111 - Chapter 37: Because I Want to Be by Your Side
Albe felt the pressure of the Untouchable God, the Prayer of Severance, not with his skin, but with his very soul.
Possessing power that rivaled or even surpassed that of a Great Fairy... in other words, having obtained the power of a dragon, he had already become something akin to a demigod. Currently capable of wielding the power of the Spirit Dragon, a part of the system known as nature, he was a rule-breaking existence who could use that power without permission while abandoning his duties.
Even from his perspective, Mishandra's existence was a rule-breaker, an outlier.
The first will, born simultaneously with this world...
That was the legend among the fairy race, which he had heard directly from the Creator God, Refill, during a past encounter.
According to that legend, Mishandra is said to be slumbering as a divinity who will eventually be welcomed into the Divine Realm. Taking the form of a golden spider, he will witness the downfall of this world and ascend to godhood carrying all its information... in a sense, he is a kin of Refill.
The authority granted to him is memory. Authority is, in other words, the essence of power. Therefore, he possesses the power not only to manipulate memories or cause misrecognitions, but to deceive, trick, and even rewrite the binary of the world itself.
In other words, if that power were directed at Albe, he could perform a rewrite such as "Albe never existed in this world from the start." Before Albe could even perceive it, without anyone knowing, not even as a destruction, but simply as a "blank" carved into the world. That is the authority of memory.
Of course, since he has been summoned by a diminutive existence called a human, Marianne, there is no way he can exert such an exaggerated power. If he could, Albe would have already been erased. And done so carelessly, with a force no greater than a puff of breath.
(I'm still alive! I have my memories! With that human's amount of mana, manifesting is all she can handle! Then he shouldn't be able to wield the power spoken of in legends! In that case, I can escape!!)
Albe's assessment was correct.
No matter how much Marianne boasted a mana capacity at the peak of humanity, that was merely a human scale. There was no way she could subordinate a divine existence. Therefore, the exercise of that authority is limited. If he could exploit that opening, while defeating her might be impossible, escaping was feasible. And once he hid his presence, it would be difficult to recapture Albe, who was close to a demigod, and there was no guarantee that the Prayer of Severance, Mishandra, could be summoned again at that time.
If he escapes, he wins.
Therefore, Albe attempted to flee from the scene, but...
"Inversion...!"
The moment he turned his back on Shannon, who faced him, he was forcibly made to turn around.
"This guy...!!"
Yes, every time he tried to leave the area, Shannon used the power of the magic spear to manipulate Albe's action vector to prevent him from escaping.
The effective range itself was not long. At most, four or five ken. However, since he had been clung to ever since he stepped into the spear's killing range, he was forced into a confrontation. In that case, he could just kill her immediately. Thinking this, he sent undead or went to strike her directly, but...
"...!"
Everything was neutralized by placed slashes, Afterglows.
To be honest, there was no firepower. At most, it was enough to cut off one of Albe's arms. Since he could recover from such a thing instantly, it was insufficient firepower to kill him.
However, blocked by that, he could not push through the attack. He could not overwhelm her. He could not kill her. Therefore, he could not escape. Her defense was hard.
(It's no good, at this rate the Untouchable God, the Prayer of Severance, will join in. I don't really want to use too much power, but it can't be helped. Should I do that...?)
Having thought of a move to escape, Albe began to act while refining his power in the background.
"I don't have time to play around! Just die already...!!"
"Ei!"
Then, as if to interrupt him, a quite lovely voice echoed, and a heat ray piercing from the sky blew away Albe from the waist up.
●
"Eh...?"
Just as she thought a red line had descended from the sky, Albe's upper body suddenly exploded before her eyes, and Shannon involuntarily let out a voice of bewilderment.
To be honest, it was true that she had been purely on the defensive. From Shannon's perspective, the undead Albe commanded, his own physical specs, and the magic he used were beyond those of her teacher and were approaching or even surpassing those of those three idiots.
But that was all.
In Shannon's opinion, Albe's combat experience itself was low, regardless of close or long range. He likely hadn't learned the basics of fighting or received guidance from a superior. He was merely swinging power around, so to put it bluntly, he was like a spoiled child, making his actions far too easy to read. Certainly, if he landed one good hit, it would be checkmate, but unless she was extremely careless, she wouldn't let that happen, so she had been focusing on defense to observe and search for weaknesses.
Plainly put, he wasn't scary. He had no presence. Therefore, she had been calmly stalling for time. And just as she was thinking, "Now, where is the weakness?", he suddenly exploded. It was only natural to be bewildered.
Wondering who on earth it was, she looked up at the sky... and there was Lumilia. In a Valkyrie look.
"Lu, Lumilia-sama!? Cute... no, what on earth is that appearance...?"
"Marianne-sama helped me. I shall fight as well."
Lumilia, who descended from the sky flapping her white wings, smiled at Shannon, who was unintentionally captivated by the sight.
"B, but..."
"I have decided that we shall walk together. Not in front, nor behind, but please stay by my side."
At those words, Shannon gasped as if hesitating for a moment, but eventually nodded deeply.
"Yes. I will always be by your side. Even if we are separated, even if we are torn apart, I will surely return to you. Because I love you, Lumilia-sama."
"...Yes! I also...!"
It was just as Lumilia was about to respond to those words.
The helmet, Vasago, equipped on her sent future information. Foreseeing the worst future, Lumilia moved almost instinctively. She threw herself forward as if to protect Shannon, and the shoulder guard of her light armor, Zepar, detached and enlarged. Immediately after it became a shield to block everything...
"Stop flirting!!"
Albe, whose blown-away upper body had completely recovered, fired a strange beam of dark magic from his mouth. It flew toward Shannon and Lumilia, but on that straight line, the shoulder guard had already enlarged and become a shield. And it was not crushed, nor did it even take a direct hit. The moment it reached the shield, it vanished.
"Damn, oh seriously! Is it really the Untouchable God, the Prayer of Severance! Why, why does he appear in a place like this! It's impossible!"
Event alteration of memory... a part of it. He had rewritten the memory of this world that a strange beam had been fired.
"Lumilia-sama!?"
"No, I am fine. ...To interrupt someone's confession, what a tactless fellow."
Muttering that they were almost mutual, Lumilia returned the enlarged shoulder guard to its normal size. Then, Lumilia looked Albe straight in the eye.
"Honestly. To summon the ruler of a country to a place like this in front of royalty is irreverent. Do you have no common sense?"
"Don't act tough with borrowed power!!"
"Is that something you can say, relying on the power of the Spirit Dragon, Stein?"
"You...! You're annoying! You!!"
The moment Albe braced himself, deciding that a war of words was no longer necessary...
"That's you!!"
"Goh!?"
A shadow that leaped out from the side slammed an iron mass into Albe's right shin. With a nasty sound, Albe's right leg bent in an L-shape, and he collapsed, losing his support.
"What, eh, hah? Eh, who...?"
Since he would recover immediately anyway and could freely choose not to feel pain, the attack itself should have had little meaning, but more than the pain, Albe was speechless at the person who had suddenly appeared.
A blue-haired girl wearing a nun's habit. There should be no connection. At least, Albe didn't know her. And yet, she was glaring at him as if he were her parents' murderer, shouting as if she couldn't even spare the time to catch her breath.
"It's you, it's you, it's you, isn't it!? The one who put my Big Sister through that! You dared to scar my Big Sister... I'll kill you!"
"Who are you!?"
Since she had no intention of introducing herself, I shall say it. It is the runaway express Saint, Lilitia Herbert.
However, ignoring Albe's heartfelt question, Lilitia stood poised with Rasayana.
With Albe sitting on his backside due to his huge body, his face was at a very convenient height, like a perfect pitch with a high inside angle. Lilitia balanced on one leg, swung Rasayana back, and delivered a full-power swing.
"H, heavy...!?"
Albe reflexively defended with both arms, and for a moment, they were at a stalemate.
However, what Lilitia held was Rasayana. It was a divine artifact that had a specialty not only against physical attacks but also against undead... the spirit attribute. In other words, it exerted its effect without question even against Albe, who had taken in the power of the Spirit Dragon, Stein, the pinnacle of the spirit attribute, and whose nature had shifted toward it.
The two arms that blocked it shattered with a sound like breaking glass.
"Hmph, nuh!!"
"Gah!?"
He was then swung through by sheer force with the Saint buff at full power, taking a direct hit to the face. From the impact, Albe was slammed back-first onto the cobblestones. Then, Lilitia mounted Albe's chest and held Rasayana up to the heavens.
"Die and apologize!!"
Furthermore, a barrage of blows by Lilitia began, one, two, three hits aimed at his face.
(Eh...)
Whether to call it "without question" or something else, at this splatter-like development where there was absolutely no mercy, even a yakuza would be pale, and both Shannon and Lumilia looked at each other, completely put off.
However, Albe was someone who had one foot in the realm of demigods.
"You...!!"
As expected, he showed extraordinary recovery power, leaped up from the mounted Lilitia using only his back muscles, and jumped back to create distance and reset.
But Shannon, who had the eyes of a knight, would not let that slip.
"...Inversion!!"
"!?"
With the authority of the magic spear, she inverted the inertia of Albe's backstep. She guided him into their attack range.
"Ei!!"
"Guh!?"
Lumilia, who had already received that future information from the helmet, had already stepped forward, and as she thrust her spear, a heat ray ran and swept across Albe's torso.
And then...
"Dieeeee!!"
Lilitia charged in without looking aside and swung Rasayana around. Albe somehow parried it and regenerated his separated upper and lower body, but irritation was gradually building up in his heart.
For Albe, each individual was merely a nuisance, but when the three of them gathered and began to coordinate, it was becoming troublesome. Even Albe, who boasted mana nearly equal to a demigod, had a regeneration limit. Of course, he wasn't about to hit the ceiling with just this much.
But it was a fact that he was consuming mana, even if only a little. For him, this place was not the decisive battle. The revenge against the Great Fairy, Cathedra, waiting after this was his main event. Therefore, he did not wish to waste mana here, and facing the Prayer of Severance, Mishandra, was out of the question.
So, while acting as if he were being pushed, he was refining a plan in the background to escape... but regardless of that, it was annoying. Being clung to by existences no more than gnats. Therefore, these words involuntarily escaped his mouth.
"What is wrong with you people!!"
Since he is unaware, I shall say it. It is the Albe Victims' Association.
"Damn it! If it's come to this...!!"
"It is too late to plot schemes now. Rather, that person will likely take action soon."
And so, Lumilia, who received future information, announced.
The arrival of the existence that would bring an end to this battle.
In short...
"Raise your spear! Shannon Ilmelta!!"
As a finishing touch, the idiot arrived.
...While rubbing their aching backside.
●
Even so, my backside hurts, Marianne thought, flipping the bird in her heart toward the two idiots in the rear who were laughing loudly with teary eyes.
(You two idiots, remember this later!!)
Having received the mana supply, the butt-slap, from Geoglyph and Leiter, mana was surging through Marianne's entire body in proportion to her aching backside. The mana of two idiots was rather an overload, scattering golden bursts similar to lightning from her body to the surroundings.
In this state, she could do it.
"Here I come! Download! Mishandra in...!!"
Once more, descending a god...
"Bartholomew!!"
This time, into the conceptual weapon, the Azure Magic Spear, which was capable of interfering with phenomena that were cursed and restricted.
Receiving the Prayer of Severance, Mishandra, the intended curse of the magic spear, Perfect Fluidity, was shattered into Empty Fluidity, something that does not exist.