Honestly, I thought we won.
　I couldn't have been happier, because the strategy fit perfectly.

　In fact, it was almost working.
　Phoenix's holy sword was supposed to scorch Astraea-san - it was supposed to do so.

　Just before that, Astraea-san's body twitched.

　Two.
　There were probably two reasons why she was able to move from this situation.

　One, although this could only be an expectation already, but she - she had resistance to magic.
　Just like [Holy Knight], [Seishihaku Knight] and others have magic resistance, it's not surprising that she has that aptitude. No, 【Brave man】 also has it for the most part, but she probably has a particularly high aptitude for it.
　It's possible that she possesses such magic tools, but this is the reason why she is unusually quick to return to work anyway.

　Even though I myself spent quite a bit of magic power to offset the 'Invisible Pressure', I didn't expect to get out of it so quickly.

　And the reason why I was able to immediately respond to the Holy Sword of Fenix.
　This is something much simpler, something to marvel at.

　Reflection(,),.

　The moment she lost consciousness and suddenly came back, the sword that was about to cut her was in front of her for some reason.
　In such a situation, she held her sword before she was surprised.

　But my 'blank' is not meaningless.
　It's as if she has managed to put her own body, Fenix's holy sword, and her own holy sword between them.

　Yes, she wasn't even intercepting or defending, her body just reacted and held the sword up.
　So Fenix's holy sword pushed her holy sword in, and her holy sword sank into her own right shoulder.

''Even though you were hit by Reme's black magic...''

It felt like ... time flew by.

　She reduced the gravity on herself from there and went further up.

'I'm not going to let you go.'

I'm sure.

　My body keeps falling.
　And that's not all.
　It is not only that, but the tower that she created was also falling because the gravity manipulation was lifted by the "void" just now.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that you have some magic power left to shoot freeze.

'They'll tell you that in order to fool the enemy, you have to start with your allies. The exchange you just had was intended to mislead me into doing my part.

..........

Just kidding.

'Haha, you're kidding me or something. Okay, let's go. Fran, catch Mr. Leme.

"Hm.

　The three of us will be fine. It looks like Fran will take care of them.

　Fenix bursts into flames and goes after Astraea-san, but he's in a bad position.
　No, he's right to go for the shortest distance. I don't want to give her any time in this situation.

　That's why she ran upwards.
　She lured the bird of fire into the bad road in the sky.

　She would float higher than Fenix and shower the 'Invisible Pressure' on Fenix without hesitation, and if it still came at her, she would plan to intercept it with her remaining right arm and holy sword.

''Fall down, [Flaming Hero]

If you wish to do so, you must wriggle your own wings.

If there's no other way, then so be it.

　She should have applied an increase in gravity to her holy sword.
　If the holy swords clashed with each other, what would happen?

　The flaming heat that Fenix's holy sword wears is already being lost.
　It's just barely enough to use for the attack and defense just now and to get close to her.

　It's not a matter of Fenix's magic power performance. That guy is excellent there too.
　But there was too much magic power needed to offset it. That guy and Wraith-kun had been fighting Astraea-san for the longest time, it was not surprising.

　Astraea-san raised her holy sword.
　Fenix fleshes her out.

　And then it happened.

''-----''

　An arrow pierces the right hand of the [Balance of Justice], (...)

'How about this, Leme?'

　Lily.

　Lark, Lily, Jos-kun, and Melania-san had indeed joined the four of them.
　After that, Lark shielded Lily with a shield to get her out of Astraea-san's sight.
　Taking advantage of the moment of the dust cloud, Lily hides behind Melania-san.
　For Astraea-san, Lily's latest position remains behind Lark.

　Then, judging the timing, Melania-san, whose physical abilities were enhanced by Jos-kun's white magic method, threw Lily - towards the sky.
　All that's left is to shoot an arrow at Astraea-san, who applies 'invisible pressure' against Fenix.

　I meet eyes with Lily.

''It's great.''

　She huffed.

'Oh, brilliant, Lily.'

　Fenix mutters too.
　The holy sword spills out of Astraea-san's hand and goes right past Fenix.

　Fenix flies to just above Astraea-san and reverses his position from before, then swings the holy sword down.

''You're the one who's going to crash.

I guess so.

　The flaming holy sword erupted in flames as it exploded for a moment, as if it was wielding the last of its power.

''-----''

　With that, Astraea takes it to her chest and falls rapidly from high in the sky to the ground.
　She crashes to the ground, and the soil is blown up in a blur.

　Then, as I remember, the actual situation shakes my eardrums.

''Ki, ki, it's decided........!　All of us have united to bring the Knight Commander [Balance of Justice] Astraea, who has shown his astonishing abilities, down to earth now...!''

'............... I forgot to breathe...!　Yeah, and...!　The game is over!　It's time to go!

'Who would have guessed it would get this far!　There are ten of us left!　

''Eh..........ten people...?　Huh?　Oh, really?

　Wraith-kun and Beulah-san catch the tower, which is not a holy sword but a big clod of earth, with an oversized block of ice.
　I ask Fran to catch it.
　Melania is moving to catch the falling Lily as she fumbles around.
　Joss-kun saw this and called out to her to calm her down, and Lark burst out laughing sighs.
　Fenix would manage to come down under his own power.

　--I thought to myself, "Aren't there nine of them?

　I asked Fran-san to drop me off right after I landed and run over there.
　

　Fenix and Wraith-kun had also come to our attention.
　And we were blindsided.

　Her entire armor was scorchingly cut on her chest, her left arm was broken, her right shoulder was lacerated, and her right hand was injured by an arrow.
　And yet, she, [The Balance of Justice] Astraea, was standing.

　She was standing on the sand. It was supposed to be a hard ground of earth.
　Yes, in order to soften the impact of the fall, she used earth magic in that situation to change the state of the ground.
　On top of that, she was still conscious.

''It looks like........my, I'm losing.

　She says in a scratchy voice.
　None of us will admit it.

'No way. I said I'm stronger than you, but I'm not shameless enough to say I won this way.'

"Well done, Master Astraea. You are the embodiment of your own vision of a knight. A man of justice who will not fall.

'Oh, Astraea, you're not out!

"What?



Mr. Astraea, look around you.

　I say to her as she stands there like a ghost.
　She looks around, vaguely, at me.

'Listen carefully,'


'Whoa!　It's awesome and immortal! "Holding out until the end of the game against the entire Phoenix Party and Wraith Party is not human work...! Pretty cool, Knight Commander! You're safe in the city you're protecting! 'Let's move on to the main game!　I want to see you fight again!


"....!　.........................

　Astraea's expression twisted.

'I don't see anyone getting anxious.

'Everyone ... is laughing. Excited, happy.

　But," she continues to speak.

'If we get another chance to cross swords, we'll win next time.

　We laugh at the same time.

'It's our line. We've got a perfect win this time.

We haven't laid all our cards on the table, including yours. If there is a next time, it will be a different fight.

　That's right.
　Fenix, Wraith-kun, and Beulah-san didn't borrow the magic power of spirits this time - they didn't borrow the magic power of spirits.
　Two of the four major spirit contractors fought through the qualifying round without using several spirit arts, including the deepest.

　And that's Astraea-san too.
　The three adventurer groups refrained from using it in the qualifying round, with an eye on the battle ahead.
　Astraea-san must have her own circumstances.

''I, too, want to fight Astraea-san and the others again.

　Just then, a voice came from the audience shouting Ms. Astraea's name.
　She looked annoyed.

'How about a wave of the hand?'

And yet...

He'll be happy to see you, I'm sure.

So.....

　She awkwardly and a little too forcefully raised her right hand in a small way, and a cheer exploded.

'Sorry ... you're hurt.

"...phew. No, it's fine. You were right, it sounds like you were pleased.

　Astraea-san seemed to be smiling as she said that.

　◇

　The final standings in this qualifier were the Wraith Party in first place, the Fenix Party in second place, and the Astraea Party in third place.

　As for the number of points, it's impossible to judge whether it's high or low until the overall results are announced.
　If there were over a thousand, it would mean that a hundred people would have beaten them, so considering that there were five hundred people per qualifier, it would seem to pass....

　Well, let's wait for the overall tally.
　Now, after the qualifying round.
　We all rejoiced over the result of being ranked first, but we exchanged opinions about how we wanted to win against Astraea, or how we wanted to fight with the Fenix Party, and so on, but since we were ranked first, we decided to have a good time at the end of the round.
　And when we went out of the venue, they said

"Reme-dono, could you give us a few minutes of your time?

　This is Astraea.

Hey, Leme. I've got a question for you, and I was wondering if you could lend me a hand.

　[Dragon King] Volak-san is there too.

''I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until later.

'Oh?　I've been waiting for this for a long time, too.

　.........how did this happen?