Mei Ruan May 1st, 20XX

Jaya took off towards me, having realized that I had a plan and increased both the desperation and ferocity of her attacks, making wild swings and slashes in my general direction.

The contamination had most likely completely taken over her rationale by now, leaving no space for negotiation or conversation but then again it wasn’t like she had ever been willing to listen to anyone.

The knife’s hilt threatened to tear through the flesh of her palm as she swung her arm towards me, the wind generated from the intensity of her attack pushing against its silvery edge.

I immediately cut off the gathering of magic as the prince was so close to me, I could swear I could hear him and lunged towards my elder sister. I grabbed her firmly by the wrists and began to release the magic towards her, gritting my teeth at the uncomfortable feeling that it elicited.

“You want my magic? Take as much of it as you can stomach!"

I released all I had gathered in a single spell I usually reserved for the battlefield. Because I was short on time and hadn’t prepared for a battle in the middle of the Prince’s welcoming ball I hadn’t had time to effectively refine it but I prayed that it would work well enough.

In complex terms it was a combustion of magic, releasing it all in a single destructive wave that would invade the magic systems of other magical creatures and cause them to explode from inside. In simple terms? It was a gaseous bomb that would make any magical being that tried to absorb it blow up.

Since the prince was essentially a walking breathing magic pump, it would be downright reckless to hope that he could effectively process the toxic magic I sent out and I didn’t want to be responsible for any other accidental casualties for those around us. Hidden or not.

I instead chose to send it directly towards my sister, using our close contact to effectively send the magic in as tight a range as possible. This was also made possible by my sister, whose magic system was desperately grasping at whatever trickle of familiar magic it could find.

Bronze light still flowed outwards and made a whole spectacle of the scene, but it was mainly empty magic without any particular attribute to itself.

My magical control was down and as hard as I focused it seemed like less than half of the intended magic I had gathered went into the spell I wanted to force it into, but that didn’t matter. Even just a quarter was enough.

At first, she laughed and even went as far as to stop struggling against my grasp.

“Finally decided to give in Mei? Or what? Do you think you can overflood me with magic?”

The euphoric feeling I was sure she was experiencing reflected through her voice and a lackadaisical smile played along her face even as I could feel my now-toxic magic slowly corroding her magical system until it would no longer be strong enough to stop the explosion.

She referred to an old-fashioned spell, usually used by the upper class to bully the lower class who had naturally lower holding capacity than that of nobles. The noble would essentially flood their magic directly into the system of the lower-class fairy.

Because of the difference in quality, the system would loosen the cap it usually had and would continue taking in magic until it eventually fractured or in more serious cases became completely broken.

The practice was outlawed a while back but that didn’t mean that it fell out of practice.

The gap between the quality of our magic was so minor that an attempt would only have a best-case scenario of a joined death, whereby I completely drained myself to overwhelm her.

Magic was such a volatile substance that the body naturally had a way to control it, otherwise all the children would self-implode the second they were born into the fairy world. The stronger the bloodline was, the stronger the magic system was and the less likely it was for a fairy to die from an attack like the one I was using.

Thankfully I had two factors on my side,

The first was that this was a spell I had used a million times; I was confident in both its strength as well as the quality of my magic.

The second was her condition.

Not only would her system not immediately put defenses up to combat this toxic magic, but it would even eagerly accept it, completely overlooking the possibly deadly toxins within the magic in favor of accepting the similarity between mine and her magic.

The smile fell off her face as she began to feel something was wrong and instantly began to struggle free from my grasp.

“ Let me go little sister. NOW!”

She began to panic and the natural defense around her magic system began to crumble as she began to fire half-formed spell after half-formed spell, only damaging her system even more but I didn’t let go.

I would be hit by the blast when she exploded but it wasn’t like I was on the battlefield anymore. an injury like that didn't necessarily mean my death or anything.

Once I was done with her maybe I would take the prince on a short vacation while I recovered and get to know more about him. Like how he was so proficient in magic engineering and structure.

Even if he was half-goblin its not like he had even been officially instructed on any of their specialties.

“ Mei! I'll ask once more! Let! Me! Go!”

We were face to face for the first time in what felt like forever despite having lived in the same property for decades upon decades and for the first time I looked at her face, realizing this was the last time I would ever get to see it again.

“ Jaya.”

I started, realizing I didn’t have the time for a long heartfelt speech. Even I'd had the time she was completely gone at this point and my words would only fall on deaf ears.

I imprinted every line on her face, eyelash on her lids and stray hair that bounded around her stern face into my mind, wanting to have a picture made later on.

“As a Duchess you were horrid. You were indulgent and incompetent, cruel and vicious. You were a bully and a coward as well. I wish I could say you were better as an elder sister, but you weren’t. I just hope that you can finally find peace as you rejoin with the atmosphere and become a part of the land you so adored.”

For a second I could have sworn I saw a flicker of consciousness within her eyes.

Just a sliver of guilt and compassion but maybe that was something I had imagined, something to comfort myself from the crime of killing my own elder sister.

As quickly as it had appeared it was gone and she snarled at me one last time before her system finally cracked and she began to explode.

I braced myself for the impact only to find myself tackled out of the way and a bright golden light assaulting my pupils even through my eyelids that I had shut by reflex.

A shock of golden hair caught my attention right before my eyes closed and the now-familiar body frame wrapped around me even though they had already cast a barrier around us.

I was torn between feeling relieved that the prince had arrived and had saved me from harm and wanting to question everything about him.

Why was he so proficient at magic?

Who had he learned all his spells and magical engineering knowledge from?

Who... was he really?

But before I could ask any of that the only question I could come up with, even as he pushed himself off me and stared into my eyes with an intense emotion-filled stare, even as the particles of my sister, now just bronze dust that was quickly being purified by the prince, hovered around us; ended up being,

“Your highness…. Are you an idiot?”