To someone unaware of the true nature of the situation, the current events might seem difficult to comprehend.
However, it was a different story for the people of the Damus County.
The servants, more than anyone, understood what it meant to serve a minor noble.
If you stretch out your legs without watching where you lie down, you end up in a grave.
So even if they didn’t know the full truth, they could at least tell that something was off.
Everyone held their breath. Acting rashly would only bring disaster.
With that in mind, they all kept silent and began to observe the situation.
Unfortunately, the people in the mansion right now weren’t just those from the Damus household.
“Huh…?”
Helena was still too young to grasp complex human relationships.
And the same went for her guardian knight, Dietrich.
The two of them stood there, blankly unaware of what was going on.
Had they remained that way, it would have been better.
But unfortunately, Helena possessed a power that didn’t allow her to stay unaware.
Her blue eyes, marked with the symbol of Elysium, detected an invisible energy.
It was a psychic force called telekinesis that had quietly slipped away from Ariel.
Helena instinctively reached out her hand.
Her divine power lightly erased the telekinesis aimed at Johan.
Though still inexperienced, the girl’s power as a prophet was more than enough to catch Ariel off guard.
“……!”
“Huh.”
With a sharp turn of her head, Helena found herself instantly overwhelmed by Ariel’s piercing gaze.
The moment their eyes met, her mind became disoriented.
And Yuna did not miss that moment.
“Ah.”
In a flash, Yuna dashed to Johan’s side and reached out her hand.
Johan, weak as he was, couldn’t even react before she was right in front of him.
But one thing was clear to him:
If she grabbed him here, he’d be kidnapped.
“Ugh!”
But almost on instinct, Dietrich burst forth and knocked away Yuna’s wicked hand.
Even he looked surprised, as if he didn’t understand what was going on.
Yuna, on the other hand, frowned. She was clearly displeased.
“You…who are you?”
“Uh… for now, I think it would be best if you calmed down a little, senior.”
“I am calm, you know.”
Immediately, she swung her other hand, aiming for the opening in Dietrich’s defense.
Dietrich, once again showing his skill, blocked the attack.
However—
Whack!
“Huh?”
He took a direct hit to the head and staggered heavily from the unexpected blow.
It had come from the opposite direction of the arm she had been swinging. A surprise attack out of nowhere.
Dietrich couldn’t quite tell what had just struck him.
He hadn’t seen a thing.
But soon, he realized something from the direction and force of the blow that had slammed into his head.
“This is…”
Yuna had been reaching out toward Johan, her arm following a certain path.
Dietrich had stepped in to block that path.
Yet now, another attack had come, tracing the exact same trajectory at the exact same speed.
The impact wasn’t powerful, but as a surprise attack, it had significance.
Now off-balance, Dietrich could only stare as Yuna moved past him.
There was only one technique he knew that could do something like this.
“Trace?”
It was none other than Dietrich’s own awakened ability Trace.
The moment he realized that if Yuna had been wielding a weapon, his head would have been split open, a chill ran down his spine.
Tap!
At the same time, he kicked off the ground and hurriedly regained his stance.
He was, after all, a Paladin of Eden.
When it came to talent in battle, he was second to none.
“So annoying.”
Yuna finally scowled as Dietrich once again grabbed her wrist to stop her.
Even as he blocked her, Dietrich regretted it.
He shouldn’t have gotten involved.
But now that he had, there was no turning back.
“Even if you act like this, senior’s heart won’t be yours.”
“That’s fine. Right now, I’m after his body, not his heart anyway.”
At Yuna’s blatant words, Dietrich grimaced in disgust and drew his sword.
Even he had his instincts.
If he let Johan be taken now, he felt he might never see him the same way again.
“Dietrich, guardian knight of Helena.”
He shifted into a battle stance.
“I may be foolish and naïve, but I’m not an ungrateful scoundrel. I won’t back down.”
“……”
First, he had to calm Yuna down.
If it was him, he could do it.
Restrain her for now, and once things cooled down, they could talk and find a peaceful resolution.
But there were a few things Dietrich overlooked going into this fight.
First: While Yuna might be less skilled than him, she had far more combat experience.
Second: Even if he had superior talent in battle, when it came to battle sense, Yuna completely outclassed him.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
With a flick of her wrist, Yuna launched over a dozen concealed weapons at him in an instant.
Dietrich was able to deflect them with ease.
Thrown weapons had limits in power, and no matter how many there were, Dietrich’s swordsmanship was more than enough to knock them all away at once.
However, there was one more thing he had failed to account for.
And that was… the use of awakened abilities.
Skack!
“Guh?!”
An invisible attack grazed his arm.
Using the copied ability Trace, Yuna’s thrown weapon followed the same trajectory and struck a second time.
Dietrich’s awakened ability Trace was powerful.
Not only could it repeat an attack along the same path, but wounds inflicted by it were also notoriously difficult to heal.
His swordsmanship had reached the level of godlike mastery, and his ability synergized perfectly with it.
But Yuna’s way of using Trace far surpassed his. It wasn’t even a comparison.
It was like handing the perfect weapon to an assassin.
Wielding it like it was tailor-made for her, Yuna didn’t just close the gap with Dietrich…she overwhelmed him.
Ah…
Overwhelming frequency of attacks.
Tricky, unpredictable movements.
Dominance in stealth and even psychological warfare.
Dietrich realized it.
He couldn’t beat Yuna with the mindset of just subduing her.
He would have to fight with the resolve to kill.
He steadied his sword.
A dense, crushing sword aura began to condense along the blade.
Sensing her true strength, Dietrich forgot his original purpose and braced himself for a real fight.
And at that moment—
Kaboooooom!!
A massive explosion shook the area.
A tempest of power burst forth with Ariel at the center.
“Wh-What?! What’s happening?!”
Helena who had been persistently suppressing Ariel’s telekinesis was caught off guard when Ariel suddenly unleashed an overwhelming surge of power, perhaps in an attempt to shake her off.
The resulting chaos.
Noise, screams, and confusion.
“Puhihi!”
Yuna wasn’t about to miss that moment.
She immediately slipped past Dietrich and dashed toward Johan.
“Not so fast!”
But Dietrich wasn’t one to fall for such an obvious ploy. He quickly began pursuing Yuna.
At the same time, Ariel’s telekinesis, now free from Helena’s grip, began to move.
“Tch!”
An invisible wall sprang up between Johan and Yuna.
But it wasn’t meant to protect.
The wall came crashing down toward Johan, trying to bind him.
“Uwaaah!”
Helena belatedly panicked and neutralized the force.
Interrupted again, Ariel shot Helena a sharp glare.
Still, it didn’t escalate into an attack.
Though she was furious at the current situation, she wasn’t so blinded by rage as to lash out at a child.
For now… I should speak with Johan alone and decide from there.
That was the thought floating through Ariel’s mind.
Unfortunately, the conclusion she was leaning toward…
Was to kidnap Johan first.
“You’re strong, I’ll give you that.”
Ariel let out a sigh at the current situation, where not only her telekinesis but also her magic was being suppressed.
As expected of the Prophet.
With Helena restoring everything to its original state through sheer power, there was little Ariel could do.
An overwhelming mismatch.
But what about her rival, Yuna?
Yuna possessed solid physical abilities, meaning Helena couldn’t easily hinder her and with her exceptional combat instincts, she was even overwhelming Dietrich.
This couldn’t go on.
Ariel needed to change as well.
“……”
She pulled out the transcendence syndrome cure that Johan had given her.
***
I screamed endlessly.
It was all I could do. The situation was spiraling so quickly that my brain had practically shut down.
It wasn’t until I came to my senses that I could finally process what I was seeing:
Yuna and Dietrich clashing fiercely around me.
And Ariel, who had caused an explosion while struggling against Helena.
Realizing all this, I—
“Aaaaaargh!!”
—still couldn’t do anything except scream.
How did things end up like this?
Things were already complicated enough, and now with Helena and Dietrich thrown into the mix, the situation was spiraling into disaster.
And then—
“Haa……”
Ariel exhaled. Her breath was unsteady and shallow.
Between her dazed eyes, she licked her lips, and at her feet lay an empty vial. The one she must have just drunk from.
“Hoo……”
Wait a second.
Did she really just drink that… now?!
She used it—
An item so rare it should only be used at the most dramatic moment and in the most critical situation.
—on this?
“Sweet.”
Ariel’s dazed eyes regained focus.
No, more than that.
It was as if she had experienced some kind of revelation. Her gaze sharpened and became more piercing than ever before.
“Ah…”
I was certain of it.
The transcendence syndrome cure had worked.
And having pushed past the ceiling that had been holding her back, Ariel had now achieved a new level of power. True transcendence.
“She’s an Archmage.”
A perfect understanding of the supernatural.
The current of her power surged, spreading across the entire mansion in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, all movement….no, even sound was silenced.
I could feel it: an invisible force was restricting every motion.
“Now I can see everything clearly.”
With footsteps as light as if she were walking on clouds, Ariel approached me.
“I used to think this feeling was love. But now that the fog clouding my mind has lifted, I’m finally starting to see things as they truly are.”
Her eyes were clear and focused.
And the words that came from her lips—
They were… shocking.
Honestly, it stung a little.
Even if most of our relationship had been one-sided, to call it all a misunderstanding…
“Feelings can’t possibly express it all. This is fate…!”
No.
She hadn’t gotten better.
She had gotten even more crazy.
A different kind of madness was reaching out to me like a beast extending its claws.
No, my body was being pulled toward Ariel on its own.
Every one of my muscles was being influenced by some invisible force.
Is this the true limit of Ariel’s telekinesis ability…?
“No one can stop us. Now, shall we go together, Johan?”
What have I created?
What… what on earth have I done?
“Ariel, stop this.”
Just as I was shuddering at Ariel’s drastic transformation,
Lobelia who until now had seemed completely useless stepped in front of Ariel.
Was it thanks to her destructive power?
Even while engulfed by Ariel’s telekinesis, she appeared able to resist.
No, she wasn’t the only one.
Dietrich, Helena, and even Yuna were each resisting in their own way to some extent.
The only ones completely immobilized were the weak ones. Like me and the people of our territory.
“You’d better not do something you’ll regret. You’ll never win someone’s heart through force.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
With a smile that seemed almost enlightened, Ariel declared,
“Johan will love me no matter what I do. Because it’s fate.”
“…Johan, what kind of drug did you even make?”
“I don’t really know, myself.”
Ariel was clearly experiencing an abnormal level of euphoria.
No matter how I look at it, I can’t help but think I made something terribly wrong.
“Ariel, you need to calm down. You’re not in your right mind right now. You’re under the influence of some strange drug.”
“Hmph! Nonsense! This drug is perfect! I can feel Johan’s love for me so clearly!”
“……”
I couldn’t lift my head.
Lobelia let out a sigh at the sight of her friend’s corruption.
“Ariel, I have no choice but to subdue you. By the name of the imperial family, I command all who can still move to cooperate! From this moment on, we strike down the Archmage!”
In the end, she shut her eyes tight and made a ruthless decision.
It was the beginning of a brutal war.
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