She couldn't win.
That was Riveria's conclusion.
If the Ais inside this nightmare was completely immune to magic, then she stood no chance against her at all.
No—even Isagi stood no chance.
Without magic, beating her through blade skill alone was all but impossible. Unless… unless one could reach the level of a Martial God, and that was even less possible!
In that case, calling in Lefiya and Ryuu would be meaningless too.
Even Tiona—her signature Blood Surge was, at its core, a thing shaped out of magic energy.
So what were they supposed to do?
"In the end, we can only wait for a god to solve this…"
Just as Loki had said moments ago.
Perhaps they could ask a deity who governed dreams, or the dark of night, to take a look. Best of all would be to hope that a certain goddess descended to the lower world.
The one Loki called "that idiot, moron, big-titted little midget."
Hestia, goddess of the Hearth and the Home—who also presided over the most important Hearth Fire of both Olympus and the mortal world.
The power of that flame was enough to purify anything.
The charm of the Goddess of Beauty, the power of any god at all—before it, they simply vanished.
"Sounds like an extraordinarily impressive goddess."
That was Riveria's thought.
If they could only ask her for help, Ais, trapped in this nightmare, would surely wake.
But how long would that take?
Not something you could count on…
While Riveria turned it over in her mind, Isagi beside her was clearly thinking too—and then, as though something had struck him, he spoke with the air of a man who had just seen the light.
"We're inside a nightmare, right?"
"?"
"And if we're inside a dream—then this is basically the same as the [Dark Hall]."
Just as he'd thought.
Isagi felt out his own Divine Power and realized that what it could do here was no different at all from what it could do inside the [Dark Hall].
This was Ais's nightmare, and he could control a great many things inside a nightmare.
Which made the rest simple.
The girl ignored magic entirely. That meant she had to be beaten with pure martial skill—and the only ones capable of that were the Martial Gods, those who had honed technique to its absolute limit.
In this world, certainly. But what about other worlds?
Martial Gods? He happened to know a great many of them. So—
"Watch closely, Miss Riveria."
"What are you planning to do?"
For some reason Riveria had a very bad feeling about this. Isagi looked like he was about to start doing something outrageous.
A snowy mountain. White robes. A black hound—
The first thing Riveria saw was a young man holding a strange weapon.
There was something about him she couldn't put into words.
Robes drifting in the wind, transcendent, otherworldly, like a god… no, he simply was a god, wasn't he?
[Erlang, the Sacred Divinity].
The instant that name surfaced in Riveria's mind, snow was suddenly falling all around them, a breathtaking vista of frozen peaks.
And here, on this platform at the summit.
Before a ruined little shrine, the young man who had appeared out of nowhere rose slowly to his feet. Sword-sharp brows, star-bright eyes, and the vertical eye upon his forehead all opened at once, blazing with golden light—as though clouds and mist had been swept aside, and from the very edge of the sky came the sound of soaring, martial music.
"It's cold up here on the mountain. No good wine to be found."
The moment he spoke.
Riveria knew things had gone wrong. A boss that talked—and talked this coherently—was never a simple opponent.
A flood of painful memories came rushing back.
After all, among the victims of the [Dark Hall], this Elf woman was victim number one.
She could still remember the night she first met the Tiger Vanguard…
"You went to a great deal of trouble to find your way here. I doubt it was to keep me company."
However.
Ais was in no mood to listen to anything he said. She attacked at once.
"Oh?"
Thunder cracked and rolled!
Black Wind slammed into golden lightning—and then, to Riveria's astonishment, Ais was blasted straight back through the air.
"You're not him. Then you'll do to pass the time."
"Pure Source, Wondrous Way—Sacred Divinity, Mighty Spirit!"
Golden light flared again.
Riveria watched [Erlang, the Sacred Divinity] loose countless silver arrows, pouring toward Ais like a rainstorm.
Except that in this world, so-called sorcery probably counted as magic too—and so nearly all of that silver light was swallowed by the darkness.
"Interesting."
[Erlang, the Sacred Divinity] showed no surprise. He merely said the word, and then his whole body drifted forward, the three-pointed, double-edged spear in his hands—Isagi had just whispered the name of it in her ear—crashing down once more wrapped in rolling thunder.
But that was only a feint!
The true killing blow was in the left hand [Erlang, the Sacred Divinity] raised high, and in the enormous axe that appeared there, growing longer as it met the wind!
An aura of indescribable antiquity washed over them.
Even Riveria felt it from somewhere deep inside her—that this was a holy relic of terrible significance.
And now, carrying the weight of ten thousand tons, it came down toward the spot where Ais stood.
By rights, a girl that fast should never have been struck by an axe descending that slowly. But the thing seemed to possess some power beyond words, one that pinned her to the ground where she stood, unable to move.
"!!!"
Mountain-Splitting, Stone-Cleaving!
Riveria was certain that if this had not been a dream, the snowy peak beneath their feet would have been ground to powder by that single stroke.
And yet, even so, Ais forced the axe upward with her wind.
"Oh?"
Invisible wind blocked the giant axe, holding it always a small distance from the longsword in the girl's hands, refusing it another inch. Then came a sudden roar—and across the girl's pale, lovely face, pitch-black scales spread, while [Erlang, the Sacred Divinity] was shoved back by an enormous force.
"The power of a true dragon?"
A misunderstanding, clearly.
Though as far as Isagi was concerned, the real problem lay with himself.
Inside a nightmare, just how strong was a boss he created?
Even Isagi didn't know.
In theory, anything he created within his own nightmare ought to be invincible.
But this was Ais's nightmare, and on top of that, some limit in his own power meant the boss he'd imagined still wasn't strong enough—not enough, at least, to completely overwhelm the Ais standing there now.
Perhaps in the girl's subconscious, that "darkness of the end" truly was that strong.
But it didn't matter!
Watching [Erlang, the Sacred Divinity] trade blow for blow with the girl wreathed in black wind, Isagi thought: if one isn't enough, bring out two. If two aren't enough, bring out three!
Martial Gods? He had as many as anyone could want!!
And so.
With a tremor that seemed to split the heavens and shatter the earth, [Erlang, the Sacred Divinity]'s reinforcement answered the call!
[Great Sage's Broken Shell]!!
Now that was a genuine Martial God. Isagi had originally meant to summon the Sword Saint, the Starscourge General, the Nameless King, and all the rest of them.
But on reflection, he decided he might as well call the strongest one straight away. And if that still wasn't enough, well, he could always call more.
Nobody had said anything about no ganging up, after all.
This darkness was presumably the Black Dragon's Strength. Fine, then—let them test it here. Let's see which is stronger: the Black Dragon, or the final bosses he'd beaten once already!!
____
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