As Orestes drew his sword and shield closer in, tightening his defenses, the hero Nefritis toyed with him, maneuvering in three dimensions and striking at him from all directions. The boy hero’s scarlet cloak billowed behind him each time he skillfully feinted, deceiving Sid’s eyes.
This time I’ll hit him! With that determination, Sid unleashed another thrust—but in vain. The strike only pierced the boy’s cloak, and it had left Sid’s flank wide open in the process.
“Over here!” Nefritis swung his flaming spear around and drove toward Sid’s exposed flank, the tip carried forward by centrifugal force. Before Sid’s phosphors automatically activated to protect him, the spear sent him flying.
As Sid spun through the air, he saw Nefritis crouch down, then leap forward to follow up with another strike. With his sense of equilibrium in total disarray, Sid focused on gathering his phosphors at a single point, then detonated them. The resulting reverse thrust slowed him down. Sid, now suspended momentarily in midair, deflected a blow from Nefritis’s spear by striking the side of the shaft with his shield.
The face of the hero, slayer of serpents, was now right before his eyes, and the boy was grinning. “Do you have any secrets, I wonder? Let me drag them out of you.” In opposition to the motion of his arm as he drew back his spear, Nefritis unleashed a reverse roundhouse kick. His heel, clad only in a sandal—practically bare—nevertheless sliced through Sid’s bangs as it grazed his forehead. Sid bent his neck back to dodge the kick.
“Don’t count me out yet!” Another explosion from Sid’s phosphors propelled him forward in midair, toward Nefritis.
“Yes, that’s more like it!” Nefritis cried out between movements, abandoning his spear and shield. He then seized the sword meant to skewer him with his bare hands, clambered atop it like a gymnast mounting a high bar, and continued running along the length of it. Nefritis’s feet fell on Sid’s hand, shoulder—and then finally Nefritis reached his opponent’s head, trampling him underfoot. Nefritis then stomped on Sid with his entire strength.
After receiving an impact like a bolt of lightning from above, Sid’s head dropped down. He was knocked out of the air. Nefritis, conversely, rebounded with a graceful backward somersault before touching down on the ground. The boy hero proceeded to spin on the spot. His scarlet mantle followed his motion. “Hmm...what fun! The age I lived in had no shortage of stupidly huge Titans and outrageously strong heroes, but the people of this age have their own kind of ingenuity—and that’s a lot of fun too!”
Sid rose to his feet. He was a sorry sight to behold, with muddy water dripping from his head. He felt dizzy. As much as he tried to stand up straight, he couldn’t help but stagger. When he’d crashed into the ground, the impact had sent his phosphors flying, returning his body to that of a small boy.
“What’s the matter with you? You look like even more of a pipsqueak than me! The more I see of this age, the less I understand it. How interesting! What fun!” Undaunted by the rain overhead, Nefritis let out a peal of laughter. “O world, you never cease to fascinate me. Ah, it’s too much to bear! I want to defeat you and embark on a new adventure at once! Now then, do you have any tricks left up your sleeve?” Borrowing Prodotis’s Skill, Nefritis armed himself once again with a spear of flames and stepped toward Sid, laughing.
Sid had not yet fully recovered. Enrobing himself in phosphors, he once again assumed the form of Orestes, but its outline was unstable and soon fell apart. The tip of the sword he held readied would not remain steady.
Let’s try that. In the back of Sid’s mind he pictured the cloning ability displayed by the Reincarnator called Hero during the battle of Vulcan. The basic principle of this technique was, most likely, imparting substance to a telepathic illusion via psychokinesis. Since Sid was also a Play Actor, surely he could...!
Nefritis brought his spear down upon Sid before the boy could even finish the thought. Still staggering, Sid assumed a stance to intercept the blow. Because he was genuinely struggling to stand and not at all bluffing, he naturally drew Nefritis toward him. In time with Nefritis’s approach, Sid concentrated on placing a clone behind him.
Nefritis, taking a step forward with his spear held overhand, changed his footing and quickened his pace. He crouched low. This was a sudden change in fighting stance, and he had also moved the spear to his left hand. Now, what will you do? Nefritis thought, his blue eyes sparkling with a smile as he tested Sid.
Sid’s timing was thrown off by this. He shouted, abandoned his plan, and went to collide with Nefritis instead—stepping deep into his opponent’s striking range without fear. As he stepped even deeper than intended, though, he collided with Nefritis faster than he had anticipated, leaving him demoralized.
“N-Now...is the moment!” This cry came from behind the hero Nefritis, over his shoulder. Aggregated phosphors there took a form resembling a human and stood still—then crumbled.
“You failed, didn’t you?” Nefritis showed Sid a grin full of white teeth, as if ready to bite. The hero let go of the weapon whose control he had fought for and crouched down, shrinking his already diminutive stature; he slipped past Sid’s flank in this way. “Prometheus,” Nefritis murmured, activating Prodotis’s long range Skill. The boy hero gripped a fresh sword of flames and slashed diagonally across Sid’s back.
“Ah...!” Sid couldn’t react in time. Attempting to use an unfamiliar Skill had depleted his strength more than he had anticipated, and his thoughts raced. Here comes the pain. This is bad... This is the deepest wound I’ve sustained so far. Will I faint? I don’t have time for that. Here comes the follow-up strike. Get away, put some distance between us. This really is bad. I’ve already leaned too far forward to avoid it so I can’t correct my stance. But wait! There’s still a way! I just need to send the enemy farther away—turn around and counter his attack. Twist your body around...but it hurts... I can’t... This is bad. I won’t make it. This is bad, this is bad, this is really bad! Am...I going to die?
Turning his head, Sid saw Nefritis raise his sword for an overhand strike. He was about to deliver the killing blow. What remained of Sid’s failed clone seethed behind him as it began to dissolve into the rain.
“I can’t watch this anymore.” A girl’s voice rang out, and the sound made Nefritis freeze in the very moment before bringing down his sword. An immense number of phosphors suffused the vicinity. As the rain fell upon them, they evaporated with a hiss, only for new ones to appear and take their place. Sid heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and from his position lying on the ground he saw a pair of sneakers next to his ear.
The figure’s outline was hazy, looking as if it might dissipate soon, returning to phosphors at any moment. It was only due to her remarkable talent for using her Skill—and her unwavering will—that she managed to maintain a shape.
“Why...are you here?”
The girl, wearing a stadium jumper over her school uniform, smiled back at Sid, though her face was crumpled up. “You looked ever so pitiful, and I was worried that I came back as a ghost... That’s just a joke, sorry.”
“...Rei!”
“The truth is, I’ve been trying to manifest this whole time, but it just happened to actually work right now. I guess it’s thanks to this rain, which contains Liquid Computer. This may be a fake body that I made with my Skill, but I’ve managed to recreate my true appearance. Right now...I really feel like I’m in great shape...!”