Blanketing fire with magic: caliber is justice

The "Archmage of the Age of the Gods" Chrono spoke of was, of course, Clow Reed.

Clow Reed had contacted the Time-Space Administration Bureau himself about the Book of Darkness, hoping to borrow the Rainbow Light Cannon to deal with its curse.

That was why both Chrono and Admiral Lindy had taken it for granted that the Book of Darkness was in Clow Reed's possession.

But to Tiriye, he was talking about the little girl named Huo Lin Yagami, who had disguised herself as a boy.

That little girl was an Archmage of the Age of the Gods?

What a joke. How could that possibly be true?

"Age of the Gods" was by no means an ordinary descriptive phrase.

The Time-Space Administration Bureau did have S-Class archmages. Even S+ or "Beyond S" legends had appeared throughout its history, but none of them belonged to the "Age of the Gods."

An Archmage of the Age of the Gods had transcended the cycle of life and death, broken through the boundaries of the rules, and even set foot in the realm of the divine.

Those who did good were called gods, and those who did evil were called demons. They were already gods and demons.

Whether it was formula magic, Belkan style, or Mid-Childan style, those were merely differences in technique. The Age of the Gods represented a true, fundamental gulf-one that could not be bridged by any other means.

"Oh no, Iris!"

Iris had already gone to seize the Book of Darkness, utterly unaware of what sort of monster she was facing!

At that very moment, Iris was indeed inwardly cursing her opponent as a monster.

She had assumed her opponent was just an ordinary mage. How much could an eight- or nine-year-old girl have accomplished, even if she had learned magic?

But that was not the case at all!

Huo Lin had not learned many offensive spells. The Book of the Night Sky contained quite a few, but she lived in a peaceful world. Over the past six months or so, she had never once encountered a situation that required her to fight.

Whether it was the Book of the Night Sky or the Clow Cards, she could completely suppress them with her magical power alone.

Huo Lin was also a little afraid that, with her magical power, casually using offensive spells would inevitably cause irreversible consequences.

Even she could easily lose control of a buff like infinite magical power, so she hardly dared to experiment.

That was also why she preferred learning defensive, flight, and barrier spells-magic that was less likely to go out of control and cause destruction.

But it was not as though she had learned no offensive spells at all. So far, she had learned and mastered two.

They were the Sword of Light (Claiomh Solais) and the Ouroboros Ring (Ouroboros).

The former was an ordinary single-target shooting spell, while the latter was wide-area magic-a so-called "map cannon."

She had only learned them, never tested them.

Today, her first use of one was in actual combat.

Her enemies were a collection of construction vehicles. Before her eyes, those vehicles transformed into armed construction robots.

The construction vehicles dug their wheels into the ground and rose up. Some even began combining in groups of two or three, turning into monsters taller than buildings. They had not only shovels and iron claws, but even Gatling-style machine guns.

Once she was certain Huo Lin would not surrender easily, Iris, standing atop a construction robot's head, decisively opened fire. Bullets poured down like a torrential rain, shattering even the concrete pavement.

But those rounds gradually slowed as they approached their target. Finally, several meters from Huo Lin, they lost all forward velocity and went into free fall.

Huo Lin merely held out a hand, and the spot where she stood became utterly inaccessible.

Soon, the fired bullets had piled into a mountain on the ground, yet not a single one had actually reached its target.

"What in the world is this..." Iris was not human, but a humanoid AI. She had read the battlefield data and understood her opponent's method. Yet that was precisely why she found it so unbelievable.

Spells that warped space were not uncommon. Spatial magic was even one of the mainstream branches of magic, but its high magical power consumption meant few people were willing to devote their efforts to it. As spatial curvature increased, the magical power consumed multiplied geometrically.

For example, a novice C-rank mage who learned spatial magic could expand one meter of space into two. That could not be used to attack, but it would be useful on a suitcase.

In the hands of a B-rank mage, space could be stretched to fifty meters. Beyond that, the required magical power increased exponentially.

The weapons Iris had created used the formula magic unique to their planet. They looked like ordinary Gatling guns, but magical amplification made them far more powerful, with a bullet range of over fifty kilometers.

For the bullets to completely lose their forward momentum and fall to the ground meant that her opponent was already beyond their range. That girl had stretched space to a distance of more than fifty kilometers!

With just a little reverse calculation based on the principles of spatial magic, Iris's AI could reach a conclusion in an instant: her opponent's magical power was above S-Class!

An unremarkable little girl in a city on a non-administered world—a place that should have been a magical wasteland—was actually an S-Class legendary archmage. How did that make any sense?

But Iris had no more time to think. Huo Lin began her counterattack.

"Claiomh Solais."

The Sword of Light activated instantly.

And that was not all. In moments, a multitude of overlapping magic circles appeared before Huo Lin, each one a Sword of Light.

An ordinary Sword of Light fired five light-aspected magic bullets after locking onto its target.

But now, with infinite magical power allowing her to disregard consumption, Huo Lin unleashed a barrage of Sword of Light spells. They were inside a barrier, so as long as she did not use wide-area magic that exceeded its boundaries, she would not harm any bystanders. Of course, she also deliberately avoided Hayate's location.

The next second, the construction robots were swallowed by a rain of light.

Thick and relentless, thick and relentless.

Whether there were fifty magic circles or a hundred, each could fire five magic bullets. It was a furious bombardment of magical power. This was Huo Lin's first true use of offensive magic, and it felt thoroughly exhilarating.

Besides, her targets were not living things. There was no need to feel guilty at all.

Single-handedly unleashing firepower comparable to a modern army group was exhilarating, of course.

Fortunately, Huo Lin still had her wits about her, and stopped the attack after only two or three seconds.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the entire row of large robots that had stood before her was gone. Only twisted metal parts littered the ground.

Iris stared blankly at the sight, almost unable to speak.

She had never seen a battle like this, nor a mage like this.

It was absurd. Was this something a person could do?

"Who exactly are you?"

"Haven't you already investigated me? I'm Huo Lin Yagami, a fifth grader at the University of Tokyo Affiliated Takada Elementary School." Huo Lin casually held the Book of Darkness in one hand.

Iris had indeed investigated her, but now she doubted that a single word of that information was true.

Yet the Book of Darkness really was in her opponent's hand, right there before her, so close.

No matter what, Iris could not give up.

"You want this book? Why?"

Iris had not wanted to explain. She had only wanted to grab the book and run. Unfortunately, she was now at the mercy of the situation.

"I want to use it to save people, and to save a planet on the verge of dying."

"You're lying. The Book of the Night Sky only brings the power of destruction. It can't save anyone."

Huo Lin did not believe a single word of her explanation.