Next to the great clock tower stood an abandoned church.
Ryuu stepped inside — and found it identical in every detail to the church within the [Holy City Outskirts] deep in the Dungeon, the one where Alfia had made her home.
Only its exterior, weathered and worn like the old clock tower nearby, told of how deeply both places were engraved in her memory.
Ryuu remembered. It was during the [Great Revolt] that she had first encountered Alfia — right here, in this very church.
Back then, she and Alise and the others had been tracking a merchant smuggling goods for the Dark Familia. The trail had led them straight to this place.
What followed had been a battle that was barely even a battle.
Ryuu walked in silence deeper into the church, the memory playing out behind her eyes. She and Alise had been utterly helpless — overwhelmed and broken almost instantly, without landing a single blow.
But what about the her of today?
The thought rose unbidden.
The elven girl drew the wooden sword at her hip. Starlight scattered in tiny motes, revealing the slender, keen blade concealed within.
In the pitch-dark church, the woman's ice-cold voice rang once more in Ryuu's ears.
[Gospel].
A three-hundred-and-sixty-degree assault with no blind spots — inescapable, unblockable, striking the enemy directly. The old Astrea Familia had only managed to counter it by hunting down a special piece of equipment called the Anti-Magic Greatshield.
"But magical energy can cancel magical energy," Ryuu murmured to herself.
All those long hours of training alongside Ais and Lefiya had deepened her understanding of magic's true nature.
[Magical energy can nullify magical energy.]
She had seen it before — the Dawn-Dark Moon had used the black viscous fluid of condensed magical energy surrounding it to neutralize incoming magical attacks.
Ryuu did, in fact, possess a defensive spell.
It had come from a former companion — Aste Knox, a dwarf, the only vanguard in the Familia, who had always stood at the front lines with a greatshield strapped to her back.
But it wasn't enough.
Just as when she channeled her fallen comrades' magic — the crimson flames coiling forth, the slash of frost drifting down like falling cherry blossoms — no matter how hard she tried, the power paled against the original.
But — what if she herself —
The starlight slowly gathered. Ryuu began to chant her own spell: [Gale of Light].
— Forest canopy now long gone. Boundless night sky studded with infinite stars.
A deep-green orb of light coalesced before the girl.
And then — it burst apart.
It scattered into a constellation of countless tiny motes.
"Answer the call of one as foolish as I. Grant me once more the blessing of starfire. To she who once forsook thee — light and mercy —"
She did not stop chanting.
She kept drawing in magical energy, coaxing those scattered sparks to orbit her body.
Ryuu pushed herself.
With sheer force of will, she reshaped the spell's form — transforming what had once been a single massive deep-green orb into countless pinprick flecks of light, all but invisible to the naked eye, weaving and swirling in a constant flowing ring around her.
A brand-new defensive spell.
If I do this — can I resist Alfia's voice magic?
The girl thought so.
With a dense, layered barrier of magical energy like this, even a direct magical strike shouldn't mean anything.
Like a switch flipping on inside her, Ryuu felt a surge of excitement.
She sensed it — she had finally, truly grasped the trick to growing stronger.
This is it!
In this moment, for the first time, the girl understood those words at a bone-deep level: [When a powerful enemy stands before you, you will find the means to become stronger by any means necessary.]
Keep going. Just keep going like this.
Ryuu held that thought close.
— And just like that, before anyone quite realized it, the last few days of late summer had arrived by the time Isagi returned to the city from the [Academic District], with Lefiya, Haruhime, and little jellyfish Saika in tow.
Autumn was near.
A cold drizzle had begun to fall without end.
The sky hung perpetually grey, yet the air still carried that suffocating, scorching heat that was summer's trademark.
After coming home, Isagi had taken a full night's rest. When he finally rolled out of bed, he found the afternoon was already well underway.
He was staying at Goddess Demeter's farmstead outside the city.
With the harvest season approaching, the Goddess had apparently been run off her feet lately — there was no sign of her around the house.
Isagi got up, washed his face, and headed to the common room — where he found lunch left out on the table for him: beef curry, pickled sausages, and a great pork knuckle simmering away in a pot.
He warmed it all up, then ate every last bite.
The house was empty. Even Saika was gone — she'd probably been dragged out somewhere by Lefiya and the others.
Isagi still remembered yesterday's homecoming.
Never mind Ryuu-senpai and the rest — even the goddesses themselves, Astrea and Demeter, had been completely fascinated by Saika.
And beyond that.
The little thing could actually receive a [Falna] and become an adventurer.
That was right — they had tried it last night, and the goddesses had been stunned to discover that Saika was apparently capable of having a Status. It was nothing short of unbelievable.
Though from where Isagi stood, he figured it was fine enough.
It had already been confirmed that the little jellyfish was a spirit creature of some kind, with her own way of cultivating power. So being able to level up through a Status panel shouldn't be any kind of problem.
Well, well, well.
He had a feeling his little adventure party was about to gain yet another new member.
He just had no idea what kind of skills and magic Saika would end up with once she became an adventurer —
With that thought turning in his head, Isagi decided to head out and find Lefiya and the others. It was raining lightly, and the girls were probably helping out at the fast-food stall.
He left the farmstead, hitched up the cart, and set off down the road toward the city. Before long, he arrived at the burger shop on the side of North Main Street, open for business as usual.
And there he saw it.
Ryuu-senpai and the others looked like they were just about to set out for the Dungeon.
Lefiya, Haruhime, Tiona — even Ais was there. The girls were in full gear, supply packs loaded on their backs, stuffed to bursting with provisions and equipment. They had come thoroughly prepared.
The reason was simple enough. His little trip to the [Academic District] with the two girls had eaten up the better part of half a month.
Which meant the timing worked out perfectly.
The Monster Rex Goliath on the 17th Floor was due for a respawn soon.
Word was that Haruhime's [Excelia] had accumulated to nearly the threshold — one more subjugation should be enough to level her up.
And at the same time.
Ryuu-senpai seemed to have another purpose of her own.
"I'll tell you when we're back," she said, blinking once, as though something important weighed on her mind.
It was important, indeed.
Ryuu had buried her companions in the Under Resort on the 18th Floor. Only their weapons remained — but those weapons were her fallen comrades' final relics.
So.
If she brought those relics back — the next time, could she use Isagi's divine power with them as a medium, to travel back to the past and save Alise and the others?
To Ryuu, that was a matter of boundless importance.
____
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