Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 25 - Our Hero (精霊幻想記 25.私達の英雄, Seirei Gensouki 25 - Watashitachi no Eiyū?) is the 25th installment of the Seigensou light novel series.
Synopsis[]
We know that person, for sure… .
The night Sendo Takahisa, the hero of the Centostella kingdom, ran away and went beyond the line of death.
While everyone at Galarc’s castle was looking dumbfound at the flames of purgatory rising from the slums, a golem, a divine weapon sent by Reiss, suddenly attacked them. Except Aishia everyone is at a loss in front of that overwhelming fighting ability, they get anxious and scared. But there was a girl who stayed calm at that place
[Now, I will put in order the future that diverged]
With the guidance of the smiling girl the forgotten hero now returns to the battlefield.
私達はきっと、あの人を知っている――。
セントステラの勇者である千堂貴久が出奔し、死線を超えた夜。
貧民街から上がる煉獄の炎を呆然と見つめていたガルアーク王城の面々のもとに、突如として投下されたのはレイスが差し向けた神造兵器のゴーレムだった!! その圧倒的な戦闘能力にアイシア以外はまるで歯が立たず、焦り恐怖する一同。だがその場において平然とする少女がひとり――
「さあ、分岐した未来の帳尻を合わせるわよ」
微笑む彼女の導きにより忘れられた英雄が今、戦場へ帰還する!!Contents[]
Prologue: Preparations[]
A little after the end of the divine war, more than one thousand years before Rio’s era, at the Strahl Region’s easternmost land. An incredibly beautiful woman stood alone in a deserted place. She seemed so fragile that she looked like she would collapse if someone pushed her and seemed to not be even twenty years old. The woman said that she is at the right place while taking a look around her. The woman seems to have come to that deserted place with a purpose but she doesn’t look like a traveler, she looks just like she is taking a stroll wearing just a one piece dress and without carrying any luggage. A sudden burst of pain makes the woman make a pained expression while she puts a hand on her stomach at the same time that her body sways. Her face was pale as a corpse’s and she seemed to be in such a pain she could collapse at any moment. The woman grits her teeth to motivate herself because she had a work to do.
“I’m sorry. There’s no time. It seems he will die before I can transcribe everything. I will have to entrust everything to the him from one thousand years later and to you.” Those were the words she said herself to Ryuo and Aishia a little before visiting that place. The woman thinks she said that to that girl but… it won’t do if the woman, Lina, doesn’t prepare as much as she can for the future to come one thousand years later even if she lost the authority to foresee the future and is on her way to a certain death due to the authorities from the other world. That’s why… Lina thinks to herself, she will use the slight remaining lifespan of her body to do everything she can. Lina thinks she will start her fight right here while looking at the sky. Lina smiles with satisfaction even while knowing she had little lifespan left. Then she looked at the ground, specifically at the land where Galarc’s royal castle will stand one thousand years later.
Chapter 1: The Seventh Wise God[]
Year 1000 of the sacred calendar. Early in the morning, when the sky was still dark. A great pillar of fire rose from the red light district of Galarc’s capital, the hellfire that Takahisa unleashed to burn the brothel down. It burns so powerfully and tall that it can be seen from the castle, everyone there is in chaos wondering what is going on. The still sleeping Satsuki and the rest also got up and let the mansion in a hurry, now in the garden Celia, Latifa, Sara, Orphia, Alma, Satsuki, Aki, Masato, Charlotte, Komomo, Gouki and Kayoko look dumbfoundedly at the fire pillar. Gouki’s servants including Sayo and Shin, Charlotte’s escort knights, Monica, Liselotte and Aria who slept over at the mansion are there too, Miharu was the only one missing. All of them look with held breath at the fire pillar until it disappeared, the silence continued for a bit after that. Everyone thinks the same thing. That fire pillar wasn’t a natural one, no natural flames would rise so high by themselves so someone must be making them do so. But modern magic can’t create such flames and very few people can use spirit arts of such an absurd scale, when they think of candidates very few come to mind, for example… Masato asks if those flames could be… but stopped himself right there, he didn’t dare to ask if Takahisa was really the one controlling those flames. He might have been scared to ask what Takahisa was burning with those flames and why he was doing it.
Then Aki asks everyone where Miharu is while looking worriedly around her. It was then that an enormous magic power appeared high in the sky above the castle, everyone felt a pressure so strong it made the air tremble. Everyone who could feel magic power changed their expressions and took battle stances. Then Sara, Orphia and Alma were warned about the presence of another spirit by their contracted spirits, they look in that direction and saw Aishia standing there while putting a mask on her face. Everyone look at her with surprise because they can’t remember who she is. Celia asks herself why Aishia is there and soon concludes that Aishia’s presence must mean that whatever it is in the sky must just be that bad. Aishia screams at everyone to run away and takes flight towards the source of that enormous magic power. Celia heeds Aishia’s words and tells everyone it will be bad if they stay in the mansion, when she was just about to tell everyone to run away she saw Miharu leaving the mansion, she approaches her and tells her to come with everyone quickly but stops when Miharu doesn’t answer.
Everyone’s eyes focus on Miharu but she just walks forward while making a dumbfounded expression as if she was spacing out. Celia walks towards Miharu hurriedly while worrying about her strange condition. Miharu stops and looks up at the sky and begins a chant. “Possession”. Celia stops in her tracks while doubting her ears, that chant resembles one of the spells she learnt recently. “Type seventh heaven alter ego mod.”. Celia says that as expected when she listens to rest of the spell but also has questions. The spell Miharu chanted is different in some parts from the one she learnt and Miharu shouldn’t have learnt magic to begin with. Is Miharu using the spell a magic tool is enchanted with? When did she got such a thing if there is one? Satsuki calls out to Miharu worriedly while looking how the light of the spell envelops her body, but Miharu doesn’t answer and she just looks at her hands as if she was making sure of something, then she makes a joyful smile no one can imagine the usual her making. Miharu says with satisfaction it was a success. Miharu’s eyes then meet Celia’s who was looking wordlessly at her, then in a way that isn’t like her at all tells her with a smile that now she will correct the future that diverged.
Time goes back a bit. High in the sky above Galarc’s capital, a little before a great mass of magic power appeared in the sky. Reiss floats in the sky while pouring magic power into a crystal sphere several tens of centimeters in diameter. After a bit of time a complicated magic formation began to surround the sphere. Reiss thinks it is one of the valuable golems, the souvenirs of the Wise Gods, that he wanted to analyze it and become its proper master before sending it into battle but… The golem has a protection so it can’t be activated unless the registered master does it. Reiss is now hacking that protection and inputting illegal commands. This method has its problems, now as long as the golem is active it will be impossible to give it new orders, the golem will counterattack fiercely if someone attempts to input new orders while it is active, so it is necessary to stop the golem’s activation to give illegal orders to it again, but it isn’t easy to stop a golem’s activation when one isn’t the registered master, the golems are the strongest autonomous combat magic tools created by the seven wise Gods, when activated they won’t go into inactivity by themselves, one has to defeat them or wait until they run out of magic power.
Reiss thinks the current him can’t defeat an active golem, that now that he is investing so much on this he will make sure he buries them all. Reiss tells the golem that its target are those in the mansion’s garden with Celia and Aishia as the priorities and also those that try to interfere that can become a threat. Reiss keeps preparing the golem with the determination of throwing it away if needed, now that Rio and Sora are absent it is his best chance to eliminate the people at the castle, right now Aishia and Celia seem to be the most dangerous ones but if Lina is involved behind the scenes it wouldn’t be strange if there are more troublesome people lurking nearby. Reiss thinks he wants to leave the heroes out but that if they interfere it might be impossible to not kill them once, that he will set it to keep at minimum the damage to the castle and the urban areas because the golem has been accumulating excess magic power during one thousand years, that at worst Galarc’s capital will disappear from the map. Once Reiss is done inputting the commands he lets go of the sphere that began to release a great quantity of magic power as a proof of the golem’s activation. Then just like a spirit materializing a body made of particles of light envelopes the sphere, the golem’s core, and takes the form of a bipedal two meters high metallic robot.
The golem looks silently at the castle, the mansion and Miharu’s group two thousand meters below while its eyes let out a sinister light, it takes a look at Reiss trying to confirm if it is an enemy too or not and Reiss raises his hands and takes distance from the golem to avoid being considered as an enemy too. The golem decides Reiss isn’t an enemy after not receiving an attack and loses interest in him. The golem looks again at the mansion, points its right hand in its direction and shoots a great magic attack towards the mansion.
Celia holds her breath in front of the changed Miharu, then she feels the magic power in the sky increasing and condensing until even untrained people can see its light too. Celia says that it has to be a lie when she sees all of that magic power turning into a great magic attack that looks like it can swallow the mansion whole. Everyone in the mansion look on with despair at that magic shot that was like having a full moon falling over them. Only two people were different, Aishia who was gathering her magic power in order to fight the golem in the sky and Miharu who began to chant more spells while looking at the sky. “Dectect magician-maximize magic castle wall”, a spell that made ten great magic formations appear just above Aishia. Celia gets flustered in her mind when thinking about the difficulty of activating such a spell remotely. Aishia also looks with confusion at the ten magic formations creating a barrier that covers her and the mansion. She doubts for a moment about using her spirit arts too but decides that the barrier will be enough and stops.
The golem’s attack collides with Miharu’s barriers, a great light illuminates the whole city, there is a great noise and a storm blowing around the point of impact. There were one, two, three and four breaking sounds and the golem’s attack began to slow its advance. By the ninth breaking sound Miharu tells Celia, that is still covering her eyes with her hands to block the light, that there is no time to stand there idly. Celia opens her eyes a little and lets out a surprised voice when Miharu touches her shoulder and chants teleportation magic. Both Miharu and Celia reappear next to Gouki and the golem lands at the same time on the point where they used to be standing until then. Celia screams when she feels the shockwaves of the golem’s failed attempt at crashing against them like a meteor. Gouki asks the two when they came to his side while facing the golem again. Celia has goosebumps when imagining what the golem would have done to her if she hadn't moved.
Now Aishia is the one approaching the golem at top speed and stomping on it with all of her strength but the golem blocks easily the attack with its right arm. The golem makes two wings growing from its back separate into a lot of small triangular floating blades and makes them hover around it. Aishia takes distance from the golem while Satsuki prepares her spear and Aria stands in front of Liselotte protectively. Aishia also puts herself between the golem and the group while the rest of armed people take position in front of the non combatants. The golem makes all of the small blades fly at the group and Aishia shoots them down with light bullets of her own. The blades lose their trajectory for a moment but soon resume their attack, meanwhile Aishia’s light bullets are always destroyed on impact and before she can create more the golem attacks her. Aishia crosses her arms and puts a barrier in front of her to stop the golem’s fist but it is useless, the barrier breaks easily. Aishia tries to step back to disperse the impact but she fails to do it, the golem’s fist breaks her arms while sending her flying towards Latifa that was standing behind her.
Aishia returns to her spirit form to avoid hurting Latifa. Latifa lets out a surprised voice when Aishia disappears and her mask begins to fall to the ground. Aishia quickly materializes again with her arms healed, picks up the mask to put it on again and creates more light bullets to shoot down the golem’s blades. Aishia makes an anxious expression when the blades begin to close in on the group but then a lot of magic formations cover the ground around them releasing light bullets and begin to push up and away from everyone the golem’s blade feathers. Aishia uses her light bullets to push the blades stopped in midair further away from the group but during that time everyone loses sight of the golem who uses the opening to try to pulverize Celia but Miharu who was standing next to her stops the golem’s fist with a barrier. The barrier breaks and Gouki takes a stance with his katana in preparation to intercept the golem but a new magic formation appears between the two. The golem dodges the sphere of light coming at it. Then more magic formations appear in the way the golem dodged to and shot more magic attacks at its body but it dodges those too. Everyone looks surprisingly at the chantless spells because they can’t tell who is casting them, only Celia understands that it is Miharu’s doing. Aishia also realizes Miharu is casting magic chantlessly and begins to approach her. Miharu then chants the force wings spell and wings of light grow from her back, Celia’s surprise intensifies when she sees Miharu has even mastered that spell too. Satsuki and the rest also look dumbfoundedly at Miharu. The golem also changed its movements, it gathered its blown away feathers around its body again and began to destroy the magic spheres with its arms instead of dodging them. Miharu says that it will be bad if things continue as they are, she asks Aishia if she can do something about the blades floating in the air and tells Celia if she can gather everyone in one place because she will be that thing's opponent in the meanwhile.
Celia calls out to Miharu anxiously when she began to fly towards the golem without waiting for their answer. Aishia says she will be on her way while following after Miharu. Celia then obeys reluctantly and tells everyone to gather in one place because it seems like Miharu has a plan. Everyone’s reaction is slow because they have even more questions for Miharu than Celia herself, their understanding not catching up with the situation aside, they also don’t think they can entrust Miharu with fighting, for them Miharu is a girl who can only use weak spirit arts and with a timid personality unsuited to battle, but it was true that right now she is using a lot spells she isn’t supposed to be able to use, showing a fighting style that blows away their common sense and flying while flapping her wings of light.
Miharu flies towards the golem while deploying several magic circles around her. The golem also charges towards her, it dodges the attack released by one of the magic circles around Miharu, it moves next to her and throws a punch at her. Everyone gets pale faced watching Miharu in danger but she stops the golems’s fist with a barrier. The golem tries to use its flying blades to attack Miharu’s back but Aishia shoots them away with her light bullets. Miharu says that as expected while insisting Celia to gather everyone in one place with her gaze. Celia comes back to her senses and tells everyone to please gather in one place. Everyone is still doubtful but they began to gather close to Celia.
Meanwhile the golem flies around the stationary Miharu who doesn’t even bother looking the golem's way, while it keeps accelerating and decelerating in a way the human body and reaction speed can’t handle in an attempt to attack from her blind spots, but Miharu’s barriers keep stopping the golem’s attacks and shooting magic attacks of her own at the golem the moment it stops moving. It was as if Miharu knew everything already about how the golem would move.
Celia thinks that way of fighting that embodies the ultimate form of a sorcerer is incredible and loses herself watching until the feeling of the golem gathering magic power for a large attack startles her out of her daze. Everyone on the ground tremble at the same time as Celia while seeing how the golem charges at Miharu from the front. Miharu blocks the golem’s fist with a barrier but the fist quickly destroys it. Miharu flies diagonally upwards while taking some distance from the golem, she thinks it is almost the limit of how much time she can earn but that just as planned the gathering is done while taking a look with a smile at Celia’s group on the ground. Miharu shoots one more magic attack at the golem in front of her and the golem destroys it with its left fist, then it points its right hand at Miharu and shoots a ray of light at her. The ray of light expands in a conical shape from the golem’s hand in order to not let Miharu escape.
Sara and the others on the ground scream at Miharu to watch out, Satsuki says that it can’t be when it looked like the light beam had already swallowed Miharu. Everyone gets pale faced imagining Miharu could be gone without leaving a trace but she teleports next to them and says she is right there while standing next to Celia. They let out surprised voices while wondering when Miharu got there. The golem realized Miharu teleported and looked at the group again while also Aishia puts herself in its way once more. Miharu informs Aishia that she won’t be able to fight freely with so many hindrances around her, but that she will leave her in charge of fighting that thing because she will evacuate these children. Aishia says she understands after a small pause. The golem prepares to attack the group again with its flying blades and Aishia also prepares her light bullets to intercept them but before they can’t clash again Miharu chants a mass group teleport spell and disappears taking everyone with her. Aishia stops her light bullets out of surprise and the golem also stops its blades after losing its targets. The golem begins to inspect the area with its eyes in search of everyone. Aishia uses that opening to shoot her light bullets at the golem, move next to it and shoot a magic attack with her right hand from close distance at the golem. The golem dodged the attack narrowly at the last moment, the light bullets Aishia shot previously draw strange trajectories until they impacted the golem’s body in the meantime but they don’t seem to have done much damage to its body. Despite that the golem seems to have made Aishia its main target for the time being and focuses its gaze on her after giving up the search of the rest. Aishia tells the golem that she won’t let it go anywhere, that she will defeat it right there and her mask begins to crack under the tension.
A little bit before Miharu used the teleportation magic, in the castle’s rooftop garden. François,Christina, Flora, Hiroaki, Roana and Liliana were there. They heard of the chaos going on in the city and went to a place with a good sight to get even a bit of information about what was going on. Huguenot, Centostella’s delegates and their escorts were also there with the group. Everyone look dumbfoundedly at the golem attacking Miharu. Hiroaki asks everyone what is that dangerous looking robot. No one answered, the word robot doesn’t exist in their world but they could guess it referred to the golem, the thing is that all of them lost their words looking at the golem themselves, they have their own questions too, their understanding can’t catch up to the present either. Hiroaki gave up on getting answers and stopped his questions. They watch the golem point its hand at Miharu and how the wide beam of light shot from it envelopes her body. A great light illuminates the castle while a strong noise resounds around them, a little later a strong gust of wind blows through the castle’s rooftop, everyone need to protect their eyes from the light and wind with their arms. Hiroaki asks screaming if that isn’t some serious map erasing weapon. Flora screams anxiously that Miharu isn’t anywhere until Christina tells her that she is fine while pointing at Celia. Flora lets out a relieved sigh just for her relieved face to turn into a dumbfounded one when everyone disappears because of Miharu’s teleport spell.
Flora blinks rapidly while wondering if she saw it wrong until the space of the castle’s rooftop distorts and everyone who was in the mansion appear there. Flora can listen to Satsuki’s voice asking where they are from behind her. Charlotte tells Satsuki that it seems that they are at the garden on the castle’s rooftop. Christina and everyone else there lose their breath when they turn back and see everyone standing behind them, Flora’s surprised scream also resounds through the rooftop. Alma and Orphia ask if they were teleported and just how it happened. Sara asks herself if it was Miharu or Celia who set a teleportation point on the castle’s rooftop. The rest of the people in the mansion look in their direction while having Sara’s doubts themselves too. At that time Miharu chanted a new spell, “thy wish become parabellum legion”. Celia thinks that spell is also a little different from the one she knows. A magic formation envelopes everyone’s body. Gouki lets out a surprised voice when he realizes the spell is strengthening his body just like when he uses spirit arts himself. Miharu tells everyone she has temporarily risen their potential and that now they can use techniques and body strengthening stronger than usual while in that state. Satsuki says that it is incredible while checking her own body. Miharu tells everyone that the golem isn’t something they can fight properly even if it fights them standing on its hands, that they should avoid to face it directly, that they should let the fight to that girl and look from the sidelines. Miharu looks at the golem fighting Aishia and the rest follow her gaze. Both Aishia and the golem fly over the castle at overwhelming speeds while having an intense battle. Everyone swallow their breath while understanding how reckless it would be to get involved in that.
Despite that they wonder if it is fine to just watch from the side with crossed fingers just because of that, they wonder if it is really fine to let the fight to a girl they know nothing about. Miharu tells everyone to limit themselves to support Aishia from the sidelines if they can’t stand still despite everything, she tells Sara, Orphia and Alma that if it is them who are used to fighting in the sky it should be fine. Sara calls Miharu’s name while looking at her like she wants to ask her a lot of things but Miharu ignores her, she hugs Celia’s shoulders from the side while smiling widely, she tells everyone they have something to do and teleports again. Both the disappearing Celia and the ones left behind let out surprised voices while that happens.
Miharu and Celia appear inside a wide open space, in the center of the room there was a big magic crystal and also a door that connects with some other place. Celia asks where they are and Miharu says that they are in her atelier deep beneath the castle. Celia lets out a surprised voice when she discovers the existence of such a place. She asks herself if the people from the Galarc kingdom know about it, when was it created? Did Miharu buit it? Miharu tells Celia she prepared it one thousand years ago while walking towards the magic crystal in the center of the room. Celia asks with surprise about the meaning of the “one thousand years ago” part. Miharu smiles and asks Celia if she doesn’t understand somehow who she is and if she forgot about her authority. Celia says that as expected and asks Miharu what she has to do. Miharu tells Celia that she is as smart as she expected, that she likes how she didn’t ask any useless questions despite how many questions she must want to ask. Celia asks Miharu if it won’t be bad if they don’t do something about what appeared above them. Miharu tells Celia that it is like that, that what it is rampaging above them is a golem, the war magic tool created by the wise Gods during the divine war, that if it is Aishia she should be able to earn some time but that with how things are going she won’t win no matter how much she tries. Celia asks Miharu if not even Aishia can’t win either. Miharu tells Celia that even if they can’t defeat them the golems are monsters developed to be able to hold their ground against the transcendentals, that the situation is more urgent than she thinks. Celia asks Miharu who could defeat such a thing. Miharu tells Celia that it is simple, that if they can’t defeat it with the people at the castle they just have to call forth an existence that can defeat it. Celia makes a dubious face wondering about what that existence is, then she lets out a surprised voice while saying that it can’t be. Miharu says that it can, that she will call him back to this land.
Chapter 2: Golem[]
The garden on the rooftop of Galarc’s castle. Satsuki looks dumbfoundedly at the sky while asking herself what is going on. A pillar of fire rose from the city’s slums, a beam of white light fell on the mansion trying to destroy it, an enormous magic barrier appeared and stopped it, then a metallic doll descended on the mansion and attacked them, a mask wearing unknown pink haired girl appeared and protected them from the doll, Miharu also began to use magic and fight the doll herself, then she teleported everyone to the castle’s rooftop and teleported again to somewhere else taking Celia with her. Just what is happening? Is everything a dream? Everyone’s understanding can’t catch up to the situation but one thing is certain. The pink haired masked girl and the golem keep changing between attack and defense even now. Unlike Miharu who countered the golem’s speed reading its movements and deploying barriers Aishia is matching its movement speed while flying around in the sky. Orphia murmurs in astonishment how incredible it is that Aishia can match that speed, even she herself who specializes in the same flying technique can’t do that.
François asks everyone who the girl is. Sara hesitates because there are plenty of people there that don’t know what spirits are unlike François himself, but right now it isn’t the time to hesitate over that, so she tells François that the girl is a humanoid spirit. After saying that Sara thinks about what she doesn’t know about the spirit, who she is and why an existence so high ranked and rare is there. François asks Sara what is a humanoid spirit. Sara tells François that the humanoid spirits are the highest ranking spirits and that their total number in the world should be able to be counted. François asks if the masked girl fighting there is one of those. Sara says she is, but that she doesn’t know what kind of spirit she is or why she is fighting against that thing. Françoic nods worriedly. Latifa asks everyone if Aishia isn’t protecting them, that she told them to run away. Alma agrees and then the balance of the battle that seemed even until then breaks.
Aishia flies while keeping her distance from the golem and shooting spirit arts at its body, the golem meanwhile tries to shorten the distance, probably believing it can end things instantly if it gets close. Aishia herself knows she is at a disadvantage in close quarters too, her earlier attack at the golem’s body taught her that she can’t damage it, iron can’t even compare to its armor, that’s why she had been trying out several different attributes. Flames, water, ice and lightning hadn’t been too effective for the time being. Aishia asks herself if the golem doesn’t have any weak point. It seems like the only way to defeat the golem is an attack powerful enough to destroy its armor physically. But Aishia wouldn’t be able to fly at high speed at the same time that she has to prepare such an attack, she would be completely defenseless during that time. The golem approaches Aishia while deploying its floating blades and launching them at Aishia again. Aishia uses once more hundreds of light bullets to intercept them. Aishia’s mask begins to creak while she is worried about the impossibility to prepare an attack that can overcome the golem’s defenses if things continue like that, she thinks her time will run out if things stay like that and that she has no other option now. She has to defeat the golem before the mask breaks, so she will have to gather the magic power needed for a big attack even if it means to weaken her own defenses.
Unfortunately the golem also changed his fighting style, aside of the floating blades the golem is also shooting magic attacks at Aishia too, now a meter long light spears are flying at Aishia from the golem’s fingers. The golem also creates a pair of light wings as a substitute for the ones it turned into floating blades from whose feathers it began to shoot light spears at Aishia too. Aishia sees the golem’s light spears rising enormous water pillars on the lake next to the city after passing by her and decides to fly above the golem so the attacks don’t fall in the city. The only salvation is that the golem can’t control the light spears just like he does with the floating blades, but unfortunately they still can limit Aishia’s flying routes to where those floating blades lye in wait for her. Now she only can make an attempt at maneuvering between the golem’s light spears while she uses her light bullets to keep the floating blades away, she is completely on the defensive now and left wondering to herself how is it that the golem doesn’t run out of magic power after using so many powerful attacks. Aishia wonders if she should wait until the golem runs out of magic power but discards the idea,it would be too risky. She has no way to know how much magic power it has left, the mask wouldn’t last that long, without Rio as her magic power source her own magic power is limited too, her chances of running out of magic power before the golem might be higher than the opposite. She doesn’t know either how long she will be able to deal with golem’s attacks like she is doing now. Aishia thinks it will be bad if she doesn’t attack herself too but her hands were ful with just defending herself, she can’t think either of any way of counterattacking stronger than the golem’s defenses. Aishia’s anxiety grows while she imagines herself wasting her magic power and the mask, then the golem’s bombardment stops and Aishia loses sight of its body.
In the castle’s rooftop garden. Satsuki asks what that absurd rain of light is while getting pale faced seeing the pillars of water rising from the lake next to the city. Sara says nervously that Aishia is being pushed back now. Gouki tells the group that Aishia seems to be fighting in a way that avoids the castle and the city getting damaged. Latifa says that that girl was really protecting them in the end. Masato asks with a serious face if they shouldn’t fight too. Aki gets pale faced and calls Masato idiot, she asks him what he will do if he enters the fight and tells him that he will just die if he does that. Masato clenches his fists and asks Aki if they have any place to run away to, he tells her that they don’t know when the golem might attack them, that he is also a hero now and that as things are the girl there will get done in. Aki tells Masato that despite all of that he still can’t fly. Sara tells Aki that they will be the ones going to the sky and asks Orphia and alma if they are fine with it. Both agree with Sara. Gouki says he will go too but Sara tells him to stay back and protect everyone alongside his servants, that they don’t know the number or the aim of their enemies, that they need the strongest of them to stay on the ground in case the golem lands on the castle’s rooftop, that if it is them they can fight in the sky for a whole day if needed. Gouki agrees with Sara’s point and she tells Orphia and Alma to go. Orphia nods and materializes her contracted spirit. When Sara and Alma rode on Aerial’s back while Orphia floated in the air next to them Flora calls out to three and tells them to look at how the golem’s bombardment stopped.
Satsuki screams anxiously at Aishia to watch out when she sees the golem just above her with its fist on its way to Aishia’s head. Aishia makes a barrier in an attempt to gain distance from the golem during the instant the golem will need to break her barrier. The golem surrounds Aishia with its floating blades and tries to cut her from all of the sides while she uses her light bullets to keep them away. Aishia also shoots some light bullets at the golem’s body to keep it away but the golem keeps going forward while barely taking any damage. Aishia reduces the light bullets dedicated to keep the floating blades away to the minimum and shoots more attacks at the golem. The golem keeps advancing unhurt, its armor is too hard for the light bullets, aside of the impacts slowing it down a bit on impact they don’t have any effect on its body. Aishia gets anxious while watching that she can’t avoid a fight in close quarters any longer and then a great ball of light overtakes her and impacts on the golem’s body stopping its advance. Aishia looks down in surprise and sees Sara, Alma and Orphia, the one who seems to have shot that light ball coming to help her on Aerial’s back. Aishia screams at them that it will be bad if they come closer. Sara, Orphia and Alma don’t answer and just look astonished at the unhurt golem. Orphia’s only big attack was the best she could do and it only managed to stop the golem’s advance.
The golem prepares to attack the three girls with its floating blades and Aishia uses her light bullets to intercept them. The golem closes in on Aishia and attacks her with its claws. Aishia twists her body to dodge the claws and kicks the golem in the face. Aishia feels as if she has kicked an iron pillar, she sees the golem’s body tremble a bit but it doesn’t seem damaged at all. The golem uses the tail growing from its back to try to stab Aishia, she dodges the attack but the golem’s tail coils around her body trapping her body. Aishia spiritualizes to escape the golem’s grasp. Her mask begins to fall but Aishia quickly materializes herself again and picks it up to wear it once more. The golem attacks Aishia again with its tail and claws. While Aishia dodges its attacks the golem forms a sphere with its floating blades around itself to cut off Aishia’s escape routes. Aishia, unable to leave the mask behind and have it destroyed if she spiritualizes again and not being able to afford the waste of magic power that it is to change between forms a lot of times, gets forced to fight the golem into that confined space. Aishia shoots a shockwave at the golem in order to gain some space but the golem blocks it with a barrier and continues to attack Aishia with its claws. Aishia flies over the golem to dodge the claws, she approaches the encirclement of floating blades to the limit and then dropkicks the golem with both feet. The golem blocks easily the kick with its arm and attacks Aishia with its tail again.
Aishia resigns herself to have the mask destroyed after spiritualizing once again but powerful spirit arts destroy the encirclement of floating blades from the outside before she does it. Aishia quickly flies away from the golem that got swallowed by a big mass of water alongside its floating blades the next moment. Aishia looks up and sees Sara and Alma standing over a barrier while activating a combined technique. Sara tells Alma to keep the golem contained together at the same time that both rise the water pressure to seal its movements. Alma nods and tells Orphia to do her part too. Orphia nods and strikes the water prison with a big lightning. Aishia, thinking that level of attack won’t defeat the golem, screams anxiously at the three that it is bad if they fight and tells them to run away. Sara screams at Aishia to please not to say things they can’t understand. Aishia widens her eyes and doesn’t answer. Sara tells Aishia that they understand that she is protecting them but that they don't have any reason to just be protected without doing nothing. Aishia tells Sara that the golem is a dangerous opponent. Sara tells Aishia that they understood that well watching her fight, that she is way stronger than them but that the monster inside the water prison is even stronger, she asks Aishia if she isn’t unable to defeat alone.
Aishia can’t answer, she can’t say she can defeat the golem, her hands are full earning time and the golem might have defeated her if Sara, Orphia and Alma hadn’t helped her. Sara tells Aishia that if they don’t defeat the golem the capital will be turned into a pile of ruble. Orphia tells Aishia that they have to fight together because of that and Alma tells Aishia to let them support her. Sara tells Aishia they won’t concede on that. Aishia says she understands, that she will be the vanguard and fight the golem directly, that she wants them to make it so the floating blades don’t get in her way because they are troublesome and that it is fine for them to ignore the light spears and just dodge them. Sara, Orphia and Alma say that they understand happily and they begin to feel a great pressure coming from inside the water prison. The golem spread his wings of light around its body with its feathers pointing in every direction. Sara and Alma call forth Hell and Ifrit and ride on their backs so they can focus on evasion while they focus on attacking from the distance. The three spirits began to maneuver between the golem’s light spears at the same time that Aishia closes in on it while asking the girls to please not to die in her mind when she sees the golem’s floating blades going after them too.
Beneath Galarc’s castle. Celia asks Miharu excitedly if she is going to call Rio back despite not knowing where he is while asking herself in her mind how Miharu will do it. Miharu tells Celia that now Rio should be at the holy capital Tonerico of the holy kingdom Armada so she will use summoning magic. Celia widens her eyes because the only summoning magic she knows about is for the heroes. Miharu tells Celia that she knows the approximate coordinates but that it is necessary to know the exact location to summon a specific target so she will have her help with that. Celia says she understands and asks what she has to do. Miharu smiles with satisfaction at Celia’s serious aptitude and tells her to follow her until the big magic crystal in the center of the room. Celia wonders if the magic crystal isn’t a spirit stone while looking at its big size and golden glow. Miharu tells Celia that it is fine for her to think the crystal is just some ultrapure spirit stone, that they used to call it manacrystal in the past, that it can hold an absurd quantity of magic power and that because of that it is perfect as a catalyst for big scaled spells. Celia swallows her breath in front of the manacrystal while Miharu explains to her that it has other necessary spells aside of the summoning one and that they will activate them in order.
Miharu puts her hands on the manacrystal and tells Celia to synchronize her magic power with the it too. Celia asks if she is doing it well while pouring her magic power into the manacrystal. Miharu tells Celia that she is doing fine and to stay like that while she activates the spells engraved in the crystal. Celia tells Miharu to leave it to her and Miharu warns her against letting her guard down because the spells require a very high degree of magic power control. Miharu smiles while pouring more magic power into the manacrystal. The golden gleam of the crystal gets stronger while the magic power within it begins to rage like a storm. Celia asks herself what is that while doing her best to keep the magic power controlled so the spells don’t stop midway. Miharu tells Celia she found Rio, she tells Celia she will speed up the process and to keep up with it. Celia nods while sweating coldly imagining things getting even harder. Miharu tells Celia that if it is her she can do it, that she is the descendant of the most excellent girl among the homunculus she created. Celia’s eyes widen when she discovers her family’s origin. Miharu tells Celia to hurry up before it is too late. Celia nods while sadness begins to loom into Miharu’s eyes.
The golem’s hundreds of floating blades follow after Sara, Orphia and Alma through the sky. Sara keeps them away with water balls, Orphia with light balls and Alma with fireballs while their spirits focus on evading instead of them. The three make worried faces wondering how Aishia managed to defend alone from all of that. Even dividing the burden among them and their spirits their hands are full. Aishia meanwhile even evaded the light spears at the same time while also fighting against the golem, they can really feel the difference between them. They also curse at how hard the floating blades are, impacts can easily deviate them but they can’t damage them at all, they always come back no matter how many times they are hit, there is no end to them. Despite that their achievement isn’t small, they are relieving Aishia of the burden of having to do that herself. The golem deploys his light winds and shoots light spears at her but Aishia maneuvers between them while getting close to the golem. The golem swings his right arm at Aishia after she closed the distance, she makes a sudden stop and moves to the golem’s back but the golem’s wings begin to emit a powerful destructive energy and she has to retreat from there to not get caught up in the flare. The golem moves to Aishia’s side and tries to punch her. Aishia dodges turning her body and kicks the golem’s arm to gain some distance from it. The golem follows after Aishia and punches her again but Aishia dodges that second fist too.
The golem keeps attacking Aishia with its fists, claws and tail while she dodges all of its attacks with the minimum margin. At the same time that Aishia is refining inside her body the magic power needed for the attack that will defeat the golem. Aishia thinks about how she can’t afford to take an attack from the golem so she doesn’t have to waste her magic power healing herself. If possible she wanted to be further away from the golem but if she did that Sara, Orphia and Alma would become their targets. They won’t be able to deal with the golem’s floating blades if she doesn’t keep it in check so she can’t get away from it. She gets anxious thinking about her remaining time and the mask that is already breaking apart. Aishia is telling herself to endure just a bit more but then the golem got suspicious of the Aishia who wasn’t fighting back and decided to go after Sara, Orphia and Alma so it can break out of their stalemate. The golem goes first after Sara who was the closest to its position and Aishia follows after it but she can’t catch up- The golem’s speed is close to the speed of sound and with its mass and that speed it doesn’t take any trick to destroy something. Sara lets out a surprised voice when she sees the golem coming her way. Sara knows well she isn’t fast enough to dodge the golem’s charge, her max speed is 200 kilometers per hour, thanks to Miharu’s spell she can go faster than that somehow now but in front of the golem that’s meaningless, she thinks she is dead until Hell rises its body and throws her upwards to get her out of the way of the golem’s fist.
Sara scream’s worriedly when the golem’s fist tears Hell’s body to pieces and forces it to go back to its spirit form while in that wounded state making it so its wound will continue to hurt until it can be given the magic power needed to heal itself. Hell’s spirit body could have taken some damage too, it might also be unable to move well immediately after being healed. The golem prepares to punch the worried Sara now. Aishia dropkicks the golem with both feet from above but the attack hurts her more than the golem. Aishia forced herself to fly close to the speed of sound just like the golem to catch up but her body isn’t built to impact things at those speeds even when strengthening herself. She didn’t manage to push the golem away from Sara either and now the part of the floating blades that Sara have been taking care of have gathered around her. Aishia doubts about taking the attack or not but Sara shoots the blade away with her water balls while putting herself back to back with Aishia and telling her to let her cover her back. Aishia apologizes while sending more strength to her feet in an attempt to push the golem away. After a small pause Sara sulks a bit and tells Aishia that at these times one says “thank you”. Aishia thanks Sara while smiling softly. Then the golem’s tail pierces Aishia’s abdomen. Sara lets out a surprised voice when she sees Aishia taking the attack that despite having seen it coming but Aishia tells her that it is fine.
Aishia then gathers in her right hand all of the magic power she has been refining until then. Sara looks in wonder at the destructive energy gathering in Aishia’s right hand in a similar way to Celia’s durandal but with even more magic power than Celia’s spell. The golem feels that it would be bad if it receives that attack and tries to run away but Aishia has its tail firmly held in her left hand. The golem begins to fly at high speeds while changing its way abruptly in order to shake Aishia off but it only drags her with him while she endures the pain the g forces are causing to her body. The golem’s speed has gone beyond the speed of sound and sonic booms assault Aishia’s body too but she tells the golem it won’t run away while enduring the pain. Aishia never thought the golem would quietly take her attack, it is obvious to try to dodge if someone tries to use a powerful attack on you, the golem was also faster than her, she wasn’t confident on hitting the golem once she released her technique but she absolutely couldn’t miss, she is using the majority of her magic power on her current attack, she won’t be able to prepare a second one so she needs to make sure that her attacks absolutely hits its target. The golem sees Aishia preparing to finally shoot her attack and begins to fly drawing complicated trajectories that put it between the ground and Aishia while hoping she won’t want to risk hitting the city or the castle. Aishia waits for the right moment and she swings her arm at the golem releasing a more than ten meters long slash of silver light.
The slash of silver light swallows the golem while illuminating the still dark city as strongly as the sun itself. The light fades and in its center only the golem’s head and lower half were left. Sara murmurs dumbfoundedly that they finally did it, around her the golem’s floating blades lose their energy and begin to fall down. Aishia takes the golem’s tail out of her stomach, throws it off, loses her balance and falls alongside it while the floating blades around her begin to turn into light particles. Orphia makes Aerial head dive towards Aishia until it overtakes her so she can catch her. Orphia asks Aishia anxiously how she is while holding her in her arms. Aishia says she is fine but low on magic power, that the wound on her stomach isn’t so serious that she can’t stay materialized and that her legs hurt but are still well. Orphia says that thanks goodness while sighing in relief. Now with more than sixty percent of Aishia’s mask gone Orphia can take a good look at her face and thinks she is very pretty. Sara and Alma join the two and congratulate themselves for helping Aishia and having defeated the golem. They sigh in relief until the feeling of a great quantity of magic power next to them makes them get pale faced once more. They look to the origin of the magic power and can see the golem reforming itself there just like a wounded spirit would do. They say that it can’t be. Aishia stays silent while making a frustrated expression, she has almost no magic power left and her mask is mostly broken, there isn’t a way for her to do anything if she has to fight again. Then in the sky high above the capital another magic power equally big appears. None of the girls can say a word and the two golems begin to move.
Chapter 3: Live or Die[]
A little before the golem received Aishia’s attack, high above Galarc’s castle. Reis looks at the battle while making a thoughtful face with a hand on his chin, he wonders to where Celia and Miharu went. He asks himself if the black haired girl wasn’t called Ayase Miharu, he thought Miharu was just summoned as a spare hero but she ended up being a complete hidden force. Reis tells himself to get information about Miharu from Takahisa when he goes back to the empire, there are things more concerning than that right now. Reis has no doubts anymore about Lina being somehow connected to Miharu and Celia but wonders why she isn’t showing herself when she should have the power to defeat the golem even with her hands tied. Reis can’t think of a reason for Lina to let Miharu and Celia in charge of things while she stands in the back. Reis thinks it is natural to think there must be a reason why she can’t use her power freely or why she can’t move freely but can’t reach a conclusion because there is too little information. Then Reis tells himself to worry about where Miharu and Celia teleported to rather than about Lina. Where did they go? What are they doing there? Did Lina foresee that there wasn’t a way to beat the golem and evacuated just Miharu and Celia or are they supposed to come back later? Reis takes a look at the castle’s rooftop, for him the people there seem like a provocation from Lina, as if they were begging to be attacked by the golem, he thinks it must be a trap, he wonders if Lina didn’t have them teleported on purpose to a place from where they are visible. Ries frowns while wondering if he isn’t just being made to think like that. If Lina didn’t instruct Miharu to teleport everyone in the mansion to anywhere visible, to make them seem defenseless so they aren’t attacked by making it look like a trap.
Reis thinks Lina is as annoying as ever. Because of those doubts Reis decides to wait and see for the time being while wondering if Lina isn’t making him to have those doubts as a way to earn time. Reis thinks he doesn’ care anymore, that if it is a trap so be it, and he will just have Lina how she will answer to his next move. Reis chants the Aria summon golem core and one of the rings in his right hand begins to shine strongly before making a new golem core appear in front of him. Reis begins to prepare the activation of the second golem while watching the first receive Aishia’s big attack. Reis thinks they are struggling well regardless of the golem being bound by its orders when he activated it but that’s it. Not even Aishia has the strength to keep fighting against the revived golem, it is just a matter of time until things end on that side. Reis activates the second golem at the same time that the first one regenerated itself and orders it to kill everyone in the castle’s rooftop. Killing them might ruin some of his future plans, there are also several troublesome existences but Reis won’t hold back anymore, this golem is set to kill everyone regardless of who they are and anyone that interferes.
At the same time, beneath the castle, Celia and Miharu are still in the middle of pinpointing Rio’s coordinates using the manacrystal. Miharu says that it is bad, that it is almost time for the second golem to come. Celia asks panickedly if there is a second golem. Miharu asks Celia if she didn’t tell her already to hurry up before it is too late. Celia asks if summoning Rio will take long. Miharu says that just a bit more. Celia asks if it wouldn’t be better if one of the two goes back to the surface already then. Miharu says that it can’t be, that at the same time she is also working on another spell and that if one of them leaves it will get ruined. Then they feel the magic power of the second golem appear. Celia makes an anxious face worrying about the people above. Miharu tells Celia that even if they go to the surface they will just be able to earn time, that her self from one thousand years ago is one thing but that now she is specced down and inside a borrowed body so she can’t defeat the golems. Celia asks Miharu what it means the being too late she mentioned earlier. Miharu says she won’t tell her that, that the future she knows isn’t something she can tell to others as something already decided, that she can only give an advice that doesn’t make the future clear or a clue open to interpretation. Celia says she understands while failing to hide her wish to know more.
Miharu tells Celia that the future isn’t something people should know. Celia asks why. Miharu tells Celia that the future is a succession of possibilities, that there are some futures almost determined but that the majority can branch and change from even the most trivial things. Miharu asks Celia what she will do after knowing the future. Celia asks why not bring about the best future from among all of the known changing ones. Miharu tells Celia that that best future might be someone else’s worst one, that there are also times when precisely because of knowing the future someone does unnecessary things and the future changes in a bad direction, that there might be times when in order to reach one’s wished future someone will pretend not to see someone else’s misfortune, that those that see the future are easily trapped by it and then get other people caught on it. Celia swallows her breath under the weight of Miharu’s words. Miharu tells Celia that something like knowing all of the possible futures is God’s domain, that if someone with a human body made the attempt their brain will burn in an instant from the information overload, that the only thing they can know is fragmented information of the most possible future.
Miharu asks Celia, hypothetically speaking, if she would want to know the future with the most possibilities of Rio and her being together if she had the power to see the future. Celia stays silent while getting red faced and Miharu tells her that her magic power control slipped, that she will give her conversation but she has to stay focused. Celia tells Miharu that it was because she asked strange things. Celia looks away sulkingly while Miharu laughs teasingly. Miharu asks Celia again if she wants to know the future with the most possibilities of she being with Rio. Celia stays silent. Miharu asks Celia if she got scared of what she would do if she wasn’t the chosen one. Celia widens her eyes, unable to deny it. Miharu tells Celia that she must have wondered who would be the one with the highest chance of being with Rio if it isn’t her, she asks Celia what she will do after knowing the most possible future, if she would reach for the future where she is the one with him. Celia can’t answer that either. Miharu asks Celia if she will struggle to change the future. Celia says she might not want to know the future. Miharu tells Celia that that’s how humans must be, that people mustn't know the future, that that’s the law of the world, an absolute one that when broken might put one under a great burden, that it is better if the people don’t know the future. Miharu makes a somber face for a moment while saying those words until something breaks her thoughts. She says that as expected, that Elle was there. Celia lets out a surprised voice not understanding the meaning of that last sentence. Lina says that it is nothing and that she finally found Rio, that it is time to do it. Celia closes her eyes when the manacrystal begins to shine more strongly than before at the same time that a three dimensional magic circle covers it and a pillar of light rises towards the sky.
A little earlier, at the castle’s rooftop garden. Latifa says happily that they did it when she sees Aishia’s attack destroying the golem’s body. Liselotte also says that it seems they defeated it. Everyone rejoices at the golem’s defeat except Hiroaki, he tells Latifa and Liselotte to not say things like that because they seriously sound like a flag. Masato asks Hiroaki if that doesn’t happen just in mangas and animes. Hiroaki finally lets out a sigh of relief watching Sara, Orphia and Alma catching the falling Aishia. But it was just then that another big magic power presence appeared in the sky above them. Gouki, Kayoko, Aria and the rest of the fighters present are the first ones to take their weapons, the others who can feel magic power freeze where they stand while looking up at the sky. Satsuki says she has an incredibly bad feeling. Liselotte screams at everyone to please look at the golem that should have been defeated and they see the first golem regenerating its body. Gouki tells everyone that a second one appeared far above them. Hiroaki asks everyone if they weren’t rising flag in the end while looking around him for a way to escape. François asks everyone to gather in one place so the royal magicians can rise a barrier to protect them, then he tells the knights to watch their surroundings while forming themselves protectively around the group. The mages overlap several layers of magic barriers above them and immediately after that the second golem lands in the rooftop garden.
It approached them at the speed of sound until it suddenly braked and landed smoothly on the ground. Gouki rushes at the golem while everyone else looks dumbfoundedly at its appearance. While running he feels the difference with his usual condition, his body is faster and lighter than usual, his body strengthening is also more powerful than usual, clearly because of Miharu’s spell. Gouki doesn’t know how is it that Miharu could use that spell but its effect is very reassuring right now. Gouki moves even faster than the beastman warriors whose bodies are way stronger than a human’s but the golem hovers towards Gouki at an even higher speed. When Gouki realized it the golem’s fist was already going for his face, he slides the side of his katana against the golem’s arm to push his body out of the fist’s way. Gouki grimaces while the air vibrations around the golem’s fist hit his eardrums when his head passes by it. Gouki slashes down vertically with his katana but the golem blocks it with its tail. Gouki attacks again and again and the golem keeps blocking his katana with a swing of its tail without moving its body at all. Gouki thinks things are bad after some moments of having his hands full just defending from the golem’s tail without being able to advance any further, he can’t picture himself winning at all, he is fighting with his all but he still can’t see the golem’s bottom.
Gouki sweats coldly while his hands begin to get numb from the impact of the golem’s tail lashes, he doesn’t know for how much longer he will be able to keep up with its speed. He screams at everyone to run away to anywhere out of the golem’s sight while he keeps it busy. The golem deploys its floating blades around its body before anyone can run away. François orders the magicians to rise barriers in every direction, the magicians lower the barriers they created above them before to the ground’s height in order to cover the group but Kayoko and Aria leave the group before that happens and tell everyone to run away while they help Gouki to keep the golem busy. Kayoko runs to the left and Aria to the right in order to attract the floating blades to themselves, then they run between the floating blades while focusing on hitting away the ones appearing on their way. François tells the group to fall back and go to an underground escape passage exclusive for the royal family. Kayoko screams at the Gouki that is too focused on trying to cut the golem that his back is wide open when she sees the golem’s floating blades closing in on him. Gouki can only dodge to the side but when doing so he leaves the golem’s way forward wide open. Gouki says that it is bad in his mind when he realizes his mistake but more of the golem’s blades fly at him and he can’t go back to his former position.
The golem closes the distance with the group’s barriers and breaks them in an instant with a swing of its arms, the knights try to shield the group with their bodies but Satsuki runs past them and stabs the air with her spear pointing at the golem while shooting a storm from the speartip. While Satsuki’s storm blows against the golem’s body keeping it out of sight, Liselotte and Christina shoot ice spears and thunder balls at the golem, after them Liliana and Charlotte also use the same spells. Satsuki screams at the group to hurry and run away while the rest of the mages shoot their own spells at the golem but something interrupts her words. She felt something touch her chest while her body floated. Satsuki looks down slowly at herself and sees the golem’s tail piercing her chest from inside her storm. Satsuki’s spear falls from her hand while turning into particles of light and the storm stops. Latifa, Masato and Aki scream Satsuki’s name worriedly while she thinks she is going to die, then she tells everyone to run away while doing her best to smile at them one last time. Masato’s eyes get injected in blood because of the anger while he tightens his grip around the handle of his great sword when he sees the golem throwing Satsuki’s body at the ground where a lot of blood comes out from her chest.
Latifa also takes a stand with her fists. Hiroaki screams at the two to stop it in an attempt to make them understand that they will just die in vain. Aishia looks worriedly at the group from the sky where she, Sara, Orphia and Alma have their hands full just with avoiding the golem’s attacks. Aishia can just look with frustration at the golem standing unhurt before Masato and Latifa while deploying its wings of light, then,while the golem was preparing to kill everyone at once with a spear of light a great pillar of light rises towards the sky.
Chapter 4: Counterattack Signal[]
Everyone looks dumbfoundedly at the pillar of light rising towards the sky from the castle’s rooftop. It is captivating but also strange, it looks like what happens when a hero is summoned. The golem points its wings at the pillar and stays ready to shoot at anytime. When the pillar of light disappears a boy on his teens and a little girl, Rio and Sora, stand there on its place. The people in the rooftop blinks in astonishment not knowing who they are or why they are there. Rio and Sora also looks curiously around them. Rio realizes quickly he is at Galarc’s castle while wondering how he arrived there. Rio makes a cold murderous face when he sees the destruction around him and Satsuki bleeding in the ground. Rio sees Masato and Latifa facing the golem and soon realizes who is the perpetrator, he also realized Aishia’s group fighting with another one in the sky. Sora asks surprisedly why are those things in a place like that, she tries to inform Rio of what they are but she can’t do it, the sight of the usually gentle Rio so angry makes her lose her breath. The golem realizes Rio and Sora aren’t normal and calls back all of the floating blades it had been using against Gouki, Kayoko and Aria while glaring at them. Gouki, Kayoko and Aria use that opening to rejoin the group.
Rio asks Sora while taking out a mask and putting it on if she can make sure that thing won’t attack anyone. Sora tells Rio to please leave it to her. Everyone widens their eyes when Rio disappears from where he was standing. The golem meanwhile realized Rio was moving at super high speed and followed him with its gaze. Now Rio stands next to Satsuki while taking out a cloth from his time space-cache and using it to cover the hole in her chest. Aishia apologizes telepathically with Rio for failing to protect Satsuki and the rest while he crouches to pick Satsuki up. Rio tells Aishia that she is wrong, that it isn’t her fault. The golem makes the floating blades attack Rio who stops them shooting light bullets at them before moving next to the group with Satsuki on his arms. They widen their eyes and let out surprised voices when they see Rio suddenly appearing next to them. Rio tells everyone that Satsuki is alive while letting her with Christina and Liselotte, they let out surprised voices thinking it is impossible, the golem’s attack clearly destroyed Satsuki’s heart and lungs, she should have died instantly. Rio tells everyone that he thinks Satsuki will wake up soon and to please let her rest for the time being, that now he will be that thing’s opponent so he won’t let it put a hand on them anymore. The golem points its light wings at Rio as if wanting to tell him to do it if he can while preparing to shoot light spears at everyone.
Sora calls out To Rio while pointing her hands at the golem and Rio nods while doing the same. The girls close their eyes while screaming, fearing the worst when they see the countless light spears flying but nothing happens, they open their eyes hesitatingly and see Rio and Sora creating a barrier that stopped completely the light spears, the golem now tries to breaks the barrier with its fists, the shockwave of the fists shake the ground but the barrier is still up. Sayo and Komomo swallow their breath when they understand the difficulty of rising such a barrier. Rio tells Sora that he will be the opponent of the golem in the rooftop and asks her if she can help Aishia because it seems to be quite the troublesome opponent. Sora says she understands and tells Rio to be careful because he will be fighting against one of the golems made by the wise Gods. Rio swallows his breath and apologizes to Sora for asking her to do something so dangerous. Sora asks Rio what he is saying, she tells him the golems aren’t opponents that can defeat them, she asks Rio to please to leave it to her because she will easily help Aishia out of her pinch.
Sora puffs out her chest proudly, bows to Rio and takes flight towards Aishia’s group. The golem tries to stop Sora with its floating blades but Rio shoots them down with light bullets. The golem follows Sora with its gaze and Rio uses the opening to move next to the golem to punch its abdomen with his winclad right fist, the wind explodes sending the golem back a meter. Rio tells the golem with a chilling voice to not look away while attacking with his winclad left fist this time. The golem jumps back in the moment of contact to avoid the shockwave while Rio realizes with their recent exchange that the golem can’t be a common opponent if attacks that can pulverize the flesh of a human do so little damage. The golem also fixes its gaze on Rio after concluding that his threat level is way higher than everyone else’s. The golem tries to pierce Rio’s chest with its tail but Rio parries it with his windclad right hand. Rio frowns bitterly when he realizes the reason of Satsuki’s wound, then he stands before the golem while saying that he is its opponent.
The golem that had been attacking Aishia’s group until now stops its attacks but resumes his assault after the golem begins to fight against Rio. Now with Rio present and her source of magic power back Aishia can finally spare the magic power to heal her stomach and legs, now she can move as well as before and stay close to the golem so it can only use its wings and floating blades to attack Sara, Orphia and Alma. Just like before she can’t focus on anything else aside of dodging but Rio ad Sora’s presence is reassuring and the anxiousness disappeared from her expression. Then Sora appears next to Aishia, she came in flying faster than the sound to struck the golem’s abdomen with her draconified fist blowing it ten and some meters away with a ist shaped dent on its body. Sara, Orphia and Alma let out astonished voices while Sora tells Aishia to go with Rio because she will only be hindrance if she fights with that worn out mask and that she will take care of that golem. Aishia tells Sora that the golem is incredibly dangerous while looking alternatingly between Sora and Rio hesitating to let her alone. Sora asks Aishia who she is worrying about acting offended. Sora sees that Aishia gaze’s says she herself is her greatest worry and then she tells Aishia that she knows well how troublesome the golem is, that it is precisely because of that that she needs to go quickly to the ground, that the number of hindrances is big there and asks her if she intends to make Rio fight alone, then shrugs exasperatedly while shooing Aishia away with her hand. Aishia says she understands and thanks Sora for help. Sora tells Aishia with a red face that she didn't do it for her sake while stuttering in embarrassment.
Aishia doesn’t stay there to listen to Sora’s excuses, she approaches Sara, Orphia and Alma and tells them to go back to the ground with her, that it is fine to leave the golem to Sora. The three obviously hesitate to follow Aishia, the power of her fist aside Sora’s childish appearance is anything but reliable looking, they can’t fathom how they are supposed to let alone such a small child with the golem. Sora tells the girls that they get as carried away as always while looking away in embarrassment unused to be thanked or relied on. Sara, Orphia and Alma still don’t know what to do until Sora calls out to them and tells them that they are a hindrance too and to go back to the ground. They still hesitate and when they realized it the golem was already in front of Sora again ready to punch her. Sora stops the fist easily with her draconified hand. The golem puts more strength into its fist but Sora’s hand still doesn’t move. Sara, Orphia and Alma can only look in astonishment at that and Sora asks them if they got it now, she tells them that if they can’t react to the golem’s movements they will just be dead weight so they should run away quickly. Sara says she understands while biting her lip in frustration, Orphia and Alma nod with bitter feelings and the three follow Aishia back to the ground. Sora snorts and says that now she can fight with her all. The golem tries to attack Aishia’s group with its floating blades while locking fists with Sora, but she materializes her wings, overtakes the blades, punches them away and tells the golem to not think it has the leeway to look aside while being her opponent. Sora was going to attack the golem again when a second pillar of light rises from the castle and turns into a transparent barrier covering the capital and its surroundings. Sora finds the barrier strange, it is too big and complex to be human made, it seems to also draw power from the land’s lay lines. Sora asks herself if its Lina’s or some other wise God’s doing. Sora asks herself what is going on while looking at the golem with an annoyed face.
High in sky, Reis says he was had while frowning bitterly at the same time that it is forced out of the barrier and gets separated from the two golems. He sights and shoots a light bullet at the barrier as a test. The barrier disperses the light bullet and Reis begins to guess its effects, he thinks the barrier seems to serve to keep out enemies and attacks and some other things, that as expected that woman has no intention to hide her involvement. He can’t think of other person that could make the preparations to rise such a barrier. He thinks he might be able to break the barrier if he sends a third golem but he doesn’t know what other traps might lay beyond the broken barrier, Rio and Sora are inside now too. He knows well that no golem stands a chance against the dragon king he knows about, they only could earn time, it is stupid to waste military resources without a chance of victory but Rio isn’t the dragon king Reis used to know. How well can he use the dragon king’s power? Reis wonders if the two golems could be a good way to measure Rio’s power because he is an existence too irregular. Reis thinks his purpose changed but that he still should use the chance to measure Rio’s strength, if he doesn’t at least get some information the plan would have been a complete waste, he is also curious about that woman’s plan.
Beneath the castle. Celia asks Lina what is the magic she has just activated. Lina says that it is a barrier that separates its inside from the rest of the world, that for the time being they should be able to keep new invaders away with it and that Rio’s and Sora’s summoning was a success, that now they cleared the first hurdle. Celia says she understands while looking curiously at Miharu. Miharu asks what it is, she says she has some free time now so she will answer her questions if she has any while she keeps controlling the magic power in the manacrystal. Celia tells Miharu that it is nothing, that she was just thinking that she doesn’t seem to be the Miharu she knows. Miharu says that it is obvious with disgust, that she isn’t that girl and that she doesn’t want to be lumped together with her. Celia asks Miharu if the one she has been talking to until now was the wise God Lina. Miharu tells Celia that Ayase Miharu’s consciousness has been pushed to the back and asks her if she thought that girl had recovered her memories as the wise God Lina. Celia gets nervous while wondering if she wasn’t being disrespectful with one of the wise Gods but then she begins to wonder if something isn’t off. Lina asks Celia if she thinks it is strange for the wise God Lina to be someone with a personality separate from Miharu’s despite having reincarnated into her.
Celia says she does, she tells Lina that she was told that the world’s residents lose their memories when leaving it, that Rio doesn’t have his memories as the dragon king either so she was wondering why she is the only one who remembers and even exists as a separate personality. Lina says that it isn’t just her, she asks Celia if Aishia hasn’t recovered her memories too. Celia lets out a surprised voice and Lina tells her that there are exceptions for everything but that the ways in which she and Aishia keep their memories are different, that she keeps not only her memories but her personality too, that explaining in detail would take too long so for the time being she will give a rough explanation just about herself, she tells Celia she is using the alter ego spell to control Miharu, that she is greatly specced down compared to her past self, isn’t a transcendental anymore and can’t use her authority either. Celia asks Lina if she is a second personality. Lina says that something like that, that Miharu is still the main personality so without the alter ego spell she can’t show herself. Celia says that seeing Miharu using so many powerful spells so suddenly surprised her. Lina says that as Miharu is now her spells will be wasted on her. Celia asks if it is like that. Lina says that there are a lot of spells that Miharu can’t use in the right way, that even if she can her personality isn’t suited for conflict, that even if she used them she would be infuriatingly unreliable. Celia says she doesn’t think it will be like that, that Miharu is an incredibly good girl. Lina says that it will be like that, that it is impossible for Miharu, that that’s why she has to come out like this.
Celia looks surprisedly at Lina for being so harsh and distrustful of Miharu despite she being her reincarnation. Lina asks Celia if she didn’t tell her already that she isn’t Miharu, that they share a soul but that their personalities are different, so she should think about them as different people. Celia tells Lina that she can’t picture it that way despite what she says. Lina asks Celia if it is like that, if it isn’t the same that with her dear Rio, if he doesn’t think of himself as just Rio and not Haruto, even less the dragon king, that Rio’s opinion is influenced by how completely integrated is personality with Haruto’s but that it is still the same. Celia says that certainly, she remembers Rio saying exactly those words, then she gets red faced and asks Lina sulkingly what about the “dear” part. Lina tells Celia teasingly that love is blind, that when it was about Rio she accepted it readily. Celia stays silent and Lina tells her that she herself is just like that too. Celia tilts her head while letting out a surprised voice when she can’t understand Lina’s meaning. Lina tells Celia that she is the reincarnation of the girl that used to be her familiar and asks Celia if she thinks she herself and her familiar are the same person after knowing that. Celia says she doesn’t, that she doesn’t have her memories either.
Lina tells Miharu that the reincarnation magic is a spell to be reborn as different person to begin with, that only a soul can reside inside a body as its master, that that’s why the reincarnation magic can only work by fusing the soul of the reincarnator with the soul of the different person that will be born in the future, then she asks Celia if she knows the meaning of that. Celia asks if that means that from the beginning the people born via reincarnation magic are different from their existence from before the reincarnation, that they can just reincarnate into someone that is already fated to be born. Lina tells Celia that she is right, that Miharu would have been born even if she hadn’t used the reincarnation magic, that that’s why it is obvious for her to think Miharu is a different person from her, evenmore when she has a personality separated from hers. Celia tells Lina that that is strange, she asks her if there is any meaning to reincarnate if Miharu isn’t going to gain her memories or personality. Lina tells Celia that there is meaning, that by fusing the souls of the reincarnator and the person to be born, the talents and abilities of the new individual will be greatly augmented, that her magic formulas and her authority can be inherited by Miharu by example, that Celia herself has a magic sense so good among the people of the Claire family that has so many good mages because her soul is fused with her familiar’s.
Celia asks Lina if the person from before the reincarnation won’t disappear completely if the memories aren’t passed on too despite the souls being fused, she asks Lina if it is really fine to disappear after going as far as reincarnating. Lina asks Celia if that doesn’t depend on the person, Lina tells Celia that the reincarnator can choose if the person to be born will receive their memories or not by modifying the magic formation a bit, but that that is limited to people that will reincarnate in the same world or from the earth into their world. In other words people born into their world that reincarnate into a world outside of theirs they can’t choose to pass their memories on, that’s why Rio has Haruto’s memories but not the dragon king’s. Celia asks herself if she didn’t keep her memories because it was her past self herself who didn’t want to leave them behind. Lina also adds that it is possible to set when the magic formations and the authority will be inherited, that after all it would be dangerous if a newborn child can suddenly use those things without even having developed their sense of self yet. Celia asks if that means that the magic formulas that she learned recently are the result of that too. Celia asks herself if Rio recovering annihilation during the battle with Erika was also set in the reincarnation magic. Lina tells Celia that she is right, that the reincarnation magic was set to let her learn her spells at that moment, that she also made a mechanism to let her remember about Rio and Aishia. Celia asks Lina if they can recover everyone’s memories of Rio and Aishia too if they use that mechanism.
Lina says she can’t do that, Celia loses hope for a moment and Lina tells her that they don’t need that anymore, that she will use a different loophole more fitting for their current situation, that there are other ways to elude God’s rules. Celia recovers her hope while Lina tells her that she will use a spell for that now, and also to defeat the golem above. Celia asks Lina if the golems are complicated opponents even for Rio and Sora. Lina tells Celia that there is no mistake on them being troublesome, that unless their magic power is depleted they will revive once again regardless of how many times their armor is destroyed and the golems above have the magic power they accumulated for the last one thousand years. Celia asks Lina nervously how many times they would have to destroy something like that. Lina tells Celia that the golems must have spent more or less the magic power supply of a month. Celia asks if they really spent only that much. Lina says that the golems are troublesome existences that only the transcendentals can fight properly after all, that if it is the dragon king’s annihilation it can eliminate them quickly, that he could have done something like just annihilating the magic power inside the golems. Lina asks Celia with a smile if it isn’t a really unfair ability, if it isn’t good that he is an ally. Celia asks worriedly if the masks can endure the use of the authority.
Lina asks Celia if she hadn’t told her already that the next spell is for doing something about the rules, she tells her that no one will lose their memories because of the use of the authority but that Rio still will have to endure the burden to the soul and body from the use of the authority. Lina says the last part with obvious worry about Rio, then she shakes off that feeling and tells Celia that if the next spell is activated Rio won’t have to worry about the rules’ penalty, that he won’t lose his memories even if he fights without the masks. Celia says that it is incredible. Lina tells Celia that from now on she herself will be enough and that she needs her to go back to the surface and explain everything to Rio. Celia asks Lina what she has to say to Rio. Lina tells Celia to tell Rio to wait for her signal to erase the magic power inside the golems and to use his authority only inside the barrier, that it will be bad if he uses his authority more than two consecutive times, that it would be ideal if he can defeat the two golems with just one attack if possible and to please recover the golems’ cores after annihilating the magic power inside them. Then she asks Celia if she remembers everything. Celia says she does and asks Lina what will be the signal. Lina says that the signal is the moment the next spell activates, to be at ease because it will be easy to understand when it happens, then Lina uses the transport spell to send Celia alone to the surface.
Now alone Lina tells Celia that she leaves it in her hands. After looking at the ceiling for a while Lina tells her father that now she will annul all of the taboos he set, that not even her authority could foresee what kind of punishment she would receive from breaking the rules but that if it is him he should have foreseen this future too. Lina asks that person that isn’t there what kind of punishment she will receive if she breaks the taboo, if he is really uninterested in what she does, if he really abandoned the world. After a moment of silence she tells that person that as expected not answer, that then she will break the taboo.
The castle’s rooftop, Rio closes in on the golem with his arms and legs clad in wind, the golem makes a stance to fight in close quarters and tries to pierce the chest of the approaching Rio with the claws of its right hand, Rio dodges and punches the golem’s elbow in an attempt to destroy its arm. He thinks the golem is too heavy when the arm stays whole despite his attack. The golem tries to stab Rio with its tail from the side but Rio uses his other hand to punch the tip of the tail away from him. The golem tries to punch Rio’s face with its left fist. Rio dodges the fist twisting his body and now the golem’s floating blades come for him. Rio spins in place while cladding himself in a whirlwind and blows the blades away. The golem resumes his assault on Rio while he realizes why Aishia was trapped being on the defensive. The golem has a humanoid shape but there is the tail and the wings too, what makes its attack hard to predict because it doesn’t only attack in the way a human would, its body is incredibly tough too, but Rio stays in place despite that while counterattacking at any chance he has to do so. There isn’t a way he will let the golem push him back, not right now when Charlotte and Flora are healing the wounded Satsuki behind him while all of the magic and spirit art users cooperate to cover the group in barriers while taking some distance from him and the golem.
Christina’s eyes keep darting towards Rio while she cooperates to cover the group with barriers, she asks herself why she feels so complicated and can’t breathe well. Guilt? Indebtment? Curiosity? And… the feelings inside her chest rage like a storm, as if the feelings that she had been keeping in check for a long time with her reasoning had reached their limit and were surfacing more strongly than ever before. She wants to say something to that unknown person fighting there, as if she wanted to give back even a little bit of something she really has no way to pay him back for, she grabs her chest with her right hand as if wanting to take hold of that very desire. Next to her is Latifa, that is also giving her magic power to the barrier protecting the group and that when she realized it she was already crying. Latifa wipes her tears while thinking it is strange, she has no idea herself about why she was crying but when she looks at Rio her emotions shake violently. Why does she feel like that when she shouldn’t know the person fighting there? Why does she feel the need to run and hug him right then and there? Liselotte tells Latifa that she feels like she knows that person. There is a name that shouldn’t exist in her memories coming out until her chest but it won’t go out any further, she clenches the fists of the hands she extended in Rio’s direction to keep up the barrier, frustrated because she can’t get that answer that she wants so much. Latifa looks to her right and asks Liselotte if she too… Christina tells the two that she feels the same, then the three exchange curious looks while wondering what is going on.
It was then that Aishia landed next to the barrier. Liselotte asks Aishia if she wants to come inside. Aishia says she doesn’t, that she is fine and will fight alongside Rio. Then before Aishia can turn towards Rio and go in his help Celia appears inside the barrier. Everyone asks Celia worriedly where she went to. Celia lets out a troubled laugh while telling that she was activating some spells and wondering what else she is supposed to explain them later, she gets nervous watching everyone approach her but then she sees Aishia, remembers Lina’s message and calls out to her. Aishia asks Celia what it is. Celia tells Aishia she has a message, she tells her to use the authority to defeat the golems after they receive a signal while staying inside the barrier, that if they erase the magic power inside them they will deactivate. Aishia asks Celia what will be the signal. Celia tells Aishia that soon a big scaled magic will activate, that that will be the signal and that they need to recover the golems’ cores after defeating them. Aishia says she understands. Celia tells Aishia that there is one last thing, that they can’t use the authority more than two times in a row and that it would be ideal if they can defeat the two golems with the same attack but… Aishia says she understands and that she will go while realizing how worried Celia is about the burden on Rio, then she kicks the ground while moving in Rio’s direction and begins to circle around the golem in search of an opening from where to support Rio.
The golem continues its exchange of blows with Rio while using its floating blades to attack his back. While keeping the blades away with light bullets Rio realizes Aishia’s maneuvers and makes the golem look away from her. Aishia takes the golem’s back and kicks its head. The golem takes distance from Rio and Aishia while being wary of a follow up attack, meanwhile Aishia lands next to Rio and tells him she will fight alongside him while grabbing his hand to recover as much magic power as possible while the golem recovers its balance. Rio thanks her and asks about the golem in the sky. Aishia says that Sora is holding it back alone. Rio says she understands and that Sora is really reliable while glancing her way. Aishia tells Rio she has a message from Celia, that soon a big scale magic will activate and then he has to use his authority while inside the barrier to erase the magic power inside the golems. Rio asks Aishia if Celia was the one who rose that ridiculous barrier. Aishia tells Rio that it might be Miharu’s doing, that she has been acting strange for a while. Rio widens his eyes while wondering if Miharu recovered Lina’s memories and remembering that he can’t see her anywhere, but then he says they will talk about that later, that now they will do something about the golem, he asks Aishia if they just need to earn time until the magic activates. Aishia nods, she tells Rio that she destroyed the golem’s body before but that it healed soon, that a half baked attack won’t even hurt it and to be careful. Rio says that he understands and that for the time being they will push it further away from everyone.
The golem uses its floating blades to attack Rio and Aishia. Aishia tells Rio that she will make an opening and that she will deal with the blades too. Aishia lets go of Rio’s hand and shoots light bullets at the blades to keep them away. Rio thanks her and begins to approach the golem from the front while gathering magic power in his hands. Rio thinks the golem’s armor is thick so what he needs to damage the golem is penetration power rather than rise the scale of his techniques so he turns that magic power into compressed destructive energy. The golem also charges at Rio in order to use the difference in size and weight to knock him down and Aishia begins to shoot light bullets at its body to slow it down. Rio uses that moment to enter the golem’s bosom. The golem tries to stab Rio with its tail but Aishia’s light bullets hit its tip pushing it away from Rio. Rio praises Aishia’s accuracy on his mind while attacking the golem with his right fist. The golem feels the danger of Rio’s fist and twists its body to avoid it. Rio widens his eyes when his fist misses while thinking about how fast is the golem for its size. The golem tries to attack Rio with its claws clad in destructive energy and Rio punches that claw from the front with his right fist still full of his own destructive energy.
The two destructive energies clash from the front creating an explosion and a flash of silver light. The golem uses its weight to resist the impact while Rio is pushed back and needs to use flying spirit arts to stabilize himself while standing on his hands and move away like that from the golem that approaches him to do a follow up attack. The golem tries to close Rio’s escape route with its floating blades but Aishia shoots them away. Masato says that Rio’s and Aishia’s coordination is incredible while looking with admiration at them. Aishia shoots a light ball at the golem’s face to blind it for the moment that it blocks it with its arm. Rio flies towards the golem while using that light ball as a cover. The golem tries to jump back wary of Rio’s approach but loses its balance because when Rio touched the ground earlier he froze the golem’s feet and now is using that opening to hit the golem’s jaw with a left uppercut. Masato celebrates when the destructive energy compressed inside Rio’s fist destroys the golem’s head. The golem soon begins to repair its head while heating its body to melt the ice and launching its own fist at Rio. Rio flies back to dodge it while wondering if the golem has any weak point, he doesn’t know if the golem’s healing ability has any limit and doesn’t believe either that he will be able to one sidedly destroy the golem’s body either, he thinks if he suffers any kind of severe wound it will impossible to continue the fight and then it would be the end. Rio concludes that with things as they are the battle will become disadvantageous and makes a decision.
Rio tells Aishia telepathically to use the assimilation. Aishia says she understands but that she will manage the degree of assimilation until they use the authority. Rio tells Aishia he lets the management of the assimilation to her but that depending on the situation they might need to use the authority without waiting for the signal and to do it now. Aishia nods while everyone let out surprised voices when they see her disappear letting behind just her broken mask. Rio says that it is as impressive as always while feeling his body full of power, his body feels lighter and his senses sharper to a degree incomparable with his usual self. Aishia tells Rio that he can already materialize his spirit equipment. Then a bastard sword appears on Rio’s hand just like when heroes take out their divine weapons, anyone that doesn’t know about the assimilation would think Rio is one. Everyone forget to breathe while making surprised faces at the sword appearing in Rio’s hand. The golem completes the repairs of its head and charges at Rio, it swings its claw at him but Rio blocks it rising the sword horizontally. The golem tries to push the sword down but Rio’s arm doesn’t move. Rio thinks the golem really is stupidly strong, that even after assimilating his chances aren’t that good, that the golem can compare with the possessed Erika, that to counter it completely Aishia would need to rise the degree of assimilation but that for the time being he can match its physical strength at least. That isn’t the only improvement though.
Sara, who finally arrived to the rooftop followed by Orphia and Alma, tells Rio to watch out when she sees the Golem’s blades flying towards his back,but he was aware of them since long ago thanks to his sharpened senses, he creates light bullets and shoots the blade down without needing to turn back to look at them. Sara, Orphia and Alma lose their words while watching Rio shooting down all of the blades around him without looking just like if he had eyes behind his head, the current him has senses so sharp that he can feel the blades position even without using spirit arts to locate them, if they are things imbued with magic power he can even know its location and appearance. That’s why Rioalso knew that the golem was going to make its tail pass between ist legs to stab his body while he was also attacking with its free left fist. Rio takes a step back to dodge and the golem shoots a slash of light from its claws. Rio avoids the attack flying over the golem. The golem follows after Rio and he uses that to lure it away from the castle’s rooftop. Rio looks around him, searching for a place as deserted as possible to where to take the golem with him while dodging the golem’s light spears. Rio finds a place that seems right but the golem charges at him at the speed of sound before he can go there. Rio dodges the charge and gets surrounded by the golem’s floating blades, then he decides to fight right there in the sky while lamenting that the golem won’t follow his plans at the same time that his mask begins to creak.
Sora keeps fighting against the first golem, both fly in complicated patterns faster than the speed of sound while exchanging attacks that create shockwaves where they clash, if it were Rio or Aishia their bodies wouldn’t endure the burden of drawing those complicated trajectories while flying faster than the speed of sound, they can’t hit something while flying at that speed or endure the shockwaves that objects create when clashing at that speed either, but Sora is different, by draconifying her skin she can give herself an armor so hard it can repel magic and spirit arts and protect her from the burden of fighting while going faster than the speed of sound. Sora praises the golem’s guts for daring to fight her from the front with its fist when the physical battle begins to tilt in her favor, the golem loses its balance after an especially strong clash, Sora closes in on the golem and then destroys its armor with a series of punches. The golem tries to counterattack swinging its arms at Sora but she grabs them with her hands. The golem tries to stab Sora with its tail but she hits it away with her own while telling the golem that it isn’t the only one with a tail, then Sora opens her mouth widely while gathering magic power in it to shoot a breath attack at the golem from point blank range.
Sora snorts proudly watching how her breath melted everything over the golem’s stomach while throwing away its arms. Sora watches the golem repair itself while thinking there won’t be an end to it if the golem is the familiar of any of the wise Gods, that as long as its master is close its magic power supply will be infinite. Sora sighs in annoyance while crossing her arms. Sora asks the golem which of the wise Gods is controlling it and why its master is making it rampage in the city.
The golem stays in place without attacking Sora while trying to think of a strategy to fight her aside of fighting from the front. Sora tells the golem that it is as hard as always to tell if they have and ego or not but that it should be able to understand her words, that she knows that its master can use it as a speaking tool, that its master should be close and listening to them so she wants to quickly show themselves. Sora knows that well, in the past Lina asked her to fight against her familiar to gather battle data. Sora curses at the golem for not giving away any information about the wise God she thinks must be controlling it. Then Sora begins to wonder if the golem could not be a familiar because Lina’s golems were stronger than the one in front of her, she also remembers being told that a golem only can reach its full potential after becoming a familiar. Sora asks herself who might have activated the golem if it wasn’t one of wise Gods. Then Sora gets tired of thinking and tells the golem that enough of that, that its master should come out sooner or later if she keeps beating it to a pulp so she will just punch it until it gets sick of it. Sora tells the golem to make its resolve while sighting and rotating her arms around her shoulders as if warming up, she prepares to charge at the golem but she stops herself when she sees the golem covering its body in destructive energy. Sora snorts with disdain at the golem before saying that doin that this late in the ame won’t make a difference, that she can do the same easily too, she covers her body in destructive energy in the same way and charges at the golem while saying that this time she will turn it into scrap for sure.
At the castle’s rooftop, everyone looks at the fight in the sky with held breath. Hiroaki asks the people around them if Rio is a hero. Roana tells Hiroaki that there are only six heroes while hesitating because all of the current heroes are already known. Hiroaki asks Roana why Rio is using a divine weapon then, if his sword wasn’t a divine weapon. Roana can’t answer that. Hiroaki asks himself with anxiety and regret why their strength is so different if both are heroes, what is happening with Rio’s strength. Hiroaki remembers about his fight with Renji, now another hero appeared and is fighting alone against a monster from which he can only think of ways to run away from. Hiroaki curses and clenches his teeth in frustration when being made aware again of his own powerlessness. Christina asks Celia, who she and everyone else saw speaking to Aishia as if they were acquainted, if she knows who Rio, Aishia and Sora are. Celia says she knows while everyone’s gazes focus on her. Christina asks Celia who they are. Celia doubts for a moment and tells them that the boy is Haruto, that Haruto Amakawa is the name of the boy that everyone has forgotten. Someone tries to say that that is impossible but stops themselves, no one dares to deny Celia’s words, the surprise of Aki, Liselotte and Latiffa that used to know Amakawa Haruto was especially big. Celia tells everyone that the pink haired girl is Aishia and the small child Sora, that everyone in the castle used to have a connection with Haruto but…Aki screams anxiously at Celia to please wait. Masato asks Aki what happened to her so suddenly. Aki tells Masato with trembling lips that’s also the name of her blood related brother. Even she forgot Rio Aki still remembers about Haruto, her resentment towards him and how that resentment has mysteriously disappeared after coming to another world. Aki puts a hand on her chest to confirm her own feelings and then she tells Masato that before her mother’s remarriage she was called Amakawa Aki.
In the sky Rio is still in the middle of an intense battle with the golem, if he takes distance the golem will attack with its floating blades, they are bothersome but the light spears are more troublesome in a situation where he wants to avoid damage to the city. Rio can only fight the golem in close quarters if he wants to avoid that, but even during the assimilation Rio’s flesh isn’t as tough as the golem’s body, it is impossible for him to fight like Sora that can exchange blows with the golem while flying faster than the speed of sound thanks to her draconified body. After approaching he needs to decelerate before fighting the golem in close quarters. The golem also has more weapons to fight in close quarters than him. Rio prepares his sword and the golem extends blades of light from its claws, it also has its tail and the floating blades around him. Rio can only compensate for the difference in armament with his spirit arts, he deploys countless light balls to keep the floating blades away but he still has just a sword and his body against the golem’s claws and tail. That’s why he is using hit and run tactics now, constantly approaching, attacking, retreating and then approaching from a different side. Rio tries to cut the golem’s less armed side and tries to slash it with his sword. The golem circles around Rio too and tries to cut him with its claws instead. Rio dodges the claws, tries to cut the golem’s side again and the golem blocks the sword with its claws.
Rio wonders if his sword can’t cut the parts of the golem that aren’t covered in magic power, what would happen if he hits something different from the claws, but if he stopped moving while locking weapons with the golem it would be overwhelmed by the golem’s furious attacks so he keeps moving. The golem itself seems to attack constantly to not let Rio time to aim at those places too. Rio asks Aishia if she can rise the degree of assimilation because he can’t break out of the stalemate as things are now. Aishia tells Rio that now they are still around the sixty percent, she doubts about rising the degree of assimilation when they don’t know yet if it will have any side effect in Rio, even if Rio can’t decide the battle it might be enough to earn time until Lina’s signal. Rio asks Aishia if she can rise the degree of assimilation until the seventy percent because he wants to know if he can defeat the golem without the authority and see how much he can do against it. Aishia says she understands and tells Rio to tell her quickly if he notices any change in his physical condition. Rio thanks Aishia, then, when he feels the rise of his magic power he pours it into the sword that begins to sparkle while being enveloped in silver light. He circles around the golem even faster than before, the golem tries to block Rio’s sword with its tail but Rio cuts it in half. The golem turns its body and tries to block Rio’s return swing with its claws but Rio’s sword is faster, the golem tries to fall back thinking its defense won’t be in time but Rio cuts its hand before that. Rio then shoots all of the magic power in the sword’s blade at the golem’s body. Rio’s slash of light destroys the golem’s upper half.
Rio sees the golem’s body beginning to regenerate, then he approaches it while gathering magic power for a second slash of light on his sword to destroy the golem’s lower half too. The golem’s lower half runs away from Rio while putting all of its floating blades between the two. Rio shoots them away with light bullets but he can’t reach the golem before it repairs its body completely. Then the golem envelopes its body in magic power denser and denser until becomes destructive energy. Rio gets wary of that and stops. He asks himself if the golem is strengthening its body but discards the idea, he soon realizes that the golem is just enveloping its body in the same destructive energy its claws were made off. Rio himself fights sometimes while cladding his sword in the same kind of energy without releasing it because it can use stronger attacks in that condition, but he didn’t know it was possible to do the same with one’s own whole body, he can use a sword in such a way because it is a weapon, the sword clad in destructive energy can use it as a barrier against attacks too but it will break if imbued with more magic power than what it can hold inside. Rio thinks it will be troublesome if the golem gets both more offensive and defensive power, he wonders if the seventy percent will be enough to fight the golem in that condition. Then there was a change in the barrier covering the capital, a gigantic magic circle that spans the whole city appears in the sky and the barrier begins to shine, Rio wonders if this is the big scale magic Celia was talking about, he looks curiously at the barrier while wondering what it is its effect.
Interlude: Sandbox World[]
When God left the world supernatural laws that shouldn’t have existed until then were born in the world. Those were God’s rules, they bound even the transcendentals, they were bound precisely because they were the transcendentals and if they broke them they would have to pay the price. Despite that the transcendentals, or rather, the wise Gods, have been looking for ways to escape from the rules since ancient times, from way before the divine war, since shortly after God left the world. The masks were a result of this. Lina spent longer than what anyone can imagine researching them even after separating from the other wise Gods. As a result she managed to make a lot of precise inferences. She discovered that the world was connected to a place somewhere outside of it. The root, the origin, the akashic record, whatever it is its name was connected to the world and had written inside everything about their world. Everything that there was to know about every lifeform, object, the laws governing physics, magic and spirit arts, events that occurred in the past, were happening in the present and were going to happen in the future. Lina saw her father wrote God’s rules there, that that was God’s real power, that everything her father writes there will reflect as is on their world.
If an omniscient and almighty God could access that place they could freely write any kind of thing and manipulate the world at will, it probably will be possible to change the existing laws or past history. Lina doesn’t know what his intentions or goals were, but her father probably used that power to create life in the world, the magic, the spirit arts and give authorities to the transcendentals. That’s what Lina thinks, that as long as they live in that world they will never escape from what her father wrote. That in the case something that contradicts the written things happens a great correcting force will activate at a global scale. God’s rules prove that, to match what God wrote they will forcefully patch things up and sometimes a price must be paid. Lina thinks she doesn’t know the reach of the influence of her father’s power. That the authorities, spirit arts and magic can be used even outside the world once mastered but God’s rules can’t affect the things outside of the world. Then what would happen if she created her own domain inside the world but separated from it? It would create a singular space that exists inside and outside of the world at the same time, she had the manacrystal do the calculations needed to create such a domain for the last one thousand years.
Lina thinks if her hypothesis is right God’s rules won’t apply there, the problem is that the calculations to create that area took so long and that she doesn’t know how the world’s correcting force will react to it, she fears that in the worst case a penalty that not even her knows about might activate, the person who created the space in particular could receive the worst punishment, not even her authority could foresee what would happen after she would create the realm and there are other concerns remaining, but she can’t go back now, there still are a lot of things that she needs Celia to do, she is sorry with Miharu but… Lina puts a hand in her chest while thinking about Celia and Miharu and then the gleam of the manacrystal weakens a bit, signaling that the calculations are over, the preparations completed. Lina asks her father if he is watching, she tells him that she can’t think it is a coincidence that the calculations that she began one thousand years ago are over precisely now. Lina’s questions to the empty air go answered once again. Lina laughs self depreciatingly at herself before making a resolved face while thinking she will do it now. She puts her hands on the manacrystal and activates the spell engraved there. Pandora, the spell to create a realm.
Chapter 5: Our Hero[]
That day, at that instant, Galarc’s still in the dark capital was suddenly illuminated just like if morning had already arrived. Everyone in the castle’s rooftop garden looks curiously at the magic circle in the sky and the shining barrier. Celia thinks there is no mistaking it, that this is the signal, but Celia was the only one that understood the sight before her, everyone else looks at the sky completely paralyzed as if their time had been stopped. Their eyes reflected the barrier and the magic circle but they were unfocused, just like if they were looking inside a deep darkness, that’s why they kept looking dumbfoundedly at the sky until their eyes finally found the light. The sight of Rio fighting high above them in the sky. The girls begin to cry. They have been feeling that they forgot something really important, while continuing with their peaceful lives sometimes they began to have that kind of feeling, they wondered if there wasn’t someone whose face and name they didn’t know that should be there with them, but they didn’t care about that that much, they thought it was just their imagination and went back to the daily live where the absence of that person was normal. But it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t their imagination, they remember everything now, all of the missing pieces of the puzzle go back to their places and the time begins to move again.
Latifa calls out to Rio with trembling lips while she cries. She thinks that’s it him, her brother, someone so important that there isn’t a way it is fine for her to forget him. Why did she forget him? She is happy but sad and sorry. Her tears don’t stop but she wipes them as best as she can so she can look at Rio as much as possible now, she didn’t want her tears to obscure the sight of Rio. She had no time to cry. What will she do if she forgets again? She has that anxiety but soon tells herself that she absolutely won’t forget again, that she won’t allow it. Everyone else shows diverse reactions. Some are still perplexed at the discovery of the fact that they forgot someone they shouldn’t have forgotten, some are confused. Celia tells everyone full of emotion that it seems that they finally remembered. Christina asks Celia if she had her memories already. Celia says she did, that she forgot too but then one day she suddenly remembered. Sara tells Celia to wait and asks everyone with an anxious voice if they really forgot about Rio and Aishia. Orphia says that Sara is right, that something like rewriting their memories to make it look like they never existed is… Alma says that it is impossible. Both Orphia and Alma swallow their breath while imagining the existence of a power that was trying to erase the traces of the existence of people on a global scale.
Liselotte asks everyone if the fight against Erika wasn’t the trigger, that it was at the end of that fight when they forgot about Aishia and Rio. No one can imagine just what happened. Latifa says energetically that she gets it now. Everyone let out surprised voices while looking at Latifa. Then she tells them that back then Rio and Aishia were protecting them, that she doesn’t know why they forgot about them but that she is sure they did something to protect them and then things became like that. Sara and the rest look exasperatedly at the Latifa that naturally stopped caring about the part that has them the more confused, the not understanding why they forgot Rio and Aishia. Then Christina and Liselotte begin to laugh. Flora asks Christina what happened. Christina says that it is nothing, that she just thought Latifa was right, then she thinks in her head that that must be it, that it was also Rio who helped them to escape from Rodania, until now her memories of the escape were fragmented and had no idea about what series of coincidences helped them escape, but now is different, now she understands well it was all Rio’s doing. Sara tells Latifa exasperatedly that she always is like that when it is about Rio. Latifa tells everyone that she is only sure about one thing, that even after they forgot about them Rio and Aishia kept their memories and have continued to protect them. Celia tells Latifa that she is right, that during the fight with Erika Rio and Aishia used a very dangerous power to protect them, that they protected them even at the price of having their existences forgotten, that that’s why they are standing there right now. Flora tells Celia that something like that is… she held her chest in sadness while a lot around her look like they want to do the same. Isn’t it too horrible to be forgotten by the people you want to protect as the prize for saving them? Just how lonely did Rio and Aishia feel? They imagined that. Latifa tells everyone that now isn’t the time to be sad, that they finally remembered about Rio so they have to properly tell him “welcome back” with a smile. Celia tells Latifa that she is right while petting her head, that they will be incredibly happy if they know that they remembered about them, that after the battle everyone will surprise them together.
Immediate after Lina activated the spell. Rio looks curiously and the golem warily at the magic circle in the sky. Rio asks himself what kind of magic is that. It was a magic he knew nothing at all about, the magic formation is so complicated that he can’t make any guess about what kind of spell it activates. Rio asks Aishia if that is the magic Celia talked about. Aishia says that probably. Rio asks himself if he only has to use his authority to defeat the golems now, he doubts between using the authority and keep fighting without using it. Now that it is covered in destructive power the golem will surely be way stronger than before, Rio can strengthen himself rising the degree of assimilation but has no idea about how long he can stay like that so it is better to avoid a long battle with the golem that can continue to revive after being defeated over and over. It is possible he will reach his limit before the golem. Aishia tells Rio that they don't have any other option but that they can’t use the authority more than two times.
Rio says he understands, gets curious about Sora’s side of things, looks in her direction, sees she and the other golem also stopped their fight and are looking at the magic circle just like him. Rio thinks now is his chance and summons Sora to his side to regroup with her, then he explains to her that he is going to use his authority to defeat the golems. Sora tells Rio she also thinks they can only do that, that the golems will keep reviving as long as they have magic power and even if they defeat them over and over there won’t be an end to it. Rio says he understands, he asks her if that’s why he only needs to erase the magic power inside them. Sora tells Rio that there isn’t an opponent his authority can’t defeat. Rio tells Sora that it seems he only can use the authority twice, that he can’t miss with it and asks Sora if he can have her help him with that. Sora tells Rio that of course he can and to order her anything. Rio tells Sora that he wants to make sure his authority hits, that he needs her to attack the golems to stop its movements so he can hit them during that opening. Sora tells Rio that that is an easy thing, to please leave it to her, that if it is the two of them they won’t lose to those piles of scrap. Aishia tells Rio she is there too. Rio laughs and tells Sora that Aishia said that there are three of them. Sora curses at Aishia sulkingly for ruining her moment.
Rio tells Sora that it is better to fight three against two from now on because they could defeat the two golems with the same attack if things go well. Sora says she understands and that she will pull the other golem towards Rio’s location. Sora looks at the golem while preparing to attack but the golem itself is already flying towards them to continue its fight with Sora. Sora says enthusiastically that she didn’t even need to pull the first golem to them while covering her body in destructive energy again. Then she flies towards the golem and punches its fist from the front with her own, the clashing fists create a tremendous shockwave that reaches even Rio. Rio thinks Sora is incredible, he tells Aishia that they can’t lose either and to rise the degree of assimilation. Rio takes a look at the castle’s rooftop, he feels something is off, he feels a strange warmth in everyone’s gazes but he can’t dwell on that in the middle of a battle. He soon looks back at the second golem that is coming to resume their fight. Now clad in destructive energy the golem is even faster than before, but Rio is the same, he has no problem reacting to the golem’s charge and dodging it. The golem makes a sudden stop after passing by Rio and forces itself to turn back to attack him. Rio clads his sword in the same destructive energy and blocks the golem’s claws.
Both Rio and the golem send more magic power to their locked weapons in an attempt to overpower the other’s attack. Rio falls back when the energy overflowing from his sword begins to spread sparkles around it, then accelerates towards the golem once again. Rio tries to cut the golem’s chest horizontally. The golem avoids the cut somersaulting while spinning its body and swinging its arm at Rio. Rio flies over the golem to avoid it and slashes vertically while descending on the golem’s body. The golem flies back to avoid the attack and Rio follows after it. During that exchange Rio is sure of his guess, he can use the authority during the battle but it will be hard to hit the golem with it, he probably can’t keep the authority active for more than a short instant either, timing that instant with the moment the golem shows an opening will be too hard. The golem is also wary of his attacks and seems able to run away from the range of the authority even if he makes annihilation cover a wide area. Now Rio is sure that having Sora help him is the only way of assuring the hit. Rio glances in Sora’s direction, he sees the first golem running away from the Sora that follows after it while scolding it for running away from a fistfight, then he thinks now while that golem is running away is the perfect chance for Sora and him to attack it together.
Rio accelerates and circles around the golem that is running away from Sora. Rio tries to cut it in half. The golem realizes Rio’s approach and dodges the slash. Rio laments that the golem managed to dodge that but he still achieved his goal of allowing Sora to catch up with it. The golem turns towards Sora with his arms crossed to block her fist at the same time that it focuses all of the energy covering its body on its arms. Sora also focuses all the destructive energy covering her body on her fist when punching the golem’s arms. The golem is blown away with its arms destroyed. The golem flies way from Rio and Sora while repairing its arms and using its floating blades to hinder their pursue. Sora begins to circle around the golem to cut off its retreat while Rio uses light bullets to keep the floating blades out of her way. The left behind second golem comes and tries to attack Rio from behind, but Rio saw it coming, he turns in its direction while swinging his sword full of destructive energy at its body. Rio makes the slash of light released by the sword cover a wide area in order to force the second golem to take a big detour around it. Rio then decides to use that opening to finish off the first golem whose movements are slowed down right now because Sora’s fists has destroyed its body almost completely. Rio tells Sora they will finish off that golem first. Sora nods and says she will keep it in place just like she is doing now.
Rio focuses on activating annihilation, instead of the silver light of the destructive energy the sword is now clad in pure white light. Rio thinks it is as he expected, that he can’t keep the sword in that state for more than twenty seconds and that he will show an opening at the time of activating the authority, he thinks it might be a little hard to activate it while moving. Rio looks at the other golem wondering why he didn’t attack him again yet and saw it was observing his sword warily without moving. Rio tells Sora he will pierce the golem’s body with his sword. Sora nods and grabs the golem’s legs and tail so it can’t escape from Rio. Rio pierces the golem’s chest and fills its insides with the light of his authority. The golem’s body shines with annihilation white’s light while the authority erases the magic power within it, then it disappears letting behind only its core that Rio stores in his time space-cache. Sora praises Rio for the successful kill. Rio thanks her while turning to look at the other golem, then he is assaulted by a sensation of heaviness while swaying in place. Sora calls out worriedly to Rio and he tells her that he is fine, that he just felt sick for a bit, that the remaining golem is more important. The second golem looks warily at Rio and Sora from the distance, it knows it is at a disadvantage and that the power that Rio has just used is its natural enemy. Sora tells Rio to rest for a bit while she keeps the golem busy. The golem then deploys its wings of light while pointing all of its floating blades at Rio and Sora. Sora tells the golem to not think it can do something about Rio and her by earning a bit of time this late in the game.
Sora prepares to shoot her breath at the golem but her and Rio’s expressions change when the golem turns towards the castle and shoots its light spears at the people on its rooftop. The second golem was ordered to kill everyone in the castle’s rooftop and to eliminate those who get in its way, now it concluded that it can’t defeat Rio and Sora before doing that and decided to eliminate the weaker targets first. Rio accelerates towards the ground trying to overtake the light spears while Sora calls out to him worriedly. The golem also follows after Rio and Sora goes after the golem while cursing it. Rio is already faster than sound but the light spears are even faster, he began his descent from two thousand meters high, he thinks he won’t make it time because he will still need five seconds to reach the ground. If Celia and the others cooperate they might endure ten or twenty light spears but there are almost one hundred falling on them. Almost fifty of those are directly aimed at the group and the rest and the surrounding areas so they don’t have a place to escape to, even if the light spears don’t kill them the collapse of the castle would. Only two seconds until the impact. Rio imagines his important people dying and refuses to accept it, then he forces himself to assimilate beyond the one hundred percent. Aishia screams anxiously at Rio to not do it but he only thinks about protecting everyone. At that time Rio left completely the human realm, released of the weight called flesh body, Rio’s body gets covered in hazy destructive energy and accelerates explosively, he then overtakes the light spears while moving at the speed of lightning strangely unimpeded by things like the air resistance.
Several seconds earlier everyone in the castle’s rooftop garden realizes about the light spears falling towards them, some look curiously at them until Orphia realizes faster than anyone else that they are being bombarded and tells everyone to rise barriers to protect themselves. Celia rises an eight layered barrier while realizing that she won’t be able to stop so many light spears, it was then that Rio’s shining body appeared just above her barriers. Everyone widens their eyes wondering if he teleported or something. Rio thinks if he can’t use his authority he will have to stop the light spears with an equal power, then he creates one hundred light spears of his own and intercepts the ones shot by the golem with them. Everyone looks dumbfoundedly at the one hundred explosions in the sky while the golem and Sora are finally getting close to them too. Rio creates four more light spears that pierce the golem’s arms and legs stopping it in place, Sora catches up to the golem and her fist separates its torso from its immobilized members and lower half, Sora tries to grab the golem’s head to push the golem’s upper half towards Rio as it is now but the golem turns it upper half into particles of light and tries to run away from Rio and Sora with just its lower half.
Sora clicks her tongue while preparing to pursue the golem but Rio tells her that it is fine, that he will take care of things now. Sora nods while Rio accelerates, overtakes the golem that was already several hundreds of meters away from them and grabs the golem’s half repaired body with its left hand. Rio asks the golem if it thought it could escape while cladding his sword in annihilation’s white light. The golem pierces Rio’s heart with its tail but he doesn’t show any kind of pained expression, his wound isn’t bleeding either. Rio tells the golem that it is the end while piercing its body with his sword and filling its insides with annihilation’s power, the golem disappears after an instant and Rio’s body regenerates itself once the golem’s tail is gone. Then Rio puts the golem’s core inside his time space cache. Rio lands on the castle’s rooftop next to the Sora that had already undone her draconification while everyone looks with wide eyes at how fast he moves. Rio lowers the degree of assimilation while erasing his sword and trembles slightly while his flesh recovered its weightfulness.
Rio tells Sora to leave thinking that as a transcendental it would be bad if he stayed with everyone any longer. He takes a last glance back at everyone before preparing to leave when Latifa screams at him to wait. Rio turns back curious about why he was called and then Latifa is already hugging him while calling out to him. Rio can only let out a surprised voice while Latifa buries her face in his chest while calling for him. Rio asks how it can be, did she remember him? Rio swallows his breath while his eyes widen behind the mask. What about God’s rules? He asks himself if that was it, if this was the reason he needed to wait until magic activated to use his authority. Could it be that inside the barrier God’s rules lost their power? Rio asks Latifa if she recovered her memories while hugging her back. Latifa says she did and begins to apologize to Rio while crying. Rio asks Latifa with a troubled face why she is apologizing. Latifa says she is apologizing for forgetting about him despite him being her brother. Rio says he understands but that it is fine, that it couldn’t be helped, that she doesn’t need to worry about that. Latifa says that it isn’t like that. Rio tells Latifa that it really couldn’t be helped while grabbing her head in his hands and making her look at his eyes. Latifa asks Rio embarrassedly what it is. Rio asks Latifa if she didn’t properly remember about him already, she tells her that he is incredibly happy and thanks her. Latifa can only nod silently to Rio’s thanks while her face gets even redder.
Everyone wants to run at Rio just like Latifa did, but they read the mood and watch over the reencounter of the siblings in silence. Sora looks enviously at Latifa while puffing out her cheeks sulkingly but she also stays silent. Rio then apologizes to everyone else for making them worry, then while they begin to approach Rio with happy expressions Latifa asks him why he is using that mask and tells him to show her his face. Rio remembers that he still had the mask on and takes it off. Rio lets out a troubled look while feeling embarrassed under everyone’s emotional gazes.
Latifa asks Rio if he is crying. Rio asks her if he is. Latifa tells him that he is crying. Rio asks if these are tears of happiness, he says that he is incredibly happy about being with them like this again. Rio then takes a look at his mask and asks himself why it didn’t break despite using the authority twice. Rio arched his brows curiously while remembering that he hadn’t listened to the mask creak since the magic activated. Rio takes a look at the barrier covering the city while concluding that it really has the effects of nullifying the rules. Latifa presses her face more strongly against Rio’s chest. He lets out a troubled laugh and apologizes for thinking about other things while petting Latifa’s head. It was then that Rio’s vision got blurry and his body began to sway, he tries to collapse backwards so he doesn’t fall over Latifa but she hugs his body strongly so she won’t let him fall while everyone calls out to him worriedly.
High in the sky, Reis thinks the dragon king’s authority is as terrifying as expected but that it seems he has weakened greatly compared with the past, he asks himself if two golems can’t do something about it. Then he asks himself what is the barrier’s effect and a woman appears next to him and tells him that it has been one thousand years while referring to him as Fenris. Reis looked towards the voice while saying that it was her as he expected when he sees Lina floating there. She didn’t look like Miharu though, somehow her appearance was that of an incredibly beautiful woman that seemed to be close to twenty years old. Lina tells Reis that it seems both are in good health. Reis says that it seems to be like that, that he thought she was dead so he didn’t think she would show herself and asks Lina her purpose. Lina says she couldn’t hide any longer so that’s why she came to offer a truce and some advice, she tells Reis that he shouldn’t put his hands on the city anymore from now on. Reis frowns at those words. Lina says that in exchange she won’t interfere with the dungeon and will also keep Rio away from it. Reis asks Lina if there is something in the city that she wants to protect to the point of creating such a barrier. Lina asks Reis if he isn’t the same, if he didn’t want to accomplish something in the city to the point of using two of his treasured golems. Reis asks Lina if she thinks he only had those two golems. Lina tells Reis that it seems like he can’t use them properly and asks him if he thinks she doesn’t have more hidden cards. Reis sighs while narrowing his eyes and wondering about how much of their military power Lina is aware of. Lina asks Reis if he wants to start a full blown war then and there when her side has the strongest dragon king and she herself and he is so weakened. Reis tells Lina that that dragon king seemed quite weakened compared to one thousand years ago and that he wonders about her too. Lina asks Reis if his eye sockets aren’t empty. Reis says he wonders about that while looking down at the city.
He thinks only the strength Rio showed at the end doesn’t bring shame to the name of the transcendentals but that the real problem is that Lina found a way to nullify the rules even if it is just inside the barrier, that there isn’t a way for her to not have been doing nothing during the last one thousand years. Lina asks Reis if his preparations aren’t done yet either. Reis tells Lina with eyes as sharp as a sword that she knows their plan like he thought. Lina says she has known since one thousand years ago. Reis tells Lina that he won’t fall for her provocation, that even if it is her she can’t see their fate completely because they became variable existences. Lina says she wonders about that with an intrepid smile. Reis says that enough, that if she really came just to give some advice he will leave. Lina asks Reis if it is fine for him to not observe the barrier more, if there aren’t some other things he wants to investigate. Reis tells Lina that she is one to talk, she asks her if she didn’t come to get information herself, he says he won’t do the stupidity of revealing information to her, then he sighs annoyedly. Lina tells Reis that he didn’t say anything about the truce yet. Reis says that it is fine, that for the time being he will agree to it. Lina says that they have an agreement then. Reis says he will take his leave then and uses a teleportation crystal. Now alone Lina sighs while saying that it would be good if she managed to deceive him but… then she takes off the earring on her left ear and goes back to Miharu’s appearance, she uses storage magic to put the earring away and teleports.
The castle’s rooftop. Latifa asks the Rio still leaning on her after almost collapsing if he is fine. Rio says he is fine, that he was just a little tired. He tries to put strength in his legs again but he can’t put any strength into his body, be it because of the authority or the assimilation Rio keeps trembling while trying to stand on his own feet with his own strength again. Aishia materializes and calls out to Rio while holding him from behind so Latifa doesn’t have to carry all of his weight. Everyone calls out to her happily too and she tells them that it has been a while. Celia smiles softly at the people surrounding Rio and Aishia. Hiroaki snorts sulkingly while saying that Rio always takes the good things for him. Gouki asks Hiroaki if it is fine for him to not join the circle around Rio and Aishia. Hiroaki says he isn’t that type of person, that he was never that close to Rio to begin with, then he asks Gouki if it is fine for him to look from the back when he is Rio’s retainer. Gouki says that it is precisely because he is a retainer that he looks from the back, that Rio is adored by everyone, so a foul man like him is more fitting to the backstage, that at these times he has to leave the youngsters be. Gouki begins to laugh and François does the same next to him. Hiroaki tells Gouki Rio is just being surrounded by women.
Rio takes a look at the sleeping Satsuki and asks everyone if she is fine. Charlotte tells Rio that she is, that just as he said Satsuki’s life isn’t in danger, her wound closed and her breathing is estable. Rio says that thanks goodness and thanks Charlotte. Charlotte gets embarrassed and tells Rio that she is the one that has to thank him and to please worry about himself rather than about that. Rio tries to appear recovered letting out a troubled laugh and tells Charlotte that he is already fine. Aishia strengthens her hug on Rio’s body while telling him that it is better if he doesn’t force himself. Sora screams Aishia’s name and tells her to not press those lumps of unneeded fat on her chest on Rio’s back. Aishia tells Sora it will be dangerous if she doesn’t support Rio properly. Sora says she will do that herself then. Aishia tells Sora she is too short for that. Sora says that it isn’t like that, that she is also stronger than her so she is more fitting for the job. The people living at the mansion look curiously at Sora’s and Aishia’s back and forth. Now they remember the time Sora spent with them at the mansion but they still don’t understand what it is her relationship with Rio and Aishia.
Sora notices that everyone’s eyes are on her and hides behind Rio while telling them to not look at her. Latifa says that it really is Sora and asks her if she remembers about her. Sora says she does shyly. Latifa goes around Rio and hugs Sora while telling her that she remembers her now too and that she is happy to see her. Sora asks Latifa what she is doing and tells her to let go while pushing her away. Latifa tells Sora while laughing that it is bad to struggle while lifting her up and holding her against her body. Sora tells Latifa to not lift her up and to not treat her like a child. Celia asks Sora while laughing if she isn’t happy. Sora says there isn’t anything good about being treated like that. Rio laughs seeing Sora like that, he finally can stand by himself and separates himself from Latifa and Aishia, he was going to put the mask in his pocket chest and then begins to look curiously at his clothes that aren’t damaged despite the golem piercing his heart earlier. Latifa sees Rio checking his chest and asks him what happens, if he is feeling unwell. Rio says that it is nothing, that he has to greet François and that he will go do that. François welcomes Rio with a happy smile. Rio says he is sorry for delaying his greeting, he was going to bow with a hand on his chest but François stops him and tells Rio that he can speak in the way it is more comfortable for him, that he doesn’t mind even if he wants to speak while lying on the ground, that he can also go take a rest first. Rio thanks François for his consideration but says that he is fine, that there are a lot of things that he has to talk about. Then Rio makes a wry smile while wondering just from where to begin his explanation. François tells Rio that then they will talk at his mansion.
Miharu (Lina) approaches the castle’s rooftop using her light wings to fly and lands close to Rio and François. Everyone approaches Miharu after she erases her wings of light and ask her where she went to and what she was doing there. Rio tilts his head curiously while looking at Miharu and wondering if it is her or if it is Lina. Miharu approaches Rio while putting on a cute smile and ignoring everyone’s questions. They let out surprised voices when Miharu suddenly hugs Rio. The surprise freezes everyone, Rio included, in place. Miharu pulled Rio’s face towards her and then kissed him. Rio widens his eyes in surprise, he panics when feeling Miharu’s tongue enter his mouth and tries to step back but Miharu puts her arms around his neck so he can’t escape. Rio can’t push Miharu away either because his arms hadn’t recovered their strength yet.
Miharu keeps kissing Rio just as if she wanted to show off in front of all of the people frozen in shock around them. While everyone around them were letting out surprised voices Rio realized that Miharu’s eyes lost their light for an instant and soon recovered it. Miharu tilts her head curiously while still kissing Rio, she wonders why Rio is front of her, she thinks it is warm. Aren’t their faces strangely close? Miharu wondered, was she seeing a dream or something? But then she realized it wasn't a dream, she realized that she was hugging Rio tightly while kissing him, and deeply at that. She asks herself how and why in her mind. Even though it was her first kiss. Well there was that one with Haru-kun when they were children but… Miharu gets so nervous that her mind begins to think about a lot of different things in a loop and her body gets frozen in place while she was still kissing Rio with a red face. Masato tells Miharu that it is incredible, an adult. Aki calls Masato idiot while covering his eyes with her hands. Aki herself feels a little complicated watching Rio and Miharu like that now that she recovered her memories, some of the girls finally snap out of her surprise and begin to scream Miharu’s name at the same time.
Chapter 6: Untrustworthy Prophet[]
After the battle with the golem everyone moved to Rio’s mansion. François needed to stay behind for a bit to give some orders to the people in the castle but he went to Rio’s mansion soon after that. Everyone’s questions are merely two, what happened at the end of the fight with Erika and why they forgot about Rio and Aishia. In the current situation with so many uncertainties François decided to limit that information to the people living with Rio and the people present during the fight with Erika like Liselotte and Aria. What degree of information to give to outside people like Christina and Liliana was left to Rio’s judgement. Rio then decides to give the same explanation he already gave to Celia. He explained that to defeat Erika Aishia and him used a transcendental’s power and that got them under the effect of God’s rules, he explained about the rules, that Sora was his familiar and some other things. Rio ends his explanation and tells everyone that that’s the reason why they lost their memories. Everyone stays silent while making pained expressions now that they know what kind of sacrifice allowed them to keep living peacefully at the castle. Rio tells everyone that what attacked the castle were golems, a combat magic tool created by the wise Gods during the dive war, that he doesn’t know why they attacked the castle or why they recovered their memories but that Miharu might know something about that.
Miharu apologizes and says she doesn’t remember anything since she went to sleep the previous night, then she looks down to avoid Rio’s gaze with her face still red. Rio says that if it is like that then it must have been Lina’s doing while she was controlling Miharu’s body, that the barrier surrounding the capital should be related to the reason why they recovered their memories. Rio looks away from Miharu awkwardly and asks Celia if he is right. Celia tells Rio that she thinks he is right but that she only did what Lina told her to do so she doesn’t really know how the barrier works, that she also was sent back to the surface in the middle so she doesn’t know how to go back to Lina’s atelier. François says he understands, that it is hard to believe a story about the dragon king’s and a wise God’s reincarnation but that he understands it, that he didn’t think there was such a place beneath the castle either. François sighs trying to put his thoughts in order and Latifa asks Rio what he will do from now on. Rio says that if he can he wants to live with everyone, that it seems that inside the barrier he isn’t bound by God’s rules, that even if it is just for the time being he wants to continue that life. Latifa tells Rio that it hasn’t to be just now, to live always together with them and to not go anywhere.
Rio tells Latifa that it might be complicated to be always together. Latifa asks why. Rio tells Latifa that his existence as the man called Haruto is unstable, that he doesn’t know for how long the effect of the barrier will last, that he might disappear from everyone’s memories again tomorrow. Everyone in the room begin to make anxious and scared expressions. Rio tells Latifa that it is also possible that nothing happens but that it will surely be scary if suddenly there is a person that they don’t know in the house. Latifa says that it isn’t scary, that it won’t be scary if it is him, that if she is going to forget again she will write a diary, that she will write everyday as many pages as she needs to not forget him. Rio tells Latifa that she shouldn’t do that, that he doesn’t know what kind of burden her brain might suffer if the discrepancy between the records and the memories is too big. Latifa asks why while crying, why when she finally has Rio in front of her. Liselotte hugs Latifa from the side to comfort her. François tells the group to end the meeting for the time being while standing up. Rio apologizes to François for ending things like that. François tells Rio to not mind it, that he asked what he wanted to ask, that he also wants time to think, that at another time… that it might be better if he doesn’t take for granted that there would be another time, but that right now the man called Haruto is back and that it is fine for him to be happy about that. Rio nods. François says that then they should have a banquet at noon, that he will also bring Christina and Liliana. Rio thanks François for his consideration while bowing to him.
Satsuki enters the dinning room and asks everyone if she came precisely when they were done talking. Everyone surrounds Satsuki and asks her if she is already fine. Satsuki says she is completely fine, just like before she was wounded. She approaches Rio who was mixed with the group and tells him that it is really him while blinking in surprise. Rio tells Satsuki that it has been a while. Satsuki says that it has, that she was told that he was who protected her and thanks him. Rio says that it isn’t like that, that he didn’t protect her and apologizes for not making it in time. Satsuki tells Rio to not apologize, that she would have really died if he hadn’t come, that no one would have been saved without him and apologizes for forgetting about him. Rio tells Satsuki that it can’t be helped that she forgot him and that later he has to explain why to her too. Satsuki says she wants to ask about that too but… she asks Rio why he made Latifa cry while looking fixedly at him. Rio tries to make excuses and Satsuki presses him into explaining everything while smiling mischievously. Rio then tells Satsuki everything he told to everyone earlier.
Later at noon, a banquet is being held at Rio’s mansion. Christina, Flora, Roana, Hiroaki, Kota, Rei and Liliana are there too. Latifa has been clinging to Rio since the earlier talk was over. Sora tells her that she has been clinging to Rio for too long, that she has overlooked it until now but that she has to let go already. Latifa says she doesn't want to separate from Rio, she tells Sora that she should just cuddle with Rio herself too, that his other side is free. Sora asks Latifa while stuttering embarrassedly how she is going to do something so disrespectful, that there isn’t a way she can do that. Aishia says she will cuddle with Rio herself then while hugging Rio’s free arm. Sora curses at Aishia while telling her to let go of Rio, that if she is going to cling to him she will do it herself then. Everyone makes a lot of merry around Rio, but there are people like Miharu that don’t enter that circle, she can’t look Rio in the face and is trying to stay by the side without bringing attention to herself. Satsuki asks Miharu if something happened, she tells her that she is clearly avoiding Rio. Celia also stays away from the circle until Monica approaches her and asks her if Rio isn’t a splendid person, she asks Celia if she is fine with staying aside. Celia says she is, that she will give this one to the others, that she was the first one to remember Rio and was able to meet him again before them after all. Monica says that she understands and asks Celia when she will introduce her lover to her mother. Celia lets out a surprised voice and Monica tells her again that she wants to be introduced to her dear lover.
After the battle Monica stayed with Christina and Flora to not hinder Rio’s explanation, so she hasn’t met him yet. Celia tells Monica with a red face that she is right, that a lot happened and she forgot to introduce her but that the “dear lover” part isn’t exactly right. Monica laughs softly and tells Celia that she wants to greet Rio quickly. The two approach Rio and Celia calls out to him. Rio asks Celia what it is and who is the person with her. Celia says that the introductions got delayed but she is her mother. Rio apologizes to Monica for not greeting her before and asks Latifa, Aishia and Sora to let go of him so he can talk to Monica and Celia properly. Monica introduces herself while curtsying and thanks Rio for always taking care of Celia. Rio says he is sorry for delaying his greetings, introduces himself to Monica and tells her that he is always helped by Celia himself. Monica tells Rio that she was the one late in greeting him and that she has been living in the mansion for several days already. Rio asks Monica if it was like that. Monica apologizes for troubling Rio like that. Rio tells Monica that it isn’t like that, that she (okaa-sama/お母様) is always welcome, that she can come whenever. Monica says she is happy about being called mother in law (ogibou-sama/お母様). Rio says he didn’t mean it in that way and Celia also scolds Monica for saying strange things.
*TLN:お母様 can be both a way to refer to a friend’s mother or to your mother in law.
Monica tells Rio that he is very strong, handsome, reliable and kind so she understands well the reason why the girls in the mansion yearn for him, that even Celia was looking at him before with eyes that… Celia tells Monica to stop, then she tells Rio that she has something to talk about with her mother and that the greeting will be just that for now. Celia begins to push Monica away from Rio and Monica tells him that she lets Celia in his hands, that it is fine to not worry about her noisy father, that if it is him she can let Celia on his care with peace of mind. Celia tells Monica to not say more strange things with a red face, meanwhile there might have been girls envious of Celia having her mother’s official approbation.
After the banquet Rio invites François, Christina and Liliana to one of the mansion’s drawing rooms to have a talk with them. Rio says he is sorry for taking their time when they are tired but that there is something he has to talk about with them. François asks Rio if he wants to talk about the heroes. Rio asks François if he realized it. After the battle Rio told a lot of things to François but he didn’t say a word about the heroes or the great spirits. François tells Rio that remembering about Erika reminded him of a lot of things, that the only common topic between the three different kingdoms is the heroes and to please tell him what he has to say. Rio tells the three that there is a risk of the heroes’ power going out of control. François, Christina and Liliana inst Rio to continue by staying silent. Rio tells the three that the people turned into heroes have the world’s most powerful spirits, the six great spirits, contracted to them and have them assimilated with them, that the heroes can use powerful spirit arts and materialize their divine weapons by borrowing the power of the great spirits, that he thinks they already know about it but that the heroes won’t die even if they receive lethal wounds, that the great spirits were sealed against their will inside the heroes so if there is an opening they will try to take over the heroes’ bodies. The three widen their eyes while gulping.
Rio tells the three that the seal is a powerful one so the great spirits won’t take over that easily, but that the stronger the power the heroes pull out of their weapons the stronger the assimilation with the great spirits gets and the risk of being taken over rises. François asks Rio if that is what happened to Erika. Rio says that it is, that Erika was taken over by the earth’s great spirit and caused a natural disaster, that that was the power of the rampaging great spirit, that once it gets to that point no human power can stop them. Liliana asks François how severe was the natural disaster created by Erika. François tells Liliana it is fine for her to imagine a scene where the earth and the sky changed places with enough impulse to easily swallow the capital but covering the whole horizon. Christina says that that isn’t kind at all with an terrified expression. Rio tells the three that he isn’t sure yet of the reason why a hero’s power will get out of control, but that in Erika’s case what rised her degree of assimilation was receiving a lot of lethal wounds in succession due to her fighting style that relied in a hero’s healing powers, that it won’t be enough with two or three times but that there might be individual differences, so he wants to make it so the heroes will die as little as possible, that he set that meeting to ask for their cooperation with that, then Rio lowers his head deeply at the three. François tells Rio that his answer is obvious, that he was at that place at that time, that he learnt first hand that that wasn’t a power human hands can do something about. Christina says she has no objection and Liliana says she also agrees.
Rio thanks them for their cooperation, he tells them he kept this a secret in their previous talk while thinking about their relationship with the heroes, that he wasn’t sure if it would be fine to tell the heroes about this so soon. François tells Rio they have to tell them, that he wants to tell this to Satsuki at a place with the two of them present. Liliana tells Rio that she also wants to be with Masato at that time if possible because Masato admires him. Christina says she thinks she will have Hiroaki attend that meeting too. François says that they will set a meeting with the four of them and the three heroes then. Rio thanks the three for their cooperation. François tells Rio that they are the ones that have to thank him for being told of the matter, then he tells Rio he has one more question. Rio asks what it is. François asks Rio what was the sword similar to the heroes’ weapons he used before, that before he recovered his memories he was wondering if he was a hero or not. Rio says that he obviously isn’t a hero, that that sword was power he became able to handle after assimilating with Aishia, that the mechanism is a power similar to the heroes’ but that now he isn’t assimilated with Aishia so he can’t take out the sword. François says he understands and asks Rio if he isn’t at risk of being taken over too. Rio says he isn’t, that Aishia won’t do something like trying to take over his body. Rio smiles softly when he realized that he never thought of that possibility until now. François agrees with Rio and begins to laugh too. Christina asks Rio if his body is really fine, that he seemed to be quite in pain after the battle. Rio says that he is fine now. François tells Rio that he must still be tired despite that, that their talk is already over, that it is fine for him to rest well for the rest of the day.
François stands to leave and Liliana does the same with a smile. Rio stands to see them off until the entrance and then Christina calls out to him. François tells Rio that he doesn’t need to see them off after seeing that Christina still wants to talk about something and leaves with Liliana. Rio asks Christina what it is after being left alone with her. Christina tells Rio that she wanted to thank him. Rio asks Christina what she wants to thank him for while tilting his head curiously. Christina says she is talking about Rodania’s fall, that he was the one who helped them to escape. Rio lets out an understanding voice. Christina tells Rio that without his intervention she wouldn’t be there and thanks him bowing deeply to him. Rio tells Christina that it isn’t like that, that the truth is that he wanted to prevent Rodania’s fall but… Christina tells Rio to not mind that, that he probably protected them by consuming his precious masks, that she is sorry about that, that it would be good if she could compensate him for that but… Rio tells Christina that he did it because he wanted to, that he still has spares so she doesn’t have to worry about the masks. Christina says she can’t do that, that the her that forgot her debt with him can’t be so carefree and asks Rio how she can thank him for it. Rio tells Christina that it was natural for her to lose her memories, that even if it wasn’t it is still fine for her to forget, that she really doesn’t have to worry about that.
Christina says she won’t do that, that there might no be much that the current her exiled in the Galarc kingdom can do, but that even like that to please tell her if there is something she can do for him, that she wants to pay back her debt even if it is just a bit. Rio tells Christina to please come hang out at the mansion again if she feels like that. Christina says that that won’t be any kind of payback. Rio tells Christina that it isn’t like that, that he thinks everyone will be happy about that, he himself included of course. Christina asks if it is like that while looking curiously at Rio who is scratching his cheek awkwardly, she tells herself in her mind that the “myself included” part must be Rio’s courtesy but… she asks Rio embarrassedly if it is fine if she visits in the next days just to have fun. Rio tells her that it is fine, that she is always greatly welcome. Christina says that if it is in the near future she thinks she can make time on tomorrow’s evening but… she says that tomorrow is just too sudden no matter what, that coming so late must be troublesome too, that… Rio tells Christina that he doesn’t mind, that tomorrow’s evening it is then, to please have dinner with them since she will be with them at that time anyway, that it is decided. Christina agrees to the appointment a little surprisedly, then the two left.
At the same time, Miharu was alone in her room writhing in shame on her bed with her face buried in her pillow and flailing her legs up and down. In the end she wasn’t able to talk to Rio at all during the banquet, she touches her lips while thinking that something like that happened despite her having so many things she wanted to tell Rio too. Even though it was her first kiss… who would think it would end before she knew it? No, well… she woke up in the middle so it is not like she knows nothing at all but… her face gets red again while remembering the kiss, she feels like she can still feel the sensation of Rio’s lips, they were soft… that’s not it, she has to worry about why she kissed him. It was that Goddess Lina inside her controlling her body right? It doesn’t feel real for her, it doesn’t make sense for her, right now she cares more about her embarrassment than about Lina being her previous life too. She has a feeling, she isn’t sure about it yet but… was Lina the person in her dreams? Could she meet Lina if she went to sleep? She only talked with her two times until now in her dreams. More precisely speaking she talked with her a third time after slapping Takahisa but Miharu can’t remember that. Miharu decides to go to sleep, she doesn’t feel like sleeping right now but she lies on her side on the bed anyway, nonetheless, after the battle with golems and activating so many spells Miharu’s body was more tired than she was aware of and she fell asleep soon enough.
Miharu appears in the same white space from her previous dreams. She thinks it was as she expected, the same dream. She looks around trying to find Lina and the same feminine voice from the previous times soon greets her, she asks Miharu if she should say good morning or good night. Miharu asks the voice if she is Lina. The voice tells Miharu that that’s it, that she is Lina. Miharu tells Lina she doesn’t think it is good to use someone’s body to kiss people on a whim. Lina asks Miharu why she begins with that worthless thing when she should have more important things to ask about, then she begins to laugh. Miharu screams that it is important. Lina asks Miharu if it was so bad, that it was a kiss with her loved one anyway. Miharu says that it was bad, that it is precisely because she loves Rio that she wanted to have a proper first kiss. Lina asks Miharu what she is saying when that wasn’t her first kiss. Miharu says that it was her first kiss, she asks Lina if she doesn’t know it herself too, if they aren’t the same person. Lina tells Miharu she knows her first kiss was with Haruto, when he was moving out with his father when they were seven years old. Miharu says that was her first kiss with Haru-kun not with Rio. Lina tells Miharu that that’s it, that she knows it well, that the kiss she gave Rio today wasn’t her first kiss, it was her second one, so she can’t understand why she began with a worthless topic like some first kiss.
Miharu says that it isn’t worthless. Lina tells Miharu that she gave her first kiss to Haruto, that despite she only being able give her second kiss or higher she is blabbering on about some first kiss, she asks Miharu if she regrets to not be able to offer her first kiss to Rio. Miharu bites her lips while feeling she is made a fool of, she looks angrily and rebelliously at Lina in silence, she can’t deny everything Lina said, there were even convincing parts. The kiss from today might certainly be the second one but something like regretting she couldn’t give Rio her first kiss is… but on the other side she doesn’t think Lina is trying to make her think she has that kind of thoughts she can’t understand her intentions at all. Miharu lets out a surprised voice when Lina tells her that she thinks like that because she is an idiot. Lina says that she doesn’t understand it well but that the human men seem to be happy when they are someone’s first, that they feel some value in that, that when it isn’t like that it seems easy for them to treat the girl as something dirty. Is Rio like that too? Wouldn’t he prefer for his first kiss a girl that hadn’t kissed yet instead of one that already did? Miharu still stays silent and Lina tells her that she has a question too. Miharu asks what it is. Lina asks Miharu who is the person she loves, Haruto or Rio.
Meanwhile, when Miharu had just fallen asleep and after Rio ended his talk with François, Christina and Liliana. Rio went back to his room, he stands in front of its door while thinking it has been a long since he entered it. While Rio was basking in the nostalgia with his hand in the doorknob someone calls out to him. Rio gets surprised while beginning to feel awkward because of the kiss when he sees Miharu approaching him. Miharu herself is red faced too while telling Rio she has something she wants to talk about, something she doesn’t want the other to hear. Rio says he understands and tells Miharu to enter his room while scratching his cheek awkwardly. Miharu obeys shyly. Rio closes the door behind him and asks Miharu what she wants to talk about while offering her a chair. While Rio was wondering if he should sit on his bed Miharu hugs his back and pushes him down on the bed, she makes him face her, straddles him and begins to approach her face to Rio’s. Rio tells Miharu to please wait and she stops moving while looking silently at him. Rio asks Miharu if she is Lina. Lina tells Rio that he realized as she expected and chuckles while nodding, she touches the earring in her left ear and her appearance changes from Miharu’s to her past one.
Rio widens his eyes when he sees the change, he wonders if that was Lina’s original appearance but pushes the thought aside and tells Lina that Miharu wouldn’t do something like that, he sighs and asks Lina why she did something like that. Lina asks Rio which he thinks is the reason why. Rio tells Lina he wants her to stop answering his questions with her own. Lina tells Rio that she also wants him to stop thinking a question will always be given an answer. Rio says he understands and asks Lina if she can get off of him for the time being. Lina refuses while smiling happily at Rio. Rio looks warily at Lina while wondering what her purpose is. Lina tells Rio to not be so wary, that it isn’t time for night crawling yet and that she didn’t come to assault him either, that she doesn’t mind if he wants to do as he pleases with Miharu’s body if he wishes to, that she can also go back to Miharu’s appearance, that she thinks she will be happy about the fait accompli too. Lina smiles daringly while exposing her chest a little and asking Rio if he is interested. Rio sighs and tells Lina that if she didn’t come to assault him he will talk. Lina asks Rio if that means that he wouldn’t have minded to do that if she had come to assault him. Rio tells Lina that he will resist if she assaults him. Lina tells Rio he is lying. Rio says he is serious, that he will resist. Lina tells Rio that his body isn’t well, that he seems to be using body strengthening to seem fine but that the truth is that he feels languid due to the use of the authority and the assimilation and should have trouble even for walking if he stops the technique.
Rio looks with surprise at Lina. Lina tells Rio she has a warming for him, she tells Rio to not assimilate beyond the one hundred percent more than once in a row or for a long time as much as possible, that if he doesn’t do that there won’t be a turning back. Rio says he understands and asks Lina if that is what she wanted to tell him. Lina says that it isn’t, that that was the preface and there is another one, she tells Rio that the barrier surrounding the capital is stable so for now there shouldn’t be any trouble with it, that he can live without worrying about God’s rules while he is inside the barrier, that now she turned off the effect to keep intruders away so he can come and go freely but that if he leaves the rules will be in effect again, so he needs to make sure he has masks with him. Rio says he understands and Lina says that from now on is the main topic. Rio asks what it is. Lina tells Rio that it will be troublesome if he relies on her predictions, that as she told Celia already she can’t tell them directly the future, that sometimes she will give advice or some prophecy and that sometimes she won’t do that, that there might be times when she lies and that at times she might do horrible things. Rio asks Lina if there is a reason to do things that way. Lina tells Rio that there is, but that anyway the choice will always be his, that he doesn’t need to do as she says without fault, that depending on the case things that he hates might happen and as a result he will be the one who will have to take responsibility of those things. Rio tells Lina she is quite the untrustworthy prophet while smiling wryly.
Lina tells Rio that she is, that the wise God Lina is an untrustworthy and malicious goddess, she asks Rio if he didn’t understand already why Sora hates her. Rio says he wonders about that. Lina tells Rio that he is kind, be it in his previous life or in the present. Rio says he wonders about that too. Lina says that enough of that, she asks Rio if despite that… Rio asks what it is. Lina asks Rio if she will listen to her words despite her being such an untrustworthy prophet, if he will continue to trust her from now on no matter what. Rio pauses and Lina looks very seriously while rising her upper half and offering Rio a handshake. Rio tells Lina that if he is honest then he can’t answer that question instantly but that he promises to keep listening to her words, that she is his best information source and seems to have helped everyone too, then he takes Lina’s hand. Lina tells Rio that now they are partners then and to take care of her from now on. Rio tells Lina that likewise and that he wants her to not do this kind of meaningless strange jokes if she just came to give an advice. Lina asks Rio what he means. Rio says he means doing things like pretending to be Miharu and pushing him down. Lina says that it isn’t meaningless, that she thought this would be an efficient way of teaching him that she isn’t an existence that can be trusted. Rio asks Lina if she did all of this just for that and even the kiss too. Lina asks Rio if it is persuasive with a seductive smile. Rio tells Lina to please absolutely not do anything like that from now on and sighs deeply.
Lina chuckles and tells Rio that as a cooperator she has three untrustworthy advices for him, and that one of them includes a prophecy. Rio asks what they are. Lina tells Rio that in the first place it was a mistake to go to the dungeon in search of clues of the past, that if he wants to investigate the past he has to do it somewhere else. Rio asks where if not in the dungeon and Lina says she won’t tell him that. Rio asks what is the second thing. Lina makes a serious face and tells Rio to take more familiars aside of Sora. Rio stays silent while making a bitter face, he doesn’t want to make a familiar, the person turned into a familiar will be forgotten by the world just like the transcendentals if he does that. Lina tells Rio that she understands the reason why he doesn’t want to make more familiars, that the him of one thousand years ago was the same, that he hated to an odd degree to force the transcendentals’ way of being onto others but that he has to do more familiars aside of Sora despite that, that if he doesn’t make them he might end into a situation he will regret. Rio asks if he will regret to not make more familiars. He can’t understand that, for him it is the opposite, he wonders just what is going to happen but he understands Lina won’t tell him that so he kept his worry to himself. Lina says that now she will give her last advice that is also a prophecy, she tells Rio that she thinks Christina would be fine as his first new familiar aside of Sora.
Bonus Short Story[]
Precocious Kaguya-hime[]
Next volume's preview[]
Thanks to the barrier created by the seventh wise God Lina the people at Galarc’s castle finally remembered their bonds and memories with Rio and Aishia. The joy is short lived though, the bewitchingly smiling Goddess bestows on Rio an important prophecy regarding his familiars. Will Rio who is strongly opposed to increase his familiars follow the prophecy or…?
[Rio? This name, could it be…?]
精霊幻想記26.虚構の在処, Seirei Gensouki 26 - Kyokou no Arika, Where deceit lies. Scheduled for October 1st 2024 and confirmed to come with a drama CD.
Short stories:
- Melonbooks - The precocious princess Kaguya: Haruto's group ended up having to act in the play of princess Kaguya. For some reason the child in the paper of Kaguya that they had just met is incredibly friendly with Haruto.
- Bookwalker - Ayase Miharu's cat craddle classrom: When Miharu's group was still in the care of the spirit folk's village. Who came to Miharu's side while she was giving a lecture about playing cat's craddle to the people of the village was...
Gallery[]
