Kari had noticed that as well, though she hadn’t said anything. She was not surprised her mother had also noticed. Empress Hilda had gone from being a commoner to the empress because of her incredible powers as a Spiritualist and her martial abilities.
“Do you know how he became that strong?” her mother asked.
“I do not, but…”
“But?”
Kari bit her lip as she wondered what she should say. Would it be appropriate to let her mother know about the alchemy pills that Eryk had refined for her? He had never specifically told her that she should keep it a secret, but at the same time, she felt like telling her mother about them would be a betrayal of Eryk’s trust.
However, she couldn’t keep this a secret forever. Even she knew that much.
“Eryk is a talented alchemist,” she said at last. “He has been making alchemy pills for me that have helped increase my training. One of the pills he made for me was able to widen and strengthen my Spiritual Pathways, while the other helped make my body stronger and more durable.”
If her mother was surprised, she did not show it. The woman nodded once.
“So I see. I have heard that there was a talented alchemist who suddenly showed up at the Alchemist Association recently. This person brought several new pill recipes that are able to heal a variety of injuries and even temporarily boost a Spiritualist’s power.” She nodded again. “I can only assume that Eryk and this alchemist are the same person. However…” She cupped her chin. “… there are no pills currently on the market that can do what you’ve described. I suppose that means he is keeping those pills for himself and only giving them to you and perhaps Fay Valstine as well.”
Kari gave the woman a nervous stare as she saw the disapproval in her mother’s eyes. She knew that look. This was the look she wore as an empress.
“I shall have to speak with him about keeping such pills to himself when I get the chance,” she said at last.
Kari didn’t say anything, but she prayed that Eryk wouldn’t suddenly find himself in her mother’s grip. No good would come from that.
* * *
Standing on the arena floor, I reviewed what I knew of Torgny Leucht. He was ranked as one of the top Spiritualists of the younger generation, wielded a large battle axe like it was an extension of his body, and had a fire elemental affinity that was fairly strong. In terms of pure power, he was probably the strongest opponent I would face in this tournament.
Torgny was quite a bit taller than myself. I’d say he stood a head and shoulders above me, which was something of a surprise, considering my own not-inconsiderable height. While it wasn’t something to brag about, I was generally one of the taller people among those I met.
He was also a lot more muscular than I was, with broad shoulders, a thick chest, and arms bigger than my head. He looked like someone who spent all his time training and eating raw eggs for nutrients. While he was wearing shoulder pauldrons, his arms were laid completely bare, allowing me to see their veiny exteriors.
“You are an incredibly troublesome person,” Torgny said to me before the battle began.
“Is that so?” I frowned. It sounded like there was a double meaning in his words, but I couldn’t figure out what. That said, I didn’t think he was talking about how I’d stopped Grant from continuing to seek Kari’s and Fay’s hands in marriage. “Well, I think you’re pretty annoying as well.”
“Hmph.”
“I’m guessing you two are ready?” Rainer asked, his voice just a touch dry. Neither of us said anything, but we did nod to signify our readiness. “In that case, the final battle of the Spiritualist Grand Tournament has now commenced. And… FIGHT!”
I had already decided not to hold back too much in this battle. While I did want to keep some abilities secret in case things went south for me later on, I had no intention of letting this battle get dragged out.
As my opening act, I raised my left hand and pointed my index and middle finger at Torgny. There was no warning as a beam of condensed lightning and water burst from my fingertips. It sped toward Torgny, whose eyes bulged from their sockets as he leapt out of the way. I clicked my tongue and moved my fingers, willing the beam to curve around and attack again.
I had to give Torgny some credit. He had great instincts. He turned around the moment my beam curved back toward him. Shuffling his feet, he raised his axe above his head and brought it down, his blade igniting in a blazing fire. My beam was split in half. With a frown, I dismissed the condensed beam of energy.
Then I used the Flash Step.
Appearing in Torgny’s blind spot, I swung my ruler at the man’s side, but the Leucht family member responded to my sudden appearance as though he’d known what I would do. He spun around and swung his axe at my head. His body was already engulfed in a fiery aura. However, rather than slicing my head open like a watermelon, his axe flew right through my body, which caused him to stumble forward.
And right into my waiting kick.
There was something very satisfying about feeling someone’s nose breaking under your foot. I wasn’t sure what it was, though it did make me worry that I might have been turning into a sadist. Torgny’s face seemed to cave in as I kicked him with my heel. Then, as if his body was a cannonball fed into a cannon loaded with gunpowder, he flew backward with a loud bang, skidding along the ground and creating a pair of trenches as his feet dragged across the arena floor.
I was kind of surprised he hadn’t been completely blasted off his feet.
* * *
“It is just as I suspected,” her mother declared as the battle commenced.
“What is as you suspected?” asked Mykkel. He seemed to be the only one among her brothers who could speak. Geirolf was looking befuddled, while Earland stared at the battle with a gleam in his eyes like he wanted to go down into the arena and fight himself.
“That young man is not using any movements to use a Spiritual Technique,” she answered. “In fact, I wouldn’t even call what he is doing a Spiritual Technique. It is more like he is directly manipulating the elements to do his bidding.”
“But… isn’t that impossible?” asked Mykkel.
“For those who haven’t reached the Third State of Spiritualism, it is most certainly impossible. At the same time, I cannot imagine that someone so young has reached the Third State.” Her mother had a curious look in her eyes that made Kari shudder. “This Eryk Veiger really is an interesting person. It is a good thing you befriended him when you did, Kari. Otherwise we might have never found out about him.”
Kari didn’t think that was a good thing, but she didn’t say anything and settled down to watch the battle.
* * *
My attack hadn’t done as much damage as I thought. Torgny’s nose was definitely broken. Blood leaked down it and it was bent out of shape, but that was it. Huh. I had been sure that attack would have at least given him a concussion.
While I was wondering why my attack hadn’t done anything, Torgny raised his axe above his head, swung it around in a circle that generated fire, and slammed it into the ground. The arena floor split open. From the small chasm, which I guessed was about half a meter wide, a massive pillar of fire rose into the sky. It quickly took shape, transforming from a pillar into a gigantic snake that must have been nearly a dozen meters tall. I could feel the heat from where I stood.
This was… yes, it was definitely a B-rank Spiritual Fire Technique.
I wasn’t sure which B-rank Spiritual Technique this was, but I could tell its rank by how much Spiritual Power had been used to form it with Spiritual Perception.
The technique seemed to have tired Torgny out. His shoulders were heaving and sweat poured down his forehead as he sucked in several deep breaths. He must have realized he couldn’t afford to hold back against me and decided to use his most powerful technique.
“I can’t believe you actually forced me to use this Spiritual Technique,” he muttered, his glare hardening. “However, there is no
way I can allow such a dangerous element like you to live.”
His words made me frown, but before I had time to ponder them, the massive snake lunged toward me. The heat emanating from this beast made sweat break out on my skin. It opened its mouth wide as it came closer, as though to swallow me whole. Its mouth was actually wide enough that it probably could swallow me whole if given the chance.
I clicked my tongue.
Setting my left foot forward, I bent my knees and gripped my ruler in both hands. My blade was pointed toward the ground behind me. Narrowing my eyes, I waited until the giant snake was just a meter away, and then I stepped to the left. I brought up my blade as I sidestepped the massive fire snake, swinging it and channeling the water element through the blade.
No steam was emitted from my ruler this time. I had condensed the element as much as I could, creating a layer of water so dense that the flame serpent simply couldn’t evaporate it. My blade struck the creature’s open mouth, splitting it with ease. The serpent’s body was sliced in half as it continued to move forward, until at last I reached the tip of its tail, separating the entire creature into a bottom and top half.
This technique was quite powerful, as it was able to remain in this world even after I cut it in half. While the top half flew into the air and dissipated, the bottom half struck the ground and exploded in a massive gout of flame. The power behind the explosion was enough to make my tabard and long hair flap around. A searing heat enveloped the arena, forcing me to cover my body with a layer of water to avoid being burned. When the explosion used up all its remaining power and disappeared, I glanced at the damage that had been done.
There was a large crater in the arena floor. It wasn’t the biggest I’d seen created from a Spiritual Technique, but it wasn’t small either.
Torgny’s face had gone pale by this point, his skin an ashen color as sweat poured from his face and neck. I wasn’t sure if that was due to fear or the amount of Spiritual Power he’d used. Either way, I planned to end this.
“It’s over,” I said.
“Damn it! Damn it! Not yet!” Torgny reached into a pouch at his hip and pulled out several pills, five of them, which I recognized quite well. They were the Tender Healing Pill, Spiritual Booster Pill, Temporary Enhancement Pill, Endurance Pill, and Elemental Pill. He shoved all of them into his mouth and swallowed them.
I grimaced. Was this man an idiot or was he just desperate? The backlash he was going to get from this would cost him dearly.
Almost as soon as he swallowed them, Spiritual Power exploded from his body. The Spiritual Booster Pill had caused his Spiritual Power and Spiritual Aura to skyrocket, easily doubling what it had been before. Furthermore, the Tender Healing Pill had healed his broken nose, while the Endurance Pill had given him more physical energy.
“There is no way I will allow myself to lose to the likes of you!” Torgny shouted as he bent his knees and pushed off the ground. The power behind his lunge caused the ground beneath his feet to crack. He appeared before me in the blink of an eye, so fast I doubted most people could keep up with him, his axe raised above his head and coated with intense blue flames. That would be the Elemental Pill at work. “It is time for you to die!”
“So stupid,” I sighed as the man swung his axe down.
I raised my hand.
And caught the axe by the blade.
“W-what?” Torgny seemed confused as he tried to bring his axe down on my head, but my hand wouldn’t budge. I was digging my fingers into his axe, using the water element to not only keep myself from being burned, but also to drill my fingers into the axe itself. If someone looked close enough, they would have seen how water swirled around my fingers like drills.
Cracks began forming on the axe’s surface, spreading out from my fingers and growing in an increasingly large and complicated pattern. I increased the pressure of my grip. This suddenly caused a loud crack to issue from the axe before, like glass when struck with a rock, the axe shattered into fragments.
“M-my ax!!” Torgny cried in shock.
While Torgny was dealing with the shock of losing his axe, I coated the Dragon’s Tail Ruler gripped in my other hand with water, took a step forward, and swung. The ruler slammed into Torgny’s stomach. Bile spilled from his mouth as my attack squished his internal organs. A massive explosion of concussive energy detonated between him and the ruler, and then he was launched into the air. He flew back at a speed so fast he appeared as nothing more than a blur. It only lasted for a second, however. Then his body struck the arena wall.
I think I might have gone a little overboard with my attack. The arena actually shook as he crashed into the wall, which dented around his body. The walls of this arena were quite thick, about a quarter of a meter in total, which meant the crater formed around Torgny was probably close to breaking through the wall. My opponent was unconscious, eyes rolled up in the back of his head and mouth wide open, but because of how deep the crater was, he hadn’t fallen to the ground. He was stuck there.
A silence settled upon the Colosseum, one so profound that it seemed almost overbearing. I looked at the stunned faces of the audience. Then I looked at Rainer and Valence. While Rainer was showing his shock, Valence, who had been silent for almost the entire tournament, was staring at me like he couldn’t figure out what he was looking at.
“Are you not going to call the match?” I asked Rainer.
“Wha—oh, right.” Rainer coughed into his hand several times, regaining his composure, and then made the announcement. “The winner of the final round of the Spiritualist Grand Tournament is Eryk Veiger!”
No one did anything at first, which I honestly expected, but then someone began clapping. I looked up toward the royal balcony. The person who was clapping was Kari. Another person started clapping soon after her. I recognized Feinrea sitting in the noble section near several old people, who soon joined her in applauding me. The actions of those two soon became like a tidal wave that swept everybody along for the ride. It wasn’t long before everyone was bursting with applause and cheers.
However, I only had eyes for one person right then.
I stared at Kari. She wore a wide smile as she clapped her hands. Her cheeks were a little flushed, but that only made her all the more radiant to me.
Satisfaction permeated my body. With the conclusion of this tournament, I could finally accomplish one of my most important goals.
Granting Kari her freedom.
Chapter 11
A Reward to the Victor
Feinrea was sitting in the stands after the victor was announced. Eryk was currently not on the arena floor because the arena needed to be repaired. Part of the wall was dented and appeared on the verge of collapse, the ground was split wide open from where Torgny had used his giant fire python technique, and there was also a several-meter-wide crater.
As she sat there, she listened to the elders of the Valstine Family as they spoke about what they had just witnessed.
“That boy is incredibly powerful.”
“It is no wonder Lord Valstine tried to arrange a marriage between him and Lady Fay.”
“It’s too bad the marriage didn’t work out.”
“I heard it fell through because Eryk Veiger is in love with Princess Kari.”
“Ah, that would explain it. Even though Lady Fay is beautiful and strong, she would still be no match for the Princess of Nevaria.”
Feinrea had heard about Eryk’s romance with Princess Kari as well, though she hadn’t paid much attention. For her, Eryk was just the benefactor who helped her Alchemist Association reclaim its former glory. She didn’t much care whom he romanced—or rather, she shouldn’t.
The problem was she did.
A large shadow appeared above her. Feinrea looked up to see Stelys walking to his seat with Fay in tow. A little while ago, she and Stelys had gone to visit his daughter in the infirmary, but the girl had collapsed into her father and begun bawling like a child. Feinrea, not wanting to be a pa
rt of this heartbreaking moment between father and daughter, had left and gone back to the Valstine Family’s seats.
She looked at the young woman who appeared so downtrodden it was heartbreaking. While Feinrea was not well versed in romance and courting rituals, she was at least intelligent enough to guess at why this seemingly determined woman possessed such a depressing disposition.
“Is everything okay?” Feinrea asked as Stelys sat next to her and Fay sat on his other side.
“Everything is fine,” Stelys said in a gruff voice.
Seeing how he didn’t seem willing to broach the subject of what happened, Feinrea dropped it and turned back to the arena. The damage had been repaired by the earth affinity Spiritualists. That meant the closing ceremony was about to begin.
“I missed the last two rounds,” Stelys said after some time had passed. “What happened?”
“Eryk Veiger won,” Feinrea said simply. “He fought against Torgny Leucht and defeated him with relative ease. I’m honestly a little astounded by how powerful he is.”
Hearing Eryk’s name caused Fay to twitch. Stelys sighed when he saw this and turned to Feinrea.
“I imagine you have won a lot of money at the betting counter,” he said.
Feinrea’s response to his words was to give him a candid smile.
* * *
After the wall and floor had been repaired, I was asked to return to the arena floor. Dante, who had decided to keep me company, came with me.
When I got outside, I was greeted by not just Rainer and Valence, but by Kari’s entire family. Empress Hilda stood at the front of this procession, decked out in a battle dress that had a large gap running down the center of her chest. I recognized the material being used in the shimmering dress. It was a type of silk called Steel Silk, and it was tougher than armor made from regular steel. The dress was a dark blue bordering on black, but there were gold accents to compliment her hair. She looked a lot like Kari as an adult back in my previous time. I’d say the only difference was their eyes. Hers were narrowed and seductive. Kari’s had always retained a hint of wide-eyed innocence.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 4 Page 18
