Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 7 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 9===
The spirit magic user Kurumi and the Pegasus rider Admirath.

As soon as the two sides began to fight, the form that the battle took was inevitable — aerial combat. Kurumi flew with magic parallel to the ground at high speed while using her right thumb and index finger in the shape of a gun to control the spirits with her gauntlet—

“Haaaaaahhh!”

She continuously fired highly compressed bullets of air from her fingertip towards the front. Within Kurumi’s vision and upon the Pegasus that galloped in mid-air, Admirath smiled as he faced the storm of air bullets — at the same time, a magic circle that appeared underneath the hooves of the Pegasus caused it to instantly accelerate, and the air bullets that Kurumi launched sprayed onto the rocks below, noisily kicking up clouds of dust. Followed by the flapping of the Pegasus’ fierce wings, it rapidly turned around and soared at a speed greater than that of Kurumi’s flight magic.

“——!”

Admirath’s assault caused Kurumi to stop firing, and instead focus on evasion. Simply moving to the left and the right would most likely not be enough to escape from the giant scythe, whilst flying upwards would only result in the Pegasus catching up to her. Hence Kurumi chose to make a quick descent, while Admirath’s giant scythe sliced at the air over Kurumi’s head with just the slightest margin. In the midst of her sudden descent, Kurumi twisted her body around and extended her left arm out to release explosive fire magic as interference which left a trail of sparks in the path that Admirath followed. The fast-moving Pegasus was unable to dodge in time, and charged into the sparks carrying Admirath — subsequently, countless chain explosions occurred which turned the surrounding atmosphere into a raging inferno. But—

“—Is that all you’re capable of?”

Admirath calmly said that, and then continued to chase her after charging through the inferno. In front of the Pegasus, a hemispherical magic circle formed.

“A magic barrier…are you a magic type?”

“No? I just happen to dislike magic so I’m only at this level.”

Kurumi asked out of surprise, only to find out that her opponent was a technique-type, and Admirath answered as if it was a natural response — like this, both of them increased the speed of their descent.

“……!”

Nonaka Kurumi glimpsed at her approaching opponent from the corner of her eye, and couldn’t help but clench her teeth. He actually dared to say that he ‘only at this level’. Under the circumstances where it was impossible to know whether or not they had really captured Basara as a hostage, how could she possibly bring out her full strength?

''…But.''

Kurumi hadn’t yet given up on the possibility of victory. —After being threatened by Admirath, Kurumi chose to stall for time. Regardless of whether Basara had been imprisoned or deliberately concealed his whereabouts, at the very least, he was currently in the outside world, in some place where there was a barrier against magic and abilities. Kurumi was able to control spirits, so before Basara rushed over here — she would immediately detect his presence as soon as he left that place, and she would know that he was safe. In other words—

''…Even if he has been captured.''

Basara would definitely try to escape. Therefore, Kurumi in turn used Admirath’s threat to ‘fake it naturally’; she believed that Basara would definitely come back as soon as possible, and the situation would change once the opponent knew that Basara was safe. After all, Admirath would also avoid any decisive moves, so as to avoid suspicion in case the victor was decided too easily. He was just going along with the current state of things, and since it was possible that Basara was actually imprisoned, he couldn’t casually make his move until Basara’s safety was confirmed.

“………”

However, her strength wasn’t able to match up to Admirath’s — although the original situation was unfavourable, it was deteriorating the more she was pressured, but Kurumi did not give up hope, and continued to courageously step forward. Even if she eventually lost, the powerful Zest was next; if she couldn’t confirm Basara’s safety for her beforehand, she would probably be coerced into the same predicament due to her loyalty for Basara. Perhaps — Kurumi was already doomed to defeat when she was threatened, but even so…she wanted Zest to be able to fight with peace of mind.

''…That’s right.''

Kurumi tightly clenched her fist. She couldn’t lose in vain, she had to fight until the very last moment. That was her currently her own — Nonaka Kurumi’s fight.