The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

At one point, Lina’s mediation calmed everyone down and got them to agree on a set of conditions for the name: It mustn’t be too lengthy, and using an individual’s own name or title is inappropriate.

And in the end, we settled on the name ‘Lucifer Break.’ As simple as it is, it clearly contains the intended message — our wish to destroy Lucifer.

“Well, we’re not planning to use it on anyone but Lucifer anyway, so this name should be fine.”

“Master, don’t forget that they’re going to use it on YOU right now!”

“Okay, so… should we call it ‘Asley Break’ just for this time?”

“Y-you weren’t supposed to take my joke positively, Master! My… my comedy cue has failed!!”

“Okay, whatever! It’s about time we got started, Asley! Out of the way, Pochi!”

Irene clapped her hands, prompting everyone to take their positions. Not that there’s any real need to do this, though — the magic spell was custom-made, and the identification codes for the twelve casters had already been input.

When I step onto the Lucifer Break’s Spell Circle, an empty Spell Circle will appear in front of each of the twelve casters.

It will be the same in the real fight — when I land a hit on Lucifer and implant the spell on him, the empty Spell Circles will appear in front of my comrades.

“This isn’t the real thing — Just relax.”

“Y-yes!”

Tūs must have sensed that Fuyu was nervous… and he’s helping her. How unusually considerate of him.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Tūs DID train the Royal Capital Magic Guardians for a while, at Gaston’s request. Maybe he’s gotten acquainted with Fuyu during that time… Whereas Lina and Hornel joined the brigade after Tūs had already left.

Now that I think about it, all my friends have changed a fair bit while I was away — their appearances, strengths, relationships, and all that.

Irene sent me a signal via eye contact, prompting me to step onto the Lucifer Break Spell Circle.

Empty Spell Circles appeared in front of everyone else.

And by empty, I mean they’re simply Circles loaded with lines of arcane energy. Everyone will have to rearrange them into their respective parts of the collective spell formula.

“Rise, A-rise, A-rise! Done!”

“…!?”

Holy– Lina actually finished first!?

“–Rise! Hell yeah!”

Tūs is second.

“–Rise!”

Irene is fast, as expected.

The ones that finished after her, in order, were Warren, Tifa, and Lylia.

“–Rise! This is pretty hard, I gotta say!”

Barun succeeded…

“–Rise! Ukyaaah! I did it!”

…And Baladd managed pretty well, too. Looks like the rumors were true — the li’l big Dragon’s been training with Konoha.

“–Rise. Sir Instructor! I did it faster than before!”

Lala seems to have gotten the basics down. Man, the younger generation really is something else.

“–Rise! Gah… I can’t feel my fingers…!”

Hornel looks like he’s in actual pain… Huh. Now that I think about it, why’d he even want to name it Lucifer Adams, anyway? It just sounds… surreal.

I mean, it’d be pretty hilarious if Lucifer marries into the Adams household, but do they even have an eligible AND willing bachelorette for that?

“”–RISE!””

Natsu and Fuyu finished at the same time, completing the whole spell.

And so the Lucifer Break fixed position type Spell Circle was invoked, targeting me.

Suddenly, a brilliant light shot from beneath my feet towards the sky.

“…! Whoa–!?”

It felt as though I had fallen into a gravity well.

I can tell that my arcane energy is rapidly being drained from my whole body.

I invoked my Appraisal Glasses and directed their reflection towards myself, checking my MP. In the meantime, Tūs spoke up,

“Well, how’s it look, Asley? How fast is it going down?”

“Well… about 5,000 per second, I’d say.”

“Hmph, a success, then. ‘Kay, that’s enough.”

“Whew… That actually hurt.”

Even after stepping away from the Spell Circle, I’m still struggling a bit with the lingering fatigue within my body.

“Rise, Giving Magic… Okay.”

I drew the Giving Magic Spell Circle on the ground beneath me and sat down on it. Then I noticed a shadow cast over me — one with quite a familiar silhouette.

“Well? Is it good to go?”

Well, that’s good ‘ol Irene… but her words were cold and detached, which is understandable; both of us — every single one of us — knew how serious this matter would be. Still, it’s not like she’s actually unconcerned. If I were to respond with a “no,” I know Irene would stay and keep working on it until it’s usable.

The thing is… I intend to save all the energy I can for the actual fight. With that in mind, I’ve got no choice but to tell her…

“…Yes. No problem.”

“The key is how long it will take for you to land the hit on Lucifer. Are you confident you can manage that?”

“I’m going to design a new spell for a surprise attack.”

“One that’s more effective than Instant Transmission?”

“Not really, no. But if they’re used in tandem, I might be able to land a solid hit.”

“All right. So, to deplete all of Lucifer’s MP — which is estimated to be over 5,000,000, it will take around a thousand seconds after invoking Lucifer Break… No, we’ll need more time than that. Roughly twenty minutes… yes, that’s the estimate I’ll give. Can you withstand Lucifer’s attacks during that time?”

I stood up and looked at Irene.

“I can.”

“Really? That’s longer than the last fight you had with him, you know.”

“I’ll be fine. After this, I’ll work on improving the arcane energy efficiency of Instant Transmission, too.”

“All right. Now, one last thing. You’ll need to–“

“–land the finishing blow. I know. I’ll save some arcane energy for that as well.”

“Hmph.”

Irene cast her eyes down.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and pointed to myself.

“You do remember that I’m Sagan’s mentor, right?”

“…! Hey, that’s not fair!”

“Hahaha… Don’t worry. When the final battle comes, I’ll use all the underhanded tactics I can to make sure we win!”

Everyone chuckled at my joke…

“Hey, what ’bout resuing Leon?”

…Yeah, except for Tūs.

“We’ll get to him… eventually. I mean, we’ll have to get Idïa out of the picture before reaching Lucifer.  We should be able to recover our expended arcane energy on the way, too.”

“Meh, there ya go again with the wishful thinking. There’s no telling Lucifer won’t attack first, yeah?”

“If they do, well, Leon’s all yours to deal with.”

“Should’ve said that first.”

“Oh come on! That’s ridiculous! Tūs already has enough on his pace! Spending effort on rescuing Leon is out of the question–“

“–Shaddup, you mini hag! EVERYONE already knew that this WHOLE DAMN THING was ridiculous. This is what we’re goin’ with — no buts! Besides, I’m pretty much a last resort — if I die before y’all get to rely on me, well, THEN you can say goodbye to Leon! HAHAHA!”

Irene saw no choice but to fall silent against Tūs’s argument. She bit the nail of her thumb thumbnail, her expression filled with frustration. I proceeded to speak to her,

“If Leon’s mind control is dispelled, he’ll greatly add to our combat strength. Even considering all the risks, we have no choice but to do this.”

Warren added,

“Miss Irene, it is too early to set the whole plan in stone — we can’t predict what each of us will achieve on the battlefield. So far, we have constantly been thrown off by our enemies’ actions that were beyond our predictions, after all.”

Barun chimed in with a smile, 

“There’s no telling what will happen on a battlefield. Isn’t that what you would often say, Miss Irene?”

Despite the remark’s lightheartedness, Irene put on a stern facade.

“All right, all right. I get it…”

Irene must know that she’s in a tough position.

Once we step onto the battlefield, there’s no turning back — and she is the one who will position warriors and mages as chess pieces on that battlefield.

Everywhere is a danger zone. No matter where you place who, death will follow.

Not everyone can expect help when they need it; it’s a place where simply being there leads to death. The difficulty of placing allies in such positions — it’s beyond my understanding.

Irene has to tell countless comrades, “Fight there.”

And what she has to decide now is… possibly the cruelest of the commands she must make.

“…Now then, I will handpick a set of elite warriors to protect the true Duodecad. Warren, come with me.”

“Yes, Miss Irene.”

The selection of the strongest defenders, those who protect her — and US.

That is Irene’s current task.

She’s bearing a huge, heavy burden with that small body of hers.

“You must be our shield. Protect him. Protect her. Protect ME. Even at the cost of your life.” Irene must say these words to them.

This is way different from the previous war. Not all adventurers who came were fully prepared to lose their lives.

And above all, in this era where many people fight for the sake of survival, there’s always this priority to consider:

…We can’t afford to lose.

Yeah… I WILL defeat Lucifer, even if I come out of this whole mess totally broken.

Once again, I swore that to myself.

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