Walter flinched when lightning crashed down on Elin's back, flattened her to the ground, and flung her away. He didn't want to hit her with a level-exceeding spell, the same way his Magic Missile could go up to level XX, but he didn't have a choice. She did intend to strike with lethal intent. In pure terms, she forced his hand.

General Tybalt and Prince Peterby both ducked and covered their heads. It might be possible they were temporarily blinded and required a healer. Calling it a lightning bolt would be like calling a temple pillar a house stilt. They didn't compare.

She lost roughly two-thousand HP with a single spell. Some vague sense of spousal abuse rotted in his stomach, and he resisted the oncoming retch. Elin demanded Walter steal her bonus HP and stats. She was wrong. He couldn't, so he needed to prove he couldn't be easily threatened. Walter wished she didn't force his hand.

When she stopped rolling, Elin sprang to her feet. The backside of her leather corset was atomized, but her skin remained unmarked. Walter breathed a sigh of relief. The braids of her hair unwound from the force of it, and her hair flowed freely with little sparks of static electricity.

"Elin, let's stop this--"

She dived forward again, with a dauntless shout.

Walter knew now how Elin ended up at level one-hundred. When Walter crossed the threshold between worlds, dragged across by Elin's offered hand, she absorbed the experience modification he last purchased in Sorcery Chronicle. Without Scan V, he couldn't have known, and it wasn't until now, when he checked her HP, that he could see it. His own levels surpassed the arbitrary barrier of progression, so it off-loaded the gift onto her. Eovamund's magic followed self-imposed rules, imitating Sorcery Chronicle and other games, and, sometimes, it needed to be creative to do so.

Aratron's Grimoire was not magic itself. It was the catalog and restriction of it, one of many, like patches in a game update. Losing it didn't reset him; it freed him. It laid bare the underlying structures of magic. He could see it echoing right back to its ultimate source, but his arcane vision couldn't go far back enough to see what that source was.

Magic followed video-game conventions, but it didn't copy them only. It brought over the entire system. Spells were based on games, and games on programs, and programming on hardware. He could see the system work similarly. With enough time, he might hack it further.

He hesitated his incantation of 'Lightning,' and she landed a blow. Elin's fist collided with Walter's stomach, little more than a gentle movement for her and a crushing attack for him, and he lifted clean off his feet. Air escaped his lungs. For a moment, he believed he might pass out, but he gritted his teeth and held on. Unable to breathe, incanting another spell would be difficult.

"Walter, it's over. Let's go back home--"

Elin blinked when he disappeared. His crumpled form on her fist simply stopped being there.

"Gong! Walter! You're not ready! Please!"

˙ssǝupuᴉlq

Walter managed to incant the spell before Elin heard and turned on him. She tripped, unable to see the world. After she recovered, she reached out into the open air to feel around.

"Elin, it's over."

She cocked an ear. Her sword raised over her head.

"Shit!" he muttered and prepared to teleport again. It was easy for Walter to overlook Elin was a battle-hardened veteran because she often acted like a submissive girlfriend. She never once turned her sword against him, let alone disagreed with him. He realized how much she spoiled him.

¡ʇuǝɯǝƃpnſ snoǝʇɥƃᴉɹ

Elin yanked her sword down after screaming out her incantation, "Righteous Judgement." The ground exploded like an artillery shell in his direction, though not far enough to reach. Walter teleported anyway out of knee-jerk terror.

"You two should leave," Walter told Prince Peterby and General Tybalt. He teleported again to dodge another 'Righteous Judgement' that Elin flung at him and tracked him by listening. They retreated from the field.

¡Λ ǝlƃuɐʇuƎ

Vines ripped out of the ground under Elin's feet, and Walter could hear their growth, like the snapping of bark despite looking supple. She jumped, blindly, to escape, but they snapped her ankles, and she slammed face-first into the ground mid-jump. No matter how fast she hacked, more vines grew, wrapped up her thighs, and pinned her legs together. Soon, her arms, desperate to keep some leverage, lost their freedom, and the vines tied her wrists behind her back.

Wait, I didn't intend--

During the vine wrestling, her corset and cloak, shredded by the lightning, slipped away and exposed her breasts. One of the vines wrapped around one. Another vine, like a collar, slipped around her throat. Elin's recent push for Walter to take more of a 'heavy hand' during their alone time sprang to mind, and a brief fantasy flashed through his mind's eye.

It was technically bondage and blindfolds.

"Are you serious? What's wrong with you? Even now, Walter?!"

"Sorry, I, uh, I really didn't want that to happen. Just like the goblin ambush, I guess--wait. How did you know? You can't even see me."

"You lustful and flighty--" Elin sucked in a preparatory breath, and her muscles flexed and rippled. She strained and grunted. The vines held, then slipped an inch, and they indented her skin. Blood trickled from the occasional thorn.

"Elin, stop!"

She grunted and twisted. Either Walter's resolve to hold her down or Elin's strength was going to break because she refused to stop fighting. Droplets left red trails down her arms, legs, and abdomen.

"Stop!" He panicked and canceled the spell.

Elin's eyes snapped open, freed from the 'Blindness' spell since he released both magics at the same time, without thinking. With a roll, she snatched up her sword and leaped.

"Fine! You think I'm holding back? Then I won't!"

¡ƃuᴉuʇɥƃᴉ˥ uᴉɐɥƆ

A streak of plasma arced from his hand, but it only lasted a brief instant. Walter screamed a second after the smell of burnt meat filled the air. He collapsed to his knees.

"Walter!"

"Don't!"

He teleported again, further away, while Elin reached out for him. Her fingers missed, and she grasped empty air. After the teleport, Walter curled and vomited. The pain forced his eyes to bulge.

"Walter! I can heal you!"

"Then what? You call it a win?"

"Then we go home and--"

"Forget it! I tried to figure it out with Rabecca's magic, but I guess I'll have to experiment on myself. Frankly, I should have from the beginning. Wasn't fair to even ask her."

"What are you talking about?!"

¡ƃuᴉuʇɥƃᴉ˥ uᴉɐɥƆ

The smell of burning flesh intensified. All Walter managed was a brief flash before he doubled-over again. Elin whimpered and watched unharmed, frozen by the shock of his self-destruction. He dry heaved. Walter regained control, stood, shaky, then studied at his arm. No, he stared through it.

It was then Elin sensed his mana shadow, unrestrained and at full size. The sun itself, though undimmed, seemed to give off less light as if to avoid offending him. Nothing moved, nothing twitched. The world, and its mana, held its breath. It anticipated. Where would the giant step next?

Once satisfied, Walter raised his hand again.

"Stop!" Elin screeched, "Please fucking stop. We'll do it your way, okay? Please. Whatever you want, just stop!"

¡ƃuᴉuʇɥƃᴉ˥ uᴉɐɥƆ

He maintained the flickering arc this time, and it carved out a semi-circle in front of her. Elin dropped her sword. Watching him destroy himself was too much for her own supernaturally enhanced arms to hold it up. When he stopped, the burns were up to his shoulder. His face turned white, and he plopped onto his butt.

She scrambled to his side.

"Wait," Walter grabbed her hands to prevent her help, "You can heal me if you let me cast 'Scan V' on you."

Elin's lips trembled, and she looked down and to the side before nodding. While she concentrated on repairing his arm, he cast his spell and read her information.

"Holy shit, Elin. Why didn't you say something?"

"What does it matter? It's not as strong as before."

"It matters. It matters a fucking lot. I'll find a way to remove it."

"No!"

Elin flinched when, for the first time, Walter snapped, angry, at her, "Like fucking hell, I'm not leaving you under that curse by yourself!" He snatched her wrist.

It was, at this point, her strength failed, the same reason it failed in the bedroom. Elin flailed to escape. Walter yanked her with his burned arm. Walter's willpower crushed out any self-concern for pain and pulled her underneath.

She beat him against the chest, and, finally, she screamed and slapped him, and he could feel the palm-shaped heat on his cheek. He froze.

"I said: no!"

Walter pulled back, stunned. Elin sat up and smoothed out her hair before slumping. Then, she sobbed, while Walter stared, numb and dumfounded.

"What if the only reason you love me is because of the curse?" Walter asked.

"It's not!"

"Then let's purge it."

"Listen, Walter. My mother killed my father. I don't want to know what that feels like, to have to drink poison for that sin. I won't let you make me. Okay? I'll follow you, I vowed to. I'll make life perfect for you, I will, but let me have this little thing. It makes it so much easier."

"It's not just a little thing. Who knows if it brainwashed you or something--"

While crouching, she seemed to curl into a tighter ball. She looked at him, "Every time you've fought, circumstances lead to you being stabbed in the chest. I'm deathly afraid it'll happen a third time like fate is trying to kill you. I want something I can keep, something that was only ours, that can't be taken away. It's proof!"

"I want to have kids with you. I was ready last night."

She nodded, "I know. I didn't push the issue. You're not ready--"

"I'm not ready, and you're not ready, either," Walter said, "because of this world. This isn't a place to raise children. We can do something about it."

Elin closed her eyes, "I lost the duel, it seems."

"Did you really have a chance?" Walter joked.

"No, I guess not."

Walter held out his hand, and Elin took it without having to look.

Elin felt Walter's gigantic mana stir. Normally, Elin would consider this unrestrained Walter a treat, but this time she screamed. He slipped in a spell.

"Walter! No, you bastard--"

˙ᴉɔo˥ ɟo poɥʇǝW