Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Once it was decided it was time for the showdown, Lord Phenex took the reins. I didn't care; It meant I didn't have to do it. Too much work. He quickly announced the exhibition duel as part of the night's entertainment, and here we are.
We were teleported to the pocket dimension by Lord Ajuka. It was something I'd asked him to use. While significant in size, the exercise room beneath the mansion is too small for an unrestricted confrontation. Even more so given the large number of people invited. I looked around; it was an empty field. Without any obstacles. Simple for a direct fight.
"Are you ready, witch?!" Riser exclaimed. He had taken off the top of his suit and had a cocky smile on his face. He had appeared several meters away from me. I raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"Give me a second," I said simply. Riser clicked his tongue but nodded. I gently tapped my dress, and Aria shivered slightly before shifting. My dress, along with the jewelry, changed into shorts, a sports bra, and combat boots, all completely black. I clapped a few times, and all my tattoos started to appear. They didn't match my previous dress, so I took them off temporarily.
I had a lot more than usual. There were my water tattoos on my palm and the fire ones, useless as they were in this fight, on the back of my hand, as usual. There was also the tattoo on my right shoulder, a pentagram with five body piercings at each point. And finally, my two new additions.
It was something I'd been working on until recently. They were both completely different, but both extended across my entire arm. From the tips of my jeweled fingers, they circled around the other tattoos on my hands and spread across my forearm, up past my elbow to my shoulders, and then extended a little further, slightly invading my pecs.
I didn't have time to compress them, so they were much bigger than I'd liked. But they worked, and that was the main point. I'd been falling behind Bella in terms of strength, so I had to improve, and I came up with several ideas that didn't require me to buy more templates for the time being.
"New tattoos?" Riser asked as he looked at me. I nodded.
"Actually, I'm really proud of them," I said with a smile. Riser frowned. "I'm ready," I said simply.
"Finally! Get ready, witch!" Riser said with a smile. I took out a coin and tossed it into the air. Riser saw the coin and said nothing. In fact, he hoped the coin would land. I smiled. I swallowed a dozen metals and began to decant all the metallic minds from my body.
The Company's defenses, even though I used enormous amounts of pewter to increase my physical strength, my physique didn't gain muscle mass as it should, but rather I became slightly muscular, but luckily I didn't become a mass of muscles. Riser just raised an eyebrow in my direction.
I smiled at him, and when the coin hit the ground, I moved. Much faster than Riser. My fist, which weighed tons and a force thousands of times my own accumulated strength, hit Riser's face, causing his head to explode. Riser regenerated almost immediately and looked at me in disbelief before looking at the fist beside him and my body meters away.
I hadn't moved. I'd been training with my portals to generate them instantly. And I'd had fascinating results. For example. Now, My outstretched fist pierced a portal made of purple and black mist that emerged right next to Riser's head, where another portal had been.
I laughed lightly as I watched Riser grit his teeth. I threw another punch, and another portal suddenly opened in front of Riser's face. Riser reacted quickly, dodging the blow and using his hand to try to grab mine.
I smiled as I created a portal in Riser's path, his hand entering the portal and exiting meters away. No one said it was limited to a portal. Riser stared in disbelief at the arm passing through the portal, and I took advantage of his surprise to throw another punch through another portal.
My fist hit his stomach; Riser seemed to have magically increased his defenses because my fist sank into his abdomen but failed to pierce through. Even so, the strong punch was strong enough to make him spit blood and send him flying at high speed into the sky.
I spun around and launched a spinning kick in time to open a portal in the path of my leg. My foot slammed into Riser's body hundreds of meters away. I could feel bones breaking from the force of my kick. Still, Riser's body was strong enough not to be shattered, but he was thrown again in the opposite direction.
I lifted my foot once more and executed a downward kick, my leg passing through the portal again and striking Riser hard for the third time. Bones continued to crunch, and Riser, who was in the air, was propelled downward at high speed and hit the ground, creating a large crater.
I was left with a lazy smile while waiting for the dust to settle. Riser had already regenerated and burst out of the dust cloud, shooting in my direction with his fiery wings on his back. He was fast, as expected of a High-Class Devil. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was moving several times the speed of sound, which was impressive. I expected him to be much slower; he's definitely been training.
I matched his speed and launched myself in Riser's direction, flying. Riser seemed confused by my direct confrontation, but he still prepared to attack, his fist catching fire and accumulating demonic power. I braced myself as well, clenching my fist. Just before we collided, I opened a portal and crossed through it before immediately closing it.
Riser lost his target as I appeared to Riser's right, my fist hitting Riser's cheek hard, sending him flying again. Riser recovered in the air quickly and shot once more in my direction. I chuckled, this time flying in a different direction only to create a portal and exit to Riser's side once more.
Riser reacted just as quickly and threw a hellfire punch in my direction, only for a portal to open up along the path of his arm and appear next to his face, causing his own fist to connect with his own cheek. I was next to Riser and punched the other side of his face. Riser staggered slightly from the force of taking both blows to the face.
Riser's regenerative fire covered his entire head, and he was as good as new once again.
"You don't know how to do anything other than create portals?!" Riser growled. I smirked at him. His wings exploded into fire, and his speed increased once more. I shot off in another direction and prepared my attack, creating a portal in front of Riser, close enough that Riser couldn't avoid passing through it.
He appeared in front of me, and I threw a punch. Riser reacted and barely dodged my attack. He used his fist to try and hit my ribs, only for a portal to intercept and cause him to hit his own side. Riser growled.
"Your portals are getting annoying!" Riser shouted before attacking once more. I laughed slightly, this time not backing away but engaging Riser in direct combat. My fists connected every time, while Riser's were redirected by my portals so that he would hit himself.
Riser seemed to notice that it was an impossible task to hit because of my last kick to his ribs; Riser immediately moved to grab my leg. Once he stopped me, he threw a punch again. As usual, a portal was created in the path of his fist, and it hit his face, but Riser smiled.
"You're getting predictable!" Riser literally exploded into fire. His entire body generated a great torrent of hellfire, burning everything in its path. I clicked my tongue as I felt my body rapidly charring. My leg was the most affected since it was the one Riser had grabbed. Even so, I manipulated a portal so that my entire body entered, separating myself from Riser's grasp.
Riser seemed to notice I was gone and stopped generating fire. He looked at me with a cocky smile as he looked down at my body. Most of my body was charred black, and my leg was almost completely melted. I had tried using my brass mind to store heat, but it was utterly useless.
The amount of heat that Riser's hellfire generated quickly reached the limits of my brass minds and overwhelmed them, not to mention that it was magical fire, something that my metallic brass minds could not fully absorb.
Still, I smiled at him. As had become customary—I'd been constantly compounding gold—Riser's smile faded, and he frowned as he watched me regenerate almost immediately, as did my clothes as Aria regenerated. Before long, I was completely healed. I clapped once more and replaced my tattoos.
"Shall we continue?" I asked playfully. Riser grunted and prepared to launch himself once more.
I clapped loudly and hit the ground. Blue rays began to shoot out from the ground, and mannequins quickly emerged from the ground. Riser looked confused as nearly 20 female-shaped mannequins appeared around me. I stood up, and my tail began to emit demonic power before it moved at tremendous speed and struck each mannequin.
The 20 mannequins began to shake and creak as they came to life.
"I am the Bone of my Sword."
The phrase left my lips, still feeling as awkward as ever, but I didn't care. I began summoning many copies of Hrunting in front of each mannequin. The mannequins robotically took it and held it between their fingers, almost lazily dragging it along the floor.
"Hrunting, hunt," I said simply. The mannequins moved much faster than a mannequin was allowed to move and approached Riser, who looked very confused. I created a portal in front of several mannequins, and they emerged beside Riser. Hrunting glowed slightly and moved.
Even though dummies used them, they were still magic swords. Magic swords that were capable of delivering the most optimal slash with a simple, ordinary swing, And that was all my dummies needed. The dummies weren't at the level I wanted; this tactic certainly couldn't be used with other weapons; the dummies were too weak and too clumsy.
But to use Hrunting en masse even if they couldn't unleash Hrunting's full power? It was acceptable.
The dummies hovered over Riser and swung their swords clumsily, but the Hruntings did their job, moving against Riser with great speed and extreme precision. Riser dodged or fended off some of them, but there were too many dummies, and some of the attacks ended up slicing into his body.
Riser growled and exploded into flames, sending the mannequins tumbling back. I immediately began using the portals again. I either dropped the mannequins on top of Riser once more, or I simply opened the portals, and the mannequins would only thrust half their bodies forward to attack. They had no other orders than to attack Riser relentlessly.
It was truly unsettling to watch, like something out of a horror game. The mannequins, lacking muscles or ligaments to impede their mobility, attacked at angles impossible for a human to replicate, making it even more terrifying. They crawled relentlessly in Riser's direction, through portals, on the ground, or even through the air with a bit of help from my magic.
Still, Riser could react and move faster than the mannequins, so he dodged or let several of the swords pass through him before using his fiery fists to blow the heads or bodies of some of the mannequins away.
My mannequins began regenerating from my demonic power. One even grabbed the Hrunting of another mannequin that was taking too long to regenerate and attempted to attack with two of them simultaneously.
"Damn creepy dummies, stay down!" Riser growled as he tried to get into the air, only for me to open portals between the dummies and around him. They weren't doing much damage. Too weak for a High-Class Devil. A shame.
I guess I'll have to leave them on the workbench for a while. Or start using B2 and 2A. I need to Think about it later. I had the dummy with its two Hruntings attack Riser relentlessly. Their swords moved expertly and pierced Riser's body.
I seized the moment, infusing those Hruntings with demonic power and transforming them into Broken Phantasms. I shattered the Hruntings, and they exploded in a massive explosion. I quickly regenerated the rest of my mannequins, and each of them grabbed their Hruntings. Riser was regenerating in the air, looking sullen. I smiled slightly.
"Steel is my body, and fire is my blood "My demonic power exploded once more and targeted all the dummies connected to me. I had created a bow for each of them and clumsily placed the Hruntings on the strings, and they all began to twist and take their projectile forms while glowing brightly. The dummies released Hrunting, and 18 projectiles at Mach 10 shot out as red beams of light and began to chase Riser.
Riser opened his eyes slightly. As expected of a High-Class Devil, he began to fly rapidly, and Riser began to outpace the Hrunting almost immediately. He smiled, and I created portals. The Hrunting entered through the portals and appeared around Riser. The Hrunting didn't miss a beat and readjusted their positions to begin chasing Riser again.
Even with a much higher speed, Riser was being pressured thanks to the Hruntings appearing in front of him repeatedly. I smiled slightly. I created a portal next to me and put my hand in, my hand appearing in front of Riser. Malice Nest. The web made of raw demonic power stopped Riser in his tracks, his eyes widening and he immediately burst into flames to break free, but a Hrunting pierced through Riser before exploding violently.
Riser was regenerated immediately and broke free from my web, but Riser had already lost his speed, leaving the rest of the Hrunting to catch up.
Riser was pinned like a pincushion as the rest of the Hruntings pierced through his body. Immediately, they all exploded with force simultaneously, generating a huge explosion. I narrowed my eyes and looked up at the sky. While the blast would have been enough for any other High-Class Devil, Riser wouldn't go down so easily.
And just as I predicted, Riser had an annoyed expression on his face as he regenerated, but even then, he wasn't completely still. He had been preparing a huge, oversized sphere of fire.
"It's your turn, you damn witch!" Riser exclaimed angrily and launched the attack in my direction. I took a deep breath and extended my hand to the sky.
"I am the bones of my sword."
"Rho Aias ." The seven-petaled flower spread out before me, and its seven shields immediately generated. Riser's attack collided with the first shield, shattering it immediately. I unleashed massive amounts of demonic power while reinforcing the rest of the shields.
Still, the second and third quickly shattered. But that was where it ended. Still, the attack exploded, breaking the fourth shield. The smoke promptly disappeared, and I smirked at Riser in the sky. He snarled.
"What was that? Hrunting? Rho Aias? How are you able to use those weapons? Let alone use copies of them?" Riser asked, confused but very frustrated. I grimaced; the last thing I wanted to do was start monologuing and talking about my abilities, but everyone at the engagement party was watching us, which was a demonstration on my part. So I had no choice.
"It's my own personal magic, Projection," I said honestly. "Shaping demonic energy into the material composition and design of an object I imagined." Riser frowned at that explanation before snorting.
"Anyone can do that, but you don't see all devils having weapons from human legends." Riser replied. I nodded.
"Because my version is different, in addition to reproducing the form and substance of an object as closely as possible to the original. I also replicate its entire history." Riser's eyes widened slightly, and I raised my hand and began forming a Hrunting from scratch, "duplicating the composition material, imitating the skill of its making, sympathizing with the experience of its growth, reproducing the accumulated years, surpassing each year of manufacture."
"I replicate absolutely everything that makes Hrunting, Hrunting. Once I make the first copy, the blueprint and its history are stored in my mind, and I can replicate those weapons as many times as I want." A complete copy of Hrunting rested in my hand. I looked at Riser, whose eyes were wide open.
"But… how?! Even if what you say is possible, knowing the history of a weapon so intimately is impossible, unless you have owned it! How do you do it?!" Riser replied forcefully. I smiled at him mockingly.
"That's my secret now." I smiled at him amusedly. Riser stopped and paled considerably.
"You can replicate weapons from human legends even if you don't own them... How many weapons do you have? What weapons do you have?" Riser asked, almost scared. My smile grew even more devilish.
"Yes." My huge, wide smile made Riser flinch, but he gritted his teeth.
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