Whether it was anger at being interrupted or shock at her utterly unexpected appearance, Karl stood frozen, staring at Rose for a long while. The moment he recovered, he bellowed.

“Why are you here when you should be protecting London?”

Anyone else would have flinched at that shout, at a loss for what to do. He was the Monarch of Magic, an absolute being whose authority no one in the British Empire could challenge—with a single exception.

But Rose, that sole exception, answered his question with one of her own, her expression stiff.

“That is precisely what I would like to ask you. What on earth are you doing here at a time like this, Lord Karl?”

“I am eliminating the witch responsible for this disaster. Now stand aside!”

“Unfortunately, I cannot comply, for three reasons.”

“What?”

Perhaps he had never imagined Rose would refuse. Unable to hide his bewilderment, Karl listened as she spoke calmly.

“First, authority over public safety in London rests with House Seaserpent.”

“Is this the time to quibble over such things?”

“Second, she is not responsible for this disaster. If you kill her, it will be nothing more than murder.”

“What did you say?”

“Third, I am not your subordinate, Lord Karl. Do not give me orders.”

“...”

Rose wore her usual earnest expression. Yet her answer held an unyielding pride and dignity. Karl's expression grew grave for a moment before he fixed her with a cold glare and spoke.

“I see... I wondered why you opposed the destruction of the Great Barrier of London so fiercely. You were in league with the witches all along?”

“It is true that we cooperate with the twenty-seven magical lineages.”

“To join forces with witches and perpetrate something like this! Have you no shame before the ancestors who protected the British Empire?”

“I merely made the best decision I could to protect London's citizens. I do not recall doing anything that would shame our founders.”

“You shameless...!”

Karl's fury at her confident reply did not make Rose so much as twitch an eyebrow. She merely spoke calmly to Cir, who had been watching from behind her with an intrigued expression.

“Go.”

[“Huh?!”]

“You're going to face that ill-mannered brute alone? Here, of all places?”

“I intend only to do my duty. Please do yours.”

Clearly taken aback, Cir stared at Rose with wide eyes for a moment. Then she broke into a quiet chuckle.

“Heh heh heh. You Blue Dragon Clan princesses have always been reckless... but you're every bit as headstrong as the princess two generations before you.”

Cir opened one hand. A stick the size of a fingernail dropped from it, rapidly swelling into a broom. She perched on it, rose into the air, and immediately flew off in one direction.

“Do you think I'll let you leave?”

Karl fired lightning from his staff to shoot Cir down, but it sliced uselessly through empty air. Just before it struck, Rose had opened a hand and used the Space-Twisting Spiral Style to warp space, bending the lightning's trajectory.

“Countess Rose! Are you truly going to side with that wicked witch? Come to your senses and stand aside, while you still can!”

“I believe I already told you.”

Looking into Karl's blazing eyes, Rose instead raised her sword. She stood squarely in his path, as though daring him to defeat her first if he insisted on passing, and declared proudly,

“Do not give me orders.”

“... If you're so determined to die, have it your way!”

At last, Karl abandoned any attempt to persuade her with words. Instead, as though intent on removing her without wasting another moment, he swung his staff and activated 『Ultimate Mastery of Magic』.

『Ultimate Mastery of Magic』.

An Absolute Skill that allowed him to wield every element—not only the four great elements of wind, water, fire, and earth, but lightning, gravity, and all the others, when ordinary magic-type players could handle only one or two. It also let him understand and analyze the principles behind every magic-type skill, using each with the utmost efficiency.

A spell constructed on that foundation instantly gathered the surrounding elements into red spheres.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The six explosive fireballs created by the sixth-class magic-type skill 『Explosion Cannon』 hurtled toward Rose like arrows.

Rose did not retreat. Standing firmly in place, she cut down the incoming fireballs one after another. Normally, they should have exploded the instant they touched her sword. Instead, they vanished almost anticlimactically as soon as she sliced them.

As though he had expected as much, Karl used 『Stone Blade』 next.

SHUNK!

For a moment, it seemed the stone blade erupting beneath Rose's feet had skewered her before she could dodge. Then the impaled figure vanished like an illusion, and Rose appeared three paces to the side as though rising out of nowhere. She flicked a finger lightly.

BANG!

A droplet shot like a bullet by the Falling-Star Finger-Flick Style was stopped all too easily by the 『Wind Shield』 surrounding Karl. But that was only the beginning.

BANG! BA-BANG! RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

When Rose opened her palm, the surrounding fog condensed into droplets, which flew like meteors with every flick of her fingers. Only at first did she fire a few at a time, as though testing his defenses. More and more water gathered in her hand, and her fingers flicked ever faster until the droplets hammered Karl's shield in an unbroken downpour.

Under that barrage of droplets, each capable of piercing even an iron wall, cracks gradually spread across the shield. Within it, Karl calmly extended his staff.

“『Photon Cannon』.”

FLASH!

No sooner had light appeared at the tip of his staff than a thick beam shot forth, burning away the incoming droplets. Piercing everything it touched and melting the ground in its path, the beam was truly like the whip of a sun god.

Perhaps wary of the power of an eighth-class magic-type skill that only players in the level nineties could use, Rose dodged the Photon Cannon's light, leaving successive afterimages as she drew up her psionics.

She seized control of the surrounding space with the psionics of the Space-Twisting Spiral Style, then used the Sea Dragon Water Orb Style to gather moisture from the air, transform it into water, and control it. Then she launched that water according to the principles of the Falling-Star Finger-Flick Style.

『Seventy-Two Martial Schools, Three Supreme Techniques:

Water King's Waterfall Strike』

ROOOOAR!

At Rose's gesture, the streams of water swirling around her merged into a colossal waterfall and collided with Karl's Photon Cannon.

A pillar of light tried to bore through, evaporating the water. A waterfall surged upward against its natural course, pushing the light back. For a moment, the two powers seemed evenly matched. Then the waterfall sucked in the surrounding fog and swelled further, abruptly tipping the balance.

Yet Karl remained unperturbed as the waterfall drove back the pillar of light and surged toward him. He merely spoke coldly.

“『Double Casting: Dual Incantation』, 『Niflheim Wave』.”

CRACK-CRACK!

In that instant, the entire upward-surging waterfall froze solid. And not just the waterfall. From the fog drifting nearby to the ground and the air itself, cold approaching absolute zero spread outward from Karl, freezing everything around him as it swept toward Rose like a wave.

Even faced with that mighty ninth-class freezing skill, Rose did not falter. Standing straight in place, she merely swung her sword vertically.

『Seventy-Two Martial Schools, Four Supreme Techniques:

Heavenly Escape Sword Art』

It happened immediately afterward. The wave of cold that froze everything swept over the spot where Rose stood. Her figure, seemingly turned into an ice sculpture for an instant, melted away like a mirage, and she appeared instead on the ground directly beneath the hovering Karl.

Ignoring the thin frost coating her entire body, Rose leaped straight upward and was about to swing her sword at Karl when—

“『Great Elemental Break: Higher-Order Elemental Decomposition』.”

BOOOM!

Light exploded from Karl's staff. Caught in the force of the ninth-class magic-type skill, Rose was hurled away and fell from the air to the ground. A thin stream of blood ran from the corner of her mouth.

Karl clicked his tongue at the sight.

“Don't be foolish. Surely you know Teleportation cannot work properly here.”

“...”

Rose remained silent. Indeed, her internal injuries were not solely due to the impact that had penetrated her Body-Guarding Outer Energy Style. She had cut through space with the Space-Cleaving Sword Style, then forced her way into the gap using the Form-Shifting Position-Switching Style to perform Teleportation.

Even as the Blue Dragon Princess, she had no choice but to resort to that method to cross space here, where the fog of the Misty hours filled everything. The unstable leap had not only prevented her from cutting Karl, but also disrupted her psionics and caused internal injuries. That single move had cost her dearly.

“I don't know what lies persuaded you to side with the witch, but give up now.”

That was why Karl declared coldly,

“Outside might be another matter, but here, you can never stop me.”

As a fundamentally magic-type player who was weak in close combat, he certainly had reason to regard Rose as a dangerous opponent. But only when she could move freely through space.

Here, where the fog of the Misty hours hampered Teleportation and even halved the power of the space-manipulating arts of the Seventy-Two Martial Schools, Rose was no match for him. Blue Dragon Princess or not, she had no chance of winning a ranged battle against Karl, whose long-range firepower was the greatest even among the ten great Monarchs.

“Yes. I am well aware that I cannot defeat you.”

Though she understood that better than anyone, Rose did not retreat. She merely wiped the blood from her mouth and spoke calmly.

“But I can at least keep you occupied.”

“You mean to buy time? What possible use could that be in this situa—!”

Karl suddenly flinched. He had sensed the dense fog blanketing their surroundings stirring strangely, its magical aura beginning to surge.

“Why is the fog of the Misty hours...?”

The fog remaining in this world within the mirror was a trace of the Great Barrier of London. Like the faint glow that lingered after sunset, it was merely a remnant of the barrier, soon to scatter and vanish.

So why had it begun emitting an even more distinct magical aura instead? His bewilderment lasted only a moment before his expression hardened.

He had finally realized why Rose had insisted that Cir leave first, despite knowing she could not handle him alone.

“Countess Rose, what on earth are you plotting with the witches?”

Until now, Karl had shown anger but never any sign of discomposure. For the first time, anxiety appeared on his face. Meeting his gaze with unwavering eyes, Rose answered quietly.

“Did I not tell you? I intend only to do my duty.”