― I am a swordswoman. I do not feel like fighting against an opponent without even picking up a sword.
She looked down on Stella with cold eyes.
― ――――
Immediately after, the atmosphere around her burned, the temperature increased.
The heat source was, of course,《Crimson Princess》 Stella Vermillion.
She was not significant enough to require picking up a sword.
Certainly, Edelweiss said so now. That――
― … What do you mean with that?
― I don't have the intention to speak in a roundabout way. It means exactly that. With all due respect, if it is someone like you――I can kill you just with my eyes.
Not using a sword was out of the question.
She would certainly kill her with her eyes only.
It was impossible. A clear bluff.
Being able to do so, Edelweiss said it as if it was natural.
Her attitude and affronts――ignited Stella's belligerence.
― If so, I'll make you do it…!
Now that she was rejected from the beginning, it was the turn of "the use of force" plan.
Without faltering.
Stella lowered her center of gravity noticeably and kicked the ground, powerfully jumping forward.
Once the first shot was fired, there wasn't either yes or no.
She had no choice but to protect herself against possible dangers.
Yes, that was her intention.
But, one step. Just one step she gave towards Edelweiss,
――In an instant,
A strong and blizzard-like cold intuition struck Stella's brain, and she saw it.
The inevitability of a tenth of a second in which her limbs and neck were vigorously cut off.
― Kyaaaaaaaaaaahh!?!?
She couldn't think of doing an ukemi in this situation. Stella brought her body that tried to get into her reach to the back, but she lost her balance and fell on her backside right there.*
- TN: Ukemi is the art of falling safely.
Her spectacle, seen from beginning to end, was only seen as if she had tripped up and fell down on the lingering snow.
But,
― Stella!? That's!?
The expression of Ikki, who immediately ran up to her, became pale.
Stella immediately noticed the reason of that.
― Ha, ah…! ÒÇ£ÒÇ£ÒÇ£ÒÇ£!?
Stella carefully put her hands on the bottom of her neck with a physical unease that ran as pain.
Without a moment's delay, a thick and lukewarm sensation wet her palms.
It was blood.
A laceration in the form of a horizontal line was carved into Stella's neck.
――It was cut off at an ultrahigh speed.
No, it wasn't that.
Not only《Wings Abreast》had no sword in her hands, she also hadn't done the slightest movement.
She was too far from her sword reach. It was not possible.
Then, what happened?
She didn't know.
She didn't know, but she had an idea.
She saw a similar phenomenon before, in the match between Ikki and Sara.
― I see…. You created a barrier and stretched a vacuum dislocation around your house, right?
Stella inferred as she healed her wounds with the dragon's Regenerationn. ――But,
― No. Not at all.
― !?
― I neither carved a vacuum dislocation nor used an ability. In the first place, my abilities are not suitable for combat. … Speaking of what I did, I just released a bit strengthened bloodlust.
― Y-you're lying! How can you wound the body of the opponent with intimidation only?
There was no way that was possible.
Edelweiss only nodded to Stella who denied so and said.
― Certainly, it is impossible for normal people. But I am not an ordinary person. The《Blazers》are persons who change their fate with strength. As one of them, I surpassed the limits of the fate given to me and now I am an existence that reached what is beyond the causality surrounding one's star.
The explanation for why Stella didn't instantly die but instead was just cut:
Because at that moment, Stella herself accepted that it was like that.
But her neck was not severed.
But why? ――The reason was settled.
Because she didn't have the intention to kill Stella from the beginning.
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