The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs - Volume 13 - Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

The Strongest Protagonist

“HERE GOES,” Livia muttered. 

The apparatus from the royal ship that had been implanted on the Licorne responded to her. The Licorne amplified her powers, drawing on the energy it received from the Sacred Tree.

“Well, this is beyond what I expected,” Cleare said, gobsmacked.

Suffused with Livia’s impressive power, the Licorne was wrapped in faint white light. None of the nearby monsters could withstand the radiance. Any within a several-meter radius of the Licorne—and even some farther away than that—instantly disintegrated, reduced to wisps of black smoke and unable to regain their form. The Licorne’s luminance remained undiminished even after their defeat.

“This level of power is mind-boggling,” said Angie with awe. “Livia, what in the world…?”

Livia smiled at her. “I can’t explain it myself. All I can say is that, right now…I want to use this power to help Mr. Leon.” She’d rather have avoided using these powers if she could help it, but for Leon’s sake, she wouldn’t hesitate.

Livia stretched her left hand out, and the Licorne shone even more brilliantly. A tremor ran through the ship as it struggled to withstand her energy output.

Carla clung to Marie. “The whole ship is shaking. What’s going on?!” she squeaked in alarm.

It didn’t matter that no one had ever taught Livia how her powers worked. She moved automatically, as if the answer came to her naturally. Her instincts were all she needed to guide her.

White particles of light gathered around the Licorne, clustering into a shape that resembled Livia herself. It didn’t include all the details of its producer, but it possessed her basic outline. Its eyes glowed blue-white, and with the Licorne at its center, it towered over everything.

Any monsters that tried to attack it were instantly annihilated, but Livia’s form phased through ally ships and left them untouched.

Voices flooded through their communications network.

“It’s almost like the Saint. No, a goddess!”

“Yes, the goddess of victory!”

“All hail the goddess!”

Of course, only at a time like this would the Holfortians recognize Livia as their victory goddess. They all cheered as she effortlessly vanquished the monsters assailing them. But though Livia’s power was impressive, it took a great toll on her. If she didn’t brace herself and focus, she’d likely lose consciousness completely.

Angie kept her arms tight around Livia, providing physical as well as mental support. “Don’t push yourself too much,” she said.

“Thank you, but this is the one time I have to do just that.”

“Then use my power too.” Angie squeezed Livia’s hand.

Outside, red particles of light gathered around the Licorne. They clustered together, forming a red dress around the giant Livia replica. When she thrust her left hand forward, several magic circles manifested in the air around her over a diameter of several hundred meters. Arrows of light shot from them; tens of thousands showered down on Arcadia.

Panicked, Arcadia launched a magical barrier to protect himself and his surroundings. The arrows soon burst past it, exploding on impact with the fortress. It had no way to protect itself any longer, and Livia’s single attack reduced it to floating wreckage, a fragment of its former glory. Her power’s ability to cause destruction was overwhelming.

Marie gawked. “Wh-whoa. If we keep it up, we might really win this thing.”

Livia wasn’t so optimistic. “We don’t have much time,” she said. “We need to retrieve Mr. Leon quickly.” She could see Arroganz’s broken form on the monitor.

Snapping her eyes shut, Livia linked her vision to the giant outside to see the entire scene around them directly.

“Found him!” she said.

Thankfully, Arcadia had been focused on her and the Licorne and hadn’t touched Arroganz.

Livia’s voice filled with fury. “Get away from Mr. Leon!” she shouted.

***

“Get away from him!” shrieked the giant Livia replica. Its enormous hand shot ahead toward Arcadia.

Mia thrust her own hands outward. “Is that…Miss Olivia?!” She conjured a barrier several layers thick to protect herself, but even that was no match for the giant Livia.

Arcadia struggled to comprehend the ridiculous power the enemy was exhibiting. “What is that thing?! Are these really old humanity’s descendants?! Impossible, simply impossible. Not even new humanity could wield this level of magic!” He abandoned his attempts to analyze the foe’s data. “Princess, wasting time will only weaken us. We must unleash another of our most powerful attacks.” 

Arcadia meant the one with the same strength as his main cannon. Mia had enough power to discharge it again; the only reason they hadn’t been able to unleash it in quick succession was that she hadn’t yet absorbed enough demonic essence from the air.

“I have located the Licorne. It is in the center—no, the chest—of that giant. If we aim for it and destroy it, the giant should disappear,” said Arcadia.

Following his advice, Mia took aim with her right hand while unleashing a torrent of spikes. “I have no grudge against you or the other girls, but I cannot allow what happened to go unpunished! Let me have my vengeance, since you stole my knight from me!”

Red-black light gathered at her palm and hurtled toward its target. Mia had seen the destruction it could cause, but this time she concentrated even more power, making the attack more potent than before.

Yet despite Mia’s confidence, the giant Livia’s hand knocked the energy ball aside. It changed direction and exploded in the distance, sending up a plume of seawater. The intense shock wave that resulted caused an outright tsunami below them.

Arcadia’s eye bugged in rage and horror, his whole body vibrating. “This is outrageous! No one should be able to deflect such a powerful attack so easily!” he howled with incandescent fury.

Livia spread both arms out wide. “I’m going to save you now, Mr. Leon,” her voice echoed.

A thousand magic circles formed, launching another powerful offensive at Mia: a combination of types of concentrated magic in the forms of fire, water, electricity, and light. Mia accelerated into the air to evade the attacks, but Livia’s magic honed in on her and gave chase. Her attempts to combat it by unleashing her own magic were futile. Several hundred blasts rocked her body, sending her flailing.

“Gah!” Mia cried.

Having safely chased Mia away, the giant Livia wrapped her arms around the fortress deck to protect Arroganz. Since the giant was only a simplified replica, its face was too simple to clearly represent its controller’s emotions. However, knowing Livia’s love for Leon, she had to be smiling. Her hands were graceful and gentle as they cupped Arroganz.

Mia couldn’t stand it. “It’s not fair for you to have your partner when you murdered mine!”

She unleashed another of her most powerful attacks. In the same instant, a second woman manifested along the giant Livia’s back, this one with much longer hair. The Livia part of the giant bent forward, curling in on herself to make it easier for the new woman who’d sprouted from her base to move. Much like Mia, this figure appeared only from the waist up. Her hands shot forward to intercept Mia’s attack, rocking the sky with a powerful explosion. When the smoke settled, her body appeared completely unharmed.

None of it made any sense. Arcadia trembled with rage. “How can someone in this age rival the power of myself and the princess? There shouldn’t be anybody out there who can compete with new humanity!”

Most of all, it bewildered him that the royal army hadn’t opened with this instead of squandering its own people.

Mia was incredibly vexed by the giant’s overwhelming power. Try as she might to escape it, it managed to capture her. “Were you holding back against us all this time? I hate you even more for that!” 

She managed to escape by firing off everything she could, launching herself higher into the sky. From high above the giant, she turned her sights back on Arroganz. 

“You’ll soon know how heartbreaking it is to watch the person you love die before your very eyes.” If even one of the attacks she launched reached Arroganz, it would be fatal.

The giant Livia leaned forward, using her own body to shield Arroganz. Mia’s spikes and blasts pelted her.

“Keep hounding them, princess!” Arcadia said, adding his power into the mix to assail the giant before them.

The second giant torso thrust an arm toward Mia, knocking her away. This time, it was Angie’s voice that cracked the air, her words burning with intense fury. “Anyone who messes with Leon will have to answer to me.” She managed to snatch Mia out of the air, then flung her toward the sea.

Unable to resist, Mia plunged into the ocean, the momentum of Angie’s throw sending her far from the battlefield. It was unnerving just how much stronger they were than her.

Tears streaked Mia’s cheeks. “This is so unfair!” she wailed. “I can’t even avenge my knight!” She gritted her teeth, hands curling into tight fists. Finally, she burst back out of the water. “Even if it kills me, I’ll at least have my revenge for—”

Her voice cut off. There was something odd about the enemy; the giant’s outline had grown indistinct somehow. It seemed like she might disappear at any second.

“Aha. There’s a limit to how long they can keep that up!” Arcadia declared, gleeful at his realization. “Performing such a powerful spell requires equally substantial energy. Even with the Sacred Tree to help them, they cannot keep something like this up for hours at a time.” It was a great relief to him to watch Livia’s form dissolve and disappear.

Mia raced back toward Arcadia’s deck. The battle had damaged her and Arcadia severely; they had shrunk in size, their outer layers largely carved away by Livia and Angie’s attacks. Having used so much energy, it was impossible to maintain their previous enormous form. But diminished as they were, they were still powerful enough to finish off Arroganz.

“There,” Mia said. “Now there’s no one else to get in our way.” She was as eager as Arcadia to put Leon out of his misery.

***

“Luxion, what’s our situation?” I asked. Unable to move my body, I couldn’t very well look myself to find out.

“I gathered all the drones that survived. They are repairing Arroganz as we speak,” he said.

One unloaded a container and attached it to Arroganz. It wouldn’t be a full repair, but at least Arroganz would be functional.

My mind wandered to Julius and the others. “Are the guys okay?”

“Due to the density of airborne demonic essence, I cannot assess their current status.”

“All the same, I hope they made it,” I said. “I’d feel awful if any of them died.” My stomach knotted with worry. 

The idiot brigade and I were inextricably linked, whether we liked it or not. Oftentimes I didn’t like it, but they weren’t so bad. When I played the game, I’d hated them. It wasn’t until we’d actually interacted over a long time period that I changed my mind. They were good guys—better than I’d expected, really. I had hoped we could grow even closer.

I lifted my chin so I could see the monitor. Through it, I viewed Arroganz’s hand, still tightly clenched around Brave’s longsword. “If Finn were still alive, I know he’d ask me to save Mia.” That was more than I could realistically achieve, but I couldn’t help wanting to do so all the same.

“Master,” Luxion said in a scolding tone, “it’s not necessary for you to do that! You have already gone far past your limits.”

He was right about that, but I knew I couldn’t abandon Mia. If I did, I’d never be able to face Finn in the afterlife.

“Whatever the case, we have to stop her,” I insisted. Livia’s impressive display of power had at least bought us extra time, but she hadn’t been able to destroy Arcadia. 

As if on cue, Mia touched down on the deck. The spikes that once protruded from the base of her body were gone. Her form was all that remained. It was still coated in silver, and black armor plating now covered her. A lopsided breastplate shielded only the left side of her chest, and from it protruded Arcadia’s grotesque eye.

The drones surged forward to protect me, but Mia destroyed them easily enough. Although her form was much smaller than before, she’d have no trouble killing me.

“Luxion, this is my last order for you,” I said. “Administer the enhancer.”

I had to stop Mia here. If I didn’t, there was no telling what she’d do after I died. She was too emotionally vulnerable. Arcadia could probably get in her head and talk her into annihilating Holfort next. Before that happened, I had to summon my strength to stop her.

Luxion didn’t respond. He was probably looking for a reason to refuse my command, so I told him, “Things won’t wrap up nicely unless we finish this together. We’ve got to save Mia to make sure everyone gets a happy ending. Or, I guess, a better-than-the-alternative ending.”

Looking at this in game terms, it was as close to a bad ending as could be. We’d have cleared the game, but the way things went down would leave a bad taste in the player’s mouth. That kind of ending fit me perfectly, though.

“Master, will you find happiness by doing this?” Luxion asked.

Happiness? Yeah, I guess I’ll be happy when all’s said and done. I forced the best smile I could. “You know, I’ve often wondered why we reincarnated into this world. I figured there must be some reason, right? I mean, if not, oh well. That would just mean we had to make one ourselves. I couldn’t rescue everyone, but as long as I save as many people as possible, that’s what matters. That’s the happiest ending I could hope for.”

“Is that the mentality one must have when sacrificing themselves? I cannot fathom it, Master. You are a fool.”

“What, you didn’t know that already? I’ve been a fool since the very beginning.”

Souls were said to continue reincarnating until they reached true enlightenment. That was why someone lowly, like me, had to reincarnate over and over again. That’s a Buddhist concept, right? I couldn’t remember. Ah, well, doesn’t matter.

When it came down to it, thinking that my life had meaning was my main salvation. The objective reality of that didn’t matter. All I cared about was feeling like I’d served some purpose.

“Please, partner,” I said. “I’m pretty sure this’ll be the last order I give you.”

“I cannot permit it. If you do this, Master, your life…your life will…” I glimpsed what I thought was sadness in Luxion’s eye, but surely I had to be seeing things.

“If you can’t permit the order, consider it a favor instead. Help me do this, partner.”

His robotic voice trembled as he stammered, “I-I will administer the performance enhancer.”

This was my third time receiving it. After the needle bit into my skin, a wave of intense pain soon followed. My body couldn’t withstand it; I started vomiting blood. Fortunately, that soon abated, and I felt unbelievably light. The agony moments earlier was gone, and energy surged into my muscles, which had been too weak to do anything.

I grabbed Arroganz’s controls, forced it to its feet, and lifted Brave’s longsword.

Mia bristled when she saw that. “Give that back! It belongs to Sir Knight and Bravey!”

Now that I felt better, I could finally respond the way I normally would. “Come take it if you want it so badly, you crazy spitfire!”

Arroganz braced itself with its two new legs, and I swung the longsword at Mia. Despite how small she now was, her hand safely caught my attack.

“Luxion, can we separate Mia and Arcadia?”

“Investigation in progress,” Luxion answered. He’d started analyzing the data coming in from her before I even asked.

Mia kicked off from the ground, leaping into the air. She drew her fist back and swung wide at me. I deflected the blow with the flat of my sword, surprised to find how much power was behind her bare fists.

***

Back inside Arcadia’s fortress, Finn cracked his eyes open. Wincing, he clapped his right hand over the bleeding stub that had once been his left arm.

“What am I doing here?” He climbed to his feet, hissing in pain. “Kurosuke?!” Somehow, he already knew that Brave was gone. A tear escaped the corner of his eye. “You stupid idiot.”

Brave’s sacrifice was the only reason Finn was still alive. Memories raced back to him…

Finn was furious at himself for the part he’d played in the reactor’s destruction. Although there was no point fighting anymore, he resolved to chase after Leon and put an end to him. 

The reactor was on the cusp of a violent explosion.

“Even if it’s the last thing I do…” Finn seethed, words dripping with resentment.

He’d already forgotten his original goal. His single-minded hostility unnerved Brave, but regardless of either’s feelings, they couldn’t back down. They had to fight for Mia’s sake.

“This is where we part ways,” said Brave.

“Kurosuke?”

Before Finn could ask what he meant, he was unceremoniously launched out of Brave. A magical barrier wrapped around him, gently guiding him down to the ground. Because of the enhancer he’d taken, he hadn’t even noticed that he’d lost his left arm at some point during the battle.

“Why?” Finn demanded. “Why are you betraying me?!” He reached toward Brave with his only remaining hand.

“Because you’ll die if we keep fighting,” Brave answered, a mixture of embarrassment and heartache in his voice. “I want you to keep living. That’s why this is goodbye.” 

In the course of the battle, Brave had far surpassed his limits. He knew he couldn’t defeat Arroganz, which was why he at least wanted to spare Finn’s life.

“Brave, don’t go!” Finn clutched desperately at the empty air, as if he could pull Brave back to him. 

He almost thought he saw his partner grin back. “Don’t you mean ‘Kurosuke’?” Brave paused, then added, “You know, I never actually hated it when you called me that. Farewell, Partner.” 

With that, he sped after Leon.

Thanks to Brave, Finn had escaped with his life intact before losing consciousness.

Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks. “I wanted you to survive too. I wanted the two of us to be—Mia? Where’s Mia?!” He had no idea how long he’d been out or what had happened in the meantime.

Finn lurched forward, scrambling toward the command room.