Y/N POV
A white expanse filled the entire room.
It was the exact feeling of how Taygeta felt when we first stepped into it.
Such is also the nature of the Second Floor, Electra.
Subaru and the others are already in the room, facing nothing but a single sword embedded into the floor when I arrived. My Battalion members gave me a wave as I arrived, and Subaru waved me over to the sword.
"Should we pull it out?" Subaru asked while he examined the sword. I scrutinized the object as well, trying to scan for any hidden elemental residue beneath the floor, but no mechanism appeared to be under it.
"I guess so. There's not really another way around this place, as far as I can tell." I gave my approval, and Subaru braced himself to use immense strength to pull the 'Sword of Selection' in the floor out, but it requires little to no strength at all, and Subaru landed on his butt as he exerted too much force.
"Well, that was easy." Subaru commented as he rubbed his behind and winced a little, but the time for pain was immediately cut short when a voice ripped through the air.
"Gain his forgiveness, by the hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword."
The voice echoed throughout Electra, and judging from my teammates and the others' reactions, the voice was heard by all, unlike in Taygeta, where only Subaru and I heard it. Following the initial phrase, Subaru and I followed everyone's gazes, and noticed they all converged at a single point. As a result, we instinctively turned our heads towards the point as well.
The place they were all looking at was a point further ahead of the Sword of Selection, at a place that coincidentally equalled the distance between the sword and staircase.
And at that place, the shadowy silhouette of a person had appeared.
"Gain his forgiveness, by the hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword."
Unlike the voice of the 'overseer', his voice seems unbelievably monotone, and also more 'real', in a sense. The voice, as if it were an idiot taught to repeat only one sentence, spun the same words again. Whether the voice seemed mechanical, automatic or even instinctual, it could not be determined.
"Gain his forgiveness, by the hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword."
The person has finally walked into our vision, and as the fog cleared, a muscular man with long red hair flowing down to his back emerged. He wore not armor, but a casual crimson robe that contributed nothing in protection. From his right side down to his arm, his chest lay exposed, and his waist was bound with a white sash. His left eye was covered by a shoddy black eye-patch. Finally, the right eye that remained uncovered, was a blue reflection of an unreachable sky.
A ferocious aura emanated off him, and I can tell that it's completely dormant, even though it was already a quarter of mine at my prime. Wait... long red hair, isn't he...?
Shaula, who was obviously scared for some reason, let out a 'hiii!' sound and backed away from the man as fast as she could. With that reaction, I confirmed his identity.
"Reid... Astrea..." I muttered under my breath as I stared at the man, who carried no weapon whatsoever, but he was still dangerous by all means.
"Gain his forgiveness, by the hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword."
"Hey, Y/N." Subaru nudged my arm. "Doesn't his presence feel as if it's on the same magnitude as the Witches of Sin?"
"I guess it could be compared. But rather than their mysterious presences, he simply radiates sheer power."
At this moment, Shaula broke despite Meili trying to keep her calm using her Divine Protection. She immediately jumped Subaru when Reid suddenly let out a loud yell and stopped chanting the phrase he seemed to be 'programmed' to repeat.
"OI! Shut up already! My head's already killin' me as it is! Stop shoutin'!"
Annoyed by Shaula's constant wails, the man silenced the room after yelling one more time. At this, Julius stepped forth and raised his sword. "I take it that you are by no means, a simple existence."
"Hell's up, you. And what's with this place? Ya fuckin' around here, you?"
"No, we are doing nothing of the sort. We too, are of a similarly confused standing. You appeared here all of a sudden―― We cannot help but be on guard, is what I would like to convey."
"Hell's up with you. Don't be talkin' weird, you. Don't ya be talkin' like my follower, you. Ya my follower? Ya ain't, right? Since ya ain't, don't be talkin' like him, making all this shit confusing."
Reid Astrea seemed to have deemed Julius as his 'follower', but I'm pretty sure he just means the etiquette was probably made by his 'follower' a long time ago back when he existed. After snarling at Julius, he turned around and analyzed us.
"Pretty lookin', pretty lookin', hot stuff, runt, runt, follower, small fry." He said to the left side of the room as his gaze swept past Subaru and the others, before arriving on my side.
"Huh."
"Runt, runt, magician, mediocre, above average, runt, strong, hot stuff, strong, mediocre, strong runt, magician, and... (Colette, Palmyra, Sphinx, Yae, Elsa, Meili, Halibel, Capella, Zarestia, Reize, Typhon, Omega, in that order)"
Reid Astrea stopped at me when he finally glanced at me, and eyed me up and down as if there was a bug on my body crawling around. When he finally finished, he simply gave a huff of confusion. "Weird."
WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME YOU LITTLE SH-
THE UTTER DISRESPECT
"Unfortunately, I am not your follower." Julius stated loud and clear, and took up a battle stance.
"Kah! The way ya talk, it's just how my follower talks. Stop copyin' it." Reid snickered. When his eyes flicked over to Emilia, Subaru's annoyance has failed to conceal itself.
"...the hell's you pulling that rude shit for, you." Subaru said in anger, but Reid only let out a hearty laugh in response.
"Gotcha. So then, let's start."
"Start... Wait! Why do you keep on running the conversation all by yourself!? It's really too much to take!"
"Zip it, you. Keepin on yappin over and over, already explained while I was sleep-talkin, didn't I? Pay attention to what I'm sayin, you."
"What do you mean-" Subaru was cut off immediately as Reid recited the monotone phrase.
"Gain his forgiveness, by the hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword."
At this moment, Julius motioned for us to stand back, and mana and aura started radiating off our 'model knight'.
"Knight of the Imperial Order of the Kingdom of Lugnica, Julius Juukulius."
The man, genuinely interested for once, had his right eye shone blue for a second, before sighing and messing his hair up. "Ain't got no name worth givin' ya, just a mere 'Stick Swinger' , I am."
And thus began the first battle.
After taking a step towards Reid, Julius softly threw the 'Sword of Selection' that Subaru pulled out earlier, and Reid gave him a confused look.
"Hell's you doin, you. Throwin' me a sword and all, ya got a death wish?"
"Unfortunately, as a knight, it is most shameful an act to swing a sword at one unarmed!"
Julius, this is not the time for your knightly etiquette! If you don't take him seriously, you'll likely die!
Reid kicked the Sword of Selection away before giving another shrill laugh, while I took the discarded sword using one of my Imperceptible Extensions. Not the worse sword... but now is not the time to be focusing on this. Julius had already leapt forth and brought his blade down, enhanced with mana and his full strength. However, Reid only snickered as the dust cleared and revealed why he was so confident.
"You were saying?"
Reid's left hand, holding a pair of chopsticks, pinched Julius' blade with pinpoint accuracy.
It was already hard enough to accomplish that with your bare hands, or your two fingers, but chopsticks?! And to decelerate that mana-enhanced sword's momentum to zero... how unimaginably frightening.
"How is... that possible?"
"Hah? Don't be makin' me laugh, you. Swingin' at the best angle, with the best speed, with the best feelin', in the best way――Be chopsticks or whatever, there's nothing it can't cut. Lemme tell ya though, this here ain't made outta somethin' funny. Bad material's just bad for the skin, so. Got nothin' mixed in, just your everyday pair, made from some tree somewhere."
That technique he's describing... could it be... similar to Zarestia's absolute severance with her wind?
Julius, now intimidated by Reid's words, tried to pull his sword back, but Reid's chopsticks only held it tighter than ever. He's lying. There's no way it's made out of regular wood or its simply has its durability mana enhanced to the level of diamonds.
Within the next split second, Reid had leapt into the air before Julius could react, and kicked him hard in the torso, sending Julius flying. With his chopsticks, he stabbed at the defenseless Julius over and over. And although Julius is doing his best to block most of the blows, he was still getting injured as Reid's arms moved faster than the normal human perception.
My spirits and Valgren appeared on my shoulders as I prepared to step in, but Anastasia let out a spell before I could even chant.
"Jiwald!"
Heated light rays shot towards Reid, but they were cut easily. As Anastasia continued to shoot, Reid stuck his chopsticks onto Julius' solar plexus and held him down as he ran around, dragging him along with him while he blocked all of Anastasia's magic.
As Reid got closer to Anastasia, he suddenly found a burst of strength and escaped Reid's grasp, before swinging his sword to exchange blows with Reid. However, his attacks were deflected and he only received more damage to himself.
"Ya ain't like this usually, you. Why's ya fightin' all lonesome, that ain't how ya fight, is it? Ya ain't used to it―― That's why all this' borin' me, you. If ya wanna tend to ya girl, I'll let ya. Borrow a pair of 'em thicc thighs and get babied, ya ugly failure of a swordsman."
Reid's taunting continued, damaging Julius' pride further. Julius raised his sword in defiance, and slashed down with all his strength, but his sword was unexpectedly bisected by the chopsticks, and his eyes widened in shock.
It must feel horrible to know that all your life, you've been trained to be one of the strongest, only to be utterly defeated and called trash.
But all great people will at least have one of those moments.
So don't let your pride die, Julius.
With one punch to the face, he was put out of commission by Reid, and his sword clattered to the floor as Subaru's eyes widened in shock. After all, Julius was someone he respected in strength, and for him to be defeated so easily shows just how strong a glimpse of Reid's power could be.
I took his sword's fragments using my Authority, and fused them together to become one again. I secretly filled his sword with an alloy generated from my Genso Rupture back in Priestella, and laid it beside him while Anastasia made sure her knight was okay.
"You did your best, Julius. That's all that matters. There's always another sky outside of our sky, and there's always a better swordsman than yourself. As long as you always strive to be 'the best', you will accomplish something great. So don't worry."
At my words, Julius took a breath and sighed before allowing his body to rest temporarily. At this point, Emilia stepped forth to challenge Reid.
"Ice Brand Arts, Icicle Line."
A snow and ice barrier formed around Emilia, with Reid at the center. Reid seemed amused that Emilia, out of all people, is the one to step forth to challenge him. After all, my battalion has people that are much stronger, but we have to wait our turn.
All for the sake of victory.
Emilia questioned Reid on his original condition of victory, which was that we win if he takes a single step, but he ran around a lot just now. While that is true, Reid laughed it off and said that condition starts working only now.
"Real fine stuff ya made of, can't say I hate it, you. Showed lotsa guts, sayin' all that to someone like me. Biggest idiot I've seen since Trisha, you. I've taken a liking to ya."
Subaru seemed to be concerned for Emilia's safety, since Reid is quite the dangerous opponent, but Emilia reassured him and said Reid was not aiming to kill, so she'll be fine since she'll give her all, too.
Starting off with one of her original spells that Subaru helped develop, the dormant domain started to take effect. With her sights set on the man's smile, Emilia put some force into her words, and right away the air popped and snapped and droplets of pale light fluttered about, then formed into weapons of ice one after another. Swords, lances, spears, axes, arrows, and many, many more weapons formed. Ice Brand Arts: Icicle Line― A technique that used the giant reserves of magical energy inside Emilia to create a limited-area boundary of destruction, a special technique forged through Subaru's otherworldly inventiveness, had activated.
While Emilia unleashed more barrages of weapons and even took a giant axe herself, Halibel walked up next to me.
"Are you going to challenge him next, Y/N?" Halibel asked, and I am curious as to why he did.
"Probably, sooner or later. But not now."
"Is it because his strength terrifies you? It's a valid reason. I expect no less of the First Sword Saint, after all."
"Yeah, he's really strong- wait. How did you know he was-?"
"I see you had realized too. There was not many pieces to fit together, and once they did, I was able to see the opponent in a new light. So if you don't mind, I would like to be the one who fights next."
"If you insist. By the way, I only have not fought him yet because I believe that he must have some weakness I haven't seen through yet. And the longer I observe, the more flaws I could potentially exploit."
"An interesting way of going about it, but that's just like you, Y/N-san. But I must say..." Halibel turned towards Emilia's barrier. "That girl sure is something else."
"Yeah, no joke, am I right?"
As I said this, Reid seemed to be distracted somehow since Emilia coated her hands in ice gloves that were frozen solid, and slammed it down hard on Reid's head, causing him to yell out in pain and take a lot of steps away. At this, Subaru noted his loss, and Reid seemed surprised himself.
"To hell with just one step, you moved a whole lot away."
Reid took a very long moment to process what just happened, but he gave in and sighed. "Ayeー, no helpin' it. My word's my word. This kinda defeat'd make me a laughin' stock, lecher soul be damned, but I ain't got a choice."
"――Well, who's gonna be next? The tadpole? Or is it gonna be one of them brats. There's 'round, seventeen people in this tower... Your girl's the only one to get past."
A moment of silence filled us. I looked to Halibel, who nodded to me as he readied his katana, and steadied his stance. At this, Reid turned to me.
"You look stronger than the small fry over there. So how about it? Would you like to be the next one?"
"Unfortunately, no. Because my friend here seems more eager than me to fight you."
"Wait, Y/N! Didn't Emilia say it would be 'our victory' if she wins? We should tell him-"
"That's not going to work, small fry. I also seem to recall it at first bein' that you can take on as many people as you like so long as you try 'n get past me. Though followin' the rules is kinda borin' so I had to drag myself awake."
"When you say you had to drag yourself awake... You mean that stuff at the beginning was you hacking the system!?" Subaru exclaimed in sudden anger.
"Hah?" Reid was suddenly confused yet no so much at the same time. "I dunno ya prick. Use words I can understand ya prick. We ain't talkin' like that person with white hair at a young age, ya prick."
At this new snarky comment, I turned my head to Omega, who hasn't spoken up since the trial began.
You knew Reid, Chid-chan?
Of course. He was linked to the part of the Watchtower's history, after all. I'm confused as to why you are surprised.
Well, because I couldn't imagine you striking up a conversation with him.
Duh. Talking to a man with all brawn and no brain makes my own intelligence suffer, and any experience I had with him is not exactly pleasant.
Halibel took his strides forward, arriving before Reid. For once, Reid's eye shone blue again and smiled. "Finally, a strong one! I hope you'll entertain me well. For our challenge, then, you'll win if you can make me step outta this circle." Reid smirked as he etched a small circle into the white floor with his chopsticks.
"I have not used this in a long time." Halibel said as he unsheathed his sword, which was purple in colour with the classic silver spine to the sword.
"Amethyst... perhaps?"
"In case you're wondering, Y/N. This blade is also a work of the great swordsmith who forged Cecilus Segmunt's Murasame and Masayume. And while it might be on par with the ten swords of power, this sword has a special connection with Yin-related spells. In a sense, it can even be called the 11th Sword of Power."
Halibel shot forwards and cloned himself into fours before circling Reid. Reid instinctively cut through his illusions, but his clones were already at the ready and stabbed at the First Sword Saint as fast as possible. "Scattershot Puncture."
The blades seemed to pierce through Reid, but his chopsticks deflected one each, dodged one, while his mouth held the blade of last clone. Reid performed a single spin, and Halibel was shot out of the circle.
"Very strong indeed." Halibel commented before cloning his own blade, and now wielded both in battle as both he and Reid unleashed a flurry of slashes against each other. The blades' clashing resounded across the room, and everyone else could only watch in silence.
Hang in there, Halibel.
"Murasaki-Rasen, first switch:" Halibel muttered. "Kage Isshin."
The four clones, as if appearing from Halibel's body itself, sliced through Reid while Halibel dashed through the Sword Saint, cutting him through with a very shallow cut. Reid forced himself very hard not to move out of the circle, and stumbled a little before wincing in pain by a tiny bit.
"You're strong, you truly are. But not good enough. If I was tryin' to kill ya, ya would've been dead already. So come at me with yer full strength, or we ain't gonna get anywhere."
"Interesting. What do you think of this, then?" Halibel motioned to a piece of his hair that he stuck onto Reid. And while Reid is shocked, I'm surprised as well since Omega and I were both watching the battle while analyzing every move but we didn't notice it.
"Your fur? What do you mean-" Reid suddenly froze. "Gah! What did you-"
"You have underestimated your opponent, unfortunately." Halibel leapt forwards and delivered a kick that knocked Reid to the edge of the circle, but Reid managed to recover just in time as the hair's effect wore off.
"That was quite the trick, I admit, but-"
"Reverse Curse of Weight."
"Huh?"
Halibel had attached another hair of his to Reid during his kick, and this time, Reid seemed to float off the floor a little, but as soon as he noticed this, he forced all of his willpower to slam his body back down, as if creating his own gravitational field. Halibel struck his sword at Reid just as he performed the unthinkable, but the result was clear:
Halibel won.
Reid's feet were outside the circle by a mere inch.
"Hah... hooo..." Halibel panted a little as I walked up and handed him a glass of water. Reid, on the other hand, sighed again.
"I just lost again, hahahahahaha! I like ya, strong wolf-man! What's yer name?"
"The 'Admirer', Halibel. Ninja of the Liberator's Battalion."
"I'll remember ya. So, who next?"
Reid's proclamation for a second time sent another wave of momentary despair to us. But since Halibel's victory boosted my team's morale, everyone was pumped up and ready to fight.
Capella, who has silently stayed in the back until now, stepped onto the front line along with Elsa and Meili. Meili has summoned two of her mabeasts, a Knickerbocker and a special hybrid that we produced through genetic modification: an Arkalb Winged Cobrat. It was a combination of the snakes and the winged rats she had, and with some magic amplification methods supplied by Valgren, we transformed it into a low-class dragon known as an Amphiptere.
"Imma beat that bastard to a pulp." Colette said as she stepped forward and readied her bracelet, before equipping her vambraces. "Julius has taught me many things about mana control on the way here, and I'm not going to let him be disrespected like that."
"I'm with Colette." Palmyra stated, slamming her staff into the floor. "I know we probably will lose, but I refuse to bow down without a fight."
"Should I go, Y/N?" Sphinx asked me. I nodded in response, telling her to go support our teammates. "By the way, while the two knuckleheads were fighting, I already drew dozens of invisible magic circles surrounding the arena, so don't worry, hehe."
"I'll stay in the back for support." Omega stated while Zarestia and Reize discussed a tag-team strategy regarding her previous disguise as the Great Spirit, and on the side, Halibel reassured Yae on her ability with the skills of a ninja and kunai.
"I guess we're all fired up then. So I guess you don't mind my team all going at once?" I asked Reid, who only snickered at me.
"What, you're not going to participate? Chickening out behind woman now, is it? So pathetic. Get out of my sight already."
"Man..." I sighed and facepalmed before laughing a little on my own. "Despite what you might think, these girls are quite strong. And I'm only not fighting yet because it isn't my turn."
I sat next to Halibel, who rested near the wall. "You think they can win this?"
"Regardless if they win or not, Halibel-san, it's worth a try."
"You're certain in their abilities?" Subaru asked me. "Beatrice and I could also pitch in for some help-"
"No, Subaru. We all have to utilize our respective strengths. Your primary abilities are not fit here, and I can't exactly let you get injured from the beginning, right?"
Subaru sighed before nodding in understanding, and I turned my eyes back to my team, who all began to advance towards Reid.
Now, it's showtime.