Showing Off Magic

Fern's cherry lips parted slightly, surprise and delight shining in her deep purple eyes.

What was going on?

Buying a pretty new outfit had always been Fern's dream.

Wanting something to happen between her and Dugu Qing was a wish she had only just begun to harbor.

Either of those things would have made her beam with joy, and both had suddenly come to pass on this utterly ordinary day.

Fern parted her lips slightly, convinced this had to be her lucky day.

Suppressing a smile, she solemnly accepted the dress.

Dugu Qing thought Fern didn't like the purple dress! He turned around, took a white dress and a red one off the wall, and asked the clerk their prices.

"Dugu Qing, one is enough."

Fern caught hold of Dugu Qing, who was ready to go on a shopping spree.

Seeing how serious and adamant she was, Dugu Qing had no choice but to stop.

"All right! Let's go have some sweets!"

"Okay. I want Mercury Pudding."

The two packed up their clothes, paid the bill, and headed for the nearest sweet shop.

At the finest age of their lives, they strolled along Central Avenue, the busiest street in the Holy Capital.

Dugu Qing took Fern around, chatting about the past and present as they explored, leaving laughter and cheerful voices in their wake.

It healed Fern's shadowed childhood and illuminated all the years of her life to come.

Fern's heart bloomed with joy, as if she were bathed in holy light, and the smile on her lips lasted the entire day.

Outside the Holy Capital, at Heiter's house.

Bright sunlight spilled across the ground.

Slender, pale fingertips rested on the edge of the gate. Frieren pushed it open and stepped outside, her long silver-white hair swaying gently with the motion.

Gazing at the distant forest, Frieren was serene and completely at ease.

"Whoosh~"

A long gust swept past, making the air tremble.

Dugu Qing descended from the sky on his flying sword, carrying Fern and more than a dozen bags of all sizes.

"Dugu Qing, Fern, did you go shopping?"

Frieren raised her brows slightly.

"Yes, Lady Frieren! We bought lots of clothes!"

Fern hopped off the sword and gazed at Dugu Qing with quiet tenderness, like a wife returning from a shopping trip with her beloved.

"Oh? So many? Did you get me a present?"

Frieren smiled placidly, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.

As soon as Frieren finished speaking,

A deep, solemn bell tolled in both Dugu Qing's and Fern's ears.

A huge crisis!

They had gone shopping, eaten sweets, and strolled around town without bringing Frieren along.

Dugu Qing and Fern exchanged a glance, somehow awakening the superpower to communicate with their eyes.

What do we do now? If Lady Frieren finds out we went out for fun and didn't bring her a present, she'll definitely be angry.

Then what do we do?

What do we do? I'd like to know too!

I barely know Frieren. You're together every day, so you should know her, right?

Fern glared fiercely and signaled with her eyes, Why don't you give Lady Frieren a few of your clothes?

But I picked those clothes out so carefully. Dugu Qing still wanted to put up a fight.

It's all right. You can buy more later!

Fine!

A trace of confusion showed in Frieren's eyes. She didn't understand why the two of them had gone silent.

"Here, this is your present."

Dugu Qing handed over several outfits that would fit Frieren's figure.

In any case, Frieren's figure was utterly unremarkable... Men's clothes or women's clothes, it didn't matter. She could wear anything.

Frieren took them and glanced at them, her expression quickly returning to its usual calm detachment.

"After we eat, I'll teach you magic."

That afternoon, deep in the forest, on a cliff.

Holding a brown wooden staff, her straight bangs fluttering in the wind, Fern launched an ultra-long-range attack at a boulder on the distant cliff.

A purple magic circle unfolded, its white patterns blossoming like a rose.

A torrent of magic power shot forth with a roar, like a shooting star.

It dissipated into the air during its long journey.

Fern was undeterred. Her purple eyes filled with determined fighting spirit, she cast Ordinary Attack Magic again.

"What is Fern practicing?"

Standing behind Fern, Dugu Qing asked Frieren curiously.

"Ordinary attacks! Once she can hit the cliff on the other side, it'll prove she has the strength to stand on her own and has reached the level of a Level Five Mage."

Frieren gazed calmly at the distant boulder.

According to the Continental Magic Association's classifications, mages from levels nine through six were apprentice mages.

At level five, a mage became a Formal Mage, with normal combat and survival abilities.

Fern practiced this way so the elderly Heiter could be completely reassured.

Frieren gave Dugu Qing a brief explanation, then looked down below the cliff.

"Dugu Qing, now let me see your combat skills!"

Dugu Qing flexed his hands, cast Flight Magic, and rose into the sky.

His flowing hair danced in the wind, and a sacred aura spread out from him, dominating the earth and sky.

Dugu Qing's presence was ethereal, his aura unleashed in full.

"I've learned a lot of magic: Energy Ball, Thunder Bombardment, Thousand-Mile Ice Seal, Fireball, Transformation Magic... Next, I'll start by showing you the one I'm proudest of!"

Fern stopped practicing and watched Dugu Qing with eager anticipation.

Frieren nodded lightly and set the grimoire in her hands aside.

Dugu Qing held out a hand. Magic power surged rapidly from his palm and gathered into a ball of pure energy.

One second, three seconds, ten seconds.

As time passed, the Energy Ball in Dugu Qing's hand grew larger and larger. Enormous waves of air rolled across its surface, scorching hot and immense, until it resembled an asteroid in the sky.

Brilliant and dazzling to the extreme.

A playful look flashed through Frieren's eyes.

Simply releasing magic power, condensing it into an Energy Ball, and using it to attack? That's quite a good method of attack! It just takes too long. No, perhaps he wants to show off a little.

Fern looked up at the enormous Energy Ball in the sky, unable to maintain her gentle expression.

"Dugu Qing, you really are amazing."

Hearing that, Dugu Qing smiled proudly and hurled the Energy Ball into the depths below the cliff.

The Energy Ball plunged from the sky, streaking through the air and startling countless birds into flight.

It struck the earth, overturning countless chunks of ground, and exploded with a roar.

An intense white light burst across heaven and earth.

"Roar~"

Then an earthshaking explosion thundered out.

The earth roared and shook violently, the ground heaving ceaselessly like boiling water.

A fierce wind swept in with the force of a tidal wave.

Countless trees in the forest toppled, the destruction spreading rapidly outward in an oval.

Thick black-gray smoke billowed upward like gathering storm clouds, soaring into the heavens and looming high above, forming an enormous mushroom cloud that lingered for a long time.

Amid the raging turmoil, Frieren and Fern supported each other, barely managing to stay on their feet.

Dugu Qing tossed his bangs and stood with his arms folded.

"Well? The power of the skill I created myself is pretty good, right?"

"It's good. Dugu Qing, your strength is already on par with that of an ordinary human Level One Mage."

There was no surprise in Frieren's eyes.

"There's more!"

Dugu Qing raised his hand, aiming his palm into the depths below the cliff.

Dozens, then hundreds of bolts of purple lightning erupted, falling on the ground like raindrops. The dense bombardment kicked up enormous waves of earth.

One wave, then another, and another, without end.

After a long while, Dugu Qing stopped, and the dust on the ground dispersed.

The earth was a scene of devastation, riddled with countless round craters.