The moment Lowe said that, Gald burst out laughing, holding his stomach. “Destroy the cursed dragon?! With your useless Sigurth skill that can’t even beat Flama?”
“…”
“I beat your skill. A pitiful fallen loser doesn’t get to talk without the victor’s permissi—”
“I wanted to fight, too. Always have.”
Powerful regret and frustration flashed in Lowe’s heart. He clenched his teeth as he stood before Alina.
Every time Jade, Lululee, and Alina had been forced into tough situations, he had chastised himself for it, over and over.
When they had first encountered a dark god in the White Tower, and when they had fought the twin dark gods in the Forest of Eternity, and when they had been forced into a hard fight with Glen as a dark god underneath guild headquarters—
He should have said that he still had one more move, that he could use his Sigurth skill. Despite that, while the others had been fighting desperately, he’d been in the background, frightened of that one thing Charlo had said to him.
“—…Who are you?”
Even though they could have died. Being more scared of being forgotten even then is strange, if I do say so myself. He was dishonest. Weak. He shouldn’t be standing shoulder to shoulder with the others, calling one another friends.
But then the very thing he’d gone so far to avoid, the thing he’d been afraid of, had happened. Now that the others had learned about forbidden techniques, they would have their memories of him erased. Just like Charlo. What he had been most afraid of would happen. There was no way to avoid it now.
So then if this would be their last fight anyway, right before their memories vanished—then protecting these people who called a liar like him a friend was the last battle he could do.
“I’ll fight, too.”
Alina must have sensed something in Lowe’s calm eyes, as she said no more.
Lowe thrust up one hand. In his spread palm, he summoned a Flama the size of a little rock.
“Skill Activate: Sigurth Ashinu!”
Flama swirled in Lowe’s palm.
Before their eyes it grew, clashing and roiling, becoming a great ball and swelling in size. It climbed into the sky like a whirlwind, sweeping upward, getting even bigger. Eventually, having continued to increase limitlessly, the Flama created a blue ceiling, as if to cover the whole fighting arena.
“Ha! Are you stupid? Didn’t you learn before that your skill can’t beat my power?” Gald laughed scornfully.
But Lowe just snorted back at him. “You’re the idiot, iiidiot.”
That was when it happened.
“—Skill Activate: Sigurth Blood!” Jade’s muttered chant rang out.
“!” Gald’s eyes widened as he gasped. Jade, who should have been curled up, was on his feet. On the verge of death, he thrust out his right arm, which was emitting the red light of his skill.
That was the skill that made him a sacrifice for his allies and pointed the brunt of all attacks at him—the one that could take all the skills deployed around him and force them to focus on himself.
Jade’s activated Sigurth Blood mixed with Lowe’s Sigurth Ashinu, and immediately the amplified Flama began to converge in Jade’s palm.
Gald’s expression transformed. He had finally realized what the two were doing.
“…A composite skill!”
✦ ✦ ✦
No sooner had Gald said that than he pointed his palm at Jade and summoned a blue flame. Realizing what he was trying to do, Alina immediately got in front of Gald. “…I won’t let you.”
“Move it! You skilless, inept—”
“I won’t move!” Alina declared firmly, fixing a glare on Gald. Right now, she didn’t have any way to fight at all, but that didn’t matter.
She didn’t fight because she was guaranteed to win or because she had the strongest skill.
Alina had always been fighting to keep from losing things. That hadn’t changed, even now that she had lost her skill.
“I won’t move…!”
“Enough of your nonsense, girl!!” Gald cried, spraying spittle, and shot multiple Flamas at her. Alina clenched her teeth and glared at the high-powered blue flame. Right when the blue flames that could make a human body vanish were about to snap at Alina—suddenly someone cut in front of her, and at the same time, the attacking Flama vanished with a whoosh.
It was Jade.
“Jade!”
Jade stood in front of Alina, thrusting out a white shield she hadn’t seen before. It was a shield made of wavering white flames—it was as if all the Flama that had been deployed had converged toward Jade, condensed—enough that it would easily negate Gald’s Flama.
“…Protecting people is my job…!”
Breathing heavily, even on the verge of death, Jade still glared at Gald.
“My Flama…?!”
Having swallowed a god core, Gald could use Flama, which was not just any forbidden technique. It should have had enough power to defeat Lowe’s Sigurth Ashinu. The white flame blocking it easily made Gald’s eyes widen.
When Jade’s shield of white finished its job, it warped and lost its shape. The large clump of flame eventually transformed into the shape of a sword, floating horizontally as if waiting for its next master.
“Lowe!”
The moment Jade called Lowe’s name, Lowe zoomed out from the side.
He snatched away the sword-shaped white flame and then grabbed it by each end and tore it apart. It became a pair of twin swords that wavered in Lowe’s hands.
Lowe had never succeeded at a composite skill with Jade, no matter how many times he tried. But he’d known from the start how to make it succeed. The one way to make Sigurth Ashinu, which would go out of control with regular magic, obey him—that was to use the forbidden technique, Flama.
“It can’t be, a condensation of Flama…?! Dammit! Cursed dragon!!”
Gald finally got the cursed dragon that twined around him moving. When he thrust his arm out toward Lowe, the cursed dragon let out a low howl of resentment, attacking Lowe.
But Lowe didn’t stop.
In fact, he soundlessly accelerated. Flipping his white-flamed daggers into a reverse grip, he kept his stance low as he glared straight at the approaching cursed dragon. He never slowed down, shooting straight through the beast—
With a piercing sound, like the air was trembling, a white flash ripped apart the cursed dragon.
“Wha…?!”
With that rattled cry from Gald, a dry sound rang out.
The sounds of crrk, crkk increased in number. It was the sound of countless shining white cracks going through the black cursed dragon. The cracks got bigger and bigger.
“My cursed dragon…?!”
Eventually, with a snapping sound, the dragon of resentment that protected Gald shattered into white light.