“Am I wrong? You are the holy knight, yet you aspire to be the dark knight... and even that is a mere stepping stone for your ultimate goal of literal godhood . What part of that sounds sane to you, hm?” Despite openly questioning Sain’s sanity, there was a sense of approval to Cain’s voice. “As the holy knight, you are egregiously irresponsible. As a person, though, I find you reasonably likeable.” Then, he gave Sain a sober look. “I still stand by everything I’ve done. I have no intention of apologizing for who I am. But... I’ll admit that I’ve been overconfident. I certainly didn’t expect you to make it such a close match.”
Compared to before they had their match, his attitude had softened considerably. It seemed like he still harbored some reservations toward the holy knight, but it was more than enough progress for now.
“So, about what I said to you right before the match...” said Sain, bringing the topic back to his original goal of convincing Cain to make some friends — the kind he trusted with his life. “Seeing as we’re both trying to defeat Chaos, our goals should be aligned. As the one who lost the match, I’m not in any position to be making demands, but...”
Cain frowned at his proposition, though the expression seemed more contemplative than averse.
“...Let me think about it,” he said in a solemn tone.
He fell silent, and a placid atmosphere descended on the room.
It didn’t last. The stillness was broken by a thunderous rumble outside that shook the ground, causing the medicine cabinets in the infirmary to rattle loudly.
“What the—”
“ —Hell was that?”
Sain and Cain remarked in unison.
“Sain!”
The goddess appeared beside Sain, though he was the only one who could see her.
“G-Goddess? What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to show up unless I—”
“Forget that! We have a problem!” she exclaimed in an urgent voice audible only to him. “Chaos is here! And they’re really close!”
“What?!”
He hastily focused and extended his senses outward. It didn’t take long to find their presence, approaching from afar. There was still some distance between the Chaos and them, so he didn’t notice until the goddess pointed it out.
“Melia! Alicia!” He promptly spoke their names and transferred his power of the holy knight into them. “Chaos is coming! We have to deal with them as soon as possible! Let’s go!”
“D-Deal with them? How? There are still tons of people here!”
He bit his lip. She was right. They couldn’t start duking it out with a bunch of Chaos while everyone was watching. In response, Melia raised her hand.
“What about the barrier?” she asked. “People should be safe as long as they stay inside the school grounds, right?”
It was a good point. The academy was protected by a gigantic barrier that drew upon the power of the titan’s staff. However, this idea was immediately refuted by the goddess.
“I’m sorry, Sain... but that barrier probably won’t be enough.” Her voice, soft and apologetic, trembled as she spoke. “A Founder is coming.”
“A... Founder?”
“I’m sure of it. This presence can’t be anything else...”
“B-But... Weren’t all the Founders sealed away?”
“Remember the Clan of Chaos you fought last time? This is probably their doing. Especially since they’d already figured out how to extract power from the Founders.”
Harti, Marni’s older sister, had inherited the power extracted from a Founder, making her a second generation Chaos whose strength was inferior only to the Founders themselves.
“The seals weren’t designed to inhibit human tampering because no humans had ever sided with Chaos. Now that they have, the sealing mechanism will probably need to be reworked. Still, I never thought something like this would be possible...”
“...No point crying over spilt milk. How long will the barrier last against them?”
“Maybe five minutes.”
The gravity of the situation solidified his resolve.
“All right, everyone. Listen up. There’s a Founder of Chaos loose, and it’s coming for us.”
Everyone’s eyes went wide and he was met with astonished silence. He’d spoken to the girls before on multiple occasions about how dangerous the Founders were, so they grasped the severity of their situation immediately. Cain, for his part, required no explanation; he had first-hand experience with the havoc they could wreak. As a result, there was no panic. Everyone understood the importance of acting quickly and in an orderly fashion. It brought a smile to Sain’s lips. These were the kind of friends he could count on.
“Apparently, the barrier will only last about five minutes. That means we’ve got five minutes to evacuate everyone in the school. Alicia, Melia, I’m leaving this to you two.”
“Got it.”
“Will do.”
The two girls nodded.
“The enemy is probably after the titan’s staff being used to maintain the academy’s barrier. Miss Grim, I need you to wait in the room with the staff. The Clan of Chaos is probably wary of me and Cain, so you might catch them off guard by hitting them with dark magic.”
“...Understood.”
“Don’t get too caught up in trying to beat them though. Your ambush is meant to buy time, not do damage. Gauge their strength carefully and avoid any serious combat.”
Marni nodded as well.
“This has to be the worst time for them to show up,” muttered Alicia.
“That’s probably the point. I suspect the enemy has been waiting for this very moment, when our student council president is exhausted from the battle expo and there are tons of civilians everywhere to make it harder for us to fight,” Sain explained as he removed the seals he wore and allowed the full power of the holy knight to course through him.
Despite the previous match leaving him in arguably even worse condition than Cain, the goddess’s power functioned as a substitute reservoir of stamina, giving him the strength to fight again.
“Cain, can you get out of here by yourself?”
“Yes. I... will go and help out with the evacuation. I might be useless in a fight right now, but I can at least hobble around and bark orders.”
“Heh. That’ll be plenty useful.”
The old Cain would almost certainly have insisted on fighting the approaching Chaos regardless of how ill-advised it would be. Like the old Melia, he would have been a victim of his lone avenger obsession. His willingness to take a backseat to the action made it clear that he had changed, and likely for the better. Sain allowed himself a brief smile before sobering his expression.