Milin quickly arrived at the place she sensed — the entrance of a room.
She shattered two roof beams that had fallen from the ceiling and blocked the door with two punches, then squeezed into the room.
It was a spacious room with two large beds, roughly one-half of which had collapsed… but there was no one inside.
She soon found the source of that powerful Magic Power — it was a Composite Magic Circle slowly dissipating on the wall of the room.
The complexity of this circle was several times more intricate than anything she had seen in the Magic Books Teacher Sephy kept hidden from her… it was to the extent that just looking at the patterns was enough to make one’s head spin.
‘Did this magic circle cause the explosion?’
Milin wondered for a moment, but she quickly dismissed the idea.
Even though the circle was gradually dissipating due to the collapse of the area, the immense Magic Power contained within it would not return to the world anytime soon.
If this circle had exploded… it probably wouldn’t be as simple as blowing away one-half of the Mansion.
According to her estimation of this Magic Power… the entire Civic Square would have been leveled to the ground.
Why was there such a magic circle here?
If it hadn’t caused the explosion, then its original purpose was —
While Milin was wondering about this, a surge of Magic Power filled with malice and resentment suddenly attacked from her side.
‘…! ‘
Her reaction was fast, but her attacker was even faster.
The person struck her chest with a fist carrying faint purple lightning, sending her flying.
“Cough…!”
Milin, having been knocked back, smashed through several walls before landing in another room.
Fortunately, she had already prepared for the impact by wrapping her body in a Mana Barrier, so she didn’t lose consciousness immediately.
However, as she lay on the ground, she felt a wave of intense paralysis throughout her body — the effect of Thunder Magic.
‘She’s actually using Thunder Magic to enhance her Martial Arts…?’
Teacher Sephy had said that because the Thunder Elemental’s attack spells were uniquely violent and destructive, they were almost always fired directly as long-range attacks.
Even using it to reinforce armor or weapons was rare… let alone using it to enhance the power of Martial Arts.
This was because it required casting lightning Spells on one’s own flesh.
Attacks enhanced by the Thunder Elemental would gain unimaginable speed and power, but at the same time, the scorching current would burn the skin, tear the nerves, and bring unimaginable pain to the user.
This was also the fighting style favored by Milin’s Uncle Roland, who was known as the “Berserker.”
Milin had once briefly tried to imitate it because she thought exchanging pain for power was cool… the result was that the numb and painful sensation left her unable to get out of bed for a whole day.
She was certain that a human should not be able to endure that kind of pain — except for Uncle Roland or things that were not human.
She resisted the stinging pain of the paralysis and stood up from the ground, facing the enemy charging toward her.
It was a girl with black hair and purple eyes, her entire body wrapped in a pitch-black Mana Barrier — Milin had seen this person in the bathhouse that day.
‘This damn person who tramples all over Mother’s kindness…!’
“I knew it was you, you stinking Demon!”
Luc, who had returned to her original form, ignored her roar and instead swung a right fist wrapped in lightning toward her face — this attack was aimed at knocking Milin unconscious.
“You wish…!”
But Milin did not let her have her way.
She twisted her head at a dangerous angle to avoid the direct hit and took advantage of the close proximity to tightly grab Luc’s waist.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
She lunged with Luc against the wall, the massive force easily smashing the walls into pieces.
After breaking through one wall, Milin did not stop her momentum, instead charging toward another wall with unstoppable force.
“You…!”
Luc spat out a mouthful of blood. Facing the anticipated counterattack, she had already wrapped her body in a Mana Barrier.
However, Milin’s act of ramming her through walls brought a purely physical impact that bypassed the barrier and traveled straight into her body, causing direct damage to her internal organs.
Seeing that Milin’s charge showed no signs of stopping, Luc decided she couldn’t just sit and wait for death.
She knew Milin was also using a Mana Barrier to protect herself, so she pivoted and repeatedly slammed her fists down, attacking the back of Milin’s head.
“Ugh…!”
Her strategy was effective. Milin’s footsteps slowed as her brain suffered the tremors of the impact.
Luc took the opportunity to free herself from the restraint and kicked her away.
“…Was it you? Did you blow up the Mansion?”
Milin, who had been kicked to the ground and then struggled to climb back up, questioned her with eyes burning like fire.
“I have no obligation to answer you.”
Luc also stood up straight, suppressing the urge to vomit.
The two of them locked eyes, both showing deep-seated hatred for the other.
“Go to hell!”
“You go to hell!”
Thus, both of them put everything they had into throwing heavy punches at each other’s cheeks, and then both were knocked back by the impact.
They both understood that with their Mana Barriers constantly active, spell attacks were now meaningless… only the simplest, flesh-to-flesh brawling would decide the outcome!
And so, the two who had been knocked away scrambled up from the ground again, throwing a rain of punches at each other’s faces and bodies.
Every punch enhanced by Magic Power released a shockwave strong enough to blow the opponent back, and with every retreat, their internal organs fed back waves of agonizing pain.
“Huff…! Huff…!”
“Huff… give up… you’re done for…”
After an unknown number of exchanges, both of them were exhausted.
Milin’s dress had been torn to rags by the impacts, and the transparent red Mana Barrier wrapped around her slowly faded away — a sign that her Magic Power was depleted.
She endured the intense pain that felt like her entire body was falling apart and remained standing, glaring at the enemy in front of her.
“You… you’re also at your limit… those black clothes… are almost completely ruined.”
As she said, the black Mana Barrier on the opponent’s body was also riddled with holes and cracks.
One could already see the ordinary clothes that had been hidden beneath the barrier… but in the end, she was still able to maintain the barrier without it collapsing.
“My total Magic Power… as expected… is greater than yours. After all… I am a Demon…!”
“Ha… you think you’ve already won…? I haven’t fallen yet…”
Milin saw that purple lightning was once again wrapping around the fist the opponent was slowly raising — did she actually have extra Magic Power to cast a Spell?
Milin truly had no means left to block this blow.
She could no longer move, and her exhausted Magic Power could not support another Mana Barrier.
She saw a smile of certain victory appear on the opponent’s face… she felt incredibly unwilling to lose.
Even though she knew she was doomed to defeat, she straightened her body and stared intently at the opponent, wanting to see the trajectory of the attack — but the fatigue made her blink involuntarily.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
Then she saw her deadly enemy collapse toward the ground.
The Mana Barrier that she couldn’t break no matter how hard she tried shattered as easily as an eggshell… and the one who had done it was the person she had shouted at to get lost just a moment ago.
“Lian… sister.”
She looked at the Maid who had appeared in the middle of the fire and called out that name and title once again in a hesitant, hoarse voice.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.