A single exchange.
After the water bullet crashed into the wall of bones, the two fell into a brief lull.
"A marvelous spell. To raise a barricade of bone... what sort of mind could even conceive of magic like that?"
"And to think a spell that manipulates water could have that much power. There ought to be limits to cheating."
Like an elf savoring a dish she had never seen before set upon the table, and a skeleton clicking his tongue at the bitter taste of the sea.
Whatever the flavor, they had sampled each other's magic and converted it into information.
Momonga dissected the magic the elf had used.
'Excluding what I can't see, there are currently three spells I can identify with the naked eye.'
The spell that split the sea, laying bare the blue ocean's flesh in an instant: 'the Magic that parts the sea.'
The spell that let her walk atop the water: 'the Magic that keeps one from sinking.'
And not creating water, but manipulating the sea's real, existing water: 'the Magic that controls water.'
Even if the fuel they used was the same, the system itself differed from Yggdrasil.
'Which means I can't trust Yggdrasil's common sense in this place.'
His thoughts accelerated.
'That elf definitely said she came here because she sensed an enormous amount of mana.'
Ten rings sat upon his gaunt finger bones.
His gaze turned to one of them.
A ring that deceived strength.
An item capable of disguising the total amount of mana had been seen through at once.
It should have been a ring capable of fooling almost anyone who did not possess exceptional detection ability.
'For now, perhaps I'll try to talk my way through it.'
Even so, without ruling out the possibility that this too was a trap, he devised a way to gather information.
"There seems to be some misunderstanding. I am merely an unusual undead. The owner of the mana you speak of has already departed. Why not speak calmly? I am sure we can come to an understanding."
At Momonga's shameless attitude, the elf tilted her head.
"A misunderstanding? Ridiculous. You're quite skilled at hiding it, but your mana... if anything, it's so still that it feels unnatural."
Seeing through his mechanical mana control, the elf glanced at the ring on his finger.
"You don't look like someone who learned mana suppression, so it must be the effect of that ring. A remarkable magic item, if even a seasoned mage would fail to notice it."
Her gaze, as though mocking the lie she had seen through, questioned him in a quiet voice.
"And you're hardly in any position to say that, when even now you're probing for a way to bring me down."
With those words, she brushed off her shoulder, and all the detection-type spells he had secretly activated behind her were severed at once.
"Oh."
"A disgusting residue of mana. It feels as though insects crawled over me. That was your doing, wasn't it?"
She flicked the mana from her hand, and her eyes curved.
It was the look of someone saying his little tricks would not work.
'As I thought, she can see everything.'
That elf might appear arrogant at a glance, but she was grasping and analyzing his capabilities in real time.
When it came to sensing mana, she was likely superior.
Whether that was a racial trait or something all beings in this world possessed, he did not know, but the important fact was that she had seen through him.
To that elf, he was no different from a fish before the skin was peeled away.
It was impossible to forge with magic what those eyes could see.
'This is unfavorable.'
He voiced the honest impression inwardly.
Information was power.
One who possessed less information than the opponent was no different from fighting blind.
'Still, it's not as though I gained nothing.'
Though all his detection-type spells had been cut off with a single gesture, they had not been entirely useless.
He organized what he had learned in one corner of his mind, one by one.
The mana value he had discerned through Mana Essence was roughly level 100.
An overwhelming amount, enough to rival a pure magic caster.
She might also be disguising her numbers, but with so little information on his side, he had no choice but to accept that risk.
In addition, after appraising the items on her body with High-Tier Item Detection, he found nothing that appeared threatening, and Enemy Detection indicated that, over the sea, there were no intelligent lifeforms besides the elf.
The fact that she had come alone, without leaving any backup, surely meant she had confidence in her own strength.
For him, that was good news.
It meant he could focus entirely on the elf before him without dividing his attention to the surroundings.
How should he deal with her... based on the information he had gathered so far, he considered his options.
So far, the magic his opponent had used was water manipulation.
Did that mean she was a magic caster specializing in water-element spells?
No, don't jump to conclusions. Since they were in the middle of the sea, she might simply be showing water-related magic on purpose.
Even so, however, the magic she would use would still be water.
When he blocked the water bullet with the wall of skeletons, the elf's mana, as confirmed through Mana Essence, had not decreased at all.
The only conclusion was that manipulating water consumed very little mana.
Simply put, it was like trying to empty the sea with a bucket. If magic was the gun barrel and water the bullet, then the ammunition at her disposal was effectively limitless.
Compared to Yggdrasil, this was astonishingly efficient magic.
It was easiest to assume it possessed such overwhelming merit that there was scarcely any need to use other spells.
Which also meant that their current location, surrounded on all sides by sea, was dangerous.
Once his thoughts were finished, his decision was swift.
"Fly."
A blue light ran over his body, and he rose into the air, ascending at speed.
"So you can fly."
The elf, who had been looking down at him only moments ago, now looked up into the sky.
Her displeasure showed plainly in her tone and manner.
Did she dislike being looked down upon?
She could simply fly as well.
The fact that she did not meant that magic for flying through the sky was not common in this world.
Finishing that chain of thought, he smiled inwardly.
Being able to fly alone was an enormous advantage.
In battle, it allowed him to rain down one-sided bombardment from above and made it easier to evade all manner of spells.
He wanted to widen the distance until he reached a range where her magic could not reach, but of course his opponent would not fail to realize that.
"Demons always think flying solves everything. I hope for your sake this world is not so simple as you imagine."
As though the earlier water bullet had been no more than a greeting, a wave became a single thread and shot forth violently.
"Tch."
The high-pressure water cutter, fired like a bullet, had lost some force thanks to the height difference, but it was still powerful.
Seen from the sky, the sea was a colossal body, and the stream of water was a giant arm enacting its will.
"To cause a natural disaster of this scale merely by manipulating water..."
Was the sea not called the mother of all things?
The wrath of great nature was made real by the gesture of a single archmage.
The elf's pale fingers pointed at Momonga as he flew through the sky.
In answer to her will, pillars of water chased after him like lasers.
A game of tag where being caught meant death. Drawing out Fly to its utmost, he broke the sound barrier and darted freely through the barrage of water.
The flying skeleton traced lines through the air, and the streams of water followed after him, leaving countless trails across the sky.
Seen from afar, the heavens would have looked like a miracle.
Anyone ignorant of the fact that this was a battle between two mages would have stood in awe, believing a goddess had grown wrathful, while any fisherman who had come out to catch fish today would have given up on business and turned back.
To defeat a mage who manipulated moisture, and over the sea no less, was something beyond imagination.
"Is flying all you can do? Show me more of what you're capable of!"
She spread the hand that had been freely commanding the waves and clapped.
Crack!
The water clinging to her hand twisted and burst, and as though answering that act, the streams of water racing skyward bent like serpents and lashed down like whips.
A tremendous reverberation spread through the sky, and its force became a violent wind that ravaged the land around them.
Power enough that even an excellent mage would judge no trace of the enemy could have remained.
But the world reflected in the eyes of the elf, Serie, was different.
Flinch.
It was only the slightest distortion, for a single instant.
Her eyes moved in every direction, searching for her enemy.
"Unbelievable."
Her beautiful voice spread with a chilling calm.
Her sharply turning head fixed on one direction.
"It has been a long time since the Age of Myth that I have seen magic like this. Hm... no, that is wrong. Should something human wisdom cannot unravel truly be called magic?"
No.
That which humans could not comprehend was not called magic.
People gave another name to magic that surpassed cognition.
"A curse."
And not just any curse.
"A curse that stops time."
The instinct of an elf who had lived through myth pointed to the truth.
That skeleton had just stopped time.
"A monster... can stop time?"
"A monster... can perceive that?"
The two monsters spat abuse at one another.
He had meant to open some distance and flee with a High-Tier Teleportation after canceling the chant, but if he had not changed direction and used Time Stop, he would have been struck down as he was.
Countermeasures against time were essential, but he had not expected her to reflect it outright.
If he had not released it, he would have been frozen instead.
The elf's body, reflected in his crimson eye-lights, was wrapped in a black aura.
So she had been secretly casting it ever since she cut off his detection-type spells.
Perhaps sensing his gaze, the elf gathered the black aura around her arm and explained what magic she had used.
It was an expression of confidence, like a poem recited in delight.
"Magic that reflects curses. Primitive magic that abandons magical explanation, but there is nothing better for dealing with incomprehensible magic like yours."
Smirk.
An irritating spell.
So that was the true nature of the power that had broken through Time Stop.
This was why he had wanted to avoid fighting an opponent about whom he had no information... but of course things would not go so easily.
And she seemed fully intent on fighting as well.
In that case...
"First, I shall rid this place of all this troublesome water."
With that declaration of war, countless magic circles embroidered the sky like stars.
Threads of mana scattered across the gloomy heavens.
"Oh."
At the sight of that vast, mesmerizing magic, Serie's true feelings slipped out.
"Beautiful."
However, pretty trinkets were useless if that was all they were.
The waves surged and this time became a gigantic spear.
"Surely you don't think I'm kind enough to wait for you to finish casting?"
"Of course not. I never entertained such a thought for even a moment."
In Yggdrasil, there were spells ranked from one to ten.
The higher the number, the greater the power, and the more exponentially their impact on battle increased.
Among them was a category beyond even that hierarchy: Super-Tier Magic.
Using it came with an immense demerit. His defensive abilities would sharply decline, and if he allowed even a single hit, the casting would be interrupted.
Even so, at this very moment, he invoked Super-Tier Magic.
There was only one reason.
Quite simply, because its power was strong enough to overturn the world.
He opened a pocket dimension, took out an hourglass from within, and shattered it.
"That hourglass—is it a magic item like the ring?!"
By the effect of the broken hourglass, the casting time of the Super-Tier spell was shortened, and it activated instantly.
The spell he used was:
"
The rolling sea halted as it embraced that form.
It transformed into a whiter, frost-covered glacier.
A grand spell that truly overturned heaven and earth.
A childish, overbearing magic that rewrote the beautiful world made by the gods according to one's own will had now been made real upon this sea.
"With this, your magic that manipulates water is sealed."
If the opponent could part the sea, then he would freeze it.
From his pocket dimension, he drew forth the staff shaped like a serpent holding an orb in its mouth and struck the hardened ice sheet.
"From this point on, I shall face you seriously."
An archmage who had lived through the Age of Myth, and a magic caster of death who had crossed over from a ruined world.
Their battle of magic entered the second round.
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