Wait, hey, seriously?! Is that halberd made of Hard or something?! And the voice is cute like a girl’s! Not only is it surprising that it split my attack, it’s also surprising that it has a voice at all—and that the voice is a girl’s! What the hell kind of magical creature is it?!

  “My slashing attacks don’t work on anything these days; it makes me a little sad! It’s supposed to be able to cut anything!”

  “And yet you seem real happy about it!” Maria teased.

  Oh man, Maria just commented on how happy I look. But doesn’t that just mean I live in a terrible environment where I was forced to evolve that way? I need to aim upward. Unknown fears still lurk where I am...but isn’t that just the best?! It makes my heart pound!

  I was on a real high, but at the same time I assessed the battlefield calmly. Once Ponytail cut my slash, it—she—accelerated, reaching speeds close to what Ange was capable of. Now, that dangerous weapon was aiming for me. I could also feel ominous magic coming from Katana girl behind her. I couldn’t see their expressions, but I could feel their desire to kill. The intense will to crush me was incredibly strong.

  I laughed joyously. “I can’t even begin to predict what either one of them will do! This is so fun!”

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  While Kelvin’s battle started, Isla Heaven was still gradually sinking along with the spectator seating—though, rather than seating, there was nothing that could really be considered a seat or chair. The spectators had simply gathered together, sitting on whatever they deemed appropriate as they watched the battle unfold. One puffed on a cigar, while another drank alcohol, and another created popcorn and cola, totally ignoring the situation they were in.

  “Huh, so this is popcorn. It’s delicious in a way that makes you crave more. No wonder Rion-chan recommended it,” said Dorothy.

  “I know, right? This is the salted caramel flavor, but there’s lots more to try,” said Maria. “Personally, I like soy wasabi! Oh, do you want some cola? Do you? I recommend you down it all in one gulp!”

  “No, well, you see, Mr. Addams, I’m just not the kind of man who would ever attempt to betray you! Ah, no, in fact, I just wanted to pay Luquille back for healing me, that’s all. Heh heh...” Patrick sputtered excuses.

  “Hmm. I understand what you’re trying to say, Patrick,” Addams replied. “But I really don’t care about such trifles. Just enjoy this rare event for now. I am an old god, so this is all the hospitality I know how to show. Here, have a drink first. It’s from my personal collection, I’m quite proud of it.”

  “Heh...heh heh heh! Don’t mind if I do!” Patrick exclaimed.

  “Shin-chaaan, don’t you think you’re smoking a bit too much?” Goldiana asked. “You’re such a heavy smoker, I’m worried.”

  “And who asked for that, Peach Ogre?” Shin shot back. “You should mind Rimless over there instead. That attention seeker’s being oddly quiet, don’t you think? It’ll probably rain spears tomorrow—or maybe today?”

  “Heh! It seems she’s gone senile in her old age. You can ignore her prattle, Prettia-kun,” said Art. “Instead, you should listen to my song!”

  “My word, you two get along as well as always. I’m jealous!” said Goldiana.

  “We do not!” both replied in unison.

  “How about you pay attention to the fight instead?!” Cheruvim shouted. He was the only one of the spectators actually watching the battle, and he added a sigh to his retort. “And while I’m at it: Addams, he’s a traitor! Why are you offering him a drink like everything’s water under the bridge?!”

  “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? You totally mutinied against Eld,” said Patrick.

  “That doesn’t count, because Eld was in the wrong!” replied Cheruvim.

  “Whaaat? That’s ridiculous...”

  “Calm down, both of you,” said Addams. “Both of your actions are but trifles to me. More importantly, Cheruvim, you should drink too. If you have a problem, spit it all out at the drinking table.”

  “I told you, I don’t dri— Gwhlp?!”

  Cheruvim was interrupted. Addams had approached at incredible speed and shoved an entire bottle into his mouth. His actions brooked no refusal, and Cheruvim couldn’t put up any resistance.

  “Aha ha! That’s total alcohol harassment! You’ll get canceled for that! But drink anyway!” Maria cheered in a singsong lilt. “I love this kind of energy!”

  At some point, she had somehow produced her own glass and poured some sake from the bottle Addams had opened. In a sense, she was enjoying this party the most.

  But could any sense of order be brought to this gathering? Only the gods knew.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  “Still, I never expected Kelvin-kun’s slash to be swept aside. That ponytail girl has some sort of special ability, doesn’t she?” Shin mused. She had been puffing on her cigar as she watched when that unusually proper question left her mouth. It seemed she’d tired of arguing with Art, because she was now distancing herself from him.

  “Whoa there, you’ve got a good eye, lady!” Maria exclaimed. “You’re exactly right! The Unique Skill of the girl whose blood I used influenced them, so now they’re able to do stuff like that! Like, wowzers, right?”

  “Yep, totally wowzers. Super amazing,” Shin agreed. “You’re amazing for being able to recreate a Unique Skill, Maria.”

  “Mm...heh heh...izzat so?” Maria replied bashfully. “I’m always evolving, after all. For Celestial Zoa, I made sure to use Jabberwock’s abilities as a base while adjusting the spell to make the creations closer to the original source in both composite skills and personality. Basically, I tried a lot of different stuff. But this sort of thing requires a fair amount of blood, and I’d need to know a lot about the source, so it’s not like I can do the same for just anyone. I guess that limitation is a problem to solve for the future?”

  “Even so, there’s no doubt such a thing is a godlike feat,” Shin muttered. “By the way, would you be willing to share the details of the Unique Skill that defeated Kelvin Celsius’s slash?”

  “Sure, why not? Um, Spring has this ability called Slightly Unparalleled, you see—”

  That was close! Kelvin thought as he just barely managed to cast Silent Whisper in time to stop himself from hearing what Maria was saying despite the distance.

  Hey, come on! Seriously?! Don’t just give out spoilers in a voice loud enough that I can hear you while I fight! That’s not cool! My ears have gotten really good since I Evolved!

  Of course, the full-souled retort he let loose in his head never reached Maria. However, he couldn’t help but shout internally. After all, this was like a movie being spoiled for him while he was in the theater watching it.

  Still, at least I made it in time. I heard the name of her Unique Skill, but I managed to avoid hearing what it does. If I’d failed, that would make all my observations during battle meaningless. Yep, I’m safe.

  Kelvin, relieved as he was, was currently in the middle of throwing out a huge power move that would change the landscape around him. He was casting the Rank A Green Magic spell Turbulence—a spell that would toss its victim every which way with a torrent of wind while accompanied by the pressure of heavy gravity. In concert, he was casting the Rank S Green Magic Spell Air Void, which would lower the atmospheric pressure of the entire area. This pair of spells used together would forcefully turn the battlefield into the peak of Enberg while also forcing the enemy to fight inside a disaster-class storm. Of course, the web of thin air and strong gravity wouldn’t affect Kelvin, the caster. With the environs only influencing his enemy negatively, he would be at an overwhelming advantage—or at least, he should be.

  I guess a magical creature doesn’t care about air.

  No matter how much Kelvin lowered the atmospheric pressure, Spring and Summer wouldn’t be affected since they didn’t need to breathe. Also, the pair still moved at extreme speeds in the buffeting winds.

  “Vega Aspida,” Summer chanted.

  Not even Spring and Summer could avoid being knocked off-balance by the combination of increased gravity and turbulent winds. However, every time they were, Summer would chant a spell and create several walls of light. As for what that would cause...

  They’re using the barriers as footholds again!

  Barriers were simple things that could only function as walls. But that was exactly why they could withstand Kelvin’s gravity. The pair used these barriers as footholds to brace them against the gravity and wind, allowing them to move around in this environment without losing much mobility. While the barriers were the linchpin of their defense, they were also the linchpin of their mobility.

  “Vega Aspida,” Summer repeated.

  “Again?!” Kelvin yelled. He had miscalculated.

  Actually, in a sense, this was a happy accident, but the usefulness of the barriers didn’t end there. If Kelvin showed even the slightest opening, a barrier would be deployed to prevent his retreat. They were also using it as a way to block movement. In addition, they would use bright light to blind him momentarily, while bending light to become transparent and blend into the background to try for a surprise attack. There was a lot of variety in their actions. Every time he was blinded, he’d use Blind Cure to recover his vision, and every time he bumped into a barrier, he had to cut it with his scythe. Both Kelvin’s mind and body were being worked overtime.

  “Impact Quad!”

  “Grk!”

  But he would counterattack whenever he found an opportunity. The powerful impact the spell imparted wasn’t stopped in time by Summer’s support, and Spring was forced to step back. With that, if only for a moment, their positions had been reversed between front and back lines, destroying their hitherto solid formation. Common sense said that this would be enough to turn the tables.

  But you guys aren’t the type to be held down by common sense, are you?!

  Kelvin got his hopes up even further, his expression warping into a smile. His hopes weren’t dashed this time.

  “Mirage Decoy,” Summer chanted.

  “Rosary Hole Bead!” Spring chanted.

  The moment their positions were reversed, Summer chanted a new spell, creating many illusionary copies of herself. As for Spring, she created some sort of ball even while she was still flying and threw it.

  “So they’re gonna return the favor, huh?!” Kelvin shouted.

  Summer disappeared into her crowd of illusions, charging with her blade raised. All of them parkoured and wall jumped using barriers to close in. Though she wasn’t as fast as Spring, she was still several stages faster than Kelvin without any buffs. Given how fast she was going, it was almost impossible to pick out the real thing from the fakes.

  On top of that, the ball that Spring had thrown from the back came flying in at speeds greater than Summer. Of all things, it sucked in the winds Kelvin had deployed around him in an attempt to correct its own heading. It was like a miniature black hole, absorbing everything in its path.

  No, that’s a real black hole, isn’t it?!

  Kelvin used Analyze Eye and instantly parsed the spell Spring was throwing out of the multitudes of new information he was seeing. Apparently, Rosary Hole Bead had the property of sucking in matter from outside to make itself—a black hole—bigger. As for how she could handle such a dangerous thing bare-handed, he honestly had no idea. Rather than try to make a snarky comment about it, Kelvin decided to just accept it as a ridiculous thing that otherworld magic could achieve.

  “Hup! Hah! Ho!”

  Even after the black hole, Spring continued to throw balls. This time, it wasn’t a black hole but a different spell. This one wasn’t affected by Analyze Eye—it returned the same bugged-out strings that Kelvin saw in Spring’s stats.

  I can’t read the stats... Hey now, don’t tell me that these balls are the ponytailed girl herself?! Is she seriously turning parts of her own body into balls to throw?!

  When Kelvin looked closer, he noticed that Spring, who’d always been small of build, was now a size smaller. This was something only a magical creature could accomplish—something that no living being could copy.

  “Heh heeeh! I may have modeled them after those girls, but that’s not all there is to Spring and Summer!” Maria boasted in a singsong lilt. “They’re just as cute and free as I am!”

  She seemed to be in a great mood as she munched on popcorn. However, Kelvin was too.

  “I love it! I never would have thought of such a thing!”

  He was in a similarly great mood.

  The illusions made by Summer continued to multiply, and now there were hundreds of them. There was basically an army of her. Not only that but they were all still running around, making Kelvin’s field of vision even noisier.

  The miniature black hole Spring had thrown further destroyed Isla Heaven, sucking in the ground as it went and becoming quite large. Its gravity only increased as it got larger, and at this point, getting close to it was suicide.

  Looking at all that, Kelvin felt like he was facing avatars of light and darkness themselves. Of course, such a feeling only made him happy as he puzzled over the problem. Being in a pinch was nothing but a reward to him. The only sticking point was that he was forced to wonder what had happened to the promise not to destroy Isla Heaven, but in general it all shook out to be a positive thing. He knew there were more important things to think about.

  The black hole coming toward me...looks like it’s going to reach me first. I can feel quite a lot of pulling force even from this distance. Yeah, I guess it would be best to kite the katana girl army to the side while dodging it. I do want to try challenging the thing head-on, but it’s not good to be greedy. I’ll try that out next time.

  The speed at which the black hole was approaching was incredible, but its trajectory was simple: It was going straight. Kelvin could just get out of the way—dodging wouldn’t be that hard. He figured her aim probably wasn’t to deal damage, but to stop the turbulent storm while also limiting his maneuverability. And in truth, the advantage that Kelvin had been enjoying before was now on the side of Spring and Summer.

  Even with this much distance, I’m still feeling such a pull. If I was closer, I’d likely find it almost impossible to get away. Not only that, but for some reason, that black hole isn’t affecting the katana girl army. Well, they’re almost all illusions, so I guess it just looks that way, but still...

  In fights of this level, it wasn’t strange for attacks and effects to only affect the enemy (Kelvin). While expecting (hoping) for the worst, he intercepted the Summer army.

  “Holy Enchantment,” a whole host of them called at once.

  “Whoa, that’s dangerous!” Kelvin yelled.

  Just before they clashed, a total of several hundred katanas all gave off a bright light in an attempt to once again blind him. But Kelvin had predicted that and had Hard transform into a pair of sunglasses. These sunglasses were really futuristic, likely because of Hard’s penchant for transforming into futuristic weapons in his previous life. At any rate, he’d managed to neutralize the blinding light.

  Crrrrrrk!

  But it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. Just as he was about to exchange blows with the Summers, Spring interfered. A magic projectile came flying in fast. Unlike the black hole, this one was able to spin very fast to curve its trajectory, and it flew right at Kelvin while splitting the air as if it were furnished with a homing function. More came, with some coming from Kelvin’s blind spot and others flying through phantom Summers. This resulted in them being able to boldly make surprise attacks. Though Kelvin made some Obsidian Edges to intercept Summer with, he was forced to use them as a shield, since the projectiles were heavy, like highly condensed wind.

  Seriously, they’re nearly broken after just one hit? I strengthened these with Magic Overclock, you know? But I can’t afford to just pay attention to these balls, can I?!

  After who knew how many deflected projectiles, the Summer army reached Kelvin. He had no idea where the real Summer was, so he made a slashing attack with his scythe, figuring that he might as well try to hit all of them. Meanwhile, he used his remaining Obsidian Edges as well as a Helix Barrier to intercept the rest.

  “That one, that one, and this one are all fake... You’re pretty cautious, katana girl!” Kelvin shouted. He kept swinging at illusions, so of course it didn’t feel like he was hitting anything. If it did, that would mean he’d hit the real Summer, but no such thing had happened yet. The only response he got was the usual heavy magic projectiles flying at him suddenly.

  I know the army in front of me is just an illusion, but that doesn’t mean I can just ignore their numbers—

  Out of nowhere, Kelvin felt a sharp pain in his gut. With the experience he’d built up from taking all sorts of damage, he immediately realized he’d been stabbed. The feeling of a sharp blade meant, of course, that Summer had attacked him.

  “You... Did you seriously turn invisible even with all these fakes?!” Kelvin yelled.

  Indeed, Summer had given herself optical camouflage in order to sneak behind Kelvin. The reason she’d created so many phantom copies and had all their blades shine so brightly was for this strike. This amount of planning was unthinkable for a magical creation.

  Even so, Kelvin managed to grip the blade with all his might before the katana could go all the way through. With that, he managed to slow the blade down a little and make sure that the real Summer couldn’t get away. He’d taken major damage, but he’d make sure to give back more than he got. The malicious hand of Kelvin’s retaliation came for Summer.

  “Clear-Sky Sword,” Summer intoned.

  Kelvin let out a loud, surprised yelp, stopping his malicious hand. The attack didn’t just stop with his innards being pierced and gouged by the blade. Summer had said something, that was all. But in that instant, an intense mental burden assaulted him. If it had to be likened to something, it would be intense stress, much like when he’d been assaulted by Colette when her faith had exploded or when he’d been forced to eat a full course meal cooked by the three cooking failures, Mel, Sylvia, and Ariel. It was an unimaginable instance of despair. It echoed within Kelvin’s head, making a moment stretch to infinity.

 

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