With a swift motion, Aura raised her hand and gripped Konrad's neck as if seizing the handle of a warhammer. She swung him through the air and slammed him down hard onto the banquet table.
CRACK—CRASH—SMASH!
The three-meter-long hardwood table shattered into pieces beneath his weight. Then, Aura kicked Konrad fat face, making his face dented.
BANG! BANG!
A cascade of magical artifacts shattered. Konrad, the Graf of Hohenburg, was sent hurtling through the air, crashing into the crowd and drawing a chorus of gasps and screams.
Guards rushed in. The room rang with the clatter of armor and weapons. Outside the banquet hall, the sound of reinforcements echoed as more soldiers flooded in.
But Aura remained calm.
She swept a glance over the chaotic banquet. Not a flicker of panic touched her face.
Raising one hand, she pointed toward the distant form of Graf Konrad sprawled across the marble floor. Black mana began to glow in her palm.
Instantly, the soldiers who had been closing in on her hesitated—then veered off course, forming a wall of shields and armor between her and their fallen lord. All shield-bearers rushed to Konrad's defense, creating a compact metallic phalanx, like a gleaming sphere of steel.
"Stop her! Someone stop her!" a voice shouted from the crowd, shrill with fear.
Aura stood calmly atop the shattered remains of the banquet table. She raised her hand again, focusing on Konrad behind the human barricade. The glow of magic cannon in her palm intensified—reflected in her eyes like molten fire, growing brighter and hotter by the second.
Until—
BOOM!!!
The sphere of metal was pierced in a single point.
The next moment, a blinding beam magic cannon surged forth, obliterating the protective line.
"You wanted an explanation, didn't you?"
Aura's pupils narrowed to slits, her lips twisted into a bloodthirsty grin.
"Here's my explanation!!"
FWOOOSH!
The roaring magic cannon exploded forward like a tidal wave. It engulfed the guards and Konrad in an instant. Swords were pulverized, armor melted into slag, and massive tower shields cracked like glass. The sound of priceless magical artifacts shattering filled the room.
But all of it — all that defense — meant nothing before the pillar of annihilation pouring from Aura's hand. Magic designed to withstand the fiercest blows collapsed like paper in a storm.
"If you can't take it—then die!" she laughed maniacally.
The bloodthirsty nature of the demons was infinitely magnified at this moment, and her purple eyes burned so deeply with bloodlust that they seemed almost crimson.
BOOM!!!
The blast tore straight through the castle, a beam of light illuminating the night sky above Hohenburg.
It lasted a full thirty seconds before slowly fading into the dark.
In the dead of night, the city shone as bright as day. Many of Hohenburg's residents awoke, peered from their windows, and began to whisper amongst themselves—wondering what could've happened at the Graf's estate.
Having fully unleashed her magic, Aura felt noticeably more at ease.
With a flick of her hand, she dispersed the lingering smoke and white dust hanging in the air. To her mild surprise, she discovered that the human Graf had somehow survived.
She wasn't in the mood to pursue it further.
Aura prided herself on keeping her word. She had told him: if he could survive her spell, she would let the matter go.
And so she would.
"Seems I misjudged you," she said with mild amusement. "You do have what it takes to qualify as a Second-Class Mage."
Her gaze shifted to Barret, who sat slumped in a wheelchair nearby, nearly unconscious.
It was him—Barret—who had defended Konrad with a powerful barrier after the Graf's own magical protections had been utterly destroyed. He had absorbed the tail end of Aura's blast.
To take a hit from Aura and survive — that was once the benchmark for Second-Class Mage certification in the era before the Association was formally founded.
"I've merely specialized in magical defense," Barret rasped, his voice tired and frail. "But even then, my defenses crumbled like wet paper against that earlier display… if not, these legs of mine might not be broken."
He looked as if he had aged ten years in a single night. His entire body had weakened after casting the defense magic—his energy, his strength, even his presence. He'd thinned out so much that his wheelchair seemed too large for him.
Lifting his cloudy eyes to Aura, he gave a bitter smile. A silent, rueful admission that he'd been blind to true power.
Aura didn't hold it against him.
She didn't care that this human had once looked at her with jealous eyes. Nor did she concern herself with his age or disability.
Now that she has given these humans an "explanation", Aura no longer cares about what they have done. She will start all over again. She wants to turn Hohenburg into what she wants, and anyone can become her helper.
"Old, but still usable," she said bluntly. "Will you stand on my side?"
"…My lady," Barret murmured after a pause, his voice heavy with exhaustion. "There's no point opposing power. We train magic all our lives for one reason — to rise above. In this empire, magic alone doesn't grant influence. A commoner, no matter how talented, will never be embraced by the nobility."
"But under the Graf's banner… within this city… you could claim any seat you desired."
"This country is bound by bloodlines. Opposing the nobility will only make life harder for us mages. No matter how powerful a mage becomes… anger the aristocracy, and they will never let you rest easy."
He wasn't finished.
He tried to speak more—perhaps to persuade her further.
But Aura raised a hand to silence him.
"A pity," she said, genuinely disappointed.
She gave the old man a long look.
Though she despised humans, Aura always paid attention to those with magical talent.
"You are no longer a proper mage."
It was the first time that Aura saw that physical defects could affect magical talent.
It would be fine if the legs were broken, but this human heart is also broken.
"...…"
Barret hesitated.
Then he tried one final time.
"My lady, with your strength… if you simply yielded a little, gave the nobles what they wanted—just a few gestures, some token cooperation—you could gain so much more in return. In exchange for some dignity, you could seize something real. Power. Control."
"All you need do is carry out a few harmless little tasks for the Graf, and—"
"The weak have no right to lecture me." Aura's voice cut like frost.
Serie had once said that Aura understood humans better than she did.
But Aura believed Serie was wrong.
She had never tried to understand humans.
In the mindset of the demons, only the weak yield to the strong. The strong never stoop to understand the weak.
The collective power of humanity's petty alliances was nothing compared to the force of the magic that flowed in her hands.
Barret was stunned when he heard this.
He thought perhaps Aura simply found Konrad's magical ability lacking, so he tried to make up for it.
"I'm a Second-Class Mage," he insisted. "Even in a place like Kribi, where masters are everywhere—"
"Which just makes you slightly more polished trash."
What?
Barret looked up in shock.
Aura had already raised her hand.
With a single finger, she pointed at him.
The transparent magical shield surrounding Barret shattered instantly. An invisible force struck him with terrifying precision, launching him from his wheelchair and sending him crashing through the stone wall beyond.
His fate was unknown.
Defense magic, while powerful in peer-to-peer battles, became meaningless when the difference in mana was this great. No amount of technique could make up for the brutal force Aura had just unleashed.
And just like that, it was done.
Aura turned and looked around the hall.
No soldier dared approach.
The nobles, too — either unconscious or cowering at a distance — recoiled with every sweep of her gaze. Whenever her eyes passed over them, the crowd would step back, as if before a force of nature.
Today had been a good beginning.
Aura smiled.
She walked to the entrance, picked up her long mage's robe from the coat stand, and draped it over her shoulders. Adjusting the purple hat she had never once removed, she turned back toward the hall.
Hand to chest, she bowed with impeccable grace to the assembled humans.
"Thank you for your hospitality today."