Blades swung endlessly, creating an unremitting cacophony of sound.
“Gah!”
Hit by the witch’s magic, Lyu was sent flying.
“Leon!!” cried Alize, calling after her.
There was nobody left to assuage her fears. Kaguya, Lyra, Neze—all the other girls had fallen to her might. Lyu looked up and saw a flutter of ashen hair.
“This is the end,” came Alfia’s voice.
She was so close there was no hope to either dodge or block her spell. Lyu watched in terror as the witch raised her arm.
“Gospel.”
But just then, right after speaking her ultrashort chant, Alfia became mysteriously still.
“Huh…? It didn’t work…?”
Lyu was astonished to find herself still living. She immediately leaped back to a safe distance, then shot Alfia a puzzled look.
Why hadn’t the witch’s spell obliterated her? It wasn’t long before Lyu received her answer.
“…Hack!”
Alfia’s hand flew to her mouth, just as a flood of crimson erupted from her throat.
“What?!”
Lyu and the other girls had no idea what was happening. It was like the witch was suffering a fit of some kind.
“She’s…coughing up blood?!”
“But we didn’t do anything!”
Lyu and Kaguya watched in shock as Alfia continued to choke. Her blood spilled forth, staining her dress and the crystals at her feet. Before long, she was standing in a scarlet puddle.
“…It’s true, then. What Finn said…”
It was Lyra who spoke up first, still awestruck at what she was seeing.
“I didn’t believe him at first. I mean, these two are so friggin’ powerful, there’s no way…but he was right.”
The doors of memory were flung wide, and the girl’s minds each played host to a scene of the past.
It was Lyu who instinctively described the scene.
“The weakness of Alfia, Silence…”
✦ ✦ ✦
“A weakness? Zald and Alfia have one?”
They met on the eve of the decisive showdown, just a few short hours before total war began. Loki Familia had some vital information to share with the girls of Astrea Familia.
“Yes,” Finn had said. “There’s a small chance you might end up fighting one of them. I’m telling you this just in case.”
Finn had already included this information in the battle plans sent to each of the familias, but at the eleventh hour, he had decided to call Astrea’s girls to the Guild Headquarters war room.
“A weakness, huh? Something that’ll let us take ’em down in seconds, like a monster’s magic stone? No chance.”
Lyra scanned the faces of Loki Familia’s three leaders, clasping her hands behind her head.
“Some tiny advantage, I bet. A of good that’ll do when we’re talkin’ about two Level Seven’s who’ll flatten us with one hit,” she said.
Riveria answered Lyra’s flippant attitude with neither anger nor blame. She only stated the facts.
“That is true,” she said. “It will not trivialize your task. However, we believe that if you plan appropriately, victory can nonetheless be yours.”
“…Against those two?” exclaimed Lyra in astonishment. “…You’re pullin’ our legs, right?”
It was Gareth who answered. “This weakness existed back when the Zeus and Hera familias were still around. In all likelihood, they have not been able to cure it.”
“…We fought her, once,” said Kaguya. “And we didn’t see any sign of a supposed weakness. Nothing at all…”
“There is one,” Riveria reiterated. “What’s more, it’s the reason Alfia is still only Level Seven despite all her talent.”
Jaws hung open at Riveria’s brazen remark. Even Alize was too stunned to say anything. It was Lyu, standing next to her, who spoke on her behalf.
“And what is that weakness?” she asked, a hint of tension in her voice.
Riveria closed her eyes. “The one thing that held her back from perfection: an incurable illness.”