It was a nonstop battle between Master and Disciple—but Merlin seemed to have the upper hand—constantly pushing Grimhild to her limits and overcoming her magic.
Launching Eguhalvor in an attempt to banish Merlin from creation, the Great Mage would use her own attack before Grimhild could even get the chance, thanks to Arcanium.
"Eguhalvor!" Merlin shouted.
Grimhild had no choice but to manifest Gilfronta around her body, blocking the incoming Destruction magic, but it wasn't enough.
"You may be immune to what you can copy, but Arcanium immediately modifies the spell and its effects, overcoming your innate resistance!"
Merlin was smart—she knew of Grimhild's immunity to whatever she deciphered—but that could be overcome with a simple spell modification; altering the fundamentals of the spell itself, including bestowing it other properties.
The Eguhalvor Merlin launched had a mixture of Chaos; a magic Grimhild has yet to analyze down to its roots.
She was completely outclassed.
With her own spell slamming into her anti-magical barrier, a deadly explosion reverberated across the sky, knocking Grimhild back and outside the smoke cloud.
"Perish before the might of Chaos!!" Merlin soared at Grimhild, fabricating multiple Magic circles around her body. "Venzoriento!" Launching from her magic circles were purplish beams of chaos that homed in on their target and tore through their durability.
Grimhild, still hurling backwards, came to a stop, lifting her hand.
"Endrulma."
Erecting a black magic circle, it was a Destruction spell that could burn the unburnable and overcome all possibilities in its way to always destroy its enemy.
But, with Arcanium, it was nothing before Merlin.
She had never even seen the spell until now, but it mattered naught. The Great Mage already launched it before Grimhild ever got the chance.
"Endrulma!"
Launching a flaming black dragon from her magic circle, it went faster than her Venzoriento spell, thus, slamming into Grimhild before she could even react.
An entire limb blew off her body, then the Venzoriento spell landed, bombarding her with a series of explosions.
Civilians across Mesnil gazed into the sky in bewilderment—watching a battle of epic proportions.
+
"What's happening?!"
Trying his best to run through the panicked crowd was a familiar face. With a worried expression, and sword in hand, he entered the Bastion Arena of his own volition.
There, he could see King Lancelot, bleeding on the ground.
"My King!"
Lancelot, holding his neck, gazed upon the familiar voice.
It was none other than Gunavoe; the former general of his army, now back in their ranks.
He ran toward the King of Secace, kneeling before him.
"Hold still, sire, I'll cast healing magic!"
"Healing magic?" Agnes, still in the arena, glared at Gunavoe with her pipe in her lips. "He's been stabbed by a Blade of Chaos, it matters naught what you do." Inhaling from her pipe, she blew out a thin cloud of smoke. "Healing Magic, reversing causality, rewinding time, his wound will remain. Your King will meet his end."
"Who are you?!" Gunavoe stood up, frowning as he pointed his sword at Agnes. "Are you part of this madness? State your name, or I'll cut you down!"
Agnes chuckled, flicking ash from her pipe as if brushing off a trivial threat.
"My name? I suppose introductions are due. I am Agnes Gravenworth—the Witch of Chaos."
Gunavoe froze. His grip on his blade trembled. Even the air seemed to turn heavier, suffocating, as if her words alone warped the atmosphere.
"You?! The witch who toppled empires and drowned nations in disorder during the Mystical Age!?"
Agnes smiled lazily, exhaling another thin ribbon of smoke.
"Mmm. You flatter me. But let's not get caught up in old tales. Your king is bleeding out at your feet, and all you can do is bark at me."
"Silence, witch!" Gunavoe snapped, his magical aura flaring as he raised his sword. "If my King cannot be healed, then I'll cut you down here and now!"
Agnes tilted her head, amused.
"Oh? How very knightly. But you should know..." The ground beneath Gunavoe's feet cracked as black veins of Chaos seeped upward like roots of corruption. "Your blade, your will, even your courage—are meaningless before me."
Before he could react, the earth erupted, and a tendril of violet energy lashed upward.
Gunavoe swung desperately, attempting to slice through it with sheer force of will, but nothing came of it.
"Ghhh?!" Gunavoe gritted his teeth. "I won't let you harm my King!"
"Still clinging to him even as he bleeds into death? Admirable. Futile, but admirable."
Agnes twirled her pipe in her fingers, her smile never faltering.
"Tell me, knight. Do you know what kind of blade felled him?"
Gunavoe hesitated, glancing down at Lancelot.
The wound still bled, no matter how he tried to stifle it.
"The Blade of Chaos." Agnes said, savoring the words. "A mere fraction of chaos inflicts a conceptual disease that slowly erodes away all definitions of the target, down to its nucleus. Soon, Lancelot will be erased from history, and even my script, then you'll forget all about him."
Lancelot coughed blood, his voice raspy yet proud.
"Gunavoe... do not waste your life on me. That witch... cannot be fought by mortals!"
Gunavoe clenched his jaw, his heart pounding violently in his chest.
"My King, I swore my life to you. If you fall, then I will carve a path through hell itself to bring you back!"
Agnes sighed, almost pitying.
"How loyal. How tragically dull! I wonder, will your loyalty taste sweeter when Chaos swallows it?"
She lifted her hand.
The air warped again, violet tendrils rose like serpents, writhing toward Gunavoe.
But this time, Gunavoe didn't retreat. He planted his feet, raised his sword high, and roared.
"If Chaos itself stands before me—then I'll cleave it apart!"
"Take this! Naazelion!" Enchanting his blade with anti-magical slicing properties, Gunavoe attempted to cut through the tendrils, but immediately upon contact, his blade broke. "What?!"
"Fool!" Lancelot stood up with all his strength, knocking Gunavoe out of the way.
"Sire!!"
Without a chance to evade, the almighty king was skewered through the body and pinned against the wall.
Agnes inhaled slowly from her pipe, exhaling smoke with elegance.
"Kings, knights, armies, civilizations… all of them fall before Chaos. It is not destruction, nor creation—it is the unraveling of meaning itself. What is a king when the word loses its weight? What is loyalty when its definition is dissolved? You, Gunavoe, are clinging to dying words."
Lancelot used his remaining strength, fighting to keep his head upright. His eyes still blazed with his indomitable will, locked on Gunavoe.
"Gunavoe… do not fall here. You must escape! Worry naught about me…"
"No! I won't abandon you, my King!" Gunavoe shouted, staggering forward, fists clenched.
His aura burned violently, even though it was nothing compared to the Legendary Hero.
"Even if the world itself forgets you, I won't! My oath was carved into my soul!"
Agnes tilted her head, almost curious now.
"An oath, you say? Mmm. Oaths are fragile things. Let us test if yours can survive Chaos itself."
She snapped her fingers.
The tendrils writhing through Lancelot grew in power, glowing with violet radiance.
The wound on his chest widened as Lancelot gritted his teeth in pain.
Piece by piece, his body began to blur, flickering like an image fading from memory.
The tendrils of chaos were further erasing him from the script.
"Stop it!!" Gunavoe bellowed.
With a roar that shook the arena, he charged barehanded, his aura flaring into a bluish blaze that wreathed his body like fire.
His fists became his sword, his will his edge, but Agnes only smiled.
"Yes… show me. Show me how a mortal drowns against the tide of eternity."
Her tendrils lashed out once more, faster than arrows, and sharper than any blade.
The tendrils of Chaos struck like lightning.
Gunavoe's fist met the first, his roar echoing as his blue aura burst from his body.
"Hraaaaghh!!"
But before he could even exhale, three more lashed into him.
"Gaaaahh!"
One curled around his chest, another impaled through his shoulder, the last wrapped around his leg like a serpent.
His body jerked violently, blood spraying across the arena floor as he was yanked into the air.
Agnes exhaled a lazy puff of smoke, her eyes half-lidded with amusement.
"How disappointing. I expected at least a minute of resistance. But one strike… and you are already undone."
Gunavoe struggled with every muscle in his body straining.
"I… I won't fall here! Not while… my King still breathes!"
All of a sudden, his bones snapped audibly under the pressure as violet corruption began to crawl across his skin like burning tattoos.
Agnes lowered her hand, and the tendrils obeyed, slamming him into the stone floor with earth-shattering force.
Dust and rubble erupted outward.
Gunavoe lay broken, coughing blood, his arm twisted unnaturally. Still, his trembling hand clawed forward across the ground toward Lancelot.
"My… King…"
Agnes stepped closer as she crouched down beside the battered knight, her eyes like an abyss.
"Loyal to the last breath. Yet what does it amount to? A forgotten king… and a broken hound at his feet."
Her tendril hovered above his chest, its tip sharpened into a spear.
"Fade, worm. Your loyalty dies with you."
Lancelot roared even as his body disintegrated under Chaos's erasure.
"Witch of Chaos!!"
Agnes turned her head lazily to regard him.
"Oh? Still clinging to existence? How stubborn."
Gunavoe spat blood, his vision blurring—but his lips curled into a defiant grin.
"I… don't… regret it…"
The tendril drove down.
A sickening crack split the air and blood sprayed everywhere.
Gunavoe's body went limp as Agnes rose, exhaling a final stream of smoke.
"How tragically human."