Fortunately, Mayuri hadn’t given up on life.
So now I was holding her hand and working to form a body by binding my souls and her spirit waves together.
The problem with this process was, as always, my lack of skill.
“Mm...”
I tried to focus as much as possible and eliminate the repulsion between the souls and spirit waves, but there was no way that would be easy.
“Hieta. You can stop now—”
“Don’t give up. I’m not giving up on saving you, so there’s no way I’m letting you give up, Mayuri.”
Mayuri tried to stop me, but I kept at it.
I wouldn’t give up.
If I had the power to save her, then giving up was never going to be an option.
All I had to do now was concentrate, reduce the repulsion between the souls and spirit waves, keep reducing it until it vanished completely, and reconstruct Mayuri’s body.
That was the only thing I needed to focus on.
“Ghk...”
Failure again.
At my level of skill, even if I tried to reconstruct Mayuri’s body with souls, I could only manage the framework. The spirit waves would clash with it, and before long even that frame would scatter apart.
Tock-
While I was concentrating, I heard something snap.
I wondered what that sound was, but I ignored it and tried to focus on reconstructing Mayuri’s body.
That is, until she put something around my neck.
“Mayuri...?”
“You can stop now. I don’t want to see you suffering because of me.”
Mayuri kept talking as she hung the necklace I’d bought her around my neck.
“I was already satisfied with today’s date. I could see that you were being considerate for my sake, Hieta. You still are. But I was always meant to disappear anyway. So you can stop now... Hieta?”
She was saying something to me, but it went in one ear and out the other.
Because—
“Mayuri. Was that thing always supposed to look like that...?”
The sphere floating in the sky had shrunk and changed into a form with wings, as if revealing its true appearance.
“<Kerubiel>!? Why!”
Mayuri, who saw it too, was shocked and manifested her angel.
Then hexagonal recesses opened up across <Kerubiel>’s body, and lightning was fired from them.
The direction that lightning was headed was straight for us.
I hurriedly pulled out Hikinon and deployed an Ice Shield.
“[Master! Long time no—aaagh?! Lightning?!]”
The lightning fired from <Kerubiel> was absorbed the moment it touched the Ice Shield, and at the same time, a chunk of ice shot out from the shield.
“Mayuri. I’ll contact the commander and request support! Stall for time!”
“Got it!”
I took out my phone and immediately called the commander.
*
“What is that!”
“The sphere has materialized! It’s deployed!”
“This reaction is... an angel!?”
Meanwhile, [Fraxinus] had been observing Shido and Tohka’s date, but when the anomaly was detected, it quickly switched the screen over to Hieta’s side.
What appeared was a blonde girl, Hieta, and an angel attacking them.
“So that’s Mayuri and <Kerubiel> that Hiki was talking about?”
Kotori’s guess was correct.
But there was one question she couldn’t help having.
“Why is <Kerubiel> attacking them?”
Why was the angel belonging to a spirit attacking its own master?
Just as that question crossed her mind, Kotori’s phone rang.
Click-!
“Commander! We’re in big trouble!”
The one who called, naturally, was Hieta.
“I can see that! What the hell is going on!”
“I don’t know either! Just send support for now!”
“Got it! Hold on!”
The call ended there, and Kotori hurriedly sent messages to everyone else’s phones.
-Emergency! Hiki is in danger right now! Prepare to move to Fraxinus!
And everyone who received that message finished preparing to head to [Fraxinus].
*
<Kerubiel> kept attacking us without pause.
The only silver lining was that there were no people around, so there were no casualties.
“Damn it! That’s disgusting!”
Right now it had a pattern where countless eyes sprouted across its body and fired lasers in every direction.
I raised Hikinon overhead and reflected every last one of them.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The ice chunks I fired kept hammering into <Kerubiel>, but whatever it was made of, it was so tough that not a single scratch appeared on it.
“Tch! It’s absurdly sturdy! Mayuri! Have you found the cause yet?!”
“I-I don’t know either! I don’t know why it’s doing this!”
Mayuri was fighting <Kerubiel> alongside me while trying to figure out the cause, but it seemed she still didn’t know.
“!? What the hell is happening all of a sudden!”
As we kept reflecting and dodging attacks while dealing with <Kerubiel>, it was suddenly knocked upward as if bouncing off something.
“Hieta! Are you okay?!”
“Hieta! We have come!”
“Darling! We came as soon as we got your message!”
“Hieta!”
“We’re here too!”
And the reinforcements I’d asked the commander for arrived.
I checked the people who had come and immediately told them, “Anyone who can attack from the air, fly up and attack <Kerubiel>. Everyone else, defend the ground!”
“Got it! Yuzuru! Let’s go!”
“Agreed!”
“I shall go too!”
“I’ll go as well!”
Tohka, Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Yoshino rose into the air to deal with <Kerubiel>.
“I guess I’ll be defending with darling!”
“I’ll stay here too.”
“Me too.”
Miku, Itsuka-kun, and Rinne stayed on the ground.
I was curious why Itsuka-kun was here too, but when I saw the <Sandalphon> in his hand, I understood.
Itsuka-kun’s ability wasn’t just sealing. He could also wield the angel of a sealed spirit.
The example was <Sandalphon>, the sword he was holding now.
Come to think of it, so he could use that even when Tohka was the one wielding it.
“But why are you on the ground, Rinne?”
“I’d like to go too, but my attacks only work if I deploy Eden. And right now I’m in limited manifestation, so the range is way too small.”
At Rinne’s explanation, I nodded and turned my gaze back to <Kerubiel>.
What I saw there were the spirits attacking <Kerubiel> with their own angels, and <Kerubiel> enduring every hit without a single wound.
“Darling. Is that the ‘Mayuri’ you mentioned?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
As I answered Miku, I looked carefully up at the sky, where [Fraxinus] had now appeared and the spirits had split to both sides to make a path.
And then came the laser cannon.
I didn’t know what it was called, but I did know one thing: it was insanely powerful.
“Whoa, seriously?”
And yet <Kerubiel> still endured that too. Just how tough was it?
When the smoke cleared, <Kerubiel>’s body was still completely fine.
Since it had wrapped itself in its wings, I could tell those wings were no joke in terms of durability either.
“If only I could fly too.”
I really regretted not being able to fly.
If I could, I would’ve joined the attack too.
While I was thinking that, one of the spheres descended, approached Mayuri, and before I could stop it, surrounded her with iron bars and kidnapped her.
“That son of a bitch!?”
At <Kerubiel>’s actions, snatching a spirit right in front of me, the curse words just came out on their own.
But what would that change?
<Kerubiel> still didn’t have a scratch on it, and I still couldn’t fly.
Grit-
My frustration rose at the helpless situation, and I ground my teeth.
I hadn’t expected to become this useless in aerial combat.
“Hoo...”
Right.
Nothing would change if I just stood here getting angry.
What I needed to do now was find some way to break this situation open.
And save Mayuri.
As I looked through my inventory, wondering what I could use, I found one weapon.
“Wind Bow.”
The weapon I’d used once before and blown my paycheck on.
If it was strong enough to punch a hole in [Fraxinus], which had been floating ridiculously high up, then maybe it would work.
I took the Wind Bow out of my inventory.
Then, to make sure I could crush <Kerubiel> for good, I started preparing a full stack of buffs.
The first step was equipping rings.
I’d been too lazy to wear anything, but now I had to.
So I equipped the Ring of Favor and Protection, the Hawk Ring for safety, the Hunter Ring, and finally the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring to extend buff duration.
Next, I set up my buff spells.
I grabbed the miracles [Steadfast Oath] and [Blessing of the Deep].
As I looked through the spell list, one in particular caught my eye.
There was the song I’d gotten after sealing Miku last time, “Song: Battle Song.”
This spell was a strange one. Depending on whether you used a staff, pyromancy flame, or talisman as the medium, its effect changed.
With a staff, it restrained the target.
With a pyromancy flame, it bewitched whoever heard it.
With a miracle catalyst, it granted buffs.
Since the buff increased attack, defense, and stamina recovery, and could stack with other buffs, I took [Battle Song] too.
Finally, I equipped the Morion Blade in my left hand, a weapon with the same effect as the Ring of Favor and Protection.
Now it was time for buffs.
At this point, I asked the others to stay on defense in case anything unexpected happened.
“Yes! Leave it to us!”
“Got it.”
“Leave it to me.”
After hearing everyone’s replies, I first used the weapon art of the whip Ariandel’s Rose to cut my own HP.
“D-Darling!?”
“This is just part of the setup, so don’t worry too much.”
Miku was startled by my actions, but I calmed her down and kept going.
Once my HP dropped below a certain point, the Ring of Favor and Protection activated.
After confirming the red aura rising around my body, I used [Miracle: Steadfast Oath], [Miracle: Blessing of the Deep], and [Song: Battle Song] in sequence.
Then I gripped the Wind Bow with both hands, took aim, and drew the string.
Creak-
The string was pulled to the point of snapping, and wind gathered into the giant arrow.
“Hoo...”
Honestly, I was shaking.
Looking at the situation now, I could see the spirits were starting to tire too, so the thought of what would happen if this one shot missed started eating away at me.
“Hey, the tip of the arrow’s shaking. You think that’ll actually hit?”
I let out a dry laugh at why Min Kyung-sik’s voice was suddenly in my head, then focused.
At times like this, he was actually useful.
“You bastard, now you’re just ignoring me?”
That sounded exactly like something Kyung-sik would say, and I almost lost my focus for a second, but I forced myself back in.
The wind gathered and gathered until the arrowhead turned white, and I concentrated on aiming at <Kerubiel>.
“What is it? Have you lost your mind?”
No, this bastard really needed to stop overdoing it.
Why did he keep talking inside my head?
Thinking that, I looked to the side.
“Oh, now you’re finally looking at me?”
“...What the fuxx?”
Min Kyung-sik was actually standing right next to me.
At that bizarre sight, my strength gave out, and the arrow packed with wind slipped free from my side and flew off on its own.
--------------------
Battle Song
FP Cost: 60
Required Slots: 3
A spell created from <Diva>’s spirit waves.
The effect changes depending on the medium used.
When used with a staff, it restrains the target with sound waves.
When used with a pyromancy flame, it bewilders those who hear it and turns them into allies.
When used with a talisman, it increases the user’s attack power, damage reduction, and stamina recovery speed.
A song meant only for those who successfully seal <Diva>.
A song carrying the feelings of <Diva> for the one she loves.
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