(Leonardo Gascoyne... Why is this man here...?!)
The supreme leader of the Council of Sages had made his entrance.
Lest was stunned, but two possible reasons for the man's presence immediately came to mind.
One was the existence of Takfir Kahen, the secret society hostile to the Council of Sages.
Perhaps he had appeared because the man named Japanese was here.
(And the other... is [Kagutsuchi].)
Just moments ago, Lest had unleashed the [Kagutsuchi] spell against the Empire's Knight Order.
It was the very same magic he had once cast against the Wurm—the power Gascoigne had explicitly forbidden him from ever turning on human opponents.
(Did he come to punish me for using forbidden magic...? No, I kept it on a small scale, so I figured it wouldn't be an issue.)
Though he had deployed [Kagutsuchi], his targets had numbered fewer than ten.
The ban applied to strategic, mass-slaughter applications, so he had assumed no one would notice.
"What a nuisance. Ah, truly troublesome... To think I would encounter my nemesis in a place like this."
Gascoigne spoke.
His gaze shifted between Lest and Japanese.
"A boy who broke a taboo, and a mortal enemy bound to me across the passing of ages... Which of the two should I strike down first, I wonder?"
"......!"
Sure enough, Lest was marked as a target.
Gascoigne was by no means an ally—sweat broke out across Lest's back in a cold rush.
"How foolish. You always overthink things."
As Gascoigne feigned contemplation, Japanese Yoichiro spoke up.
"Try doing the math. 18,782 plus 18,782. The answer is 'slaughter them all.'"
As Japanese smiled, [The Crawling Devourer] materialized around him once more.
Nor was it the only nightmare to take form—a giant snake sprouting eyeballs all over its body, a slime covered in octopus-like tentacles, and even a grotesque creature standing three meters tall with a crimson human head and thick, muscular arms appeared alongside it.
"Our enemies have gathered in one place, so wouldn't it be simpler to just kill everyone?"
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Japanese unleashed the monsters all at once.
"[Amaterasu]!"
Lest reacted instantly.
He released the light he had gathered during their exchange as a concentrated laser beam.
The beam washed over the grotesque mass of rotting meat—[The Crawling Devourer]—just as it lunged to tear into him.
Thanks to the charge he had built up, the radiant beam erased [The Crawling Devourer] in a single instant.
"I see. That makes sense."
Monsters surged toward Gascoigne as well.
Yet he handled them without a hint of panic.
"...Indeed. That makes perfect sense. If our enemies have clumped together, then all the better for us."
"!"
"[Blue Heaven is Dead], [Yellow Heaven Shall Rise]."
Gascoigne unleashed his magic.
A flash of two-toned light, blue and yellow, utterly erased the monsters.
The light swept forward, bearing down upon Japanese—and surging straight toward Lest as well.
"[Wind Shield]!"
"How pointless."
Lest blocked the dual-colored light with a barrier of wind, while Japanese shielded himself behind his monsters.
The wall of wind evaporated in a split second, and ribbons of radiance flared anew.
(What kind of magic is this...?! Light, thunder... What attribute does it even belong to...?!)
"I can't fully block this...!"
In that case, Lest opted for another spell entirely.
"[Star Eater]!"
A dark star that swallowed even light itself.
The pitch-black sphere absorbed the twin-colored light, neutralizing it completely.
"All right, that works...!"
With [Star Eater], he could defend against the light magic.
He had a viable countermeasure. He could fight. He could stay in this clash.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"[Star Eater]!"
The giant snake bristling with eyeballs snapped at him, but he annihilated it with the dark star.
Ribbons of light assaulted him from the opposite flank, but Lest conjured dark stars in both hands to parry them aside.
"[Amaterasu]!"
Whenever an opening presented itself, he fired off beams of searing light.
He struck at Japanese, struck at the spawned monsters, and given the chaotic circumstances, had no choice but to attack Gascoigne as well.
"How sad. To think I must kill two fellow Japanese compatriots in a single day."
"What a nuisance. Truly troublesome. Still... an enemy is an enemy, and they must be swept aside."
"I'm the one who's troubled here... Two men who refuse to listen to reason. What am I even supposed to do...?"
Confronted by two figures who clearly outmatched him, Lest let out a murmur of genuine exasperation.
A chaotic three-way standoff.
With friend and foe hopelessly tangled, nothing made sense anymore.