"——Ha! You were feigning sleep after all, Ermes!"
Ermes freed Katia and locked eyes on Aster.
Meeting that gaze, Aster grinned.
—It wouldn't be fun if things just went his way. Now he could defeat the man with his own hands. That was the expression he wore.
"And how arrogant of you! Leave the rest to you, you said!? In this situation—what can you possibly do?!"
Aster swept his hand down in high spirits, continuing to command the fire-controlled soldiers to charge.
"With my magic now at its true power, I'll crush you together with Katia!"
"……"
"Hmph, seems you've run out of words! Users of that kind of heretical magic are nothing against my power!"
Ermes fell back on the defensive alongside Katia's phantom soldiers. The number of threats had grown, but the soldiers under Aster's control were attacking with overwhelming ferocity. For the time being, he had no choice but to hold the line.
Watching this, Aster grew ever more carried away, his words tumbling faster.
"Look! And then kneel! This is my magic—'Fire Heaven Judgment'—the strongest magic bestowed upon one who would be king, magic that only I, one chosen by God, can wield! Counterfeiters and cripples like you could never reach it no matter how long they——"
"I see."
"And I understand."
—All of a sudden.
Without any preamble, Ermes spoke those words, yet they carried a terrifying certainty.
Aster felt a faint chill but shook it off and pressed on.
"You understand!? Understand what! That you're nothing but a fake after all!? That daring to oppose me was—"
But.
Aster's words were cut off once more. This time, by the soldiers he had deployed behind walls of light—and by Ermes's voice.
"Your magic.
I understand it now."
"Wh—"
"'Magic that only I can wield,' was it? You seem terribly confident in that spell of yours."
And then, he activated it.
His magic. Magic anyone could use.
But it demanded an extraordinary amount of training to master, a spell honed through tremendous effort. Activating the Primal Inscription, he—
And then—chanted.
"——[Radiant Judgment Heaven, Final Star Judgment, my ring of flame marks the boundary of good and evil; with seven lights, survey the celestial sphere]"
The basic function of the Primal Inscription was the reproduction of magic.
However, reproducing magic on the level of Bloodline Magic was never a matter of a quick glance.
Even for simple spells, it required a day or more; for complex ones, weeks of research and analysis.
There were still Bloodline Magic spells he had yet to reproduce fully, and as for reproducing them down to their true essence—Magic Inscription Liberation—not a single one had succeeded.
But.
He had come to this Royal Capital and reproduced a great many Bloodline Magic spells. Just moments ago, he had successfully analyzed 'Netherworld of Salvation,' which boasted the greatest complexity he had ever seen.
That experience deepened his understanding of Bloodline Magic even further. Having grasped its principles and internalized its laws, he had taken another step into magic's abyss. Which meant less time needed for analysis.
The crowning touch was what he had said after his battle with Sara.
"Allow me to see as well—the path that person was about to walk. And—magic."
Yes, he had been allowed to see.
Aster's Bloodline Magic.
From a front-row seat, thoroughly and completely. And as a bonus, he had been given an unrestricted view of the deepest secret—Magic Inscription Liberation.
If that was the case—reproducing the basic function was easy.
With that conviction, he raised his magic power and wove his chant.
"……Stop it……"
He didn't understand the logic. But Aster knew with absolute certainty.
Whatever Ermes was about to do—it would succeed.
"Stop it, don't be ridiculous, know your place! That's my magic—you're not worthy of—"
"Wrong. Magic originally belongs to no one. Anyone has the right to use it."
"Stop it! Don't use it! Don't reproduce it! —Don't steal what's special to meeeee!!"
Aster's scream bordered on a plea. But Ermes was never going to listen.
Ermes proclaimed the inscription.
"Formula Replay—'Fire Heaven Judgment.'"
Without a trace of discord, crimson flames materialized in his palm.
Ermes released them in a radial pattern, just as he had observed.
At his current level, Ermes could not yet reproduce the spell all the way to Magic Inscription Liberation.
But through his analysis, he had also grasped the spell's true essence—namely, the flames and the ability to manipulate and dominate through them.
Magic Inscription Liberation came in many varieties, but in the case of 'Fire Heaven Judgment,' it was simply a straightforward explosion of the caster's power and firepower. It wasn't the type that granted new special effects—that much was clear from watching Aster.
In other words.
Control over flames beyond his own was an ability available in the standard state.
With that analytical result in hand, he unleashed his dominion flames through imitation.
Just as before, they latched onto the soldiers, and the two sets of flames burned fiercely against each other—almost as though competing for control.
"Gh—soldiers! Don't lose to such a counterfeit!! You are noble warriors chosen to strike down this demon!"
"Soldiers, I will not force any of you to do anything. The power to coerce you—I will suppress it. ……So, follow your own hearts. If you wish to rest, then rest. I will affirm that choice."
One side disregarded their will and imposed control. The other respected their feelings and accepted their choice.
For soldiers who had been forced to fight without any will or desire to do so, crushed under tremendous pain, which way their hearts would lean was inevitable.
Moreover.
If it was a stalemate—if the same magic with the same effect was pitted against each other—
What decided the outcome was fundamental magical capability. Magic power reserves, magic power output, manipulation skill, sensory precision.
In a contest of those fundamentals—
Aster, who had once despaired at the mere sight of the gap between himself and Ermes—
Had already lost to Ermes, who had refused to despair and kept honing himself, ten years ago.
"How……could this……!"
The flames vanished. Soldiers collapsed, their faces twisted in pain but finally showing the relief of being able to rest.
He tried to unleash his dominion flames again, but Ermes's flames blocked him completely, producing no effect.
Eventually, Aster stopped releasing flames, looked down at the unmoving soldiers, and—raised his head.
"——Ermeeeeees!!"
Was it to mask the unmistakable feeling of having been outclassed? Or simply because blood had rushed to his head?
With a scream, he wreathed himself in flames and charged at Ermes—only to be stopped.
"……I believe you're misunderstanding the situation."
Ermes remained perfectly calm, as always.
"All I did was restore things to how they should be, after you broke the rules of our agreement. Your opponent—is not me."
At that same moment, hostility came flying at Aster from the side.
"!"
"You swore you would 'defeat me alone,' didn't you? If you wish to be a king, then see through to the end what you've already declared."
He leaped back to dodge the attack and looked toward the direction it came from.
"Thank you, Erm. I'm alright now. ……Your Highness, let's settle this."
"Katia……!"
Aster glared at Katia, who had rallied her fighting spirit once more, with a venomous look.
"Don't interfere—!!"
And so, the battle resumed.
Although not at the level of using Magic Inscription Liberation, Aster had recovered somewhat during the course of commanding the soldiers. He charged forward wreathed in ordinary flames. Katia, too, had steadied herself mentally and deployed her phantom soldiers to meet him.
Two were fighting. But Aster's gaze was fixed on someone else.
"Ermes! You—!!"
Ermes refused to fight Aster.
His reason for doing so was nothing more than 'respecting Katia's will'—but Aster saw it differently.
The man had interfered with him at every turn, outdone him using his own magic, and yet wouldn't deign to fight him directly.
—He could only interpret it as being told: you're not even worth fighting.
Brooding over his hatred for Ermes, refusing to even look at the battle with Katia, all while doing exactly what he had done from the start—a frontal charge with no strategy whatsoever.
Even if Katia was exhausted too, there was no way he could win in that state.
"Why! This is wrong, this can't be—!!"
Unable to accept reality, Aster raged.
"There's no way I'd lose to you!
There's no way you could be a better mage than me!
If you're not the one who's broken, then something's wrong!! Katia ending up like this—it's your fault, isn't it!? What did you do!? What monstrous methods did you resort to, Ermeeeeees?!"
"I don't consider the results of my own effort to be monstrous. ……Well, from your perspective it may well seem monstrous, and I have neither the means nor the inclination to correct that view. You're free to think as you wish."
Ermes had no desire to change others by force.
What he had done for Katia was truly an exception among exceptions, and he wanted to treasure the feeling that had driven him.
But he had absolutely no interest in saying anything to someone he felt no such impulse toward.
So he turned on Aster a gaze that stripped away even the thin thread of feeling he had harbored, a look of utter and genuine disinterest.
"So I'll say just one thing. —Go ahead and do as you please without me."
"——Wh—"
The instant those words pierced Aster's heart—
A phantom soldier's charge struck his unguarded chest.
And that, this time, was truly the finishing blow.
Aster battle—concluded.
I originally planned for Katia to land the finishing blow, but I really wanted Ermes to win somehow too, so this is how it turned out.
It ended up longer than I expected, but I hope you enjoyed it!