*Swish!*
Inside a room as spacious as a grand hall, the uninvited young woman first swept the jade tree branch in her hand through the air before immediately chanting a series of magic spells at an astonishing speed.
Surprisingly, the speed of her chanting was fully comparable to Corrupted Spirit Alaya’s super-high-speed chanting.
Throughout the chanting process, the mysterious mystical artifact in her hand continuously emitted a strange glow, seemingly accelerating her chanting even further.
As a result, only a few seconds later, Riezel witnessed her deploy several magic spells in a single breath.
Among them, the first was a barrier crackling with lightning that enveloped her entire body. Next, countless magic projectiles radiating a ghostly glow materialized out of thin air, each one also crackling with lightning. Finally, a cloud of luminous mist appeared around her, completely surrounding her figure.
"Go!"
Only after completing all of that did Ivy raise the jade tree branch in her hand and suddenly point it toward Riezel.
In the next moment, the countless magic projectiles shot forward.
It was not ordinary projectile fire.
Perhaps because she had used another magic spell to accelerate them, lightning surged wildly across every projectile, granting them lightning-like speed. Each transformed into a blurred streak of electricity and hurtled toward Riezel at an astonishing velocity.
"..."
Seeing the scene, Euryale immediately tensed up and instinctively prepared to rush forward to intercept every one of the lightning projectiles.
However, before she could move, Riezel stopped her.
"It’s fine. I’ll handle it myself."
Having become interested in the woman’s performance, Riezel restrained Euryale with one hand while extending the other.
"Magic Destruction."
An invisible wave of magical energy immediately surged forth and swept toward the incoming barrage, intending to dispel it.
"No way!"
Ivy immediately saw through Riezel’s intention and swung the jade tree branch in her hand.
*PENG!*
Just like Temporal Stasis from earlier, Riezel’s Magic Destruction was shattered as the invisible wave of magical energy broke apart like glass and vanished without a trace.
"Oh, so I can’t use magic?"
Riezel raised an eyebrow, then, with a grasp of his hand, Hermit, sheath and all, immediately fell from the Dimensional Magic Cube’s storage space into his palm.
Almost simultaneously, the barrage of lightning projectiles finally reached him and crashed forward without hesitation.
However, just before the barrage struck Riezel, a vortex-like storm of blades appeared.
"Moon Breathing - Fifth Form - Moon Spirit Calamitous Eddy!"
Without even drawing his sword, Riezel spun on the spot, generating a massive vortex of crescent-shaped wind blades around himself and meeting the incoming barrage head-on.
*BANG!**BANG!**BANG!**BANG!*
*BANG!**BANG!**BANG!**BANG!*
Immediately, every incoming lightning projectile slammed into the suddenly erupting vortex. They were first deflected away, then shredded apart by the countless crescent-shaped blades within the whirlwind, exploding one after another.
At the same time, Riezel switched Breathing Styles.
Lightning soon erupted across his entire body as he shot forward at the speed of a thunderbolt, rushing straight toward Ivy.
"Thunder Breathing - Fourth Form - Distant Thunder!"
What Riezel used was a sword form in which lightning burst from the user’s body, allowing them to charge forward at lightning-like speed before unleashing a high-speed slash upon closing the distance.
With his current level, once he employed a high-speed charging technique like this, not even a veteran Sword Saint would be able to react in time.
Ivy might have been a powerful magician, but there was no way her reaction speed could surpass that of a veteran Sword Saint.
As such, she naturally could not react to his charge.
However, she did not need to dodge in the first place.
*CHI—!*
As soon as Riezel entered the luminous mist surrounding Ivy, the mist suddenly stirred. Like a deadly poison corroding flesh, it caused smoke to rise from his skin as though it were being burned away.
"Hm?"
Riezel looked somewhat surprised.
Instinctively halting his charge, he lightly jumped backward and exited the mist’s range.
"Found you!"
Only then did Ivy clearly see Riezel’s figure.
Upon seeing him leap out of the mist, she immediately released another magic spell without a moment’s hesitation.
*BOOOM!*
In an instant, an explosive blast of compressed air erupted around Riezel and swallowed him whole—the sudden explosion was far more powerful than the magic spells she had cast before using the jade tree branch.
If Riezel had still been Level 7, there was a genuine possibility that he would have been injured without magical protection.
Fortunately, he was now Level 8, where his END stat had reached an absurd level, likely surpassing even Ottar’s and Gareth’s. Combined with his magically enhanced clothing, whose defensive capability rivaled that of second-class equipment, he forcefully endured the devastating explosion.
"Thunder Breathing - Fifth Form - Heat Lightning!"
Emerging from the blast, Riezel immediately drew his sword and unleashed a slash, sending a lightning-shaped attack infused with intense heat crashing toward Ivy.
Yet that attack also failed to accomplish anything.
*BANG!*
Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the lightning-shaped slash struck Ivy, only to be blocked by the lightning barrier surrounding her body, causing the attack to collapse instantly and vanish into nothingness.
"Heh, not bad."
At this point, Riezel began viewing the young woman in a new light.
In his opinion, her chain of responses as a magician had been nearly perfect.
The lightning barrier she had deployed was likely a defensive magic specifically designed to counter physical attacks, and its defensive capability was extraordinarily strong. Even opponents with levels higher than hers would find it difficult to break through the barrier and harm the young woman protected behind it.
The layer of luminous mist was meant to prevent enemies from approaching. It was likely an Interference System Magic capable of inflicting corrosive damage upon the human body.
Combined with the jade tree branch, which rendered an enemy’s magic completely ineffective, she had effectively placed herself in an invincible position.
Close combat was impossible due to the mist.
Long-range physical attacks would be blocked by the lightning barrier.
Magical attacks were rendered completely useless.
Under such circumstances, what could anyone possibly do?
"It seems like half-hearted attacks are completely useless against you, huh."
Despite facing such a troublesome situation, Riezel remained entirely calm, causing Ivy’s expression to darken.
"I’ll give you one chance. Cancel your contract with Her Highness and release my companion. Do that, and I’ll stop here."
Ivy’s voice was cold and unwavering, carrying a clear warning that left no room for negotiation.
In response, Riezel casually threw out a sentence of his own.
"I’ll give you one chance, too. Surrender now, and I’ll make your suffering a little less painful."
Hearing that, Ivy’s brows rose sharply before she immediately began chanting again, causing magic projectiles to appear one after another, then enhancing them with lightning and creating a screen-filling swarm of lightning projectiles.
Without question, this young woman was not only a magician specializing in both the Transformation System and the Interference System, but she also possessed a certain degree of mastery over the Control System and the Structure System as well.
Even though every magician on the continent possessed compatibility with all four major systems of magic, most specialized in the system with which they had the highest compatibility, occasionally studying a second one as a supplement.
But this young woman was different.
Even with systems in which her compatibility was lower, she had clearly invested significant effort into studying them. More importantly, she used them to support her primary systems, making her magic stronger and more effective.
From her methods alone, it was obvious that she came from a completely different origin than the mainstream magicians of the continent, as she possessed a more complete, more advanced, and more refined magical heritage.
It could be said that if any other magician witnessed the way she cast magic, they would be utterly astonished, and her techniques would create a massive sensation throughout the world of magic.
Anyone else facing such a magician, one whose understanding and application of magic were far ahead of current standards, would likely feel completely helpless and be suppressed from beginning to end.
Even someone like Florent would have been no exception.
Unfortunately, she had encountered the most unreasonable person in the world.
"Time Accelerator."
Before Ivy could release the screen-filling barrage of lightning projectiles, Riezel activated his magic first.
Immediately, the surrounding world became viscous, as though he had stepped into another reality altogether, and the flow of his personal time accelerated.
In his eyes, everything in the outside world seemed to have been placed in slow motion, and the flow of time became incredibly sluggish.
"!!!"
Ivy appeared to sense something and hurriedly attempted to swing the jade tree branch to shatter Riezel’s magic, yet her movements appeared absurdly slow in his eyes.
As a result, he stepped forward first and rushed into the luminous mist.
In the next instant, the mist attempted to erode him, but it too had become incomparably slow. Before it could fully take effect, he had already broken through it and arrived directly in front of the young woman.
"Alter the old truth, forge a new one—Lost Truth."
Riezel activated his modification magic, causing a transparent magic circle to shatter into countless mirror-like fragments that floated around him.
"Maximize Magic - Reality Slash."
In the next second, he unleashed a magic spell infused with the Imaginary attribute.
Reality Slash was a 10th-Tier Magic that possessed top-tier destructive power even among all Tier Magic, making any defense meaningless before this attack.
Faced with a force capable of cutting through space itself, no matter how powerful Ivy’s lightning barrier was, it could not stop it. Furthermore, Reality Slash was a magical attack rather than a physical one.
However, under the influence of the Imaginary attribute, the magic underwent a transformation.
Rather than being released as conventional magic, it attached itself to Riezel’s blade like enchantment magic, causing the black blade of Hermit to emit distortions powerful enough to warp space itself.
Back in the world of Overlord, he had once considered researching the original prototype of Reality Slash and recreating a skill known as Dimensional Slash.
In YGGDRASIL, that was an ultimate special skill that only Level 100 players holding the strongest warrior job class, World Champion, could learn.
Meanwhile, the 10th-Tier Magic Reality Slash was merely a degraded version of Dimensional Slash.
Now, under the effects of Lost Truth, the Imaginary attribute had granted Reality Slash properties similar to enchantment magic, allowing it to be attached to a weapon and used through a sword strike.
In other words, after activating Lost Truth, Reality Slash had effectively reverted into the warrior job class ultimate skill, Dimensional Slash. It not only retained its unmatched magical offensive power but also gained overwhelming physical cutting power capable of severing anything.
*Schwing—!*
Accompanied by a clear sword cry, the space-cleaving slash bloomed from Riezel’s hand.
Just then, the flow of time returned to normal.
Ivy’s movements accelerated once more as she prepared to swing down the jade tree branch, but before she could do so, the space-cutting slash descended.
It sliced through the lightning barrier crackling with electricity, cut through the clothing that seemingly possessed protective abilities, and finally fell upon the young woman herself as terror filled her eyes.
*Pu-chi!*
As soon as the sound of tearing fabric rang out, blood sprayed into the air.
*BOOM!*
At the same time, the luminous mist that had filled the area exploded apart in an instant, transforming into a rushing current of air that swept throughout the room and lingered for a long time before finally dispersing.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support and get early access to upcoming Chapters at: /VALRRR]