“Morning Venus,” Sanieve declared, his cold voice announcing the activation of his magic.
As soon as those words came out of his mouth, golden shooting stars fell from a void, colliding with Sanieve’s ouroboros body one after the other. Karkinos grabbed Sei and proceeded to dodge the falling masses. Meanwhile, Virgo was protected by Sanieve’s barrier.
Also, none of the shooting stars even left a scratch on the ouroboros. Of course they didn’t. The ouroboros was aligned with the Metal element. What reason would there be for it to take damage from its own element?
“Hermes, Who is Thrice Mighty.”
Three magic circles were deployed around Karkinos in an attempt to make escape impossible, and. enough water to swallow a city whole crashed down upon Karkinos from those magic circles. Though he managed to react and jumped into the air to escape, it seemed Sanieve had seen that coming, as he was waiting.
“Oceanus.”
All the water created by his casting of Hermes, Who is Thrice Mighty converged in Sanieve’s hand, changing into a superdense water bullet. Karkinos managed to react to this development as well, covering Sei with his own body. Even so, he could not absorb all the force behind the spell, and they were sent flying. After being slammed into the scales of the ouroboros, they tumbled over onto the same body, which served as their ground.
“Did you seriously think that you could do something about my main body, even if you couldn’t affect the ouroboros? Absurd. The likes of you two don’t even deserve my powers as an ouroboros.”
After a pause, Karkinos laughed. “Heh... Heh heh...”
The situation was overwhelmingly dire. However, Karkinos wore a bold smile as he stood.
“How strange... The strength of your magic isn’t nearly as much as I’d suspected, given how much power I can feel from you. In fact, you went through the trouble of recycling the mana you used with your casting of Hermes, Who is Thrice Mighty... That’s funny.”
Sanieve remained silent.
“Could it be...you don’t have enough mana?” asked Karkinos. “Maybe you have your hands full just maintaining this ouroboros form? After all, this isn’t the same universe that the Goddess created. I’m sure you can only benefit from the small pittance flowing over from there.”
The universe that the Earth inhabited was the Goddess’s home universe. That was why it contained no mana, which was basically her power given form. Some had flowed into the universe thanks to Lufas’s and Dina’s frequent comings and goings, but that was only a minuscule amount. Just like how the Earth ouroboros had become unable to use magic after Aigokeros had sucked up all the mana for his own use in that past fight, magic was unusable without mana. That was why Sanieve was unable to use truly powerful magic.
“But there’s an easy way to fix that. Why not just connect an Exgate to the other side? If you do that, you can obtain as much mana as you please.”
“Heh... What an obvious attempt to goad me. If I do that, they’ll notice me. Is that your plan? I won’t fall for a move as obvious as that.”
“Oh my. Too bad.”
“Not to mention...magic is not my only method of attack,” said Sanieve.
“I figured.”
Fighter jets came one after the other from a gap in the ouroboros body that covered Earth. Each one of them shined gold, showing that they were massively strengthened by Sanieve.
Karkinos would most likely not die, even to a nuclear missile. In fact, there would be almost no damage at all. However, things were different if it was powered up by Sanieve. Missiles were continuously fired at Karkinos, who was forced to dodge and run through the firestorm of explosions.
“I’ll let you know that I know your plan already. You are distracting me so that Sei can rescue Virgo.”
To someone as strong as Sanieve, Sei was not worth paying attention to. He was so weak and frail that it wouldn’t be strange if someone like Sanieve had already forgotten him entirely. However, that was only if they were facing someone else. He considered Sei his enemy in love, someone he had to bury in order to make Virgo his. That was why he never ignored Sei nor did he take the boy lightly. Most importantly, he would never allow Virgo to fall into his hands. That was why he gently picked Virgo up and flew her to the front of the ouroboros’s face.
“My weakness is obviously that everything is over if you defeat my main body. However, I will not underestimate you two. So, let’s have my weakness disappear here.”
This is the worst thing that could happen...! Karkinos thought.
Their one saving grace against the Ouroboros of Heaven was that, unlike other ouroboroses, he had a clear weakness. However, Sanieve knew about that and was about to disappear. He would rid himself of his weakness by hiding inside the ouroboros’s body... On top of that, Virgo would be out of reach.
It was already too late because Sanieve had already entered the ouroboros’s mouth, which closed tightly afterwards.
“Th-This is...bad... Actually, it’s more like we might already be in checkmate.”
“Say it isn’t so!”
“Oh man. Killing a two-headed ouroboros alone is a little too heavy, even for M E,” admitted Karkinos.
Though Karkinos acted like a fool a lot, he was not just a foolish man. He was able to accurately compare the difference in strength between him and his opponent, and he had the brains to be able to calmly think and plan during battle. Now, both Karkinos’s brain and all the experience he’d gained up to this point were saying the same thing: Oh, this just became impossible.
Sanieve was in hiding, and there was no method they could use to take back Virgo. The ouroboros might spit them out if it was dealt enough damage, but neither of them had the means to do so. On top of that, Karkinos had an extra limit wall placed on him, so he was now unable to do any real damage to the ouroboros at all.
Karkinos paused. It’s checkmate. No matter how much I think about it, it’s impossible.
Now that it’d come to this, Karkinos had silently and emotionlessly accepted this reality, and his mind started to shift into trying to figure out a way for him, Virgo, and Sei to somehow survive. If they were to bide their time, Lufas would eventually notice and come to help. If Karkinos could just protect Sei until that time came, the three of them would at least be safe. Sanieve treated Virgo as if she were very precious, so there was most likely no need to worry about her.
The Earth—I should just give up on that front. It’ll be destroyed, but I just can’t think of a way to save everything at this point. But I’m sure if I say that to Sei, he won’t understand, which means that I’ll...have to resort to force. I’m going to force Sei to run and abandon the Earth.
Sei will probably hold a grudge against me if I do this, but that’s fine in this situation, he thought. I know I just said that playing the heel is just an empty rationalization the other day, but I seriously can’t think of any other way. Right, as long as some unexpected miracle doesn’t happen...
“■■■■■■■■...”
Something howled.
The ominous sound echoed from the depths of the Earth. Just hearing it threw the spirits of the listener into disarray. It was a dreadfully repulsive noise. The ground shook, as did the air and sea. Then, from the bottom of the ocean, a tentacle suddenly appeared to spear through the body of the ouroboros.
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