――Central Royal Palace Ruins.
There, the First Generation and Second Generation fought against the endless tide of undead soldiers and the ape-like beasts Agrissa had unleashed. The soldiers they'd brought along were engaged in battle on the spot as well.
"Enough already—drop dead!!"
The First Generation swung his massive silver greatsword with reckless abandon, sending apes flying and cutting them down left and right. But these were monsters that regrew their arms and legs the moment they lost them. From behind their crimson masks, they breathed fire and rose again, time after time.
The skeletal soldiers surging forward were shot down one after another by the Second Generation's bow. The soldiers arrayed around the Second Generation, bows at the ready, were likewise picking off the enemy one by one.
Meanwhile, the First Generation's soldiers charged into the skeletal warriors with neither formation nor proper orders to speak of.
"It's like shooting into a sea of targets—there's no end in sight. And hey, Dad—get them into some kind of formation! Stop letting them fight scattered!"
The First Generation, greatsword resting on his shoulder—
"Who cares! Charging in and smashing things is the House Walt way—! Huh?! Mom?!"
"Huh?"
The First Generation froze in surprise, and when the Second Generation turned around, there stood a formidable woman with a naginata resting on her shoulder, glaring at the two of them with undisguised irritation.
"...You two, line up!"
When the formidable woman—the First Generation's wife—issued her command, the First Generation's barbarian-laden soldiers obediently gathered in ranks. Even the Second Generation's soldiers, who'd been picking off skeletal warriors, put renewed effort into their volleys.
Without another word, the woman strode forward, then in a single flash of her naginata—she swept aside the skeletal soldiers in front of her.
"Hurry up and finish off that ape lord. That's the one thing you're good at, isn't it?"
Watching her back as she sent skeletal soldiers flying with sweeping strikes, the First Generation nodded silently, again and again.
"Ma..."
The Second Generation gazed after their mother with a nostalgic look, when from behind them, several metal rings—each about the size of a human head—spun through the air in rapid succession.
"Hey, you too?!"
The Second Generation turned around and shouted, and there stood a single woman who had emerged from the blue light. Several metal rings floated in her right hand, gradually spinning faster and faster as a low hum resonated through the surroundings.
"It looked fun, so I came along."
Seeing his wife trying to act cute, the Second Generation averted his gaze. She appeared young—around her early twenties at most—but he had a shared past with her. It looked nothing but youthful affectation.
"Looks a bit painful."
"Huh?"
"—I think it's great!"
Then, a small child appeared from behind the woman. The Second Generation's eyes went wide.
"Dad!"
The child waving was Dewey. He was the Second Generation's eldest son, who was meant to inherit House Walt, and for the First Generation, he was his first grandchild.
"De—"
"Dewey! Stay there and watch—I'll show you something cool!"
With the First Generation's immense delight cutting off their reunion, the Second Generation felt a surge of helpless anger rise within him. Just then, his wife tapped him on the back.
"You could show off something cool too, you know. Now, hurry up and take care of the monkey and skeleton in front of you—and your mother-in-law, quick."
The expression on the Second Generation's wife's face was rather serious. At his own bride's sharp words aimed at him, the First Generation's wife sent the surrounding skeletons flying with a breath and turned around.
"You, the one who can only make soup that tastes like water, dare to defy me?!"
The Second Generation's wife then moved behind Dewey.
"Kyaa, Grandma's being mean to Mama, Dewey!"
Being used as a shield by his grandchild, the First Generation's wife's temple throbbed with a blue vein. Everyone was relaxed. Thanks to the Jewel, they all received the benefit—of Skills.
"You little—"
"Mom, Grandma... let's all get along!"
"Yeah, Mama and Grandma are best friends!"
"...There are grandchildren watching. I'll hold back from here, you hag."
When Dewey looked at the two of them with eyes completely free of the Third Generation's scheming nature, both of them melted on the spot.
The Second Generation thought.
*(I wonder why the Third Generation turned out so scheming...)*
Just then.
The First Generation took a stance with his greatsword.
"There are grandchildren watching too. I've got to crush this damn ape and scatter the trash. Up top, Lyle can handle things, right?"
The Second Generation murmured.
"You never change, do you. Well, we're the ones who trained you. If I'm going to trust you, then I suppose we'll go do our job."
The Second Generation also took a stance with the Silver Bow. Oversized arrows materialized—one after another. Hundreds more appeared around the Second Generation as well.
The greatsword in the First Generation's hands began to glow with blue light, taking on the shape of a dragon's head. The blade had come to look unmistakably like a dragon's skull.
"...I'll finish this in one strike."
Hearing the First Generation's words, the Second Generation loosed every arrow. All of them pierced the surroundings and the ape creature, triggering massive explosions. As the ape creature flinched and the skeletal soldiers around it were blown away, the First Generation charged forward.
"Here I cooome!!"
He barreled toward the path the Second Generation had carved and the creature she had forced to falter. It was the back of the First Generation—just as the Second Generation had always admired. She raised her bow to protect him, and a faint smile crossed her face.
"Go get 'em, old man."
The First Generation swung his greatsword with raw, overwhelming force, slicing the ape creature to ribbons. Then, at the end, he drove a devastating blow straight into its head.
The tilted floor gave way, and the ape creature sank into it. The powerful strike cleaved the creature apart, sent it flying—reduced it to nothing but chunks of flesh. Standing amid the rain of gore, the First Generation rested his greatsword on his shoulder.
"Alright, next one, let's go!"
The soldiers in barbarian armor all around raised a single arm and cheered at the First Generation, who said this with a laugh.
"Thinking something like this might happen — Porter was prepared to take to the skies!"
The cargo section was detached, leaving Porter as just an upper torso. With its spine removed, the Valkyries—who had gained the ability to fly—were carrying Porter's upper half on their backs.
It was clearly not designed to fly, but since it was flying, no one said a word.
Porter's head was positioned at one end of the torso section. That meant when I stood in the center of the torso with my katana, I could look straight at Agrissa.
In the chest of the giant Agrissa — Novem hung there limply, her head drooping. She appeared to be gradually being absorbed.
But there was still time, so I had to stay calm. When it came to rescuing Novem, the question I was most hung up on was...
"How do I make this a rescue that leaves a lasting impression? That's the real issue. Pull her out, hold her in my arms, kiss her — how about that golden combo, Eva?"
Eva, riding on Porter just like me, was staring down below and trembling violently. If water was no good, then heights were no good either. A good-for-nothing elf — that was Eva.
"I-It doesn't matter, just hurry up! It's too high! It's way higher than I imagined — it's terrifying!"
Eva clung to a protruding part of Porter, and she looked adorable. Clara was inside Porter.
"It doesn't matter. More importantly... it's c-cold. It's really cold! Lyle, let's finish this quickly."
Clara, shivering uncontrollably, pleaded with me to wrap it up. She looked like a trembling little animal — cute.
Nearby, Monica—who wore a white dress and had grown wings—was flying through the air alongside Porter. At Porter's side, she deflected attacks from Agrissa.
Valkyries were all around, and Aria was perched on Porter's left hand.
"Lyle, wrap this up already! And you can win, right?!"
That's what Aria asked me. I pushed my hair back as I—
"Of course! I, Lyle Walt — am a man who doesn't fight without good odds. Winning chances are everything. And by the way, I absolutely love praise! Shower me with compliments anytime! My heart is always ready for them!"
Eva looked at me, and—
"How lame!"
Wait! Is it cooler to challenge an enemy with no chance of winning? No, hold on — I'm cool. And I'm strong. So wouldn't that mean there are fewer fights where I don't have the odds on my side?
The loneliness of being the strongest. I felt that truth and let out a slightly melancholy smile.
"Don't be ridiculous, Eva. Every fight is one I can win. If I can't win, I just make it so I can. That's House Walt! That's why we're the strongest! And I believe I'm the greatest masterpiece even among House Walt."
Aria covered her face.
"You only believe that yourself. Come on, explain these supposed odds of yours."
Agrissa aimed her right hand toward us, and the Valkyries stepped forward and deployed their shields. A massive beam of light bore down on us, but the Valkyries deflected it.
Agrissa pursued us, charging straight into the gray clouds. Lightning crackled all around, rumbling as it flashed across the ground and the tops of the clouds before erupting in deafening peals of thunder.
"Well, I suppose this is far enough."
Having lured Agrissa away from Central, I ordered Clara to redirect the Porter toward her.
At that, Agrissa stopped her chase and floated up before us.
"Decided to stop running, have you, Lyle? Did you think pulling me away from Central would somehow solve things?"
Agrissa wore a smile of utter composure. I wished she'd maintain that arrogance to the very end and die without a fuss.
"Ah, for a sleeping beauty, a kiss is still the best option. It's a classic trope everyone's sick of, but I absolutely love that kind of situation!"
Eva was trembling from head to toe.
"Y-your conversation doesn't connect at all, Lyle."
"Sorry. I couldn't help but think about how to rescue Novem in a way that would make her fall for me head over heels. I'm hopeless. She was the closest person to me, yet I couldn't hold onto her heart — well, it's nice to have a woman who isn't easy to win over once in a while."
The rest had all been too easy, so I figured having a girl with a bit more challenge wouldn't hurt.
Aria hurled the item she'd been holding straight at me.
"Don't call me easy!"
I tried to console Aria, whose face had gone bright red.
"Don't be so angry. I'm strong, good-looking, rich... and I'm about to hold the greatest power on the continent, you know? Everyone's a joke in front of me."
As I struck a pose and made my declaration, Agrissa suddenly closed in. Monica stepped forward, spreading her wings, and from them hundreds of thin beams of light were fired at Agrissa.
"A defensive weapon — you'd even bring out something like that. So you're the Moon's Gravekeeper."
Despite saying that, Agrissa's surface was only slightly scorched. She was quickly repaired, all while Monica let her golden twin tails billow in the wind.
"How cruel, calling me secondhand. This is still brand new, you know. It's a tool I received from my sisters on the Moon."
The Automatons that formed the core of the Valkyries had once guarded graves on the Moon. Whose graves, I wondered?
"Hmph. Putting on airs after everything was destroyed by Novem and Octo. But surely you don't think that level of power will be enough to win?"
When Agrissa spread both hands wide, countless orbs of light materialized. Each beam she released was a mass of high-density magical power.
I thrust my left hand in front of my face and snapped my fingers.
"They'd definitely make me vanish if they hit. So I just need to not get hit."
Unlike Monica's, the light Agrissa unleashed came hurtling toward us as thick, concentrated beams. —But.
"Warp."
Before those beams could strike us directly, every last one was swallowed into space—and Agrissa tightened her guard.
"You think you can get away with that—!"
From the space surrounding Agrissa, her own high-density magic came crashing back down upon her. It dealt even more damage than Monica's attack had.
I narrowed my eyes while watching Agrissa.
"—So as I thought, even you can't master every Skill. I was on guard since you claimed to have created Skills, but the best you can do is swap out prepared Skills, same as Ceres. The power's on a completely different scale, but there are plenty of ways around it."
I put on a show of composure and laughed at Agrissa dismissively.
Had I hit a sore spot? It sure seemed like it, judging by Agrissa's reaction.
"So what? Don't tell me you think your attacks can defeat me. Even if I'm not at my full strength—"
I raised my katana. The lightning surrounding us began converging on the blade.
"Don't forget. I share Septem's blood too. With the Jewel's support, a trick like this is nothing. Clara, launch me!"
Perched on Porter's right hand, I was hurled straight toward Agrissa. I manipulated the surrounding lightning with my magic and drove that energy right into her.
That was my strategy!
"So what?"
Agrissa dodged with a casual flick. I was sent tumbling through the air, losing sight of my target and plummeting in free fall — except that wasn't what happened! Because I'm — strong!
"That's why I'm saying you're soft. — Shuffle!"
Swapping positions with the Valkyries charging at Agrissa, I slashed straight at her.
The natural energy truly was immense. I cleaved right through Agrissa's raised right arm — the one she'd lifted to guard.
Agrissa reattached her severed right arm and was already flexing her fingers, opening and closing her fist.
I swapped positions with the Valkyries again and was caught by Porter's right hand.
"Could you feel that sting?"
I said with one eye shut, and Agrissa was furrowing her brow between her eyes — and smiling.
"Oh, I'll admit it's a nice change of pace once in a while. So let me return the favor — tens of times, hundreds of times over. And let me make one thing clear: if you think a little something like that can take me down —"
"I don't think that. But don't assume this is where it ends, either. After all, I'm not the kind of man who picks fights he can't win."
Porter then launched Aria next. And then launched me again.
"Shuffle!"
Swapping positions with the Valkyries, Aria and I attacked Agrissa together.
"Tch! You little wench —"
Honestly, it'd be better if she threatened to attack the ground — it'd be fun to smash that massive attack of hers right back at her. But she's too wary to do that.
There was nothing to do but whittle her down little by little.
Aria and I were retrieved by Porter once more. Eva, perhaps getting used to the rhythm by now, nocked an arrow and let it fly.
"Select."
The arrow Eva launched surged with even greater force midair, curving around to Agrissa's blind spot and striking her from behind.
"Quit it with this pesky, nagging nonsense!"
The sight of Agrissa growing visibly irritated made me smirk.
"——Hey, what do you think about me playing up how I'm all battered and beaten, having taken these wounds to save you? I figure a battered, bloodied me would really get your heart racing, don't you?"
Thinking ahead to after we rescued Novem, I sought Aria's opinion on that idea. Aria looked at me.
"How the hell are you so calm right now?"
Facing Agrissa, who hadn't taken any real damage yet, she couldn't believe I was this relaxed.
"I told you, didn't I? I'm a man who doesn't fight unless he's certain of victory. I'm going to win — that's all there is to it."
I gathered lightning onto my katana and reset my stance, ready to charge at Agrissa again. Agrissa glared daggers at me.
"A mere human, actually believing they can defeat m—"
I stuck my left thumb up and pointed it right at myself.
"Oh, I believe it. After all — I am the man favored by the goddess! The goddess of victory herself smiles upon me!"
God, that was cool. Way too cool. I scared myself. I was falling for my own act.
"Shut your trap! Stop getting cocky!"
Agrissa lunged to crush us in an instant, swinging her right arm at us. The sheer force of it was outrageous — wind pressure alone was nearly lethal. I snapped my fingers.
"Sorry, but I have no intention of taking any hits. I'll be focusing entirely on dodging everything you throw at me. — Warp."
Taking Porter and Monika, the entire squad of Valkyries along with me, I teleported from where I stood to behind Agrissa and resumed chipping away at her, one small strike at a time.
――Searching for Agrissa's weaknesses.
――Thunder roared overhead.
In Lyle's main camp, Gracia and Eliza — brought back by the Fifth Generation — had returned to their respective armies and were calming the soldiers.
The main force had rallied, and morale had surged back out of nowhere, so they were reorganizing to match the momentum.
Gracia and Eliza rejoined the main force.
In response, General Broa was working to restructure the battle plan.
"If we act now, we can regroup. If we can encircle the berserkers pouring out from the flanks —"
Beside General Broa sat a single woman. She wore a red dress and held a folded fan in her left hand, tapping it gently against her palm as she sat in a prepared chair.
A beautiful woman. She was smiling, though, as she gazed upon the ruins of Central.
"It is tragic that the old capital has fallen, but this was land dominated by the detestable Banseim. And now my grandson has struck down Banseim and raised an empire — there is no greater joy than that. Don't you agree, comrades?"
Comrades — the knights and soldiers who had once risen in rebellion against Banseim. Descendants of the Centras Kingdom, which had ruled the continent before Banseim's founding, and also the last of Agrißa's bloodline: Xenoa.
She watched the battle alongside her former companions from the main camp.
They were the ones who had stood up to overthrow the Banseim Kingdom, which had been in terrible condition at the time. Though few in number, they possessed unwavering resolve.
"Your ladyship's grandson is truly magnificent. Perhaps we should join the fight as well."
"The berserkers are being pushed in from all sides. It must be the successive generations of House Walt."
"We are ready."
Xenoa rose to her feet and unfurled her fan.
"Ceres has revived the Yellow Jewel that has been guarded across generations. But if Lyle intends to use it to seize dominion over the world, then we must lend our hand as well. The time has come to end the calamity Centras left behind and pass the continent to those who are its rightful inheritors!"
It was Gracia and Eliza who watched the armies fall into formation. Having returned to the main force, their eyes widened at the sight before them.
General Broa looked at the two of them.
"Madam, those two are also candidates to be Lord Lyle's bride."
General Broa, finding them bothersome, pushed them off onto Gracia and Eliza. Then Xenoa turned around, looked at the two of them, and narrowed her eyes.
"—Lyle's brides? There are quite a lot of them. Well, if he's going to take the throne, having many isn't a problem. I'm going to charge in, so you'll be my entourage."
Both of them were bewildered by Xenoa's words. They had come back to seek General Broa's instructions. But General Broa averted his gaze and said nothing.
"She—she just sold us out!"
When Gracia said that, Xenoa folded her fan, grabbed the two of them by the collars, and began dragging them along.
"Hurry up! I don't want to get in my son's way. Also, we're rendezvousing with Broade. That man has no sense of initiative either."
Gracia and Eliza struggled as they were dragged along.
"Hey—she's stronger than me!"
"L-Let go of me!"
To the struggling pair, Xenoa said:
"If you come along, I'll tell you all about Lyle. And I'll check whether you're suitable for House Walt."
Xenoa spoke like a wife of the Fourth Generation. Perhaps it was some kind of tradition passed down among the women of House Walt.
It was an unwelcome tradition.