CHAPTER 9
SHAULA
1
Crumbling away.
Peeling away.
Fading.
Everything gleaming in the distance.
—Outside the tower, the stampede of demon beasts had been cleared by the hardworking demon beast tamer.
—On the second floor, Reid Astrea, who had taken over the body of Roy Alphard, had been obliterated.
—On the fourth floor, the defiler of fate, the loathsome Archbishop, Lye Batenkaitos, had been obliterated.
—On the first floor, the unknown and unseen examination had been cleared by Emilia’s brave efforts.
They had cleared all the difficult challenges that had been set before them by the Pleiades Watchtower. This had only been possible because their comrades became one, trusting in each other, and combining their strengths. As Emilia might have put it, this was the result of “everyone getting along.”
Thanks to that, they had finally reached this point. All that remained was…
“It’s a lie if we don’t all win together!”
“Let us begin!”
The two spirit knights lined up together. The one to take the lead was, of course, Julius.
Recovering Qua, who had been left aside for healing, he again borrowed the strength of the six spirits to clad himself in an aurora.
Subaru could sense it from Cor Leonis’s effect, but the enormous swell of Odo being consumed to make that light should have been weighing heavily on Julius himself and his spirits.
He was really showing off. But Subaru never had any intention of drawing this fight out.
“Keep it short and sweet.”
With a rainbow trailing behind him, Julius raced across the sands.
Closing the distance in an instant, Julius’s slash approached the crimson scorpion. Perceiving him with its ferocious compound eyes, it batted the attack aside with its wildly flailing pincers and stinger.
“Sssssss!!!”
Those pincers had gotten incredibly hot, and the enormous firepower warped the atmosphere around the scorpion.
Scorching pincers—if Subaru were naming it, he would call it “Jesus’s Scissors Hellfire Form.”
Subaru could only tip his hat to anyone who got fired up enough to reveal a new technique during the final battle. However, as someone who had to fight against it, he would have preferred to not deal with that sort of incredible growth.
An enemy who overcame their limits and grew stronger was not what he was looking for in this situation.
“Minya!!!”
As the bright red pincer swung toward Julius, a purple missile interrupted.
Subaru was far too weak on his own to even think about inserting himself into Julius and the crimson scorpion’s high-level fight. Beatrice supported Julius with shots of opportunity from the side, while Subaru waited for his moment.
“Subaru!!!”
“Ah.”
He had been cutting through the sand to take up a more ideal position when he heard that cry. Looking up to see what it was, he spotted the crimson scorpion that had just evaded Julius’s thrust—and had landed right next to him.
Subaru immediately stopped at Beatrice’s shout. But the demon beast swung its tail as if brushing aside an insect, and Subaru could see imminent death.
“Hold on…!” “Murak!”
Subaru’s and Beatrice’s reactions overlapped.
Due to her magic, Subaru and Beatrice became as light as cotton candy. At the same time, Subaru’s whip cracked, wrapping around the base of the scorpion’s tail. In an instant, the two of them were yanked away.
“Whoa!” “Bwah?!”
They were not spun around. They were slammed down.
Just as it felt like they were floating, in the next moment Subaru and Beatrice crashed into the sand.
Even for someone as light as cotton candy, that was enough force to obliterate them if they had been hurled against a hard surface. Fortunately, what they hit was sand, so it simply knocked the wind out of them.
“I must ask you to refrain from a follow-up!”
“—Sssssss.”
The crimson scorpion took aim at them while they were buried in the sand; however, a rainbow light interrupted its path, and another exchange of scorching heat and blinding light began.
Light flashed, and each time it did, the desert split, and a sandstorm formed from the shock wave.
In terms of destructive power, they were even. Julius had the advantage in speed. And the crimson scorpion had the advantage in endurance—without a decisive blow, they were going to be pushed until they ran out of time.
“Bleh, bleh! Damn it! We have to do something!”
“Bleh, bleh! We have to find some route to victory!”
Pulling themselves out of the sand with teary eyes, Subaru and Beatrice spit out sand in the same way.
Julius with his rainbow, Subaru and Beatrice in their words—they were all searching for a way to reach Shaula.
“Think! Think! Think!”
Subaru’s thoughts raced as he searched for a definitive solution, something that was more than just optimism or a pipe dream.
And as he went through the cards he had at his disposal, he had a realization.
There was one left. One final trump card to play.
“Beako!”
“Did you think of something?!”
Beatrice answered as if she had been waiting for him.
“Yeah!”
Thinking how lucky he was to be blessed with a partner who understood him, Subaru grabbed her small hand again and nodded.
And—
“—We’re using everything from this trip now!”
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