The End

On the city walls.

Lügner controlled countless streams of blood to attack Fern.

Yet Fern walked as if in a leisurely stroll amidst these countless attacks, and began to counterattack.

Countless streaks of light poured from Fern's staff, shattering Lügner's Blood Manipulation Magic, and still had the surplus strength to attack Lügner's main body.

Lügner was forced into the air by Fern's ultimate casting speed.

Countless offensive spells began to cover Lügner's surroundings.

Fern under the moonlight looked like a deity.

At this moment, offense and defense had switched!

Lügner, completely unable to fight back, had no choice but to opt for a war of attrition.

He cursed inwardly: What kind of training did Frieren that fellow put her through anyway?

Yet Fern's mana right now felt as though it were infinite, and her offensive spells had already begun to break through Lügner's defense.

Lügner, a demon, actually failed to match a human mage in the sheer quantity of mana.

With no other option, Lügner looked down below the city wall and shouted: "Linnie, what are you doing! Hurry up and finish off that guy!!"

Below the city wall, Linnie and Stark had traded blows several times.

Realizing that his physical strength was this time truly near its limit, Stark intended to risk his life.

He no longer dodged Linnie's attacks, instead putting his all into swinging that axe.

Linnie's attack landed first on Stark's waist, but did not cut through as Linnie had imagined.

A thought flashed through his mind: It is indeed not as heavy as Master's attacks. Seeing this situation, Stark slashed at Linnie without hesitation.

"Sky-Splitting Strike!"

Stark's attack successfully cut Linnie in half from top to bottom, and her body began to slowly dissipate.

"Linnie?!" Lügner on the city wall looked in astonishment at this scene.

Linnie's death created an opening in Lügner's defense, and Fern seized this opportunity.

The light on the staff shone exceptionally brightly.

"Demon-Slaying Magic!!"

Lügner failed to defend against this attack, his entire chest cavity vanishing into Fern's offensive magic.

Lügner collapsed limply to the ground.

Blood Manipulation Magic could no longer help him restore his body.

"...Is this the end..."

Fern dropped from the air, halting the motion of preparing to deal Lügner the finishing blow.

"In that way, your plan has failed."

The bright moon in the sky shone down upon Lügner, yet he felt no regret for having just given Fern an opening.

A defeat in a direct showdown meant a loss.

However, Aura the Guillotine-sama had not yet lost.

Lügner's body was gradually dissolving, but he still looked at Fern with a smile: "Frieren will by no means escape unscathed, along with that human boy."

"Previously it was the hero's party that beat us back, but now, how can Frieren, burdened with a dead weight, triumph over Aura-sama who possesses vast mana?"

"Aura-sama, who possesses Obedience Magic, will never lose!"

"It seems that Frieren-sama will win." Fern at this moment grew instead unconcerned.

Lügner looked at Fern in incomprehension, but Fern's mana seemed as though it had not decreased at all after a major battle.

Clearly she did not look formidable, yet Fern had indeed rapidly suppressed him using a massive volume of offensive spells.

Abruptly, Lügner understood: if Fern, whose lifespan was brief, possessed such vast mana, what about Frieren?

"Despicable!"

"You master and apprentice are simply the disgrace of mages!!"

The light of the staff in Fern's hand shone brilliantly, delivering the final blow to Lügner who was still slowly fading away.

Outside the city battlefield.

Under the buff of her anger, Frieren's combat power was off the charts, and even the numerous Headless Puppet Army could not withstand a single blow under Frieren's hands.

Yet she did not destroy these puppets, but instead severed the connection with Aura as much as possible.

Rienta looked somewhat helplessly at this scene, somewhat regretting having followed Frieren outside the city.

Wishing originally to come and help, he had not even touched a grunt before being resolved by Frieren.

With no other choice, he could only cast defensive magic for Frieren from time to time.

Aura sensed Lügner's death within the city, and at this moment her Headless Puppet Army had already more than halved.

Having originally intended to consume Frieren's mana reserves, she released the Scales of Obedience, looking smugly at Frieren.

"Although it's a bit of a pity that Lügner died, if I can resolve you here, it is also a quite decent harvest."

As for Rienta, he had already been ignored by her.

Seeing this scene, Rienta felt somewhat helpless.

So angry he was shaking! When can healers ever stand up!!

This Sage of Destruction doesn't know how to play! Who fights and leaves the healer alone!! This doesn't give him a chance to shine at all!!!

"You have failed, Aura."

Frieren looked calmly at Aura, paying no heed to the Scales of Obedience in her hand.

Rienta was somewhat nervous, for Frieren had told him about the information on this magic.

Placing each other's souls upon the scales, they would weigh the magnitude of both sides' mana, and the one with the greater mana could make the other completely submit to themselves.

This was high-risk magic that only mages with massive mana could use, and Aura the Guillotine, as one of the Seven Sages of Destruction of the demons, naturally possessed extremely vast mana due to her long lifespan.

The mana emanating from Aura's body was exceptionally conspicuous in Rienta's eyes, or rather, Aura had completely no intention of suppressing her mana at all.

As for the mana leaking from Frieren, it merely amounted to the equivalent of two Ferns plus himself.

Of course, Rienta was not mere dead weight; although inferior to Fern in mage talent, he still far exceeded ordinary mages by quite a bit.

Aura used the Scales of Obedience on Frieren with utter confidence.

"Obedience Magic!"

Aura's soul was placed first on one end of the scales.

Seeing this scene, Frieren looked at Aura with a trace of pity.

"How truly pitiful."

Rienta was already numb, taking out a notebook from his Personal Space and jotting down Frieren's quotes.

Up until now, Frieren herself could not remember just how long she had suppressed her mana.

She had been suppressing her mana ever since Flamme taught her, and even Heiter, upon first meeting her, believed Frieren possessed only one-fifth of his mana.

Looking at the pleased Aura, Frieren said softly: "You look quite happy, Aura."

Aura looked at the calm Frieren, somewhat uncomprehending.

Frieren the Slayer first appeared approximately eighty years ago, defeating her together with the hero's party.

Although she was unclear just how long Frieren had lived, fundamentally, the mana overflowing from Frieren nowadays explained everything.

When they first met, it was roughly a century's accumulation of mana, and now eighty years had passed without any real growth; she reckoned Frieren had spent these eighty years without serious cultivation, passing the time idly after defeating the Demon King.

"I have won. Next, I will personally sever your head, Frieren."

Aura at this moment felt somewhat regretful for having used the Headless Puppet Army to consume Frieren's mana.

At that very moment, Frieren's soul also landed on the other end of the scales.

However, the scales were gradually balancing out!

Frieren had not expected that Aura, who originally relied on the Headless Puppet Army to suppress the two of them, would actually choose this method to decide the outcome.

She had even thought of taking Rienta and leaving first.

"To be honest, if you had continued to suppress us with the army, I'm afraid we really would have been in danger. Fortunately, you were confident enough in your own mana that I was able to defeat you."

Aura, whose attention was entirely on the scales, asked subconsciously: "What do you mean?"

"I have placed restrictions upon my own mana." Frieren looked calmly at the already balanced scales: "You have lost."

Aura's forehead began to sweat. Although the scales were already tilting toward Fern's side, looking at the stable mana on Frieren's body, she still could not help but retort:

"Impossible! I can see absolutely no instability or the slightest fluctuation peculiar to mana suppression from your mana!!"

"The mana churning on that boy by your side is the normal manifestation of restricted mana!"

Rienta: "Eh? What do you mean?"

Frieren glanced calmly at Rienta and said: "I will step up his training in this aspect later on."

"Bad!" Rienta looked with a furious expression at Aura.

"Up until now, I have spent the majority of my life in mana suppression. Rather, this is my most comfortable state."

Frieren's voice was very soft, but falling into Aura's ears it was no less than a thunderclap on a clear day.

Aura looked at the Scales of Obedience in her hand that had completely tilted toward Frieren's side, her voice trembling slightly as she spoke:

"Are you... an idiot? Why do such an inexplicable thing."

"Besides, I am a great demon who has lived for over five hundred years!"

Hearing this, Frieren no longer suppressed her own mana, and a volume of mana ten times more vast than Aura's erupted forth.

"Aura, standing before you is an elf mage who has lived for a thousand years."

The Scales of Obedience completely stopped moving, beginning the judgment for this instance.

Frieren became the undisputed victor of this contest.

"Aura, kill yourself."

Dropping these words, Frieren no longer looked at Aura behind her, walking toward the already dazed Rienta.

"This is impossible!" Aura could not believe that she had actually lost a contest of mana magnitude.

Yet her body had already begun to move under Frieren's command.

She picked up the long sword scattered on the ground, drawing it close to her own neck.

Looking at the dazed Rienta, Frieren smiled and patted his head.

"What is it, Rienta?"

"It's nothing, I just think Frieren-sama is so cool... Cooler than what I've painstakingly researched for so long..."

"That goes without saying! Rienta still has a lot to learn."

"Right, that training we mentioned earlier to strengthen your mana suppression starts right now!"

"What?! Isn't that a bit too hasty, Frieren-sama."