After the conversation ended, Leon went outside once again to practice his sword art.

His fingers moved across the hilt of his sword. Bracing it as if it was his own extension, bending his knees ever so slightly, Leon's gaze fixated on the dried-up tree just a few metres away from him.

He stood perpendicularly to the tree, raising his silver sword in front, his feet switched, and as he brought his arm down, a whistling sound followed after.

WEEeeeeee–!

Immediately, he pulsed mana inside his body before the whistling sound faded away.

"Haaah!"

As he did, the air particles around the edge of his blade started to vibrate slowly.

Leon could feel it.

A grin crossed his face as the arc his blade generated gloriously shot straight toward the tree and struck it vertically.

For a second, a bright light followed the sword's path. When the light faded away, Leon saw the dried-up tree split into two, still falling from both the split angles.

The tree was completely burnt, even the two pieces which fell at both ends crumbled to dust as soon as they touched the snowy ground.

"Haaah… Haaah…."

Leon huffed, wiping off the sweat and looking at the mess he created.

All of that happened in a matter of five seconds.

It was the resulting feat of all his hard work. He had swung his sword tens of thousands of times in just two days, even more than what Miss Lumina had instructed him to.

Leon had pushed himself to his every limit… and…

This was the result.

"..."

His smile faded as truth struck him in the back.

"This isn't enough."

He muttered, looking at the burnt tree and the arc-carved ground.

This was not even as cool as what the Swordmaiden had pulled off that time.

Taking down more than hundreds of chimera in less than a second…

That's what he wanted to achieve.

Compared to that, this could not even be considered the same style.

"Am I missing something?"

Leon thought, revising the Swordmaiden's instruction.

He did what she told him to, he even ate what she told him to. Abandoning his sleep, he had focused the last two days on this training, hoping that he would achieve the same result.

But…

If such a feat could be achieved in just two days, then anyone would be called a Swordmaiden or Swordmaster.

Leon understood that, still, it felt frustrating.

Still gripping his sword, which was blunted and worn down to the point of barely holding together, Leon looked up into the starry sky.

"I need to hurry…" he muttered.

Time was ticking.

He didn't know how much progress Ethan and the others have made till now.

Lost in his thoughts, a figure in a white robe with white hair walked behind him.

"Well done," the Swordmaiden said.

Leon, stunned, stumbled a few steps ahead and turned around.

"Miss Lumina?!" he said, confused.

'What is she doing here?' Leon thought.

Wasn't it Leon's duty to get the entrance tonight? Then why was she here?

Lumina narrowed her gaze and spoke in her usual calm tone.

"You talk as if you own this place," she said jokingly, crossing her arms and standing face to face with Leon. "Am I not allowed to stroll?"

Leon shook his head.

"That's not what I meant," he said, staring back at her.

Lumina came close, and stood beside where Leon was standing and looked up at the sky.

"I always liked this starry sky," she said.

It was clear, and the blanket of blue-white stars could be seen from where she stood.

"It reminds me of how a faraway small star could tell us that it exists with its twinkles every night."

Leon followed her gaze.

He sneered before replying.

"Those are not small stars, they are bigger… quite bigger than what you can imagine."

Lumina didn't answer right away. She paused, gathering her thoughts before speaking again.

"Yes… and because of those twinkles, even something so distant feels close. Isn't it strange, Leon? The farther away they are, the more we notice them. Maybe that's what existence is… being seen, even if only as a faint light in someone else's sky. Even if someone thinks you are too tiny to even exist."

Leon fell silent, and he regretted saying his next words.

"…Or maybe, the light only reaches us after the star is already dead."

Hearing that, Lumina's eyes widened, but she smiled at him eitherway.

"Mhm, I still believe he's alive."

"..."

It was then he realized what his words could literally translate to her end.

Gritting his teeth, he apologized.

"I apo—"

"It's fine," she interrupted.

"It doesn't really bother me, after all, it was not my first time hearing it."

Leon felt even more guilt.

'Ah, shit!'

He cursed his Valentine bloodline.

But the Swordmaiden changed the subject before he could.

"That attack was nicely done," she said, looking at the fallen, burnt, dried-up tree.

Leon waved his hand in disagreement.

"It wasn't as cool as yours though."

"Oh my," Lumina startled. "You think it took me two days to master this technique?"

She shot him a glare.

Leon gulped.

"No, that's… not what I meant to say."

"Hehe," she chuckled, covering her mouth and showing him the most beautiful smile she could muster.

Leon flustered, looking at her face.

'Ah, this damn teenage body…'

He couldn't control it.

"Hooo… your face is red," she said again with the same expression, curling her lips into an 'O' shape.

"..."

Leon's eye twitched.

'Her personality wasn't like this in the game...'

When she was with Ethan in the game, she always acted cold-hearted, and only answered when Ethan asked her something.

She changed,

'...or maybe she opened up to me?'

Leon gulped, thinking the latter had the highest possibility.

She was even teaching him the sword art, something she never taught Ethan in the game.

"Your skill in handling the blade has increased significantly. See, this is because you gave your best," she praised him.

Indeed, it was true.

Before that, Leon didn't even know how to swing a sword properly, but now that he had done it more than ten thousand times, he was confident he could swing even in his dreams.

Even though it was far too behind what he wanted to achieve.

As if reading his thoughts, Lumina said with a firm tone.

"Today will be your last lesson."

Leon's whole body shivered.

'More training?!'

Was she insane?

Leon was swinging almost non-stop from the day till the time he slept.

To give him another lesson was devilish of her.

'Was she also acted this dominating towards her lover?'

"Hm?" She tilted her head, then said with a sarcastic tone, "are you thinking something funny about me? Haaah.... don't worry, you don't have to do anything but observe."

Leon, confused, asked.

"Only observe?"

She nodded.

"Who?"

She pointed her fingers towards herself with a smile, "me, of course."

"Why?"

"..."

A vein popped on her head, as she heard his ridiculous questions.

But controlling herself, she asked, "you want to learn or not."

Leon stayed quiet, he didn't ask her what's there more for her to teach.

He thought that all that was left was training and practice.

"It was a technique created by Shin."

She said, feeling a bit proud, "this and the one I taught you before were all his creations, he was the one who taught me everything after all. And what I am going to teach you is what I personally crafted after taking inspiration from Shin's sword art."

'Personally crafted?'

Leon was getting more and more confused.

But he waited for her to finish.

"Are you ready to learn?" She asked.

Leon nodded.

'Just what was she going to show me?'

"Good," she said, turning around, "watch closely, with every trick you have in your sleeves…"

Leon's eyes widened, then he activated his skill.

[Mana Sense]

The world around his eyes shifted, as everything started emitting flickers of light of different colors.

He gazed down at his own hand and saw the concentration of golden mana more intense than the rest. It was light affinity.

His eyes shifted to the Swordmaiden.

"..."

'W-wow!'

He wouldn't believe his eyes if he didn't witness it first hand.

Unlike others, Lumina's body not only had two, not three, not four… but six different mana affinities.

At this point, it would be perfect to assume that, except Light and Darkness, she could wield all of them.

'Th-that's ridiculous.'

The game never mentioned her possessing that many?!

And if Leon recalled correctly, there never once was a snippet written where Lumina's affinities were mentioned.

As Leon looked at her, she pulled out the Moonblade attached to her waist.

Extending it up, as it absorbed the moonlight, and reflected the stars on its blade.

Lumina muttered two words, before shaping it into a fine arc.

"Hosigami Style."

A pause.

A bright flash covered half the mountain, before she uttered,

"Heaven's Judgement."

Leon's eyes glued to the blade, as he saw a devastating amount of mana pulled from the Moonblade, and pulsed throughout Lumina's arteries, moving and concentrating at one single point.

Her heart.

He didn't even blink.

His memory captured each and every pattern, each and every path the mana made when finally moving all to a single point in her heart.

A yellow light covered the entire southern region, emitting solely from the blade she was holding.

What followed next was harder for Leon to put into words.

But…

If he had to define the destruction precisely, only one thing could stand equal to it.

Leon remembered studying about it.

It occurred in his country back on Earth, on the 6th of August, 1945.

Humanity's greatest creation, which would even rival the wrath of gods.

The creation which even left shadows framed into the walls.

"Atomic Destruction."

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