Akane points her wand at Lyrielle, "I finally win, how do you feel Lyrielle-? Knowing I beat you."
Niko stands closely behind Akane, however contrary to her, Niko keeps her gaze fixed on the faraway hill.
Lyrielle lets out a deep sigh, before adopting a condescending yet playful tone despite the lack of a conclusion to the battle.
"You think YOU beat me? By yourself?"
The unexpected reply from Lyrielle creates a demeaning look of disdain on Akane, "this is how you've always been with me, not taking me seriously in our mock battles."
'Look at you, out of mana and sitting on the ground, having no choice but to look up at me. Do you have any idea how much I hate you?"
Her hand trembles as her wand nearly slips from it, she steadies herself.
"But it's over now, we're taking you back to the palace and you'll be executed for treason."
Lyrielle turns down as she bites her lower lip, the wound from earlier opens again and a thin line blood leaks down to her chin.
Akane continues to berate her, "can you believe it? The top student, the most talented among talents and you of all people commit the highest order of crime?"
"The look on teacher Yuzuki was seriously applaudable! I almost burst into laughter myself!"
"I hope you aren't thinking there's anyone truly on your side now, Princess Azalea Lyrielle."
Akane leans forward, her wand mere inches away from Lyrielle's face, "and you know wh-"
"It's not over!" Lyrielle shakes her head, a speck of blood flying off her lips and landing on a single blade of grass.
Suddenly they all feel mana surging in the distance, as if threatening to ahnilate the open area along with the entire forest around them.
Ryunosuke stands, faraway, with streaks of green and white in a flurry around him, creating an aura of immense power.
"Ryunosuke!" She cries out, but her relief quickly turns to fear as she notices the expression on his face.
Even though she knew he was there to protect her, Lyrielle slowly stands whilst moving away from the girls.
No, she was getting away from him.
He walks forward confidently at a constant speed, his eyes narrow as bulging veins pop out around all over his body.
He starts to pick up his pace.
The core within him produces Ouroboros's mana, it activates when he becomes emotional and has another function of serving as a second beating heart.
Therefore mana isn't something he absorbs, be it from the air, earth or water.
He doesn't need to channel it through a wand or form a spell in his hand.
He himself creates mana, and it runs through his blood, becoming apart of him.
As he takes a step, the exuding aura around him explodes in all directions, the forest begins to waver as ripple after ripple rips through the atmosphere.
'Level 1.5'
The air feels as if it's becoming thin and Niko starts to sound breathless, "you can't be serious...! What happened to Ikari and Daichi?!
An overwhemling voice speaks to both Akane and Niko, "dead, meaning his job is fifty percent done, which also means... This little annoying monkey is next."
Akane turns to Lyrielle who has already begun walk away, Lyrielle looks back from her shoulder, their eyes meet in between the distance separating them.
'I'm sorry, I've known but I didn't want to admit it because I always thought of you as a friend.' Lyrielle turns back and starts to run.
Akane looks at Niko, she has a grim look of acceptance on her face.
Akane faces Ryunosuke, she aims her wand at him whilst fighting against the currents pushing her back.
She yells without looking at her, "Niko! We have to buy time until help can arrive!"
"What're we supposed to do?!"
"Use a spell and blind him for a moment! I'll think of something in the meantime!"
Although reluctant, Niko raises her wand and a bright white light radiates in all directions.
After a couple seconds, the spell ends as she runs out of mana and Niko turns to Akane, who is no longer standing beside her.
Akane runs down towards the platform with all her remaining strength, leaving Niko to fend for herself.
Niko's jaw drops and her body becomes limp when she realises what Akane had done.
Ryunosuke now stands just a few meters ahead of Niko as she prepares for what's to come.
He pauses for a moment as if in thought.
As Ryunosuke passes her, a wave of mana shoots out from his side, knocking Niko to the ground.
Meanwhile Akane reaches the platform and continues running around it to the left.
Ryunosuke steps around the canopy and looks down at her, his eyes seeming cold and merciless.
Akane runs into Aelrion's body beside the naked mummified husk of a person and takes a step back from them.
In this moment, Ryunosuke launches himself towards her at sonic speed and lands on the platform.
Like a reanactment, he walks to the edge of the platform as Akane looks up at him in horror.
Lyrielle watches from atop the same hill where the canopy was.
Ryunosuke leaps down to Akane, this time landing on his feet in front on her and the force of it knocks Akane to the ground.
"You need to suffer, like he should have."
Ryunosuke remembers a time in middle school, he and his best friend Haru played together at a playground during spring.
The class bullies showed up and Haru ran away, leaving him to get brutally beat up in a dirty toilet stall by himself, Haru never spoke to him again.
Ryunosuke steps on Akane's hand as she tried to point her wand at him.
Blood splatters from her hand onto a patch of burnt grass.
Without a word spoken between them, he gauges the resistant look on Akane's face.
He lifts his left foot over her stomach and lightly taps it, it does nothing.
Akane looks down at her stomach, "what was th-" He stomps his left foot down with more effort, hoping this wasn't enough to kill her.
She cries out in pain, feeling as if her organs were internally bleeding.
'I can't do this.' He crushes her throat using his right foot, killing her instantly with Niko and Lyrielle watching from afar.
"What's going on, what is this? What happened to Ryunosuke...?" Lyrielle has her mouth covered with her hands.
"This isn't him!"