Frieren: Understand Humans, Aura!

Sasha had always believed her master feared nothing.

Master Aura—so powerful, so composed, so utterly untouchable. Sasha had watched her face down dangers that would leave others trembling. She carried herself with an air of invincibility, as if even the goddess herself could be cursed and challenged without hesitation.

Until today.

Trailing after her master into a bandit hideout, Sasha was greeted by the sight of carnage. Bodies littered the field, twisted and broken, their lifeless faces etched with horror. And there, in the midst of the blood-soaked battlefield, was Aura.

Kneeling. Begging for mercy.

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When negotiations crumbled, Aura's demeanor shifted in an instant. Just moments ago, she had been on her knees, begging for mercy. Now, she surged to her feet, her hand snapping to the battle axe strapped at her side.

With a feral roar, she swung the massive weapon toward Flamme.

Flamme's instincts kicked in.

Defensive magic: Schutz

The translucent shield shimmered into existence—but it was too fragile against physical attack.

Rip!

Aura's axe tore through the barrier like it was made of glass. The spell shattered into glimmering fragments as the weapon carved through the air, bearing down on Flamme.

"Huh?"

Flamme barely reacted in time, her body moving on pure reflex.

High-Speed Movement: Jilwer!

Her form blurred, darting out of the weapon's path. The edge of the axe narrowly missed her, the force of the swing grazing her robes and kicking up a sharp gust that stung her skin.

'What is this…?' Flamme's mind raced, her breath hitching. Demons known for close combat existed, but Aura was unlike any she had ever seen. Her movements weren't just enhanced—they were impossibly precise, each swing augmented by layers of obedience magic that pushed her physical abilities to their peak.

Aura didn't give her time to think. With a wicked grin, she hefted the axe again, advancing with a predatory grace.

Flamme gritted her teeth, her hands already weaving through complex gestures. She needed to slow Aura down.

Gravity Manipulation: Schwerkraft!

The air around Aura grew heavy. The ground trembled under the sudden force, cracks forming beneath Aura's feet. Flamme poured mana into the spell, five times the weight pressing down on her foe.

Aura didn't stop. She took a step forward, her muscles straining against the crushing gravity. The sheer force radiating from her body pushed back the spell's influence, her boots grinding into the dirt as she powered through.

Flamme clenched her fists.

Destructive Lightning: Judradjim!

A cascade of blinding lightning bolts rained down from Flamme staff, each strike aimed directly at Aura. The battlefield erupted in flashes of white and blue, the scent of burn corpses thick in the air.

Aura didn't flinch. The bolts struck her body, crackling across her form, but she pushed through the onslaught, her figure wreathed in arcs of wild electricity.

'She's shrugging it off?!'

Desperation crept into Flamme's thoughts. Her fingers blurred as she cast another spell.

Illusion Magic: Trugbild!

The air shimmered as phantom copies of Flamme appeared, darting in every direction to confuse Aura. Each illusion mirrored her movements perfectly, indistinguishable from the original.

Aura's gaze flicked from one figure to the next, her lips curling into a smirk. Without hesitation, she barreled forward, ignoring the illusions entirely and homing in on the real Flamme.

Flamme's heart pounded. She had to act faster.

Paralysis Bind: Lähmend! Debilitating Chains: Fesseln! Gravity Manipulation: Schwerkraft!

Dozens of glowing chains erupted from the ground, snaking toward Aura. They coiled around her arms and legs, locking her in place. At the same time, waves of paralyzing energy coursed through her body, targeting her nerves and mana flow.

But Flamme wasn't done yet.

With a sharp flick of her wrist, the gravitational field around Aura intensified. The ground beneath her trembled and cracked as the overwhelming force pressed down on her, creating a deep crater beneath her feet. The air itself grew heavy, rippling with unseen weight, as if the battlefield had been submerged in an invisible ocean.

Aura's knees bent slightly under the sheer force, her body resisting the crushing gravity. Her axe, impossibly heavy now, sank into the dirt with a dull thud. For a brief moment, it seemed as though the combined onslaught of magic might finally subdue her.

Flamme's eyes burned with determination. She poured more mana into the spell, the strain evident in her trembling hands. "Stay down!" she hissed, her voice echoing across the field. The gravitational pull increased yet again, the cracks beneath Aura spidering out like a web, as though the earth itself sought to imprison her.

Aura let out a low growl, her eyes glowing with a dangerous light.

With a sudden burst of power, she straightened her posture, the muscles in her legs and arms flexing against the crushing weight. Her boots ground against the fractured earth, sending shards of stone scattering as she forced one foot forward, then the other. The chains binding her arms began to creak ominously, straining against her raw strength.

"Is this all you've got?" Aura sneered, her voice defiant despite the crushing forces that would have flattened most creatures. Sparks of electricity began to crackle around her body, the sheer intensity of her mana pushing against the oppressive gravity like a wildfire refusing to be snuffed out.

Flamme's confidence wavered. This wasn't possible. No one could move under such conditions—let alone charge forward.

This combination of spells had immobilized even demon generals who specialized in physical build, the strongest warrior in the world, would stop moving.

But Aura wasn't like anyone Flamme had faced.

With a guttural growl, Aura flexed her arms, shattering the glowing chains like brittle twigs. The paralyzing magic fizzled against the sheer intensity of her mana, unable to disrupt the storm of power surging through her. Her body crackled with electricity and raw magical energy as she charged forward, unrelenting.

Aura's axe came down again.

Clang!

The strike was faster, sharper, more ferocious than the last. Flamme barely had time to react. She raised her arms defensively, the enchanted rings around her wrists glowing brightly. The axe struck with an earsplitting clash, shattering four of the six defensive rings in an instant. The force of the blow sent a shockwave through Flamme's body, numbing her arms as she was flung backward.

Her voice trembled as she muttered another spell.

Teleportation: Versetzen!

Whoosh!

Flamme vanished, reappearing thirty meters away in a swirl of light. She stumbled, her legs shaking, her breath ragged. Glancing at her wrists, she grimaced at the sight of her broken spell rings.

'If I hadn't teleported just now…'

Aura turned to face her, dragging the axe behind her, sparks flying as the blade scraped against the ground. Her eyes gleamed with savage delight, and a twisted smile spread across her face.

"I can win!"

Aura had never felt so powerful.

Her grip tightened on her axe, her heart pounding in sync with the surge of mana coursing through her veins. She was facing Flamme—the legendary human mage who had slaughtered demons with brutal efficiency, her name a shadow over every demon's heart. No demon in history had lasted more than three rounds against Flamme at full strength.

But now... now, it was different.

Aura felt the weight of the power she had drawn upon, the result of her mastery of obedience magic, twisted to her own ends. This was no mere boost. This was something more, something greater. With this power, she could challenge even the Demon King—within ten steps.

Her gaze burned as she locked eyes on Flamme, the mage who had caused untold pain for her kind. 'With this strength... this strength... I can kill her right here, right now."'

But as she moved forward, the world seemed to slow. Her thoughts, so certain just moments ago, began to blur.

Aura swung the axe in a wide arc, the blade shimmering with deadly intent, but—

'Wait... wait... this isn't right!'

Her hands loosened their grip on the handle, and the axe slipped from her grasp. For a moment, she just stood there, stunned, unable to comprehend the sudden shift.

'I resolved to kill her! I was so close to ending the greatest enemy of demons! Why? Why is this happening?!'

Her mind screamed as the hesitation clawed at her, confusing her. She had come this far. She had drawn the power, felt the confidence. This was her chance—her only chance—to destroy the one who had hunted her kind for years.

But—was it Frieren's command to 'not harm humans'? Hadn't that order been lifted? She had been freed of that curse, hadn't she?

'Damn it… damn it! That cursed elf must have left some fail-safe! Frieren, you wretched elf!'

The thought of her forced protection of Frieren, the elf who had bound her, enraged Aura. The moment the axe slipped from her hands, she reacted. Her instincts kicked in, and she caught the axe mid-air. Her grip returned. She was ready to strike again—but it was already too late.

"No… not again!"

In that split second of hesitation, the deadly precision of Flamme's magic took hold.

Golden spears of anti-magic shot through the air like lightning. This time, Flamme used non-physical anti-demon magic.

In a mage's duel, even a millisecond of hesitation could be fatal, especially against Flamme, the most gifted mage of the past thousand years.

Aura barely registered the attack before they pierced her body. She had no time to react—no time to defend. The spears melted into her flesh upon contact, leaving no physical wounds, but instead, draining the very essence of her mana.

The paralysis was immediate. The force of Flamme's anti-demon magic sapped the strength from Aura's body as the obedience magic she had relied on began to fade, its hold over her dissipating.

"No!" Aura's body shook, but she couldn't move. No matter how she struggled, no matter how fiercely she tried to push through the suffocating grip of the magic, she could not rise.

She collapsed to the ground, the weight of the spell anchoring her to the earth. Her breaths were ragged, each one a desperate attempt to overcome the invisible force that held her down.

Flamme wiped the sweat from her brow, her breath slow but steady. "That was close..." Her voice barely a whisper, but the tremor in it betrayed her true feelings.

In all her years of battling demons, there had only been two times when she nearly died.

The first was when Aura had strangled her and forced her to admit defeat.

The second was just now. If Aura hadn't lost her grip on the axe, Flamme's remaining defensive spells wouldn't have withstood that mountain-splitting blow.

'What had happened just now?'

Flamme recalled the moment Aura had suddenly let go of her weapon.

'Was it the paralysis effect of the lightning magic?'

'But that spell had been ineffective earlier.'

'Was it a delayed reaction?'

'No, lightning magic didn't have a delay effect.' Of the many spells Flamme had cast, only the illusion spell had such an effect—but that spell only worked on humans. It had never once succeeded on demons.

'Forget it—'

Flamme abandoned the thought.

The priority now wasn't solving the puzzle of Aura's hesitation. What mattered was… she had finally captured Aura again.

Her gaze shifted to Aura, who lay on the ground, her body trembling as if the very strength had been drained from her. Aura's limbs felt like they had been severed, and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't crawl, couldn't rise. Every movement was slow and labored, like the weight of her own failure was too heavy to bear.

Flamme's staff hovered just above her neck, pressing down gently, enough to remind Aura of her absolute helplessness. The great demon now lay still, her body wracked with futile attempts to escape. Her eyes were full of tears, a silent plea as she gazed up at Flamme.

For a brief moment, a flicker of doubt stirred within Flamme, but she quickly buried it.

Most people would have been moved by such a pitiful display. The fear, the helplessness—wasn't it natural to feel pity for a creature on the brink of death?

But Flamme had long since grown immune to demons' deceitful final acts. She had seen too many of these false displays of vulnerability. These desperate pleas were nothing but hollow cries meant to manipulate. Her heart had become as cold as the weapons she wielded.

"Demons really are incorrigible," Flamme muttered aloud, her gaze sweeping over the surrounding corpses. The humans who had fallen to Aura's insatiable hunger. She sighed deeply, the weight of it all pressing on her chest. 'Another life lost, another betrayal.'

"Aura… I thought you were different." The words slipped from Flamme's lips, more to herself than to the demon at her feet. There had been a time when she thought Aura might be something more—different from the others. But now, she had proven herself just as unworthy of any mercy.

The struggle in Aura's eyes intensified. "Don't kill me. Please, I beg you, don't kill me, Flamme!" The words were familiar. The same desperate pleas, the same tone as before. "I'll do anything."

Flamme's lips tightened into a thin line. Those words had lost their meaning long ago. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice. She couldn't.

The magic surged at the tip of Flamme's staff, a raw, crackling energy that hummed with the promise of death. Aura had consumed humans. She had crossed a line that Flamme could never forgive. It violated the very core of her principles, the unyielding moral code that had guided her all these years. Flamme should have struck the final blow without hesitation.

But for a moment—just a moment—Flamme hesitated.

'Why?' Her mind churned. She couldn't afford weakness now. Not with the demon at her mercy. Not after everything she had fought for.

Yet…

She remembered the last time they had crossed paths.

Aura had broken her own horns to save that elf.

The thought was haunting. Despite her cold, ruthless nature, Aura had shown… something else. A vulnerability. A willingness to sacrifice herself for someone else.

And then, just moments ago, even when her bloodlust had surged, when she had been ready to kill, Aura had held back. The demon had realized Flamme wasn't affiliated with the bandits and had let her go, despite everything.

'Could Aura's killings really have been justified?'

Flamme's grip tightened on her staff. No. She couldn't entertain such thoughts. Who could prove that? Who could say what was truly in Aura's heart?

Just as she steeled herself, ready to deliver the final blow, a voice cut through the tension.

"Stop! Let Master Aura go!"

Flamme's eyes snapped toward the source of the voice. A farm girl with pale pink hair, stepping into her path with a fierce determination that struck her like a thunderclap.

The farm girl's gaze was unwavering, filled with a mixture of fear and fierce loyalty.