Last Gun Alchemist

Cognis flowed out from Grace’s body in massive amounts.

The faint white Cognis took the shape of thin lightning as it spread across her body, surging along her arms, legs, chest, and back before spilling outward from her.

The snow around her boots was pushed away.

Small pieces of broken rock scattered across the damaged platform, rolling several feet away as the pressure of her Cognis continued to build. Some of the loose stones trembled against the ground before being pushed farther away, while the snow gathered around her boots was swept back in thin waves.

The wind also grew stronger.

Grace’s hair was pushed backward, and the edges of her training cloth fluttered hard behind her as the pressure continued to rise.

The atmosphere around the fighting platform changed.

Everyone in the Arena who understood how Alchemists fought could tell what was happening.

Even the Non-Alchemists, who couldn’t properly catch sight of everything the two Young Gun Alchemists were doing on the stage, could feel that something different was happening. They couldn’t follow every movement, but they could see the white Cognis gathering around Grace and the way the wind was being pushed away from her.

This wasn’t another exchange.

This was the final strike Grace Evergrey was preparing.

The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 only had one round.

But it was definitely the kind of weapon where one round was enough.

Grace’s grey eyes remained locked on Vera.

Even if Vera tries to evade the gunshot...

Her thoughts moved rapidly as she calculated the possibilities.

The force of the impact is enough to send her flying out of the platform.

Or it will force her to focus all of her strength on avoiding the gunshot, which will give me the opening I need to shoot her with the Long Revolver.

Her grip tightened around the weapon.

The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 was dangerous.

If the shot landed directly on Vera, it could easily kill her.

And if that happened, Grace knew she would be in serious trouble.

But I trust Vera will evade.

Grace’s lips curved into a small smirk.

It’s just that... sadly all the ideas for her to evade cleanly are off the table.

That was the part she was counting on.

She didn’t need to defeat Vera with the Mauser.

Since she couldn’t aim for the kill.

Grace only needed to force Vera into a position where she could follow up with the Long Revolver.

The white Cognis flowing through Grace’s body suddenly changed direction.

A stream of Cognis moved from the lower-right point of her first Star in a straight horizontal line.

It connected with the second Star.

Then, without stopping, the white Cognis flowed into the third Star.

The third Star was only fragmentally constructed.

Even so, it was enough.

The Cognis continued through her mind realm before flowing into her veins.

It traveled down her arm and entered her hand.

Then it emerged from her palm.

The white Cognis flowed directly into the Circuit systems of the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918.

One Circuit line lit up.

Then another.

Then another.

Within moments, close to hundreds of Circuit lines throughout the weapon began glowing white.

The light started from the handle area before spreading along the rifle’s body, passing through the internal Circuit systems and reaching almost every section of the massive firearm.

The Mauser seemed to come alive in Grace’s hands.

The white lines of light ran across its body as the weapon accepted the Cognis flowing into its Circuit systems, and the low vibration coming from the firearm became mixed with the sound of the wind around the platform.

The wind around Grace continued to move violently.

Yet Grace herself became completely still.

She lowered her body into a perfect kneeling shooting posture.

One knee pressed against the platform.

The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 rested firmly against her body.

Her hands held the weapon in the correct position, and her eyes remained fixed on Vera.

Then something strange happened.

The air around Grace’s position calmed.

The wind was still blowing around the platform, but directly around her, the pressure seemed to settle.

It wasn’t because Grace was confident that she could end the fight right there.

It was because the idea Louis had given her for using the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 was finally moving smoothly.

She had practiced it.

She had prepared for this moment.

And if she executed the plan perfectly...

I will take this win, Lady Vera Ashenlocke.

Grace’s finger moved toward the trigger.

Her breathing slowed.

Her entire body became focused on the single shot.

She had waited for this moment.

Now she only needed to fire.

At Vera’s position...

Something else had already happened.

Vera had performed a Gun Alchemy in response.

The execution had started the moment she jumped and kicked Grace.

While her body was still moving through the air, Vera had thrown out her Alchemy materials.

Her hands came together.

Clap!

She completed the motion before her feet even touched the ground.

The materials hovered nearby.

The moment Vera’s feet touched the platform, the Gun Alchemy Circle formed completely beneath her.

She immediately slammed both hands onto the ground.

The Alchemy Circle ignited.

Cognis poured out from the formation and wrapped around the materials.

The materials began to melt.

They compressed.

Then they flowed upward, hovering above the glowing Alchemy Circle.

The pieces twisted and changed shape as the Alchemy took effect.

Metal became a frame.

Other materials joined it.

The structures compressed further before taking the shape of firearms.

Vera reached out.

She caught the two handguns with practiced ease.

Her dull black eyes never left Grace.

The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 was now fully charged.

And Vera knew what was coming.

In her mind, she had already played through thousands of responses she could make against the incoming attack.

She understood Grace’s plan.

Grace was looking for a single millisecond in which she could charge the rifle and fire.

If Vera allowed Grace to move the rifle freely, Vera could no longer simply depend on redirecting the aim at the final moment.

And Grace had succeeded in gaining that time.

At least, that was what Grace believed.

Vera had actually allowed her to gain it.

Her dull black eyes remained fixed on the Mauser.

She knew she could easily redirect the gunshot from the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918.

The time needed for Grace to fully charge up the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 would be close to a second.

That was still much slower than Vera’s natural movement.

Her physical strength was already equal to that of an average Meister Alchemist, and her speed was far beyond what Grace could properly track.

But Vera understood the problem with the Mauser.

The danger wasn’t only the bullet.

It was the impact.

If the bullet collided with something while she redirected it, the resulting force could create a much larger problem than simply avoiding the shot.

That impact could force Vera to use more power than she wanted.

And, more importantly, Vera would be extremely irritated if she allowed an Evergrey to make her use even a little of her full Alchemy power.

She would rather die than let that happen.

That was why she had chosen this method.

She didn’t need to stop Grace from charging the Mauser.

She only needed to make sure the shot didn’t go where Grace intended.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Then...

BANG!

A small set of rapid gunshots echoed through the Arena first.

Several shots came in quick succession, so close together that to many spectators they almost sounded like one continuous burst.

A few milliseconds later, the much larger gunshot echoed loudly through the entire Arena.

The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 had fired.

The force of the shot pushed Grace’s hair and training cloth backward.

The wind around the platform became violent again.

”Eh?”

Grace’s grey eyes widened.

Her expression changed completely.

Her hands...

The hands that had been holding the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 only a moment ago...

Had suddenly dropped.

Her aim, which had been fixed directly on Vera, shifted downward.

The barrel pointed toward the platform only a short distance away from Grace.

Grace’s hand holding the barrel had suddenly released the weapon.

She stared at it.

Then at her hand.

Her grey eyes followed the movement in confusion.

Something caught the light.

A tiny glimmer against her hand.

A thin needle.

”What?”

The word escaped Grace’s mouth before she could stop it.

Her mind struggled to understand what she was seeing.

A needle was attached to her hand.

But she hadn’t seen Vera shoot it.

She hadn’t seen Vera move.

She hadn’t even noticed anything touching her.

Then Grace realized what that meant.

The Mauser had already fired.

The bullet was no longer under her control.

It struck the ground.

BOOM!

The destruction was immediate.

The platform beneath the impact point broke apart.

Stone shattered outward as the force of the bullet drove into the ground, and the damage spread across the fighting area in an instant.

A wide crack erupted from the point of impact.

It raced across the platform beneath Grace’s feet, splitting through the already damaged stone.

More sections of the platform broke apart, sending tiny fragments into the air.

Snow was thrown upward along with the broken pieces of the platform, and some of the stone disintegrated into smaller particles as the impact continued spreading.

The wind exploded outward.

Flames rose from the damaged ground.

The force of the explosion shook Grace’s body and sent loose pieces of stone rolling across the platform.

The shock wave traveled across the fighting area before reaching the Force Field surrounding the stage.

BOOOOM!

The Force Field vibrated.

It shook more heavily than it had during the previous explosions and attacks throughout the festival.

The enormous barrier surrounding the fight area trembled under the pressure before gradually holding firm, preventing the destructive force from reaching the spectators.

For a brief moment, the entire Arena seemed to lose its voice.

The cheers stopped.

The smiles on the faces of the Evergrey family members disappeared.

Even some of the people among the Drakeses, who had been watching the fight with interest, stopped speaking.

Everyone was looking toward the damaged platform.

The same expressions appeared across the stands.

Worry.

Anticipation.

Nobody knew what had happened to Vera.

Dust and snow covered Vera’s side of the fighting area, swirling through the air and making it difficult to see anything clearly.

The entire fighting platform had been damaged by the impact force of the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918.

Cracks ran across the ground.

Broken stones were scattered everywhere.

Smoke and dust mixed with the snow, turning the battlefield into a pale, shifting cloud.

The spectators waited patiently.

One second passed.

Then another.

Nobody moved much.

Even those who had been shouting moments earlier remained silent.

A few minutes passed with no one making much movement.

Patrick West stood near the Arena’s commentary area, holding his binoculars tightly.

He raised them toward the damaged fighting platform.

His eyes moved slowly across the broken ground, trying to see through the dust and snow.

The smoke continued to drift.

The broken platform remained silent.

Patrick adjusted the binoculars slightly.

He was searching for them.

The two Young Gun Alchemists.

Vera Ashenlocke.

Grace Evergrey.

And at that moment, nobody in the Arena knew what had happened to either of them.