――God, Buddha, Od Lagna. For as long as I live, I hereby vow to never clutch a stuffed toy.
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Roy: [――――]
The moment the knee shot up into his jaw, Roy Alphard's cognizance bolted around like a flash of lightning.
Peculiar, inexplicable, strange oddity, whirling misgivings, apprehension, dubiety, something's wrong, immense abnormality, error, mystifying, accident, incorrect, irregularity, chaos, doubt doubt, doubtdoubtdoubtdoubtdoubtdoubtdoubt――,
Ram: [――Kindly die.]
Governed by such misgivings, Roy would not be overlooked by Ram after she knocked the wind out of his sails by some means.
Her outstretched white fingers fired a jab into Roy's throat whilst he faced upward. His welling nausea and respiration intercepted, ache and suffocation assaulted Roy's small frame.
However, Ram's terrifying essence lay in the lack of charm of not slackening her hand here.
Ram: [Fula.]
The blade of wind generated in the space of her hand seizing his windpipe, the honed sharpness arrested Roy's slim throat straight-on, and with nowhere for him to run, Roy's throat was mercilessly slashed away from his body――,
Roy: [――This~, won't go!]
In that instant, the wind slash cleaved through, and Roy's head spurted blood as though having burst open.
However, reach Roy's life it would not, for he had reconstructed the Carnivorous Beast, Beli Heinelga, proprietor of sturdy skin, to whom not a single sword pierced from the thousand lunged into him by the garrison in order to seize the brutal criminal.
Ram: [――――]
Ram dilated her eyes at the unforeseen outcome, and in that juncture, whilst she remained stanced to aim at his throat, Roy forced her along with him as he instantly shifted to the skies above the battlefield―― 'twas the power of warp movement belonging to the Leaper, Dorkell.
One certain day, having attained a supernatural power by connecting via Od Lagna as though an abrupt divine oracle, the Leaper became a destroyer of order, utilizing that power to assassinate a great number of influential individuals of power. That warp movement indicated no signs in advance, and as Ram stiffened upon being transpierced by the unforeseen astonish, he held her down with brute force and used that interlude to conduct an evaluation of her as prey of the battlefield――,
Ram: [El Fula!]
Roy: [――Uhyi-, seriously!?]
Devoid of hesitation, she fired a gutsy spell of wind magic, to which Roy unwittingly clamored a voice of admiration.
The warp movement, without question, must have been beyond Ram's anticipation. But she, in merely a moment, digested the shock of failing to slash Roy's throat and the surprise from the warp movement, and instantaneously counterattacked. Such courage! Such fortitude!
Roy: [You're doing it~!]
That blade of wind had also failed to pierce through the Carnivorous Beast's sturdy skin. And yet, he wished to extol that prompt judgement and mobility of action. Hence, infused with the sentiment to extol it, he returned the favor with a fist strike from the Fist King, Neiji Rockhardt.
The hit from the Fist King who had smashed the heads of all kinds of warriors on the Gladiator Island, upon being inundated by it, Ram's slender body would be turned to a pulpy squash―― vanished.
Ram: [Did you lose sight of Ram? What a useless pair of eyes you have.]
With that unpredicted voice, the supposedly vanished Ram's presence had emerged behind him; Roy reflexively hurled a blow of the Fist King without looking, but the attack missed. As if magic, her presence had shifted to his overhead, showering him with an enzuigiri kick, and headlong towards the ground did he fall, fall, fall――.
Roy: [A~h, so beautiful~.]
In the midst of falling to the ground back-first, Roy did not even take a defensive stance, wholeheartedly enchanted by that which was overhead―― the hem of her skirt waving, the form of a young girl with pink-hued hair fluttered in resplendence. Roy then went on to defenselessly crash into the ground, and as the impact sustained upon his back spread to his abdomen, pain pervaded the entirety of his body, yet he did not mind.
――Carnivorous Beast × Leaper × Fist King.
Suprarational individuals who had surfaced to the top even amongst all that Gluttony had eaten, but Ram's might, technique, and clarity of heart had splendidly disposed of them, inducing Roy to feel deeply moved with emotion in sincerity and without plot.
Here, Roy had to also show something good from his side, and with this notion, he swung his legs and stood up, bent his knees, and amassed power in them to pounce at Ram.
After all――,
Roy: [Unless all strength, all capacity, all of everything is totally invested to offer up as hospitality, it can't be called love, can it now~!]
???: [――That way of thinking, it's identical to something I've heard somewhere, and I really hate i~t.]
However, faster than Roy could leap to return to the skies, a ferocious, outraged voice rushed on from the side. The roar was accompanied by sharp, beastly claws and an explosive charge.
Curved horns and an enormous build that commanded eyes upward, frame supported by limbs that seemed slender, and flexibly racing on the ground was the being called the Jet-Black King of the Forest, synonymous for ferocity and atrociousness――,
???: [――――AROOOO!!]
Roy: [Hyaa~, Guiltilaw!!]
Facing Roy as he cheered in delight, a claw swipe swung down. Roy instantaneously countered it with the power of the Snow Vallum, Tislow. The body exceeding norms, regarded in legend for having intercepted and restrained an avalanche unaided, interdicted the plunging robust limbs of the Witchbeast straight-on, latching a grapple in successive order from the right foreleg, then the left foreleg.
Then, giving it his all, he sought to twist off both of the Guiltilaw's legs―― when in an instant, his eyes met with pale crimson pupils wielding a wand that had slipped below the Witchbeast's length of legs.
Roy: [Truly, the greatest――]
Ram: [Fula.]
His forehead showered with bullets of wind disallowing him from even speaking, he was blown away by a tail whip from the Guiltilaw. Repelled a great distance, whilst skiing the ground with his tiptoes, Roy lifted his countenance.
Behind Ram wielding her wand, the young girl clinging atop the Guiltilaw's back, Meili, used her slender fingers to point towards Roy―― no, towards Roy's rear, and cried.
Meili: [Sick hiii~m, Witch Blackdog-cha~n's!!]
Blackdogs: [――Gugyaaagogugu!]
Conforming with Meili's shrill call, countless dots of red swooped onto Roy with ferocity.
Those were eyes saturated red belonging to black dogs wolfing down their prey, fangs bared in truculence―― conceived with the power of magic and a profusion of curses teeming in their bodies, a pack of Ulgarm.
The pack of demon dogs mercilessly impaled the body of Gluttony with their fangs and tore it apart. Much to irony, the end of Roy Alphard, who commanded the name of Bizarre Eating per his pleasure, was as feed for inclement Witchbeasts――,
Roy: [Aa~AA~aa~AA~a~――]
The Witchbeasts' movements came to a petrified halt from the sudden voice of song emanating from Roy's throat.
The pack of savage dogs stood motionless, and Roy gently caressed the head of one that was biting at his neck―― the subsequent instant, the blood spouting from the mouth of his wounds writhed out, taking the form of blades, slashing the Witchbeasts incapable of escaping, julienning them to skewers, and creating a choir of death wails.
Roy: [There we go~.]
Awakening his body lento, Roy stood up, unveiling his body in an ostentatious debut.
Bite wounds from the demon dogs engraved throughout his body, the blood gushing from them turned to blades with a gleaming sheen, suspending the pack of black dogs as if they were fruit growing on the branch of a fruit tree, and reduced them to carcasses.
A co-starring of dreams between the curse ballad of the Blightlove Troubadour, Notah, who travelled and chanted anti-nationalist songs across landscapes, and the magician who had been unable to manipulate anything save for his own sanguine ichor, the Bloodweeping Oni, Advan. Furthermore, he materialized the magic technique of the Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows, Matclyma Jordan, who had plotted to overthrow the Holy Kingdom by utilizing the residual Mana from the remains of perished Witchbeasts; with the carcasses serving as their chrysalis, butterflies hued in a spectra of rainbow emerged and started to flutter about as they danced in Roy's perimeter.
The butterflies, eclosing as many as the number of corpses, flitted, fluttered, and flittered――,
Roy: [Ta~dah.]
――Snow Vallum × Blightlove Troubadour × Bloodweeping Oni × Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows.
Raising an innumerable count of prismatic butterflies to serve him, Roy pigmented the stage of spotlight, laden with token commendation towards Ram and the others who had attended to him with truly, truly sweet and luscious hospitality.
However, Ram and Meili rigidified their gazes and bearings, laying bare their animosity.
Roy: [Now now, that was amazing~. That perfectly synced-up coordination just now! It's tantalizing~. When did the two of you become such close pals? Indeed, you must've gotten closer in the time of the journey through the Sand Sea that we don't know of, correct~? Both Ram-san and Meili-san, how mean and sneaky of you~.]
Ram: [Kindly stop trying to calmly initiate a conversation with that bloodstained form that is painful to even look at. Exchanging words with a deviant has Ram's small songbird heart close to bursting with anxiety.]
Roy: [A songbird's heart-! A~h, to proclaim it yourself actually makes it pretty respectable, you know~. What kind of preliminary preparation of ingredients will fan the flames next, the excitement doesn't stop~.]
Clapping his hands in applause, Roy swiftly retracted the sanguine blades into his body. Whilst the carcasses of Witchbeasts fell to thuds, Roy coagulated the blood of his bite wounds, rapidly ceasing his bleeding as he exhaled a breath, entranced.
His sentiments of sincerity seemed to not have been transmitted, but his emotion of commendation was genuine. Feelings unrequited were painful. But, Ram and the others had kindly labored to an extent much greater than Roy had anticipated, so he wished to cherish that mark.
Roy: [Now, setting that aside.]
Setting aside his affection towards Ram and the others, Roy conjectured the truth behind the inexplicable phenomenon that had transpired in the midst of the several dozen seconds of offensive and defensive combat earlier―― that it was intimately associated with the disappeared Divine Dragon.
It had been truly, truly astonishing. The Divine Dragon, with that ginormous build, had become nowhere to be seen on the battlefield in all but an unnoticeable interval.
Roy: [Probably, it's the same trick behind the disappearance of helmet uncle and the shinobi onee-san, as well as Ram-san and gang showing up… huh, seems like it's Clind-san, but it's very much like an Authority, isn't i~t.]
The vanished Aldebaran, Yae, and the Divine Dragon. Moreover, the increasing count of adversaries, and Ram's presence oscillating between appearing and vanishing as well, all of it together aligned with the special ability belonging to Clind within the Memories.
However, concording to Roy's own knowledge, relying not on Memories, it was a possibility that what made that all possible was neither the odd talents of an individual nor a Divine Protection of disparate nature, but an Authority.
Though, in that case, Clind would end up being the individual corresponding to the sole vacant seat that was Pride.
Roy: [Well~, guess the people who've disappeared don't matter right now~.]
Not only the Divine Dragon, but the figures of Clind and Roswaal were absent from the battlefield as well.
The bounds of Clind's strength were uncertain, but if he were a possessor of an Authority, then at minimum, he would likely count as combat power. The tag team of Roswaal and Clind engaged in a large-scale battle against the Divine Dragon―― to ensure that its destruction did not extend to their environs, they had changed their battlefield. That was likely the context of what had occurred in the background.
Anyhow, if he had disappeared from the battlefield, then that ploy of appearing and vanishing would have no more chances to be used.
Thus, what he must prioritise were not the cruel ones who had vanished, but surfeiting the hospitality of those who stood ready before his eyes.
Roy: [How nice, how nice, humans are how nice~.]
The trick behind averting Eclipsing, as well as the arrangement of Witchbeasts with no name to be eaten, or perhaps even the entirety of every element that concocted this battlefield, was an agglomeration of artifices designed to entrap and kill Roy and the others.
The prior groundwork for confrontation, it could be designated the preliminary preparation of ingredients, the very spirit of hospitality. Exhausting oneself of all strength to make welcome. ――For that meant, effort what shattered heart.
Roy: [If so, then this side must also respond by offering up a suitable dress code~, or it'd be a discourtesy to that consideration bri~mming with love, after all~.]
Ram: [――. What do you intend?]
Taking acute notice of the change in the warmly-received Roy, Ram grimaced her fine-shaped brows. The beautiful maid laid bare her vigilance, but Roy pronounced "No no~", and shook his head side to side.
All-out war―― yes, this was a battle befitting of being benamed so, truly the final conclusion.
The Royal Selection Combined Forces, the enemy camp whom Natsuki Subaru would have labeled something like the "Aldebusters" had he been here, had prepared all arrangements for hospitality; all of its members wrung out their wisdom and latent strength in order to demonstrate their true worth, brandishing eyes resolved to labor to death till the very end.
That went for not just Ram and the others, but all who had been deployed into being war potential without stint, so to Roy Alphard, everyone earned a perfect hundred score, amounting to the very apex of those to whom he wished to grant gold stars.
The singular blemish unworthy of a gold star, was not amid his opponents. ――It laid on his side.
Roy: [――――]
Glancing in his vicinity, present there was a red-haired man left behind on the same battlefield as Roy, cowering in an unsightly squat as blood dripped down his nose―― the form of Heinkel.
Though shameful coming from the vantage of Gluttony, Roy's evaluation of Heinkel was surprisingly not bad.
Noosed with getting caught in his own traps, and a way of life saddled with somber anguishes seemingly never to be divulged, it seemed to have an impure bitterness only it could yield, hence he induced interest in it as a delicacy.
However, that too, operated on the major premise that it would not intrude upon the main dish with its aroma or appearance, so presently Heinkel had nothing going for him even where Gluttony was concerned.
Roy: [No matter how concentrated in extravagance a dinner banquet is, if a platter atop with uncooked flavors gets mixed in, it's just a waste~.]
A solitary individual, on a battlefield where everyone came together as one and clashed lives against lives, for there to be a singular element capable of putting it all to waste was unbearable, even for Bizarre Eating.
Thus――,
Roy: [You know~, uncle, you shouldn't stay moping around forever, so how about you get energetic and lively~!]
Heinkel: [Wha… S-Sin Archbishop…!]
Roy howled suddenly, to which the nosebleeding Heinkel upraised his face. Meeting his eyes, witnessing the unnatural sway in those blue irises, made Roy go crazy.
A gaze that looked as if it was clinging to something. If he possessed even a fragment of camaraderie or desire to depend on Roy, to seek such a thing from a Sin Archbishop went beyond the limits of imprudent heedlessness. That boundless disgracefulness was, in a certain sense, something irreplaceable, but now it was nothing but purely, a hindrance.
Roy: [――Shall we just go ahead free you from your~ burden, uncle~?]
He would not save him. Neither would he abandon him.
With simply a smile, Roy presented a third alternative to Heinkel.
Heinkel: [――――]
Heinkel dilated his eyes, frozen, yet even to him that proposition was transmitted with certainty.
The things expressed as "burden", just how valuable they were to Heinkel, Roy was unbeknownst to the details. However, they were surely more valuable than his own life or death. The fact that Roy did possess a means to take them away, Heinkel knew from looking into his eyes.
What Roy stated was not a threat or anything such in the slightest, but an alternative possibility that could be realized.
Therefore――,
Roy: [Tha~t's the spirit~.]
Roy's chest palpitated in delight budding from his heart at the change in expression of the man gritting his teeth. In such a way to respond to Roy's vivified emotions, the butterflies of rainbow-hue began a whirling dance akin to courting as they fluttered.
In the midst of prismatic scales glistening the skies, Roy let out his languid tongue and smiled. ――Now in its truest sense, the all-out war could commence.
Roy: [Want to be satisfied, yet don't want to be satisfied. ――Life, is so flavorful, it's astonishing~.]
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――God, Buddha, Od Lagna. For as long as I live, I hereby vow to never put needle to thread.
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Heinkel: [Goeghh… hk.]
Strikes pincering his chest and back, Heinkel collapsed, unable to do a thing.
Carol and Grimm―― they were the servant couple that had long served the Astrea Family, and the kicks delivered by their twin granddaughters, who had received an initiation into the Flow Method, were lethal weapons that completely disregarded their youth.
Heinkel: [Ouegh-, eughff-, blerghh-.]
Ever since the curtain had fallen on the war in the Vollachian Empire, he had hardly been able to eat a sufficient amount. As gastric juices were wrung from his empty stomach, Heinkel pathetically fell to his knees.
Twins: [――――]
As Flam and Grassis coldly looked down on Heinkel, his cheeks contorted in self-scorn.
Despite appearances, Heinkel was still the present head of the Astrea Family. Faced with Heinkel in such a state, the daughters of House Remendis were supposed to have pledged their loyalty to him; but oh, what an irreverent look they held in their eyes.
Flam: [Our fealty is devoted to the young master.]
Grassis: [Esteemed Family Head, you deeply stabbed the Honorable Predecessor.]
At the sharpness of the twins' replies, Heinkel fell silent without uttering even a single bitter remark.
Each gave undeniably valid arguments, and provided far more than enough persuasive reasons for why the girls despised Heinkel, and regarded him with hostility. The former was something that had always tormented Heinkel, and the latter was an offense that had ended up causing him new suffering, applying pressure to his entire body like a stone weight.
Even so――,
Heinkel: [I can't die…]
The voice dissipating through his molars, could be interpreted in two ways. ――The first, was that he could not afford to die, even when cornered to such an extent; and the second, was that even after being cornered to such an extent, he still was unable to die.
Even Heinkel himself was unsure of which way he had meant those words as they had escaped his lips.
Heinkel: [Gh, ughhh-!]
As Heinkel stood upon such an unstable foundation, the twins showed him no mercy. No hesitation.
Circulating the Flow Method through their bodies, the arms and legs of the girls had become as strong as steel, and so receiving a flurry of their strikes, it was akin to being out under a downpour of a rain of iron.
Above and below, left and right, ahead and behind, met with the incessant onslaught of Flam and Grassis's perfectly coordinated opposition, Heinkel protected his vital points with his sword, and could not do anything save for keeping up the defensive as he was showered with blows.
――The Flow Method, come to think of it, Heinkel had failed to properly master that too.
Even though he was given well-reasoned and thorough instruction on the many combat techniques that first-rate swordsmen and warriors were always subconsciously performing, Heinkel had been unable to perfect them for the purposes of actual battle.
Were Flam and Grassis really still just twelve years old? Even though he had spent more than twice their age in time, Heinkel's Flow Method was nowhere near the level of those two girls.
If Heinkel resigned himself to it being a matter of natural talent, would the hundred things that anguished him perhaps decrease by one?
Heinkel: [Fucking, shit…!]
Swinging his sword in a show of force, the twins, coordinating through a mere exchange of gazes, swiftly evaded it. His imprecise swordsmanship accurately read, he was struck in all the weak points on his elbows, sides, and neck.
His bones creaked, and the mouth that had only coughed up gastric juices until now, now flowed with droplets of blood. As soon as he unintentionally looked downwards, the twins executed a somersault as if they had been waiting for him, their kicks launching right up into his mug.
Heinkel: [Gah――!]
Sent reeling, Heinkel toppled backwards, the back of his head slamming onto the ground. With his vision flickering, and a distant ringing in his ears, Heinkel forcibly restored his consciousness from its momentarily befuddled state, and hastening to rise to his feet, he readied his sword as he glared to the fore.
Before him, the twins stuck the landing of their somersault next to each other, gently brushing the hems of their clothes as they looked up. ――As their gazes crossed, Heinkel detected a faint hue of bewilderment from the pair.
Heinkel: [――――]
Likely, the cause of the sisters' confusion was the fact that Heinkel was still standing.
In a matter of a dozen seconds, Heinkel had been thoroughly beaten up. His clothes were covered in mud, and his unkempt face was lavishly soiled by a dripping nosebleed.
However, Heinkel had not been defeated. Consciousness unceasing, his eyes remained open. Based on their reactions, this was unbelievable to Flam and Grassis.
Heinkel: [Haah, haa… hk.]
But alas, the endurance that had astonished those twins, was of no pride to him whatsoever.
The tip of his sword shaking as it pointed at the twins, Heinkel's bluff was obvious to the eyes of all. His defeat was already all but decided―― nay, it had not even amounted to a battle in the first place. Since it was not a battle, there was no such victor to be decided. They were not on the stage, of vying for victory.
Heinkel: [Even, so… hk.]
He could not afford to be defeated here. He had no choice but to endure.
Were he to be taken down here, then for what reason had he even come all this way? For what reason had he stabbed his father, Wilhelm van Astrea; he would lose sight of the answer.
But if he managed to pull through, then by the skin of his neck, there would still be a glimmer of hope. The light at the end of the tunnel would surely be visible.
Aldebaran, or the Divine Dragon, or even Yae. In the worst case scenario, even the Sin Archbishop would be fine. If someone would just wrench open the tide of this battle, then Heinkel's hopes―― it happened then.
Roy: [You know~, uncle, you shouldn't stay moping around forever, so how about you get energetic and lively~!]
Suddenly, a voice seemed to rend the battlefield, causing Heinkel to raise his face in surprise.
He consciously realized it for the first time. The large figure of the Divine Dragon was nowhere to be found on the battlefield. On the battlefield where not only Aldebaran and Yae had disappeared, but the Divine Dragon too, the only ones remaining here were Heinkel, and,
Heinkel: [Wha… S-Sin Archbishop…!]
Also confronting an enemy of his own, the only other one left here was Roy Alphard.
Wondering when the situation had become like this, Heinkel felt disappointment in his profound inability to heed his surroundings, and attempted to surmise the intentions of Roy, who had called out to him.
Something like cooperating with a Sin Archbishop, honestly, even he thought it to be deranged. But, it seemed like in the Vollachian Empire, Natsuki Subaru, the Knight of Emilia, had seized control over Gluttony. Thinking about it like that, he forcibly swallowed his intense feelings of reluctance.
They had already gone out of their way to free him from the Prison Tower. Even a Sin Archbishop would surely not want to die. Even if they were despicable, if their objectives aligned, then there would be room for them to join hands――,
Roy: [――Shall we just go ahead free you from your~ burden, uncle~?]
However, the words that followed were ones that directly betrayed Heinkel's hopes.
Heinkel: [――――]
Neither was it a proposal of, nor was it a request for, aid. Merely a terribly inappropriate, selfish remark.
Just what the hell was he thinking? Did he understand the current situation? Neither Aldebaran, with his incomprehensible power to wrest open a path forward, nor the Divine Dragon, with its status as the strongest lifeform, nor Yae, with her expertise in intricate techniques and harassment, none of them were present. Even though the only ones present here were the weak, fragile, powerless Heinkel, and the great sinner of a nature most defiled, Roy, what could possibly be accomplished by making a rift between them? ――No, it was not that a rift had been made. There had always been a rift. An unfillable gulf, an unsurmountable precipice, an absolute, isolating pit; he had only now just clearly understood that such things did indeed exist. And knowing that, what would come of it? What would come of the things this guy was saying? Having understood the significance of what this guy was saying, what would he do? ――Freeing Heinkel from his burden? This burden, that was already so firmly infused into Heinkel's soul?
――Such a thing would never be allowed of him, and he would never allow it.
Roy: [Tha~t's the spirit~.]
That voice of delight stemming from the depths of Roy's heart, reached not the ears of Heinkel.
Confronting Heinkel as he rose, swaying side to side like a revenant, Flam and Grassis tensed their cheeks, and exchanging wordless glances, they nodded to each other.
And then――,
Flam: [Esteemed Family Head, prepare yourself.]
Grassis: [I will hit you with everything that I have.]
Perhaps seeing it as their perfunctory strikes having backfired, it was evident that the twins' resolve was being sharpened.
In accordance with their declaration, a blow utilizing all of their bodies' might was likely imminent. And after he conjectured so, Flam and Grassis kicked off the ground, speeding directly towards Heinkel. ――No, not directly.
Flam & Grassis: [Ryahh!!]
Voice and movements overlapping, the twins dug into the ground with their legs, and kicked it up in front of him. Shrouding his entire field of vision, the excavated earth made its approach.
With a swing of his sword, Heinkel cleaved it in twain. Neither was it a person, nor a life. If it was merely an object, Heinkel would not think twice about cutting it down.
However, beyond the bisected earth, the sight cleaved open was bereft of the figures of Flam and Grassis.
Instead, the twins pincered Heinkel from left and right, and with the greatest amount of acceleration thus far, mercilessly thrust into both Heinkel's flanks.
Heinkel: [――Goh.]
Without exaggeration, there had been enough might to bury the fists of the twins up to the wrists into Heinkel.
Shattering Heinkel's ribs, the blows landed a direct strike on the organs contained within. As copious amounts of blood spurted from his mouth with tremendous force, Heinkel was on the verge of fainting.
But, faint he did not. He held his ground. He held his ground, and not only that―― gritting his teeth and swivelling his body, he seized the arms of the sisters that had thrust into him.
Flam: [――Ah.]
Grassis: [This is bad.]
At the pain of their wrists being tightly squeezed, Flam and Grassis grimaced.
Then, the two of them used their arms opposite the ones that Heinkel had seized, as well their free legs, to barrage Heinkel with attacks, striking him like a tempest of steel, but Heinkel did not release their arms.
It was not something he had desired. Even so, the one and only thing in which Heinkel assuredly surpassed most other people was this towering sturdiness, and the best way to make use of it, was probably this.
Even while being showered in blows, he grabbed his opponents. ――As a disgrace to swordsmen, it was an unrefined, uncouth counterattack, one most fitting for Heinkel Astrea.
Heinkel: [――AAHHHHHH!!]
Sullied by a nosebleed, his face was swollen from all of the beating it had endured; Heinkel swung both his arms overhead, and vigorously moved to pummel the twins in his grasp down into the ground.
That instant, Heinkel forgot the fact that his opponents were children, that they were people who served his family, and that they were the granddaughters of Carol and Grimm, whom he had known ever since his own birth. ――No, it was not that he had forgotten; he had merely shut his eyes to it, and so staking it all, he slammed the two of them down to the ground――,
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――God, Buddha, Od Lagna. For as long as I live, I hereby vow to never sing.
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With corpses as chrysalides, their metamorphosis fueled by life's last embers, butterflies of rainbow eclosed―― the spell devised by the Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows, was by no means something that constructed new life.
These butterflies had merely been shaped in such a form, and contrary to being a construction of life, their essence was that of death made manifest.
Roy: [This was also Nii-sama's trump card, wasn't it~? Magic of rainbow spectra.]
Amidst the devoured Memories, a throbbing sensation arose as he delightfully recollected a sword clad in a rainbow aurora―― fundamentally, the special technique deployed by the Finest of Knights was of the same ilk as the rainbow butterflies.
That which the Finest made manifest through his talents and the powers of his contracted Spirits, the Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows conjured in exchange for the dried up dregs of life, such was the entirety of the matter.
Roy: [But its might stands unchanged, you see~.]
Butterflies of death that would entirely obliterate anything they made contact with; Roy's smile giving the cue, around twenty of them surged towards Ram and Meili in unison.
Faced with the oncoming threat, Ram and Meili instantly moved in perfect sync.
Meili: [Ram-oneesan!]
Ram: [That is not how you are to address me.]
Meili: [I go~t it, Madam!]
Following a moderately serious exchange, Meili, sat astride the Guiltilaw, advanced. Then, patting the back of the jet-black Witchbeast, she prompted it to wield its mighty arms, forcing nearby trees to come crashing down.
As destructive roars sounded from the falling trees, Ram dashed to their now-vacant position and crouched, her wand extended straight ahead――,
Ram: [El Fula.]
The surging gale savagely blew the severed trees, hurling them crashing into the kaleidoscope. Striking true, they smashed through the butterflies scattering scales of death, triggering an aurora of prismatic explosions that lit up the sky.
Roy: [Kuu~~ hk!]
The optimum solution, cognizing it as such, Roy repeatedly stomped his feet, unable to bear his shuddering.
The rainbow-hued butterflies riddled with devastating might capable of unraveling the very structure of almost anything could have been designated as Fire Magic Stones that would spell the end upon a single touch. In exchange for their extensive destructive power, they were limited to just one shot before being used up―― detonating and dismantling them through application of obstacles was the strategy guaranteeing the utmost safety.
Yet, for them to counter it whilst witnessing it for the very first time left Roy astonished.
Roy: [Ho~we~ve~r!!]
For the butterflies to have been exterminated in such a manner would have only left the Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows sobbing in his grave.
The butterflies he had sent into a direct charge vanished in a rainbow-hued explosion, but detouring around the dazzling explosion, the surviving five butterflies swiveled wide and aimed for Ram and the others.
What was more was that it was not just the butterflies this time, but Roy as well used the power of the Leaper to charge in their direction. Thereupon, with the burly arms of the Snow Vallum, he aimed to pound the Guiltilaw to death first.
――Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows × Leaper × Snow Vallum.
An inescapable three-pronged assault mercilessly detonated upon Ram's group; a flashing aurora smokescreen blocking their front, the surviving rainbow butterflies flanking both sides, and Roy warping into position at their rear―― that instant, the sound of a crying child slashed Roy's eardrums.
???: [――――GAGYAGYA-GAGYAAAH.]
The piercing shrill unbecoming of a battlefield momentarily pilfered Roy of his thoughts, and before his eyes, baying the cries of an infant was a blasphemously molded Witchbeast that ought to be deigned a failed creation of god―― it brandished two spears ablaze forged of bone, incinerating the encircling rainbow-hued butterflies in one fiery sweep altogether.
An explosion of aurora blossomed yet again, and with hair waving due to the shockwave, Roy laid eyes upon the grotesque being who had advented before him, the Hungry Horse King, only supposed to be present in the below-ground of the sand sea.
Meili: [It was a lot of trouble, bringing it alo~ng.]
Cranium constructed with an enormous horn, and a torso akin to a human trunk accoutred with a gigantic mouth, holding them up was an inordinately large build of a horse, far too distorted and repellent to be called a chimera of human and horse. ――This Hungry Horse King had now become Meili's mount, having exchanged places with the Guiltilaw.
Roy: [――――]
Roy's thoughts fragmented into disarray at that reality, and a great conference of Memories foraged for an answer.
Raised as the agendas were: the truth behind the happening before his eyes, a precise counter to the imminent crisis at hand, and an apposite reaction to the astonishing reality, such was jumbled together by the pressing urgency of the situation.
Right before he selected the agenda to utmost prioritize――,
???: [――What, looking dumb as a pig, you.]
The proprietor of the voice who had appeared right behind him, his giant knuckles punched right through Roy's petite frame.
Roy: [――Hk-.]
His back pounded, Roy's body was shot into flight above the heads of the Hungry Horse King and Meili. Outdistancing even the erupting aurora, Roy skidded across the ground, halted his momentum with one hand piercing the ground, and stuck the landing whilst twisting his body, his acrobatic movements to reposition himself forcing the enemy to abandon pursuit.
In his field of view, Roy captured Meili, astraddle the Hungry Horse King, a giant pigman garbed in a black suit who had appeared beside them, and finally, Ram, who was now positioned in a definitively separate locus from before. ――The arrival of a new enemy, and the tactic of inexplicably instantaneous positional substitution; these were resurfacing a possibility which was supposed to have been relinquished.
Roy: [Noo~, that wasn't it.]
It had, unwisely, slipped past him due to extraneous preconceptions influenced by the Memories he possessed.
That since this instantaneous substitution had to have been brought forth by an Authority, it would have been a power belonging to Clind. Thus he had reckoned he need not keep an eye out for it on the battlefield after Clind had disappeared alongside the Divine Dragon.
However――,
???: [――If you're also a father, then don't go laying your hands on kids!!]
Audible there was a thick, anger-blazed voice, and sounds of the vehement impact that followed―― at the edge of his vision, he could see Heinkel, grasping the twin girls with both his arms, basking in a fist square to the face.
Delivering that fervent blow was a large man, present within the Memories belonging to Roy―― as expected, it was someone who was not supposed to have been here the moment the battle broke out, Gaston.
Heinkel: [――――]
Walloped right in the face, Heinkel toppled over backwards, allowing the twins to just barely escape peril.
Whether Roy's provocation had proved effective or not, Heinkel appeared to have been on the verge of success, but his counterattack was abruptly crushed at its inception.
However, Roy would not laugh at Heinkel. After all, he had also been thwarted by the same opponent, with the same technique.
And, as for the identity of that opponent, it had not been Clind.
Roy: [Ehh~? Could it be~? Such a thing is possible~?]
Unable to conceive of any other possibility, even Roy found himself doubting that exceedingly unexpected reality.
Carried within that voice was nothing but genuine astonishment, bereft of any and all denial or disdain for that fact. Bereft though it was, even supposing that was the truth, it was preposterously unexpected.
From across every Memory that contained her presence, only one conclusion could be drawn: "No way."
It was not Clind. In both Roy's clash against Ram and Meili, and the battle where Heinkel was being pummeled by the twins, someone had intervened with perfect timing.
Whilst overlooking this all-out war, they had continuously employed an Authority to reconstruct the situation.
That was――,
Roy: [――Petra-chan, since when did you become a Sin Archbishop?]
???: [Now that's just extremely slanderous. If you're going to call me something disreputable, then call me this.]
With those words, having dominated the battlefield through an Authority, the playmaker harboring a Witch Factor―― Petra Leyte placed her hand over her chest, and stuck her tongue out with a "behhhh".
Then, she declared――,
Petra: [――The Witch of Tristitia, Petra Leyte.]