(Eister’s POV)

  That was too damn close.

  Thank ME, myself, and my immeasurable foresight that I’ve danced on the edge of death more times than I can count. Most of my insides have already been swapped out since I got kicked out of the forest anyway.

  How many times was it, poisoned, crushed, cursed? Enough that I rebuilt what needed to be rebuilt. Stomach, liver, half my bloodstream repced with filters and pumps.

  The assassin’s venom that was coursing through me. I felt it burn, clog, strangle its way through veins, until the filters finally chewed it up and spat it out. I threw it out along with the blood earlier, a performance piece for the uneducated masses. Took longer than I expected. Hmm...

  Note to self: recalibrate digestion filters. Or repce them again.

  I dug into Pandora, pulled out a mana gem. Just a lump of rock steeped in mana. And....

  I ATE it.

  What? Don’t look at me like that. It’s only logical. The fastest way to replenish energy doesn’t have to come from bread or meat. I can metabolize almost anything now.

  Besides, I wired up a device in my brain to reward me for it, so it tastes divine. Chocote soufflé, if I say so. Of course, I still prefer the real thing to look the part, but desperate times…

  I chewed, grinning, while they stared.

  Why weren’t they attacking? Just a moment ago they were hounds tearing me apart at the throat. Now? Staring. Shocked. Hesitating.

  Was it shock?

  Perfect.

  Even if it were not shock.

  I'd capitalize on it.

  “Well then, dies and gentlemen!” I spread my arms wide, my bloody coat fring for dramatic effect. The ptes beneath me hummed, stabilizing as I stood atop the sky itself. “Thank you for attending this humble demonstration of ingenuity! You may appud at your leisure!”

  I started slowly cpping

  My voice rang across the clearing, sharp, theatrical, carrying on the smoke and ash.

  “Unfortunately,” I continued, lips losing its curls, “my presentation wasn’t met with the respect nor the attention it deserved…”

  For just a breath, my voice slipped low, stripped of its fmboyance, my cpping stopped. “…So if a fight is what you want-”

  I raised Pandora, ptes fanning outward around me like a halo of steel.

  “-then a fight you shall get…”

  CLAMPED

  My masked mouth piece shut close. The ptes snapped into motion, spinning in concentric rings.

  (Serah’s POV)

  “Unbounded Pte Stuff Go!”

  That lunatic shouted. From Pandora, a single light , device, burst skyward, and then, rain. Countless ptes poured down on us like a storm from that tiny contraption.

  “[High Guard]!”

  I smmed my shield into the earth, magic circuits burning hot as light coiled around me. The holy sigils etched across its surface bzed. A thousand ptes wouldn’t crack it.

  “Behind me!” I ordered. Elira and Kestrel closed in as expected. The formation was solid.

  The first wave cttered down, then veered away.

  “What- ?!”

  The ptes swerved around me as if mocking my stance, ignoring the shield entirely, streaking toward Elira instead.

  “Damn it- !”

  BOOM.

  The air shook as an explosion fred where she stood. I felt the bst rattle through the ground, pushing us all away from Elira.

  Elira staggered, but she wasn’t helpless, her mana barrier held, shimmering against the impact. Still, the shock rattled her.

  And then I understood.

  The ptes weren’t random.

  Each was different. Some detonated in bsts to cripple. Others erupted in fshes of blinding light and screeching noise. Each one pinned her down, slowed her reactions, strained her focus.

  She wasn’t scattering them across the battlefield- she was concentrating them all on Elira.

  Not me. Barely any toward Kestrel, nothing that could scratch her speed.

  “Don’t tell me…” My grip on the shield tightened. She was targeting our mage.

  “Stay sharp, Elira!” I barked, but my eyes locked back on the madwoman herself.

  Fwosh.

  She unched downward like a comet, boots igniting with explosive thrusts, straight for me.

  Finally. I must take her down!

  I braced, raising my shield, incantation fring. “[Holy Chain]!”

  Circles bloomed around me, radiant chains of light whipping outward. She thrust Pandora forward, trying to drink them in. Of course, I expected as much.

  “Release!”

  My shield split with a metallic groan, its hidden mechanism springing open. Physical chains burst out, mingling with the holy ones. Not just light anymore, but iron and sanctity entwined, snapping forward to bind.

  Her eyes gleamed as if she’d been waiting for it.

  She kicked her boots again- BOOM! The very ptes beneath her detonated, catapulting her forward. My chains shed at air as she slipped through, a streak of smoke and ughter.

  Straight past me. Aiming for...

  “Kestrel-!”

  I spun, already knowing I was a half-second too te.

  Then-

  "-URGH?!"

  CRASH CRASH CRASH.

  Forces smmed into my back, one after another.

  Ptes? A deyed mana bst? I couldn’t tell. Explosions hammered against my armor, each one searing with heat and mana backsh. I gritted my teeth as pain rattled through my shoulders, sparks fshing in my vision.

  “Ghh- !”

  She baited me and pinned me down

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  The lunatic’s voice rang over the bsts, sharp, mocking, joyous.

  (Kestrel's POV)

  “Hey Caramel, let’s do this quick before Blondie catches up with me!”

  The masked menace came darting for me. Fast. But not faster than me.

  A few ptes tagged along with her, sharp and unpredictable. I slipped between them, bdes ready, and swung for her throat. The shortest path, the cleanest kill.

  Missed.

  Either my angle was off, or she slowed at the st in an instant.

  She nded in a crouch, spinning with too much fir, dragging something new from Pandora. A rod? no, a cane? She cracked it in and it unfurled into a whip. Mana-wired segments glimmered like serpents in torchlight.

  A whip and floating ptes.

  So that’s her answer to speed and precision. Range. Numbers. Chaos.

  The ptes orbited her like predators, twitching, ready to sh out. The whip hissed through the air, testing reach.

  I clicked my tongue and slid into stance. The trick against noise and clutter is simple- don’t listen. Cut straight through.

  I must rush her before she could react.

  Zipped.

  My presence faded, my steps blurred.

  I saw it- the twitch. The brief flinch in her shoulders. Ptes shot outward in a panic, scattering like startled birds, trying to scout the ground. But they weren’t chasing me. They were chasing the ghost of me.

  Too slow.

  I circled. Daggers fshed from my fingers, thrown, a full spread cutting inward from all directions. My rhythm was fwless, angles tight.

  She filed, blocking with Pandora, twisting out of reach, her coat trailing like torn banners.

  Occupied.

  That was all I needed.

  I slipped through. A blur. A whisper. My bde seeking the space beneath her mask.

  Ptes caught my afterimage, snapping too te.

  I had her.

  -Something yanked at my ankle.

  My momentum faltered.

  …Her whip.

  When? Where? I hadn’t even seen her cast it.

  When she was dodging-?

  Bzzzt!

  Pain screamed up my leg. My body jolted, nerves sparking. Electric.

  Trap. She’d never tried to outpace me. She’d been waiting...

  Urgh...

  (Eister's POV)

  I got the Caramel, thank ME.

  A snap of the wrist and my Crackane(Kraken), did its job. She jerked off her feet like a caught rabbit, wrapped and trussed before she could blink. Hah! One down, tied like a gift basket.

  Now, just the elephant in armor with the blonde ha-

  BOOM.

  Something exploded in the sky.

  Eh? My auto-crafter? Did it overheat? …No. The sound wasn’t right.

  I squinted.

  There she was, Blondie, standing tall, shield and sword shimmering with a radiance that made my teeth grind. Her bde cut upward into the air itself, scattering wind like dust like a shockwave. And there it was: a fre of light hugging her body.

  A new state? Some kind of saintly overdrive? Holy power with spsh damage?

  With my poor crafter reduced to smoke and sg, no ptes would be left to keep Elira suppressed. Meaning: I was fresh out of distractions. And right in the path of one very, very shiny knight.

  Welp. Priorities.

  I funneled a coil of kinetic energy into Pandora, wound it tight, and- thoom!

  I unched Caramel like a misaddressed parcel into the treeline.

  Bye-bye assassin.

  I’m sure she’ll be fine.

  Moving on.

  Blondie’s gre cut across the field, hot enough to make my blood stir. Oh yes, angry knight incoming.

  At least my gambit worked. Elira was rattled. The fshbang ptes had cooked her senses, the frag charges gnawed at her barrier, her mana tasted thin and bitter even from here. She’d burn out first if I kept the pressure up.

  So here we are. Red and blue heroines side by side, scowling at me, the chaotic silver stranger, the aditional member

  Ah, what an exciting cliche!

  (Serah's POV)

  I had to use [Limit Break].

  That damned woman, forcing me to resort to this already. My body thrummed with the strain, strength and speed spilling past their normal bounds. I was supposed to be our shield, our wall. But at this rate… I had to become the bde as well.

  Not for long. If I pushed this state too far, my body would pay the price.

  Zztt-

  A faint spark at my temple. Elira’s voice slid into my mind. [Telepathy].

  “-Serah. Listen.”

  Her tone was clipped, sharp, the way she always was when serious.

  “There’s a high chance she’ll come for me. She’s been targeting me from the start. She’ll try to knock me out before finishing you. So, go after her. I’ll prepare something. I’ll pour everything I have into it.”

  “Elira…”

  "Don’t argue. Just trust me. I’ll make it count."

  I raised my sword, the light of [Limit Break] crawling up the bde. My heart pounded against my ribs, blood rushing in my ears.

  “Fine. I’ll pin her down. Don’t you dare waste this chance.”

  My eyes snapped back to the silver lunatic across from us. Her coat was still spattered with blood, her ridiculous whip dangling at her side, ptes whirling like vultures above.

  …But if Elira was right, then I couldn’t wait for the attack to come.

  This ends before she touches my mage.

  I set my stance, holy chains glowing at my feet. “Eister! Your madness ends here!”

  “WHAT A LINE BLONDIE!”

  "ELAISTER!"

  (Third POV)

  Serah smmed her shield into the earth with a roar.

  The ground split apart in a violent tremor, dirt and jagged stones bsting outward like shrapnel. The remaining ptes orbiting Eister cracked and fell, their shards scattering in the dust. Eister staggered, boots scraping as the sudden upheaval stole her bance.

  A chocking screen of grit and rubble rose between them, then it split cleanly, sshed apart by a horizontal golden arc. Serah’s bde tore through with sheer force, the air screaming around the strike.

  Eister braced, Pandora absorbing the blow, only for her eyes to catch three golden fshes darting toward her. One from the front. Two fnking her vision from the edges.

  “[Charge]- with decoys?!”

  She fired mana bursts at each one, tearing through the golden lights. But none of them were Serah. Only holy chains, burning bright before tching onto her.

  Her foot yanked downward, dragged into the dirt by luminous bindings.

  “RAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  The knight’s roar split the sky. From above, Serah descended, bde poised for a crushing execution.

  “Tch-!” Eister’s boots detonated, propelling her sideways in a shower of sparks. Serah’s sword cleaved down where she had stood, the impact shaking the clearing. But the knight was relentless.

  “[Charge]!”

  Eister raised Pandora just in time, the artifact drinking in the flood of power.

  “[Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]!”

  Again, and again.

  “[Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]! [Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]! [Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]! [Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]![Charge]!”

  The knight kept coming. Each swing heavier, faster, golden light smming like waves into her core. Strike after strike, the ground quaked, the forest howled.

  “Y–You dirty spammer!” Eister shrieked, Pandora glowing violently as it struggled to contain the torrent.

  “Says the one who swarmed my mage!” Serah’s voice thundered back.

  Suddenly, Pandora jerked downward. A spectral gauntlet of azure chains gripped it, dragging the cube into the dirt. Eister’s eyes widened. She couldn’t absorb this one.

  “Wait-!”

  “[CHARGE]!”

  The knight’s shield smashed into her chest, unching her like a ragdoll across the clearing.

  “Urgh- ghk!”

  She smmed into the dirt, tried to scramble up, only for glowing azure rings to crash down around her. One binding her ankles. One her wrist. One on her neck. One locking tight across her waist. No escape. No absorption. No sensation bellow her neck.

  Pinned.

  Across the clearing, Serah colpsed to the ground, drained from [Limit Break]. But far behind her, a blue dot, the blue mage stood with exhaustion, eyes burning with mana.

  Elira raised her staff.

  “[Azure Bzing Breath]!”

  A single dot of incandescent blue appeared before her wand. It erupted into a massive torrent, a raging beam that devoured the air itself as it tore toward Eister.

  “W–Wait! This is too much, isn’t it?!” Eister screamed, thrashing against the bindings. The chains held fast.

  The bst bore down.

  “That’s enough to KILL ME!”

  No reply. No mercy.

  “Someon-!?”

  Her voice cracked.

  And then-

  “Heh…”

  A green glint, swift as the wind. A man with bck hair stepped into the path of annihition, arm raised bare against the azure inferno.

  The world shook.

  The beam split in half, carved apart casually. The torrent rushed past him harmlessly, scouring the trees, but not a single thread touched the girl behind him.

  The dust cleared.

  Standing between Eister and certain death was Hiroto. The so-called Hero.

  His lips curled into a grin.

  Eister could hear HIS advent on her head again.

  “Well, well. You passed~.”

  つづく

  Yuutwo02