Whoooosh-
The darkness that had burst apart and scattered now gathered once more into a single point.
It condensed into a sphere, and that sphere soon returned to the shape of a human.
Only, it was not exactly the same. A rougher, deeper darkness was rippling through it now.
At the sight of a form that seemed stronger than before rather than weakened, Arphia muttered in disgust.
"What an infuriating bastard. How are you supposed to kill that thing?"
"Well, for now, just think of it as something that can't be treated like an ordinary living creature."
How to kill that thing... Honestly, I didn't really know either.
The method I had used to kill it before was highly unusual. At the very least, I couldn't use it now.
I had to find another way. A different method from last time.
At the very least, I was certain it couldn't be killed by simply cutting its throat or piercing its heart.
"Don't tell me we have to grind all of that power down or something?"
At Arphia's uneasy murmur, Vesta gave an involuntary bitter smile.
They had drained quite a bit of its power in the previous exchange, but the spirit still held endless strength within it.
If reducing all of that was the condition for victory, then victory was impossible.
That would still be one way to kill it... but that probably wasn't everything. There had to be another way, even if it wasn't that.
Strictly speaking, the spirit was an enemy of the incorporeal type. If so, then what they needed to aim for was an attack that struck at that very concept.
If they kept attacking with the power of another spirit, a path would surely open.
"I can't do that sort of thing."
"I know."
Unfortunately, spirit power was not something that came around often. It might have been common in ancient times, but for the heroes of the divine age, spirit power was not all that necessary.
They had Falna as an alternative...
Drip-
"Hey, your eyes..."
"It's nothing."
...and the price was certainly real.
The greatest cost of spirit power was the collapse of the body.
Just as Zald had taken spirit power into his body and broken down from it, spirit power drove its user toward death.
In truth, it wasn't even really a price. It was simply that the body could not withstand such overwhelming power.
Unlike Falna, which strengthened every ability, spirit power only granted raw force. A tremendous power the user could not endure.
Blood flowing from the eyes was not a serious symptom. Starting with the weakest organ, the eyes, was in some sense inevitable.
It wasn't bursting open yet, and if it was only a little blood, then there was still some time left.
"I'll fight at the front, so please support me."
"...Be careful."
At those words, the spirit's attack began.
-■■■■■■■■
Hundreds of spearheads made of darkness shot forth like a tidal wave.
Until now, it had really been attacking like a tidal wave, but now it had deliberately changed them into spears. It was reducing unnecessary force while increasing lethality.
'Is it wary of him?'
The only person here who could deal any meaningful damage to it.
It was certainly a rational judgment to be wary of such an existence.
A rational judgment, but...
"How annoying."
That reaction, as if no one else mattered at all, irritated Arphia.
Crackle- She tore apart the cloth she had layered under her combat uniform.
She twisted the shredded fabric into a thin wick, then cast [Gospel] over it once.
Through the compression caused by her skill, sound wrapped around the wick and condensed, completing a hardened dagger.
A dagger imbued with the power of a light spirit.
"[Gospel]."
She activated her magic once more, as if firing off a mass of compressed sound.
The dagger, propelled by the blast of magic, outsped the rabbit and struck the spirit dead on.
-■■■■■■■■?!
The power was slight, but it was still spirit power. And even more, the completely opposite force of light pierced into the darkness.
Light tore through the dark. Even a faint light shines brightly within darkness. The light, armored in sound and having penetrated the enemy's interior, soon erupted into a considerable blaze, successfully driving away part of the darkness.
Struck from an unexpected angle, the spirit revealed an opening.
And the rabbit did not miss it.
"Haaah!!"
With a ringing hiss, light converged on the broken dagger.
That light was dangerous. In some sense, even more dangerous than the attack just now.
Not dismissing the warning of its instincts, the spirit fired every last darkness spear at once.
In a single instant, 1,024 spears shot out. Though fired recklessly, the lack of precision was covered by sheer volume, and the spears launched in every direction instantly blocked the field of vision.
It was like a wall. A barrier blocking the rabbit's advance.
The countless spears overlapped densely, pressing in on the rabbit.
But a rabbit was an existence that could slip through even the smallest gap.
Dodging the raining spears by the narrowest margin, it threaded through their gaps. Even when attacks grazed it by a hair's breadth, it ignored them and deflected only the unavoidable blows as minimally as possible, launching a special attack that no sane person could have pulled off.
-■■■■■■■■?!
It wasn't unharmed.
Its body had been shaved away in places, and blood had stained it red all over.
By ordinary standards, it was nothing more than a rag.
But its limbs were still moving, and the spirit was right in front of it.
"Haaah!"
A ten-second accumulation.
Compensating for the lack of stored power with sheer will, the grain of light containing lightning exploded.
A hero's strike imbued with spirit power. The slash driven in along the trail of the bullet the witch had fired exploded once more from within the spirit, and with terrifying force, gradually wore down the spirit's power.
Unlike the one-sided grinding from before, this was now a mutual attrition battle. It was good that their attacks were landing, but time was on the enemy's side. If this turned into a stubborn war of attrition where they simply kept grinding each other down, defeat on their side was inevitable.
Vesta and Arphia both knew it. What they needed to aim for now was not this meaningless exchange, but a decisive blow.
-■■■■■■■■
"?!"
With a sharp tear, the part corresponding to a human face split open, and a sinister light flickered within.
Breath?! In this state?!
"Tch!"
He hurriedly tried to pull the dagger free, but it had no intention of coming loose.
Was he being lured?! He could hardly believe it, but there was no time to be shocked.
He had to choose. Let go of the dagger and evade, or keep hold of it and deal with the attack.
There was no option to let go and then pick it back up. The moment he released it, the dagger would be devoured by the darkness and crumble away without leaving even a trace.
If he let go of the dagger, he couldn't win. But if he didn't, he would take this attack head-on.
An extreme two-choice trap. The hesitation lasted only an instant, but in this battle, an instant was a very long time.
"?!"
The wavering light surged dangerously.
It was coming!
There was no way now. He had to let go and dodge—
-■■■■■■■■?!
At the moment of decision, a white bullet traced a tail through the air and flew as if being sucked straight into the spirit's gaping maw.
"What are you standing there for? Attack!"
"...! [Firebolt]!"
Boom!
The blast sent Vesta flying back with the recoil.
At the same time as the dramatic escape, the breath mixed with the power of light exploded inside the spirit, swelling its body and tearing it apart.
But the two of them already knew. No matter how much they tore it to pieces, they would never be able to bring it down like this.
They needed something on a higher level. A light that could purify everything by blowing it all away.
"Tch..."
Arphia clicked her tongue. At a glance, the battle seemed to be going well, but in truth they were taking a significant loss with each exchange.
The enemy was a spirit with a mind so vast it was almost endless. In contrast, they had a mage whose mind was nearly spent and one frontliner who was practically dying.
With every exchange, they had to fight with the resolve of the desperate. This was not an exaggeration—wasting any more exchanges than this would be fatal.
Next time, or at the very latest the one after that. If they couldn't end it within that window, they would lose.
'The remaining bullets are...'
Her battle-worn clothes had been torn so badly that Arphia's skin was dangerously exposed, but more than that, she bit her lip over the number of bullets she had left.
Three bullets remaining. That was the number she had made by tearing apart every piece of cloth she wore.
There was no one else nearby. Replenishment was impossible. Knowing that these three shots were the only chances she had to support him made Arphia's expression even harder.
"Cough...!"
"Hey!"
"I-I'm fine. I'm fine... cough...!"
To make matters worse, Vesta had already reached his limit from this exchange alone.
Vesta's attacks shaved away at the darkness, and the darkness in turn shaved away at Vesta. His body, already in tatters from the previous exchange, was gradually becoming unable to endure the power within him, and the weaker parts were starting to fail one by one.
The amount of blood flowing from his eyes steadily increased. As his vision turned red, it also began to blur little by little.
He rubbed at his eyes, but the view before him remained hazy. It wasn't just blood or a temporary effect; it was irreversible, permanent damage.
Just like that time.
"Huu... huu..."
His breathing gradually grew rougher. It was proof that his stamina had reached its limit.
The limit was arriving faster than expected. At this rate, he felt like he would collapse before he even entered the next exchange.
Should he launch another attack now? But approaching the spirit while it was in this rampaging state was suicide in itself...
And yet this was the moment when a decision had to be made. He was sick of hesitation leading to the worst possible outcome.
There were times when reckless attacks had to be made. This was one of them.
"Wait, if you go now—"
Ignoring Arphia's attempt to stop him, he stepped forward. Just as he was about to advance toward that monster—
"Ah..."
Whoosh- A single beam of light shot up into the sky.
Following it, one after another, more and more beams of light rose. In an instant, the sky was filled with them, and soon they fell like shooting stars toward Vesta, seeping into his body.
"This is..."
Sizzle- Warm light wrapped around his worn-down body and began to restore it. A familiar sensation. This feeling, one he had felt many times before as if moving away from death...
"Second line! Start chanting!"
"...?"
A voice came from the direction the beams of light had poured from.
"Are you all right?"
"You managed that much on your own? Not bad."
Someone else stood on either side of him and spoke.
Who was it? His vision was too blurred to make them out clearly.
His ears felt muffled. One by one, not just his eyes but the weaker organs were starting to fail too.
But even those failing parts were gradually improving under the flood of healing magic. His vision had not returned, but the muffled feeling in his ears was slowly clearing.
"A hero...? Zald?"
"...Your condition is awful. Are you even still alive?"
"...You're not exactly in a position to talk, Zald."
Even through his blurred vision, Zald's condition was terrible.
Not only was one arm severed, but his entire body was drenched in blood as if it had been sprayed over him.
Guel was no different. His limbs might still be intact, but in fact Guel looked even more horrific.
His whole body was scraped raw and uneven, and in some places bone was plainly visible. Why had he come here looking like he'd die any second if he didn't focus on healing immediately?
"Let's fight together."
"I'll open a path, at least."
"Huh?"
At the unexpected offer, he made a stupid face.
"What's with that reaction? This was supposed to be our job in the first place."
"It doesn't sit right to leave everything to someone else now."
The two of them said that with small smiles.
No, it wasn't just the two of them. Every surviving member of the subjugation force had once again taken up their weapons and returned to the battlefield.
What had driven them this far, this stubbornly... there was no need to think about it.
I was standing on the battlefield in this state too, after all.
"Stop lying around, you idiots! Show me the spirit of adventurers!"
-UOOOOOOOOOO!!!
At the empress's shout, a roar rose within the subjugation force.
Unlike the first cheer they had heard, these were only voices on the verge of death, but the heat and momentum within them were by no means lacking.
Those who had coughed up blood, gathered their exhausted strength, gripped shattered weapons, and dragged bodies that would not have looked out of place being called rags back onto the battlefield.
They had no elegance, no refinement. And precisely because of that, they were more like adventurers than anyone else.
They were fighting to the very end, boasting even with bodies on the verge of death.
They burned with pride, refusing to be knocked down and left there.
"I'll funnel the healing to you. You should be able to move a little."
"We'll open the path, so all you need to think about is landing one good hit."
To be honest, they didn't look all that reassuring.
One was one-armed, the other half-dead.
Their backs were already half-corpse. And yet they felt larger than anything I had ever seen.
Had I ever looked that way to someone else?
"...Please."
"Yeah." "Leave it to us."