Jin sprinted across the manicured schoolyard, his feet pounding a steady rhythm against the grass. He glanced to his side; Koneko was a silent, compact shadow keeping pace with him, her movements silent and powerful.
*I remember how she was at the start,* Jin thought, a flicker of a memory from the first day of training. *Resistant, closed-off. She's opened up since my speech, but she still doesn't trust me completely. That's fine. I don't need a place in her heart next to her sister or Rias. I just need to win today. Then I get what I want.*
Koneko watched the unyielding set of his jaw, her own feelings a complicated knot. But his words from their brutal training sessions echoed in her mind: *"In a battlefield, you don't get distracted. If you do, you get back on target immediately."* She tightened her fists, her focus sharpening, and closed the distance between them.
They were halfway to the tennis courts when the world erupted in front of them.
Jin had already seen it—a flicker of condensed magic in the sky. He planted his foot, his momentum shifting into a hard slide as the ground where he would have been detonated in a shower of dirt and stone. The concussion wave washed over them, and debris pattered against his hardened skin.
They both looked up. Hovering against the artificial sun were two figures: Riser's Queen, Yubelluna, in her revealing battle attire, and beside her, the younger sister, Ravel Phenex.
"Did you really think you could sneak around like rats? I told you i would get you" Yubelluna called down, her voice dripping with contempt.
"I am not here to fight," Ravel announced, her tone surprisingly clear and steady. "I am merely an observer." She drifted slightly to the side, making her non-involvement plain.
Jin's mind processed the variables. Logic dictated he leave the non-combatant alone and focus on the immediate threat. But his instincts, honed by months of life-or-death battles, screamed at him. *Take her down. She is danger. Take her down now.* He took a deep, steadying breath and forced the instinct down, chaining it with cold pragmatism. One enemy at a time.
He locked eyes with Koneko. No words were needed. She understood. She dropped into a low, powerful stance, digging her heels into the turf and lacing her fingers together to form a solid platform.
She was the cannon. He was the cannonball.
Jin sprinted toward her, a human missile. He hit her clasped hands with the full force of his momentum. Koneko's arms pistoned down under the immense pressure, her legs sinking an inch into the ground, but in the next heartbeat, she unleashed all of her stored rook power. With a grunt of raw effort, she launched him skyward.
He shot up like a projectile, the wind screaming past his ears. Claws of pure, hardened Touki extended from his fingertips, ready to tear, to impale, to latch on.
"You truly are a dumb human," Yubelluna sneered. With a powerful flap of her demonic wings, she effortlessly dodged out of his trajectory. "Now, fall to your doom."
Jin, having passed her and now reaching the apex of his ascent, twisted in mid-air to face her. A feral grin stretched across his face.
"Me?" he yelled, his voice carrying clearly in the air. "I'm just the distraction!"
A chill of pure dread shot down Yubelluna's spine. She whipped her head back toward the ground. Below, standing where they had been just moments before, was Akeno Himejima, the Priestess of Thunder. A halo of crackling, energy surrounded her, and a massive spell circle was already complete.
Akeno smiled, a look of sublime cruelty on her face, and unleashed hell.
A pillar of holy lightning, thick as a tree trunk, erupted from the ground. It crossed the distance in an instant, the sound of tearing thunder arriving a second after the impact. It struck Yubelluna dead center. She screamed, a sound of pure, searing agony as her flesh burned and power ravaged her demonic energy.
She plummeted from the sky, barely conscious. She fumbled inside her robe, her fingers closing around a small vial. She drank the Phoenix Tear, and the blessed fluid went to work, knitting her charred flesh back together.
She regained her focus just in time to hear a voice right behind her ear.
"Are you forgetting about me?"
Jin's claws, which had been aimed for the sky, now found their target in her back. They sank deep into her flesh. Yubelluna cried out in pain and surprise. She tried to muster her strength, to blast him off, but the impact and the raw, immense physical power of his grip were too much. He was an anchor of solid muscle and bone she could not budge.
"You keep forgetting about me," he growled, a sick amusement in his voice. He wrapped his legs around her wings, and with a horrifying surge of strength, crushed the delicate bones.
They began to fall.
Yubelluna screamed, a desperate, terrified sound. "Let go of me, you bastard! LET ME GO!"
They plummeted from the sky, a tangled mass of limbs and wings, aimed headfirst for the unyielding ground. Yubelluna looked up past his shoulder and saw the predatory, merciless smile on his face. In that moment, she knew her fate.
They hit the ground with the force of a meteor.
The instant they crashed, a second, smaller bolt of lightning struck the tangled pair, a follow-up shot from Akeno. It wasn't as powerful as the first, but it did its job. Overwhelmed, broken, and at her absolute limit, Yubelluna resorted to her namesake. She self-destructed in a massive, fiery explosion.
BOOM!!!
The blast launched Jin like a ragdoll. He slammed into the thick trunk of a nearby tree with enough force to crack the wood, before falling to the ground in a heap.
Koneko was at his side instantly.
"Man," Jin groaned, pushing himself up. "You Queens are both crazy."
Akeno landed gracefully near the smoking crater. "Ara, ara~ Speak for yourself. You told me to hit without caring for you if I saw a chance. Of course, I took it."
A flicker of movement from the crater drew their attention. Yubelluna rose into the air, battered and smoking, but a second, empty vial fell from her hand. She was fully healed, but her magical reserves were clearly low.
Jin looked from the hovering Queen to Akeno. "I believe you can take care of her."
"Of course," Akeno said unfurl her wings , in her priestess robes. A smile that promised nothing but pain spread across her face. "Believe in me." and she took off .
Yubelluna, fueled by pure rage, attacked first. She unleashed a volley of firebombs, each one exploding with concussive force, turning the sky between them into a churning hellscape.
Akeno didn't even move. She simply raised a hand, and a shield of crackling, golden lightning formed in front of her, absorbing the explosions without effort.
"Is that all the great Bomb Queen of Phenex can muster?" Akeno taunted, her voice dripping with sadistic pleasure. "How disappointing."
Enraged, Yubelluna began to gather her remaining energy for one final, massive attack. Akeno saw the opening. She vanished in a flash of speed, reappearing high above the charging Queen.
"Too slow," Akeno whispered.
She clapped her hands together. A net of lightning descended, wrapping around Yubelluna and constricting, burning, and paralyzing her in mid-air. Yubelluna screamed as her demonic energy was violently suppressed.
"This is the end," Akeno declared. She raised her hand, and all the ambient lightning in the air converged, forming a spear of pure, white-gold thunder. With a final, beautiful, and utterly merciless smile, she hurled it downward.
The spear pierced Yubelluna, and for a moment, the world was nothing but blinding light.
*"Lord Riser's Queen, Yubelluna, has retired."*
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i find my previous chapter lacking so here another one .