“Cough! Cough! Hack!!”
No matter how much Alfia choked, the blood kept coming, staining her sickly pale skin in sticky crimson.
Kaguya blanched at the sight. “Just how much blood have you lost?”
Lyu couldn’t help but ask. “And how much pain have you lived through your whole life?”
“How can I possibly answer that?” Alfia replied, after her fits had finally subsided. “This is all I have known from the moment I was born. If I asked you to describe the blood that flows through your veins, what would you say?”
With a slender arm, she wiped the blood from her lips.
“Alas, this detestable sickness has taken everything from me—even my own twin. If not for this, could I have slain the Black Dragon?”
This was her regret. Her curse. Her twin sister was the price she paid for her power—power that still fell short of fulfilling her goals.
“Could I have escaped this odious noise? Could I have escaped your scornful and piteous glares?”
Neze, Noin, Lyana, Maryu, Iska, Asta, Celty. Their eyes were all focused on her, causing Alfia to twist her lips in rage.
The witch spoke the truth—if not for her illness, she would have obliterated Astrea Familia. Perseus’s accessory, Alfia Belador, and Riveria’s spell, Veil Breath, had allowed the girls to survive Alfia’s opening gambit long enough for her ailment to kick in and decide the fate of the battle.
Since the fight began, Alfia’s condition had been steadily deteriorating. It was as if someone had been casting anti-Status Magic on her every second.
Alize had realized it first, when she noticed the witch’s power level was dropping.
The name of her Skill, the manifestation of her illness, was Gif Blessing. It induced a perpetual Limit Off state, but at great cost. In battle, or whenever she suffered her fits, she was hit with many simultaneous status conditions, including poison, paralysis, and immobilizing sickness. Plus, for as long as it was active, her stats, stamina, and Mind all continuously decreased. It was the price of her monstrous talent, unmatched by even the most costly of curse spells.
No matter how hard she tried to mitigate it with technique, tactics, or going all out, Alfia at present possessed no greater combat ability than a Level 5. Perhaps even only a Level 4.
As she was now, even Astrea Familia’s victory began to sound possible. That was because any adventurer party was capable of overcoming a one-level gap through teamwork—it was the basic theory behind fighting a floor boss.
It wasn’t only that Alfia could flatten her foes in an instant—she needed to. If the battle was allowed to drag on, she was doomed.
“Grh…! Alfia, we…!”
Lyu stepped forward and yelled at her but wasn’t able to find the words to go on. Before she could think of them, Lyra butted in.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” she said, casting the witch a deadly glare. “We both know you’re boned, so why not give up and come quietly, eh?”
“It’s painfully obvious you cannot keep up the fight any longer,” Kaguya agreed, directing a look at Alfia that one might give a decomposing corpse. “As much as it vexes me to give up on my revenge, I will not bring my sword down on such a pitiful sight.”
“Alfia,” said Alize with sincerity in her voice. “It’s best you surrender. We might not be able to overlook the things you’ve done…but I understand why you did them; I really do.”
There wasn’t long left. From the very beginning, Alfia had been paying with her life just to be here, and now it wasn’t even certain she’d survive to see it through. Alize’s gaze held a fierce condemnation for Alfia’s evil acts, but there was still a trace of respect.
“Surrender… Surrender, you say…”
Her words played on Alfia’s lips. Feeling the battle was reaching its inevitable conclusion, the girls began to lower their weapons.
And then…
“When will you vermin stop disappointing me?!”
She unleashed a wave of magical energy and rage.
“Gah?!”
“Do not make the mistake of taking pity on me, whelps. It does not matter how far my sickness progresses, it will never stop me burying every last one of you!”
The sound blast hit Lyu and her allies all at once. Alfia straightened her back, tall and proud once more, determined to live up to her name.
“And what does it change, in any case? Even if I am destined to die, Orario is finished! Killing me changes nothing! Behold, the monster rages yet!”
Alfia swept her arm, and as if on cue, the girls heard Delphyne’s terrifying roar.
“Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!”
Lyu looked in its direction and grunted. “Grh…!”
“Th-the monster!” cried Celty.
“It’s regenerating!” said Kaguya. “It’s somehow even uglier than before! At this rate, it’ll break through Loki Familia!”
Delphyne began to take up even more of the cavernous space. Its jaw split into many shapes, odd protuberances grew across its length, and it spread a pair of toxic, purple, butterfly-like wings.
At last, it managed to shake free of Aiz’s wind and Riveria’s barrage of spells, and its roar alone was enough to shake the entire floor.
“I’ll end you all here and allow that beast to reach the surface! I will shatter the Dungeon gate!”
Alfia’s prediction was close to becoming reality. If Lyu and the other girls fell here, and if Aiz, Riveria, and Gareth couldn’t stop Delphyne, the evil dragon’s breath would burn a hole through the ground itself, drawing the curtain on the Age of Gods and ushering in a new Age of Heroes, just as the conquerors had planned.
“I have made my pact! Traded my soul to the god of the underworld. I cannot bend my knee to justice now! I must see this ruinous path to its end!”
Her will shone brightly, even if it was an evil one. Alfia was not ready to give up on all she had worked for. The sands in her hourglass continued to fall, and until the very last grain stopped, the witch would follow her chosen road.
“Godsdammit, woman!” snarled Lyra.
“Why would you go that far?!” growled Lyu.
“What I seek is the past!” she proclaimed. “A return to the Age of Heroes! So long as you look to the future, we can never coexist!”
The girls gave her bitter looks, but her answer remained unchanged. Then the force of her next spell flung them all backward.
“………”
Alize was silent, arm raised to protect her face. She lowered it, then stood at ease.
“How can I stop you, then?” she asked, her face a mask of pure sorrow. With nothing but regret for her own powerlessness, she raised her sword and pointed it at Alfia—the one sinner she could not save.
“There is only one way,” replied the witch.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Become a hero.”
““““!!””””
The eyes of Alize, Lyu, Kaguya, and Lyra all flew wide open. On Alfia’s lips was a smile. Her eyes were open for the first time: one green, the other gray.
“Become a hero, and strike me down!” she said. “If you want to see the future, then show me you have what it takes to protect it!”
Neze, Noin, Lyana, Maryu, Iska, Asta, and Celty all clenched their fists.
“Show me this justice you so staunchly believe in! Show me it surpasses my evil!”
The witch made her principles known. There was no meaning in intent without the power to see it through. There was no value in power without a strong will to guide it. Only a noble soul, possessing both, would be capable of stopping evil.
In spite of the despair she had endured, Alfia was still a hero, and she presented her challenge to the unhatched eggs of justice who stood before her.
Lyu was stunned. It was Alize, standing beside her, who spoke first.
“Alfia…” she said, closing her eyes. And then, “Grab your weapons, girls. We’re doing this.”
“Alize…”
Lyra watched as her captain readied Crimson Order. She spoke her leader’s name, then nodded.
“Just you watch,” said Alize, pointing her sword between the witch’s bicolor glare. “We’ll show you! We’ll show you that justice goes on and carries the light of the past forward! We’ll take the hope we’re building and shove it in an old hero’s face!”
“…I know.”
Kaguya drew her katana. Neze readied her twin blades. Noin had her one-handed sword. Lyana, her wand. Celty, her rod. Maryu, her mace. Asta, her ax. Iska, her fists.
Lyu took up her wooden sword in one hand, and the blade of her fallen friend in the other.
“Adi…” she muttered. “Give me strength. Give me justice! Let me overcome the hero who stands in my path!”
The girl’s legacy filled Lyu’s heart and became her courage for the fight ahead.
“You’re going down, Alfia! This we swear, on the sword and wings of justice!!”
Alfia smiled.
“Come, then.”
She narrowed her eyes at the dazzling light of justice before her. The next moment, she roared with ferocious spirit.
“I’ll show you what a true hero is made of, insolent children!!”