"Hmm," Ard kept thinking inside the scorching pillar of fire. He looked out and saw almost all of his friends screaming with worry. Then he turned to see Edmund cheering proudly and the spectators yelling encouragement. Finally, he decided,
"Ah, to hell with it. My main goal is to live a happy, peaceful, and quiet life until I'm old, so to hell with everything else," Ard muttered to myself.
He immediately raised his finger. All the fire in the pillar seemed to move, gathering at the tip of his index finger, forming a giant fireball.
Edmund, who had been cheering, immediately turned pale and grew even paler when he saw the massive fireball at the tip of Ard's finger. The atmosphere in the arena instantly went silent. Brylee, who was in the audience and had previously been yelling loudly, suddenly fell silent.
"Swoooosh," suddenly the fireball, which looked like a sun hovering over Ard's finger, swirled and changed color into a black ball of fire that resembled a black sun. Ard looked at Edmund in front of him, who was pointing at the black sun above his finger.
"Oh, this? It's called Dark Sun. It's one of my magic counters if I'm attacked by the fire element. I absorb it and change the element. Oh, one more thing, what you just released wasn't a Mega Flare, but an ordinary Flare. That's why my Dark Sun is only this big. Want to try it, Your Highness?" Ard asked, mocking him.
"Thud," Edmund fell to the ground, his eyes wide, his mouth agape, and his face deathly pale. Even the entire audience could feel Edmund's terror facing the swirling black sun above Ard's finger.
"Aaaaah," Edmund mumbled, terrified and unable to speak, even though his mouth was wide open.
"Okay, I'm starting," Ard murmured.
Without further ado, Ard threw the Dark Sun toward Edmund, who had collapsed onto the ground. "Gasp," the entire audience was stunned and shocked because the helpless Edmund would surely be annihilated by the slowly approaching Dark Sun. "Aaaaah... aah... h-help... help," Edmund stammered, crawling backward. Tears streamed down his face, and his pants started to get wet.
But when the Dark Sun was extremely close, "whoosh," Ard raised his finger, and the Dark Sun immediately shot up into the sky at high speed. Then "blaaaar," the Dark Sun exploded in the atmosphere, creating a swirling black light like a vortex of clouds. Ard turned to see Edmund, who had fainted and was unconscious. "Hmph," Ard scoffed, smiling contemptuously, then turned to look at the audience.
"Is there anyone else who wants to challenge this trash with 00 status?" Ard asked pointedly, gesturing to himself.
"Me,"
Ard turned and saw Eva stepping into the center of the arena with a terrifying smile. Ard was, of course, completely shocked.
"Wait... I didn't mean you, Princess," Ard said.
"We both know, that only I can match you, so fight me," Eva said, pulling Exelion out of her dimensional box.
"I-I'm sorry if I went too far with your brother. I have no intention of fighting you, Princess," Ard said, backing away, his face turning pale.
"This has nothing to do with the first prince or my brother. This is between us... at the very least, I'm going to make you remember something," Eva said, advancing toward him.
"Damn it... why did it turn out like this... did I make the wrong decision... will I die here... I hope if I die I can start over so I don't make the same mistake," Ard muttered to myself, backing away.
Ard kept backing up and backing up until, "thump," his back hit the arena wall. Then Ard looked at Eva, who was approaching him with her silver hair fluttering. Suddenly, "shriing," Ard saw Eva as Edith, wearing the Earth military uniform during the world war from his dream, who also had the exact same expression as Eva in front of him.
"Huh... she's... Edith... uh... why am I imagining Eva is Edith from the dream? No time to think, I have to do something," Ard muttered to myself.
Eva stood in front of Ard. She glanced at Alicia's sword hanging at Ard's hip, then she pointed Exelion at Ard's throat.
"Come on, draw your sword," Eva said.
"Um... maybe we should talk first, Princess. How about we have some tea before we duel?" Ard asked.
"Sraaaaaaak," Eva slashed with Exelion. "Waaaaaa," Ard immediately darted to the side, and Exelion dragged along the wall, carving a hole through it. Ard, seeing this, immediately shivered.
"Okay, Princess, you win. I lose... are we done?" Ard asked.
"That's not going to happen," Eva replied, charging forward to attack Ard.
"Shriiing," Eva slashed her sword again. Ard leaped backward to avoid it. He could see Eva was having fun because she was smiling. Ard glanced at Alicia, who looked worried on the edge of the field, then he drew the sword from his hip and prepared himself as he landed.
"So we have to fight, Princess?" Ard asked.
"Yep. I want you to remember something. If hugging won't work, maybe force will," Eva replied, charging forward to attack.
Eva kept attacking Ard, who continuously dodged and backed away without parrying even once.
"Hey... stop running away," Eva yelled.
"I'm scared of you, Princess," Ard replied.
Ard kept backing up, circling the arena. The irritated Eva started to raise her hand, and several magic circles opened, firing white light balls at Ard. Ard deployed his black shield, blocking all the white comet-like light balls. Ard glanced at Edmund lying on the ground. He immediately leaped in front of Edmund and held up his palm.
"Stop, Princess. If you shoot, your brother could die," Ard said.
"Hmm... so what? not a problem," Eva countered.
Instead of backing off, Eva's magic circles increased, and all of them fired comet-like balls, white light spears, and white light tornadoes, all heading towards Ard, who was standing in front of Edmund.
"Oh, boy," Ard muttered, seeing Eva's devastating attack. "I know she's crazy, but not this crazy. If it's like this... I have no choice," Ard muttered to myself.
Ard opened his dimensional box and pulled Exgrandal out. "Shriiing," a single slash created a large black crescent moon of light that swept away all of Eva's attacks. The beam immediately shot toward Eva, who parried it with difficulty and was knocked back. After landing, Eva stared at Ard, her face briefly shocked but quickly returning to its blank expression. Ard immediately and quickly placed Exgrandal back into his dimensional box.
"Hey... what did you just do?" Eva asked.
"Um... nothing, ha ha ha," Ard replied, laughing.
"Don't lie. What did you just do?" Eva insisted, stepping forward toward Ard.
"I didn't do anything... really, Princess, I wouldn't lie to you," Ard replied.
Finally, Eva kept questioning Ard right in his face while Ard continued to deny it. Neither of them noticed that from the high third floor of the academy building, through the window of the Headmaster's office, Galdorf was looking down at the arena, and his face was turning pale.
"Exelion and Exgrandal... both swords from legend have appeared... this means the prophecy is true... we must prepare for the Demon God to terrorize us again," Galdorf muttered to myself.