"I think it’s time for you to die now..."

Lucien Zevalis stares at me with cold detachment, almost as though I am nothing but a piece of filth that he just happened to spot.

I wanted to agitate him with my words, at the very least.

However, it seems he managed to keep most of his composure despite my insults.

As expected of an Adept.

’And although this looks like the end, I can’t accept it...’ Struggling and stumbling on my feet, I rightly grip my Golden Dawn and stare at Lucien.

It’s useless, I know.

But now that I have decided that I want to live, I will do my best to achieve this goal.

I am allowed to.

This, too, is what freedom means.

"The ant simply doesn’t know its place..." Lucien shakes his head, almost in pity, as he approaches me with stark indifference.

I smile and lean backward, strengthening my hold on my weapon.

’I only need to endure for a bit. If I can reactivate Frontflow, I’ll be able to escape by running away. Although I don’t know what his Mystical Characteristics and possible counters to my plan are, I can only do the best I can to—’

"Farewell, Javier."

Right as I am about to blink, Lucien appears in front of me.

His hand—now flat as a disk—charges at me with such unbelievable speed that I find myself in sheer awe and horror. His Tracing is one thing, but his physical ability is also one that I truly cannot keep up with.

I can’t... I cannot avoid this impact.

He makes a slicing motion and aims for my neck, likely to decapitate me in one fell swoop.

His hand closes in.

My life nearly flashes before my eyes.

Then—

WHOOSH!!!

Several spikes—as thick as my entire arm—whistle past me and towards the man who is right in front of me.

Or rather, was...

Because the moment I blink, I realize Lucien Zevalis is no longer occupying his position in front of me. Instead, he has retreated to his initial position and managed to evade the several projectiles whose presence as well as lethality stun even me.

Their presence is shocking.

What are those?

I stare into the distance, at the locations where these rough wooden stakes have pierced without mercy. From a distance, they appear to have been cut from a gnarled tree and sharpened to perfection.

Their twisted components remain evident, and they reek of death.

But this is odd.

Why would such large spikes appear out of nowhere?

No... Is it so strange?

I believe I already have the answer to that.

"Stand down, Javier..." Alistair’s voice suddenly echoes in the air as he rushes from behind me.

"We’ll take it from here!"

At that moment, five other figures emerge from the shadows.

Elma.

Richard.

Rias.

Jamie

Amnesis.

All of them suddenly appear at different positions, as though they were made of fog the entire time. Lifting their agile bodies, they follow their leader’s intent and charge towards one goal.

—Lucien!

"Interesting..." The Adept smiles the moment he sees this. "You used him as bait?"

Once he says this, I shudder at the realization.

It’s true!

The reason I was sent to Sarvosia wasn’t simply due to the possibility of a hint here.

It was so they could more easily detect Lucien’s presence and predict his position if he didn’t appear in the Randalorion Kingdom. They must have also been aware of this village ahead of time and made arrangements to intercept him when the time came.

How frightening!

Their arrangements far exceed my current comprehension, and I was merely a cog in the machine.

A small part of their plan.

I remained ignorant of the larger scheme until it fully unfolded.

’But... should I even be surprised?’

As I wrestle with the question, I watch the group clash yet again with a renewed sense of wonder.

Back when I saw their brief exchange in the headquarters of the Enlightened Witnesses of Truth, I was completely thrown off by the complexity of the combat. I didn’t understand the application of Mystical Characteristics in fights between such Leviathans, as well as a wide array of Conceptions working in an interwoven fashion.

It felt like a series of incomprehensible attacks, like fireworks in my eyes.

Even now, that hasn’t changed much.

However, I can comprehend some aspects of the fight now.

This can only be due to the small increment in my very limited knowledge.

Lucien Zevalis, as an Adept Leader, keeps vanishing from his position and moving away from the attacks thrown at him. He sometimes uses the strange field around him to stop assaults, but it appears the boundary is limited, as he is unable to—or perhaps he chooses not to—use it to protect himself when there are multiple opponents fighting him.

Instead, he resorts to moves such as quick teleportation, as well as an unnatural adaptation to their abilities to evade their assault.

What do I mean?

Well...

Let’s say Lucien has been pinned down by someone, and some projectiles are shot at point-blank range. He would suddenly be able to evade the projectiles, as though he were never pinned in that position, to begin with.

Even if that is truly not the case.

It takes my brain some time to fully comprehend what is happening in that moment.

When Lucien is cornered like this, he travels to the past and adjusts his position to prepare for the attack. However, to us Leviathans in the present, his past actions do not register in our memories, and we only know that he was pinned down.

Thus, when he is able to evade the attacks as a result of his corrected position, it appears too instantaneous and ’wrong.’

This is the trick to his masterful evasion, I am certain of it.

But it’s so amazing!

It’s an immensely crazy thing to think about!

’So the ability of a Leaper can be used in such a manner, too...’ I watch as he does this several times, while applying his invisible field, Tracing, and one more of his four Mystical Characteristics to the fight.

I also marvel at the many facets of the battle as it unfolds before my very eyes.

After all, it isn’t just Lucien who is fighting.

The six Leviathans who have cornered him are also fighting greatly, each of them—perhaps with the exception of Amnesis—fights better than I can.

Their coordination is also surreal.

Captain Alistair Wormwood... I can see why he got that last name.

His wooden projectiles were what blew past me and saved my life back then. It appears he can partially transform his body into a wood-like appendage and shoot several massive projectiles in quick succession.

He applies this to the fight, likely with his enhanced perception and cognitive abilities.

I imagine that’s how he is able to keep up with a fight of such incredible scale while coordinating the efforts of his team with such great efficiency.

’He said he took a Masterwork Potion to obtain this ability, but if he had systemically improved his cognitive abilities with training and lesser Potions, would he have reached such heights eventually?’ I ask this question instinctively. ’After all, Leviathans have a much higher potential in their physiological prowess than humans.’

Such is a question I am severely underqualified to answer, but I watch the fight play out anyway.

Alistair only has two Mystical Characteristics—the wooden projectiles and his enhanced cognitive process.

Compared to Lucien, who has four, he is rather lacking.

Also, compared to Lucien, who commits all kinds of tricks with his Conception and applies them in rather bizarre ways, Alistair is simply not as skilled.

This isn’t surprising.

After all, he only became an Adept recently.

Even disregarding his Interference Power, which would be far lacking compared to Lucien’s, his experience with this new realm of power would not be the same as his opponent’s.

This creates a stark difference in the quality of their maneuvers.

Lucien is far superior in this battle.

At least, as an individual.

However, Alistair’s greatest advantage is that he is not alone in this fight.

There are five others working in conjunction with him, and their efforts are so synced that they actually give this Leaper a run for his money.

That is how it appears to me.

Amnesis, as the Seeker, stays at the rear and doesn’t directly engage Lucien.

Instead, he alternates between Vision and Prophecy in this battle, using his Conception to guide his team so they can more effectively deal damage to their foe.

What precisely does he do?

Well, it’s ingenious!

As a Seeker, Amnesis is the only one who can peer into the past and observe the things that have happened. However, what makes this interesting is that he isn’t limited to his own past, but the past of others.

That includes Lucien Zevalis’ past.

He can notice Lucien’s movements in the past, which others won’t know or remember, since he intentionally went to the past to change it. But with Amnesis watching the past, he can detect this change and inform those of the present, so they can adapt to the new changes and assault Lucien in a different manner.

Likewise, Amnesis looks into the future to predict Lucien’s next move.

For example, where he will appear if he uses Tracing.

This allows them to corner him, forcing him to return to the past to alter his plan or, at the very least, react to their sudden assault.

Naturally, as such a key element in this battle, he is constantly targeted by Alistair.

However, Amnesis seems to have a defensive Mystical Characteristic.

It deflects assaults made from a distance, and Lucien can’t get very close to him since the other members of the Ouroboros Sect won’t let him. Since they know he will come after Amnesis, they have an advantage in pinning him down.

This forces Lucien to abandon this plan and focus on the others.

At least, to break their formation.

But this isn’t easy since the others are just as formidable as Amnesis in this fight.

Yes, I am serious!

Rias, for one, is the most straightforward one in this fight.

She is the vanguard.

Her being sixty times faster makes her an absolute menace on the battlefield, usually capable of defeating Lucien on her own with her barrage of attacks.

Brilliant red bursts of flaming energy currently cover her body, further improving her destructive abilities. In terms of sheer physical threat, she is superior to everyone else present.

However, Lucien recognizes this fact.

That is why he has decided to focus his defenses on her.

His invisible field seems to be capable of protecting him from one person, so he has chosen Rias as the primary threat to defend against.

Because of this, although Rias keeps cornering him and outpacing all his efforts, her attacks do not connect due to his own protection. Still, she doesn’t let up, since his defense against her opens him up to the attack of others.

As long as she remains an ever-present threat, he will be forced to constantly keep watch on her.

The distraction she serves is indispensable to the team’s attack.

After all, how else would Jamie—the Conjurer—be able to manifest his own Conception and threaten Lucien with it?

As a Conjurer, Jamie can manifest past or future objects in the present.

He can also banish present objects to the past.

Combining that with what appears to be a corrosive application to any assault he employs, this makes any object he summons for offense possess incredible lethality.

In this fight, Jamie focuses on Alistair’s projectiles to be summoned.

It is a rather complicated but brilliant move.

After all, if Alistair shoots his wooden projectiles at Lucien, but the latter dodges just in time, Jamie can simply resummon the object right in front of Lucien again once he has returned to his previous position.

This would force him to either block or dodge this new attack.

However, Jamie’s projectiles have an additional corrosive element applied to them. This makes blocking them dangerous.

As a result, dodging them seems to be the only choice.

However, Lucien is smart.

Most of the time, he dodges Alistair’s projectiles in a way that prevents a successive attack from Jamie. He also does his best to steer clear of Jamie’s sphere of influence, which isn’t very vast since he is only at Rank 2.

As long as Lucien is out of his range, Jamie’s counters become less effective.

However, Jamie isn’t working alone.

He has Richard for support, and this man’s contribution to this fight could perhaps be considered the most frightening kind.

While Alistair matches Lucien to the best of his abilities as a Leaper, and Elma supports him with her own Leaper Conceptions, they are merely pressing Alistair and limiting his options. With Amnesis offering hints and guidance with his own abilities, they can better corner him, and with Rias serving as an ever-present threat, they can render his automatic defenses moot. Jamie limits Lucien’s movements, since he tries his best to avoid the Conjurer’s field, and would always be forced to account for successive attacks after dodging any assault.

All of these are contributions that largely affect the battle in meaningful ways.

But they aren’t fatal.

They aren’t the decisive blow that it requires.

That is where Richard comes in.

It appears he is the arrowhead meant to take Lucien down—as a Caster.