Flames of Battle

One thing Three was right about: this world truly inflamed my desire for battle. I’d been very much relieved when I figured out Tarisha came to this world with me as well, and we’d been through many fights together.

When I fought, I became my real self.

When I fought, I wasn’t like myself at all.

These two contradictory feelings swelled and mixed within me, urging me to fight. So I did.

Leaping off the ground, I opted for a full-powered slash aided by momentum.

Although looking surprised by this action, Three was not deterred by it. He took a step back but invoked the same kind of magical barrier that the Emperor also used.

“Saga, Saga, Saga,” said Three, shaking his head. “Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be. I don’t want to hurt you—it’d be a waste to blemish your beauty.”

I didn’t listen to him. I tried striking even faster, feinting and jumping and running around him. I even kicked a pebble from the floor to make him flinch and tried getting him to stumble over the Emperor’s corpse.

But it was all useless.

He was nothing at all like C—this Three knew how to fight perfectly and how to respond to my every move without hesitating for a moment.

My only hope was to have him run out of whatever power he used to run that magic of his. C himself often complained about this.

“No!” came a weak voice. Until now mostly silent as the world crumbled around her, Mana spoke again. “Please… you need to escape!”

Escape? I was not going to do something like that. Not when my real enemy was right in front of me.

“You’re probably thinking that you can win a war of attrition,” said Three as if reading my mind. “Unfortunately, cute Saga, that will not work. I now have my memories back, you see? That’s actually the reason I was able to learn spells so fast. I wasn’t learning them, as such, but more like recalling them. Anyway, I also learned some advanced techniques to optimize my energy usage. I am a master mage with decades of experience, after all. Also,” he added, his face taking on a worrying expression. “You won’t be able to stand up against me once I get serious.”

Light began emerging from his hands—blue on the left, red on the light.

A simultaneous lightning and fire strike, perhaps?

I was confident about my speed, but not so confident as to dodge actual lightning. A fireball I could deal with. My eyes darted between his hands, ready for his next move.

And then he gave a little kick to the cage behind him. Following that, the material actually swelled, detached, struck me and then tied around me, pounding me against the nearby wall. Tarisha fell from my grasp.

“GAH!” I shouted in pain.

Three laughed. It was a trick—he kept my attention on his hands in order to strike me with a third spell that now left me immobile.

I struggled, but to no avail. The metal was strong and I couldn’t wriggle out of it. I could just barely move my arms.

“Now, will you please stop struggling?” Three asked. “I really don’t want to hurt you. Even if I can technically heal you later, it’s a bit hard for me to hold back from killing you… Work with me here.”

Never. I wasn’t going to give up.

However, as things stood, I wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.

“Let her go! Please!”

I could just barely see it from my position, but Mana yelled this from within her cage. Three turned to her as if only now recalling her existence.

“Right… Mana. I almost forgot about you. I think you’re a bit too young for me right now, but maybe in a few hundred years or so?”

“Shut up!” she screamed. “Let her go, you freak!”

Three annoyedly flicked his hand, shooting a spell—that got absorbed into the cage and vanished.

“Oh, right, I forgot,” he said with a smile. “Ah, Mana, you innocent little creature. Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused for my plan? It’s too bad I can’t learn your magic for some reason. Also, I remember you being much cuter than that before.”

“Shut up! I hate you! Urgh!”

I stopped struggling and thought. Tarisha was currently not in my hand, though it was easy enough to get her there; I could reform her in my grasp with a mere thought.

This battle seemed hopeless. I couldn’t even defeat the Emperor, so I had no chance at all against the full-powered Three. However, there was probably something else I could do.

My eyes focused on the cage. I might be able to kill two birds with one stone… or, well, delay the battle for another time.

As the flames of battle in my eyes cooled down, I was able to consider this a bit more logically.

I needed to escape… but I couldn’t do it on my own. And I didn’t want to do it on my own.

I needed help.

“Mana!” I called out, causing both to focus on me. “We’re going to get out of here!”

“…Eh?”

Three scoffed. “And how exactly are you planning to do that? Stupid girl.”

I’d probably get only one chance, and if Mana didn’t or was unable to play along, this would all end in vain.

“Please trust me,” I told the girl, “and do your best.”

Saying this, I made Tarisha reappear in my hand; it was an ability I had for a long time now, long before entering this world, ever since that dark room.

I did not attempt to cut off my shackles; not even Tarisha was capable of that. Instead, I swung my arm and hurled the sword as if it was a spear. This ridiculous act was only possible because I was me and Tarisha was Tarisha, but it was still a very close thing.

Three erected his magic barrier, but the sword passed by him—by design, since I wasn’t aiming at him at all.

I was actually aiming at Mana. Three had been kind enough to open some of the path for me, so I threw Tarisha at the inner cage made of mogage.

While powerful against any form of magic, mogage was known to not be a material resistant to any physical damage. C himself had told us this before.

Struck by Tarisha, the anti-magic cage surrounding Mana shattered into smithereens.