"Damn it! The opening I just created was completely wasted!"
After Shizuka was injured, the swarm of phantom beasts went rabid and launched suicidal charges at Sona and Tsubaki; all Sona could do was watch Shizuka recover right before her eyes.
Sona soon realized: if she wanted to finish off Shizuka in one stroke, she needed a long charge-up. But Rika and the phantom beasts would never give her that window.
So she had no choice but to stay locked in a grinding fight.
By this point, every decision she'd made had been correct—and yet, it still wasn't enough.
Where she lost… was in the quality of peerage members, and their teamwork.
—
A few minutes later.
Rei and Kiriko finished mopping up Sona's remaining pieces and joined the encirclement.
Sona and Tsubaki were powerful, yes—but not enough to overturn the tide once the opposition had fully formed ranks.
Rip—!
Rei's spear pierced Sona's wing.
With a torn wing, poison coursing through her, and her demonic power nearly exhausted, Sona's body dropped out of the sky.
As she fell, she caught sight of Tsubaki plummeting beside her.
It seemed… the line had broken.
Center field, the main grounds.
Sona's peerage had been herded into a poison-mist array covering one section of the schoolyard.
No one had retired, technically—but none of them could move.
A few minutes later, the black haze thinned. They were still there… but helpless.
"Akuto-kun, you beat me but won't make me retire. Is this so you can humiliate me longer?" Sona frowned.
Akuto only smiled and shook his head.
"No, Sona. I'm here to give you one more chance.
If you can defeat me, you still win this match."
Saying so, he raised his hand.
Three minutes later—
Bathed in a verdant glow, Sona and her whole peerage were fully restored.
"So if I can defeat you… In other words, Akuto, you intend to take on me and all my peerage alone?" Sona's lips trembled; her feelings were complicated.
At this point, she had already done everything one could in three days.
But surrender was not in her nature.
"Come, Akuto-kun—let me see just how far you can go!"
Outside the field, watching Sona's all-in gamble, Grayfia could only shake her head.
She had witnessed Akuto's fight with Diodora: against someone at merely High-class Devil level, he would not be troubled.
Beside her, azure eyes glittered—Rias was delighted.
Because, in her mind, Akuto's current power was probably thanks to her.
Please—Akuto completed his awakening on her lap, okay? If not for her, who else?
"With this, the Riser problem should be considered handled," Rias murmured, a small smile lifting the corner of her lips as she remembered that mess.
Akuto's side.
After Sona's response, a scarlet gauntlet bloomed on Akuto's arm—the Red Dragon Emperor's Gear.
[Boost!]
Crimson aura erupted.
A green jewel flashed with dazzling light.
[Welsh Dragon—Balance Breaker]
[Forbidden Move—Red Dragon Emperor's Scale Mail!]
The red draconic armor assembled in an instant.
After twenty days of tempering in the apocalyptic world, Akuto had not only reached high Mid-class Devil strength—he had also mastered the Balance Breaker of the Boosted Gear.
Staring at the scarlet armor, Sona's pink eyes widened slightly.
"What a powerful dragon aura…"
Such overwhelming draconic power surpassed High-class and touched the Ultimate-class Devil realm!
"Akuto-kun, this is…?" she swallowed.
"This is the Forbidden state of the 'Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet.' Sona, it's because I have sufficient strength that I can accept a challenge like this head-on.
Well? Want to try a full assault?"
Akuto tilted his hand slightly, making a welcoming gesture.
Sona bit her lip and decided.
"Hah—!"
Raising both hands, she gathered a massive torrent of water.
The Sitri family's exclusive formulae formed at high speed.
A deluge capable of shattering mountains roared into being.
She charged it for a full thirty seconds—
Then fired.
Zzzzzz—!
The jet struck the red armor squarely.
Akuto… didn't budge. It was like a child's water gun splashing against an adult in a raincoat.
"Everyone, together!"
Tsubaki frowned and rallied the peerage.
Clang! Crack! Thud!
Attacks of every kind hammered Akuto, ringing off his armor with varied sounds.
Akuto didn't answer any of it. He simply stood there and spoke:
"Sona, I know you care that I once spoke similar words to Reya. But this is who I am—when it comes to feelings, I always go straight.
Of course, if you still can't accept the real me right now, I agree to temporarily dissolve our engagement.
The reason I'm revealing my Balance Breaker… is to tell you this: to do extraordinary things, you must be an extraordinary person.
And I… am someone with the resolve and the power to achieve my goals."
"…Huh?" Sona was stunned.
Was he saying… after winning, he'd dissolve their engagement?
Could she admit that, after seeing his power, she was already on the verge of accepting?
Before Sona could form an answer, the duel advanced to its final step.
"All right. Time to finish."
A compact black sphere—shot through with prismatic glints—formed in Akuto's palm.
This was the Explosion magic he'd acquired from the Wonderful World.
[Explosion!]
No stacking, no multipliers—just a by-the-book casting.
The black sphere dropped from on high; its motley currents of mana swallowed both teams entirely.
Seconds later, Grayfia's calm voice arrived:
[Sona-sama and her peerage have all retired. Therefore… the victor is Akuto-sama.]
Akuto glanced at Sona as she dissolved out of the battle space; then his own figure faded as well.
He had deliberately left her no chance to reply.
Because what he wanted was never just a Sona who "accepted" their engagement.
He wanted… a Sona who could accept his harem.
To confirm the engagement now? Not the right move.
Better to capture by first letting go.
Right after the victory, the system chimed in his mind:
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the Host for completing the Stage Plot Quest—"Strategy: Sona Sitri."]
[Requirements: Defeat Sona across intelligence, strength, and the Rating Game.]
[Quest Rank: Purple (You shook young Sona's heart to its core, letting her see a higher sky—greatly increasing the odds she accepts your harem.)]
[Reward: Weapon Concept Imbuement (Anti-Magic).]
[Weapon Concept Imbuement (Anti-Magic): Any entity that possesses the concept of a "weapon" can be temporarily imbued with anti-magic properties. While imbued, it can easily break defenses from opponents up to two tiers above your power. Against far stronger foes, some feedback and partial failure may occur.]
—
Half an hour later, after treatment, Sona slowly opened her eyes.
But the first person she saw wasn't the one she wanted to see—Akuto—it was her dear friend, Rias.
"Heh~ Sona, looks like you're fully recovered?" Rias smiled, greeting her warmly.
Sona said nothing. She merely turned her head aside, breaking eye contact.
In Rias's eyes she had glimpsed a playful glint—surely Rias was laughing at her ignorance and incompetence in that battle with Akuto.
So she chose: out of sight, out of mind.
Seeing how unwelcome she was, Rias didn't force it.
"Anyway, Sona, I do have news."
At that, Rias's lips curled upward instinctively.
"While you were unconscious, Akuto-kun submitted an application to the Underworld to dissolve the engagement.
Congratulations—your goal is achieved. Your engagement with Akuto-kun has been annulled."
"…"
Sona rolled her eyes, saying nothing.
Rias didn't mind. She kept smiling and pressed the attack:
"Your goal's achieved—so why aren't you happy, Sona?
Don't tell me… after witnessing Akuto-kun's power, you regret it now? You don't want to break off the engagement?"
Normally, Rias wasn't so aggressive.
But today, she was having an excellent day.
It was one thing to lose to Akuto. Losing before that to Akuto's peerage had already stung.
The self-styled "strategist" Sona was, for once, intelligence-checked by another. For someone Rias was often labeled "an airhead" by… this felt very good.
Sona's lip twitched; her pulse skipped.
"Rias, could you please… go. I need to rest."
Her solution—issue the eviction order.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. Rest up. Losing to Akuto-kun isn't shameful anyway—he's a pure-blood Devil who wields a Longinus."
With that little consolation, Rias turned to leave.
Yet her words seemed to open a new door in Sona's mind.
That's right… Akuto-kun is so strong because he has a Longinus!
If we only consider base strength, Akuto himself might not have reached High-class Devil yet…
If I, too, could possess a Longinus—no, it doesn't have to be a Longinus—if I could obtain a powerful Sacred Gear of my own…
Sona's mind began to race.
—
Elsewhere.
At Akuto's house, he sat across from a black-haired beauty.
Her hair was done up in cute twin tails; her outfit was a youthful magical-girl style—irresistibly charming.
The visitor: Serafall Leviathan—Sona's elder sister, the Demon King Leviathan of the Underworld.
(End of Chapter)
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