The crowd's cries rose to a fever pitch, yet in the arena's center, only silence existed.
It was silence made of killing intent.
Lancelot's stance was immaculate with Arondight humming with magic power, feeding on the mana already hurled against it.
Grimhild's staff lowered slightly as her expression became an unreadable mask of contempt.
"Come!" He shouted.
He charged first as Grimhild countered with a sharp incantation.
"Wulta Scaides."
A storm of high-pressure water blades erupted, slicing the air with edges sharp enough to cut steel.
Lancelot's blade flashed—each crescent of water burst against Arondight, cleaved as if it were no more than parchment.
But the king's charge slowed for the briefest instant.
Grimhild raised her staff higher.
"Ignolza!"
A wall of glacial ice surged up, encasing him. For a moment the crowd thought the duel ended—until the prison shattered outward, and the shards vaporized in radiant flame.
Lancelot's voice rang out, defiant.
"Emil Dronta Hades!"
"Using my own spell against me?"
His counterspell exploded forth with a plume of flame so hot it burned through the barrier wards above, incinerating even spacetime's fabric into blackened ash.
The crowd screamed as the Archmagi hastily reinforced the wards, trembling under the raw power.
Grimhild's silhouette stood unburned.
Lancelot grinned, pressing his advance.
"Test me further, Witch!"
Grimhild swept her staff across the arena with a voice as sharp as her spell.
"Egnorza."
A constellation of shining stones, refined by her mana, appeared around her and shot forward like meteors.
Lancelot's blade blurred, cutting through them; but the force shook him. Each stone detonated, cracking the marble floor and sending shockwaves through the arena.
"Not enough!" He bellowed through gritted teeth.
The power on Arondight soared violently as the blade was drinking deeply of her magic.
Grimhild's gaze narrowed.
"Then vanish. Drultoh!"
A magic circle appeared on his body in an attempt to banish him, but the king sliced Arondight across the magical blueprint, nullifying it whole.
"Your sorcery only makes me stronger!"
Lancelot roared. "Arondight is a blade that feasts on your magical power! All of your spells are low-grade in comparison! You stand no chance!"
The weapon now shone light so intense that the shadows of the crowd were cast along the arena.
Still, Grimhild did not flinch.
Mana flared in storms around her body.
"Do not confuse my patience with weakness, King."
A dozen mirrors of herself suddenly stepped from her body, each one bearing her face, her poise, and her power.
"Dulgariaz."
The clones raised their own staffs with their voices joining hers as one. Spells cascaded across the arena in a symphony of annihilation.
"Litrunta!" Purple lightning carved the floor.
"Riva Ultora!" Hundreds of wind crescents screamed across the battlefield.
"Imulma!" Icicles rained, freezing the air in glittering death.
"Luralza!" Bolts of lightning struck like executioners' blades.
"I've witnessed this spell before!"
The king vanished in a storm of destruction with his sword flashing as the entire coliseum threatened to collapse.
And then, there was silence.
Through smoke and ruin, Lancelot emerged.
His armor was shattered with blood running down his cheek, but his smile burned brighter than ever.
"How… peculiar… magic at that harmed me?"
"Your magical resistances are no match for what I am."
The Yorgana System constantly elevated Grimhild's magic power throughout the battle.
Whatever Lancelot resisted would eventually be overcome.
Arondight now roared in his grip, bloated with absorbed power.
He raised it high as the weapon thrummed with unbearable radiance.
"If that is the case, allow me to show you Arondight's true power!"
With a roar, he brought the blade down.
The magic of a dozen spells, consumed and magnified threefold, screamed back at Grimhild in a single impossible strike.
"Hm?" Grimhild widened her eyes.
The arena itself quaked as the blow descended in an unstoppable, absolute wave of annihilation.
The Witch of Destruction stood before it, staff steady.
The amplified storm of annihilation poured down upon Grimhild with a wrath forged of her own magic and Lancelot's hunger for strength.
She cast her hand forward with a calm and unshaken voice.
"Nie El Ma."
A magic circle appeared in an attempt to nullify the storm of magic, but for an instant, the impossible happened; the triple-forged strike engulfed Grimhild whole, overcoming her nullification spell.
Her clones shattered into dust as the marble floor split wide as the witch endured the attack until she was flung backward, striking the arena wall with a thunderclap.
"Grimhild!" Elizabeth's voice pierced the roar of the crowd. She had risen from her seat before Kyto yanked her arm down.
"Elizabeth, she's fine! This is Grimhild we're talking about. She's got this!"
Despite his reassurance, even Kyto's voice faltered as she looked at the arena.
Estrilda's hands clenched the railing in disbelief.
"That… blade reflected her magic? All of it?"
Jean appeared worried.
"I've heard of Arondight in old tales. It's a blade that has the power to consume all magic and reflect it back at its enemy. She's fighting herself every time she casts."
Fhiron leaned forward, scowling as his grip crushed the arm of his seat.
"Tch… this bastard's weapon's a perfect counter to her style. If she doesn't adapt, she's finished."
Obsidia said nothing. Her face was pale as her eyes followed where Grimhild lay.
Kyto's arms were crossed, but his jaw trembled. "She'll find a way." He muttered to himself.
Lancelot's figure cut through the lingering smoke, power spilling from every joint of his shattered armor. His smile was feral now, completely wild with battle ecstasy.
"Your nullification cracked beneath my sword!" He shouted, raising Arondight high to the screaming crowd. "Nie El Ma may be an anti-magical spell—but against me, it is worthless! Against me, Witch, every spell you cast is your undoing!"
The people roared with him, chanting his name like a storm.
"Lancelot! Lancelot! Lancelot!"
Dust and blood clung to her as Grimhild rose from the rubble.
Her hair hung loose around her face as her lips pressed together, though her eyes burned brighter than before.
You are strong, I admit it. But strength alone will never defeat me."
Her staff lifted again, and a dozen runes swirled around her body in defiance.
Lancelot leveled Arondight at her with a razor-sharp smirk.
"Then cast again, Witch. Cast until you crumble. Arondight will consume it all, and I will become stronger yet!"
"Perhaps." Her voice chilled to iron. "But you know not—my magic is endless."
Magic circles surrounded her body.
"Dulgariaz."
She raised her hand, and the crowd gasped as three Grimhilds stepped forward once more; clones born of her will, their eyes expressing equal hatred.
The battle was far from over.
[Something… is wrong!]
A voice echoed in Grimhild's head as she widened her eyes.
"Sofia?"
[Every strike you take… strips away my power! Something is interfering with my abilities. I cannot function properly.]
Grimhild became quiet and analyzed Lancelot from afar.
"Only something like Excalibur has the power to do that."
[Indeed. But there's something else at play here. I don't understand what it could be, even with my power]
+
"So her name is Sofia, hm?" Merlin watched the battle and the conversation between Grimhild and the Yorgana System in her castle, smug as ever. "I've always strayed away from you, afraid of this Yorgana System of yours… but now I know how to counter it! Now I know its weakness!"
Merlin chuckled.
"I've given Lancelot a shard of Excalibur, and now it's engraved inside Arondight. It's the only weapon capable of defeating that Yorgana System once and for all." Merlin stood up, slamming her palms on the table in excitement. "Every strike you take shatters a piece of the Yorgana System until nothing is left! This is my victory!!"
+
The voices of the crowd surged like waves, drowning the arena in praise for their king.
But beneath that sound, Grimhild heard the sound of something deeper—like glass fracturing within her nucleus.
Sofia's voice trembled through her mind.
[Every cut of that blade rends through me. My roots are unraveling. If this continues, Grimhild, I will fail.]
Lancelot twirled Arondight as light flashed across the shattered arena floor.
His armor smoked, his cheek bled, yet his presence filled the Bastion like a second sun.
"Do you feel it, Witch?!" He shouted with a voice carrying to every ear. "The weakness within you! Your sorcery is infinite, but that matters naught. I will break you piece by piece, until nothing remains but ruin!"
He dashed once more.
Arondight's radiance split the air, dragging the weight of consumed spells behind it like the tail of a comet.
Grimhild's clones surged forward to intercept with each one raising their staff.
"Luralza!" Yelled one, hurling a storm of violet lightning.
"Imulma!" cried another, spearing him with frozen fangs.
"Riva Ultora!" the third invoked, birthing hundreds of slicing crescents.
The king's blade devoured them all. The spells disappeared into its essence, transmuted into roaring power.
He carved through the clones like smoke, and their forms burst apart in scattered mana.
The real Grimhil stood still.
"Gilfronta!"
A barrier erupted just as his sword came down.
He crashed against the dome, bending it inward, and grinding it toward collapse.
For a moment, it held, but then the barrier shattered.
The backlash hurled her across the floor again, her body slamming against the stone with a loud crack.
"Grimhild!" Zarutha shrieked, perched on Obsidia's shoulder.
Estrilda's entire frame trembled.
"Even her barriers…!"
Fhiron cursed under his breath.
"This isn't a duel anymore, it's a butchering! That damned blade—something is off about it!"
Jean looked the worry out of them all.
"No… It's worse than that. Look at her aura. It's… fading!"
Elizabeth covered her mouth as her eyes welled with tears.
"She… she can't lose!"
Kyto leaned forward, desperation in his voice.
"Get up, Grimhild. Get up!"
+
"King Arthur spared you in his previous battle. With Excalibur, he only left a minor wound on your nucleus and the Yorgana System, but he didn't follow through and permanently end your existence." Merlin stared at her crystal globe in amusement. "But Lancelot is different. He won't hesitate to end your miserable life! Destruction Magic or not, you will end here, Witch of Justice"