Fresh blood—divine blood—sprayed. It scattered, dancing, through the air. For the first time since the match started, Dorothy took damage. And it was enough to cover her in wounds, scraping her form away.
Dorothy let out a wordless grunt of pain. Countless slashes assaulted her from every direction, cutting into her. Each attack busted through the defenses of her divine body, doing visible damage. Considering that in the beginning, Rion hadn’t been able to put a single scratch on her, this was a very surprising turn of events.
And in truth, in this moment, Dorothy was indeed shocked. She was also impressed, feeling all over again how wonderful a friend Rion was and how great a person she was, to be able to easily exceed Dorothy’s expectations. And so, to respond to her friend’s incredible deed, Dorothy decided to counterattack for the first time since the start of the battle. However, everything was too late. Dorothy’s last chance had been before Rion had activated Rami’s Unique Skills.
This thing... I can’t...get out?! Dorothy thought.
The cage of slashes surrounding her did not disappear. In fact, it continued closing in without leaving any gaps. The sight was despair incarnate. Though she tried to physically push back, the slashes held overwhelming destructive power. No matter how many Dorothy managed to repel, there was no end to them. It only resulted in her hurting her own fists. Every time Dorothy touched a slash, her flesh was burned and her senses numbed, like the slashes themselves were imbued with electricity. It was shocking that this could happen to Dorothy, who had thought herself invincible. Her equipment—her staff and tome—were of course not unscathed either. They were cut apart and turned to ash by the equivalent of Rank S lightning strikes.
Ugh! Then it’s time for Time Magic—?!
Dorothy wasn’t even able to fully form the thought before she was interrupted. Her idea had been to accelerate time to make the slashes disappear if physical force wasn’t working. She’d gotten as far as beginning to implement her idea when she’d noticed a change in her body.
I can’t see anything! And it’s not just my sense of sight; I can’t hear or feel anything either! I can’t even feel my own clothes on my body! she thought in shock.
What came after the threat of endless slashes was the stripping of Dorothy’s sight, hearing, and sense of touch. In fact, none of her five senses were working.
Having suddenly been plunged into a world of nothingness, she was terribly confused. Even after becoming a god, she had never experienced the loss of all her senses. And now that she was in this state, there was almost no chance of discovering what was causing it, let alone defending against it effectively.
She couldn’t afford to use her Time Magic in this state either; it would be careless. Time manipulation was a powerful ability, but that was why it required finesse. If she were to make a mistake and cause an explosion, it could catch Rion, who was no doubt flitting around her. That was something Dorothy had to avoid.
This is brutal, she thought.
Kelvin was in the stands, watching their fight closely while making full use of Parallel Processing, and he was somehow able to surmise that Dorothy had lost her senses. Naturally, he was still unable to see Rion. However, he did feel an extra presence around Dorothy. He figured that presence was likely Alex.
Dorothy’s sudden reaction was probably due to losing her senses, Kelvin thought. Alex has the Lethal Opiate Sword, a weapon that robs its victims of their senses after five attacks. That’s probably the cause.
As long as the target was damaged, they would suffer the effects of the sword. Even though Dorothy was a god, she was no exception. That was how Kelvin saw it. However, he had one question: How did Alex gain Rion’s otherworldly speed and power? According to Rami, Rion was the only one she’d given her skills to, so Alex shouldn’t have been included. And yet, he was keeping up with Rion’s speed and weaving a cage of slashes with her using perfect teamwork. Kelvin just couldn’t make sense of it.
Wait...maybe that’s not necessarily the case.
Kelvin pondered deeply. Alex’s Unique Skill, Imitator, could have copied Rami’s Unique Skills. It allowed Alex to imitate anything reflected in his shadow, even its properties. It had no effect on living things, but anything else was fair game, even Serge’s Willjillion. And so, Kelvin figured Rami’s Unique Skills weren’t out of the question. In fact, there was no other way to explain Alex’s speed.
So Alex was staying in Rion’s shadow earlier so she could keep him safe until she managed to activate Rami’s abilities, Kelvin thought. And now, Alex can copy the skill, allowing him to temporarily enter the same state of being. Rion and Alex just have to concentrate their attacks to— Ha ha! They’re invincible. Even Dorothy can’t stand against them now that she’s caught in their plan. I see, so that’s why Rion wanted a two-on-one fight!
Kelvin had realized that Rion had predicted all of this. Her reasoning didn’t matter. Anything she said would be accepted by Dorothy as long as it made some sense. Also, since Dorothy was so soft on Rion, Rion had known Dorothy would completely underestimate her thanks to their gap in strength. The difference was so great that it allowed Dorothy to be overly casual. However, no matter how much stronger she was, once she was caught in Rion’s trap, she could no longer exhibit her usual powers. Rion would never allow it and had never been planning on a fair fight in the first place. She would use everything available to her to chase victory in the easiest and surest manner possible. Indeed, this fight had always been in Rion’s hands.
“Oh? Dorothiara-chan’s disappeared,” said Serge.
“Hm? A new ability? At this stage?” Kelvin murmured.
Dorothy had lost all her senses and been rendered helpless. Out of desperation, or possibly in an attempt to reverse her fortunes, she’d used Deatotal’s powers to render herself incorporeal to try to escape. She’d assumed that in that state, neither the slashes nor the electricity would affect her. However...
“Grk!” Dorothy gasped.
“It’s no use, Thee-chan,” said Rion. “Ghosts are nothing but easy prey for me.”
The result was a huge failure to even make her body incorporeal. Rion—the holder of Absolute Purification—was currently running all around Dorothy at light speed. The more she moved, the more the battlefield was purified, becoming closer to a holy site, a sanctuary where any spirit would instantly be purified and forced to move on. Of course, Dorothy was very strong, so she managed to quickly undo her ability and get away with merely being dealt a lot of damage.
But... Dorothy thought.
She’d realized that the only way to overturn the situation was to mount an equally large-scale counteroffensive. However, that would inevitably hurt Rion. Now that she was unable to accurately adjust her strength, she could even end up damaging all of Parth. She’d started this battle out of jealousy toward Kelvin. She didn’t wish to cause such destruction, and she didn’t object to their matrimony enough to warrant such actions. In other words...
“Congratulations on your marriage, Rion-san,” said Dorothy, meekly accepting her loss as she threw herself against the storm of slashes.