(Fayna POV)
"Lady Fayna... Are you sure about nothing will go wrong?" (Talia)
"N? Of course... is what I want to say, but I can't say that for sure. Let's hope that Alice can somehow barely maintain your reputation."(Fayna)
"I'm not talking about that! Wait... what you just said made me a little nervous... a-anyway, I'm talking about the prophets, although their leader was heavily injured they are still assaulting tonight's party am I wrong?"(Talia)
As expected, teasing the nervous Talia made me relax a little. Putting aside the incoming bloodshed, I'm sure I engraved some manners on that brat, but I can't help to be a little worried about her doing something rash... or just acting like usual. Luckily there's Chris near her, so I believe she isn't going to do something rash.
It was a shame I wasn't aware at that time how wrong I was. In the nearby future, the poor Talia is going to be treated by her servants as a tickling bomb, all thanks to that brat.
"Well... I can't help it if you are worried, after all, they are a bunch of stubborn bastards. But we can't do something like stopping the party, Chris isn't in a good position to cancel the party if we take into account that their beloved saintess recovered just in time, the fact that the church is taking part a~nd that your mother is going to do everything in her power to hold the party.
You know better than anyone that if they cancel the party-like ceremony the people will think that the king is fearful of the prophets. With their recent activities, we cannot allow the fear to spread even more."(Fayna)
Indeed we are in a tight spot. The best solution I can think about is to kidnap that brat for a moment and find a way to return them to their respective bodies, sadly we cannot allow the "princess" to disappear just before the party.
What is bothering me without end is what happened in the previous raid from the prophets, although it looked like it was rushed, without a doubt it was well structured. If it wasn't for the anomaly called Alice then without a doubt they would have achieved their objective.
I did my best to find and stop their plans while the twins were unconscious but the best I could do was discover tonight's attack. Because of that, I sent the three girls, Orie and Anil back to the Cross-kingdom in advance with the help of Athena.
With all the pieces on the board, all we need to do is to play our cards carefully even though we don't know what kind of game we are gonna play.
"By the way Talia, if you were to take Alice to an isolated place... where it would be?"(Fayna)
"An isolated place? If we think about a good place then it would be the fountain outside of the salon. The amount of vegetation around it is enough to hide us from other people and the way to reach there is a little tricky."(Talia)
"We have reached the castle lady Arcon"(???)
After hearing the notification from the driver Talia immediately put on a black mask and got off from the carriage. While I followed Talia to the salon we met Athena briefly on the corridor, taking advantage of this I took out a recording device from my storage device and silently handed it to her with a note alongside a set of instructions and the location that Talia told me about.
Luckily I developed a writing device that could write notes and reports with a thought, that's why I was able to make the note in haste. N? what do you say? Just how convenient it's for me to have that device on my hands right now?
Let me tell you something, I'm always carrying my stuff and magical devices around all the time. I don't want to be in a situation where I have to write a mountain of papers without it, I had enough living through that hell once.
By the time we entered the salon, almost all the guests were inside. While waiting for that brat to appear I had a little fun seeing Talia fidgeting a little, the irony of being a guest when you were supposed to be the main star while "you" are still indeed the main star is funny.
With more and more people arriving ad the salon it didn't take long for everyone to arrive. With everyone here Talia's family finally made their apparition.
"PFFF!"(Fayna)
This is bad... I almost burst into laughter after seeing the mischievous brat proud of her princess acting. No matter how hard you try to ignore it you could see the eyes of the brat looking at the food like a hunter, ready to pounce at any moment.
With Chris's speech over the brat approached us while acting as an all mighty princess with her fan covering her mouth. All I can think right now is... poor Talia, it's obvious she wants to scream in shame and embarrassment.
After exchanging our frivolous greetings and getting scolded by Talia, the brat invited Talia to the dance floor. Seeing that they didn't need me for now I approached Chris, but before I was able to say something an unprecedented incident happened, once again it was the annoying people of the church.
I knew they would be able to fend themselves but looking at the preoccupied Chris I hastily handed him a note and dragged Leo outside of the salon while taking advantage of their attention on the brat.
"Miss Fayna?"(Leo)
I didn't give Leo time to think about what was happening when Athena appeared in front of me and took Leo away with her teleportation before returning instantly.
"Everything is ready."(Athena)
"I hope it is, the place where the brat and Talia are going is the fountain behind the salon, as soon as they return to their bodies take them back to my ma-."(Fayna)
I wasn't able to finish what I wanted to say because at the next moment both of us were in the air with two blades aiming at our hearts. My body moved by instinct and was barely able to block the sword by grabbing it with my right hand, but as soon as the sword made contact with me it self-destructed, sending me flying without being able to react.
Soon after I felt two clashes on my body, one with the ground and another with the food section. I didn't know how bad a dessert could taste if it was combined with blood.
Cursing my carelessness I healed myself in hurry and blasted through the debris above me.
"Goddammit, that hurt!"(Fayna)
After blasting away the debris I looked around for any sign of the prophets, only to find the shocked and scared twins. Seeing them here only increased my uneasiness, if they were here then this should mean that Athena took the hit for them besides the surprise attack.
The surprise attack wasn't everything as I sensed a huge number of prophets approaching quickly to the salon. I wanted to help the twins to get rid of them, but at the same time, I couldn't leave Athena fighting alone against that bastard, especially now that I knew she was injured.
"Alice, Talia, I have to help Athena with that bastard if we don't want the entire kingdom to be engulfed in flames. I'll leave the remaining prophets on your hands, so don't die."(Fayna)
After telling the twins about what was coming I synchronized with phoenix and dashed towards Athena's position. When I arrived at the battlefield Athena was exchanging blows with that bastard while missing one arm.
I took advantage of his focus on Athena and threw a fire spear coated with my concept. The objective? the heart of that bastard.
Just as my spear was about to pierce his heart that bastard twisted his body using the momentum of his blade, barely dodging my spear. Of course, Athena and I couldn't let this opening pass so I threw three more fire spears aiming at his heart while Athena swung her sword at his neck.
It was unfortunate that the bastard wouldn't die this easily, as he blocked Athena's sword while using the impact to gain distance. While his idea was good on paper my spears were still aiming at his heart. Without looking behind he placed the blade of his sword on his back, successfully blocking my spears.
While he was recovering from my attack I tried to get near Athena to heal her missing arm, but like expecting my actions that bastard snapped his fingers, creating countless black arms from below me that tried to grab me.
The strange sense of danger that the arms emanated so strong so I avoided them without a doubt, but thanks to it I wasn't able to approach Athena.
At some point, the battle felt like it was dragged to gain time instead of defeating us. As time passed a bad premonition I was feeling was getting stronger even though we were in advantage. I tried to heal Athena multiple times, but no matter what I did, each time I was blocked by that bastard, it seems like he is resolved to not let me approach Athena.
He would either focus on me with a barricade of black dots and arms or he would directly brandish his ominous-looking sword at me or Athena.
Finally, when I thought of going all out the bastard dodged an unexpected light spear coming from behind me, and almost at the same time, our bodies were surrounded by a golden glow.
"So you finally arrived..."(leader)
With the presence of Chris and Aiya from behind, I was finally able to get near Athena and heal her. I wanted to complain of why they were late, but seeing their injured bodies it was obvious they pushed through the swarm of prophets to get here.
"With this, all the pieces are here... Finally... Finally... LET THE VOID DEVOUR EVERYTHING, LET THE FIRE BURN EVERYTHING, LET THE CHAOS ENGULF EVERYTHING SO WE CAN ACHIEVE THE REBORN OF THIS ROTTEN WORLD!!!!!"(Leader)
"Fayna! Don't let him finish!!!"(Phoenix)
Hearing Phoenix warning, Athena and I instantly moved in front of that bastard with our blades aiming at his heart, successfully piercing his heart without any resistance.
But instead of feeling relieved, an immense wave of chills crawled across our skin as the sky suddenly turned dark... no, it's wrong, it was a black dot big enough to swallow the sky. Something was telling me that this black dot was on a completely different level compared with the ones he was using before.
After realizing this Athena and I merged and materialized our spirits while maintaining the synchronization. In an instant, my eyes had the pattern of my contract on them and my formal dress changed into my usual dress and cloak. With the power of Phoenix coursing through my body his wings materialized on my back and a red staff with golden stripes appeared in front of me, with the staff being the weaponized Phoenix.
By the time my fusion finished Athena had already finished her fusion and was blocking the black dot that was falling from the sky. This time Athena wasn't holding back as the sky looked like shattered glass holding the black dot.
It seems that Athena was distorting the space above us to destroy the dot, but contrary to my expectations her actions only slowed down the dot.
Seeing this I tried to get rid of that bastard with my flames, but no matter what I did my attacks only passed through him, as if he was distorting the space to negate my attacks.
"You fucker..."(Fayna)
I knew I couldn't do anything to him so I got behind Athena and enhanced her with my flames. With my support, she was able to push back the black dot little by little.
I thought this was over, we were pushing back the black dot and that bastard wasn't doing anything, but without any warning, I felt a piercing pain through my chest.
"FAYNA!!"(Athena, Chris)
I couldn't believe what was happening, I tried to heal myself but something was interfering with my regeneration, and I knew what it was. As my strength was leaving my body I looked at the one who pierced my heart only to be shocked as it was none other than... Aiya.
"Ai...ya..."(Fayna)
"Wha-Wha....I-I di-didn't mean"(Aiya)
With her spear still on my chest, Aiya seemed to have woken up from a trance and looked at her bloody hands not understanding what just happened. The only hint I had was a flickering dark-purple light on her eyes and a dark-purpled aura on her spear.
"As expected from my chess piece, you are quite useful. With this everything is over, the last resistance has fallen, just as your predecessors."(Leader)
"What are you talking about!?"(Athena)
"Now our messiah is free to engulf what remains of this world, no one can stop it nor anyone will remember what happened. And besides, I ain't the last enlightened."(Leader)
It was then that the leader approached Athena while holding his sword even though his heart was pierced with our blades. This is bad, Athena is holding back the black dot so she isn't able to defend herself right now.
I'm barely able to muster a sign of strength so helping her was completely impossible. I couldn't do anything with a spear piercing through my heart and Aiya didn't show any sign of removing the spear... no, she was immobilized as her eyes were flickering between a golden and dark-purple color.
No... even if the spear is removed from my chest the damage is already done, I won't be able to do anything and probably I'll die soon after.
It was then that Chris got between that bastard and Athena, we all knew the difference between them but Chris still stood in front of him.
"Athena, leave us, save Talia and... Alice, they are our last hope."(Chris)
"Do you think I'll let you do that?!"(Leader)
Like expecting this reaction Chris encapsulated himself and the leader in a light shield, buying enough time for Athena to save the twins.
With tears in her eyes, Athena looked at the ground where the twins were. I looked as well and as I expected they were fine. Although I was sad by the sight of Alice crying because of me and that I won't be able to see her growth, I was happy with my memories with her.
"Goodbye Fayna, Chris... Aiya"(Athena)
After bidding us farewell Athena withdrew her power and took the twins away with her teleportation. Without anything to stop it, the black dot fell quickly.
"I wish I played more with Alice..."(Fayna)
As expected, that brat was on my mind even in my last moments... goodbye Alice.
