The mock battle between Loubel and Reiko was still ongoing.
All around them, however, the ground was torn apart by the aftermath—strewn with shattered boulders, scorched, blackened, and melted in patches everywhere.
"Just as I thought, Reiko-san, you truly are magnificent...!"
"Is that so?"
Loubel spoke with fiery passion, while Reiko answered with cool detachment.
"I haven't given this my all yet....From here on, I will challenge you with everything I have!"
"I accept your challenge."
Loubel took a bit of distance, planted her feet, and shouted:
"Full power, full throttle!"
With that battle cry, she charged forward.
Reiko made no attempt to meet the attack head-on. Twisting her body, she turned sideways to slip past it.
Then, using the momentum of that spin, she whipped a backfist toward Loubel.
However, whether the timing was a fraction of a second off or Loubel was simply that fast, the blow ended up merely grazing her red hair.
As they brushed past each other, Loubel kicked off the ground, hurling up a barrage of stones aimed straight at Reiko.
Yet Reiko was already gone from that spot. Flipping her body around, she was already in pursuit.
"You will not get away."
Though her counter-pursuit was delayed by a single beat, Reiko was superior in speed and closed the distance in an instant.
"!!"
Loubel sensed imminent danger. At this rate, she couldn't escape—and she would take massive damage.
The evasive maneuver she chose was to deliberately throw herself onto the ground.
"Kyaa!"
Sliding across the terrain at a speed exceeding 300 kilometers per hour meant that even Loubel couldn't escape unscathed, but she judged it to be far lighter than taking Reiko's strike directly.
Loubel tumbled irregularly across the dirt, kicking up clouds of sand and dust.
"Still, I've put plenty of distance between myself and Reiko-san."
Plenty? What did a mere ten meters amount to against an opponent capable of far outstripping the speed of sound?
"Caught you."
"!!!"
The exact moment Reiko's voice sounded from right behind her, Loubel found herself locked in a full nelson.
"It is over."
If Reiko raised her output by just another ten percent, Loubel's arms would be ripped clean from her shoulders.
However...
"I was waiting for this!"
With that cry, Loubel activated a spell.
"Whoa... What an intense fight... And this is just a mock battle? You've got to be kidding, right?"
Watching the magi-screen, Sion D drew back slightly at the sheer ferocity of the clash.
The surrounding terrain had been utterly devastated. Jin D couldn't help thinking that repairing it would be quite a chore.
Even more than that, Reiko and Loubel were simply astonishing.
They darted freely across the wasteland that served as their arena.
"...To have created such an automata, I am truly satisfied."
Marcosius also narrowed his eyes, utterly absorbed in the spectacle.
And then...
"Ah, Reiko-chan caught Loubel-chan," Sion D pointed out.
"Hmm, you could say that's their first physical contact....What is Loubel doing... Is that magi-craft?!"
Seeing the glowing magi-formula materialize between Loubel and Reiko, Jin realized what was happening.
"I see. She intends to make contact and attack using magi-craft."
"Indeed. That is the final resort I taught Loubel."
Using magi-craft, she would apply Forming or Separation directly to whichever part of her opponent she touched.
That was Loubel's ultimate trump card.
Magi-craft cannot affect living tissue.
The exact reason was currently being researched by Elsa and had yet to be fully unraveled, but it remained an undeniable fact.
Furthermore, there was a working hypothesis that living organisms were guarded by free ether.
Reiko's skin was crafted from Ancient Dragon hide, and her clothes were made of GSS—both of which were biological materials.
Reiko herself permeated them with the free ether under her Domination, Reinforcing them.
Which meant...
"No way! It has no effect?!"
Loubel's all-or-nothing gambit failed completely against Reiko.
"Activating Magic Canceller."
"Ah..."
Judging that continuing the mock battle any further would only escalate into mutual destruction, Reiko deployed the Magic Canceller to temporarily shut Loubel down.
Then, cradling the motionless Loubel in her arms, she began the slow walk back to where Jin D and the others waited.
"...Well, that ended rather abruptly, didn't it?" Sion D remarked.
"Come on, now. If they'd kept going like that, one of them would have ended up smashed to pieces," Jin D countered.
"...And in that case, the broken one would have been Loubel," Marcosius added, his face radiant with deep satisfaction. "Jin-dono—no, Jin-sama, thank you very much for indulging my selfish request."
Marcosius slowly bowed his head to Jin D.
"I have returned."
Just then, Reiko arrived carrying Loubel, accompanied by Ruhf, who had captured the entire battle on record.
"Good work, Reiko."
"Lady Reiko, my thanks to you as well for indulging my selfishness."
Jin D and Marcosius both greeted Reiko warmly.
"Not at all."
After that brief reply, Reiko gently laid Loubel down on the ground.
"Please restart her, Marcosius-san."
"Mm, understood....'Wake up.'"
"...Ah."
Loubel's eyes blinked open.
"Where am I...? Ah, I lost, didn't I?"
Then, noticing Marcosius standing over her, she quickly apologized.
"Father, I am terribly sorry."
In response, Marcosius praised her and gently stroked her head.
"No, that was more than enough. You did wonderfully, Loubel."
Loubel's eyes went wide in surprise at the unexpected gesture, while Reiko and Jin D looked on with gentle, warm smiles.