[36]

"Using the connection of mana and your soul, sense your area."

Maria wasn't stupid.

She knew something or a mass of things was definitely headed towards her.

She felt no change of mana within the air so it definitely wasn't magic...or at the very least, if it was, it had to be a type of magic that was left untraceable.

Within a split moment, she realized she could only base her next actions on pure luck. Her thoughts immediately collapsed to the back of her mind…

...her weapon traced against the air…

Ting

The sound of something metallic scraping against her blade, a force pushed against it for the briefest of a moment, it was weak...yet…

"!"

Gleaming icily silver, there was a scrap as a low flickering spark flew...

Her eyes widened.

She saw it briefly, the tip of the needle…

...right before it ruthlessly pierced forwards.

Her head jerked.

For a moment, her body stopped, taking in what had just happened.

The next she realized...

She was already crouched and holding onto her right eye.

...her scream of endlessly seething pain echoing as crimson blood raced from her eye

"I…" She found it hard to even take a short moment to gather her thoughts.

The world seemed to spin and she found it impossible to keep her balance.

Her breath rushing.

She heard it once more, as if a rope being strung.

This was reality.

She realized.

If she did not move, she would die.

She was only thirteen.

She did not want to die.

The reaper's scythe was ever narrowing. However, Maria was not one to stand still and accept death. As much as she valued fate, blindly following it was something she had no notion of doing.

Her left hand grabbing the needle in her eye and her right hand grasping her blade, quivering slightly, her mana seething.

Her teeth gritted.

Forcing herself to her feet.

Was she immune to pain?

With one forceful pull, she slashed just the same.

No.

Her scream echoed with the roars of thunder.

Crimson lightning crackled, sparkling in glistering short streaks, the wave sped forwards.

With the flashes of light, she saw the cobblestoned walls being torn apart as her attack shot forwards

Her surroundings shook.

Yet…

"Made from the workmanship of the elves, this needles poses Mana Break...however, dissipation is impossible for them…"

She realized the attack had failed. How did she know?

Her scream resounded as her body jerked backwards.

Naturally, it was due to the newly impaled needle in her left shoulder.

Her breath stopped for a moment.

She heard it once more, that same reverting sound as if a string was strung.

She took a deep breath.

"!!"

Her foot forcefully stomped in motion.

Crack

From the depths of her soul.

Crack

She heard it.

Crack

She felt it.

Crack

With a final shattering.

She knew, the chain that permanently linked her mana with the world's was severed.

It only took an instantaneous thought for her mana to engulf and overwhelm the surroundings.

Now invisible to the naked eye.

Maria opened her eyes and, although her right eye dripping with blood, she saw…

No, she perceived the world in a new taste.

A cobblestoned hallway and a dirtied floor. Within, a lone girl of blackened hair and silver eyes stood in pain; wearing silver armor and holden a weapon of the same color in hand.

Her head slightly moved, avoiding the needle in front of her in effortlessness.

Wherever her mana passed, the world was opened to her mind. She could perceive the minuscule specks of dust upon the air. With every second that her mana drained, the world became anew. Every change within the area was as clear as her name within her mind.

And with that, the needles headed towards her seemed 'slow'.

"Congratulations Maria, you have acquired Mana Sense. Depending on the amount of mana you are to pour within that technique, the details of the world visible to you in a split moment will also alter."

'A detailed time perception or is it simply a clean lense to see through…?' Her brain worked in tandem with her new view of the world.

"Training Area 1 has been completed. Please move forwards towards the next area. After all, time is short on hands…"

"...both." Maria muttered briefly.

Her blade moved, the sound of iron against iron resounded in clanks as the needles fell from the air…

...her world became blackened.

***

[Moments Prior]

Iu furrowed her brows lightly.

No matter how much she stared at the figure before her, she could not perceive her thoughts. Was she one of the few people amidst the world with the ability to negate her soul skill? Or could she be more so the dangerous type...

"You can clear your thoughts?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Naturally," Mar replied.

She narrowed her eyes, "Knowing the name of that man...and being able to clear your thoughts...who are you really?"

The girl smiled lightly and stretched her palm forwards.

A light glow of red, followed by sparks of flashing crimson.

"Maybe this will awaken your endless years of memories?"

As soon as Iu met eyes with the spark of crimson lightning, they widened as realization dawned. Within the history of the world, only few had been able to awaken the lost mana elements of the past. One of which having awakened <Crimson Lightning> a variant of the legendary <Lightning> element...one of which becoming an OverLord of her time.

"Maria…" She muttered.

"Maria of…"

Mar smiled, neither of them needed any more words spoken.

Both having been a legendary figure of their time.

"Wherever she stands, bloodshed comes." Iu smiled lightly.

The words the masses used to refer to that being that could eclipse an entire battlefield.

"Wherever she passes by, a river of crimson flows."

She could kill an entire small nation within a night.

"When you hear the screech of thunder and see the spark of crimson…"

"...run."

Iu remembered the first time she had had the chance to meet that girl. At that time, they had both been on par with one another. And had both devoured and wreaked an entire mountainside...

***

"I have come on behalf of my master, will your race align with the Asura or with Humanity?" Her voice boomed.

Her blackened hair fell behind the silvery upper armor she wore. Her silver gauntlet grasping the silver hilt of the blade at her left hip. And her gray eyes staring upwards at the figure that sat atop the throne.

Shining in a marble splendor of white, the throne room hanged in drapes of the same color. Atop the steps before her stood a throne of a black simple chair that glittered just the same. And atop that stood a simple girl. Ruby eyes staring back at her own gray and pure white silver hair that matched her skin falling behind her. Wearing a dress of crimson, she rested comfortably upon the chair.

This was the queen of the Vampires, Iu.

The queen spoke slowly and clearly, "A war ravaging the entire world, which side do you think we will align with? The ones most likely to win, the Asuras, or the weakest race to ever be born as a whole, Humanity?"

Maria shook her head, "You do not understand, I am here for a simple goal."

She unsheathed her weapon. Its thin silver blade gleaming icily as she held it down to her right leg. Her hand grasped against its cross-like silver hilt.

Her eyes narrowed as her voice chilled, "There is only one choice."

"Either align with Humanity or we will assume you with the Asuras and slay you."

Maria Springfield. Her life was simple, follow the desires and words of her master.

"Oh?" Iu stroked her chin momentarily.

"Your thoughts are quite the interesting case."

Anything beyond that was simply unneeded.

"I will ask once more," She spoke out.

"Which faction do you align with?"

Iu watched interestingly as an aura of crimson mana colored the blade the girl before her held.

She smiled.

"Bow." Her voice rang, completely devoid of emotion, an absolute order.

Bang

The ground beneath her feet cracked into fine lines. Maria remained standing even as the innumerable pressure descended upon her. There wasn't a single quiver in her step nor a fault in balance, it was almost as if she felt nothing.

"Oh?" Iu raised a brow as she paced into standing.

"Very well, it seems you have made your choice apparent." Her silver-gray pupils traced onto the foe ahead.

Her mana seethed uncontrollably as an aura of crimson fell upon her entire figure.

"Bloodshed it will be."

The sound of countless chirps of birds rang within the chamber. Innumerable and ear piercing to the bone. Almost to the level of complete madness.

Her weapon shook in a low glimmer as the crimson light around her figure shaped into sparkling lightning. It didn't simply course around her, it also ran through her entire body...her veins, her bones, her muscles, her entire being.

Her figure disappeared.

Bang

A folded blackened umbrella met her blade.

The air seemed to tremble as sparks of crimson lightning flew with the clash. Maria's blade quivering as she pushed against her opponent.

"Quite interesting, your mind is entirely composed of his goals?" Iu smiled.

Maria's expression remained calm.

An SSS ranked vampire against an SS ranked human.

A rumble came below her.

Maria jumped backwards, her feet landing soundlessly against the floor, in time to see two sections of the floor crushing against her past position.

Opening up, the two slants broke apart into ten spikes. However, that wasn't the end, the whole area rumbled as countless more pure white spikes formed from the remains of what should be the floor.

Her umbrella opened up as she held it above her petite build, the spikes floated quietly at her outstretched.

"A rising legend, yet, your ego may have just gotten the better of you." Her light smile was kept.

They sped forwards.

Maria looked on unhurriedly at the coming spikes.

Her mana spanned.

The world seemed to slow down before her. Her motions becoming extremely simple and refined to the perfect precision.

She took a simple stance, her blade held before her left waist, her right leg held forwards, and her left held behind.

'59..' Her silver-gray eyes briefly narrowed into endless focus.

The crimson aura around her burned even brighter.

'Ender's Gate…'

2 meters.

'Sparkling End...Act 4!!'

She slashed out.

The chirps of a thousand birds rang in intensity as a bask of crimson lightning flew.

She stood.

Her weapon held to her side, low sparks reverting from it, she stared ahead and watched.

Without a shred of resistant, every single spike within the air met with a course of lightning…

And all crumbled down into dust.

"So be it…"

Her mana exploded outwards.

Her figure became bathed in endless sparks of lightning.

"I will be serious."

Sparks of crimson electricity enriched her pupils as her eyes traced towards her opponent.

"!" Iu felt a jolt shoot through her body.

Her blade shook.

Her figure blasted forths.

Bang

Even as the umbrella took the brunt of the leftward attack.

Iu's body smashed into the sidelong wall as she concaved into it.

Maria didn't stand still for a moment.

Instantly tracing her vision to her opponent.

"Ender Gate...Roar of the Crimson Dragon...Act 3!!!"

She slashed out...

There was a resounding roar mixed with the sharp shrill of thunder.

Iu's frontal outlook met with the figure of a lightning dragon headed straight for her. Its lengthy shape curving upwards widely for a splitting moment before instantly borrowing forwards.

With an attack which full force was composed of mana, she couldn't stop it.

The jaws of the crimson lightning beast opened in an everlasting roar before pounding against and devouring her.

Boom

The entire building quaked and Iu found herself blasted away into the outside world with a part the debris of her pristine castle.

Maria didn't stop.

Her body seemed to quiver for a moment before shooting through the hole she had made.

Standing upon the edge of the Ashe brown mountain, she looked up at the lingering crimson mana within the air.

Her eyes narrowed, her right hand grasped her blade tighter.

The night was an adolescent, the air was as frigid as the full glimmering silver moon that hung behind the queen of vampires, which ruby eyes currently shown in lusters. Yet, the blood of this two were currently flowing in an Intense heat for battle.

Maria's notion had always been the same since the beginning.

She crouched slightly...

'Efficiency, Speed…'

And most important.

'Kill.'

...her body lunged as she jumped straight into the air in a blazing trail of speed…

The ground cracked with the leap.

A moment passed before thunder rang.

"Bringing me to a battlefield outside…" Iu smiled.

She watched Maria who seemed able to step upon the crimson shower of lightning below her feet.

"You do have a death wish, do you not?"

'Death…'

"!"

Her eyes widened.

The sky brightened in glimmers of silver blades. Uncountable to most eyes. Yet, Maria had already saw it all as 1,000 blades within a split moment.

Iu kept a light smile.

They shot forwards.

"Ender Gate...Eclipse of the Crimson Dawn...Act 5!!"

Her mana spanned across the reaches of the sky.

The world roared with her words. The entire sky shaped into a crimson glare. Countless sparks of lightning echoed out.

With every blade that came her way, a strike of thunder resounded. Maria disregarded the silver blades within the air and continued forwards towards her opponent.

No sword ever managed to touch her within the least, each struck down before...yet...each standing right back up just the same in a continual attack…

"Ender Gate...Roaring thunder, Soaring Wings...Act 6!!"

The entire red aura that engulfed the sky narrowed onto her blade.

Maria struck down her weapon in a wide vertical slash just moments from Iu.

The sky broke apart to reveal the ray of crackling thunder that instantly tracked forwards with her swing.

Iu raised her hand forwards.

"A mere attack wave?"

The blades naturally gathered in vast speed in an obvious response to her ability.

"Block."

A gigantic shield was formed.

Boom

The night sky became nothing more than the sprinkles of silver and crimson. The wind howled and, if anyone was to take a moment to glimpse upon the sky, they would surely see something pertaining to an excessive show of light.

"I've been alive for over a thousand years...holding no natural talent...and now, a thirteen-year-old girl wants to defeat me?"

Maria heard the almost doubtful voice.

The shield at her forefront, gracing against her attack, transformed with clicks into the visage of a gigantic metal hand composed of blades.

"I feel as if the masses take me too lightly."

Boom

Her attack was directly crushed upon the grasping of the hand.

Maria found herself momentarily blown backwards by it's after reaches. Her body quaked slightly and her balance lingered on edge. Shaking herself of hindrance, she looked ahead…

Bang

The fist pummeled into her in full volume.

Her figure instantly traced against the backdrop of the night sky.

The small mountainside shook as Maria found herself pounded against its sides, briefly, the air escaping her lungs and her mana wavering.

However, Iu was anything but lax.

"What I hate seeing the most is overconfidence."

Her hand fell.

Maria looked upwards to see a rain of blades narrowing down.

"Death will awaken you."

As if a typhoon, the mass of blades narrowed down like a needle and delved onto Maria.

"Ender Gate...Domain's Awakening...Act 10!!" Her voice bellowed.

A massive force of energy exploded at her location.

The entire area blasted upon in a dome-like seismic shock.

Pieces of rocks crumbled into the air.

The blades that propelled towards her were directly ripped away in an instant contact with the shockwave.

"Hmm."

Iu floated within the air, watching carefully as the girl stood back onto her feet amongst the crumbled ruins of the area just away from her castle and within the mass scrap of metal that was once her attack.

"Ugh." A cough of blood escaped her lips.

Maria's body shuddered, her sword impaling into the hardened ground as she leaned her weight upon it.

Iu smiled, "Interesting, not only do you not have much to live, barely 5 years left by my thinking, you also continue to use techniques that burn your cells and muscles and thus continue to destroy your body. Increasing your rate of death without concern."

Blood dripping from the edge of her lips, Maria's silver-gray eyes looked up without a single sliver of bother.

"The crimson lightning given by Asto, it would seem it to be a dangerous element indeed. Unless you could reach the level of an OverLord, you will die."

She grasped her blade into her right hand...

Pain…her entire body shuddered in endless pain, she could feel her cells decaying by the second. And her muscles unresponsive. Even as her hand stammered to grasp her blade, and the crimson liquid oozing from her lips...

...she stood back up.

...she had long stopped minding such a useless thing as pain.

"Even if I die...It will be by my own hands." Her soft voice rang out.

"Oh?" Iu raised a brow, "Death by one's own hand…"

Maria disregarded the rest of her words.

"Ender Gate, Revolution, Act 10." Her voice resounded just as soft as last...however, the world rang aloud.

A crimson band of lightning fell onto her figure in an extreme instance.

The entire mountainside rumbled, chunks of broken earth and debris flying every which way.

Thunder rang.

Her entire body was once more quenched in fighting spirit, this time, at Act 10.

Maria's eyes glimmered in a continuous trace of crimson lightning.

"Blitz."

Her voice fell.

Iu could hardly perceive anything more than a blur.

A kick to the chin.

She found herself scaling upwards into the air, for a moment, her eyes blurring before returning back to see the visage of a sword chopping down.

Iu instinctively realized...the girl had forcefully broken her speed rank to the U grade.

She raised her arms before herself to even so much as Mark a defense..while at the same time...

Maria's blade ripped through those same arms in effortlessness.

Blood spewed.

She stepped back and watched as the figure began its descent.

She rested her blade forwards.

She released it.

"Ender's Gate...Falling Grace...Act 10."

Her sword descended, latching with it Iu's figure and falling down in a vast narrow...

Bang

The castle below them was directly propelled through as Maria's blade found itself inserted into the ground.

A massive array of lightning echoed out.

The entire castle exploded away into chunks of rocks and cobblestone.

...like a pinpointed towering needle shooting down from space.

Maria's feet softly landed amidst the ruins and debris of the castle. There was no such thing as a roof to be found anymore, nor such a thing as a 'foundation'.

Wasting no moment, she began her walk towards the slowly settling dust cloud.

However…

Maria's footsteps stopped…her body quivered.

She turned her eyes momentarily to her neck.

A flower of five jade white pristine petals was embedded at her neck…

'When…'

She had no time to speak of before feeling its stem drawing from her blood. Slowly, its petals turning into a crimson hue, Maria found her world shaking.

Sigh

That listless voice reached her ears.

She narrowed her eyes.

"How long has it been since I have been forced to unlock my second state? Certainly not until the birth of Chaos."

Maria watched as the figure stepped out from within the dust cloud.

The first noticeable difference would be the blackened bat-like wings that hung from her back, gently curved and both sides stretching the width of her body. The next noticeable difference would her eyes, having turned as pale white as her skin...however...even her skin had changed, Maria found herself able to outline what seemed like glistering fine thin red lines running atop her skin. Even more so, there hovered an even less visible stream that led from where the heart of Iu was and towards…

...the now fully crimson flower at Maria's neck.

Her arms regenerating with every step she took, as if tiny organisms growing in speed first in a glint of the reddishness of muscles and eventually combining into one entity with its skin set.

"Hmm," Iu lightly tested her new arm.

"Truly, it has been awhile."

She smiled lightly and reigned her hand around the hilt of the weapon stuck within her chest. There was a low grunt as she tugged at the blade, slowly pulling it out.

"So this is the sword of the crimson blade?" She scrutinized it before her.

And naturally perceived, the blood that stained it gradually disappear as the blade returned to its spotless clean slate.

"Strange...it seems to absorb blood."

Maria briefly saw the hole struck at Iu's chest closing in and regenerating much the same as the arms; first came the reddish tint of muscles, then came the skin. Even more so, the clothing she wore also 'healed'.

Right then and there, Maria realized this was not simply healing. This was a literal secularly contained time manipulation or at least simply time reversal.

"Return, <Dante>." Maria stretched her hand forwards.

The sword within Iu's hand quivered, her arm vibrating in intensity to hold it. But to no avail, it forcefully tore itself from her grasp.

Spinning and flying over the distance, it came to a hovering stop before Maria within an instant. As if silently waiting for the next orders of its master.

And, naturally, she grasped its silver hilt with her silver gauntlet.

Iu smiled, her right hand balling into a fist.

She punched forwards.

The speed of that punch surpassed her usual might, it seemed she had forcefully broken to the U rank much the same as Maria.

The air blasted and ripped forwards in a vast narrow.

Mara's eyes tightened.

"Ender's Gate, Splitting Thunder, Act 10!" She chopped her blade downwards with both hands grasping its hilt.

A straight red line cut through and traced against the backdrop of the air within an instant.

There was a forceful crack, like that of glass having been sliced through.

The view before her broke off into two segments, lopping off slightly.

And just as it came, that scenario disappeared within a breath...however...

The whole world had been bisected. Starting from the ground up, everything within the path of the swing was directly severed in half; the hardened mountain ground cracking and breaking in two perfectly sliced sides and the clouds amidst the night sky having been butchered much the same.

Cutting through that force that pummeled towards her.

Maria held her sword parallel to her leg as she watched the visage of Iu.

"Oh-"

The vampire queen directly split into two halves. First, it was nothing more than the fragment of a straight line running down the middle. Next, was the crimson blood that oozed from that singular span of wound, running through her entire length. And naturally, came the breaking off, her body sloping as the leftward side seemed to began in a low and tender slide to the ground.

However…

The crimson lotus ingrained in Maria's neck quivered.

Time reversal.

The section falling off, climbed and latched back on. The blood that stained the ground, floated up by themselves and entered back through the damaged line. Finally, the line seemed to fully attach itself back as the clothes as well came in repair.

Maria watched on as the figure of the vampire queen put herself back together in expressionlessness.

"Hmm, I haven't felt death in years." Even as she said that, her face remained frozen.

Maria briefly eyed the lotus at her neck quake and a petal falling and drifting off into eventual dust.

'Any damage that would kill her, even with the regen-ability of a vampire, will be reversed in return for a petal.' This was what Maria's mind came to perceive.

Iu smiled, not bothering to explain what had become known.

"Mhmm." She hummed lightly.

The wings at her back gently flapped.

Maria swung her blade down.

Bang

Her fist was met with the response of a blade, the ground cracked into finer lines. Yet, neither of the two moved an inch.

Maria's blade refusing to advance, forced to a stop by an invisible force upon the other's fist.

While Iu's attack failed to the physical nature of the battle cleansed girl.

They were even; both came to realize this fact.

"Quite a strong young girl." The vampress spoke.

"Your training must have been quite gruesome."

She spoke naught. What was the point of conversing with someone who could read your mind?

Her weight shifted, she stepped backwards, her body spun, her silver eyes glaring for her target as her blade came to slash in an horizontal slope.

'Splitting Thunder, Act 10.'

Once again, that red line traced before her.

There was a lop of both side.

There was the sound of glass shattering before the visage was ended.

Blood splashed into the air.

Iu's head rolled off.

Yet...

"Giving a head for a hand, what a dissatisfying outcome."

That figure stood there, headless, and Maria watched as the detached arm in the vampress grasps crunched finely into nothing more than a ball.

Maria scrunched her brows, was she simply supposed to stand there and let her head be lopped off? Did she look as immortal as this opponent of hers?

Her left arm was a bloody mess.

From just a bit above her elbow downwards...it was gone..becoming mangled flesh a rushing blood.

Although she had become immune to pain, she was not immune to the changes it would bring to her body.

Crimson lightning sparked onto her blade.

In one swift motion, she slashed at the base of her 'arm'.

The attack instantly fried the area, stopping the blood loss.

With that completed, she looked towards her opponent.

"Fighting a member of the royal vampire line, you really do hunger for death."

This was the third occurrence Maria saw of a being talking after its death. Although staying at Iu's feet, the head still opened its mouth to spew 'wisdom'.

However...a moment later...

The rolled head evaporated into nothingness.

And the figure before her grew another.

One of the crimson petals flew away into blackened dust.

Momentarily, a slight smile crossed her lips. It seemed mixed within sorrow but also a short desire for something...

Looking upon the new figure of her opponent. Maria neither faltered nor felt fear. There was simply...a hunger within her beckoning for her to test her might against this adversary.

She held her weapon before her, placed over her right eye.

"Awaken…"

A gleaming red line traced onto its exact mid; racing from its tip to the hilt.

crack

The silver blade of the weapon shone in a crimson glare hidden within its existence, lines of cracked lines began to break through across its surface as the shrill sound resounded like cracking glass.

She was expressionless.

"<Dante>." Her voice boomed.

crack

In one instance, the blade shattered...its metallic crimson splits spiraling into the air.

Gently floating around her, they looked like petals of blood. Crimson petals glistering in luster, ready to draw blood.

They were small fragments of a weapon, yet, they looked like an unending number.

However, that was not the end.

"Ender's Gate...Tracer...Act 10."

Those same crimson petals…

...birthed lightning.

.

.

.

.

She could not move a single ounce of her body. Crouched upon the floor, her knees upon the ground. Her breathing was inevitably rushed.

'This…' The vampire queen found it impossible.

Red petals lined her entire body in full, blood leaked and coated out as crimson lightning continued to sparkle across. It was as if a magnetic field, she was forcefully stopped in place. This was a situation in which are immortality was absolutely useless.

"You May have my word, I will not ally with the Asuras in the upcoming war. However, I will not ally with Humanity either." Her ruby eyes stared into the silver eyes of the girl that stood before her.

Maria's armor had become nothing more than a mess. Every ounce of her body seemed brimming with sores. The left hand she held almost unraveling itself back to a mess.

She narrowed her eyes.

"If I go all out, we will both die to each other's hands." Iu reminded her.

That frozen face nodded, "Mhmm."

She slowly sheathed her weapon.

Turning around amidst the ruins of the mountainside, everything having been shredded into pieces and becoming nothing more than mere fragments of last. The castle grounds that Iu once sat upon was now nothing more than clumps of rocks and dust amongst the ground. The mountainous region had been sliced a level.

"Do you really think they call me Maria of the Crimson Blade simply due to the color of my sword and the attribute of my mana?"

The clink of her silvery iron boots resounded against the floor as she began in her walk.

"This was nothing more than a spar."

Her voice rang true, and Iu seemed to decipher a hint of a smile.

"If needed, I can and will slay you."

***

'Arrogant and Overbearing.'

That was the impression Iu had had of her the first time the two had met.

However…

She had the ability to back up all of her claims. It wasn't until much later that Iu had learned why the girl was truly called 'Maria of the Crimson Blade'...and when she did, she was thankful she had not pushed the girl too far or she would have died no matter what.

<Reaper's Bain>

A simple skill the girl held. No matter what, once activated, the next strike of her blade would kill an opponent as long as it even so much as touches that opponent if only a split moment, a graze of her blade was enough.

However, what had truly made any who went against her fear her prowess was that very skill combined with the awakened form of her weapon.

<Dante> A blade that had evolved from drawing countless blood, having the ability to break into innumerable numbers of gleaming crimson petals that answered to the will of the wielder. A weapon said to have been created by Merlin himself.

Innumerable attacks paired with only one ever needing to even so much as touch the opponent.

Iu stared at the smiling girl before her.

Maria of the Crimson Blade, she was at a time deserving of that name.

However, that was not the same time as now.

She seemed…

"Weak."