ed in huge quantities. Suzaku’s health gauge, which was also displayed in Haruyuki’s vision and reached five levels, was being whittled away at a momentum that made him doubt his eyes.

“HI..YAAAAA!!”

Without ceasing, Kuroyukihime’s twin swords flashed and fired forth the meteors her Mind Power had produced like a rapid-fire gun. Ten hits. Eleven hits. A number of huge holes had already been drilled through both of Suzaku’s wings, and his torso and tail were also being torn up here and there. However, the flames of indignation smoldering in his left eye did not vanish. Even while receiving enormous damage, he opened his bill wide and forcibly tried to discharge a flame breath.

“—Ohhh!”

Haruyuki also reflexively roared and drew his right hand tight. He scraped an image of light together from his whole body, condensed it at a single point, changed it into a lance of light—and released it.

“?Laser Lance?!!”

The lance, which had become a streak of light and had run through the cosmos, overtook Kuroyukihime from the right side and hit Suzaku’s left eye without straying from its mark.

The breath’s flames, on the verge of being released, wavered, and in the momentary chance that was born, Kuroyukihime fired the final—the sixteenth star with an ear-splitting roar. Its light, which soared through the heavens while trailing a tail resembling a comet, made a direct impact on Suzaku’s oral cavity and caused the super-intense heat energy of his flame breath to spontaneously discharge..

A red light stained his entire field of vision.

An awfully huge fireball that seemed like a second sun was born, and immediately after an overwhelming torrent of energy dispersed in all directions.

With his outstretched two hands, with all his might Haruyuki seized the bodies of Kuroyukihime and Fuuko, who had been pushed back by the shock wave. He again carried them tightly at his left and right, received the flow of energy with the wings at his back, and changed it to thrust. It was a phenomenon where it just seemed as if Suzaku himself had exploded, but the last one of their enemy’s health gauges was still about halfway remaining. They should not approach him recklessly.

Haruyuki drew a great arc, circled around the fireball, and entered a course descending toward the surface of the earth.

The red light gradually faded, and the figure of the huge bird on the brink of death became exposed. His dignity of a ?god? had already disappeared; he only weakly flapped his wings, which were wounded and were in pieces.

—If we’re to defeat him, how about now!?

For an instant, Haruyuki thought that. However, immediately after, a strange light wrapped up Suzaku’s massive body. A triple aura of white, blue, and black. As he wondered what on earth that was and opened his eyes wide, before him—a further superphenomenon occurred. Suzaku’s injuries were rapidly mended from their extremities. His health gauge, which had lost ninety percent of its total, also began to recover rapidly.

“..I surely hadn’t thought that the support of the other ?Divine Beasts? would reach outer space..”

At Kuroyukihime’s whispering voice, he finally recalled something. The four super-class enemies guarding the gates of the four cardinal directions of the Imperial Palace were mutually linked. Even if they attacked one and dealt one damage, if the other three were not in the middle of fighting they would help the one infinitely recover with their support ability.

“Chasing him too far is useless, Karasu-san.”

In response to Fuuko’s words, Haruyuki nodded. Today’s objective was not to defeat Suzaku but to get out of his territory. Fluttering his two wings, which were still enveloped in a silver Over-Ray, he seized the thin air and switched over to vertical descent. The surrounding darkness shifted from darkness quickly to ultramarine and then to a clear azure.

Before long, they drew near the thick sea of clouds, and they dived in headfirst. Passing through the gray veil, they went toward the sky of the ?Demonic City? stage. Far below, the large castle enclosed by perfectly circular castle walls and the bridge extending straight out from its south gate were visible. Haruyuki sighted the figures of three small people greatly waving their hands at the south end of the bridge.

At a hundred meters in the sky overhead the large bridge, he changed the orientation of his body and transferred to a leisurely glide feetfirst. Prudently manipulating his wings such that they did not jut out to the left or right of the bridge, he aimed for the ground with the greatest speed possible. The tile pattern covering the surface of the large bridge floated up, and its resolution increased—

At last, the tiptoes of Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime, and Fuuko simultaneously touched the bridge’s surface.

That was the south tip of the large bridge, basically, a spot one meter from the boundary of the territory of the Divine Beast Suzaku.

Before his eyes were the smiles of his three comrades. The small-build?miko?Ardor Maiden, who stood at the right end, had probably also already recovered with Chiyuri’s special technique gauge; she was extending out her restored left and right arms straight out before her.

The three people consisting of Haruyuki and company advanced one step, two steps, and then three steps, and left the bridge.

“Welcome back.”

Kuroyukihime, Fuuko, and Haruyuki replied with voices in unison.

“..We’re back.”

And then they finally took another step forward—.

Haruyuki and Takumu. Kuroyukihime and Chiyuri. And then Fuuko and Utai hugged each other with all their strength. At the same time, from the skies overhead, at the ?altar? in the distance a pillar of red light towered, was absorbed into the ground in that state, and disappeared.

At this instant, the ?Ardor Maiden rescue operation? as well as the ?Imperial Palace escape operation? by all hands of the black legion, Nega Nebulas, ended completely.

References:

1.?^?Here, his avatar name is written as 白銀の鴉, “Crow of Silver,” different from the customary シルバー?クロー.

2.?^?The kanji, 光速翼, literally mean “Light Speed Wings.”

3.?^?The kanji, 星光連続撃, literally mean “Starlight Continuous Attack.”