I was floating in the air with Snow a good distance away from the stage so that I wouldn’t damage it. I could hardly tell the situation below, but what I did see was that the ocean was raging furiously. Clearly, the spirit was displeased. I bet Emilia or Orthoaguina provoked the spirit and touched a nerve or something.
“We’re close enough to see them clearly,” Snow reported. “What should we do, Mary?”
They still looked like tiny specks in the air to me, but it seemed she could see them clearly. There weren’t any obstacles in the air, so I knew that they would arrive sooner than later; I didn’t want to close the gap too quickly and kept my guard up.
“A whole swarm of those legendary armors, eh? They’re no slouches in terms of speed, strength, or magic. Who balanced these things, jeez...”
“I’m not really sure what you mean by that, but say, have you ever looked in a mirror?”
It was only after I got done complaining about the Argent Armors that I realized you could make the exact same gripe against yours truly.
“I-I expected them to descend down onto the stage or something, but it seems like I’m wrong,” I said.
“Yeah. Looks like they were on standby in a nearby region of the ocean and flew here after they were alerted,” Snow agreed.
“You think there’s a chance that there’s actually only one armor? I know Frederika referred to several of them, but...”
“Well, from what I can see, I doubt it. I spot one, two, three... Quite a few, actually. By the way, you’re not actually going to just quietly wait for them to come to you, are you?”
The corners of my mouth rose upward in a devilish smirk—I was picking up what Snow was putting down. “Heh heh heh. I’m not quite that nice! I’m gonna greet ’em with a fifth-order spell and decimate ’em in one go! Why do you think I decided to get so far away from the rest of the group?”
“Yeah, it’d be awful if you destroyed the stage with your spell,” Snow replied.
“L-Like that’d ever happen! In any case, sorry I have to cut things short, armors! We’re in a battle here! Vermilion Nova!”
My opponents were still a bit too far away for my vision, but I launched a massive ball of fire their way. Bull’s-eye!
Right when I was convinced of my imminent victory, the unthinkable occurred.
“They dodged that beautifully...” Snow observed.
I fell silent. As she’d pointed out, my massive fireball made no contact with anyone and flew into the distant horizon. I clearly saw the shadowy figures turn to me and fly faster than ever.
“Uh, Mary?” Snow asked. “Did you really think that stupidly huge fireball would actually hit them moving that slowly?”
I fell silent.
“Hey, how do you feel right now? Lemme hear it,” Snow egged me on.
“Shut up, you!” I snapped. My face was beet red. “People don’t have a chance to move out of the way of global AoEs in the tactics games I’m used to, okay?!”
“Uh... What?”
“N-Nothing! Let’s focus on the fight!” Now that I’d embarrassed myself to a painful degree with my completely unintelligible reasoning, I opted to forcibly cut the conversation short to focus on the battle.
A similarly large fireball flew straight for me, and Snow swiftly dodged it with minimal effort.
“Bwa ha ha ha! Watch out, Mary, we’re fighting people as smart as you are! Maybe you’ve seen them around the acade— Whoaaaaa!” Snow was so busy acting smug that she barely evaded the three additional fireballs that were launched at us.
“Hey!” I said. “That one was really close! Argh! They’re attacking again!” While I was scolding her for leaving us on the razor’s edge, she was probably too busy flying to and fro between the other fireballs to notice. It was far from just three or four fireballs at this point.
“How many of these armors are there, anyway?!” I wondered.
“Crap!” Snow said. “Mary, we’re surrounded.” Only then did I realize what we’d run into. There weren’t just three or four suits of armor flying around—there were at least twenty at a glance, and they were all firing their attacks at me.
“Are you a moron?!” A familiar feminine voice suddenly rushed into my head—the other half of the Argent Knight. “I managed to fend off the mermaids and force the spirit to retreat to destroy that place! You think a mere one or two suits could do all that?!”
I had no idea which of the suits of armor contained her voice. Guess I should be thankful they can’t all speak... The noise would be overwhelming.
“Is she manipulating all of these by herself?” Snow wondered. “I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of mana she needs to do this. Is the Armor of God, Soul Materia, really this powerful?”
All things considered, it seemed like the armors really did have the grace of God in some capacity. That’s not to say it was unfair, as I could hardly be one to say such a thing, but it did confirm just how dangerous the armors were.
“Argh... I didn’t think I’d ever have to use these again, so I’d abandoned them in a nearby region of the sea,” the Argent Armor sighed. “It was a pain to activate them all again. Tch, it’s only because Nike told me to use them all...”
“Nike? Is he here?” I asked, unable to let that slide.
“He is. I’m sure he’s headed for the stage below by now.”
It didn’t quite register that the man whose name I’d heard repeatedly throughout this journey, who I’d basically been thinking of as the final boss of this whole adventure, would just casually appear before us without any theatrics. That said, by all accounts, he hadn’t appeared before me in particular at this point, so there was that aspect...
“I only tagged along this time around because Nike said that he wanted a good look at you,” the Argent Armor said.
“M-Me?” I asked.
Why’s he interested in me? The simple question popped up in my mind, but upon deeper thought, I realized that he might have several reasons to meet me. No, no, surely it’s just a coincidence! That’s all. I’m not standing out! I’m sure of it. I made a point of acting dense and tried to maintain my cool.
“I guess I got it all wrong,” the armor remarked. “I’d expected the demons to come for me since this would be a battle in the sky. Emilia and Belletochka, the Dark Lord’s daughter and wife, if I’m not mistaken? I’d wanted to clobber them and relieve the stress I’ve got pent up from my last battle against the Dark Lord. What a pity. I just hadn’t thought you’d come face me by yourself.”
“I’m not alone,” I insisted. “I’ve got Snow with me too.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about! Be it one or two of you, it really makes no big difference. Heh heh, do you really think you can hold your own when you’re so vastly outnumbered?”
The other suits of armor leaned back victoriously. That alone told me that the Argent Armor wasn’t with us, and she was somehow manipulating them all at once. I can’t even begin to fathom her powers and her ability to multitask. How many things is she doing at once here? I’m so envious...
Anyway, I guess I can’t just narrow my aim to stopping one main suit of armor in hopes that the others will get knocked out too. This is gonna be tough...