Good night

The canvas depicting angels and demons, stretched across the white ceiling of the otherwise empty room. It portrayed the epic war between gods and demons--the same one described in the ancient scriptures.

The hollow interior of the room was adorned with sculptures, art pieces, and chandeliers.

Beneath the canvas, a lanky, fit man, who appeared to be in his 20's, walked.

His ordinary black-brown hair and matching pair of eyes revealed him to be Nathan Rivers.

Nathan was wearing a formal business suit— a tie, a coat, a white shirt, and black pants—an unusual choice of attire for this otherwise occasion, which was taking place in the moonless night.

He walked out to the cantilevered balcony, which was extended from the room.

To his right Nathan found Ophelia Delacroix, who only greeted him with a simple nod, and smiled.

It was enough to make any man fall under her spell. But not Nathan —he was a cold and calculating man. But he didn't mind asking for her number later.

His cold, calculating gaze then shifted to the left, where it landed upon the enchanting beauty of Svetlana Darkthorn—someone whose number he couldn't ask for. {𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻}

Standing beside her was Liam, positioned almost like her guardian, and Nathan silently nodded to himself that he would never request for Svetlana's number.

Nathan retrieved a spectacle and put it on—it was a relic that enhanced the user's vision.

With it, he peered down from the balcony onto the Thorn Grove Forest—the private forest belonging to the Darkthorn estate.

This was the place chosen by Noah as the dueling ground.

The forest below was pitch black—adorned by the embrace of night.

But, the tranquility of the night was short-lived.

—BOOMB!!

The vermilion cardinals —swirling inferno of incandescent hues ,danced in the embrace of night sky, their vibrant movements —a spectacular result of lithium chloride pin missiles which was launched from a modified bazooka.

The blazing violent tendrils of plasmatic fire, which surrounded Seraphina like a red dragon, curved around her, without making contact. It was as if an invisible spherical barrier shielded her delicate moonlit skin from the chemical fire.

Seraphina simply stretched her right hand forward, causing the blazing red flames surrounding her to collapse and shrink in size.

The thirty-feet-high flames immediately diminished, slowly reducing to the size of a spherical football, then to that of a tennis ball. Eventually, they imploded and extinguished like an ember, vanishing into thin air.

The red dragon was devoured by void.

Seraphina smirked, amused by the nature of attack that Noah used. It wasn't magic-- something you would expect in a typical duel; rather, it turned out to be a bazooka. It was funny. Silly even, but it definitely captured Seraphina's fascination.

At the distance, Seraphina's gaze fixated on Noah, who stood with a contraption-like armament resting on his shoulder, emitting wisps of smoke from its four apertures—the modified bazooka.

Shphew! Shphew! Shphew! —At subsonic speed, four more pin missiles were launched.

But mid-trajaectory—each missile fossilized into stone pillars. The ignition masala inside them turned into dust,

the engine propellant froze into sculptures. Bereft of their momentum, the once-deadly projectiles plummeted to the ground, shattering into detritus of rocks and sand. The detritus rolled several meters, bouncing across the lush green grass, before finally coming to a respectful halt at Seraphina's feet—an inadvertent homage paid to her remarkable display of magic.

As soon as Noah saw that, his figure vanished into thin air. He teleported away.

Seeing this Seraphina smiled, and let out, "Oh, this is definitely going to be fun..."

With graceful poise, Seraphina stepped forward, extending her arms to the sides. As she did, luminous green discs , resembling beautiful mandala art materialized around her arms—it was a detection spell.

But before she could even do something, her steps 'clicked' something on the ground.

Immediately, eight smoke grenades were launched into the air.

Fwiiissshh! — the grenades began creating a thick haze.

It was a trap mechanism, Noah prepared earlier that day.

The smoke shrouded the entire area, obscuring Seraphina's vision with darkness.

But all of this was making Seraphina amused. Thrilled even.

She never expected this kind of a 'duel'.

"Heh... What a guy!"— Seraphina chortled, her excitement reaching its boiling point.

The thrill within her boiled so much that it, caused her to burst into a fit of laughter— "Hahahahaha—ahhhhaghah," —it almost sounded like a maniacal cackle.

She chuckled uncontrollably, tears streaming down her cheeks.

The effects of the laughing gas and tear gas was evident.

But suddenly, the green discs on Seraphina's arms began to rotate and turned red—a detoxification spell.

In the next moment, the smoke surrounding her dissipated.

Her figure became visible, which was seemingly unaffected by the previous effects of the gas.

Just as Seraphina regained her composure, a machete came slashing from her right.

But, a massive pillar of stone erupted from the ground, launching Noah into the air where he disappeared once again.

"Tcht!"— Seraphina's tongue clicked, not out of annoyance but genuine amusement.

A smile adorned her beautiful face, reveling in the unexpected turn of events.

Of course, if Seraphina wanted, she could have put an end to the match the very moment it began, but she held herself back by a significant margin.

Not to mention that she was enjoying herself by these unexpected turn of events.

But suddenly, the entire Thorn Grove Forest was consumed by an intense, radiant light. Its intensity was so overwhelming that it seemed as if the sun itself had descended upon the land.

When the light slowly faded, a kaleidoscope of glowing golden butterflies painted the canvas of Thorn Grove, fluttering gracefully throughout the surrounding.

"What... Is this?" Seraphina asked, the words escaping her lips.

But, at that very moment, she sensed an alien presence behind her.

As she turned around, Seraphina saw Noah's bruised figure aiming a stretched bow at her, which was devoid of any arrow.

Seraphina was amused, she couldn't lie.

Impressed even.

She would have ended the match the moment it began but Noah's strange tactics kept her interested in the battle.

But, enough was enough.

It had been 27 seconds since the match started, and Seraphina was no longer inclined to entern herself.

She brought her arms together, causing the red discs encircling her arms to rotate, coming together and transform into a sphere of pure blue energy.

"The match is over," Seraphina declared.

And indeed, it was over.

Fifteen meters away from her stood a large chunk of ice, encapsulating Noah's defeated body.

The match was over.

Noah lost. Just like that.

***

Noah's POV:

—Snap! —"Ouch!"—I let out, as the flick of Seraphina's middle finger hit my forehead.

"That really hurt! Why would you do that?" I asked.

But when I looked, I was unable to tear my gaze away from the mesmerizing ruby eyes of Seraphina.

In the next instant, my heart seemed to forget the pain radiating from my four broken ribs.

"Why didn't you give up, kid? You could have seriously harmed yourself—and you did! I had no idea it had resulted in fractured ribs. You had fractured ribs the whole time! Why did you choose to keep on standing?" Seraphina asked, her genuine concern palpable.

It was only natural for Seraphina to show concern. After all, nobody would want to harm the person who had saved their own daughter's life.

It had been three days since Svetlana began taking my medicine, and she was already experiencing significant improvement, feeling better than ever before.

Seraphina shook her head, a gesture filled with compassion.

Placing her hand over the area where my broken ribs lay, she did so with utmost care.

Her gentle touch and her soft skin came close to making contact with the exposed area. Currently I didn't have any shirt on my torso.. So..

'Does she see me as her son? Well, I am around that age... or at least, my physical body is.'

With a simple utterance of the word "Heal," Seraphina cast a spell, though it sounded like an ordinary word.

Immediately the pain in my ribs subsided and my bones began to heal.

Of course, I could have asked Nano to heal me... But I wanted to see Seraphina's healing magic since she is renowned as the strongest mage in the world.

And how much of her power did she actually use to fight me?

5%? 4%... It must be something along those lines.

"Huh... I suppose this is where it ends then," I murmured with a hint of disappointment.

For some reason, my heart began to grow strangely cold.

I just wanted to go inside a blanket and sleep.

"Hmm?" Seraphina raised an eyebrow, clearly perplexed by my sudden emotional shift.

Shrugging off my melancholy, I waved my hand dismissively. "It's nothing. Once Svetlana is healed and the other part of our agreement is fulfilled, I'll be on my way."

'Right... this isn't a fictional story where everything goes according to plan.'

'Seraphina won't become my teacher now that I've lost, and I certainly cannot force her to.'

I should be satisfied with what I am getting out of this deal.

But as I gazed into her mesmerizing ruby-red eyes, a sense of sorrow welled up within me.

I may look like an 16 year old, but I was 23...

Well I would have been 24 the next month... But

Whatever

Who gives a shit.

"Noah, is everything alright? I used healing magic, didn't I?" Seraphina's velvety voice entered my ears.

"Yup, everything's fine. Just feeling a bit tired," I replied, pulling up the blanket and settling into the bed.

"Good night."