In the blink of an eye, Scarlet's blood-red sword tore through Valaria's shoulder.

There was no hesitation or regret.

She had seen Art's display, but that young man would be having his hands full with Uranus.

Since he delayed in arriving, she too would take her time before she presented herself to him.

"Hehehehehe!"

And yet, as her blade dug into the girl's shoulder, all she received was maddened laughter—only to realize her blade had missed, tearing through the ground behind her.

"Huh?" Scarlet furrowed her brows.

She had killed for centuries; there was no way she would have mistaken her attack connecting or not.

She clearly felt Valaria's flesh against her blade, so why was her shoulder still intact?

"Are the runes finally getting to me? That idiot... I told him to shut it off."

Letting go of her sword, she cursed Kahn in her mind and pivoted her knee straight into Valaria's face.

It struck just as she expected, but...

"What the heck?"

Before she even knew it, Valaria no longer stood at her original position.

She had shifted, and now stood beside her with her hair covering her left eye while the right glowed ominously.

"Annoying, isn't it? Meeting an opponent you can't brute force your way into killing."

Her lips curcled into a snarl smile as she whispered against Scarlet's ear.

"Shut your mouth, you little brat. Who says I can't kill you?"

Channeling lightning magic through her veins, Scarlet attempted to sweep Valaria off her feet, but the girl was already in midair, now holding her own blood-red sword.

"How?"

With no hesitation, Valaria—the winds blowing her hair up to reveal her now hollow eyes streaming with blood—cracked a smile and wrapped the blade in her aura.

It had returned by stronger than ever.

Its color was undefined, but a mixture of all.

"She has intent....she shouldn't have it yet."

Scarlet's pupil's shriek as her left hand was severed off right after she came to that conclusion.

Catching it before it could fall to the ground, she launched her forward kick, but like before, Valaria disappeared from her range and appeared in another location.

"An intent with teleportation... no, it can't be... I would have sensed her. What about sensory illusion...?"

"It's no use."

In Scarlet's state of haze, she found her leg sliced off as she fell to the ground, kneeling before Valaria, who looked down at her with bleeding eyes.

"You caused me... to kneel."

Bewildered, Scarlet placed her palms on the ground, trembling at what Valaria had done.

"You... a mere toy. Dare to make I, Wrath of the Seven, kneel."

Her fingers curled, and the whole academy shook as web-like cracks spread all over.

"You will suffer a painful death."

Regenerating her leg, she stood up and stretched her hand towards Valaria.

She missed, as the girl disappeared and reappeared behind her with a slash prepared, but Scarlet, a look of clarity in her mind, moved her left leg and kicked at her.

Valaria was blinked out of existence again, this time descending from above.

Scarlet, expanding her mana outside her body, blocked the attack by crossing her arms above her head.

Now that she hadn't been caught off guard, the attack didn't faze her much, but Valaria still escaped her grab as she manifested underneath her arm and thrust the bloody sword in her grasp at Scarlet's throat.

"I finally understand."

Before Valaria realized it, Scarlet was looking down at her with a predator-like gaze.

"So this is your intent."

Grabbing the sword before it could penetrate her throat, she crushed it, sending fragments raining down at Valaria.

She teleported above again, but Scarlet's body blurred and reappeared behind her right as she manifested.

"Your trick won't work on me."

Launching her right leg forward, Valaria—quick to react—disappeared again, but Scarlet followed.

Like a game of cat and mouse, Valaria would teleport, but Scarlet would anticipate her destination and use her Saint-level speed to prepare an attack for her.

"You're altering causality, aren't you?"

As they disappeared and reappeared all over the academy, Scarlet grinned in an attempt to grab hold of Valaria's leg.

She missed... no, she didn't. She succeeded, but the event leading to the success was altered.

For instance, what if Valaria was never in the position to be grabbed in the first place?

When the real Valaria saw that possibility, she willed it onto herself, and the version of her that had made the mistake became nonexistent.

This was her intent: [Simulation].

It foresaw infinite possibilities of her life and made sure only the ideal future was achieved.

But no matter how powerful her intent might seem, it only worked on herself.

If not, she could have stopped Scarlet's actions before they happened.

A version of herself had tried altering the academy massacre.

Her hallucinations about Cheshire's death might have been the byproduct. Hence, no matter how much she wished she could stop this from happening, she knew she didn't have the power to.

It was far beyond her.

"What's wrong? Can't speak because I've got your trick figured out?"

Scarlet, after understanding her abilities, grew even more confident in her victory.

Valaria's intent meddled with the past slightly to alter the present.

She needed her aura cloaked around her to do that, and because of that, all Scarlet had to do was activate her mana sense.

It expanded her mana out of her body, allowing her to locate traces of all foreign energies.

Since the past will would be altered to send her into a new location, her mana sense would pick up on that location the exact moment the change was made and the rest was up to her saint level speed.

Of course, Valaria wasn't ignorant of that flaw.

Maybe if the rank difference wasn't so high, she might have been able to ignore it, but as it was now, she could only make this a battle of attrition.

In such a battle, she was undoubtedly at a disadvantage, especially since she was facing a demon. But...

She wasn't expecting to win.

Just buying time—enough time for Art to release his attack from the skies.

A/N: I was writing to apologize to my readers about the late updates. I was trying my hands on a new book, Global Evolution: Chimera system. It's in my profile if you want to check it out.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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