Astina moved as soon as she finished speaking.
Mana swirled around her, and I furrowed my brow.
"Rudy, let's give it a shot," Astina said with a smile.
"Gravity Field."
A strong gravity field emerged around us.
Not only the leaves attached to the trees but also the thin branches fell to the ground.
I felt the gravity on my body as well.
My body became heavier, and my legs wouldn't move.
The force was incomparable to when we had sparred before.
I felt the weight and thought to myself.
She wasn't planning on going easy.
Then, I didn't need to go easy either.
Not that I was planning on going easy anyway.
"Behemoth, Priscilla."
"Whoosh!"
"Huh?"
I summoned both of them right away.
They represented my full power.
Priscilla looked at me with confused eyes.
"What are you trying to do..."
"It's like a game. Just go with it."
I stomped on the ground.
Even though Astina's magic was holding me, moving quickly wasn't a problem.
Astina stretched her hand towards me as I ran towards her.
"Reverse."
Then, my body floated up.
Gravity worked in reverse.
Suddenly, I was flying into the air, and Astina moved her mana again.
The ground behind Astina split.
The ground shattered, and rocks flew towards me.
"Behemoth."
I used Behemoth in response.
Rocks were nothing to me.
With Behemoth, I could manipulate rocks, dirt, and even metal as I wished.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Whoosh!"
The rocks flying towards me disintegrated with the sound of Behemoth.
"Priscilla."
At the same time, I called Priscilla's name.
Priscilla created ice in the air towards me.
The ice appeared like a step near my feet, and I kicked off of it.
Astina was slightly startled by my movement but quickly grasped the situation and used magic.
She flew into the air to avoid me.
I wasn't going to miss this opportunity.
Priscilla immediately created a platform under my feet, and I kicked off of it, changing direction.
I jumped towards Astina, who had risen into the sky.
"Rudy,"
Astina, seeing me flying towards her, smiled.
"I wasn't just playing around."
Astina clenched her fist.
Then, a black dot appeared behind me.
"Huh?"
My body, heading towards Astina, was drawn towards that dot.
Pressure was applied to my body.
It wasn't just me feeling it.
The dirt on the ground, trees, rocks.
Everything was drawn towards that dot.
I tried to escape, but escaping wasn't my first priority.
Since all the objects around were being pulled towards that point, I had to block the ones coming towards me.
"Behemoth! Priscilla!"
Behemoth disintegrated the stones coming towards me, and Priscilla blocked in front of me with ice.
"Ugh..."
I could block the flying stones, but not all of them.
A branch pierced through Priscilla's ice, scratching my body, and the dirt created from the disintegrated stones obscured my vision.
I couldn't just keep taking hits like this.
"Teleport."
I used spatial magic to try to get out of the area.
"Huh?"
But I couldn't fully escape.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})I tried to get completely out of the black object's range, but I ended up in a strange place.
What the hell happened?
The black object pulled me in again.
Confused, I felt my body being drawn in.
Astina smiled and continued her attack.
"Ignition."
A very basic spell.
Yet, a huge flame was created.
Astina didn't need to send that spell flying.
The black object pulled the flame towards it.
My body and Astina's ignition spell both headed towards the black star.
It was clear that Astina's spell would collide with me.
Seeing this, Astina spoke.
"Is that all?"
Her tone was taunting.
Yet, I wasn't angry.
That was her way of telling me to give it my all.
Her taunt was actually her way of saying it was okay to attack her.
She was being considerate.
"Phew..."
Because this was a spar, I had been holding back a bit.
Even if I tried to fight with all my might, my subconscious held me back.
We could seriously hurt each other if we weren't careful.
Motivated by Astina's words, I decided to go for it.
"Spatial Severance."
I cast a spell on the incoming flame.
The space split, and the gap swallowed the flame.
It missed again.
I accurately targeted the flame with Spatial Severance.
Yet, it slightly missed.
Luckily, the flame disappeared, but it wasn't good.
I had to figure it out.
Why was this happening?
Just now, even trying to escape with spatial magic, the destination was odd.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})And this spell didn't work exactly as intended either.
I focused.
I observed the surroundings.
Thinking about why this happened and how to deal with it.
The only thing that changed between then and now was the black object pulling me in.
How could it affect the spatial domain? An ordinary person can't influence spatial magic.
So...
"Coordinates..."
The anomaly wasn't in the spatial domain.
It occurred in the coordinates of the real domain.
I had seen Professor Mcguire's magical device before.
A device that causes coordinate confusion in the opponent, preventing them from using magic correctly.
That black object seemed to be causing such a phenomenon.
I had heard that strong gravity can warp space, but I wondered if gravity of that level could also do so.
One thing was clear, regardless.
That black object was causing confusion in the coordinates.
Couldn't it be destroyed?
Eliminating it would be the best situation.
I glanced at Astina and took a deep breath.
"Priscilla."
Reading my thoughts, Priscilla created ice near me.
This ice wasn't for blocking attacks.
Ice was created in the direction of the black object.
I kicked off this ice to create distance between the object and myself.
"Ignition. Wind Blaster."
Noticing something odd, Astina used magic towards me.
Flames created by Ignition rode the wind towards me.
The gravity created by the black object accelerated it.
I glanced at the attack and clenched my fist.
I aimed.
The attack, the black object, and even Astina were aligned in a straight line.
Mana gathered in my fist.
And I pulled back my fist.
"Haaah!"
Exhaling a shout, I thrust my fist forward.
Boom!!!
The mana in my fist exploded, sweeping objects in its path.
"Uh..."
Astina's eyes widened.
She had grown a lot, but so had I.
My mana had increased since before, and I handled it more comfortably.
Astina had not seen an attack of this scale.
Unanticipated by Astina, she was swept away by the storm of mana.
In that situation, I saw the black object.
Crack...
The black object couldn't withstand the storm of mana.
Simultaneously, I rushed forward.
"Ugh... Gravi..."
"Too late."
I pulled back my fist.
And thrust it again.
Astina's eyes widened.
"Again...?"
Not only had Astina not seen an attack of this scale.
She didn't know I could use it multiple times.
Another storm of mana burst from my fist.
And swept around Astina.
"Will you continue?"
"...Seeing the state of things, you're asking if we should continue?"
Astina pointed to the surroundings in disarray.
I scratched my cheek and laughed awkwardly.
"Ha ha..."
After my attack, there was an explosion on Astina's side.
Still, Astina wasn't seriously injured.
It was thanks to her magic blocking my attack simultaneously.
The problem was what followed.
When Astina blocked the attack, she reversed her own gravity to push the attack away.
This time was no different.
Astina couldn't push away all the attacks, but she managed to push away most of them.
This is where the problems began.
The mana storm I created was pushed away and fell below.
The surroundings were a mess... no, they were utterly devastated.
As a result, we had no choice but to stop fighting.
"About this place... Is it okay to just use it like this?"
"There couldn't possibly be land near the capital that you can just use however you want..."
I looked around.
Certainly, when we arrived, the area was lush with trees, but now all the trees were destroyed.
Moreover, the ground was dug up and turned lumpy.
"But, I thought this land didn't matter, isn't that why we came here?"
"I didn't know you could use such techniques; that's why we came."
"Ah..."
Cold sweat ran down my forehead.
"Then... Shouldn't we do something about it? We can't just leave it like this and run away..."
There are few in the empire who could wreak such havoc on a mountain.
There's no one else who could create the appearance of a storm having swept through, not just burning or cutting down trees.
The moment the land's owner decides to reveal themselves, getting caught is only a matter of time.
So, we had to either come to an agreement or something.
"We do need to come to an agreement, but..."
"Who owns this land? Since I caused this, I should at least go and apologize..."
"No... It's largely my fault for causing this, so I'll go."
"No, it's my responsibility since I used the technique..."
"No, it's because I deflected that technique..."
After a not-quite-argument, it was decided that we would go together to meet the owner.
"But, who is the owner of this land?"
"It's owned by the Order."
The Order.
That meant a religious group that worshipped the main god, Karua.
I was surprised by this unexpected revelation.
"If it's the Order's land... Why did we suddenly come here..."
I've heard countless times that the Order was corrupt.
People in the magical academic circles always thought poorly of the Order, seizing any opportunity to criticize them.
And I've heard it numerous times from Haruna, so in my mind, the Order was marked as a corrupt organization.
"Ah, don't worry. That person is quite decent. They're also associated with the family."
"Family?"
Though I had many questions, I followed Astina to the Order for now.
