“Hell yeah! And take another!”
I swung my Eckesachs greatsword down and sliced the lightning beast in its Achilles tendon.
You’ve been paying too much attention to my party’s radiant star, li’l guy. Look, your legs are wide open.
“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” howled the beast. Black bolts of lightning showered from above.
It was trying to use a discharge point to prevent anyone from attacking it at close range.
It wasn’t a bad call. But it was naive.
“I won’t allow it!”
Szilard’s voice rang out as he fired off thermal blasts, shooting the lightning right out of the sky.
The fact that Szilard could easily dispense with a Sublime Demis spirit’s lightning assault was insane to me, even if Keraunos’s stats had been lowered.
“This guy’s too much.”
There was no doubt about it—he wasn’t the master of one of the Five Major Clans for nothing.
I tried to hold in my admiration as I gave Eckesachs a hearty swing.
All right, now that was a clean hit.
It was time to scatter.
“Haruka! It’s almost time for that. Don’t chase it too far, all right?”
“Gotcha… Yaaah!” said the radiant star, backing off in style with a magnificently executed backflip.
Naturally, she did all this as Azure Skies’s sword clones continued attacking the beast in waves.
“As impressive as ever, Haruka.”
“Eh-heh-heh! More compliments, pleasies!” she said, fumbling her words a bit. She was probably hiding her embarrassment.
But just as we were starting to relax, I noticed a spiky circle form at Keraunos’s feet.
It was trying to catch us in some powerful area of effect attack, but we were already well out of range. If the beast was at full strength, it might have gotten us, but considering its weakened state, there was no way.
“I can see the thinking, though. It’ll keep us from coming in for more close-range attacks.”
Keraunos threw out more black lightning as it retreated. And then, for the umpteenth time since the fight had started, Keraunos changed to a long-range strategy.
“Hah-hah-hah-hah!”
“AH-WOOOOOO!”
Thermal beams clashed with black lightning.
I watched the beast and Szilard blast away at each other for a while. When Haruka came up to join me, I handed her some of the snacks we’d brought with us.
“Why’s Jupi taking so long?” she asked.
“She’s taking this bastard one-on-one in there. It’s gonna be a while.”
The only way to properly complete the cleansing ritual was for Jupiter to beat Keraunos herself.
There were all kinds of forms a cleansing might take. Some spirits held relatively peaceful trials—pop quizzes, battles of wits, things like that. But considering who we were dealing with, it was safe to say this trial would be violent.
Jupiter was going to have to face the symbol of all the trauma and negativity in her life. I knew it would be tough. I knew she would suffer. But…
“She’s gonna be fine. She’s a tough kid.”
“…Hey, I’m not saying I don’t believe in her or anything. It’s just…”
“You’re worried about her.”
I leaned against one of the coffin-lined walls as I munched on my snack. Ugh, gross, I thought. This thing melted in my bag.
“Yeah. It’s kinda hard not to be a little worried.”
The radiant star chewed nervously, eyes on the area’s entrance.
The thunder beast was making one hell of a face as it fired off more electric strikes.
There was no way for Keraunos to beat Szilard in its current state. It took everything it had just to contend with the Rosso and Blu clan master. And Szilard was holding back.
If we’d kept at it all together, we probably could have taken it down easily. But, as I said earlier, there would be no point in doing that.
Jupiter had to overcome it first, and then we’d take it down—that was the only way for us to cleanse it.
“I believe in her, but I’m still worried… Hey, Kyou. Isn’t that kind of contradictory?”
“I guess it depends. How much of you believes in her, and how much of you is worried?”
“Uh, let’s see. What if I said it was a clean split? Half-and-half?”
“Half-and-half,” like the cream? She must mean fifty-fifty.
“So you’re saying it’s an even blend, huh?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Then that’s not really contradictory. You’re just conflicted.”
“How’s that different?”
“If you’re not sure whether you want to eat curry or ramen, you’re conflicted. But if you want to eat curry and eat ramen instead, that’s a contradiction.”
“Couldn’t I just eat both?”
“…That’s cheating.”
Was it, though?
You can still worry about someone even if you believe in them. And there was no reason to choose one emotion over the other. You could have your curry and eat your ramen, too. If anything, I figured that suited the gluttonous swordmaster best of all.
As we wasted time chatting, the two active combatants seemed to have reached a conclusion.
Szilard’s thermal beams had successfully blasted through Keraunos’s assault and gotten a direct headshot on the beast.
“AWOOOOOOOooooo… Roooooooo!”
The beast of black lightning writhed on the ground, desperately trying to put out the fire on its head.
The skilled clan master had hurt the beast and knocked it over but given the spirit a chance to recover—what a treat. I’d expect nothing less from Szilard.
“Now’s your chance, Haruka. Use Azure Skies to completely sever its tendons and ground it.”
“I’m afraid the little pup’s gotten way too cautious around me,” she complained. Nevertheless, she ran off and fired her sword clones at the beast.
“…Aroooooooooo!”
Her target reacted immediately.
Its head still aflame, Keraunos used a flash of black lightning to contort its body so it would be harder for us to hit.
The spirit might have been a psychotic deadbeat dad, but its battle prowess was nothing to sneeze at.
The sheer fact that it was trying to avoid attacks with no regard for protecting its weak points demonstrated the type of creature we were dealing with.
“This puppy’s way tougher than it looks,” said Haruka.
“It’s probably figured out what we’re thinking by now.”
I’d already seen it thrusting out its head to protect its legs a few times—far too many to be a coincidence. And the fact that it was particularly wary of Haruka’s slashing attacks told me this was no dumb dog.
If Keraunos could manage to draw out the fight long enough to crush Jupiter’s heart, then it would come out on top. Even if we beat it out in the real world, if Jupiter lost, it was game over. Once the spirit realized it couldn’t beat us, it had switched to endurance tactics.
“Pretty clever, Keraunos.”
This is gonna take a while…
But just then, something happened.
“What?!”
Haruka was the first to be taken by surprise. And the reason was crystal clear.
Completely out of nowhere, one of her attacks hit its mark.
The Aono family sword sliced the beast’s tendon clean through in one fluid motion.
Only moments prior, the spirit had been doing everything it could to avoid her attacks. But suddenly, she’d landed a clean hit.
It was nice to finally do some real damage, but something felt off.
It was strange enough that Keraunos had left itself open to attack, but what was even stranger was that it reacted not in the slightest to having its tendon sliced. It just stood there absentmindedly. Like its mind was somewhere else.
“Wait, this has to be…”
I stopped myself before I could get too excited and instead called to Haruka and Szilard.
“Haruka! Slice up its other legs while we have the chance! Mr. Szilard, make sure you’re ready to move at any moment!”
Then I rushed toward Keraunos at full speed.
There was no way to know for sure, but what else could it be?
I blazed across the coffin-filled space as fast as I could move.
Damn, finally…
“We were getting tired of waiting, damn it!”
Dark gray cracks began to form on the creature’s lower half.
Keraunos’s outer shell began to crack and fall away and, slowly, a hole opened up down there, and a small girl fell out.
Her eyes were red, and she had silver hair, tied up in pigtails.
There was no doubt about it—the girl who had popped out from inside the beast was our party’s bombardier.
“Jupiter!” I shouted, snatching the girl out of the air before she could hit the ground and holding her close.
She rested in my arms and blinked for a few moments. Then, before long, she seemed to realize what was happening and looked up at me.
“I’m back,” she said.
“Yeah. Welcome home.”
“Thanks. Good to be back.”
I could feel my tear ducts start to open, but I forced them closed and got the two of us away from the lightning beast.
Moments later, the spirit rocked the area with a ferocious howl.
“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
We’d never heard it howl with such intensity before.
This was no surprise, however. From Keraunos’s point of view, its sweet, innocent daughter had been seduced by a group of delinquents. They’d not only turned her against her father but had also beat it up and helped her run away. Anybody would throw a tantrum in that situation.
Not that I feel even an iota of sympathy for you. Plus, these bad people are about to kick your ass!
Adrenaline flooded my body. The rush of finally backing Keraunos into a corner had my body seething with energy.
“Let’s get back to Mr. Szilard’s position for now. I’m gonna rush, so hold on tight.”
“Okay,” the girl nodded.
I dashed across the area at full speed.
“Mr. Szilard!” I called out. “Hit it with a full-powered thermal blast! Haruka, come back right away! I’m gonna pass Jupiter over to you!”
The two of them leaped into action immediately.
A thermal blast, the likes of which I’d never seen, flew across the battlefield.
Haruka, for her part, looked like she might cry at any minute as she headed for the exit.
All the players were present.
The battlefield was just as we’d planned.
All the time we’d spent keeping that electric bastard alive had finally paid off, and it was time to settle things.
“Here we go, Jupiter.”
“We’re gonna win,” she said. “I know it.”
Our breathing grew ragged as we looked back and stared the beast down.
Get ready, Keraunos.
There’s nothing holding either of us back anymore.
From here on out, this is a battle to the death.