Despite accomplishing a feat that defied space and time, Dorothy showed a nonchalance that almost bordered on boredom; Noah gleaned that from her expression.

  “Space manipulation is honestly not that complicated. Most witches who received formal teaching will eventually learn space-related skills and find success to various degrees. Of course, they are far from my level.”

  “How far does your reach extend?”

  “Oh? Are you asking about my limits? Well, I don’t see any reason not to answer.” Dorothy grinned, “On Oz or in my Tower, all my calculation abilities are increased by an order of hundreds at minimum. Here, everything within a radius of 100 kilometers is under my domain. I can reach beyond that mark, but my accuracy heavily diminishes if I try to go further.”

  “100 kilometers?” He repeated, almost dazed. On Earth, the boundaries of outer space start around 100 kilometers above the ground. Looking at the sheer confidence she radiated, Noah realized that her words had no falsehood nor exaggeration.

  “I have one last question. Why didn't you use that during the fight against the Abyssal Beasts when we were fleeing? You could have teleported all of them away from us.”

  Dorothy shook her head in response, “Without my Frame, my abilities are limited. The calculations necessary to transport all those monsters were simply impossible for my brain to handle. It was far easier just to freeze time instead.”

  “... Easier to freeze time?”

  Dorothy giggled at Noah’s incredulous expression. She was having the time of her life. Opening her arm wide, she declared in a loud voice, “This, Noah, is what a witch is capable of!

  “We are transcendental creatures who have studied the laws that embody and uphold the universe we inhabit. We can twist all the laws with just a thought. All the Leylines in Oz are under my control and my Tower in space is directly connected to those Leylines.”

  Following her words, magical circles appeared everywhere, enveloping her in a cocoon of multicolored light, and her body started levitating. The wind stirred, the ground trembled, innumerable dark clouds gathered in the sky above as if declaring their outrage…

  “In short, as long as I fight in this star system, I am essentially a goddess. I am above all.”

  Her eyes shone with a fierce light, unlike anything Noah had ever witnessed from the carefree Queen of Oz.

  “Well then, Noah Ouroboros. What will you do in the face of my overwhelming power? Will you give up and kneel in despair, or will you fight a battle with no hope?”

  Dorothy's voice filled the air with her imposing might. She was truly curious about the choice Noah would make here. Would he make the smart, rational choice or would he choose the route of bravado and stupidity? It was hard for her to say which road she hoped he would take.

  Noah, though, simply shook away all hesitation from his heart with a simple shrug. A dark spear formed in his hand, and he adjusted his stance.

  “Is there even any need to ask?” His voice was calm, confident, even. He felt offended that the queen had even asked such a question.

  A situation with no hope. An opponent he had no chance of beating. Without a doubt, the right choice was to stop this senseless combat.

  Even so. Giving up? Kneeling? Noah could only laugh like a lunatic at such a thought. This was nothing. True despair was a much darker abyss that he had already transcended long ago.

  Do the impossible. Break the unbreakable. Only by believing in those words was Noah able to keep his sanity even when everyone died during the war.

  Failure meant death. Success meant survival.

  “Just who the hell do you think WE are!?”

  His fierce battle cry, a creed he kept all his life, seemed to push him past his limits.

  For a moment, he pushed all matters about the bet to the back of his mind and only focused on one thing.

  Fight!

  He once again covered the distance between the two of them, only to be met with a spatial barrier that Dorothy erected with a single gesture. His spear extended forward as he immediately attacked.

  Each thrust was so fast that it created the illusion of multiple warriors attacking at once.

  Dorothy exclaimed, once again surprised by Noah's physical prowess and his will to go past his limit. Such pure raw power was certainly something quite rare.

  “Impressive!”

  Noah ignored the praise and continued to target the barrier, realizing that even as he broke through it the barrier continued to repair automatically.

  Noah understood that his way of attacking would not work on the Queen of Oz. He needed a single decisive attack, a concentrated point of power that would break through the barrier in one fell swoop. That way, the barrier won’t get the time to repair itself. In the blink of an eye, he immediately increased the distance between himself and Dorothy.

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  Then he drew his spear back and condensed all his power into a single point. His muscles swelled with so much power they looked like they were about to burst.

  Finally— he threw his spear like a missile.

  ? Gungnir! ?

  The spearhead, now imbued with massive droves of Dark Matter energy condensed in the tip, gleamed like a colossal drill that could pierce through heaven and earth.

  This attack nearly had as much power as the one he threw when he fought Omid. Even without using his Mecha, the current threshold of his power was much further than it had been during his confrontation with the ignoble pirate.

  With the power to obliterate everything in its path, the spear finally collided with Dorothy's barrier and Noah watched as the barrier exploded and the spear continued on its path— only to be met with a second barrier.

  “I must admit. I did not think you would be able to destroy this one. Sadly, it’s too slow. I can recreate my barriers with but a thought. I do not need calculations for something so simple.”

  Dorothy ignored the spear that fell on the ground, lying limp after losing all of its power and momentum.

  “This is my second lesson. All witches have their main spells prepared in advance and engraved on their bodies, soul, and their towers. I have around 1678 different defensive spells at the ready on me and around 180,000 attacks and defense spells engraved in all of Oz.”

  “...”

  “This is why you should give up. You are quite strong. If we fought in space without all my axes of power, you might even be able to kill me with a sneak attack. Here though? Your chances of winning are effectively zero.” Dorothy acknowledged Noah’s monstrous strength and potential. His body alone was beyond what should be normal ,and she knew that he was still in his growth phase, as unbelievable as that sounded.

  However, that was Noah’s limit. He had the potential, but he had not even reached the full limits of that potential yet. Finally, this world could never be conquered with physical strength alone.

  If her words had any effect, Noah did not show it. He simply created another spear and threw it again at her with even more force.

  The result was the same. The spear managed to break through the first barrier but fell against the second.

  Noah did not stop. Another spear was thrown, then another and another. All are meeting the same fate.

  At first, Dorothy looked at Noah with pity. She was wondering if his pride was making him repeat such foolish action. Soon, however, her eyes widened as a crack appeared on the second barrier.

  It was nearly instantly followed by another spear that destroyed the barrier and rushed at her.

  “So was this your plan all along, huh?”

  Dorothy could finally see it. His actions were not meaningless. After each throw, his stance would become better, his control smoother. The spear would travel just a bit faster. Adding a bit more momentum here, twisting the force there, generating more penetration power with each new attempt. It was a monstrous level of growth. Something that left one in awe.

  Once again, admiration shone in her eyes.

  They said insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet here was a madman who was indeed showing her different results with each iteration.

  This is getting a little dangerous.

  The vast majority of her Tower’s computing power was focused on Oz’s defense system. She was already using a noticeable fraction to deal with just one man. It would be unwise to go further.

  Hahaha! As expected of the Golden Constellation. I wasn’t wrong about you, after all.

  One spear stopped just inches away from her face, waking her up from her thoughts.

  She focused on Noah, but he had already moved from his position and started circling her. Noah, already remarkably fast at his base, was now moving at an unprecedented speed.

  She tried to calculate his coordinate,s but he was moving too fast for her to pin him down. It was as if he was moving like twisting space. Changing shape and structure at a moment’s notice. The varying changes in his movements were so fast, so unpredictable, that even he was struggling to control his route.

  Even as he moved he never stopped throwing his spears. Attacks came from all around her like a never-ending stream.

  So he has understood.

  She had already given many hints. Nevertheless, she didn’t think he would be able to grasp how to handle a witch so fast.

  After all,

  “The most important thing for a witch is her power to calculate her surroundings.” She muttered as another spear managed to break most of her spells.

  No matter how powerful a witch was, if her calculation speed was too slow, then she was just a live target. Rather than simply attacking on one side, it was better to attack from everywhere to overwhelm her.

  Tricky. Should I increase the power output?

  She dismissed the thought. Not only would using more of her power be foolish in this scenario, but she also felt that she would lose if she went along with that thought.

  Should I start attacking then?

  She did say that she wouldn’t move from where she stood, but she said nothing about counter-attacking, right?

  For the first time since the start of this fight, Dorothy attacked. Like a god toying with an ant, she made a gesture with her hand, and as a result— heaven and earth flipped sides.

  ? Sand Burial ?

  The impossible unfolded as the ground beneath Noah overturned entirely. With just a light flick of Dorothy’s hand, the very landscape was broken down and annihilated.

  Noah looked up with a smile as a massive amount of soil blocked the moonlight and started to collapse, threatening to bury him alive.

  This was a horrifying display of power, and this was exactly what Noah had been waiting for.

  Now!

  He sent a mental command. Without even speaking, his partner had understood his intentions.

  — Understood.

  Since the start of the fight, Noah realized that winning normally was not possible against someone of Dorothy’s caliber. This was not a fight he needed to win normally, though. There was no need to beat her in the traditional sense.

  Dorothy, who had been focusing on controlling her attack not to seriously injure Noah, was distracted by the resounding noise of an alarm ringing inside her head.

  This was a warning spell she had created to protect herself from sneak attacks. She diverted a part of her attention to find the source of dange,r but she found nothing. The only one in her radius search was none other than Noah.

  What is happening?

  She thought as the ground finally crashed back and for one instant, nothing but a split second… her vision was obscured. Noah had evaded her sight.

  When she got a clear sight of Noah next, she was surprised to find him lunging right at her.

  Useless.

  He had greatly slowed down. Though a part of her mind was still on her earlier spell, she had more than enough calculation power left to teleport him away from her as she did earlier and she did not hesitate. She activated the spell.

  But just as she did, the movement of his lips registered before any sound could reach her.

  “I won.”

  What?

  She became confused. What did he mean? How did he win?

  ? Iron Maiden! ?

  As if they had waited for this moment, something unexpected happened. All the spear that had been thrown and fallen around her lost their forms, transforming into a complete sphere surrounding her from all sides.

  He can control that substance from a distance?

  She was given no time to think as dozens of spikes rushed toward her from all sides as if wishing to impale her with a million holes.

  She had nowhere to escape. Not only that, but she did not need to escape in the first place.

  Hexagonal shields appeared all around her, blocking the advance of those spikes. This had been a perfect surprise attack, but it was not strong enough to break those shields.

  “It seems like you celebrated a little too—” She stopped speaking as a slimy sensation made her shudder, and when she looked down, she finally saw it.

  One minuscule black tentacle, with red eyes on its surface, was piercing through the ground below and was now touching her ankle.

  She blacked out for a moment and could swear the eye seemed to be laughing at her.

  Yet she was forced to admit the reality as the black sphere receded and the tentacle went back underground.

  Looking at Noah, who was showing her a grin so large even the Cheshire cat would blush in shame of its inferiority, she grumbled with a small pout.

  “I lost.”