Even if the divine sword is severed, another divine sword is immediately created.
But that creates a grace period of a few tenths of a second.
I can see Aiwa, who is not even given time to blink, flowing with her posture and preparing to counter the next divine sword with only the remaining swords, without reaching for it.
Having lost her left ankle, her body torn, and bearing numerous severe wounds, she still fights with a smile.
“HAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
A roar from the side, Instructor Kio’s punch, released with a spirit, yet again.
“Perish! Perish! I will sever our karmic ties here!!”
Instructor Fushio’s magic approaches, filling the gaps in Instructor Kio’s attacks.
Slowly, yes, slowly, Aiwa is being cornered.
If she twists her body to evade the oni’s attack, the undead’s magic strikes her, and if she swings her sword to shake off the magic, my slash attacks obstruct her.
If she tries to flow with that slash, the oni’s fist comes flying.
The damage inflicted undoubtedly corners her, but her counter-slashes leave deep wounds on us as well.
“G AHA HA HA! I’m still alive!!”
Instructor Kio’s fingers are severed, rendering him unable to make a fist.
“KAHA HA HA! Still not dead! You’re more tenacious than the undead!!”
Instructor Fushio’s right eye is cut.
“Not yet!!”
A sword is thrust into my abdomen.
It’s alright, it reached my internal organs, but I can still move with this much.
Everyone understands.
If we endure this, Aiwa will survive.
If we don’t finish her here, we lose.
Whoever tires out first loses.
We are already on the brink of running out of magic power due to consecutive battles.
Stamina has long since been depleted, and we are running at full speed on sheer willpower alone.
If my magic runs out or I lose consciousness, I won’t be able to get up again.
“AHAHAHA!! Are you still fighting as well?!!”
Feri latches onto Aiwa’s left leg, and Aiwa crushes Feri’s left eye with her sword.
But as remuneration, she severs Aiwa’s left leg at the root with all her might.
“I still have some fight left!!”
Even when her magic runs out, the Dragon King, recovering slightly, transforms into his dragon form and attacks Aiwa.
“How interesting, you truly entertain me!!”
She tries to slash Aiwa with the claws on both arms, but her slow speed due to her massive body allows Aiwa to evade and sever one arm. Then the Dragon King opens her mouth.
“Only the Dragon race can hide giants in such places!!”
She doesn’t have the magic power left to spew a breath.
All she can do is deliver the Giant King. The Dragon King, casting aside her pride, exerts her last bit of strength.
“HAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
And the Giant King, using a clever tactic by hiding within the Dragon King’s mouth, closes in on Aiwa.
With the colossal axe held in both hands, he attempts to cleave Aiwa in half.
“But that won’t reach me!!”
However, before the cleaving axe can strike, Aiwa steps into the Giant King’s guard.
Within the reach of the Giant King’s slash.
By holding the weapon behind her, she enters a small safety zone where she can evade, and then pierces the Giant King’s heart with her sword.
“Guh!? Caught you!!”
Even a general wouldn’t be unscathed after having their heart crushed.
But the Giant race, whose toughness rivals that of the Oni tribe.
They don’t die instantly from having their heart crushed.
The Giant King, unlike his taciturn nature, lets out a roar.
“Go!!”
“Ooh! Don’t let go!!”
“We won’t waste this!!”
Not wanting to squander that resolve, I advance with Instructor Kio.
“Risking a friend’s life! That’s a good fight too!!”
A single strike, relying more on the Giant King’s vitality than his durability.
Even Aiwa can’t easily break free when embraced directly by a giant.
But she, who has usurped the power of the Sun God.
“However! Don’t think it will end so easily!!”
While restrained by the Giant King’s embrace, she unleashes divine flames from her body.
“Guh!?”
The Giant King endures the heat, gritting his teeth, but the smell of burning flesh wafts from where he is stepping.
Feeling the heat, my skin begins to burn too, but it doesn’t matter.
“Got her!!”
“Die!!”
Although her divine flames blinded me, I still don’t hesitate to pierce the Ore Tree into where I sense Aiwa’s heart, and the instructor’s fist, coming from the other side, hits Aiwa’s temple.
“A, you, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Ooh!”
“Lunaria!”
“Understood!!”
The Dragon King is trying to recover, but the Giant King cannot.
We, who immediately understood this, pushed onward to finish Aiwa, spurred on by his dying words.
Twisting the hilt to gou, then a flash to the side.
Instructor Kio grabs the Giant King by the collar and throws him towards Lunaria.
“Kaha, is that the taste of blood?”
Finally spitting out blood after his heart was gouged out.
“It’s been a while, ah, this is good!!”
Despite this, instead of feeling like her life was in danger, her emotions exploded.
Her face doesn’t look like someone who has accepted their end.
She intends to win from here too!
Not a shred of despair in her eyes. Aiwa, despite her tattered body, flaps her still functional wings and creates distance.
“Once more!!”
And immediately lunges, unleashing a slash sharper than before.
“Guh!?”
Even with Future Sight, I can’t fully evade it.
My left shoulder is gone.
Severed, my left arm flies through the air.
Recovery won’t be in time.
In that case.
“I still have my right arm!!”
I have to return the favor.
Just before feeling the cut, I knew I couldn’t evade.
So, with the returning blade, I make my right arm, gripping the Ore Tree, roar and run the blade along Aiwa’s left elbow, severing that arm.
“Yes! That’s right, I still have my right arm too!!”
“I still have both arms left!!”
“Did you think a scratch like taking one eye would stop me?!!”
There’s no time to stop the bleeding, and I can’t fall back.
“Vals!!”
“Got it!!”
Time stops on my wound, preventing bleeding. Now I can fight.
The pain has long since been numb.
The two instructors step forward, pursuing her retreating back.
An Ōni with a missing finger delivers blows at the front, and behind the Ōni, an undead woman unleashes magic, but still.
“Not yet! It’s not over yet!!”
Having lost a leg, her body split, her heart pierced, her left hand lost, Aiwa still fights.
Wishing for this battle to not end, she continues to fight with a smile, filled with joy.
The pressure of her spirit causes a sword to pierce the kneeling Ōni.
The Ōni’s posture breaks.
This is bad.
Flowing with her movements, Aiwa steps on Instructor Kio’s shoulder with her remaining leg and goes over him.
“Let’s perish!!”
“Unfortunately, I’ve decided my end will be in my wife’s arms!!”
Even if she can handle close combat, dealing with Aiwa, a transcendent master of combat, is difficult even for Instructor Fushio.
Aiwa evades the magic bullets fired from the spires of the instructor’s castle with her wings and approaches Instructor Fushio, who is in the backliner.
Her staff is bisected, and even her subordinate’s body, used for defense, is cut apart.
“You won’t get past me!!!”
With the momentum of a charge, I insert my body into Aiwa’s third attack approaching Instructor Fushio, and with one arm, I receive Aiwa’s slash.
“Guh!?”
The Ore Tree cracks.
“Not yet! I can still do this! It’s not over yet!! Don’t hold back! Partner!!”
Sensing the danger, my partner, who understood my feelings at that moment, shouts.
“Ooh!”
Trusting my partner, without holding back, I parry the clash of swords and strike back.
My arm is heavy, but don’t slow down.
It’s difficult to maintain balance with only one arm.
Correct yourself immediately!
My magic is about to run out.
Squeeze out the last drop!
Worry about what happens later later!
This moment, this instant, is what matters!
With each clash against Aiwa’s sword, cracks spread along the blade from the initial point of damage.
“Not yet! Not yet!! More! Attack more!!”
My partner’s voice rallying my spirit, I step forward.
“I will remember you!! You were the strongest human I have ever known!!”
But no matter how much she steels herself for battle, time was insufficient to overcome skill polished over years.
The Ore Tree is struck away, and Aiwa’s blade is aimed at me, my posture completely broken.
“You won’t get my disciple!!”
With Teleportation Magic, Instructor Fushio circles around and stands between me and Aiwa, blocking Aiwa’s blade with his body.
“If I die, you die with me!!”
Instructor Fushio grabs Aiwa’s face and unleashes an enormous dark magic at point-blank range.
Instructor Fushio’s body splits into torso and lower half, his upper body flying into the air, and the arm that cast the magic is gone.
“Master and disciple, love, magnificent.”
Even after receiving Instructor Fushio’s full-power magic, Aiwa, managing to only shave off the right half of her face, her hair tie comes loose from the magic, and her hair covers the lost right half.
“Magnificent!!”
“Then! Die already!!”
While receiving that praise, I don’t miss the opening created by the instructor and slash Aiwa’s torso vertically.
A cut in a different place than where her body was rejoining. Considering human anatomy, she should have fallen long ago, yet as if to say she can still fight if her core remains, she returns the slash.
I insert the Ore Tree in between and deflect it.
“Ah, what a shame, such a shame!! That my partner would perish before you.”
But the timing was bad to completely deflect it, and the Ore Tree shatters.
Its fragments tear through my cheek.
My partner, who had faithfully supported me, telling me it was alright, has shattered.
“It’s not over!!!”
Instructor Kio’s voice interrupts Aiwa’s words, which considered this the end.
“Wholehearted effort, leaving not a single fragment behind!!”
Hearing that voice, I instinctively use the remaining half of my partner at the hilt to brush away Aiwa’s sword.
“I’ll give you my all.”
I feel the full power of an oni, its waves.
“Take this YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Instructor Kio’s strike, concentrating all his magic into one arm, strikes Aiwa’s abdomen, sending her flying and creating a gaping hole.
“Ah, empty.”
And Instructor Kio, who has become incredibly gaunt, falls.
“Go, Jiro.”
However, with his words just before falling, I grip the shattered half of my partner and sprint, pouring in my last bit of magic.
“Ah, hahahaha, this is a battle, this is truly, a battle.”
With a hole in her abdomen, Aiwa stands up, using her sword as a staff.
“We clashed with everything we had, betting our lives.”
And seeing me running towards her, she sheds tears from her remaining eye at the very end.
“That is why I believe, even if it’s wrong, I must win, I have to win!!”
With a scream, she lunges with agility I didn’t think she possessed, given her condition.
Even without the initial strength, she uses all her technique to kill me.
“That’s the same for me.”
I reply to Aiwa’s shout with a murmur.
No, this spirit isn’t enough.
Fight it out.
Anywhere, from anywhere, I’ll give my life.
“I will win! And I will…”
So, my body, please hold on.
No.
“End this battleEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”
Hold on!
The end is near!
The remaining half of my Ore Tree, even though it’s shattered, collides head-on with Aiwa’s sword.
“HAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“KIEIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
Again, again, again.
Each of us giving our all, draining our strength, solely to kill the other.
Wounding each other.
And then.
“Ah.”
Aiwa’s sword shatters.
Seeing this, her eyes widen, and finally, she smiles.
“Magnificent.”
Hearing those words for the last time, I plunge my Ore Tree into her divine core, visible within her body.
I’m sure I will never forget the feeling of this moment.
The feeling that the battle against god, in this long, long history, has finally ended.
Today’s Word:
An ending is just an ending.
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Pandora Pandemic Panic – Pandora’s Box has been reopened, but we’re fighting back with various activities in secret bases and more!!
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