In this world where magical talent is everything, Stella Vermillion, possessing the world's strongest level of magical power, is undoubtedly a top-tier genius, second to none.
Even Shinguji Kurono acknowledged that, in terms of strength, although Stella is still immature, has not yet become a formal knight, and is only a first-year high school freshman, she is already much stronger than most student knights.
In Hagun Academy, the only one who can clearly surpass her is the student council president, who is hailed as the strongest in the academy. However, that president is already in the third year and is about to graduate, with lower potential than Stella and being surpassed by her being a possibility at any time.
However, Stella wasn't always this powerful.
In fact, it was quite the opposite.
When she was young, everyone in the Vermillion Empire thought so.
"You can't possibly become a knight."
That's something known throughout the Vermillion Empire.
The reason is simple: Stella's magical power was too outstanding, and her strength was too great, causing severe backlash every time she used her power, resulting in numerous injuries.
Therefore, whether it was her parents or anyone else around her, they all believed that Stella could never become a knight.
But Stella didn't give in to this.
With the world's strongest magical power, Stella knew very well that as long as she could successfully control her power, she could definitely become an excellent knight, a powerful Blazer.
For a small country like the Vermillion Empire, this was extremely important.
"Blazers are the strength of the country, and powerful Blazers can single-handedly protect the country and fight for it."
In history, there have been numerous cases where just one Blazer's intervention completely changed the outcome of a war, with small countries defeating large ones. Even this island nation in the Far East once joined the ranks of the victorious nations in World War II because of the existence of a Blazer.
In view of this, powerful Blazers are extremely important to a country.
The Vermillion Empire is an even smaller country than Japan, with knights of only about C-rank within the country. The appearance of Stella, an A-rank knight, and moreover, an A-rank knight with the world's strongest magical power, means that as long as Stella can successfully grow, she will undoubtedly be able to join the ranks of the world's strongest in the future, making the Vermillion Empire an existence that no one dares to invade or offend.
Small countries must have powerful Mage-Knights to stand on par with large ones.
Understanding this deeply, Stella didn't want to waste her talent. In order to protect her people, regardless of others' opposition, she continued to train and spent three years finally mastering her power.
During that time, Stella didn't know how many times she was seriously injured, nor how many times she almost gave up. But in the end, she persevered and made herself who she is now.
In such circumstances, in order to pursue even greater strength, Stella resolutely left her own country, precisely because her country was too weak, and now there are no Blazers that Stella can't surpass.
For the sake of seeking strong opponents.
For the sake of having rivals to compete and grow with each other.
That's why Stella came here to study abroad.
She must pursue beings stronger than herself, must fight with powerful knights, and defeat them one by one. Only then can she protect her beloved country.
For this reason, upon learning that there is actually a newly enrolled student evaluated as an A-rank knight here, although his magical power is not comparable to her own, the difference is negligible, and he ranks second in the world, even being the same age as her, Stella, after the initial surprise, was left with only one emotion in her heart.
That is anticipation.
Anticipation that this powerful A-rank knight can become her opponent, the strong enemy she pursues.
With his existence, she will definitely continue to grow stronger and eventually surpass everyone.
That's the expectation Stella harbored.
Even if such a thing happened halfway, when Stella realized Rozen's intention after the chaos and began to face him squarely, even though it felt unnatural, she still didn't give up this expectation.
But now...
"...Are you implying that my strength is inferior to yours?"
When Stella sensed this meaning from Rozen's words, her anticipation turned into anger.
Not because she felt looked down upon, and even less because of her pride, but because she realized that in the eyes of the strong enemy she had been looking forward to, she wasn't considered a worthy opponent in terms of strength.
So, Stella became angry.
Just to prove her strength.
"Boom!"
In the luxurious office, the flames began to burn.
It was flames that ignited from Stella herself.
The atmosphere instantly distorted.
The temperature soared.
The color of the space was replaced by fiery red.
The flames were like a cloak, continuously burning on Stella, who lowered her head.
The flames instantly soared to over three thousand degrees Celsius, forcing Rozen and Shinguji Kurono beside her to retreat.
"This is..."
As Shinguji Kurono retreated, she watched Stella Vermillion, who was burning with crimson flames all over her body, her eyes beginning to flicker.
"Fire?"
Rozen also stepped back, avoiding the incoming heat and flames, squinting his eyes.
In this world, the power of Blazers mainly manifests in three ways.
First: Directly using magic in combat.
This is similar to the combat style of Servants' "Mana Burst," which can greatly enhance physical abilities, attack power, defense power, speed, agility, and so on by releasing magic. The stronger the magic power, the greater the enhancement, so Blazers with weak magic power may not even be able to break through the defense of Blazers with strong magic power, showing the importance of magic.
Second: Using magic to manipulate one's own abilities in combat.
Blazers all have their own abilities, which are divided into several systems depending on the nature of the ability.
There are abilities in the physical enhancement system, which, as the name suggests, can be used to enhance physical abilities and are very simple and common.
There are abilities in the natural interference system, such as manipulation of powers of wind, fire, thunder, electricity, and so on, all of which belong to this category.
In addition, there are also abilities in the conceptual interference system and the causal interference system, which, as the name implies, can directly interfere with a certain concept or causality itself.
Stella Vermillion's ability belongs to the second type, the natural interference system of manipulating flames, which, combined with her exceptional magic power, is very powerful.
Besides the above two types, Blazers also have one last type of power.
That is, they can turn their souls into crystallized magic and materialize them into weapons.
—Device.
This is the third type of power of Blazers.
Now, Stella has used that kind of power.
"Serve me!"
Stella grabbed the flames bursting from her body.
"—Lævateinn—"
With Stella's call, the scorching flames surged, swirling in her hands, and finally, they turned into a magnificent and heavy greatsword.
"Clang!"
Stella struck the greatsword on the ground, causing the flames to surge around the Device.
"Now that it's come to this, there's only one way to end this."
Stella raised the Device in her hand, facing Rozen, her eyes burning with the flames of determination.
"Let's settle this with a duel!"
Stella finally made this demand.