“…Oh?”
Then there was a voice. Earnest opened her eyes. She looked at the hilt in her hands, startled.
“Oh? Oh…?”
“…Asmodeus? Asmodeus…?! You’re alive! You’re alive?!”
“Oh… Oh? This teeming power… What is it?”
“Huh? What’s going on? Stay with me! Don’t force yourself to talk! You’ll die!”
“No, my lord. I—I just… My word, this is incredible.”
“What?”
“Some kind of…power… It’s overflowing… I-it’s boiling over!”
“Uh…? Asmodeus…?”
“Yes… So, that’s what it is… I see… Now I see… I understand…”
Asmodeus’s voice boomed from the center of the arena, reverberating powerfully throughout the audience seating. It was hard to believe these were really the thoughts of a broken sword.
“What do you mean? What did you figure out? Keep it together, Asmodeus! Did being broken affect your mind?”
“No. No, my lord. I did not break. I have finally been freed from my sheath.”
“I think you might have lost it.”
“I had no idea. The true body of this sword—the blade—that was the sheath that corralled my true power! My master! Thanks to you shunning all fear and decorum and swinging me like a primitive buffoon, I have finally evolved to the next stage!”
“Hey, are you insulting me? Yes, I know I swung you around like a fool, all right? I’m sorry, but…”
“No, I am praising you, my master! Thanks to you being an idiot, I…I…I…!”
“Stop calling me an idiot, you idiot. Takes one to know one.”
“I can feel it boiling over!”
Asmodeus, now just a handle, suddenly sprouted a new blade. Not a physical one, but a sword of flame—dense enough to be almost tangible.
“Um… So, you mean… After I got all reckless, it actually made you stronger?”
Earnest looked at the sword in her hand. She held it above her head, examining it from below. The sheer force emanating from this plasma blade was generating enough heat to produce a blinding light.
“Yes, the old me is dead! I have now been reborn as Asmodeus Mark II!”
“Um, can you come up with a better name? That sounds so stupid.”
“A-at once! From now on, I shall be called True Asmodeus!”
“Okay, I guess that’s all right.”
“My master… Shout my name to the heavens! Now is the time for me to offer my true powers!”
“All right… True Asmodeus!”
She shouted the name. A searing flame once again enveloped her entire body. With a force stronger than any she had experienced before, Earnest’s physical form was instantly reduced to ashes. The flames transformed her, turning her into a scion once more.
Her resulting scion form was actually a little smaller than before, but the flames’ density was on a completely different level. The body within them—as dense as any solid—was that of a beautifully proportioned woman; it even came with hair made of flame running down her back.
“I suppose you could call this the Scion of Flame…III.”
This was Earnest talking. It seemed the density of her form allowed her to physically speak as well.
She turned her eyes toward Lunaria, still standing in the arena as the Scion of Ice II.
“Lunaria… I want to offer you my gratitude. Without you, I never would have reached this point. And now…goodbye.”
Earnest had obtained a power that was simply too strong. There was no need to fight. They both knew. Scion I and Scion II were both on a far lower dimension. Earnest could tell that the most merciful thing she could do now was end this with a single blow.
Just as she processed that comfortable, little thought—
“Oh, you mean this?”
—a cold air billowed through the arena. When the air, frozen white, finally cleared away, it revealed…
“Is this Scion of Ice III, then?”
…an ice version of the exact same woman. She and Earnest’s Scion of Flame were identical.
“Thanks for the blueprint. I can usually master something the first time I see it. I’m a genius, after all.”
“This is exactly why I hate geniuses!” shouted Earnest, pointing. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!”
Five beams of pure heat shot out from her fingertips, followed by a high-density cannonball of fire from her mouth after that last “I hate you.” Lunaria’s Scion of Ice did the same, firing freezing rays and blasts of cold air with just as much force as her enemy. The attacks canceled each other out.
“I hate them, I hate them! I hate geniuses! I hate you, Lunaria! Just blow up already!”
Earnest kept spewing fireballs from her mouth.
“You first! You stupid, average, ordinary girl! Relying on sheer effort shouldn’t allow you to climb this far! Know your place!”
The two beasts wrestled in the center of the arena.
“Every single time! You’re always in front of me, ahead of me, above me!”
“If it weren’t for you, I could’ve stayed on top without expending any effort at all!”
An intense fistfight ensued. There was punching, biting, cold air extinguishing flames and flames evaporating ice.
“Why do you have to make everything look so easy? It’s just not fair!”
“Do you understand the misery of a genius who’s been forced to put in effort?!”
“Ugh! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Just burn to death already!”
“No, you shut up! Why do you keep pursuing me like this?!”
The fight continued for some time.
It went on for another half hour, to be precise.
The two girls no longer looked like monsters. They had completely worn each other out until they both reverted to their half-naked human forms. They were still exchanging blows, although it looked more like a slapfest at this point. Neither had the energy left to hurl insults, but they kept on swinging away, driven by nothing but sheer willpower and determination.
Summoning the last of their remaining strength, they each threw a punishing right hook to their opponent’s face. Their arms crossed midair, and the punches connected. Both girls fell forward, leaned on each other, then slumped to the ground in a sort of embrace. It was a spectacular double knockout.
Blade slowly walked to the center of the arena, taking his time. He was there to take the place of the referee, and now he held the arms of both fighters, one in each hand, and raised them up to the heavens.
He glanced at the king in the stands. The man was partying it up like usual.
“Ahem! Yes,” the king said, “what a brilliant draw! By my name as Gilgamesh Soulmaker, I hereby declare a tie between the two academies!”
Blade solemnly nodded his agreement. Then he spun around.
“Hey, wait. What about my turn? Don’t I get to fight?”
But nobody was paying any attention to him. The rescue team was carrying Earnest and Lunaria away on stretchers, the repair team was already starting to fix up the Second Proving Ground, and the cleaning crew was clearing away all the debris.
“Wait, aren’t I the captain, though? When do I get to fight? I’ve been waiting all day… When’s my turn, huh? I wanna beat someone up and become their friend. They can be my, uh… Rival! Right, my rival. I always wanted something like that. Um… Okay? So … Um… Hello?”
Everyone else just carried on cleaning up.