Another light novel series I’m close to finishing is Boku to Kanojo ni Furu Yoru (ぼくと彼女に降る夜), a fantasy action story about an “ordinary” boy, Sugamu Naito, who finds himself dragged into a paranormal battle royale between magicians representing different families.

On his way home from school, Naito stumbles upon a blonde, strikingly beautiful girl named Yormirumi Stollenberg, the leader magician of one of the families, moments away from being killed. He jumps in to help her (with… not much success), but his intervention ends up revealing his latent potential as a magician from another family. Realizing this, Yoru (as she prefers to be called) decides to recruit him as her ally in the battle royale, even though the rules forbid such alliances.

The basic setup is surprisingly straightforward: several magical families, each belonging to a different “branch” of magic, are taking part in a ritual to determine the next Demon Lord, with a battle-royale-style contest to decide who is worthy. Yoru represents the Darkness branch and is the daughter of the previous Demon Lord.

Naito, on the other hand, possesses the power of the Extinction branch thanks to a mysterious encounter with his “teacher,” Iris Maria, ten years before the story begins. This makes him extremely valuable to Yoru, since Extinction is the most combat-oriented magic branch and has no remaining members after the teacher’s supposed “death” early in the series. Naito’s request for helping Yoru is simple: once she becomes the Demon Lord, he wants her to revive Iris, as Darkness magic at level 5 is said to be capable of resurrection.

The seven volumes I’ve read so far (out of nine available in total) typically focus on one major threat at a time while sprinkling in hints about the overarching plot, the truth behind the ritual, the Demon Lord lineage, and Yoru’s father’s real intentions.

The cast remains fairly tight throughout. Aside from Yoru and Naito, the third major recurring character is Nana, the representative of the Distortion branch. It becomes clear early on that she’s merely a puppet installed by the true head of her family for reasons unknown.

Nana eventually becomes the story’s most pivotal piece. After she “dies” at the end of the real representative and is revived by Yoru, the process unexpectedly restores Iris, the true Extinction representative, inside Nana’s body. Iris then begins supporting Naito from the shadows taking control of Nana's body from time to time.

I’ve now reached the point where Yoru’s true magical potential is revealed in her climactic battle against the "Alien" Sakuraris, and the story enters its final phase. Nearly all capable magicians from the other branches have been wiped out, and Iris has finally revealed herself openly to the group.

I’m really curious to see how everything wraps up, and I hope I can finish the last volumes soon. For those interested, the series is available on Bookwalker subscription so it’s easy to check out if the premise grabs you.