Damn Celestials
Those damn celestial bastards.
Thuuuum...
The arrows that had been fired without end rained down at last, and the roar that had filled the battlefield slowly died away.
Tears were streaming from Leo's eyes, too.
So this was the limit.
"Haaaah... I'm done for!"
Leo collapsed right where she stood.
Seventeen shots. She had loosed seventeen of that ultimate skill—so powerful a single cast was enough to knock Raguel flat—and now she wiped the sweat from her brow with a breeze summoned by her spirits as she scanned the far side of the field.
There seemed to be damage, but no message had appeared announcing a destroyed Core or anyone captured.
There was definitely damage. Definitely...
"The storm thing is gone too. It must have been exhausted ages ago."
"I sure hope so..."
Lily had kept absorbing the mountain of arrows, but from the twelfth shot onward, the storm had begun to subside.
Whether she'd finally hit her limit or was simply saving up some other trick, there was no way to tell—only that she'd taken it all head-on.
"We have to move. Now."
Behind her, Chukachip approached with a glazed, dead-eyed look.
It had been Leo and Raguel who'd fired all those arrows, yet somehow she looked the more exhausted of the lot.
"...Are you okay?"
"No, I am not. Okay."
Chukachip thrust her spear at her with a weary groan.
She seemed to at least remember this was still a broadcast, keeping up the bare minimum of courtesy—though it didn't look particularly courteous.
"Hah."
Just from the way she spoke, you could feel how wound-up she was.
"If we don't go now, she'll recover. Then we lose again. For sure."
"Ugh! You're killing me, honestly!"
Whoosh! Nymph wings unfurled behind Leo as she pushed herself up with her spirits.
Chukachip readied herself to fly alongside her.
"I'll stay here. I'm no good in close combat."
"That's me, then."
"Got it. Let's do this."
Fwooosh—!
Leaving Raguel and Fracion behind, they shot off toward Lily Team's castle.
The moment they arrived, Leo saw with her own two eyes the catastrophe Lily had unleashed.
"Whoa."
A scorched forest. A scorched wall.
The castle looked like a bomb had been dropped on it, half of it blown apart—and standing in front of the only intact structure, the Core, was her professor. Bleeding.
She looked, honestly, like she was on her last legs. But Leo knew better.
To Lily, wounds like these counted as a 'bruise' at most.
She'd probably recover without so much as a wince.
When the professor saw them, she broke into a smile and shook her head.
"Impressive. Genuinely."
"......"
"Seventeen shots of that kind of destructive power. It's an extraordinary ability. I'll admit I'm a little jealous."
"Professor. I mean—Lily?"
"Yes."
Lily nodded.
It wasn't that she lacked power. It wasn't envy of Leo's strength either.
If only there had been more people like this.
If there had been more of them—talented, driven by principles of their own, undying immortals who simply would not fall.
Maybe then even I would have had something like comrades.
"You were envious, weren't you?"
But even if she'd had them, it would have meant nothing.
Because after 'that day,' I resolved to see the end alone.
So I would never lose anyone again.
Even as becoming a monster myself, to catch the monsters.
And yet.
─We've captured both of them. Shall we break the Core now?
─Lily?
Maybe now... it would be all right.
Vlack's signal.
See, everything I'd taught them, even a little of it, had been worth something.
"I'll teach you. Far more than what you've seen. More than that."
"Uh. That's kind of scary, actually."
"No need to hold back."
This was also a matter of splitting 'his' price among others.
The price I never got to repay.
I took it without permission, so I might as well use it however I please.
"Lily!"
The spear flew into her hand.
Having snapped out of Choco's assault, Leo gathered her last ounce of strength and drew her colossal sword of light as well.
At the signal, Lily turned her head.
Target locked.
Annihilation punched clean through the Core.
.
.
.
[The Red Team has been destroyed.]
[The Purple Team has been destroyed.]
[Destroyer — Devil.]
[Destroyer — Lily Elbrit.]
[The final victorious team is the Blue Team — Lily Team.]
[Congratulations.]
"...So, what exactly is that?"
Somewhere in the distant past.
I turned my head, gaze fixed on something far away.
A pierced tree—and behind it, a small bear.
The bear, startled half to death by the tree that had suddenly sprouted a hole through its middle, scurried off in a panic.
Piercing a tree was easier for a celestial than snapping their fingers. The distance was the problem.
"What does it look like? It's the ultimate skill you kept raising hell about."
A distance equal to several nations from here.
And the tree stood beyond even a towering mountain range—yet he had skewered it without a hair's width of error.
Recovering the spear—Rupein—'he' tilted it lazily and glanced back at me.
Annihilation. The spear that destroys all things.
Only, the version he'd shown me had never been able to pierce a target this far away with such precision.
When I gave him a suspicious look, he cleared his throat and said, "Well, technically it isn't my own technique. Rushala's..."
"I see. I thought as much."
"What? Don't tell me this is about the Spear's Eye I taught you the other day."
Days ago, he had—for the first time—passed on a technique belonging not to himself but to another of the Eight Seats.
He'd said it was a spear art, and that it was inferior to his own, but having used both, I'd found this one rather more practical.
"It was useful. Unlike some people's, it doesn't leave any backlash behind."
"Ha! In raw destructive power, mine is superior. Rushala's technique is only easy to use because of her authority—"
"Wasn't your authority the superior one?"
Which is how it ended up like this, isn't it.
I didn't say the rest out loud.
But sometimes in this world, words travel fine without being spoken.
He and I traded blows in an invisible tug-of-war for a moment.
The one to give up first was him.
"Fine. What's the point in a staring contest with a greenhorn who's barely weaned."
"That greenhorn saved your life."
"Yes, yes, and aren't I paying the price for it. Though I'll say it again—kill me anytime you like, if you're able."
That is, if satisfying you were actually the point.
"...Damn celestial."
"Do you even know that's the same as spitting in your own face?"
"I'm not a celestial, so it doesn't count."
"Little Saintess. You are a celestial. Which is why you learn celestial techniques, and why you're being taught by the granddaddy of them all."
"Aren't you a bit too pathetic to call yourself the granddaddy? There are seven more at your level, you know."
Why, you—
He laid the spear blade sideways and bonked it against my head.
I smacked the blade away.
"Fine. Catch them all yourself, and then make me the granddaddy."
"If that's the price of inheriting Rupein, then I shall."
"You can't handle it."
"That's for me to decide."
The tug-of-war went on.
But Rupein was never handed over.
It never got the chance to be.
"......"
"What are you thinking about?"
The match had ended, and while we waited for the awards ceremony, Redberry came over as the waiting room door swung open.
The Mock Siege had ended with Lily Team taking a clean sweep, three wins out of three.
The two teams had joined forces and driven me to the brink, but in the end they couldn't beat us.
"Random thoughts."
"Pardon?"
Random thoughts, yes.
Going on his whole life about prices and debts, then walking off like an idiot without ever collecting his.
A infuriating man.
"Just some lingering feelings. Nothing serious."
"Oh... really?"
"Yes."
"You looked kind of grim there for a second."
Redberry tilted her head, puzzled.
"By the way, where's Devil?"
"Looks like he overexerted himself after gaining that power. He left saying he was in pain."
"But we're supposed to get our awards?"
"Yep."
Well, of course he wasn't fine. He'd channeled the power of Seripid the Black Dragon through a body that was no dragon at all—no way his condition would be normal after that.
It was only possible at all, however clumsily, because of the potential Devil carried. But at the end of the day it had been a gamble dressed up as technique.
Chukachip, who'd used Spear's Roar, had probably already logged out by now too.
"You did a lot of work as well, Vlack."
"Ah, yes. There's going to be a lot of talk about this Mock Siege. Should probably start with an explanation stream..."
"An explanation stream?"
Did we have anything to explain?
Vlack waved a hand.
"Honestly, everyone knew Lily was strong, but nobody expected a gap this wide. Especially against the likes of Leo or Choco—I doubt anyone imagined a margin like this..."
It was true that Leo and Choco had performed overwhelmingly compared to the other rankers, but Lily had been beyond even that.
Especially that 'spear' at the end...
"Annihilation was a bit much, wasn't it?"
"...A bit more than a bit?"
Hm. It was excessive, true.
A spear meant to bring down demon lords—and all she'd destroyed with it was a lump of jewels.
"Still, it shouldn't be a real problem. It's not like Lily smashed everything herself, and if you break the match down, everyone had their moments to shine."
Leo's team, Choco's team—same for all of them.
None of them had managed to win, but they'd created plenty of highlight moments.
Leo in particular had played so brilliantly that without me, she alone could have dominated the entire Mock Siege.
"Plus, the unicorn not attacking you was its own variable—"
"Oh. Shi—"
"Yes?"
"Nothing."
Suddenly, something I'd forgotten came rushing back.
An inexplicable sense of dread creeping over me.
I turned off my camera and mic for a moment and checked my own chatroom—where only the official broadcast was being relayed.
And of all the moments it could have been showing, it was the scene of my very first encounter with the unicorn.
Damn it.