Zavier wanted to at least test the limits of the mirror before falling. So, he made another huge blade with the last of his blood and rushed in for another flurry of attacks.
As soon as he slashed the round mirror at her chest, a clear clanging sound rang out that almost burst the eardrums of those standing nearby.
At the same time Zavier felt a repulsive force so great that it shook his innards that had already been injured earlier in the fight.
The defence was stronger than anything that he could have imagined. It had no loop holes. It was a perfect defence that any S rank mage would have been unable to penetrate.
That was the last of Zavier's blood. He didn't have anything else to keep him going. Even the system that gave him ideas at crucial moments was silent this time which meant that he truly had exhausted all his available options. The only route forward was the death that was awaiting him.
The round mirror hardly had a scratch on it but Zavier had fallen like a wilted corpse onto the ground. The loss of blood made him look pale, nauseous and withered but his eyes still had some life in them that had yet to be extinguished.
Kyouko herself on the other hand was as surprised as Zavier. She didn't have any such skill until the moment that she thought she was going to die.
But then out of nowhere she finally awakened her ancestral blood, the blood of the Yamata family.
She had always been looking for a way to awaken her ancestral talent but had been unable to find a method for it. Even her family hadn't known how to awaken their bloodline. All they kept telling her was that, "It has to choose you. Be patient and it will happen when it should."
Their family's power was considered another one of the imperial regalia specializing in defence and was known as the "Yata no Kagami".
Yata no Kagami had an X rank defence that was as impenetrable as was humanly possible. Even Zavier who had gone beyond the S rank and into the limits of SS rank by fusing with his clone, couldn't think of even putting a dent on it. For him, it was as hard as climbing a mountain barehanded with weights tying up his feet together.
Kyouko was busy fantasizing. Her voice had grown shrill enough to be compared to the irritating sound of a steel rod grating against solid ground.
"It chose me…it chose me…just like they said it would. It really did choose me. Hahaha…it chose to help me in my hour of need. Hahaha…so that's it…that's the answer I have been looking for all this time…"
She kept murmuring to herself in an excited tone that depicted her inner joy and relief at coming back from the dead.
Alissa was dumbstruck at what she had just witnessed. She had seen Zavier overpower Kyouko with immense strength and had pushed her back definitely but in the end the result had been so out of place. She had never imagined it even in her dreams.
She had laid her eyes on the scene when the Magatamas managed to cut off Zavier's hand. Her gut feeling at that time had screamed from the inside out that something had gone terribly wrong. She had been too hopeful. She should have known better than that.
She watched as the blade that Zavier stabbed at Kyouko's chest was deflected. She even remembered the look of disbelief on the face of Zavier. From the start, the one to have been surprised had been Kyouko. This was the first time that she had managed to surprise Zavier and it had worked like the dagger hidden in the sleeves.
Alissa wanted to rush forward but before she could have even begun to move, Kyouko's next move had already reached Zavier's heart. She had been unable to do anything at all. She could tell that there was no hope for Zavier who had fallen right in front of Kyouko.
She found that she was the unluckiest and the most useless person in the whole world. She had no words to say anything about herself. She wondered what a person who had gotten her lover killed in front of her was called. Was calling her utter trash and useless space was enough or was there some specific word for this kind of waste? For the very first time in her life, she found her existence to be both pitiful and disgusting.
For the first time in her life, she truly felt how awful it was that she had no magic and had no ability to protect herself and her loved ones. She felt pathetic to the extreme.
When she saw him fall after the attack of Kyouko her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She wanted to rush to his side to comfort him or to try to shield him from the pain. But was midway caught by Valerie who was adamant on not letting her go to him despite what she wanted. Valerie was her teacher and had greater concerns. She couldn't let the death of one student become the cause of death of another student.
In fact, Valerie was even more upset than even Dahila. He was a blood relation to her whom she had ignored for so long. She had been feeling so guilty for her past behavior that she couldn't put it into words. But she had seen what Zavier had done. He had learnt a self sacrificial skill despite having been in the Adam family. Why would he try to hide himself from the family if not because he didn't trust them? She felt that her behavior with him might have been the reason that he was so indifferent to the family and had never told his woes to her or anyone else. And instead he had opted to protect himself through such a skill.
Thanks to that he had used up all his potential and was just waiting to die right in front of her in an effort to protect her and his companions. Valerie was ashamed to the extreme but she couldn't let all his effort go to waste by letting Alissa hand herself over to the enemy.
Valerie could already tell that Zavier's life force had already been depleted or was quite close to it. Dying was the next step in such a situation. There was no other option left.
Valerie was devastated on the inside but she refused to let her emotions show on her face. Her tears threatened to fall but she held them all at bay. Her eyes grew red but not a single person noticed the changes because she skilfully avoided eye contact with any of them. Valerie tried to compose herself because she had to lead them all out of there in order to escape.
Since the major fight had come to a conclusion, the side attraction had also come to a halt. Both Calista and the injured S rank mage were on a standstill. There fight had been suspended for the time being, since they more or less knew who the ultimate victor was. There was no point in fighting any longer.
Calista took a step back and then headed to the group of girls led by Valerie. The man didn't try to stop her because his purpose had already been achieved and the opposite party no longer had the strength to oppose them. He had seen what the kid was capable of and with him gone the opposite party was more or less done for. So he let her leave and tried to tend to some of the injuries that he had suffered.
Calista stood in front of Valerie and had the same expressions as her. She too had figured out the current condition of Zavier in detail and was aware of his imminent end. She was of the opinion that they should leave as urgently as possible before Zavier truly falls because then it would be as easy for Kyouko to take Alissa with her as snatching candy from a kid.
"You need to escape with the students as soon as I make a diversion. Make sure that they reach Lyon safely."
Calista was visibly stunned when she heard Valerie's words. They had already discussed that this scenario might arise and what they had to do in such a situation. Since Calista had inferior fighting prowess and greater agility, she was a better option to be the part of the escaping party and Valerie could act as the diversion to stop the enemies by using up her own life force if she had to.
Calista had known all that but she had never actually thought that a situation like that might arrive. Two A rank mages had been forced to such a situation. Before today she would not have even thought of such a scenario. She wondered what was so important about Alissa that the enemy made such thorough preparations and even sent three S rank mages which led to the current disaster.
The only thing that she could do at the moment was to grit her teeth and nod in agreement to Valerie's words and her facial expressions returned to normal as well. She appeared to be her calm normal self again. Both Valerie and Calista did not do anything out of their bulging emotions. They had already agreed that sacrificing Valerie in such a situation would bring about the most positive results so they had chosen to do so without any hassle or hesitation. On the other hand, had Calista been the one who stayed behind, chances were that she would have either been ignored by the enemy since she didn't have the ability to hold two S rank mages back on her own or they might take her down so fast that the escapees wouldn't even have the time to escape out of their reach.
Valerie on the other hand not only has the mana that she had gathered throughout the time that Calista and Zavier had been fighting the enemy, not to mention that she also had the ability to cast her sacred skill again using her own life force instead of magic. She would die but she would probably be able to create the difference between life and death of the rest of them.
Usually, Valerie would never have opted to choose that option since it was her trump card that she could use in dire situations and crisis of the utmost extreme. But the current situation was nothing if not a crisis of life and death.
Just as Valerie was about to begin her diversion, she noticed Zavier motioning to her discreetly.
Her eyes had been on Zavier this whole time which was the reason that she had known that he was still alive and breathing but was on the verge of death. Another reason was that she was unable to stop herself from looking at him. She felt as if a part of her soul was about to go missing.
Thanks to that she was able to notice his signal to her. He was telling her to run with the rest of them. She didn't act at first and decided to see what he was trying to do and why he wanted them all to run first. And then she saw what he had been holding in his hand while he was gesturing to her. It was the same wooden box that they had to escort in this mission.
As soon as she saw the wooden box, Valerie understood that Zavier was up to something. Whatever it might be, it wouldn't be small, of that Valerie was sure of. So she made up her mind to run along with the rest of them.
"Change of plans. Get ready to run, I am coming with you."
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