Haruyuki looked over at the members of Prominence, his heart in his mouth. Naturally, the ten on the Nega Nebulus side had no objections, but for the thirty-two on the Prominence side, even if it was just a provisional master for a single month—and even if it was the Red King’s decision—he thought it would still be a pretty tough thing to accept.

“No objections!!” the head of the Triad, Vermillion Vulcan, shouted loud and clear. The other members nodded one after another at the authoritative words of the one who had first voiced concerns about the Black King becoming Legion Master.

“So then, once again…” With a flourish that was suddenly lacking in dignity, Niko tapped away at her Instruct menu, and Kuroyukihime similarly moved her right hand. In front of each of them, a clear window of shining gold appeared, looking like no ordinary thing.

The two kings nodded at each other and raised their hands high. Moving so fast that he could hear the sound of the air ripping, they hit the centers of the two windows.

At the same time that both windows disappeared, a sublime sound he’d never heard before rang through the stage, and a brilliantly dazzling golden light enveloped the duel avatars gathered there. Haruyuki saw the system message YOUR LEGIONS HAVE BEEN COMBINED!! before it was enveloped in flames and disappeared. At last, the merger between Prominence and Nega Nebulus was done.

Haruyuki hung his head low, slammed with all kinds of feelings he couldn’t quite name, and saw the shadow of someone walking up to him. He hurried to lift his head and found Iodine Sterilizer there, wearing his hat and cloak once again. He couldn’t see the other avatar’s face mask, hidden as it was by the wide brim, and he braced himself, wondering what on earth he was planning to say.

“Looking forward to fighting together, Antidote King.” The voice was curt, but also embarrassed somehow, as Dine stuck a hand out.

“Right. Let’s fight again one of these days. I’m looking forward to it.” Haruyuki shook the hand of his new friendly rival and reassuring friend.

When he returned to the real world’s Nakano Central Park and lifted his eyelids, the first thing that leapt into Haruyuki’s field of view was Kuroyukihime sitting across from him. She was looking at her open hand with a complicated expression on her face.

“K-Kuroyukihime,” he started. “Is something the matter with your hand?”

She smiled as she shook her head. “No, nothing. I just feel as though that little Niko went and lost the final rock-paper-scissors to me on purpose…Anyway, isn’t there someone you have to report to right away?”

“Huh?” Blinking in confusion, Haruyuki looked to his right for some reason, and there was the face of Rin Kusakabe sitting on her knees, leaning forward to the very close range of approximately five centimeters. “Whoa! …S-sorry for the wait, Rin.” He threw his head back reflexively.

“Wh-what happened, Arita?” Rin brought her face in ever closer. Her extremely thin voice was filled with an anxiety that threatened to spill over any second, and Haruyuki hurriedly put a smile on his face.

“It’s okay. The Legion merger went off without a hitch…Well, I also got a weird title— Whoa?!” He wasn’t able to finish because of the arms that were suddenly flung around his neck.

Rin threw herself at him, large tears brimming in her eyes as she murmured, “Thank goodness!” and squeezed tightly.

“Hey, hey, heeeeey! Slow down! Too close there!!” Chiyuri grabbed Rin’s collar and tried to peel her off, but her arms showed no signs of loosening.

“N-no! Um.” Haruyuki flapped both hands and hurriedly started talking to the small ear immediately to the left of his face. “W-we still have a ways to go! I mean, we gotta go through the whole entry procedures for Ash, Utan, and Olive!”

The statement led him to imagine what would happen if he accelerated like this and met Ash Roller, and Haruyuki grew even paler.