While I was preparing breakfast at the spirit mansion, I suddenly felt something like it was slipping out of my body.
"...This is!"
Yeah. The souls I was carrying were clearly decreasing.
The souls that made up my body were still there, but the souls I’d earned in Dark Souls from all that rolling around were being absorbed by someone else.
"H-Hieta! Something feels wrong!"
"Me too. It feels like something’s being pulled out of me..."
Everyone else was feeling something similar, and maybe it was instinct, but I had a vague idea where the souls were going.
"The shrine!"
"What?"
"Everyone! Shido-kun is in danger right now!"
"What!? Hey!"
If someone was absorbing my souls, and that someone was hostile to Shido-kun...
There was no guarantee his life wasn’t in danger.
No, he’d definitely be in danger.
Souls had that kind of power.
"Hii! Where are you going!"
So I ignored the voices calling after me and ran for the shrine where Shido-kun must have gone.
I leaped over the buildings around me and sprinted as fast as I possibly could.
Then I saw it: something like a curtain spread across the inside of the shrine.
"Hup!"
I cut through it while entering the state of the Kings’ Avatar.
Sssssshhh!
The curtain peeled away as if it were melting, and beyond the opening I saw Ren laughing happily, with Shido-kun collapsed in front of her.
"It’s over, Shido. The days we spent together were fun. Of course――"
The moment Ren moved to attack Shido-kun, I activated lightning.
"I wasn’t having fun at all!"
Fwoosh!
Flames burst from the spiral sword and raced across the floor, swallowing Ren whole.
"Hieta!"
"You look pretty rough, Shido-kun."
After quickly checking Shido-kun’s condition, I could tell power was being drained from him.
"You saved me! And sorry...! Because of me..."
"I’m fine. I’m sure everyone else feels the same."
"Yeah, don’t worry about it. Looks like we managed to get some of Ren’s circumstances out of her."
The commander appeared, agreeing with me.
"You... that form is..."
For some reason, the commander had entered the barrier in a fully manifested state, not a limited manifestation.
"That’s right. It’s a regalia. The moment Shido’s spiritual power started being absorbed by Ren, spiritual power returned to the body."
"How..."
"Maybe Shido’s body noticed something was wrong and released some of its spiritual power through the passage."
"Is that how it is...?"
As Shido looked over his own body at the commander’s guess, Ren was still laughing as if this were all terribly amusing.
"I see. I did think the amount of spiritual power flowing in was low for something accumulating the power of twelve spirits. So that was it."
"Hah. You’re talking about that while smiling?"
At the commander’s disbelief, Ren chuckled and said, "Of course. After all, I’m also receiving Higakieta’s power."
"I knew it..."
"With this much power, I can handle the two of you with ease."
With those words, Ren flicked her finger, and dry branches burst up from around us.
"Ghk!"
"Tch...!"
Each branch had a razor-sharp edge, enough to cut or pierce us if we slipped up.
And what I felt from those branches was unmistakably souls.
"She’s strengthening her attacks with the souls she absorbed from me...!"
Unfair as it was, it looked like she could apply souls the instant she got them.
Even I had only learned to use them through brute force and repeated failure.
"Ah, Higakieta. Even with power like this, are you foolish enough to keep trying to control it?"
"...If I don’t, the world gets destroyed."
"Fufu, exactly. It really is that kind of power!"
Once again, the rising branches shot toward Shido-kun.
"As if I’d forget you were born from the same source as the others. Your attack style is similar too!"
Since she was a spirit born from the same being that created Rinne and Mayuri, her attack style was similar to Rinne’s.
Rinne used trunks instead of branches, but at the end of the day, the difference was only between blunt force, slashing, and piercing.
One, and each one of them, was lethal.
In other words, if Shido-kun got hit even once, his life would be in danger.
"Hup!"
So I burned the branches with the spiral sword.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Every swing sent flames rippling out, burning the branches away.
But the enemy had souls too.
"Fufu, ahahaha! Do you really think the two of you can protect Shido, who doesn’t have much power left?"
As she said that, Ren formed a sphere of yellow light.
"That’s...!"
Its nature was clearly similar to Rinne’s light bullets.
But it was something different from those, a more powerful light bullet enhanced with souls.
And it rained down on us at tremendous speed.
"...You really don’t get it. I just said it, didn’t I? Spiritual power returned through the passage. Then of course――"
"We came too."
Rinne met the light bullets head-on with her own, and every single one of them vanished.
"Shido! We’re here to help!"
"Shido. We came to help."
"Tohka! Origami!"
"Hii, aren’t you going a little too fast?"
"Sorry, Mayuri."
After the commander, Rinne, Tohka, Tobiichi, and Mayuri arrived.
They were all in full manifestation too, just like the commander.
"...It’s a shame we’re meeting like this, sis."
"Sis!?"
"You girls are..."
At Rinne calling Ren her older sister, everyone was shocked. That meant Ren was a spirit created before Rinne.
"Yes, you were her children too."
"Ren. Why are you attacking Shido? If you were born from the same being as us..."
"Pfft! Ahahaha! What are you talking about, Mayuri? I’m a spirit born from hatred. A villain by nature. Of course, a villain acts like a villain. For my own purpose, I’ll use any means necessary."
Ren laughed as if in a frenzy.
The madness I felt from her was on par with the commander when she had been consumed by Kamael.
"Hahaha! Even so, now that we’re here, your escape route is cut off, Ren!"
"Explanation. Ren may have her reasons, but Yuzuru’s group had reasons at first too. If everyone talks again, I’m sure we can solve this."
Kaguya and Yuzuru came in, refuting Ren’s words.
"Oh? Kaguya and Yuzuru too? For people who call themselves the fastest, aren’t you a little late?"
"Sh-Shut up! Kotori was just closer!"
"Restraint. Calm down, Kaguya. You were too easily provoked by a light taunt."
As Yuzuru calmed Kaguya down after she’d been lightly baited by Ren, Ren smiled wickedly and prepared another light bullet.
"You know what? Me, Rinne, Rio, and Mayuri. The four of us are different from you spirits from the very way we exist. We’re a completely different species. Which means we’re not the kind of opponents you can persuade with the same values."
With that, Ren fired again.
The speed was clearly higher than before, and Rinne flinched for a moment, but an ice wall rose in front of Kaguya and Yuzuru, blocking the light bullets.
"That’s... not... true...!"
"That’s right~! Ren-chan, you looked like you were having so much fun! Even if you got twisted after we hadn’t seen you for a little while! Yoshinon’s rabbit punch will knock some sense into you!"
"...I got called over for something, and this is a total disaster, isn’t it?"
"Darling! Your lovely Miku has arrived! Ahh, honestly. And you lot are way too fast!"
Yoshino and Yoshinon, Natsumi, and even Miku.
Every spirit that could come had arrived here.
By numbers alone, it was an overwhelming difference: thirteen against one.
"At this rate, we might actually be able to handle her."
"So, sorry, but I think we need you to calmly explain things one more time, Ren."
So it was perfectly understandable for our side to underestimate Ren.
They still didn’t really know the power of souls.
"Hah, hahahahaha! Well now, you’ve underestimated me. Indeed, I didn’t expect Shido’s body to be releasing spiritual power through the passage. But so what? Most of the spiritual power of twelve people, and part of Higakieta’s power. That is definitely in my hands."
"...Tch."
Yeah. That was the problem.
Most of the spiritual power of twelve people, plus part of my souls, were in Ren’s possession.
And the spiritual power of Maria and Marina, who couldn’t even come here, was also a huge issue.
Souls alone were already a tremendous force tied to vitality in Dark Souls, and now spiritual power had been added on top of that. There was no telling how strong she had become.
What’s more, since she was a spirit created before Rinne and Mayuri, her original strength was impossible to predict.
"And you still don’t understand. The power of this villainous spirit, born from the hatred and lament of the first spirit!"
As Ren said that, light poured from her body and her outfit changed.
At her waist were wings, and on her head was a crown-like circlet made of vine leaves.
And behind her, a tree trunk extended outward, bearing grapes, while the bandages wrapped around her hands came undone, revealing the snake tattoo engraved on her arm.
"That is, a regalia...!"
As if she had hidden it until now, Ren put on what seemed to be the real regalia, different from the one she had shown before.
"Ghk...!"
Once Ren fully manifested, the pressure she gave off was on a completely different level from before.
The overwhelming power flowing from her pressed down on us and made its presence known.
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