A few days after his moderate cordial date with Betty, Ciel was locked inside a fight to the death.

Everything was on fire, the scent of smoke entrenched the battlefield, and Ciel quietly resolved to receive the complaint from Amy about getting the soot on his new clothes. Flames surrounded him and the ravenous beast, locking them in a contest of survival. His [Elemental Resistance] softened the blazing heat into a warm wind on his skin.

Blood trickled down his face, but the pain barely caused changes in his expression.

This was bad. What happened today was a hint of the disaster to come.

…

The Unity Lord’s fight to the death began when Lycane asked him on a night-date.

“Ciel,” Lycane, the member of Hecate Expeditionary Force, showed him a detailed plan for a midnight date. “Are you free tonight?”

“Yes,” Ciel knew what was about to happen. “And yes, I am free for a date.”

From the guest’s table in the middle of the room, Betty looked at Ciel with the classic ‘are you serious’ eyes.

Lycane felt the subtle shift in the mood, “Do you have a problem, Miss Elizabeth?”

“No,” Betty answered. However, Betty was lost about how she should feel. It was like she was losing a competition she had never participated in. The only thing Betty could do was bite her lip in confusion, asking herself whether she was a foolish one here.

…

Without a doubt, Betty was a fool for being the only person in the room who had no clarity about where the date would end.

The date was romantic. Lycane greeted Ciel in her usual armor at the fountain at the center of the Janus. The setting sun painted the beautiful image behind her as the two started a romantic walk down the street of the small town. In no time, thanks partly by Lycane’s appetite, the stroll quickly transformed into a bar-crawl.

Alas, all good things ended.

Lycane turned toward Ciel after emptying the last bar, “Ciel, I want to go out of the town. I think we can see the stars better that way.”

“Alright,” Ciel answered. “You know, I often wonder what is up there on the stars?”

…

“Remember what I said about looking at the stars,” Ciel stated to Lycane beneath the romantic night. “Well, one of us will be looking for our place among them tonight.”

The two former daters stood opposite each other under the starry sky on the load outside of Janus. The atmosphere was suffocating. Tension had put a bullet between the eyes of romance. Ciel looked at Lycane with neutrality. Meanwhile, the tanned bundle of auburn hair and green highlight grinned playfully at him, but that smile was mirthless.

“I like you, Ciel,” Lycane confessed. Her eyes were bloodthirsty. “What is Holmes planning? Tell me and no one gets hurt.”

“Mask off at last,” Ciel replied. “You were aiming at that from the get-to-go. Must be frustrating to spy on us and get nothing back.”

Lycane leaned her head back in a thoughtful gesture, “It isn’t so bad. Elizabeth alone made the effort worth it. Who would have guessed the most sought woman in Hecate will be working herself up in a knot for you? Watching her squirm like that never got old.” The young woman went back to the track. “Okay, answer me, Ciel. What is Holmes after?”

Ciel wasn’t amused, “And you are expecting me to rat it out?”

“How about a sales-pitch?” Lycane started making offerings. “I can recommend you to Lady Etaceh. Your skill isn’t bad, Ciel. It would be ashamed if someone like you had to die alongside Holmes.” She licked her lips. “You might even make an excellent husband.”

“I refuse,” Ciel answered. “Already taken.”

“What a shame,” Lycane smiled with malicious intent. “I guess some poor woman will become a widow tonight.”

Green Mana gathered in the sphere in front of the woman, and the spell was cast.

Green Magic Rank 3: Beast Contract

A wolf lunged from the ball of green Mana.

A light shone.

…

Lycane expected Ciel to die.

In her mind, Ciel was a harmless artificer. He was equally powerless, as he was talented. A single Magic would be enough to silence him.

Instead, a wolf's decapitated head flew out from the light. And from the swirl of White Mana, Ciel emerged wearing an artifact set.

Due to the nature of runes, and its interference effect on each other, a maximum of six artifacts could be equipped at any given time. While minor exceptions like disposable artifacts existed, these six artifact slots were considered a vital power boost. But given that high-grade artifacts weren’t common, the boost it gave was usually small. Most were, like Lycane herself, lacking the artifact to equip aside from an official sword and mass produce armor with few pluses in protection and recovery.

As a disciple of Holmes with access to [Calculative] and [Construction], Ciel didn’t operate like most cases. He spent long and hard to engineer the best artifact for himself and prepared the best possible equipment. His current best was an all black and gray ensemble of leather shoes, waistcoat, trouser and shirt treated with magical-dye.

…

Unity Lord’s Prototype (4-piece set)

Rank: ****

Option [1]: Power +7

Option [2]: Speed +6

Option [3]: Defense +5

…

It was a four piece-set that combined to create three options, boasting a new height of performance compared to its competition.

Aside from his newest suit, Ciel also produced a bracelet and a bastard sword from the inventory. Both of them were forged from the material of Xia’s Cave of Grace as a prototype for the artifact Ciel planned to make for his girl.

…

White Bracelet

Rank: ***

Option [1]: Health +1

Option [2]: White Magic +2

…

Caliber

Rank: ****

Option [1]: Holy Strike

Option [2]: Aura +2

Option [3]: Regeneration

…

“Lycane,” Ciel pointed his sword — Caliber — at the hostile woman. “At least take this seriously.”

Lycane smiled, “Okay, this might actually be fun.”

She drew her own sword and came to Ciel.

As the two traded their Aura-clad blows, the Residence of Lord rose with activity.

Amy: Xia, help him!

Xia: Don’t worry, Amy. Ciel got this. This might actually be a good opportunity for him to prove his skill against a real threat.

Green Mana coalesced around Lycane as she launched the spell.

Green Magic Rank 2: Life Growth

Green Magic, in general, was more associated with life and amassing Mana. To produce any killing power, the practitioner of Green Magic must make a contract with a species. With no contract, Green mages would lose more than half of its total power and meet their demise. Most prevalent examples were Slomrath whose Green Magic proved utterly useless in tipping his losing fight against Xia during the Princess of White Incident.

Ciel received Xia’s lectures. He knew the Life Growth effect on Green Mana and life force wasn’t enough to tip the battlefield. Instead, he pressed forth and empowered himself with White Mana.

White Magic Rank 2: Strengthen

The two-handed blow, powered by Strengthen, Aura, and a humongous boost from his artifacts, smashed through Lycane’s guard and sent her stumbling back.

Not to be outdone, Lycane summoned a giant wolf using another Beast Contract and the flooding Green Mana from Life Growth.

The wolf was the size of a small wagon charged toward Ciel, but his sword was armed with Holy Strike — an amplified slash fueled by White Mana. Wasting no effort, Ciel bisected the wolf in half and struck with the slash of the shattered Lycane’s blocking sword.

Weaponless, Lycane resorted to summoning more wolves to fend Ciel off.

But Ciel had developed a tactic to use against zerg-rush. He produced a set of disposable nanoscale knives from the [Treasury].

…

Razor

Rank: **

Option [1]: Self-Explosion

…

Self-Explosion wasn’t your usual fiery explosive. It was an option which greatly amplified the weapon’s performance at the expense of destroying the artifact afterward.

Replicating the tactic against Slomrath, Ciel threw out countless knives, annihilating the hoard of wolves Lycane summoned without wasting the stamina to cast a single spell. Wolves fell in droves, shredded by the sharp blades that penetrated its skin and severed its vital organs. Few of the canines which made it past the knives were cut down by Ciel' himself, rendering Lycane’s effort moot.

Without a weapon, and staring at defeat, Lycane admitted she had no chance against Ciel unless she took drastic measures.

“You force me to do this,” Lycane howled, and her body transformed.

Flames ran across her skin as furs grew at alarming speeds. The woman's legs lengthened. Her arm grew longer. The beautiful face spasm and twisted into a snout of a wolf. Her muscle rippled and flexed under her stretching skin as she towered over Ciel. The armor she wore fell to the floor in pieces. Her hands and feet turned into claws, and fangs grew in the mouth as human teeth fell. Two pairs of predator eyes trained toward Ciel.

The entire Residence was in an uproar

Amy: What the hell is that?

Caislean: Is she a werewolf?

Xia: They went extinct years ago! Ciel, be careful!

Lycane, the werewolf, swelled with power as Green Mana compressed into her body and blew outward in an ocean of fire.

…

And that was how Ciel found himself in the fiery world.

“You don’t look so good, Ciel,” Lycane’s raspy voice emerged from her mouth.

She was right. Ciel’s artifacts and Aura tanked the explosion, but it took a lot out of him. However, Ciel wasn’t beaten, and he already assembled the glowing White Mana to heal his injury.

“Your body is carved with runes,” Ciel noticed the line of fire forming a letter on Lycane’s skin. “It gives you the ability to channel a Mana into a Red Magic.” Ciel recalled the explosive Betty once gave him. “Flare, isn’t it?”

“You are smart,” Lycane said. “It hurts like hell to use, but I doubt you can survive another explosion at point-blank!”

Lycane followed her threat with a charge, but Ciel was nothing if not prepared.

The Unity Lord dropped his sword and pulled the last artifact of today out of his treasury. The ultimate counter-attack artifact.

…

Counter Shield

Rank: ***

Option [1]: Self-Explosion

Option [2]: Rebound

…

It was the one-and-done shield that exploded its potential to magnify the backlash from the melee attack back to the attacker.

Lycane charged head-first toward the shield and met with a wall of Ether. The collision rattled her brain, stunning her as the Counter Shield fell apart in pieces.

Ciel perfectly exploited the stun with the highest Rank of White Magic available to him. It was a gamble because he simply couldn’t use it proficiently in combat yet.

White Magic Rank 3: Bind

Several rods of light impaled the werewolf, locking her in place and sealing Lycane’s Mana.

Lycane couldn’t do a thing when Ciel flipped his sword back into his waiting hand with a kick and beheaded her. A Holy Strike cleaved her head from her shoulder in a fountain of blood, closing the brief battle.