A Villainess Should Be Strong

"Let's see...." Estelle heaved a long breath as she flew near the storm.

Originally, the storm was comprised of only fine dusts and sands. However, due to the destruction it caused, it was able to pick

This meant that whatever was inside this storm pumped enough energy to keep the artificial storm going. Then, there should be an easy fix to this entire ordeal.

To destroy this storm's core.

The problem was: where exactly is the core inside this gigantic entity?

"Where do I start?" Estelle crossed her arms and rose up to the storm's middle area.

First, she decided to not be rash. No matter how confident she was, this is a storm. A storm which had a higher destructive ability than anything else she had ever seen before, even though it was a lifeless entity.

Estelle observed the airflow. She deduced that as long as she paid attention to where the additional debris flew towards, she would be able to discern where the energy's center was. Or at the very least, the general location.

She further tested using a spear she created. Five spears in total were launched to be sucked in by the storm. Estelle put a certain amount of protective magic on them so that they wouldn't be destroyed.

However, she underestimated the strength of the storm. Once the spear came in contact with the outside layer of the storm, it began to break. Once it got sucked in, Estelle could see that the spears were no longer intact, and that the smithereens were flying all around inside the storm.

She wasn't able to see where the blisters led off to, so it was a failed experiment.

The protective magic on the spears wasn't peeled off. It was more of a brute force attack, one that was enough to bypass a protective membrane.

Estelle imagined replacing the spear with herself just now. Would she be torn and chewed up by the wind just like the spear, and end up being blown into pieces?

It was a scary thought. Thankfully, she was conscious enough not to do that and instead try to approach the problem differently.

The brute force the wind exerted was enough to blast off all of the monster corpses they fought earlier and chop them into thin meat.

"And this is what Elias called 'additional gift'?" Estelle sighed. The man's common sense was worse than hers.

There were two storms. One large, and the other medium-sized. She wouldn't say it was small, but it was indeed tiny in comparison with the larger storm.

The power was also weaker. Estelle decided to move over to the other storm for the time being. Challenging the big storm was too nonsensical.

She had to inspect this smaller entity first.

Getting closer to it, Estelle felt relieved. "It's not as harsh as the other one,"

Materializing 5 more spears, she sent them the same way as she did with the first storm.

However, surprisingly, the storm broke the spears once again.

It didn't make sense to Estelle. The smaller storm was noticeably weaker. Its movements were also not as ferocious as the other one.

But, the spears were destroyed in the same way this time around. With the same power, and same time span.

They reached the external layer, were chipped off, and entered the storm. From then on, she couldn't tell what was happening anymore because the storm was too busy with other components too.

Scratching her head, Estelle pondered on how she could solve this dilemma.

A storm. What caused a storm?

If it was only the ground element and the sucking force of the core, it shouldn't be this hard to destroy.

"Additional gift," Estelle said. "Additional gift, additional gift... additional gift..?"

The more she repeated it, the more she felt confused.

Elias hadn't chanted anything, did he? He was still around her vicinity even when the second storm started brewing.

Estelle grew very conscious after she couldn't feel Elias' mana. She heightened her senses and searching ability.

One thing that she noticed would be the absence of ground element mana in the environment.

In order to cast a great spell, there needed to be a great supply of mana.

In order to maintain a great supply of mana, one had to draw in more energy from the environment.

This phenomenon should've caused or triggered a mana imbalance, yet she noticed nothing of that sort.

A gift.

What if, the storm wasn't made of magic?

What if, the storm was a 'gift'?

An object that laid somewhere, propelling the growth of this shitty storm?

The more Estelle thought about it, the more she thought that it was likely.

[Is Elias still here?]

If he truly had gone away, then his control over this storm shouldn't be that strong.

No matter how strong Estelle was, she still couldn't properly manage a disastrous storm like this from a mile away.

[It might not be magic.]

A device. A device that contained a great amount of mana, that supplies this storm.

Was it possible?

Rather than wondering if it was within the realms of logic or not, Estelle decided to test it out herself.

She threw out a field of mana sensory radars. Like a net, her influence stretched far and wide.

It took a lot of concentration for this to happen. Thus, she started focusing onto this particular spell, utilizing her utmost brain power to navigate through the wide fief.

Somewhere, something that was laid down to channel mana.

Where would it be? If she was in Elias' position, where would this gift be located at?

Then, Estelle was suddenly reminded of another thing.

The bases that she had destroyed.

When she was rampaging over those locations, she hadn't activated her radar that well. She only searched lightly, because she had to hurry.

Was there something that she missed?

She went over the city slowly. Scouring through the streets, sensing the mana flow there, and spreading her tracks further.

She circled around the destroyed bases, making sure nothing was wrong outside, and then investigated the collapsed bases harsher.

Nothing was found. Going from her current position, to slowly nearing the Clareste Manor, Estelle frowned as she hadn't found any strange situation at all. Nothing was amiss.

Her mana swarmed around. The amount of energy she mobilized was out of the world. No other entity could utilize this sort of magic, because their mana would be sucked dry before they could even finish the outer layer of the city.

Estelle was currently in the middle section.

The bases, the houses, the ground, and the skies.

Nothing was there.

At this point, Estelle's hope was already bleak.

It was just a suggestion, a possibility.

It might not be true in the slightest. She just found it weird how Elias described it as a gift, and how he managed to trigger the storm without causing a large mana imbalance.

Even through the array of disbelief, Estelle pushed through.

She continued her search, knowing that she was wasting time and everything might just be a waste.

Even so, she continued.

After a long, detailed, and extensive search, she finally found something that was problematic.

Like a ray of hope, this one result made relief and happiness wash through her as she marked the location down and released her magic and the mind working behind it.

"..Found it," Estelle gasped, tired and exhausted from all the mental stress focusing that hard brought her.

Her heartbeat quickened, and her breathing pace was rugged as she struggled to keep her balance. Deciding to land on a surface somewhere for the time being, Estelle took flight and dropped off on a rooftop.

She gritted her palms, curling them into a ball.

The abnormality's location was shocking to say the least.