Lily's Resolve

In the midst of trees, blocking off most of the sunlight, and thick vegetation, Mika was surrounded by an ape-like monster and a mysterious man.

When he turned his neck to look into the man's face, he saw a sinister expression paired with eyes he had never seen before.

Those eyes were pitch-black and devoid of any emotions.

The instant he locked eyes with him, fear started to overcome him.

His lips began to tremble and sweat formed on his forehead.

In his entire life, he did not feel like this before.

"W-who are you...?"

[Mika, run! He is-]

The man's vile smirk widened.

"I'm called Zantar..."

He suddenly grabbed Mika by his chin.

"...and I'm a demon."

"!"

Reflexively, Mika jumped backward.

"If I were you, then I wouldn't go there." Zantar stated as he shrugged his shoulder and shook his head.

Mika noticed a breath tickling his neck.

He slowly looked back only to meet the round dark brown eyes of the monster.

It was lowering its upper body to the front to get on the same level as Mika.

[I reassessed the current situation.]

"So what?" Mika murmured on edge.

[You may use it now.]

His nervousness did not fade away completely, however, he was able to smirk a little after hearing the system's message.

He knew what it meant.

But was he now confident enough to make it through this situation?

Mika himself doubted it.

His opponents were a high-ranking monster and a self-proclaimed demon.

Would he be able to kill them in three minutes?

Back to Ophelia's group.

While she relaxed with her back leaning against a tree, she watched her students fighting the monster.

Gasping for air, Lily and Sylvia stood side by side as they faced the ape.

A few minutes passed since they started attacking it and since then, they found out that the monster seemingly had a high resistance against ice as it brushed off every attack by Sylvia thus far.

She managed to freeze some of its body parts, however, it was able to break through it in a blink of an eye.

Furthermore, it moved pretty fast despite its size. Especially his arm movement was fast.

Due to its speed, its arm attacks packed a lot of force.

Its overall reflexes and the way it can bend its own body were also parts of his strong points.

"This is quite tricky..." Sylvia commented in her usual indifferent tone.

The two were not hit by it for now, but they were also only capable of dodging it barely due to its long arms.

It was as if it had no weaknesses, however, the girls realized something.

"Lily, now!"

When it was retracting its right arm to launch an attack, Lily shot a fireball at it.

And instead of countering it, like it did against Sylvia's ice attacks, it evaded the fireball in panic.

It jumped to the side and created some distance.

"So its weakness is fire..." Sylvia remarked thoughtfully.

She glanced at Lily.

They finally confirmed its weakness, but Sylvia was still in doubt.

She pondered.

Lily may be able to use fire, however, was the firepower enough to critically harm it?

They were up against a high-ranking monster. Would fire from the B-rank suffice?

Suddenly, the monster let out a loud roar making the two girls cover their ears with their hands.

"W-what is it doing...?" Lily wondered as she was still covering her ears.

"!"

Sylvia's eyes widened after she saw the ape running mindlessly to Lily.

Quickly, she jumped in front of Lily and created multiple thick ice walls from the ground.

The ape cocked back its right arm again and then, broke the ice with a fierce punch.

But that was not the end.

Sylvia was too focused on the punch that she ignored its other arm.

"Sylvia, watch out!"

With high speed, it swung its left arm at her and slammed her away.

Lily could only hear the sound of a few trees falling down as Sylvia was getting slammed through them.

"..."

Open-mouthed, Lily blankly stared in Sylvia's direction.

It was only, when she noticed the ape launching another straight punch, that she regained her sense.

She hastily jumped to the back, but due to its long reach, the punch connected.

After getting brutally thrown to the ground, she bounced far away like a flipping stone on water.

"Ugh..."

She coughed blood out as she tried to get up.

However, a large shadow loomed over her.

In spite of the distance, the ape managed to get to her in a short time.

It slowly reached its hands to her, whereas she could only watch it happen powerlessly.

With its hands around her neck, it held her up in the air like it was nothing.

"Hrngghh..."

She tried to free herself, but the more she tried the tighter it choked her.

Unable to gasp for air, she started to get dizzy and she felt her energy leaving her.

Almost losing consciousness, she took one last glance at Ophelia.

"..."

However, Ophelia was still unfazed by the sight and stayed in her position.

The ends of Lily's mouth formed a weak smile.

She was about to close her eyes, thinking that this would be her end.

It was just like the time when she was a child.

Lily remembered the encounter she had with the angel in a forest.

With her life being threatened, an angel came and rescued her.

The angel's appearance was dazzling and gave her so much hope in that dire situation.

With him on her side, she felt safe even though they were just strangers.

She remembered that day well.

"So dazzling..." she muttered low on oxygen.

She raised one hand up trying to grasp the sun.

Since that day, she wished to meet him again.

But why was she yearning for him so much?

Was it just to thank him? To talk with him? Or something completely different?

"Heh... How could I forget that..."

In the end, she was just a young maiden, too.

Love would be exaggerated, however, she took a deep interest in him at first sight.

She wanted to know more about him.

She wanted to spend time with him.

She wanted to stay by his side.

But deep down she knew that it would not be possible yet.

His existence was too bright for her.

Not only that, but his power was off the charts.

'How could a weak girl like me have the right to be at his side?', was her train of thought.

Thus, she was determined to train and educate herself so much that she could proudly be with him.

Getting into the Grand Order was just a stepping stone for her.

"..."

She grabbed both of the ape's arms with her hands.

And with fierce eyes, she lit them up in flames.

Screeching in panic, the ape let go of her and hastily attempted to extinguish the flames by wildly waving his arms around.

After falling to the ground, Lily coughed strongly and gasped desperately for air.

"You may be a mindless monster..."

She was still out of breath as she slowly got up on her feet.

"...but I must thank you for making me come back to my senses..." she said with firm eyes and an exhausted smile.

Internally, Lily cursed herself as she thought about her conversation with Mika.

She cursed herself for being mentally weak.

How could she let her resolve get shaken just by mere words?

Her resolve was much stronger than that.

The angel did not exist anymore? As long as she did not see for herself, she would not trust anybody's words.

If she would instead blindly believe someone else's words, then she would not have the right to stand by the angel's side from the beginning.

"Sylvia, Ms. Ross, Mika... and everyone else..."

With a weak body posture she pointed at the monster.

"I will show you all my resolve!" she screamed at the top of her lungs with blood spilling from her mouth.

At that moment, a large horizontal ice pillar suddenly popped out from the side, pushing the ape away.

"Nicely said, Lily."

Lily looked in the direction from where the ice pillar came.

Emerging from the bushes was Sylvia, who was walking alongside the ice pillar she created.

She hobbled on one leg and held her waist tightly with one arm.

"Sylvia!"

The two injured girls reunited.

That happy occasion was quickly ruined, when the ape, who was pushed into the woods, jumped into the air from there and landed in front of them.

It breathed heavily from its nose and glared intensely at the two.

As it gritted its teeth strongly, the girls noticed something strange about its chest area.

"N-no way..."

Tch. So it had an ace up its sleeves..."

The mystery behind its big chest was lifted as it began to open itself.

No.

What they thought to be a chest turned out to be two arms covering the initial chest.

From the start, it wrapped two arms around its chest and back.

Because the whole upper body was covered in black fur, they could not recognize the additional arms.

"This may be a lot more troublesome, but we have to do it... Let's go for round 2!"

"Y-yes!"

The next round will decide the winner.

Will it be the two injured and exhausted girls?

Or the enraged four-armed ape-like monster?