Chapter 31: A Golden Sword and a Pink Rose
The professor raised her index finger upward and traced a circle.
We all understood the order.
Inside the circle, only Ardwyn V of Jahke and Duralianne Danyarta remained.
"Whenever you're ready, prince."
Ardwyn manifested his golden Empero. Dense. The perimeter it covered extended beyond the sand circle. Easily twenty meters.
The sand at his feet began to crystallize in a two-meter radius.
The nobles recoiled at the Empero onslaught. Some raised their arms in defensive positions and closed their eyes.
Lianza, on the other hand, watched attentively. The blast hadn't perturbed her in the slightest.
Layda opened her notebook.
Five meters from the edge. Close enough to see, far enough to remain unaffected.
Ardwyn took the initiative.
A step forward. Each footstep of his boots left crystal imprints.
"Don't hold back, Your Highness," Duralianne said. "If you do, you'll lose before you start."
Ardwyn clenched his fists. His golden Empero thickened.
A direct strike.
She didn't dodge. Raising her right hand. Two fingers. Index and middle. She pressed them against Ardwyn's fist.
The blow stopped.
The sand around both of them flew, then fractured into several concentric circles. The crystal he had created on the ground cracked. But his fist didn't advance a single centimeter.
Someone stifled a gasp behind me.
Duralianne had stopped a Class A Empero Knight's punch with her fingers.
"Density. Poor direction. Lots of uncontrolled power," she observed, then raised her voice to add: "Darlings, if you plan on asking a lady to dance, make sure you can keep up with her rhythm."
Duralianne pushed Ardwyn with the two fingers holding his fist.
That alone was enough for the prince to be shoved backward and fall flat on his back.
We all stayed silent.
The gap was too much.
"Your Empero is, without a doubt, strong, crown prince. But it's a river without a bed. It disperses instead of concentrating."
Ardwyn struck the sand. His ego was clearly bleeding right now.
Charging again, faster this time. Two strikes in succession. Left, right. Each one crystallized the air in its path.
Duralianne stopped each blow with a single fist, while with the other she fanned away the crystals Ardwyn created with his Empero and launched toward her.
Every one of her movements was precise. She moved the bare minimum.
Ardwyn threw a kick. Low. Crystal exploded from the floor where his foot impacted.
That was where Duralianne moved from her spot for the first time.
She jumped about three centimeters. Just enough for the kick to pass underneath. Then she landed in the same place. The sand didn't shift under her feet.
"Do you know the difference between you and me, crown prince?" she asked, her face imperturbable.
Ardwyn didn't answer. He was panting. His Empero had grown erratic. Thick in some places, thin in others. It looked like a cluster of spikes shooting out and compressing around him.
Having such vast Empero reserves also made control difficult when expelled in large quantities, because the more you had, the more there was to control.
So that was one of his weaknesses?
"You use your Empero like a battering ram besieging a castle," Duralianne continued. "I use it like a needle threading silk." She raised her hand. Five fingers extended. "Five points of concentration. While you use your entire body and exert brute force, I focus only on what's necessary."
Lowering her hand, her pink Empero retracted until it became invisible.
"Return to your spot, prince. Perhaps next time, your arrogance won't blind you." She turned toward the class. "Does anyone else want to try?"
No one moved.
Ardwyn picked up his cape. His eyebrows were so close together they nearly merged into one. He returned to the line without a word.
But I saw his eyes. They searched for Layda, who returned his gaze along with a smile.
Duralianne evaluated each of our Empero manifestations.
Control, form, and density.
To each, she gave three words. 'Acceptable.' 'Insufficient.' 'Mediocre.'
When she reached me, she looked at me.
"Manifest," she said.
Nodding, I complied.
My Empero manifested. Black. Sparse. Extremely unstable.
"Mediocre," she concluded. "But... you possess a conceptual Empero, correct?"
Was it possible to know that just by seeing the manifestation?
"How did you know?"
"Those who mold reality in some way have good control naturally," she began to explain. "While those who generate elements know how to generate shapes."
"What's the difference between controlling and shaping?"
Duralianne gave a few little taps to her head.
"The mind. Controlling is based more on giving orders to your Empero. The better your control, the more precise the orders. On the other hand, shaping is thinking of an image and bringing it to this world. That's why those with elemental Emperos can generate all kinds of shapes with their Empero's element."
Duralianne manifested her Empero in a ten-centimeter radius.
"And lastly, there's us, those who possess a physical Empero."
Clenching her hand, I could see how all the little Empero she had generated around her concentrated in her fist. It happened instantly.
"We can control our Empero's density with greater speed and precision than the rest."
"What is your Empero, Professor Duralianne?" Lianza asked from behind her.
"Empero Knights and Ladies don't usually reveal it. There are Empero types that are stronger the less your opponent knows about them. This applies especially to physical and conceptual ones."
Lianza had turned to return to her spot.
"Now then, Miss D'Tariel." Lianza stopped. "Let's see your Empero manifestation."
Lianza turned toward the professor and nodded.
Her Empero manifested. Garnet. Dense. It rippled as calmly as waters in the middle of the ocean.
"Create something."
Lianza raised a hand with her palm open, and using her ice, she created on it a ballerina standing on one leg. Then she made her spin while making snow fall over her.
It was beautiful. It looked like one of those music boxes with a ballerina that twirled around.
"More than acceptable." Duralianne had raised her eyebrows. "Although you still have a long way to go, you're certainly the one who's given the best demonstration today. Especially," she glanced sideways at Ardwyn, "for those who have an elemental Empero."
I smiled. It was to be expected.
My Lianza was more than just beautiful. Everything she did was, too. And watching that ice ballerina spin on her palm, I understood what Duralianne meant by 'shaping': it was bringing something into this world that was born from the heart.