~ Support & Read 10 Advanced Chapters on my Patreon
<><><><>
The stinging pain in her hand didn't make Alice flinch. She just silently locked onto Touko's direction.
The moment Banquet of the Night was activated.
A pale white mist slowly drifted out from her shawl. Under the cover of the mist that filled the air from the evaporated snow, the white mist naturally blended into the environment.
The gaseous familiar known as the Rose Hound silently drifted towards Touko. To avoid being discovered, the Rose Hound, relying on the natural wind pressure, slowly advanced.
But Alice didn't stop there.
Underground, a giant familiar known as the Giant of the Bridge began to chant the song that would awaken its functions.
Like a reenactment of last night, the snow that had been evaporated by Touko's fire magic had met the summoning conditions of the Giant of the Bridge. The huge stone giant was now slowly moving towards Touko underground.
A flask containing a green solution appeared in her hand.
Pop—!
Alice gently uncorked the bottle. The sound was extremely faint. At least, Touko, who was arguing with Aoko, didn't notice it. A green mist began to mix with the thick white mist.
The last of the three great secret treasures, the Oil of the Moon, had also been deployed by Alice.
The Giant of the Bridge, slowly approaching from underground, the Rose Hound, filling the air, and the Oil of the Moon, preparing to open a fairy tale barrier to provide a huge amount of magical support for the two great secret treasures.
All she had to do was wait for the familiars to reach their designated positions, and Touko would be facing the ultimate attack of the three great secret treasures.
The witch, adhering to the principle of 'if I don't strike, I strike to kill,' silently watched the mist before her, waiting for the right moment.
...
Touko smiled, watching the grave-faced Aoko, her smile like that of a venomous snake, exuding an inexplicable chill.
The restrictions of the magic were too great? What a joke. Not to mention the Aozaki family's grandfather, Haru, a fellow True Magic User, had, before her very eyes, used his magic without any restraint to create all sorts of supplies.
The Fourth Magic—creation from nothing—was like a convenient tool for life in his hands.
Touko, who had witnessed 'True Magic' with her own eyes, was certain that the restrictions of the magic were extremely light—and might even violate the principle of equivalent exchange.
The equation of magic equaling a miracle was deeply ingrained in the magical world. A miracle with a huge price, what kind of miracle was that?
'Could it be that the old geezer, to protect the novice Aoko, had placed some restrictions on her? No, that's not right. That old geezer wouldn't feel a shred of pity even if the Aozaki family went extinct. So, the problem must be with Aoko.' Touko's brow was tightly furrowed as she thought to herself.
'Fear of the magic harming normal people, and self-restriction? That kind of mental trauma?'
Touko's face grew even more grave. After a moment's thought, she said, "...You want to stop me from approaching the Root? Then, use your magic to stop me."
Her brownish-red eyes were filled with a deep mockery. Touko crossed her arms and looked in Aoko's direction, her whole body seemingly defenseless.
A blatant provocation. Touko knew that her younger sister would definitely fall for it.
Touko's purpose in returning to Misaki City was to witness the Fifth Magic, which should have been hers. Having been raised as a magic egg for the first half of her life, if she didn't see that magic, she would always have a huge stone pressing down on her heart. To her, it was a great torment.
'Use your magic to stop me?' Hearing this, Aoko's eyelid twitched, and a nameless fire was about to erupt from her heart.
"Fine, I'll grant your wish!" With her words came a sharp, murderous aura.
Starting from her lower abdomen, a surging magical power began to frantically churn in her body. The Magic Crest covering her entire right arm glowed with an azure light.
[—Crest connection, direct current numerology.]
A five-layered magic circle of different sizes suddenly appeared on her Magic Crest. In their overlapping and superposition, they rotated at high speed. With the rotation of the magic circles, a mixture of bluish-green arcs of electricity continuously flashed.
[Target acquired!]
Aoko lifted her arm and aimed at the general direction from which Touko's voice had come. The reason it was a general direction was because she believed that the following attack didn't need precise aiming.
[Divine power fill!!!!]
The colorless magical power in her body suddenly turned a deep black. The concept of [Destruction] was implanted into the magical power, compressing the vast magical power in an unconventional way.
If this blow hit, not only Touko, but also the several-hundred-square-meter old school building behind her would be destroyed. It would be a complete and utter destruction, with not even dust remaining!
The high-speed rotating magic circles, under the effect of the filled divine power, seemed to materialize, directly sweeping up the surrounding mist, forming a huge spiral void.
At the end of that void was Touko, who was staring at the black divine power on Aoko's arm with a look of astonishment, her wide eyes as if she had seen something incredible.
"Touko!" For the first time, Aoko called her sister by her name. Her murderous gaze was fixed on her face.
[Magic bullet form—mana contraction—fire!!!!!!]
An almost-shouted cry came from Aoko's mouth. The black divine power formed into a basketball-sized magic bullet and, with her command, it shot out.
The fired magic bullet silently passed through the air. It wasn't that it was silent, but that the medium for sound transmission, 'air,' had been 'destroyed' by the concept contained in the magic bullet.
Without air resistance, the magic bullet was so fast that Touko couldn't even react.
Thwack—!
The magic bullet passed through an invisible barrier, pierced Touko's abdomen, and with the impact, it pierced through the old school building behind her, and then through the mountain range behind the old school building, and flew off into the distance.
Looking at the hole in Touko's abdomen, a look of unshakeable bitterness on her face, it was the guilt of having killed a relative with her own hands.
"...So this is the Aozaki family's magic? That was the power of a divine spirit, wasn't it?" A whisper, as if on the verge of death. Touko, her forehead covered in sweat, struggled to support her broken body and said to Aoko.
Her voice held no resentment, no regret. Touko's face held a look of relief, as if her younger sister had finally grown up.
Seeing this, Aoko's heart inexplicably softened. She told her everything. "That wasn't magic. It was a technique I learned from a grimoire."
Thump—!
Touko's 'corpse' fell to the ground, sending up a spray of snow and sand.
Aoko stood silently in the snow.
"Clap clap!" Two claps suddenly sounded.
"Well done!" An unharmed Touko, clapping her hands, her face ashen, walked out of the old school building under Aoko's 'I've seen a ghost' gaze.
Touko suppressed the deep disappointment in her heart and, looking at the terrified Aoko, who was constantly shaking her head and comparing the corpse and the real Touko, she sighed softly.
"Though it might be a little late to learn now, Aoko, you better remember this well. In a life-or-death battle, whoever uses their trump card first, loses!!!"
Alice, who had been in a state of astonishment, suddenly narrowed her eyes, and her lips curved into a smile.
"I agree!!"
<><><><>
Support & Read 10 Advanced Chapters
https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)