Villainess X Villain: They are obsessed with each other!-Chapter 41 -: 40 Julius Vs Rosalina.[2]
"Haa..."
Rosalina let out a long sigh.
She glanced at Julius again. After seeing how crazy-protective he got earlier, this cotton field was nothing surprising.
"Fine," she said, gripping Mary tightly in her right hand.
She slid one foot back and bent her knees into a perfect fighting stance. "Come at me."
Julius’s eyes lit up. His grin grew bigger.
"As you wish, my lady."
He raised his left hand and muttered softly,
"Magic Arsenal: Weaponry."
Whoosh!
Dozens of glowing magic circles popped up behind him like a shiny wall.
One by one, weapons shot out, sharp swords, long spears, heavy hammers, giant axes, even spiked maces.
They floated in the air, waiting for his command.
Julius stretched out his right hand.
A massive war hammer flew straight into his grip.
He caught it easily and spun it once like it weighed nothing.
Then he swung the hammer forward.
All the weapons behind him exploded toward Rosalina like a storm of metal lightning.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Rosalina didn’t even blink.
She stayed calm, raised Mary high, and whispered,
"Infinite Cast..."
A small black circle appeared right at the tip of her sword.
In a heartbeat, it grew huge, big enough to swallow a house.
"Devour!" she said sharply.
A powerful suction force roared out from the circle.
The flying weapons wobbled, then got yanked toward it like they were caught in a vacuum cleaner from hell.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Swords, spears, hammers, axes, everything got pulled in and disappeared into the black hole one after another.
The crowd gasped.
Even the professors in the viewing box leaned closer to the glass.
But Rosalina wasn’t done.
Once the last weapon vanished, she smirked just a tiny bit and said,
"Release!"
The black circle hummed loudly—BOOM!!!
Every single weapon shot back out, now flying straight at Julius with twice the speed!
At the same time, Rosalina’s black eyes flashed red.
"Rose Petal Eyes!"
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Dozens of perfect copies of Rosalina appeared all over the cotton field.
They all looked exactly like her, same sword, same stance, same annoyed-but-cute expression.
The illusions rushed around in every direction, making it impossible to tell which one was real.
Julius watched the whole thing with a proud, goofy smile.
"That’s my wifey for ya," he said happily.
"But now it’s time to show what her husband can do."
He bent his knees, gripped the war hammer with both hands, and—BOOM!
He launched himself off the ground so fast the cotton plants around him exploded into fluffy white cloud of smoke.
Julius was still flying through the air, hammer raised high.
He muttered quickly,
"Infinite Cast: Eclipse."
A small black circle appeared right on the head of his hammer.
It grew fast, bigger and bigger, until the whole hammer was wrapped in darkness.
Whoosh!
The black circle turned into a glowing black sun.
It let out soft, creepy hums that made the cotton plants shiver.
"Hehe," Julius laughed, eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Watch yourself, wifey. I ain’t going easy on you just because my fingers are on the line!"
BAM!
He slammed the hammer down hard into the ground.
The black sun exploded with a loud whoom!
A huge pulling force sucked in every single illusion of Rosalina.
They all got dragged toward the center like leaves in a storm—poof, poof, poof—gone!
But right at that moment Rosalina appeared right in front of him!
The real one!
She lunged forward super fast, stabbing Mary straight toward his chest.
Julius’s eyes went wide for half a second.
"Magic Arsenal: Shield!"
A big silver shield popped up in front of him, like Captain America’s famous round one, shiny and strong.
BAMMMM!!!
Mary crashed into the shield.
Sparks flew everywhere like fireworks.
The hit was so powerful it left a dark black sword mark burned right into the silver.
The shield cracked a little... then vanished with a pop.
"Here goes your shield, hub—" Rosalina caught herself, cheeks going pink.
"I mean, Julius."
She smirked, proud.
"That’s the ability of my sword Mary. Once it touches any spell you make, that spell can’t come back for a while. Choose your steps carefully, Julius."
Julius grinned big, not even mad.
"As expected," he said softly, almost proud of her.
He swung the hammer down again—BAMM!!
The cotton field exploded around them.
White fluffy smoke filled the whole arena like thick fog.
No one could see a thing.
Then Julius’s voice cut through the smoke, calm and teasing.
"Magic Arsenal: Third Form. Widow’s Scream."
A bright circle flashed right in front of him.
The second it appeared—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Sonic booms exploded out like thunderclaps.
Then came the scream—A horrible, sad woman’s wail: "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The scream shot forward like a wave of pure sound.
It ripped through the white smoke, heading straight for Rosalina.
Rosalina’s eyes narrowed the instant the wail began.
The sound wasn’t just loud, it carried weight, like grief given physical form.
It pressed against her skin, made her eardrums throb, and tried to crawl inside her skull.
She clicked her tongue.
"Tch. Drama king."
She planted both feet firmly and raised Mary with both hands this time, point upward like a lightning rod.
"Infinite Cast: Silent Grave."
A thin, dark membrane shimmered into existence around her, a perfect sphere of absolute quiet.
The screaming wave hit the barrier and... simply stopped.
No echo. No vibration.
The sound died the moment it touched the grave-like silence, as if someone had pressed mute on reality itself.
Inside her little bubble of hush, Rosalina let out a small breath of relief.
Outside, the cotton fog was still thick, but she could hear Julius’s low chuckle drifting through it.
"Not bad, not bad at all~ But you can’t hide in there forever, can you?"
He was moving, she could feel the subtle tremors in the ground each time his boots touched down.
Rosalina’s lips curved faintly.
"Who said I’m hiding?"
She snapped her fingers.
Pop-pop-pop-pop!
Every single cotton boll still attached to the plants suddenly burst open at once.
Not with fluff this time—With razor-sharp black rose petals.
Thousands upon thousands of them.
They swirled upward in a violent spiral, turning the entire arena into a glittering black blizzard.
The petals didn’t just float. They hunted.
Julius’s proud grin froze for the first time.
"Oh... crap."
He slammed the war hammer into the ground again.
"Magic Arsenal: 6th form....Iron Maiden!"
Crimson chains erupted from beneath the soil, snapping up like angry serpents.
They formed a jagged, spiked cocoon around him just as the first wave of petals arrived.
Shink! Shink! Shink! Shink!
Petals hammered into the chains, embedding themselves like black thorns. Some bounced off. Most stuck.
The cocoon began to look more like a morbid pincushion by the second.
Inside, Julius laughed—half pain, half exhilaration.
"You’re really trying to turn me into a rose bouquet, huh? That’s cold, wifey!"
"Don’t call me that in the middle of a fight, idiot!"
Rosalina’s voice cut through the storm, sharp and embarrassed.
She dashed forward, Mary trailing dark afterimages.
The black rose blizzard parted for her like loyal subjects.
Julius saw her coming.
His eyes gleamed.
"Been waiting for that."
He slammed both palms against the inside of his chain cocoon.
"Magic arsenal: final form...Widow’s Embrace!"
The chains exploded outward.
Not away from him—Toward her.
Every chain that had caught her petals now reversed direction, dragging the razor storm back with them.
The black petals reversed course mid-flight, spiraling violently toward Rosalina like a reverse tornado.
She skidded to a stop.
For the first time, her calm expression cracked, just a flicker of genuine surprise.
Julius burst out of the cocoon, war hammer already raised for an overhead smash.
"Gotcha!"
He brought it down with everything he had.
Rosalina’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.
But then—
She smiled.
A real one. Small, dangerous, and a little fond.
"Mary."
The sword in her hand pulsed once, deeply.
And everything—
The petals.
The chains.
The hammer.
The black sun.
The cotton fog.
—stopped.
Completely.
Every single spell Julius had cast since the fight began... suddenly remembered it had touched Mary earlier.
And Mary had marked them.
All of them.
The weapons.
The shield.
The eclipse sun.
The sonic scream.
The chains.
One after another, they flickered... dimmed... and simply popped out of existence like soap bubbles.
Julius’s hammer froze mid-swing, suddenly just an ordinary (extremely heavy) piece of metal.
His eyes went comically wide.
"...Wait what—"
Rosalina stepped forward lightly, placed one finger against the flat of his now-useless hammer, and pushed.
It toppled backward with a heavy thud.
She stood there, breathing just a little harder than usual, Mary still glowing faintly in her grip.
The arena was silent except for drifting cotton fluff and distant crowd murmurs.
Julius stared at her.
Then he slowly raised both hands in surrender, a huge, shameless grin spreading across his face.
"Okay. Okay. You win this round."
He dropped to one knee dramatically, head bowed like a knight before his queen.
"But only because I’m a gentleman who knows when he’s beaten~"
Rosalina stared down at him for a long moment.
Then she sighed..long, fond, exasperated.
"You’re impossible."
She reached out with her free hand...
...and flicked him hard on the forehead.
"Ow!"
"Next time," she muttered, cheeks faintly pink again, "don’t announce your attacks like some chuuni protagonist."
Julius looked up at her, rubbing his forehead, eyes sparkling.
"Love you too, Rose."
She turned sharply away so he wouldn’t see her face.
"...Shut up."
