In the past, Frondier had seen Aster’s Ilseom right before his eyes.
He knew then.
That with his eyes, he could not dodge Aster’s Ilseom.
“Hrrgh!”
Frondier’s Heukcheon repeatedly threw up barriers halfway between Aster and himself. A firm, layered black wall.
Which—
KWA-KWANG!
—Aster pierced through entirely and reached Frondier.
“?!”
After breaking through every wall, Aster saw it.
The small shield in Frondier’s hand.
That’s......?
KAAANG!
“Urk!”
Frondier let out a groan at the heavy pain he felt in his arm.
Even so, he blocked it.
With the shield, “Aegis.”
'Didn’t it say it absorbs most physical attacks! My arm’s about to snap!'
Frondier wanted to shout his grievance. But the shield’s performance was exact.
— Blessing of the Goddess of War: Absorbs most physical attacks. Also, with weapons of Legend rank or below, this shield cannot be broken.
That it cannot be broken by weapons of Legend rank or below means that with anything above that, it can be broken.
Aster’s spear is Enkespahlos. Plainly a god’s weapon.
'If I hadn’t blocked it with Heukcheon, it really might’ve shattered in a single blow.'
After that, the two clashed fiercely while keeping their distance.
Aster’s spearblade mercilessly pierced every space where Frondier had been, and Frondier responded as if hurling every manner of weapon and Heukcheon.
“W-wait! Aster!”
Then Elodie stepped forward to stop the two.
But someone restrained her.
“It’s fine.”
“Selena?”
“It’s still within the assumptions. Lord Frondier knew Aster would attack.”
“Knew it? How?”
“......I don’t know the reason either. But Lord Frondier knew.”
Selena’s gaze did not waver.
What Frondier had misjudged was only that Aster arrived faster than anyone.
But regardless of when Aster arrived, he knew Aster would attack him.
In other words, this fight is inside Frondier’s plan. So there is nothing to worry about.
It sounded reasonable, but—
“......You’re telling me to leave that alone?”
Given the scene before their eyes, there was no way to say things like it was going according to plan, or that this was a staged fight.
Thud! Crash! KWAANG!
“Your swordsmanship has improved, Frondier!”
“And your spearmanship has improved!”
“You’ve never seen my spearmanship!”
“Well, you’ve never carried a spear!”
KWAANG!
Frondier repelled Aster with the subtlety of parrying.
The two were separated by a slight distance. Frondier exhaled as if to settle himself and said,
“That’s why I said it’s improved. It’s not wrong, is it?”
“......Hm. Is that so?”
Aster nodded as if convinced. His eyes went to the sword in Frondier’s hand.
'......A short-bladed sword in his right hand. That sword hasn’t changed. Unlike the other weapons, that sword is probably the real one.'
Nil Zack’s short sword. In regard to this sword alone, Frondier possesses overwhelming mastery.
'Meanwhile the left hand keeps changing weapons without rhyme or reason. Swinging any weapon without needing the motion to retrieve it. The foul play is too much.'
Frondier’s left hand sometimes held a weapon, sometimes a shield. The weapon even changed mid-swing.
Even if you watched to the very end, you couldn’t tell whether he was going to attack, defend, or strike with the shield. It was nearly impossible to respond with human eyes.
'And my Ilseom......'
Aster was not surprised that Ilseom had been blocked.
He did not know how Frondier would do it, but he knew Frondier would block Ilseom. Of course he would.
Only, the shield with which Frondier blocked Ilseom was extremely small. To block Ilseom with that, he had to truly hit the pinpoint.
'He knew where I would attack.'
Frondier knew.
That Aster would never be able to kill him.
So he could not aim for the head or the heart, and since it is a downward strike from above, he could not aim for the lower body either.
The right upper arm, or the shoulder. The zone Aster could target was extremely narrow.
'Really, every time we meet.'
Aster felt veins standing on his forehead for the first time in a while. Usually Aster is the one who makes the opponent lose their temper. Of course, he himself would never think so.
And Frondier—
'......How is this even fair?'
It did not show on his face, but inside he was seething.
He looked at Aster, who held a spear, with a disagreeable feeling.
'Giving Aster a spear and playing along—well, among players that was one of the very familiar routes.'
Aster, the protagonist of the Etius game. Players used to give Aster every kind of weapon.
Only, Aster’s talent for the sword was exceptional, and above all he had the very best as a swordsmanship mentor in his older sister, Elin Evans, so the sword naturally became the first priority.
'Why on earth are you handling it so well?'
In this world, Aster would hardly have held a spear. Even if he had, it would only have been a few swings at Constel as a kind of general education.
And yet he was responding to Frondier’s weapon combinations.
On top of that, it had been a while since they last met and now he was flying through the sky, and because he could float in the air he could use Ilseom consecutively in midair, and moreover without taking the middle guard, having no need to take a stance, he used Ilseom with any weapon.
Above all, Frondier sensed something inside Aster akin to divine power.
'All that brain-breaking practice feels like a damn waste.'
What’s more, Aster had a single sword hanging on his back. No doubt it was Excalibur. For now it gave off no presence at all and lay quietly asleep.
Aster already has his main weapon, yet he is facing Frondier with a spear.
Frondier has the “prediction” that Aster will not kill him, but Aster does not entertain the very notion that Frondier would kill him.
Because in Aster’s eyes, Frondier has already predicted everything and laid the board, and Aster himself believes he is being played within it. Aster sets Frondier as an endlessly lofty obstacle.
In his eyes, Frondier can only look like he is toying with him. What adult, playing with a child, would kill the child?
'It’s burdensome, Aster. Your trust is damn burdensome.'
Perhaps now it ought to be called trust. A belief that he is being toyed with. Meanwhile over here, he is twisting his whole body trying not to die.
......It is truly a strange thing.
When facing other enemies, Frondier’s emotions never leave the realm of disgust and anger.
'Whenever I fight Aster—'
At this moment Frondier and Aster thought almost the same thing.
'Annoying!'
***
Aster suddenly burst into the battlefield.
The gods were flustered at that sight, but soon they saw him confronting Frondier.
'That spear?'
And most of them had a similar thought.
'Ares!'
Enkespahlos and Lynotoros. Among the gods, there is no one unfamiliar with that set.
Only, as the battle progressed and they heard him speaking with Frondier, a question arose.
His way of speaking somehow sounded as if he knew Frondier.
And his spearmanship was different from Ares’s existing style.
The ultra-fast opening assaults. Most of those were not like Ares.
'......Not Ares?'
'Then who is he?'
And they soon found out.
“......Aster. It’s Aster.”
“Aster? Aster Evans?”
“That child called the Hope of Humanity?”
Aster’s appearance is so conspicuous that once you recognize him there is no room for confusion.
That is why the scene before their eyes is so striking.
The man called Frondier, being attacked by the Hope of Humanity as if to kill him.
By this point it did not matter much whether Frondier was human or demon. That man had become, in grand fashion, the enemy of humanity.
When he left the Empire, Frondier had been branded a demon by many. Even so, to the true strong beginning with Aster, he had remained an ally.
But at this very moment, it meant that even such strong ones had turned their backs on Frondier.
'A human styling himself the King of Demons, what a fool!'
That was the thought of most of the gods, and they were confident of victory.
The Hope of Humanity, under the gods’ gathering, is fighting the King of Demons. This royal-road story is something all gods love without end.
'......They’re watching. All of them.'
And Elodie read the situation.
While Aster and Frondier were engaging in fierce combat, the tension of the battlefield, ironically, loosened in a strange way.
What had looked like a three-way battle of gods, demons, and humans—because of Aster’s intrusion, it now looked as if humans and gods had joined hands.
Right now Elodie and Selena, who are on Frondier’s side, will rather be suspected as demons. Along with their outward appearance. That is the weight of the name Aster Evans.
Frondier was struggling to respond to Aster’s attacks, and because of that the gods did not move. They did not attack Elodie or anyone else. With the hero on the move, there is no god who would meddle needlessly.
'......It’s like then.'
The Manggot war.
It had been a strange situation in which the enemy waited for the timing, but in fact their allies were also waiting for the timing.
If it looks like your stratagem is working, people do not doubt what comes after.
'......It’s Frondier’s strategy.'
Frondier’s time-stalling tactic, now irritating to the point of dislike.
If time continues to be consumed like this, what happens?
Zeus and the other gods who passed Poseidon will arrive in addition, and on the other side the 72 Demons will fly in.
Frondier had said it did not matter which side arrived first.
'So then who will......?'
As Elodie lifted her head to the sky—
“......I was wondering what you were doing, committing the insolence of passing me.”
Elodie saw him.
A man standing aloof in the sky.
His ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) appearance is unimportant. It is a possessed human anyway.
What matters is the lightning in one hand.
“Indeed, a human hero, is it.”
He folded his arms leisurely and looked down upon the battlefield.
“Kill that demon and I will forgive you.”
His voice was heard by everyone. The gods and demons, and Aster and Frondier, who were fighting now.
Frondier looked at Aster.
At Aster’s eyes, which were clashing with fierce attacks.
'Aster, you said your intuition was good, didn’t you.'
Frondier did not have the time now to tell Aster every little thing. From the start, abruptly stopping this fight itself would be suspicious.
But if Aster truly considers Frondier as the great obstacle he must overcome—
If he believes all this is on a well-laid board—
'I’ll oblige you, Aster.'
Frondier stretched out his hand.
The weapon formed in that hand was on a different level from anything thus far.
“!”
Aster flinched when he saw the weapon held in Frondier’s hand.
'Excalibur......!'
Different from the one Aster had, the Excalibur imbued with the legend of the stone.
Clearly Frondier was conveying something. This was unmistakably a signal.
Of course, Aster did not know what it meant.
But a single line—
“Keep the promise.”
When Frondier spoke those words—
Tunk!
Aster dropped the spear and shield.
His hand reached to his back and drew a sword.
That, too, was Excalibur.
The two swords that by nature cannot appear simultaneously had now gathered in one place.
VROOOOOM!!
Excalibur•Alpha, ravenously swallowing all of Frondier’s mana, roared with brutal might.
Excalibur•Beta, condensing Aster’s aura into a single point, breathed out a chilling cold.
Frondier intoned coolly.
“Give it everything you’ve got, Aster.”
“......!”
So we agreed.
──If it is something needed to save the world.
──Let us become enemies, Frondier.
