"So... so amazing..."
On the other side, Ais had long since struggled to her feet and gathered her companions in one place, and she had watched with her own eyes as Leo summoned the twelve star beasts and pinned down the defiled Spirit, so the words spilled out of her, giving voice to the shock in her heart.
That defiled Spirit, which had swept aside and crushed the entire main force of Loki Familia on its own, was being held down by Leo alone, and now it had been caught in purification and was about to be wiped out...
That magic... that power...
So that was Leo's full strength at this stage?
He had already become this strong. Stronger than her, even...
Ais felt something, and something in her shook, and for a while she stood there blankly, saying nothing for a long time.
But like that, Ais failed to notice that Leo, holding Starlight up high, had gone pale, his forehead covered in sweat, his eyes full of exhaustion, his whole body swaying as if he were about to fall.
No, not about to fall. He had already fallen.
Just as Virgo's Star was about to purify that defiled Spirit completely, Leo could no longer hold himself up. His body wavered, and he slowly toppled toward the ground and hit the dirt.
A hum.
The twelve star beasts, like a natural disaster made flesh, all turned unreal, and then they shuddered together and dispersed into magic light that made the air tremble, gone without a trace.
"What?"
Ais started at the sight.
A wet gurgling.
The remaining flesh and blood of the defiled Spirit that had been on the verge of purification began to squirm like a tumor, and it started to regenerate at high speed.
"Leo!"
Ais had no attention to spare for that. She ran to where Leo was and pulled him up into her arms.
Leo's face was still that terrible color, and he had fallen completely unconscious.
This was...
"Mind Down!"
Ais understood it all.
To bring down the defiled Spirit, Leo had released that magic at full power, and though he had gained strength enough to overwhelm the defiled Spirit, he had also burned through his Mind for it and fallen straight into Mind Down.
And that was exactly what had happened.
Prayer of the Twelve Zodiac had a multi-chant effect, able to summon different numbers of star beasts depending on the amount of chanting, but by the same token, summoning different numbers of star beasts naturally consumed different amounts of Mind.
Summoning one star beast was fine. The drain on Mind was not too large, at least for Leo as he was now.
But releasing the third magic at full power, calling out all twelve star beasts in one breath, put a strain on his Mind that was no joke.
Furthermore, the time the star beasts stayed summoned was directly proportional to the Mind consumed.
In other words, the longer the star beasts stayed summoned, the greater the drain on his Mind.
Leo had resupplied beforehand, downing quite a few high-grade Magic Potions in one go, and he had Spirit Healing, a Development Ability that automatically restored Mind, but releasing the third magic at full power and summoning all twelve star beasts was still too heavy a burden on his Mind.
So even counting generously, the twelve star beasts had only been summoned for about a minute, and by the end his Mind had been drained dry, dropping him straight into Mind Down, unconscious.
Once he was unconscious and his Mind was spent, the summoning of the twelve star beasts was canceled.
"Why now of all times...!?"
Understanding all of it, Ais looked ahead with an expression that was not good.
A wet gurgling, again and again.
Over there, the green tumor was still squirming and swelling, regenerating new flesh and blood bit by bit, letting the defiled Spirit that had nearly been destroyed slowly recover.
Ais knew she could not keep waiting like this.
"I absolutely... will not let you regenerate!"
Knowing how much trouble it would be if that monster finished regenerating, Ais drew Desperate without hesitation.
She took the high-grade Magic Potions from the pouch at Leo's waist and poured several of them into his mouth, then carried him aside and set him sitting against the wall.
"I won't let your effort go to waste."
After murmuring that to the unconscious boy, Ais turned and charged at the defiled Spirit.
"Awaken."
The short incantation finished in an instant, and the golden-haired, golden-eyed swordsman, wind wrapped around her whole body, shot forward like an arrow, rushing at the defiled Spirit.
Staring at that ugly lump of flesh, Ais called out from the bottom of her heart.
"You shouldn't go on existing in this world."
This was the only salvation she, who carried the same Spirit blood, could give to one of her own kind.
So Ais accelerated and hurled herself forward, kicking up a gale the whole way, the force of it startling.
Her movement also provoked the defiled Spirit.
The defiled Spirit already had a special sensitivity to and craving for Ais's "wind," and now that Ais was outputting the power of "wind" at maximum, the defiled Spirit sensed the presence of that "wind" on her and began to move violently.
"...! ...!"
The squirming lump of flesh let out a shapeless sound, and though it was no longer as shrill or as piercing as before, something in the surroundings still answered her.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!!!"
The moment those broken-gong cries rose, a large pack of multicolored monsters came rushing in from all around and blocked Ais's path.
"Get out of the way!"
Ais had not expected more multicolored monsters to appear and obstruct her. Her expression shifted slightly and she clenched her teeth.
She was about to swing her sword at them when several voices rang out behind her.
"Wynn Fimbulvetr!"
"Fusillade Fallarica!"
"Hail Crystal Dust!"
A blizzard swept in from behind, a downpour of flame fell from the sky, and ice crystals and diamond dust came down as well, all of it crashing into the pack of multicolored monsters, freezing, blasting apart, and sealing countless monsters in ice.
A string of thunderous roars.
The roaring did not let up, and Ais was forced to stop, one hand raised to block the blast of wind in her face while she turned her head to look behind her.
Then Ais saw three familiar figures.
"Riveria! Lefiya! Alicia!"
The three Elf Mages.
Her companions, who had been badly wounded and unable to rise, had recovered enough under her and Leo's protection that they could stand again.
The three of them were ragged, their faces covered in dust, in a sorry state, but their staves were gripped very tightly.
"Go, Ais!"
Riveria, blood on her forehead, standing on a magic circle, shouted in Ais's direction.
"We'll support you! Miss Ais!"
Lefiya shouted too, disheveled but with a determined face.
"Finish off that monster, Ais!"
Alicia had a bow in her other hand, as if she meant to support Ais with arrows as well.
Ais nodded hard and kept charging forward.
The three Elf Mages began chanting again at once.
They had no choice. The multicolored monsters came flooding in from all directions again, throwing themselves toward Ais without fear of death, like an ant swarm guarding its queen, showing a deadly resolve to never let Ais near the defiled Spirit.
Before the three Elf Mages could finish chanting, the monsters had already reached Ais and surrounded her.
But just as they were about to attack her, several more figures came charging in.
"Break, damn it!!!"
Bete, his armor and gear in tatters, roared, a silver blade in each hand, and slashed wildly at the multicolored monsters, cutting a whole swath of worm-types into pieces.
"What are you so smug about? You trash!"
Tione's face was fierce, clearly in a rage, and she swung her halberd wildly, smashing one Viola after another and blowing their heads apart on the spot.
"Don't get in Ais's way!"
Tiona hefted the great double-bladed Urga, and she turned into a meat grinder. Everywhere she passed, countless multicolored monsters were caught up and shredded by that vicious blade, leaving no bodies whole.
"W-we're here too! Miss Ais!"
"Ha! I've got to do my part as well!"
Raul and Tsubaki charged in as well, one wounding a Viola that was swinging its tentacles with his sword, the other grinning wide as she brought her tachi down and cut a worm-type's huge body clean in two, opening a road for Ais.
"Everyone!"
Ais's face lit up.
Finally, two figures, one large and one small, leapt high, passed over Ais's head, and landed in front of her.
"Sorry for worrying you."
The Pallum leader held his spear in both hands, his gaze sharp.
"Getting saved by the little ones for once. That's one hell of an embarrassment."
The Dwarf warrior, great axe over his shoulder, said that in a tone that might have been anger or the kind of laugh that comes out when you're past angry, a powerful aura pouring off him.
"Finn! Gareth!"
Seeing her fallen companions come back one after another, Ais nearly let her joy show on her face.
"Don't worry, we took heavy hits, but our heads were clear enough. We know everything that happened." Finn glanced at Leo, sitting slumped against the wall, unconscious, then looked at the endlessly regenerating green lump of flesh. "The commendations can wait until afterward. For now, let's lock down the advantage Leo burned everything to create for us."
"Leave all the obstacles to us. You just deal with that defiled Spirit."
"Go, Ais."
Hearing Finn's words, Ais nodded hard again and, without another word, kicked off the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust as she charged toward the defiled Spirit.
"...!!"
The defiled Spirit sensed the threat and began swinging its regenerated tentacles, whipping the long, thick tentacles one after another at Ais.
"Not happening!"
"Don't act like I'm not here!"
Finn and Gareth had been waiting for this. They leapt forward, swinging spear and battle axe, deflecting or cutting away the incoming tentacles one after another to open the road for Ais.
The multicolored monsters coming from all around were Bete, Tione, Tiona, Raul, and Tsubaki's to clear.
Riveria, Lefiya, and Alicia handled long-range fire support, chanting magic without pause and unleashing wide-area bombardments that blew away large swaths of the obstruction.
With her companions' help, Ais kept sprinting forward, closing the distance to the defiled Spirit.
But the defiled Spirit was regenerating fast too, and by now its lower body was finished, leaving only the upper.
Without an upper body, it could not chant magic, which did remove one great threat for everyone.
But once the lower body was regenerated, that impossibly hard petal armor regenerated along with it, standing in front of the defiled Spirit and keeping Ais from taking a single step past.
That was not all. Green pillars kept falling from the vault above, forming a green wall in front of the defiled Spirit, continuing to obstruct Ais's advance, which made her anxious.
Ais wanted to leap into the air and use the power of "wind" for a brief flight, to cross the green wall and the petal armor, but then countless tentacles would come lashing in and cut off the path through the air, so she was blocked again and again, unable to advance even one step further.
And in that situation, the defiled Spirit's upper body began to slowly regenerate.
Everyone grew anxious at the sight.
This tug-of-war went on for a long time, long enough that even the unconscious Leo slowly woke to a stabbing pain in his head.
When he opened his eyes and came back to himself, the first thing he saw was everyone frantically attacking the defiled Spirit while the defiled Spirit and the multicolored monsters blocked their path over and over.
"...It's stubborn, isn't it."
Leo gave a bitter laugh, but he stood up all the same.
He reached out and slowly raised the Starlight in his hand.
"Race onward like a comet."
Thick starlight bloomed with the low chant, wrapping around Leo's whole body.
Leo held Starlight high, the point of the blade aimed at the defiled Spirit.
By now the defiled Spirit's upper body was more or less regenerated, with only the head left.
Once that head regenerated, that terrifying Spirit magic would come down on this wasteland again.
But Leo was not going to give it that chance.
"Comet Chase!"
Starlight burst, and a brilliant comet erupted off the ground and streaked toward the defiled Spirit.
Leo spent the Mind he had just recovered without stinting, putting all of it into acceleration.
He did not have to worry about losing his aim from too much speed, because he had already fixed on the target before takeoff.
So all that was left was to accelerate with everything he had and fly across with everything he had.
"Fly!"
The comet, brilliant beyond measure, accelerated to its limit, so fast that no one present could react.
The three Elf Mages chanting their magic could not react.
The warriors locked in a life-or-death fight with the multicolored monsters could not react.
The two Familia leaders working to open the road for Ais could not react.
Only Ais, as if she had sensed something, jerked her head up, and all she could see was a streak of starlight sweeping past overhead.
As for the defiled Spirit, it managed no reaction at all.
Neither the petal armor nor the countless tentacles could block him in time.
And so the brilliant comet, as if passing through space itself, struck the defiled Spirit's huge body head-on.
A wet punch of impact.
The legendary sword unleashed the power it was due, and under the boost of that extreme speed it ran through the defiled Spirit's body and came out its back.
"Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!!!"
The defiled Spirit, its head only just regenerated, let out a shrill scream.
The scream did not die away for a long time.
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