There was no plan. We would only cling on with everything we had.
"Buy us time!"
"Don't let it get away!"
We proposed the tyrant's next move and prepared the witch's judgment.
Of course, that wasn't all.
"Uoooooo!"
"Haaaaaah!"
As if they didn't care about the witch's bombardment at all, the adventurers threw themselves forward with the intent of cutting the tyrant's throat.
"E-everyone's crazy..."
Someone from Poseidon Familia, watching from afar, muttered at the sight that bordered on madness.
Everyone there was thinking the same thing. They were all insane. How could they charge so recklessly at a monster like that?
"So that's an adventurer from Orario..."
Swallowing hard, they shuddered as Poseidon Familia's captain watched them with indifferent eyes.
"Idiots."
The sea was their domain. And yet look at the situation now. The tyrant was the one tearing through the sea, and they were the ones hunting it.
They themselves had become nothing but extras, watching from far away.
Grit-
The sound of teeth grinding was swallowed up by the noise and vanished.
It was frustrating. Frustrating that they could do nothing.
It was humiliating. Humiliating that they were doing nothing.
Was it really all right for them to just stand here like this?
Heroes were a kind of flame.
A flame that burned not only itself, but everything around it as well.
Hot and dazzling, impossible for anyone to look away from.
She had been the same. Blinded and enthralled by the light of the hero before her eyes.
The flame spread.
Chiiing—
Light converged, and a bell rang out.
Simultaneous force from sword and feet. A desperate measure to secure both speed and power.
"Ghh..."
The more she forced her body, the heavier the strain became. Along with the mental drain, the backlash accumulated, and her body steadily began to break down.
But she couldn't stop. If she stopped here, someone else would have to bear that burden.
More than that, her pride and stubbornness would never allow her to collapse so disgracefully here.
"Hyaaaaaah!"
Explosions in rapid succession. Repeating force and release, she battered the tyrant's body while thunderous sounds rolled across the battlefield.
"GRAAAAAAH!!"
Even the tyrant, who had initially ignored her, began to shift its attention little by little as the surging power made it feel threatened.
But the more openings it showed, the more advantageous it became for them.
[That is beyond the wasteland—]
The lion's song rang out.
Rough, unpolished, and therefore all the more threatening.
An attack that could pierce the tyrant's carapace.
There were three of them. And on top of that, those insects were still throwing themselves in with reckless abandon.
For the tyrant, facing a crisis unlike any it had ever experienced, one emotion began to bloom within it.
It was fear. The first time it had ever felt it, the emotion that rose the instant it thought it might die.
Because it was a feeling it had never known before, the ancient creature had no idea how to calm it.
But it did know how to erase it.
"K-kraaaaaah!"
"What...!"
"It's running! Catch it!"
The moment the tyrant plunged into the sea, confusion rippled through the group.
The monster called the tyrant... was running away?
Battle was a chain of unexpected developments. Sudden variables, bizarre actions from the enemy. The list of things to watch for was endless.
Even if you could see the future, there were countless variables you couldn't possibly handle all at once. So how did you survive?
There were many answers, but one of them was simply to smash the variables themselves with overwhelming force.
"[Sound of Two Bells Ringing]"
"Kyaaaaaaah?!!!"
The lion's sorcery shattered the sea.
Literally. The instant it reached the pillar, the sea itself burst apart.
Overwhelming force. Overwhelming violence.
That was the greatest trait—and the greatest strength—of the prodigy.
For a moment, the tyrant's body stopped in the vanished sea. But only for a moment.
Even stripped of its shell, the tyrant was still enormous, and the sea erased by the prodigy's attack was only a portion of it.
Against a monster that filled the sea, his pillar was far too thin.
But that single instant was enough.
Kagagagagak!
"GRAAAAAH?!"
He succeeded in driving his sword into the opening at that moment.
The blade lodged in the joint between the carapace plates. If he could now drive magic into its body, he could create an opening for the bombardment to land—
"Kyaaaak!"
"Ghk?!"
It happened in an instant. With a thump, Leviathan jerked its body, and before he knew it, my own body had been dragged under the water.
Its aquatic instincts made it impossible to react to.
The cold winter seawater began filling my lungs. I'd been pulled into the sea so fast I couldn't breathe properly. Worse, I couldn't even use magic in this situation!
"Tch...!"
Bubbles boiled up in my mouth, but unfortunately there was nothing I could do here.
To make matters worse, the blade I'd lodged there wouldn't budge at all. Had I planted it in a bad spot?
"No, this is better."
If it was fixed in place, then I'd use this chance to land a solid hit...!
"...What?!"
With that thought, I put strength into the sword and tried to twist it, but the blade wouldn't move an inch.
It was hard! It definitely hadn't been this tough a moment ago?!
"Is it because I'm underwater!"
I was weakened in the water, yes, but by instinct I could tell Leviathan had grown stronger too.
I didn't know the principle, but Leviathan was an aquatic monster. It wouldn't be strange if it became stronger in the sea.
"This is bad...!"
A split-second mistake in judgment. My breathing began to fail at once.
And once breathing failed, thinking failed too.
What should I do? Should I release the power I'd gathered?
But if I released it now, I wouldn't be able to support the bombardment.
And yet, if this kept up...
My brain screamed that it was running out of oxygen. It shrieked that if this went on any longer, I would die.
There was no choice. I'd have to force it open here, even if it meant overdoing it—
That was when it happened. A new wave rose in the flow of the current.
Thump!
"—?!"
A dull impact sound carried through the water instead of the air. Startled by the sound, as if a firestone had exploded underwater, I widened my eyes and saw a woman with blue hair launching a physical assault at Leviathan's face.
She had a human upper body and a fish-like lower body.
"...Marie?"
A familiar name surfaced in my blurred consciousness. One of the Xenos I had seen in the Water Levels.
Her face overlapped with the woman before me, just like the one who had helped me so much and been helped by me so much.
"—!"
"What is she saying?"
I could see her speaking, but because we were underwater I couldn't make out the words. White bubbles burst from her mouth as if to prove how desperately she was speaking, but unfortunately the message she wanted to send never reached me.
More than that, my vision was really starting to blur. Was I seriously going to die by drowning? Come to think of it, I had almost drowned a lot of times.
Now I kind of understood why Ais hated water so much... maybe...
While I was repeating useless thoughts, I saw the woman rushing toward me through the dimming water—
Zkyuun—
"...? ...?!?@!#!?@!!@##%#!"
Just as a soft sensation touched my lips, my fading consciousness began to sharpen.
No, sharpen wasn't enough. It was getting hot.
"W-w-w-w-w-w-what?!"
My brain short-circuited at the sudden situation. My overloaded mind declared a shutdown.
Hoo—
"...This is..."
The oxygen that finally entered my lungs made my brain cheer.
So, that was it. She'd taken action to keep me from dying.
That was something to be grateful for. Something to be grateful for, but...
...why were the women of the sea always so bold?
My blurred vision cleared. A strong-faced woman with blue hair came into view.
"Are you all right?"
"This is...?"
"It's my skill. Unfortunately, it's one-way, so I can't hear your reply."
A communication skill, even one-way, was precious. As far as I knew, the only person with a skill like that was Lilly.
Skills were the manifestation of the heart. I'd heard Lilly's skill had awakened from her wish for the words she wanted to send to reach others.
Then what about the woman before me?
Speaking underwater was extremely difficult. Had she awakened this skill because she lived in such an environment?
The fact that the condition for it was, well, that thing from just now was a little... awkward, though.
"...This isn't the time to be thinking about that."
I could think about it later. For now, I needed to understand the situation.
She was the captain of Poseidon Familia.
Poseidon Familia had agreed to focus on keeping Leviathan in check during this battle, but...
"...Watching all of you fight made my hands itch, so I jumped in."
Noticing the meaning behind my gaze, she offered an embarrassed excuse.
Since I was the one being helped, I had no intention of complaining, so I waved it off and conveyed my meaning as best I could.
...But from what I'd seen during the expedition, I was sure she'd had legs. Was she a mermaid?
"A merfolk..."
I'd heard of them, but this was my first time actually seeing one. Unlike lion beastmen, I'd heard they were shunned for looking similar to monsters.
If someone like that was the captain of Poseidon Familia, she'd be famous enough. And yet I had never once heard her name.
"Did she die here too?"
How many people had died in this battle in the original timeline? Thinking about that made something heavy settle on my heart again.
Right, this wasn't the time for that. I had to save as many people as I could, even if only a few more.
That was my duty, as someone who knew the future.
"I'll assist you. Let's fight together!"
And that was why I had to think very carefully about how to answer that.
If she fought beside me and died, how would I feel?
-■.
"...!"
A memory that had been pressed deep into my mind suddenly surfaced.
If She were here, what would She say to me like this?
"Don't try to solve everything on your own. If things are hard, you have to know how to lean on the people around you too."
Words from my ever-benevolent, ever-kind goddess, like a campfire's warmth.
I gave a bitter smile at the painful, nostalgic memory that suddenly came back to me.
Right. There was no need to think about it.
She'd probably scold me for doing something dangerous again.
She'd probably nag me about getting tangled up with another woman again.
And then, as always, she'd cheer me on and tell me to do my best.
...Right, my goddess?
"Please."
[Leave it to me!]
Even if words don't pass between us, there are still things that do.
The moment to end this battle was drawing near.
No one yet knew whether it would end in comedy or tragedy, but there was no one anywhere who feared seeing it through to the end.
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