“Die!” she screeched, balls of fire flying directly toward me at high speed. I proceeded to catch them on my mirrors. “Are you simple? My magic is boosted by the protection of a seven star weapon! You won’t stop it like that—what?!” she whined. Her tirade was cut off by my roar as I reflected the magic right back at her like a baseball pitcher throwing a burning curveball. Even if this hadn’t worked out as planned, I still could have applied some life force and bent the magic’s trajectory to return it.

It went exactly as planned, however. I was really getting a feel for handling the mirror. If the shield was based in physical defense, the mirror was more magic related. The way reflection worked actually seemed easier to use than the shield. I applied some life force to the mirror . . . and also added some magic to the reflected magic as well, just for good measure. The flames proceeded to increase in size, become wreathed in life force, and then crash right into Witch. Adding some magic when reflecting gave the attack a nice power boost.

“Back, stay back!” Witch shouted, her cries quickly degenerating into a scream. She rolled around on the floor, burning from the magic she herself had unleashed.

“She burns like dry twigs!” I laughed. It felt great. Witch, burning in her own hellfire. This was one of the first times I had ever been able to really strike a blow against her. That only sweetened the experience. Finally, I had brought down some punishment on her myself.

Then I heard Armor screaming as well. It seemed some of the sparks had leapt over to him.

“Now! Let’s finish this! Take back the axe! And get that armband off Witch too. Then I’ll finally be able to use Liberation Aura again!” I directed, instructing Raphtalia and the others to destroy the annoying accessories. Time to get everything back!

The moron woman gave a sigh. “Chain Defense!” She swung her chain and bound Witch and Armor. “Please stop causing trouble for me,” she told them. The pair could only gurgle in pain. “I told you that we’re leaving.” The moron woman wrapped the two of them up more tightly, and Witch and Armor’s voices could not be heard any longer. The axe had been wrapped up with them too, I realized. We still needed to destroy that accessory!

In any case, taking care of the moron woman had just become our top priority.

“Well then, you rabble,” she said and looked us over. “You fought a good fight, I’ll give you that. Worthy of some praise.” She really was looking down on us. “The tides of this battle have turned against us, so it really is time for me to leave.”