## Chapter 2647 – Dark Moon

A colosseum created by a demon’s curse.

My body began to feel excited. It was similar to the feeling I got during combat. In contrast, my mind was cold and clear.

‘It can’t just be the shape of the space that’s changed. I’ve seen the changes in my body, so it’s clear that it’s having a physical and mental effect.’

Unlike my body, which was being heightened for battle, my mind was calmly sinking. This was probably because I was special. Maybe it was because my astral was special, but I was strangely unaffected by mental influences.

‘What I’m worried about is Yuria…’

Yuria, who was standing opposite me, was unchanged. She seemed perfectly fine, both physically and mentally. It seemed like she was controlling her body even more perfectly than I was.

“Only one person can escape from here! Only the victor can escape! I swear on my existence!”

The demon shouted. I could feel a strange power in those words. It made the power of the space even more distinct.

‘Is it some kind of restriction he’s placed on himself?’

Fzzzt.

Lightning surged from my fingertips. The lightning condensed and elongated into the shape of a spear. I threw the lightning spear at the demon.

[Lightning Spear]

However, the lightning spear shattered as it was blocked by an invisible wall.

“Don’t kill me, kill the woman in front of you! I told you the rules! You’re a mage, how slow are you to understand?!”

The demon doll sneered.

The surrounding space writhed. The curse was gradually becoming stronger.

“Master. It seems that the power of the curse will increase if we don’t follow the rules here. I think this is probably the demon’s aim.”

“I have a rough idea of what that demon is.”

Of course, it wasn’t Baal. Baal, also called Bael, was the highest-ranking of the 72 demons. He was also called the Demon King. There was no reason for such a being to be playing such a childish game in a place like this.

“The 63rd-ranked demon among the 72 demons. Andras. A demon who enjoys inciting discord between people. His powers are also specialized in this area.”

The demon doll’s eyes widened in surprise. The blood vessels in the demon doll’s eyes burst, and blood trickled down.

“You figured out my identity right away! How did you know?!”

The corners of the demon doll’s mouth were torn into a smile. He didn’t seem to care that his identity had been revealed.

‘It’s a good thing it’s not the main body. Two 7th-level beings wouldn’t have been able to face Andras’s main body. Well, it’s absurd for such a great demon to appear in the middle of Neo London in the first place.’

Even at this moment, Andras’s power was growing stronger. It was because Yuria and I weren’t fighting.

‘If Yuria and I fight, Andras’s power will weaken. To be precise, his power is being consumed to maintain this space.’

In short, we just had to pretend to fight and buy time. And when Andras was weak enough… we would finish him off. That was how to defeat Andras.

‘Should I use my unique skill? No, even if I use my unique skill, I’m not sure I can kill him for sure.’

I looked at Yuria. Yuria, who met my gaze, smiled sweetly.

“I will follow any order from Master.”

“…That’s a scary thing to say. What if I ordered you to die?”

“I will die. And I know that Master would not give such an order.”

“Of course, I have no intention of giving such an absurd order. Even if someone impersonates me and gives such an order, ignore it.”

“I would never fail to recognize Master, so don’t worry.”

It was a needlessly embarrassing thing to say.

“Can your unique skill break through this situation?”

I didn’t know Yuria’s unique skill. I felt like she would tell me if I asked, but I deliberately didn’t ask. Unique skills were a sensitive issue.

“…The demon’s power is too strong right now. To be precise, I’d have to try it to know for sure, but… as of now, there’s a high chance that my unique skill will fail. If you order me to, I will use my unique skill right now.”

“No. We’ll fight each other to weaken him first. Think of it as a sparring match. Come to think of it, this is the first time we’ve sparred.”

“I will follow Master’s will. Shall we begin?”

“Let’s begin.”

I was the first to attack.

Lightning fell from the sky towards her.

[Thunder Bolt]

She wasn’t there where the lightning struck. Instead, the ground was scorched and smoke rose.

‘She disappeared into the shadows in an instant.’

I jumped into the sky.

[Levitation]

The power of magic made my body float.

Since she had disappeared into the shadows, it was obvious that she would appear from the shadows.

‘There’s only my shadow above this open colosseum arena.’

As soon as I floated into the sky, Yuria appeared from my shadow. Her mobility was on par with a leap.

Yuria held a dagger in her hand and swung it at me. A jet-black sword aura, like a shadow, surged through the air.

[Telekinesis]

I used telekinesis magic to pull my body, which was floating in the air. The sword aura narrowly missed me.

‘It’s not threatening. It wouldn’t be a fatal wound even if I got hit. Did she adjust her power considering that I enhance my body with magic?’

[Electric Field]

Current began to flow over the arena. Yuria’s shadow writhed and turned into a circle. The current was blocked by the unusually dark shadow and didn’t electrocute Yuria.

I looked down at the ground with ease. Since I was in the air, she couldn’t close the distance in an instant with shadow movement.

Moving through the shadows on my body? That would be impossible.

‘There must be conditions attached to shadow manipulation, such as the size or darkness of the shadow. She wouldn’t be able to manipulate the shadows of hair or clothes.’

Manipulating the shadows inside her body to attack? There was no need to consider that from the start. For that to be possible, the gap between me and her would have to be considerable.

[Thunder Bolt]

[Fire Ball]

[Ice Strike]

A one-sided magical bombardment poured down from the sky.

Yuria wrapped her body in shadows, minimizing the damage from the magical impact.

‘She didn’t go into the shadows, which is an easy way to avoid it? Is there a restriction or condition to hiding in the shadows?’

While preparing magic, I checked the demon’s power and the power of the curse that surrounded us. It was definitely weaker than before.

‘The goal is to weaken the demon’s power by dragging out the battle, so I need to lower the tempo of the battle.’

I attacked Yuria mainly with magic that consumed less mana. Yuria easily dodged them. Watching her movements was admirable. The sword aura she occasionally sent was so sharp that I felt like I would be hit immediately if I let my guard down.

‘…Thoroughly aiming for openings. Yuria’s fighting style is excessively efficient.’

That’s why there were unexpected things to learn.

“Hmm. What is it? Why aren’t they trying to kill each other for real? By now, even parents and children should be killing each other, right?”

The demon doll muttered, shaking its head. I ignored the demon’s reaction and focused on the sparring match.

I was clearly overwhelmingly advantageous. But if I let my guard down even a little, I would lose. If possible, I didn’t want to lose. Especially since my opponent was Yuria. As a master, it wouldn’t be dignified to lose to a maid.

Yuria took out a cloth from the shadows and threw it into the sky. A rectangular cloth with a large area.

As the cloth faced away from the sun, a shadow was created on the inside.

Shadow movement. Yuria appeared from the shadow of the cloth. She reached out her hand towards me. Shadow chains extended from her shadowy grasp.

[Telekinesis]

I moved my body to the side with telekinesis, avoiding the shadow chains.

Now, all that was left was for Yuria to fall.

However, Yuria didn’t fall to the ground. She stepped on the empty air, rotating her body and swinging the shadow chains like a whip.

Bang!

The impact of the shadow chains colliding was offset by the barrier. The barrier shattered. The problem was that the shadow chains had wrapped around my body. I gave strength to my whole body, but the shadow chains didn’t budge.

Yuria pulled the shadow chains. The long chains shortened in an instant, and my body was pulled.

Leap.

A short space jump upwards. I escaped from the shadow chains and immediately counterattacked Yuria with a Lightning Spear. Yuria blocked it with the shadow chains.

“Is standing in the air making a foothold with shadows?”

“Yes. There are always shadows under my feet. It’s just a small trick.”

[Light]

I created a light source on the ground. The shadow foothold that was supporting Yuria disappeared as it received the intense light. Yuria’s body fell to the ground. She landed lightly without panicking.

“It seems I have no choice but to lose. You are excellent.”

“It was an overly favorable environment for me. There are no suitable shadows here.”

“Even so, I have no way to close the distance with Master. Now that my previous move has been blocked, Master will be wary of even the smallest things. I have lost.”

If it had been close combat, the situation would have been different. Knowing that, I was the first to create distance. Moreover, the fact that the arena was open and it was difficult for shadows to form worked in my favor.

‘If it were a real battle… I wouldn’t have fought. There would be no reason to fight in a disadvantageous place on purpose.’

All that was left was for me to bombard her with magic from the sky.

Evading magic using shadows? If I used the 1st-level magic, Light, I could affect the shadows.

In fact, this battle, no, this sparring match, was over with my victory.

“Master. May I use my unique skill one last time? I would like to show Master my unique skill.”

“A battle using a unique skill. It’s an experience that you can’t often have. Let’s do it.”

I went down to the ground.

Yuria scanned her surroundings once and looked at her shadow.

And her shadow covered the world.

“My unique skill is called Dark Horizon.”

Yuria’s voice was heard from the pitch-black darkness.

[Electric Detection.]

Magic-infused electromagnetic waves spread out, confirming Yuria’s location. She was invisible due to the darkness, but her existence itself had not disappeared.

“Indeed… It’s like being trapped in a shadow. It feels like guns are being pointed at me from all directions.”

[Lightning Spear]

Fzzzt.

The sound of electricity crackling echoed. But there was no lightning. I was clearly holding a lightning spear, but it was invisible to the eye because there was no light.

“If it’s an attack using shadows, I can just block it with a barrier. The ability of your unique skill isn’t just this, right?”

“Yes. I can enforce rules within this dark space. For example, I can make it so that magic cannot be used.”

The Lightning Spear I was holding disappeared. The barrier that was protecting my body also disappeared.

I quickly used magic again. There was no problem with moving mana and weaving the spell… but the magic didn’t manifest.

“If I adjust the rules in detail, I can manipulate cause and effect or time, but it’s inefficient against a strong person like Master. Ah, the number of rules I can enforce is limited to one. For reference, I am also affected by the enforced rule.”

“Is it okay to tell me all that? Is there some kind of restriction?”

“I want Master to know everything about me. I believe that will surely happen someday.”

Even though I couldn’t see her, I could feel Yuria smiling.

“A rule that you can’t use magic rather than a rule that you can’t handle mana… Ah. That wouldn’t work. If there’s no mana as a power source, the unique skill itself would be released.”

“Yes. My unique skill is a double-edged sword. If I use it even slightly wrong, it will bring disaster upon me.”

“But if the opponent is a mage like me, it’s a one-hit kill unique skill. If you take away magic from a mage, there’s nothing left. Since I’ve seen something good, shall I show you mine? Unique Skill, Absolute Star.”

The unique skill was activated with the image of the center of the universe, an eternal and immortal star shining.

Mana gathered around me and sparkled like starlight. Normally, the starlight should have been invisible due to Yuria’s Dark Horizon.

“My unique skill, Absolute Star, grants me immunity to debuffs. And it draws in and manipulates the power around me, including mana. I just found out that the mana around me seems to be affected by Absolute Star. Otherwise, there’s no way the light would be so clear.”

It was a new fact I had learned. As expected, it’s important to experience everything.

[Lightning Spear]

Lightning flashed around my fist, and a lightning spear was created. The influence of Absolute Star was affecting not only mana but also the magic I was casting.

The lightning illuminated not only me but also Yuria. She was touching her flushed cheeks and smiling sensually.

“Ah… You are beautiful. As expected of Master. No matter what I do, I can’t beat Master.”

“The compatibility of our unique skills is completely in my favor… It’s not something to be happy about.”

“My unique skill and Master’s unique skill can create perfect synergy when facing a third party. It’s such a good match even though we didn’t intend it. Would you call this a match made in heaven?”

Is that so?

Sometimes Yuria would say strange things. Like how Elena was pitiful. When I asked who Elena was, she answered that she was a friend with a strangely smug smile.

Even a perfect maid has her human side. I decided to let it go.

“Then shall we begin now?”

“Yes. Let’s begin. The demon’s power will not be usable within this space.”

The rule changed.

In an instant, the colosseum collapsed and appeared in front of the mansion.

‘Is it because of the demon’s level? Even with Yuria’s unique skill, she couldn’t completely eliminate the demon’s power.’

The demon’s power was weak enough.

I threw a Lightning Spear at the demon doll.