✦ ✦ ✦
Even Figaro couldn’t respond to all of them in time, and he was soon consumed by this storm of destruction.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Huh?!”
Sandalphon—the Superior Embryo tasked with security—was watching the duel as well. This was only natural, as the man his Master loved was one of the combatants. Thus, as he made sure the venue was safe, he watched the duel alongside Hannya.
And of course, right when he thought Figaro had won, the battle was flipped upside down.
“What is this...?” There was perhaps no better reaction than that. It felt as though it wasn’t just the battle that had been overturned, but the very rules of the engagement itself. The scene before him was simply that shocking.
There were now six Alberts standing on the stage.
Albert had already used his final revival and had his head severed from his body, but there were now six of him.
This reminded the audience of a certain high-ranking duelist—Tom Cat, the ex-champion who dominated the battlefield using an ultimate skill that let him multiply and revive without limit.
However, what Albert had done wasn’t quite the same.
The Seven Stars—Septentrion. That was the ult of Albert’s Superior Embryo, Seven Star Turnover, Septentrion.
It could only be used after seven revivals, and its effect was to present the results of his learning and overcoming all at once.
The six doubles of Albert who were still standing and the one who had been decapitated were based on the skills he’d gained, starting with α: Dubhe and ending with η: Alkaid.
The fire-resistant Albert Dubhe.
The Petrification-resistant Albert Merak.
The physical-impact-resistant Albert Phecda.
The frost-resistant Albert Megrez.
The dark-resistant Albert Alioth.
The fixed damage-resistant Albert Mizar.
The light-resistant Albert Alkaid.
Turned over to reveal seven stars—seven bodies that had different resistances and means of attack.
This also gave Albert extra attack power. By having each version of himself wield weapons with penalties that were canceled out by his resistances, he became an even greater force of destruction. He didn’t seem to have anything that took advantage of Petrification specifically, but every other weapon the duplicates wielded was much like the ones that Albert had used before—high-power MVP rewards that disregarded the wielder’s safety.
Even Figaro would have a hard time if exposed to such fearsome attacks from basically every direction.
“Lady Hannya...! Umm, Master Figaro is...”
While Figaro’s fiancée stared intently at the stage, silently clasping her hands together as if in prayer, Sandalphon gave her a sympathetic, almost panicked look.
“Calm down, Sandalphon.”
However, the one to respond to him first was the person standing on the other side of Hannya.
It was another Superior tasked with security—Shu Starling.
“That’s the kinda move Sechs would make, and it caught me by surprise, that’s for sure... But Figgy hasn’t lost this yet.” As though to prove Shu right, the dust from the destruction began to clear.
Behind the curtain, Figaro was still standing. Though wounded all over and leaning heavily on Gloria α for support, he was still upright.
The outcome of this duel was yet undecided.
However, his situation was dire. Figaro was seriously hurt, and defeating the remaining six Alberts would be a challenge even for him.
“That just leaves five.” But Shu’s count of Albert’s duplicates didn’t match the number visible on the stage.
A moment later, one of them—the one with fixed damage resistance, Albert Mizar—swayed where he stood and collapsed backward.
Without even changing his pose, he shattered into pieces and became nothing more than a pile of rocks.
“What...?”
“Figgy’s counterattack,” said Shu. “When the six attacks came in, he fired that gun toward one of ’em.”
Why had Figaro thought that Marbledrop would have any effect when Albert already had resistance to Petrification?
It was because he’d realized Albert’s resistances had been scattered the moment he felt his blade sink into the seventh duplicate’s neck.
Albert was supposed to have resistance to physical impacts, but Figaro had not felt any when slashing him. Combined with the fact that he’d instantly been targeted by six separate attacks, Figaro’s instincts had worked faster than his mind to conclude that Albert had split himself into seven forms, each bearing a different resistance and mode of attack.
And so, with two Alberts having projectile attacks, Figaro spotted them both and retaliated against them with Marbledrop’s bullets that passed through all inorganic material.
One of the Alberts he’d shot was the Petrification-resistant Albert Merak, so the attack was negated, but the other was Albert Mizar, who was only resistant to fixed damage.
It was this decisive action and reaction that allowed Figaro to survive.
Albert stared at him in silence. He’d realized that Figaro was still alive when he noticed that the barrier was still up. But after having timed his attack so perfectly and still suffering a loss to Figaro’s retaliation, Albert decided to refrain from attacking further and assumed a more cautious approach.
This was the opposite of what he’d done earlier, but it was the correct decision now. The situation had shifted, and the barrage had left Figaro with multiple injury- and curse-based status effects. The Bleeding and Burning debuffs were steadily lowering his HP, while the Magic Drain and Soul Drain curses sapped his MP and SP.
The many items that Figaro could use to resist such effects only worked if he’d put them on ahead of time. With duels forbidding the use of recovery items, there were very few ways to remove a debuff that had already been applied.
Time was on Albert’s side now, and he outnumbered Figaro five to one. Even if Figaro retaliated and destroyed one Albert, the remaining four would overwhelm him.
And that was exactly why Albert took the safe approach. Figaro might have managed to survive Albert’s first barrage, but he had no means of turning this around. The countdown to his defeat had already begun.
The scales of victory were tipping in Albert’s favor.
“Umm...” At that moment, just as the entire venue fell silent at the realization that their champion was going to fall, Sandalphon spoke up.
His Master, Hannya, still had her eyes fixed on Figaro with hands clasped as if in prayer.
“What?” Shu asked.
“Can he still win? Does he have anything to turn this around?”
Shu fell silent for a moment at Sandalphon’s question. He knew that the Over Gladiator’s job ult was useless for someone who had no other SJs, and he knew that Figaro wouldn’t use Cor Leonis’s ult here either. With how severe Figaro’s injuries were, using it would only kill him.
“Will he... Will he lose...?”
Did all that mean that Figaro would be defeated?
“I dunno what he’ll do about this... But there’s no way he’s losin’.”
And yet, Shu still denied that possibility.
“But how...?”
Shu was really confident, but that wasn’t a question for him to answer.
“Because...he’s him.”
Finally, Hannya broke her silence with an explanation.
It wasn’t a reason that would make sense to anyone else. However, Figaro’s friend, sitting by her side, thought she was completely right.
“Vincent will win this.”
Hannya spoke with certainty as she declared that her beloved would emerge victorious.