Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn! 142 Grand Finals End

Off in the distance, an exhausted Vignis struggled to stay on her feet, wobbling every now and then until after 3 seconds of fighting to stay upright, she swayed once, then twice and then toppled over, landing on her rump heavily.

She had won. But there was no smile of satisfaction nor one of victory on her face - instead, it was only a look of fatigue and tiredness.

She had won, yes... But at what cost? Both to herself and...

To the talented youngster who she couldn't afford to hold back against at all...

She had spent the last 2 years since the previous tournament honing not just her trademark dual-blade fighting style, but had carefully developed her skills in long-ranged combat as well. The approach that people would naturally expect would be throwing her blades, and so she had gone a step further... Or rather many, many steps further and mastered sniping and firearms!

After that, she had practised it in secret time and time again with her father, mother and Uncle Jack who trained her incessantly, all for the sake of surprising Leocadius who excelled at long-range control. She could hardly bear to wait to see the look of shock on his face when he opened the distance and then got gunned down from afar while he was chanting his spells!

Alas, things had not turned out that way. Leocadius too had hidden his trump card deeply - so deeply that no one could have guessed what it was...

He had sold his soul to the devil for power and lost the qualifications of being a rival, competitor or...

Or a potential lover.

Leocadius would have hidden defences to trigger ahead of the final bullet. Those defences would trigger and thus disqualify him, leaving Vignis as the victor. In fact, she had calibrated the bullet to ensure it would surpass any equal-level defences - the only drawback being the difficulty in pinning the opponent down and finding the gap to fire...

And today, the inheritance that her grandfather, King Soron, had left for her solved exactly that problem. The operation had gone smoothly, just leaving her slightly fatigued, but not something that could not be solved by an hour or two of rest.

The Eye of Omerod; Mythical semi-biological artefact of the time domain. The treasure granted its host almost unmatched perception, speeding up their sense of time greatly so much so that it would seem the world around them slowed down. The drawback then was the incredible drain on the user's mental state as well as their mana, causing Vignis to only be able to function at maximum capability for barely 2 minutes.

On top of that, the Eye of Omerod also empowered her attacks with the Blessing of Omerod; allowing her to infuse attacks with multiple elements, such as her earlier starfire + blue lightning attack that caught Lars off guard.

After that was the wall of flames which she had imbued with the earth element, allowing her to focus great force into the erstwhile insubstantial fire element attack.

The finishing blow then had been a single bullet into which she channelled the entirety of her being, whether her physique being strained to the utmost, her mana being focused completely and her mind nearly collapsing under the mental stress!

But no matter how powerful her skills or abilities were, what truly had given her the victory was not those.

No, it made her burn with shame to admit it, but she knew that she could not defeat Lars - or even Darius - if she had just confronted them head-on and openly...!

What had given her the victory was none other than blatant lying and deception!

First, acting as if though she were looking for a close-combat clash... And putting herself on a timer to win his trust and lull him into a frontal collision.

Then dramatically shouting out the names of her attacks, only to reverse the entire nature of the moves and shock him with waves of lightning instead of fire.

After that, while still in mid-air, she had given him the impression that her "Crusher" attack would be a melee strike, only to turn it into a mid-ranged blow, messing up his concentration and accumulation of force.

And finally, after setting up all of these traps, keeping him on his toes all the time against a close-range attack...

Only to pull out a finishing blow from more than 80 metres away - an unavoidable, undodgeable distance for a sniper rifle where the bullet would travel at several times the speed of sound for the first 1 kilometre - impossible for a person to even perceive, much less dodge!

Panting heavily, Vignis felt her vision swim and pressed her eyes closed, trying to overcome the wave of dizziness as she lay flat on her back on the ground. She felt cold sweat drip down her brow and sting her eyes, then wiped away the liquids and struggled to her feet.

Only to find a Mana Saber at her neck, ready and armed.

Held by Lars who should be dead or at least on the brink of death by now... But who was standing over her, grinning sheepishly, looking like he felt bad to be winning like this.

Vignis felt her head spin and heard some garbled words. The dizzying noise of the crowds was like a wall of sound knocking into her head, making her begin to topple over once more.

Only when she was lying on the ground once more did she realise what those words had said.

"Your winner, and the winner of the Gorun City Tournament for youths and also the qualifying candidate for the Battle Through the Heavens National-level competition..."

"Miller, Knight... LARSSON!!!! GIVE IT UP!!!"

Vignis felt cold liquids sting her eyes once more as she lay there with her eyes jammed shut.

Though whether it was sweat or tears, she knew not.

She didn't want to know.

* * * * *

Just moments before, Mr White stood stiff beside Lars' collapsed body, complexion pale and in a state of shock. Then when he realised what he was seeing, he could not help himself but to exclaim out loud, "This is... This is a wooden puppet??!?"

It was not Lars! It was not Lars who was struck through the centre of his chest by the shattering, piercing and penetrating bullet that burst right through his body!

The blood that spurted out... It wasn't blood at all but paint!

And the "body"... Was just a wooden frame painted to unerringly resemble Lars!

Mr White involuntarily took one step backwards and stumbled slightly as one thought urgently crossed his mind.

'But if that's just a puppet, then where is Lars...? Where has he been all this while?!?'

The crowds had still not caught on to what had happened, and the noise was rather suppressed under the oppressive mood.

After all, even those who had supported Vignis had not expected a young talent to perish here. And there were in truth many more who cheered Lars on as they had watched him progress through the many rounds of the competition, whereas the last time they had witnessed Vignis fight was more than 2 years ago.

And so they were the ones who were the most shocked when they saw a lone figure emerge in the middle of the damaged ring, bare-chested, bruised and covered in dust.

The boy casually got up out of the ruptured stone floor, pulling off almost exactly the same move he had against Darius - submerging himself underground and out of sight!

Only this time he had gone a step further and provided a life-like, realistic, enchanted and illusory form, going so far as to even place his torn armour and robes on the puppet in the few short moments when the explosions had hidden him from Vignis' sight!

Lars grinned as he walked over to the half-unconscious Vignis. He picked up his Mana Saber on the way and activated it at the minimum setting.

'Right about 2 minutes now... Okay! She should be out of gas!' He thought as he stood over her limp body.

"Checkmate...?" He asked politely as he smiled, feeling a bit ashamed at the method he had used to win.

But it wasn't his fault, right...? It was just using a little bit of deception in return...

He had sensed something not quite right after the second move she had made, the crushing mid-air melee blow that had turned instead into a mid-ranged attack. And once his danger senses began to tingle, he had made his mental preparations.

Level 7: Simulacrum!

A copy of himself that retained his abilities, albeit only able to use spells up to 1 level below his own mastery - which didn't matter, as all he needed the clone to do was to fly around, flitting here and there under his true body's mental control.

And that was all it took to bait his lovely lady opponent into using up all of her abilities - uselessly against a hunk of wood clone!

Of course, setting up the clone didn't come free - using a spell that was more than 3 levels above his current capabilities meant that he was left with an empty tank! It was a good thing that Vignis was even lower on gas right now - she was probably overdrawn and weaker than a kitten.

As he stood over her and saw her eyes begin to tear up as she realised she had lost, he let out a breath of relief. He retracted his mana blade and walked back towards the contestants' resting area, tired and worn out from the taxing fight.

'Kids these days... They're getting better and better... I guess...?'

He forgot that, at least in this world, he too was just a kid.

* * * * *

Mr White watched Lars' retreating back as the audience slowly began to pick up their applause, growing from a soft rumble to the crash of the ocean waves finally to a sound as loud as standing beside a interstellar rocket during takeoff - enough to turn a person deaf if they were exposed to it too long!

Mr White allowed Lars to leave to rest and wash up, as the prize giving ceremony would be held together with the 2nd and 3rd placed Vignis and Darius only after the contestants cleaned up.

He was also looking forward to the surprise he had in store for not just Lars but those who had lost to him. His eyes gleamed and he smiled in expectation as he thought about how they would be gobsmacked when they received their prizes!

Chapter end