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“A tremendous display of magic is unfolding before our eyessssss!!! Lemures is deploying an outrageously massive magic circleeeeee!!”

Johnny’s voice carried Alfe’s performance to the audience.

*—Thank goodness we made it in time.*

Relief outweighed exhilaration. The magic circle floating in the sky drew the formula of a lightning spell. At last, Alfe had completed Jaadu Trishula in the midst of real battle.

“Ora ora!! Didn’t I tell you this ain’t the time to be looking awayyy!!”

Ignis swung his blazing Red Saw, finally pressing me into a corner.

“Don’t think you can run with those thrusters! You’ve boxed yourself in with that ice wall you made, dumbass!!”

He wasn’t wrong. But there was something far more important he had overlooked.

“Hey, aren’t you forgetting to defend yourself?”

Above us, the magic circle filled with lead-colored clouds. The thunder would strike any moment now.

*“Come forth, lightning of judgment!”*
“What the—!?”

Alfe’s incantation rippled through the air, and even Ignis sensed the abnormality. But it was already too late. The instant the lightning circle blazed, countless bolts rained down from directly above the colosseum.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!!”

Ignis hastily took up a defensive stance. But with his cockpit left so exposed, there was no way he could escape electrocution.

“――――!!!”

An indescribable scream tore from his throat as he slumped inside the cockpit. Thanks to some sort of countermeasure inside, the image board confirmed that at least he was still breathing.

“My myyy~. You were fighting recklessly, and look what happened. Well then—recovery, recovery♪”

Ms. Matilda’s voice rang out as the unconscious Ignis was retrieved. Underestimating his opponent for being a Subordinate Unit was one thing, but fighting with his body laid bare had been reckless from the start.¹　

“Now then…”

With Ignis defeated, I finally had a little breathing room.

Looking back over the colosseum, I saw that the ice walls I had erected had been utterly destroyed by Alfe’s lightning strike.

Whether it was from the flames of magic or the clash of lightning energy, the entire arena was now veiled in thick white mist, billowing from the rising steam.

“Leafa!”
“Master!”

Alfe, who had defeated Melua, and Hom, who had withdrawn from the front line, returned to me in concern.

“Well done, Alfe.”
“Mm.”

While praising Alfe, my eyes swept over the arena, straining to find Estea’s Selem Salkh through the blinding haze. It was too soon to celebrate victory.

“What happened to Ms. Estea…?”
“I don’t know. But if the match hasn’t been stopped, then the one thing certain is that she hasn’t been defeated.”

Hom answered Alfe’s murmur with a tense tone. Until the mist cleared, there was almost nothing we could see.

“I can sense Ms. Estea’s aether… over there. She’s unharmed.”

Alfe’s Pure Eye revealed the situation. At the news that Estea was safe, Hom let out a faint breath of relief—her chance to defeat Estea with her own hands still remained.

“What splendid magic. From here on, it will be one against three—you against me. Let us fight fair and square.”

Estea’s voice echoed from beyond the white veil of steam. Taken at her word, it meant neither side would move until the mist dispersed.

“Estea! Estea!”
“Estea! Estea!”

The crowd roared Estea’s name, cheering on the last fighter standing.

“Altered! Altered!”
“Lemures! Lemures!”
“Altered! Altered!”

Not to be outdone, chants of Altered and Lemures rose up in answer. The colosseum shook with deafening cheers, and as if to respond, a sudden gust of wind swept through—clearing the mist away.

“I am ready anytime, Master.”

Hom had recharged her charged cloth with the earlier lightning strike.

“All three of us will go at once.”

At my command, both Altered and Lemures responded in unison.

“The mist has cleaaared—Selem Salkh’s form is coming into vieeewww!! No damage! Untouched! Absolutely unscaaarred!!”

All around Selem Salkh, the ground was riddled with countless craters.

“She deflected all that lightning… with her blade…”

There was no way the barrage had simply missed. Estea had diverted every bolt with her wind-wreathed sword, twisting their paths away.

“Now then, let us fight fair and square—!”
“Moving in!”

At Estea’s call, Hom reacted instantly. But something was wrong.

“Wait, Hom!!”

As I shouted, the source of my unease became clear. Estea had sheathed Selem Salkh’s blade.

“Master!”

Hom froze at my warning. But even as the weapon sat in its scabbard, wind was already coiling around it, forming a tornado-like vortex.

“Whirlwind Blade—Final Blade!”

Estea lowered her stance, taking the posture of a draw slash.

“Dodge!!”
“Falling Leaves.”

My warning and Estea’s unsheathing strike came almost at the same instant. A raging gale erupted, and my Arkecius was hurled away despite its defensive guard.

“Hom! Alfe!!”

I tried to check on the two of them, but the storm’s pressure slashed at us like blades, forcing Arkecius to shriek in protest. I could hear the armor plating groaning under the strain. This wasn’t wind like blades—the wind was blades. At this rate, the machine wouldn’t hold.

“Where’s Estea!?”
“Above us!”

At Hom’s cry, I barely managed to right my unit in time to see it—Selem Salkh soaring high, sword raised to cleave downward.

The wind coiling around the blade took form like a colossal dragon, baring its fangs at us.

“Uwaaaaahhhhhh!!”

There was no way to evade. I screamed as Arkecius was tossed about like a leaf, the wind-blades battering it mercilessly. My body slammed hard against the inverted wall of the cockpit.