Sona's mind raced as she watched the match unfold below. While she was still preoccupied with thoughts of how Rias would resolve her engagement to that arrogant Phoenix, her childhood friend suddenly spoke up.
"Sona, I think we made a mistake not participating ourselves," Rias said, a wry smile crossing her face.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Sona blinked, momentarily caught off guard.
"Just watch the field," Rias suggested with a rueful chuckle.
She'd originally thought this competition would put pressure on Takeyo, demonstrating the gap between his abilities and those of experienced Devils. Instead, it was rapidly becoming clear that the pressure was entirely on her own pride. How embarrassing would it be if her peerage was easily surpassed, or worse, completely dominated, by someone who wasn't even a full Devil?
Rias conveniently ignored the fact that Takeyo's reincarnation had failed, but she suspected Ajuka-sama felt the same uncomfortable awareness.
"Look at the field?" Sona's gaze shifted to the battleground.
"Mm..." Even with her exceptional composure, Sona felt that Takeyo's performance was proving somewhat surreal.
On the field below, Koneko and Tsubasa had already collapsed, lying motionless on the ground. Takeyo hadn't struck them with anything particularly brutal, he'd simply used a weakening technique that drained their stamina and left them unable to continue.
This particular skill had been covered in yesterday's lesson from Ajuka, "How to Use Minimal Magic to Block Maximum Magical Output."
Maintaining the casual ease he'd displayed from the beginning, Takeyo moved slowly but inexorably toward the opposite side of the field.
Whenever Tsubaki manifested a magic circle, he would gently wave his hand, dispersing the construct before it could activate. Sometimes he wouldn't even bother waving, he'd simply wait lazily until the spell was about to launch, then dissolve the entire formation in one smooth motion.
Seeing the increasingly unfavorable situation on their side, even Ruruko Nimura, who was normally responsible for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance, abandoned her analytical role and joined the assault on Takeyo.
Ruruko, a second-year student with a deceptively cute appearance, typically specialized in collecting information and locating enemies. She was classified as a Bishop, though she also possessed respectable combat abilities in magic.
At this point, she'd given up on the futile task of analyzing Takeyo's capabilities. She couldn't calculate what she couldn't comprehend, and continuing to try would only waste energy.
Unfortunately, even with her addition, there was no discernible difference in the outcome.
Two hundred meters... one hundred and fifty meters... Takeyo's footsteps approached with that same effortless certainty.
He wasn't rushing. He didn't use instant movement to close the distance to Akeno's position and interrupt her increasingly powerful spell. Because right now...
He was waiting.
"Ta~~~ta~~~ta~~"
Just as he'd expected, after witnessing how he'd neutralized two groups of close-combat specialists in mere seconds, no one dared approach him anymore.
At one hundred and twenty meters, Akeno's chant finally reached completion.
"Tsubaki! Ready!" Akeno's voice rang out with determination.
She knew perfectly well that Takeyo possessed the ability to teleport instantaneously and could easily avoid her attack. But she'd chosen to use this technique anyway, because it served a purpose beyond simply hitting him.
At the very least, she thought, I can force him to dodge instead of just walking forward so casually!
"Understood!" Tsubaki's response was immediate.
A massive mirror materialized in front of her, the manifestation of her Sacred Gear, Mirror Alice.
Tsubaki Shinra served as the Vice President of the Student Council and Sona's first servant, her Queen. Born into the ancient Shinra Clan, a prestigious family of Devils with a long history, she wielded the Sacred Gear known as the Mirror of Remembrance. Through this artifact, she could summon beings from other dimensions through her mirrors. More importantly, when the mirror was destroyed, it would reflect double the power of the attacking spell back at the opponent!
"Super Lightning Strike!" Akeno's voice echoed across the battlefield.
The attack condensed into a concentration of power that approached the absolute limit of what a High-Class Devil could produce.
A thick bolt of lightning, powerful enough to seem as though it could pierce the heavens themselves, surged toward Tsubaki's Mirror of Remembrance.
"Crack!"
A sharp, crystalline sound rang out as the mirror shattered.
Then...
A lightning strike with double the original power reflected from the broken mirror's surface, shooting straight toward Takeyo with devastating force!
Their strategy had evolved beyond attempting to actually defeat him. Now, their goal had become much simpler: force Takeyo to evade!
That's right, just such a straightforward objective.
Both the Knight and Rook's melee attacks had been effortlessly countered by Takeyo. The Bishops and Queen who relied on magic found themselves unable to even complete their spells without his interference!
They understood that Akeno's Super Lightning Strike had only been allowed to reach completion because Takeyo chose not to interrupt it. If he could dispel Tsubaki's magic circles, he could just as easily have stopped Akeno's chant. He clearly possessed the capability to interrupt any of their spells before activation.
All of them existed at roughly the same power tier, somewhere between Middle Class and High-Class Devils.
At minimum, they reasoned, we should at least force him to dodge!
This was their simple, desperate hope.
However...
Facing the reflected lightning strike bearing down on him, Takeyo showed absolutely no intention of evading.
"Takeyo, what are you doing?! Why aren't you dodging?!" Akeno's eyes widened in alarm as her own lightning, doubled in power, closed in on him.
"Takeyo-senpai!" Koneko's golden eyes constricted with concern despite her exhaustion.
"Takeyo! Move!"
Sona, who'd been observing from the sidelines, suddenly found herself rushing toward Takeyo's position without conscious thought.
She understood his ability to dispel magic at the High-Class Devil level, but there was no reason to forgo using instant movement and instead choose to take a direct hit from an attack that exceeded High-Class Devil power!
"Don't worry," Takeyo said with a calm smile.
Of his three incarnations, he'd only activated one so far.
"BOOM!"
Under Sona's nearly desperate gaze, the Super Lightning Strike crashed directly into Takeyo, who made absolutely no move to avoid it.
The instant the lightning struck, Sona, who'd gotten dangerously close in her attempt to reach him, was inevitably caught in the attack's area of effect.
However, compared to the full force that Takeyo absorbed, the residual damage she suffered was truly insignificant.
"Sona!"
Seeing Takeyo swallowed by the dazzling burst of lightning and Sona thrown backward by the shockwave, Rias, who'd been a split-second slower to react, also rushed toward the center of the lightning strike.
"Takeyo... Takeyo-senpai?"
Koneko stared blankly at the clouds of dust that had erupted where Takeyo had been standing.
An attack of that magnitude would be life-threatening even for Buchou, she thought, fear gripping her chest. And Takeyo-senpai said his physical durability wasn't particularly strong...
"Didn't I tell you it was fine?"
From the center of the lightning strike, a gentle voice emerged through Sona's mixture of despair and desperate hope.
From the heart of the dissipating electrical discharge, a figure walked forward. His fair skin bore only traces of dust, and his striking black eyes, deep enough to seem like they could pierce through endless starlight, regarded them with slight concern rather than pain.
Perhaps the only visible difference from before was the faint scorch marks on his clothing from where the lightning had struck.
"Sona, I'll heal you right away."
He quickly reached her side, and Takeyo found himself unable to bear the sight of her injuries, injuries she'd suffered because she'd tried to save him.
How can I let you bear the consequences of my choices? he thought with genuine remorse.
Shaking his head with helpless affection, Takeyo's hands began to glow with a soft, milky-white light that gently enveloped Sona's body.
He'd activated his second incarnation: World Dragon Kurimo.
The World Dragon Kurimo originated from the turtle avatar Kurma, which in Hindu mythology was called Kacchapa, meaning "ancient tortoise." However, within the conceptual framework of the Hakoniwa world, it represented the Dragon King of omniscience.
Both the English terms "Kurma" and "Kacchapa" shared the same etymological root. It could be said that the World Dragon Kurimo and the ancient turtle avatar were essentially two aspects of the same divine principle.
Among the ten incarnations that Takeyo had acquired, the power of World Dragon Kurimo contained the combined strength and spiritual essence of both manifestations...
Currently, he was channeling the healing aspect of World Dragon Kurimo's power to mend Sona's wounds.
According to the ancient legends, when the gods and demons performed the great churning of the ocean of milk to obtain the nectar of immortality, Vishnu incarnated as a turtle and dove to the bottom of the primordial sea. There, he carried Mount Mandara on his back, which served as the churning rod that stirred the cosmic ocean, allowing the gods to extract the divine nectar that maintained their immortality.
Therefore, the incarnation of World Dragon Kurimo also symbolized eternal life, infinity, and the power to support all creation.
As the warm, healing energy flowed through her, Sona felt her injuries rapidly mending, the pain fading as though it had never existed.
She looked up at Takeyo with wide eyes, seeing him in an entirely new light.
Just how many secrets are you hiding, Takeyo Kagutsuchi?
☆☆☆
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