Elesia particularly isn't a warrior; her role is being part of the clash in a passive way. While her front battle skills are average, her main ability is to amplify her allies in battle. Elesia's main magic attribute, 'Belief in Miracle,' allows her allies to bring out their best possible outcome in the battle.
Raizel and Aizis confront Arfanez there. On the other hand, Reiji takes on Marco, along with me joining them. Though I was acting as an ally for Reiji, my role there wasn't specific, like a person who's waiting for their righteous alliance.
Leaving the rest behind, the three of us gathered in the largest castle of the realm, the very castle belonging to The Absolute Spirit. It was Marco's request to begin his very battle against Reiji, just as a sign of his existence in the castle. Even if he loses there, he wants to be remembered as a commander of the retainers who used to be a part of the castle.
Reiji casually accepted Marco's request, and so did I.
The castle was large enough for a deadly battle. Every single floor is more than enough in size to cover an entire city. The castle itself was a city on its own.
"I believe this clash isn't going to be boring at all. After all, we're fighting for a certain being, a certain prize." Reiji said with a smile, narrowly looking at me.
I was left expressionless; my eyes appeared blank, lacking the language to speak. It was almost like some unknown force was keeping me silent intently.
Marco stepped forward twice and pointed his weapon toward Reiji and spoke with his usual wide and confident smile, "Let's figure out the winner. My purpose isn't the very same as yours, but surely good enough to be a reason for my victory."
"Let's figure it out, in the most chaotic way possible. I love chaos, after all." Reiji replied, smiling as usual.
The clash between Reiji and Marco began with waves of magic power clashing along with their weapons. They were smiling at each other while clashing. Reiji was using a blue katana while Marco was using his usual crimson red sword, the chaotic sword that can destroy worlds like nothing, a true definition of destruction.
After continuing to force their weapons toward each other, Reiji and Marco jumped away from the clash. Their foot set step on the ground of the castle, calm and effective as they had to be.
"My expectation never lies; strong as I believed you to be, Joker." Reiji spoke a little loudly while wearing his usual smile on his lips.
"Joker? It's been a while since someone used this title for my name. But for some reason, I couldn't bring myself back to the very time when I used to hold the true meaning of 'Joker'." Marco replied, raising his left eyebrow a bit.
"It's a myth, but a title of inspiration, a title that's holding endless love from humanity, from the demons, from the deities, and from the writers." Reiji spoke. His voice wasn't confident like earlier, rather broken and weakened.
Reiji closed his eyes. His weakened gaze and blank expression couldn't show his hidden words that he wanted to share with his confident and loud voice. It's not because he was hurt; it's not about some sad story he's holding behind his usual smiling face. It's about the world he's witnessing now, the nature of the world that he never wanted to be with.
His emotions and expressions could no longer stay hidden beneath his soul. He shouted extremely loudly so that everyone in the city could hear him, "Ironically, the world is like a snake that embodies the very meaning of poison and selfishness. No matter how much you feed them, no matter how much you love them, no matter how much you sacrifice for them; they'll definitely consume you one day, they'll definitely destroy you in the worst possible way. Not because of your very mistake, but for their pathetic excuse that's absolutely meaningless at the end of the day, at the end of the story, like the gap between lines of the story. Perhaps it's because you've committed a crime. But do you know what the ironic part is? The very crime you've committed is about being a flaw for their selfishness, their satisfaction."
He was muttering, but his heart wasn't letting him do so, forcing him to shout with all of his heart. He was keeping his gaze down to keep his anger down as well, but it was a failed attempt.
After speaking, he suddenly lifted his gaze a little up and glared at Marco extremely intently. His face and eyes changed, revealing a pair of eyes with glowing red flames lurking around them. The flame that covered his eyes slowly erupted throughout his entire face. Then he shouted even louder, "So tell me, Joker, why is someone going to be the friend of humanity?"
A storm of magic waves erupted from Reiji's body as the magic waves alone shattered the entire castle like pieces of paper. Both I and Marco covered our faces with our hands to protect ourselves from the magic wave. It was holding more than the amount of magic wave we could possibly hold in, so it wasn't possible for us to keep standing there. Both of us changed our position from there and flew a bit away to keep ourselves safe from the storm of magic power.
It was a matter of time for Reiji's magic storm to calm down. Within a few seconds, the surroundings calmed down along with the magic storm. I located my gaze on Reiji, finding him in a new form. His eyes were still in crimson red flames, along with a red flaming coat covering his entire figure.
Unexpectedly, the flaming figure in front of my sight immediately disappeared from there. I shifted my gaze from there to locate his position, but only to witness something unexpected as well.
Reiji's flaming dragon claw stabbed down Marco, who was standing at my left side. Reiji brought out Marco's soul and shattered the soul in front of Marco's eyes. While Marco was standing expressionless, like a statue. His figure immediately fell to the ground, his eyes closing slowly.
Reiji slowed down his clawed fingers along with the magic amplification that was enhancing his entire figure. He smiled at Marco's unconscious figure and spoke, "This is absolutely why you shouldn't be here, Marco. They don't deserve you."
Reiji slowly knelt down in front of Marco's figure and spoke for one last time, "I can confidently tell, death is something that's less painful for someone who loves the world, only to be betrayed at the finale."
I was standing a bit far away from them during the entire time. After Reiji killed Marco right in front of my sight, I flew toward him and set my foot right behind him. For some reason, I could feel the emotions running throughout Reiji's soul and his very veins. They weren't something reflecting love and care, but the endless storm of hatred that can't be stopped by any force.
I put my right hand on his right shoulder from behind calmly. He narrowly shifted his gaze upon my gaze as my eyes were reflecting some traces of sadness. My gaze was down, as was my entire face; sadness appeared in my entire appearance.
"Perhaps you are sad for his death? After all, he was your former comrade." Reiji spoke, completely shifting his gaze upon me and putting his index finger on my hairlines.
"Sad? Why so? Because he's my comrade?" I replied immediately, casual and careless, as my eyes changed their sadistic sight instantly.
"Surely, I am supposed to be sad over that, for him…but.." I added, lifting my gaze and revealing a sinister and bright smile toward Reiji. Then I spoke a little loudly once again, "He isn't someone that will die so easily like this."
As I spoke, I summoned a long snow-white sword in my right hand and stabbed Reiji right there in the depth of his soul itself. Reiji's eyes widened further from his gentle sight, revealing the endless surprise he was holding in his eyes. Fresh blood began to erupt from his mouth.
"As you can see, that foolish monkey can never die without me, like the way a soul can never exist in a divided position." I added, widening my smile even further to show the satisfaction of success.
"Maria….you…how could you?" Reiji spoke, struggling along with consistently fast breaths.
I pushed him away with the snow-white sword, forcing his figure to be thrown several meters away.
"Definitely you know me pretty well. But it seems like you are ignorant on some point, the point where my existence is like a chess player, and everything around me appears like the chess pieces of the gameboard." Someone spoke from behind. The voice wasn't really hard to recognize. It was Marco, with his figure appearing completely fine, along with an effective appearance.
He was smiling confidently and stepping forward to Reiji's grounded figure. Reiji immediately looked at Marco's fallen figure as it was disappearing like mist.
"You've become a chess piece in Maria's gameboard, like the way those countless retainers became my chess pieces." Marco added while stepping forward.