Her spear lunged to impale me—when suddenly, a single sword plummeted from above, deploying a powerful barrier that blocked Vika's spear in its tracks.
"Get away from my big sisterrrr!"
With a fierce roar, Diru charged at terrifying speed, slamming a sharp blow directly toward Vika!
Looking closely, Diru was battered and covered in wounds. Had she forced her way through that raging tempest...?
Vika remarked lightly, "Oh? I could've sworn the copies of Rias-chan, Akeno-chan, and Rossweisse-chan were over there. Did you defeat them? Impressive~♪"
Panting heavily, Diru rasped, "Haa... haa... I won't let you... I won't let you hurt her...!"
"My, my, what a devoted little sister♪ I do love girls like you♪ However—"
Vika glanced behind her. From the paintings depicting Rias and the others, their copies were summoned once again. Even if we beat them once, they just get summoned all over again...!
Unless we defeat Belle, we'll be stuck in an infinite loop. But the summoned fighters and Vika were standing firmly in our way.
At this rate, our stamina will give out first. Diru's breathing was already dangerously ragged.
Seeing my growing panic, Vika smiled.
"Fufu, you're getting desperate, aren't you? Well then, how about I give you something to be really desperate about?"
"What... are you planning?"
"Didn't I tell you earlier? If you're surprised by this much, you won't last long."
She really had said that. There was something else to Belle's "Magis-Painter's Art Festival" besides summoning the warriors she had drawn.
A single painting materialized beside Belle at the rear of the enemy formation. Depicted upon it was—
"A volcano...?"
Indeed, what was painted there was an erupting mountain, surrounded by blazing red flames...
A terrible premonition washed over me. Belle's ability was the power to materialize whatever she drew. If that meant she could manifest things other than people or magical beasts...
The moment that thought crossed my mind, space shook violently! The ground bulged upwards massively, rising high into the air! What emerged was the very mountain depicted in the painting—and suddenly, the summit exploded! Debris flew through the air, rocks rained down like meteorites, and molten lava spewed from the crater!
I blocked the falling boulders with a defensive magic circle, completely unable to hide my shock...
Vika explained, "As you can see, Belle's trump card, 'Magis-Painter's Art Festival,' doesn't just summon warriors and beasts. Within its barrier, she can manipulate all kinds of phenomena through her art. If she wanted to, she could turn this entire world into the deep sea and drown everyone here. Though, if she did that, I'd get dragged into it too."
What kind of cheat ability is that...?! Creating copies of my brother and Dulio was already breaking the rules, but being able to alter the environment itself is just absurd!
As panic threatened to overwhelm me, Belle summoned yet another painting. This one depicted a realm covered in a sea of molten lava. The moment the painting glowed, the ground beneath our feet transformed into a scorching hellscape!
"It's so hot...!"
We hurriedly flew up into the air... but the sky was a violent tempest thanks to Dulio's copy. Hell below us, hell above us... When pushed this far into a corner, it almost makes you want to laugh.
Vika twirled her spear casually.
"Now then, shall we continue? Slammed into the ground, you'll be consumed by lava; escape to the sky, and you'll be swallowed by the storm. A single mistake means death."
Vika was right: a single mistake would mean death. If we kept fighting like this, we would inevitably be driven into a corner.
Just then, Diru stepped in front of me.
"Please go on ahead. I will hold them off here."
"—!"
Normally, I should stop her right here. No matter how hard Diru tried, she was no match for Vika. The gap in strength between them was just too wide. One might think it would be better for the two of us to fight together, but even that wouldn't work. We would undoubtedly exhaust ourselves first.
In that case—
"...I'm sorry, Diru. I'll end this quickly!"
I took off at full speed.
Vika tried to pursue me, refusing to let me escape, but Diru moved to block her path. Diru's power wasn't enough to suppress Vika completely, but the time bought here was infinitely precious—it was our only chance to break through this battle.
I'll end this quickly! I'll definitely save you! So... so...!
"Don't you dare die!"
A horde of copies lined up to block my path as I charged. I deployed a full-frontal defensive magic circle to block long-range attacks while blasting the close-quarters fighters with high-tier magic to clear them out.
Even if they were summoned again, the time lag between their defeat and resurrection would lighten the burden on Diru and Alice.
I gathered seven-colored light at my fingertips and unleashed Stardust Breaker. This technique possessed exceptional armor-piercing power, enough to punch right through even the sturdy armor of the Red Dragon Emperor. Furthermore, thanks to my Divine Maiden transformation, I could fire it over a wide area while maintaining its piercing power, vastly increasing its destructive capacity.
And yet, no matter how many I defeated, there was no end in sight! The sheer volume of enemies was simply overwhelming! I had to hurry! I had to end this quickly!
It was at that moment—
『Miu-chan, can you hear me?』
"Ignis-san?!"
Ignis-san's voice echoed directly inside my head! Since I had connected deeply with my brother's consciousness when receiving the pseudo-divinity, it made sense that I could hear her voice...
Ignis-san, is it okay for you not to be with my brother right now?!
『Issei is fine for the time being. More importantly, you girls were in a critical situation, so I shifted my consciousness over to your side.』
Thank goodness... so my brother is safe. Ignis-san, do you have a plan to break out of this situation?
『Yes. That Belle girl is using her paintings as a medium to activate her abilities, right? If you destroy those paintings, things should turn around at least a little.』
I see... The "Magis-Painter's Art Festival" works by deploying the paintings Belle has stored. If we destroy the paintings themselves, we might just have a chance.
However, knowing Belle, those paintings wouldn't be easily destroyed.
『Indeed, half-hearted power won't cut it. However—』
"I'll do it!"
Cutting through the dense crowd of copies, Alice burst onto the scene! She made her entrance bathed in crackling, platinum-white lightning!
"Alice-san! Did you manage to defeat Maurice-san's copy?"
"It was pretty touch-and-go, but I managed somehow. At any rate, let's break through here quickly. Ignis-san... a-are you really sure doing what you said earlier will work?"
『Yes, you'll be fine, Alice-chan. Show them the power of the Switch Princess—the power of a Nyu-type!』
...Eh?
I don't know why, but I have a extremely bad feeling about this. A terrible premonition that all the serious tension built up so far is about to be utterly shattered.
Having made up her mind about something, Alice reached for her clothes—and exposed her bare chest! Her cute, modest breasts jiggled softly! If my brother were here, he undoubtedly would have been thrilled!
Face bright red, Alice burst into tears and screamed at the top of her lungs:
"N-NIPPLE BEAAAAAAM!!!"
...This is awful.
[Miu's POV end]
How terrible... how truly, utterly terrible.
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