Enri tilted her head, silver hair spilling like liquid moonlight.
"You're mad. Cute.
I already apologized, so no hard feelings, okay?"
I stared at the empty sleeve flapping against my side.
"You think this is about an arm?"
Enri shrugged.
"Only one way left, then.
I don't run.
You don't run.
Let's play."
She spread her arms.
The air tore.
Thousands of black maws blossomed around her—some tiny, some the size of houses.
All teeth. All hunger. All wrong.
They floated like a living nightmare.
Enri's smile was pure sunshine.
"My "Authority": Predation.
Your mana? Delicious.
This entire space's mana? Also delicious.
Right now you're just a tasty, crunchy human with no magic left."
I reached for mana.
Nothing.
Empty.
She had devoured it all.
Enri giggled.
"Magician without magic = puppet.
Boring puppet.
Bye-bye, Reiji."
Every maw lunged.
I drew the sword at my hip with my remaining hand.
Jet-black blade.
The first wave reached me.
I moved.
One slash—horizontal crescent.
Dozens of maws split and dissolved into black mist.
Second slash—vertical.
Third—diagonal.
Fourth, fifth, sixth—faster than thought.
Every swing erased another swarm.
The storm became a graveyard.
I kept walking forward, blade singing.
"I never said I was a magician."
Another wave came.
I spun the sword once and cut the world in half.
Everything in front of me—maws, air, sound—ceased to exist for a heartbeat.
When reality stitched itself back together, half the swarm was gone.
Enri's smile froze.
Her silver eyes widened.
Pupils shrank to pinpricks.
The cheerful mask cracked—first at the corners of her mouth, then all the way down.
I saw it.
Real, raw fear.
Her shoulders twitched.
Her breathing hitched.
The girl who had laughed while children's hearts were torn out was afraid.
Of me.
That's good.
Exactly what I wanted.
I pointed the black blade at her throat.
"My turn."