The shockwave from the canceled blast sent a gust of wind whipping across the training field, kicking up dust and rattling the onlookers. Rias hovered in the air, her expression a mask of disbelief. The sheer, effortless negation of her ultimate attack had shaken her to her core.
Down below, the murmurs had turned into a stunned silence.
"He… he stopped it," the white-haired boy, who I now knew as Riser Phoenix, muttered, his hand frozen on my shoulder. "He just… stopped it."
"His holy energy… it's pure," Raizel said, his red eyes narrowed, analyzing the residual light. "It's not just an affinity. It's his nature."
I ignored them. My focus was entirely on the redhead in the sky. "Is that the best you can do, Princess?" I called up, my voice laced with challenge. "Or are you just getting warmed up?"
Rias's shock hardened into resolve. The condescending smirk was gone, replaced by a grim determination. "You talk big for a fledgling angel, Angel boy. Let's see how you handle this!"
She didn't wait for a response. Her hands moved in a blur, weaving intricate patterns in the air. Dozens of smaller magic circles spawned around her, each one glowing with a malevolent crimson light.
"[Order of Annihilation]!"
A barrage of crimson spears shot forth, not in a single stream, but in a complex, interweaving pattern. They crisscrossed through the air, a deadly net of destruction designed to corner and overwhelm any target. It was a display of high-level battle IQ, a tactic meant to bypass simple defenses.
But my battle IQ was just as sharp.
Instead of raising a single shield, I acted. With a beat of my wings, I launched myself into the air, meeting her charge. I didn't fly erratically; I moved with purpose, a golden streak against the black sky. I weaved through the spears, my movements a fluid dance of evasion. I didn't just dodge; I used the spears themselves, pushing off one with my foot to change trajectory, spinning around another to let it pass inches from my face. It was close combat at high speed, a deadly ballet.
She was trying to corner me with ranged attacks. I was closing the distance.
Realizing her net was failing, Rias changed tactics. The remaining spears halted mid-air, converging on a single point above me to form a single, massive blade of destruction. Simultaneously, she teleported.
She didn't appear behind me. That was a rookie's move. She appeared directly below my flight path, her hands already alight with crackling power, aiming for an point-blank blast to my chest.
Clever.
But I was cleverer.
I saw the teleportation flare a split second before she moved. I didn't alter my course; I altered my momentum. I folded my wings, dropping like a stone. Her blast shot past me, scorching the air where I had been. As I fell past her, I lashed out, not with a fist, but with a condensed blade of holy energy formed on my forearm.
It was a feint. She flinched back, raising a hasty shield of demonic power. The blade struck it, shattering the shield in a shower of sparks, but it was only a glancing blow. The real attack was yet to come.
Using the force of the impact, I kicked off the air, rocketing away and resetting the distance. We were back to square one, hovering dozens of meters apart, both of us breathing a little heavier.
The students below were watching a chess match played at supersonic speed.
"He's not just strong," Riser breathed, his usual bravado completely gone. "He's reading her. Every move, every counter…"
We were equals in battle IQ. She was a master of demonic tactics, and I was a prodigy of angelic warfare. Ranged combat had ended in a stalemate. My attempt at close combat had been expertly countered. It was time to escalate.
Rias seemed to come to the same conclusion. Her expression grew fierce. "You forced my hand, Angel boy. No more games!"
A new aura erupted from her, hotter and more intense than before. The air shimmered around her, and the ground below began to glow. She was channeling far more power, pulling it from deep within herself. The sky itself seemed to darken as her power concentrated.
"[Extinguishing Star]!"
She raised a single hand, and a sphere of black energy formed, so dense it seemed to absorb the light around it. It wasn't just destructive; it was a sphere of absolute nothingness, a miniature black hole designed to erase anything it touched. It was the ultimate expression of her power as the Ruin Princess.
I felt the pull. It was a gravitational force that threatened to tear me apart. This was not an attack to be dodged or blocked. This was an attack to be met with equal and opposite force.
I raised my own hand, mirroring her stance. I poured my own power into it, the holy light within me burning brighter than ever. It wasn't about destruction. It was about creation. It was about preservation. It was about asserting existence against the void.
"[Sanctuary]!"
A sphere of pure, brilliant white light erupted from my palm, expanding rapidly to meet her sphere of darkness. It wasn't an attack. It was a declaration. A beacon of unyielding existence.
The two forces met in the center of the dueling field.
There was no sound.
For a moment, there was only a silent, perfectly spherical clash of black and white. The world seemed to hold its breath. The ground cracked and splintered under the pressure of the colliding realities. The onlookers were forced back, the sheer force of the aura clash making it hard to breathe.
Rias strained, pouring every ounce of her demonic power into her Extinguishing Star, her face a mask of effort.
I pushed back, my Sanctuary a bastion of unyielding will, my expression calm, focused.
We were locked in a battle of raw power and absolute conviction. Her annihilation against my preservation. Her end against my beginning.
The sphere of black and white fluctuated, expanding and contracting as we struggled for dominance. We were equals. Perfectly, terrifyingly equal.
Then, with a sound like a thunderclap inside a sealed vault, the two forces annihilated each other.
A blinding white flash engulfed the field, followed by a shockwave that sent everyone, even Diana, stumbling backward.
When the light faded, the center of the dueling ground was a glassy, cratered wasteland.
And in the center of it all, we were both still in the air, hovering mere feet from each other. We were both panting, our auras flickering. Rias's demonic wings were tattered, and my own angelic wings had lost some of their luster.
We stared at each other, our faces inches apart. There was no more arrogance in her eyes, and no more smugness in mine. There was only grudging respect.
We were equals.
Diana floated down between us, her usual energetic demeanor replaced by a serious, impressed expression. She looked from Rias to me, then back again.
"The duel is a draw," she declared, her voice carrying across the silent field. "Both combatants are unable to continue."
She looked at me, a genuine, fierce smile finally breaking through her warrior's stoicism.
"Welcome to Kuoh Academy, Isshin Fujiwara."