Gate Guardian - Song Of The Frozen Soul

This is the very first time I"ve seen Asumi-nee fighting at full force. All of the time, she would fight Eidolons in a wacky manner just for the laughs. Now she"s completely different.

She transformed from a clown sister into a disciplining mother.

"Come. Fight with all your heart." Asumi-nee/Lord Haliya"s words are intended to reach mine.

I closed my eyes and focused my prana on my heart. I reminisced the feeling of Necchan caressing my soul, imagining the warmth of our friends.h.i.+p in my mind. I absorbed prana that was mixed in the air, and then…

As I opened my eyes, I have attained divinity on my .

Ten shape-s.h.i.+fting wings swayed on my back. Holographic halos appeared on my wrists and feet. My shrine maiden outfit s.h.i.+fted to a white silk fairy dress.

"You really are a fascinating child, Tiara. You have attained divinity without the help of a G.o.d Core. Only twelve persons are recorded to have such kind DemiG.o.d power in the multiverse."

Asumi-nee spoke about multiple universes again. I would like her to tell me a bedtime story about her travels in the other universes, but that will come later.

For now, we have to defeat her!

"

But it was repelled immediately! All Lord Haliya did is to spin her halberd like a propeller and used it as a s.h.i.+eld. She"s spinning it so fast that the wind emitting from it countered the surging hurricane drill!

"My turn." Lord Haliya smirked.

And then, in the blink of an eye.

Slas.h.!.+

"Gah!" Rikkun fell down, the platinum sword tumbled in the air and stuck on the wooden floor of the bell tower.

What was that? All I saw is a glimpse of pure darkness, and then a single silver streak. But she didn"t even cast !

"Tiara!" Rikkun shouted.

When I turned around, I was surprised by an imminent hack to my stomach! The surroundings became black, and there were several silver streaks that hit my body!

"Kya!" I uttered a cry as I rolled on the floor.

Asumi-nee is going easy on us. She"s using the wooden tip of her halberd so that we won"t get hurt. If she used those blades while attacking, I could"ve been a pork chop right now!

"I"m not finished yet!"

Lord Haliya rose up to the moon and waved her halberd. Several Gates opened on her back and each of those unleashed golden energy dragons! She"s using multiple without even muttering a word!

"!!!" I shouted. My ten wings whipped out golden dragons that clashed with the Moon G.o.ddess"s serpents. But the difference in quant.i.ty is large! I can only cast a multiplied ten at once, but she can do it consecutively as long as she continues to wave her halberd!

There are still about twelve dragons rus.h.i.+ng to my position, and I won"t make it in time to cast another spell!

Rikkun jumped in front, and then...

"!!!" Twelve swift slashes made the serpents disappear. Using the platinum sword, Rikkun connected with another spell! "!!!"

Lord Haliya"s only response is to spread out her hand pointing at the crimson tornado drill. Several stacks of spiky barriers sp.a.w.ned that prevented the projectile attack! The noise of a gla.s.s shattering echoed around the shrine. Only the first three hologram sh.e.l.ls were destroyed, but the next three remained intact.

Just like the other spells, she used multiple times without even moving her lips.

Our exchange of long-range blows continued. But every time we attack, she would effortlessly block it with . She would then cast multiple and we would then do all our best and cast all the spells on our a.r.s.enal just to repel those raging dragons.

<>

It continued until we hit the eight-minute mark of this battle.

Rikkun and I are now heavily panting. The already faded, and so is my . We sat by each other as we tiredly grasp for our breaths.

We can"t last in a pure long-ranged battle. There"s only a handful of long-ranged spells we can cast, and all of those consumes a lot of energy. But Asumi-nee… No, Lord Haliya… She"s impossible. It"s like she"s using her spells without even consuming even a tiny bit of her prana.

We almost depleted our prana, but still… Lord Haliya is unscratched. We can"t keep up with her spell-spamming at all.

In this battle, we realized two things. One, the is heavily weakened if the opponent we"re facing is not evil. Rikkun"s and hit like a wet noodle even if its purpose is just to extinguish Lord Haliya"s .

Two, Lord Haliya can cast spells instantaneously without saying the spell name and has seemingly an infinite amount of prana pool. She can cast swarms continuously and stack without getting dizzy. I can only do those things for about four or five times, but she… She can do it all night long.

"Are you guys finished?" The moon G.o.ddess chuckled. "I haven"t gotten a sweat yet."

"That"s unfair, Asumi-nee!" I cried.

"You"re cheating! Wordless casting is one thing, but to use consecutive spells as if you"re just moving your finger…" Rikkun gritted.

"I"ll give you a hint to beat me." Lord Haliya said. "My G.o.ddess Core: Haliya is a Warrior Moon G.o.ddess. It"s different from other G.o.d Cores you know since its specialty is fighting; unlike Freyr who specializes in leaders.h.i.+p and healing or Venus who specializes in beauty and charms. I draw power from the moon; so as long as there is moonlight, I can cast any spell by thinking of it without using my own prana pool. This G.o.ddess Ability is known as ."

I looked up in the dark sky. Since it"s a full moon, there is no way we can beat her. She can just keep spamming and spamming her spells nonstop.

"Heh." Rikkun chuckled as he materialized his twin revolvers. Then he glared at the moon G.o.ddess. "Asumi… That"s quite a spoon-feeding you know. Thanks to that info, we can beat you now."

Rikkun glared at me with determined emerald eyes, trying to tell me that I should trust him. I don"t know what he"s thinking, but considering it"s the man of my love… I"ll do everything to support his idea.

I nodded. And then I prepared for our next course of action.

"!" I said. I stood up and coated my hands with dragon-shaped aura. The next attack we"ll be making will decide this friendly match.

"Looks like you have a plan in mind. Let"s see if you really did find out." Lord Haliya said with a teasing tone.

The wind blew once again, making the leaves of the nearby trees flap.

And then when the breeze faded…

"!!!"

Rikkun used his last prana to cast two tornado drills, and all of them missed Lord Haliya. Rikkun"s timing is off a couple of meters, so it just pa.s.sed through our opponent"s left and right shoulders. The moon G.o.ddess didn"t need to act at all since she knew it wouldn"t hit her.

That spell is not a distraction either. After Rikkun"s attack, we waited for a whole second.

Then he shouted: "Go!"

"Haaaaaa!!!" I made a suicide leap with a superman punch!

I can reach the moon G.o.ddess, but it will be all over for me once she wordlessly cast again. I don"t know how it will work because I"m not even on my of right now. If she used a spell, there"s no way I can evade it.

Our opponent smirked. Maybe she"s laughing because it"s a crazy idea. Lord Haliya has plenty of time to cast a spell on her mind and let golden dragons feast unto me... but for some reason, she failed.

"What the-"

Those are Lord Haliya"s last words in this battle.