Chapter 87: Conflicts

"..." While Nio calls Moros for a private conversation, the other apostles remain in the throne room. Haruna regenerates slowly as Yomo approaches her.

"You actually look kind of pretty as a puddle of meat and blood on the floor, but it really is comical that you tried that. Hilarious, honestly. Nio is clearly still very strong." Yomo pokes at the deformed flesh in a provocative tone.

"I-I’m leaving now," Melissa says as she gets up, having gained nothing from this situation. Seeing that Nio is still stronger than her, her only choice is to obey the request efficiently to avoid problems.

"...Ow!" Vesta slams her shield into Melissa, shoving her against a pillar, while Azalea smacks her own forehead at the chaos she knew would happen when they all gathered.

"You filthy insect, I made it very clear what would happen if you showed your face in front of me. Now that Nio isn’t here, it’s time I put you in your place." Vesta tries to crush Melissa, who reacts by grabbing the shield and starting to push Vesta back.

"Stop it!! You’re not children to be fighting the moment Nio leaves," Azalea says in a serious tone, but she’s ignored because she’s one of the weakest, and because no one really cares what she says unless she’s carrying orders that come from Nio.

"..." Azalea looks around and then goes quiet, just watching. She already did what she could and won’t get involved, so she observes Vesta trying to crush Melissa while Yomo keeps poking at Haruna, who will take some time to fully regenerate from such a brutal crushing.

"Come on, you insect. I told you not to show your face in front of me again, and now that you have, you should at least fight back for real!!!" Vesta repeats what she said before with disgust in her voice. She has personal grudges against Melissa, so she takes advantage of the chance to hurt her.

"For a filthy insect who wants to cover the entire world, you really are arrogant for someone so weak." She steps on Melissa’s face, who looks at Azalea, making it clear she’ll attack if Azalea does nothing.

"..." Since Azalea does nothing, Melissa punches Vesta’s shield, shoving her back. Immediately she appears in front of Vesta, throwing another punch at the shield. She repeats this with extremely fast strikes, driving Vesta against the opposite wall. She lands countless rapid blows on the shield, pressuring Vesta with her speed while Vesta stays on the defensive, not taking a single hit.

While the two are at it, Haruna finally regenerates her head. Her eyes glare at Yomo with contempt, though the blood covering her face makes her expression hard to read.

"Don’t touch me, Yomo!! I’ll make you pay dearly if you try to touch me again!!" She shows deep disgust toward Yomo. Despite everything functioning peacefully in the palace, that only lasts because each of them is separated by a floor.

So normally each apostle never runs into the others. When they do, conflicts break out among most of them.

"Calm down, Butcher. I won’t touch you. I’m just finding it amusing. You really lost fast — you weren’t even useful enough to scratch Nio. Disappointing."

"That’s not fair! I didn’t even react!!"

"Sure, sure. Because you’re weak." Haruna sees the attack as unfair, which is the truth — she would have had the strength to defend herself if she’d seen it coming. But now the image of Nio completely crushing her is too strong to be questioned.

"I’m not weak!!... Nio is just really strong. That doesn’t make me weak! I’m very strong!! Powerful!! And amazing." Haruna’s self-praise becomes less convincing when you see that her body is only a head while the rest is still trying to regenerate.

"Hahaha, funny for you to say that while you’re the floor’s stain. You’re lucky to have that much regeneration. Besides, you have one of the least relevant jobs — it seems Nio doesn’t trust you much. After all, me, Melissa, and Nio herself have the largest kingdoms for this new activity." Yomo tries to provoke Haruna, who looks at Azalea.

"Azalea, get him away from me!! This wretch clearly wants to do bizarre things to me!!" Azalea looks at the two of them, then at Vesta and Melissa, who are still fighting, even if not seriously.

"I’m leaving. Nio already finished telling us what we’re supposed to do. Just don’t destroy anything." Azalea uses the castle’s teleportation to go to her floor.

Vesta increases her defensive power while reflecting part of the damage back at Melissa. For Melissa, her enemy is the worst possible matchup — Melissa is focused on faster attacks and pressure, which turns out to be bad against a Tank who reflects damage like Vesta.

So Melissa just flies away, passing through the door and vanishing down the corridors. If it were a serious fight, there’s no telling which of the two would win, but for a light conflict, Melissa decides it’s not worth continuing.

"Don’t run, you damned cowardly insect!!!" But Vesta doesn’t accept the retreat and decides to chase after her, even though she’s much slower, which leaves Yomo and Haruna alone.

"Hmmm... looks like it’s just us—" Haruna’s sword moves, sliding in front and pushing Yomo away. The sword regenerated first, so it’s already ready to defend Haruna’s body.

"Don’t... come... near. I already told you."

"...Whatever. I was leaving anyway, though I still have to receive the items Nio wants to give from her." Yomo sees a great opportunity in what Nio will do — while Nio is distracted, Yomo gains room to do what he wants.

"But Haruna, wouldn’t you like to talk with me about Nio? Don’t you have an interest in eviscerating her?" Yomo decides to seek "allies," trying to talk to the less strategic ones like Haruna, who would clearly hurt Nio if she could.

"...Well... I want to, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"...And what if I gave you the opportunity to do it?" Yomo knows Haruna has no chance of beating Nio, but if she can at least force Nio to burn through a lot of magic, that’s already good help in his view.

"...Ohh... really?"

"Of course. We can talk more in private later, what do you think?" Haruna despises Yomo, but she likes the proposal.

"Sure, we can talk as long as you don’t try to touch me."

"Don’t worry, I’m genuinely interested only in proposing something to you. We can meet outside for this conversation in a few days... and don’t bring Cristina." Yomo knows Cristina would ruin everything since she’s the ’brain’ of the duo who supports Haruna.

"Ok!!" Haruna doesn’t even try to be suspicious. She already knows Yomo isn’t trustworthy, which leaves room for curiosity about the proposal she received.