Chapter 11: Gin versus Kimino
Meditation was a form of relaxation and self-reflection of memories, which helps you get closer to the spiritual area of the universe, however it could also be used to clear the mind and then organize your ideas more easily.
In Gin's case, for more than a year he used this technique to introduce himself to his own subconscious and in that way manage to talk to Belphegor who dwelled between the subconscious and the core of Gin's soul, which is the starting point of existence itself.
Now Gin meditated with the objective of processing the information she had received throughout her life up to her present in order to finally make the decision of what would be her next step to follow.
Normally, meditating properly to the point where Gin wanted to do it would take a few days, but thanks to the practice she had had in the library, and especially because of the guidance of Belphegor and Kimino, it didn't take her long to master it.
During the first days in his time of reflection, he did not discover anything, reckless revenge was not an option because both Aki and his mother would reproach him, and even if they were dead, and the decision was his... their memories remained and he felt he had to honor their memories.
The next few days, he researched a bit more in the library, about the cities and kingdoms on the continent and beyond, after all, if he was embarking on a journey, he could not go uninformed.
"Lack of information is the first step to certain death", was what some of the adventurers he had talked to a while ago used to say, so he took the opportunity to follow the advice.
There were too many dangerous demonic beasts of different types such as giant ants, iron fang wolves, titan snake and even acid slimes or formale of problematic sizes, in addition there were different hostile intelligent humanoid species such as elves, giants and ogres, with which if you were careless, you would die without even realizing that it killed you.
And finally after a long period of personal research and self-reflection, came the last day in the chrono-dimensional library, and at the same time the day when he would have to face his destiny, the most powerful witch in the world, Kimino.
From the beginning, Gin never forgot the proposal Kimino made to her about staying 2 years in the library, learning about magic, training her body and later fighting it, but....
"What was in it for her?"
Kimino literally used a unique spell called teleportation to transport Gin's unconscious body to the library garden, so his understanding that she had left and entered the library in less than 5 seconds had been wrong, but it was still impressive as only 1 in 1,000,000 mages and wizards could use this magic, and in fact so far there are only 2 in two different realms, able to use it with a little assistance, and that's not counting the amount of magical power that teleportation entailed.
Even as a legendary witch, Gin thought that Kimino had overexerted herself just for him, and even if the reason was to help Belphegor, it was still too much even for an acquaintance.
Not only that, but she offered to stay in the library and help him become much stronger than he could ever have imagined, but she set up her philanthropy as a proposal, so there was a lack of what she would ask for in return.
Of course Gin was willing to give her whatever she wanted, but the mysterious witch didn't show even the slightest interest in anything material or bodily regarding him, so he was a bit at a loss as to Kimino's reasoning.
«What should I do?»
That was the question that ran through Gin's mind, as he finally arrived towards the library garden, the place where he first woke up and where his meeting with Kimino would be.
The beautiful figure of the supreme witch who was nowhere near what her real age should look like, stood in front of him, wearing fitted black clothing with dark green vertical lines on her black skirt, she had a jacket and fingerless gloves made of black dragon scales, a white blouse with flashy embellishments on the button seams, black pantyhose that hugged her long, shapely legs, ending in rather elegant black low heeled shoes.
All her attire accentuated the black color of her long straight hair, she was an intoxicating beauty, however Gin who was two years with her, was already completely used to it, so he would not let himself be bewitched with that alone, although he did turn his gaze on occasion, when she would bring her face very close to his to instruct him on what she read sometimes.
To make the battle fair, Kimino would only use one type of magic of Gin's choice, and in case she broke that rule, Gin would win immediately, however Gin felt that even without using magic, she could beat him with pure physical strength and mantra, so she had to reason her choice very well.
If she chose darkness magic, she would probably have to deal with gravity control enchantments and even disintegration with black holes, and since she didn't know Kimino's range with this magic, she felt it would be problematic.
With light magic, he was likely to use blindness or photon beam enchantments, which terrified him because of the firepower, temporal although she said she didn't master it, it was out of the question since just stopping time for a couple of seconds, would be enough to give him immediate victory.
The creation magic, since he didn't fully master it either, might be the best option to be balanced, but it wouldn't be good for his progress to fight against a magic he was so familiar with, so he also denied it as an option, and also to the three magics he had just learned that existed, since he wasn't even sure if Kimino knew how to use them or if even humans could use them, which were, arcane or ancestral magic, celestial and infernal.
Belphegor talked about the last two in his anecdote, but he didn't know much about them, and Kimino said there was only background that dragons only used ancestral magic, and since Kimino had been trained by one, he wasn't sure if he could use it or not.
Either way that left him with only a single alternative....
—I choose elemental magic. —At Gin's answer, Kimino formed a gentle smile with his lips as if he had expected Gin's choice from the beginning.
The decision Gin made was probably the worst choice she could have made, because regardless of Kimino's perfect mastery of this magic, it is also one of the most flexible and simple to use.
Actually the most used magic in the world was elemental magic, it was a fact that most wizards or mages regardless of their attribute, learned to use fire or water magic since they were children before going deeper into the world of magic, and Kimino's experience on it, should not even be able to compare with any mage or wizard.
But Gin's reason was not because he underestimated Kimino or because he was slightly familiar with magic because of his wife, it was a much simpler reason.
"He wanted to fight with all his power against someone who used all his power."
Of course with this in mind, with Kimino being the opponent, he would most likely die, but at the same time he felt that this was one of the objectives of the witch in front of him, and even if it was just a hunch, he wanted to fulfill those expectations.
Kimino used a spell that locked them in a dimensional room, although it was not noticeable since the surroundings looked intact as well as the plants in the garden, this was done in order to protect the structure of the library itself, which was convenient for Gin since he did not want to damage the plants that were nearby nor the beautiful fountain in the center, and as soon as the preparations were ready, the battle began.
Kimino remained standing silently without making any movement so Gin took advantage of that opening to test his level of strength with a simple exchange of blows.
He approached at a speed similar to the speed of light, which should be imperceptible to any ordinary human, and then directed his clenched fist towards Kimino's face.
Gin for a moment felt that this punch could be deadly so he hesitated whether he should direct it towards such a delicate looking woman, but remembering that this was a supreme witch, he calmed his anxieties and went all out towards Kimino.
However, he was completely stopped by a shield of compressed air right in front of Kimino, and when the punch lost some of its momentum, the shield sent him flying back to his original position.
Kimino just watched Gin with a smile, as he made the high-level shield disappear, as if it was no big deal.
It seemed like he was showing Gin that it wouldn't be easy to even touch her, but Gin guessed that something like that could happen so he decided to use another approach, but when he was about to start his next move, Kimino extended his arm with an open palm towards Gin, and then....
—Fireball. —Kimino conjured one of the most basic fire-type elemental attacks in the world of magic, but....
—Hey, hey, hey, hey, are you serious? —Not believing her eyes, Gin mumbled those words as she watched the incantation forming in front of her eyes.
Fireball was a basic incantation that Gin was familiar with, since Aki used it frequently, along with igneous mantle, but the fireball wasn't much more than 8. 26 inches in diameter, however the size of Kimino's fireball was about 78 inches in diameter, so it looked very similar to a small sun, and probably exerted the same pressure as one, which made one wonder if it really was a fireball or if it was a variety of the same, however this was also to be expected from someone with the amount of prana Kimino possessed.
Elemental magic requires only two factors except for the talent to be executed, which are emotions and magical power, the concentration for this type of magic is only for its control and efficient management, but with this in mind, if a simple child had a high level of magical energy, he could throw a fireball of the level of a novice adventurer, however due to lack of control he could kill someone.
For that reason it is one of the simplest, most useful and yet most dangerous magics, and with Kimino having complete control of this magic, he could be considered an unstoppable opponent just because of his magical power and that's without considering that he can use 4 other types of magic.
The gigantic fireball with a slight boost from Kimino's hand, traveled at an increasing speed in Gin's direction.
Dodge it was possible, however Gin did not know if the ball would follow him or not, and if the containment Kimino put, would withstand the impact of the huge projectile, so he decided to use one of the most useful techniques he had learned during the last 2 years.
—Giant ground soldiers. —As soon as Gin made that incantation while raising his right arm, 4 golems of 6 meters each, stood up and without waiting for any order, they looked for a second at their creator and then rammed against the fireball that was heading towards Gin.
The golems that Gin created, had a great advantage over the golems created with earth magic which was the understanding and sense of duty of the same, this meant that the golem would fight until the last moment of its existence to fulfill its orders, this did not seem to be a big difference with respect to the normal golems, however it was, since the effort factor entered into the equation, which the others did not have, due to the fact that they were not aware of themselves and their surroundings.
The ball approached with force, however the efforts of the golems did not lag behind and they began to push the huge projectile as they were slowly burned by the heat emitted from the fireball and when they had pushed it back a couple of meters, one of the golems broke away from the group and covered Gin with his unstable body.
It was at that moment that the ball exploded, melting all the golems and sending a wave of powerful heat throughout the garden.
The golems next to the fireball were vaporized and the golem covering Gin turned a deep black color before slowly tearing itself apart from the charring of its body, as it watched him with a strange gentle expression on its barely recognizable face.
Even with the golem's protection, Gin had some slight burns on his skin, which meant that he definitely would have died if he had received that attack and may have even disappeared completely, and if he considered that that was probably a basic attack for Kimino, he couldn't perceive a victory ever against this opponent.
«I guess that's your way of telling me to go all out from the start, huh?»
—That kind of power should be against the rules, dammit. —Gin whispered to himself before glaring at his opponent.
Without a second thought, Gin created 20 golems the size of an average human that headed towards Kimino to attack her directly.
Gin knew that this attack would not be effective, but the reason behind it was to give her a few seconds to think of a strategy to overcome Kimino's shield.
As she had predicted the golems were destroyed by fireballs much smaller than the first one she had launched, others were cut down by gusts of wind, those that managed to reach their target were shattered by the pressurized wind from the force field surrounding Kimino, and those that remained were shattered by the pressure of the water cannon shots that came from the witch's small hands, which continued after the small fireballs.
Until now Kimino had not used earth spells, either because she did not see the need to use it or because she simply did not want to show it yet, however Gin did not care and took advantage of the time given to her by the golems to approach and attack her with multiple blows covered by a thick layer of earth.
The earthen fists slowly began to destroy themselves without breaking through the barrier, and when they began their bare-knuckle attacks, unable to overcome the barrier, their fists began to bleed the more the compressed wind struck.
But even though his blows seemed to have no effect, a crack began to form in the shield and then regenerate.
The blows were becoming more and more powerful, it was then that Kimino realized.
"Gin was doing an incomplete fusion with Belphegor."
During the months of talking with Belphegor, Belphegor taught her that there were two ways her body could use the power of him, an ancestral demon.
The first was possession, where Belphegor would take full control of Gin's body, for a short period of time, although they could also exchange before the time passed, according to Gin's wishes.
And the second was the fusion, where both minds and powers were combined to use them in a more efficient way.
If this last form was trained correctly, it could be used for an indefinite time, however the burden on the body is too much, so usually the ancestral demons fused for a maximum of one hour.
But Gin had not yet mastered this technique, so they could only unite half of all their forces at most.
And yet that was enough to at least weaken Kimino's shield.
The speed of Gin's fists was increasing and unexpectedly Kimino's shield was completely destroyed accompanied by a powerful gust of wind that sent Gin back with a firm shuffle.
Without wasting a single second, Gin stretched her arms towards Kimino, and from the ground appeared dozens of earth thorns, but even with the speed at which they were going, they were repelled with wind magic which caused the thorns to deflect just a few centimeters away from their target.
However, that did not stop Gin, who jumped in Kimino's direction just behind the thorns to try to deliver a final blow, but just before he got there his whole body was trapped in an extremely resistant mound of rock and earth.
A novice in elemental magic would think that the containment that kept Gin imprisoned, could be easily destroyed with the strength he has shown so far, and this would perhaps be true if Belphegor completely controlled his body, however in the current state that Gin had, and even with the incomplete fusion, it would be impossible for him to destroy it.
Depending on the amount of magical power and the control of it, elemental magic can take on different characteristics depending on the wishes of the enchanter.
Fire magic being mainly offensive, it can change shape, size and temperature.
Water magic like fire magic can also level its temperature to make it boil or turn it into ice, and can also be used as healing magic, to cleanse the body of impurities.
Wind magic can be both compressed and expelled by means of gusts, and depending on the skill of the sorcerer it can be used for both attack and defense.
And in the case of earth magic, it takes whatever form the spellcaster desires, making it one of the most useful in attack against large numbers of enemies and defense of an entire team, plus the hardness of it is affected by the amount of magic the enchanter possesses.
And if the latter applied to Kimino's magic, the mound of rock and earth Gin was trapped in was probably harder than a diamond.
—It's over. —Kimino said those words in a dry, serious tone of voice, but instead of retreating as Gin had anticipated in the logical event of losing the fight, Kimino extended his arm with an open palm, and a ball of fire began to grow again from the center of his palm.
—Huh? —A muffled noise came from Gin's lips in the form of a question as he watched in disbelief as a fireball that would eventually reach the size of Kimino's first attack slowly formed with the motionless Gin as its target.