Practice match

"Are you ready, Modeus?" Abigail shouted.

"Yeah."

Right now, they were in a practice match to test out the Modeus quantum artifact and how it worked. The practice match was being watched by Mira, Eliphas, Lilith, and Ophelia in a barren area to minimize damage to the environment around the village.

The location wasn't far from Grayfield Village, but that village couldn't be seen from here, so Eliphas thought this was a safe spot.

"Black Magic: Solvo Terminus Atque Verto Daemon Forma."

The first action was taken by Abigail, who was super excited to fight Modeus, who was wearing his quantum artifact.

Modeus, seeing the change in Abigail, couldn't help but feel amazed; even though this was the second time he had seen that magic, the transformation was truly astonishing. The flow of magical atoms around Abigail shifted dramatically, and at the core of it all was a pair of horns sprouting from his head.

"Neumann!"

"Understood."

Neumann, who understood his master's intent, appeared floating next to Modeus, and suddenly Modeus's vision was filled with a kind of digital screen displaying Abigail's statistical numbers and projections of her movements in the future.

This is incredible! thought Modeus as he watched one by one the digital texts popping up in front of him. The texts and statistical numbers seemed to float, yet they didn't obstruct Modeus's view. In fact, he could see wider and clearer thanks to the enhanced vision from Neumann's abilities.

"I'm coming, Modeus!" Abigail yelled as he charged at him like lightning.

But Abigail's recent movement had already been predicted by Neumann's calculations even before he started moving, his movement simulation was displayed through Modeus's eyes. Of course, this made Modeus, who had already seen Abigail's moves, know exactly what to do.

Modeus only needed one small movement, and that was enough to avoid Abigail's attack, which had easily severed Modeus's arm in their previous fight. 

Impossible! 

Abigail gasping in awe at this, grew even more excited and increased his speed, but no matter where he came from or how fast he moved, after several attempts to charge and strike Modeus, he ended up just hitting and kicking at thin air. 

Why are his movements faster and more precise now? Is he predicting the future and dodging all of my attacks? Abigail thought. 

Thanks to Neumann's support, which provided constant instructions through visualized movements and directions for Modeus to evade, Modeus remained completely untouched. 

The magic atoms that gathered and condensed around Abigail's body were very clear with Neumann's visual enhancement, making it even easier for Modeus to see the trajectory of Abigail's punches and attacks. 

Even though Abigail was in a demon armor that should help boost his attack speed, Modeus easily dodged everything, almost as if he were playing with a reckless child. 

But that was the extent of Neumann's abilities, it could only support its user. Unlike other quantum artifacts that possess unique magic and can even attack foes with lethal techniques, Neumann was merely a type of supporting and defensive quantum artifact. 

"Attack coming from behind, prepare for impact in 3... 2... 1, jump!" 

*whoosh* 

*bang* 

Just as Neumann instructed, a black projectile magic from Abigail struck the ground, targeting Modeus. However, Modeus, who was jumping 7 meters high in the air with an acrobatic flair, countered the attack by firing a quantum magic projectile at Abigail, landing a solid hit.

The magic cast by Modeus, even without a spell, still has a tremendous destructive power, controlled and precise.

And that's all thanks to the accuracy that has been enhanced by Neumann.

The extremely dense atomic structure of the magic, with the temperature conditioned by Neumann, allows Modeus to no longer need to chant spells to strengthen his attacks; all the preparations and necessities that usually require a long process have been neatly arranged by Neumann, greatly assisting Modeus.

Fighting Modeus right now is like fighting two people at once.

"Attack failed, attempting to find another type of magic attack."

But as expected from Abigail's demon armor, the hit to his head did not scratch his armor even a little.

Even with Neumann's support, it couldn't scratch that armor it's truly impressive, Modeus thought with a grim smile behind his gas mask.

"Neumann, take full control of my body!"

"Understood, full support function activated."

Suddenly, Neumann's form, which had been floating around Modeus, disappeared, and blue lines all over Modeus's body lit up.

Modeus's body is currently being controlled by Neumann through nerve stimulation from the "Augmented Suit," which puts a heavy load on Modeus's body. However, since Modeus is already accustomed to pain, Neumann can easily control him like it's her own body.

Abigail, realizing that Modeus's movements have started to differ like a professional acrobat, chooses to take the fight seriously.

His movement pattern has changed again! What's happening? This isn't the fighting style Modeus had a few minutes ago, it feels like I'm fighting someone else, Abigail thought.

*bam* *bam* *bam*

Is he attacking while dodging? And all of his attack precision is spot on!

Modeus attacked Abigail from all directions while avoiding any magic projectile attack that leads to him precisely.

And the attack was targeted only at the vital point of Abigail's demonic armor repeatedly at the same point.

"Black Magic: Tenebrae Statera!"

*bam* *bam*

"Show me all of your tricks, Modeus! Show me a magic more powerful than that time!"

"..."

A dark black laser wildly pursued Modeus and destroyed the ground around him, but it didn't slow Modeus's movement a little.

What should I do? should i use the plasma explotion magic like that time? But I didn't think it would work, my opponent was a very serious Abigail and he was wearing his magic armor too, it's unlikely he'd get hit with the same attack twice.

Is there another attack that has different patterns but with the same element and atomic arrangement? I also need to modify some kinds of atoms to look like quantum elements, but it doesn't seem necessary because this "Augmented Suit" has some quantum synthesis elements, so I don't need to rearrange all my magic atoms from scratch and modify each element to look just like the quantum element at the time, in the worst case scenario I might just rely on Neumann's calculations, although I hate to admit this but it would take quite a while if I processed it alone, I'd be dead by Abigail's magic if this was a real battle.

In Modeus's long thoughts about the strategy in his mind, suddenly Neumann interrupts.

"Preparing magic on a very large scale."

"Huh?"

"Warning, the body load will increase, do you want to continue the process of magic construction?"

Neumann's voice sounds a little worried, even though Modeus is not looking at her face at the moment, but he's convinced that if Neumann is showing up at this moment, that AI would have set up a flat face with no expressions as usual.

After Modeus's consciousness returned, without thinking twice Modeus approved Neumann's plan, although Modeus himself did not know what Neumann had planned, but he felt it was a different kind of magic, or rather Modeus hoped it would be a different type of magic that Abigail could not know about.

"Okay, carry on!"

Slowly the atom of magic around Modeus gathers with the center of those magic atoms are in front of Modeus's chest, and from there forms a large circle of magic capable of covering a small island easily.

Abigail, who had been searching for Modeus whereabouts behind the swirling smoke around the destroyed ground, began to notice the change in magical atoms in the sky.

As he looked up, Abigail widened his eyes hidden in his demon armor.

Just before Abigail cast the newly formed black laser magic, Neumann, who had already seen the simulation of Abigail's movements and target attacks, had prepared Modeus's body to maneuver and avoid every path of Abigail's laser attempting to hit Modeus.

And as a result, Modeus was able to avoid the attack without any injury. When the smoke began to billow around Modeus, Neumann seized the opportunity by jumping as high as possible to prepare an attack from Abigail's blind spot.

It was an extraordinary sight he had never seen before, a very large circle of magic covering the entire battleground, with the edge of the magic circle not visible on the horizon.

Mira, who sensed the danger from the magic circle, immediately chanted a multi-layered high-level protection spell to protect her family, horns grew on top of her head and a black aura covered her body.

This magic circle is even tens of times larger than mine when i'm at full power, who is this kid really? Mira thought.

"Initiating construction of magic particle array."

"Arranging the necessary elements and molecules."

"Raising the temperature, increasing the number of magic atoms, setting target of the attack, and calculating the level of damage."

"Process completed."

"Magic ready to be used with 'Eta Aquarids' spell."

Abigail, who had regained consciousness, now began to realize that her mother was chanting a protection spell and started preparing the same magic.

But it was all too late.

"Eta Aquarids!"

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in the sky, followed by gradually increasing flashes of light, eventually amounting to millions.

Even Neumann couldn't count the exact number of light flashes in the sky, leaving everyone in awe as if doomsday was happening there.

The flashes of light then grew closer and fell to the earth like a rain of light meteors centered towards Abigail.

*bam* *bam* *bam*

The furious impact of the brilliant meteor was fierce as it rained hard upon Abigail, leaving him with no chance to escape or chant a defensive spell.

"Abigaiilllll!"

"Relax dear, he's fine!"

Although some of the meteorites missed and hit Mira's protective barrier, the resulting flash only caused minor damage, and her magical shield quickly recovered.

*Crack*

"Update, the attack did not succeed in eliminating the target."

"The magic possessed by the descendants of ancient heroes is truly formidable."

Modeus's recent attack was carried out without hesitation, with the clear intention of causing fatal wounds. Neumann was well aware of Modeus's deadly intentions and provided unwavering assistance, knowing that if Abigail had died a quick withdrawal with Neumann's help would have been essential, even with Neumann's support defeating Mira was impossible.

While all of Modeus's tactics became irrelevant due to Abigail not being defeated by the large-scale magic, Modeus at least succeeded in inflicting significant damage on him.

*tes* *tes* *tes*

Amidst the swirling smoke covering Abigail, the echoes of metal crackling followed by the sound of liquid reached his ears.

It was blood.

"Truly... Amazing...."

*thud*

"Older brother!"

"Brother Abigail!"

Ophelia and Lilith who saw their brother fall after saying that his last words, rushing towards him and casting Black healing magic.

Although ordinary healing magic is not effective in healing half-demon, there is a special method known only to the demon's descendant, namely black healing or external regeneration magic from another person's body.

The way this magic works is almost the same as regular healing magic, however Black healing magic uses transferred demonic life energy through the magic atomic circuit to recover the target.

"This is impossible."

"There are other types of magic besides the magic of the descendants of ancient heroes that can

penetrate the demonic armor of my wife's ancestral descendants."

Eliphas who saw his son lying unconscious on the ground without his demon armor couldn't help but feel amazed, he knew very well his son's abilities and he also often saw Abigail fight before, but this was the first time he had seen magic that can actually penetrated Abigail's demonic armor.

Normally no attack could scratch a demon's armor the pride of the Einzvil family, because it was the power inherited from ancient hero and perfected by his wife, until now the descendants were still improving the strength of the armor over the millennia.

But now, a kid with a very large magic circle spell surpassing the original descendants of the hero family easily destroyed the armor until nothing remains.

The result of this battle was completely beyond Eliphas understanding.

"Twice...."

"Huh?"

"How dare you hurt my Abigail twice."

"So?"

Mira, who heard Modeus answered her casually, couldn't hold back her emotions furthermore, she glanced briefly at the sprawled Abigail that limp on the floor with his two younger siblings casting healing magic with with great effort.

"Just because you possess the ability to regenerate, don't assume I will let you go this time."

"Gaah!"

Within the span of just 1 second, Modeus's neck was suddenly grasped by Mira, and no one even detected her movements not even Neumann could ascertain whether it was a teleportation or not since her speed exceeded the limit of light, leaving uncertainty.

Despite Modeus realizing he couldn't breathe, his attempts to resist Mira's hold proved futile as she remained stiff.

With her eyes filled with hatred and anger, Mira stared directly into the eyes of Modeus, whose skin was beginning to turn blue from oxygen deprivation in his struggle for survival.

"M-mira, stop it, he might die."

Upon hearing Eliphas plea, Mira finally released her grip, allowing Modeus to breath again, before he collapsed to the floor coughing and clutching his scarred neck.

"Next time, I won't be as lenient."

"...."

Understanding very clearly that this was her final warning, Modeus looked up at Mira, whose eyes regarded him as if he were nothing more than a discarded object.

The realization that this person was extremely dangerous, flashed through Modeus' mind as he looked into the woman's eyes.

The practice battle between Abigail and Modeus came to an end, with Modeus emerging as the victor.

***

One week after the practice battle between Abigail and Modeus.

Abigail's condition is now getting better, thanks to her two younger siblings namely Lilith and Ophelia who take care of their older brother every day, Right now Abigail can carry out activities as usual, even if sometimes he still felt his joints hurt when he moved, but that was because he always lay down on bed for a whole week.

Modeus also still lives in the Einzvil family residence, even though Eliphas was still friendly and accepted him but not with Mira, she still holds a grudge against Modeus for making his child almost die at that time.

But Modeus doesn't care and lives his day as he pleases his heart felt as if nothing had ever happened, which made Mira even more annoyed and often tries to kill Modeus secretly,

thanks to that Eliphas always watched over his wife so she didn't kill Modeus.

Even so, Modeus was still almost killed several times by Mira every time they passed each other in the house, as for example when Modeus was lying down in his room suddenly

a spear appeared out of nowhere and pierced Modeus' stomach, or a moment when Modeus ate then he fainted and his mouth was bleeding due to poisoning, and so on.

Mira's actions that she carried out in secret indicate that Mira is very serious about killing Modeus, but all her plans failed because Modeus can regenerate and cannot die.

But every time Mira launches her surprise attack and it makes Modeus seriously injured, Mira felt satisfied as if a small part of her anger to Modeus disappeared, even though she was actually just venting her emotions towards Modeus.

Abigail was compelled to witness his mother's behavior and felt a need to take a series of deep breaths. Despite his efforts to persuade his mother, nothing seemed to work.

"It appears that expediting your mission with Abigail is necessary, as lingering here any longer may result in my wife killing you for real."

"...."

For inexplicable reasons, Modeus found himself facing Eliphas, accompanied by Abigail, discussing their responsibilities on the demon continent.

Modeus paid no attention to Mira's actions after all, Modeus was able to quickly regenerate, with his only true concern being the risk of death.

"Very well, father. We will promptly prepare to depart from the Fertissio continent," Abigail responded.

"Don't forget to bring your quantum artifact, Abigail."

"Why? Can't I survive there without it?"

"Do not underestimate the Fertissio Continent. After all, this mission will be a long-term one. I fear that your mother's ancestors will awaken and cause havoc once more, they have been slumbering for the past 10 months and will soon stir."

Upon hearing this discussion of their task, Modeus felt a tinge of surprise and contemplation.

Her mother's ancestors?

What could that statement mean? Is that really a demon ancestor from ancient times? And why the concern if that demon goes on a rampage? What is the significance of the ancestors slumbering all this time, and what might happen if they awaken later on?

"Alright, dad."

"In that case, Modeus, as this will be your first time on the demon continent, I ask that you stay close to Abigail and heed his guidance, without defiance or opposition."

"Understood."

Any questions?"

"How do we travel to the demon continent?"

"Well that is indeed...."

Because this village is located in the easternmost part of the Republic of Cestisia, it would be very difficult to go to the Fertissio Continent which is located next to the Kingdom of Aurelius, or more precisely the west of the Kingdom of Aurelius.

Plus there are no airports or harbors around this village, so the only way to go through it all is by this methods.

Namely teleportation.

Eliphas with a spirit that reminded Modeus when he gave the explanation about Neumann, now explained about the teleportation magic method used by his family to go to the Fertissio Continent.

But the truth is that teleportation is impossible, there is no magic device or magic spells today that can perform teleportation, not even quantum artifacts with teleportation capabilities.

Then how the Einzvil family perform teleportation to the Fertissio Continent?

It's because, the greatest invention of the most genius ancient hero gave it to the ancestor of the ancient hero Morgiana Einzvil as her wedding gift with a demon, an ancient hero with a powerful unique type of magic, namely the time and space magic spells.

And that teleportation magic tool only exists as a pair in this world, inside the Einzvil family residence, and on the continent of Fertissio.

Any kind of item or human or even demon can be teleported repeatedly without any side effects, even the magic tool is able to use its own magic, and absorb magic atoms from the atmosphere if it runs out of magic.

"Alright alright, I understand there's no need to explain it that much."

"Forgive my father Modeus, he is indeed a magic technology freak."

"Ahem, if you want to hear more about this masterpiece, I'll be happy to explain again."

"No need! Just activate it quickly!"

"Okay, I'll activate it."

"Take good care of yourself, my dear Abigail."

"Don't fight with brother Modeus again!"

"That's right, no fighting!"

Mira, Lilith and Ophelia escorted Modeus and Abigail away, or rather only Abigail, not once did Mira look at Modeus or even speak to him, in the end her grudge for beating Abigail still remained the same.

Although Modeus wasn't bothered by that at all, or rather he didn't care at all.

After a brief farewell, Eliphas finally activated his teleportation magic device after the magic atom indicator on the device was fully charged, and a silver-colored light illuminated the entire room indicating his teleportation was successful, when everyone in the room opened their eyes again, the figures of Abigail and Modeus and the supplies they were carrying had disappeared.

"They've already left."

"Yeah, I hope they're doing well there."

***