Out on the plain.
The blazing midsummer sun hung high in the sky.
Golden sunlight poured down without reserve, dyeing the boundless grassland a dazzling emerald green.
A gentle breeze swept past, sending waves of grass rolling like a green ocean.
And in the middle of this vast plain.
A petite but determined figure was throwing punches again and again.
Bang-!
Bang-!
Bang-!
Every punch brought a muffled boom.
Compressed air let out a piercing howl.
The force of her punches pressed the wild grass flat for several meters around her, and it stayed down for a long time.
The girl's short emerald-green hair was already soaked with sweat.
Glistening beads of sweat slid down from her temples, trickling slowly along her fair cheeks.
But she showed no intention of stopping.
Because she knew she wasn't strong enough yet.
Not nearly enough.
A familiar figure came unbidden to her mind...
Rudeus.
The boy who was always ahead of everyone else.
They were the same age.
Yet whether it was magic, knowledge, experience, or strength, he seemed to stand in another world.
The more Sylphie grew, the more keenly she felt the enormous gap between them.
And that gap had not narrowed with time. Instead, it had become ever more apparent.
At the thought, the girl's punches grew faster still.
Boom!
The air exploded.
Even the ground beneath her feet trembled slightly.
"Still not enough..."
"At this level, I'll never catch up to Rudeus..."
Sylphie murmured under her breath.
Yet her gaze grew more resolute.
Because she had never forgotten the day they parted.
The boy who had gently patted her head and told her they would meet again.
So she would never stop.
Never!
As her resolve strengthened, the mana within her began to stir.
"Let all evil be purged, and all things made anew!"
Emerald-green light slowly emerged from within her.
At first, it appeared in wisps, then rapidly grew.
Like streams joining to form a river, it finally became a raging torrent, surging wildly through her meridians and flesh.
"Fierce winds, sweep up the dust and wash away all filth!"
Dense mana enveloped her entire body, and the hem of her clothes fluttered without a breeze.
Green light flickered around her.
The next instant-
All the escaping mana abruptly contracted.
It coiled tightly around the surface of her body like countless taut steel wires.
Sylphie's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Gale, descend from the heavens!"
"Sweep the world clean!"
Boom-!!
The ground beneath her feet exploded.
Dirt and shattered stones shot into the sky.
And her figure had already vanished.
Only an afterimage remained in her place.
Across the vast plain.
A streak of green light flashed wildly.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
She completed the round trip in the blink of an eye.
The fierce winds whipped up by her high-speed movement formed tornado-like currents, breaking every blade of grass and plant in their path.
Cracks crisscrossed the ground.
Even so, Sylphie still wasn't satisfied.
Because she knew very well that Rudeus had achieved this level of power long ago.
He had even surpassed it by far.
Finally.
After dozens of consecutive bursts of speed.
She stopped.
Her body sank slightly.
She slowly drew her right fist back to her waist.
All the mana within her began gathering in her fist.
A low rumble sounded through the air.
Even space itself seemed to tremble slightly.
"Rather than ride the wind, hold a gust in my palm!"
The next moment.
She punched!
"Gale... clear! The way!!!"
Rumble-!!
A thunderclap seemed to ring out between heaven and earth.
A torrent of wind burst visibly from her fist, ripping up layer after layer of earth in its path.
Trees were torn out by the roots.
Rocks crumbled into powder.
A stretch of grassland over a hundred meters long looked as though it had been split by a giant sword.
When the dust settled.
An enormous trench more than ten meters deep stretched across the ground.
And yet.
Faced with such astonishing destructive power.
Sylphie slowly lowered her fist.
Her expression remained grave.
"Still nowhere near enough..."
"Rudeus..."
"He would never stop at this level."
She gently closed her eyes.
Words the boy had once spoken echoed in her mind.
"Imagine mana as your own blood."
"Don't deliberately control it."
"Don't force it to move."
"Let it flow as naturally as breathing."
Back then, she hadn't fully understood.
But now... as her strength continued to grow.
Those words were beginning to reveal their true meaning.
Sylphie slowly exhaled.
Her restless heart gradually calmed.
All she could hear was the wind, the rustling of grass, and her own breathing.
Gradually, she seemed to become one with the world around her.
Her mana began to flow again, but unlike before.
This time, there was no violence or pressure. It was like real blood.
Flowing naturally throughout her body.
Gentle...
Calm...
Yet everywhere at once.
Suddenly-!
A strange change occurred.
Sylphie could feel the flow of the air around her.
She could sense the path of every breeze as it passed her body.
She could even clearly see how far the leaves swayed dozens of meters away.
It was as though the world had suddenly become perfectly clear.
And she... stood at the center of that world.
Hum-
The air gently quivered.
Invisible ripples spread in every direction.
Sand and pebbles rolled away from her feet on their own.
Dust was pushed into the distance.
Fallen leaves changed course on their own before they could reach her body.
It was as if some invisible domain were repelling everything around her.
Sylphie snapped her eyes open.
Her pupils contracted slightly.
"This feeling..."
She looked down at her hands.
Her face was filled with astonishment.
"It's as if..."
"The wind has become my body."
She could even feel the air currents blowing across the grassland dozens of meters away.
She could sense every vibration in the air.
It was as though the entire world were passing information to her.
To test her guess.
She slowly walked toward a towering ancient tree nearby.
When she was still more than ten meters away, the trunk suddenly let out a low groan.
Creak-
The entire tree began to bend, its leaves trembling wildly.
As the distance continued to shrink, the invisible pressure grew stronger and stronger.
Ten meters...
The trunk bent into the shape of a bow.
Five meters...
Layer upon layer of bark split apart.
Three meters...
Boom!!
With a deafening crack.
The tree, so thick it would have taken several people to encircle it with their arms, was forcibly snapped in two by the invisible force.
The enormous tree trunk flew dozens of meters through the air and slammed into the ground.
Sylphie stood rooted to the spot.
Her eyes were full of shock, because she hadn't attacked at all.
She had merely approached, and the tree had fallen apart on its own.
This power... was already beyond her understanding.
"What on earth is this..."
"A new kind of wind magic?"
"No..."
"It's more like a domain..."
Sylphie murmured to herself.
Just then.
A breeze blew past.
She instinctively raised her head and looked at the sun high in the sky.
The next second, the girl's expression changed drastically.
"Oh no!"
"It's time to bring Dad his meal!!"
She cried out in alarm.
She had been so immersed in training that she had completely lost track of time.
If she was any later, her father would probably have to stand guard on an empty stomach again.
At that thought, Sylphie panicked.
She hurried toward the meal basket she had left in the distance.
But after taking only a few steps.
She suddenly stopped.
She looked back at the enormous trench stretching across the grassland.
If the villagers found it, it would certainly cause an uproar.
"Sigh..."
"I have to clean up the mess again."
Sylphie sighed helplessly.
She raised both hands, and her magic power spread rapidly.
The next moment...
The torn earth began to move slowly.
Soil churned.
Rocks returned to their places.
Like a wound healing.
The enormous trench quickly vanished.
A few short minutes later.
The entire field had returned to its original state, as though nothing had happened.
After making sure she had left no traces, Sylphie nodded in satisfaction and picked up the meal basket.
Her figure turned into a gentle breeze and swept into the distance.
The field fell quiet once more, with only the soft rustle of the breeze blowing through the sea of grass.
As though the earlier training, powerful enough to reshape the terrain, had never happened.