Go Ahead. Try It.
Go ahead. As much as you like.
Spear's Roar is a tremendously powerful technique, yet remarkably simple.
Compared to other skills, it's far easier to execute and costs relatively little to use, making it one of the most practical techniques in my arsenal. It's called the Spear's Roar because it's performed with a spear, but honestly, as long as you understand the principle behind it, any weapon will do.
Yena's dagger began to spin.
Azure mana flowed along the blade, and her heart continued to drive the current of mana forward. Having taken on a fairly stable form, Yena steadied her breathing.
Especially focused as she was, Yena shot me a sidelong glance.
"...Why are you smiling?"
"Who knows."
"Whew... haaah..."
The rotation grew larger and larger. Yena's face was slick with sweat, her hands trembling violently, as if she'd resolved to pour everything she had into this single strike. The mana had swelled to a scale she could barely contain.
"You know if you mess that up, it'll blow up in your face."
"I'd, regret... it!"
Not!
The roar of a dagger that was launched — and yet somehow not launched — activated. An incomplete technique made for a feeble blow, but her sheer specs were so outstanding that even that feeble attack arrived with a considerable radius.
So this is what it felt like for him.
He used to get so exasperated with me, yet the moment he actually pulled something off, he'd wear this satisfied little grin. And whenever a slightly overconfident me would rush over begging him to teach me his ultimate technique, he would pick up his spear and say the same thing.
You've still got a long road ahead.
"You've still got a long road ahead."
"...What—?!"
The roar swept toward me.
Or rather, it swept through the space I'd just vacated. I had already moved behind Yena without her noticing. She scrambled to recall the dagger she'd flung out and respond, but it was far too late.
"This is some déjà vu—"
"Good work out there."
Shunk.
The sharp spearhead pierced Yena's heart. The blue mana filling her body scattered, and her eyes returned to normal.
At the same moment, Yena dissolved into particles of light.
Lilyyyyyyy─!
She reached out her hand, and honestly, the sight tugged at my heart a little.
"I wasn't toying with her, though. That last technique of hers was genuinely excellent."
I raised the arm that had been holding the spear against the roar. It was fairly battered and torn. It looked as though I'd dodged the technique perfectly, but with perfect accuracy stacked on top of Mythic-grade power, the destructive force had exceeded anything I'd anticipated.
If her technique had been just a little more complete, I might have lost the arm entirely.
Well then...
Shall we start wrapping this up?
"...It's over."
Miho had watched the entire spectacle unfold with hollow, dumbstruck eyes.
Failure. It was impossible. Blue-Ring's divine authority was a power granted through long years of service as a priestess. Authority wielded upon Blue-Ring's own body rivaled that of a god. And yet, even after surrendering every last shred of that power, Yena had failed to bring her strength to bear — and died.
No. It wasn't her fault.
She had performed better than Miho or Blen had ever expected, and the only reason they'd forcibly summoned her in the first place was that Miho herself had been in danger. She'd handed over all her authority as payment, and still...
The opponent was simply too strong.
This Lily was on an entirely different plane. And it wasn't overwhelming force, either — she held no advantage of terrain, no positional edge. Every factor had predicted Yena's victory. There was only one thing that hadn't.
Experience.
Lily possessed more combat experience than even Miho, who had lived over three hundred years, could hope to fathom. Yena had fought her share of battles as well, but measured against this opponent, she was a newborn infant.
Weapons, mana, strength, authority, abilities — Lily countered everything Yena threw at her as if she'd seen it all a dozen times before, then wove her own abilities together into a counterattack.
Shunk!
Yena vanished.
"There was no winning from the start, was there."
Miho let out an empty laugh. She had considered stepping in to help, but the flow of the battlefield had made any intervention impossible.
If I'd gone over there, I'd already be dead.
That battlefield had been a clash between beings no ordinary opponent could stand against.
"Where on earth did such a monster come from?"
Whoosh!
Lily came toward her, blue hair streaming behind her. Even watching with her own two eyes, Miho found it hard to believe. Never mind Blue-Ring — she didn't even measure up to Yena, whom she'd felled moments ago.
And yet, somehow, Miho couldn't shake the feeling that she would lose.
Blasphemous as it is to say... even Blue-Ring might...
But it didn't matter.
The plan has already begun.
─It has begun.
I approached Miho. She looked shaken, but she hadn't let her guard down — some scheme still seemed to be coiled up inside her.
"Where's the high priest?"
"Blen is at the very center of Blue-Ring. It is our beginning and our end."
And also...
"The beginning of the calamity."
"Calamity?"
"That is correct. The architect of it all — the reason Blue-Ring suffers, the reason we're forced to use our own kind."
"......"
"Lest you misunderstand — we have never spread disease, nor harmed Blue-Ring in any way. Had we done so, we would not have been permitted to keep her authority for so long."
"Decades ago, I stepped down from my post as high priestess and went to live somewhere quiet. I could have remained in the position, honestly — we had capable talent waiting, and by then I simply wanted a peaceful life."
"And someone like that caused all this?"
"...Please, hear me out."
"Blue-Ring's forest was peaceful. It was a place that ran itself — there was no need to relay oracles or heal anyone unless something truly went wrong. Aside from venturing out once every few months, I lived alone, in a place warded by an illusion barrier that no one could ever find."
"That was my home."
"And then one day..."
"Someone came looking for me."
'Oh! Hello there!'
The one who had pierced my barrier was a small raccoon beastman with black fur. When he slipped through a ward that no one but the current high priestess and myself could ever breach, I grew suspicious. I asked him how he'd gotten in.
And this is what he said.
'I don't know, it just let me through?'
"......"
"I couldn't make sense of it. That barrier was woven from the authority granted to me by Blue-Ring herself. Without a power of equal rank, it is absolutely impenetrable."
"I wanted to learn who he was, but even channeling Blue-Ring's authority, I couldn't extract anything definitive. The only thing I learned was that, unlike the bright mana most raccoon beastmen carry, he possessed black mana. Conversation was even more useless. That child had the pure, guileless mind of someone who knew nothing of the world."
"Several more months passed, and then Blue-Ring delivered shocking news to us all."
Someone is devouring me. Find them.
"The others had no idea who it could be, but for me, only one person came to mind."
"So this time, I went looking for him. We'd grown fairly close over those months, and I knew roughly where he lived."
"And when I found him..."
'...Miho? What's with that expression?'
Miho?
"......It was horrifying. The black energy seeping out around that child was devouring everything that Blue-Ring was."
"Even consumed by that black corruption, he never lost his brightness. My body moved before my mind could catch up."
"I sealed him away with my own power, but it was only ever a matter of time. Not long after I'd imprisoned him, he was already gnawing through the seal itself... I searched desperately for another way, but in the end I never found one. And that was when Blen—"
"Looks like the preparations are just about ready."
"......"
The sorrowful expression Miho had worn only moments ago turned to ice.
She'd told me more than enough. That Blen fellow, the high priest, would surely have finished whatever he needed to do by now.
"...Even if you've seen through it, it's far too late. While you've been standing there listening, the plan has already been set in motion."
FLASH—!!
A pillar of light erupted in the distance, so tall it was visible even from here.
That was the sealing ritual, powered by hundreds of sacrificial offerings. And naturally, its target was the child Miho had kept captive.
"There's no stopping it now — and frankly, you'd best not try. All of this is for everyone's sake."
"'Everyone's' sake...? Isn't it just for the sake of two people?"
So the story was: sacrifices were spent to seal away an evil that couldn't be helped. And yet the two who had planned all this somehow weren't among the victims, were they? If they'd truly wanted to stop it, the two high priests should have been the first offerings on the altar.
"I told you already — it's useless. Even if you kill me here, stopping the seal is imposs—"
"Do it."
"...I'm sorry?"
I drew out my spear.
Unlike my own mana, it blazed a deep, icy blue.
"Go ahead. As much as you like."
Let's see if the seal can hold.