[convert to English]
[Giselle Fischer ← If you’re really grateful, hit that like button LOL]
(Crying while leaving the stadium, Giselle Fischer.gif)
With an unprecedented advantage and a private evaluation match, dropping Monica Ricci and Nathan Chen one after another,
Giselle Fischer getting North Mountain ended by Na-me—if you’re truly grateful, shouldn’t everyone smash that like button?
Honestly, it was kinda gross when you grabbed her hair with bad hands,
But I’ll give you credit if you willingly become Na-me’s stamina potion for the finals LOL.
[Comments]
– This guy just called for likes
– Na-me for president
– Wow, she really is good at whining LOL
– To think this was all just because the universe gathered its energy, and you underestimated NoName?
– Except for the first 6 minutes, it was pretty much a snoozefest LOL
– Come to think of it, NoName had a rough draw too
└ 32nd round Lu Ruowan was tough too, beating Katsuhata
└ Facing a strong contender right from the group stage, how did that happen? LOL
└ If Levi had still been alive, he would’ve wiped the floor with everyone in the quarter-finals. He lost purely due to adaptation issues.
(Just then) Giselle Fischer’s yellow moment.gif
(Bad hands pulling Na-me’s hair.gif)
[Comments]
– Wow, she should really be ejected—what a moral failure
– The whole world is against Na-me
– Did all the French referees get bribed?
– Let’s just let the second half end at 5 minutes
– How on earth did she make it to the semifinals LOL
(Giselle Fischer returned, enlightened LOL)
(Entering the arena for the second half.jpg)
Yeah, what’s so great about the semifinals LOL
You’ve beaten three champion contenders, so be satisfied.
Honestly, I want to highly rate Giselle Fischer.
She held a match for 55 minutes against the American champion?
Her willpower is off the charts, seriously.
[Comments]
– Do all the kids from the Middle East and South America have passive fouls?
└ She seems nice but always throws punches first
– Watching Giselle Fischer makes me feel sorry for her—she’s kinda cute
└ I totally hate it; rules are there for a reason, and her attitude after getting a yellow card is infuriating.
└ But she apologized, so let’s have a drink~
└ Of course, if she hadn’t apologized, she would’ve been disqualified LOL
– Let’s keep it steady, Na-me. Manage your stamina well.
└ Whether it’s Korea-Japan or Korean Civil War, my heart swells.
The first half was pretty uneventful.
Compared to my match with Cecilia, there weren’t any significant crises, and the barrier situation was reasonably sound.
“Is the match worth playing?”
“…”
Seems something’s seriously got her ruffled.
Pubescent children think a lot but express little.
“I’ll kill you.”
Let me rephrase that: they express little affection.
Giselle bared her white teeth and growled.
At long last, she’s unleashing her hidden beastly nature.
Don’t let her looks fool you; her intelligence doesn’t fall, only rises.
Managing her aura keeps her brain firing.
Before the match began, I offered a bit of advice.
“Don’t burn yourself as fuel, or you’ll have a short life.”
“… I don’t want to.”
“I get that feeling; you’re talking to someone who’s been there.”
“?”
I couldn’t help but smile.
“If you beat me today, I’ll teach you how to enjoy potions. Did you know I majored in Potion Studies in college?”
“That’s a ridiculous claim.”
“I was being serious.”
Of course, she couldn’t possibly beat me, so it’s also a joke.
I’m a bit sad I can’t share this high-level humor out loud.
“Honestly, I’ve momentarily viewed you as my friend, NoName, to motivate myself. I’ve fought this whole time for Himena, waiting in the semifinals.”
“Why me specifically?”
“Because you’re short, weak, self-centered, and your speech is rather rude, just like Himena.”
“What did you just say?”
“And you believed in me. I kept saying I’d overcome everyone…”
Giselle tightly closed her eyes then opened them.
And when she did, the whites of her eyes were almost gone.
Whoa, I thought she was a demon!
“But now my goal is to win the National Exchange Tournament. You are no longer Himena. I’ve genuinely always respected you, NoName, but…”
“Does that mean I look different now?”
[Ready?]>
Giselle sighed and glared at me.
“Yeah. Kill that rapist bastard.”
“You’re such a hilarious friend.”
Giselle’s murderous intent towards me is entirely sincere.
Yeah, we’re on a completely different level than Narita Hiroyuki’s fake middle school syndrome ‘real madness.’
Projecting inner thoughts outward, perfectly deceiving even herself.
[Go!]>
[Semifinal Match 125]
[Time: 15:01]
I might have underestimated her true power.
Woooo—
Now, there was nothing shy to hide behind.
Giselle pulled out squirmy tentacles and sharp thorns from her palms.
Chaotic aura surged like a tsunami.
Shreeeeek!
[Cheonghwa Sword Engraving – Skiabona]
What’s real and what’s illusion, now it’s crystal clear—
PING!
[Giselle Fischer (Argentina)] [37% / 63%]
[NoName (Republic of Korea)] [70% → 64% / 75%]
I thought I could tell the difference, but what’s this?
BOOM!
Thirteen thorns dashed through my barrier in an instant.
I saw them all coming and dodged, yet the particle barrier still showed definite signs of damage.
The number of mirages she can manipulate is strictly one.
That’s not something you can just increase through perseverance or effort.
“GAAAAHHHHHH!”
[Spell: Linear Momentum Control]
[Joint Spell: Angular Momentum Control]
Accelerating magic circles generated beneath my feet.
WHOOSH!
Short-distance running practice wasn’t wasted.
I dashed through the training arena with all my strength, maximizing the distance between the thorns.
[Spell: Demon King’s Horn]
BOOOM!
[NoName (Republic of Korea)] [64% → 62% / 75%]
This time I couldn’t dodge them all, but one important fact was revealed.
‘Giselle can freely select and move her illusions.’
An utterly nonsensical ability.
Changing solid to void and void to solid.
Everything is according to her will.
At this moment, the secret of why countless participants had to kneel before her became apparent.
Try as I might to wriggle out of her aura, I’d eventually get caught.
And her illusions weren’t limited in form; she could convert thorns and tentacles at will.
A thorn brushed dangerously past my shoulder.
A black tentacle coiled around my armpit, holding something firm.
And that same twisted shape hardened into a sharp thorn, making it impossible to escape.
I can’t afford to hold back on magic in this situation.
[Spell: Cunnus’ Barrier]
[Random Number Generation: a c]
FWOOM!
With forced random number conversion, my aura dilutes into the atmosphere.
At the same moment, I realized.
During the 16th round, Giselle Fischer was countered by Monica Ricci.
For an overwhelmingly mana-heavy Monica, targeting Giselle must have been child’s play.
But the fact she lost in a duel means something significant.
Even if her knowledge lags behind others, Giselle’s battle sense is several levels above.
My chest swells with pride.
Why have you been hiding your abilities all this time?
No, that’s not right.
She probably just never had the chance to showcase her skills.
[Spell: Continuation of Demon King’s Horn – Ejecting Horn]
[Spell: Continuation of Demon King’s Horn – Vacuum Wings]
[Spell: Continuation of Demon King’s Horn – Grasp of Execution]
“…!”
Three magic circles rotate in celestial movement.
With the help of magic, I maximally embodied my past life’s body.
To think the magic created for the time I lost my body would be so useful this lifetime.
Long live longevity.
“Let’s clear away these annoying tentacles. You don’t want to look ugly, right?”
With my hand, I grabbed the smoothly flowing mana stream.
The fundamentals of Ignis system magic.
The compressed mana glowed red before spewing flames.
FWOOSH!
Demons have a blurry boundary between mana and aura.
The sparks catching on black tentacles swiftly ignited and spread.
WHOOSH-
With my other hand, I yanked out all the tentacles by the roots.
SHREEEEK!
To stop me, Giselle fired a barrage of thorns.
PING!
I instantaneously dropped the mana pressure to zero using Vacuum Wings.
Other magic wouldn’t work, but small surface area thorns are perfect for blocking with wings.
The thorns lost their momentum, tangling like threads.
I suddenly instinctively knew it was time to move my body.
SWISH!
I jumped up and kicked toward Giselle’s head.
My body rotated in the air; one foot struck her neck while the other sliced through the air.
As my body collided with Giselle, crashing her forcefully down to the ground,
A massive downward pressure pinned her in place.
THUD!
I landed softly, hearing Giselle’s body slam hard onto the ground.
“I can’t lose again…!”
“Eh?”
“I won’t let myself be late a second time!”
Hmph, come and get me then!
Giselle stormed out, pouring her aura out like a wildfire.
A black avalanche covering gold.
Golden sunlight shone down anew.
With every punch Giselle threw, a pulse that stirred my heart followed.
In close range like this, dodging is not an option.
BANG!
We both annihilate each other’s barriers.
I stretched out my arms and legs purely to inflict greater damage on my opponent.
I block Giselle’s light hook by raising my forearm.
Yet, my barrier shatters with a loud crash.
Simultaneously, I skillfully checked the calf kick rising from below and pivoted, spinning halfway.
With a back kick, I gave Giselle’s neck a solid snap.
CRACK!
“Ugh… Hehe.”
“Are you laughing? This is no time to smile!”
With massive hands, I pressed Giselle from both sides to the ground.
The state of her body buried in the muddy rubble was absurd.
WHAM!
I kept stomping out the ominous sprouts trying to spring up from the ground and slammed her head hard down.
“Ghe… hehe…”
She chuckled while sustaining eye contact with me.
“Wow, that’s a fierce look you’re giving me.”
In a moment of careless distraction, Giselle seized my collar and flipped our positions.
[Spell: Ventus Aleb-]
[Break: Ventus Alebio]
PING!
“How were you faster than me… predicting my moves?”
I almost let a curse slip.
This Giselle Fischer fights by luck.
In the same sector, I have hundreds of spells at my disposal. What if this were a real battle?
Is she fighting with the mindset that it’s life or death?
[Conjuration: Barrier Setup]
[Spell: Rosario’s Prison]
The red twilight dispelled the deep blue sky, and the grass and earth intermingled chaotically.
Everything turned black.
The screams of a young girl begging for her life echoed painfully through my skull.
[Spell: Diagnosis]
[Emotion Synchronization Barrier Technique]
A bit cruel, if I must say so.
It seems Giselle Fischer has decided to pull out her painful memories to suppress me.
That would be extremely effective against a ten-year-old child.
‘Not against me.’
But I still had plenty of leftover barriers to spare, so I figured I’d watch for a minute, replenishing my stamina as I went.
PAT!
I stepped into a pool of congealed blood.
I also spotted a man with a huge hole in his abdomen, intestines spilling out.
Looks like I won’t be eating tripe for a while.
On the way, I dismantled the spell and stepped closer to the emotional anchor.
The girl was clinging to her cold friend’s corpse and weeping.
It seems that man inflicted harm on her.
“Why aren’t you saddened?”
The illusion barrier that looked like Giselle Fischer spoke.
Saying “spoke” is a stretch.
There were no words, but I understood the meaning.
Since she would hear it from outside anyway, I squatted beside her, addressing the girl.
“Sadness is a form of rest. It’s a little sanctuary for tired souls to soothe themselves. But just as if you lie down forever, you can’t stay there indefinitely.”
Then, I began to craft a dispelling technique.
“When your heart is ready to move again, muster the courage to stand. Ultimately, we must move forward, and even the shelter where you rested will be a part of your growth.”
It’d be impossible for a small aura heart to cast 5-circle magic.
But what if I applied the principle of simple casting and decreased the magic’s complexity by a step?
For instance, if I displayed the spell that stores wishes, ‘Alchemist,’ in two dimensions?
I felt a certainty that it could work.
I inscribed 64 runes, half of 128.
[Simple Casting: Alchemist (Dimensional Reduction)]
[Break: Rosario’s Prison]
While the immersion compared to the original spell greatly dropped,
For someone, that experience might feel exceptionally special.
Meanwhile, Giselle, engulfed in the illusion barrier, slipped into slumber.
CLICK!
I tapped her forehead lightly with my fingertips before wrapping up the semifinal battle.
“Fuwiih!”
“The match is over.”
[Semifinal Match 125]
[Time: 29:59]
[LOSE: Giselle Fischer (Argentina)] [☠9% (Total Destruction) / 30%]
[WIN: NoName (Republic of Korea)] [⚠19% (Irrecoverable) / 35%]
