Well, even though it was no more than a minor change for the opponent…
A few minutes after passing the halfway-point, a giant floating island like nothing before appeared in the sky. When that came into view, I saw a giant shadow descend onto it! [Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!] The one who went down and raised their voice was — unexpectedly, the [King] of the opposing team, Typhon! Typhon pointed his finger at us as he posed exaggeratedly. “Now, who will be my opponent!? I am also fine with Sekiryuutei!” screamed Typhon excitedly. The tension was so high! He was really happy that he was able to fight at the tournament! Typhon had appeared before us, and although we had already decided who would be his opponent…I began to think that it would be better if it was me! The rule was to reach the top, but because defeating the [King] also meant winning, then I could be Typhon’s—. As I was thinking like that, I could sense a fighting spirit from above! When I looked above, Vidar-san looked at me as he pointed somewhere the top of a staircase. When I looked at the place he pointed at — it was also a vast floating island, and it looked as if I was invited [Come here!] by my opponent. …I see. He must have thought ‘If I have to let you become Typhon’s enemy, then I would rather be your enemy’. As I signalled Ravel and Rossweisse-san with my eyes, we nodded to each other. We had decided that Bova-san, Roygun-san, and Elmenhilde would be Typhon’s opponents, while Ravel, Rossweisse-san and I would fight Vidar-san and — the Valkyrie squad that Brynhildr-san lead. My comrades and I each moved towards the separate floating islands which would respectively become our battlefields. The fight to reach the top of Yggdrasil entered a critical stage just after passing the halfway point.I — Kiba Yuuto, along with my master, Rias-oneesan, and the rest of our team members were watching Ise-kun’s match in the authorised personnel room. They positioned their players in several points to deal with the opponents’ players as they aimed for the top. The match pairings were:
God Apollon against Xenovia, Irina and Nakiri-kun. Goddess Artemis against Asia-san and Bina Lessthan-san. Typhon against Elmenhilde-san, Bova-san and Roygun Belphegor-san. And, God Vidar against Ise-kun, while the nearby Valkyrie squad fought against Rossweisse-san and Ravel-san. The fight had already begun. Fierce battles were occuring at various places across the artificial Yggdrasil. The first fight I happened to come across was God Apollon going against Xenovia and the others. The wyverns that Ise-kun had sent to Xenovia got closer and transformed as they clung to Xenovia’s body. The next thing I knew, Xenovia had suddenly transformed into the Crimson Destruction Dragonar. The two swordswomen, Xenovia and Irina-san, performed a well-crafted assault upon God Apollon. However, God Apollon handled both of those fast swordswomen by just coating one of his hands with a bit of his shining divine aura! He kept dodging Xenovia’s dual-wielding style (Durandal, Excalibur) and Irina-san’s Hauteclaire with ease! [Push through!] Nakiri-kun, who transformed into his humanoid Dragon form, reduced the distance with intense speed. He then commenced hand-to-hand combat against God Apollon. The touki-coated punches and kicks kept hitting, hitting, hitting, and hitting! God Apollon had to respond to close-quarters combat from Xenovia, Irina-san and Nakiri-kun. —However, the Sun God handled all of that with just one hand! [So you are going to dodge my hand-to-hand combat, huh!] Rias-oneesan, who was beside me, was surprised. Xenovia, Irina-san and Nakiri-kun leapt backwards, creating distance as Xenovia transformed her Excalibur into a whip with its ‘mimic’ specialty and suddenly lashed out at God Apollon. On top of that, she combined her attack with a godlike speed and Excalibur’s ‘transparency’ specialty making the lash (the pointy end of a whip) invisible. But even though God Apollon couldn’t see the whip-transformed Excalibur, he easily dodged the attack! It was as if he felt the presence of the small amount of aura that flowed through it! No, he must have done ‘that’! The invisible whip that he dodged destroyed a large part of the floating island they were fighting on. That was Excalibur’s ‘destruction’ specialty. It seemed like Xenovia had already become adept at combining Excalibur’s specialties. While God Apollon kept dodging Xenovia’s continuous whip attacks, Irina coated her Hauteclaire with holy aura! “Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Irina cried as she swung her Hauteclaire continuously. And every time she did that, powerful holy aura kept on flying towards God Apollon! However, he reacted to this by simply lighting a small amount of divine aura in his hand and continuously firing it. Without any hesitation, Irina-san created a whip like Xenovia’s that was filled with light energy and started to swing it along with her battle comrade simultaneously! One was a light-engulfed whip, the other was an invisible whip, and both of them were being flogged simultaneously. Vision and presence, whichever it was, would be impossible to dodge if the one being targeted wasn’t a God-class being or other kinds of existence on a similar level. Yes, God-class or similar-level…… That’s why, because it was God Apollon, he could dodge their simultaneous attack! “Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Nakiri-kun transformed his touki into a sphere and continuously fired at God Apollon from a distance! The touki bullets weren’t just in the range of a few dozens. There were around a hundred that were fired towards the Sun God. The volume of Nakiri-kun’s touki was also surprising to us, but Apollon-san repelled all of them with just one hand…! As Xenovia looked at the barrage of touki, she yelled. [Turn, turn, turnnnnn ! !!] The touki bullets that were fired by Nakiri-kun — changed their trajectory and cornered God Apollon! Was this because Xenovia used Excalibur’s power of ‘ruler’!? —However, God Apollon wasn’t even fazed by Xenovia’s growth as he dodged and repelled the bullets. God Apollon suddenly flew forward while repelling Nakiri-kun’s touki bullet. With godlike speed, he closed the distance and punched Xenovia’s stomach with great vigor! That one punch broke the armor that Xenovia was wearing, leaving her body exposed! [Gaha!] Xenovia wailed as she received the blow directly! That one blow from the Sun God was filled with the power of light that Devils were weak to. Normally, It wouldn’t be strange if one retired from that one blow. —However, Xenovia didn’t disappear as she swung her sword down towards the nearby God Apollon. He tried to dodge that, but—. [I got you!] Irina-san’s whip latched onto God Apollon’s empty hand! God Apollon, who couldn’t break free, was almost struck by Xenovia’s downward slash! However, God Apollon quickly kicked Xenovia away! Xenovia was sent flying backwards…but she got back up immediately. Both the punch and the kick were filled with the Sun God’s force.