Seeing Laldus draw his sword, Reiko drew Touka as well.
"...You will regret this."
"An interesting sword."
Even now, Laldus's attitude lacked any sense of real gravity.
"Here I come!"
Laldus lunged without warning, bringing his blade down in a heavy overhead strike. Reiko parried it without effort.
"Ho, so you can see even in the dark. Still, any sword that can take my blade head-on and remain unscathed must be a fine one."
With those words, Laldus leapt backward in an instant to put distance between them.
"...?"
Something about that last strike felt off to Reiko. The same applied to Laldus’s movements.
"Then, the next one."
From his new position, Laldus charged Reiko again, aiming for her torso with a horizontal sweep.
The movement was fast, but it was nothing Reiko couldn't react to and block... or so it should have been.
"!"
Mid-swing, Laldus and the sword he brandished underwent a bizarre acceleration.
"You did well... to block that."
With a harsh, metallic screech, Reiko managed to catch the blade at the very last second. Again, she felt that strange discrepancy in her hands.
Laldus leapt back once more.
Reiko analyzed the sensation. It concerned speed and weight.
A sword has a corresponding weight—that is to say, mass.
The force required to accelerate a light object differs from that of a heavy one. Conversely, if the force remains the same, a lighter object can be moved faster.
The peculiarity Reiko felt was that the acceleration was unnatural, and the impact of the sword she blocked was far heavier than its speed should have allowed.
"I wonder if you can block the next one?"
While Reiko processed the data, Laldus prepared his next move, this time dropping into a thrusting stance.
Against a sword that could clash head-on with the reinforced Touka, even Reiko stood a high chance of sustaining damage. She continued to analyze the situation.
"It is a mercy that I can predict the type of attack... No, perhaps even that is a trap?"
In that instant, Laldus stepped in. He unleashed a piercing thrust.
However, Reiko moved ahead of him. She should have been able to dodge it with room to spare.
Or so it should have been.
"!?"
Reiko's body suddenly grew heavy. It was as if her weight had abruptly multiplied many times over.
Because of this, her evasive maneuver was sluggish. Laldus's sword was on a direct course for Reiko's left shoulder.
"Barrier."
In a split second, Reiko activated her barrier. Laldus's sword stopped at the surface of her clothing.
It had partially bypassed the indestructible barrier, only to be caught by the fabric made of ground spider silk.
"Umu, you defended against that?...I shall acknowledge you. You and your master are a match for us!"
Laldus shouted as he leapt back yet again.
But Reiko did not reply. She was focusing everything on the anomaly.
"That phenomenon just now... could it be... no, there is no other logical explanation..."
'Reiko-san, I believe your hypothesis is correct,' Laojun agreed, having monitored Laldus's movements through Reiko's eyes.
"...You can manipulate weight, can't you?"
When Reiko spoke those words, Laldus's eyes widened for real.
"I am truly surprised. Can you think for yourself to that extent? I've found myself wanting to meet the human who created you."
"Then surrender," Reiko commanded.
Laldus scoffed. "Don't be foolish. I shall capture you, dismantle you, extract every bit of information from your control core, and then we shall launch our invasion from this side."
He spat out the words with the typical arrogance of the demon race. However, it was a fatal mistake. Reiko would never tolerate a threat to Jin.
"...I will absolutely not allow that."
Reiko's voice dropped to a cold, low tone.
If she used Mana Explosion, she might be able to defeat him. However, she would lose the chance to obtain the necessary information.
For Reiko, this was a battle of limited options.
She kicked off the ground with all her might, initiating the attack this time.
"Eh!"
However, her movements turned sluggish the moment she drew near him. Laldus had used his magic to make Reiko 'heavy.'
Reiko's speed dropped to that of an agile human. Laldus easily parried the diagonal slash from Touka. But then—
"What!"
His sword was severed. She had struck using Touka's new function: the vibration sword.
"Kuh!"
However, because her sword speed was slow, Laldus managed to dodge the follow-through without a scratch. Shock was plastered across his face.
"...You continue to leap over my expectations. Seeing that defensive barrier from earlier, it seems half-hearted magic will simply be blocked. I didn't want to rely on this, but I suppose I have no choice."
Laldus pulled an Elradrite from his pocket.
"'gravita'."
The magic was unleashed. The ground in a five-meter radius around Reiko caved in.
"Gu... ugh."
Reiko managed to endure without her knees hitting the ground.
"...Unbelievable. Right now, everything in your vicinity—including yourself—should weigh hundreds of times more than normal."
Laldus stacked more magic on top of the first.
"'gravita'!"
"...!!"
The ground in a one-meter radius around Reiko collapsed even further. Even Reiko was forced down to her knees and hands.
"Fu... fuhahaha! At thousands of times your weight, surely you cannot stand!"
Within that one-meter circle, the gravity had reached several thousand Gs. Even the solid bedrock was beginning to crumble into powder under the pressure.
The only reason Reiko endured was the immense power hidden within her frame.
"But how long can you maintain that effort? I know not what you use as a mana source, but it cannot last forever."
'Reiko-san, that is a bluff. He is the one who will be unable to maintain magic of that scale.'
Laojun's voice encouraged her.
Reiko's primary mana source was her ether converter. As long as there was sufficient free ether in the air, she could move semi-permanently.
Furthermore, she possessed an emergency mana tank. By boosting with this, Reiko was capable of outputting ten times her normal power for a short duration.
"...Guuuuuu!"
Reiko forced herself up using that maximum output. Her feet were planted on bedrock compressed by extreme gravity, which crushed further under her weight. Currently, she likely weighed over thirty tons instead of thirty kilograms.
Applying the maximum level of Reinforce, Hardening, and Mana Reinforce to her entire body, Reiko finally stood tall and began to walk.
Laldus's face turned pale.
"I-Impossible!"
Just as he attempted to stack even more magic, the Elradrite in his hand shattered into dust.
"Crap!"
Abruptly returned to her original weight, Reiko nearly flew upward from the sudden lack of resistance, but her extraordinary reaction speed allowed her to compensate instantly. Then, maintaining her bolstered strength, she lunged at Laldus.
"My turn!"
Reiko tackled him with her maximum power. Because the distance was so short, she had little time to accelerate; it was likely fortunate for him that she struck before reaching the speed of sound.
Even so, the impact was beyond description. Without even the time to scream, Laldus was sent flying.
He smashed through three stone walls of the houses behind him and finally came to a halt after hitting a fourth wall. He collapsed onto the floor, motionless.
"...He was a formidable opponent."
Reiko performed a diagnostic and confirmed there were no abnormalities. She walked slowly toward the fallen demon.
Judging by the fact that his mana was still active, she determined he was merely unconscious. She intended to use Trans Info immediately. She felt he was far too dangerous to take back as a prisoner.
The level Reiko could use was at most 5, which meant she couldn't transfer subconscious thoughts, but with the target unconscious and offering no resistance, it should be possible to transfer his specialized knowledge.
If she transferred Laldus's knowledge into the magi-crystal she had brought, her objective would be achieved.
Reiko drew closer.
However, in the next moment, she sensed a massive mana presence appear behind her. She spun around.
"...To think that Laldus would be beaten."
"Hmph. It was likely his bad habit of getting carried away."
Standing against the darkness were two more silhouettes belonging to the demon race.