Looking at the scenery of wilderness and the city on the coastline with numerous ships, Leona concluded she was still in Nara, but something felt off. As she turned around and looked into the cave, she noticed an unusual darkness that seemed to seep from the cave itself.
A male voice came from within, calling out to her.
"So, we finally met Leona Crossford. Or should I call you, Princess Tactician?"
The loud snap of fingers light up the place with floating bright orbs of light, illuminating the wide hallway of carved stone. Through squinting eyes, she saw only a few meters ahead of her, the figure of a middle aged man of short black hair and brown eyes that carried a look of contempt. He wore a black kimono with a white belt strapped around his waist to keep the garment from falling off, his bare feet barely visible from underneath the black cloth.
On the other hand, Leona's travels had changed her appearance considerably.
Her blonde hair had grown unevenly and was almost touching her shoulders with the front bangs cascading down each side of her face.
The military uniform was tattered with the cloth on her right arm was almost see through as it had seen some use; her bandaged left arm was visible from the burnt sleeve. Both her trousers and boots were roughly in the same state as the cloth around her knees and the rubber from the tip of her footwear were gnashed from wear and tear.
She unsheathed the longsword which had a number of scratches and even some dents from the extended use. The metal glowed dim compared to the orbs of light.
"Hm… disappointing." Despite the insulting remark, he approached her with a steady and slow stride. "But not entirely useless…"
As he approached her, she kept moving in the opposite direction; circling around him to keep some distance between them.
"Are you… Miyamoto?"
"Hm?" He was gently massaging the underside of his chin while observing her. "Ah, yes, that is the name I go by while here."
She subconsciously tightened the grip around the sword's handle.
"You go by?"
"Say, Leona. Have you ever heard of dragons?" He ignored her confusion and just changed the subject. "You must have, right?"
"Why do you care?"
"Well… you don't need to know for now." His eyes glared at her from head to toe as he smiled. "Why have you come to this faraway place?"
Her left arm began to throb.
"I have many reasons."
"Name one. Or at least, the one you are most likely to accomplish here."
"To meet Eleonora."
"Oh? Have you not come for your friend Kaeli?" Leona swallowed dry as she tried to maintain her composure upon hearing those words but the man in front of her simply chuckled. "Ah? Have I hit a nerve?"
"How do you know her…?"
"Now isn't the time to play dumb, Leona." He lifted his right hand and brought his middle finger and thumb together. "Come."
With a snap of his fingers, the world around her felt like it was being distorted as a violent wave of motion sickness assaulted her senses. She closed her eyes but her brain was still registering the sickening distortion which brought her almost to the point of vomiting but the feeling suddenly vanished alongside the surreal motion.
Once she opened her eyes, she noticed she was kneeling on a grassy forest ground. She looked around and she was surrounded by trees densely packed together, but strangely, the clearing was surprisingly clean of sprouts or bushes which meant it was being taken care of by someone.
"Ah, much better…"
Upon turning around, Leona noticed the man stretching his arms while facing the sun. Beside him, Kaeli was unconsciously tied to a wooden cross with her limbs stretched out.
"Kaeli?!"
Leona was ready to run to her but he turned around and stepped forward.
"Shh… she's asleep." He brought his left index finger to his lips while lifting his right hand in a snapping motion. "If you want to wake her up…" He snapped his fingers and a katana appeared out of thin air. "...you've got to do it right."
He turned and flicked the blade upwards, cutting part of the cross and Kaeli's left hand with it.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The high elf's terrible awakening echoed in Leona's ears as she saw crimson red pain the green grass as blood spewed all over it. Kaeli writhed in pain as if trying to get to her hand.
"Stop this madness!" Leona winded her arm behind the left side of her body and concentrated mana through the blade. "Rend! Avalon!"
With an upwards swing, she released a mana blade that was easily avoided as he stepped to the left. The entire ground where the attack traveled through was cleaved with an expanding crevice.
"You would defend this cretin that almost killed your companions?" He tossed the weapon away. "Why would you go out of your way to aid someone like that?"
"Who are YOU to judge a person's past?!"
His nonchalant expression subtly changed to a serious one.
"Who am I? I am her master." He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers—which made the wooden cross crumble into pieces as if they were smashed by an invisible force. Kaeli fell on the grass while holding her left wrist stump with her right hand while curling up in pain. He reached for her hair and lifted her up while staring at her. "I specifically told you what you needed to do to become stronger. But what did you do instead? You killed the most interesting subject I had!"
Leona's eyes widened as she assumed he was the one responsible for creating a rift between those sisters.
"You… you told her to kill someone for magic?! You are a stain on noble art!"
She subconsciously was gathering mana throughout her entire body and accumulating it into the frostburnt silver longsword. Miyamoto looked at her from the corner of his eyes with a smile on his face.
"Ho? Are you going to get serious now?"
"No! Leona!" Kaeli shouted as she winced from pain. "This is the price I have to pay, don't- you won't be able to win!"
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. To Leona, magic was an art that served not only to allow one to live their lives in comfort but to also protect those dear to them. It kept a special place in her heart as the last teachings of her late mother.
To see magic being leveraged for nefarious ends disgusted her more than anything.
"Hah." He was still holding Kaeli from her hair but turned half heartedly towards Leona. "If magic was this saintly, this world wouldn't have gone through so much suffering. But come at me if you dare."
"No! Leona! Don't do this!" Kaeli implored. "Don't throw away everything you fought for! Not for someone like me!"
"Avalon, grant me strength to smite down my foe!"
Leona brandished her blade as it filled with mana before dashing with her body enhanced by magic. She put everything she had in an overhead swing that would have cleaved anyone in half, but Miyamoto extended his hand and stopped the blade with his bare hand.
Both Leona and Kaeli couldn't believe what they saw. The frostburnt silver sword trembled from the excessive force the tactician was putting into it but the blade just didn't budge.
"Oh?" He looked at the sword. "I see, so she has helped you as well. Hmph, that girl is full of surprises." He pushed Leona back and held the frostburnt silver longsword by the blade. "Very well. I recognize your bravery, as foolish as it may be."
"To hell with your recognition!" She raised her hand and mana began to gather around it. "Northern winds hearken to me, pierce through my foe, Ice Spear!"
She bent her fingertips and also used wind magic in order to make the projectile spin through the air.
"Oho? Using ballistics in conjunction with magic! Now that is something you don't see everyday." He flicked his index finger from the hand that held the sword and the spell seemed to fizzle out as pieces of ice pelted harmlessly against him and Kaeli. "I'm slightly more interested in you now."
He let go of the high elf's hair, who dropped on the ground while holding her cut wrist.
"Frost Rampart!"
By using her left foot, Leona created a curving wall of ice that isolated the man from Kaeli as Leona reached for the back of her waist and pulled out the double barreled derringer.
"Really? A gun? You know those types of handguns are quite inaccurat-"
She pulled the trigger but the bullet deviated just enough that it hit the ice wall.
"Tch!" He glanced at the bullet stuck in the ice before looking at her—who let go of the firearm and raised her hand above her head. "Flames of destruction heed my call-"
Mana gathered from the center of her body towards her wrist and accumulated in a circular manner around her mana gate before it gave shape to a concentrated sphere of bright azure flames.
He tossed the silver sword over the ice wall and clapped his hands while nodding seemingly in awe.
"Using an unexpected weapon to cause the opponent to flinch. Not bad!"
"-bring ruin to mine enemies, Fireball!"
She hurled the spell that was slightly bigger than an orange which seemed harmless until it was about a meter away from him.
"Oh?"
He raised his eyebrows when the spell released its explosive force that was enough to send shockwaves through the ground and shake the trees nearby.
"Ngh!"
Leona flinched from the explosion and heat that was almost unbearable despite her being almost twenty meters away from him. With the flames still consuming the man, she took a few seconds to tilt her head over the other side of the frozen wall to check on Kaeli, who was unharmed but still curled up in pain from her severed hand.
"Where are you looking?"
Miyamoto's voice came from right beside Leona which sent a chilling dreadful sensation down her spine as she turned to her right only to see the man completely unaffected by her spells.
"What the-?!"
As she prepared to cast a wind spell at point blank range, he grabbed her forearm with his left hand and snapped his fingers with his right.
The same sharp sensation of the world distorting overcame her mind and she felt an intense bout of sickness before she realized wind was brushing against her body. She was teleported alongside him a few hundred meters up in the air and was now free falling through the sky.
"AAAAAAAAH!"
Miyamoto was right beside her with a nonchalant expression on his face.
"You know, it doesn't take much for someone to die."
"IF YOU THINK I'LL LET MYSELF DIE HERE, YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!" She raised her right arm and began to coalesce mana on her wrists. "WINDS OF TIME, RELEASE THY MIGHT-!"
Before she could finish her spell, he snapped his fingers once again and Leona found herself standing in the middle of the forest clearing.
"Huh?"
"Now, now. It was only a jest."
He snapped his fingers and the spell she was casting was disrupted. Not only that but the ice wall that stood in his way shattered into pieces as he walked towards Kaeli.
'What the…' Leona grabbed her chest as her legs gave out. Her heart was racing. 'If he wanted to kill me…'
He grabbed the severed hand that was behind the ice wall and approached the high elf.
"Stand. Kaeli.".
"Ngh… y-yes… master…"
She did as instructed while he approached the cut limb to her wrist. With one last snap of his fingers, the sickly red blood seemed to bubble before the muscles, bones, tissue and nerves shot out from each severed part and connected together. Kaeli winced and writhed in pain without uttering a word.
"There, no harm no foul." He then turned to the tactician. "Leona Crossford, daughter of Jean Crossford and Ravness Frostleaf. I recognize your courage and hereby acknowledge your heroic spirit. Welcome to Nara, my new pupil."