A burst of green light. The array of accelerating seals formed, Erina took one step into them, and then she was upon him. Drawing from her memories of the techniques, the green katana exploded from its sheath with immense power—

  .

  Erina flinched under the recoil. Her katana hovered inches shy of his neck, shaking. Without rising from the throne, sturdy metallic fingers reached out and caught her blade at the last moment in an unbreakable grip.

  "First," said Darius, one eye glinting out from under the brim of his hat. "You're supposed to say, draw!"

  Her katana shattered between his fingers—

  Erina's barrier barely formed in time to absorb the hip-fired triple gunshot. As it was, the force of it blew her back anyway. She landed on her feet where she started, sliding back across the carpet as Akira readied for battle alongside her.

  Glowing bullet shells clattered to the floor. White coat rustling, Darius rose from the throne, reloaded in the span of a second, and holstered his revolver with a twirl.

  "Aw, shit," said Akira, grinning, "here we fuckin' go."

  "Enemy," said Erina, "F-First Equalizer, Darius Lohrs! Engaging!"

  Two gunshots split the air. Erina stumbled as they rang against her barrier. This space was too open. Sheltering behind the spell circle shield, she called the green spear into her other hand and flung it into the base of one of the pillars lining the room. The loud crack of splintering stone, and the thick pillar crashed down before her for cover.

  "Line of sight broken," muttered Erina, fingers on her butterfly clip.

  A swift pattering of steps as Akira launched herself up the stairs towards Darius. The long white coat flowed as he sharply stepped back, bright light glaring overhead, and then a line of ethereal white swords drove themselves between them on the dais—a wall denying Akira the straight line forward.

  "Just a distraction!" Akira flipped, easily vaulting over the wall of swords—

  Bang!

  One Akira hit the floor, head blown open by the bullet. Another picked herself up and closed the distance, only for her high kick to find thin air. Darius deftly weaved aside and shot a bullet straight up at the ceiling. That bullet burst into a great orb of light, burning to life over them like his own personal sun. Swords constructed from mana continued to rain down, falling in short bursts to form walls that kept disrupting Akira's angles of attack.

  Within seconds, Akira had an idea of where they stood. Her fight with him in the bunker went a lot like this. She was faster. Speed and agility were the fields she prided herself in. But Darius was far from slow. His walls of swords were hardly a real threat—Akira could dodge them—but those along with his backdashing and sidesteps costed her the half seconds that would've let her stuff a solid boot in his face otherwise.

  "C'mon, you slippery bastard," she growled after another kick found nothing but air. "Get back here!"

  A glowing green butterfly flitted through the air, fluttering in Akira's wake.

  With several more motions, the cloud of hundreds of floating green orbs fully manifested. Erina nodded to herself and peeked cover—

  Bang!

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  Erina was blown off her feet and hit the ground with a cry, clutching at her face. Darius' shot was near-instant. One glance in her direction, a blur of motion, and then the gunshot, all in a split second while still repelling Akira.

  "Erina!" Akira called out. All the same, she didn't dare back off and give the enemy room to breathe.

  Darius dodged the first kick, but no sooner he did than a second Akira split off, already throwing the next strike. This Akira, a quick shower of swords struck down. A third copy, and Darius was out of position…

  But one lightning-fast quick draw, a gunshot split the air, and the third Akira collapsed. The gunslinger remained untouched.

  "Damn it!" Akira crumpled as another bullet blew through her head, and a fresh one split off to continue the fight. "I've almost… got you!"

  Finally, everything lined up, there before the throne. The wall of swords fell an instant too late, inches behind Akira as she dashed forward. Darius, still dodging her last kick, was in no physical position to push off and change direction. The revolver in his grip was carelessly pointed aside, without a single thought of firing.

  "Six bullets, all dry!" With that triumphant yell, Akira pushed forward and struck out.

  Darius' expression was set with calm, hard focus. The long coat shimmered, its white fabric shining with new light.

  A glowing white sword burst from the fabric as if it were a portal, spearing Akira through and launching her across the throne room with it. A strangled yell escaped her as she slammed against the far wall. Teeth bared, Akira reached down and pulled the sword out of herself, landing with a rough stagger.

  Erina tore her eyes off her patriarch and focused on Darius. Her butterflies filled the air, and a cloud of lasers waiting to blast forth awaited at her back. She motioned towards him and commanded, "Open fire."

  Tall, thick swords hammered down in front of Darius, absorbing the shower of fire. They rang and rattled under the force, but refused to break. Darius snapped his revolver out. Six spent shells scattered across the floor, and one single shining bullet formed in his metal grip.

  Erina felt a surge of magic. A spell circle behind her, she pushed off into the accelerator just as the pillar she used for cover was blown to pieces. Darius' bullet struck with explosive force, smashing it apart and throwing stray bits of marble across the floor of the throne room.

  "Akira, are you okay?" Erina rushed to her side.

  "Doing just fine!" Akira batted away her hands, golden eyes fixed on Darius. "Hey, you! You think this is a joke?"

  Darius opened the chamber of his gun and reloaded six shots properly. "What makes you say that?"

  "You're not bothering to play your real hand," said Akira. "What's wrong? Too high and mighty to resort to Absolute Zero? Gotta pull your punches against us lowly commoners?"

  "I'm a fan of that old thing called restraint," said Darius. "A man's gotta have his honor. I'm not a murderer or an animal."

  That got one hell of a noise out of Akira. No doubt she thought him exactly that.

  Erina caught her breath. They'd gone into a brief lull. Darius wasn't pressing his offensive. He was waiting for them to initiate, but how were they supposed to approach him?

  Information was king. Erina needed information before she could plan. She extended her arm, spell circles blinking in and out. "Scanning target," she murmured.

  And then she reeled with a sharp cry, stumbling wildly back and forth.

  "Erina?!" Akira whirled as Erina staggered, narrowly catching her before she lost her balance. "What's gotten into you?"

  "T-That's not…" Erina retched. She shook her head to clear it and looked at Darius again. "That's not possible…!"

  Looking at him with her own eyes, he was just that—the gunslinger in white. But viewing him through the lens of a scan spell was a completely different story.

  Mana was meant to be contained within the body. Of course it was. That was as fundamental as the idea that humans contain blood. Still, trace amounts naturally emanated from oneself, radiating akin to body heat. A person's mana signature could also be read more easily from their mana shield, or if they were a youkai, a being composed of mana.

  She hadn't identified him properly during the fight with Orochi. The distance was too great and Orochi's presence too strong to get a clear picture. But now…

  "A living legend," breathed Erina.

  That phrase had to have been invented for what she saw.

  He was a fountain of pure power. White mana constantly poured off his body, a thick haze that rolled off his figure in sheets like billowing smoke from a raging wildfire. If the average mage's trace mana was like body heat, Erina just stared into an open furnace—eye-searing, blinding, blazing hot. Worse still, Erina knew that was only what she could see. It was what overflowed from the cup. If that was the amount of mana he let off just by fighting even a tiny bit, his reserves had to go far, far deeper.

  The battle had barely begun.

  But for the first time, Erina felt it.

  The terrible dread that soaked through to the bone as one trembled under an impossible burden, yet with no way to escape its weight, having no option but to buckle and be crushed.

  For the first time, she couldn't envision victory.