Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

Without caring about anything else, Priam leaped to Flaris’s side with a single jump and supported her.

She was trembling; her complexion was already pale like a ghost. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her face was twisted by intense pain.

Although Flaris’s body looked robust, that strike, using her opponent’s strange mental power, had managed to penetrate her defenses as if they did not exist.

This was the power of an Ancestral Art, created by the Divinity that had given origin to an entire race. The strength of a young Mage, or her well-trained body, was nothing in comparison.

Priam saw that enormous difference with his own eyes. The Vanculari not possessing something similar was an impossible threshold to overcome.

Without hesitation, Priam moved his hands to her broken ribs.

"!"

At that instant, everyone in the hall was surprised. A terrifyingly dense power of nature flowed through Priam’s hands and into Flaris’s body.

In seconds, Flaris’s expression softened, leaving everyone stunned.

"High-level power of nature..." Even Ladomi murmured.

Priam had managed to heal her in moments. That was truly incredible.

The instant he saw her healed, Priam’s illness acted, provoking an automatic and visceral repulsion.

But he forced the feeling down, swallowing the nausea, and did not let go of her. He knew his cousin’s personality far too well to leave her alone now.

Flaris took a deep breath, but remained on the floor. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists in silence. She had lost... in a way she would never forget. The humiliation was so overwhelming that she could not even look at him.

Priam understood perfectly what she was feeling. Flaris was proud and talented, but she had never relied only on talent; she trained and studied almost obsessively. Seeing all that effort collapse was a terrible blow.

Even while dealing with his own internal agony, Priam controlled his breathing and murmured with as much softness as he could gather:

"Hey... don’t hide your face from me. Have you already forgotten? We both came from the lowest point of our clan. The difference in resources between you and her is absurd, and even so, we’re getting closer and closer to the level of these prodigies. If you had received the same support as her, you wouldn’t even need to attack to win. A single look would be enough."

Flaris opened her eyes and looked at him. Letting the air leave her slowly, she nodded.

Priam showed a faint smile. "Leave the rest to me for now. Your only job right now is to breathe and absorb what happened."

"Cousin... be careful. She... is very strong..." Flaris said with a choked voice and a worried expression.

Priam nodded and released her, standing up.

Everything had happened very quickly, and everyone in the hall only watched without emotion.

Priam closed his eyes, feeling his body still tingling. The feeling of forcing himself to maintain physical contact was terrible. But his cousin was more important than any discomfort of his.

In the next second, the sensation lessened. He opened his eyes and turned, staring at Gadcu in the center of the hall.

His eyes were full of anger.

[Special Mission acquired!]

[Defeat as many opponents as possible. With each victory, your rewards will multiply.]

Priam saw the green window and smiled internally.

"I’m not a half-demon, but you deliberately humiliated my cousin. I’ll be your opponent. It will be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Or... are you going to refuse?"

Gadcu was surprised for an instant when she heard Priam’s declaration. But in the next second, she began to laugh as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Haha, are you trying to threaten me? An eye for an eye? Haha... Hahahaha! With just you? Hahahaha..."

Although Gadcu’s laughter was unrestrained and harsh, no one considered her presumptuous or baseless.

Only after laughing for a long time did she finally say with disdain, "I didn’t expect that Demoness to be so fragile. Looks like she only knew how to enchant others with her body, with no substance at all. Well... it’s typical of the Ylisse clan to be pathetic. Being a slave or something even lower is all the same, isn’t it?"

She gestured to Priam with her finger and said in a relaxed tone, "Then let’s fight. Come. I’ll stand here and let you strike me without defending myself... how about twenty times?"

Laughter echoed through the hall. Indeed, she had not defended herself directly against Flaris before. But once again, after her opponent’s strike, she would certainly deliver a brutal and unavoidable counterattack.

Priam did not even look back and walked to the center of the hall.

Shione and Lumiere supported Flaris and brought her back to the table. But none of them sat down; all of them remained standing, staring fixedly at Priam, filled with expectation and fear.

As for Orlaith, she only sighed deeply. Trying to stop Priam after all this would be incredibly humiliating for her clan. But... she could not explain why she felt that Priam would not disappoint them. So, she stayed silent, clenching her fists anxiously.

They could not believe he could have much resistance. But... everything about Priam was unpredictable. So their hearts irrationally hoped that he could bring them even the slightest bit of pride.

Maybe, if he defended once... if he simply was not defeated immediately... that alone would leave everyone stunned, and everything would become less humiliating.

Priam stopped in the center of everything, then stared at the woman in front of him.

As someone from Earth, he had learned to always be gentle and never aggressive with women. But... in the world of Mages, the physical difference between genders was no longer relevant. He could not go easy even for a thought, or he would be the one to suffer heavily.

"A little skinny, despite having a trained body. Too short for a man, and with a face that looks like a girl’s... do you really have two balls between your legs?" Gadcu mocked, accompanied by loud laughter in the hall. "I’ve met some girls who pretended to be men before."

Seeing Priam’s lack of reaction, she stared at him with a sidelong smile.

"Take your weapon and attack me."

Priam answered lightly, "It’s fine. I won’t need a weapon to deal with you."

"...hahaha!" She was so furious that she burst into laughter again.

Now, she believed what she had found was not a weakling who looked like a girl, but a complete idiot. She felt as if her class, her level, and even her intelligence had been lowered just by standing face to face with him.

Priam rotated his wrist for an instant and revealed a provocative look. "Are you sure you want to stand there without moving while I attack you?"

"Stop wasting everyone’s time here, idiot. Everyone wants to fight or see real fights!" A young demon roared in the hall, and everyone around mocked him.

"Hehe... come quickly. I’ll give that face of yours some plastic surgery and make it a little more masculine," Gadcu spat, with a subtle purple aura forming around her body.

Since she was not using Ether directly, the aura of her Class was not visible. But in a real fight, where a Mage attacked with everything, it was impossible not to reveal that information.

Not being visible now meant that she was not using even a third of her capacity.

Priam smiled from the corner of his mouth, walking with a disturbing calm until he stopped a few steps away from Gadcu.

When the distance was only three steps, he raised his right arm with deliberate slowness.

Before closing his fist, he fixed his eyes on hers, confirming one last time. "When I hit you, are you sure you won’t block?"

Gadcu snorted, contempt overflowing in her voice. "Are you deaf? If you keep wasting my time with stupid questions, I’ll smash you into the ground myself!"

"Understood," Priam nodded calmly.

He clenched his fist. At the same instant, a subtle reddish aura wrapped around his knuckles. It was a very weak vital energy, but it seemed to carry an inexplicable weight.

"In that case, prepare yourself. Receive this blow... with all your attention."

At the last breath of the sentence, Priam advanced.

The movement was not an explosion of power, but a firm advance...

"!"

Everyone felt the wind element being used for a single instant.

Suddenly, his fist moved like a blur.

*THUD*

He really struck the center of Gadcu’s flat chest with surgical precision.

But even though it was fast enough that she did not move to block... the punch seemed careless.

There was no explosion of Ether, nor any trace of incredible power. To those watching, Priam seemed to be playing around. It was as if he had given up 100% of his offensive strength just to have speed.

This was perfectly possible for anyone who mastered elements like wind and lightning. This kind of thing was used to move quickly, not to fight.

In the hall, silence gave way to mockery.

Even the most mediocre youths felt they could have received that blow without blinking.

Gadcu, at the center of everything, only smiled with closed lips.

Priam’s fist remained there for a second, and she did not retreat a single centimeter. Her body did not tremble. Her mocking expression remained static.

Loud laughter echoed through the hall, but died as quickly as it appeared.

Everyone, without exception, noticed that something was... wrong.

Gadcu remained motionless. Too motionless. Her eyes were fixed ahead, but the light in them seemed to have suddenly gone out.

Priam calmly withdrew his fist. "Did I hit only bones? I thought it would be easier for you to endure in that place... but it seems I was wrong."

He mocked softly, taking a step back.

"What... what’s happening?" someone whispered, staring at Gadcu’s empty expression.

Then...

"Ugh... hukk..."

The sound that came from Gadcu’s throat was not a word, but a hoarse choke. Suddenly, the internal pressure that had been contained exploded.

Gadcu’s pupils dilated until they almost covered her irises. Her knees gave way, and she collapsed.

She writhed on the floor, her hands clutching her chest with enough force to tear the fabric of her own clothes.

A thick stream of blood ran from her ears. Then, her eyes and nose overflowed in scarlet red. It was simultaneous bleeding from all seven orifices.

A wave of spasms shook her body, and she vomited a stream of blood mixed with pieces of internal tissue.

The most powerful ones, who had been watching with disdain before, jumped from their chairs. Their expressions were pure shock.