Chapter 4: Friends

Chapter 4: Friends

The magic battle expo entered its third and final day amidst growing excitement. The semifinals were scheduled to take place in the morning, and the grand finals would occur in the afternoon. In addition, whereas the first two days saw the use of three separate arenas, the final day’s matches would all take place on the intermediate division’s field.

“Wow, it’s packed .” said Alicia with a grimace as she approached the stands. “I mean, I expected as much, but still.”

The use of only a single arena meant an audience that had been split among three was now merged into one as well. The stands had been expanded to five whole rows of benches overnight, and a large standing area had also been cordoned off to allow for more spectators.

“Anyway. Go out there and do us proud, Sain.”

With a bold grin and a hand on her hip, her casual demeanor radiated confidence and trust, which she proceeded to infuse into Sain with an enthusiastic smack on his back. It worked.

“I’ll try. Thanks, Miss Gold,” he said, feeling better already.

“I’ll be rooting for you. Not that you’ll hear me in a crowd like this, but yeah.”

“Just knowing you’re here for me is enough.” He turned to Marni. “Miss Grim— No, Master Grim. Rest assured that I won’t let you down. I’m going to give it my all.”

He’d never have managed to learn so much dark magic without her help. She’d been a blessing to him, and he owed her a great deal. The least he could do right now to repay her was to try his hardest during the upcoming match.

“So... Where’s Melia?” asked Alicia, glancing around.

“She had some stuff to take care of, so she won’t be here for a while.”

“She’s missing your match because she had some stuff to take care of? That doesn’t sound like her. Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong. She’s fine. Besides, she already gave me her pep talk last night.”

Both girls scowled at him.

“...Is it just me, or is one of us trying to get a leg up on the others?” muttered Alicia.

“...I smell a traitor,” agreed Marni.

Sain frowned, puzzled by their conspiratorial tone.

“Uh, anyway, I’m off. Wish me luck.”

He closed his eyes, opened them, and walked off toward the ring with renewed focus.

After finishing up his work in the student council office, Cain Theresia began preparing for his match. He picked up the sword leaning against the wall and inspected the blade. After confirming there were no signs of damage, he moved on to the rest of his equipment. Finally, he hung the sword on his waist, pushed open the door, and left the room.

“Cain.”

As the door swung closed, Emilia appeared behind it. She’d been waiting for him outside.

“I, um... I’ll be cheering for you.”

“Sure.”

He uttered a single syllable of acknowledgment and walked off toward the arena. As he did, Emilia caught a glimpse of what could only be a gash on his left arm. The words left her before she could stop herself.

“Last night! What were you doing last ni—”

“Emilia.” He cut her off with a voice that chilled her to the bone. “Don’t ask about things you don’t need to know.”

Faced with his withering glare, she felt all her questions slink back down her throat. In the crushing silence, he turned away from her and resumed his stride, eventually disappearing down a flight of stairs.

Halfway down the hall that led outside, Cain found his path blocked by a girl in a maid uniform.

“Hm. The failed avenger. What do you want?”

His provocation had little effect on her.

“There’s something that I suspect you misunderstood, so I’m here to clear it up for you.” She looked him straight in the eye. “You are indeed stronger than me. That much is certain. While I lived my life in peace, you devoted yourself to honing your skills in a single-minded pursuit of power. That kind of dedication is definitely praiseworthy. You should be proud of yourself,” she said with genuine respect before her tone hardened. “But... I’m equally proud of who I’ve become. And I’d like you to acknowledge as much. That’s all.”

Having said what she’d come here to say, she lowered her head and stepped aside, opening the way.

“...What rubbish,” he spat as he walked past her toward the arena.

Nebulous concepts such as pride were not to his liking. It had no bearing on the actual outcome. All the pride in the world couldn’t change the cold, hard truth of reality.

“Our contestants for the first match of the semifinals are Cain Theresia and Sain Fostess!”

The commentator announced his arrival as he stepped out into the ring amidst the thunderous roar of an audience many times larger than before. Both students and outside guests were packed into the stands and standing areas, their faces filled with excitement. Up ahead, in the middle of the ring, Sain stood waiting in his signature black garb.

“With the battle expo in its third day, we’re finally into the semifinals! First up, we have the lightkind Cain versus the darkkind Sain! So far, both contestants have displayed...”

The voice of a female commentator echoed throughout the arena, working the crowd and fueling their enthusiasm by offering details of each contestant. The commotion, however, seemed to fade away as he locked eyes with Sain.

“Cain, before the match starts, I want to make a deal with you.” Treating his silence as a cue to continue, Sain declared, “If I win, you join me as a friend.”

“...What?”

Despite his usual imperturbable composure, his eyes widened in a rare expression of surprise. The request was so outlandish that even he didn’t see it coming. Nevertheless, disdain soon returned to his gaze.

“...Are you telling me to become an attendant? Of the holy knight?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

They stared at each other for a while. Then, Cain burst into a bout of scornful laughter.

“Ha... Ha ha ha ha! Join you? As a friend ?”

The thought was so ridiculous that it was comical. As his sardonic amusement waned, it gave way to a murderous aura so intense it could make the more timid among the spectators faint on the spot.

“Such nerve... Do you really think I would agree to that?”

Cain Theresia had lost his younger sister to a blunder on the part of Sain’s predecessor. With his hatred for the holy knight still burning strong, the last thing he was going to do was befriend the one who held the title. His reaction was no surprise, and Sain had of course seen it coming.

“I won’t use the power of the holy knight.”

“...What?”

“I know that acceptance of the holy knight is beyond you. That’s why I’m going to fight you as a normal person striving to become the dark knight. For this match, your opponent is not the holy knight, but me, Sain Fostess.”

Cain’s brows furrowed at the proposal. Then, Sain made his final statement.

“If you refuse to be a friend to the holy knight, then be a friend to me! Plain old me!”

That got a reaction from Cain, whose eyes widened just as a translucent screen was projected over the field between them.

“Let’s start the countdown!”

As the number in the middle of the screen slowly ticked toward zero, he scoffed quietly at the thought.

“Rubbish... All rubbish.”

He glowered at Sain.

“You have no chance against me without the power of the holy knight.”

Menace erupted from him, so thick it was almost tangible. Sain braced himself as well, tightening his fists as the wave of psychological force slammed into him. Tension of an intensity entirely unsuited for a competition between students filled the air.

“Let the match begin!”

As the commentator’s reverberating voice signaled the start of the match, both of them thrust out their right arm in unison.

“Darku! ”

“Lighto. ”

Sain launched his spell with a defiant roar. In comparison, Cain was practically a statue. The two diametrically opposed projectiles collided in the middle of the ring, pushing against one another for just a second before the glowing bullet of light ripped through its counterpart and shot straight toward Sain.

“Gah!”

He dodged the oncoming threat and quickly tried to counter, only for Cain to appear within a few inches of his face, sword raised high overhead. His hand shot to his own sword, drawing it just in time to wedge it horizontally against the coming blow. The two blades met with a loud clang before he promptly angled his own, allowing Cain’s to slide off.

“Darku! ”

The successful parry freed up his other hand, and he immediately used it to throw out a projectile. Cain jerked himself out of its path and evaded it, his motion optimally minimal, before sending a kick into Sain’s gut.

“Oomph!”

Sain stumbled back a few steps, groaning as the air left his lungs. He forced himself to fight through it; whatever happened, he couldn’t afford to lose sight of Cain. Before he managed to even draw another breath, he already had his sword up in a defensive stance.

Cain watched him with a questioning look.

“Why do you seek to befriend me?”

“Because you...” said Sain as he wiped some sand from his face. “Are trying to kill yourself.”

He took a moment to catch his breath before continuing.

“Let me make this very clear. The only reason you’ve survived until now... is because you were lucky. Keep this up, and it’ll cost you. Dearly . One day, you’ll trip up, and you’re going to die for it. Why am I trying to befriend you, you ask? Because you need friends. Without them, there’s no one to save you from your own self-destructive tendencies.”

His assertion earned him a narrow-eyed glare from Cain.

“A baseless claim... How can you possibly know?”

“I know because my maid was the same,” replied Sain with absolute certainty. “I already heard from your vice-president. You took a serious beating on the last day of the field exercises, didn’t you? I assume it’s starting to sink in, but in case you really are that dense, let me spell it out for you. Chaos is not an enemy you can handle alone.”

Put in words, the statement was so obvious that it seemed redundant. If Chaos was the kind of thing an ordinary person could easily fight off, its existence would hardly need to be a closely-guarded secret, and the unique powers of the holy knight and dark knight would never have been conferred. Deep down, Cain probably understood this. Against the colossal threat of Chaos, there was a limit to what one person could do on their own. They were creatures so dangerous that the two gods had kept them sealed away since ancient times. A single human could do little in the face of such a foe.

Sain knew all this, and that was why he was concerned. To him, Cain was a person teetering on the brink of self-destruction. Just like how Melia had been when they first met, it was likely that Cain’s actions were not grounded in reason. It was hatred that drove him, and he’d stop at nothing to satisfy his desire for revenge, even if it cost him his life. Considering he’d lived like this since he was a child and continued to do so, it was an absolute miracle that he was still alive. It was, of course, also the source of his strength. Having miraculously survived scenario after deadly scenario, he had experience and grit on a level incomparable to his peers.

He was strong, make no mistake. But it was a perverse strength, cursed to endanger those around him.

“All right... I see what you’re trying to say, holy knight,” he said, blond hair bristling as he strained to hold his anger at bay, “and it is profoundly infuriating. Your assumptions and arguments are all predicated on one thing — that you are stronger than me.”

It was, Sain realized, a fair point. He wasn’t trying to preach, but it probably came across that way. As someone who’d fought Chaos by himself on countless occasions and lived to tell the tale, Cain had a right to an ego. Empty warnings of future defeat weren’t going to shake his beliefs. In fact, his absolute confidence in himself was probably the very reason he was still alive.

“You said you won’t use the power of the holy knight. Very well. I’ll force you to,” Cain said as he sheathed his sword. “I’m going to make you use that power, and defeat you when you do so.”

A massive amount of light magical energy began gathering in front of him. Seeing that he was shifting to a magic-based approach, Sain sheathed his sword as well and began running.

“Great torrent of light, blind the land with an argent sea — Velle Vright. ”

A river of pure light rushed toward Sain, bathing the whole arena in its golden glow. Being light magic, however, he was intimately familiar with the spell and could predict its movement with his eyes closed. Velle Vright had a large area of effect, but it could be evaded by leaping over it. He fought down the fear of facing down a massive flood of light and jumped as high as he could. As he left the ground, Cain calmly pointed his palm toward him.

“Vright. ”

“Dardia! ”

Sain had his spell ready to go before he’d even jumped, and the two of them launched their orbs almost simultaneously. Unlike the first clash between Darku and Lighto , this time, the two spells proved equal in power and canceled each other out.

“Lighto Shot. ”

Not missing a beat, Cain followed up with a flurry of light pellets. Sain responded in kind.

“Darku Shot! ”

Flurry met flurry, and a noise like the pitter-patter of rain except amplified many times in volume ensued. The burst kicked up a cloud of dust.

Cain tsked in annoyance as Sain landed on his feet, stumbling a step but quickly regaining his balance.

“Shooting down that entire barrage, huh... I see you have some knowledge. Like attendant, like master... though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, holy knight ,” Cain muttered. “A dark mage who knows more about light magic than anyone else, huh... I hate to admit it, but you might actually be a light mage’s worst nightmare.”

“Hah, did it only occur to you just now?”

Sain showed him a bold grin. As the holy knight, his understanding of light magic was unparalleled in the world, as knowledge of all light magic had already been conferred upon him. He knew how to use every spell and therefore also how to counter every spell. Melia had taken advantage of this knowledge during the third round, but Sain also had access to its polar opposite — dark magic. As a fivekind, Melia had no way of defending herself against Cain’s spells; she could only avoid them. With dark magic, however, Sain had the choice to stand his ground and neutralize the approaching threat.

When it came to battles involving magic, some forms had inherent advantages over others. In this case, Sain didn’t have Melia’s fundamentals, but his magical arsenal was uniquely effective against Cain’s. He was, in fact, probably the one person in this entire tournament who was perfectly positioned to counter all of Cain’s magic.

“Now that I think about it, you’ve done nothing but get in my way,” said Cain. “Three months ago in the Origin Spire... You were the one who killed the Chaos hiding in that labyrinth, weren’t you?”

“And if I am? What’s your point?” answered Sain in a cautious tone.

“I was letting it hide there on purpose,” Cain said, proceeding to explain his intent. “The Clan of Chaos had been trying to get their hands on the titan’s staff before you even came to this school. That corrupted demi-holy sword was part of their groundwork to break in. When the time came, they were planning to release all the Chaos they’d hidden in the labyrinth and use them as a diversion. While the school staff was busy rushing into the labyrinth to deal with the confusion, they’d use the opportunity to steal the titan’s staff.”

“And knowing all this, you chose to let them be?”

“That’s right. I was going to use their scheme against them. Let them all in and wipe them out then and there. But thanks to your meddling... that won’t be happening anymore.”

The sheer recklessness of the plan left Sain speechless. Failure would have placed the lives of countless innocents at risk.

“And that’s not all,” Cain continued. “Because you strengthened the academy’s barrier, they’ve ceased operations. Originally, they were supposed to mount their offensive around this time, but your actions have made it impossible to predict their timing. Everything you’ve done up to this point... has been a disservice to me.”

Cain rattled off complaint after complaint in an almost business-like manner, but the implications of what he was saying were profoundly distressing. The more Sain heard, the more furious he felt.

“Are you out of your mind?!” he exclaimed, shaking with anger. “These things aren’t pushovers! You can’t just wipe them out all by yourself!”

“...And who are you to judge, you pretentious clown?” Cain snarled back, his intensity matching Sain’s volume. “Don’t project your own weakness onto me, holy knight! I’m not like you!”

He raised his hand toward the sky, bringing a massive spear of light into existence.

“Ray Javelin!”

Sain looked up at the glowing spear, its tip pointed diagonally downwards at him. He knew this spell as well. Ray Javelin would explode upon contact. Dodging the spear itself wasn’t enough.

“Darku! ”

He didn’t have time to prepare a big spell. As the enormous spear bore down on him, he shot a bullet of darkness at its tip. Once he confirmed that it hit hard enough to slightly alter the spear’s trajectory, he started running, trying to gain as much distance as possible. As soon as the spell hit the ground, it exploded violently.

“Ugh!”

A blinding flash lit up the whole arena, forcing his eyes shut. He crossed his arms in front him, bracing for the impending impact. The shockwave hit and sent him tumbling backward through the air. He felt his body bounce off the ground multiple times before slowing into a long roll. The world was spinning when he forced himself to his feet, but through the aches, dizziness, and thick cloud of dust obscuring his vision, he somehow managed to lock eyes with Cain.

“You asked me to join you as a friend.”

“...That’s right.”

“Why do you not see the inherent danger in this kind of thinking?” Cain’s gaze was reproachful. “The holy knight, who is one of the strongest beings in existence, shouldn’t need friends. The only reason you would still seek to make friends through the attendant pacts, then, is your own weakness of will. Having friends might sound good in theory... but the more you make, the more vulnerable you become through your reliance on them.”

He was, Sain figured, probably talking about Alicia, Melia, and Marni, whose existence he saw as a crutch and source of weakness. According to him, by relying on the girls, Sain was becoming less self-sufficient.

“Are you saying I should always fight alone?”

“That’s right. In the end, nothing gets solved until you’re strong enough to do it yourself.”

Sain recalled how Cain had always given off an aura of unapproachability. As it turned out, the aloofness wasn’t an inadvertent side effect of his disposition; it was intentional. No one ever stood at his side. Even yesterday, when he’d gone to fight the Chaos that appeared near the school, he’d done so alone. The way he insisted on distancing himself from others, on being alone... it felt almost like an obsession, and Sain knew exactly where it was coming from.

“...This is about regret, isn’t it?” His tone grew more sympathetic. “I owe you an apology. Yesterday, I asked the goddess to show me the memories of the previous holy knight.”

He’d done so after killing off all the Chaos with the girls. In order to figure out how to convince Cain the next day, he’d used the goddess’s power to find out more about his past. Cain’s younger sister had apparently died as a result of the previous holy knight’s blunder. In that case, he should have been able to learn the details from the goddess, who had doubtlessly been present during the incident. She’d agreed, and when she showed him the memories of the previous holy knight, he finally witnessed the tragic scene for himself.

“Ten years ago... your sister died protecting you.”

Cain’s expression darkened immediately, but the menace eventually gave way to grief.

“She did...” he admitted, his voice hoarse with regret. “It should have been me. I should have been the one to die.”

And then, there in the middle of the arena, the student council president — a creature of pride and confidence who had always held his head high and his eyes forward — lowered his gaze and spoke into the ground in front of him.

“It appeared without any warning. A Founder of Chaos, right there in front of us. Fear held me so tightly that I couldn’t even move a finger... So she moved instead. My little sister... She jumped in front of me. She shielded me. And I watched as she died being ripped apart limb from limb.”

There was a moment of silence, during which Sain could hear Cain’s teeth grinding against each other. Then, he continued.

“That’s why I sought strength. Relentlessly and desperately. My little sister died because I was weak. If I was stronger... If only I had been stronger, she wouldn’t have died protecting me.”

Finally, the core of Cain’s being was laid bare. His fixation on strength and obsession on self-reliance all originated from this one terrible incident. He couldn’t rely on anyone else. He had to be stronger than everyone else. Those were the thoughts that drove him day after day. They were a blessing and a curse, simultaneously conferring upon him a hardened resolve and a twisted compulsion. The kinds of mayhem he’d thrown himself into over the years and the carnage he’d witnessed were probably beyond all imagination. He endured them all for one singular goal — to make himself stronger. The way he lived was a thing of awe, but it was also supremely dangerous; he constantly walked on a razor’s edge, on which either side was the oblivion of self-destruction.

“And why don’t you see that what you’re doing will only lead to the same tragedy happening again?”

“...What are you talking about?”

Sain bared his teeth in a frustrated grimace. Cain’s fixation on strength was so absolute that it was blinding him to the dangers it posed.

“Tell me something, Cain. When was the last time you lost to anyone?”

The question caught Cain off guard, and he frowned.

“I don’t remember. Whenever it was, it must have been before I became a student.”

“...In other words, ever since your sister died, you’ve basically never lost to anyone.”

“Of course. That’s why I got stronger. So I wouldn’t lose.”

That meant for an entire decade, Cain had never tasted defeat. It suddenly occurred to Sain that this was no small revelation. Something was keeping Cain chained to his misguided path, and this was surely a crucial piece of the puzzle. Slowly but surely, Sain was getting closer to solving it.

“That must be why there’s always a glaring hole in the way you think. You never lose, so you never think about what would happen if you did,” Sain said, working through the logic on the fly while Cain continued to frown at him. “I’ve only been here three months, and even I can tell that you’re not actually alone. Tons of people look up to you. If you ever suffered defeat, you would not do so in quiet solitude. There would be an uproar.”

The student council president, Cain Theresia, was no lone wolf. He was infamously unfriendly and difficult to approach, but to his fellow students, his standoffishness often came off as a form of charisma rather than hostility. They respected him as a dependable student council president. The teachers held him in high regard, as well. Even the audience in this arena was looking forward to his performance. Despite his obsession with fighting his lonely fight, he wasn’t at all alone. Sooner or later, that inherent contradiction would come to a head, with serious consequences for everyone involved.

“Just try imagining it. Picture yourself in a situation where you do lose. Isn’t there someone who might jump in? Someone who might place themselves in harm’s way to protect you?”

If a fight with Chaos ever pushed Cain to the limit and he was on the verge of defeat, there was very likely someone who wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing themselves to save him, just like his younger sister did so long ago.

“...I told you already. That’s why I got stronger. So that would never happen to me.”

Irritation entered Cain’s voice — a sure sign that the strongman act was starting to crack.

“It happens to everyone,” Sain said, his tone calm but absolute. “I get you, Cain. I really do. The more strength a person gains, the stronger the urge becomes to solve everything on their own. There is a tendency to try to bear the burden of strength alone. But the strength of a single man is a fragile thing, Cain... All it takes is one mistake, one moment of carelessness, for everything to fall apart.”

Sain’s words bore the weight of personal experience. There had been a time when he thought the same way. Before he’d started harboring doubts about his way of life as the holy knight, he’d tried to solve every problem by himself. Then, when he’d discovered that none of what he did could ever grant the goddess her wish, he finally realized that there existed problems which could not be solved by his power alone. That was why he enrolled in this academy hoping to find out more about dark magic, and it was also why he enthusiastically sought out a superior dark mage like Marni to learn from.

Only when he began to question himself did he realize that his path wasn’t heading in the right direction. In order to notice his error, he had to first accept that he could err. By the same logic, someone would have to first shatter the absolute confidence Cain had in himself before there was any chance of making him see the error of his ways.

“You know what you need to do, Cain? Lose . Just once. Then, you’d realize that you’re not fighting on your own.”

What Cain Theresia needed was to have his blind faith in himself thoroughly shaken for once. Unless he suffered a defeat significant enough to prompt some honest reflection, his iron will would keep him marching blindly forward toward his inevitable undoing.

“Says the holy knight who fancies becoming the dark knight. You dare lecture me,” Cain growled as irritation turned into honest anger, “while you’re shirking your duties to fool around with dark magic—”

“I’m not fooling around!” Sain matched Cain’s temper, shouting back at the enraged president. “I have my reasons for trying to get stronger, too!”

“To hell with your stupid reasons!”

Cain thrust his right hand up at the sky.

“Flash like serpent’s fangs — Lighto Whip! ”

A long strand of light appeared around his arm, and he swung it down at Sain’s head, who hopped out of the way just in time before quickly backing off to observe Cain’s next move. The whip kept coming, its long strand of light bending unpredictably through the air as it lashed out at him from all sorts of directions. The irregular motion of its rope-like structure would have thoroughly confused any ordinary student, robbing them of the ability to evade its strikes. Sain’s unparalleled familiarity with light magic, however, kept him from losing his cool.

“Dardia! ”

Reading the whip’s movements with expert precision, he launched the dark orb at where he thought it would come from next. A split second later, his prediction was proven correct; the orb was placed so perfectly that the whip seemed to be pulled toward it. As the golden strand curved around its shadowy locus, Dardia shaved through its middle, and the severed front dissolved with a flash.

Cain was undeterred and continued to press the attack, launching a barrage of light pellets at Sain.

“Use it, holy knight!” he roared. “Use your power! And I’ll show you I can beat it!”

Sain intercepted the attack with his own volley of Darku Shot and yelled back.

“I’m not the holy knight! I’m...”

He drew in a deep breath. Right now, at least, the one who stood opposite Cain in the ring was—

“Just Sain! Nothing more, nothing less!”

A salvo of dark missiles accompanied his fiery response. Cain leapt out of the way, lifting his arm above his head in the process.

“Ray Javelin! ”

A massive, ethereal spear flared into existence, bathing the arena in its golden light as it plunged toward Sain.

“Dark Ray! ”

There was a flash, and a dark lance slammed into the oncoming spear, bored through its head, and shot out of its rear like a bolt of black lightning.

“Wha—?!”

The dark lance pierced Cain’s shoulder, marking the first time he’d been wounded in the entire tournament.

“I’m trying to become the dark knight because I want to save the goddess from her loneliness.”

“...The goddess?”

Cain froze for a second. Then, a laugh, equal parts amazed and contemptuous, escaped him.

“The holy knight’s duty is to exterminate the Chaos that escaped the gods’ seals. Are you telling me you’re placing your own desire above your sacred obligation?”

“That... I can’t deny it.” A grimace flashed across Sain’s face for the briefest moment. “But this is something that no holy knight has ever been able to accomplish. It’s a problem that every single one of my predecessors kept putting off.”

The previous holy knight, and the one before, and all the ones throughout history... They’d surely noticed how lonely the goddess was, but every one of them, without fail, chose their duty over her feelings and spent all their time hunting Chaos as they continued to kick the can down the road. Sain didn’t fault them for it; perhaps it was how things were meant to be. But by what was perhaps some cosmic coincidence, the title was passed to Sain who, unlike all his forerunners, just so happened to think that this problem shouldn’t be put off any longer. From that thought grew a desire that had been absent in every holy knight until now.

“This chain of negligence needs to end... and I’m determined to end it. One way or another.”

There was a resolve to the words that caught Cain off guard. For a long moment, he regarded Sain with surprise. Then, he quietly closed his eyes as the aura of rage about him dissipated.

“...I will admit, Sain Fostess,” he said, his gaze free of ire but still combative, “that you are not the holy knight I know. Everything about you, from your goals to your disposition, is different. Whatever hatred I feel, you do not seem to be deserving of it.”

At last, Cain acknowledged his opponent as just another ordinary person — a person named Sain.

“Sword of salvation, hear my pledge to bear the sacred light, guide all that is just and right— ”

Luminous particles started gathering in Cain’s hand.

“Saint Saber. ”

As more and more of them converged, they began to take on an elongated form until a sword of pure, concentrated light glowed in his grip. Its radiance closely resembled that of the holy sword — a symbol of the holy knight — and the similarities likely did not end there; the sword probably conferred a great deal of power upon the wielder. It was a distillation of Cain’s strength.

The glowing blade was a statement. Cain would now fight at full strength, not because of his hatred for the holy knight, but in honest competition against Sain himself.

“Let’s do this, Sain Fostess.”

He brandished his sword.

“...Bring it.”

Likewise, Sain readied his coup de grâce, Dark Ray , to be unleashed at a moment’s notice. Both of them were reaching the limits of their stamina. This last clash would decide it all. They each swept their gazes across the ring. The instant their eyes crossed, their forms blurred into motion simultaneously. Cain charged at Sain, light sword in hand. It shone with such intense luster that a steel wall would probably part like butter to its edge. Sain could scarcely hope to defend against it unarmed, but the sword at his waist offered little solace. He still had his dark magic, and in particular, the decisive Dark Ray he’d learnt from Marni, but both fatigue and circumstance suggested he had only one last shot.

So, he stood his ground, forcing himself to watch, to wait, to strike at the most vulnerable opening that would appear at the last second.

Cain was mere steps away — Not yet.

Cain raised his light sword over his head — Still not yet.

Cain swung.

Now!

“Dark Ray! ”

As the glowing blade drew a lethal arc toward his head, he let his dark missile go. Had he been a fraction of a second late, he’d have been parted down the middle. The ensuing shower of bicolored sparks, however, told him he hadn’t misjudged his timing. Light sword collided with black lance, pushing against one another with violent energy.

All throughout the match, and even for a long time before it, he’d been contemplating a single question. How could he make Cain Theresia acknowledge his strength? Not the strength of Sain the holy knight, but the strength of Sain Fostess, the person?

The solution was similarly singular; he had to win. Leaving him with a few scratches wouldn’t do. Even a draw was unlikely to suffice. A clear victory was needed. He would have to face the full power of Cain head-on, and best him in resounding fashion.

This was his first chance to do so. It would also be his last.

“Goooooooo!”

Dark Ray , with its incredible speed and penetrative power, slammed into the sword. A crack appeared on the glowing blade. Then, there was a deafening explosion.

“That was a massive explosion! It swallowed both of them!”

The commentator’s astonished exclamation echoed in the arena as the blast kicked up a thick cloud of dust. The crowd burst into commotion. The last thing they saw was Sain’s lance grinding against Cain’s sword. After the dust cleared, the outcome became clear.

“Th-There’s one person standing. It’s... It’s Cain!”

He was standing in a completely different place than when the blast had occurred; the shockwave had presumably sent him reeling. His uniform was badly torn, and he was panting heavily.

“And lying flat on the ground over there is Sain! Which means... the winner of this match is Cain Theresia!”

The substitute pendant Sain was wearing had been shattered. The result was clear. As announced by the commentator, Cain was the victor. The audience erupted in deafening cheers, their excitement reaching a fever pitch. Almost every single one of them had come expecting to see Cain make short work of his unfortunate opponent. What they were treated to was a nail-biter of a match that came down to the wire. As a spectacle, it was unexpectedly riveting and deeply satisfying to behold.

“I’ve never seen Cain have so much trouble in a match, but in the end, he still managed to clinch it! With this victory, he has secured himself a spot in the grand finals!”

“No.” Cain spoke in a level voice as he contradicted the commentators. “This match left me completely exhausted. Recovering in time for the next one is impossible... I’m dropping out.”

Only after a long period of stunned silence was his decision acknowledged by the tournament staff.

Sain woke up to the ceiling of the school infirmary. The sight alone was enough for him to understand what had happened. He sat up on his bed and looked at the clock. Only an hour had passed since the beginning of the semifinals.

“So, in the end, I guess I still lost.”

“It was close.”

Only then did he realize he wasn’t alone in the room. He turned to find Alicia sitting nearby.

“Well, I mean, I guess it depends on how hard he was trying, so I can’t say for sure,” she amended.

“Yeah...”

Alicia was right. Had Cain really been fighting at full power during that match? The deep grudge he harbored against the holy knight imparted an emotional significance to the match that had clearly affected his mental state. Furthermore, he’d just done another one of his one-man-army stunts against a horde of Chaos the previous day, which must have left him weary and battered. It seemed unlikely that a single night was enough for him to make a full recovery.

“...I think he did give it everything he’s got for that last spell, though,” mused Marni.

“It sure did seem like it,” agreed Melia. “That holy sword thing looked like it packed some serious punch.”

Sain nodded and let out a breathy “Yeah” as the door to the room opened.

“Excuse me. Coming in,” said Cain as he walked in and looked directly at Sain. “I see you’re awake. And appear to be fine.”

“Yeah, I guess...” he said before remembering how their match had ended. “What about you? Are you okay?”

Their spells had caused one hell of an explosion.

“Far from it. I didn’t pass out, but I sure feel like I’m about to any second. I won’t be swinging any more swords today.”

He wasn’t kidding; exhaustion was written clearly on his face. That, however, begged the question of why he’d drag his exhausted self all the way here to see Sain. The answer came in the form of him approaching Melia.

“Sorry.”

Sain watched with a puzzled frown as the student council president lowered his head.

“In an attempt to justify what I’ve become, I disregarded your way of life,” said Cain. “It was reprehensible of me to do so, and I take back everything I said.”

Her brows rose briefly in surprise, but she quickly accepted his apology.

“...It’s fine. I got a little too worked up too.”

Next, he turned to Alicia.

“Alicia Remia.”

“Y-Yes? What?”

“I believe I’ve spoken some hurtful words to you as well.”

He was probably talking about the time when they’d run into him in the Origin Spire three months ago.

“I disparaged your inability to use light magic, going so far as to call you a disgrace to the clan, only for you to reappear before me as a proud attendant of the holy knight. In dismissing your efforts as the futile pursuit of a dream beyond your reach, I have merely proven myself to have no eye for talent. For that, I apologize.”

“O-Okay already. That was three months ago, geez... And could you please stop it with all the apologizing? It’s creeping me out. Just be your usual cocky self, okay?” said Alicia as she fiddled uncomfortably with her hair.

Her response drew a smile from him and a soft whisper of “I see.” The truth was that neither Sain nor any of the girls actually felt much lasting anger at Cain. Were he a fundamentally bad person, they would have found it much harder to forgive him, but he was honest and straightforward almost to a fault. In addition, any friction they’d experienced between them was arguably a consequence of his past, which was tragic enough to warrant some understanding on their part.

“Sain, you said that you’re going to save the goddess from her own loneliness. How exactly do you intend to do that?” asked Cain, continuing a topic that had been left unfinished during the match.

“By becoming a god.”

“...Becoming a god?”

“That’s right. After becoming the dark knight, I intend to eventually succeed Shartegallia. The goddess wants to live the same lifetime as someone else. The only way for me to grant her wish is to become her equal.”

After a short pause, Cain broke out in a fit of laughter.

“Haha... Hahahaha! Seriously? Your goal... is to become a god ?”

His amusement persisted, but there was nothing derisive in his chortle. Rather, it came from honest astonishment, and there was a warmness to it that both lightened the mood in the room and shattered the image of the wintry president.

Alicia let out a breath that she seemed to have been holding onto for a long time.

“Geez, and here I was worried you’d be at each other’s throats again...” she muttered. “What happened to the whole I-hate-the-holy-knight-with-a-burning-hatred thing?”

“...I still do,” he answered, though his tone sounded lighter than usual. “But I’ve come to the realization that directing said hatred at our resident nutcase is both misguided and an exercise in futility.”

“Resident nutcase?!” exclaimed Sain in indignation.

“Am I wrong? You are the holy knight, yet you aspire to be the dark knight... and even that is a mere stepping stone for your ultimate goal of literal godhood . What part of that sounds sane to you, hm?” Despite openly questioning Sain’s sanity, there was a sense of approval to Cain’s voice. “As the holy knight, you are egregiously irresponsible. As a person, though, I find you reasonably likeable.” Then, he gave Sain a sober look. “I still stand by everything I’ve done. I have no intention of apologizing for who I am. But... I’ll admit that I’ve been overconfident. I certainly didn’t expect you to make it such a close match.”

Compared to before they had their match, his attitude had softened considerably. It seemed like he still harbored some reservations toward the holy knight, but it was more than enough progress for now.

“So, about what I said to you right before the match...” said Sain, bringing the topic back to his original goal of convincing Cain to make some friends — the kind he trusted with his life. “Seeing as we’re both trying to defeat Chaos, our goals should be aligned. As the one who lost the match, I’m not in any position to be making demands, but...”

Cain frowned at his proposition, though the expression seemed more contemplative than averse.

“...Let me think about it,” he said in a solemn tone.

He fell silent, and a placid atmosphere descended on the room.

It didn’t last. The stillness was broken by a thunderous rumble outside that shook the ground, causing the medicine cabinets in the infirmary to rattle loudly.

“What the—”

“ —Hell was that?”

Sain and Cain remarked in unison.

“Sain!”

The goddess appeared beside Sain, though he was the only one who could see her.

“G-Goddess? What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to show up unless I—”

“Forget that! We have a problem!” she exclaimed in an urgent voice audible only to him. “Chaos is here! And they’re really close!”

“What?!”

He hastily focused and extended his senses outward. It didn’t take long to find their presence, approaching from afar. There was still some distance between the Chaos and them, so he didn’t notice until the goddess pointed it out.

“Melia! Alicia!” He promptly spoke their names and transferred his power of the holy knight into them. “Chaos is coming! We have to deal with them as soon as possible! Let’s go!”

“D-Deal with them? How? There are still tons of people here!”

He bit his lip. She was right. They couldn’t start duking it out with a bunch of Chaos while everyone was watching. In response, Melia raised her hand.

“What about the barrier?” she asked. “People should be safe as long as they stay inside the school grounds, right?”

It was a good point. The academy was protected by a gigantic barrier that drew upon the power of the titan’s staff. However, this idea was immediately refuted by the goddess.

“I’m sorry, Sain... but that barrier probably won’t be enough.” Her voice, soft and apologetic, trembled as she spoke. “A Founder is coming.”

“A... Founder?”

“I’m sure of it. This presence can’t be anything else...”

“B-But... Weren’t all the Founders sealed away?”

“Remember the Clan of Chaos you fought last time? This is probably their doing. Especially since they’d already figured out how to extract power from the Founders.”

Harti, Marni’s older sister, had inherited the power extracted from a Founder, making her a second generation Chaos whose strength was inferior only to the Founders themselves.

“The seals weren’t designed to inhibit human tampering because no humans had ever sided with Chaos. Now that they have, the sealing mechanism will probably need to be reworked. Still, I never thought something like this would be possible...”

“...No point crying over spilt milk. How long will the barrier last against them?”

“Maybe five minutes.”

The gravity of the situation solidified his resolve.

“All right, everyone. Listen up. There’s a Founder of Chaos loose, and it’s coming for us.”

Everyone’s eyes went wide and he was met with astonished silence. He’d spoken to the girls before on multiple occasions about how dangerous the Founders were, so they grasped the severity of their situation immediately. Cain, for his part, required no explanation; he had first-hand experience with the havoc they could wreak. As a result, there was no panic. Everyone understood the importance of acting quickly and in an orderly fashion. It brought a smile to Sain’s lips. These were the kind of friends he could count on.

“Apparently, the barrier will only last about five minutes. That means we’ve got five minutes to evacuate everyone in the school. Alicia, Melia, I’m leaving this to you two.”

“Got it.”

“Will do.”

The two girls nodded.

“The enemy is probably after the titan’s staff being used to maintain the academy’s barrier. Miss Grim, I need you to wait in the room with the staff. The Clan of Chaos is probably wary of me and Cain, so you might catch them off guard by hitting them with dark magic.”

“...Understood.”

“Don’t get too caught up in trying to beat them though. Your ambush is meant to buy time, not do damage. Gauge their strength carefully and avoid any serious combat.”

Marni nodded as well.

“This has to be the worst time for them to show up,” muttered Alicia.

“That’s probably the point. I suspect the enemy has been waiting for this very moment, when our student council president is exhausted from the battle expo and there are tons of civilians everywhere to make it harder for us to fight,” Sain explained as he removed the seals he wore and allowed the full power of the holy knight to course through him.

Despite the previous match leaving him in arguably even worse condition than Cain, the goddess’s power functioned as a substitute reservoir of stamina, giving him the strength to fight again.

“Cain, can you get out of here by yourself?”

“Yes. I... will go and help out with the evacuation. I might be useless in a fight right now, but I can at least hobble around and bark orders.”

“Heh. That’ll be plenty useful.”

The old Cain would almost certainly have insisted on fighting the approaching Chaos regardless of how ill-advised it would be. Like the old Melia, he would have been a victim of his lone avenger obsession. His willingness to take a backseat to the action made it clear that he had changed, and likely for the better. Sain allowed himself a brief smile before sobering his expression.

“All right, everyone. Keep to the plan and man your stations. In the meantime, I’m going to take down as many Chaos as I can.”

Alicia and Melia made a beeline for the main school building while Sain and Marni headed out to the school grounds, after which they split up and Marni made her way toward the room with the titan’s staff. Sain, now alone, drew his sword and stepped outside the main gate of the school.

After Sain and his friends left, Cain took charge of the evacuation.

“We’re under assault by dangerous monsters! Start heading to the shelter immediately!”

This was where the sheer scope of the academy came into play. Jenifa was an enormous institution that owned large tracts of land in remote locations, an example of which was the forest used for the field exercises. One of these locations was home to an evacuation shelter, which was exactly what they needed at the moment.

“If you’re a student, help with evacuating the outside guests and guide them toward the shelter!”

He checked for the presence of Chaos nearby and found that they were not surrounding the school. Instead, the attack was concentrated in a single direction. If they had wanted to take hostages, encircling the academy would have been more effective, but that probably would have forced them to spread out their forces too much, making it impossible to breach the barrier. While Sain was keeping them busy, he had to evacuate as many people as possible.

“Ugh...”

A sudden bout of dizziness forced him to stop and catch his breath. His whole body was steeped in fatigue. His limbs felt like lead, and every step was an effort.

“The power of the holy knight, huh... It sure would be convenient to have that right now,” he muttered, recalling the way Sain had instantly revitalized himself and ran off to fight. He figured it involved taking the goddess’s power into himself and using it to temporarily restore his stamina.

Ever since his sister had been killed by Chaos, he’d studied light magic tirelessly. Furthermore, he’d done considerable research into the holy knight, granting him an accurate understanding of their abilities and strengths. If he had had that power... could he have saved his sister?

“I...”

He’d never felt the urge to pine — to wish he had something he didn’t. Strength alone was his guide, and he’d thought that having more of it would always be the solution to all his problems. Now, however, that power was within reach. It was a power he would never have been able to acquire, and right now, it could be his. All he had to do was ask.

He didn’t want to reject everything about his past self. He’d been overconfident, yes, but he had gained genuine strength as a result. The path he’d taken wasn’t a mistake, and he hadn’t walked it lightly. A new power was now at his fingertips. He had no doubt that Sain would readily give it to him. No matter how hard he tried, though, he couldn’t turn his mind away from the memory of his sister dying at the hands of Chaos. If he’d had the power of the holy knight then, would his sister have been saved? No, she wouldn’t have. The holy knight had been present, and his sister had still died.

What did that mean? It meant not all forms of strength were equal, and he had to make sure he was pursuing the right one. The thought was troubling, sending tendrils of doubt into the deepest parts of his mind. Just then, he heard the sound of glass cracking overhead.

“What’s— The barrier! It broke!”

Normally transparent and invisible to the human eye, the barrier became briefly observable as it crumbled. Soon after, a unique presence wafted in, so vile that it elicited visceral disgust; it was the undeniable sensation of Chaos.

“Kyaaaa!”

Somewhere, a girl screamed, signaling the entry of Chaos into the school grounds. He looked around and discovered that Alicia and Melia were already in the thick of battle.

“Ray Javelin! ”

He launched his massive spear of light at a Beast of Chaos, killing it with one blow. The girl who’d screamed stood a few feet away, frozen in terror. Her legs gave way, and she landed on her backside, her wide, tearful eyes shifting from the Beast to him.

“P-President—”

“Go! Get a move on already!”

The sight of the normally unflappable student council president shouting at her with a sense of desperate urgency was enough to impress upon her the seriousness of the situation. She quickly picked herself up and ran off in the direction of the shelter. Cain watched her go for a few seconds before he was hit by a severe bout of vertigo that sent him reeling.

“Ugh... Looks like... I’m at my limit...”

Battling Chaos the previous day had drained him. A night’s rest had been moderately restorative, but whatever stamina he’d recovered had been depleted again during his match against Sain. With his legs weak and his head spinning, he pressed his hand to his forehead, trying to steady himself. Then, he saw them — two Beasts approaching him with fangs bared.

Is this it?

The morbid thought flashed across his mind like a large shadow, only for him to quickly realize that it wasn’t just a thought; someone had actually jumped in front of him.

“Emilia?!”

She stood with her back to him, purple hair still fluttering from the motion, and spread out her hands as if shielding him from the Beasts.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get out of here!”

“No!” Emilia exclaimed, her voice firm but her shoulders trembling. “I’m... I’m going to protect you!”

And that was when it hit him like a bolt of lightning in his mind. Suddenly, he understood what Sain had been worried about. The future he’d been cautioned against was now very clear, and very real.

“Picture yourself in a situation where you do lose. Isn’t there someone who might jump in? Someone who might place themselves in harm’s way to protect you?”

He mouthed his answer to Sain’s question.

Emilia.

It was so obvious. He should have known. But it was too late; fear had become truth. The memory of his sister, arms spread out exactly as Emilia’s were now, consumed everything else in his mind. Emotions rolled through him, revived from the grave of remembrance. Regret. Fury. Sorrow. And hatred. His life was replaying itself, and his heart shuddered with wordless agony at the implication.

He couldn’t. It was too much. That was a torment he couldn’t endure again. And as the Beasts closed in, he was stricken with regret at his own folly. He’d fancied himself a protector, and it had blinded him to the truth. Sain was right. His inability to imagine a future where he might taste defeat led to a failure to envision himself in the position of the protected.

Protector and protected. The roles were fluid; they were exclusive to no one. If only, he thought as guilt consumed him, he’d realized sooner.

“Siem Saevas, here I bear the attendant’s mark. Second gift — Holy Sinking Blade. ”

Daggers of light in hand, Melia’s form blurred through the Beasts. Cain watched in stunned silence as the threat of certain death fell to the ground as two heaps of broken meat. She put her hands on her waist, let out a quick sigh, and quipped, “Close one, huh?”

Cain felt himself gnashing his teeth. He set his jaw, looked her straight in the face, and said, “Take me to your master.”

Sain, who had been fighting Chaos outside the school grounds, rushed back as soon as he noticed the barrier had been breached.

“Holy Beast. ”

As soon as he spoke the words, a lion appeared enveloped in an aura of light. It was an ally of his, and he’d placed it on standby the day before the entrance ceremony in case of emergencies like this. The beast lowered its head to him, and he gave it a rub, which drew a contented purr.

“Can you help me get rid of the Beasts of Chaos around here?”

It let out an affirmative growl and leapt into action. There were some Incarnations of Chaos in the attacking party as well, but with their current powers, Alicia and Melia should make short work of them. Stragglers could be left to the holy beast, which was already doing a good job of tearing them apart.

“It looks like everyone’s sticking to the plan...”

Sain stood in the center of the field. A Beast attempted to pounce on him, only to be thwarted by a missile of light. Fissures then appeared in the ground underfoot, and blood-red arms reached up from the cracks. He jumped into the air in response, ever vigilant of the fact that Beasts of Chaos had no defined template and could take on all sorts of forms.

“Sanctuary. ”

He imbued the space around him with the blessing of the goddess, repelling the underground attacker. With no additional threats in sight, he turned his senses in Marni’s direction. She seemed safe for the time being. Perhaps the Clan of Chaos was waiting for the Founder to finish its rampage before commencing their operation. He’d thought they would use the Founder as a distraction while infiltrating the school at the same time, but it occurred to him that trying to steal the titan’s staff while the Founder was still thrashing around was actually a pretty risky idea. In any case, he needed Marni to hold her position. With evacuations of outside guests still underway, he’d appreciate some reinforcements, but it would have to come from someone else. That was when, as if on cue...

“Sain Fostess!”

He heard a familiar voice behind him and spun around. Cain was in far worse shape than he’d been in at the infirmary. He must have run into some Chaos while directing the evacuation. Beside him stood Melia, who must have led him here.

“You... Make me your attendant.”

The steely resolve in Cain’s voice took Sain by surprise. Sain regarded him for a while. Then, he flashed a toothy grin.

“No regrets?”

“Plenty... But I’m going to make these my last.”

Whatever happened during their brief separation had transformed Cain. The uncertainty that had marred his gaze in the infirmary was nowhere to be found.

“Cain Theresia!”

By speaking his name, a contract was established between the holy knight and his new attendant. The power conferred upon Sain by the goddess began its secondary transfer into Cain.

“What the— No way!”

As soon as the link was made, Sain gasped in awe at Cain’s enormous capacity as a human vessel. His affinity for the goddess’s power was extremely high, entirely dwarfing that of Alicia’s and Melia’s.

“It’s... still going?!”

“No way!”

Even the goddess herself was amazed by the sheer amount of power flowing into Cain. He’d already taken in two attendants’ worth, yet still seemed capable of accepting more.

“So this... is the power of the holy knight,” said Cain as he gazed at his own hands.

“Do you feel any discomfort?”

“No. Not even a hint... It feels like it’s been mine all along.”

Normally, such a sensation shouldn’t have been possible. Even now, unleashing their attendant powers wasn’t a completely painless process for Alicia and Melia; some part of their body would always make its displeasure known. Cain’s body, despite it being his first time, was taking to the power with incredible ease. It was a display of his potential, signaling that Cain Theresia was truly a gifted individual; he had what it took to wield the power of the goddess.

“Ray Javelin. ”

He cast the spell at an oncoming Beast. It was the same spell as the one he’d used during the match, only it was now four to five times larger in size. The now-truly-colossal spear hurtled toward the creature in a straight line, punched through it, and wiped out all the other Beasts nearby with its explosion.

“Holy—”

“...Wow.”

Sain stared agape as the violent gusts from the blast sent his hair fluttering wildly.

“He’s... the strongest attendant. There’s no question.”

It was an incredibly invigorating sight to behold. At the same time, it made him think about the future.

I might have just found a successor.

When he eventually decided to retire, he might be able to pass the power of the holy knight to Cain. His excitement at the discovery of a new, promising attendant, however, was put on hold by the appearance of a gigantic monster in the distance.

“Here it comes,” he growled. “The Founder...”

The towering form of a blood-red crab emerged from a cloud of dust. Granted, “crab” was only an approximation of its shape. It had eight legs, two of which were pincers that evoked the comparison. The rest of it was nothing close. A pair of horns grew from its head, longer and sharper than its pincers, giving it a thoroughly menacing aura.

“Kessen Rukai... The Stainless Hermit,” said Sain, recognizing the creature.

“Fate loves its ironies, doesn’t it,” spat Cain. “Who would have thought we’d meet again like this.”

Having peered into the previous holy knight’s memories through the goddess, Sain knew what Cain meant.

This was the Founder that killed Cain’s sister.

How ironic indeed, Sain thought, that it would show up now of all times. He took a moment to think, recalling everything he knew about the characteristics of Kessen Rukai. Then, he turned to Melia.

“Melia, go help Alicia. The students are still in the middle of evacuating.”

“It’s a Founder you’re up against, you know? Are you sure you don’t need more firepower here?”

“Saving lives comes first. Also, this Founder isn’t the type who’s easier to beat with more people.”

She took him at his word and ran off without any further questions. Once she was gone, Sain and Cain glanced at each other before bursting into action at the same time.

“Ray Javelin. ”

Cain’s supersized spear slammed into the equally massive crab. Meanwhile, Sain slid past its feet and swung his golden blade at its underbelly. A single sweep of his sword was enough to part most Chaos in two, but Founders — the very first generation of Chaos — were not like the rest, and he felt the dull impact of his blade being stopped by the creature’s mighty carapace.

“■■■■■■■!”

The Founder roared in its unearthly voice, forcing both of them to shield their ears and back away. It swung its two great pincers down at the ground, breaking up a large stretch of the school field. Sain carefully evaded the deadly shards of earth and rock that flew at him before climbing onto an upraised piece of the ground.

“Cain! Are you okay?!”

“For now, at least. But it doesn’t look like we can afford to take even a single hit...”

In the blink of an eye, the Founder had changed the very terrain they stood on. A gaping crevice now spanned the length of the field, reaching from one end of the school building to the other. Another one of those, and the building itself might become the crevice.

Cain, unintimidated by the casual display of widespread destruction, shot the monster a fierce glare and thrust his arm out at it.

“Great torrent of light, blind the land with an argent sea — Velle Vright! ”

A wave of light rushed toward the Founder, vaporizing the debris littering the ground in the process. It was a clever move, ridding the field of obstacles while simultaneously functioning as an attack. With his way cleared, Sain tightened his grip on his sword and dashed forward again... only to stop in his tracks when the monster discharged a massive amount of bubbles from its mouth.

“Those bubbles! They’re—”

Countless transparent orbs filled the air, each one large enough to hold an entire person.

“Sain!”

“I know!”

Sain quickly retreated. Cain’s torrent of light smashed into the wall of bubbles, bounced off them, and rushed back toward the two of them.

“Ugh!”

Sain leapt into the air, allowing the torrent to pass below. Cain followed suit. They watched as his spell wreaked further havoc on the field before fading away near the school building. Sain landed on the uneven ground and glared at the bubbles floating around the Founder.

“So this is what it looks like in action... The ability to reflect magic.”

Each Founder had a unique ability that none of the others possessed. One turtle-shaped Founder could cause the disintegration of anything it touched. Another monkey-like Founder could freely control its subordinates. Yet another shaped like a fish could turn invisible at will. Kessen Rukai’s unique trait was the ability to reflect all forms of magic.

“Sain, can’t you seal this Founder like your predecessor did?”

Having immediately recognized the threat posed by this Founder, Cain started searching for ways to end the fight quickly.

“...No.” Sain grimaced. “Preparations are necessary for that kind of seal, and it takes a lot of time.”

When Sain inherited the power of the holy knight, he also gained knowledge pertaining to the Founders and how to seal them. Therefore, he could say with certainty that sealing the Founder right now was an impossible task.

“We’ll have to defeat it ourselves.”

The statement was meant for himself as much as Cain. There existed seven Founders in the world, and not a single one had ever been defeated by the previous holy knights and dark knights. Consequently, they chose to seal the Founders away. Now, with the seal broken and no time to prepare another one, there was only one choice left. The two of them would have to make history and defeat it in combat.

“Lighto. ”

Sain shot off a light bullet. He’d held back considerably, keeping it to the size of a fist. The bullet flew toward the Founder, hit one of the bubbles in the way, and bounced back at him. He swatted it away with his sword.

“It’s almost a perfect rebound, isn’t it? It’d be fine if we could somehow absorb the ones that come back at us...” mused Sain.

“But if we start dodging them, they’ll cause even more damage everywhere,” said Cain, finishing Sain’s thought.

The goddess’s power was more or less inexhaustible. Even if the battle dragged on, they didn’t need to worry about running out. The problem was that a lengthy confrontation would result in considerable damage to their surroundings. Before they could formulate an effective plan, however, the Founder went on the offensive. It pointed one of its pincers at Sain. Magical energy gathered at the center of the pincer at an alarming rate.

“Watch out!”

The pincer became a cannon, letting loose a blast of blood-red energy. Sain quickly held up his golden sword like a shield and dug his feet in. The front of the blast splintered against the sword, sending stray fragments everywhere. A shockwave rolled through the ground, causing violent and destructive quakes that threatened to throw him off balance. He clenched his teeth and kept pushing against the blast.

“Hnngh! Damn... it!”

Even with the full might of the holy knight’s power, he couldn’t cancel out the tremendous amount of energy slamming into him. The force was so great that it began to flay his skin, leaving bloody streaks across his arms and face.

“Ray Javelin!”

Cain joined in, trying to stop the blast by launching his massive spear at it, only for a bubble to repel the attempt. The reflected spear flew past Cain, nearly grazing his side, and bore a large hole in the school building.

Eventually, the blast waned, and Sain let out a pained gasp.

“Sain, are you okay?”

“Yeah. That... was one hell of an attack. On top of that, none of our spells can reach it,” said Sain as he glared resentfully at the Founder.

Just then, the bubble that had reflected the javelin burst with a loud pop.

“I see. We can break those bubbles if we hit them with a strong spell,” said Cain. “But they’re still going to reflect whatever we throw at them at least once. It looks like the bubbles are finite, but if we try to break all of them like this, we’ll end up leveling the whole academy.”

Sain nodded. Even if he only counted the bubbles immediately in front of them, there were at least twenty. Breaking all of them with Cain’s Ray Javelin would mean subjecting the surroundings to the ricocheted destruction of over twenty of those massive spears. And that was when an idea came to him.

“Cain, can you take in a little more of my power?”

“...No problem. But what are you trying to do?”

Cain’s question was met with a toothy grin.

“The same thing I did during our match.”

Sain turned to the goddess.

“Goddess, move all of my power to Cain.”

“Huh? B-But, if I do that, you’ll be—”

“It’s fine! Just do it! Hurry!”

Magical energy was gathering in the Founder’s pincer again. The goddess, realizing that time was short, obeyed and began transferring the entirety of the holy knight’s vast power to Cain.

“Ugh! Th-This is...”

“Can you handle it?”

“You... bet I can!”

He answered in groans, but he stood his ground. The amount of power flooding into him had far surpassed conventional limits. Had this been Melia or Alicia, they would have surpassed their capacity long ago. Cain’s extraordinary affinity for the goddess’s power, however, allowed him to tolerate the process.

You are a marvel , thought Sain. If he was the most capable wielder of the goddess’s power in the world, then Cain was surely the second best. No one else would come close.

As the holy knight’s power drained from Sain’s body, the sword in his hand lost its golden glow and reverted to its normal black hue.

“With that, I’ve temporarily lost my holy knight power. But in exchange...”

He produced a bolt of Darku in his palm with an ease he’d never before displayed. The spell’s activation was incredibly stable.

“So that’s your plan... You’ve sure got some nerve.”

“Not as much as you.”

They traded a knowing smile. Then, Cain spun toward the Founder with his palm out.

“Ray Javelin! ”

He launched another massive spear at it. Like before, it hit a bubble and reversed course. The bubble popped, but the glowing spear kept coming.

“Dark Ray! ”

Sain pierced the reflected spear with his own dark lance. The two spells canceled each other on impact and vanished.

“Hit ’em with all you’ve got!” shouted Sain. “Go nuts! I’ll catch everything that comes back!”

“Now we’re talking!”

Being opposites, light and dark magic canceled each other out. Just like how Sain had negated Cain’s magic during their match, all he had to do was repeat the same process. Cain would hurl spells at the Founder. They would get reflected. Sain would then proceed to cancel them out and minimize collateral damage.

“Orb of radiance, bathe all in blinding light — Vright. ”

An enormous ball of light flew toward the Founder. As it rebounded against a bubble, Sain cast his own spell.

“Orb of gloom, devour with shadow and darkness — Dardia! ”

The pair of elementally opposed orbs collided and disintegrated together. Though no damage was done, the reflection of Cain’s spell consumed another bubble. If they kept this up, sooner or later, their attacks would reach the Founder itself.

I’m sorry to admit this, Goddess, mused Sain as he shot down spell after reflected spell, but dark magic has never been so easy to use! This is amazing!

Without the power of the holy knight, Sain’s command of dark magic reached unprecedented heights. The holy presence had made him naturally light-oriented, creating an innate incompatibility with darkness that severely hampered his ability to learn dark magic. With the offending power completely transferred to Cain, Sain’s affinity for light vanished, leaving him empty — save for the fruits of his hard work and perseverance.

“Flash like serpent’s fangs — Lighto Whip! ”

A gigantic whip appeared above Sain. The intensity of its glow made Sain squint. Then, another one appeared, followed by more until five radiant whips hovered in the air, each as thick as the truck of a large tree. They lashed out at once, striking at the bubble barrier like the massive fingers of a beast of pure light. A swath of bubbles ruptured immediately, and the glowing tendrils reversed their course.

“Great torrent of darkness, drown the land in seas of black— ”

Sain spoke the incantation of a spell he’d never been able to use before. Now, he knew he could. Dark energy gathered before him.

“Velle Darku! ”

A wave of pure darkness swallowed the reflected whips. There were only three bubbles left.

“Watch out! It’s doing the cannon thing again!” yelled Sain.

The Founder’s pincer opened and fired off a beam of blood-red energy at Cain, who stood his ground and closed his eyes.

“Fohrs Saeva, here I bear the attendant’s mark— ”

Particles of light coalesced around his form.

“Eighth gift — Holy Guiding Sword! ”

A sword of golden glory materialized in his hand. He swung it, and the radiant crescent erased the oncoming blast. Without pause, he slashed three more times, sending out arcs of light that burst the remaining bubbles. Three Dardias from Sain in quick succession extinguished them on their return.

“We’re through!”

With all the bubbles destroyed, the Founder was laid bare. The two of them moved in wordless unison, rushing up to the monster and thrusting their arms out at it.

“Ray Javelin! ”

“Dark Ray! ”

Putting all their power into a simultaneous final strike, they sent two deadly spells hurtling at the Founder. One, an explosive spear of light, massive and bright. The other, a perforating lance of darkness. thin and swift. The two ethereal weapons slammed into the Founder... and punched a gaping hole straight through its thick body. The giant monster shuddered, sending quakes through the ground. Then, slowly, it began to disintegrate from outside in, its enormous form flaking away into blood-red particles that faded into the air.

Finally, it was gone. Kessen Rukai, the Stainless Hermit, had been annihilated.

“N-No way... You beat... a Founder?”

The goddess gaped at them. Her lips quivered in astonishment. Then, she burst into loud and emphatic cheers.

“You did it! Sain dear! You really did it! Oh my gosh, this is a historic achievement! No one has ever been able to defeat one of them before!”

“Yeah... I’m still trying to process that fact too,” Sain murmured in a daze.

It took Cain falling to his knees to snap him back to attention.

“Sorry... I’m at my limit,” he said through gritted teeth. “Can you hurry up and take back your power?”

“R-Right, of course.”

Sain reclaimed the goddess’s power, thereby inactivating Cain’s attendant state. As soon as he did, Cain broke out in a profuse sweat and trembled visibly. It was the goddess’s power that had kept him going all this time. Without it, the fatigue from the match came rushing back to him. On top of that, there were the inevitable repercussions of gaining and then losing so much power so quickly.

“Damn. This holy knight’s power... has got one hell of a kick to it. I won’t even be standing on my own legs for a while, never mind working. And you just walk around with this thing in you like it’s nothing?”

“My compatibility with the goddess is apparently really high. I mean, that’s pretty much a prerequisite for being chosen as a holy knight.”

“I see. I guess... I’ll never be one then.”

“That’s—”

Not true.

He kept the last two words unsaid, as the goddess gave him a death glare. It seemed like the right thing to do. In his head, however, he continued to mull over the idea that had occurred to him during the battle. While Cain’s incredible affinity for the goddess’s power certainly made him a suitable successor, Sain wasn’t about to call it quits just yet. After all, Sain wasn’t called “the strongest holy knight in history” for nothing; when it came to affinity, he was still superior. So long as Sain could still pull his weight in battle, it was probably fine to leave Cain as an attendant.

“Hm?”

As the last trickle of the goddess’s power flowed out of Cain and back into him, he frowned. For some reason, it felt different — the power seemed stronger than before. He shrugged. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. It had been a long day. Besides, even if it had grown stronger somehow, that hardly seemed like a problem.

Just then, he noticed the ragged figures of Melia, Marni, and Alicia approaching, and he entertained the thought no longer.