Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjo, Aruiha Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen - Volume 11 - Chapter 8.2

2

He felt a sense of déjà vu.

Yes. He felt a faint chill ever since hearing the sound at the Lord’s residence.

A siren kept sounding. His heart thumped faster and faster as he headed outside. The sight that greeted him was black smoke fuming so vigorously it blackened the skies.

The capital was on fire. Though he didn’t want them to come back, he recalled painful memories from ten years ago. Only one ward could have been on fire but seeing the flames and black smoke flickering between the buildings, one couldn’t help but think of the witch.

“She couldn’t be?!”

He was doubtful. She had left the Empire a decade ago and built her own nation. What point would there be in attacking the Empire now?

“…Please tell me that my intuition is off. Please!”

The larger roads were filled with citizens attempting to escape. The trauma from ten years ago still persisted. Whether they liked it or not, flames in the capital brought about the image of the Grand Witch Nebulis.

“Guh…move aside!”

Crossweil headed in the opposite direction of where the citizens were running. He passed through gaps in the crowd as he ran toward the fires. His voice cracked unintentionally as he saw what was ahead.

He saw Imperial tanks overturned like they were planks of wood. The armed Imperial soldiers were on the ground like fallen dominos. The buildings were half demolished. It was the same as ten years ago.

The Empire’s streets were destroyed, and the Imperial forces were devasted.

Above him…

…he saw Eve Sophi Nebulis wearing a black cloak.

It had been a decade since he’d last seen her. She looked the same as back then, still a petite girl. Because she had fused with the astral power in her, time had almost stopped for her body.

“I shouldn’t question it when I get a bad feeling about something. I’m usually right.”

The streets were silent. The soldiers had been cast aside, and the citizens had all evacuated.

“Long time no see, Eve.”

It was just the two of them. Crossweil called her by her name like he always had.

“Crow, your hair’s longer.” She descended to the ground.

They faced each other, with only a few meters between them…then he noticed something. Eve’s eyes were bright red and swollen. She seemed to have been crying. The dust and smoke had mixed into her tears before they had even dried, so it looked almost as though Eve were crying tears of black.

He couldn’t help but worry. Even so, there was something else he needed to ask first.

“Eve, what are you doing?”

He looked around again at the destruction.

…The capital’s finally recovering.

…The Imperials’ hearts are finally healing.

It was all for nothing. Just the very thought of the Grand Witch Nebulis would likely worsen the persecution that witches faced.

“I thought you weren’t ever coming back here, after you and Alice—”

“Alice is gone.”

He didn’t understand what she meant.

…Alice is gone?

…What is Eve saying? They’re supposed to be living with each other.

They had run away from the Empire together. They had established a new nation, the Nebulis Sovereignty. He hadn’t seen how things were there, but he knew that the first Nebulis queen had to have been one of his sisters, so he’d been sure they would be fine.

He had assumed the two were doing well.

In that case, why were his sister’s eyes red and swollen? Why could he see tear tracks on her face?

“…”

He felt his heart squeeze.

For a moment, a sense of foreboding flashed through his mind. The chill he had felt from the third alarm wasn’t from Eve’s attack.

“…It can’t be…”

“It was the wound inflicted by the soldier ten years ago.” She wiped her eyes. “Even after she became queen, the injury still troubled her. Then it got worse. My astral power was laughably useless.”

“…Ngh.”

He couldn’t get any words out. It was so sudden that though he understood what she was saying, the emotions hadn’t caught up with him.

…So that’s what happened.

…That’s why Eve is here.

Her beloved little sister had been taken from her. And an Imperial bullet had done that. So, she had come back to the Empire to get her revenge. As the Grand Witch Nebulis.

“Does it matter anymore? Step aside, Crow.”

“…Tell me something first.” Crossweil quietly spoke as Eve eyed the Imperial streets.

“Did Alice ask you for revenge?”

“…What?”

“Perhaps it’s different. I just got that sense after you told me that Alice was queen.”

The Nebulis Sovereignty’s queen had been the younger twin.

Since then and until now, the Empire and the Sovereignty hadn’t been in an all-out war.

…If she had wanted a war, she could have started one.

…She was even shot by a soldier.

But none had occurred. He was sure Alicerose must have stopped one from ever occurring.

“Crow.” Eve’s voice was stifled as though she were holding back her rage. “This is about how I feel. I will take revenge on the Empire because that’s what I want. What’s so wrong with that?”

“Right. Then let me say what I want, too. Give me time.”

“…Time?”

“The Lord and I are changing the Empire.”

“Crow! Are you still obsessing over that dream?!” she yelled. Her bloodshot eyes opened wide as though she couldn’t believe it. “It’s been ten years! Nothing has changed at all!”

“That’s right. We haven’t had enough time. A decade hasn’t been enough to stem the tide of hate.”

It hadn’t been enough time for astral mages to forget their persecution at the hands of the Empire. Nor for the Imperials to forget the destruction of the Grand Witch.

“You said nothing’s changed, Eve? No. In the past ten years, Yunmelngen and I have been desperately looking for something.”

Eve did not ask what it was. To her it was likely nonsense. She had already made up her mind.

“Enough. Out of the way.”

She artlessly waved her hand. Using her astral power, wind began to form and was blowing him to the side. He could immediately tell that she was holding back for his sake.

Then he cut through the wind with his black blade.

“Wha?!”

The Grand Witch froze, her hand still raised up. He hadn’t just cut through the wind. The moment he had struck with the blade, the astral power itself disappeared.

“You can intervene with astral power? Crow, what is that?”

“It’s hope,” he replied.

The black blade gleamed like obsidian. Eve likely saw it wasn’t a simple steel blade.

“We didn’t waste the last ten years. Yunmelngen and I haven’t changed the Empire yet. But we found hope that we’ll be able to. We might be able to defeat the calamity at the planet’s core with this.”

“Huh?”

“Once we do that, the astral powers on the surface should return to the core, too. You must understand what this means, Eve!”

He was sure he could get through to her. She was the person with the strongest astral power, after all. These astral swords could become the hope that Alicerose had been praying for.

“Then the astral powers in the astral mages will also—”

“Stop!” Her shout echoed around the deserted buildings. “Look, Crow…I’m…I’m Alice’s older sister!”

Eve almost sounded as though she were weeping. She must have cried enough for her entire life when she lost her sister, but more tears were welling in her eyes.

“Back when Alice was shot right in front of me, and even now with Alice gone. Are you saying I should wait all on my own for a future that may never come to pass?!”

“…”

“You think the source of this is at the core of the planet? I’ll fight that thing as much as you’d like, but first I need to deal with the Empire. Until I destroy it, I can’t move forward!”

…Splish.

A droplet fell onto the dry asphalt and burst.

“Move, Crow!”

“No, I can’t!”

The blockhead!

He knew somewhere within him that this would happen at some point. Ever since one of them had stayed in the Empire, and the other had left. He had been prepared for it.

This, the maelstrom of fate that was tearing the planet apart.

The siblings who loved each other clashed.

But before they could watch the fight, Sisbell Lou Nebulis IX’s Illumination power disappeared.