“…You really went and did it.”
I returned to the material world only a moment after I left. Ney glared at Maha, half with indignation and half with pride. This was probably the first time she’d been outwitted so.
“This is the power of the love between Maha and me. I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before we get hitched.”
“No chance of that. But you did good, Metako.” Maha must have been fairly pleased as she didn’t rebuke me for once. Gosh, she was just smitten with me, wasn’t she?
Ney was no longer all-powerful with her divine power gone. Finally, she and Maha were on a level playing field.
“Don’t think you’ve won with this,” said Ney grimly. “I’m still giving energy to the Song of the End. You’ll have to incapacitate me to stop the spell, and I’m quite strong even without my divine powers.”
“I’m well aware,” Maha said, “but at least you can be beaten now. This will be the day I finally win against you, Ney.”
Maha braced herself, dagger in her right hand and her left hand lowered, ready to grab a vial at a moment’s notice. Ney brandished her massive sword, taller than she was, with ease and rested it on her shoulder. The two of them stared one another down for no more than a few seconds. The first to make a move was Maha.
“That which—”
“Too slow.”
The instant Maha tried to chant alchemy, Ney stepped in at a blinding speed and swung her sword down. She didn’t have the time to do a full wind-up, so this wasn’t quite the sure-kill technique she was so proud of, but it was still a powerful strike regardless. Maha reacted quickly, but she made no attempt to block. Instead, she remained calm and drew a step back as Ney closed in. Her chant had been bait to lure Ney in all along.
“Do you really believe you can dodge me?” Ney reacted in kind, however, bringing her sword up and swinging it horizontally at Maha as she retreated. It was a powerful attack, with a great centrifugal force behind it.
Maha was on her back foot throughout their exchange so far, but her expression showed no discomposure. She calmly observed Ney’s movements and reacted as needed. She brought her dagger up and blocked Ney’s massive blade, but instead of parrying it aside like she usually would, she let its force send her flying diagonally back to where Ruri was.
“Ruri, listen up.” Maha quickly whispered something into Ruri’s ear. Ruri gave her a reassuring nod, after which Maha stood up next to her and faced Ney once more. “Let’s stop this, Ney.”
“…Excuse me?”
“You have no chance of winning this fight,” Maha said with utter confidence.
“How amusing. You genuinely believe you can defeat me?” Ney scoffed, thinking Maha had lost her wits.
“You had your ability to read minds to carry you through your fights up until now. But you no longer have it, do you?”
“I do not. But I am not so pathetic that I’d lose just because of that.”
“Is that so? Tell me, do you remember how you told us we needed our own sure-kill techniques?”
“…What’re you getting at?”
“I finally have one. A technique I’ve trained and polished to perfection that is sure to take you down.”
“Interesting. Let’s see it then.” Ney took Maha’s challenge, holding her sword aloft over her head to prepare her own sure-kill technique—an overhead swing. “Your sure-kill technique versus my sure-kill technique. Let’s see whose is truly lethal.”
“I accept.” Maha readied her dagger and steadied her breathing. She focused on the point below her belly button—known as the dantian, the center of energy—and made her blood rush to every corner of her body. She slowly expanded her focus outward, beyond her own body, until even Ruri and Ney were within her mental field.
“Hmph…” Ney’s expression shifted. Her body wanted to do nothing more than to leap forward right this instant, but she felt she was being goaded into attacking and stopped herself. Her dark-brown eyes were full of caution.
Maha continued to control her breathing. She grasped every minute thing happening around her and felt almighty. She gripped her dagger lightly and—
“Hah!”
“Foo…”
The first to move was Ney. She broke away from the straight-forward, linear attacks she used up until now and unleashed a feint with complicated footwork woven in. Her massive blade then bore down, aimed at Maha’s shoulder. “Wha—”
Maha took a single step to the side, timed just right for Ney to consider the possibility of her strike missing and hurting Ruri if it continued along its trajectory. Ney hesitated, her feet coming to a halt.
“Foo!”
“Haaah!”
Capitalizing on the opportunity, Maha slashed. Undaunted, Ney drew her sword back. A dash of blood sprayed through the air.
“…To think you would use Ruri in such a way.” The blood was Ney’s. She was left with a deep gash starting at her left shoulder and ending across her chest. In disbelief, she fell to her knees.
“My little trick wouldn’t have worked if you could still read minds.” Maha wasn’t unscathed herself. A not-insignificant wound was left on her shoulder. She kept pressure on it with her free hand.
“In what world is that a sure-kill technique?”
“That was all a bluff. I needed you to use your overhead swing, to limit your moves to what I was most familiar with.”
Ney made a look of exasperation upon hearing Maha’s overly-succinct explanation. “I see. I was caught up playing chess, but you were playing a different game altogether.”
“Yeah. You had grown too reliant on your ability to read minds. That’s why you lost. Your godly power made you forget how much effort people need to put into every little thing they do. You lost the need to struggle.”
“…Indeed.”
“Your philosophy has the same problem. You viewed things from too high of a vantage point. No normal person thinks to stop all suffering by ending the world.”
“Mm…” Ney was starting to lose consciousness due to blood loss. Maha caught her body just before she collapsed.
“I understand why you came to think the way you did. You listened to everyone's voices too much. I pity you for being exposed to such grief for so long.” Before Ney fully lost consciousness, Maha ended with, “Ney. Spend the rest of your life as a human and live searching for your own happiness.”
To think that girl I raised would become someone so reliable and bold, Ney thought to herself with some amusement. Perhaps humans are stronger than I gave them credit for.
The former god, having lost to a human she had previously deemed a soul in need of saving, gracefully accepted her defeat.