A month flew by.
This day was the day before Stella's 13th birthday.
"The day has finally come."
Inside the royal palace's massive simulated combat training ground, Stella pointed her wooden sword at the boy standing opposite her.
Her fighting spirit was absolutely soaring!
"Today is the first time we will be officially sparring using our Devices! And it also happens to be the exact one-month anniversary of the day we met! Let's make today the anniversary of my victory over you! You don't have a problem with that, do you, Noah?!"
Unlike the hyperactive girl, who had been too excited to sleep a wink the night before, Noah found her fiery challenge to be quite a headache.
For the past month, they had sparred with wooden swords every single day.
From the initial, one-sided beatdowns he handed her, to her now being able to actively trade blows with him on equal footing, the girl's martial talent was formidable.
Her growth rate was completely astonishing.
Noah openly admitted that such raw talent was far beyond his own reach.
If he were to learn a brand-new skill without relying on the stolen experience from Truth Seeker, he truly couldn't guarantee he would improve so quickly.
At the same time, Stella had been incredibly generous, enthusiastically teaching him many standard Mage-Knight techniques for using his newly manifested Device.
But having been thrashed in swordplay for a solid month, Stella was clearly hungry for a real victory.
Previously, the girl hadn't used any of her A-Rank magic against him, as he had only recently learned how to safely awaken his Device.
But today, she could no longer hold back and finally revealed her true, competitive intentions.
She had even gone so far as to activate the palace's state-of-the-art simulated combat training ground.
A specialized training ground like this cost a billion Yen to build and required exorbitant daily maintenance fees to operate safely.
It was originally built by the King so that Stella could safely accumulate actual combat experience.
However, it wasn't long before there were absolutely no opponents left in the country who could safely cross swords with the overpowered princess.
Now, there was finally an opponent of sufficient worth.
Up in the reinforced spectator seats, the King and Queen of the Vermillion Empire, along with dozens of servants and royal guards, watched the two children in the arena with highly nervous expressions.
"Hey... is Stella really going to be okay? She won't get hurt, will she? And Noah... is he really okay fighting her?"
The Queen looked extremely worried.
She had been the one most opposed to Stella becoming a Mage-Knight in the first place.
When Stella was a little girl learning to control her magic, she would always accidentally burn and injure herself, causing her mother endless worry.
As a mother, how could she remain indifferent seeing her child be so incredibly sensible and kind, yet so willing to physically harm her own body for the sake of the country?
Even now, the Queen would occasionally be startled awake by terrible nightmares of Stella spontaneously combusting from her own massive magic power.
Emperor Sirius Vermillion gently patted his wife's shoulder and comforted her.
"Don't worry. This simulated training ground exists for this very reason. Besides, both of them are deploying their Devices in the safe Illusion Form, so their attacks will only drain stamina and won't cause any real, physical harm. We should be proud of Stella. Let's witness with our own eyes just how strong that child has become."
"I... I know. Go for it, Stella!" the Queen cheered, though she still looked nervous.
Down in the arena, Noah noticed that the King and Queen were present.
He instantly realized the girl was planning to go all out to show off for her parents!
She would definitely give this battle everything she had.
To be honest, having officially been a Blazer for only a single month, his chances of winning a raw magic duel against an A-Rank weren't very high.
But if he lost too badly, he wouldn't have the face to strictly lecture the girl on her swordsmanship anymore!
"Understood. I will give it my all, too," Noah replied solemnly.
"Alright then! The duel will officially begin the exact moment the countdown ends!"
"Okay."
In the simulated combat training ground, their names appeared in glowing holographic letters on the left and right sides of the arena.
At the same time, a giant digital projection appeared high above the floor.
It was a countdown.
5... 4... 3... 2...
The exact moment the count hit 1 and the giant number vanished, both of them made the exact same move in an instant.
"Aid me... Lævateinn, the Empress Dragon's Sinful Sword!"
"Liberate... Raven Feather."
The girl drew a brilliantly shining, golden greatsword from a roaring vortex of flames.
The boy's bare hands were instantly covered by heavy, deep gray metal gauntlets.
"Ora!"
Without another word of warning, the girl decisively launched a brutal attack the very moment she summoned her Device.
She violently wreathed her greatsword in roaring flames. Using the massive momentum of her forward charge, she raised the heavy blade high above her head and swung it down fiercely.
Seeing this, Noah decisively dodged to the side.
Those were magical flames reaching 3,000 degrees Celsius, combined with a ferocious physical slash that could effortlessly shatter solid stone.
If he were hit head-on, his stamina would be completely drained, and the only result would be an instant defeat.
His C-Rank defense couldn't possibly parry Stella's A-Rank attack power.
Of course, he wasn't just running away.
While rapidly retreating backward, he casually swung his gauntleted hand and violently flung out dozens of invisible wind blades.
That's right.
Dozens of them.
He had completely drained the natural wind elements within his five-meter radius, compressing them all into a chaotic, shrieking storm of razor-sharp wind blades that blanketed Stella's entire field of vision.
Seeing the dense barrage of wind blades rushing toward her, the girl screeched to a halt. She immediately erected a bottomless magical defense.
Crimson magical power coiled tightly around her body like a magnificent, glowing gown.
But it was actually a highly condensed wall of magic constructed entirely from her raw magic power.
Empress Dress.
This was one of Stella's signature Noble Arts.
Without a magical power output that surpassed hers, it was nearly impossible to break through her defense with ordinary means.
The raw attack power of Noah's wind blades was rated around B-Rank. Even with their vast, overwhelming numbers, they only managed to violently knock the girl back a few meters and didn't cause her any real harm.
"This magical attack is as ridiculous as ever..."
Having effortlessly withstood the overwhelming storm of wind blades, Stella still had the presence of mind to make a smug comment.
After throwing the wind blades, Noah didn't stop moving. Instead, he pressed his heavy, gauntleted palm flat against the floor of the arena.
The next moment, loud cracks suddenly split the stone ground. A massive amount of natural iron sand violently flowed out from the fissures, magnetically gathering in the boy's hand.
The high-density iron sand converged in his palm, roughly forming the shape of a sword. Then, a terrifying, highly compressed torrent of flame and lightning erupted from his gauntlet.
The intense heat and pressure instantly forged the raw iron sand into a jet-black longsword that gleamed with a cold metallic luster.
"Smelt Iron."
'An ultra-short chant.'
It was a custom processing magic Noah had created himself using Weaver, capable of instantly shaping raw, natural materials into any form he desired.
Seeing him suddenly produce a real, physical sword out of thin air, Stella exclaimed.
"What is that?! You can even do something like that?!"
Seeing the girl's dumbfounded expression, Noah explained calmly, "Don't worry. This is just a sword I created using Raven Feather while it is deployed in its Illusion Form. Because it is connected to my Device, as long as it is in my hand, this physical sword won't cause you any real physical damage, either."
"You are getting more and more absurd every day!"
"You are one to talk."
Hah.
Stella aggressively charged forward again.
This was her signature fighting style: relying on an A-Rank defense her enemies couldn't break and an A-Rank offense they couldn't withstand to launch brutal frontal assaults.
No petty tricks, just violently crushing the opponent with absolute, overwhelming power.
Seeing her charge, Noah didn't choose to evade this time. Instead, he met her head-on.
The flame-wreathed greatsword swung horizontally in a lethal arc.
Noah shockingly raised his custom black sword and brought it down directly on Stella's glowing blade.
A head-on clash!
'Something is not right,' Stella thought.
Stella noticed Noah's expression was exceptionally calm.
Usually, when he looked like that during their morning spars, it meant he had absolute tactical confidence.
But so what!
In terms of raw physical strength, I will not lose to anyone!
CLANG—!
Steel violently met steel.
A monstrous, crushing force, feeling like the weight of an entire mountain, suddenly radiated from Noah's black sword and directly overwhelmed the royal greatsword.
Stella stared in utter shock as her heavy sword was violently knocked aside. She instantly realized what she had just lost to.
"Gravity?!"
"Correct," Noah praised.
He immediately discarded his black sword, raised his Raven Feather gauntlet and aimed it right at Stella's shocked face.
"Impact—"
Crap!
BOOM!
A massive, point-blank blast of compressed air exploded from the gauntlet.
Stella was violently sent flying backward by the heavy impact.
The girl's body flew helplessly through the air, causing the Queen up in the spectator stands to cry out in alarm.
The next second, the girl flexibly performed a light flip in mid-air and landed successfully on her feet, barely avoiding being blown out of the arena bounds or knocked unconscious.
Aside from her red hair being slightly messed up by the wind, she appeared completely unharmed.
"What a ridiculous magical power. That was a point-blank Impact, and it still didn't do any damage to your stamina," Noah sighed, feeling a little exasperated.
Stella's Empress Dress could effortlessly defend against a direct missile attack.
It was no surprise that ordinary Orario combat moves were practically useless against her.
Noah reached down and picked up his black sword again.
"That was way too close! If I hadn't desperately concentrated my magic power onto my face, that last hit would have ruined my looks!" Stella glared resentfully at the boy standing before her.
It was true that she had told him to go all out.
But couldn't he at least show some basic chivalry?! What kind of noble knight aims specifically for a girl's face?!
She was truly angry now!
Due to her raging emotional turmoil, the magical flames swirling around Stella became violently active.
The ambient temperature in the arena skyrocketed, to the point where the reinforced stone ground beneath her boots actually showed signs of melting into slag.
"You idiot, Noah!"
The girl gripped her greatsword tightly with both hands, raised it high above her head, and pointed it straight at the ceiling.
"Take this! My strongest attack! O, flames of hell!"
Six massive pillars of roaring flame violently erupted from the ground around Stella, reaching for the sky.
They transformed into massive, roaring flame dragons that intertwined in the air, concentrating all their devastating fire directly onto Lævateinn.
The swirling flames violently compressed into a terrifying, blinding beam of light, dancing wildly in her grasp.
This was the ultimate Noble Art of the Crimson Princess, Stella Vermillion!
"Katharterio Salamandra!"
"Wait, Stella! If you use that kind of extreme firepower inside, the training ground's dome will—!"
Noah didn't even have time to warn her.
The girl's roaring flames had already violently pierced straight through the reinforced ceiling.
The massive roof of the training ground had a complex, hexagonal structure.
If it lost its central support point to the melting heat—it would completely collapse!
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