The aftershocks of the catastrophe, together with the collapsing body of the Numeron God, merged into the starlight and returned to nothingness.
Flying in the sky, the fusion of Miles and Aisha remained silent, as if savoring the brief moment of peace after finally reaching the pinnacle of strength on the Spirit Continent.
Miles: "Power that is too great really is addictive."
Aisha: "It feels totally different from possession. I can clearly feel Mr. Miles' soul together with mine."
Dark Aisha: "But this kind of over-the-limit form probably can't be maintained for long."
Just like in most anime works, the fusion form used as a trump card consumes energy and cannot be maintained for long.
Perhaps it was the world's suppressive force, placing rule-based restrictions on power, that was too strong.
Or perhaps it was simply the animation studio deliberately stretching the duration of fusion scenes.
In any case, they could separate again.
Spreading the light wings behind them, they descended back to the ground. Surrounded by everyone, the victorious saviors returned in triumph; treatment like this was something Miles had finally experienced even within the Holy Varian Empire.
Thinking about it, aside from defeating the empire's emperor and becoming the Duel King, Miles and Aisha had also completed the hidden achievement of saving the three nations of Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz in sequence.
Of course, this time, while saving the Holy Varian Empire, they had also incidentally saved the entire Spirit Continent.
Thus, after the world-destroying crisis was resolved, the complicated internal situation within the empire was also "naturally" alleviated.
Most of the conflicts had originated from the conspiracy planned by Zepha.
Using his status as a prince, Zepha had moved among the empire's great families.
This included previously conspiring with the Slint family to attack the royal capital of Livorden, and later deliberately provoking conflict between the empire's two great factions—the divine authority and the royal authority—in order to further complicate the empire's internal situation.
All of it was to hide within the torrent of chaos while secretly using his own forces to construct a National Transmutation Array encompassing the entire imperial capital, meant to summon the Numeron God.
Deceiving everyone while never having his conspiracy discovered… perhaps Zepha, rather than obsessively pursuing power greater than Quaedes, was actually better suited to operating within the dark world of politics.
One sibling skilled in schemes, and the other overwhelmingly powerful. Working together, their ending would surely have been far better than it was now.
Of course, this was already meaningless speculation. Zepha had vanished together with the Numeron God into that shattered chaos.
After expressing the empire's most solemn gratitude to Miles and Aisha, Quaedes dragged her exhausted body back to the royal chambers.
Perhaps in Quaedes's view, this whole incident had begun because of her. As the emperor of the empire, it was impossible for her not to feel guilt.
Of course, Miles was not her babysitter.
Leaving aside the fact that she had previously abducted him and planned to "force things through," when it came to stopping the Numeron God, Miles had already done everything he reasonably could for the empire.
As for the conflict between the siblings, Miles neither wanted nor needed to involve himself.
Let the twisted departed be slowly carried away by time.
As for Miles and Aisha—after becoming heroes who saved the three nations and achieving the goal of becoming the Duel King of the Spirit Continent—once they fully relaxed, exhaustion came crashing in like a tide.
The intense drowsiness could not be resisted even by their fused body.
Let this long night simply come to an end.
The fatigue in their fused state was probably proof that their energy was about to run out.
After a good sleep, everything should return to normal.
Thinking this, Miles forced himself back to the embassy residence. Collapsing onto the soft bed in his room, he peacefully closed his eyes.
Miles felt that since obtaining a physical body, this was the most comfortable sleep he had ever had.
Only when the sunlight near noon pierced through the curtains and fell across his face did Miles reluctantly open his eyes.
Even though he had slept in until noon, a cute maid still carried a luxurious silver tray into the room, bringing both an exquisite breakfast and lunch.
Perhaps this was the meticulous care reserved for the great hero who had saved the empire.
Yet Miles did not immediately get up to enjoy the treatment. Even after the smoked meat on the tray stopped steaming, he still had not taken a single bite.
For half an hour after waking, Miles simply lay flat on the luxurious bed, staring blankly at the ceiling as if contemplating life itself.
Because even the hero who had saved the empire had encountered a very troublesome problem upon waking… one that was extremely difficult to solve.
Hmph, you're probably guessing that with the story developing like this, after the fusion was undone, the two Aishas would be sleeping on either side of Miles, hugging him so tightly that he couldn't move, right?
Too naïve! What do you think this is, some romantic comedy?
The problem is a hundred times more troublesome than that.
The fusion hasn't been undone at all!
Even though the energy consumption after the fusion was so intense that Miles fell asleep the moment his head touched the bed, when he woke up, the fused state between him and the two Aishas still had not been released.
It was still the "strongest" fused form from last night.
Aisha: "(・Д・)ノ W-what's going on, Mr. Miles!?"
Miles: "If I knew, I wouldn't have been lying on the bed for half an hour."
Dark Aisha: "Then… isn't this a problem?"
After all, the three of them were fused. If they couldn't separate, trouble was inevitable.
In a situation like this, the one who tied the knot must untie it. They would have to find that shady little merchant loli, Viel.
But it turned out Miles didn't need to go looking for her at all. At noon, Viel was already in the embassy dining hall, freeloading a meal.
Eating lunch together with Viel were Alice and Irena.
Nova, on the other hand, seemed to have gone out with the crown prince Homar.
As for Aleister, there was no need to even ask. Like a divine dragon that shows its head but never its tail, he definitely wouldn't appear in a place like this.
"Viel!"
Seeing that Viel hadn't hurriedly left the empire, Miles finally let out a sigh of relief.
That loli might be a scoundrel most of the time, but she still had a bit of responsibility. She must have predicted this situation and deliberately stayed behind.
"Huh?!"
Well… Miles had overestimated the shady loli Viel in his mind.
She had simply come to the Livorden consulate to freeload on food.
From the shocked expression on her face when she saw that Miles and Aisha were still fused, it was obvious she had never considered the possibility that the fusion might not separate.
"Why haven't you two separated yet?"
Hastily swallowing the half strip of bacon in her mouth, Viel's round eyes widened as she carefully examined the fused Miles and Aisha.
"That's what we should be asking you!"
Miles took off the Emperor's Key hanging on his chest and placed it in front of Viel as he questioned her.
"Wasn't this plan and method proposed by you? Why can we fuse but not separate?"
"Eh?"
With tiny eyes and a huge question mark, Viel tried to act cute and muddle through, looking like a perfectly innocent little girl.
It was impossible to tell that she was actually the Crystalline Archsage who had lived for over a century.
"How could this happen? Logically speaking, you should separate after the duel ends."
"Don't tell me you don't know either!"
"(>▽<)"
She stuck out her tongue in the classic gesture of shirking responsibility. It seemed this shady loli was downright unreliable.
"Miles and Aisha… can't separate…"
Much calmer than expected, Alice finished her lunch and elegantly lifted her teacup to her lips.
Originally, everyone thought Alice would be the one who had the hardest time accepting this.
However, now it seemed her reaction wasn't that intense.
Although… she had been holding that sip of tea for quite a long time. Did one sip really take that long?
Curious, Irena waved her hand in front of Alice's eyes.
"She's petrified."
Well, it turned out that being unable to accept the fact that her younger sister had fused with a man and couldn't separate had caused Alice to enter a self-defense shutdown mode.
"Big sister, snap out of it!"
Another difference between fusion and soul possession was that Aisha could control this body anytime she wanted, without needing to switch like before.
"Still no reaction." Irena waved her hand again.
Even her sister's voice couldn't cure Alice's petrified state, so they could only leave her aside for now.
"There's actually something I'm really curious about~"
Irena, meanwhile, was the one who seemed to accept the situation most easily and even found it rather amusing.
"With Miles and Aisha fused, is this body actually male or female?"
"Hm (・_・)?"
Irena suddenly asked a question that seemed both extremely important and trivial.
Before this, neither Miles nor Aisha had really cared about the exact gender of this body.
After all, it had only been a temporary body used for battle at the time. Who would worry about something like gender that had no practical use?
In fact, it was only after Irena asked that Miles examined the body he had after fusing with Aisha for the first time.
Although some muscle lines were visible, perhaps because the two Aishas made up the larger portion, the body's characteristics leaned more toward female.
Of course, that didn't mean the chest; Aisha didn't have that either.
Smooth, fair skin, a delicate appearance that was both cute and handsome, and clothes that were somewhat revealing after the fusion; many perverts would probably find it quite appealing.
Though if we're talking about the exact gender…
Viel answered, "It should be something like genderless, like a starlight body."
"A starlight body?" Aisha tilted her head in confusion.
"Genderless~"
After carefully examining the fused Miles and Aisha from every angle, Irena stuck out her tongue and couldn't help licking her lips.
"Which means you can be male or female. Isn't that great!"
Irena, the scoundrel witch who could rival the shady loli Viel as one of the twin scoundrels, was no longer hiding her obvious desires.
Irena had long since declared herself bisexual; so as long as someone was cute or handsome enough, it didn't matter whether they were a boy or a girl.
And Irena had feelings for both Aisha and Miles at the same time.
So what kind of situation was this now?
Aisha and Miles had fused together! And after the fusion, they were both cute and handsome at the same time, perfectly hitting Irena's preferences!
And because Aisha—the one who originally had the deepest bond with Miles—was now fused with him, she could no longer stop other women from competing for Miles.
At this moment, Irena felt as if she had received a blessing from heaven.
"Maybe it's not so bad if you never separate. Just fall into my arms together From now on I'll take good care of both of you"
"Has this woman finally gone crazy?"
Seamlessly switching control of the body to Miles' personality, he ignored Irena, whose preferences had gone absolutely out of control, and prepared to push open the door to leave the dining hall.
Since the shady loli Viel didn't know how to separate them, the only option was to go consult someone else.
For example, the extremely reliable senpai Aleister lately.
Come to think of it, if he simply summoned the card [Aleister the Invoker] from his Deck, he should easily be able to locate the real Aleister.
Would that count as the token Aleister left behind for Miles?
Abruptly, then, just as he was about to leave the dining hall, the door handle suddenly froze solid with magic.
The familiar method of confinement almost triggered Miles' PTSD.
However, the one who froze the door this time wasn't Quaedes, but the reckless Irena.
"Are you really going to separate?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
They couldn't possibly remain fused in a genderless state for the rest of their lives. In every sense, it would be far too troublesome.
"If you insist on separating!"
Irena grabbed the witch hat from the dining table and firmly placed it on her head.
"If you insist on separating, then step over my corpse first!"
Putting on the witch hat, Irena was now fully armed (though putting on a hat hardly counted as full equipment), and the Spirit Eyes on her arm began to shine.
"Let's duel! If I win, you'll have to stay like this for the time being, and then go on a… date with me!"
Despite Irena never being obsessed with dueling and getting stronger like Kaima or Kevin, those hopeless duel addicts, this time, however, the scoundrel witch stepped forward without hesitation.
To protect her orientation!
"You're serious?" Miles asked in surprise, looking at Irena's solemn expression.
You really know how to pick your opponent.
Even if it's to protect your orientation, you actually want to duel fused Miles × Aisha.
If you're looking to get beaten up, you couldn't rush it faster than this.
"Irena, I'm not bragging or anything. In this situation, you're going to lose badly. Are you fine with being instantly defeated?"
"Enough talk! Everyone has a moment when they must fight to protect what matters to them.
"And for me, that moment is now!"
No matter how grand the speech sounded, it still looked like a pervert having a relapse.
"Fine then!"
With no other choice, Miles also activated the Spirit Eyes on his arm where the Utopia Deck was stored.
It seemed like nothing more than a duel with an obvious outcome; one that was essentially meaningless.
Regardless, Viel, sitting on the dining table with her short legs dangling in the air while enjoying dessert, suddenly rolled her eyes.
"Oh, I see. That method might actually be worth trying. Did that magic girl think of the solution before I did?"
"Just two pictures and the foot fetish is already obvious."
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