TL: Yuki

ED: Filip

________________________________________________

Arena had felt that she would definitely be targeted, even before they arrived at the Kingdom. It was certain because she is always overshadowed by the actions of Aidle and La Veil. Also, the chances of ordinary humans to be opponents for those two are very slim.

And because of that, they would definitely turn their attention to the one who looks like they could easily handle, which is Arena. Arena has a high level, but it’s only to the point where she exceeds normal humans. She has also fought many battles with the help of Aidle, but has never on her own.

Therefore, she would always simulate assumptions of her fighting alone and this was repeated over and over again through playing Shogi. What to do when caught, when stunned, when attacked alone, she assumed every possible situation.

◇――――――――――――――――

「……Where is this?」

As her consciousness returned, she got up and noticed there was nothing as far as the eye could see in the place she was. The only fixed space that she could grasp was surrounding her. The ground spread out in that space also felt weird. And there were also strange patterns constantly moving.

「Aidle……」

The time came sooner than she expected, and Arena was a bit anxious about it, but she understood her situation well. She knew that she was stunned and kidnapped. Then there’s only one thing Arena could do.

「I can’t with Aidle…… La Veil, not lost!」

She can still feel her connection with La Veil. However, realizing that she cannot exchange words, she understood that the space she was trapped in was interfering with the connection. Next, she thought about what would Aidle do in this situation, and realized she will definitely use space magic. She understood that La Veil would change her body and Aidle would send her using space magic, coordinating with La Veil to get the position through Synchronization.

「After that… Timing!」

The reason I was kidnapped is because Aidle and La Veil were too occupied in the battle tournament. What I’m worried about beside Aidle is who performed this actions, and I understood that the opponent who kidnapped me this time was a Hero. Doing this, they would most likely use me as hostage to threaten Aidle to surrender the match. They are probably just making sure to win, but it would still seem unnatural, and the audience won’t be excited about it even if it ended in her defeat.

Then in order to execute that plan, La Veil has to lose against the Hero in the semifinal match. For the time being, Arena is in that place, but she can bear with that. However, when she thought about what the Hero would do to La Veil, Arena started to cry.

「……Uuu …It’s okay.」

However, Arena held it in and stopped sobbing. Telling herself to do what she should do now and not just wait. Then Arena stood up.

(Image… Image…)

Arena was thinking of an existence that would protect herself, just like the secret to Aidle’s Fairy Magic. For the past few months all she did was try to understand it and create and image. She kept on imagining.

『Fairy Magic sure is really useful. If you don’t think about the burden, you can freely use it in whatever way you want.』

Some time ago, Arena remembered the things Aidle taught her during the training days.

「In order to protect myself… I have to become stronger!!!」

The next moment, Arena began to emit heat and felt a sharp dizziness that assaulted her, but she managed to suppress it through sheer mental power. She would make what she would need from that point on. She envisioned the 『Persona』 necessary for her. For Aidle, and the existence that would walk on a path along her, her Ideal Self……

◇――――――――――――――――

「Where… is this?」

The space where La Veil got 『Teleported』 to by Aidle when she was still in jewel state was a subspace with irregular shapes all around.

「Was this space created by the characteristic of that other Hero? I see, so this is where they brought Arena, that is what I understood. Then,」

La Veil should be able to call out to Arena through synchronization now and she could probably reply this time.

『Arena, are you here? Reply if you are. Arena!!』

『……Hhn? La Veil?』

『Ohh, you finally got connected!!』

La Veil ran towards the source of the message. But as soon as she reached there La Veil got a little confused and relieved. Soon she noticed the sense of incongruity.

「La Veil, you came right at a time I have predicted, were you not injured? Are you alright?」

「Uhhh…. Mum… Ne, Arena… Did you grow a little taller than usual?」

Arena grew to almost the same height as La Veil. Her face had a more grown-up expression and her body was a little more mature than before. Also, the way she talked was not childish anymore.

「Since La Veil is here, the semi-finals have already ended right?」

「Well yes… but what in the world… that state, did master do something for you to turn into that?」

「This is different. It’s something I developed using the my Fairy Magic to the limit. A skill called 『Limited Growth』.」

After saying that, Arena continued explaining about the skill. 『Limited Growth』 is an inherent skill that she created with fairy magic and using it changed Arena into her future self.

When invoked, Arena would be able to call a version of herself that has grown 100 years and become that persona for a day. In that state, she is able to use fairy magic with 0 burdens.

However, the skills cool down time is two days. Therefore, you need to consider the situation extremely carefully before using this skill, so the occasions to use it are very limited.

「Now that Arena is in that state, how long have you used it until now?」

「It’s around 10 minutes before La Veil arrived. I expected that you would arrive at just around that amount of time」

Although her smile was still the same as the old Arena, it seemed like La Veil misjudged her getting a different impression from that of a young girl.

「I’m glad… I thought that separating from Master, you would be helpless and crying waiting to be saved, but you have managed to do things on your own… Master also did her best to solve this quickly…」

La Veil loved Arena as if it she was her own child. Although they have just been together for around a week, she was smitten by Arena who told her that even if she’s a Red Dragon and fought against her best friend, they should still be friends, and that touched her.

However, she felt that Arena was weak and thought that she needed to protection, so she was moved to tears when she found out that Arena did her best and was growing more rapidly, breaking through her limits in such situations.

「Mou, please don’t cry anymore, thank you for coming over to help. Come on, you have a way for us to get out of here right?」

「U, umu. That’s right… That’s good right…」

While getting her head stroked, La Veil squeezed her hand holding onto Arena, saying that she won’t ever let go,

「I don’t think that will be the case」

「「What?」」

The space distorted, and a man appeared from the distorsion. He had similar looks with the Hero, but the armor he wore was lighter, and the holy sword was different. One of his eyes was hidden under his hair, and his black pupil reflected the figure of the two. This was the other Hero, Hino.

「I came here noticing that somebody intruded, but why are you here? I heard that you have been broken by Kousaka in that battle tournament. So will you tell me just why you are here?」

「Is there any reason for me to tell you, you rotten brute?」

「That’s not something you should say, knowing the one you are facing is a Hero. This is my place you know. Don’t you think that it’s rude to just barge in without any reasons?」

「That is something humans declared. It’s not something that I would know.」

La Veil then began emitting flames all over her body. The anger shrouding her mind was overflowing, because the opponent in front of her was the one who kidnapped Arena. But there is no heat transmitted on Arena’s hands.

「Idiot, didn’t I tell that I own this place, do—-」

「It’s not your place anymore.」

「「What!?」」

As Arena held out her hand, in a single moment, the world changed into a fluffy world filled fancy colors.

La Veil and Hino couldn’t believe their eyes and were stuck staring at the changes. La Veil who was shivering with anger just now couldn’t keep up with what was happening, so she called out Arena.

『Wa, what in the world did you do Arena!?』

『Because this world seems to be part of the characteristics of that Hero’s Holy Sword, I forcefully created a separate space using Fairy Magic. If he can’t get out of here then he won’t be able to gain control either.』

She was spouting out outrageous things. This Arena right now was doing things more ridiculous than what Aidle would do, is what was on La Veil’s mind, and all she could do is hold her head in confusion. 「Fairy Magic… Just how unrestrained is it?」

「I was allowed to see the characteristics of that sword while I was rewriting, and it seems that in this space you should have been invincible, but now I have taken control of it, so you can surrender without fighting us here alone you know?」

She also knew that Hino was trying to activate his Holy Sword while glaring at Arena.

「…Damn, then I just have to stop it, Release!!」

Next, the sun was then shining above of them. Checking their location, they found themselves on a grassy plain far away from the capital. Then Arena remembered where they were.

「Haval’s… Prairie?」

「I see, he moved to this place in a short amount of time, it must have something to do with that Holy Sword, right?」

「Fuun, I was expecting to be thrown out much further away, but there were unexpected things that happened… and… well, it’s still fine I guess.」

Hino was also close by reading his weapon. He confirmed that he needs to kill the two who knew of his identity now and then return. He also decided that Aidle should also be eliminated because she belongs to same party.

「For you people who don’t understand that you can’t defeat a Hero, and still bared their fangs against one, I guess you really wanted to die that much. So I’ll kill all of you right here and feed your corpses to the demons… You people are disturbing our work!」

There are no other alternatives other than to fight because each side would not let the other escape. Since both sides believed in their victory, escaping is already not on their to-do list.

「Arena, can we do this?」

「Of course, this power was made in for such situations!」

________________________________________________

「………It’s about to begin now, I think… La Veil, I’m counting on you… 」