Moprheus smiled faintly upon seeing them and said, "I know you two—Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori, right?"
Hearing Moprheus call out their names in one breath, both Stiyl and Kanzaki were taken aback.
Stiyl, in particular, clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I thought you were just some unrelated guy, but it turns out you're in the circle too."
Moprheus nodded. "You could say that."
Stiyl eyed Moprheus with clear distrust. "If you're in the know, then you must realize who the girl behind you is."
"I do. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum with 103,000 grimoires—Index, right?"
"So, you're after the 103,000 grimoires too?"
"Not at all."
Moprheus shook his head. "I'm not interested in those grimoires. After all, I have access to books far superior to them."
"Hah, what a joke," Stiyl scoffed, refusing to believe a word.
But it was the truth. Moprheus had acquired an immense collection of books from Lucifer, their knowledge vast as the ocean and far more astonishing than the 103,000 grimoires.
It was thanks to those books that Moprheus had become a Magic God.
Compared to Lucifer's collection, the books in Index's mind seemed rather ordinary.
At that moment, Kanzaki spoke slowly. "If not for Index, then why are you helping her?"
Her words prompted even Index to look up at Moprheus curiously.
She wanted to know the answer too. They were strangers, having met only by chance—why would he go out of his way to help her? Was he just that kind of good person?
Moprheus replied candidly, "Call it fate. In a sea of people, she literally bumped right into me. What else could it be?"
Stiyl snorted, still unconvinced by Moprheus's explanation.
"You're risking your life to protect her just because of some 'fate'?"
To him, Moprheus was clearly after Index's 103,000 grimoires. All that talk of fate was just an excuse.
Moprheus could tell Stiyl was full of prejudice against him, so he didn't bother correcting the boy's misconceptions. After all, he was just a kid.
Still, he pointed out the flaw in Stiyl's words with precision.
"There's one thing you're wrong about."
"What?" Stiyl blinked.
"I'm not risking my life to protect Index, because the two of you aren't enough to put my life at risk."
Stiyl laughed in anger. It had been a while since he'd encountered someone so arrogantly boastful.
"If that's the case, then show me what you've got."
Stiyl muttered under his breath, "Flames."
A burst of fire erupted from his palm, forming a flaming sword.
But at that instant, Moprheus spoke: "No combustion allowed here."
With a sharp pop, the flame sword in Stiyl's hand vanished instantly. A look of shock, even panic, crossed his face.
"Flames... Flames..."
He tried again, attempting to summon the sword once more, but no matter how many times he chanted, it wouldn't appear.
Kanzaki reached out to stop Stiyl from his futile efforts.
"It's no use. He's used magic to alter the environment around us—flames can't burn here."
"Are you kidding me?"
Stiyl shouted, "A regular magician couldn't pull that off!"
Kanzaki replied seriously, "Which means he's no regular magician."
She was starting to believe Moprheus's earlier words.
In that moment, Kanzaki heightened her vigilance, locking onto Moprheus with a cold gaze.
The next second, she struck.
Her nodachi was over two meters long—for a girl, wielding it should have been impossible, let alone drawing it from its sheath.
By all logic, that should have been the case.
But in the blink of an eye, a sharp slash cut through the air like a massive laser beam, hurtling toward Moprheus.
Yet, as the strike neared him, it suddenly veered off course.
Behind Moprheus to his right, the blades of a wind turbine were silently sliced through at an angle, as if they were butter.
Kanzaki paused. She had aimed straight at Moprheus, but the slash had been deflected.
It was utterly inconceivable.
This made Kanzaki realize even more that the boy before her was an unprecedented threat.
In the next instant, Kanzaki's right hand blurred and vanished.
With a boom and a roar of wind, something assaulted at terrifying speed.
It felt like enormous laser beams firing from all directions.
Then came what seemed like a massive tornado created by vacuum blades.
With Moprheus at the eye, the park's ground and trees were shredded as if by high-pressure water jets, torn apart in agony.
One slash, two, three, four, five, six, seven—a total of seven linear "wounds" stretched dozens of meters across the flat pavement.
These "wounds" came from irregular angles, like claw marks raked across a steel door.
But regrettably, they all vanished as they approached Moprheus.
Blocked by an invisible force.
Seeing this, Stiyl's eyes widened in shock. The enemy hadn't moved an inch and had blocked Kanzaki's assault—wasn't that a bit too absurd?
Even Kanzaki hadn't expected her attacks to be halted in such a inexplicable manner.
Her slashes, upon nearing Moprheus, felt like they were hacking against an unseen wall.
They couldn't advance even a fraction.
The enemy's strength was beyond imagination.
Moprheus said with a grin, "There's a saying that it's only polite to return the favor. Since you've made your move, now take a few of mine."
In the next moment, invisible slashes hurtled toward Kanzaki.
Moprheus's slashes differed from Kanzaki's.
His were magical.
While Kanzaki's were physical attacks.
Her weapon concealed seven steel wires, and the drawing motion was a feint to hide her manipulation of them.
In truth, Kanzaki hadn't drawn her blade at all—she had merely pulled it slightly from the sheath and pushed it back.
But in that instant of drawing, the seven wires on the blade tore through her opponent at invisible speeds, shredding everything before her like clay.
That was what had created the earlier scene.
It might fool others, but not Moprheus, who had seen the original story. Even without that knowledge, his sharp eyes could discern Kanzaki's subtle movements.
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
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