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“A duel? Between you and me?”

Among knights, it was common to challenge each other to a duel over love and honor. Christine’s attitude was understandable since she was also a knight, despite being a Holy Knight.

However, Repenhardt was clearly wearing a mage’s robe. Challenging a mage to a duel was not only unheard of but also considered dishonorable for a knight in this era.

Yet Christine seemed oblivious to her mistake. She boldly shouted, “If you truly love Sillan, you wouldn’t refuse this duel!”

“But, a duel between a mage and a knight…,” Repenhardt stammered, when Sillan, smiling sweetly, offered her encouragement.

“Mr. Repen! I believe in you! Show them the power of our love!”

And with that, he quickly ran behind Siris. Repenhardt looked back, frowning deeply.

‘You want me to duel that woman?’

‘You’ll win anyway, right? Please save me!’

The two exchanged these complex thoughts with just their eyes. It was truly a case of perfect mutual understanding. Siris, observing this, muttered to herself, “These two, they might actually be dating…”

‘No! Siris! Don’t get any strange ideas! Dating my foot!’

‘…?’

Repenhardt, flustered, tried to signal Siris as well, but she just tilted her head in confusion, unable to understand. While Sillan understood perfectly, Siris did not. Feeling the futility of his life, Repenhardt sighed.

“Ah…”

Christine adjusted her grip on her sword and took a stance, shouting, “As a Holy Knight of Seiya, I will allow you the first strike! Mage, prepare for the duel!”

“Well, there’s no way around it now,” Repenhardt grumbled, raising his hands and glaring at Christine. Regardless, the goal remained to separate Sillan from this woman. Whether it was a duel or not, as long as he achieved his objective, it didn’t matter.

‘Since it’s come to this…’

Repenhardt began forming intricate hand seals with both hands. Fortunately, Christine was giving him the first strike, so he decided to unleash a grand spell and end it quickly!

“La Dant Bas Pillaren, O thunder, come to my hand and become a storm that engulfs the sky and annihilates my enemy…”

Combining runes and magical words, Repenhardt chanted the spell, leaving intricate gestures in the air. Along the way, he rubbed his hands together, generating static electricity to activate the catalyst. As the spell activated, powerful magic began to surge through Repenhardt’s massive body. Christine’s expression hardened slightly.

‘He’s a higher-level mage than I thought!’

It was common knowledge that you should never give a mage time to chant a spell during a duel. However, she had unwittingly given him the same courtesy as she would in a regular duel. But it was too late to backtrack now; Christine’s pale eyes reflected Repenhardt, who had completed the spell and now held massive bolts of lightning in his hands.

‘Sorry, but let’s finish this quickly!’

With a triumphant smile, Repenhardt activated his spell.

“Lightning Storm!”

Rumble! Boom!

The lightning swirled and turned into a storm, sweeping across Christine from all directions. Lightning Storm was a spell that sent dozens of lightning bolts crashing down over a wide area like a storm. Its power wasn’t particularly high, but it was nearly impossible to dodge.

‘Well, I’ve significantly reduced its power so she’ll just be knocked out.’

Just as Repenhardt, confident of his victory, was about to see the lightning strike Christine, she suddenly raised her sword and shouted.

“Seiya, let your sword shine!”

Buzzzzz!

A deafening roar ripped through the air as her sword began to glow brilliantly white. With the radiant sword in hand, Christine swung it in a dazzling display. The sword’s light slashed through the air, cutting each of the dozens of lightning bolts in half.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Soldiers covered their ears against the repeated explosions and whispered in astonishment.

“Huh? Another Aura User?”

“No! It’s different. That’s…”

“Right! It’s the Holy Sword used by Seiya’s Holy Knights!”

Just as the golden knight Eusus, empowered by an artifact, wielded power comparable to an Aura User, the Seiya Order had researched ways to achieve similar effects through divine power. The result was the brilliant white blade, the Holy Sword.

At a glance, it appeared similar to an Aura User’s Blade Aura, but the soldiers, surprisingly, could immediately tell the difference. Having seen so many Aura Users lately, even the ordinary soldiers had developed this level of discernment.

Though not as powerful as Blade Aura, the Holy Sword, imbued with concentrated divine power, could easily dispel a weakened Lightning Storm. Of course, Repenhardt hadn’t cast his spell unaware of the Holy Sword’s existence.

‘What? A Holy Sword? Was she a genuine Holy Knight after all?’

Among the Holy Knights of Seiya, only one in ten could wield a Holy Sword. Naturally, Repenhardt hadn’t thought for a moment that this crazy woman was a genuine Holy Knight. But, despite her erratic demeanor, Christine’s skills as a Holy Knight were impeccable.

“It’s my turn, you vile fiend!” Christine charged, swinging her sword with the force of a tempest. Repenhardt quickly prepared his next spells.

“Shield of Protection, Power Shield! Step of the Wind, Wind Step!”

Repenhardt blocked the Holy Sword with a magical barrier and simultaneously used the Wind Step spell to swiftly retreat. The Holy Sword, slowed by the magic shield, missed him and sliced through empty air. In that brief moment, Repenhardt cast another spell.

“Aero Bullet!”

Over thirty wind bullets materialized in the air and poured down on Christine. This was Aero Bullet, a 1st-circle wind spell. There was a time when just chanting this one spell took Repenhardt ages, but now he could cast it instantly and in large numbers.

“Urgh!”

Christine gritted her teeth and shielded her body with her arms. The wind bullets pounded her relentlessly. Despite the attack, Christine emerged with only her hair slightly disheveled and no other signs of injury.

“Hmph! Do you think a Holy Knight of Seiya would succumb to such an attack?”

Indeed, Aero Bullet, being a 1st-circle spell, lacked significant power. Even thirty of them had little effect. Sillan, watching from behind, shouted in frustration.

“Why have you only been using magic since earlier?”

The Seiya Order had worked hard to develop the Holy Sword to counter Aura Users, but the results were not very satisfactory. While it looked similar on the surface, the Holy Sword was vastly inferior to a true Blade Aura in terms of power and effectiveness.

Repenhardt, known as the Fist King, ranked among the top Aura Users. This was why Sillan had felt confident in pushing him to duel. But seeing him fight only as a mage without using his Aura abilities was driving her crazy.

Repenhardt replied with a wry smile. “What’s wrong with a mage using magic?”

Repenhardt had no intention of revealing his Aura User identity now. Partly, this was to avoid standing out too much, but he was also genuinely enjoying fighting as a mage. The many humiliations he had endured due to his lack of mana and computational power were finally behind him. Now that he could fight as a mage again, he found it exciting.

“Ah, for crying out loud! My life is on the line here!”

‘Jeez, being disregarded to this extent is starting to really piss me off.’

He may have ended up as a brawler in this odd body, but he was once a 10th-circle Archmage who had reached the pinnacle of magic. He had pride as the greatest and strongest mage in human history, and yet here he was, being looked at with such distrust.

Repenhardt pouted. “Hey, it’s not like I didn’t know this wouldn’t work! Just trust me a bit!”

The reason he had created and fired thirty wind bullets wasn’t to defeat his opponent.

No matter how crazy his opponent was, killing her would have left him feeling uneasy. He needed to gauge the appropriate level of magical force to use. By hitting Christine with the wind bullets, he was assessing her strength and endurance through the recoil. It was akin to a doctor examining a patient with a diagnostic touch, but he was doing it with magic. If other mages knew this, they would have been astonished.

‘How could they not understand the high-level application of magic here?’

Grumbling inwardly, Repenhardt continued chanting.

“The veil of darkness blinds the eyes, Darkness Veil! All things slip! Grease! Flowing ice casts the shadow of death! Prison Shadow!”

Creating distance, Repenhardt immediately cast spells to blind Christine and make the ground beneath her slippery, blocking her steps. He was thoroughly versed in techniques to deal with warriors from his previous life. All the spells connected seamlessly, halting Christine’s movements, and soon, shadows infused with cold energy ran across the ground and bound her ankles.

“Ugh!”

Christine, alarmed, struggled as her ankles froze and her feet were immobilized. With his opponent trapped, Repenhardt leisurely muttered,

“It will take at least 30 seconds for you to break free from the ice around your ankles with your strength. Let’s end this duel.”

Aiming his fingers at the immobilized Christine, Repenhardt began chanting. Christine, frowning deeply, suddenly muttered,

“No choice, I must use the power granted by Seiya!”

Then, she began to take a deep breath. At that moment, Repenhardt was startled and stopped his chant.

‘Is that…?’

For a mage of his caliber to pause mid-chant, he had to be very shocked. Christine, after changing her breathing, suddenly opened her eyes wide and tensed her legs.

“Haaaah!”

Crack!

The ice encasing Christine’s ankles shattered and scattered into fragments. Breaking free from the frozen hold with sheer strength? No matter how imposing Christine’s physique was, it seemed impossible. Such power was beyond that of an ordinary human. It felt almost like…

“Huh? Is Christine an Aura User?” Sillan muttered in disbelief. However, for an Aura User, the light on her blade remained pure white. Raising her sword, Christine proudly addressed Repenhardt.

“I have not been blessed with the enlightenment of Aura. However, Seiya has favored me, granting me a body that rivals theirs! Hohohoho!”

Watching her laugh heartily, Repenhardt hurriedly asked, “Hey, you! Who taught you that breathing technique?”

Repenhardt wasn’t shocked merely by Christine’s sudden display of strength. It was her breathing technique that struck him, something so familiar that it left him stunned.

Christine tilted her head, then answered calmly, “It was when I was a young girl, before I served Seiya. An old man found me and taught me this breathing technique, claiming it would make me healthier. I didn’t understand it back then, but now I know. He was sent by Seiya to mold me into His sword. Thanks to this breathing technique, I have become an exceptionally sharp blade among Seiya’s Holy Knights!”

With unwavering faith in Seiya, Christine’s expression was dreamy, reflecting her gratitude for His boundless grace.

Meanwhile, Repenhardt cursed inwardly. ‘Damn it! Master, what the hell have you done?’

He recognized it instantly. The breathing technique Christine had used was Gym Unbreakable’s unique physical growth breathing method, essentially a technique to grow taller.

This technique, while primarily promoting physical growth, was originally designed to enhance the body’s strength. With proper application, it could temporarily boost one’s physical power, as Christine had demonstrated. Reaching such a level indicated she had been practicing this breathing technique diligently for nearly a decade.

‘No wonder she grew so ridiculously big!’