Anna-veil was taken away by the Alphares family to recover from her injuries. Regaining some consciousness, she gripped Torina’s hand tightly with her remaining arm and cried bitterly.
“I’ll come back to find you as soon as I’ve recovered! Wait for me! I’ll be more honest with you in the future!”
“It’s a promise, then.”
“Yeah! A promise!”
Now that it was all out in the open, Anna-veil no longer had to hide how much she liked Torina-sukisukisuki. Once the shackles of embarrassment were broken, her tsundere nature turned into direct confessions. Guess that’s proof tsundere types are out of fashion these days.
Anna-veil left, and the just-snuggled-and-kissed Torina immediately went off to get cuddly with Milora again. Sigh, life sure is busy for a yuri harem heroine. Gotta spread the love equally—it’s hard work~
“Torina!”
“Mmm~” Milora snuggled up and rubbed against her. So cute.
This Feng Aotian-type heroine had now gotten her first cheat power and embarked on her path to strength. Surely smooth sailing lies ahead?
Heh. Victory!!!
…
…
…
But before leaving Valhalla City, there was one last thing to do.
Out in the wilderness beyond the city, Torina placed her severed arm—still bound by the bracelet—at the center of a small mound and even stabbed it to the ground with an icicle.
【What are you doing? What the hell are you trying to do??】
The system panicked.
“Giving you a little thrill.”
【You’ll regret this!】
“Then I’ll regret it. Anyway—what’s the deal with those elf assassins? How did they dig you up the second I buried you?”
【You think I’d tell you that? Dream on—wait, wait! You want to know, right? Let me go! I’ll make a deal with you. I give you the intel, you spare my life—】
“Then just die.”
【Whoa whoa whoa!? Come on! Do you realize how valuable I am? H-How about this: I’ll serve you from now on, okay? Truce??】
“Truce my ass. Bye.”
Torina didn’t even look back as she rode off, leaving the system shouting curses behind her.
She galloped hard for about 4 km before stopping. Morai was already waiting there—should be far enough from the blast zone.
“You planted it?” Morai asked.
“Yeah. Is he here?” Torina asked.
“He’s right behind you.”
“!?”
Torina spun around—
—and crashed right into a tall man.
The man looked about 25, tall and slim, with the same black hair and red eyes as her. Handsome, but with a wooden expression. He wore plain light armor made of some unknown metal.
“Ah… Nikos-nii, you’re here?”
“Mm.”
Nikos Deville—eldest son of the Deville family, general of the Northern Empire, strongest solo fighter in the North—nodded at the sister he hadn’t seen in ages.
(Nikos Deville = gender-swapped version of “Niras Deville” from the original work. Combat power unchanged)
He’s the strongest character introduced in the early story.
Due to the Deville family’s contract with the guardian beast Odin, those with talent can summon parts of Odin to assist in battle. What they can summon depends on their overall ability.
The current patriarch, their father, can summon Odin’s eye.
Morai, the eldest, can summon part of Odin’s armor—but it’s so draining she rarely uses it.
Torina, the third child, can’t summon anything. She couldn’t in the original either—likely lacks the talent.
The youngest, Skoti, can summon Odin’s eight-legged steed. In the family, she’s second only to Nikos in power.
As for Nikos—
“Come forth—Gungnir.”
He reached into the air as if grasping something. Instantly, the sky turned from clear blue to a leaden gray. Thunder and lightning roared across the sky, and a massive spatial rift opened in the heavens.
From it emerged a colossal arm clad in black and gold armor, gripping a long spear pulsing with immense energy. The shaft looked like fused wood and stone, the tip like solidified aurora and lightning. Just slicing through the air caused a vacuum trail to form.
Morai held her breath. Torina focused intently. Nikos pointed downward and said:
“Destroy it.”
The giant hand released the spear. The closer it fell toward the severed arm and bracelet on the mound, the bigger it seemed to grow—
“Wait, Nikos! Don’t make it too flashy—”
Morai hurriedly warned, but it was too late.
【Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!】
The system’s screams were useless.
The tip of Gungnir struck its mark.
Brilliant auroras surged like flames into the sky.
The blast wind forced both Morai and Torina to raise shields.
The impact’s roar drowned out the thunder.
When the light faded—nothing remained.
The bracelet that housed the system, Anna-veil’s severed left arm, and everything in a 2-km radius were completely obliterated. In their place was a bottomless crater.
Gungnir and the giant hand vanished. The spatial rift closed. The clouds cleared.
“All done. Ancient relic shattered. No chance of repair.”
“Uh… thanks…”
“I’m off. Bye.”
Nikos gave a stiff bow, then with a stomp, vanished like a blur into the distance.
“…He’s even more of a monster than before,” Torina muttered.
“Don’t call your brother a monster,” Morai scolded.
“Anyway, thanks to both of you. That was a huge help. Onee-chan daisuki~”
“……”
Torina’s fawning smile made Morai shiver. It was that same sensation as getting a tooth pulled—painless, but still unsettling.
“I’m off now, bye-bye~”
“Wait a sec—uh… Miss Milora… what exactly is your relationship with her now?”
“Right now? Hmm~~ besties? Super close girlfriends?”
Pure, innocent Torina truly believed Milora was just helping her out of deep friendship… completely unaware she could be thunderclapped into yuri at any moment.
“I see… um… does she like anything? Money? Jewelry? Gear?”
“If I had to say, food, I guess? Why are you asking?”
“N-No reason! Go on, go!”
“Weirdo.”
And so, Torina, Milora, and Patty set off on the journey back to Jivedon City.
This ordeal was finally over.
Time for a bit of rest.
Milora was sound asleep in the carriage. Torina was just about to nap too, when Patty woke her up.
“Captain, sorry to bother you…”
“Patty…? What’s up? We’re still a while from Jivedon.”
“I have something important to say.”
“?”
In the gently rocking carriage, Patty’s cheeks turned pink. She tried to speak a few times but hesitated. After several false starts, she finally summoned her courage and said, one word at a time:
“Captain, I’ve liked you for a long time. Will you go out with me?”
Patty said that.
Her eyes were so clear.
So clear, not even a speck of impurity could exist in them.
