"That was close... I really thought I was a goner!"
Hovering high above the earth, Rest clutched his chest, feeling his heart hammer violently against his ribs.
Split seconds before the steam explosion had erupted, he’d used every ounce of magic he had to propel himself upward. He’d reinforced his legs to kick off the air, used wind magic to shove his body higher, and deployed Barrier Arts to shield himself from the brunt of the shockwave. He’d fled as high as the sky would take him.
A searing ache from the blast wave throbbed through his entire body, but the injuries weren't beyond repair. He cast Healing Magic, and the pain slowly began to ebb away.
"She’s truly terrifying... To think she was capable of that..."
Peering down from a height usually reserved for skydivers, Rest was struck by a sense of déjà vu. He’d done this once before—fleeing into the heavens during his fight with the magical beast Subnock.
"They say only fools and smoke love high places... though I don't think that's quite right in this case. Yeah."
His adrenaline was spiking, making his thoughts jittery after his brush with death. He slapped his cheeks with both hands, forcing himself to refocus.
"Right. Time to pull myself together. I have to take her down."
Gazing at the Red-robed Figure of the Inverted Pentagram—the mage from Takfir Kahen—Rest knew he couldn't afford to lose. He couldn't let her or the Imperial Army set foot inside the kingdom's borders. If a mage of her caliber were to run rampant in the country, the scale of the disaster would be unthinkable.
She could vaporize entire towns with steam explosions, he thought. She could dam rivers or manipulate the rain into a storm of needles. Water is everywhere; the ability to dominate it is simply too dangerous.
The people he cared about would be the first to suffer. Viola and Primula were the daughters of the Court Mage; Celestine was the Prime Minister's daughter. If things turned dire, they would surely be forced onto the front lines. Even Yuri—brave as she was—would charge into the fray the moment an enemy invaded. And then there was Urula, the daughter of the Margrave Lavender House. He had a gut feeling she wouldn't back down, either.
"I have to crush her here. Completely and utterly!"
Rest prepared to manifest a Dark Star to fire Amaterasu, but then he hesitated.
No, that won't work. She'll just use water to create lenses and refract the light away.
Light magic was out. Wind, fire, earth, and lightning probably wouldn't work, either. Water magic was obviously out of the question; she was the master of that element.
But wait... is that really true?
A memory flickered in his mind—something a teacher from his previous life had mentioned during high school. It hadn't been part of the curriculum, just some idle trivia, but it had stuck with him.
"Let's give it a try."
Rest activated his Waterball magic, conjuring dozens of spheres. Ten, twenty, thirty... more. Using his Infinite Mana, he churned out a massive quantity of water.
When raindrops or hail formed within a cumulonimbus cloud fall toward the earth, they can drag the surrounding air down with them, creating a localized wind comparable to a tornado.
"Since I'm at it, I'll send down an exceptionally chilly breeze."
He froze the Waterballs into ice. Simultaneously, he used wind magic to suck the surrounding air toward him to the absolute limit. By now, the spheres—no, the Iceballs—numbered over a hundred.
The power is concentrated. All that remains is to unleash it.
The name of the spell came to him instantly.
"Storm God Susanoo."
He whispered the name and launched the Iceballs downward.
Accelerated by gravity, the Iceballs shattered mid-descent, turning into a spray of frozen shards that hurtled toward the earth. They dragged the air Rest had gathered along with them, their destructive momentum building by the second. He didn't stop, continuously generating and firing new spheres without end.
Just as Rest had planned, the ice plummeted toward the ground, bringing an atmospheric catastrophe with it.
A "Downburst"—a localized disaster of descending air currents capable of leveling everything for kilometers—trampled the Imperial Army.