"So what did you want to talk about?" Elizabeth tilted her head slightly. Irwyn had taken her to a sizeable sparring hall within the Blackburg manor. Usually, the place was swarming with dozens of Blackburg servants keeping their combat abilities up to standard, however, Irwyn had made sure that no one would disturb the two of them.

"Soon enough Alice is going to receive the Magitech weapon she so yearned for and I have decided to also get the rest of you a similar gift," Irwyn smiled, "It's only fair that you would receive your first," mostly because the other items were still not in Irwyn's hands. He reached into his clothes, pulling out an inconspicuous black armband, he had Brinewood naval influence to thank for retrieving this rather ancient item.

“What is it?” Elizabeth’s eyes were sparkling with curiosity as she put the ornament on her right arm. Although the design was far from ornamental, its simplicity went along quite well with the black dress uniform she was wearing.

“I have unlocked it, push a bit of your mana and soul inside and it will activate,” Irwyn instructed as he kept his senses as acute as possible. It would be a second very powerful item Elizabeth would be binding to herself and although he was very confident she could withstand the strain it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Alright,” Elizabeth nodded with blaze in her eyes before she closed them, focusing. The bracelet was dormant for a few moments before it was enveloped by a strange gloom. In the well-lit room, darkness visibly spread to Elizabeth's skin, and rapidly engulfed her entire body. When it subsided a moment later her clothes had changed. The Blackburg uniform was replaced by a noticeably different ebony dress. The new clothing didn't have any sigils nor decorative additions, instead, there were thin plates of black metal running along the even darker fabric. Each was carefully imbued with free movement as the complete priority and protecting vitals as a close second. Even the skirt itself was short and loose in comparison to her previous outfit.

"What is this?!" Elizabeth seemed strangely startled, exclaiming as she looked down at her body.

"Battle regalia dubbed the Voidmother's whisper," Irwyn smiled, seeing that Elizabeth did not seem to be on the verge of collapsing, "Masterfully crafted from ancient void dragon's leather and bones, there are few items that can equal it. Although you will not be able to properly draw out its power, the leather itself is harder than fine steel and the metallic bits are nigh impenetrable. But that aside, how are you feeling?"

"I was really dizzy for a few seconds," Elizabeth answered, raising her hands to inspect the stage material of her new wear, "However, now I feel completely fine."

"That was the strain of binding two so powerful items," Irwyn nodded, though the word powerful was not making the Whisper and Equilibrium justice, "The burden is lessened by your affinity and the extraordinary craftsmanship of the two but you should avoid binding any other items to yourself until at least the third tier."

"Shouldn't you have this instead?" Elizabeth asked after nodding about being careful.

"It doesn't suit my affinities at all," Irwyn shook his head, "Moreover, I have more than enough experience to take care of myself. You shouldn't rely on the regalia either. If you base your battle behaviour on a defensive item you will only end up developing harmful habits."

"Alright and…" Elizabeth's eyes wandered to the wristband that remained distinctly visible even after activation, "Thank you."

"I wouldn't want you to die after all," Irwyn smiled and reached into his clothes again, this time pulling out a different kind of bracelets, 2 of them to be exact. They were silverish with a glittering green gem imbued inside them.

“These are…” Elizabeth looked at them carefully, apparently finding them familiar but not quite recalling where she had seen them.

“Back at the festival of Dragoncull,” Irwyn threw her one, “During the combat part of the competition these are used to redirect all damage to the wearer into the arena’s formation instead. This Gymnasium has similar magic at play.”

“Are we going to fight?” Elizabeth put it on while raising her heated eyes towards Irwyn.

“Back then you were defeated by someone far weaker than you because of your carelessness,” Irwyn also put the bracelet on his hand, “Show me how much you have improved since then,” as those words sounded a blade appeared in his grasp. It was a sword with a thin but long double-edged blade. The guard and handle had no ornamentation, clearly making it appear like the most mundane of weapons. The only feature that might be considered decoration were dozens of identical marks spanning across the entire blade, each separated by the exact same distance.

“I cannot defeat you,” Elizabeth nodded, however, a single edge bent blade appeared in her hands. It looked almost comically large when compared to her childish frame, “But I am going to push you as far as I can,” as she said those words, her feet moved, flinging her in Irwyn’s direction.

Naturally Irwyn counterattacked, causing an eruption of golden flames to burst from the ground directly in Elizabeth’s path. Just as she barely managed to dodge she was already under fire from 3 golden balls of fire coming at her from different angles. Her own magic burst forth as a net knitted from black fire, cutting through 2 of the projectiles and heading towards Irwyn while she parried the third attack with her sword.

Despite being forced to defend Irwyn did not relent his attack, sending a barrage of dozen burning needles to shred through the net, allowing the rest to target Elizabeth. Since the attack was not multi-directional that time, Elizabeth managed to dodge to the side, only to realise she stepped right into another eruption of golden flames coming from the ground. Hastily she managed to put up a basic barrier which was quickly burned through but it gave her barely enough time to only get her feet scorched as she jumped towards Irwyn again.

At that point, even more magic was already flung in her direction as dozens of golden strands coming from all frontal directions. That move was meant to make her withdraw, however, Elizabeth would not fall into the same trap twice. Instead, she somersaulted beneath them, managing to be just barely grazed by a few which altered their direction in time. Leaving the summersault she slashed her blade, creating a horizontal arc of ebony flames which flew directly at Irwyn. Empowered by Equilibrium, it was not an attack Irwyn could easily disperse. But before Elizabeth could even see his answer she reflexively pulled up her blade to block, just in time to barely block an attack directed straight at her throat. She could not even see what hit her as just the impact flung her back, directly into the path of the previous gilded strands of magic which had turned around under Irwyn’s control. Still startled by the immensely fast hit from the front, Elizabeth did not manage to put up any defences in time. The emerald gem on her bracelet wavered, turning visibly darker as the Starfire burned her back. Irwyn had adjusted the armband to correspond with her defences after wearing the Whisper battle regalia, otherwise, that attack would have made the gem burst.

Upon realising that Irwyn’s onslaught of attacks momentarily stopped she took a moment to observe what had happened. It did not take long to realise as she saw that the weapon in Irwyn’s hand had changed. It was no longer a thin sword, instead, it was a whip of metallic intersections connected by an invisibly thin cable. Swaying like a living serpent, Irwyn held an immaculately crafted whip blade, his precise control only possible through his incredible skill with magic.

Elizabeth rushed forward once again, only to be instantly repelled by another lightning-fast attack. Even without any additional spells distracting her, the whip blade was far too fast for Elizabeth to perceive with her eyes. She attempted to rush Irwyn 2 more times before realising such attempts were completely futile. As soon as she got close enough she would be repelled. She took a few moments to think and then, with a wide smile on her face, came up with a solution. She closed her eyes, causing Irwyn to also smile. With utmost focus Elizabeth rushed forward again. Just like before Irwyn struck with Equilibrium but that time Elizabeth barely dodge out of the way. It curled at stuck at her back yet the girl once again evaded even from her blind angle.

She had realised a simple fact: Every attack Irwyn could use, even the control he had over the blade, would be magical in nature. And Elizabeth no longer needed eyes to see magic, her perception attuned by years of training under Irwyn’s guidance. When she stopped relying on her sight and instead predicted Irwyn’s attacks by sensing the movement of his mana she managed to regain her footing. Quite happy with Elizabeth’s realisation, Irwyn resumed his barrage of magic with even greater intensity. With her newfound ability Elizabeth dodged perfectly and deflected what she could not, slowly closing her distance to Irwyn. Step by step she approached him as magic assaulted her from all sides.

In the spite of her best efforts, she could not avoid everything Irwyn threw at her. Once in a while some weaker spell would strike her body. Even if the damage was small, slowly but surely she would succumb to a death of thousands cuts, faster than she could reach Irwyn, even assuming that he would not move a single step from the place where he stood since the beginning of the duel. Realising that, Elizabeth made a desperate move.

The most concentrated number of spells naturally came through the direct path between Elizabeth and Irwyn. The sheer volume was enough to blast Elizabeth into the gymnasium's distant wall if she was struck. That is exactly why even Irwyn was slightly surprised when Elizabeth rushed through that direction. Yet before he could sigh about her foolishness, something even he did not expect happened: He felt the void itself reach out, coming out of its endless nothingness to the reality before him and with motherly grace, for a split second, the void enveloped Elizabeth in its embrace. Like a miracle, most of the magic passed straight through her body as for a single moment she became a mirage. Merely a reflection projected onto the world. The next moment she was back, taking the rest of the spells head-on. It was enough to make her bracelet finally tip into orange colour but not quite enough to stop her momentum as she arrived directly in front of Irwyn.

With a strange combination of a smirk and a frown, Irwyn watched her blade come down on him. His whip sword would not return in time to block and he was well aware that no magic his current body could muster would withstand a strike from Equilibrium. With reluctance, he was forced to sidestep out of the way. The strike flew past him as a punch filled with magic was delivered straight into Elizabeth’s gut, flinging her into the air. At that moment when she was defenceless, Equilibrium arrived, entangling her hands and grabbing her by the neck, its edge carefully placed as to not cut her. She was completely restrained by a weapon capable of extremely quickly conducting magic. Even though her gem was not yet completely crimson she clearly realised that she had lost.

“Void phasing in the damn second tier!” Irwyn laughed, despite his usual composure, “Even if only partial, you have no idea how incredible what you did was!”

“Thank you?” Elizabeth tilted her head slightly in confusion as Irwyn placed her back on the ground and withdrew Equilibrium.

“Once again you went above and beyond my expectations!” he was genuinely overjoyed, “Congratulations. Since the beginning of time, you are the only person in the second tier to ever make me move in a duel,” that earned a smile and a blush from the tired girl, “You must be tired now, so go rest. But before that, I have one last request.”

“Whatever you need me to do,” Elizabeth firmly nodded.

“In a few days a certain ceremony is going to be held,” Irwyn explained, “It requires assistance from a maid of my choosing. Despite everyone’s advice, I am naturally going to choose you. Someone will go through the details with you tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Elizabeth firmly nodded and attempted to walk away, however, as she took the first step she stumbled and fell, Irwyn barely catching her.

“I am sorry,” she seemed very embarrassed by her own exhaustion as her eyes were already half-closed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Irwyn pulled her into a princess carry, causing her to blush furiously, “After what you achieved, I would be worried if you weren’t tired,” void phase was, after all, a spell most 4th tier void casters couldn’t properly use. Even though her high affinity in addition to the Whisper regalia allowed her to almost instinctively partially replicate it, her mana and body simply couldn’t keep up, “Rest now. It’s going to be busy from tomorrow onward.”