The moon hanging in the night sky turned black.
Before long, dark light poured down from the heavens and destroyed everything around it. It was the end of the world, if anything was.
"Ghk...!"
As I barely kept myself upright by gripping the sofa against the tremendous shaking, the commander’s startled voice came through my phone.
"It’s a spirit...! But something’s wrong! No warning at all, and this much power...!"
"What!?"
"This reaction isn’t from an ordinary spirit! It’s a reversed spirit!"
"Damn it...!"
Reversed spirit.
Like becoming Hollow when I fell into deep despair, it was the change that happened when a spirit sank into deep despair.
The most important thing to note was that once a spirit became reversed, the reason that should have acted as a limit disappeared, and it became nothing more than a disaster that destroyed everything around it indiscriminately.
Just like Tohka had done last time, this reversed spirit was now turning the entire town, including the spirit mansion and Itsuka-kun’s house, into a wreck. That was proof enough.
"Hikinon!"
〔Okay!〕
As the spirit mansion began to collapse bit by bit, I pulled out Hikinon and reflected the reversed spirit’s attacks to shoot down the others.
"Everyone, gather over here!"
"U-uncle...! Over there...!"
Rio, clinging tightly to my side, pointed into the air with a small finger.
When I followed the direction she pointed, I saw none other than Tobiichi Origami.
Tobiichi, who had become a spirit, had somehow reversed and appeared again just like that.
"Origa...mi? What the hell happened...?"
As Itsuka-kun, who was standing next to Rio, muttered at the sight of the reversed Tobiichi, her attacks continued.
"Tch...! Hikinon! You okay!?"
〔Compared to Tohka’s attacks when she reversed, this is nothing...!〕
Thankfully, Hikinon’s ice shield had cracked a little, but it was still successfully blocking the attacks.
Like Hikinon said, it seemed we could still hold out.
While I blocked Tobiichi’s attacks, Tohka went into complete manifestation and the other spirits went into limited manifestation.
Thanks to that, the spirit mansion collapsed, but there were no casualties.
"To think something could break the spirit mansion when it’s that sturdy."
When the commander had introduced the spirit mansion, he’d said they had put in an insane amount of security and defensive measures to prepare for all kinds of situations.
But as expected of a reversed spirit, its power was so vicious it made those measures useless.
As I marveled at that power and checked to see whether everyone was safe, I found that no one was injured, and Itsuka-kun was lost in thought.
"Shido!"
Seeing him like that, Tohka called his name and said,
"I don’t know what happened to Tobiichi Origami. But if there’s anyone who can bring her back to her senses, it’s Shido!"
Tohka was right.
Just like with Tohka, Tobiichi also liked Itsuka-kun, so if he stepped in and kissed her himself, the reversal would surely be undone and she’d return to normal.
The problem was that we had to protect Itsuka-kun from those vicious attacks first...
"...Yamai sisters."
Itsuka-kun wasn’t a spirit, so his defenses were much lower. It wouldn’t be enough to just block the dangerous attacks like we did with Tohka.
So I asked the Yamai sisters for help and decided to join the fight myself.
"Ah, I understand what you mean. You’re surely asking us to help Shido again."
"Agreed. Hai’s pattern is far too obvious. But that is precisely why I think it is good."
"...You got me. Yes, please."
Just from calling their names, Kaguya and Yuzuru figured out my intention and wrapped both me and Itsuka-kun in wind.
Thanks to that, the two of us were able to rise into the air.
"Wait for me, darling! You can’t just forget about me!"
"Hold on! It’s dangerous!"
While Miku was giving us a buff, black light rained down from the sky once more.
The area was a little too wide for me to protect everything, so just as I panicked and tried to deploy the ice shield again, a wall of ice appeared and took every attack head-on.
"That’s... Yoshino!"
Yoshino had summoned Zadkiel before I even noticed and blocked the attack.
"P-please leave the ground to us! With the power of [Zadkiel], we should be able to block at least some of it!"
"Yoshino’s right. Rinne and I will block the attacks too, so hurry up and turn Tobiichi back to normal."
Mayuri and Rinne each summoned their angels, Kerubiel and Eden.
Even though their power was weaker because they were in limited manifestation, they still had enough destructive force to ignore, and since they could fire many attacks at once, they were perfect for shooting down Tobiichi’s attacks.
"Hmph. I can’t help it, so I’ll lend a hand. I’ll turn any attacks that slip through into cotton."
"Thanks, Natsumi."
Smiling at Natsumi’s eagerness to help, I reached out and patted her head.
"W-what are you doing!"
She protested for a moment, but apparently she didn’t hate it, because after saying that much she didn’t actually stop me.
It’s a secret that the others watching us gave me cold, dead-eyed looks that stung a little.
"All right, Tohka. Let’s open a path for Itsuka-kun together."
"Mm!"
At my signal, with Tohka nodding, we all flew up at once.
"Wha—!"
"Heave-ho!"
Neither of us had ever flown before, so we stumbled for a moment in the middle, but we quickly adjusted, regained our balance, and headed toward Tobiichi.
As if refusing to let us approach, Tobiichi fired off black light at us.
"Hah!"
〔No chance!〕
Tohka and Hikinon blocked every one of those attacks and cleared the way.
"Hurry while Hieta and I take the hits!"
"I don’t know how long we can hold out, so move fast!"
In fact, Hikinon’s ice shield was already cracked from the last attack.
And with what looked like sweat flowing from the cloth over Hikinon’s head, there was no telling how much longer it could last.
"Got it! Kaguya! Yuzuru! I’m counting on you!"
"Leave it to us!"
"Acknowledged. Let’s go!"
It seemed Kaguya and Yuzuru, who were used to flying and providing wind for me and Itsuka-kun, would have to be the ones to support him directly.
Just as the three of us were about to head toward Tobiichi, an attack flew in from somewhere.
"How troublesome. To show such disrespect to a rare reversed spirit that has finally appeared."
"Shit...!"
The good thing was that I successfully blocked that attack.
Listening to the familiar voice, I looked in the direction it had come from and said,
"So we meet again."
"Long time no see, Higakieta Hai, and Itsuka Shido."
"If you showed up one more time, I was going to tear you apart and burn you alive."
What I said was sincere.
Thinking about all the things that rotten bitch standing in front of me had done, tearing her apart and burning her alive still wouldn’t be enough. I’d have to keep healing her and break her mind completely too.
Maybe that would sound too cruel to others, but once they thought about what that rotten bitch and Isaac had done, I was sure that thought would vanish immediately.
That was how much I hated the woman in front of me.
"Even if you say that, I have no intention of losing to you."
"Hah. After getting wrecked that badly last time? You sure are confident."
"I have proof of everything, after all."
Snap!
As Ellen snapped her fingers, countless Vandersnatches sprang up around us.
It was a hostage-taking strategy using my weakness in aerial combat and overwhelming numbers.
She must have planned this specifically to deal with me.
"And that’s not all."
Snap!
When she snapped her fingers a second time, a very familiar bastard appeared.
Kyahhh—!
"How the hell did you..."
I couldn’t help but be shocked by what I saw.
Its head looked like a skull had swollen up and covered its eyes, and its body was so gaunt it looked malnourished.
On top of that, it had wings on its back and a pitch-black, burning form. It was bizarre and grotesque all at once.
It was the only boss from the Dark Souls 3 DLC The Ringed City: the Demon in Pain and the Demon from Below.
"I researched the fire that had been burning my head back then, and when I injected it into people, they turned into that. There were casualties, yes, but I was able to obtain some rather interesting things, so do accept my gratitude."
"You fucking bitch...!"
According to Ellen, she had researched the Chaos Flame I’d forced her to chase after, a flame with properties different from the First Flame, and created demons through human experimentation.
It wasn’t that strange, really. The original demons had been born when the witches of Izalith were consumed by the Chaos Flame, so using that as a basis wouldn’t be too difficult.
Gnash...!
I ground my teeth at the sight of those unknown people turned into demons.
Because of my mistake in using the Chaos Flame, they had lost their dignity as human beings.
It was anger born from guilt.
But then there was Ellen, Isaac, and even the underlings who had used that to twist people into demons.
My anger toward them only grew stronger.
"From this moment on, I will deal with you, Higakieta Hai, and take that reversed spirit away."
"Go on, then. Today I’ll hold a funeral for the ones who became demons with your life."
Whoosh—!
Using my rage as kindling, flames burst up violently.
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