14

The needles that flew out after passing through the sorcery paths triggered by the indoor lamp numbered more than ten. There had been more than ten triggers that reflected the arms, decorations, and the figure of the needle.

From each and every one of them, the same single silver needle had been fired. Through that, the needles increased as if they had duplicated.

A rain of needles assaulted Ains.

“Oh! This is surprising!”

Ains himself seemed to have been thinking of an evasive action against a single needle, and he apparently had not considered using defensive magic.

There was a limit to evasive action with the living body.

“!”

Even Lydia, watching from close by, was surprised by Ains’s excellent footwork, but even so, several of the needles grazed Ains’s cheek.

“…Seriously? Even with this, it’s only a scratch?”

Lydia, who had taken distance from Ains with a backstep, wiped the sweat flowing down her forehead with her sleeve and grumbled.

“Ains-sama!”

Seeing Ains bleeding from his cheek, Sophia hurriedly tried to run over to him.

“I’m all right, Sophia. Right now, I’m having tremendous fun.”

“Ains-sama…”

The profile of Ains that Sophia looked at truly held a broad smile.

Without even caring about the blood dripping from his cheek, he seemed to be enjoying his confrontation with Lydia from the bottom of his heart.

“You’re having fun, huh. Well, that’s good.”

“I was not expecting much, but your sorcery truly is fun. This really feels like a battle between sorcerers.”

Ains’s tone as he spread his hands and spoke was full of joy.

In contrast, Lydia’s expression had grown stiff.

“Even so, you still haven’t shown me your right arm. If you showed it to me, I’d have even more fun.”

Ains placed a hand on his chin with a “Hmm…” and thought for a little while before opening his mouth.

“That is true. If you want to see it that badly, I will show you. After all, this is currently a duel between sorcerers, so I must show sorcery appropriate to that.”

“No, I don’t exactly mean this as a duel—”

Without waiting for Lydia’s words, Ains spun his own.

They were words Lydia had never heard before.

“—Incomplete Release: ‘Universal Right Arm.’”

““Huh?””

One belonged to Lydia. And the other belonged to Sophia.

A form of sorcery beyond Limited Release, something even Sophia did not know.

“What, have you not reached it yet? Then you should study it. The second stage of sorcery, Incomplete Release.”

Lydia’s wide-eyed expression alone told the story of how shallow the history she had walked as a sorcerer was.

If one lived as a sorcerer, even if one had not reached Incomplete Release oneself, one might confront a person who had. Lydia had no such experience.

In addition, despite Lydia having said earlier herself that she had confronted Lizelotte, the fact that she had not been shown the second form of sorcery by Lizelotte said everything about how Lydia had been evaluated.

(Incomplete Release…? I’ve never even heard of it. The second stage of sorcery means my sorcery still isn’t complete?)

Before the confident Ains, Lydia shuddered.

In this world, sorcerers seemed to be rare existences, and Lydia had never met anyone else who handled sorcery besides herself.

That was why, until she confronted Lizelotte, she had never doubted her own absolute superiority compared to others, and the results had always matched that.

After confronting the Witch, Lydia had been slightly shaken by the existence of someone equal to herself, but even so, she had believed that the Witch was merely special, and that even if other sorcerers existed, the superiority of her own sorcery would not waver.

“B-but I know, you know? The sorcery of your right arm is just sorcery that steals something, right?”

“…”

Ains merely smiled fearlessly.

“What are you going to steal from me? These silver needles? How do you plan to attack me with those?”

Lydia understood herself that she was talking too much.

Trying to hide her impatience, her mouth spun uselessly. Her voice trembled faintly.

Lydia had received Rubelmel’s report, but if what Ains said was true, then the right-arm sorcery Rubelmel had seen was the first form of sorcery.

Neither Rubelmel nor Lydia knew what lay beyond “stealing,” the sorcery of the second form.

In other words, there was even a possibility that the point Lydia had voiced in that flustered manner did not hit the mark.

The flames of the candlesticks in the study flickered, and the light of the indoor lamp illuminated Ains’s right arm.

From the empty right arm, a translucent hand from the wrist onward appeared.

In the translucent hand, faint tubes that looked like blood vessels could be seen running all the way to the tips of the fingers. Though it carried an eeriness, even Lydia understood that it was imitating a human hand.

However, the two points that decisively made her recognize it as an inhuman hand were its translucence, as though its existence had not been fixed, and the fact that no red blood flowed through its blood vessels. Those made Lydia recognize that this was sorcery.

(…I can’t move.)

Lydia could not move.

Even though she should have been able to pull her set triggers and move freely by using sorcery, she could not move at all. Because she could not even imagine how that right arm would attack Lydia after she moved.

Ains slowly grabbed the white glove fastened to his right shoulder with his left hand and fitted it onto his right hand.

Ains opened and closed his right hand several times to check its condition, then nodded.

Recognizing that Ains’s battle stance was ready, Lydia involuntarily stepped back.

“…Pseudo-Release: ‘Benevolence Through Seizure (Energy Drain).’”

Lydia felt a slight sensation of strength leaving her with a slump.

Immediately after, the wound Lydia should have inflicted on Ains’s cheek began to heal. It surpassed the healing speed of a potion, and as if there had never been a wound there to begin with, it vanished in the blink of an eye without leaving a trace.

“That is Rito boy’s sorcery!?”

Lydia reflexively looked at Ains’s attendant.

(Is that healing sorcery? Or rather, what strange thing is that female swordsman saying? That was sorcery someone else used?)

Without thinking about what came after, Lydia threw the needle she was holding straight at Ains for the time being.

Lydia’s throw, made without having thought of a method of attack, did not pass through a sorcery path and simply flew toward Ains’s face.

“Hehe.”

There was no way Ains could not avoid this. However, knowing that, he only tilted his face slightly to the side.