On the rooftop of the school.
She was there.
The girl with flowing silver long hair — Leas Lot — quietly glared down at the Diabolic standing in the schoolyard.
She remembered — the Diabolic who had attacked the peaceful world where Leas lived.
She remembered — the being who had abducted the princess and defiled her purity.
She remembered — the opponent she had failed to finish off.
The Diabolic named Alter Native walked leisurely across the schoolyard.
Looking at him, the heat of her anger felt as if it would make her entire body boil over.
But she could not surrender to it. She never wanted to move according to her emotions again and end up hurting those she must protect.
She and Reiko had decided, "If a Monster Villain ever appears inside the school, let’s meet up here." Therefore, until she arrived, Leas had to keep this passion under control.
"Leas-senpai! Sorry I’m late!"
Bang! The rooftop door was kicked open violently.
Haga Reiko. Her cheerful and adorable junior — and a Sacred born on Earth.
Originally, Leas had not wanted to involve her in battles at all — but Reiko had been present at the scene of a fight between Leas and a Monster Villain and had resonated with the power of the Sacred.
The power of the Sacred resided in girls with righteous hearts.
In that case, it was perhaps only natural that a girl who desperately gathered and spread information about Monster Villains in order to protect the people she could reach would adapt to the power of the Sacred.
She was a bit mischievous, but overflowing with a sense of justice.
That was exactly why the fact that she had been dragged into this was painful — Leas almost twisted her face, then forced herself to maintain a serious expression.
"No, I just arrived myself. ...Are you all right, Reiko? Facing that in your first real battle will be tough."
"I’m fine. Besides, I have the power to fight now — if I ran away even so, I’d definitely regret it."
"I see."
Then she would no longer try to stop her.
Having made that decision——
"Sacred Change——!"
——she cried out.
In an instant, her body was enveloped in light.
The blazer she had been wearing until a moment ago disintegrated, and the silhouette of her body became exposed.
Bands of light overflowing from her chest wrapped around her body and formed a dress. While the long skirt that covered her knees fluttered, Leas stretched both arms out to the sides as if being crucified.
Light gathered. On her limbs, on her chest. The armor generated over the dress radiated a clear brilliance.
"Come — Arontina!"
She stretched out her right hand.
Countless water bubbles appeared around Leas — and gathered into her right hand.
The bubbles turned into liquid, and the liquid solidified — transforming into a sword.
What manifested was the Holy Sword of the Fountain. She tightly gripped the blade that possessed an azure edge.
In that instant, Leas’s silver hair was permeated by water — changing into a clear azure color like the surface of a lake.
Magical power filled her body.
Her body, which had been based on the standards of the world called Earth, transformed into her original form.
"That is far enough, you lowly cur."
With a dignified voice, she leaped and landed in the schoolyard.
Her skirt and azure hair fluttered lightly as she readied the holy sword.
The one standing here was no longer the female student Leas Lot.
"Sacred Saber has arrived. As long as I am here, I will not allow anyone to be harmed——!"
Yes, the one standing here was a being meant to protect everyone — a transformation heroine of justice.
A sword that slaughtered evil, and a shield that protected the innocent.
As long as someone bearing the name of Sacred was here, the darkness called tragedy would be illuminated and erased.
It was a voice that made people believe such a thing.
"And Sacred Knuckle has also arrived!"
Slightly later, Sacred Knuckle also landed.
Clad in a costume resembling a cheongsam with armor reinforcing the key points, she tightly clenched her shining fists. Her hair, which had changed from brown to gold, her hairstyle that had transformed from a bob cut into a ponytail, and the ribbon tied like a headband on her forehead swayed slightly in the wind.
Although she did not possess a powerful weapon like a holy sword, the magical power overflowing from her shining gauntlets rivaled even Saber’s. If her fists landed a direct hit, a half-baked Monster Villain would be pulverized in a single blow.
But.
Even while being targeted by the hostility of those two, the white-haired Diabolic did not break his composed attitude.
"It’s been a while, Sacred Saber."
While tracing the tattoo carved on his right cheek with his palm, Alter twisted his mouth.
No — what he traced was not the tattoo. It was the scar carved alongside the tribal pattern. The scar that had likely been carved by a sharp blade crushed his right eye and stretched to his cheek.
He slowly stroked the sharp scar that had been carved by Sacred Saber while wearing a provocative smile.
"How is it? I tried carving a tattoo based on the wound you left on me — does it suit me?"
"Did you come here just to spew nonsense...!"
"Don’t be so cold. This is the result of our joint work, isn’t it? You swung your sword, failed to finish me off, and I decided the nice crescent-shaped scar was perfect and incorporated it into the tattoo — I would like you to say ’It suits you’ with affection, you know."
Her guts boiled over.
Her brain evaporated, making proper thought impossible.
(——Cut him down. Kill him.)
The two words that rose in her mind amid that.
She would never forgive this bitter enemy who had abducted and violated the princess she must protect. She could not forgive him. Affection? Don’t fuck with me, you piece of trash.
Therefore she would cut him down.
Therefore she would kill him.
She would cut him down with a single strike.
There was no problem. She had won against him before. She had only let him escape because she had the reason of needing to save the weakened princess — Sacred Saber had never once been defeated by the mage named Alter.
Therefore, she would kill him in a single strike.
This time she would not let him escape——!
"That’s no good, Saber-senpai."
The moment she was about to charge with bloodshot eyes — her junior spoke in a quiet voice, yet with an uncompromisingly strong tone.
Her feet naturally stopped.
Sacred Knuckle, who had walked over slowly, stood beside Saber and smiled.
"We are champions of justice, after all. If beings like us got carried away by rage and tried to kill the enemy... no one would be able to rely on us with peace of mind."
Champions of justice.
Transformation heroines.
Though the wording was different, both possessed powerful military force.
In the sense of having power beyond humans, they were no different from Monster Villains.
And yet the Sacred were relied upon by everyone while Monster Villains were feared as monsters — why was that?
"People feel at ease when they look at us because they believe we are fighting for justice, wielding that power to defeat evil enemies. Isn’t that right?"
"——I’m sorry."
"No, no, I’m always being taken care of by you. This much is no problem at all!"
Knuckle laughed while making a peace sign, but a faint cold sweat was running down her forehead.
The powerful enemy right before her eyes, the fact that this was her first real battle, and — the current situation where her reliable senior was not remaining calm.
Those things were placing a by no means light burden on Knuckle’s mental state.
"How unfortunate. If you had cut me down just like that, the humans of Earth would have come to fear you."
Saber, who was on the verge of becoming emotional, and Knuckle, who was receiving almost no support despite it being her first battle.
As if seeing through the two’s inner thoughts, Alter lifted the corners of his mouth in mockery.
"Well, fine. ’Darkness, overflow’ — ’Appear, my kin, from the other world of Lemora.’"
Together with Alter’s words, a sinister purple aura enveloped the entire school.
For the residents of Lemora, the world of darkness, the air of a world where light shone was poison.
Of course, high-ranking beings like Alter — Diabolics — could move without problem, but his subordinates were different.
That fact was even more pronounced in the world where the Sacred lived — Calmate — than on Earth, and the invading army had not even been able to attack the cities as they wished.
That was exactly why the Diabolics had set their sights on Earth.
By utilizing the characteristics of Earth’s humans, who had resistance to light yet were also easily dyed by darkness, they sought to replenish soldiers for the war against the Sacred — to obtain Monster Villains.
That was the reason the Diabolics scattered Seeds of Desire and created Monster Villains.
"Go, combatants. Coordinate and overthrow the Sacred!"
Black-clad men appeared from another dimension.
Clad in black clothes resembling military uniforms, they were combatants of a country that existed in the other world of Lemora.
The lowest-class residents born in a world where the strong rose to the top and oppressed the weak.
She felt sympathy for their circumstances, and would have wanted to extend a hand if they sought help.
——If only their eyes were not glittering with turbid desire.
They were the same as Monster Villains.
They hosted the magical power of darkness in their bodies and killed, plundered, and violated — and in order to climb even higher, they became stronger still and once again killed, plundered, and violated — people who had surrendered themselves to such desires.
In a certain sense, they were even more incorrigible than Monster Villains. If Monster Villains were beings forcibly dropped into darkness by the Seed of Desire, then these were people who had leaped into the darkness of their own will.
Evil that had no path left but to be purified by the light of the Sacred and vanish.
Perhaps there were still beings who could be saved in their world, but at the very least, these ones were already beyond saving. They had surrendered themselves too far to the darkness.
"——Knuckle, I will support you as much as possible. Fight with everything you have."
"Understood! Since it’s my first time, I think I’ll mess up, so please help me out a little when that happens~!"
The combatants approached.
Some held swords, some aimed guns, and attacked the two.
Their numbers — approximately fifty at the present moment.
Normally, it was not a number that just two people could handle.
Moreover, combatants were continuously crawling out of the spatial rifts Alter had created.
Yes — while shouting that they would violate the light, cultivate the darkness, and evolve into Diabolics of darkness themselves.
Achievements, achievements, climb higher, and this time become the ones who used combatants.
The fighting spirit of the combatants of Lemora, bound together by desire, was high.
In addition, no matter how many of their comrades were purified and vanished — such things were trivial, and they concentrated on satisfying their desires.
High fighting spirit, no fear of death, no concern for the deaths of their comrades, and overwhelmingly greater numbers than the two.
If one thought about it with common sense, it was checkmate. It would not even be a contest.
"I will draw the attacks. Knuckle, just focus on purifying the enemies."
"Oh, a simple order, thanks! Man, I was sweating thinking about what I’d do if I suddenly got a complicated order~."
And yet, there was no despair in the two Sacred.
Indeed. If one could not overcome ordinary things and common sense — what kind of champion of justice would that be?
Saber stepped forward powerfully and swept the holy sword toward the approaching combatants.
A faint sound of cutting wind rang out, and that was all.