Chapter 9

Alessia was putting up a good front but I could tell that she couldn’t handle the free flowing demonic energy of Tiamat, that now gushed within her. It was like she was being destroyed from the inside.

She grabbed Hrotti and then dashed toward me. The ground where she was just standing, sank in on itself after bearing the brunt of her front foot charge. Her cool calculated disposition had disappeared and was replaced with an explosive and erratic burst of rage and power.

Despite the increase in the amount of destructive force that she could release. Her movements were slower and hugely predictable. I was able to evade and sometimes even parry Hrotti’s strikes with ease. Alessia seemed to have little if any control over this new power of hers. It completely went against her usual varied and dynamic fighting style, so although it was more devastating, It was easy to deal with.

Alessia’s breathing was haggard but she was still refusing to give up.

“Why do you continue to fight in that state? I’m sure that someone as noble and strong as you, has a plethora of strong vassals, or are those people behind you just for show? You have already pushed me to my limit and Seir has even been disqualified. Only Shiro remains, there’s no way she will be able to take out all the men and women standing behind you, in spite of her strength.”

Alessia ignored my words and lunged at me again. I decided that she had lost her senses and it was no longer possible to reason with her. If I wanted to end this battle, I would have to knock her out.

I intentionally left openings in my guard and baited Alessia into aiming for them. The fact that she did, furthered my belief that she was no longer the same Alessia that almost signed and filed my death certificate so many times in this fight.

The second that Alessia fell into my trap, I spun out of the reach of Hrotti and positioned myself behind her. I evoked the side of Bahamut’s hand and delivered a weighted strike to the back of Alessia’s head. I made sure to distribute the pressure evenly to avoid any lethal damage. Alessia immediately powered down and fell to the ground.

I sighed with relief and looked at Sitri with an impatient expression. She almost jumped out of her seat when our eyes met but looked like she was going to call this fight to an end. Just when Sitri adjusted her headset, I felt a bone chilling bloodlust coming from behind me. I turned and saw Alessia struggling back to her feet.

“I-impossible! Y-you should be out cold and even concussed, what are you!?”

“...N...ver...yi...lds.”

I could hear the sound of Alessia mumbling something and prepared for another one of her charges. This time she didn’t pick up Hrotti and came at me barehanded. She aimed a fist at me but it was weak and I was able to catch it. Alessia struggled to be free of my grip. She even went as far as to bite my arm and claw at my face. I let go of her and she began tumbling forward. She landed on her front foot and steadied herself. She got up and turned toward me, she made another fist and prepared to lunge at me.

I was contemplating using the same attack as I did previously to knock her out for good this time. Just when I was setting up for it, I saw Alessia’s eyes.

“*sob* B-big bro, K-Kuro-kun, stop, please stop. A-Alessia-chan is already, s-she’s already…”

She was unconscious...

Just then, I heard an uproar coming from her side of the battlefield. One by one her vassals were taking their helmets off. Doing so revealed a river of tears. They all had the same look. However, this wasn’t the strangest thing. Taking their helmets off, did not just reveal a group of emotionally moved people, it revealed a group filed with the elderly, women and even children.

“L-lady Alessia, you’ve done enough.”

“Y-yes, please, you don’t have to suffer for our sake anymore.”

“Big Sis *cry*”

“Alessia, dear child…”

An elderly gentlemen with aristocratic attire emerged from the sea of people. He had the same platinum blonde hair and olive skin as Alessia. Despite his age, I could tell that he was once a warrior. He made eye contact with me and spoke.

“I Aiden Belith, former Baron of the Belith House, hereby use the entirety of my authority to yield to the Seir Household and Prince Seir.”

Alessia was still slowly making her way toward me. It seems she hadn’t heard what was said. The old man made a pained expression at this sight and bowed to me.

“Please, I beg you, don’t kill my Granddaughter, h-her actions are only the result of this useless old man’s shortcomings.”

Alessia’s grandfather was not raising his head.

“Raise you head gramps. It ain’t right for the elderly to show that level of respect to young fools like me, like hell I could do something like that anyway.”

Gramps raised his head with a look of surprise. He also began to leak a tear or two and began approaching the still moving Alessia.

“However, there’s no way that you guys will be able to return her body back to normal. Tiamat’s power has completely taken over, her body is beyond repair by normal means. Her demonic energy is no longer refilling, she needs more demonic energy for the birdbrain to repair her body and flush Tiamat’s power out. Unfortunately, it’s extremely difficult to transfer demonic energy from one person to another. Unlike blood, a person’s demonic energy is highly unique.”

The old man fell to his knees and it was like the news caused him to age further.

“Don’t worry, I think I can help her. Seir, I’ll leave the rest to you!”

I turned toward Seir and he smiled and nodded at me. After getting the acknowledgement, I grabbed the still standing Alessia, evoked the old man’s wings and jumped into the air.