Part 2
————————Kouen City Palace Headquarters – The practice area in front of the barracks.
Despite it being late at night, the practice area was alive with cheers————————rather, it was bustling with roars. The practice area was only for the fire dragon clan, and was ten times larger than a regular practice area. Right now, the thoroughly prepared practice area was ablaze with a haze of fire.
“Grr, you shouldn’t be having this much trouble against a little girl!”
“Rebuild the formation!”
“Make use of our greater numbers! They’re not opponents we can’t win against!”
Seven fire dragons roared as they dashed. In the center of the practice area, Kasukabe Yō was taking on all seven fire dragons. The large winged fire dragons soared at exceptional speeds. They were just barely able to keep up with Yō, who was aloft on a sparkling whirlwind.
“Damn you………!!”
Yō rose further on her sparkling whirlwind and dashed through the sky. However, her legs did not have Pegasus’ armor attached to them. Right now, she was releasing a whirlwind with her own abilities.
“………You’re incredible, Kasukabe-san.”
Kudou Asuka was at the edge of the practice area, breathing hard. Sitting next to her was a young, enchanting girl———————Willa the Ignis Fatuus, who naturally nodded as she twirled her dazzling wings with her finger.
“Pegasus’ wings………It’s one of the gifts that Koumei left for Yō. Upon contact with a living thing, the genome tree interprets its phylogenetic tree and evolves its bearer.”
Willa shook her chest proudly as she explained. Sitting next to them, Izayoi also nodded in admiration.
“Hum. So right now, by using the gryphon’s and pegasus’ powers at the same time, her flight speed and physical abilities have rapidly increased.”
“That’s right. ———————But that’s not the important part.”
Willa pointed at Yō, who was fighting. After a moment, she released a surge of intense lightning. In her hand that released that dazzling lightning was———————three hundred and sixty kinds of beast kings. She was gripping a pike that looked like a Kirin.
“With this………!”
In a flash, she launched the pike in a straight line. Resounding with thunder, the lightning that shot out in a fan pierced all seven fire dragons.
“Impossible………!?”
The hardened scales of the fire dragons, said to be forged in an active volcano, was no match for the lightning of a divine beast. Unable to move, the fire dragons fell while convulsing and crashed into the ground. Izayoi, having watched the battle, rubbed his chin and chuckled.
“Obtaining mobility with the gryphon and pegasus while imitating the phantom beasts’ destructive powers through the genome tree. I see, this is powerful stuff.”
He nodded in admiration. But it was not as optimistic a battle as he said it was. Yō came down from the sky with shiny beads of sweat flowing down from her forehead and gasping for breath. Gently wiping off the sweat with her right hand, Yō took a deep breath, steadying her breathing, and did her victory pose.
“Victory. It’s thanks to Willa that I won.”
“Victory. But that’s Yō’s true power. And it’s thanks to Koumei.”
She responded with a victory sign. Yō, suddenly remembering, raised a question.
“………Willa, how did you come to know my dad?”
Truthfully, it was something she wanted to ask about sooner. But because of the commotion from noon, there wasn’t much time for an opportunity to ask about it. Willa pondered with a blank face, and murmured.
“Koumei………saved us from a vicious stalker.”
“S………Stalker?”
“Yes. But it wasn’t just any stalker. He had a peculiar infatuation and imagination, and repeated a disgusting manner of speech. I didn’t like him, so I ran from place to place with Jack, but………that guy, he followed us everywhere with teleportation.”
“That’s………”
Asuka and Yō expressed bitterness at the same time. Izayoi put their expressions into words and spoke up.
“Stalker + Teleportation, huh. That’s like a demon with a holy sword.”
“T,That’s right.”
“Scary. That’s scary.”
“Yes. It’s really scary. That’s why I asked Queen Halloween to let me into the Little Garden. ………But that was a mistake. He spent hundreds of years in the outside world piling up training and merits, and opened a gate to the Little Garden on his own.”
“And so Kasukabe’s father saved you from that.”
Willa nodded in affirmation. Listening to the story, Asuka sighed in pity and gently rested her hand on Willa’s shoulder.
“Willa’s gone through a lot too………being targeted by that stalker.”
“No, that might not be the case, you know? It could’ve been a decently good love story from a different perspective. What if you thought of his infatuation like this instead? ‘Devoting myself to studying my power for many months and years, passing the boundary of the outside world! Willa, I’ve come to take you home!!!’ ———————Like that?”
“Ew, that’s disgusting!”
Willa shuddered as goosebumps appeared all over her body. Pushing her to say something that bad took outstanding talent.
“That stalker that drove Willa and Jack that far up the wall, he must’ve been that———————”
“Grr, what are those guys at Salamandra doing!!!”
They jumped in surprise and faced the direction of the voice. From the palace’s third right wing came the old goblins after Pest, one after the other as they ran into the practice area. It seems they were enraged from seeing the defeated fire dragons. Meeting up with Izayoi and the others, Pest suppressed her smile and laughed cynically.
“I’ve brought them just like you asked.”
“Well done. Looks you got them raring to go.”
“Of course. It’s all in a maid’s work. ———————So weirdo, what are you going to do?”
Pest chuckled in provocation as she looked at Izayoi. But before he could answer, the group that followed Pest roared while in a state of rage.
“You bastards………you’ve all ran wild for quite a while.”
“But your brutality ends here.”
“You’re going to pay for your big talk right here………!!!”
Undoing their human transformations, the old timers’ spiritual statuses all ballooned up at once. The three people’s spiritual statuses, suitably above all others in fighting prowess, gave off an intimidating presence that overwhelmed the average winged dragons.
Created from a pale spiritual body and able to grow a hundred strong arms, the titan clan———————the descendants of Hekatonkheire[10]. With the head of a goat, letting loose a sinister presence, the devils———————Baphomet’s[11] kin. Boasting two horns, the chief of demons———————Shuten Douji’s[12] faction.
In the middle of the practice area, while holding onto one arm, he bared his teeth.
“We man-eating fiends who have infested the northern side have passed many trials within.”
“Although we were struck down by the Dragon Lord of the Stars and Seas, we are still of demon lord bloodlines. Don’t lump us together with that halfwit.”
“Kuku……my blood hasn’t boiled like this in a while, human. Let the blood erupt and splatter like mist!!!”
“Hah!”
“”"GUAAAAAAAAAAAAA I’m dooooooown!!!”"”
Izayoi brandished his fists. Three of the goblins were blown away, crashing headfirst into the clock-tower in Salamandra’s headquarters. ———————There wasn’t anymore need to say it. It was a flat out degree of nonsense. Mandra, who was watching the events in the practice area from start to finish, was shocked as the edge of his mouth quivered.
“………. Is that really a human?”
“Who knows.”
Asuka, who was left behind, answered back. Izayoi, as if dusting off his fists, brushed his hands while looking at the old timers who had come from the palace’s third right wing and smiled fearlessly.
“Well, that’s just about it. What’ll you do, oh great old seniors?”
“Nu………!”
Their exuberance from before was nowhere to be seen, and their words faltered. They weren’t stupid. It didn’t take long for them to realize the difference in their strength. Izayoi looked at them, who were having second thoughts, and his frivolous smile vanished as his eyes became serious.
“Sorry to interrupt while you’re still shell-shocked. The demon lord this time around is about on par with me, or maybe even higher than that. ———————If you want to turn back, now’s your chance. The next battle is going to create a lot of casualties.”
“………,”
There was nothing false about his tone. Those words did not just silence the old timers alone. The people seated there, Kasukabe Yō, Kudou Asuka, Willa, Mandra, and catching up from behind, Jin, Sandra, and Jack, were unable to come to terms and were silent.
———————The storm is coming. A storm bigger than all others encountered up until now. It will resound in the heavens, it will shake the earth, and it will create mountains of corpses and rivers of blood, the worst natural disaster. A champion that cannot be allowed to exist along side the order of the Little Garden will come to dye the town of dusk in the colors of hell. Izayoi, who could sense this more than anyone else, narrowed his eyes and declared.
“———————I’ll say this ahead of time. I’ll be taking on their leader. I want you guys to handle the forerunners. Conversely, if you can’t do that, then there’s no chance of victory. To make that easy for you guys to understand, we called you guys out here.”
“…………”
Murmurs stirred, spreading out between the fire dragons and old timers. They were conceited because they had escaped the jaws of death many times. Being told this head on by a young person like Izayoi was not pleasant. That is why Izayoi displayed his power ahead of time. It would be too late by the time the demon lords appeared. Especially against that boy who calls himself His Highness and Demon Lord Maxwell, the ones without power who attack in desperation would probably be throwing away their lives for nothing. One of the old demons, having pieced together what was going through Izayoi’s mind, snorted and took a step forward.
“………Hmph. You say that, but is there a plan?”
“There is.”
He immediately answered with confidence. The old timers opened their eyes wide with interest at his affirmation.
“We have a plan for dealing with each of the members we know of in Uroboros. So for that purpose———————we need everyone to be able to keep up.”
He wordlessly appealed for help. The old timers were quiet for a moment, but suddenly let out an exasperated sigh.
“Grr, so indirect! It’s courtesy to be humble when asking! Am I wrong!?”
“Then I ask of you. Please lend us your strength.”
Izayoi promptly bowed his head down. This time, the old timers raised up their arms and resigned themselves.
“Hmph………well, in that case, we will. First, tell us this plan.”
“We know that you’re strong. Feel free to make the game.”
“Hey, you Salamandra lads, get those guys down from the clock tower. It’d be cruel to leave them there any longer. The meeting will begin after that.”
“U,Understood.”
The young fire dragons spread their wings and lifted off. Izayoi turned around to face Asuka and Yō, laughing as he put his hands on his hips.
“The first stage is cleared. The problem starts here.”
“Yes………with Kuro Usagi in that state, we can’t use the judgemaster to hold this off.”
“Yeah. We’ll have to do our best.”
The three stared solemnly towards no particular direction. The reason they were able to win their gift games against the demon lords until now was indeed, because of Kuro Usagi’s judgemaster’s ability to put the game on hold. But Kuro Usagi is currently not in any condition to use the judgemaster.
“Kuro Usagi………I wonder if she’s alright. She was pretty upset after that, after all.”
“Obviously. Just imagine. If, when you woke up———————your ears were on the top of your head, you’d be scared too, right milady?”
Goosebumps appeared as Asuka held onto her own body.
“………I would be scared.”
“See. It’s basically like that. If you’re worried, just go visit her again.”
“Yeah. ———————Right now, we should decide who faces off with who.”
The three nodded to each other and thought about the objective for next time. There, Willa suddenly raised her hand.
“About that, I might have a proposal for you.”
“………Hmmm?”
Izayoi looked at her with a quizzical face. Willa was known as one of the best in the northern side, but to Izayoi, his impression of her is that ‘I don’t know what she’s thinking, but she sure has a big rack’ and that’s it. That she was participating in the game design was probably what was unexpected for him.
“Sure. I’ll be taking on that white haired demon, so………starting with Demon Lord Maxwell, who’s going to take him on? Like you, he can use the astral gate to teleport around. How will you keep that in check?”
“We’ll aim for the spot where he’ll reappear.”
Willa smoothly talked about this difficult issue while Yō and Asuka looked at each other, troubled.
“………That’s,”
“A bit hard, don’t you think………?”
Indeed, if they could pinpoint the location of his reappearance, it wouldn’t be that hard to conquer the astral gate. As a matter of fact, Asuka and Yō had seen Willa using the astral gate to teleport. That wasn’t the kind of thing you could hold down with speed and firepower. It was none other than these two who had fought him who felt this way. To conquer the astral gate, they would need power with a completely different sort of vector———————
“———————I get it. So Kasukabe’s father had driven off Maxwell using this method.”
“Eh?”
Asuka and Yō raised their voices in surprise. Izayoi raised his face and confirmed it with Asuka, Yō, and Willa, in that order. He smiled fearlessly.
“Great. With that method, even when fighting Maxwell, the gears will click. ———————The match up’s decided. Let’s go gather Salamandra and the old veterans.”
“B,But………who’s going to fight Maxwell?”
Asuka and Yō questioned puzzlingly. Izayoi smiled mischievously and pointed at them.
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