The garden paths of the capital residence transformed from a pristine sanctuary into a localized war zone in a matter of seconds. Sparks flew as Marielle vaulted forward, her dual daggers executing a blindingly fast upward slash that deflected a razor-sharp crescent of compressed wind magic.

The force of the gale whipped her dark hair wildly around her face, but she didn’t lose her footing for a single fraction of a second. Coating her weapons in a shimmering, volatile aura of pure, non-elemental mana, she spun through the air, closing the distance to the imperial princess with lethal efficiency.

Iryna didn’t flinch. Her reflexes were flawless. With a sharp tilt of her chin, she stomped her heel against the stone path, instantly summoning a jagged wall of ice directly from the earth.

Marielle’s daggers slammed into the frozen barrier with a deafening crack, sending a violent shower of glittering ice shards exploding between them.

"For someone wearing a ridiculous, overstuffed bulk dress, your reflexes aren’t entirely pathetic!" Marielle hissed, her teeth bared in a fierce grin as she used the momentum of the impact to flip backward, landing lightly on her feet.

"And for a mere lady of the North, you speak with an entirely unearned amount of confidence," Iryna retorted, her voice smooth, haughty, and completely unfazed. She raised her hands, her fingers crackling with the remnants of her elemental magic as she wove the air currents. "Perhaps if your family spent less time breeding feral little pups, you would know how to properly treat imperial royalty!"

"I treat threats exactly how they deserve to be treated!" Marielle countered, her legs tensing as she prepared to spring forward again. "You don’t get to come into our home, knock our people to the ground, and expect a polite smile!"

On the sidelines, the situation had descended into absolute, chaotic panic.

"Stop! Both of you, stop right now!" Cherion screamed like his soul had just left his body, both hands flying into the air as he watched the absolute disaster unfolding in front of him. "Why are you two even fighting?! Oh my god, someone make them stop!"

"Your Highness, Lady Marielle!" Ezek shouted, his voice cracking as he dodged a stray fragment of flying ice.

Reiner attempted to intervene, then nearly lost his dignity as another gust of wind destroyed the hedge next to him. "Lady Marielle! I am begging you, there are safer hobbies than fighting royalty!"

The rest of the imperial guards and attendants were shouting in a frantic, disorganized chorus. The guards had their hands on their hilts, while the attendants were actively holding them back, creating a tense human barrier to prevent the flashpoint from turning into a full-scale execution.

Iryna was seamlessly weaving her wind currents to hurl sharper, heavier ice lances, while Marielle was aggressively shattering them with her mana-enhanced daggers, using brute physical speed to close the gap for another strike.

Instead of immediately throwing themselves into the crossfire, Zarius and Gillian instinctively rushed straight to Cherion’s side to ensure his safety.

Zarius reached him first, his massive frame instantly shielding Cherion from the stray shards of ice raining down on the grass. He gripped Cherion’s shoulder, pulling him up slightly. "Are you harmed?" Zarius demanded, his deep voice cutting through the noise, his eyes scanning Cherion for any signs of injury.

"I’m fine, I’m fine!" Cherion scrambled to his feet, grabbing Zarius’s forearm with a look of absolute desperation. "Quick, Zarius, stop them! Marielle is going to try to kill her, and the Princess is retaliating like an angry winter goddess! Do something!"

Gillian stepped up right beside them, casually brushing a stray flake of frost off his shoulder. He looked at his sister, then looked at Marielle, a deeply amused, entirely unbothered smirk playing on his lips.

"I think we have to wait a little longer," Gillian said smoothly, crossing his arms as he watched Iryna summon another vortex of wind. "Let’s see whose sister is stronger."

Zarius slowly turned his head, leveling a terrifying, deadpan glare at the Solaric prince that could have melted a glacier. His jaw tightened to a hairline fracture, his silent disapproval radiating off him in suffocating waves.

Gillian merely let out a low, delighted chuckle, entirely unaffected by the Duke’s terrifying aura. "What? Aren’t you even a little curious? They both look equally strong."

Zarius didn’t answer. He gently removed Cherion’s hand from his arm and walked straight toward the middle of the battlefield, his boots pressing deep into the ruined earth. Gillian shook his head, a lingering smile on his face as he followed a half-step behind, his casual demeanor vanishing into a sharp, military focus as they approached the danger zone.

In the center of the path, the fight was reaching its absolute breaking point.

Iryna was seamlessly weaving her wind currents to hurl sharper, heavier ice lances, while Marielle was aggressively shattering them with her mana-enhanced daggers, using brute physical speed to close the gap for another strike.

Realizing Marielle was closing in too fast, Iryna sharply flicked her wrists. The water from a nearby decorative basin burst into the air, instantly forming a swirling, fluid shield of pressurized water and whipping wind around her.

Marielle’s daggers slammed into the spinning torrent, the heavy, churning pressure forcing her back a step. She clicked her tongue, spinning her blades in a flashy, irritated display.

"What’s the matter?" Marielle taunted, a mocking smirk playing on her lips as she bounced lightly on her toes. "Are you just going to keep hiding behind all those things, or are you actually going to fight me?"

Iryna didn’t lose her regal composure for a fraction of a second, though her eyes narrowed dangerously. "It is called defense, you uncultured brute," she retorted, her voice cutting smoothly through the rushing sound of the wind.

Marielle scoffed, a dangerous laugh bubbling up from her throat. "Keep telling yourself that! Let’s see how well that ’defense’ holds up when I break it into a million pieces!"

"Let’s see if your little knives can pierce my ice before I freeze the blood straight in your veins!" Iryna shouted, her prideful blood boiling over. A violent whirlwind exploded around her, lifting sharp pillars of frost high above the ground.

"I’ll carve through your ice before you can even blink, woman!" Marielle barked back, her daggers flaring with a dense, blinding coat of pure, raw non-elemental force. She bent her knees, preparing to leap straight through the cyclone to deliver a finishing blow.

The climax exploded into motion as Zarius and Gillian moved simultaneously.

Executing a dangerous, perfectly synchronized intervention, the two massive men vaulted straight into the dead center of the crossfire. They physically positioned themselves like two unbreakable walls right between their clashing sisters.

The sudden, terrifying appearance of their brothers forced both Marielle and Iryna to violently alter their trajectories. A collective gasp echoed from the sidelines as both women realized, with sheer horror, that they were about to strike their own flesh and blood.

At the absolute last microsecond, Marielle violently twisted her wrists, forcing her momentum and her glowing daggers upward. Across from her, Iryna sharply tilted her chin, throwing her hands toward the sky to forcibly redirect the swirling elemental vortex away from the men.

The combined, fully charged force of their deflected magic unleashed a spectacular, deafening explosion high in the air above the garden. A massive boom rattled the windows of the capital residence as the wind and ice shattered against the open atmosphere.

For a moment, the sky above the garden was obscured by a brilliant, shimmering mist of melted frost, glittering ice dust, and dissipating wind currents that slowly rained down over the stunned onlookers.

As the residual mana drifted harmlessly into the grass, a dead, suffocating silence fell over the ruined garden. The howling wind was gone, replaced only by the heavy breathing of the two furious sisters and the ominous, crushing presence of the two men standing between them.

"Well," Zarius said dryly, his voice cutting through the silence as he gestured to the shattered hedges, smoking craters, and ruined stone paths. "This is certainly one way to introduce yourselves."

Gillian let out a heavy sigh, shifting his hands to his hips as he looked from his sister to Marielle. "I highly doubt our empires signed a peace treaty just so you two could cancel it over a casual garden stroll."

Marielle aggressively flicked her wrists to snap her daggers down, while Iryna sharply dispersed the remaining frost in her hands. Simultaneously, both women let out an identical, deeply annoyed grunt, turning their heads away from each other with a heavy huff.