Even though Pandora had weakened, her abilities remained unchanged, allowing her to curse weapons as long as she could stuff them into her mouth.
Her curse would adapt depending on the weapon and its intended purpose.
Take Icebreaker, for example. Before being cursed, it could only freeze things and manipulate ice.
But now…
"Kuhh!"
She swung both weapons toward Kai. Kai countered by slashing hard with Icebreaker at both of them.
As expected, Icebreaker shattered both of her weapons into pieces.
In exchange, the hand holding Icebreaker immediately turned bright red from the backlash of using it.
She tried to block it with ice, but it was useless—Icebreaker sliced straight through like it was cutting tofu, smooth and effortless.
Then Kai swung straight upward. She managed to dodge, but a few strands of her hair were cleanly sliced off.
'It bypassed my defenses too! No mistake about it… this thing is my absolute hard counter!'
Kai spun Icebreaker and slammed it point-down into the ground, smirking at her.
His legs were trembling from the curse of Icebreaker.
Well, most cursed weapons are double-edged swords anyway.
Icebreaker allowed its user to shatter ice as easily as eating candy.
The problem was that too much candy causes cavities—except in this case, Icebreaker inflicted terrifying cold damage across the user's entire body.
If careless, the user would die of hypothermia before the enemy even fell.
She carefully watched Kai, moving slowly while observing every twitch of his body.
Kai just stood there, snot dripping from his nose, face flushed red, body shaking violently.
"?" She raised an eyebrow, then felt genuinely offended.
This guy was sniffling right in the middle of a fight?! He wasn't doing it earlier—why now? Was he mocking her or looking down on her?!
'FUCK IT'S SO COLD!! THIS ICEBREAKER IS MAKING MY BALLS SHRINK SO MUCH THEY'RE RETRACTING INSIDE!!!' His teeth chattered nonstop even as he stood there farming aura.
But there was no other way. She had already figured out how to dodge his long-range attacks, and Kai wasn't exactly a sharpshooter anyway.
So close combat was the only option—and it was working quite well.
"H-Hey, is Kai okay?" Kanna asked worriedly.
"…Oh. Looks like… he caught a cold. Nice," Lily narrowed her eyes as she observed and commented.
"A cold?! How the hell is he supposed to fight like that, doctor?! You have to go heal him!!" Kanna clung to Lily's leg, making Lily visibly annoyed.
You want me to die that badly by sending me out there to heal??
"Hm? Why is Baron crawling over here?" Violet said.
All three turned to look at Baron, who—despite being critically low on mana—was desperately dragging himself toward them with every ounce of strength.
"D-Do you… have any mana potions? I… I'll pay…" His face looked awful as he spoke.
"No, and even if we did, you wouldn't be able to do anything anyway!" Lily snapped.
"Shut the fuck up!" Baron roared.
He glared up at her with irritation.
"Do you know what it feels like to watch the person who once saved my life fighting alone? I refuse to just lie here and abandon him… My pride won't allow me to do something that disgraceful!"
"The feeling of having gotten stronger and still not being able to catch up to my friend, not being able to help him at all… How could I ever face him again with any dignity?!"
"I'm jealous… Jealous of Aura Clint… She's ridiculously strong. If I had that kind of power, I could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kai and fight beside him…"
All three blinked, stunned that this guy could say something so moving and brotherly.
"You can take my mana…"
Aura's voice came from nearby. She was still lying flat, paralyzed, her abdominal wound already bandaged by Lily.
"Huh? I thought after you used your skill, all your stats drop to 1?" Violet asked, confused.
Aura gave them a weak smile.
"Oh yea I forgot."
"Go back to sleep and never wake up," Baron said bluntly.
Clang!
Kai charged forward at high speed, slashing continuously through the ice blocks trying to block his path.
Irelia kept firing ice spikes, ice bombs, ice everything—literally anything to slow him down.
But Kai's swing speed was monstrous. Even while sick from the cold, he showed no sign of stopping.
"Pipi!"
"Got it!"
Kai suddenly stopped, took a stance, and hurled Icebreaker with full force toward Irelia.
"Kuh!"
Icebreaker tore through every defense without resistance, slashing a long, clean line across the back of Irelia's hand—blood sprayed instantly.
Kai didn't waste the opening. He retrieved Grudge Accumulation Blade from Pandora's mouth and fired all three needle at her now that her guard was broken.
Two struck her shoulder and stomach. Immediately, Irelia felt horrifying internal shocks.
Both hits struck her soul!
'No no no no this is bad bad bad!'
Her mind spiraled into panic and terror.
The feeling that she was about to lose—every plan she had prepared was collapsing.
A long, elaborate plan… about to be ruined by a student from Class F! That ultra-weak class!
And then Kai reached her.
"I came here to spank your ass 100 times!!!" Kai roared, and he actually started doing exactly what he said.
'I'm going to be defeated by this perverted, shameless bastard?!'
Then a flashback played in her mind of everything she had gone through.
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!!!!" Hatred exploded in her eyes. She stomped hard on the ground.
"!"
Everyone suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold sweep through their bodies.
Baron looked at Irelia and immediately realized what she had done.
"We're screwed! She used forbidden magic!!"
Kai felt something was very wrong. Pandora kept making warning noises.
"Eternal Ice Rage! Tomb Within the Ice Castle!"
This was the forbidden magic of the Winterbell family—something only Gerda Winterbell knew nowadays.
Needless to say, its danger level was off the charts.
A torrent of ice skeletons burst from the ground and clamped tightly around Kai's body.
Kai felt himself being frozen solid. A massive skull appeared above his head.
Instantly, ice spikes erupted from inside his body, piercing outward—blood sprayed everywhere.
His skin changed color. The giant skull slowly opened its mouth…
…and bit down on Kai's head.
After that, everything fell silent. Kai's body stood frozen, now an ice statue.
"Pipi!!"
Pandora kept calling for Kai, tears streaming down her body as she crawled all over him.
"Hahh… Hahh…" Irelia panted heavily. She had sacrificed three years of her life to use it.
An insane waste, she thought.
Then she looked at the tiny octopus clinging to Kai and crying.
Pandora glared at her and extended her tentacles, refusing to let Irelia take even one step closer.
Baron's eyes widened, staring blankly at Kai's corpse.
Lily looked at Kai and quietly closed her eyes.
At this rate… he was definitely dead. She didn't believe the earring he wore could possibly revive him now.
Kanna collapsed to the ground, speechless, on the verge of tears—completely powerless.
Violet narrowed her eyes, unsure what to say.
"Hey, what happened? I can't see anything," Aura asked, but no one answered.
Everything had happened in an instant, and the result was final.
Irelia used emergency-level healing magic; her body slowly began to recover.
"Hm. You gave me quite a tense fight. Now go join him in the afterlife, little octopus."
"Pi—!"
Splat!
She stomped down hard, crushing Pandora into a gooey mess.
Pandora's pure mana flowed into Irelia. Her eyes widened.
'This pure mana… killing it was absolutely the right decision.'
She then turned toward the remaining group, summoned two weapons into her hands, and began walking forward.
Everyone had lost all hope—none of them could match Irelia now.
…Actually, there was one.
"…" Violet looked at her friend who was about to kill everyone—including herself—then looked down at her own gun.
'No choice left, huh. Guess I have to use it.'
"I'll finish this quickly. Don't worry." She raised her weapon high, ready to take all their lives.
Was this really how it would end? A bad ending this early? What kind of eroge is this—getting your life stolen instead of your girl?!
"Thank god you still had time to say some classic villain lines, or I would've been too late!"
"?!" Irelia's eyes widened. She whipped her head around.
Kai was right behind her. One eye glowed like a snake staring at prey, with the little octopus perched on his shoulder.
And in his hand—he was holding a knife!
"GET FUCKED!"
The knife plunged deep into Irelia's throat, then was yanked out and stabbed straight into her chest.
She thrashed wildly, but Kai kicked her leg out from under her, dropping her to the ground.
He pulled the knife from her chest and stabbed her stomach three times in rapid succession, then slammed his elbow hard into her gut.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed everywhere. Irelia's eyes stared at Kai in utter disbelief.
"K-KAIIIIII!!!!!!"
"MOAN MY NAME LOUDER! BECAUSE I'M DEFINITELY GONNA GIVE YOU THE BEST FUCKING DAY OF YOUR LIFE!!!"
*****
Baron Libert (Redesign because the old one he look like a side character) hope you guys like it