"You'll never kill me! I'll kill myself before you can, and bring all of you down with me! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

Andreu's loud shout beats the chorus in volume, and it reaches my position. Then, before the chanting drowns us again with its music, the right side of the Auditorium is filled with bright light, followed by an explosion.

"Hehe, he blew himself up yet again..." I chuckle.

Andreu likes to pretend he hates it, but he's always looking forward to an excuse to use his ultimate skill. If he has to die, he wants it to be by his own hand.

"Hahaha, you missed! Better luck next time! Lily, Lemon, the time's almost up, you must hurry!"

As I thought, he's buying us as much time as possible. Using his triggered skill as an extra life, and thanks to the brief invulnerability from Grand Finale, he has bought us two ritual cooldowns' worth of time. Now that he's weak and useless, I'm sure he's intentionally provoking the chanting mobs to target him with a third.

He likes to act like a fool, but he knows what's best for the team and isn't afraid to sacrifice himself. That's why I like to play with my brother so much.

"I can't waste his effort," I slap my cheeks, "It's time for the Great Tentacle Queen's show! Hehehe!"

I'll show him and Marta how good I am! And then, they'll pat me on the head and praise me! That's something I must achieve!

Using my tentacles, I freely move through the irregular terrain. They're pretty useful. I can use them to close gaps by extending and retracting them. They're like fully controllable grapple hooks, and I like them, hehehe!

Now it's up to Laura and me to defeat enough chanters to stop the ritual. Andreu, with the reduced stats, is pretty useless right now.

"Look here, you useless pricks! Don't you feel ashamed? You've targeted me with an unavoidable, instant-death skill, not once, but twice. Twice! And I'm still alive. Shame on you! Shame on your family! Shame on your cow!"

Though it doesn't stop him from being annoying towards his enemies.

Hehehe. AIs can't understand him, but giving away his position by shouting is enough to make him their target. As long as Laura and I don't start shouting louder than him, we should be fine.

"Lily…"

Lately, she's been acting weird. We agreed I wouldn't interfere with her, and she wouldn't try to steal Andreu from me when playing the game. But lately, she's been trying to break our pact!

Guuh… it makes me angry!

"Do you like the sight of my ass? If you want to do something about it, come and make me regret it. Or are you too scare–"

Andreu's loud voice suddenly disappears. He did his job without hesitating.

"Nooo! Brotheeeeer…!" I wipe my falling tears. "I'll… I'll avenge you!"

The time's up. The race's final stretch is upon us. A race to kill, or be killed.

"Do you like the sight of my ass? If you want to do something about it, come and make me regret it. Or are you too scare–"

Fufufu. How silly he is. It isn't like he can show his ass in DMA, but he still acted like that, and died in the middle.

"Aah, I want to watch the replay to see his face…" But I can't right now. It'll have to wait until we finish the training. "I wonder how many chanters remain."

Compared to the start, the volume has fallen significantly. That's why we could hear Andreu's voice from the other side of the room before he died. I killed more than fifteen, and if I assume Andreu and Clara killed a similar amount, this would make about fifty dead chanters.

The ritual requires twenty monsters with the same skill… We're almost there!

"But it's getting harder to find the remaining ones…"

It's always the same. The fewer remaining objectives, the harder it is to find them.

I use Blink towards the ceiling, and as soon as my body teleports, gravity takes hold and I start falling. I've been doing this for a while, as the higher position is great for spotting enemies.

From this higher position, the massive magic circle hanging above the Auditorium is perfectly visible. That must be the magic circle of the chanting ritual. Everything below it must be a valid target.

Shining in gold, the magic circle blends with the other decorative elements, so I'm sure Andreu and Clara haven't noticed it.

"Hmm… There! Oh, and there's another one!"

How lucky of me to find not one but two chanters! Let's go and kill them quickly.

One after the other, the two chanters die at my hands without any resistance. This isn't funny; to kill unresisting enemies isn't to my liking. I know it isn't very demon-like, demons should enjoy killing the weak and inflict as much suffering on them as possible, but still…

While I scan the area, searching for more victims, I see Clara using her tentacles to reach one of the boxes. Watching her makes me feel a pinch of remorse, but I ignore it and continue searching for prey.

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I'm sorry, Clara. I know we had an agreement. But I've waited for too long… I don't want to waste any more time. If you're to blame someone, blame your brother.

"Ooh…!"

A surprise exclamation escapes from my lips when the chanting suddenly stops. The dead chanter Clara just released from her tentacle's grip must have been the last one we needed. When I look up, the golden magic circle has disappeared too.

We've cleared the biggest hurdle, but this wasn't the last one.

"Can we clear this without Baldy and Mad Rat?"

Having two out of four players remaining means we've lost half our strength. But when it comes to actual battle, numbers are also part of the strength, which means we've actually lost way more than half our power.

Regardless of what happens next, the most important thing to do right now is to reunite with Clara.

"Let's stop the training here."

A sudden voice rings out from above. With majestic wings and an imposing posture, holding her precious sword, Andreu and Clara's older sister, Anthemia, slowly falls from above.

She locks her gaze with mine.

"I've seen enough. And with two dead party members, continuing the training would make no sense. We'll stop here. Let's review what happened and prepare for the next training session as soon as possible."

There will be more? More of this? I now start to understand Andreu's reluctance. His sister is relentless.

"Hmm… not bad. Not great, but not the worst. Their team has potential, but they need time to reach it."

After watching Andreu and Clara's team move about my dungeon, I decide it's time to intervene. With two dead players, continuing the training would be a waste of everyone's time, mine included.

"I just have to push them until they reach it, even if they hate me."

I touch a few game screens and appear inside their Dungeon Invasion instanced dungeon. Appearing from above them, right below the ceiling, I let my body float down with my wings extended.

"Let's stop the training here."

We exchange a few more words, and everyone leaves the dungeon. There's no way to talk with dead players, so we must solve this first.

Once everyone is out, I invite them back into my dungeon as guests one by one. I make them spawn directly in the same room.

"Mar–"

As soon as she appears, Clara opens her arms and jumps at me, ready to hug me. But I raise my hand to stop her.

"Lemon, use the proper name inside the game."

I hate stopping her at a time like this, but I need to. I can't have my little sister acting like a fool in front of other players. She needs to grow up.

"Yes…! Anthemia!"

Clara repeats the same motions, this time with even more force. She slams into me with enough force to push most players, but not enough to push me. I hug her back and pat her head.

To think we could have been like this all along if I had supported her that time… Bad life choices.

"Whooaaah! Is this the famous 'Heaven's Council'!? I never thought the day would come when I could see it in person…! This is amazing!" Andreu's friend excitedly looks around like a country bump. "I'll brag to all my friends about this, hahaha!"

"What friends? Do you even have any friends other than us?"

"Shut up, Andreu!"

I hate these kinds of people. They act all high and mighty all the time, but immediately lower their heads when someone important or famous shows up. If you give them the tiniest chance, they immediately start ass-kissing you. They're disgusting.

This is just the second time I've seen him, so I'm not sure yet, but I'll keep an eye on him.

From what I've seen so far, he's the team's weak link. He's the most unreliable and weak member. Depending on what I see during the training, I'll have to have a serious talk with Andreu about his friend.

Still hugging me, Clara looks up at me and asks, "Hey, sister. What's this 'Heaven's Council' he's talking about?"

"Nothing important. Now, sit down. There's much to talk about, and little time." I point at the chairs around the table and take the most important spot for myself.

This place isn't connected to my dungeon, and it's where I bring other players and interviewers when the meetings must happen inside DMA. It's also the place I bring them when they want to talk with 'Anthemia' instead of the real me.

Since it's been on screen quite a few times, it isn't uncommon for other people to recognize this place.

But almost none dare to act like a fool in front of me, regardless of how excited they are. Look at him! Andreu's friend continues to gawk around like an idiot, even while seated. He doesn't even notice when I glare at him, uncomfortable with his actions.

I'll make him regret his impertinence. I'll personally see that he's pushed to his limit during practice.

While I think to myself, Clara, Andreu, and the other girl chat a bit.

"I'll be clear," everyone shuts up and looks at me when I open my mouth. "Today, you failed."

Their expressions change and twist in interesting ways, but I ignore them. I continue before they can say anything.

"If I had to rate you, I'd say your chances of getting into the real event are about one percent." I make another pause to enjoy their faces. "But it wasn't terrible. There's much room to improve. Now that I've seen how you play, it's time for the real training."

"T-that wasn't the real training…?" Asks Andreu.

"Of course not. This was just for me to watch you and identify where you need to improve."

Our conversation continues while I explain what they did wrong and what they did well. Their biggest flaw is the lack of preparation. Relying on luck isn't something they can do if they're serious about this.

As much as I enjoyed watching Andreu getting himself killed, struggling to stay alive just to inevitably fail as predicted, it was clear they didn't plan it. It was just something they did because Andreu suddenly came up with an idea, even if it somehow worked in the end.

Tsk! I'll never understand why so many of his crazy plans somehow end up working. It's unfair to everyone who takes any game seriously!

"But don't worry. I'll do everything I can to make sure you're one of the best teams in the 4vs4 category. I'll make you one of the best teams, even if it's the last thing I do. I swear upon my name."

Even if it means I'll spend so much time with them that I won't be able to focus on myself.

Even if I have to withdraw from the event.

Even if I lose my place as a top player.

"..."

Loud gulping sounds come from all around me, but everyone stays quiet.

I thought about this, and I came to an answer: that's the least I can do for my siblings. As compensation for ignoring Clara when she most needed it… and rewarding Andreu for being a better sibling than me, regardless of how much it pains me to admit it.

There were places in some dungeons in DMA treated as legendary by the player community. Maybe it was because they appeared in the media. Maybe because they were extremely well hidden. Or maybe they were an incredibly hard place to reach. Regardless of the reason, players treated them as special, and having a picture showing their Champion inside that place was treated as a great honor.

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