When she first opened the door, what appeared before her eyes was a group of many bandits.

When she opened the second door, what appeared before her eyes was a pair of old and new experts.

And when she opened the third door, there was only one person there.

The dark red armor emitted a heavy yet seductive light.

Decorations modeled after tigers and bears clearly showed their presence.

A large sword close to a blunt weapon. A belt that seemed natural as if it were one body.

It was a figure from her memory.

An opponent she couldn’t forget.

The champion of the arena took a combat stance towards Adelaide.

The mana emanating from that body, the flawless posture, nothing had changed.

But why?

Adelaide realized that she was somehow strangely disappointed.

It was a reunion she had been looking forward to. A rematch she had been longing for.

Yet, surprisingly, her heart wasn’t racing.

While finding this strange, her body moved according to instinct.

Thud! Thud!

Two footsteps treading on the arena ground.

Two shadows charging from the front as if facing each other.

The first strike chosen was a diagonal slash from upper right, as if reflected in a mirror.

Boom!

Both were possessors of the Belt of Amaryllis.

As forces difficult to produce with a human body collided, the clashing weapons burst with a terrifying roar.

Equal in strength and momentum. The swords that were meant to bisect the opponent failed to achieve their purpose and drew large arcs.

The chosen attack was the same this time too.

A reverse rotation using the rebound. A diagonal upward slash from lower left.

Bang! Boom! Boom!

The same physical abilities. The same power type. The same two-handed weapons.

An evenly matched battle unfolded.

But because it was evenly matched, it was a fight with an obvious outcome.

With each clash of swords, Adelaide’s sword speed became slightly faster.

With each contest of strength, Adelaide’s slashes became a little heavier.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that physical abilities don’t grow rapidly in a short period!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that however, the skill in handling the body can change for better or worse even in a short time!]

Kalidahs was strong, but she was an opponent fixed in the past.

While Adelaide was continuously growing even at this very moment.

A difference of one toe’s width grew to half a step, half a step grew to a full step, and that one step overtook the opponent’s shadow.

Slash!

A large sword wound was carved into Kalidahs’ chest.

The helmet was damaged by overflowing sword energy, and part of it fell to the ground.

Adelaide sharpened her nerves.

Up to this point was a realm that her past self had also reached.

Of course, unlike in the past when she had to exert herself to the utmost and—unaware at the time but recently realized—borrow the power of the violet lightning, this time she reached it easily without much effort.

But Adelaide knew.

That Kalidahs’ true power was just about to begin.

Therefore, she steeled herself for the coming storm and.

“Huh?”

Soon after, she let out a dumbfounded sound seeing the empty contents peeking through the broken helmet.

Neither the blood-red hair nor the violet eyes burning with killing intent existed there.

《Reproduction error detected. Initiating correction process.》

It wasn’t the playful voice of the White Witch, but an inorganic voice like the one first heard in the library echoed in the air.

Right after, something like noise began to appear around Kalidahs’ body.

Although there was a tendency to somewhat underestimate it because its production purpose was simple play, the game book was one of the masterpieces created by the Witch of the North.

If one could properly utilize its functions, it was an item capable of implementing hundreds of thousands of soldiers one by one and even producing battlefields where they intertwined with each other.

Reproducing a merely strong “individual” wasn’t such a difficult task.

Yet, the air creaked.

As if the remaining reserve resources were insufficient, the book began to reclaim even other resources that had already been implemented and reinvest them anew.

The audience filling the surroundings disappeared. After that, even other structures except for the arena the two were standing on vanished.

The more resources constituting the world were shaved away, inversely proportional to that, Kalidahs’ appearance transformed.

The empty interior of the armor began to fill with blood and flesh.

Her presence grew stronger, stronger, and stronger.

At that point, Adelaide realized something was wrong.

No. This is.

What was before her eyes was no longer the arena champion Adelaide had fought.

Even the berserk state Kalidahs that the Tin Knight had fought didn’t emit this level of presence.

This was impossible.

Reproduction was based on memory.

The strength of Kalidahs that Adelaide and the Tin Knight remembered was absolutely not at this level.

Then this strength.

This memory.

Whose could it be?

The world was overlaid.

***

“Haa, this reconnaissance method, while good for not being detected, has terrible efficiency. Out of a hundred sent, we’re lucky if one or two hit the mark.”

“But isn’t it getting easier to see the desired ‘viewpoint’ as our proficiency increases?”

“That’s true, but… Hey, wait. You’re leaking mana. It’s already annoying waiting for recovery time.”

“Hmm? Oh my. This isn’t me sending it. The mana itself is moving on its own towards the game book. Moreover, Adel’s belt is also in a strange state.”

“Are they… resonating with each other?”

***

When she came to her senses, Adelaide realized that her field of vision had become dizzyingly high.

From head to toe, from heart to the tips of fingers and toes, power overflowed.

Adelaide instinctively knew that in her current state, she could throw a huge ship as if throwing a pebble.

She could easily destroy an ordinary house just by lightly moving her foot, and even uproot trees hundreds of years old like weeds.

Such a giant, whose very existence was like a calamity.

A tiny life that could barely reach the giant’s ankle was blocking its way.

“A truly honorless beings, you are.”

From Adelaide’s mouth.

No, from the mouth of the “giant” whose viewpoint Adelaide was borrowing, words leaked out.

“When we swept across the land, you hid in the sky and watched idly, but now that the humans on the ground have endured better than expected, you hastily send support.”

As if curious about how the opponent would respond, the giant’s gaze turned to the small being at its feet.

That appearance was similar to what was in Adelaide’s memory, yet different.

The armor decorated with tiger and bear patterns, mixed with leather and metal, looked much newer than what Adelaide knew and had a subtly different design, and the large sword in hand was even more massive than what Adelaide knew.

Above all, the material of the large sword was not metal or the like, but a huge emerald.

Due to not wearing a helmet, blood-red hair reminiscent of deep red blood fluttered in the wind.

The violet eyes, which had been full of all kinds of killing intent and hostility when seen before, now stared at the giant with an inorganic gaze devoid of any emotion.

Despite being insulted by the giant, that expression remained extremely indifferent, and there was no sign of intending to answer the giant’s words.

As if there was no need to converse with the enemy.

As if displeased by this, the giant clicked its tongue.

“Truly unpleasant beings, you angels are. Facing the knight I’ve heard rumors about would be a fight many times more worthwhile.”

Power filled the giant’s limbs.

To crush the small creature before its eyes, the giant raised the club in its hand.

“Get out of the way, lackey of the unqualified false king. I shall deal with you and show our anger to the heavens!!”

The club struck down where Kalidahs was.

Boom!

As if breaking a thin wooden board, the ground hit by the giant’s strike split left and right, forming an inverted triangle.

No one can block something like that.

Adelaide thought.

It’s not over yet.

The giant sensed.

And as if the latter was correct, violet lightning exploded from under the giant’s club.

Whack!

The club, larger than a house, flew upwards as if it were a light wooden sword.

And below it, Kalidahs’ emerald great sword was enveloped in a violet light.

Whoosh!

Adelaide couldn’t describe how to express that attack.

The closest might be “releasing sword energy”, but she wasn’t sure if such words could fully convey the crescent-shaped slash that was 10 times larger than Kalidahs’ body size.

The giant retreated with agility unbecoming its size and received the slash with its club, but even so, the giant’s body was pushed back several dozen meters.

The buildings of the city, already in ruins and left with only past glory, shattered and scattered at the giant’s feet.

“Ha!”

A roar burst from the giant’s mouth.

The giant reached out to a magnificent mansion nearby and grasped it nonchalantly as if it were just an oddly shaped stone.

And then, it threw it with all its might towards Kalidahs.

An enormous mass attack that would shatter even a sturdy steel structure, let alone an ordinary person, just by grazing it, rushed through the air.

Click.

Kalidahs’ action in the face of an attack that seemed meaningless to avoid or defend against was rather stubborn.

Swinging the great sword filled with clumps of sword energy with all her might, the mass that seemed unstoppable was deflected as if it were nothing.

Boom!

The mansion, falling to the ground a beat late, scattered its debris, leaving tremendous traces of destruction in the surroundings.

The giant and Kalidahs charged towards each other.

Every time sword and club clashed, a tremendous roar like lightning striking echoed.

The giant’s strength, easily crushing all sorts of buildings as if they were sandcastles, was mighty, but Kalidahs, engaging in an equal contest of strength with a body much smaller than the giant, also seemed to half defy the common sense of this world.

It’s the same.

Watching Kalidahs through the giant’s eyes, Adelaide instinctively realized…

The violet lightning surrounding Kalidahs’ body was the same power as the violet lightning she used.

Its characteristic was nothing special.

No, if only considering its role, it could be said to be the same as ordinary mana enhancement of the body.

Only, the “level of enhancement” was on a different dimension.

Like a child to an adult.

No, to the extent that a praying mantis could win a contest of strength against an oncoming carriage.

The battle that would require redrawing the map of the surroundings continued, and finally, the giant’s right arm was cut off.

The blood-red monster’s great sword, with all its might towards the giant’s head─

《Confirmation of wake-up request from outside.》

《Terminating the story.》

─Adelaide woke from the dream.

When she opened her eyes, what awaited her was yet another battlefield.

***

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