I Returned with the Cheat Holy Sword

“-What the hell?!”

Letty whipped her head around in panic.
All Vespa had done was bring her mana into contact with the magic circle, yet the entire Mage Tower shook with a resonance powerful enough to ripple through its foundations.
The sheer density of mana filled the Exchange Arena like a tangible mist. It gave the illusion that something massive and visible was floating through the air.

And for the person standing directly across from it, the pressure must’ve been more than just visual.
“……”
Caleb stared at Vespa from across the arena, half his mind blank.

…What is this.
It made no sense.
When mages spoke of incomprehensible magical power, the standard comparison was always dragons—pure mana lifeforms.

Living strategic weapons capable of facing down entire nations or armies.
Their power was said to exceed human capacity in both output and volume.
Walking mana reactors. Wells that never ran dry.

But what Caleb was facing now—
Was something that couldn't even be explained by that standard. It was irrationality itself.
Not just volume or pressure.

It was alien. So completely incompatible that the very thought of resisting it didn’t even arise.
It felt—
Like an ant facing down an elephant.

At least with dragons, one could understand that they were “incredible.” But this...
…Just looking at it made his brain feel like it was going to rupture.
He couldn’t even begin to guess where its ceiling was...
…What the hell IS that…?!

As the thought swam through his head, something dripped down the back of his hand.
It was a bead of sweat from his forehead.
…At some point, without even realizing it, his bangs had become drenched. His entire body was soaked.

They hadn’t even started the actual contest yet.
He was already overwhelmed. Just from watching.
He ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) was a top-class mage, fully equipped with his family’s treasured artifacts.

And yet…
His opponent didn’t even seem particularly interested in that fact.
“You said it was like territory control, right…”

Vespa murmured calmly, guiding her mana forward.
While Caleb was drowning under pressure, she was serene.
Beyond serene—she even looked awkward.

“……”
Caleb stared at her in utter disbelief.
At this point, only one conclusion remained.

…A monster—
From the start—
She was not someone you should pick a fight with.

And the moment her mana touched his—
“—!”
Caleb’s vision blacked out instantly.

***
“…What the hell is that.”
Letty stared blankly at Vespa’s swirling mana from inside the Exchange Arena.

There was no competition.
Vespa’s mana tore through Caleb’s like a tidal wave crushing a sandcastle. It reached him in a blink.
It was the kind of scene that made Letty’s grip on reality feel like it was floating.

…She moved that?
The kind of mana that made your skull feel like it was cracking just by looking at it—she was manipulating it like it was nothing.
Here’s a basic fact of supernatural power:

The more total energy you have, the more focus and mental processing power you need to handle it.
To control mana at that scale would take the mental focus of someone solving thousands of equations at once.
And yet, the way Vespa moved that mana—

It defied all logic.
It was crude. No form, no refinement. Like she was improvising as she went.
…And yet, every move was correct. The mana obeyed her like limbs.

Like—
A total amateur who’d never received proper training, manipulating godlike mana with nothing but raw talent.
“She’s a monster. Even more than she looks.”

Carlyle nodded, casually fiddling with his fingers.
There was a ring on his hand.
The transformed Holy Sword.

In the other hand, he held a crystal—Tear of the Star, a mana supply artifact.
“I’ve always been surrounded by monsters.”
Gray, inside the sword, didn’t even need mentioning. Vespa, Panhyma, Drexler… every one of them freaks of nature.

And when you spend enough time around such people, you get used to certain things.
“That’s why I’m always the one cleaning up afterward.”
“…What?”

Letty looked confused.
But thankfully, Carlyle didn’t have to explain any further.
Because right then and there, Caleb collapsed.

“...Huh?”
Letty and Vespa both let out dazed noises.
The artifact wrapped around Caleb’s arm—The Eyes of Quiria—suddenly erupted in radiant light.

As if mana was leaking through his body and being drawn into the artifact.
The moment Letty saw that, her face turned ghostly pale.
There was only one possible explanation for mana leaking uncontrollably through a relic:

“…Mana reflux?”
One of the top three deadliest fates a mage could face.
When more mana floods into the circuit than it can handle—tens, hundreds of times more—the entire circuit breaks down.

Uncontrolled mana, with nowhere to go, turns the human body into a catalyst for catastrophic explosion.
For someone like Caleb, a top-tier mage using an artifact, it was the kind of failure you’d expect only if he’d been wired into an entire power plant.
This was not supposed to happen during a mage duel!

Just how much mana does this Vespa girl HAVE?!
The terrifying thought hit Letty—but there was no time to dwell on it.
If left alone, Caleb would die.

Luckily—
There was one person here who understood this kind of emergency better than anyone.
The instant Caleb dropped, Carlyle had already bolted into motion.

“Hey! That’s dangerous—!”
Letty tried to stop him, horrified.
Touching a mage undergoing mana reflux meant exposing yourself to mana circuits surging out of control—basically sticking your hand into a bomb.

…But Carlyle had other thoughts.
Been a while.
It was almost nostalgic.

He activated the Tear of the Star as he sprinted. His internal circuit flared to life.
Next thing Letty knew, he was kneeling beside Caleb and absorbing the mana directly into the ring.
He thrust the transformed Holy Sword ring into Caleb’s circuit and calmly redirected the mana flow inside.

Unflinching, focused, perfectly composed—even as an explosive storm of hostile mana surged into him.
Like he’d done it a hundred times before.
“……”

How to describe it?
They were all one wrong move away from being blown to pieces—yet Carlyle handled the situation like a trained attack dog handler.
Even now, his body must’ve been in agony, nerves flayed from the inside.

...This guy…
What kind of people did he used to hang around with to be this unfazed in a literal death scenario?
For someone who flails at petty little things, he had zero self-preservation in real crises.

Just like Vespa, whose raw magic defied all reason—he too was wrapped in something just as monstrous.
And the situation only confirmed it.
Once Carlyle had drawn all the rogue mana out of Caleb and into the ring, he stood up and looked around.

The mana was still unstable—if left alone, it would detonate.
He had to get rid of it.
Fortunately, someone perfect for the job was right here.

“—Panhyma!”
From a distance, the Sword Saint looked over at him, eyes half-lidded in boredom.
“If you cut this, I’ll cover your food bill for a week!”

…Resolve that could slice the heavens lit up in her eyes.
Carlyle chuckled, held out the ring—and fired.
“YOU PSYCHOTIC BASTAAAAARD—!!”

Letty screamed without meaning to.
It wasn’t even an overreaction. It was batshit.
He’d gone through all that effort to stabilize the mana—only to fire it off like a magic missile right there in the Mage Tower?!

This was the kind of thing you were supposed to bring a truckload of high-ranking mages to contain!
Not just fire off like a bottle rocket!
“I’ll enjoy that free food!”

And then—
Shhhhhnk.
With a bizarre, unidentifiable kiai, Panhyma drew her blade and cleanly severed the entire surge in one stroke.

It was the perfect exclamation point to the string of absurdities they’d all just witnessed.
“……”
Hah.

Haha.
Letty let out a laugh so hollow she thought she might lose her mind, then looked around the room.
Right now, the only person she felt truly aligned with was the unconscious Caleb on the floor.

Honestly? She kind of wanted to join him.
…What the hell are these people?
One of them caused a top-class mage to suffer mana reflux just by interacting with him.

Another sliced the magic surge like it was paper.
And most terrifying of all—
Why the hell does that guy act like all of this is just normal?

Like he’d expected this outcome from the start—like he orchestrated it all with zero stress.
Carlyle Belfast.
“……”

From now on, I’m sticking close to this guy.
That was the only resolution Letty had the strength to form.