Old faces (1)

The fay physiology possessed something which they call 'Mirror personality'.

The Mirror personality was a type of state that the fays enter when their body is under excessive stress, led by their desires and pure insanity.

Just as the name suggested, the mirror personality is the absolute opposite of what their usual personality is, which in turn meant that the more good a fay is, the worse they can become.

The reason for that is that fays are generally meant to be good. As they are a race that is created by the world itself, they also embodied a part of the world.

While elementals embodied the elements and dragons the disaster, fays embodied the beauty of the world and nature.

However, if strained enough, even beauty can vanish and turn into pure ugliness. Such ugliness, that nobody could've ever expected from such a beauty.

And that was the reason for the fay's mirror personality.

Just like beauty, they also embodied everything bad, when under too much stress.

"Calm down Thauma. You should take a rest."

Narrowing my eyes, I pointed the tip of Excalibur toward him, essentially threatening him to stop whatever he was doing.

"Rest and recover. Your mirror personality is showing again."

"Why should I?" Thauma said, his voice carrying an amused, almost even euphoric, tone. "I am feeling great! In fact, I've never felt this great before!"

"Shut up, Thauma."

Although my voice was calm, that was certainly not how I felt on the inside. While I could sense that Ophelia and all my other students, who were in the colosseum, were alright, it still didn't change the fact that his reckless behavior angered me quite a bit.

No, angered was quite an understatement.

I was livid.

If Thauma had been even a little bit more reckless, they could've been hurt. I grimaced at the imagination of such a thing happening.

"Stop all of this or I'll make you stop."

One last time, I gave him a warning, shooting him a glare through my mask.

"Oh, big words coming from you, Zenith." Thauma laughed while looking at me with a pitiful expression. "The question is if you can make your words come true, though?"

"Tsk."

WHOMF—!

Without wasting another second, I used Void step to dash forward, disappearing, as the sound of something fading out of existence echoed throughout the arena.

"Brace for impact, Thauma."

Reappearing directly beside him, I pulled my hand back, going in for a light punch to snap him out of his mirror personality.

Even though he wasn't in the right state of mind right now, I still considered him my friend. In fact, the only friend I had, so I would like to avoid hurting him if possible.

BAM—!

My punch was absorbed by a purple mana shield, as strong pressurized wind expanded outwardly, making my clothes flutter with the sole pressure of that impact.

"Tsk. You muscle head."

Thauma, who had been acting playful only a second ago, narrowed his eyes, glaring at me from the corner of his view.

"I wouldn't consider myself as one."

Our exchange was only a brief one, but it was enough for me to recall the strength of my old friend.

'The dreamer' was a terrifying opponent to have, even for me.

That didn't mean that I was scared, though. I just acknowledged his strength as a person and as a mage.

Thud—

Landing on the ground, my body took a few steps backward, and I narrowed my eyes to reassess the whole situation.

"See? You can't even breach through my defense, Zenith."

Laughing and spinning around like a psychopathic little kid, he mocked me, his voice filled with joy and ecstasy.

"Just give up and enjoy the show! It will be fun, I promise!"

God.

His mirror personality really was something else entirely.

And with 'something else entirely', I meant that in a bad way. The things he said reminded me of characters I would've classified as 'cringeworthy'.

"Well..."

Throwing the idea of holding myself back away, I opened my dimensional storage with a single movement, pulling out my main sword.

"It seems like I can't go easy on you."

"Pfff! You wanna try to beat me with that sword?"

Although he smiled, his smile didn't seem to quite reach his eye, his voice gradually gaining a sharp edge as he spoke.

"Don't joke with me, Zenith. At least try to unseal that thing first."

Ignoring his sword, I pressed my foot into the ground, shooting forward with the impact of a thunderbolt.

BOOM—!

I reappeared a few meters near him, extending my arms as I gripped my sword tightly, holding it behind me. With my sword following me, I delivered a vertical slash.

CLINK—!

Sparks flew through the arena grounds, as my sword made contact with his mana shield again, causing my clothes to flutter even more. The difference this time being is that it seemed to have an effect.

Crack—!

His shield gained cracks at the place my strike hit him, causing Thauma to widen his eyes in surprise.

"...!"

I tried to push further, but Thauma was retaliating, which forced the both of us into a senseless power struggle.

His dilated purple pupils locked with mine. Exchanging looks for a split moment, before I chose to end it.

Redirecting the momentum that had been built up by the power struggle, I pulled my sword back, causing Thauma to fall forward.

Seeing that opportunity, my left arm shot forward, grabbing Thauma by the back of his head before slamming it into the ground.

BAM——!

By the impact of that slam, the entirety of the arena cracked, and the edges began to fall off, causing some of the unconscious participants to fall into the water.

While I was worried about them drowning, I didn't have the time to spend on such thoughts, as right after that slam, Thauma disappeared into purple particles.

"You fucking bastard!"

Reappearing a few meters behind me, he wiped his bloody nose, glaring at me with a gaze of contempt. His violet eyes shone violently and with the intensity of a raging storm, fixating all that rage on me.

"How dare you!"

Without even saying an incantation, Thauma pointed his finger at me as he yelled, his voice filled with power and authority.

"Grab him!"

Two magic circles formed behind his back before transforming into a dark portal, where black human-like arms shot out, trying to catch me.

Seeing that, I tried to dodge, but that didn't work. Those arms were tracking me.

With tremendous force, they charged toward me, following me no matter how much I tried to outrun them.

"Then how about..?"

Realizing that running was no use, I drove my foot into the ground as I turned around, coating my sword with ether.

"Sever."

Delivering a slash that cut through space itself, even those arms disappeared into nothingness, no trace of them being left.

However, it didn't stop there as right as I had destroyed those two arms. Dozens of black tentacles seemed to come from nowhere, rushing at me just like those arms did.

I shot a glare toward Thauma, who just silently stared at me from the distance with a sinister smile glued to his face.

Soon the tentacles surrounded me, cutting off every chance for me to escape as they trapped me like a snake would trap its prey.

Gritting my teeth, I tensed the muscles with that I was holding my sword, forcing my ether into them.

"Spiral cut."

Releasing a heavy breath, I slashed my sword around in a spiral-like shape, surrounding my body with nothing but my sword strikes.

The surrounding space began to tremble and shake as I did so, changing with every strike of mine and having to flick itself together again.

Apart from the cracking of the space, the only thing that resounded in the arena was the sound of my blade singing through the air and cutting the tentacles apart on a molecular level.

Crack—! Crack—! Crack—!

As if reality itself was struggling to know what was going on, everything around me blurred and tore itself apart before flicking itself together again, as cracks seemed to appear everywhere.

And then.

Silence.

Soon, I came to a halt, pausing as I closed my eyes, giving the world some time to recover.

Releasing a heavy breath, I opened my eyes again to witness the destruction I had caused.

Fortunately, I managed to avoid injuring anyone, as my mastery over that technique was high enough, but the unnecessary destruction that I had caused otherwise was the reason why I avoided using that technique.

Although none of the people were hit, the surrounding arena and colosseum looked like nothing more than a wreck.

Cracks and cuts were everywhere and even some parts of that structure broke apart, leaving nothing but the remains of what was once a normal colosseum behind.

Thauma, who was still confident just a while ago, now looked at me with an expression of horror, one that he would have never made if he were in his normal state.

Although mirror Thauma was much more dangerous, it is an undeniable fact that the normal Thauma was stronger by leagues, so I was quite lucky that I only had to fight against mirror Thauma.

He just lacked the sanity and intelligence to pull off what Thauma usually did.

"W..what the..."

Stunned by the scene that just happened the mirror Thauma just looked at me in disbelief, unable to say anything, as he kept stammering.

However, instead of waiting and enjoying the rare sight of my old friend acting like this, I rushed forward, using Void step to close the distance.

WHOOMF—!

Reappearing a few meters in front of him, I stopped, taking a step backward, as I raised my sword over my head.

"This could hurt a little bit."

With widening eyes, Thauma barely reacted, trying to conjure multiple mana shields around him to block what was coming next, as he could have probably already predicted it due to my stance.

Stomping my foot inside the ground, a heavy surge of mana was released by my sword, as I called out its name.

"EX-"

Instantly, the blade was enveloped by purple energy, unleashing all the mana on the tip like a laser beam as I brought my blade down, crushing anything in its path.

And for a split moment, the true form of my weapon was revealed, showcasing a beautiful sword that one would only see inside their dreams.

"CALIBUR!"

BOOM—!