“Heh heh heh. I’m happy you know me so well, but should you really be doing this? Should you waste time just talking? Don’t you think you’ll run out the clock?”
With her legs in R’lyeh’s waters, protected by countless tentacles, G cracked a grin.
Her ultimate skill was consuming the arena as they spoke, and if G wasn’t defeated within the next hour, it would disappear entirely.
“Yeah,” said Ray. “It’s not like you’ll stop if I just tell you to, huh? Just like your brother.”
“Yep. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m not nearly as reasonable as he is.”
“Well, that’s...a problem.” King of Light, F had created a misunderstanding between a couple that had almost destroyed a city—yet Overlord Invidia, G claimed to be an even greater nuisance.
Coming to understand that with absolute clarity, Ray let out a sigh.
“But, man... I’ve fought a bunch of Superiors for a bunch of different reasons, but this is the first time one of them has attacked me for my real estate.”
“This is a rental, though,” Nemesis interjected.
“Hey! Don’t forget that I’m also fighting to avenge my brother! It’s an emotional endeavor!” G interjected.
“Be honest.”
“You beat him, so if I beat you, it’ll prove that I’m better than him, right?”
“Do you two hate each other or something?”
“We get along great! But that is one thing—this is another!”
“That so?” Ray realized that it wasn’t just her motivation that was unique—she was nothing like the previous Superiors in terms of personality either.
The vibe here kinda reminds me of Mori-Mori, he thought, remembering the senior from his high school club. I feel like she and G would get along really well.
Regardless, he’d already decided what he would do. She was telling him to fight and defeat her, or else she would take what was his. He had only one response to that.
“Sure. Let’s do this,” said Ray, still mounted, as he brandished Nemesis. “Beating an Overlord... That sure is a quest, all right.”
Gathering his resolve, he declared that the quest had begun.
“This is good! Very good! I can see why my brother is so infatuated with you!” said G, her smile growing deeper at Ray’s words.
But then, she turned away from him...and looked at Juliet, making her eyes widen.
Juliet had backed away into the air, but couldn’t...didn’t do anything beyond that. She didn’t instantly register G as an enemy like Chelsea and Max did, nor had she gathered her resolve like Ray had when he’d realized G’s true intentions.
Juliet was the only one here who was still perplexed by the situation.
While Chelsea was the oldest and most proactive of them, and Max was used to situations like this thanks to Tenchi’s battle junkies, Juliet had never experienced anything similar.
This was nothing like the all-out battle against Chelsea she’d had in the recent event, or her disputes against Shion from before the Exodragon King Incident, when they were still hostile to each other.
A friend she’d just made was doing something bad to another one of her friends. Something like that had, thankfully, never happened to her before.
She’d never had enough friends for it to be possible.
And that was why Juliet was so perplexed she was frozen in place.
Though she’d only met G yesterday, they’d hit it off instantly, and albeit in a different way than with Ray and the others, G had quickly become a friend Juliet felt she could connect with. In this conflict, Juliet had no idea what to do.
She couldn’t rush to eliminate G like Chelsea or Max, nor ask her questions like Ray. She was stuck acting like a child her age, doing nothing but watching the situation, lost in confusion.
“Ngh...” As a friend, the reasonable thing to do here was to join Ray and stop G from committing this crime.
She knew this in her mind, but her confused heart kept her body from moving.
Thus, Juliet was unable to choose...
“Julie! You fight me too!”
“Huh?”
...and the one who gave her the push she needed was the enemy—G herself.
“You are this video’s guest performer! It might have happened by chance, but never mind that! I’ll be really happy if you show me what you got!” G reveled in causing chaos and committing terrible crimes, and yet her words seemed to contain no guilt or shame. She was self-indulgent, self-centered, and selfish.
Despite this, her words melted away Juliet’s reservations. There was no contradiction between her reasoning and her friend’s words—and combined, they gave her the encouragement she sorely needed.
“...Okay!”
And so, Juliet flapped her dark wings and brandished her blade.
Her friend had asked her to stop her crimes, so Juliet would do just that.
Thus, the four-person party prepared to face the Overlord.
There we go, G thought. Every good star has to know how to read the mood.
She looked at the four, all ready to fight, and smiled in satisfaction.
I guess Julie isn’t used to things like this. I feel like I did her wrong, but I also followed it up nicely, so I guess it’s all good... But wow, this just makes me think how insane Legendaria’s rankers are. When I went at that card gamer, she responded so fast it was like she knew the future.
Estimating Juliet by the standards of the rankers G knew had caused her to misjudge the girl’s mental fortitude. G reflected on that, but she now had the matchup she wanted.
I want an arena. I really, really do. It’d really help my clan and my friends at Desire...but that’s just one of my goals.
The second was defeating Ray Starling—and there was a third, which was far more important than the other two.
That was the reason she’d approached this situation like she had.
Instead of taking the arena like a sneaky thief, she’d gathered a cast of combatants before using her ult. She’d also explained everything so they could fight without confusion.
If someone present was confused and hesitant, she straightened them out with her words.
And if all this led to an exciting battle for her to record, nothing would please her more than that.
She wouldn’t tell them to just lose—how could she?
All out and beyond—a wild dance of supernatural powers. A gleaming light that could only be found in this world.
That was the blueprint of the future G desired.
“Now! Let’s fight! Let’s play!” Thus, G spoke—sang—to the world.
“Let’s go all out...and see what lies beyond!”
She faced the heroes who would challenge her and the viewers who would watch her—and let them all know that she was here.
✦ ✦ ✦
Such a curious coincidence...
At the same time, in the same city, but at different locations, Figaro and G—two Superiors—gave their own opponents exactly what they needed to give it their all.
Gideon was now a stage of two battles truly fought in earnest.