Time dissolved into a brutal cadence: impact, defense, retaliation, survival.
Mor'gan pressed forward with the momentum of an avalanche, his greatsword shearing the air in wide arcs of dark-orange fire. Every swing bore enough fury to crush stone; each step was relentless.
Sora met him blow for blow.
Every seismic strike met a wall of radiant barriers, angled deflections, and precise counters.
She had abandoned any attempt to overpower him; her fight was now a siege of pure endurance.
Behind her protection, Null recalled his prior resolve: Sora-san, I said I'll fight by your side and i refuse to break it. Even if my contribution won't amount to much. I refuse to exist as dead weight waiting for the slaughter.
As Mor'gan's focus entirely locked onto the struggle with sora. With determination, Null silently slipped away.
Weaving through scorched trunks, he mapped the terrain in seconds—trees, cover, angles.
Then, He positioned himself so that Sora's blinding light remained a constant hurdle between him and the demon most of the time. While using the environment as layered protection against any attempted attacks that slipped past her guard.
Subsequently, he slid his hand into his storage ring.
A solid, unadorned bow materialized. Next, he withdrew a small glass vial.
Commander Dhomnac's contingency trick: "For when you fight something you're not supposed to win against."
Uncorking it with steady fingers, Null coated his arrowheads in a viscous, dark toxin.
His gaze never drifted from the clash. He waited. He measured the distance and trajectory, he anticipated the dip in Mor'gan's guard.
Only then did he draw the bow string, and released the toxin arrow.
The arrow tore the air in near-silence.
Instinct warned the demon. Sensing a shift in air pressure, Mor'gan's head snapped toward the toxin arrow. With a flick of his hand, a wall of hellfire erupted, vaporizing the projectile into ash.
But that fraction of a second was all Sora required.
Her focus sharpened. Light condensed along her edge in a blinding surge as she stepped in, a flash of her radiant blade cut across Mor'gan's chest.
For the first time, she drew blood.
The gash across his torso was shallow but clean. More importantly, it failed to regenerate.
Mor'gan staggered back, staring at the cauterized wound in brief disbelief before raw fury twisted his features.
He roared, swinging his greatsword toward the tree line where the arrow had originated, but Sora was already there. Multi-layered radiant barriers stacked instantly in his path, forcing the blade to expend its force against solid light.
She did not look back, but her unspoken gratitude echoed in her heart.
'Null-san…'
Behind his cover, Null let a faint smirk. The toxin damage was secondary; the point was, its threat afforded them the enemy's distraction.
He was splitting Mor'gan's focus—forcing the greater demon to fight a war on two fronts.
From then on, the engagement settled into a brutal pattern. Mor'gan pressed his overpowering offence furiously; Sora endured and occasionally counterattacked with precision; and from the periphery, Null's firing caused fractional disruptions.
...
Amidst the devastating battle, Null's internal state remained unnaturally calm. He dropped behind a splintered trunk as an attack aimed at him incinerated the upper canopy, calmly nocking another toxin arrow while tracking the timing.
Suddenly, a familiar, unhelpful voice stirred in his mind.
[You know, statistically speaking, this is a very poor life decision.]
'Omniscience-san. Are you filling the role of a annoying commentator?
[I am optimizing research data. This is premium material. Greater demon, saintess, emotional bonding, near-death trauma, romantic tension—this is top-tier narrative composition.]
Null loosed another toxin arrow. Mor'gan swatted it aside with a snarl, but the movement allowed Sora to slash downward, forcing the demon back another pace.
'We are desperately fighting for our lives, you know.'
[Correct. And doing so with excellent narrative pacing.]
'Do you ever plan to be useful?'
A sudden backdraft of heat forced Null to roll laterally as a flaming arc pulverized his previous cover. He recovered in a low crouch, coughing through the soot.
[By the way, she wept for you.]
'I know but for an emotionally unavailable AI, why are you obsessing over that?'
[No. I am not obsessing. I am highlighting the narrative weight. It represents a critical milestone in character development.]
Null deadpanned. 'If there is someone who needs critical character development. It's you.'
[.....]
'Hey, don't go silent.'
He fired. Mor'gan roared as Sora's light peeled away another layer of his defense.
[My focus remains locked on core developmental variables.]
'Now you are saying nonsense.'
'Whatever. At least utilise your Omniscient capabilities to come up with a solution to defeat that demon.'
[Master, I can come up with an infinite solutions to defeat that greater demon. Unfortunately, you are too weak to 'find success' in any of them.]
'Hey!! Did you just bad-mouth me?'
[... No]
'Your pause was too long for me to find your answer believable.'
'Anyway, Don't you possess any offensive subfuctions?'
'If you do, now would be a wonderful time to stop commenting and end this charade—I'm getting little bored of this death match.'
A deliberate, profound silence followed. Then:
[Master. I classify myself as a supportive-type supreme cheat code.]
'That's not an answer.'
[It is, You simply find the response unsatisfactory.]
'So you can't smite him with cosmic insight?"
[...]
'Rewrite the outcome?'
[...] (🩷: I can but i don't see the need.)
'Predict a fatal opening?'
[I can predict numerous openings. But—]
'I am too weak, right?' He finished flatly.
Null clicked his tongue. 'What an useless ultimate ability.'
[Master, I am not useless. Furthermore, i am beyond ultimate!]
'Only for self-proclamation.' Null was so frustrated, he failed to register that the usual AI tone contained slight emotional cadence.
Another toxin arrow left the string, drawing a fraction of the demon's awareness away just as Sora's blade clipped the edge of Mor'gan's guard.
Null's eyes narrowed as a cold calculation surfaced.
'By the way, Is that woman still observing via remote surveillance?
[Affirmative. From the initial moment]
'Then, why isn't she intervening to save her disciple.'
[Typical 'master tampering diciple via hardship' troupe. Master.]
Null gave a cynical exhale.
'Predictable. Every high-tier mentor in fiction utilizes the same framework: plunge the student into a lethal scenario and classify it as a necessary crucible.'
[You are remarkably genre-aware for someone currently inside the genre.]
-
Suddenly, a violent tremor resonated through the atmosphere, shaking the very foundations of the clearing. The ambient mana density spiked, saturated with an overwhelming celestial resonance that made the air hum.
A blinding confluence of cyan-white light erupted from the epicenter of the confrontation, expanding outward like a supernova. The entire space was instantly swallowed in transcendental brilliance.
Null shielded his vision with his forearm as the forest, the ash, and the heavy smoke resolved into pure, absolute cyan-white.
[Subject Sora's unique ability utilization limit increased.]
[Subject Sora awakened the next phase of her unique abilities.]
[Emergency evolution condition satisfied.]
Null stared through the blinding glare, his pupils dilating. Unbelievable. The troupe actually held.
Sora's form levitated centimeters above the scorched earth, completely suspended by raw energy. Luminous cyan filaments of resonance spiraled intricately around her silhouette like living constellations.
Her pure-white hair gained vivid, glowing partial tints of cyan, and her sky-blue eyes now burned with a matching, transcendental partial cyan flame.
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