*****

"Can I ask what this is about?"

This bastard suddenly challenged me, and with everyone watching, I had no choice but to step forward.

I could already guess what it was about, but I asked anyway, just to be sure. If this idiot says he wants to court me, I'll kill him right here.

"...it's time to settle this."

"I really don't understand. You and I have nothing to do with each other, right?"

I played dumb, it might save me this, but it was obvious why he did it. I looked in the direction of Alice, who was now facing me; her face looked calm.

She's seen me beat them up a lot—training with him many times with Alexander, so she shouldn't worry.

But there was a strange expectation in her eyes.

That made me smile. I already knew what her pretty eyes wanted to convey to me, so I gave her a little wink; she immediately went from calm to a very intense red.

'Yes, your reactions are very cute. Hmm, I guess it's time.'

I turned my gaze back to Alexander, and he, seeing our exchange, didn't seem calm at all.

He seemed hesitant for a moment, but finally spoke to me again.

"...Miss Silvercrest, don't feign ignorance. This is for Alice."

"Huh? So you're telling me that if you win, I have to stay away from Alice, and if I win, she's mine?"

"No! Alice is not an object, she can decide for herself. I just want to make things clear. Once I win, I want to—"

"Unnecessary! You know, I liked that answer, so I'll give you mine easily: as you think, Alice and I are dating, we're in a romantic relationship. Well, you heard it. I hope that's enough for you."

"Ugh!... So it was like those bastards said... Even so, this isn't over, I have something to prove and I don't know if—"

"Haah~ Save it! If it's that nonsense about 'being worthy,' it's futile; even if you beat me and prove that you're stronger than me and that I'm not worthy of her, it's not something that will change Alice's thoughts, because we didn't spare each other this."

"No... I still want to know."

"Fine, since you want to fight so badly, we'll do it; I hope you give up on Alice after that."

Yes, I tried to avoid it until the end, but since I couldn't, at least I guess I could use it to end Alice's annoyance.

"...I won't..."

"Hey, what the hel—" 'Oh no, I have to swear or Elena will kill me!' "—Ahem, then I don't see the reason why—"

'What's going on!?... Oh! I remembered who Orvahal was; so he's the god of solid rock. I was scared for a moment!'

'Huh? What's going on all of a sudden? Didn't you say you wouldn't see this side until you were done?

'Yes, but the goddess's order has arrived—or rather, whoever is watching over us. Well, make Alexander into mush; we'll be rewarded with Quintessentia.'

'Oh! Free stats. Oh, I see 'Aeloria's satisfaction'—or rather, I wonder, is it that angel's satisfaction? Does she have something against Alexander's god? Is she the same bastard from our previous life?'

'Who cares; the good thing is that we finally have confirmation of how the protection works.'

..

"both parties agree to the duel?"

"Yes."

'Let's talk later.'

"...yes."

Well, it was useless to keep talking; the referee seemed to be losing patience, and even divine forces wanted me to slap Alexander.

"The duel begins now."

Bang!

"Ugh! What was that... huh?"

I wanted to finish quickly, so without wasting a moment, I made the first attack. A crystal projectile quickly shot out of my hand in the shape of a pistol and hit Alexander in the shoulder.

I had already made arrangements with my father's help, so it didn't matter if I used crystal magic.

Bang! Bang!

Several more projectiles shot out of my finger and began to aggressively attack Alexander, but he wasn't so easy to defeat.

By the second impact, he had already placed an earth element barrier around himself, and then began to form three large stone stakes around him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I fired three shots at high speed, and they hit his three stakes with the intention of destroying them—unfortunately, it was somewhat difficult to do without my eyes of lust, and I myself taught him not to let others break his magic easily.

In the end, I only broke one of his stakes, and the other two came toward me.

Bang! Bang!

I fired two more shots: I was able to destroy one before it reached me, but I couldn't do it with the last one.

Boom!

I molded mana in my hand and formed a crystal staff that hit the stake and deflected it.

'Well, after all, he did not receive my training in vain. hmm... I wonder how much I should show?'.

That's what I thought, but then I remembered that he's not someone I should have those thoughts about.

Quickly, three giant spikes of earth emerged from three different sides, attacking me simultaneously. They were huge, so there was no room to escape.

'Okay, I'm going to try this; first, Darkness.'

Bang!

Unfortunately for him, I was just as fast and fired a crystal projectile; what looked like a crystal staff was more like a crystal musket rifle, so I aimed it at one of the stakes and destroyed it.

The power was higher than when I did it with my bare hand.

I opened a gap and was able to escape the encirclement.

'Okay, now, Plant.'

Thud! Thud!

But he didn't wait a second and immediately conjured what looked like stone snakes; there were five of them, and they were highly mobile and flexible, despite being made of stone.

It was too complex and powerful a spell; to do it so quickly, even with affinity, and this was because of the self-suggestion I taught him.

Striking his staff against the ground was his activator, and what he chose was a powerful spell that, even with his affinity, required him to chant.

'Light'

Bang! Bang!

The stone snakes were coming at me from different directions. I kept moving and dodging while shooting and trying to destroy them.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

He kept hitting the ground, sending snake at an even faster rate than I could destroy them.

I may be getting caught up in continuing to use only the crystal gun when I have other methods, but there was something I wanted to test.

Boom! Bang!

I kept shooting rapidly and added another rifle in my other hand.

'Lightning'

Alexander was too fast with his own affinity and autosuggestion; any other mage of his rank would have been easily destroyed by him, but I kept up with him.

Bang! Bang!

The stone snakes kept on coming and coming.; I felt the pressure of being increasingly surrounded, and not only that: I feel that Alexander is using this space to prepare other things in the background.

Still, I didn't stop using only the glass rifles and managed to create a third one that floated and fired.

I continued moving and dodging the snakes that I couldn't destroy, which is not unusual for a wizard who knows how to make magical reinforcements.

'Hellfire'

I felt that with each shot I understood better what I wanted to achieve; it was the first time I had put them into action, it was something that was still in its trial and error stages, something that, if it workedwould help me to reach my full combat potential as a mage-warrior.

the art of shining, an art that my alternative self created to break free from the shackles of being a pure magician, and honestly the one that best suits me for what I want, but it was tied to a single element, like the rest of the arts.

Therein lay the problem: unlike my alternate self, I have multiple affinities.

Among all the libraries of arts I have in my head, the only one that escaped that rule was the art of lust which can work with all affinities and even mix them.

But the elements were not its focal point, only a support like all combat arts.

So I thought: how to solve this.

Contrary to my alternate self, I wanted to escape the feeling of being on the side of a warrior and casting support magic while fighting, even though it works, it didn't quite convince me.

There was a certain balance in his art, but his middle ground was not mine, so I sought my own balance point.

Having a doppelgänger free most of the time, along with a personal preference, I came up with something that I believe is the beginning of what could be considered my personal magical art.

Bang!

"Ugh!"

Among so many stone snakes I found a gap and pointed one of the pistols in Alexander's direction. This time, instead of crystal bullets, rapid bursts of light came out.

Alexander was taken by surprise, but those bullets were only meant to blind him.

Bang! Bang!

"What was that! Argh!"

But the next three perfectly coordinated crystal bullets broke through his defense.

'Ice'

By this time, I had even created another musket rifle, so I had four; but that wasn't all. I was also preparing something in the background and had six crystal bullets floating near me.

Crystal magic was a type of magic that I really liked; it had the speed of light magic and at the same time the hardness of earth magic.

Two elements that were very far apart, but they worked so well together that I took a special liking to it and used it as the basis for this new magical art.

"Ugh... You always go so unnoticed, but, as Chris says, messing with you is no simple matter."

He reassembled his defensive spells almost immediately and even started talking to me. I understood what he was doing; it's a simple tactic, but often effective, but I played along.

"Hee~ and after so many warnings, you go and challenge me. How foolish!"

"That's not why, it's just that now I know you won't die from this. Get ready! Here is my everything and my resolve: Pluvia Saxorum."

"Well, it seems you just wanted to buy a few seconds."

I looked up and a huge, colossal ball of stone had formed; it was already descending and I only had a few seconds left.

There was no room to escape, but to begin with, I let him complete it because it was my chance to try out what I was also preparing.

'I hope it works. Okay, now Affinity for Runes.'

"Lux Vinculum, Lumen Ferrum,"

I quickly joined the four rifles together and a larger one was formed; I reinforced it to make it harder.

The same thing happened with the six bullets: they melted into one, even though what I did seemed simple I was using all my concentration, the slightest mistake and it could be ruined.

I finally put it in the rifle and pointed it upwards.

As I concentrated, this art, which is still in its early stages, circulated through my body.

I won't deny that I cheated a little and used the fundamentals of the art of lust.

It is the only art that can use all the elements, and I truly believe that no one has ever thought of creating an art based on them.

The arts of the fourteen legacies are very complete and perfect; they lack nothing. Anything created based on them would only be an imitation or something poorly done.

And maybe it's true that this art will never surpass the art of lust, and maybe it won't result in something really powerful, but I didn't care.

'Hey, this doesn't feel right, stop!'

The mana circulating through my body finally passed into the crystal weapon. I thought I heard someone, but I was too focused on this.

"Art Of The Nexus Ballistic "

Yes, it may just be one more art among the thousands that already exist, one more among the dozens I already have.

"First Stance"

But it's something that wasn't given to me; this is something that is mine.

"Chaos Bullet"

'My mark on this world.'

BANG!

I saw how, even though I reinforced the crystal rifle, it was destroyed and my hand was torn off.

But I focused on the bullet, which despite this managed to fly out at high speed.

I felt it was an important moment and everything seemed to go in slow motion. I saw the tiny little bullet hit the colossal rock...

Nothing happened, not immediately, but a fraction of a second later

BOOOMMM!

A loud explosion sounded.

'What the hell, that's too much power! Holy shi—!'

And before I could finish thinking, everything went white.

I don't know what the hell I created.

[Protection of lust A >>> Protection of lust EX]

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