In order to turn the tables, Kuina wanted to access a new power. But as she was now, she didn’t have enough strength.
For that reason, I used [Awakening]. [Monsters of the Covenant] and their Demon Lord were connected. The stronger I become, the stronger Kuina would become too.
When Kuina noticed the strength flowing into her, she smiled.
And so, it began.
Her whole body was wrapped in her golden red flames. Aside from the color of the flames, it looked similar to when she was about to use [Transform].
Back then, she would use [Transform] to make use of her hidden potential, changing her form from being a young girl into a woman in the latter half of her teens in the process.
The flames she was exhibiting now was fiercer than ever before.
"Using the ultimate form of a Celestial Fox, Kuina can win"
This time, Kuina changed from her now-base-form of a woman in the latter half of her teens to a woman in her twenties.
The innocence from her face vanished, turning her into an even more breathtaking beauty.
As an added bonus, her broken left arm, her wounds, her bruises, and even her clothes were all healed and restored.
Moreover, her tail count increased from one to four.
This was the form recorded in the [Memory of the Planet].
By obtaining more power, the number of tails a Wild Fox had would increase. Upon obtaining nine tails, they would ascend into a Nine-tailed Fox. If that individual gained even more power after that, they would ascend into a Celestial Fox but then have fewer tails than before, instead of gaining more.
Originally, Celestial Foxes had four tails.
But Kuina didn’t even have four until now. It was highly likely that her teen-age form was still an incomplete form as opposed to her adult form which had the four tails.
Whichever the case might be, Kuina’s latest form possessed unbelievable power. So much so that even I, her ally, couldn’t help but get goosebumps.
Actually, even for her, this power was too much. Through our connection, I could tell that each passing second consumed a great deal of her strength and magic power. I estimated that she had about three minutes at most.
"Rorono-chan, Tiro, thanks but Kuina’ll take it from here."
"Mhm. I’ll leave him to you. But if I see you performing poorly, I’ll beat him myself."
"Gaugau!"
In order to protect Kuina and me, Rorono and Tiro engaged the [Pig] Demon Lord in combat. I had instructed them to prioritize defense rather than offense.
As long as they didn’t receive any grave injuries from such a powerful foe, it was a great success. Not only did the two do that, they also helped whittle down the enemy a bit more. Without a doubt, the two did great.
From now on though, the spotlight was back to the star of the show, Kuina.
Or so it should have been, but the [Pig] Demon Lord was now totally devoid of thought and just attacking wildly. Just because Rorono and Tiro were uninterested in continuing to fight, that didn’t mean he would focus on Kuina instead.
And so, the [Pig] Demon Lord caught Rorono and pierced through her chest with his arm.
"Ugaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?"
But then, Rorono dissolved, turned into flames, and burned the [Pig] Demon Lord.
Infuriated, he then kicked Tiro, but Tiro turned into flames as well.
Without the enemy knowing, the two were replaced by phantoms made of flames. As soon as that was over, the original Rorono and Tiro appeared beside me.
"Kuina’s also able to do this kind of thing, huh."
"I was surprised too... Kuina’s so enviable. She became so strong naturally, it’s unfair. If only I could become that strong too..."
I found Rorono’s complaints amusing and laughed.
"What’s so funny, Master? I was being serious."
"I know, it’s just that Kuina said she was envious of you. According to her, unlike her who is supposedly only helpful to me in battle, you are helpful both in and out of battle. She really envies your usefulness in developing the city as well as improving our war potential via your weapons."
Rorono was taken aback. It seemed like she wasn’t aware of Kuina’s envy of her, or at least the extent of it.
For Kuina and Rorono to be envious of each other in this way, they sure have a great relationship, don’t they?
Anyway, looking back at Kuina’s fight, multiple Kuinas were now surrounding the [Pig] Demon Lord.
Just like earlier, these other Kuinas were flame puppets. If one was struck in hopes of striking the real Kuina, the flame puppets would turn to flames and burn the attacker.
By the way, the flames being used were the golden red flames that could burn anything.
Riled up and even more furious, the [Pig] Demon Lord was swinging his arms wildly. While he was like that, a blast of flames hit him from behind by the real Kuina. Thanks to the distraction that the flame puppets provided, Kuina was able to gain time and thus was able to freely increase the output of the blast. All that led to the large hole in the [Pig] Demon Lord’s chest.
"Kuina’s dominating again..."
Kuina was normally faster and stronger than her opponents, so she liked employing brute-force tactics on them. This time though, she was making great use of her special abilities and was even exploiting the enemy’s weak points.
Since the [Pig] Demon Lord was devoid of his reasoning and thus could only move in a straightforward fashion, Kuina was able to lead him by the nose.
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
The [Pig] Demon Lord shouted once again.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t all he did.
The flesh in the large hole Kuina made swelled and filled up the said hole. At the same time, his dark power swelled and swelled until it exploded.
The explosion hit and extinguished Kuina’s flame puppets.
If finding the real one is too hard, why not eliminate them all at once, I thought.
Still, that must have taken some serious toll on him.
Especially considering that the explosion reached even us. Thanks to the barrier Tiro and the Abyss Howls made though, I was left unhurt.
With the flame puppets gone, the real Kuina was now exposed.
Even so, she was calm and even had a faint smile on her face.
She had wrapped her golden red flames around her and used it as armor. She turned the ultimate attack into the ultimate shield.
However, ever since Kuina assumed her present form, 123 seconds had already passed.
Just staying in that form continually consumed magic power, and a large amount at that. Given that her magic power was limited, it followed that the time she could remain in that form was limited as well. She did have magic power stored in the furs of her original tail, but I had no idea whether she was going to use those or not.
As though to answer me though, her flames became even more fierce. It looked like she was going to use what little magic power she had left and risk it all in her next attack. Soon enough, her flames took on the shape of a large fox.
"Win or lose, Kuina’s gonna end this fight with this attack. If you can withstand this, Kuina admits defeat."
It was such a close fight, but I could tell Kuina was enjoying it.
She hadn’t had such a close fight since she fought Enlil back when she had low levels and when he was still just an A rank Emerald Dragon.
And so, Kuina took a deep breath and then extended both her hands toward the enemy.
"[Golden Crimson Celestial Fox]"
Kuina poured all of her flames into the large fox and made it go forward. By all of her flames, that included the ones that surrounded her, thus leaving none left for her defense.
"UGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
In response, the [Pig] Demon Lord made his body expand even more. This time, he pushed his body way beyond its limits. So much so that his body was visibly in the process of breaking down.
At the same time, he drew more of the seemingly endless dark power of his and used it to cover his body. Like that, he collided with Kuina’s golden red fox.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Ugaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Kuina and the [Pig] Demon Lord both shouted.
Both put their all into this clash.
If Kuina couldn’t defeat the [Pig] Demon Lord with her golden red fox, she wouldn’t have any moves left. In other words, the [Pig] Demon Lord would win.
And then, the [Pig] Demon Lord’s charge stopped as the golden red fox enveloped him. The golden red flames were steadily burning the dark power protecting him.
Until finally, even his tough exterior was burned. His flesh was next.
However...
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
It was less of a scream and more of a bellow.
The [Pig] Demon Lord released all of his remaining power instantly.
It was almost like an explosion. As such, the golden red fox that engulfed him was torn apart and scattered.
With his burnt flesh exposed, he walked toward Kuina. And when he was right in front of her, he raised his arm.
"I... lost"
Kuina, exhausted but somewhat satisfied, said so as she fell to the ground.
I should order the Abyss Howl to break the crystal now, I thought.
I didn’t act on it though. And the reason for that was because Kuina won.
The [Pig] Demon Lord fell to his knees, turned as white as salt, and began to crack. Also, the arm he was about to swing down fell off.
Agares had sacrificed too much. He didn’t have enough strength to live, to exist.
Unlike Kuina who only exhausted her magic power, he exhausted his very being.
"I, i, i, I... thought finally became Demon Lord like [Dragon]... that person, I admire, aspire to..."
The [Pig] Demon Lord spoke those words before his entire body crumbled and then turned into particles.
So, this is the fate of a Demon Lord who used up all of his power. I better take note of it.
"[Pig] Demon Lord Agares, I will never forgive you for what you tried to do to Rorono, but I’ll at least say thanks for helping Kuina grow."
I issued such parting words to him.
Right after, I went to where Kuina was. She had passed out.
Her [Transform] was undone, but instead of reverting to her base form, she involuntarily reverted to her energy-conservation mode.
From that, I decided that letting her know we won could wait until she woke up.
We could break the crystal now to instantly end the [War]. Killing the opponent Demon Lord would also end the [War], but that would make us wait several minutes first. In either case, the Creator would forcibly Transfer us afterward.
But before any of that, I wanted to undo my [Awakening]. Being in this state was tiring, after all.
Wait, no, not yet.
I then thought of something to do, and rather than use [Awakening] sometime later and go through the whole process again—which had certain risks—I decided to try it now.
"Rorono, I’d like to get your permission on something."
"What is it about, master?"
"I’m wondering if it’s alright to use [Create] on your three knights."
Rorono gasped.
Whenever I enter [Awakening], my [Creation] evolves into [Create]. Whereas [Creation] materializes certain things recorded in the [Memory of Planet], [Create] was the power to advance something that already exists into a future version.
Objects advanced in accordance to their base functions.
So, in the case of the three knights, they would grow stronger than they were now, but still retain the concept behind their designs.
Based on that, it seemed like there was no downside at all in doing it. And there technically wasn’t, but going ahead with it might end up hurting Rorono’s pride. As the world’s best alchemist, it wouldn’t be at all strange for her to want to make the knights stronger through her own efforts.
"...mhm, yes, please make them stronger. I would then study the improved knights and make them even stronger. So, yes, please do so."
While clenching her fists really tight, Rorono said so. Her frustration was well conveyed even though she didn’t mean to.
In response, I brushed her head a bit rougher than usual.
"Understood. I’ll do it now."
Rorono had done temporary repairs on the knights earlier. She had put them back together just enough for them to look as they did originally.
While they were like that, I used [Create].
A crest of dark power appeared and made the outer layer of the knights pulsate. Before long, they melted and then began to reform.
The magic power consumption of [Create] varied depending on the target.
For Rorono’s masterpieces, all of my magic power was spent. I had hoped I would still have enough to use [Create] on the Avalon-Ritters as well, but pushing myself beyond the limit might make what happened to the [Pig] Demon Lord happen to me.
"Their new forms are quite cool, aren’t they?"
Each knight’s weapons and peculiar traits were more emphasized than before.
Their material also changed. It was now a metal I had never seen before. More importantly, it was a magic metal that was better than even orichalcum.
"Amazing. [Create]’s ability to evolve something is amazing."
Rorono said so while her eyes sparkled and while her fingers traced the outline of the knights.
It wasn’t that her frustration was gone, it was just that curiosity got the better of her.
She wasn’t the only one; I was quite intrigued as well. Later on, once she has calmed down, I intended to make Rorono explain to me how the knights have changed.
After that and cancelling [Awakening], it was time to end the [War].
So, I picked up the unconscious Kuina, carried her in my arms, and then snapped my fingers.
When I did that, the Abyss Howl that held the enemy’s crystal in its mouth closed its jaw with all might and crushed the crystal.
Right after...
<<Children of the Planet, you’ve shown me your great radiance tonight as well. The [War] between [Pig] Demon Lord Agares and [Creation] Demon Lord Procell is hereby finished. The victor is [Creation] Demon Lord Procell. Fuhahaha, [Creation]’s fights are always entertaining!>>
The familiar feeling of my whole body being afloat then enveloped me.
Looking back on this [War], we not only won, we also gained a lot of things.
Duke was able to steal war potential from the enemy via his [Enhanced Resurrection]. Ruhe, Tiro, and the Abyss Howls also gained actual combat experience, which was something they sorely lacked. Additionally, we were able to gather data on the three knights and even made them evolve.
But most of all, my ace Kuina was able to surpass her limit once more.
All in all, it was really fruitful [War]. Hopefully, it would prepare us enough for future wars and battles against the anti-Procell alliance, who most likely would be crueler now.
While thinking of such things, I entrusted my body to the Transfer.
A Transfer now courtesy of the Creator could mean one of two things.
If the Creator was really pleased with a Demon Lord’s [War], that Demon Lord would be summoned to go to the Creator’s side and be given a reward. Otherwise, things like the involved dungeons would simply return to where they were before.
The Creator did say he was pleased with my [War], but I wonder which one it is this time...
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