The sound of Nao’s barriers shattering from the impact of the magic used on them snapped me back to reality, my body still in one piece.

It took me a moment to understand what happened. Saki had read Mai’s foresight and projected the warning to Nao and I, and Nao had blocked the attack at the very last moment. A fraction of a second later, and we’d have been cut in twain.

“Tch. I had hoped to end this quickly, that your suffering not be drawn out. But very will, if this is the course of action you wish to take, make your futile resistance. I’ll bring about your undoing all the same.”

Baal’s voice, though with a twinge of annoyance, was still completely calm. It was clear that he didn’t believe we truly stood any chance against him in a head-on fight.

The concentration of magic in the room was enormous, all originating from his body. His power was on a completely different level, so much that the dense magical energy became just barely visible as small wisps of purple light.

“Such raw power…” I muttered to myself.

“Get down!” Mai tackled me to the ground, and a moment later another invisible blade of magic sliced a hair’s breadth above my head and slammed into the wall behind me. Part of the wall was instantly reduced to rubble, the sound of shattering stone rippling through the air.

I had no time to thank Mai for saving me as the two of us were immediately forced to split, as Baal aimed another strike at the pair of us. It struck the floor where our feet had been a fraction of a second before, tearing the ground up underneath it.

I kept my attention focused on Baal to preempt the next attack, but quickly realised that I was not his primary target.

“Mai! Shit…” a relentless hail of attacks descended upon Mai, not a moment of reprieve afforded to her. Even with her foresight, she was barely surviving. And against a foe as strong as Baal, there was little I could do but watch as she narrowly escaped death.

Eventually, she had the slightest of stumbles, and the game was over.

“What?!” A shattering sound rang out as Nao’s last second barrier saved Mai from a gruesome death. “Hmm… the little bird wants to play too? Very well… allow me to clear the skies.”

Baal turned his attention to the now airborne Nao, having caught his ire twice now. Those same invisible blades of magic sliced through the air at her at the speed of sound, so fast and relentless that even her incredible air control and Mai’s assistance couldn’t get her off the back foot.

“Saki, this is bad. We can’t beat this guy.”

“You think I don’t know that? I’m trying to find an escape, but the door is sealed tight.”

Looking around the room, I could see no entrance or exit except the one we had come in through, which had been magically sealed. There was no way out for us here.

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I kept scanning the room but found no feasible route. At least, none usable at that moment.

“The walls…” I muttered in my own mind.

“The walls? What about them?”

“Any time Baal’s attack hits a wall, it takes out a huge chunk. Way bigger than any of us could manage.”

“Okay but the walls must be several metres thick, there’s no way we can get through those.”

“The walls are. The door isn’t.”

The door. The single structural weakness in this entire room. That was our only possible exit route. The only problem was getting him to attack there. If we just stood in front of it and waited, he’d catch on to our scheme. We needed to outsmart him.

“…I think I have an idea,” said Saki in my mind.

“Mind telling me what it is?”

“You’ll know in just a second.”

As Baal continued to shower attacks on the barely surviving Sunao, her girlfriend was breathing deeply and preparing for whatever she had had planned.

Upon the clap of Saki’s hands, I knew exactly what her plan was. Because I was Saki. And I was also Sunao and Amai. As were they me. We had become one in body and soul yet again.

The plan was stupid. And reckless. And dangerous. Exactly as we liked it.

We were standing off some ten metres to the side of the door, with the top priority to make him attack us relentlessly enough that he would destroy the door without a second thought.

But we were on a time limit. This power would be short lived at the best of times, let alone when all our magic reserves were low. It was pretty much now or never.

“Hey, shit-eater!” We yelled at the shit eater. “Earth sends its regards!”

We dashed forward and stabbed at him with the magic-imbued katana in our hands, an attack he effortlessly swatted away with his own barrier. We cut clean through the second barrier, however, causing him to launch a nonchalant counterattack that would have killed any of us as individuals. Luckily, Mai’s foresight predicted the attack and Nao’s barrier prevented it from striking our body.

Feigning panic, we fell back outside of katana range and started frantically running too and fro. With our combined power, the attacks seemed significantly less threatening than before, but they were still perfectly able to kill every person in this body.

Slowly but surely, we dragged Baal’s attention closer and closer to the door. We just needed an opportunity to finish it…

Now!

A strike came in that we dodged, but upon dodging we ran from the source like a scared child. Attacks of extreme power followed us, tearing about the walls behind us as it went. Until eventually…

Perfect!

The four of us split back to our respective bodies as soon as we saw the door to the room get reduced to rubble. Our exit was here. We could make it out of here alive.

That is, that’s what Saki and I assumed before Mai grabbed us by the scruffs of our necks and pulled us back just before we crossed the frame.

“He put up a kill barrier! If you step through that door you’ll disintegrate on the spot!” She explained, and the already low morale among the four of us fell lower than it had ever been.

“So… we can’t beat him… and we can’t escape him…”

Saki, for the first time in her life, was forced to accept a loss. And the price would be her head, along with the rest of ours.

“No…” I said to the other girls. “Maybe we can’t escape, but we can still accomplish what we came for… with that power.”

No one responded right away, even Baal now seemingly listening in with interest. The other three knew exactly what I meant, and their expressions were grave in spite of it.

And yet, there was unspoken agreement between us. This was our only remaining option. The power of 「Soul Sacrifice」, to use the power of the human soul to seal away a divine entity. The more souls, the stronger the seal.

“Sorry to steal your thunder, Shin, but there’ll be no need for that today.”

A voice came from the rubble behind us, causing every person in the room to snap our gazes towards the doorway.

There stood Kagami, and the members of Flame Of Time.