"What on earth are you talking about, An?"
"Oh, right. I was being too brief."
At Lili's dumbfounded reaction, the Magus continued his explanation as if he had just remembered something he had forgotten.
"To be precise, the clothes I'm wearing right now. This outfit itself is a Magecraft workshop."
He hadn't changed just for the sake of style.
Needless to say, as Lili listened to his explanation, her expression only twisted further in the wrong direction.
So what he was saying was, in the end—
"Then you mean..."
"Whether you beat me and strip the clothes off me, or beat me and damage the clothes, it all amounts to the same thing."
"Haah..."
The strange irritation rising inside her, churning in her head, made her chest feel tight.
And it really was that kind of situation.
All in all, it was a dead-end situation through and through.
Who would have thought the worst possible guess would turn out to be right?
To be honest, Lili was close to wanting to throw everything away and quit.
Was it really so hard to just make things easy for once?
"Today's An is absolutely the worst."
"Thanks for the compliment."
That infuriatingly casual way he accepted her complaint only made her even angrier.
Come to think of it.
That guy was seriously, truly annoying.
How was she supposed to put him in his place so people would praise her for it?
While she was thinking that to herself,
"So. What now? Got any other tricks?"
At Welf's question from the side, Lili fell silent for a moment.
But eventually, she answered.
"Nothing has really changed. It's all exactly as we predicted. The only thing is that the win condition got a lot harder."
"Well, yeah, that's true."
"So, Welf."
With strong resolve and a sliver of determination in those small eyes, Lili said—no, asked.
"Could you stall for just five minutes?"
A precious and dangerous price, one that might even cost her comrade his life.
And Welf—
"Heh, so our team's little schemer really did have a plan for everything."
Like the iron blacksmith he was, a man among men.
"Then I'm counting on you."
"Yes, please do."
With a smile, he nodded without a word and accepted her request.
Then he raised his weapon, blocked her path, and glared at the Magus.
With a steel will that said he would never let him past.
As a man facing another man, he met the Magus head-on.
"Yo, buddy."
"Yeah. Got your battle plan all worked out?"
"Yep. Thanks to you."
"Well. It's only proper to quietly wait for transformation scenes, combination scenes, strategy time, and Spirit Bomb charging. It's basic etiquette for a first-rate villain."
"I still don't understand a single thing you're saying."
"Heh, you don't need to understand. Just think of it as a bad hobby of a teacher who wants to watch his lovely disciple's little performance."
"Ah, that part I can kind of understand. I still think your taste is awful, though."
"Hahaha, of course. I've got my pride as a villain, after all."
The two of them continued their leisurely exchange.
That bought them one minute.
Only a very short time, enough to catch their roughened breathing just a little.
But for the exhausted Welf, even that was a priceless rest.
And the Magus's merciful waiting ended there as well.
"Then let's get started."
There was no answer to that.
Only Welf, with a hardened expression, answered by leveling the tip of his weapon.
And to him, the Magus simply said,
"Go."
Quietly, and gently.
He rang the starting bell for a hellish struggle.
Kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri!
At the same time, the three steel tentacles began moving again.
Facing those approaching steel threats, Welf let out one deep, thunderous roar from his gut.
"Uoooooo!"
From here on out,
only the stubbornness of steel would decide the outcome.
Welf felt his will surging up inside him.
To that strong, tenacious resolve of iron, the Magus answered with violence and a smile.
He met that determination with the unchanging ease—arrogance—of the strong.
"What's wrong? You're already breathing hard. Don't tell me you're all talk?"
"Shut up! Not yet, not yettttt!"
Clang! Clang!
"Oh? Not bad. Then I suppose I'll raise the difficulty a little more."
Kiri-kiri-kiri!
At that perfectly relaxed remark, the three steel tentacles writhed wildly once more, twisting their bodies in every direction.
Was he going to use that again?
Alarmed and flustered, Welf stopped moving for just a split second to brace himself.
And in that instant—
Thud!
"Ku, hck!"
One tentacle seized the opening and struck at his side.
At the heavy impact, Welf had to force the air out of his lungs.
But of course, that wasn't the end.
"Oh dear. You can't let your guard down."
Kiri-kiri-kiri!
Despite his pitying words, the Magus's tentacles showed no sign of stopping.
Before long, another one lunged at Welf.
With the momentum of a battering ram, he hurriedly raised his greatsword to block it—
Thud!
"Tch, dirty!"
That one was a feint.
The real attack came from behind, where another tentacle slammed into him.
But even the front one wasn't a complete fake.
Bang!
"Gah!"
It followed up by smashing into Welf's face.
The impact and pain made it feel like his nose might break.
Before he knew it, his stance had completely collapsed.
Kiri-kiri-kiri!
The steel tentacles rushed in to finish him off.
Their ferocious momentum looked as if they would tear him apart on the spot.
At that critical moment—
"No choice!"
He pulled something from his pocket and thrust it forward.
A small, round object like a seashell.
It was the Magus's custom-made Impact Dial, secretly handed to him by Lili just moments ago.
Thud!
"Got it!"
He already knew how to use it from watching and hearing about it earlier.
So there was no problem activating it.
Thanks to that, Welf was able to block the attack safely.
"[Im, pact!]"
Boom!
But the aftereffects were another matter.
"Ugh, that hurts...!"
So that little Lili-doll had used something this brutal twice already?
Welf grimaced at the pain, as if his arm—hardened by blacksmithing work—might be torn off.
And thinking of his comrade, Lili, who must have suffered the same... no.
Maybe she had suffered even more than he had, he clenched his teeth and endured.
If he couldn't endure what that tiny girl had endured, then it would only sound like pathetic whining.
So here, he would endure, even if only out of stubborn pride!
"Haaahhhhh!"
With that resolve, Welf forced even the pain in his arm aside.
He swung his greatsword again and again without pause, fighting like hell.
How much time had passed like that?
One minute? Or two?
Was five minutes still far off?
Was Lili still preparing?
Time... Lili... the battle...
How long until his role was over, and how long until he reached his limit?
Crack!
"Huff... huff..."
Welf's greatsword, after being pushed past its endurance, finally shattered into pieces.
A brief lull followed.
Under the Magus's tacit permission, a sweet moment of rest appeared.
But with his body already in tatters and his stamina spent, he had no more room to keep enduring.
"One of Hephaistos's hammers, after all. Excellent persistence and grit."
"Shu... t up..."
"Still, I suppose that's as far as it goes."
Well, it couldn't be helped.
Using Welf's ragged breathing as background music, the Magus checked the tentacles' condition again.
From the looks of it, the third tentacle was in pretty bad shape.
Probably from the impact of the dial just now.
"That makes two. Heh, heh, heh. This is quite interesting."
Clatter, thud!
That made two.
He calmly detached the damaged tentacle from his body and looked around.
At some point, Lili's figure had vanished again.
Had she run away?
Ha! As if.
The Magus believed in his own choice, his own eyes, and the bond between them.
The Liliruca Arde he knew, the one he had watched, was not the kind of person who would make that choice.
Even if she looked small and fragile on the surface.
"I know that girl's stubbornness better than anyone."
Unlike how she looked, she was surprisingly greedy, and not so foolish—or so wise—that she would just abandon her own people, her own comrades, and leave them behind alone.
Then there had to be some other trick.
"Which side will you come from?"
The Magus's question was answered quickly.
"An!"
Far away.
There she was again, appearing behind Welf.
Even now, her arms were hanging limp and trembling from the aftereffects of the Impact, looking painfully pitiful.
But there wasn't the slightest trace of that weakness in her expression as she ran toward him.
All that showed was a craving for victory and a stubborn sliver of resolve.
"It's a showdown!"
At his lovely disciple's declaration, the Magus did not answer with words.
He only smiled broadly.
Kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri!
And answered that fierce will with action.
There were only two tentacles left now.
They lunged toward the spaces to her left and right.
Would she leap upward to dodge?
Or duck low to evade them?
Thud!
Neither.
"[Im... pact!]"
Boom!
A third shock exploded from her pitiful hand.
That disabled the second tentacle as well.
The first tentacle beside it barely grazed past her.
At the same time, her arm bent at a bizarre angle and snapped.
It seemed she couldn't block two impacts in a row with the same arm after all.
But thanks to that, her feet were able to keep rushing straight toward the Magus without slowing at all.
The perfect chance that would never come again.
"Just one hit...! Just one hit is all I need...!"
Seeing her desperate expression, the Magus smiled.
Truly.
He smiled brightly from the heart, welcoming his lovely disciple's struggle.
Ah, how lovely and—
"Excellent, Lili."
How painfully admirable this flailing was.
"Truly worthy of praise."
For the first time that day, the Magus wore a wicked smile in front of her.
"You came all the way to me on your own."
"Huh?"
Lili couldn't hide her confusion at his reaction.
And then, in front of her—
Click!
Kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri!
Something else appeared behind the Magus's back.
It looked a little thinner and weaker than the others.
But it was still undeniably another steel tentacle.
The fifth one.
The true final tentacle, which had somehow hidden its existence until now.
Its appearance left Lili unable to conceal her shock.
What kind of ridiculous development was this?!
"The fifth one?! At a time like this!?"
"As they say, a trump card should be saved until the very last moment."
"Ugh, today you're really playing dirty!"
"That's just how life is. Isn't it?"
"Y-you...!"
With the final tentacle's ambush, Lili was caught by the nape of the neck and flailed helplessly in midair.
But it was useless.
At that pitiful, adorable failure, the Magus only gave a bitter smile.
Then he calmly judged her efforts.
If her struggle truly ended here, then the result was, naturally, a failure.
"To be honest, if you think about it, I never even needed to bring this out in the first place. That Crozzo brat was already in that state. How could he possibly have stopped my Magecraft in this situation?"
"Just one hit! Please, just let me land one hit!"
"I refuse. And the one hit you're talking about would be dangerous even for me in my usual condition. I made it myself, but still."
The final blow Lili so desperately and stubbornly demanded.
At the very least, it wasn't the Impact Dial.
The Impact Dials the Magus had made, including the one just used, totaled only four.
There were no more than that.
It was impossible to make a trump card out of something that didn't exist.
Then what had she prepared and aimed for?
The Magus had already guessed what it was.
After all, it was a weapon he had specially made and gifted to her in the first place.
"That crossbow I gave you, that knockoff 'Bow of Origin'—it automatically grants poison属性 to any arrow you load and fire. That alone is dangerous enough, but the real threat is the True Name release after that. Even I could be in mortal danger if I took that wrong. No matter how much I may be, I can't just smile and take something like that obediently. Unless I were a giant the size of a floor boss, maybe."
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Now she was even recklessly firing the crossbow attached to her arm.
But as he had already explained, the Magus was neither foolish nor generous enough to stand there and calmly take something that dangerous head-on.
Maybe if he had been caught off guard, but not now.
To be this indulgent any further would be an insult to the serious girl in front of him.
"Now then, what should we do? In any case, you've already failed, and I still have work left to do... hm?"
The Magus was smiling as he knocked away the arrows Lili fired in desperation with his tentacles.
Then, suddenly—
"Hm? Hm? Huh?"
He felt something strange.
With that uneasy feeling, he looked again at the Lili he was holding.
But no matter how he looked at her, nothing seemed particularly strange...
"Huh?"
Come to think of it, that crossbow just now.
Which arm had she fired it with?
No, more than that.
Until just a moment ago, she had clearly been—
"She couldn't even use either arm because of the aftereffects of the Impact...?"
His ominous guess ended there.
Tap.
"Check."
Mate.
In that instant, he felt a small touch against his back.
And beyond that, a faint warmth.
"No way...? No way, no way, no way...!?"
His neck creaked as he turned to look behind him.
And what he saw there was only one thing.
"Li, Li...!"
"Hello, An?"
So bright.
So genuinely cheerful.
And above all, so pleasantly satisfied.
"You, what, no, this, and that, then that over there...?!"
"Just as you said, An. A trump card should be saved until the very last moment, after all."
"So what in the world is this...!"
"Well, it's just like this."
In a low voice, she declared it to the "world."
This was the one and only Magecraft the kind teacher in front of her had ever taught her, from the past until now.
The true trump card made only for her.
As its name implied, it was a perfect shadow of a mirror that deceived the "world."
One of the great romances that would let her safely overcome, or escape from, any obstacle that stood before her, anytime and anywhere.
"[Break.]"
Mirror Flower, Water Moon.
With that quiet declaration, the "world" before his eyes shattered and collapsed.
And vanishing together with that crumbling false illusion was only one thing.
Lili, who had been caught by the fifth steel tentacle.
Only her own shadow remained.
"Ha, hahahaha..."
Realizing he had been fooled, the Magus let out a hollow laugh.
And it wasn't just the reality in front of him right now.
Because up until now, as far as he knew, Lili had certainly been unable to properly use even the most basic Gandr, let alone this Magecraft.
That was what he had believed, and she had told him so herself.
And yet now she...
"Haah, just when did you learn that?"
"Would you believe me if I said I could do it starting yesterday?"
"It's hard to believe... but well, if you say so."
"...You really are kind. Idiot."
"That's the privilege of a teacher. And your little sulking is the privilege of a disciple."
"Thank you, An."
"Enough of that. By the way, what are you going to do now? Have you decided what to do with your last shot?"
"Don't worry. The Bow of Origin is no good. I ran out of arrows. So the only thing left to me is the dial."
"So it really was that last fourth Impact you fooled me with just now. Then let me tell you in advance, just in case: it won't do you any good. This outfit has its own defensive Magecraft. If I use that as the first layer and then use defensive Magecraft again, I'll be fine. In the end, you'll be the only one eliminated for nothing. Well?"
Even so, will you do it?
At the Magus's question, Lili gave no immediate answer.
But the smile on her face did not change at all.
She simply quietly wrapped the cloak around the arm she had extended forward, using the magic cloak to help her bind it in place.
Just as he was about to ask, puzzled by that, she opened her mouth again and revealed her true intent.
"The dials you made aren't just for Impact."
"Huh? What do you mean..."
At that moment, the Magus's expression stiffened as he immediately understood what her answer meant.
And Lili's expression, too, lost its smile and hardened just like his.
Recognizing the desperate resolve contained within it, he hurriedly tried to stop her next move.
He opened his mouth, tried to persuade her, tried to talk her out of it.
"N-no! Stop, Lili! With your body as it is now, you can't take that...!"
And that brief opening was exactly—
Click.
"[Re, ject.]"
the perfect moment for her.