With Calios' death, the dimensional gate energy disappeared like a candle being extinguished.
The localized typhoon that had been raging stopped, and the debris floating in the air fell down with a rustling sound.
Osian slowly descended, stepping on the falling debris.
Behind Osian, who had landed on the ground, the sound of debris falling rumbled like thunder.
Although dust clouds rose with the shock and scattered particles around, not a single speck of dust touched Osian's pure white armor and cape.
"I wonder what the others are doing."
If Calios' words were true, there was a high probability that powerful individuals had also visited the places where Diolan, Lorraine, or Edgar were located.
Osian, who was contemplating whether he should help, soon chuckled and gripped his sword again.
While caring for his colleagues was important, what was even more necessary was having faith in them.
That's why Osian believed that all his colleagues would handle things well.Osian cast his gaze at those who had been watching the fight from a distance.
They had distanced themselves to avoid getting caught in Calios' aftermath, but they probably never thought he would actually die.
With the red force field user Calios vanishing, and the white knight standing alone on the battlefield, an indescribable thrill was felt.
Osian drew his sword and stood blocking the front, as if guarding the research building.
"Those who want to pass through can do so if they wish."
The cape on his shoulder fluttered, elegantly embroidering the space.
The brilliant constellation and night sky patterns on the inner lining made it seem as if the sky was protecting him from behind.
At this moment, he was a being who could be challenged.
*
Andrena and Edgar swung their weapons at each other.
They were weapons formed by condensing their magical power to the utmost, not made of physical material.
A massive blue hammer and a pitch-black sickle collided, causing a collision of forces.
Magic and dark magic.
Whenever these two similar yet different powers clashed, stray energy scattered in all directions, sweeping through the research building's corridor.
The research building's corridor, designed to withstand even bomb explosions, split apart and the ceiling collapsed.
Even in the midst of that destruction, the two did not take their eyes off each other.
"Haha! This is good!"
Andrena burst into a genuinely joyful laugh and spun her body elegantly.
Following that trajectory, the sickle rotated like a saw blade, drawing countless arcs in the empty space.
"Hmph."
Edgar, unperturbed, raised his hammer and then firmly struck the ground.
The magical power imbued in the hammer spread out in concentric circles. The magical wave erased all the sickle's trajectories, leaving only its main body.
Edgar stretched out his left hand, not holding the hammer, toward that remaining main body.
-Swish!
Blue magical power extended like a rope, wrapping around Andrena's body.
Just as he was about to pull her in, Andrena’s leg stretched out long.
The rope caught in the trajectory of her swung leg was cut powerlessly.
Edgar saw it in that instant. The black blade protruding from her foot's tip.
What is this?
While Edgar was taken aback, Andrena, freed from the rope, threw the sickle like a boomerang.
Is she throwing that?
Edgar frowned and created a shield in one hand to deflect the incoming sickle.
The power imbued in the sickle was so intense that the hand that deflected it felt numb but he couldn't express his dissatisfaction.
Andrena had already approached his immediate vicinity.
In both hands, she held pitch-black curved daggers that seemed to devour light.
Those twin daggers were swung from left and right, trying to slice Edgar's neck like scissors.
Edgar leaned back, avoiding the attack. Not stopping there, he threw his body back and created a blue barrier facing the front.
A blue wall filled his vision, and immediately after, black lines rushed down, riding the stars.
A skull mask suddenly popped out through the gaps in the shattered magical barrier.
"Seriously, this mask is just too burdensome!"
Who wouldn't be startled by a wall suddenly breaking and a skull popping out?
Moreover, Andrena was wafting black dark magic around her body.
Because of that, the already eerie skull mask appeared several times more frightening. It was clearly designed with psychological pressure on the opponent in mind.
Of course, Edgar was not intimidated by such things. He had seen too much for his age.
In a split second, Edgar recovered his posture and created two straight swords that perfectly fit his body in both hands.
Edgar threw a straight sword towards the approaching Andrena and created another sword above his hand to throw.
More than ten straight swords flew in a straight line, targeting Andrena’s vital points.
The approaching Andrena did not slow her speed and brilliantly swung her twin daggers.
-Clang clang clang!
Swinging, rotating, dodging, deflecting.
Her figure, scattering dark magic while fluttering her black robe, was like a crow performing a low-altitude flight.
Thus, Andrena deflected or dodged most of the magical straight swords and approached Edgar's immediate vicinity.
Edgar looked at that and chuckled.
"Well, your physical skills are good."
Feeling something ominous in that smile, Andrena tried to stop, but it was already too late.
-Boom!
As the ceiling collapsed, a massive iron flail dropped onto Andrena’s head.
Andrena reflexively blocked it by crossing her daggers.
The iron flail pressed down on Andrena as her body was crushed, breaking the ground beneath.
"Hey. Are you dead?"
Edgar asked in a provocative tone toward the broken ground.
In response to his words, sharp black spears erupted, breaking through the ground.
-Swoosh swoosh swoosh!
The black spear blades seemed to pierce through the entire surrounding area, but Edgar was unfazed.
He had already created magical ropes and made a hammock between walls, sitting on top of it.
Sitting on the hammock and swaying, Edgar stared at the hole below.
From there, Andrena, wrapped in black magic, suddenly burst up and landed on the ground.
"Oh. You survived well. Most kids would've been flattened by that one blow. Does this mean you're qualified to recklessly challenge me?"
"……."
Andrena silently stared at Edgar. The red glow behind the skull mask flickered like a candle.
"So if you want to continue, say so. I like that you're not talking much like before, but it gets a bit disappointing when there's nothing."
Edgar spoke casually, but the magical power emanating from his body was different.
The overflowing blue magical power seemed to engulf the surrounding space like an ocean.
Andrena stopped breathing for a moment.
Although she was also wafting dark magic, Edgar's magical power was several levels higher.
And she realized that the previous fight was something Edgar had been going easy on her.
"Well, your fighting method wasn't bad. If you move quickly like that and exploit the opponent's weaknesses, most wizards would suffer considerably."
Andrena was surprisingly fast for a dark magic user.
Her movements were elaborate, and her reaction speed wasn't bad.
He wasn't sure if it was because she was a dark magic user who was skilled with weapons, or if she had these innate physical abilities that allowed her to use such dark magic.
"But that doesn't work on me."
If it were the Edgar from before, he would have been flustered by that appearance, but now he was different.
He had learned something from his previous sparring, not quite a match, with Osian.
'If I had met her before, I would have been overwhelmed and lost the flow in one blow.'
Of course, the result wouldn't change. He would have won somehow but he would have probably gotten some wounds on his body.
Reluctantly, he had to admit that his fight with Osian allowed him to calmly respond to Andrena.
Thinking it worked out well in the end, Edgar asked Andrena:
"So, are you going to continue? I asked earlier. Say if you want to continue."
Andrena stretched her hand out to the empty space and lightly grasped it.
With that movement, a sharp dagger was formed in her hand.
That alone could be considered a sufficient answer.
"Anyway, you're so damn belligerent."
While saying that, a smile was also forming at the corner of Edgar's mouth.
Just as Andrena was about to charge again, she suddenly applied an emergency brake and stopped.
Immediately after, a blue spear blade shot up vertically, breaking through the floor.
Andrena immediately backflipped and gracefully retreated.
"You dodged that?"
Edgar stuck out his tongue as if surprised.
"Not very dark magic user-like movement. From that motion, it looks like you've done some dance. Did you do ballet?"
Andrena, who had created a safe distance, did not answer.
Right now, Andrena was quickly surveying the surroundings instead of rushing forward like before.
Andrena gathered a lump of dark magic in her right hand and threw it toward Edgar.
The black sphere flew slowly, as if riding the wind.
-Clang!
A sharp blue guillotine blade falling from the ceiling cut through the dark magic sphere.
Something flickered inside Andrena's skull mask.
Feeling that dissatisfied gaze, Edgar smirked.
"Why? Did you think I would only fight in close combat? If you're a wizard, you should use this."
Edgar tapped his head with his fingertips.
While Edgar's fighting style was about crushing head-on with pure magical power, that didn't mean he always solved things with pure strength.
Edgar's essence was that of a wizard.
Just because he had a violent temperament didn't mean he lacked a wizard's insight and common sense.
From the moment the fight began until now, this entire area had already been taken over by magical traps Edgar had created.
Andrena couldn't understand that. Did he already anticipate the fight would last this long?
As much as she wanted to deny it, looking at the current reality, Edgar seemed to have already anticipated this situation.
"Still, I was surprised. I didn't expect you to notice and react to the trap there."
Edgar was praising Andrena, but from her perspective, even that felt like a deception.
Andrena realized that this area was already in the palm of Edgar's hand.
Edgar quietly gazed at Andrena with profound eyes.
His eyes were so deep that his intentions were hard to read, like looking into an endless sea.
As if saying that if you try to come in further, you'll die inside this.
The moment Andrena saw that, she lowered her posture further and raised her momentum.
"What?"
Edgar narrowed his eyes.
"You're going to come in further?"
By this point, one would realize the difference and retreat, but Andrena chose to step forward here.
This was not courage. It was purely a collection of madness.
Just as Andrena was about to unfurl her crouched body, something no one expected happened.
-Crack!
With a sound of something breaking, Andrena's skull mask split in half and fell off.
Her bare face was exposed as crimson hair cascaded down.
While he had roughly guessed she was a woman from her name and movements, Andrena was a delicate beauty.
"I had a hunch from the point you learned dance, but it was true."
She picked up the fallen mask fragments and sighed, withdrawing her dark magic.
Having not achieved what she expected, Edgar stared at her with a deflated look.
Andrena silently created a black mask with dark magic and put it on.
It was an emotionless mask made of dark magic.
She slowly retreated like a wary cat and then suddenly disappeared.
"She really killed the mood."
Edgar couldn't hide his disappointment. He was surprised by Andrena's burning fight spirit, but it was pure, joyful admiration.
Edgar wanted to see that. A moth-like figure that never gives up, charging forward even when facing an insurmountable wall.
Unfortunately, he couldn't confirm that this time either.
Edgar gazed at the scenery beyond the broken wall, outside the gaping hole.
The crimson lightning and storm that had been raging until just moments ago had stopped.
Osian had also ended his fight. And victoriously at that.
The only one left was Lorraine's side.
Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat!
The faint gunshots echoing from afar indicated that the fight there was not yet over.
'Support won't be necessary.'
Edgar relaxed his shoulders.
Anyway, Lorraine would handle things well.
Because of that belief, Edgar decided to focus on his other objectives.