The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

Haiko, Kokki, and Kohryu faced Asley and directed their murderous hostility at him. At the same time, both the adventurers and the monsters in the area stopped all movement for a brief moment.

“Damn it! They’re ganging up on him! But just you watch — my father isn’t about to lose to your underhanded tricks!”

“Instructor!?”

Chappie was understandably angry, and on his back, Bright struggled to understand the intention behind Asley’s action.

“What is Poer even doing now!? We need his help over here, for crying out loud!”

And Ferris shouted as she swung around her metal rod while riding on Pochi’s back, while the latter ran and jumped all over the place, dodging enemy attacks.

Only Pochi understood the meaning of the other conflict that was happening behind her.

“Right now, he’s probably… negotiating!”

“Negotiating!? Is he trying to– HAH! –to get those three Sacred Beasts to side with us or what!?”

“IF he wins, then they might do just that…”

Seeing how Pochi was as carefree as ever, Ferris frowned.

“Always joking around, both you and your Master!”

“I’m sure my Master would be so happy to hear that, milady! I’m the serious one of the pair, though!”

Ferris kept on swatting monsters with her metal rod, and groaned out of annoyance.

At the same time, behind her and Pochi, Asley drew up a Spell Circle. Seeing that, Haiko spoke up, its voice still full of hostility,

“Are you sure about that? You do realize that if you shoot it, we will burn you to ash in an instant, don’t you?”

“And what about you? You do know that you’ll cry when you get hit with this, right?”

Asley’s sarcasm caused a change of mood in the Heavenly Beasts. All three of them proceeded to open their mouths and unleashed their Zenith Breaths at Asley.

As the attacks came at him from both sides and front, Asley’s Spell Circle activated.

“Rise, A-rise! Elemental Blast: Count 3!”

This was the new-and-improved form of the Elemental Prism, the spell he had used way back when he faced the Alpha Chimera in Faltown.

Having gained levels and improved his skills, the four-elemental advanced-level spell had been upgraded to a rainbow-colored photon blast.

The spell contained the properties of fire, water, earth, lightning, and wind — and it boasted a size and power far greater than its original version.

The Elemental Blast, fired off in three ways, clashed against the Heavenly Beasts’ Zenith Breaths, and in the end canceled them out.

“”Hmm!?””

The Heavenly Beasts were so taken aback by what had just happened, they clearly doubted their eyes.

“Could it be that… when you faced the Devil just now, you were not fighting with all his strength?”

“If I DID, I’d have to deal with the Ultimate Limit’s side effects, after all. And all I had to do was distract it anyway.”

Asley gave a detailed answer to Kohryu’s question.

Haiko, not at all accepting of that explanation, swiped its forefoot at Asley.

“Hmph–!”

Asley blocked with his Drynium Rod, and immediately after, Kokki leaped up and attacked as well.

Kohryu whipped its tail to try and hit Asley from behind, and the latter deflected it with a back kick.

“Owowow…! That hurt!”

His foot stinging, Asley closed one eye to brace through the pain. Haiko kept on attacking, coming at him this time from above.

“Whwhwh–!? WHOA!?”

And as Asley was stuck blocking Haiko’s barrage, Kohryu swiped its tail at him from behind again.

The sounds of the shockwave from each blow given and received reached all the way to Lylia on the frontlines.

“What the hell is he doing over there… Hmm!?”

Lylia saw that two Heavenly Beasts were fighting against Asley.

And then another thing coming down from the sky surprised Lylia — more so than the sheer power at play in general.

It was none other than the gigantic Black Tortoise, which had leaped into the air at the start of the scuffle.

Its legs and head inside its shell, the gigantic mass crashed down onto the southern gate of Sodom.

Upon impact, the town of Sodom shook — and so did the land all around it.

Haiko and Kohryu had narrowly avoided Kokki’s point of impact… and the town gate had been pulverized.

“Hmm…! Now I have some solid ground to fight on… Are you ready, youngling?”

Kokki looked behind it at Asley. The latter looked quite troubled, but only for a moment — the significance of the fight and his opponents were just that great.

After all, the two other Heavenly Beasts, having avoided being squashed by the Black Tortoise, were now focused on Asley again.

And so another seemingly endless clash commenced. Haiko attacked with its claws and fangs, Kohryu with its tail, and Kokki with its massive body — and all of them, an endless barrage of breath attacks.

Asley wrung out all his strength, arcane energy, and willpower to keep himself moving — though after some time, his war cries started sounding more like screams.

“Maybe…! Taking on…! Three of you…! At the same time…! Was too much…!”

He went through pretty much everything a fight entailed: dodging hits, landing some himself, defending, parrying, taking attacks head-on — some of which actually hurt.

With the battle being so busy that he could not heal himself, Asley’s body was slowly but surely sustaining accumulated damage.

“Why don’t you start getting serious, then?”

Haiko said as if it completely saw through its opponent.

“I…! Am…! Already…! Serious…!”

“I’m sure you have something else up your sleeve… Though it is another story whether or not that will last you long.”

“…!”

The same thing flashed across Haiko and Asley’s minds — Ultimate Limit, the exhausting yet immensely powerful arcane energy release method.

“Hell no, NOT THAT!”

But Asley refused to use it, as if he was going against Haiko’s words specifically.

“…You can’t underestimate us forever, human!”

Haiko intensified its attacks. And as if to sync up with it, Kokki and Kohryu did so as well.

In the face of such fierce, unrelenting attacks, Asley was unable to strike back even once.

“Hmph! Is that as far as your big talk can take you, youngling!?”

“Holding on for so long with a human’s body makes you deserving of praise… However, you are still unworthy!”

“Why don’t you try using your technicolor fireworks again… and see if it helps you this time!?”

The three beasts unleashed their Zenith Breaths again.

However, Asley did not invoke the Spell Circle at his hands this time.

Zenith Breath blasts from three directions made a direct hit on Asley. The resulting explosion was followed by a blinding flash and quaking earth.

In the background of all that, Ferris shook Pochi’s head.

“W-what in the–!? The town is starting to burn down! And your Master, too! HEY, POER!”

“It’ll be fine! HE’s going to be fine! …Probably!”

“What’d you mean, PROBABLY!?”

Ferris was utterly bewildered, while Pochi did not falter at all.

Pochi proceeded to explain, sounding as if she had some form of strange faith in the situation.

“My Master is… Well, when he decides to do something, he’s stick with it to the very end.”

“He can’t do anything if he burns down to ash, you know…”

As Ferris looked at the town of Sodom burning, Pochi turned away from her and softly smiled.

“He’ll be fine…”

“…Man, I thought… I’d be fast enough. Maybe I should’ve… blocked the two others… as well…”

Asley’s voice and silhouette emerged from the explosion of light.

“Impressive.”

Kohryu expressed its surprise at the fact that its opponent had lived through the blast.

“He did not invoke that spell…”

Kokki narrowed its eyes and glared at Asley’s silhouette.

“…Or did he? An instantaneous wall of arcane energy, perhaps?”

Haiko stayed vigilant, somewhat trembling and gritting its fangs.

“…Hahaha, look at you all… NOW you let your guards down… Owowowow…”

“”Hmm!?””

By the time the Heavenly Beasts realized what was up, it was too late.

Asley was still obscured by the light, but his fingers had already started moving.

Anyone could predict what Asley would do next:

Invoking a magic spell.

But they could not stop wondering about one thing:

How did he dodge the Zenith Breaths?

When the light faded and only smoke remained, Asley was no longer obscured — that was when the Heavenly Beasts realized what Asley had just done.

In front of Asley was his Drynium Rod, stuck into the ground. It had been reinforced with arcane energy, freeing up his hands for efficient magic spell invocation. Haiko inferred that the staff had defended against its Zenith Breath.

That did not help against the blasts from Kohryu and Kokki, from two other directions, however. A look behind Asley showed that he had not done anything in that regard, either.

Due to him focusing his defense on his front, and having only used a minuscule amount of repelling arcane energy on his back, he had failed to avoid eighty percent of the damage from the two other Zenith Breaths.

Serving as the evidence to that was how his back looked once the smoke dissipated —  a bloody, burnt mess.

“Could it be…!? Did you just… take those two blasts head-on!? So that you could complete your spell invocation!?”

Haiko cringed out of surprise and disgust at Asley’s sheer recklessness.

“Well, you know… I did estimate that… I’d be able to take them…”

“You fool! Keep thinking like that, and you’ll always be nothing but a fool!”

The magic formulas had already been completed. Haiko could now do nothing but shout at Asley.

“Hahaha… well, considering that THOSE were meant to kill me… they were kinda too weak… you know?”

“”–!?””

Seeing the determined look in Asley’s eyes despite his voice going hoarse, the Heavenly Beasts shuddered, each of them foreseeing the coming storm of magic spells.

“…Deca Spell, invoke.”

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