The roaring gale whipped up a wall of sand, the coarse grit nearly stripping away all visibility.
And yet at the heart of that murderous sandstorm, the crimson figure didn't retreat. Instead, she drove straight into it.
"Requip! Winged Armor!"
With a sharp cry, light burst forth. Clad now in a lightweight leopard-patterned outfit, Erza shot upward like a red afterimage, exploding off the ground with unbelievable force.
"Heh… you let your guard down."
But before Erza could steady herself in midair, a sweet, almost sticky laugh brushed past her ear, carrying a chill beneath it.
Angel stood at the edge of the storm where the wind and sand couldn't reach, a Celestial Spirit key shining in her palm.
A jolt of warning ran through Erza. The strange weight suddenly dragging at her shoulders made every battle-honed instinct in her body scream.
Two small blue creatures had somehow attached themselves to her without a sound, using the sandstorm as cover.
She didn't hesitate for even a moment. Without bothering to look at what they were, she slashed backward on instinct!
"Shhk!"
The sword-light cut through the air like cold lightning, but all it found was an afterimage.
Those two seemingly clumsy little creatures were absurdly agile. They sprang away just before the blade landed, flipped once through the air, and landed neatly back at Angel's side.
"Simultaneously summoning two spirits… is that double gate opening?"
Erza landed, staring warily at the white-haired girl across from her.
Shane had once casually explained Celestial Spirit magic to her.
It was easy enough to learn at the basic level, but to keep two gates open at the same time required an enormous amount of magic and an exceptionally high degree of control over one's spirits. That was a high-level technique only truly talented and experienced Celestial Spirit mages could use properly.
She hadn't expected the first time she'd ever see it in real combat would be from someone this young.
"You know quite a bit."
Angel lightly stroked one of the blue creatures on her shoulder, her sweet smile holding a maturity far beyond her apparent age.
"The truth is, I was already watching you back when you went to crush Eisenwald, Erza."
"That was when I realized… whether it's your battle skill or that utterly unshakable mentality, you're clearly stronger than that so-called famous She-Devil, Mira."
"So the one lurking in the shadows back then, refusing to show yourself and spying on us… was you?"
Erza stood with her sword ready, her voice cold.
"Oh, don't say it so unpleasantly. I'm just a spectator who enjoys observing beautiful things."
Angel spread her hands, her gaze lingering on Erza with almost obsessive delight.
"That look of yours—the way you always seem so untouchable, no matter where or when—it's just wonderful. And that's why I made up my mind back then…"
Her voice paused, her smile turning strange.
"With my own power alone, I could never beat you head-on."
Hearing something that was almost praise by way of concession, Erza felt absolutely nothing.
She neither took pride in it nor enjoyed hearing it. She simply raised her sword in silence.
"If you already know that much, then move aside."
"Hehe… you misunderstood me."
Covering her mouth, Angel let out a bright, bell-like laugh, though her eyes were as cold as a snake's.
"I never said I was giving up. I just think that for someone as flawless as you, a proper knight-princess…"
"…a more suitable opponent should be the one to personally entertain you."
"Gemini, go! Show her your power!"
She snapped her fingers crisply.
"Piri piri! Got it, Angel!"
The two blue spirits cheered in unison, and in the next instant their bodies stretched and shifted in a dazzling burst of transformation light.
When the brilliance faded—
there stood another Erza.
She wore the same leopard-patterned armor, held the same Flowing Water blade, and even the motion of her crimson hair was identical down to the smallest detail.
"This…"
Erza's pupils tightened. For once, genuine shock crossed her face.
"Using a perfect copy of yourself to destroy you—pretty ideal, don't you think?"
Lifting the hem of her white-feathered dress, Angel gave a graceful curtsy, though the malice in her smile was unmistakable.
"…"
The red-haired swordswoman Gemini had become didn't waste a single word. She kicked off the ground and came at Erza in silence, swift and decisive like an arrow shot from a bow.
"Clang—!"
The two swords crashed together in a spray of sparks.
"That force…"
The instant she blocked, Erza knew something was wrong.
The shock reverberating through her wrist felt exactly the same as when she herself swung with full power.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
A dense barrage of weapon strikes instantly rang out through the woods.
Two identical crimson figures flashed and crossed among the shadows of the trees.
Erza tried to overwhelm the other with sword skill, but no matter how tricky or precise her attack, the other "Erza" answered it with perfect angles and effortless counters.
"This calm, methodical feeling… like I'm being completely read, forced back step by step…"
"Don't tell me… this spirit isn't just copying my appearance, but also my magic, my memories, even my battle experience?"
While fending off attack after attack, Erza cast a quick glance toward Angel in the distance, still smiling and making no move to interfere.
Judging by this, that had to be exactly what was happening.
"Hahaha! Amazing! Such a light body!"
Gemini-Erza shouted in delight.
Her voice and tone were identical to Erza's, but the excitement in it was more like a child who had just gotten a new toy.
"I've never felt anything this easy before! With this body, it feels like I can do anything!"
"Requip! Black Wing Armor! Sea Empress Armor! Giant Armor!"
The fake Erza's equipment shifted with every swing of her sword in a dazzling blur.
"Requip!"
The real Erza answered in kind, switching instantly as well.
The two red-haired valkyries collided midair like twin meteors, burning across the battlefield.
Sword energy ripped through the woods. Trees collapsed in rows. The battle instantly fell into deadlock, neither side able to overpower the other.
…
"It looks like we'll have to speed things up on our side too."
The commotion over there caught the eye of Racer, who was dressed like some absurd street racer.
Crouched on a thick branch, he rolled his wrist lazily.
"Don't worry. With my speed, this won't take long."
Before the last word fully left his mouth, the air where he stood trembled, and his body shot forward in a blurred streak.
"Whoosh!"
The wind split apart, and Racer instantly appeared at Ultear's rear flank, his fists loaded with magic and aiming straight for her throat.
But Ultear didn't even raise an eyebrow.
She simply swept the black hair from beside her cheek back behind her ear, all while calmly watching the ground at her feet.
There, because of Racer's high-speed movement, a spray of tiny ice crystals had just been kicked up.
"Clang!"
A small, exquisitely shaped shield of ice formed in exactly the right place, intercepting the path of his fists as if she had predicted it all along.
"You really are… very confident in your speed, aren't you?"
Ultear spoke in that same flat tone.
"Faster than anyone! Faster than anything! Leaving everything behind and doing nothing but racing ahead—that's my magic! That's Racer!"
His first strike blocked, Racer instantly withdrew, ricocheting between the surrounding tree trunks at high speed. His voice now seemed to come from all directions at once.
"Is that so?"
Ultear continued, her voice still emotionless.
"And compared to the speed of life growing?"
"Grass and trees? Things that take decades to grow? Don't compare that pathetic slowness to me!"
His tone carried genuine outrage now, as though he'd been insulted.
"Die!"
He exploded forward again, throwing himself into Ultear's blind spot with overwhelming speed, magic gathering in his hand as he stabbed down.
"And yet… you're already standing on life itself."
Faced with the killing blow from behind, Ultear didn't panic in the slightest.
She stood calmly in place, and a faint shimmer of Arc of Time lit up at her fingertips.
The next second—
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
A terrifying series of ruptures sounded from the frozen ground.
Several massive dark-green vines, each thick as a bucket, erupted upward like giant pythons scenting blood, lashing toward Racer's legs with impossible speed.
"What is this?! When did you set a trap?!"
Racer paled and launched backward in a blur.
But it didn't matter.
Everywhere his toes touched the ground, thick vines burst from the soil instantly.
And the speed at which those vines exploded upward and grew was absurd. It was every bit as fast as the "speed" Racer was so proud of.
"From the very beginning… I was scattering seeds around myself."
At last, Ultear turned around, her black eyes fixed coldly on Racer as he dodged frantically through the growing net of vines like a trapped beast.
Now she had confirmed her theory.
"As expected. Your magic doesn't actually 'increase your speed' at all."
She tore apart the core of Racer's power without mercy.
"It interferes with and lowers your target's perception of speed within a certain range."
"In other words, you never became faster. You simply used magic to make my senses slower. Your own speed—and the speed of everything else—stayed exactly the same."
"You bitch… shut up! Shut up! I'm the fastest!!!"
Having his secret exposed, Racer completely lost control.
"And my Arc of Time accelerates the actual objective time of these plants. They aren't fooled by your magic."
Ultear simply continued stating the facts.
The moment she finished speaking, her fingers closed sharply.
With that gesture, all the seeds she had hidden in the snow reached their final explosion under the influence of Arc of Time.
"BOOM!"
A monstrous forest of intertwined giant vines roared upward like a green tidal wave, swallowing Racer whole.
"AAAAAHHH—!!!"
His scream was brief and ragged.
Then the forest fell silent again.
Instant kill.
The battle ended cleanly, to the point that Ultear hadn't even broken a sweat.
She walked forward slowly and lightly brushed one fingertip across a vine that was still twitching.
A trace of dull disappointment flickered in her eyes.
"Compared to the true monsters of our generation… you were far too arrogant. And far too weak."
In the past, killing one of the Six Prayer Generals this effortlessly would probably have earned at least a cold sneer from her.
But now, after being utterly crushed by Shane's absurd strength and coming to understand what a real "monster" looked like…
this level of victory couldn't stir even the slightest ripple in her heart.
She turned her head and looked toward another battlefield.
There, two red-haired girls with identical magic and identical techniques were still locked in a ferocious fight, their sword energy ripping the ground to pieces.
"So even Erza… is being pushed this hard?"
Ultear raised a brow.
But soon a trace of certainty appeared in her eyes, and she shook her head lightly.
Erza was a woman even she found deeply troublesome.
A simple, perfect imitation wasn't nearly enough to kill that brilliant red flower.
And besides…
a ridiculous transformation magic like that almost certainly had a time limit.
Even Shane's unreasonable power wasn't exempt from that.