with his own power, the moment Wryneck was drawn into it, his defeat had already been sealed.
Unable to respond, Wryneck felt his lungs freeze solid. Each breath came with unbearable pain. He was alive only because his organs hadn't been fully destroyed.
A brilliant light surged within the Reality Marble.
When Wryneck's vision cleared, the familiar plain where the Fang Fairies had gathered reappeared before his eyes.
"…As expected of the Sage. I've lost."
He lay prostrate on the ground—partly because he lacked the strength to rise, but more than that, because he was utterly convinced by the overwhelming might of the man before him.