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The only times Ciel can use the full extent of her Dance Princess power are during all-out battles. Against S-rank adversaries at that. That’s why the only living witnesses, other than me, to see the end of Ciel’s unrestrained dances are generally just the spirits.
Now it’s hard to say if ‘living witness’ is an apt description. I don’t really consider myself non-living, but what I want to say is that it’s such a waste that the audiences fall in the middle of Ciel’s rare dances.

Ciel’s dance up until only lasts until our enemy is defeated or is completely eliminated, so it’s common for her dances to end short of a completed performance. And that’s such a waste. If possible, it’d be nice if we were able to set up the stage properly in advance and reach the proper end of Ciel’s dance.

People might consider me crazy for musing this about fights, but it’s only natural for me to be fussy about Ciel’s rare dances; it’s a very important matter. Also, if possible, I’d love to have my song heard, too. When I brought this up to Ciel, she responded, 『Ain loves having an audience listening, after all,』 before immediately adding, 『But not being able to hog Ain’s singing for myself feels a bit complicated,』 and her expression saying this was very cute, so it had to be mentioned.

Had Ciel opposed my idea, I would have given up, but a dance performance is best viewed with music. It might be personal bias since I’ve watched muted dance videos in the past, but there are dance steps that only work with certain music, and I really want a witness to savor the best of Ciel’s dance to the core.

And so we went to Khyturi―to Tur.

After all, this enormous white dragon is the strongest among every enemy we’ve fought in the past. So powerful, he considers the battle with us mere play.
Mother Fii is undoubtedly stronger; however, even if it’s just playing, I feel hesitant to pick a fight with Mother.
Besides, Mother can’t really just casually come to the depths of the den, so we’ll stand out if we fight.

I want to show Ciel’s dance off if given the chance, but it’s not necessarily a need. Frankly speaking, I came up with a new way to perform with Ciel, so I want someone else other than us to see it; I basically just want to show off to a friend. It doesn’t necessarily extend to unknown strangers.

「And so you came before me. Treating me as a test subject, eh… Still, certainly a good way to kill time.」

Tur’s voice echoed with majesty.
Certainly, making Tur a test subject would be impossible for normal people. Even a nation wouldn’t dare touch him. If you plan on facing Tur, an S-rank hunter would be necessary. Though if the plan is to defeat him, even an S-rank might not be enough.

「In that case, it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Honestly, we don’t know how powerful we could get either, so we’ll go with the intent of wounding you.」
「With the intent of wounding me, you say? How would that… Wait, is it Ain?」
「Fufu, we’ll have you listen to Ain’s song, too!」
「Now that’s something to look forward to.」
「In that case, let’s begin.」

As Ciel gave the signal, the muscles surrounding her mouth relaxed.
At this very moment, a part of Ciel’s body was placed under my control. Using her free limbs, Ciel twirled once, her clothes flowing with the wind with this delicate move.
Simultaneously, dull gray water spread under her feet as she spun.

The stage this time, if I had to describe it, is a rainy metropolitan cityscape. Between rows of buildings underneath the gray clouds, at a street usually occupied by passersby. Underneath the veil of rain, there’s nobody except for Ciel and Tur. That’s the scene we’re setting.
There aren’t any actual buildings around and there isn’t any real rain falling, though. Moreover, I don’t know how much of this Ciel is actually able to imagine. I’ve taught her it’s a place filled with people like the Royal Capital, but we’ll see…

With Ciel’s preparations complete, I start to sing. Unlike the usual, where only Ciel and the spirits can hear me, my voice echoes through the world.
I’m moving only a small part of Ciel’s body. It’s something we were already capable of doing from before, but it’s only lately that I’m able to sing like this. It’s because as we slowly but surely draw closer to divinity, the necessity for breathing lowers.

That said, we can only do this for 5-6 minutes for now. Just enough to finish a full song. It’s short, but it’s enough.

The song paints a somber cityscape with all the hustle and bustle suddenly silenced as if it were paused in time. A song not from this world, using words alien to this world, describing a scenery that doesn’t exist in this world.
I’m not really yearning for my past world; I chose this because Ciel took particular interest in this song. Besides, this world doesn’t have many songs, so singing songs of this world is rare to begin with.

Seemingly growing impatient with the song’s slow tempo, Tur leaps upon Ciel. Claws that can cut stone like paper quickly close on us.
Ciel gently caressed the claws and, with an unhurried motion, redirected the force. However, she couldn’t completely redirect the impact, resulting in her balance being disrupted.

Despite that, Ciel cheerfully readjusts her stance and turns around to see where Tur passed by.

The attack from that enormous claw gouged the ground and simultaneously caused the gray water on the floor to splash into the air.
As this great amount of water reaches a certain height, it loses to gravity and falls back like rain.

And thus, raindrops bounced in the air.

Bouncing as if there were multiple invisible umbrellas open here and there.

They bounce and splash and bounce until they finally return to the ground.

In the midst of this, Ciel danced. A dance that seemed to slice out single moments in frozen time, a dance with distinct motion and stillness. Ciel gracefully moves her arms, shoulders, knees, and legs. And in contrast to Ciel, the raindrops bounce haphazardly without any structured logic.

There’s something somewhat unsettling with the way Ciel moves. Your eyes can’t help but be drawn to her, but for some reason, it feels extremely unnatural.
Well, it’s because of the type of song I’m singing. I like these kinds of songs, too.

Tur naturally isn’t the type to just watch in silence, so he continues attacking us, but these attacks don’t seem to have the intent to defeat Ciel behind them, they seem to be timed by Tur to match Ciel’s movements, if I’m not imagining it.
Obviously these attacks are still deadly enough to kill anyone who isn’t Ciel―anyone without my barrier―with ease. Right now, they’re here to enhance Ciel’s dance.

Ciel rotates her arm in a large circle like the arm of a clock, and at that instant, my song, unrestrained and unfettered until now, immediately stops.

The world has stopped.

As if to sell that illusion, the raindrops float motionlessly in the air.

I slowly continue singing.

And Ciel slowly continued dancing.

Water is kicked into the air, naturally splashed to the sky above―and as if there gravity ceased to exist, paused in the air, forming floating spheres.

Each time Ciel’s feet leave the ground, the floating spheres slowly but gradually increase.

As the gray water is hit by Ciel, it initially follows the inertia but then halts to a sudden stop.
As the floating gray clumps bump into each other, they assimilate and grow in size.

The gray spheres increasing in number around Ciel gradually start appearing around Tur as well.
Perhaps feeling something amiss, Tur concentrated a large amount of magic power.

The next moment, there was hellfire. Nothing more than illumination in Ciel’s eyes, several gray spheres sprung to motion as if given back their time.

While Tur groaned with frustration, I was awestruck by the sight before me.

Stars―no, bright city lights enveloped the area.

Tur’s flame and its embers are reflected in the dull gray water.
This was a surprise, but within expectations.

The fact that Tur could move so much while surrounded by countless gray spheres was a surprise, but they’re still slowing him down, so it’s no issue.

And even as this was happening, our playtime with Tur is slowly approaching its end.
The gray spheres floating in the air―these fantastical, inorganic set pieces―begin refining destructive magic power. To be specific, their gradually accumulated but previously concealed magic power has been revealed in preparation for their final act.

And yet Tur simply observed them with undisturbed composure, which made me feel both parts irked and happy.
I’m glad to see Tur fully enjoying our performance, as well.

And so my song ended. At the same time, Ciel closed her eyes, turned her face to the ground, and struck a final pose.

The next instant, magic power exploded from the gray spheres, transforming them into sharp needles.
The great mass of needles extend towards Tur, resulting in him being pierced in the air like a pinned specimen.

Regaining the ability to breathe, Ciel turned to Tur’s direction with labored breaths. Meanwhile, he escaped the gray needles like they were nothing.
On closer inspection, while some needles did pierce through, many of them were destroyed by Tur’s tough scales upon impact.

「It’s been long since I’ve last felt pain like this. Moreover, you’ve shown me quite the enjoyable spectacle.」
「Should I have put more power behind it?」
「That’s right. It’d be difficult for you to defeat me with that technique. However, the fact that it did manage to wound me is worthy of praise.」

Tur praised Ciel with howling laughter, giving Tur his usual air of majesty and grandeur.