Chapter 4

The Next Century is the fourth chapter of the The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers manga series, written & illustrated by Daisuke Itabashi. It is apart of Volume 1 and released on March 16, 2026.

Plot

Chapter 3 starts out in a rocky canyon full of giant lizards. Since a regular lecture would only bore students of their caliber, Amira proposes a game she calls Candle Tipping. The rules are a cinch. A candle sits on a stone pillar, Amira will protect it without using her hands at all, and the students get to use their magic to try and knock it over. There is no time limit. When Barbato asks if they can aim spells at her personally, she says but of course, then beckons the whole class over with one finger. She wants all of them to take her on at once. Barbato fires immediately and Amira is already gone, chiding him that it's his own fault for not being alert, and that anyone who wants to be the best should stay ever on guard. The students hit their first wall fast. Lumina reads zero magic reaction from Amira, just like her data said, which means Amira can't even see their flows. This is where the chapter drops some lore. No matter how masterful the sorcerer, casting a spell always produces a flow of force, and reading those flows is the crux of any magical duel. The dark elf in front of them can't perceive flows at all, so how is she reacting so fast? Does she have some way to read the future? Unable to figure it out, they decide to just overwhelm her with volume. It does not work. Amira weaves through the barrage, punches boulders out of the air, tells them flat out that they suck at this, then cheers them on to get their hands dirty and have fun doing it. Garr keeps insisting his nose knows the truth. What he smells off her is the scent of a strong beast. When Amira taunts the one spectator watching from above to pitch in a little, Lilicena descends and accepts, addressing her the way the students would, as Great Mage Lilicena, or rather as Lilicena the Draconic, the Sorcerer of Time and Space. She admits this comes as a relief. She has a losing record against Amira in Candle Tipping, and she never could forget that. She then summons her true staff, Dreams in White, one of the 7 Great Staffs of the World, crafted by Gen the dwarf. The students scramble for cover as teacher and lecturer go all out. Lilicena rains down artillery and even spatially teleports a colossal stone monument out of the sky to flatten the field, and Amira smashes right through it, using her experience and senses as a great sorcerer to instantly work out how each spell behaves and dispel it with her body alone. Mid brawl they trade a fist bump and some banter. Lilicena admits her friend's moves are well beyond a dark elf's capability, and Amira asks whether Lilicena maybe let herself slip a bit over the last hundred years. That line opens a flashback covering those hundred odd years. Once Amira ran dry on magic, she had to force her heavy body off the ground. She began with gathering firewood, then cultivated a field so she could be self sufficient, and before she knew it she was taking on the forest's monsters, working out how to get stronger, every single day. Turns out she likes moving her body more, since there's no extraneous stuff to think about. And besides, she's a pretty malicious dark elf, and if she'd stayed that wimp forever, she'd never be able to play tricks on Lilicena like she used to. Lilicena declares it's time to end this and unleashes everything she has. When the dust settles, the candle still stands, and Amira chalks up another win. A poor lizard caught nearby is out cold. The students grumble that manipulation magic is cheap and ask how breaking out all those huge spells counts as the smart and elegant sorcery Lilicena preaches, while Lilicena counters that Amira has simply become too muscle brained. The kids apologize for being so rude to their new professor, and Amira promises them some real tough love in her class. Lilicena notes those kids may be too proud for their own good, but they're nice deep down, and she looks forward to seeing Amira guide them. Lumina then asks about Lilicena's staff, which isn't anywhere in her collected data. Lilicena explains Dreams in White was crafted 400 years ago by Gen the dwarf. Several of his pieces still exist today, but there are precious few records about the dwarf himself, since he trained no one directly and avoided attention. Amira and Lilicena, who both knew him, describe a bushy bearded time bomb of a man with a quiet force like a gigantic boulder who turned into a ball of explosive energy the moment he got to work, like he was born to be a great crafter. A flashback shows Gen handing a young, flower adorned Amira her new staff, warning the Omnipotent Caster, that she hasn't seen half of its full force yet, telling her to learn the ins and outs of it instead of hanging it on her wall, and holding her to her promise. She knows. She's a pacifist dark elf, and she won't use it on people. In another memory, Gen asks Amira whether magic is actually fun for her. She answers that not even she can hope to fully plumb its depths, but she does enjoy the pursuit, and with the right magic she can talk to birds, so how is that not fun? Gen starts to reply and never finishes the thought. The vast, faraway loneliness in the old dwarf's eyes became Amira's final memory of him. Both women agree that if Gen saw the staff Amira just made, he'd surely call it a piece of garbage. When it came to staffs he never minced words, and he was his own harshest critic too. Walking back, Amira says she's damn glad she tried making one of these, and when Lilicena reminds her she was sobbing when it wasn't going well, Amira owns it. She was deadly serious about it the whole time, so she got to taste all that frustration on the way too. She dedicated so much of her time to sorcery that when she lost it all, she assumed there was just nothing left. But she was wrong. It's like there's this whole world of great masters she wants to surpass, all these challenges she's free to tackle, magic or no. In the next century she wants to try making something she thinks is beautiful. She's the oldest rookie crafter in history, and isn't that just the most exciting thing? And as she does that, she wants to show everybody out there that she's the happiest magic drained dark elf in the whole, wide world. Lilicena knows how to get her ear. She offers to show Amira some of the treasures she wishes to surpass, held in the Great Storage Room in the school's basement, home to the university's grand collection of treasured magic tomes and invaluable magical implements. Amira is ecstatic right up until the catch. It is, by design, a closed collection, so regular students and staff aren't allowed in without permission, and entry requires the Chancellor's approval. Amira figures she'll just bring the Chancellor a gift or something and they're good, but Lilicena warns that the Chancellor can be rather trying at times. The chapter ends at the Chancellor's tower. A winged, haloed figure who has lived over 300 years and survived two great wars discusses the newcomer with an aide, noting that anyone who can do all that with no magic is a legend, and that Professor Lilicena's recommendation isn't enough to make the final call. The Chancellor's job is to protect the students, and for the young and immature among them, seeing such a force might lead to worship disguised as learning. Besides, an excellent sorcerer may not necessarily turn out to be an excellent teacher. They need to see whether Amira is poison or a panacea, and the Chancellor intends to drink first.

Characters in Order of Appeareance

• Amira
• Barbato
• Lilicena
• Milya
• Garr
• Lumina
• Sheritha
• Gen (flashback)
• Chancellor's Aide
• The Chancellor