Frieren 45

Title: The Fall of the Meteor

Aura had initially imagined countless victory scenarios. After all, the disparity in their forces’ numbers was vast, so there was no way she could lose. But…

“This guy—he’s still so cunning!!!”

As Ash soared into the clouds, her heart sank. Aura couldn’t help but glance around nervously.

In this era, the skies belonged to demons and monsters. Though there were mages among her undead army, they couldn’t fly.

No need to mention the ordinary soldiers. Even the mages protecting Aura and some of the demons present looked shocked.

As a master of gravity, Ash’s flying speed was clearly far faster than that of ordinary demons. In an instant, no black speck remained visible in the sky.

This was the first time they faced such an opponent, leaving them unprepared and lacking the necessary tactics.

Aura’s strategy of overwhelming numbers failed from the start. This infuriated her so much that she nearly ground her teeth to dust.

She couldn’t understand how she fell for his trick again.

“Saying we’d duel in an open area so I could use my army’s advantage and lose graciously… But isn’t this just exploiting his mobility?! Ash! Don’t think you can beat me like this! This time… I’ll win no matter what…!”

While scanning the sky with her followers, she gritted her teeth and unleashed detection magic, sensing the fluctuations of magical power around her.

Ash didn’t make Aura wait long. She quickly detected an unusual magical energy… but everyone else saw it too.

They didn’t even need to look up to notice a red glow appearing on the ground.

In the evening sky, a misplaced scene of crimson clouds emerged.

This made Linie, the little demon girl Aura had adopted, unable to resist muttering softly: “Is that… a real meteor?”

Indeed, a blazing fireball, like a meteor streaking diagonally from the sky, plummeted toward Aura.

Its speed was unprecedented, far faster than when Ash had flown upward.

This made Aura’s heart pound wildly. She abruptly raised her hand and shouted: “Stop him, quick!!”

No response came, but the headless mages around her, one by one, conjured colorful lights and elemental entities, launching them toward the rapidly approaching meteor.

However, the meteor’s descent was faster than their magic. Even…

The strange gravity created by the purple lightning around the meteor caused spells like wind slashes, fire pillars, and ice spikes to veer off their paths or shatter like non-physical magic upon entering its field. They couldn’t get close to the meteor’s core.

The spells disintegrating in the sky bloomed into colorful lights like fireworks. And…

Aura, protected by a large group of shielded undead soldiers, hadn’t seen the outcome she hoped for, but she saw…

“He can turn—?!”

Not only were their spells deflected, but the meteor itself veered under its supersonic speed, heading straight for her as she tried to retreat into the castle. This left her stunned in place.

Aura instinctively gathered magical power between her hands, intending to attack herself.

Simply gathering and firing magical power—a straightforward attack—was enough for Aura, with her immense magical strength, to deliver a powerful blow. But as the power barely formed, a blinding light overtook her vision.

*BOOMMMMM!*

With a thunderous roar as if the sky had collapsed, the spot where Aura stood was swallowed by blazing flames and sky-covering dust.

The ground trembled violently. The majestic castle behind her seemed unable to withstand it, shaking and emitting low groans.

The brick path in front of the castle was torn apart by the impact, forming intricate, dense cracks like a giant spiderweb sprawling across the ground.

Then, these cracks seemed to come alive. They spread in all directions like massive waves in a raging sea, propelled by the shockwave. Every shattered brick turned into a deadly projectile, bombarding the surrounding area indiscriminately.

The shielded soldiers protecting Aura were ripped apart like paper by the “meteor.” Their bodies scattered in all directions like scarecrows.

Even the nearby demons who tried to help couldn’t advance through the raging shockwave, flames, and stone projectiles. They were even thrown backward.

The soldiers farther away weren’t spared either. They collapsed in disarray due to the trembling ground from the impact.

In that unimaginable collision, Aura—a mage lacking close-combat skills and with a physique far inferior to a warrior’s—didn’t even feel pain.

In her final moment of consciousness, she only saw the fireball closing in. Then, before her magical power could be unleashed, she lost consciousness.

If Ash hadn’t held back, Aura would’ve been shattered to pieces in that explosion.

As the dust cleared, the demons and undead army around finally saw, in the massive meteor crater, their master lying beneath Ash… unconscious.

Because of this, the undead army immediately entered standby mode. Meanwhile, the demons, with shocked cries, instinctively halted all hostile actions.

“Her Majesty Aura… lost just like that…”

“It’s really Her Majesty Aura’s brother…!”

“Truly… unbelievable…”

◆━⊰✧⊱━◆

Amidst overwhelming astonishment and doubt, the dusty demons’ eyes were filled with shock, fear, and reverence.

Though Ash’s abilities almost completely overpowered Aura, defeating one of the Seven Sages of Destruction in a single strike was enough to show the gap between them.

At the very least, even now, they couldn’t think of any way to stop that super-fast “meteor” in the strange space warped by abnormal gravity.

Yet, despite facing a monster they clearly couldn’t defeat, they only surrounded him, looking unsure of what to do.

While it wasn’t just Ash and Aura who decided roles based on strength, in demon society, the strong truly dominated the weak.

Still, they were Aura’s followers. If they defected before Aura spoke… there’d be big trouble later.

But Ash wasn’t particularly interested in them. He ignored those who tried to speak, and, as he did in the past, grabbed Aura’s convenient horn. Lifting the unconscious girl onto his shoulder, he casually walked into the castle.

Now, he was already looking forward to how amusing Aura’s expression would be when she woke up.