Ciel’s fight against Bruno was a stomp.

Geneva and Xia was an even match-up with advantage leaning to the Green Archangel.

Betty and Apolline followed none of the above. After the flare, the contest between the two turned into a mind-game.

Apolline, glowing with Strengthen, attacked in a glorious charge on her Pegasus. Haste boosted her speed and Aura enhanced her strength. It was an impressive attack, if not for the fact Betty was using Illusion.

‘You missed Apolline. Are you sure your head is in the game? Maximus will be sorely disappointed.’

Apolline glowered. Betty was messing with her head using Mental Pollution and distracting her with Illusion. It was a tactical ploy to mess with her concentration. This was a distraction from the simple fact that Betty wasn’t confident she could beat her directly.

Apolline resolved this dilemma by deploying the perfect White Magic for the situation — Sanction.

She didn’t have a chance.

Blue Magic Rank 5: Null

The White Magic churning into forms vanished by the wind from Blue.

‘Quite a useful blessing, but it isn't perfect. Yes, every Archangel can use White Magic up to Sanction, but you never cast the spell or communicated with Mana did you. You simply order White Mana around using the little gift from Maximus. Yes, the spell is cast, but copying the answer from a cheat-sheet doesn’t mean learning. Do you think you can defeat a master with something that cheap, Apolline?’

Instead of retaliating blindly, Apolline used her brain. Where would Betty be hiding? She needed a location to observe Apolline and within her range. No. There was a better way to lure Betty. Apolline hit upon the Eureka moment, and dove Pegasus toward the direction Geneva was fighting.

Blue Magic Rank 1: Lethargy

Apolline smiled. There she was. Betty could hide anywhere with Illusion, but her job was to delay Apolline from teaming with Geneva. Trying to leave meant the Sorceress needed to come out and physically stop her.

With Haste, Apolline reoriented her mount and struck where the Blue Magic was coming.

Betty wouldn't take it lying down.

Black Magic Rank 2: Slaughter x3

Three balls of darkness appeared into existence, homing on the Red Archangel with precise control.

Sprinting fast, Apolline swiftly sliced those lethal balls of Black Magic. She stabbed forth at the origin of the attack, striking toward an empty air, but Apolline knew Betty would be there. Through instinct and experience, Apolline knew a pure Magic specialist like Betty couldn’t evade this stab.

And score the hit, Apolline did. Except when the Illusion faded, the tip of the spear never impaled flesh. Instead, the mighty weapon was caught by a metallic slime emerging from the Sorceress' gown. Betty’s Triperna had performed admirably in blocking the strike from Apolline.

Betty greeted Apolline with a smirk.

“Quite creative,” Betty activated her Fabric of the Witch. “Have this.”

The blue sash jumped from Betty’s waist and tangled Apolline, knocking her off the Pegasus and wrapping around her like rope. Apolline struggled with the piece of clothing trying to seal her, but with Strengthen and a massive burst of Aura, she ripped the artifact to pieces.

Apolline landed unharmed, glaring at Betty.

“Wow, that is a high-ranking artifact,” Betty watched the feat in mixture of admiration and annoyance. Her Blue Magic primed and readied. “I just got it too.”

Blue Magic Rank 4: Ocean

Wall of tidal water rushed at Apolline, and she quickly retaliated.

Red Magic Rank 4: Earth Strike.

A barricade of rock sprang from the ground, shielding the Archangel from the rapid current that was flooding the camp.

Then she felt the power of Black Mana locking her body from out of nowhere.

Black Magic Rank 4: Puppetry

Betty walked out of the invisibility granted by her Illusion, perfectly timing her entrance with the flash-flood.

“Come on, Apolline, we can get along,” Betty said, approaching the paralyzed Archangel. “We don’t have to do this.”

Apolline huffed, struggling to say something, “You want to talk? That is rich.”

Betty came closer to her captive, “I know this looked bad but it…”

It was then Betty saw the future through Scry, but Apolline was too fast.

Apolline broke through the Puppetry and grabbed Betty by the wrist.

Red Magic Rank 6: Thunderstorm

Red lightnings gathered in the clouds and struck toward Betty.

Thankfully, Betty’s Scry gave her a split-second to prepare a counter-attack.

Red Magic Rank 6: Thunderstorm.

The two lightning bolts summoned by the abundance of Red Mana clashed, repulsing each other in a connubial force and energy.

Undisturbed by the light-show, Betty used Drain, forcing Apolline to let go of her.

Apolline knew she couldn’t waste the opportunity and allowed Betty to slink away. Her feet dug into the ground and summoned a series of Binds to immobilize Betty. By her will, the spears of light appeared and descended. The move was perfectly in place, trapping the Sorceress from every direction. The light javelin would prove effective against anyone without raw power to shatter Magic.

Betty wasn’t deterred. Black balls of Slaughter appeared around her, intercepting the coming light of Bind. Normally, Black Magic specialized in terms of murder. It possessed the greatest Mana density of all Rank 2 and Rank 3 spells, making it the best method to nullify Bind. In a feat of her multitasking, Betty produced the Blasting Wand while blocking the Bind and pressed her next offense. She ran copious Red Mana into her weapon and activated her bangle’s Hellfire option. Feeling that mere Hellfire-augmented attack, further amplified by the Blasting Wand, wouldn’t be enough to defeat Apolline, Betty activated the Self-Explosion for both her equipment.

The bead on her bangle broke. The cylinder off the Blasting Wand loaded and shattered the runic ammunition. The Red Magic loaded into the equipment went critical.

Red Magic Rank 3: Flare

The spectral flames, deep blue in Hellfire, fired from the Blasting Wand like the judgment of a devil. The all-consuming monster of fire exploded into a jaw of flames a hundred meters high with the temperature of the star corona — an impressive 6000 Degree Celsius of all-consuming maw descending from high above Apolline.

Apolline’s heart sank at the firepower Betty threw at her, but she refused to just fall over and died. She banked on her own combo to prevail against Betty’s assault.

Red Magic Rank 5: Mana Burst

Red Magic Rank 3: Flare

The ember of blue flame a bit into the blooming crimson fire conjured just in time to survive the brutal assault. Apolline bit her lip, strained by the contest but determined to win. Betty’s attack was on the scale above her, overpowering it with force was impossible. Despite this gap, Apolline knew she could win. She was facing a Red Magic — her forte. There was no way she would accept losing at her ace.

Barely holding the blue fires at bay, Apolline leaned on her instinct, spinning the fiery Red Mana and her Aura around the spear in her hand. It was a delicate flow of breathing, syncing the thrust with the rhythm of exhale and inhale in the middle of the all-consuming blue blaze threatening to crush her into a charred corpse. She emptied her mind and thrust, recasting her favorite spell, but focusing it on a spear point. It was the miracle that happened right before the blue flames utterly overwhelmed her magic and consumed her.

Red Magic Rank 3: Flare.

The focus torch of swirling Mana and Aura punched through the blue Hellfire Betty had conjured. By putting all the power into a single rotating point, Apolline overcame Betty’s attack, narrowly missing the Sorceress who oversaw the counter with Scry and escaped.

Not wasting time Apolline launched Smite at Betty, but the Sorceress of Athenaeum wouldn’t go down by such a simple Magic.

Reloading the Blasting Wand, Betty used Self-Explosion and mixed the Red and Black Mana in her weapon’s Fusion Core to produce her most exotic attack yet.

Red/Black Compound Magic Rank 2: Destroy

Betty’s [Compound Magic] allowed her to mix the Colors of Mana together to create a new never seen before spell. Powerful and versatile as this ability might be, it was also extremely difficult to fabricate. Betty needed to grasp the precise nature of each stage of the compound Magic. The higher the rank of mixture, the more impossible the compounded version became because the stubbornness of the conflicting philosophy. Some conflicting colors like Blue and Red were downright impossible to mix. Betty believed the hard ceiling for the compound series would be Rank 6. 

The Red/Black compound was easy. Raw chaos. The emotion of Red and the uninhibited nature of Black. By mixing highly dense Black Mana into Bolt, she created a projectile with both speed and power. It might not be as fast as Red Magic or as devastating as Black, but it took the best of both worlds.

That was Destroy.

Smite and Destroy collided in midair. The contest didn’t last long. The black and red projectile overwhelmed the light ray and blasted Apolline flying.

The Red Archangel wasn’t out, but it was clear Betty was winning.

Watching from a tent-pole that was still miraculously standing, Ciel made his presence known with a clap.

“Damn,” Ciel shouted over the huffing mages. “You exceeded my expectations by a mile, Apolline, but it is over now.”

Shining spectral mirrors warped into existence around the two. Surrounding both of them inside a geodesic dome.

“Ciel,” Apolline glared at the Unity Lord while Betty flew hastily from the containment area. “What is this?”

“A special White Magic reflector of my creation,” Ciel explained. “Take some time to set up, but that dome is over-saturating with White Mana. White and Red was an opposing Magic, so the high-concentration of White will nullify your Red arsenal. Now, I know what you are thinking—”

Apolline rushed into the barricade and bounced off the dome’s interior.

“You are thinking you can punch yourself out of the barrier,” Rem continued the conversation. “You shouldn’t bother. I devised several methods to contain an Aura user, and this is the more successful invention for the job. The dome surface directly linked with the White Mana in your body, and forced you to cast Smite onto the reflective surface. Every time you try to punch out of my toy, you are firing Smite at yourself. It is checkmate, Apolline. You can’t beat the cage with brute force. Your Red Magic is nullified and your White will only bounce back at you.”

Apolline growled and tried to smash her staff into the Archangel only to be knocked back.

“I can’t believe I had a good opinion of you,” Apolline’s voice was hurtful. “Why are you doing this?”

“That ‘why’ can fill a dictionary,” Ciel said. “Betty, what do you think?”

“She is nearly there,” Betty said. “If not for Maximus, she would have been a Color Transcendence.”

That statement shocked Apolline.

Ciel achieved his second objective of today — blowing the Red Archangel’s mind.

“Confession time, Apolline. We have several targets today. First is to steal your cheat code. I think that is achieved. I admit taking out the Black Archangel was a nice bonus, but he wasn’t the main target. Our third target is you.”

Ciel tapped the cage.

“Heart-to-heart, most of us are pretty okay with you.”

Apolline wasn’t happy, “I don’t want your offer.”

“You would want to hear it,” Ciel replied. “This dome wouldn’t work on a real White Mage unless they are an Archangel. You aren’t stupid to not notice the discrepancies. Truth is the White Mana never aided you willingly or else this cage will already fail at the fundamental level. You are a Red mage. Understanding freedom should be your second nature.”

“Shut up,” Apolline was deeply in denial.

“You must know,” Ciel said. “The White Magic of the Archangel is holding you back. Let's look at that previous fight. You pushed back Betty’s Hellfire with only raw mastery in Red, but you folded the moment you switched to White. That Archangel blessing never gives you an affinity for White Mana, only oppressive control over it. And isn’t oppressive control an opposite of freedom?”

Apolline remained silent.

“Look Apolline,” Betty said. “I get it. You don’t want to betray Maximus or your comrades, but the line was crossed ages ago.” She pointed at the zombified bodies of the Paladins in the distance. “They never told you about that, did they?”

The defeated Apolline looked up.

“What are you trying to tell me? That I am better off being your collectibles alongside Betty and Xia?”

Ciel nodded, “Touché, it is good to know you still have your head screwed correctly. Yes, you are right to suspect me. You are the top candidate for my Authority. It would be stupid for a young successful woman with a body of a model, not to suspect a god whose portfolio lies between being a gigolo and debauched Harem King. Everyone knew my Authority before they accepted the deal. That is how I roll.”

The Unity Lord then put the bow on the mind-screw.

“But is Maximus the same? Did the thought of his Authority ever occur to you? Or did your brain turn itself off the moment you try to ask?”

“I-I,” Apolline stuttered.

“Apolline,” Ciel said. “What is Maximus’ Authority?”

It was then Apolline was stuck. She didn’t know, but worst, that simple basic precaution had never occurred to her. Did she trust the man she never liked at face value?

What was wrong with her?

Betty pointed in the distance at the coming Green comet, “Ciel, Geneva is coming.”

“As planned,” Ciel turned to Apolline. “You should close your eyes for this. It would be nasty.”