Lea in Leviathan form was attacking future Rekka directly, and she had Tsumiki and Harissa riding on her head to offer support.
“Wow, Lea sure is as huge as ever,” future Rekka muttered, enlarging his right arm.
Lea was currently a great serpent over fifty meters long. Her mouth was big enough to swallow a house whole... But future Rekka clamped her jaw shut with one—albeit very large—hand.
“Mguh?!”
“Hey! What gives?!”
Tsumiki stamped her foot in protest from atop Lea’s head. I could see the tupperware container of dark matter in her hands. It seemed her plan was to feed Lea when she needed a power boost, but with her jaw clamped shut like this, she wasn’t eating anything. However...
“?!”
Suddenly, future Rekka’s left arm started sparking in malfunction.
“Fam?!”
Future Rekka’s mind jumped straight to the green-haired gremlin, but there was no sign of her anywhere nearby. The both of us, however, quickly realized the trick.
She’s on Lea’s head with the others! Harissa must’ve made her invisible!
Yuuhi had busted future Rekka’s cyborg arm earlier with a secret technique, but Fam could destroy machinery without tools or any other kind of assistance. Harissa and Fam must have coordinated this strategy when they saw future Rekka fly off and realized he was part machine.
“Tch!”
Speaking of, it was right about then that sparks started flying from his legs. He saw them and quickly backed off, releasing Lea. It was the right call. If his leg blasters were put out of commission, he wouldn’t be able to fly anymore. Or, at least... that’s what I thought until he suddenly sprouted wings from his back. They were bony and leathery, more like a bat’s than a bird’s.
“Yikes,” Lyun shuddered. “Kinda creepy, huh?”
“Did he take in demon blood too?” I wondered aloud.
But then I clenched my fist. No matter what form he took, this was still a fight between me and my future self. And I still needed to deck him good!
“Raaagh!”
I flew in, but he evaded my fist at the last second.
“That wind... A spirit?”
“Yeah.”
“You shouldn’t answer me so honestly... Though I suppose that’s typical for me,” future Rekka muttered in exasperation, shaking his head. Then he said, “They can be used like this, you know?”
“What?!”
Future Rekka gave a flap of his wings, shrouding the area in a black mist. It sapped my wind power, and I sunk lower and lower as it grew weaker and weaker.
“What is this?!”
“M-My energy’s being drained! It’s almost like the ghostdemon sickness.”
“Oh no!”
Back in Lyun’s story, there was a disease that ran rampant across the land, corrupting spirits and magic. But if I recalled correctly, it wasn’t a genuine sickness so much as it was a trap laid by a demon king... Wait, don’t tell me the black mist just now was some kind of curse?
“S-Sorry... I don’t think... I can fly anymore...”
Eventually, Lyun was no longer able to support me in the air, sending us both into a freefall. We were just about to hit the ground when someone grabbed me by the back.
“Rachelle!”
“H-Hello... L-L-Let’s get out of here!”
With me in her arms, Rachelle looked over her shoulder in a panic. Future Rekka was speeding our way at a frightening pace.
“Eeek! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!”
Rachelle wasn’t a particularly fast flyer, so I thought we’d be caught for sure, but...
“Gah!”
A lone fairy flew up and threw herself over future Rekka’s eyes, using her body like a blindfold.
“Poppy?!”
“Rekka! Rachelle! Now’s your chance!”
“R-R-Right!”
“Wait, Rachelle! Poppy is—”
I tried to get Rachelle to turn back, but...
“Mark!”
Sherlyn got on it before I could. I looked down and saw her standing tall in the middle of the arena. She’d just used her signature magic to put her mark on future Rekka’s shoulder. Next came...
“Steal!”
When Sherlyn activated the second part of her spell, future Rekka was rapidly pulled towards her. It would get him out of the air, sure, but it would also mean she had to contend with him.
“You’ll pay for what you did to me earlier!”
“Leave the close combat to me!”
Fortunately, Sherlyn had Rosalind and Iris to protect her. They took the front line.
“Don’t forget meow! I’m good in a catfight too!” Ai shouted as she jumped in too.
“Tch...”
With the weaker Ai now joining the fray, future Rekka had to hold back a little more. It was against the rules for him to kill us, after all. Both Rosalind and Iris were tough opponents he could handle with a fair bit of power, but not so much Ai. Her presence helped a great bit to handicap him... Not that Ai had probably considered any of that. The kitten Satsuki and I raised when we were kids had simply grown up to be a big, brave nekomata.
“N-Now’s our chance to get down!”
Despite her panic, Rachelle was able to get us to the ground safely.
“How are you doing, Lyun?” I asked.
“Urgh, it’s no good... I still can’t use my powers...” she answered in a pained voice.
What should I do? Would it be better to discard the spirit armor and try another method? But there were risks to taking Shirley’s medicine or using the Mask of Greed. The spirit armor was the safest way to raise my physical abilities.
“Rekka! Lyun!”
While I was debating my options, Mio came running over.
“I saw you fall earlier... Did something happen to Lyun?”
“Yeah. I think it might be some kind of curse.”
“A curse?! In that case...” Mio gave a resolute nod and took a deep breath before she started singing. “Not far away, not behind me, what’s in front of me is...”
Ah, I know this song! It’s “The Day Before the Future,” MIO’s debut song that healed the spirits of the ghostdemon sickness back in the spirit world. And the lyrics filled with hope for the future worked their magic on Lyun here too.
“Thank you, Mio!”
“Yeah, thanks, Mio. You’re a lifesaver.”
“I’m happy to help. Now get out there and do your best, you two!”
With Mio’s cheering and support acting like a tailwind, we flew up into the air once more.
“But what are we gonna do? He’s dodging everything everyone is throwing at him...”
“He’s unfairly powerful! We’ll never beat him unless we can really surprise him!”
“Really surprise him, huh?”
I admit the same thought had crossed my mind, but surprising future Rekka wouldn’t be easy either. In addition to all of his ridiculous powers, he had the advantage of all the skill and experience he’d acquired over hundreds of stories. That’s why he was so quick on his feet and had no trouble coming up with ways to get around or defeat the heroine’s powers. I’d expect that much with Satsuki and Iris, but he was still taking down heroines he’d never met before.
If only we could catch him off guard with magic he didn’t know...
Just then, things took a turn on the battlefield below.
“Take this!”
Rosalind transformed into a red mist to obscure future Rekka’s vision.
“Oh singing wind, blowing storm...”
But future Rekka immediately chanted a spell, conjuring a whirlwind to clear the air. Rosalind’s red mist, however, was only a decoy.
“We’re going all in!”
“Right!”
“Now’s no time to hesitate!”
Iris, Lea, and Corona were all standing in a line, armed with a laser gun, water magic, and dark magic respectively. The three of them were probably the heaviest hitters in our entire group, and they all attacked future Rekka at once. The destructive power of their collective attack was overwhelming. It instantly swallowed up future Rekka and sent three massive shockwaves throughout the arena.
“How long are we firing for?!” Corona asked.
“Until we run out of energy!” Iris answered.
And she made the right call. If they really wanted to overpower future Rekka, they couldn’t relent in the slightest. However...
“Huh?”
Iris suddenly raised a surprised voice. And the reason was before her eyes—cutting up through the middle of the beam fired from her laser gun was future Rekka. Unlike Corona and Lea’s attacks, Iris’s wasn’t magical. Future Rekka must’ve had some kind of energy shield to protect himself from it.
“Iris!”
I ran towards her as fast as I could, but it was too late. Future Rekka knocked Iris and then Lea and Corona out in the blink of an eye.
“Satsuki, Tsumiki, Suzuran! Get the three of them to safety!”
I entrusted Satsuki and the others with the three unconscious girls. Satsuki could use healing magic, so I figured they would be fine in her care. That said, her withdrawal from the battlefield put us at something of a disadvantage.
“Looks like your numbers have dropped quite a bit,” future Rekka announced, clearly seeing through me.
He then lifted his left arm, which he’d apparently swapped out for another new one at some point.
“Don’t worry. It’s just a shockwave. It won’t kill you, but it will hurt a bit.”
“!”
No sooner had he said that, the holes in future Rekka’s robotic hand started to suck in air before firing a pressurized ball of air from the center of his palm.
I can just change its trajectory with Lyun’s wind powers! Wait... No! Why isn’t it working?!
It was like it was too heavy! I couldn’t move it at all! The only thing I could do was clench my jaw and brace for impact. And so I did, but then a lone girl wandered out in front of me.
“Oh, that looks dangerous.”
The moment she muttered that, the shockwave shot off in another direction.
“Touko!”
“Hey,” she replied with a casual wave of her hand. “This is my first time experiencing what it’s like to be involved in one of these stories of yours, but it really is an amazing sight. No wonder my power of words led me here.”
Touko had long been troubled by her ability to manipulate reality with the power of words. She’d searched high and low for someone who could challenge her, and that search had led her to me. She’d also told me something back then that she repeated now...