Chapter 171
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The one who punches through the jet-black greatsword before my eyes is a semi-transparent girl—Talisman Sena.
Talisman Sena bursts out dramatically in front of Ainika, striking a series of crisp, tokusatsu hero-like poses with remarkable flair.
「Thank you for helping me, Sena.」
She turns to face me, showing a shy expression.
Whether by design or for some other reason, Talisman Sena doesn’t speak.
But for me right now, that’s more than enough.
───Don’t worry about it, Ichiro.
Even without words, her message, her feelings, reach me.
「You said earlier that I was lonely, but that’s a big mistake. I have Sena with me.」
Behind Talisman Sena, who is rotating her shoulders in circles, I stand up after finishing my recovery.
Just as we’re about to take him down together, Talisman Sena holds me back.
「What’s that? ‘Just watch my fighting style for a bit first’?」
Talisman Sena crosses her arms and nods twice in confirmation.
So cute! Amazing!
「GRRR!!」
The one who suddenly speaks is Ainika—he swings his greatsword at lightning speed to intercept Talisman Sena as she dashes in with her clothes fluttering, but—with a series of swift movements, Talisman Sena deflects, blocks, and redirects all of the giant ghoul’s attacks, completely neutralizing them—and then, with both palms—!!
「GUAAHHH!!」
BOOM!! Ainika falls flat on his back, with steam rising from his fierce body.
I clearly see some kind of power being released from Sena’s palms.
Now that I can harness qi myself, I understand something new. While I convert the qi I absorb into mana, what I had witnessed from Sena and Sensei in the past was—
「GUAAAHHH!! WHY WON’T IT HEAL?! WHY?!」
───they had converted the absorbed qi into some other kind of power and utilized it.
Having been hit directly with that power, Ainika struggles to regenerate and roars in anger.
「YOU ALL!! I WON’T LET YOU LEAVE HERE ALIVE!!」
The evil energy becomes visible as it ripples through space, making my skin tingle.
「DIE!!」
His fastest strike aimed at Talisman Sena is—
「Autostrada del Sole!」
I deflect it, kick up the pommel of the greatsword, and with my fist aimed at his now-exposed torso—
「Stinger!」
I launch my strongest strike—and without even taking a breath, riding that momentum—
「Take! This! FINISHING MOVE!!!」
I unleash a barrage of full-power punches.
And where Ainika goes flying, Talisman Sena is already waiting—she spins gracefully, brutally striking his jaw, heart, shoulder, side, and neck in a dance-like series of attacks before sweeping his legs.
Ainika collapses to the ground.
Copious amounts of smoke pour from the spots where Talisman Sena’s strikes landed on his body. And then—
「What’s this…? The space is—」
Parts of the castle begin crumbling away, literally disappearing.
Proportional to this, Ainika’s wounds heal, and before we know it, he stands up without a single scratch.
He begins to speak deliberately.
「This is—’Divine Qi.’ It could be called a power capable of completely annihilating me—Ainika, born from pure malice toward humanity.」
He gestures again and declares grandiosely.
「However, I can now see her weakness.」
The man before us vanishes instantly.
At the same moment, I’m kicked from the side.
The one who kicked me is Talisman Sena.
In slow motion, floating in mid-air, I watch as some of my bangs dance through the air.
「The weakness is you—Holy Knight.」
Talisman Sena launches another authentic Stinger. Though Ainika’s movements are dulled, he doesn’t stop.
The mass of black hands that had caught me during our first encounter shoots out explosively from his body, fueled by dark mana.
Still airborne, I can’t control my body, and—
「In your world, I believe this is what you’d call ‘checkmate’?」
The mass of black hands is about to pierce through me—but instead pierces through Talisman Sena, who throws herself forward to protect me without regard for her own safety.
And so, fixed in place by one arm, she is lifted up, and tentacle-like arms extend from Ainika’s body, shooting out again toward her immobilized form.
They move toward her with lethal intent───
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