Surprise!

"...Why did things turn this way?" Ein's dissatisfied voice could be heard.


"Hehe, sorry, but it seems that luck is at our side!" I happily smiled. I could see our team's victory flag so close!


Luca, Kiri, and I were thinking of the same thing at this moment—that was, to focus our attacks to Ein!


Alt-nii seemed to notice this as he tried to raise a [Void] barrier to protect Ein. If that was how he was going to play it, then we should probably go and take him out first before easily taking out Ein.


"........."


Surprisingly, Ein seemed to be looking over the current situation while calmly thinking.


"Oh well, time to try that out...," he muttered before he shifted his gaze towards Alt-nii.


"Big Bro Alt, it's time to end this!"


...Eh?


I was surprised. Did he want to admit defeat this instant?


I thought he was one persistent kid. Was he actually more of a realist?


"What, Ein, I want to fight until the end, not surrendering!" Alt-nii protested.


"I didn't mean that!" Ein objected back.


"Then, what are you trying to propose?"


"I mean, let's end this in our victory!"


"...How are you going to do that?" I was taken aback by Ein's overwhelming confidence.


"Big Bro Alt, try to recite what I'm about to say!" Ein suddenly said.


"Huh? Why?"


"Just do it, okay?!"


"...Sure, then...," Alt-nii might think that Ein's idea might be worth it to try, as he could see that victory wasn't leaning on his team currently.


"Eine, dear, you couldn't be...," Nicole gasped, she seemed to have an idea what Ein was about to do. Well, Ein is her son after all!


"Okay, listen carefully and recite it well!" Ein took a deep breath before reciting something akin to a spell slowly as Alt-nii recited them after Ein...


[Meol, ôs orgilde spêd, [Bahamuth], :/sYAlE yor/:,--]


Ein began to recite something weird.


"Ru?!" Rurune let out a surprised voice.


"Huh, [Bahamuth]-sama's name was recited there?!" Even Carbuncle was surprised.


...I wonder what was that for?


"Eine, you can't be serious!" Nicole sounded a bit agitated.


No matter what it might be, no matter if I was so curious, I couldn't let the enemy win, not in this close situation!


I looked at Luca and Kiri. It seemed like we could communicate via eye contact well in this situation, as we nodded at one another. We then rushed to Alt-nii to hinder him from doing what Ein instructed him.


Alt-nii was a sharp person who noticed our intention right away. He quickly dodged our attacks and raised a [Void] barrier on himself.


...Not only that, he then proceeded on creating illusions of himself!!


He really went full power...?


"Ein, repeat that again! There's nothing to lose, I guess, so let's bet on your idea!" Alt-nii and his shadows shouted...


Which one is the real Alt-nii? I gotta figure it out before he finishes doing the reciting or whatever!


"Eine, drop the idea, won't you?" Nicole's warning voice resounded, but Ein didn't seem to obey his mother, as he quickly recited everything—followed by Alt-nii.


[Meol, ôs orgilde spêd, [Bahamuth], :/sYAlE yor/:, yfel besêcan êow, yeerh zacta tyy maarr itt sss, sûcan ðone as drýlic ellencræft ð¯ærût mîn hettend lîc êac sweðrian sîn hrêaw earm! Yfel fordêman blôtung mîn cyneðrymm ufan bewrixl−an, forglendr−an mîn misboren I!]


Sadly, both Ein and Alt-nii quickly recited them all in a hurry...


And the moment after Alt-nii finished reciting it (although he stuttered at some parts)...


I suddenly felt my body was depleted of mana, and I felt that my strength escaped from my body!


As I looked at my teammates' expressions, I could tell that they were also feeling the same sensation.


We were powerless.


At the same time, I saw Alt-nii's shadows or his illusion was also called off.


Did he call his illusion off because he was done reciting whatever it was?


"Now, go and destroy Big Sister Iris' crystal pendant!" Ein cheered as he saw that whatever he was thinking of doing actually succeeded.


"...Ein... there is another problem...," Alt-nii's voice was unexpectedly weak.


"Nn?" Ein tilted his head.


"...I felt very fatigued as well...," Alt-nii said in a weak voice.


"Eeh?! The effect was that extreme?!" Ein was surprised.


After he scratched his head for a bit, he suddenly said, "It can't be helped. Then, I'll be the one to end the match~!"


...Thereafter, Ein grabbed Kiri's sword that was lying there and leisurely stabbed it to our crystal brooches, and lastly, Iris' crystal pendant...


We tried to move our bodies to prevent that from happening, but since there was no strength at all in our bodies, our struggles ended up meaningless...


And so, the match had a complete turnabout and ended up in a very unexpected way...


Nicole was gasping and she looked a bit troubled at the sudden turn of events...


***


"I'm sorry!"


Nicole clapped her hands together as she bowed in front of us. She then forced Ein to bow down in apology as well.


After the match was over, Mom healed all of us.


"It's fine, Nicole-san. I'm sure Ein didn't mean anything bad," Mom calmly answered.


"W-what's with that, anyway?" I couldn't contain my curiosity.


"Hey, little Ein, you even mentioned our god—Bahamuth. What's with that spell?" Carbuncle raised her eyebrows.


"That is... well...," Nicole was trying to explain things on her son's behalf.


"So... you know that there are some classified books safeguarded by the Loera clan, right? ...So, Eine here read some of the ancient books out of curiosity and seemed to take an interest on a certain spell... Plus the fact that there's a living [Void] user... So he kinda went off with it and tried to put the ancient spell in action..."


"Mum knows me so well!" Ein smiled without any trace of guilt.


Nicole lightly flicked Ein's forehead.


"Ouch, Mum! Come on, it's nothing dangerous, right?"


"...You'll have another special lecture time, okay, dear Eine?"


"....Ye~s....," Ein reluctantly bowed.


On the other side...


"...Wait, what?!" I was surprised by Nicole's information.


Sure, I already got the gist that the Loera clan—a clan of scholars had an access to classified knowledge or ancient knowledge, but I didn't expect it to be like this.


And to think that Ein could remember something like that...?!


"Yes... Ophelia-san might have known it already, but there are books that contain ancient spells and so on, stored in the Loera's classified library... What Eine asked Altaire to recite was one of them—a spell depicted in an ancient book to be used by [Void] magic user. It's the type of spell used to offer your [Void] power in exchange to deplete the enemy of their power, especially of their magical power," Nicole elaborated further.


"But I didn't expect it to deplete Big Brother Alt's power as well!" Ein bitterly said.


"Well, it offers the [Void] user's power, and I guess the power taken was tremendous enough to make Altaire feel fatigued," Nicole lightly hit Ein's head.


"And did I hear it wrong or was our god, the dragon god, Bahamuth-sama, mentioned?" Carbuncle asked.


"Yes... you're right. Bahamuth—the dragon god—is well-known as the god of power. The [Void] magic user is offering their power to Bahamuth in exchange for the spell's effect," Nicole answered again.


"...That's interesting," Carbuncle said.


"Nicole-san, Nicole-san! How did Ein memorize that complicated spell?" I asked. He couldn't be memorizing the spell so hardly in order to wait for this chance to ask Alt-nii to try it out, right?


"Well... Okay, I guess it's fine to tell you guys this... It's not a top secret after all. It's actually the [Oracle] bestowed to some members of the [Loera] clan. We like to call this blessing as [Hypermind]. To put it simply, let's just say for now that Eine and I here have perfect memory," Nicole dropped a bomb to us.


No wonder Ein could remember and recite the whole spell flawlessly!


No wonder Nicole could remember the things from the olden days so perfectly, without any doubt!


...and no wonder that members of Loera clan excel so much in academics!


That's basically a very great cheat!!!


"Ehehe," Ein smiled happily. His face seemed to say, "Am I amazing?"


Really, [intelligence runs in blood] applies for the Loera clan, then.


"It's nice to be a member of the Loera clan, then!" Iris said in amazement.


"I won't deny that! However, not all possess this [Oracle], and the power varies as well," Nicole explained even further.


In Ein and Nicole's case, I'd say that their [Hypermind]'s power can be said as quite high?


I think so...


And is that all there is to [Hypermind]? Or just like the royal family's [Oracle] and Hartmann family's [Oracle], there are still some secrets that can only be told within the family?


...For now, their explanation of Loera family's [Oracle] sufficed, though... 

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