Thud—thud—
With every step, an oppressive force rolled out as if Orario itself were trembling.
Zeus Familia and Hera Familia.
The clash between the two factions, known as Orario's twin pillars, was nothing short of war!
And yet the people, tense under that murderous standoff, still went on with their ordinary lives—hanging laundry, running shops, and doing their best to carry on as usual.
Then, from each of the two opposing factions, one person stepped forward to begin negotiations.
Hera Familia naturally chose Arphia.
And Zeus Familia, just as naturally, was forced to send Zald.
"No, no! I don't wanna go!"
"Nope. Not changing it, not letting you change it. Go back."
One side radiated a sinister aura, while the other was thoroughly crushed beneath it, but somehow the standoff still took place.
It already looked like the outcome had been decided, but Zald was still a true Lv. 7 hero. He was one of the few people who could stand before Arphia without losing ground.
Of course, Zald would have preferred that their captain, Maxim, take the lead if possible, but if that happened the Empress would never sit still, so this was the only choice.
After that suffocating standoff, the one who finally spoke was, naturally, Arphia.
"So."
With a single word, tension spread across the battlefield.
Even the Hera Familia members swallowed hard, and on the Zeus Familia side, some had already started crying and collapsing.
And Zald, who was taking that killing intent head-on, was busy thinking about the kind of meat he had eaten that morning.
Ah, what meat did I eat today again? I think it was meat from a mid-level monster. If I'd known this would happen, I would've prepared meat from a deep-level monster. Of all times, I had to end up facing Arphia. I knew this might happen, but I still hoped it wouldn't. That damn god. I swear, one day I'm going to tear that bastard's body apart and eat him whole.
While sending his killing intent at his own god—who was, at that very moment, busy picking his nose—instead of the woman before him, Zald broke out in a cold sweat and watched Arphia's every move.
Arphia's magic was something one could only call lightning speed. If he let his guard down for even an instant, it would be total annihilation.
In that literally skin-crawling situation—no, the magic really was making his skin crawl—her lips parted.
"Where is my little sister?"
Here it came.
He swallowed hard. One wrong word here and it was over. He had to be as careful as careful could be!
"Arphia, that is—"
"Why is there no answer right away?"
"J-just listen to me for a second—"
"Shut up, you trash."
In an instant, magical power burst from her body.
He had no idea how that frail body could produce such a monstrous aura, but that was absolutely not the important thing right now.
The only thing that mattered now was surviving!
"Materia is—!"
Thud—the magical power vanished in an instant, just as suddenly as it had risen.
"Materia is... being searched for right now."
"...Being [searched for]?"
"I-it's true! We're in trouble too, since that Cranel brat suddenly disappeared!"
"I see. I understand."
At her words, Zald felt relieved. So even someone like her had at least a little human emotion—
"You are, as expected, insects that must be exterminated."
"No, wai—!"
There was no mercy.
The Familia of the hyper-ultra-hysterical goddess of extreme slaughter was, unsurprisingly, just as hyper-ultra-hysterical.
No, gods at least just threw tantrums; in her case, she unleashed magic at the slightest word, which made her even worse.
He desperately turned back, only to be met with nothing but merciless indifference.
Stay strong, Zald!
"[Gospel]"
A massive explosion rang out in the middle of Orario.
***
"Huh? I think I hear the sound of my sister destroying the city?"
"Then why don't you go stop her?"
"Don't be ridiculous! I can't send Materia to such a dangerous place! Materia is with me... with me... um... that thing..."
"Don't freeze up while you're talking..."
The man had been speaking boldly, only to falter the moment he tried to finish his sentence, his face turning red with embarrassment.
For some reason, it made me feel embarrassed too, as if I were looking at my past self.
Using the gods' way of putting it, it felt like opening an old black history notebook. Something like that.
Looking at Materia, she wore an expression that was a strange mix of adorable, pathetic, and bashful. As expected, this person wasn't ordinary either.
If you ask why I like a man like this... that'd be rude, wouldn't it?
There had been someone who liked even someone like me. With that in mind, I decided women's capacity for acceptance really was something incredible.
"So what are you going to do? It seems like the fight is happening somewhere around here."
Just from the magical power I could feel, it seemed like high-level adventurers were fighting each other. If we stayed here, this place would be swept up soon enough—it was obvious.
At my words, both of them fell into thought, but their expressions were completely different.
If I had to describe it, Materia looked like a child caught sneaking around with a bad friend behind her parents' backs, while the man looked like a condemned prisoner tightrope-walking over lava.
The difference in temperature between them was so extreme that I had no way of telling whether this situation was serious or not. No, judging by the aura I could feel, it was definitely a big problem!
"Um... Vesta. I know it's rude to ask this on our first meeting, but may I ask a favor?"
"I'm borrowing this place, so I don't mind... What is it?"
"Could you buy us some time while we run away? You look pretty strong, so I think you can do it."
Looks strong... That was the first time I'd ever heard that in my life.
I was a man, and an adventurer too. Of course I had at least that much pride in me.
By my own judgment and by anyone else's, I was strong. That much was certain.
But...
If this really is the past.
What stood over there were that [Great Figure] and the [Empress].
The [Empress], the only person in history—past and future alike—to achieve the feat of reaching Lv. 9.
And the [Great Figure], who had boldly claimed the title of the world's strongest by surpassing even her.
No matter how I looked at it, these were not opponents one could simply brush aside. To face both of them at once was beyond unreasonable—it might as well have been impossible.
Honestly, I'd never fought them before, so I couldn't say for sure, but at the very least they were absolutely not the kind of opponents you could ask to "buy some time" against.
"Ah, it's fine. Captain and Maxim probably won't step in."
"...That's a rather confident thing to say. Do you have some basis for it?"
"Well, every time something like this happens, those two never step in!"
With a bright smile, Materia answered so cheerfully that the handle on my millstone disappeared somewhere inside me.
No, you've done this enough times to have statistical evidence and data to back it up? And you know that, yet you're saying it with such a sunny smile?
The man beside her was blushing at Materia's cheerful smile and grinning along with her, but to my eyes Materia looked like a completely different person.
I'd thought she was a pure, cheerful country girl, but Materia was also Hera Familia—crazy psycho edition.
***
Thud—
A heavy [sound] slammed into Zald's body.
His arm broke.
Crash—!
An even heavier impact struck dead on. What had broken this time?
"Zald—! Hang in there! I believe in youuu!"
"You damn bastards! Don't just watch, help meee!"
His pathetic, desperate screams were pitifully buried beneath the roaring blasts.
Arphia of [Silence].
The successive bombardment from one of Hera Familia's top-tier mages, who ranked among the first or second strongest in the Familia, turned even someone as powerful as Zald into a rag doll in an instant!
It was nothing short of a calamity. Nothing short of Hera Familia.
Hera Familia watched Arphia's rampage, while Zeus Familia just sat there munching popcorn and watching the show.
In that entire space, Zald alone was having a truly miserable time.
No, maybe that wasn't quite right.
"Haa..."
Suddenly, the bombardment stopped.
Now!
The moment Zald had been waiting for had finally come.
Arphia had been weak from birth.
Materia was the same, but Arphia was even more so because of the influence of her Falna.
Ironically, the reason she could endure for so long was also thanks to her Falna, but in any case, that made long battles Arphia's greatest weakness.
A woman who seemed to struggle just to keep her eyes open. If he dragged things out long enough, she would collapse on her own.
Of course, only a monster like Zald could even attempt such a thing.
He forced strength into his creaking body and stood back up.
Attacking Arphia was out of the question. Not only was Arphia stronger than him, but if she were injured by his attack, the goddess who cherished her Familia so fiercely might fly into a rage and strike back.
If that happened, it would become a real war. That absolutely could not be allowed.
"Arphia. You look tired now, so maybe it's time to—"
End this. That was what he had meant to say.
"...What are you drinking?"
"Can't you tell? It's an elixir."
He could tell she was drinking an elixir.
What he wanted to know was why she was drinking one.
He had let his guard down because she usually stopped around this point, never imagining she'd go further than this.
And in a battle between monsters, a single moment of carelessness leads straight to the worst possible outcome.
"[Gospel]"
Fwoosh—!
As if she had been waiting for this exact moment, the witch's bombardment swept over Zald and even the Zeus Familia far in the distance.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield had become utter chaos, and just as the faction-level battle was about to begin in earnest—
"Sis—!"
At the sharp voice that rang out from afar, Arphia's body froze like stone.
Creaaak—her head turned with the stiffness of a rusted tin doll.
Her one eye, usually closed because even keeping it open was a burden, slowly opened, revealing the scene before her in brutal clarity.
Her little sister was standing there in the distance. That part didn't matter.
She would scold her, yes, but for her little sister, she could forgive anything.
What did matter was the man beside her—holding her neck and legs in what was essentially a princess carry.
Drab hair, plain looks, and those striking red eyes.
That filthy insect who had laid his dirty hands on her one and only treasure.
Arphia, who already found it unbearable just to have Materia near her, looked at that sight and—
Snap.
Something finally broke.
The witch's murderous intent blanketed Orario!
The bug's face—Cranel's face—grew even darker and more sallow!
And so, just as they were about to be annihilated by the witch's [Gospel]—well, by him, to be exact—a new intruder stepped onto the stage right before the guillotine fell.
"...Who are you?"
Even with the sudden intrusion, Arphia, whose reason had already snapped, did not stop.
But the others were different.
"Did you see that?"
"Did you see it?"
At their gods' questions, the woman shook her head with a wary expression, while the man, also wary but unlike her, nodded.
The two strongest Familia members, each the pride of their respective gods, both wary of the new intruder.
For the first time, the eyes of the bored male god and female god began to shine.