The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 362: Composite

With Shuvina’s treatment complete, Lewis began repairing the training ground’s floor, and the fourth match was finally about to start.

“Are you not tired from fighting continuously like this?”

The one asking this was Sonia, who would be facing Lavienne in this fourth match. She squinted her red eyes as she looked at him.

“Thanks for your concern! But I’m feeling better than ever right now, so I’m perfectly fine! In fact, it’s so much fun that it’s giving me energy!”

“You love to fight just as much as Lewis and the others, don’t you?”

“Sure, I like fighting, but I don’t want to hear that from you. After all, you were quite thrilled to battle back when you were on your journey too!”

“Well, I can’t deny that. In fact, I don’t dislike fighting that much myself.”

“I thought so! I can tell by the way you get mad whenever it’s about Luke.”

“Well, it can’t be helped, can it? If a strange bug is clinging to someone you like, it’s only natural to be cautious, isn’t it?”

As Sonia crossed her arms in front of her chest, she chuckled to herself while saying it was a weakness of having a crush.

“That’s a personal thing, so I can’t relate. More importantly, how do you plan to fight me, Sonia?”

“Oh? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, I know it’s not very polite to say, but honestly, your chances of winning against me are pretty low. Your fighting style relies on magic, just like Iris, and you’re even weaker than Shuvina, who lost to me earlier, right? So, to be honest, I don’t believe you can win against me.”

Lavienne’s words were absolutely right. Sonia’s combat style relied mainly on magic, and though she used a whip as a weapon, she was still unfit for close combat.

Moreover, Sonia’s ability had yet to reach that of Shuvina, and with Shuvina having briefly mastered spirit possession, the gap between her and Sonia had widened even more than before.

“So what? I may find it difficult to beat you, let alone Shuvina. But that doesn’t mean I can just give up here and quit. Miria and Iris both chose to fight even knowing they couldn’t win against you and did what they had to do and lost. So how could I give up before I’ve even fought?”

“Hmm, I see.”

“And who would be foolish enough to fight thinking they’re going to lose from the start? I’m going all out to win right from the beginning!”

Sonia stated firmly, unleashing a large-scale magic from the start, wrapping the entire training ground in her magic.

“Dark magic, ‘Veil of Night.’ With this, light will no longer illuminate this space. Now, can you use your beloved shadow manipulation ability in this situation?”

“Aha, I see! Clever move!”

Just as Sonia said, the magic she used caused the training ground to be almost devoid of sunlight, resulting in a darkness that made it feel like they were enveloped in a pitch-black night void of both moon and stars, with visibility reduced to only a few meters.

Also, the absence of light meant that shadows did not exist, and now there was not a single shadow for Lavienne to manipulate, which meant there were no shadows to control with her racial magic.

“I’ve seen your battles with Iris and Shuvina, and your shadows can only manipulate the shadows present in the area. In other words, if there are no shadows, you can’t control them. Am I wrong?”

“As expected from Sonia-chan of the Magic Kingdom: you’ve got a keen eye! That’s correct! My ability can only manipulate existing shadows and can’t control those that do not exist. I’m a bit surprised you figured that out in just two battles.”

Lavienne’s racial magic, ‘Shadow Usurper,’ was different from normal magic that uses magic power as energy to activate spells; instead, she used her own magic power to claim naturally existing shadows from the laws of nature and control them freely.

Thus, she couldn’t create something from nothing, and if there were no shadows, she couldn’t manipulate them using her racial magic.

Having deduced the weakness of Lavienne’s ability just by watching her fights with Iris and Shuvina, Sonia decided to use large-scale magic like this to suppress that ability.

“Sure, this would limit my ability and make it unusable. But don’t you think you can’t see much in this darkness either?”

“Fufu. Don’t underestimate me, okay? Who would be dumb enough to put themselves in danger with their own magic? This magic is created by my magic! In other words, it’s powered by my very magic itself! So, I know exactly where you are and what you’re planning to do, just like this…”

As Sonia said that, she seemed to meld into the darkness and, in the next moment, appeared behind Lavienne, swinging her whip down with all her might.

However…

“Aha! This looks like it’ll be even more fun than I thought!”

The perfect surprise attack and strike from a blind spot was caught by Lavienne’s outstretched hand without even turning around.

Then, with blood dripping from her hand, Lavienne turned and smiled brightly, locking eyes with a shocked Sonia.

“Why…?”

“Why is it that I was able to detect your position? Ahaha. You might have forgotten because I was facing you directly, but I’m an assassin, you know? In this level of darkness, I can easily sense people’s presence without needing detection magic!”

“Ugh…”

Realizing the urgency of her situation, Sonia immediately let go of her whip and created some distance, then she began using dark magic for a multi-directional attack while deploying gravity magic to bind her opponent and launch an all-out assault.

“Aha. That was a decent judgment call! Besides, this magic is quite troublesome. Well then, let’s see if I can step it up a notch! ‘Release of Shadow Energy!'”

Before the numerous approaching spells, Lavienne calmly murmured, wrapping her body in a dark aura.

Then, with her scythe imbued with magic power, she swung it with centrifugal force as dark waves of magic shot out, neutralizing the spells that had approached.

“What!?!”

Witnessing Lavienne’s overwhelming power before her, Sonia couldn’t hide her astonishment, yet she didn’t cease her attacks and instead increased the weight of her gravity magic to try to constrain Lavienne’s movement.

However, despite Sonia increasing gravity with her magic, Lavienne’s movements somehow became even faster and lighter, as if gravity had no effect on her, darting around like a deer in the wild.

“What? Is it over already?”

And the moment Lavienne nullified the last spell, even the gravity magic holding her was snipped away by her black scythe, allowing Lavienne to exhale softly as she casually expressed her slight dissatisfaction.

“How were you able to move like that even with my gravity magic on you?”

“Oh, are you curious about that? Then, as a thank you for keeping me entertained, I’ll tell you. This scythe is actually a magic weapon!”

“A magic weapon?”

A magic weapon refers to special swords and weapons imbued with unique effects that Lewis and Fiera often use, and the term is a collective name for all of them.

“Yup! It’s called ‘Dance of Thanatos,’ and its ability is to enhance the wielder’s overall physical abilities, and as long as I keep attacking continuously, my physical prowess keeps increasing!”

“Ah, so that’s why my gravity increases didn’t effect you!”

“Exactly!”

The pitch-black scythe Lavienne wielded, Dance of Thanatos, increases Lavienne’s overall physical abilities as long as she wields it, and moreover, if she continues swinging the scythe non-stop, her physical prowess increases even more.

However, this weapon is troublesome to handle as well; if she halts even once, all the increased physical abilities reset, so it requires the fortitude to not stop under any circumstances, as well as the strength and stamina to continue wielding such a colossal weapon.

“Sigh. Every time I see a new ability, I’m left scrambling to keep up. Just how many cards do you have?”

“Hehe. The more cards you have, the better off you are, right? Besides, Sonia-chan, don’t you have one or two hidden abilities up your sleeve too? I mean, Shuvina seems to have hidden techniques of her own.”

“Well, that does make sense. However, given the current situation, it renders most of my strategies pointless. Ugh, this is such a hassle.”

What Sonia had planned was to seal Lavienne’s racial magic first, then use advantageous terrain to restrain her movements with gravity and binding magic before unleashing her most powerful magic to decide the outcome in one go.

However, in practice, even amid darkness, Lavienne was able to pinpoint Sonia’s movements with her keen senses developed through experience, and on top of that, the effects of the magic weapon rendered Sonia’s spells nearly ineffective, leading to a complete collapse of her strategy.

“Then, are you going to surrender?”

“No way. Just because you’ve revealed one of your cards, I won’t let myself lose without using at least one of my own. So please, hang on just a little longer!”

“Of course~!”

“Thank you. Now, here I go! ‘Dark Tracker!'”

Pulling a sword from a ring imbued with storage magic, Sonia stated the name of her spell and, in the blink of an eye, vanished from sight, only to appear right in front of Lavienne with the sword raised high.

And as she brought her sword crashing down, Lavienne caught it with her scythe, laughing joyfully while gazing at Sonia’s face, almost uncomfortably close.

“Wow! You look just like Luke!”

As Lavienne said, Sonia’s movements using Dark Tracker were identical to Lewis’s, and moreover, her style was far more refined than what she had shown during the martial arts tournament, with each action bearing a striking resemblance to when Lewis battled Lucifer.

“I’m not done yet!”

“Oh! Another bow? So cool! You look just like Shuvina!”

After the flurry of sword strikes, Sonia took a step back and stabbed the sword into the ground, retrieving a bow and arrow. Instead of focusing fighting spirit, she poured all her magic into the arrow and loosed it.

From her posture aiming the bow to her breathing and timing, everything was exactly like Shuvina’s, and that shot flew towards Lavienne, scattering magic power and momentarily blinding her.

And Sonia didn’t miss that instant; keeping a low posture, she slipped into Lavienne’s personal space, lowering the center of gravity as she firmly stomped the ground and launched a fist brimming with magic power.

“Roar of the Wolf King!”

The shockwave from that unleashed strike was so immense that it rivaled the power Fiella had shown during the hierarchy battle, and the training ground’s floor beneath Sonia cracked like a spider’s web under the force of her stance.

After starting her studies at Suzette Imperial Academy and reuniting with not only Lewis but also Fiera and Shuvina, Sonia had admired and felt jealousy towards the overwhelming strength of the two she had witnessed during the hierarchy battle.

From that point on, Sonia began to observe the fighting styles of not just Lewis, but also Fiera and Shuvina; plus, after learning close combat techniques from Fiera, she had became capable of imitating the movements of both.

“Ahhahaha! This unexpected surprise is just too much fun!! So, as a thank you…”

Hearing that voice, when Sonia looked up, she saw Lavienne, seemingly unscathed and laughing merrily while swirling vast magic power around her pitch-black scythe, even after being sent flying by the shockwave.

“Fufu. Seriously, what a monster…”

“I’ll gift you this technique too! ‘Shadow Slash!'”

As Sonia looked up at Lavienne with an incredulous expression while she laughed joyfully at her, Lavienne swung down her scythe enveloped in magic power with all her strength.

In that instant, the magical slash cleaved through both the Veil of Night and the barrier beyond it, as well as the very training ground floor where Sonia stood.

“Seriously, that’s just ridiculous!”

Seeing the bottomless scar created merely a few centimeters from her own position, Sonia involuntarily murmured those words.

“Ahh, that was fun! And the sun really feels warm and nice!”

Lavienne landed gracefully on the ground, stretching happily under the sunlight now that the Veil of Night had lifted, uninterested in Sonia’s reaction.

“So, are we still going?”

“Sigh. I’ll hold off. Admitting defeat is quite disappointing, but seeing what you just did makes it impossible to continue.”

“I see. Then I guess that means I win!”

“Yup. But next time, I’m definitely going to win!”

“Hehehe. I’m looking forward to it!”

Thus, with Sonia acknowledging her defeat, the victor of the fourth match was decided in Lavienne’s favor.

Afterward, Lewis found himself stuck repairing the training ground for the second match in a row, seeming slightly annoyed, but his steps were light. Those who knew him well, such as Sonia and the others, could tell he enjoyed watching their battles, and even though they had lost, it left them feeling just as happy.