The reason Leviathan targeted me even while fleeing.
It wasn't because of me, nor because of Arphia's magic. It was because of the mermaid's existence.
The tyrant that had ruled the seas since ancient times. Leviathan. Of all the foes it had faced, and all the troublemakers it had struggled against, mermaids were the ones it had dealt with most often.
Kieeeeeeeek!!!
The mermaid's hatred surpassed even the fear of death. To destroy its mortal enemy, the invader that had trespassed into its domain, and the great warrior standing beside it, Leviathan's roar thundered across the sea.
The shockwave carried through the seawater and made my head swim. If I'd been bare-bodied, I probably would have taken a serious hit from it.
"Amazing..."
Incredibly, I felt almost nothing. So this was the mermaid's tears I'd only heard about...!
A blessing that only a warrior acknowledged by a mermaid could receive. Experiencing it myself, I could feel that its reputation was no lie.
It was a cliché thing to say, but... yes.
"I can feel strength surging through my body."
It wasn't the power I'd had in my prime, but still.
I felt like I could do anything.
Kyaaaaaaak!!!!
"Well, seeing that just makes me feel a little better."
Of course, that kind of exhilaration got crushed and flattened before overwhelming violence.
"But I have no choice."
This was the path I'd chosen myself. I had no intention of complaining.
"This is a contest."
The situation was like this, but I was still in a favorable position. If I kept buying time, my companions would help me, and if I just held out until then, I'd win.
Come on then, Leviathan.
From here on out, it was a battle of will between man and monster.
Splash—
All eyes turned toward the figure that suddenly burst up from the water.
A blue head, a face flushed red. And then—
"...Scales?"
The unusual feature they had only ever heard about in stories drew flickers of surprise into a few eyes.
"..."
And disgust, too.
To those who had encountered mermaids more often as monsters than as legends, Neptune's appearance was disgust itself.
Neptune, as if used to that reaction, brushed it off. She must have experienced this situation enough times to be accustomed to it.
In fact, the unusual one was that man. As quick-witted as she was, the white-haired man had cooperated with her without the slightest trace of disgust on his face.
And on top of that, he had even given her an experience that came only once in a lifetime...
"Uu..."
Had she gotten too carried away? Red with belated embarrassment, she began to sing.
It was like a scene from a heroic tale. A monster beneath the sea. A hero who defeats it. And, as always, the helper who appears in such stories.
A song sung while wishing for the hero's victory, while praying for the hero's return.
A prayer for victory. A mermaid's song, carried through the middle of the sea in a beautiful voice, filled with the hope that it would reach the hero.
Even the adventurers who felt disgust toward mermaids found themselves drawn in by the sight, and all eyes focused on her.
"Tch."
All except one.
"He really does have a woman's face."
It was an irritating face. Flushed red, with an expression that held not solemnity but longing, the kind of slack, melted-looking face Arphia hated most in humans.
Ignoring the fact that her own younger brother had once worn a similar expression, Arphia sent a look of disgust toward Neptune.
"?!"
The chill she felt in the middle of her chant made Neptune's body tremble faintly.
It wasn't the chill of a cold winter wind.
It was overwhelming killing intent. Even while breaking into a cold sweat at the density of that murderous aura, enough to make her feel as if her body were being torn apart, she did not stop singing.
Arphia was the same. Even as she suppressed the boiling irritation she couldn't explain, her confession continued so that she could ring out the final bell.
Dong—! Dong—!
The fierce battle beneath the surface pierced through the water and rang in my eardrums. What was happening down there right now?
Fighting a sea creature in the water... Arphia didn't even want to imagine it. And if the opponent was Leviathan, even more so.
That was why I could understand Neptune's reaction. I had experienced it myself: witnessing a heroic sight firsthand brought an exhilaration impossible to put into words. There was nothing strange about her being flushed like that. But...
"This is annoying."
I didn't know why. But something about it was incredibly irritating.
Her gaze dropped toward the sea below.
Shiver—
For an instant, the chilling stare I felt sent a shudder down my spine.
Damn it, Leviathan after all. Was this what its killing intent alone could do?
...It didn't seem quite right, but there wasn't anyone else here, so it probably was Leviathan's doing.
While I half-convinced myself with that strange killing intent, the fight went on.
Leviathan, crazed and trying to kill me. Me, somehow holding on.
I had enough lung capacity. Surprisingly, the moment I swallowed the mermaid's tears, I was able to breathe underwater. The cold seawater now felt no worse than pleasantly cool.
That wasn't all.
"This is..."
Countless currents visible to my eyes, or rather, felt by my senses.
The flow of the water. I could understand it instinctively. Riding those currents let me move at a speed equal to, or even faster than, moving through open air. So this was the world mermaids and Leviathan saw...
It was probably only temporary, but man, that was some incredible stuff. I could kind of understand why people would go blind with greed over it.
"But..."
My role was to buy time, yes, but that wasn't all.
My biggest role was to draw Leviathan upward. But Leviathan wasn't a fool; the moment it rose higher than necessary, it stopped pursuing and kept its distance, creating a stalemate.
It was fortunate that it was ignoring the song coming from above, but if things stayed like this, the one in trouble would be me.
"About twenty seconds left..."
In a master's battle, one second can feel long, but time was flowing slower than I could have imagined. Under this extreme pressure, time itself was stretching out.
And in proportion to that, my mental strength was being shaved away moment by moment. The best move I could make here was...
"?!"
Kyaaaaaaak!!
A tiny opening. Leviathan seized it and launched its assault.
Damn it. That thing sure was quick to notice!
Thud—!!
The spirit sword, carrying the force of thrusting propulsion, hammered into Leviathan's carapace.
Even with the slowdown caused by buoyancy, the blade managed to chip away at the carapace a little.
Considering how hard that armor was, it was an effective attack method... but that was exactly why the enemy wouldn't come close to me so easily. It circled around me, guarding the head-like part, and tried to kill me with its absurdly huge body.
Even underwater, if that massive frame pinned me down, it would be instant death. And if I tried to counterthrust, to Leviathan it would be no more than a pinprick. At this rate, I wouldn't even be able to drag it down with me out of spite.
I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them again. Before I closed them, the shadow of that Leviathan collapsed and took on the form of a ferocious beast.
Thump— thump—
A hollow pulse. It was already an ember burned down to ash, but I could still feel it.
The bullfighter's instinct was triggered.
-!!
And then, on top of that.
Whoosh—
Flames rose. Fire underwater was ridiculous, but the flames blazed clearly and wrapped around my body.
Every buff skill I had. The approaching time limit. There was truly no way back now.
Leviathan's attacks grew fiercer. My flames were the fire of a god. At that detestable enemy's power, Leviathan's eyes went completely wild.
Now Leviathan's eyes would see only me.
And my companions would see me too.
"Fire!!!"
Countless spells crashed down, shattering the surface and pouring into the sea. Every single one of them passed by me alone.
So they really hadn't just been standing around up there.
But this still wasn't enough. More. I needed bait that would make that bastard latch on for sure.
Mermaid's tears, divine flames. I'd used everything I could. I had no more cards left.
At least, not for me.
Flash— a small orb of light hovered in front of me, then darted downward.
I didn't doubt it. Everyone was running toward the best possible move.
I followed the orb deeper into the abyss. Deeper, and deeper.
The surroundings darkened, and even the blessing of the mermaid's tears couldn't fully cancel the crushing pressure of the depths. Even with the feeling that my body might be crushed, I kept descending.
I pushed the bullfighter's instinct and the flames even further. At the same time, a sharp pain spread through me, and my body, already at its limit, began to scream.
Ping— my vision swam. I'd hit my limit long ago. I was certain that the moment I unleashed my remaining strike, my consciousness would fly away with it.
So please, don't fail.
Kyaaaaaaaaak!!
"There it is!"
Our target. Leviathan's head.
At last, Leviathan thrust its head toward me, the one who had slipped beyond the range where its body alone could threaten me.
Now I just had to push that up properly...
"It's freaking huge, damn it."
You want me to lift that? Alone?
That's impossible.
No, beyond impossible. The difference in mass was just too great.
A fully charged [Argonaut]. It wasn't the Great Bell, but this should be enough to pierce the carapace and deal damage.
But it wasn't enough to do anything to that head, which was literally mountain-sized. I needed at least one more attack on the same level, or stronger.
What was it thinking? Had it mistaken my power at the very end?
Even as I thought that couldn't be it, a strange sense of foreboding began to creep in.
"[Deus Pter]"
As the mermaid's song came to an end, the sea split apart at the same time.
Kieeeeeek?!
"Wha—?!"
Suddenly, Leviathan and I were no longer underwater but suspended in the air, and by the very basic, utterly obvious law that things fall from above to below, we began dropping straight toward the ground.
Hey, Neptune?! I did hear it was useful, but this is a little too useful!
I never imagined she could split the sea in half. And in a size large enough to handle Leviathan, no less.
Of course, it couldn't be maintained for long... but was this the kind of talent needed to bring down Leviathan?
"Get ready."
Thud— as I landed on the ground with that thought, the familiar voice of a beast came from beside me.
...I fell all that way in such misery, and this person got teleported over comfortably with spatial transfer?
I felt a little wronged by the difference in treatment, but there was no time. The final piece had at last been completed, lightning coiling around the pillar that held the golem.
"You know the timing, right?"
The golem's testing voice.
Was this person enjoying this right now?
"You make sure you hit it properly."
Who was saying that? Even if I looked like this, timing was one of the things I was confident in.
Especially if I'd crossed fists with someone before.
"I see."
The lion said nothing more and simply looked up at Leviathan as it fell.
I looked up too. Seeing it from outside the water made it look even more terrifying.
"Here I go."
"Yes."
Timing was everything. If we didn't strike at the same moment, we wouldn't be able to pull this off.
And we already knew each other's timing well.
No words were needed. No need to measure the timing.
This moment, this angle, this power.
I already knew exactly how it would go, by feel alone!
"[The Sound That Rings the Skull]!"
"[Astrafe]!"
Thunder and lightning burst from the massive pillar and the spirit sword, colliding and mingling together.
Before long, they became a single enormous bolt of lightning, one born in defiance of providence, surging upward from the bottom of the deep sea toward the sky.
Along with Leviathan.
"At last, I can see its head."
What Leviathan saw in its grotesquely twisted posture was the witch staring back at it, and the silver bell that had begun to ring ominously.
And then the small cylinder pointed at it.
The sound gathered within that tiny cylinder, smaller than a toothpick by human comparison, something that wouldn't even count as a scratch if it pierced Leviathan's body.
The rising force built to its limit. Then a torrent of light poured from the cylinder's mouth, and that became the last thing Leviathan ever saw.
Light raced through the monster's body. The torrent that had drilled into it shattered the carapace, tore through its insides, and the destruction that began at the head ran all the way to the tail.
Then came the explosion. And after that, a silence so still it felt as if all of it had been an illusion.
As everyone stood stunned before the sight, as if the sea itself had stopped for a moment, they seemed to remember that time had to keep moving, and the world slowly returned to its original shape.
The flesh and carapace fragments of the sea tyrant crumbled away, creating a strangely beautiful scene. The remains of what had once been the tyrant turned to ash, and neatly piled atop them were the drop items [Leviathan Bone] and [Leviathan Fin].
Perhaps because they had thought it was over once before and then been thoroughly betrayed by that assumption, no one reacted immediately even after seeing it.
But that was the calm before the storm—
"U..."
Someone's voice cut through the silence.
That was the beginning.
"Waaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!"
The long-cherished wish of humanity, the Three Great Quests.
The second calamity among them: the subjugation of the sea tyrant, Leviathan.
Injured... many. Damage cost... hundreds of billions of valis.
Deaths... zero.
An unprecedented complete victory for humanity. The cheers showed no sign of dying down.
"Haa..."
"Phew, good work, you two."
Leaving the echoing cheers behind, the two heroines sank down where they stood.
They were clearly the two who had contributed the most to this battle. Naturally, they were also the most exhausted.
"I can't believe we really pulled it off."
Honestly, it was an unbelievable result.
After all, dying in adventure was as ordinary as breathing. A victory with no one dead—such a thing simply did not exist in the Empress's common sense until now.
Well, maybe it would have been possible against some small fry.
But who was the opponent this time?
One of the Three Great Quests, and the largest monster in the world. The sea tyrant Leviathan.
To hunt a monster so grand that even the title alone made one's chest swell, and have no one die?
"That's nonsense."
She had been taken in by that sweet talk, but honestly, she had not expected this outcome. For adventurers, death was an utterly natural thing, and that included Hera Familia as well.
In a battle this large, sacrifice was not optional but necessary. Saving as many people as possible with the fewest sacrifices. That was the most important quality demanded of a leader.
That was why she had been a leader. Because she was a leader, she had to do it.
But...
"What the hell is that guy?"
"Who knows."
A cold answer. But the Empress could read the emotion hidden within it.
"You didn't doubt him at all, did you?"
"No."
Another short answer. But it was an unmistakable affirmation.
The Empress's eyes widened slightly, but Arphia only thought it was perfectly natural.
That was what heroes were like.
If someone was a hero, then of course they had to be that way.
In fact, if he couldn't do even that much, she would have been disappointed. Thinking that, Arphia looked down at the sea.
"That guy always ends up fainting."
The most important roles belonged to the Empress and herself, but the hardest role had probably been the hero's.
So despite her words, she didn't really care that he had fainted. She didn't care, but...
Seeing the blue-haired mermaid happily holding the unconscious Vesta in her arms made her eyes narrow sharply.
"Annoying..."
Feeling an irritation she couldn't explain, Arphia, too, collapsed as if her strength had finally given out.