Life 4. Game Start!
Part 1 - Early Game
When I, María Hernández, was a little girl, I dedicated my life to the Catholic Church. To me, the most important thing was that Church I went to every Sunday.
The moment when I awakened my [Sacred Gear] was when I saw that Church burning down. It was the job of a Fallen Angel. I ended up using my swords to kill that Fallen Angel. I collected money to rebuild that Church by selling the swords I created using [Blade Blacksmith].
Eventually, the town I lived in was visited by Spadaccino Nero, an Exorcist that came to take care of something reported in the place. It was a living skeleton that came from Xibalba, but Nero-san called it a low-class Grim Reaper. Nero-san killed that skeleton.
After seeing my [Sacred Gear], Nero-san said that I had the potential to become a great Exorcist. After receiving approval from my family, Nero-san took me to the Vatican and trained me to become an Exorcist.
The saddest day of my life was that time when Nero-san was called for assistance in my birth town once again. When we went them, a group of Fallen Angels and Grim Reapers were attacking the place. They burned down the entire town, including the rebuilt Church. That was when I awakened my [Balance Breaker] and killed all those monsters with the help of Nero-san.
Fallen Angels and Grim Reapers has always been my mortal enemies, even when I was taught on the Exorcist school that Devils were the greatest evil, those two were worse to me.
"So everyone gets the plan?"
Ram asks that, but I didn't pay attention to the plan because of thinking about my past.
"Ok then, please follow your instructions."
Haruka points at me and uses sings to say I have to follow him.
"So, what's the plan?"
"You didn't pay attention, María?"
"Ok, it's pretty simple. Ram is going to stay at the base with Rina taking care of her. Xie Xie will locate herself in the middle of the mine, so in case Rina is defeated, Ram can use castling with her. Ham and Mint will run around the mine to find the Pawns and beat them before they promote to Queen. Our job is to find Tiffania."
As Haruka explains the plan, I create two Holy Swords to be ready in case a battle starts. I can see Rito and Haruka in front of me are also ready in case anything happens.
We moved around the mine not knowing where to go. All we know is that we need to go to the south. After running for various minutes, we see something. Or rather, someone.
"According to the data, those are Tiffania's Bishop, Rook and Knight. To find all of them at the same time…"
Rito says that in a mortified tone. He takes out a few cards out of his pocket.
"These cards are [Number I: The Magician], [Number XIX: The Sun] and [Number IV: The Emperor]. With these, the power of my magical attacks, my holy energy and the power of long-ranged attacks will increase."
Rito is thinking of using his magic to the limit. Meanwhile, Haruka is planning his moves with his Holy Demonic Sword and I prepare to attack using my Holy Swords or to use my [Balance Breaker] in case it is needed.
"They're there!"
Tiffania's Rook yells that while pointing at us. Both Rito and Haruka charge towards him, so I have to take care of both the Knight and the Bishop.
I charge towards the Knight and slash him using my swords.
"Take care of her; she's wilding a Holy Sword!"
The Bishop shoots a beam of demonic energy towards me, but I block it with my swords.
"I'm Ram Phenex's Rook. I'm going to show you my strength."
I use both of my swords and slash the Bishop. While she's in pain for my attack, the Knight, who is wielding a rapier, attacks me with it.
"Holy Lightning!"
I turn around after hearing that, I can see the Rook taking a huge damage from Rito's attack. Soon after, Haruka slashes the Rook with his Holy Demonic Sword.
"Wh-What… was that? N-No Holy Sword sh-should have that po-power, demonic power."
"This isn't a Holy Sword; this is my own creation, a Holy Demonic Sword."
Being in shock at Haruka's words, I take the chance and attack the Rook with both of my Holy Swords. Not only once, but I take the chance to slash him multiple times.
Suddenly, a light starts to envelope his body. This means he cannot keep fighting.
{Combatant Tiffania Gremory's Rook, retires.}
"Rito! Use your shadows on them!"
As I yell that, Rito's shadow turns into tentacles and tangle the opponent's limbs.
"Let's go Haruka!"
I charge towards the Bishop while Haruka charges towards the Knight, with both of us using our swords to slash them.
"End it here, Rito!"
As I say that, Rito charges a huge amount of energy on the tip of his fingers.
"Take this, Holy Lightning!"
Rito creates an even bigger Holy Lightning compared to the one he used before and uses it on the tangled opponents. After all these attacks, a light cover their bodies.
{Combatants Tiffania Gremory's Bishop and Knight, retire.}
Rito falls to the ground and sits down while panting.
"Something happened, Rito?"
"Isn't it obvious, Haruka? Since I don't have Baraqiel's blood, the Holy Lightning consumes a lot of my energy, and it only became even worse when I turned into a Devil. Taking into count the amount of energy I need to fight properly, I can only use it 1 more time for the rest of the game."
I point towards the south with my left sword.
"We aren't important. What is important here is Ram's safety. Since she's safe, we have the deed to fight against her enemy. Tiffania Gremory is going to see our true strength."
After I say that, both Rito and Haruka smile towards me. We then start running again to go to the enemy base and then to look after Tiffania.
Part 2 - Mid Game
As I, Abraham Hawkthorn, continue running with my best friend, Mint Borrow, on my side, we hear the announcements. Bishop, Rook and Knight have retired. It must be a work of Rito and the others. However, we also have a mission. We must find the Pawns.
"There."
As Mint points out a group of three people who are running one after the other, I can see that those are indeed Tiffania's Pawns.
"Don't forget it, surprise attack."
I say that before taking off my eye patch and using [Dimension Change] in both of us. Now we're of the size of a gnat.
We fly close to them, and I can see one of them keeps his mouth open. Remembering the data, he's the one who is only 1 Pawn.
"Get in."
As I say that, both Mint and I fly inside this boy's mouth. Mint then creates a huge ball of Demonic Fairy magic, and before doing anything, he says his one-liner.
"Taste this."
The ball separates into countless smaller balls that hit all over his mouth; his teeth, palate and tongue are all attacked by them.
"Aghh."
As the boy says that, we come out. He has smoke coming out of his mouth.
"What happened?"
"I feel an intense pain inside my mouth!"
As both girls, who are also Pawns, try to help their comrade, I return Mint and I to our former size.
"Finish them."
As Mint says that, I use my 3 Blows Technique in one of the girls.
"No! How dare you?!"
The one of the Pawns launches demonic energy beams to me, but I simply endure them. I trained a lot to have this body. I can the other one took the Phoenix's tears and is going to use it on her friend. So they gave them to a Pawn, huh, not a wise move; that's why Ram has them.
"Get away!"
As Mint says that, I move using my Knight speed. Right after I move, Mint launches countless Demonic Fairy magic energy balls to the trio. Our job here is done.
Part 3 - End Game
{Combatants Tiffania Gremory's 3 Pawns, retire.}
Mint and Ham truly are the strongest of our group. As I, Rito Yuma, realise they finished their job, I can finally see the south mine. I'll finally be able to promote!
As we enter the mine, I can see two people. One of them is red haired girl sitting in a throne, while the other one is wearing a maid outfit.
"Tiffania-sama, they finally came."
Wait, so the red haired girl is Tiffania Gremory? Then that means the maid is her Queen… she and Ram had exactly the same strategy of staying on the mine with their Queens…
"Well, well. So two former Exorcists and a member of Grigori are our opponents? This is going to be fun. Do it."
"Appear, [Freezing Archaeopteryx]!"
Cold chills surround the maid while ice gathered in the air turns into a giant bird. So this is her [Sacred Gear], huh.
Many attacks come from the bird, but Haruka easily cuts through them using his sword. María focuses the aura around her. She's going to do it.
"[Balance Break]."
The knight troops created by her [Blade Knight Mass] appear before us. She clearly wants to end this as quickly as possible.
I create a ball of demonic energy and a ball of Fairy magic in my hands. I have tried to combine them like Mint does, but I haven't been able to do it.
I launch the balls at the same time Haruka uses his sword to attack the bird. Haruka appears to want to take care of the bird by himself, so I'll focus on attacking the other two.
The knight troops go after Tiffania, so I'll finish her Queen!
"Promotion, Bishop!"
Normally, a Pawn would promote to Queen. However, I don't need a balanced power right now; I just need as much fire power as I can!
I create multiple balls of demonic energy and Fairy magic and launch them towards her! The maid Queen dodges them, but I tangle her with my shadows! I need to focus a lot of energy on this!
"Let me win!"
I create the shadow-made blades and pierce all over her body! I then launch even more energy balls to generate as much damage as I can!
Suddenly, I hear a sound, and when I turn around, I can see Haruka destroying the bird with his sword! He then looks at the Queen and charges towards her, stabbing her with his sword!
"No…"
As she says that, the light that wrappers her makes her disappear.
{Combatant Tiffania Gremory's Queen, retire.}
With the Queen down, only Tiffania is left. When I look at her, she's severely wounded due to being attacked by the knight troops.
"All my pieces have been defeated… but not a single one of you have… what are you?"
She is right. We have our 8 members on the field, while she's by herself. Then we can say this is checkmate, huh. Then I'm going to end this here and now.
I charge huge amounts of energy in my left hand. This isn't ordinary energy, this is the Holy Lightning. Let's see if you can take this!
"Holy Lightning – Cutter!"
I take impulse and head towards her! Digging my hand on her torso, I unlash the power of the Holy Lightning in my hand to her!
"This is checkmate!"
As I say that, the light covers Tiffania and makes her disappear.
{Tiffania Gremory loses. She retires. The game has ended. It is the victory of Ram Phenex.}
As I hear that, the light also covers my body. It looks like I overdid it… ha…
Part 4 - Checkmate
I'm inside the medical facility. While we're recorded to have won without losing anyone, I ended up retiring at the end because I used all of my energy on that last Holy Lightning.
"You truly are amazing."
The one who says that is Silverage, who came to visit to congratulate me for our victory. His [Rating Game] ended on victory to his peerage, as expected.
"However, I have to say that there's no one on this tournament that's an interesting opponent. Tiffania isn't someone used to fights, while Seila's power is nowhere near to most of my peerage's."
Despite saying such thing, his eyes start to shine.
"I can't wait to have a [Rating Game] against Ram. Only her peerage is a proper opponent to mine."
He then looks closely at me. His eyes keep shining, so this is kind of creepy.
"Maybe you haven't realised it Rito, but you have limitless potential. I want to fight against you once that moment comes."
"Well, I already promised Akai that I would fight against him."
Even after saying a discouraging thing, he puts on a smile.
"Believe me; you'll be able to keep both promises in one way or another."
As he says that, Silverage leaves the room. I know that he not only defeated Seila, but that he did it effortless. Maybe it's true that the only true opponent to him is us…
Well, it doesn't matter now. For the moment, I'll focus on the next game. The game against the heiress of the Great King clan, Seila Bael.
