The End of the Ruin

To say she's excited about fighting the Vertex isn't a lie; Eleonora wants to fight that monstrous being but also wants to put an end to it so she can protect the people she cares about. That thing is a ring connected by six spikes; five were orange. It has another ring slightly out of the main ring and what almost seems to be a claw sticking out. That thing, that creature… is has a job to destroy humankind by giving them a divine punishment or so it told.

This caused Eleonora to let out an unbelievable sigh and shake her head. Even though she knows it possesses an overwhelming aura and power, that didn't faze her a single bit. But that was a different case with Sumi and Sonoko, who had grim expressions on their faces; they went pales again as the Vertex came closer by each step.

"H-How come it's already this far…!"

"I thought we did it faster than usual, but…."

Looking at their faces, Eleonora then flew down to her two-soon-to-be-lovers, casting an omnyoujutsu technique to calm Sumi and Sonoko's mental so they won't have stayed like that for the entire battle, or it will bring them a great deal of trauma after that. They blinked in sudden realization after Eleonora cast it to them as both of them finally calmed down.

"H-Huh… I suddenly calm…."

"M-Me too… how did we—! Eleonora-san, is this because of you?"

Sumi turned away to Eleonora, who nodded at her; she then explained the reason to the black-haired ponytail girl for the action she did.

"Sorry for that, Sumi-san, Sonoko-san. I had to do it, or you will have some PTSD or sort if it continues further. I know it sounds cruel and heartless, but we have to stay together to fight that thing. Everyone will come in… oh! There they are."

As Eleonora said it, Sumi and Sonoko could see a group of people approaching them. Some of them beating up many small Stardusts along the way came towards Eleonora and the two heroes, while others waved their hands. The two heroes were shocked, seeing how easily they beat the many Stardusts like that.

"Yo, Eleonora! Sorry for the delay a bit, and… that's the Vertex this time, huh?"

Gin said as she looked up at the sky and saw the Leo Vertex flying above them. She stared at the monstrous being with a hateful expression shown on her face since Vertex is one of the reasons why she died in the first place.

"Oh my. Is this creature the one that threatened your world, Sumi-san?"

Sumi nodded grimly at Chiyuki's questioning that. That made everyone look with various expressions on their faces. Some looked worried, while some were curious at a creature like a Vertex since they never saw that kind of thing.

"Yes. It's a creature that has the job to destroy humankind by damaging Shinju-sama and this Jukai. If somehow they pass the wall of this place, they will also affect the damage to the real world. Usually, something like this is easy to deal with, but I had a bad feeling about this time."

"Alright, less talk and more action. If we delay it more, it will be reached the wall and do something worse!"

"Gin's right. Alright, then I will dispatch ourselves in a group of three. The first group will consist of me, Ayako, and Gin, then the second group is Eri, Sumi-san, and Mao, while the third group is Sonoko-san, Sonoka-nee, and Chiyuki-nee. The first group will be focused on eliminating the Leo Vertex, the second group will check up on the surroundings and deal with the remaining small or big Stardust if there are any. And then, the third group will be focused on backing up the other two groups. If you felt something dangerous or not right, scatter and regroup. Got it?"

At Eleonora's order, they nodded in agreement with that, making the young bluenette smile in confidence seeing that. She then cast a telepathy spell to Sumi and Sonoko and linked them with everyone here to make it easier to communicate if they were far from each other.

"Good. Then, let's begin!"

As the young bluenette said that, they began to do what they should do to handle the current situation according to Eleonora's order. Scattering, they noticed some of the remaining small-sized Stardusts still presents, it was increased even more by the Leo Vertex that opened its body, and many new groups of Stardust came through it.

[Eleonora, that Vertex summoned the new batch! Mine is only suited for direct fighting.]

As Eleonora heard the telepathy from Gin, she clicked her tongue and replied.

[Then, I will deal with that. Ayako, Gin—deal with the Vertex. If possible, trap the Vertex by your barrier, Ayako, and let Gin handle it. The third group, boost Gin, Ayako, and the second group! The second group, use your long-ranged attack and maintain a safe distance!]

[Leave it to me, Leo-chan!]

[I'll protect both Chiyuki-san and Sonoka-san! Don't worry about it!]

Without further delay, Eleonora switched her target on the group of new Stardusts that was just summoned by the Leo Vertex. She watched Gin and Ayako's whole bodies covered by some lights, which the third group can boost their bodies in certain aspects; both girls then charged towards the Leo Vertex by flying, one of the skills they learned from Eleonora.

After leaving, the two girls, Gin and Ayako, immediately face the Leo Vertex by themselves; the latter girl lifts her left hand as a spell comes from her palm while chanting the incantation.

"Reject all malice and let this be a holy ground that denies thine enemies passage — Hallowed Ground!"

As Ayako finished her spell's chant, a transparent-like impenetrable barrier suddenly appeared and trapped the Leo Vertex in a particular area from other areas, so the people around it wouldn't get trapped within the barrier.

"Gin-chan, do it!"

"Oh!"

With Ayako's order, the grey-haired former hero then ready her old weapon, a twin axe perfectly suited her direct way of fighting. As soon as Gin is an inch from the Leo Vertex, she unleashes powerful double slashes on the monster, causing the Vertex to scream in pain and rage. Its scream was so loud and could make ordinary humans deaf just by hearing it.

But Gin's attempt wasn't stopped just like that; she unleashed another slash on the Leo Vertex. Each slash caused more damage to the Vertex as it screamed even louder than before, until Leo the Lion constellation's monstrous being backed off as it tried to run away and recover itself.

"Ah! It's trying to get away! Let's get that thing!"

Knowing that Gin and Ayako then, without thinking of it, immediately chased the Leo Vertex as they went inside the outside of Jukai. Thoroughly not warned everyone here, and without the consent of them too.

At the same time, Eleonora targeted the group of new Stardusts advancing and surrounding her; she then lured them far away from everyone and tried to bait them. As they were lined up, she noticed this chance, and Eleonora unleashed one of the magic spells she learned from Aletia, which came out of the palm of her right hand's massacre a group of Stardusts that targeted her.

A barrage of sharp wind blades came and quickly cut any of them in pieces, causing the small-sized Stardusts to vanish because they were killed. Eleonora sighed in relief seeing that and turned away to check how Gin and Ayako did.

"Gin, Ayako, how are—what…? Where are they?"

Her eyes widened in shock. Seeing her two lovers suddenly gone, Eleonora became worried and immediately used her telepathy link and called them, trying to reach them and confirm their safety as she didn't want anything bad to happen to them.

[Gin, Ayako! Where were you?!]

She asked them with a worried tone. Trying to reach them, she waited for a few seconds, raising her worries, but then Eleonora began to hear a reply.

[E-Eleonora… is that you?]

Hearing the voice of Gin, Eleonora sighed in relief once more and began to reply to her as to ask the grey-haired girl about what happened to them. A worry was evident on her face right now; she was really concerned about Gin and Ayako's well-being.

[Gin! Where are you two?! Are you okay? Please tell me, and I will be there quickly.]

[You… you might not believe this, but… we found something terrible about Vertexes.]

Gin said it with a shock on her tone, causing Eleonora's eyebrows to rise in suspicion and curiosity. She then also hears Ayako's voice from the telepathy.

[Y-Yeah… Gin-chan's right, Eleonora. This is… something unbelievable for the heroes of Taisha to win easily.]

[If you want to know, please go to the direction where the Vertex came from, you will know it when seeing it by yourself.]

[Alright. I will.]

After saying that, Eleonora then tells everyone that still here something before departing to the direction where the Leo Vertex and those Stardusts came from. She saw that the situation here is currently under their control as there are not many small Stardusts left.

"Everyone, I will go away for a while! I leave my clone and have it help all of you. You can also use telepathy to inform me of something happening here."

"Okay, please be safe!"

Nodding at them, Eleonora produced two shadow clones with her chakra and ordered them to stay with the two groups before she went in the direction Gin told her by flying fast. She hoped Gin and Ayako were alright when in there; that's why she fastened the speed of her flying, and as soon as she passed by a something-like barrier that felt a bit odd, Eleonora's eyes noticed her two lovers standing there.

Seeing them standing there, Eleonora approaches those two worriedly.

"Hey Gin, Ayako. What's going—"

Her word was unfinished as soon as her eyes noticed something odd. The scenery before her, it's like hell. A lava-like thing surrounded a giant tree that stood alone within this unknown space. The only thing that wasn't the paint of hell is that tree, illuminating with lights that feel divine. But what shocked those three was a bubble-like thing growing; it is like regenerating, and from its shapes, all of them are the ones called Vertex.

The horror from Gin's face is shown. Ayako covered her mouth in shock while Eleonora frowned. The young bluenette clicked her tongue as she expected that this thing called Vertex isn't effortless to deal with, since from what she witnessed right now, they could be immortal and regenerating endlessly.

"Those are… the Vertexes we have defeated before! Did you mean that… the work of heroes is futile…? Haha, I should have seen it. I know that the Taisha has always hidden something and be suspicious, but who would think they hid something big like this…."

The grey-haired former hero and Eleonora's lovers dryly laughed at that; depression was shown on her face while she hung down. Eleonora and Ayako were sympathetic and concerned; seeing Gin becomes like that. The former hero then felt a hand on her shoulder and turned as she saw her bluenette lover smile and try to reassure her.

"Don't worry, Gin, we will help you and make sure those Taisha pay the price for deceiving all of the heroes! For now, leave dealing of this place to me. I know what you want to say, but none of you is capable of doing that from the scale of this. I am the one they called demi-god, so dealing with this might be easy for me, though I'm not sure of it…."

Gin went quiet for a moment; she got a nod from Ayako that believed in what Eleonora had said. The former then sighed in defeat as she understood the bitter truth, then gave the approval nod to the yuri queen.

"Alright, then what should we do? Although you said you want to deal with this mess alone, at least we have to do something."

Eleonora's lips curled in a smile, and she nodded at Gin.

"Please inform the others and help them out there. Told them to not disturb me when I was doing this."

"Got it! Ayako-san, let's go and inform everyone!"

"I know, and Eleonora… please don't be reckless."

The young bluenette nodded at the cheerful and tomboyish brown-haired lovers of her that left her alone dealing with the place outside of Jukai or, more accurately is the darkest side of Jukai. She took a deep breath and let it out before, producing several clones using her chakra, which has the 10% of her original powers, but she thought it was enough to deal with them for now.

Not only that, she intends to be a bit overkill by summoning all of the shikigami she had. An Azure Dragon known as Seiryu, Vermillion Bird known as Suzaku, White Tiger known as Byakko, and lastly, is a Black Tortoise known as Genbu—all lined up behind Eleonora's back. The intimidating appearances and aura they emit and causing the Vertexes, twelve of them, to freeze for a few seconds before growling at the familiars.

"Alright, everyone, it's an all-you-can-kill buffet. Obliterate those monsters, all of them, without leaving any single pieces left!"

Upon Eleonora's order, her clones and the four familiars began their battles with the twelves Vertexes. While the young bluenette goes straight to the giant tree glowing with brilliant light, it illuminates the whole place that looks like the deepest part of the volcano mountain. She flies to that tree known as a Shinju by the people of this world.

Something piqued her curiosity.

"Now then, what should I do with you, hm?"

Before Eleonora was about to touch the tree, she heard a voice echoing inside her mind.

[Demi-god of Another World, I welcome you to our world. Pleased to meet you, I am what people of this world called Shinju, a conglomeration of earthly gods and some exiled heavenly gods that take the form of a giant tree.]

This caused Eleonora to blink in surprise and mouth agape when she heard that voice inside her mind or specifically her head. She didn't expect that the giant tree with many gods resides to actually converse with her. Eleonora thinks that many gods sharing a place within that tree will cause them incapable of talking with anyone.

"I… didn't expect that. Anyway, I feel that your power is grown weaker each second, and… only 10% left if I sense it correctly. Creating and blessing the maiden or young girls to become a hero is causing you a huge burden, isn't it?"

[You know it very well, Oh Young Demi-god. Our power has almost reached its limit where we cannot support humanity anymore to battle the Vertexes. We don't know when it will last, and we are afraid that the world will reach its doom if that happens.]

"So… who is the true enemy?"

[It's the forces that oppose us, the heavenly gods that created and depart the Vertex as the humanity divine punishment. They sent those beings to destroy humans because they won the fight between earthly gods and heavenly gods, thinking that humanity should have perished since it was considered a filthy being.]

Eleonora began to rub her chin and cock her eyebrows, hearing something amiss from Shinju's description. She knew there was something more about this, and no way it was just a simple thing like that, but maybe the young owner of Amagi Brilliant Park just felt paranoid of this.

Then something clicked on her.

"I know! How about I absorb your remaining power and divinity, so the whole thing about this will be over, hm?"

[What were you talking about, Young Demi-god? Even if you are confident with your strength, that doesn't mean you can just do what you want.]

"Technically, I can. I mean, all this because of the silly fight from earthly and heavenly gods as they roped the human who knows nothing about this. I think it's better if you give the divinity and powers left to me. I don't want anything wrong to happen to this world since one of my lovers was originally from here. It's her homeland."

Shinju fell silent, hearing that bold word from Eleonora without missing a beat and no hint of fear from her. The source of this problem is themselves, but they also want to stay longer and rule humanity even though they protect them from Vertexes. They harvest young maiden like Gin, Sumi, and Sonoko as the sources to regain their lost powers by baiting them to be a hero of humanity.

"How about that? If you disagree, then we can find it the hard way."

She said without fear while using the same technique she used to absorb Nagumo Hajime's powers back then. Eleonora gives Shinju which ones it has to choose, although either option does not really benefit them in any way. The young bluenette had already prepared if the giant tree rejected the mercy from her.

[You're really bold, Young Demi-god. Alright… we are agreed to be absorbed by you. We don't have any choice and rights to enact a rebel on you with the power we had left. The outcome is pretty obvious that we will lose.]

"Good! Then, after I've completely absorbed you, what will happen to this world?"

[They will regain the lands they had lost. No more Vertex, no more Hero, and probably no use of Taisha. Humanity will be freed from the continuous nightmares they had every day.]

"That seems good. I will deal with Taisha, so no worries."

[Thank you, and please… be a new god that will guide the humanity of this world, Oh Young Demi-god.]

"I will."

After saying that, Eleonora stretched out her right arm and touched the body of the Shinju giant tree. The light-covered Shinju began to shine so brightly upon being connected by Eleonora's right arm, slowly the powers they had left transferred to the young bluenette, causing them to perish.

------

As Eleonora is currently outside of the Jukai barrier, her lovers and two heroes right now already finished with dealing with the remaining small Stardusts without getting harmed by any of them. They are in good condition and not breaking any sweat, but it's different for Sumi and Sonoko that look out of breath. The two heroes pant heavily while wiping off some sweat from their faces with a small towel given by Gin.

"Whew. Good work, everyone. Now, we must wait for Eleonora to come."

Chiyuki then gives the exhausted Sumi and Sonoko two water bottles to satisfy their thirst and dehydration. The two accepted it and began opening the bottles and drinks from them quickly before they felt refreshed enough.

"Yeah, whatever Leo-chan did, we have to trust her."

"Chiyuki-san's right. Oh! It's Leo-chan."

Sonoka's light-blue eyes just noticed her bluenette lover that flies towards them without being harmed and completely safe. Everyone turned their attention to Eleonora, who slowly flew down and greeted them as she came back from dealing with the primary source of the problem.

"Hey, everyone. I see that thing is done fine here."

That gets nods from everyone here. Eleonora nods, satisfied, and then Sumi, who seems curious, speaks politely to the bluenette of her mind.

"Eleonora-san… what are you doing in there?"

"Ah! Sorry, I am dealing with the cause of all this."

Confusion was evident on Sumi's face hearing that.

"The cause… of all this? Do you mean about Vertex and everything?"

Eleonora nodded twice to the black-haired girl with a ponytail aimed to be a Yamato Nadeshiko.

"That's right. Simply defeating the Vertexes and defending the wall isn't enough, so I had to deal with the source; I had to dig it deep on its root. Completely remove it so things like this won't ever happen again in the future."

"I see… then, can you tell me the details about it? As well our plan for Taisha…?"

"Chill up, Sumi! Don't be too hasty, or things will be turned wrong."

"Gin! I just had to confirm it!"

Sumi said with a faint pinkish on her cheeks as she felt embarrassed, while Gin just smiled widened at her best friend. Everyone laughed at these two, then Eleonora replied to Sumi's question.

"As Gin said, we will do it, but let's relax a bit. That's why, how about we return to our world first—oh!"

Before she finished saying that, Eleonora and everyone covered by lights watched everything around the Jukai seem to vanish and turn to a bunch of flower petals, causing them to return to the real world. Sumi and Sonoko were shocked when seeing this and became more curious about what was happening since this was something new.

Then, they completely vanished from the Jukai after that.

------

The Forestize has ended. Eleonora and others came back to the real world; they ended up on the rooftop of Shinju-kan Elementary School with their back lying on the floors. Sumi, Sonoko, and Gin blinked, knowing that, waiting for a few seconds before realizing something.

"We're back… is this…."

"Yeah, Sonoko. This is the end…."

Sumi went silent and got up, trying to take a good look around, and spotted no barrier of plants and ivy surrounding Shikoku and the whole world. Tears fall from Sumi's eyes, filled with joy, and she smiled knowing that.

The black-haired girl with a ponytail then nodded to Gin and Sonoko.

"Yeah, everything is back, Gin, Sonocchi. We did it."

Hearing that, Gin and Sonoko smiled happily, the same with Eleonora, Chiyuki, Sonoka, Eri, Ayako, and Mao. They smiled happily and laughed together with happiness flowing, especially the original residence of this world; they were the ones who were the happiest at this.

"Shinju-sama's gone… and, Hero System seems gone too."

Sonoko said that as she got up, followed by each of them. Eleonora nodded and spoke as her eyes looked at them alternately. She then offers a handkerchief to Sumi to wipe off the tears of joy from her eyes, which was accepted by the black-haired girl.

"That's right. The problem of this world has been solved. No heroes, Shinju, Vertex, and… the lands you've lost were taken aback. Humanity gains their freedom again."

Sumi, who had already wiped off her tears, tried to say something, but only had her mouth agape, then shutting it. She was unsure of what she should say since this is really unbelievable how easy to reclaim the lands that humanity lost due to Vertex.

Gin then brought her two best friends into a hug with a huge grin on her face.

"Hey, why the silent treatment?! We already did it, guys! We can go enjoying our normal life again without worrying about Vertex or the likes again!"

"We know, Mino-san! But it's felt, you know… anti-climax!"

"Sonocchi is right, Gin. I know that I am happy with it, but… it felt… you know."

Those earnings chuckle from Eleonora and the rest. The young bluenette and her lovers nodded in understanding since they knew that feeling, but at very least they get what they really want without any serious problem.

"Well, I'm sorry for that, but… how about we talk about this at another place? We still have a few things that need to be solved later."

She said that while winked at Sumi and Sonoko. The two latter had their cheeks blushed as they were excited and enthralled by the wink given by Eleonora.

"A-Ah! Eleonora-san is right; we still have some things left to do! Alright, how about we go to my house for a while? We can talk about it in there!"

"Mhm! Y-You're right, Wasshi! Let's go, everyone!"

Eleonora nodded at the panicked Sumi and Sonoko due to the embarrassment of being enthralled by the young bluenette's charm.

"With pleasure."