“Woooowww!! Iroha, since when can you move like that? It was so funny when the pieces of armor started flying. Mind if I try it?” Sarasa pointed at the nearest living armor.

  Her sense of time and pce was as terrible as always. Iroha may have showed up to save them, but they were still surrounded. Carol couldn’t help but worry.

  “How did you kill that statue? Are there weak spots in their shoulders? That was so cool…”

  “Yeah… We’re only missing the blood now.” The tense mood from before slowly started dissipating since Iroha showed up. Sarasa and Ririna started discussing some pointless stuff.

  “Blood?”

  “You should have seen her in the valley. Iroha got covered in blood from the monsters there, and that’s when she looked really cool!”

  “Ehh? Really? I would have liked to see that…”

  “Ahahaha… I appreciate the compliment, but we should save that for ter.” Iroha looked at the three of them, trying to make sense of the situation. “What happened while I was away? Did you find the thing you were looking for?”

  “Yep! It’s right here!” Sarasa waved the keycard around while holding it with two fingers. “We got it, but… For some reason, everything in the castle suddenly started moving and trying to kill us. You showed up just in time… We were almost cornered…”

  Almost cornered? They were cornered.

  “I see… Well, if we have what we came for, let’s find a way out here.” Iroha announced it so casually that it inspired the other two to nod along. “Are you alright, Carol? Did you get hurt?”

  “No… I’m fine… Only a few scratches.” Carol was gd Iroha showed up. Their odds are much higher with her around. But she couldn’t bring herself to look her in the eye. “Sorry… We ended up having to rely on you in the end…”

  Iroha grabbed her shoulder with a smile. “You did great. Everyone’s alive. That’s what’s most important. Let’s take care of the rest together.” It wasn’t her ideal situation, but Carol could live with that. She raised her face and nodded.

  “It’s nice that you’re saying that and all, but can we really do it?” Sarasa knew the extent of the enemy’s forces and knew that it’d be hard for the four of them to handle them. “There are enough of those little guys here to overwhelm us. And you’re also the only one who can damage the giants. Can you handle all that?”

  “I can, but… I can’t do it right away. I can’t jump directly at the statues and destroy them. You’ll have to buy me some time.”

  “What? Didn’t you just smack the other one? Can’t you just do that again?”

  “No, it’s not that simple. I first need to…” Iroha paused for a second, wondering how she could expin Violence Impulse without giving too much away. “I need to charge up by fighting the weaker ones first. Then I can kill them.”

  “Really? It sounds like you just want an excuse to run around killing the weak ones and steal the spotlight… I don’t like that…” Sarasa crossed her arms and teased Iroha. She was a bit upset at being in a support role.

  “If you wanna fight the statues yourself, be my guest.”

  “Geeh!! Fine… We’ll do it your way.” Sarasa slumped her shoulders and adjusted the grip on her daggers, getting ready to fight.

  “I’ll aim for the big one behind us first, then take out the other one. Just hold your ground until the two statues fall. When they’re down, we get out of here.” As Iroha finished expining, the enemy finally started moving again, and the hollow armors stepped up to engage them.

  “Alright. Leave this to us.” The fastest of their group swung his sword at Carol. His attack got deflected, and he was hit with a counterattack that caused him to crumble.

  Iroha smiled while nodding. “Good luck.” In an instant, she dashed forward into the sea of enemies. The sound of her sword cutting through their armor resounded through the rge hallway, but her power was not the same as before.

  “Is she gonna be alright?” Sarasa stabbed her daggers into one of them, then jumped to Ririna to slice off the head of another. “She slowed down a lot…”

  “Don’t worry… Once she takes down a few of them, her eyes will start glowing, and then you’ll see.” Ririna giggled. She couldn’t help in the fight, but she knew how to position herself to avoid danger. “No matter how tough those statues are, they’ll fall.”

  It didn’t take long until a bang sent multiple pieces of armor flying. Iroha’s powering up. Carol had heard about it, but feeling the reverberations in her body helped her really understand Iroha’s power.

  “Oh? It started again… She’s so lucky getting to run around and sending them flying! I wanna do that too!”

  “Shut up… You’ve been doing nothing but having fun today. Focus!” Ririna scolded Sarasa while running to keep up with her jumps.

  “Take this!” Off in the distance, Iroha buried her sword in her target’s head. Just like the st time, it cracked the stone, then after a couple of seconds, the cracks spread and the statue crumbled.

  “Looks like she’s done there…” Sarasa looked at the rubble falling, surprised, when Iroha returned.

  “Get ready. We’re getting out of here next.” She joined them in taking out a handful of the smaller monsters, creating some space. “Heart Piercer!” After shouting something none of them had heard before, Iroha jumped in the direction of the other giant with a thrusting motion.

  “L- let’s follow her…” Carol pointed, and the other two nodded. Sarasa lined up next to Carol, and they started killing the enemies keeping them away from the tunnel.

  Iroha’s thrust got her sword stuck in the st statue’s chest. It didn’t crumble to pieces like the others, but it didn’t matter. “It’s going down!” Iroha warned the other girls as the statue lost bance and fell on a group of knights. “This way! Come on!”

  Iroha created an opening near the tunnel. Carol and Sarasa cut through the st few enemies before uniting with her. The four of them entered the tunnel, and Iroha attacked the base of the statue from the inside, causing it to crumble and block out the entrance to the tunnel.

  With the traps disabled, all they had to do was keep running and leave the pace. Even with the entrance blocked, it didn’t mean that they were safe just yet.

  They ran and ran until getting back to the trail they used to get there. Everyone stopped under the shade of some trees to catch their breaths. The white pace appeared quietly off in the distance.

  “Doesn’t look like we’re being followed.” Carol kept her eyes on the pace, looking out for any movement. Looks like whatever happened in there, stays in there.

  “Nyahahahaha! Mission accomplished then! Thanks, everyone, for coming with me. I’ll make sure to mention your names when I tell this story.”

  “It’s fine… You really don’t have to…” Iroha waved dismissively. “More importantly, have you made sure you still have the keycard? Can we take a look?”

  “Of course I do! You weren’t there, but after I dropped it once, I made sure it wouldn’t fall again.” Sarasa energetically reached for her pocket and pulled out the keycard. “See?” She held it in front of her for the others to take a look. “Like I said, this is a relic from my hometown. It normally wouldn’t be possible for you to see it like this. But since you’ve helped me get it back, I’ll make an exception.”

  It didn’t mean anything to Ririna, but Iroha and Carol took their time taking a close look at it. “What does it do?” Carol asked.

  “D- do? Dunno… I don’t really think it does anything…” Sarasa scratched the back of her head and returned the keycard to her pocket. “That’s how these kinds of relics usually work, you know? We’re supposed to have it and keep it safe, but other than that, there’s not much point to it.”

  “Really?” Iroha looked at her while trying to make sense of what she said. The high-tech stuff in the game is either created by demons or from some ancient civilization that was lost to time. It’s possible that neither Sarasa nor her cn knows what it is for, even if they know it’s an important thing.

  “Well, let’s head back then.” Iroha shrugged. They got what they came for, and if they weren’t being chased, there was no point in standing around.

  “Yeah! And let’s stop somewhere to celebrate!” Sarasa energetically raised her fist, and everyone smiled. Resting and zing around sounded better than a party right about now.

  But before turning away from the pace, a shadow briefly covered them. The sound of rge wings fpping echoed nearby as something big flew over them. That mysterious something nded behind them with a thud, then two smaller sets of footsteps quickly approached them.

  “Stop right there!” Arriving on blue, ethereal gryphons, a bck-haired girl wearing light armor stepped up to the four girls. She held a long sword in front of her and was ready to fight. Behind her was a shorter girl with red hair and wearing sorcerer’s clothes.

  Sarasa and Carol reacted right away. They drew their weapons and immediately turned around. Iroha was momentarily stunned. “Th- that voice… It can’t be.” She slowly turned around with her eyes wide open.

  “What business do you have in a remote pce like this? Are you bandits? Or are you working with demons?” The swordswoman spoke with a galnt voice that wouldn’t tolerate any excuses. The girl behind her started whispering and casting magic on her. Her power rose as a faint glow appeared around her.

  “Either way, you better put down your weapons and surrender quietly…”