While Terra and Lydia’s fight became increasingly brutal, most of the other fights actually ended rather quickly. There was a brief flash of brilliance, and then one or the other was defeated. Perhaps Celeste and Astria’s had lasted the longest. During this time, two people had been facing each other, feeling each other out but not moving to attack. Those two were Shao and Elaya. Shao was a skilled assassin, capable of dealing a killing blow from the shadows, where Elaya was an undead sorceress who could cast powerful spells.
“Shao, you may have some talent as a demon lord, but I killed demon lords since before you were born.”
“Correction,” Shao shot back. “You failed to killed demon lords before I was born.”
“You…” A dark miasma began to flow from Elaya. “Good, then you’ll excuse me if I no longer act nicely. I was once called the maid hero. You might be a good assassin, but direct confrontations are not your strength. The outcome has already been decided, little girl! It’s time to die!”
“Miki.”
“Holy Smite!”
“Gegegegegege!” Elaya collapsed to the ground as sizzling sounds filled the air. “Miki, what are you doing? We’re on the same side!”
“Ah, are we?” Miki asked innocently.
“We are!” I shouted back at her.
“Well, excuse me for getting confused, Master!” Miki shot back.
“I will forgive this for now…”
“Divine purification!”
“Gegegegegegege!” Elaya had to create a layer of miasma to protect herself, as that attack might have seriously hurt her. “Wh-what? Carmine? Was that you! We’re on the same side too!”
“Sorry, I saw an evil being and reacted on impulse. It won’t happen again.” Carmine responded, not looking apologetic at all.
“Are you all bullying me? This is bullying me!” Elaya looked around as she got hostile looks from both sides.
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“Isn’t this all your fault?” Several wind blades shot out and Elaya needed to roll away to keep from losing her head.
“Me? What did I do?”
“You encouraged Master to fight himself!” Miki cried out.
“You went to the dungeon and convinced them to become hostile,” Carmine added.
“You also forced people to take sides, and even made my mother do so!” Celeste shot out.
“Your mom? That’s right!” Elaya’s expression brightened as she turned to the tattered woman. “Astria! Astria! Help me, the children are bullying me.”
“I love my daughter!” Astria cried out, holding Celeste. “I’ll follow her.”
“You’re changing sides? I won’t accept that! You won’t have access to your precious Miasma!”
“That trick won’t work on me anymore!” Astria shot back. “Celeste said Master talked to the dungeon master and she won’t interfere in our conflict!”
“Xin said that? Even she betrays me! My own woman… why would she do such a thing? After I tied her up and made her do this and that… ah… is it because I went overboard? Xin, is this getting revenge for me playing too rough?”
Xin wasn’t there to answer, but the answer was probably yes.
“So, I will stay on my daughter’s side.” Astria declared.
“Mom…” Celeste looked at her mom with teary eyes.
“Daughter…” Astria looked back.
“Can you please stop squeezing my breasts?”
“Only if you stop fondling my butt.”
“F-fine… you can continue.”
“What is with this mother-daughter duo?” Elaya cried out.
“They were distracting you!” A voice came from behind Elaya. “Shadow Decimation!”
“Uh oh!” Elaya didn’t have time to react because Shao had already attacked.
While the others attacked her and ridiculed her, she had let her guard drop. Shao had used that time and her shadow magic to bridge the gap between them. A shadow clone where she had been standing only just started to lose her appearance as she infused her blade with a vicious shadow attack and slammed it into Elaya’s back.
Destructive energy was breaking through her body. If it happened to someone like Deek, he might have used White Mage spells and had been able to remain alive. However, Elaya’s largest weakness was that despite all of her magic, her body was pretty fragile. Fragile was a relative thing when talking about a powerful sorceress, but it was enough for Shao to take care of with a direct backstab.
“You… you got me…” Elaya said tightly.
Under the cold gazes of the girls, Elaya’s body slowly turned to ash. Her eyes looked up at the sun as she turned into nothing. The gentle breeze took her body away until there was not a single spec of her remaining.
“We know you’re not dead.” Miki crossed her arms angrily. “Stop being melodramatic.”
A few meters away, the ash spontaneously reformed in half a second, where her death scene had taken nearly thirty seconds.
“Tsk… no fun. Fine. I concede. I can tell I’m not wanted here.” Elaya turned to the Deeks. “Shall we g… ah!”
While the other girl’s fights were winding down, Deek and Deedee had reached the final phases of their own battle too.