Even though I obeyed Alicia's suggestion, as we raced into the cemetery it became evident that offering our support wasn't going to be easy.
The moment Hades sent Cecilia flying into the graveyard, he pretty much neutralized whatever supporting fire we could offer. Unlike the open space of the park where we fought earlier, countless tombstones obscured our vision. Even though the noise of battle echoed deafening throughout the cemetery, we could hardly see the two figures locked in combat.
Worse, the towering tombstones were in the way, blocking our shots and reducing our accuracy and vision. We were much likelier to hit a tombstone than to strike the partially hidden Hades. Despite his immense size, he was still all but concealed by the larger and more numerous tombstones that stood over their burial mounds, like silent sentinels watching over the sleep of the dead.
A sleep that was about to be broken from the sheer violence and savagery of combat between a high-ranked combat mage and a legendary spirit.
As Alicia and I made our way deeper in, it occurred to me that the reason why Hades swatted Cecilia into the cemetery was precisely so that we couldn't assist her with ranged support. In a way, that realization was chilling, as it meant that Hades was far from the mindless berserker we assumed him to be, capable of formulating his own tactics…
I stopped in mid-thought suddenly. No, that made no sense. All this while, Hades had basically ignored Alicia's and my ranged attacks, treating them as mere nuisances not worthy of his attention. Why would he suddenly seek refuge in the graveyard?
The answer was right before my eyes. And judging from Alicia's amazed gasp, it seemed that she had come to the same realization too. As the both of us sprinted into the graveyard in hopes that we would make it in time and be of some assistance, I saw that my worries were completely unfounded.
Cecilia…Cecilia was fighting evenly with Hades in the middle of the cemetery. Hades tried to attack her, but his large frame and huge, unwieldy scythe were impeded by the surrounding tombstones. While he mowed down the gravestones mercilessly and effortlessly with his scythe, rendering them little more than stony fragments that pelted the ground like soft rain, his movements were hampered by the new obstacles, his speed hindered by a second or two by the tombstones that got in the way of each of his strike.
And those seconds made all the difference in a battle.
Cecilia was running about, using the tombstones as cover, weaving in and out of Hades' barrage and capitalizing on the precious seconds the gravestones and stony statues bought her. This time, the tables had turned, and Cecilia had reversed the situation. In this terrain, she had the advantage, her smaller size and greater speed and agility allowing her to traverse the cemetery easily and counterattack at her own pace. For each failed slash, Hades received grievous wounds from Cecilia's sword, which carved swathes of blood through his black, tattooed body.
The obsidian giant was being wounded. I felt hope flare up inside me as I watched the amazing battle before my eyes. We could actually win this!
"I see…"
Beside me, Alicia slowly smiled and nodded, as if she understood something.
"I always thought it was weird. Why did Cecilia take that last attack deliberately? She could easily dodge them, but she decided to just receive them head-on."
I glanced at Alicia, and she continued to explain.
"It wasn't that Cecilia slowed down or was injured. She was deliberately leading that giant into the cemetery all along!"
"She probably realized how…uh, grave the situation had become," I remarked. Alicia raised an eyebrow, but she giggled a little.
Then she shook her head and turned serious.
"I suspected as much. Fighting that monster without cover would be suicide. That was why Cecilia lured him to the graveyard, so that she can take advantage of the terrain to fight him on her terms. Of course, this means that she can't expect any long-ranged support, but the opponent is a monster that can even nullify our projectiles. Support was meaningless from the start."
I gnashed my teeth in frustration, feeling the exact same bitterness that I heard in Alicia's explanation. It didn't feel good to be useless in battle.
"…"
Still, I couldn't help but be awed by the spectacle unfolding before us. Cecilia and Hades clashed furiously, with the former avoiding any direct confrontation with the latter and focused only on whittling his health down with each strike. Of course, Hades' wounds closed up and healed within a minute, but Cecilia would mark him with more wounds as the battle dragged on, each injury more grievous than the previous one.
Bam!
A swing from Hades reduced a single proud, majestic tombstone into rubble. Cecilia disappeared from his view, darting behind a row of gravestones. Growling, Hades spun around to track her movements, but even his keen senses couldn't keep her within view as she simply blended in with the shadows.
Despite that, Hades remained undaunted. He was still a superlative warrior with decades of experience. Even centuries, if Cecilia's speculation about his origins was to be believed.
"!"
Hades abruptly swung around when he sensed movement behind him, his scythe smashing apart another tombstone and obliterating it. As debris rained down on the caked soil and grass, Hades slowly turned about and saw that he had missed.
But his instincts had been spot on. That was indeed an attack launched by Cecilia.
Blood dripped from a gash that Cecilia had torn open from his chest to hip. It was deep, the bleeding profuse, but Hades seemed to take no notice of it. He didn't have to, as the bleeding clotted within seconds, and the deep injury began to mend itself. Instead, he was more interested in his opponent.
Cecilia stood some distance away, between two tombstones, her sword raised. Hades snarled, and lunged at her.
Again, Cecilia darted into the gravestones for cover, rushing between two rows of tombs as Hades' rampage smashed a devastating path through them. His scythe cleaved through another grave, splitting the rock into debris, but Cecilia made use of the slight delay in his attacks when his monstrous scythe was impeded to alter her trajectory and launch a counterattack. She slashed at him, opening up a cut in his arm.
Bellowing, the berserk Hades reversed his hold in his scythe and swung at her, but she spun away gracefully. Landing on top of another tombstone, she waited for Hades to approach before leaping away. Hades' scythe obliterated her former perch, but Cecilia was already rotating in midair to launch a fierce strike that actually sent him staggering from the force.
Landing at his feet, Cecilia then eviscerated his abdomen, causing another spray of blood. Miraculously, none of the blood actually splattered her.
"Hu…"
Exhaling deeply, Hades calmly smacked her with his scythe, but again the tip of his crescent-shaped blade snagged against a tombstone, cutting a thin line through the rock. By the time it reached her, Cecilia was already in position to block it. They exchanged another furious blows, with the nimble swordswoman making use of her superior speed to fend off Hades' relentless and more powerful barrage.
The two combatants than sprang away from each other in another clash that left Hades bleeding. Cecilia was relatively unscathed, but her breathing had grown heavier. Even if she was faster and had the edge in this particular terrain, she didn't have infinite stamina or the raw power of her opponent. I could see that she planned to end this battle as quickly as possible.
I raised my eyes to Selina, who had reappeared and taken up position in a remote corner of the graveyard. Alicia raised her guns, but didn't fire. The both of us knew it was meaningless. The tombstones provided her ample cover, and even if we hit her, she had an impenetrable barrier that was proof against ranged attacks. I was beginning to see a pattern here – both summoner and summoned spirit were all but impervious against ranged spells…
I wondered if I should summon Vermillion Phoenix and incinerate both her and Hades, but Cecilia would get caught in the blast. Besides, Cecilia seemed to have the battle well in hand, and she was actually winning. I had a feeling that, despite Selina's scowl, our enemy still had more tricks up her sleeve. If that was the case, revealing my Celestial Guardians too early would prove to be a mistake. I wanted to see what else Selina had in store – depending on what she did if Cecilia did indeed defeat Hades, it might be more advantageous to summon my Celestial Guardians later.
Vaguely I wondered about the possibility of converting the power of my Celestial Guardians into my Constellation weapons. What if I transferred all of Vermilion Phoenix's formidable firepower to a single arrow, for example?
Pushing that thought to the back of my mind, I still kept toying with the idea while focusing a good portion of my attention on the shifting battlefield that was the graveyard.
Cecilia and Hades had broken apart from yet another bloody clash, and now the former was pointing her sword at the latter as she assumed a final offensive stance.
"You've been a worthy opponent…perhaps the most skilled and strongest enemy I have faced thus far. As such…" she took a deep breath, channeling her magical energy into her sword. Thousands of Sakura petals gathered around her, gleaming faintly in the silvery moonlight. They shone vividly as they responded to Cecilia's call.
Hades merely growled as he brought his scythe down, ready to parry this new attack. His red eyes followed the trail of pink Sakura petals as they increased rapidly in numbers and formed a dense cloud of fluttering blossoms.
Where there was death, there was also life. It surprised me to see the epitome and symbol of spring coming to life so forcefully in a place of death, but perhaps it was precisely because of this contrast that made Cecilia's attack appear more powerful than ever.
"Stuart Clan Sword Style," she whispered. "Ten Thousand Sakura Blossoms, Divine Blades of Annihilation."
Narrowing her eyes, Cecilia then kicked off the ground, propelling herself forward to meet her enemy. The Sakura petals surrounding her whirled into a vengeful maelstrom at the tip of her sword, and she surged toward Hades while wreathed in a glowing vortex of pink energy.
Growling, Hades swung his scythe down at Cecilia, probably intending to cleave her in half before she reached him, but she nimbly altered her trajectory at the last second. She barely evaded Hades' deadly scythe, the blade slicing into the earth and sending chunks of rock and soil flying. Even so, she received a single graze, a line of blood dripping from her temple into her eye. However, Cecilia continued onward, refusing to be distracted from her goal by pain or injury.
With a determined yell, Cecilia drove her sword right into Hades' chest before he could parry with his scythe. Still, in one last-ditch attempt, he caught hold of Cecilia's sword, his hand bleeding profusely as he barely managed to prevent the blade from reaching his chest.
Despite that, Cecilia would not be stopped.
With a shout, she directed the maelstrom of Sakura petals forward. The pink Sakura blossoms actually flayed through Hades like a million blades, cutting through him and slicing through his bone and organs. In a second, blood burst out of Hades from countless injuries as his once unyielding iron body was perforated by the ultimate spell. Hades roared in fury as his body imploded from being cleaved apart by so many tiny blades and he slumped down in an unrecognizable heap of flesh and blood, the red light from his demonic eyes and tattoos fading away upon his death.
Panting, Cecilia withdrew her sword and stepped away, exhausted and drained by the use of her ultimate technique and the toll the battle had taken away. The Sakura petals vanished, almost as if they had never existed to begin with, and she slumped down. Wiping the blood away from her face, she pressed her left palm against her temple in a vain effort to stem the bleeding.
"Cecilia did it."
Alicia was smiling, her expression filled with immense relief. I also relaxed, realizing that I had been holding my breath this entire time. I inhaled quickly and nodded in agreement.
However, whatever words I was about to say swiftly died in my throat when I noticed something peculiar about Hades. No, even before that, I turned around and caught sight of Selina. She was shaking her head in exasperation rather than despair, looking more annoyed than afraid at Hades' demise.
Something was not right.
I blinked as I studied Hades' corpse. It was faint, but I could sense some sort of demonic energy flickering to life within it. That was strange. Usually when something died, the energy should be fading away into nothingness, not amplifying exponentially.
Then it hit me.
"Cecilia!" I yelled, my voice hoarse with dread. "Get away from that monster! He's not dead yet!"
And then the tattoos on Hades' bleeding body burst into life, shining a demonic red that saturated the graveyard in a sinister light.