There were only about five people who were actually hiding inside the fireball. Even though they were wrapped in a robe, the hands holding the scythe were blazing red. They could have used magic to protect themselves somewhat. The reason I didn't do that was to deceive Ars. If the surface of the body was protected by a barrier, Ars could certainly notice it.

　But they only covered their faces with their arms and aimed at Ars below them as they fell.

''So you're ready for this, huh?

　Ars looks up bitterly and painfully and clicks his tongue troublesomely against the wavelength of magic power transmitted from his feet.
　Which one to take, down or up, no, the priority would be up. I had to deal with this in a hurry.

　Immediately after the crossed arms are spread out, a slash of wind runs through the air. All of the careless slashes, not even caring about the overlap, are focused on Ars.

　However, the blissfully calm Ars perceives only magic power and instantly cleaves the AWR towards the sky. An unfamiliar vibrating sound emitted from the tip of the blade. The space is cut off and the multiple layers of slashes are dissipated under one blow and swallowed.
　The [Dimension Thrust] split the world in half. The vertical slit that enters the world is displaced on both sides, and in the blink of an eye, they repair and match.
　It took a while for the enemy in the air to even realize that they didn't have an arm that was caught up in it. However, even after becoming aware of it, he still didn't even look back at his arm.

　Next, Ars flips the raised knife in his hand and throws it towards the ground. Sharp thorns grow from the ground in a circle as if to enclose it, but the tip did not penetrate his body.
　This was because the [Divine Vibration Breaker 《Railpine》] destroyed the thorns of the clod of earth from within immediately after they were formed.

''--!

　The opponent made a follow-up move as if they had expected such a response from Ars.
　A group of black-clad men with scythes stabbed into the ground at the edge of their vision are still poking at one knee even though their magic is destroyed. Whatever that meant, Ars realized that the magic he had unleashed was not appropriate.

　More thorns grew out of a section that collapsed like a stump in the process.
　However, unlike the first thorn, it wasn't aimed directly at Ars. In other words, right after it was destroyed, it rewrote the configuration and changed its use.

　The plate-like soil that ran like a mesh around it filled the gaps to the point that not even air could pass through, and in the blink of an eye, it hid Ars's figure.

(Even if I were to capture him, this is not the way to do it...!

　A grate of dirt that could crumble if I hit it. It was right after that thought. The easy thinking Ars sees the tip of the scythe blade slipped out with the momentum to destroy it.
　The magic sword snatched at his cheek. A thin layer of blood seeped out and began to drip.

　It was meant to deprive Ars of his vision. More to the point, even now, magic power is constantly flowing into the lattice. It was thorough in order to prevent the outside magic power from being read from the inside.

　Blades with an entity shattered and penetrated the lattice one after another.
　It reacted immediately, but the limit was still prematurely reached. It's easy to break out of this situation, but........

　Shaking off his concerns, Ars swings his knife in all directions with all his might.
　Almost without resistance, the earthen grate crumbles away, sending mud flying.

　When his vision was restored, Ars let his body reflect on the scene he was expecting to see. Scythes attacked from all around him at once, as if he didn't need to see it to know the timing.
　Ars's knife had been secured to the very edge of the room so that it would be safe even if it was forming a magic sword.

(You can see our hand in this one?)

　A moment, less than a second before he skewers Ars, and even in the midst of that, he instantly grasps the situation. You are still outnumbered in close combat up to this point. It's a situation where you can't even use magic to your satisfaction.
　You can't take another step against a hand drill, in addition to such a simultaneous attack, not to mention a wide range of magic if you think about Tesfia and the others.

　In Ars's impatience, there is definitely a normal sense of hesitation to kill the opponent and the normal evasion of being recognized for it. It was a sentiment he hadn't felt when he had slaughtered Gudma's experimental body.
　The change in the individual that is me leaves a lump in my body, as if it were laced with a foreign substance.

　And yet, what goes around in the brain is how to disarm or kill. It's as if what we think in our minds and what our hearts do is the exact opposite.
　The situation is not getting better, Ars expects from his long-term experience. A decision that moves on its own is a sign of the nature that is ingrained in him. It eliminates foreign objects, it drops ice on the thoughts one by one and starts to chill them.


　The same is true of spatial interference magic, but there is no room for even a barrier to be deployed at this point. If it was just a matter of time, it would have been better still. The most effective barrier to prevent physical attacks is the magic sword.
　That said, it's difficult to prevent all the scythes with substance with an anti-magic barrier. No, even that time is an opening in the opponent's favor. When it came to a barrier that had both, the process could not be followed in a few tenths of a second.

　Considering that all of them have their feet off the ground, even the magic that Ars uses to rewrite the world like [Permanent Freezing Realm 《Nibbleheim》] is ineffective.

　The constant abandonment of the attack has made Ars stand by his hand until he is forced into a situation like this.

　Blink once as if to become weak, of course he didn't give up. The art of breaking out of this situation is something he has always cultivated in the outside world.
　When he opened his eyelids, there was a faint pain in Ars's right eye. An uncomfortable feeling as if something was flowing in from the edge of his vision.

　A few tenths of a second's grace was delayed around Ars.

''【Forgetting of Time(........Stasis)''

　Holding his right eye in immediate and intense pain, Ars saw the magic succeed and cleaved the knife in all directions. The blade looming above his head had changed the movement to a sluggish one.
　That motion, which was extremely serious, was because it was under the influence of Ars's magic. Enemies that fit within the confines of this close range are unable to perceive the passage of time. It's not an illusion, they are experiencing this moment in more than a few tenths of a second.
　They will also not be able to capture the speed of Ars that can move within it. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.

　In fact, this magic is the technology that Ars used for the transference gate 《Circle Port》. It's just a duplicate of that fundamental coordinate that was converted to magic. Until now it was not possible to sublimate it as magic, but it is the magic that was created as a result of extracting only the fixed coordinates contained in the structure of the [Origin Retrograde (Templefall)] during the battle of Ilyce.

　It's a pity that it can only be used by Arus, but this magic is thought to be mainly classified as space grabbing magic. This is the first time I've used it in a real battle.
　A momentary stagnation where you try it out, but you can't even determine if it's successful at that time. The reason why measurement with equipment is impossible is because this is not effective on inorganic objects because it creates the illusion of information entering from human perception and vision.

　It was only a second later that he slashed his chest horizontally and blood spurted out of the lacerations, because the effect of the magic had worn off. All of them scattered blood splatters at the same time, and the scythe wouldn't be swept away until the end due to the recoil from the impact that ran into his chest.

''Kihi!　What did you do?
Noir...

　I hear such crazy jubilation as the red liquid dances in the air.
　Some of them were coming towards me as opposed to the group of black robes blowing away like a flower. A scythe blade of the scythe growing out of a gap in the garment rubbing is swung down from directly above.

　I'm going to be able to use the knife to prevent it immediately. The ear-splitting scraping sound that even sparks.
　Ars bit his lip at the girl who came out swiftly beyond the clash of metal against metal. The pain in her right eye doesn't recede, and although she's not visually challenged, there's no doubt that there's something wrong with her. But there was no time to check it out.

　As soon as the two blades passed by, Ars went straight for a spin. Noir also dexterously rolled forward in the air, and with even more centrifugal force, the knife and scythe collided again.
　But this time they were played at each other, and soon a sword fight ensued. The scythe, which had a curve reminiscent of a crescent moon, also attacked Ars from behind.
　This was not Ars who would be hit at that level. The trajectory of the scythe can be predicted without looking. The closer you are to the distance, the easier it is to perceive the magic power that can be described as innocent malice than anything else.
　The impact that was transmitted to the AWR turned to the other side, I didn't take it, but squatted down to catch it. It passed just above the term.


　But then Ars realized that he was on his feet. Clearly, there is a clear difference in strength in close combat. Even though there is a difference in the fact spacing, he is able to steadily attack it.
　From the shape of Noir's AWR, assassination and eliminating the opponent without being noticed may be his forte. However, if you cross the blade head-on like this, it's really a solid tachi-suji.

　So why can't they attack it outright, even though Noir has the advantage in spacing, there were plenty of opportunities to attack it.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most of it. It's not as if she had pulled away from him.

　Something was wrong.
　Thinking that, Ars ventured into the bosom to check if some magical factor was at work. Noir's scythe is harder to fight than normal weapons at a certain distance. But it's also a weapon with a big disadvantage in that once it's buried in the bosom, its formation changes all at once.
　In the end, as you can see, it's hard to turn around in small circles. Furthermore, it cannot be handled by the handle like a spear. This is because in the case of the scythe, the specific gravity is concentrated in the blade. While this makes it possible to utilize centrifugal force effectively, it makes it difficult to manipulate with the wrist.

　That's why Ars felt a pang of unease at how easily he could enter his bosom. There was no way that anyone who used this kind of weapon would not notice its flaws. Maybe it was due to a simple difference in strength, though.

　Sure enough, she changed her handle, pulled the scythe back and stepped backwards. If Ars stays in place, her head will fly off the blade of the scythe approaching from the back of her head.

　But when Ars realizes Noir's aim, he clings to it perfectly with almost no margin for error, a needless worry for him.
　Noir's close combat is indeed outstanding. Even so, he would still be a step behind Ars. It's about how it compares to Loki.
　He was proficient at handling it, considering that he was using the rare AWR of a scythe.

　Ars didn't stop moving, flexing his legs as he landed, and his knife had already begun to swing, looking at Noir's face at a distance of less than a meter. There was no emotion of any kind of fear there. It's the face of someone who has completely taken life and death into their everyday life.
　That rare, sort of self-seeing feeling, and yet Ars doesn't even feel guilty about it. I feel sorry for him, but in the end, that's all there is to it.
　It was just a bit of a shame (...).

　The spacing was already so close that there was no way to get out of whack, and there was no way to get out of whack at hand. It was to find out what had been done, but basically, if the surgeon died, there was no reason for it to be sustained unless it was a delayed installation magic.
　His brain made the decision that the result, which was no different than anything else he'd ever done before, was a surefire way to kill his opponent.


　That's why the gap in his mind showed up as a gap in reality. He was too immersed in his humanity.

''--!

　The physical sensation was definitely that he wrapped his right arm around it and slashed upwards diagonally from below, I'm sure. He slashed Noir in reverse, and the squad without a leader was no longer able to function, and that was all that was left to escape.
　Charting a course to get there. But Ars's arm was still pointing the hilt butt of his knife at his opponent, and he hadn't moved a single twitch from there. The knife still didn't move on even after bringing what had happened into view.

　Without a doubt, it's stagnation. There was no way it couldn't be an opening.
　The blade passed in front of me faster than I could put the knife back and immediately take off.

　It ripped through my forehead. Blood blinked in the air as he jumped back, blocking his right eye in the blink of an eye.
　Ars's eyes widen not so much at the fact that he was slashed, but more so at the fact that the knife, and even more so at the fact that his arm didn't listen to him.

　When he managed to land, a group of black-robed men surrounded him, running for his head like a ferocious beast that had found its prey.
　The opponents, who didn't even give him time to think, immediately jumped to chase after Ars.

　But Ars's consciousness doesn't even reflect that. What was done to him, not a magic clarification, not even a confirmation of his wounds. Just self-doubt piled up on top of the precipitating thoughts as he asked himself.

(What is this situation........)

　An uncomfortable feeling as if emotions that never crossed paths were forcibly mingled. The feeling in my chest that I've been transformed makes me feel that my thoughts, mind and body have diverged from each other.
　You feel nauseated. I'm disgusted.

　I don't know who I was anymore. It was true that his new life at the academy was a lot of hassle, but even with that, he was having a lot of fun for his age.
　Was that a hindrance?
　Did it create this situation?
　Was it ever like this before?

''No. ... no, it wasn't.''

　It wasn't until the first one and then... since he entered the academy that he began to think about this and that when killing a human, even if it was a demon.
　Ars quietly scooped up the essence of the mage that was himself, which had sunk deep into the depths of emotional mud.