Chapter 7 - The Witch’s Trial
The villainous noble, Hollow von Heisenberg, and the Witch of Knowledge, Entia—two titans—quietly crossed gazes.
“Now then, let us begin the Witch’s Trial.”
Entia, her six black wings spread wide, smiled. Hollow answered by drawing his sword with his right hand, letting it dangle loosely at his side.
“My, my... you really don’t know how to hold a sword properly, do you?”
The moment Entia’s shoulders swayed with a faint chuckle, Hollow was already right in front of her.
“—!?”
She sprang backward on reflex, and at the exact same time, a jet-black flash of steel sliced through the air before her eyes.
As strands of her pink bangs fluttered down, the Witch of Knowledge swallowed a dry breath.
...Th-That was close...
Had she been even a heartbeat slower, her head would have been sent flying.
“Hmm. I had intended to finish you just now... but you’re faster than I thought.”
“...You’re not just some child, are you?”
“Well now... who’s to say?”
Hollow’s face bore an unmistakable look of ease.
Hollow von Heisenberg... gifted with extraordinary talent, yet his natural laziness and arrogance should have condemned him to a life of debauchery. So then—what is this?!
The information recorded in her forbidden tomes about Hollow was utterly unlike the reality before her eyes.
This had never happened before.
In any case, this child is no ordinary being—he’s clearly something alien. For an irregular like this... I’ll crush him with overwhelming force!
Raising her level of caution to the maximum, Entia beat her black wings and drifted upward into the air.
“—<Black Wings: Annihilation>.”
From her back, a storm of feathers shot forth.
Each pitch-black scattershot, reinforced with mana, was capable of punching clean through thick iron plating.
And yet—
“Hah.”
Wearing a mocking smile, Hollow evaded them all with the barest, most efficient movements possible.
What... without even using a defensive spell?!
Entia’s eyes widened in shock, and in the instant it took her to blink, Hollow’s figure vanished.
W-Where—?!
“Over here.”
A voice, laced with suppressed mockery, sounded from behind her.
By pure spinal reflex, Entia spun around, crossing her arms in a guard.
But the kick that met her carried a weight impossible for such a small body to possess.
Wh-What is this monstrous force... No good, I can’t fully absorb the shock—!
She was blown away, parallel to the ground, slamming back-first into a massive bookshelf.
“Ghh—hah...!”
The air in her lungs was forced out in a single pained gasp.
T-This is bad... I have to get away... the follow-up strike... is coming...
Forcing her hazy consciousness under control, she beat her wings in a ragged, ungraceful flutter.
The air was her safe zone—
a domain only she could reach, untouchable by wingless Hollow.
Haa... haa... that boy is—wait, what?
The follow-up attack... never came.
And for good reason—
“Hmm. Swordsmanship and unarmed skills—both passable, I’d say.”
In the very midst of battle, Hollow was calmly grading his own abilities.
Y-You little brat...
Hollow hadn’t even begun to fight seriously.
His way of fighting had been like testing each of his weapons, one by one.
He was using the Witch’s Trial as nothing more than a stepping stone.
What she had crafted as a bit of amusement, a mere diversion, was now being turned into a child’s experiment.
That truth carved a deep wound into Entia’s pride.
“...Hollow von Heisenberg, for your boundless arrogance, I shall grant you the Witch’s Trial.”
The air around Entia shifted.
She slowly raised her right hand—and began to chant.
“—<Last Meteor>.”
In the next moment, the Forbidden Archive was swallowed by night.
A curtain of pitch black descended, and within it, dazzling stars began to shine.
“...Beautiful...”
Hollow’s sigh of admiration slipped out at the same instant the stars in the night sky gleamed red and black.
In that heartbeat, an aurora-like beam lanced clean through his entire body.
A tremendous shockwave roared out, shaking the entire archive to its core, while clouds of choking dust swirled violently. Entia looked down upon the devastating ruin she had wrought.
...Perhaps that was a bit immature of me.
<Last Meteor)>—the highest-class spell, converting the caster’s own mana into light and sweeping it across a designated range. It could nullify any defensive magic, and depending on how it’s used, it had the power to erase an entire city.
Unleashing it on an eleven-year-old child was, by any standard, overkill.
Well, whatever. The kid was pretty cheeky anyway.
Entia folded her wings and slowly descended to the ground.
“Now then... where was I in my reading?”
She reached for the book on the desk when—
“—That was a beautiful spell.”
From within the dust cloud, Hollow emerged, completely unscathed.
“...No... way...”
Entia’s eyes trembled in her shock.
<Last Meteor> was a magic capable of piercing through every substance in existence.
Impossible... How...?!
She did not yet know.
Hollow von Heisenberg was a monster who ruled over a domain that did not exist in this world—the Void.
This isn’t ordinary defensive magic... This is definitely a Unique Magic, and an extremely alien one at that...
As Entia gathered every fragment of her wisdom to desperately search for an answer, Hollow’s lips curled into a supremely wicked smile.
“A thank-you for the planetarium. Let me show you something interesting.”
The next instant, his crimson eyes gleamed with an uncanny light—and his face began to warp.
An illusion spell?! No... Wait, this... Could it be—Xeno The Calamity’s, Unique Magic, <Void>?!
It wasn’t Hollow that was twisting—it was Entia herself. No... the entire Forbidden Archives.
No escape... the range is too wide. Defensive magic—no, it’s too late...!
The next moment—
“Ghh—hah...!”
Her body, torn and wrenched apart as though shredded from within, collapsed forward onto the floor.
“Hmm... I might be a little strong.”
Thus, the King of the Void, claiming a flawless victory, scratched his cheek idly.
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