"Cheer up!"
"Fighting!"
"We're always rooting for you!"
Isaac waved goodbye to the female mages as they left, holding towels and drinks in their hands. After awkwardly watching them go, he turned around—only to find the Grandmaster standing there with her arms crossed, staring at him.
"Are you done?"
"…Would you like a drink?"
As Isaac subtly offered the drink, the Grandmaster chuckled and shrugged.
"How could I possibly drink it? It's a gift from young ladies for you, Lord Isaac, as thanks for your hard work."
"…"
"Anyway, forget that. Go ahead and finish what you were saying earlier. Weren't you about to tell me you had grasped something?"
"Ah, yes. Actually—"
Just then, the door opened again, and a red-haired girl stepped inside.
"Isaac! It's my turn! Let's go!"
It was Sharen, boldly entering with a greatsword slung over her shoulder.
A brief silence fell as both Isaac and the Grandmaster turned their eyes to her.
Sharen, noticing the mood, tilted her head awkwardly.
"Uh… Did I come at the wrong time? Should I come back later?"
"Yeah, the timing's not exactly—"
"No. You came at the perfect time."
Isaac welcomed her, then spoke to the Grandmaster.
"I think it'll be quicker if I just show you. What do you say?"
"Hmm… Go ahead, then."
The Grandmaster stepped outside, and Isaac and Sharen took their positions. It was a sparring match they'd done many times before.
Floating magical letters glowed in the air, recording the timeline.
Now, even if they died—they wouldn't actually die.
"This time, I'm totally going to win!"
Sharen grinned brightly as she raised her greatsword. Although their matches always ended in similar results, she always charged in with that same cheerful energy.
Isaac drew his swords in both hands.
Instead of Iaido, he had grown more comfortable fighting with the basics lately.
"Uryaaaahhh!"
With her battle cry, Sharen's aura surged around her greatsword like rippling waves.
Her crimson aura had always been a little different from other Helmuts.
Rather than the intense, oppressive feeling typical of a Helmut's aura, hers carried a gentler, more flowing quality.
Isaac often described it as resembling flowing water and gave her advice accordingly.
Gone was the awkwardness of before—her crimson aura had matured.
"…Why aren't you coming?"
Raising her greatsword, Sharen asked, confused. Usually, Isaac would rush in and take her down before she could even swing her aura-infused blade.
After all, once they got into close combat, Isaac could read all of Sharen's moves.
All he had to do was watch out for the aura.
But this time, Isaac just stood still.
Pouting, Sharen swung her sword.
"Fine, whatever!"
Vwooooom!
With a wide arc, her aura surged forward like a stream of water.
'Now.'
He had no intention of dodging.
What coated his blade wasn't gwigi (spectral aura) or aura.
It was simply Isaac's breath—his will.
A moment faced with nothing but his own strength.
Schlaaaash!
The incoming aura split cleanly in two.
It was as if delicate, transparent silk had been torn apart—graceful yet precise.
The raw power of a Helmut had been cleaved solely by a sword.
This technique—previously shown by the Grandmaster in her battle with Arandel.
The one where he severed Arandel's crimson aura with nothing but her sword.
And now, a faint glimpse of that same technique could be seen in Isaac's form.
"…"
Sharen stared blankly at her split crimson aura.
She'd seen Isaac cut through it before using gwigi (spectra aura), or counter with crimson aura of his own.
But never like this—just a sword, nothing else.
"W-What the heck!?"
Sharen was bewildered, but Isaac closed the distance in an instant, darting forward as if riding the path of the split crimson aura.
Before she realized it, Isaac had drawn close. Sharen gritted her teeth and swung her sword at him, but it was read as if it were the most obvious move in the world.
Whoosh!
Isaac's sword stopped just at Sharen's neck. Even if it was just a sparring match, the idea of cutting her neck felt wrong.
Maybe it was because she still felt like a child.
Usually, at this point, Sharen would drop her greatsword and surrender.
"..."
But today, she puffed out her cheeks and glared at him instead. It seemed she was extremely upset that her final strike had been blocked.
"Take this!"
Sharen let go of her greatsword and threw herself forward, ramming her head straight into Isaac's chest.
"Gah?!"
Crash!
Isaac tumbled to the ground.
A sharp pain shot through his chest, making him wonder if his ribs had broken.
But when he blinked, he found himself standing where he had been before the sparring started, and the pain was gone.
"Sharen—!"
Isaac called out in protest, but Sharen just stuck out her tongue and pouted.
Then the Grandmaster walked back in, eyes wide with surprise, and came up to Isaac, roughly ruffling his hair.
"What in the world?! How did you reach such an insight?!"
At the Grandmaster's enthusiastic praise, Isaac smiled faintly.
Once one reaches the extreme, there's no need for aura.
That was what the Grandmaster had once said.
But Isaac didn't believe he had reached the same realm as her yet.
Still, the reason he had managed to cut through aura… was, surprisingly, because of the sparring matches with the mages.
"After days of sparring, I suddenly had a thought. A mage's magic and a knight's aura—at their core, they're both mana."
Lately, the mages had changed tactics—erecting walls or keeping their distance to prolong the fights.
As Isaac faced off against their spells, he realized there wasn't much difference between those and aura at the root level.
"So I think I started to get a feel for it. Sparring with the mages really helped."
"Ha, haha! Well done! You gain insights from the most unexpected places—it's enough to make this teacher feel embarrassed!"
"Let's go again! One more time! I'm really gonna win this time!"
Sharen ran up and shouted, grumbling. She clung to him, insisting she'd win this time.
But unfortunately, they couldn't use the sparring grounds anymore.
"They said that thing starts today. The magic to find the Mana Core. Everything's on hold because of it."
Apparently, the mages who still hadn't found it were going to use magic to locate the Mana Core.
According to the Tower Master, mana carries traces and history.
That's how they planned to find it.
It would've been nice if they had done it sooner, but it seems preparation was needed since they had no idea where on the continent it might be.
On the bright side, now that it had taken this long, they were confident they could find it no matter where it was.
"Good thing we didn't duel again—I nearly killed Isaac."
"..."
Sharen nodded to herself as if that explanation made sense.
"Well, let's go. It should be quite a sight to see."
The three of them left the sparring grounds.
When they had arrived, the sun was still up, but now darkness had fallen and the moon was shining.
By now, the streets around the Magic Tower were familiar to their eyes.
Despite the large-scale magic being prepared, the city itself had gone eerily quiet as the lights disappeared.
With no mana-powered streetlamps, it was more inconvenient than expected.
Just then, they spotted Damien and Mu-myeong approaching from the distance.
Both were carrying lanterns, and their light clothing made it look like they were out for a festival.
"Are you finished?"
"Yes. And what about you? I distinctly told you to follow your mentor and practice with the sword, did I not?"
"..."
Damien was immediately getting scolded.
Though he was the Grandmaster's disciple, Damien was far more specialized in footwork than swordsmanship.
Well, being a former thief, it made sense he was better at other things than direct combat.
As the Grandmaster passed by, lecturing Mu-myeong, Mu-myeong approached Isaac.
"I've prepared some food back at the lodging. From what I heard, we're going to witness something spectacular, with the sky lit up by magic."
"Is it really that big of a deal?"
"They're trying to locate a mana core that disappeared somewhere on the continent. I heard that even if it's on the opposite side of the continent, they'll be able to find it."
"Ho."
It certainly seemed like the Magic Tower had gone all-out in preparing for this.
On the way to the lodging, a lump of blue mana shot up into the night sky.
It looked like a fallen star was rising again.
Isaac absentmindedly gazed up at it as he walked.
"Pretty…"
Sharen, walking beside him, was also staring blankly up at the sky just like him.
"Let's hurry. From what I heard, those things will keep rising and spreading across the whole continent for the next 2 or 3 hours."
"That's incredible."
Thanks to his budding friendship with the Tower Master, Mu-myeong seemed to know quite a bit.
It was the perfect time to relax with a drink and soothe their tangled thoughts—
"Hey, Isaac."
"Yeah?"
Sharen tugged at Isaac's coat as she called him. Still looking up at the sky, she asked:
"That thing… it looks like it's coming this way, doesn't it?"
"…Huh?"
His reaction was delayed—he hadn't even considered that possibility. But fortunately, he had two experts right beside him.
The Grandmaster scooped Isaac into her arms, while Mu-myeong grabbed Sharen and Damien and leaped away.
Then—
The long arc of blue light in the sky suddenly crashed down toward the spot where they had just stood.
KABOOM!
"Was this magic meant to find the core, or to kill the thief?!"
Isaac shouted in panic, and Mu-myeong yelled back that he had no idea either.
A huge crater was carved into the ground, and the area was engulfed in a cloud of dust. Luckily, it had struck in the middle of the road, so no buildings were destroyed.
Fweeeeeee!
Another star of mana shot high into the sky, once again flying straight toward them.
This time, unmistakably aiming at the Grandmaster and Isaac.
"Wait, this is—"
Isaac couldn't help but realize what was happening now.
The magic meant to find the mana core was homing in on him.
But before the light could reach him, a searing heat flared up in his chest.
Isaac, acting on instinct, hurriedly pulled a small ring from inside his coat.
The Severance Ritual.
A wedding ring exchanged during a magical divorce ceremony.
More precisely, it was Liana's wedding ring—
And it was now emitting an intense, blazing light.