The Reply

With three days left until the end of the Champion Mage Challenge, the semi-finals are about to begin.

Nora appeared very anxious outside the duel arena, because things had already reached the semi-finals. If Nora were in the position of a member of the Champion Mage Challenge Committee...

Even if those Investigator come with solid evidence and want to take ' Philly ' away, she won't agree.

It would be fine before the semifinals, but if it happens near the end of the semifinals, and suddenly a player is found to have violated the rules and is disqualified, that would be a problem.

If those Magic Duel defeated by ' Philly ' were dissatisfied and thought that ' Philly ' shouldn't have been in the Duel Arena place, then their defeat might have been avoided.

Furthermore, with only three players remaining from the original four semifinalists, how should the matches be conducted? Should they receive byes, engage in a free-for-all among the three, or face off against each other? If so, how should the subsequent tournament format be arranged?

Previously, the committee ignored some rumors about ' Philly ' because of Philly enormous influence.

By now, far more people know about the Champion Mage Challenge than about ' Philly,' after all, it's a tournament that's been running for almost a thousand years.

However, at this crucial moment, it's even more important that ' Philly ' doesn't get into trouble, otherwise the entire Champion Mage Challenge would lose face.

Nora was extremely anxious; if things continued like this, her friend ' Philly ' would win the championship.

Based on information gathered through special channels, the identity information used by ' Philly ' on the field is indeed that of her own friend. As long as her friend's identity is used, a ' Champion Mage ' certificate will be generated.

Judging from ' Philly's' current performance, she is absolutely not going to lose; other players don't even have a chance to win a single game against her.

However, there's still a chance. If her friend Philly returns immediately and uses the Yobner Society's channels, they can force the ' Philly ' on the field to be disqualified from the competition...

This is the only way, the only way to prevent ' Philly ' from winning the Champion Mage Challenge, but Nora has a huge problem: Philly hasn't come back.

She received a letter bearing a special mark from the Alliance's messenger; a gray stamp was affixed to the pristine white envelope.

This indicates that the letter passed through the hands of a messenger outside the Alliance, making it difficult to ascertain its reliability; the mage needs to be cautious.

Nora stared at the familiar yet special letter, thinking it must be from Philly.

After all, apart from Philly in Bohan, not many mages know that she is currently on the Number Three Floating City, let alone suddenly run outside the Alliance and send her a letter at this time.

"Isn't it enough that the person is back? Why send a letter for something so urgent..."

Nora couldn't understand what Philly was thinking; why wasn't she back at such a crucial time...?

She's not the one in this mess, yet she seems even more anxious than Philly.

She sighed, then quickly tore open the letter.

When she saw the first line of text, she almost vomited blood...

"My dear friend, I hope you enjoy this Champion Mage Challenge. Due to being busy, I have to decline your offer again, just like last time..."

At this hour, she's still so busy... and someone's impersonating her in the Champion Mage Challenge, watching her friend about to win the championship—how can she possibly enjoy it?

They even rejected my offer!! Is that something you can refuse?

At this point, Nora began to suspect that her friend Philly, being overly concerned with appearances, might have deliberately had someone impersonate her to win the championship...

Then Philly can flaunt her identity as the Champion Mage, making her think that ' Philly ' is an idiot.

Nora shook her head, but eventually patiently read the entire letter, and immediately noticed something was wrong.

Because Philly's words didn't mention the most crucial thing at all, if Philly wanted her to play dumb, then there wouldn't even be this letter.

Furthermore, Nora also saw these statements in the letter.

"However, you really should practice your handwriting more. There were many corrections in the letter you sent last time, making many sentences difficult for me to read."

"Aurora, a friend I made here, was also there and looked at the letter with me. She also mentioned the corrections on the letter."

"I'm sorry to let outsiders see the contents of our letters, but my friend was also very careful and didn't laugh out loud..."

Nora's forehead veins bulged; Philly's words were essentially saying, "Having a friend with such illegible handwriting makes me lose face."

She clenched the letter in her hand. She cared so much about Philly, and this was the humiliating letter she received...

At any other time, Nora would probably just laugh upon receiving this letter, but what time is it now?

Moreover, she remembered that although she was in a bit of a hurry and made some corrections, it didn't amount to making numerous corrections; it wasn't her doing at all.

If it wasn't her, then who could it be?

She was certain that she had written all the relevant urgent information in the letter, and that the letter had definitely been delivered to the Alliance's messengers.

But the fact that they sent back Philly's completely irrelevant answer, and that Philly didn't return even in such an urgent situation, speaks volumes.

"The letter also mentioned that she had a mage friend she met in Bohan..." In her previous letter, Philly had also emphasized this Aurora. She hadn't thought much of it before, since going to Bohan together would inevitably lead to meeting a mage.

However, the letter specifically mentioned that Aurora was also reading it, which inevitably led Nora to make some unfounded assumptions.

Did Aurora alter the contents of the letter before giving it to Philly?

Philly didn't explain in the letter how she received it, which left Nora with room for speculation...

"I'll investigate this Aurora through the Yobner Society's channels later, and also report her to the Investigator..."

Now, according to what Philly said in the letter, it's impossible for her to return from Bohan, and Nora can't possibly mobilize High-Order Mage to pick up Philly; if she could, she would have done it already.

So now Nora can only make some reports to try her best to prevent the imposters from leaving any trace and to provide some basic information for later investigations.

With that in mind, Nora immediately took action. Now she didn't even want to go to the Duel Arena anymore, since ' Philly ' would just speedrun her opponents anyway, and there wouldn't be any surprises.

The success or failure of other Magic Duel, given ' Philly's' overwhelming performance, seemed like mere spectators watching a large-scale parade.

As Nora predicted, ' Philly ' completed the match very easily, but the methods she used in this match made the Commentary Booth quite uneasy.

In an effort to get a better view of the scene, spectators in the stands even stepped on the shoulders of those in front of them, causing a great commotion.

"By the Goddess of Magic, now I understand why the Elemental Storm is considered a miracle of the Goddess of Magic!" one commentator exclaimed, while another shouted excitedly.

"The highly activated Fire Element, combined with the Pyroblast, creates a powerful attack that no shield can withstand!!"

"Two Elemental Conversion again!! How many times have we seen ' Philly ' use this technique today?!"

"Tell me this many times?!"

A loud shout erupted from the stands.

"The fifth time!! The fifth time!!"

All the viewers who watched this match today clearly saw that ' Philly ' used the Pyroblast after Elemental Conversion twice in all five rounds of the duel.

The intense heatwave, the deafening explosion that could be heard throughout half of the Floating City, and the thick black smoke that shot straight into the sky after each use of the Pyroblast were all executed flawlessly, as if ' Philly ' could cast it a sixth time.

' Philly's' opponent today also had his own clever trick: he knew that when ' Philly ' faced a powerful shield, she would directly use two Elemental Conversion and finish off her opponent with a violent Pyroblast.

Most shields can't withstand it, let alone the speed at which ' Philly ' casts such Pyroblast, which only takes two seconds more than one casting cycle.

This makes ' Philly ' virtually invincible from a tactical standpoint; her two Elemental Conversion alone leave most mages with no way to counter her.

Or rather, as Magic Duel have evolved to this point, there isn't even a theoretically viable tactic to defeat ' Philly '.

However, the player who faced ' Philly ' today exploited a blind spot: while ' Philly's' Elemental Conversion is indeed very strong, doesn't she also suffer from elemental consumption?

So, starting from the very first game today, he prepared five shield-based tactics for himself, to ensure that ' Philly ' wouldn't see the same opening move and immediately use Greater Fireball to prevent him from even activating his shield.

According to his idea, two Elemental Conversion were a powerful ability that the Elemental School of Second Order Mage could hardly resist, but similarly, the consumption would be enormous.

Even Second Order Mage from the normal Yobner Society, after casting two Elemental Conversion, would still have to expend at least half of their Mental Power Mental Power, or at the very least, a third, after doing so.

How could he use such a powerful move so casually? As long as he could force his opponent to use Elemental Conversion in the first three rounds, then when ' Philly ' ran out of Mental Power, she would be at his mercy.

But reality slapped him in the face again. ' Philly ' didn't even have time to rest and recover her Mental Power. She used five rounds of intense Pyroblast in thirteen minutes.

"She's simply unbeatable!!"

In another match, Ferdinand thought to himself, "Our match started first, and we've already played three sets and entered the break time. But ' Philly ' has taken three sets of our time, and without even a break, she's ended the match directly."