Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 8 Episode 5 (section)

===Part 9===

「The way you attack, it’s so that my clones──won’t increase in number? And then why are you continuing to struggle pointlessly even after understanding that you are unable to finish me off?」

The human shaped Ragnarok with repeated inexhaustible regeneration and splitting──Sacred Eclipse.

That thing that took Wade’s appearance once more smoothly stretched out tentacles from its body and attacked Celis without stopping.

「──Divine Gate」

Celis who removed a part of her armor using Break Purge was flying by squeezing out her few remaining stamina.

She freely used her Divine Raiment of instant movement to take the Solar Eclipses by surprise and defeated the clones one after another but──she couldn’t completely defeat the enemy no matter what.

*Splat splat*, she only scattered the clones’ body fluids on the stone paving.

Even the main body would split and regenerate. It was a formidable enemy that surpassed Poseidon. The current Celis didn’t have the mean to defeat it.

「Why did you yourself remove Starlight Zero that can defeat me? Was it because you don’t have the resolve to get your comrades mixed up in it? Making such judgment, it’s also the role of noble who is standing above the people. ──Isn’t that right?」

「──!?」

Sacred Eclipse snapped its wicked eyes wide open, then it unleashed its tentacles like whip.

The attack struck Lindwurm’s remaining armor and blew away Celis’s body.

Because the armor and barrier became thin due to the Break Purge, the impact would be transmitted even just from a grazing attack, making her flesh and bone to creak.

Coupled with the blows she received before the skill exhibition battle, her movement was getting duller and duller.

Fatigue and injury were gradually robbing her movement.

Even so Celis was still emitting that aloof air from her body.

「Are you waiting for reinforcement, my disciple? Are you thinking that it’s fine to become sacrifice if it’s for the sake of your comrade──? How stout-hearted. Are you trying to walk the same path like me who became the cornerstone to stop that old empire?」

Sacred Eclipse was sneering boldly like that with a tone turned completely into that of her teacher Wade.

But, even while Celis was gasping for breath, she leaked out a faint smile.

「Thank you very much. For allowing me to meet with Wade-sensei one more time.」

「────」

Sacred Eclipse didn’t give back any reply.

But, its expression was simply stiffening, as though it was bewildered by the words of gratitude.

「But, in the end you are a fake. It’s like you are taking such shape in the attempt of learning about human. Both of our study is still insufficient isn’t it.」

With her lightened equipment, Celis moved up to the sky──escaping out of the tentacles range. Then she took a stance with her lance.

She moved higher than the girl dormitory rooftop, surpassing the height of the bell tower.

And then, she flew to right below like a streak of falling star.

「What are you saying my disciple? Calling me study insufficient. Even an attack that is accelerated from that position won’t defeat me. It’s pointless even if reinforcement arrive. From here one──I will achieve even further evolution.」

「The techniques I’m using are mostly learned from sensei. But, you cannot defeat me. The reason is……」

Celis paused her words slightly and smiled.

「──because the one who taught me to believe in other, is the boy I love.」

Celis took a stance with her lance, and accelerated toward the ground where the swarm of Sacred Eclipse was standing.

She poured all her energy into her lance and the propulsion device the back wings, transforming her very body itself into lightning arrow.

「──!?」

It was a lightning that vertically split apart the night sky.

The vortex of power clad in terrifying destruction and electric heat attacked toward the main body of Sacred Eclipse.

The enemy of human who possessed power that surpassed human knowledge──Abyss.

This Ragnarok stood at one of those summits. But its reaction, was surpassed by Drag-Knight’s skill.

The tentacles that were launched to intercept were easily burned off, the core of Sacred Eclipse was pierced.

「You failed, my disciple! The real me is countless! No matter how you struggle, with your strength it’s──」

At that moment, Sacred Eclipse noticed how the space between it and Celis was losing color.

The Divine Raiment that Lux’s Bahamut possessed, Reload on Fire was exerting the compression strengthening on it.

「……What is, your aim?」

At that time when Sacred Eclipse murmured with a baffled expression, Celis in front of it roared.

「──HAAaaAAAAAAAH!」

She focused the Drag-Ride’s strength using Break Purge and unleashed a lightning attack with maximum power output that surpassed the limit.

The girl in her solitude killed her weakness and continued to discipline and polish herself until now.

Lux moved in concert with her full strength that she obtained from untiring hard work.

Celis moved without any deciding any advance arrangement with Lux, but Lux pointed the tip of his Sword Device forward as though his movement was in resonance with her.

「──Reload on Fire!」

The lightning that was fired from the lance concentrated into one point was amplified by more than ten times due to Bahamut’s Divine Raiment.

Thunderous sound reverberated and the atmosphere burst, flash was completely blanketing the surrounding.

「……But it’s pointless-! By the time you defeat a single body of mine──」

By the time the body was reduced to the ash along with the core, Sacred Eclipse let go of its own consciousness and sent signal to the clones at its surrounding.

As long as its clones survived, it would turn them into its main body as replacement, it would be able to revive no matter how many times──was how it supposed to be, but, it was unable to do that.

「──!?」

The large amount of clone bodies at the surrounding were showered with lightning attack and burned black.

Celis repeatedly attacked the clones of Sacred Eclipse that possessed Poseidon’s trait wasn’t just for the sake of reducing their number.

So to speak, it was a diversion to make her original plan worked.

[[File:SaijakuBahamut v8 09.jpg|thumb|right]]

The clones were destroyed many times and their body fluid was scattered around in large amount.

The Lightning Flash in maximum output was transmitted through the liquid that was scattered at the surrounding in order to burn down the whole herd in one go.

The attack’s might that was insufficient even with her spending all her strength was increased until more than ten times by Divine Raiment Reload on Fire.

She had learned tactics for every situation, and with that she implemented the best plan right on the spot.

Celis’s thinking ability that had been thoroughly tempered──her Maneuver Tactic.

If it was Lux, he would surely predict her aim, and on top of that──he would surely use Reload on Fire for her. She was able to believe so.

And then, this cooperation was accomplished by him answering her expectation.

It was an attack that came from their bond, an attack that would be impossible if they weren’t equal in strength and possessed equal knowledge in tactics.

「That’s splen, did. Human」

Sacred Eclipse that was pierced by Celis’s spear was carbonized and crumbled into pieces.

The threat of world destruction──, the source of the discordant sound that continued to summon Abysses left behind few words and dissolved into the air, vanishing completely.

「Haa, haa, haa……」

The backlash and fatigue from unleashing an attack of the greatest level caused Celis’s body to stagger.

Her armor was dispelled and her body tottered. Lux clad in Bahamut softly caught her.

「──Thank you for your hard work, Celis-senpai.」

The gentle and kind smile of the young man.

Seeing the presence of the man who was supporting herself, Celis felt relieved from her heart.

Her heart was throbbing hard even now, but she didn’t avert her face anymore, she also didn’t run away.

Therefore,

「I’m sorry Lux. I lied to you──」

She talked to speak her feeling, to properly say what she couldn’t say until now.

「I said that I trust you, I told you that I want to rely on you, but I didn’t have the necessary courage. I couldn’t entrust to you, my weakness that I didn’t want to recognize.」

「…………」

Celis confessed with a lonely look.

But, Lux didn’t feel that the regret she harbored was a sin or anything.

Anyone needed courage to speak of their weakness.

It was all the more when it was an unknown feeling that bewildered them and they themselves couldn’t understand.

Even so Celis didn’t run away. She compromised and tried to protect Lux.

「The one who is weak──is me. I said that I want to know everyone’s feeling, all this time I believed that I was fighting for that sake, but I didn’t know anything. At the bottom of my heart, I’m scared to accept the feeling of other.」

The day of coup d’etat five years ago.

A wall was created in Lux’s heart due to the betrayal of the elder brother who he trusted the most. Celis destroyed that wall.

But, there was something he understood clearly thanks to Celis.

At the very least, the advice that Fugil once gave him was correct.

That Fugil didn’t plan to betray Lux and make him fall right from the very beginning.

「That’s why, thank you very much Celis-senpai. For freeing my heart, for staying at my side──」

He conferred words filled with gratitude and deep affection to this girl who was important to him.

The cheeks of Celis who was still being held up reddened and she got flustered.

「Su, such thing……I’m troubled that you are saying it to me face to face like this! N, no, I’m not troubled I permit it. Bu, but, right now it’s embarrassing──」

She covered her face with her hands.

Even though usually she was a strong and dignified senior, but seeing her like this, Lux got a thought that might be disrespectful toward Celis.

He thought that Celis was terribly cute at this kind of time.

At that time when he was thinking of such thing, there was suddenly a sound from behind.

「──DI, EEEeEE-!」

Gerdaf who was crouching in a dying state drove his worn out EX Drake and brandished up his Blade from behind Lux and Celis.

But,

「That’s meaningless. Your Drag-Ride cannot move anymore.」

Lux calmly said that over his shoulder. At the same time, the armored arm of the EX Drake broke and fell.

Because the user Gerdaf went through devil transformation, the Drag-Ride itself wasn’t dispelled, but it was already in a state where fighting or escaping were impossible.

Lux had learned from the fight with Dilwy, that to subdue a demonized person who possessed vitality and toughness that surpassed Abyss, destroying their Drag-Ride was effective.

If they interrogated Gerdaf after this and proofed that the incident this time was because of Heiburg’s intrigue, the result of the skill exhibition battle could be overturned.

「Damn, you, bastards……」

The effect of Elixir was also gradually vanishing.

The jet black pattern that was dyeing Gerdaf’s upper body was receding, his body was returning into flesh body that was soaked with blood and sweat.

When he was trying to struggle even with that wholly injured body, his complexion suddenly changed.

「──Hah! Acknowledged! As expected from my master!」

The expression that was gasping from pain drastically changed into a wicked smile. Gerdaf leaped up.

It would be impossible for him to escape with the EX Drake that was almost seventy percent destroyed, but even so Lux was going to chase after him. It was at that time, a chill ran through his back.

「────」

His hand that was going to move Bahamut to fly to the sky stopped moving just barely.

It was because the movement of Gerdaf who seemed to receive instruction through Dragon Voice was slightly unnatural.

(Why is his leaping trajectory to above? If he is going to escape, normally he should leap backward──)

「Lux! Watch out!」

Celis who was being held by the armored arm yelled, at the same time Lux leaped right to the side from his spot.

A second later, the space before his eyes was painted out with extremely large flash.

「Ah……」

Gerdaf who leaped at slight distance away was directly showered by the cannon attack.

The overwhelming impact and torrent of flash swallowed him, and like that he exploded along with his Drag-Ride──annihilated into nothing.

「……-!?」

Lux quickly turned toward the direction where the cannon attack came from and took his stance.

Inside the night scenery that was illuminated by the moon, outside the Academy’s ground──above a slightly elevated open space, a bizarre Drag-Ride was standing.

From the long distance it looked like the size of a speck, but compared to the surrounding building, it could be seen that the armor and the Cannon armament were unusually huge.

Most likely the Cannon possessed equal or superior destructive power than the special armament Seven Heads possessed by Lisha’s Tiamat.

The face of the pilot was of course couldn’t be seen.

That person was merely standing with the moon’s radiance behind them.

「Is that, Rosa Granhide……?」

That Drag-Knight made Gerdaf leaped up for luring Lux to get in the air, so they could get rid of the two of them altogether.

That was the only thing that came to mind, but there was something strange.

That Drag-Ride had a completely different armor shape compared to the Gorynych that Lux and Celis fought before.

This wasn’t at the level of special armaments combined into one, the Drag-Ride’s very size itself was different. He could perceive that even from this distance.

Tartaros Frame──the Divine Raiment to remodel one’s own Drag-Ride and making it taking new form right on the spot.

Perhaps, this was a power that wasn’t revealed at all at the skill exhibition battle some time ago──.

「What in the world, is that──」

When Noct who was using Drake’s camouflage to perform monitoring of the battle situation and information transmission showed up, her voice was quivering in wonder.

Celis was relieved that Noct was safe, at the same time she immediately gave instruction.

「Noct, can you investigate the Drag-Ride that launched the cannon attack just now?」

「No. It’s outside the range of my detector. Besides──it already escaped.」

It was just as Noct said, the Drag-Knight who was like a demon just now had immediately left the open space and vanished from the sight of Lux and others.

「Is that so. ──Yes. We here are also safe. Lux-san and Celis-san has succeeded in safely repelling the Sacred Eclipse.」

The other Triad members who were working in removing the Chaff Slime that was covering the hangar seemed to be contacting Noct. Noct raised her face.

「Thank you for the hard work. The Abysses that were advancing to Cross Field has also been annihilated. For the time being we can feel relieved with this.」

It seemed Singlen lured the majority of Abysses that were attacking Cross Field, during that time the hangar that was sealed by Dragon Marauder’s scheme was liberated, then the surviving Abysses were moped up immediately.

A loud sound came from behind as though to support Noct’s words.

「Oooi Lux! Are you safe──?」

Lisha who was flying in Tiamat at the forefront called out, while the figures of Krulcifer, Philuffy, and the Triad could be seen behind her.

The moment Celis saw their figures, she coughed once before jumping down from Lux’s arm in hurry.

「That, entrusting my weakness to you and displaying it to everyone are different matter altogether.」

Her cheeks slightly reddened and she made a firm expression.

Even though currently she should be so tired that she would want to flop down, she tried to show a splendid appearance as the captain of Syvalles.

As expected, it seemed she had no intention to speak out complaint so easily.

It was really like her to pretend to be tough like this, at the same time he thought that such her was adorable.

「Then, please tell me secretly when senpai want to collapse. At that time I will support you no matter when──」

「──I’ll permit that. Perhaps I will presume upon your kindness sometimes, but please keep it a secret from everyone, Lux.」

Like that Celis returned a smile to Lux, and he also nodded back.

Trying to depend on a partner wasn’t pampering oneself, it meant being able to accept one’s own weakness.

The day of revolution five years ago.

That time when Fugil betrayed him, he lost an answer. Celis taught back that answer to him.

Lux thought that she was reliable, and she was someone that was worthy of respect.

At the same time, his bond with this senior who was similar with him at some respect now was something that he cherished from his heart.

「Yes. From here on, please take care of me too so that I won’t make a mistake.」

Lux showed a smile and told her his honest feeling like that.

–

And then the battle this evening──the contact with Sacred Eclipse that would ruin this world came to an end for the moment with this.