A smile crept over my face as I stood up and looked down at the chaos below. The area where the Pergament hideout was now a massive crater that easily spanned an entire fourth of the town in size. In the middle of it all, I could see a person, surrounded by golden mana swirling around them, it reminded me of a flame of sorts. A flame large enough to cover nearly the entire crater, getting weaker the further it was away from the person it was emerging from.

"So that's what it looks like..." I said as I noticed the golden particles flying around in the air.

They even reached all the way to me. And I was fairly far away from the crater. My smile just became wider and wider.

"This is going to be fun," I said as I let my warp magic mark spread over my body.

'Wait Alt-' Ira began but her voice got cut out as I stepped forwards.

The black-dark green energy consumed me and I whispered [Far Step] under my breath. There was no reason for me to actually say these things, and I often didn't, but sometimes I just liked the sound of my own voice or something like that. I appeared behind the person the golden mana came from, who turned out to be Ilaria.

If one would say that I fucked up then that would be an understatement. The moment I reappeared behind her I wanted to shift my position so I could kick her in the head but instead I was pressed to the ground. Ilaria turned around, staring at me with her golden eyes, her red hair fluttering around her and the golden band was revealed to be made of a solid metal that wasn't very reflective but still looked like gold. Her hood was down and in one hand she held the greatsword, parts of the blade were chipped.

"Now look who's here," she said, not as loud as when she yelled Crow barely a minute ago but it still sounded different from the way she sounded before. "The Crow decided to show up. What shall I do with you? After your little bird annoyed me long enough for you to slaughter your way through all my MEN!"

Black and white mana erupted from my body and I was able to fight the mana pressure she had created. With widened eyes and a smile, I looked at her, licking my lips.

"That's right," I responded as my thorn conjuration magic mark spread across my body.

She moved fast but I was able to predict her swing in time and leaned out of the way.

"[Thorn Barage]!" I yelled out.

The ground cracked and a rumbling could be heard. Only a moment later thick thorn tendrils, hundreds, if not thousands of them, grew out of the ground in an instant, avoiding me entirely but all hitting straight into Ilaria.

She positioned her greatsword in front of her body to protect herself but as one could guess, a greatsword and a shield aren't really the same. Multiple of the thorn tendrils either crashed into her or rushed past her, cutting her up. After a few moments, the tendrils stopped growing. I was about to dissolve them but at that moment a burst of golden mana pushed me back, completely decimating my thorn tendrils.

"YOU THINK THIS CAN FUCKING STOP ME?!" she bellowed at me with a voice so loud that I felt like my ears and eyes were going to pop out or something like that.

It literary made the ground shake. She walked up to me and I switched magic marks as quickly as I could. If the thorns weren't working then I'd just have to use strength and speed. I took a look at her and my thorns had definitely cut her. For a moment I considered using my daggers but they would most likely shatter on intact if I used them on her...

I activated everything that seemed useful, [Predator's Strength], [Predator's Agility], and [Predator's Instincts]. In combination with the Power of Wrath, which was currently active, I figured that I might be able to keep up with her. I let out a loud war cry and let my anger, the anger I had gathered over the past years and never used, and mana burst forth from my body, shattering the ground as I charged at Ilaria.

'Ten minutes,' Ira said before letting out a loud sigh.

When I punched Ilaria I felt like I just punched a wall. She didn't even budge and look at me with her serious golden eyes that said: "I'm done with your shit!" The next thing I felt was a punch to the gut that seriously felt like it was about to pierce through my stomach and come out the other side. I saw spit and blood flying and then found myself crushing into a wall. The wall broke and for a split second I was in a room, then outside again, in another room, outside, room, outside, room, outside, room, outside, room, outside, then in a room again, this time I crashed into the ceiling and a few seconds later I got a beautiful view of the town from above.

What I saw next was a golden blur speeding towards me. But to my luck a smaller, black blur intercepted it by crashing into the golden blur, making it fall to the ground. As I was falling the black blur approached me and I suddenly felt a large claw on my shoulder, the claw grabbed me and I stopped falling.

"Oh, M, how have you been?" I asked as I looked up at the raven that carried me back to the ground.

"Oh I've been great, now let's get out of here before that fucking thing get's us," M responded.

I was about to protest but that proved useless since I suddenly felt pressure weighing us down. After just seconds we were racing towards the ground at record speed. M managed to slow us down enough so we wouldn't turn into a red mush on the ground since for some reason I couldn't activate my magic. I felt drained and besides the Power of Wrath, nothing seemed to work at all. My body didn't listen to me anymore and I started feeling weak as I was pressed against the ground right in the middle of the street.

But the houses and people around me quickly turned into rubble and blood paste. When I saw and smelled the blood I felt the tingle in my wood elven magic mark but something stopped it from getting activated.

W-What is this?

'... Superior mana pressure,' Ira said.

'What?'

'That woman's mana pressure is so strong that it's blocking your mana veins and pores,' Ira explained.

And she was right, I could feel the influx of mana I got due to the Power of Wrath weakening gradually. The black and white mana swirling around me weakened. I heard a weak croak coming from M who was pressed against the ground as well.

"How does it feel? CROW?! HOW DOES IT FEEL, NOT BEING ABLE TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL?!" I heard Ilaria yell from somewhere.

Next, I heard footsteps approaching me.

"How does it feel? Tell me. TELL ME!" she yelled right into my ear.

My head hammered and I felt like I was going to go deaf. I couldn't even speak, that's how strong the pressure was and I had the feeling that she could actually snap my spine with it if she wanted to. Honestly, if someone would ask me who was stronger, Ilaria or Elvia, I don't think I could come up with an answer. Because while I didn't know Elvia's full strength neither did I know Ilaria's full strength since she still seemed to be quite capable of using more power.

'Shit, shit! I can't even take over... magic is useless right now... unless... of course, try to somehow get her attention away from you, if she stops focusing her pressure on your mana veins and pores you can use magic again, then you can run away!' Ira urged.

'Focused pressure? What do you mean?' I asked, not wanting to run away.

There had to be something I could do, I wouldn't let myself be defeated by someone like her!

'Just do it!' Ira yelled at me inside my own mind.

'How?!' I yelled back.

"Oh, too shy to answer now?" Ilaria asked me in a very condescending tone.

I did my best to look up. She was squatting beside me, leaning down a little to look right at me. I chuckled and spat in her face as best I could.

"You little shi-" she began.

But something stopped her, and that something was footsteps. Footsteps so loud that they even drowned out her seemingly enhanced voice. She immediately turned towards the source of the footsteps. And I did too.

Walking towards us was a tall man with long blond hair that fell down past his large silver pouldrons and onto his shimmering chest piece, decorated with a golden throne surrounded by seven stars. From his leather belt hung two long pieces of cloth, one with white on the right and red on the left and the other with white on the left and red on the right, one on each side. The only part of the person that wasn't armoured was the man's head, from where the blond, almost golden hair came. He had bright green eyes that I could see from this distance and not a single blemish on his face. Growing from his chin was a goatee. In one hand he held a large mace and in the other his helmet from which a white and red feather emerged.

"What do we have here?" he asked with a commanding and overpowering voice that was also kind.

"RUDOLPHO!" Ilaria yelled as she got up.

"That is indeed my name," the man, Rudolpho, responded before breaking out into a thunderous laugh.