16

“Hey, hey, what is that black haze? A creepy right arm and a creepy black haze. The disgustingness is piling up, isn’t it?”

Lydia broke into a cold sweat, the corners of her mouth twitching.

From her perspective, the black flame wrapped around Ains’s right arm looked like nothing more than a wavering black haze.

Because sorcery distorted the laws of the world, the phenomena caused by manifested sorcery were often completely different from anything one would see in ordinary life.

The “Black Flame” manifested by the young girl, the Black Flame sorcerer, was precisely a phenomenon Lydia had never seen.

If it were Lizelotte, who had abundant experience and knowledge, she would likely understand it at a glance if she confirmed the way the black flame manifested and the flame that looked like haze.

Ains simply advanced straight toward Lydia.

“Ha, ha. How scary…”

Forgetting even “Mirror Passage,” Lydia merely backed away instinctively by the same amount that Ains approached.

The sight of Ains walking looked simply bizarre.

Naturally, Lydia, who faced him, and even Sophia, who was waiting at the side, swallowed their breath despite themselves.

An enormous amount of mana overflowed from his entire body, enough to be clearly visible, along with a strange right arm and an eerie black haze.

He had a tremendous sense of pressure, surpassing not only mages, but even the Witch Lizelotte.

While keeping a certain distance from Ains, Lydia moved as if circling around to his side.

(I can’t carelessly approach him… From how he spoke, that haze is definitely one of his sorceries too. In that case, what happens if I touch that haze?)

Although escaping from Ains was already decided, Lydia wanted, if possible, to punch that unpleasant face at least once.

(And I also have to bring back as much information as possible about that black haze, or it will affect the next encounter.)

Would that haze be aimed at Lydia, who was a sorcerer? Or would it be aimed at the members of the “Next-Era Luminaries,” who were, after all, only mages?

At present, it was plain to see that even if all the members other than Lydia gathered and tried to attack Ains, they would unquestionably be suppressed with ease.

Ains merely approached Lydia slowly without stopping.

That said, Lydia did not have enough leeway to keep taking distance endlessly like this. She could not retreat beyond the wall of the study.

Lydia took out a silver needle and threw it at Ains.

Ains showed no particular movement toward the released silver needle, but the black flame was different.

The needle that was about to wound Ains was harmful itself to him. It was not a black flame that would overlook that.

The black flame wavered greatly and expanded as if heading toward the silver needle.

The needle that touched the black flame was burned completely, leaving not even ashes behind.

Lydia then threw several needles toward Ains’s entire body.

The black flame wavered again, spread thinly in front of Ains, and burned all of them to nothing.

“So it’s defensive sorcery.”

This time, Lydia attempted an attack using “Mirror Passage.”

Judging from how the black haze moved, she did not know how the haze had recognized the needles, but the defensive film had expanded after she threw them. Lydia targeted that point.

In addition, to Lydia’s eyes, Ains now seemed completely careless toward her movements.

Ains had broken the window, but the trigger of the indoor lamp remained.

“You shouldn’t approach a lady so rudely, scary, scary sorcerer-san. At this rate, even I’ll have no choice but to scream like a woman.”

While speaking lightly, Lydia glanced at the indoor lamp and set the trigger.

She took a large number of needles from inside her clothes and threw all of them at Ains.

Some of them vanished into the path triggered by the indoor lamp through Lydia’s sorcery.

Just as Lydia had imagined, it seemed that the black haze moved defensively only against those judged to be piercing Ains’s body at some point.

Therefore, the needles that were sucked into the sorcery path immediately after being thrown were not burned.

(With his current movement, those needles will definitely reach him.)

The needles thrown straight toward Ains had the black flame expand in front of Ains and burn all of them to nothing.

“Now!”

At the same time the black flame expanded in front of Ains, the needles that had split into many inside the path rained down from behind Ains.

Perhaps Ains remained completely careless toward Lydia, because he did not even try to take evasive action.

“Unfortunately, this current ‘Black Flame’ is, in a certain sense, complete as a perfect defensive sorcery.”

Without even looking at the needles from behind, Ains merely smiled at Lydia.

The black flame that had expanded in front of Ains wavered with a speed unimaginable from its appearance and expanded as if wrapping around Ains’s entire body.

Afterward, the silver needles collided with the black flame membrane, and every one of them was burned to nothing.

“…An all-direction defense is honestly impossible to deal with, isn’t it?”

At that sight, Lydia let out a large sigh as if throwing up her hands.

“Now then, I wonder.”

Lydia had misunderstood the sight she had just seen.

If Lydia’s current attack had been directed at the Black Flame sorcerer, the result would undoubtedly have been exactly as she had hoped.

The Black Flame sorcerer would not have intercepted the silver needles from behind, which she did not recognize, as harm. The needles would have slipped through the net of flame that burned away all harm falling upon the manifester and pierced into her soft skin.

However, in Ains’s case, that could not occur.

Ains had already activated the sorcery in his right eye.

The moment Lydia threw a number of needles too many to count in an instant, he had grasped every attack that would follow.

By using the two sorceries “Clockwork Mystic Eye” and “Black Flame” together, it had been completed as perfect defensive sorcery.

That was why Lydia had misunderstood. And that misunderstanding was more than enough to make Lydia lose her will to attack.

Even while still misunderstanding, Lydia had obtained information about “Black Flame” in her own way.

(I regret that I couldn’t punch him even once, but I’ve sufficiently achieved my initial objective. Now the only question is whether I can get back safely…)

Having lost her will to attack, Lydia considered using “Mirror Passage” to retreat to a safe zone.

However, Ains was not unable to read that.

“I really cannot overlook someone fleeing in the middle of a duel. I have been going easy on you until now because, at the bare minimum, you have faced me, but if that happens, it is a different story.”