The flower field spread before their eyes gave off a sense of strangeness.
The sky was filled with dark clouds, heavy as though rain might fall at any moment, yet the brilliant flowers below bloomed in defiance, creating an eerie contrast.
For something supposedly crafted by the Demon King, this felt far too out of place.
“A flower field? Why would flowers be here...?”
“Don’t let your guard down. Have you forgotten? Those thorned walls weren’t ordinary plants either. These flowers won’t be, too.”
“I don’t know what trick the Demon King’s playing, but we’re not about to fall for it.”
The vanguard war mages decided to destroy the field entirely.
They couldn’t possibly burn the whole expanse, but clearing a path wouldn’t be too hard.
Mages immediately began drawing fire-type circles.
Then, one of the leading mages noticed something and shouted urgently.
“Wait! Stop!”
“What is it?”
“The pollen around us—it’s strange!”
At those words, the war mages halted their casting.
Those who had begun erasing their circles focused their vision on the surroundings.
“Pollen?”
Though faint, the air was indeed filled with drifting specks of powder.
Given the field of flowers, pollen floating about wasn’t strange in itself.
But the fact that such a flower field existed here at all was already beyond comprehension—meaning the pollen couldn’t possibly be ordinary.
One of the war mages ran a finger along a petal, collecting some of the powder, then sniffed it.
“This... it’s made of the same material as Diffusion Incense.”
“What?”
“I’m certain. If we use magic here, our own spells will spread uncontrollably and sweep our allies into it.”
Diffusion Incense was a substance that increased mana’s conductivity to the point of interfering with spellcasting.
For mages who relied on precise circle control, a spread like that could ruin their spell structure entirely.
Experienced war mages might still manage to cast within a diffusion field, but this wasn’t just a matter of skill.
Fwoosh!
One mage summoned the faintest flicker of fire at his fingertips—only to see the air burst into flame before him.
“Wh–what did you just do?”
“Just a basic [Pyro].”
“And that small spell caused that?”
If they’d gone ahead and used a higher-level fire spell to burn the entire field, it would’ve triggered a massive explosion—turning the whole area into a sea of fire.
They might have burned the flowers, but they would’ve burned themselves too.
“That was close.”
“It’s not just Diffusion Incense—it’s mixed with something even more volatile.”
At this rate, they had no choice but to blow away the pollen with wind magic first, and then burn the flowers carefully afterward.
“It’s just airborne dust. A simple wind spell should handle it easily.”
If they amplified their mana’s outward flow, even a breeze could become a gale strong enough to sweep it all away.
With that thought, one mage cast a wind spell—only for his eyes to widen.
“What the—why isn’t it moving?”
The pollen didn’t budge, as if fixed in place.
It wasn’t because of any special property of the pollen itself.
It was a headwind.
A wind blowing from the opposite side, countering theirs perfectly.
‘A mage on the other side? They’re actually matching our current? Competing against us with wind?’
But they had over two hundred war mages skilled in wind magic.
At the signal, they all cast simultaneously.
The resulting airflow was nearly that of a typhoon, powerful enough to sweep the pollen away entirely—
—Yet the headwind grew stronger in turn, balancing out and nullifying their combined effort.
“What the hell?”
“How is this happening?”
“Over two hundred people cast at once—and it’s still blocked?”
Impossible.
Could it be that the Demon King had an equal number of wind mages on his side?
“What’s going on?”
“We can’t observe them. Detection spells are useless—the pollen’s interference is too strong.”
“Could this be connected to that weather phenomenon that blocked our airships earlier?”
What if they used even stronger magic?
After a brief discussion, the mages capable of casting up to 4th-Circle spells decided to go all out.
A 4th-Circle wind spell—
[Wanderer’s Touch].
A pure wind-force spell powerful enough to push away even boulders.
More than thirty war mages cast it at once.
The resulting blast was so intense that the flower field seemed to ripple like waves on the sea.
The pollen, unable to withstand the force, was swept far into the distance.
Finally, they’d done it—the troublesome pollen was gone.
But as they rejoiced, the next sight left their mouths hanging open.
“What... what is that?”
The pollen they had blown away began to gather again, thick and heavy, forming a yellow wall that surged back toward them like a tidal wave.
The faint pollen had turned vividly golden, dense enough to see clearly even through the gloom.
The gale driving it was stronger than theirs—
Meaning, someone had just unleashed at least a 6th-Circle wind spell.
Yet there was no overwhelming mana surge, no pressure typical of that level.
“Th–this can’t be. Unless it’s a Wind-Color mage, this shouldn’t be possible...”
The golden wave of pollen swallowed the war mages whole.
* * *
“Haa... this isn’t easy.”
Violetta wiped the cold sweat trickling down her temple, trying to stay focused.
Beside her, a wind spirit appeared and cooled her face gently.
“Ah, thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
Vierno Dentis, who had summoned the wind spirit for her, smiled faintly.
“Still, it’s truly astonishing. I never thought this could even be done.”
Watching the current of wind swirling around Violetta, Vierno couldn’t hide his awe.
What she was displaying now was near-divine mastery.
“Even if you had a natural affinity for wind, to actually achieve the state of a Color Mage... that’s unbelievable.”
Indeed—
At present, Violetta had become a single-element specialist: a mage of color.
Originally, she possessed great talent in wind magic, though she could use other elements as well.
But Color Mages are born able to control only one element, entirely in harmony with it.
That made her situation highly irregular.
“I’m still shocked myself. I never thought something like this was even possible.”
“It must be the power of the Great Demon, then.”
It was all thanks to Suruna.
Suruna hadn’t simply granted her power or turned her into a true Color Mage.
It was the opposite.
“He sealed all your other elemental talents... forcing you to handle only one.”
What Suruna had done to her was simple: rather than awaken her potential, he suppressed it—brutally.
It was ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) much like the experiment Ludger once performed with mana inhibitors: blocking the flow rather than enhancing it.
He sealed off her ability to use every other element, erasing those affinities altogether.
For most mages, such suppression would reduce their total power to a fraction—like binding every limb and leaving only one arm free to move.
But in rare cases, such extreme constraint triggered an unexpected bloom of talent.
Violetta was one of those exceptions.
“Though it came with heavy conditions.”
She had natural aptitude for wind, Suruna had the knowledge and means to seal her other traits, and Vierno was there beside her as a supporting wind spirit user.
So no—Violetta wasn’t a true Wind-Color Mage.
Strictly speaking, she was imitating that state.
Deceiving herself, even fooling the world’s gaze—
Stealing a gift that should never have been hers, forcing it into existence.
That was her current reality.
“The Lord of Wind Spirits helped, too. Thanks to that, the number of wind spirits in this airspace has increased exponentially.”
“Well, whatever the reason, the fact our side’s power is rising is good news.”
Still, Violetta’s complexion was far from healthy.
This borrowed talent came with a price—and it wasn’t small.
Every spell consumed staggering amounts of mental strength.
So this was how Color Mages commanded nature—they didn’t rely on pure mana alone, but let their will touch nature directly, resonating with it.
Their brains themselves were built differently.
To mimic that process by force was to wring her mind like a wet rag.
It wasn’t like squeezing into clothes that didn’t fit; it was like cutting flesh to make it fit—and stitching new pieces where they didn’t belong.
And since it was the Great Demon Suruna who taught and enforced this method, the term contract with a demon wasn’t just a metaphor.
“Violetta, how’s your body holding up?”
“I’m fine.”
“You mustn’t overdo it. Our goal here is only to buy time.”
Vierno’s eyes were full of concern.
“If you push too far, you may never use magic again.”
She had offered up even her future capacity to wield magic in exchange for this momentary power.
If she stopped in time, she might recover. But if she kept this up...
She would lose magic forever—falling from a respected mage to an ordinary woman.
“I know. I know what’ll happen if I push any further.”
Still—she smiled faintly.
“I don’t mind.”
She caught the returning gust with her own magic, shaping it into her wind and sending it back toward the enemy.
“I was born in the slums. A bottom-dweller who should’ve died unnoticed in an alley. I was born with nothing.”
The wind raged, swirling across the flower field, consuming the mages like a vortex.
Through the wind, she could feel the war mages’ panic.
“I never even dared to want anything. Wanting was a luxury. It wasn’t just me—everyone around me was the same.”
Every day was survival.
Each night before she slept, she had the same thought: Please, let me live another day.
Hearing that another friend had died somewhere in the neighborhood no longer shocked her.
People being sold off or used as lab subjects was common.
Life was cheap there—and that was simply accepted.
She hated it.
Even though she could barely sustain herself, she helped other women from the slums.
If she had been selfish, she could have lived comfortably.
But she didn’t want that kind of life.
Yet, as the leader of an organization, the weight of responsibility crushed her, and she began to break as a person.
Born from the swamp, living her whole life in it, and destined to sink there in the end—
That was her future.
Until he saved her from it.
“Now I can make all the clothes I want. My girls no longer go hungry. People in the streets can laugh again. I overcame my trauma. I learned magic. I found things I wanted to do.”
She had received too much.
Even if she spent her entire life repaying it, she could never settle that debt.
And the man who’d given her all that would never ask for repayment.
That was the kind of man he was.
So, at least in this moment—
For the one who had shown her the path forward, she would fight.
This pain was nothing compared to the agony of her past.
“But still,” she said, feeling the wind shift in her hands, “I think I’m starting to get the hang of how to handle it.”
At first, moving the wind by sheer will alone felt like her brain was burning.
But as she endured, she began to understand.
It wasn’t so hard after all.
She learned to manipulate it more efficiently, and the headaches gradually faded.
Once she realized what she needed to do, her control accelerated rapidly.
Vierno’s pupils dilated. The wind itself had changed.
“...Seems I wasn’t as untalented as I thought,” Violetta said with a teasing smile.