“Hah! I specialize in sneak attacks, so you’re better than I thought, girl.”
“You are quite the playboy, Lord Weiss,” said Rosalia calmly. “You managed to get such a stubborn girl to open her heart to you.”
“Heh, right back at you. I always know I can rely on my super maid.”
We exchanged smiles and completely ignored Emilelio’s ranting. Rosalia was mad strong. It was wild how Emilelio was glaring at us over the dumbest stuff given his situation.
“Ugh, you’re so damn annoying! This is why I hate hot people! Bet you spent all of last night gettin’ touchy-feely,” Emilelio snapped, trying to agitate Rosalia. “Did it feel good gettin’ it on in the house of God with your ‘big brother’?!”
If I recalled correctly, he had a complex regarding his plain face. While I didn’t appreciate his dirty talk, he did call Weiss a hottie, so I was pretty happy about that. Uh, not the time, though.
When I looked over at Rosalia again, her face was set.
Ah, she’s totally pissed off.
“Please don’t sully our relationship with your nasty words,” she said icily. “Lord Weiss, may I kill him?”
“Wait, hold on a sec, Rosalia. Emilelio, I need to ask you a question. You’re the one who tore off the reverend father’s face, right? Why? Is it a requirement in order to transform into him?”
“Ha! You think Lord Hades’s blessing is that weak? Fool. I did it because I wanted to.” Emilelio practically spat out the words. “Y’see, even though we might’ve had to blackmail him at first, he joined our ranks! Then, he had the nerve to say he didn’t want to sell children anymore! Where’d he get the nerve, huh? Everyone said he had such a kind face, so I ripped the damn thing off. He was pathetic at the end, begging his lord for salvation before I showed him real despair. If he’d become a true believer of Lord Hades, he wouldn’t have ended up like that!”
He seemed proud of the actions he detailed to us. That was a relief, to be honest. This guy was pure evil, and not the kind I was a fan of. He was just trash.
“Good to hear,” I said. “Doesn’t sound like you’ll ever be one of my faves.”
“‘Faves’? The hell does that mean?” Emilelio wondered. “Whatever. I’m gonna peel off your agonized faces soon enough. Time to get serious! Once I take your face off, I bet that so-called saint will make a real good face herself!”
“I won’t let that happen!” Rosalia said, though she paused in confusion a second later. “Huh?”
“That’s your move, is it?” I murmured.
I couldn’t blame Rosalia for her confusion. Emilelio had transformed into the strongest person I knew: Reinhard Bloody.
Emilelio’s blessing gave him the power to dive deep into the memories of those in front of him and transform into anyone in said memories. He’d searched for the strongest person that Rosalia and I knew.
In the game, he transformed into the main hero, so the best strategy for fighting him was to go into battle with nothing equipped at all. This guy could actually wield the main character’s holy sword! He was a real pain in the ass.
“You didn’t turn into me, huh?”
“Most certainly not! Who would ever deign to transform into weak vermin like you?” Even Emilelio’s way of speaking changed; there were traces of elegance in his words and tone, though he’d spoken so vulgarly only moments earlier.
Rosalia bristled. “Weakling? Lord Weiss is not remotely weak! I’ll murder you!” I was a little terrified of her obvious rage.
Now, I’d fought Reinhard more than a handful of times during our trainings. Not alone either—I was with Rosalia and Kaiser, and even then, we never stood a chance.
Man, this was unrelated, but if I had Emilelio’s power, I’d be able to talk to the other Weiss. Wouldn’t that be nice?
“Lord Weiss, please hide,” Rosalia said. “I will protect you!”
“No, I will fight too. I told you we’re in this together!”
“But he’s so dangerous…”
“Ha ha ha, I’ll save the woman for later. First, I’m going to rend you limb from limb!”
There was a thunderous roar as Emilelio, posing as Reinhard, jumped into the air and vanished. He was approaching me so quickly that I couldn’t see him.
“White!”
As soon as I shouted, White poked his head out from the inside of my shirt and chirped. I smiled for Rosalia, then began to cast a King-rank spell.
Needless to say, my magic wasn’t strong enough to restrain Emilelio, but that was fine. There was someone else who could stop him in his tracks.
Clang!
“Wh-what?” Emilelio gasped.
Darkness, who’d been hiding this entire time, intercepted Emilelio’s attack.
“Mwa ha ha! You had best not underestimate me, Darkness! Weiss, Rosalia, you have my gratitude! You bought me the time to cloak my entire body with the wind!”
Darkness, having buffed himself like crazy using wind magic, struck his blades against Emilelio’s. They must have been attacking each other with incredible speed as they went back and forth.
I say “must have been” because, unfortunately, I couldn’t follow them with my eyes.
Darkness, you jerk. You really did take it easy on us.
Even Rosalia could only barely follow what was happening, but that would be more than enough.
“Rosalia, are you good?!”
“Yes, of course!”
“Great. Then, heed my call, oh sword that rules over the everlasting darkness that protects the princess! God-devouring blade! Darkness, that’s your cue!”