Chapter 38: I Had to Survive Three Minutes Against Lira

Adrián had never seen her like this.

In two seconds, the girl with the lollipops became something completely different.

Her expression barely changed—she still wore that same slightly mischievous smile—but her body settled into a posture that wasn’t human.

Every muscle seemed to shift into its ideal position.

Her golden eyes dilated just slightly.

Silvano didn’t move.

He simply lowered his hands from behind his back and let them hang loosely at his sides.

"Rules?" he asked.

"No Talents," Ishtar said. "Physical only. And no tearing Silvano’s clothes because Rhea yells at me afterward."

"Agreed."

"Let’s go."

And she disappeared.

Adrián wasn’t exaggerating.

One moment, she was standing in front of Silvano.

The next, she was less than four inches from his chest, her left elbow raised at an angle aimed directly at his jaw.

Silvano tilted his head two inches to the right.

The elbow grazed past his ear.

Ishtar twisted her body in midair, landed on her left foot, and launched a low kick at Silvano’s ankle.

Silvano lifted his foot a fraction of a second before impact.

Ishtar’s kick sliced through the air where his ankle had been.

From the wall, Adrián felt the displacement of air.

"Are you following them, brother-in-law?" Lira asked from her rug, her voice soft.

"...Barely."

"Focus. You’re going to have to do something similar afterward."

Adrián focused.

Ishtar attacked again.

A straight right punch aimed at Silvano’s solar plexus.

Silvano intercepted it with an open palm—the impact cracked through the room like a dry slap against marble—twisted Ishtar’s hand, and tried to pull her forward to throw her off balance.

Ishtar let herself follow the momentum.

She dropped.

Rolled across the floor.

Came back to her feet three yards away from Silvano.

And launched herself at him again.

Faster this time.

Adrián stopped being able to follow the movements clearly.

He could only see impacts.

Elbows.

Palms.

Knees.

Feet.

A continuous flow of strikes that Ishtar threw while Silvano intercepted or avoided them with the same calm he had possessed two minutes earlier.

Silvano never attacked first.

He only redirected.

Using the smallest amount of effort.

The smallest possible movement.

Every interception looked calculated down to the millimeter.

After two minutes of uninterrupted combat, Silvano finally attacked.

Once.

Only once.

A movement of his right hand—so fast Adrián couldn’t even see the full arc—that struck Ishtar in the shoulder with the tips of two fingers.

Just two fingers.

Just the fingertips.

Ishtar flew backward three yards.

She landed on her feet, slid another yard from the momentum, and remained standing while her red pigtails continued swinging from the impact.

Silence.

Ishtar brought a hand to her shoulder.

Rolled it.

Frowned.

"Silvano."

"Yes?"

"That was cheating."

"You said no Talents. You never said anything about pressure points."

"Pressure points are basically a Talent."

"They’re technique."

Silvano looked toward Adrián.

"Boy. Adrián. Are you watching?"

"I’m watching," Adrián said, his throat dry.

"Good. Pay attention."

Silvano gestured toward Ishtar.

"Ishtar is five times faster than I am. But I have three hundred more years of combat experience than she does."

His voice remained calm.

"Speed can be compensated for with reading."

"And reading comes with time."

"When you’re my age, you’ll be able to do this too."

A pause.

"Until then, you rely on other things."

Ishtar, still rubbing her shoulder, smiled.

"Silvano, you bastard. If you hit me like that before the kid’s training session, I’m not going to have an arm for the rest of the day."

"Ishtar."

"Yes?"

"You made the comment."

"I followed through."

He adjusted one cuff.

"Do you withdraw it?"

Ishtar sighed.

"I withdraw it. Adrián will generate a second illusion before three weeks."

She thought for a second.

"I’ll give him two."

"Good."

Silvano turned toward Adrián.

He adjusted the cuffs of his shirt.

"Boy. What you just saw was combat at a level you currently can’t even dream of approaching."

Adrián swallowed.

"But it was important for you to see it."

"You need to understand what you’re aiming for."

"And you need to understand that in the demonic world, the gap between a newly reincarnated demon and an experienced one is enormous."

Silvano looked directly at him.

"The only way to close that gap is training."

"Every day."

"Without exception."

"...Okay."

"Now it’s your turn."

Adrián breathed in.

He looked toward Lira.

She was already rising from the rug with her usual feline grace.

Her modernized kimono settled itself around her legs.

That serene smile appeared as though it had never left.

"Darling~" she said. "Your turn."

"..."

"Come to the center."

Her smile widened.

"Let’s play."

Adrián walked into the middle of the room.

"Okay. You can do this."

"You cannot do this."

"Fine. You can’t do it well. But you can at least try."

He stopped in front of Lira.

She looked him up and down with that same calculated slowness.

Ran her tongue lightly along the edge of her lower lip.

Tilted her head.

"Darling. Rules."

She raised one finger.

"I’m going to use my Talent."

A second.

"You’re going to use everything you have."

"The Mask."

"Luck."

"And the Fragment of the Moon you copied yesterday."

She smiled.

"I’ll attack at twenty percent of my actual capacity."

"You’re going to try to stay on your feet for three minutes."

"Twenty percent?"

"Yes, darling."

She said it like it should have been reassuring.

"At one hundred percent, I disintegrate you."

Adrián stared at her.

"At fifty percent, I knock you unconscious."

A pause.

"At twenty percent, you actually have a chance to learn something."

Her smile deepened.

"It’s fair."

"...Okay."

"Ready?"

"No."

"Perfect."

Lira lifted her right hand.

"We begin."

And the training room transformed.

The stone walls dissolved.

Not literally.

Adrián understood that half a second later.

The walls were still there.

But layered over them—

superimposed—

was now a forest.

Tall trees.

Violet leaves glowing beneath an impossible full moon.

Low mist curling between the trunks.

A star-filled night sky that didn’t belong to any real sky Adrián had ever seen.

The warm orange light from the hanging lamps vanished, replaced by cold silver light spilling down from above.

Adrián turned his head.

Ishtar and Silvano were gone.

Or they were still there.

He just couldn’t see them.

The illusion had hidden them.

"Darling~"

Lira’s voice came from behind him.

Not from where she had been standing two seconds earlier.

Adrián spun around.

No one was there.