Bang!
With a deafening explosion, the two were forced apart once again.
Yuuki gulped down air in ragged breaths, his gaze locked firmly on Mereoleona across from him. The mineral armor covering his body had shattered so many times he had long since lost count.
Even with recovery magic continuously mending his wounds, waves of pain still surged through him unrelentingly—along with the sharp, burning sting of scorched skin.
"Again!"
Mereoleona looked no less disheveled. Large portions of her clothes were torn, several fresh wounds crisscrossed her body, yet the fiery passion blazing within her showed no sign of cooling down. If anything, it burned even hotter.
The Demon-Dweller Sword's magic-breaking properties were troublesome even for her—an ability that was genuinely difficult to deal with.
But difficult was exactly what made it interesting.
Boom!
Amid a thunderous roar, the two collided once more.
This time, Yuuki immediately felt the pressure intensify. Mereoleona's flame-wreathed fists had grown even more violent, more savage. It was clear—she had already fully adapted to his previous attack patterns.
I can't keep going like this.
Mereoleona wanted to capture him alive. Coupled with her love for fighting strong opponents head-on, that was why she hadn't immediately deployed her Mana Zone.
Yuuki had no such luxury.
He had no interest in indulging her battle lust, nor did he want to hand over the initiative. He needed to break away as soon as possible and leave this strong-mana region behind.
"Spatial Magic—Fallen Angel's Corridor!"
Channeling power through the Demon-Dweller Sword, Yuuki unleashed dozens of magic slashes in one breath, forcibly driving Mereoleona back before shouting the spell's name.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A multitude of spatial gates appeared out of thin air. Yuuki deliberately altered their color with mana, dyeing them an inky black that exuded a dark, ominous glow from within.
They looked like miniature black holes suspended in midair.
"Let's see how you dodge this!"
Yuuki flashed forward, charging toward the nearest spatial gate, deliberately shouting as he moved.
Hearing his voice, Mereoleona paused mid-pursuit. She surveyed the various spatial gates surrounding her—large and small alike—as the flames engulfing her body surged even higher.
"Come on!"
She roared with exhilaration.
With so many spatial gates deployed, she could already guess Yuuki's plan: a full-surround, all-directional assault using spatial transfers.
Combined with that black sword capable of breaking magic, such an attack was more than enough to pose a real threat to her.
And that was exactly what Mereoleona had always sought.
At her current level, further growth was exceedingly difficult. What she needed was pressure—desperation. That was why she spent most of her time in strong-mana regions.
Yuuki's figure disappeared completely into the spatial gate. When he realized Mereoleona hadn't followed him inside, he finally let out a quiet breath of relief.
It seemed his deliberate taunt had worked.
From their intense exchange, Yuuki had already understood something: just as he sought powerful opponents to hone himself, Mereoleona did the same.
They had both been treating each other as whetstones.
The difference was that Mereoleona was stronger. She had deliberately held back, savoring the battle—perhaps convinced that Yuuki couldn't escape anyway.
So she didn't mind playing along.
Having grasped her mindset, Yuuki had deliberately put on the appearance of preparing a full-scale assault, using it as cover to retreat.
"Time to withdraw. Next time we meet, I won't be this battered."
Through the shifting space, Yuuki cast a deep look at Mereoleona standing at the center, her entire body engulfed in blazing flames—then vanished completely into the spatial corridor.
Outside.
Mereoleona waited for a moment, but no attacks came. Instead, all the spatial gates began to shrink.
Seeing this—
"Damn it, he's escaping!"
Her expression changed instantly. She hadn't expected such an overwhelming show of force to be nothing more than a smokescreen for retreat.
Boom—!
In an instant, Mereoleona's aura transformed. An astonishing surge of mana erupted outward, blanketing the surrounding space.
The sheer pressure was so overwhelming that even the normally chaotic, restless mana of the strong-mana region was forcibly suppressed.
Within the area covered by her aura, the natural mana flowing through the air fell completely under her control.
"Mana Zone—Scorching Arms: Rapid Barrage!"
Rumble!
In the blink of an eye, the entire zone was swallowed by crimson flames. Before every spatial gate floating in midair, a flaming fist took shape.
In that split second, every gate—large and small—was struck by a terrifying bombardment of mana. Deafening explosions and blistering heat condensed to their limit, then erupted all at once.
Centered on Mereoleona, a massive crater nearly a hundred meters wide was blasted into existence. The ground turned pitch-black, and every surrounding rock was burned to nothing.
"…He still got away?"
Standing atop the searing ground, heat radiating beneath her feet, Mereoleona stared at the empty surroundings, her expression dark.
Tch.
She'd wanted to play a little longer—who would've thought he'd be this cautious?
"When did someone that strong appear in the Clover Kingdom? Should I head back to the capital early?"
She clicked her tongue irritably, tilting her head as she pondered.
Elsewhere.
Yuuki stepped out of a spatial gate into the valley where he had once devoured Fana's grimoire.
"Cough—cough."
He couldn't help coughing several times as a deep sense of weakness washed over his entire body.
"As expected of Mereoleona… she's terrifyingly strong. If we'd kept fighting, even with Phoenix Feather Robe restoring me, I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up."
He dropped heavily to the ground and activated his recovery magic at full power.
What made Mereoleona truly dangerous wasn't just raw power, but the scorching flames carried with every punch.
She had already refined her magic to the extreme. The temperature of her flames far surpassed ordinary fire magic. Even when Yuuki managed to block her attacks, the burning heat itself was impossible to fully negate.
"Still, the gains this time were huge. After this battle, my increased mana has completely stabilized, and my control over magic feels smoother than ever."
"I also finally figured out the difference between mana reinforcement and mana skin. Next, I can start developing mana skin properly—that's the threshold to stepping into a Mana Zone."
Wrapped in phoenix flames, Yuuki sat quietly, lost in thought.
And then there was something else Mereoleona had mentioned—someone who possessed magic similar to his own.
That, more than anything, piqued Yuuki's interest.
—End of Chapter
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