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The BoA.

The Bell of Annihilation.

The bane of my existence.

And here it was, in the hands of a capable foe more than ready to use it to kill me.

A BoA was a disruptor and a very powerful one at that. Disruptors were magical tools used to break barriers, or magical constructs, by targeting the magical fields the magical constructs were built on.

Flo taught me to think of the relationship between disruptors, magical constructs, and magical fields as a deadly triangle.

A magical construct, such as my barrier, is a lot like a house. Well-built houses can weather nearly anything. Poorly-built houses are expected to collapse. Before you could build any kind of home, however, you need some ground to build on.

A magical field is that very ground. Whether you are swimming in a lake, hiking fresh mountain trails, jumping around the surface of the moon, or studying for your finals in a hot classroom with no A/C, magical fields exist pretty much anywhere you go. Without magical fields, magical constructs, like barriers, simply cannot exist. Not unlike how without ground, a house cannot stand.

This is where disruptors, the third part of this deadly triangle, came in.

A disruptor's sole purpose was to destroy magical constructs. It accomplished this by attacking the magical field the construct was built upon. A disruptor was not unlike an earthquake shaking the ground in an attempt to flatten a house. And when an earthquake happened, whichever was stronger would win out in the end. A strong earthquake would destroy a weaker home. A strong home could withstand even a mighty cataclysm.

To date, I had yet to meet an earthquake that my barriers at maximum strength could not weather.

Here lay the danger of a Bell of Annihilation.

A BoA was a disruptor that didn't merely shake the ground it attacked. It destroyed the ground completely. Not only that, it prevented me from being able to create another barrier for another five minutes. This was relatively quick in the grand scheme of things but was an eternity in a fight to the death.

The thing that bothered me about this entire situation was that BoA’s didn’t exist in the real world. Not anymore. The last known ones were destroyed decades ago during the Jairian War of independence. Combined with the fact that the bells could not be reforged by any means, BoAs were simply problems of the past that a powerful kinetic knight like me never gave much thought about.

So the fact that Esther had one in her possession was, quite unfair. It was not a scenario I would ever run into outside of the Nightmare. Yet that stupid bell remained a massive wrench in my battle plan, something I had not prepared for. Iris must have known about this Achilles heel of mine for some time, plenty of time to ensure Esther had this niche tool in her kit for this very situation.

The bell rang a third time.

Esther pointed her right hand up into the heavens. Her sixth and final javelin loomed over me like Damocles’s sword. Its warhead gleamed with an ominous purple light, a shadow of the destructive power that lay within. Moments before, I stared at the warhead without an ounce of fear in my heart. I knew that its destructive power couldn’t hurt me. But now, my shield wouldn’t be around to save me from its fiery sting, not even to glance its attack.

Fear, raw and unfiltered, crept into my heart for the first time since the fight started.

I could feel my arms and legs locking up.

I was no longer invincible, once again.

You’d think I’d expect it by now.

“Dragon’s bane?” I snarled. “Now a Bell of Annihilation? I may be a dishonorable duelist, but you, you really are a war criminal.”

“So a war criminal stands before you,” she said disdainfully. “What will our hero do?”

Relocating with my Spider Boots without my barrier was risky, especially if the javelin could track me. I’d just look like a fool if I jumped away only have the javelin follow me and kill me anyway. A time dilation may have been the trick. But Esther now had a copy of Kairos. Even if the copy possessed but a fraction of Kairos’s magical powers, it would still be able to enter any time dilation I could pop, something I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

A ward, I thought. A ward isn’t a magical construct. It’ll have to do. A ward was achieved by blasting as much kinetic energy in a single direction as possible to stop a dangerous threat, be it a giant’s club, a kraken’s tentacle, or a tyrant’s bow. A ward, however, was very inefficient, akin to burning priceless paintings to fuel the fireplace for a little longer. Absolute folly. But, if you were desperate enough, those few moments of flame might just be worth the sacrifice.

Those stupid student loans.

Esther raised her left hand to ring the bell a fourth and final time.

The final javelin began to grow in light. It looked hungry, eager to devour everything that stood in its path.

I had escaped the flames of dragon’s bane once before, years ago.

It would be a shame if they spelled my end here today.

My mind was still recovering from a zweihander-shaped headache the last time my barrier had failed inexplicably.

Focus.

Esther held her hand.

She held the fourth and final ring.

She was staring straight at me.

Or through me.

Was that remorse I saw on her face?

Guilt?

Maybe I was wrong.

War criminals didn’t hesitate to kill someone, not when their lives were on the line.

Esther lowered her left hand to ring the bell for the fourth time.

I clenched my right fist.

My ward activated with a roar.