Thunder rained down.
The blazing white lightning burned the retina and scorched the surroundings every time it was unleashed.
Given such lightning, Ados had no option to choose being enveloped by it before she became a specter or a priest.
Lightning is a mighty force. Even deities use it as punishment rather than becoming lightning itself.
Even deities hesitate with lightning, which is why it serves as punishment.
Ados, who wielded this punishment and acted on behalf of the deity’s will, knew well how many deities feared this power.
She understood how much chaos and evil were quelled even before they began due to this power.
Thus, in her view, the world needed order.
Pain is worthless, just as chaos is.
She desired an endlessly perfect order.
Not the imperfect failure that arises when law and order vanish, but complete order.
Therefore, she vowed to establish this order herself.
She pledged to use any force necessary, be it against evil deities, humans, or any other beings.
Thus, her lightning only knew how to burn, crush, and punish.
Things like wrapping oneself in it or moving at the speed of lightning were unrelated to her.
This was an answer far from correct, almost completely wrong, compared to the right answer Lumel had derived.
And considering the life and end sent by the master of lightning, naturally, her lightning was insufficient.
Kwaarrrr!
The roaring thunder. Amidst the lightning bolts piercing through the traces of Lumel, the eyes of two women met.
Two pairs of eyes tinged with indigo—perfectly identical in shape, size, and color.
Yet, due to the differences in their lived experiences, these eyes were markedly different from Lumel’s.
At first glance, arrogant and then wicked, yet also desperate in another way.
No. 13 was very familiar with these eyes.
What resided in them was close to jealousy.
It was akin to envying Lumel for deriving a different answer.
No. 13 knew this well.
Hence, while watching the splendid lightning that shone despite its failure, she felt regret.
So No. 13 was conflicted.
Fzzz, kwaarrrr!
Lightning rained down. Amplified by Ados’s mana in the prepared battleground, the intensified mana turned into white lightning scattered in all directions.
Kwajjjj!
The scattered lightning already blackened and flickered across the overturned concrete, while flashes crawled around like insects.
Unlike someone who could withstand the lightning bare-handed and wrap themselves in it, Ados had to amplify her mana and undergo various bodily modifications just to touch this lightning.
Despite having superiority in firepower…
Kwaarrrrrr!
As the discharged lightning writhed thickly like ancient trees, a golden spear soared and gathered the lightning.
When the lightning cleared, thunder struck again, erasing the lightning’s traces.
Golden and blue lightning. The old glory that Ados could not reclaim.
That was why Ados retreated, biting her lips.
There was no way to defeat this lightning head-on, but if No. 13 intervened, the outcome would change.
No. 13 was a being favored by magic, and her magic was of a different caliber.
Even if she only assisted with operating the lightning, it would make a significant difference.
For that reason, after landing on the upper part of the battleground, Ados glanced sideways at No. 13.
Cold eyes.
The eyes of a woman who didn’t harbor much affection for No. 13 and regarded her merely as a tool.
Upon seeing those eyes, No. 13 perceived the silent urging within them and slowly raised her staff.
The staff, existing to enhance and assist in forming spells, drew mana from No. 13’s hands.
The swirling blue mana was so dense that it was visible to others from the moment it emerged.
Lumel stiffened as if encountering misfortune upon landing on the ground, and the rest of the traveling party looked confused as they saw No. 13 point her staff.
“Miss! Stop―”
Tiyalmisof tried to persuade while preparing her bow just in case something went wrong.
Phey frowned in thought, and Lumel once again wrapped himself in extinguished lightning.
Fzzz!
From a lower position, the crackling lightning and the chilling sound of the drawn bowstring.
Ados attempted to block them with lightning, and faster than the scattered lightning, a specter stepped forward with his sword to block Angie, Phey, and Richard.
In the midst of this standoff, No. 13 opened her mouth without any interference.
Even though she wasn’t loved, No. 13 couldn’t simply ignore this fight.
“Halt.”
The uttered words were simple.
But they carried sufficient power.
Mana took form and purpose.
Visible mana coiled into chains.
The appearance emanating from the staff resembled electricity.
And the tip of the extended staff pointed towards Ados.
Naturally, the chain bound Ados.
Chaaarr!
Ados’s eyes widened in shock.
Confusion, a faint sense of betrayal, and an odd emotional shift because of the unexpected turn.
Ados turned her head to meet No. 13’s gaze.
Human indigo eyes met draconic blue ones.
They read each other’s emotions.
While Ados held only confusion and betrayal, No. 13’s eyes were filled with diverse feelings.
She disliked this fight.
She wanted to stop it.
She didn’t want her mother figure, Ados, to get hurt, even though she hadn’t been loved.
Similarly, she didn’t want the people who had brought her joy over the past week to get hurt.
She couldn’t bear the fact that they had already been injured.
Originally, she wouldn’t have interfered. Originally, she might have used auxiliary magic to make Ados’s lightning even stronger.
But she had recently met a peculiar man.
A man who acted merely because he wanted to.
A man who showed her the world despite knowing it would tire him, just to indulge her whims.
Though No. 13 didn’t know much, she realized she too could act according to her desires.
So she did.
She wanted to stop this fight.
At the end, blue chains bound Ados’s voluptuous body.
“You…!”
Fzz, fzzz.
Electricity surged out just from her emotional fluctuations.
The current of turbulence heated the chains greedily.
The directed current was ready to tear apart at any moment, but No. 13 spoke again.
“Retreat, leave!”
Kwaaaaaang!
Once more, mana took form. Though crude, the magical incantation formed solely from her words and will.
Thus, Ados’s body moved away, fell back.
From the center of the battleground to the outside, from the place gathering currents to the place receiving them.
Thud, the sound of falling was surprisingly light.
All her internal organs replaced with magical utility made Ados extraordinarily light.
The pain accompanying the fall was as light as her weight.
So Ados quickly stood up, and the mana-bound chains vanished, consumed by lightning.
But someone moved faster than the chains burning away.
Kwaarrrr!
Lumel, wrapped in lightning, shot forward.
Her arm stretched forward, pulled from her side.
The two spears aimed precisely—not just with lightning but something else.
Sharp thrusts targeting the neck and heart.
Techniques capable of taking a life despite confusion and hesitation.
Even while feeling anguish at having to stab a woman who resembled her face and was clearly related to her birth.
Lumel intended to kill Ados in one strike and possessed the strength to do so.
Ados realized this. She hurriedly summoned lightning, but it was too late.
In the distance, Phey crouched to charge, and Ereta prepared to throw her handaxe toward the path Ados might escape through.
Escape seemed impossible.
Knowing this well, the specter stepped between Ados and the group.
Kaahhng!
Fzzzzzz!
An attack wrapped in lightning that should’ve been unstoppable.
The specter calmly blocked it, embedding his blade into the ground.
The current that should’ve flowed through his armor and electrocuted him dissipated into the ground with that small movement.
The specter swiftly swung his electrified blade. After attacking, there was a gap.
A slash aimed at Lumel’s throat was an unavoidable blow.
Lumel flinched upon realizing this, but…
“Vanish, never return!”
Just as the tip of No. 13’s staff glowed, the specter disappeared along with his swing.
With a scattering sound, only a faint bluish afterimage remained where he had been.
The group didn’t understand the sequence of events, but Lewena was different.
She realized this was a kind of teleportation performed using an extremely crude incantation.
Similar to the space-time manipulation Ados had confidently demonstrated but much inferior and cruder in quality.
One might call it an expulsion spell.
What happened to the expelled person was no longer important.
Lumel gathered lightning onto her spears, and Tiyalmisof had already released her arrow.
Simultaneously, Ados leaped. With the specter gone, there was no chance of victory.
But she turned her head to look behind her.
At the center of the battleground where No. 13 was.
Then Ereta threw her mace, and Phey charged forward.
Thung, tuuung.
The elf leaped through the air, extending her sword to accelerate at the peak of her jump.
Angie hesitated, ready to throw her sword but stopped, realizing it might harm No. 13.
Only Richard, catching Ados’s intent, ran, but it was too late.
Kwaarrrrrrrr!
Ereta’s mace grazed past, and the arrow pierced Ados.
Much lighter than an average human, Ados accelerated thanks to the force of the arrow.
At the end of that acceleration, she flew toward No. 13, wrapped in white lightning.
Lewena slightly furrowed her brows and stretched out her shadow, but frequent consumption of the abyss left the shadow incomplete.
The shadow was erased by the lightning. A sharp spear cut through the covered darkness and advanced.
Its target was No. 13.
Through torn flesh and seared skin from the lightning, Ados reached the center of the battleground.
Having remodeled her body in a manner close to bioengineering as a Priest of Predators, Ados stretched out her hand toward No. 13, spilling blue blood through her split skin.
With the disappearance of the specter and uncertainty about how long Tiyalmisof could hold Aslan, she believed she needed to kill No. 13 and take her mana.
She thought this was the only method that offered any chance of victory.
No. 13 sensed her own death approaching as she watched Ados coming closer.
She realized Ados’s extended arm aimed for her heart.
There was nothing No. 13 could do in opposition.
Because she had used her mana to perform the crude teleportation spell, it was momentarily depleted.
Thanks to elven blessings, her mana recovery was explosive, and it wouldn’t take long to regenerate, but…
It wasn’t fast enough to stop Ados moving at the speed of lightning.
Perhaps, once the acceleration ended, she wouldn’t even feel it.
No. 13 sensed her death.
Still, she extended her staff.
With a futile expression, she aimed her staff at Ados.
She had neither the means nor the intention to resist.
The conclusion seemed obvious.
Kwack!
Until the wall cracked.
Kwajjjj!
Not fast enough to astonish or powerful enough to change the world, but…
A man who knew exactly when to intervene appeared from the broken wall.
Kwaaaaaang!
The wall shattered. Concrete and lime exploded into chaotic white dust.
From the center, someone burst forth swinging a sword.
Kaaaaaahhng!
The swing of white light. That white light severed Ados’s arm.
Ados was startled as she watched her arm being cut off.
The sight overlapped with a memory from long ago.
The moment Omul severed her arm back then overlapped with now.
The overlapping reality and past separated as her arm fell, and through the dust, Ados faced emerald green eyes.
And the severed arm and tattered Tiyalmisof fell to the ground simultaneously.
