Episode 15: No Two Beautiful Girls Are Alike
To Teruue Mizuki, what was the meaning of “strongest?”
When asked this question, she would answer without hesitation.
“Sakura Rikka.”
The pinnacle achieved through relentless training, combined with innate talent.
She believed that Sakura Rikka, who had reached a domain nearly beyond human limits, was undoubtedly the strongest.
And if that were true.
If Sakura Rikka was the strongest, then who was this girl standing before her who surpassed even her?
“— Hahaha, you’re quite amusing!”
“I wonder. If you like it, I’m glad.”
The sound of clashing blades echoed.
It was the sound of a great scythe and spear colliding, wielded freely in every direction.
However, it was an overwhelmingly one-sided battle.
The girl known as Solciera pressed Sakura Rikka as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Sakura Rikka herself, I thought, but you’re not as impressive as I expected.”
“Don’t hurt me now.”
Sakura Rikka said this teasingly and thrust her spear after dodging the scythe.
A lightning-fast strike wrapped in wind.
However, Solciera avoided it effortlessly without changing her expression.
“… Not prediction; you’re reacting after seeing my movements. Your dynamic vision is incomprehensible.”
“Is that so? But your attack was far too slow.”
The scythe faintly blurred its outline.
In the next moment, it came crashing down.
Sakura Rikka’s right shoulder and everything beyond was cleanly severed.
“Oops.”
Sakura Rikka put distance between herself and Solciera, pressing her left hand against the wall. The missing right arm regenerated as if nothing had happened.
“This makes ten times. Could it be…you’re invincible?”
“No, it’s affecting you. Hmm…perhaps I’m unexpectedly in a pinch?”
Though saying this while shrugging, there was no laughter in Sakura Rikka’s eyes.
“For a while now, I’ve been trying to extract what you imagine as ‘the strongest,’ but I can’t seem to make sense of it. It’s like some kind of strong protection exists that prevents interference.”
“That’s right.”
Solciera replied dismissively.
As she deflected Sakura Rikka’s incoming blow with her scythe, she continued.
“There isn’t a single star with the same brilliance. What you say is mere nonsense. An incomplete imitation worse than a fake.”
“Hmph, you sure know how to talk!”
“Yes. The real Sakura Rikka wouldn’t display such an unsightly spectacle.”
“So you’ve met her too! Then, it’s been a while, hasn’t it!”
“Not at all. This is the first time we meet, imitation.”
Solciera clearly declared it to be a counterfeit.
Her eyes seemed to hint at a tinge of anger.
And just then.
“— What will you do?”
With that question, something was thrown from Solciera toward Mizuki.
Only when Mizuki instinctively gripped it did she realize it was the gun that had slipped from Sakura Rikka’s hand.
Seeing Mizuki, Solciera said with a tone of exasperation.
“The onlooker has seen enough, hasn’t she?”
“…Yeah.”
Mizuki stood beside Solciera.
This girl was still an enigma.
Still, Mizuki decided to trust her in this moment alone.
(There isn’t a single star with the same brilliance, huh? That’s right. That wasn’t my teacher, nor the strongest I aim for.)
The desire for victory that Mizuki had discarded began to roar anew within her.
The current Mizuki wasn’t even considering sacrificing her own life.
She could only dream of the scene where she would defeat the impostor before her.
“Hahaha, Mizuki, are you still fighting? You should give up already. Just watch quietly; you can’t keep up with me.”
“Is that so? To me, it looks like you’re the one being left behind.”
Before Sakura Rikka realized it, Solciera’s massive scythe was right in front of her eyes.
The body made of dungeon material didn’t need to blink.
Thus, there should have been almost no lag in visual information.
Even so, the motion to close the distance was completely invisible.
“Shit!”
Sakura Rikka created armor out of wind.
Aiming for the brief pause when the scythe tore through it, she thrust her spear as a counterattack.
But the spearhead exploded due to gunfire.
“I’ve seen that counterattack countless times.”
From behind, Mizuki, holding the gun, spoke.
Flames erupted from the gun’s muzzle.
“You pathetic imitation that can’t beat me!”
“Ah, is Sakura Rikka done already? Too bad, you should see it through till the end.”
The scythe bit into her torso.
Then, it slashed deeply.
“!”
Fortunately, due to the lack of pain perception, despite sustaining wounds that should render movement impossible, Sakura Rikka leapt backward.
Placing her hand on the dungeon floor, the supposedly torn-apart torso quickly returned to normal.
“It’s futile no matter how many times you try. I absolutely won’t lose because you’re the strongest they imagined.”
“That’s incorrect. You’re not the teacher. You’re merely a presence limited by the extent of my imagination. If it were the teacher or the real Sakura Rikka, they’d definitely surpass my imagination in strength.”
“…Then, I’ll surpass it for you!”
Spear in hand, Sakura Rikka charged forward.
It was the fastest strike stored in Mizuki’s memory.
Yet, it was still within the realm of imagination.
“Same old thing, huh?”
Gunshots rang out.
The two bullets of water and flame approached Sakura Rikka, mixed together right before her eyes, and exploded into a massive burst of steam.
In the blinding white field of vision, Sakura Rikka mechanically began processing the situation.
“Such a predictable pattern.”
Wind whipped up, dispersing the curtain of steam in less than a second. However, that one second was the unbridgeable gap.
“Indeed, such a predictable pattern.”
Right before her eyes was Solciera.
Every possible evasion or counter-attack calculated showed that none could escape Solciera.
“Align yourself, Teruue Mizuki.”
“Alright.”
The scythe swung down, splitting Sakura Rikka vertically.
As Solciera followed through with the swing, Sakura Rikka aimed her spear at her, but her hand was shaved off by a water bullet.
With no means of attack left, Solciera struck Sakura Rikka’s head with the handle of the scythe.
Looking upward forcibly, the sight of a flame bullet exploding filled her vision.
“!? … So, you’re going to blind me, I see.”
Her eyes were scorched by the flames.
Simultaneously, in the pitch-black darkness, she felt her right leg fall away.
“Troublesome.”
Using the remaining left leg and wind, Sakura Rikka jumped back significantly.
Without any sense of distance, she collided hard with the wall, but it wasn’t a problem.
“I can regenerate it anyway.”
As if convincing herself, Sakura Rikka said this.
There was no sign of the two approaching her.
They must have grown confident in their victory and let their guard down, she thought.
“— Even at this point, do you still believe you’re Sakura Rikka?”
A voice came from the darkness.
It was the clear voice of Solciera.
“…I am Sakura Rikka.”
“Are you trying to convince yourself? How pitiful.”
“Can you keep being complacent forever? Don’t you know which side has the advantage in a prolonged battle between me and you guys?”
“We’ve already understood the mechanism of your regeneration.”
The firm voice carried conviction.
At the same time, Sakura Rikka felt a sense of unease.
Why was her vision still dark?
Not only the wound on her torso but also the system that should immediately restore an entire lost limb wasn’t functioning.
Her body remained injured, with only the left leg intact.
“…What’s happening?”
Switching from overall recovery to focusing solely on restoring her vision, Sakura Rikka prioritized regaining her sight.
Faintly, colors returned to her vision until eventually, the scene before her became clear.
“Ah.”
It took Sakura Rikka a moment to realize that the scream escaping her lips was her own.
She had no spare capacity to process such information.
“— The timing of firing is entirely up to you. Can you do it?”
“Leave it to me.”
The handles of Solciera’s massive scythe and the twin pistols held by Teruue Mizuki.
All three gun barrels were pointed directly at her.
And each contained a dense concentration of magical power.
“Concentration of magical power…!? So, you’ve been siphoning off the magic that constitutes the dungeon!?”
“Your near-infinite recovery ability was utilizing the resources of the dungeon. Therefore, if we take all those resources for ourselves, it should work perfectly, right?”
“…Monsters.”
“If the real Sakura Rikka were here, she’d laugh.”
Solciera quietly stated this.
“Dodging this is impossible.”
The scythe had already completed its magical power concentration.
Teruue Mizuki’s concentration was also nearing completion at that very moment.
“This power…! I’ve never felt such wild magical energy surging within me.”
“Can you control it?”
“Yeah. I’ll master it, one way or another.”
“Then it’s fine.”
Mizuki placed her hand on the trigger.
The guns eagerly awaited their master’s command, brimming with water and flame.
Solciera placed her hand on the grip.
The restless scythe patiently waited for the moment.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes— Star Reader’s Staff.”
Upon calling its name, the trigger was pulled.
Instantly, a silver light was unleashed alongside red and blue spiral beams of magical energy.
Two high-density magic artillery attacks powerful enough to obliterate any ordinary monster in less than a second converged towards Sakura Rikka.
“Never will I accept defeat!”
With a shout, she maximized her wind abilities.
Redirecting the surrounding dungeon’s magic power into her wind barrier, she created a defense surpassing her usual capabilities.
“I am Sakura Rikka! The strongest!”
Soon, the barrier and the artillery collided head-on.
Each represented walls and artillery beyond theoretical limits.
However, without even a fraction of a second of resistance, the artillery shattered the barrier.
“Ah well.”
An indifferent voice.
It was an exact replication of Sakura Rikka’s words and actions.
“You both did well.”
And with that, Sakura Rikka’s figure disappeared into the glow of magical energy.
What remained at the site were remnants of a melted operating room wall, a core, and magic stones that once resembled Sakura Rikka, now vanished without a trace.
“Is it over?”
“Yes.”
Solciera nodded, exhaled softly, and started walking.
It was towards the exit of the operating room, opposite the direction of the core.
“Don’t you want the core?”
“I don’t need it. …Ah, don’t misunderstand. I didn’t save you.”
The scythe was directed at Mizuki.
“Just our goals aligned. This dungeon was irregular.”
“…What do you know?”
“Everything. About the impending calamity and things you don’t need to know.”
Saying this, Solciera infused a slight amount of magic into her scythe.
Facing it, Mizuki didn’t raise her weapon but looked straight ahead.
A brief silence flowed between them.
The first to move was Solciera.
Finding Mizuki’s attitude uninteresting, she turned around and walked away with a sniff.
Mizuki watched her figure disappear.
“…You’ve gone?”
She slumped on the spot, drenched in sweat from relief.
“…Are you alright, Mizuki?”
“Oh, that’s right, you were there.”
“Sorry for not being more helpful. The Apis Council requested I gather information on Solciera urgently, hence the optical camouflage.”
“The Apis Council? So, that girl really is something special, huh?”
“Yes. The moment she appeared, the area’s magic depth surged dramatically, showing numbers that shouldn’t exist.”
Mizuki shuddered involuntarily at having fought alongside such a girl.
“The convergence artillery you fired last was typically a large-scale attack conducted with Dive Gear’s proxy calculations. However, Solciera took on all the load and calculations, making the convergence artillery possible.”
“No wonder I thought I could fire something like that.”
The drone operator continued earnestly from the other side.
“Unilateral interference with other explorers and superior magic manipulation. Considering her skills, the Apis Council provisionally ranked Solciera as an S-Rank explorer and decided to officially recognize her existence as an exceptional case.”
“…They’re taking quite a risk.”
The council’s decision meant that “Solciera’s actions would be retroactively treated as a request from the Apis Council.”
An unprecedented decision from the Apis Council.
“She must be quite valuable to them.”
“Unfortunately, we’ll need to hear your story later at Ariannrod.”
“I don’t mind. Given that I fought alongside her, my testimony would be valuable to the council.”
Saying that, Mizuki picked up the core and magic stones.
At that moment, there was a faint sound of the wall collapsing.
Turning her gaze, Mizuki saw Kei, battered and leaning against the wall with his hand.
“Mizuki Senpai, sorry… I was late.”
“Don’t worry. The dungeon has already been cleared—by Solciera.”
“Solciera!?”
Kei exclaimed in shock.
“Isn’t Solciera that ‘mysterious beautiful girl explorer’ everyone’s talking about on the streams, that one!?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
Kei, speaking strangely about Solciera, rushed to Mizuki’s side.
“Mizuki Senpai, are you hurt!? We don’t even know if Solciera is friend or foe!”
“Calm down. At least for now, she’s not an enemy.”
“Is that so? Then, are these the dungeon’s core and magic stones!?”
“Yes. Solciera left them untouched.”
“Fought and didn’t ask for rewards? …That’s kinda creepy.”
Kei frowned.
Nevertheless, he began helping collect the magic stones with wobbly steps.
“If your body hurts, don’t push yourself.”
“I’m fine. With all this focus on Solciera, I haven’t been much help, so I can at least do this much.”
“…No, I’ve been helped quite a lot by you.”
Saying this, Mizuki patted Kei on the head.
Surprised by the sudden gesture, Kei awkwardly endured it.
Was it to distract himself from embarrassment?
Eventually, Kei said,
“Who exactly is Solciera…!?”
ni hyōi tensei shita ore wa TS o akiramenai, かませ役
