CHAPTER 6
Evils Near Unspeakable
1
Like thousands of fireworks, the astral powers flew from the sacred ground into the jet-black sky, lighting it to a near-blinding degree.
And beneath that light…
…a monster bearing a crest like the sun approached the land. It pushed through the swamp, splashing the water and creating a trail of ripples.
“Looks like we’ve got seven seconds to strategize!”
Even Mei’s shout caused ripples to carry across the water’s surface.
“Isk and I are gonna hunt this bad boy together. The rest of you defend the Astrals! Dismissed!” ordered Mei.
“Got it—!”
“No.”
As Risya nodded, the black-haired princess cut in. “I want to stay with Iska.”
“What? What was that, little witch?! Last I remember, you surrendered to the Empire. So you—”
Roar!
As Mei yelled at Kissing, red water from the swamp splattered at her.
The eidos was almost there.
“Huh!”
Before Mei could ready herself or Iska could cry out, the three-meter-tall monster was just millimeters from her face.
Had it teleported? No, but it had moved with such explosive speed that it had almost seemed like it had.
“ ”
The giant crossed its arms like a pair of scissors.
Mei was about to be cut in half, splattering blood everywhere—or so everyone expected.
“Mei?”
“Hurry up and go! You’re the one who knows the Astrals, Risya.”
Mei landed on the ground.
She had jumped away from the eidos’s scissor arms with inhuman speed.
But her outfit had been sliced around her stomach, as though it had been seared by a laser, and a red line of blood crossed her bare and muscular abs. She had sustained a cut. Had it been even slightly deeper, then Mei’s internal organs would have been damaged alongside everything else.
“C’mon, hurry up!” she said.
“Isk, good luck fighting alongside Mei!” Risya swiveled around. After seeing the terrifying attack, Risya had no objections.
Holding a strategy session in front of an enemy was inane.
Mei had only been able to avoid getting bifurcated because she’d used her superhuman concentration and reflexes to their fullest potential. Risya decided that Mei didn’t need any more distractions at this point.
“…Vequs.”
The eidos said something. It had bellowed in some indecipherable language and raised its serpentine tail high in the air before anyone could process what was happening.
Like a snake raising its head, it shot down its tail to hunt its prey.
And it was after…
“Me?!”
…someone other than Mei—Iska.
Though it had attacked Mei first and had seemed to be focusing on her alone, it turned out that was all a ruse to catch Iska by surprise.
He had no time to avoid it, so he readied himself to meet the tail with his swords. Then he sensed something like the flutter of insect wings expanding into the space above his head.
“Thorns.” Kissing was giving commands.
Hundreds of black thorns pierced the eidos’s tail. She had the power to make matter disappear, and the tail was soon riddled with holes.
“Hssk!”
The bloodred monster let out a strange sound and withdrew its tail.
Kissing emotionlessly pointed behind herself, in the direction of the Astrals’ home.
“Looks like my thorns work on it. The rest of you may go over there.”
“Really?” Alice looked back at Kissing. “Can I actually trust you, Kissing?”
“I do not know what you suspect of me, but I need to help Iska. Because that is what I promised him.”
“…” Alice silently turned around. Then she took off after Risya, who was already going to the Astrals, with Rin and Sisbell following close behind.
“Careful, Iska!” Commander Mismis called out as she, Nene, and Jhin also ran away.
But Iska had no time to see them off.
“Mei, you’re bleeding,” he said.
“Hmm? Oh, seriously? I thought I dodged it.”
As she continued to focus on the eidos, Mei touched her torso. The cut was so fine, she hadn’t felt it.
In fact, she still didn’t feel any pain. The eidos’s arms were so sharp that she hadn’t even been able to feel her wound until she touched it herself.
“You still there, little miss witch? I’m not responsible if you get caught in the cross fire,” Mei said to Kissing.
“You’re in the way.”
“What? What did you—?”
“Once I use my thorns, this will be over.”
The princess spread her arms.
Kissing, the Purebred Witch of Thorns, created thousands, then tens of thousands of thorns that blotted out the sky—all to annihilate their enemy.
“Disappear,” she said.
The eidos had nowhere to go.
Thorns appeared in all directions around the eidos and began to assail it.
“ !”
The monster screamed.
The thorns destroyed every part of its body they touched, leaving the eidos riddled with holes. It was as though someone had taken an eraser to it. It attempted to use its arms to cover its head, but even those disappeared.
Its tail, arms, and torso were all gone.
Once Kissing had used all her thorns, the vestiges of the bloodred monster collapsed to the ground. Only its chest and head remained. It had lost its entire lower half, along with its arms. It couldn’t stand, much less fight.
They had won. But it had been too fast and too easy.
Iska was reminded yet again of Kissing’s incredible power. If the Empire didn’t have the astral swords, an entire company would have been powerless against her.
“Have I been helpful, Iska?” she asked.
“You haven’t, you dummy. What about my turn?” Mei pouted. She seemed disappointed at the anticlimactic outcome. She turned away and sighed. “Hey, little lady, wasn’t there an eidos that could reflect astral power? What would you have done if it sent your thorns back at you?”
“That was why I tested my thorns on its tail first.”
Kissing snapped her fingers. The remaining thorns around her disappeared. If the astral power had been sent back at her, she could have used the thorns she’d kept in reserve to counter them.
“If my thorns work, I’m to use my full power. That was what my uncle taught—”
“Wait, Kissing!” Iska shouted, cutting her off. “Don’t put away your thorns!”
“What?”
“Les…orb…mihya…lement.”
Though the giant was only a torso, its sun mark began to blink, and its bottom half regenerated.
It was like new shoots appearing on a vegetable cutting. Its arms appeared from its shoulders, and its top half sprouted out of its bottom half and tail.
“What…?”
It had taken only seconds.
The eidos of the sun had regenerated in front of Kissing before she could even process what was happening.
“Kissing, your thorns!”
“Huh!” The princess thrust out her arms. She didn’t have a moment to think. She commanded her thorns in a shrill voice. “Expand!”
The monster’s fist came down.
She just barely managed to destroy the creature’s arm—but then it instantly regenerated.
“……What?!”
Not one of her thorns was left.
The eidos attempted to bring its regenerated fist down over the unguarded girl’s head.
She had no way of blocking it.
“Duck, Kissing!” Iska barked, running at full speed.
He slashed his black sword upward, trying to put himself between the eidos’s fist and Kissing. He could only hope he was on time.
Just as it was about to flatten Kissing, the monster’s fist swiveled. Now it was heading for him.
Iska shuddered.
It wasn’t just the fist.
The giant’s entire head was also barreling toward him.
……It wasn’t after Kissing!
……It was targeting me from the start!
He mustered all his strength to twist his body and turn abruptly. The fist traveled through the air where Iska’s face had once been. Had he been even slightly slower, everything from his neck up would have been sent flying.
Iska rushed closer to the monster.
“Hah!”
He thrust his sword upward.
He was aiming for the sun mark, of course. The crest blinked every time the monster regenerated.
……If this is its core…
……Then maybe if I destroy it, the eidos might stop regenerating!
Iska’s aim was true, and his sword plunged through the eidos.
But rather than pierce its crest, he had wound up stabbing the creature’s hand, which it had whipped around to protect itself.
“Guh?!”
His sword was stuck. The arm stretched like a tentacle, wrapping around Iska’s blade. It was as though it was trying to take it from him.
Next, the eidos used its absurd strength to try to pry the sword from him.
“So that’s what you wanted!”
Now he got what was going on. The monster had attacked him because it wanted his blade. That also explained why the Astrals’ homeland was being attacked; there were astral crystals there, too.
“That’s pretty convenient. Isk, you keep it held back like that.”
He heard someone from behind him.
“Ruined King Hurricane!”
The weapon on Mei’s back that was concealed with invisible camouflage started up and became visible, turning into a gleaming battering gun. It was a thirty-sixth electronic-control autocannon—the Ruined King Hurricane.
Originally made for warships, the firearm could shoot one thousand bullets per second. The Empire had developed it to use against astral mages, so its rounds could penetrate all kinds of astral power barriers.
“The sun mark is the bull’s-eye, right?” Mei grinned, showing off a peek of her sharp canines.
She had the charm of a cat and the bloodlust of a lion.
“Buh-bye!”
True to her nickname, the Incessant Tempest unleashed a hailstorm of bullets on the eidos. And the monster, too focused on the sword to defend itself, was struck with thousands of rounds from behind.
Its entire torso—sun mark included—was decimated in less than five seconds.
It didn’t even have time to scream.
“All right. Now that’s how you do it, girlie. You can’t leave an obvious bull’s-eye like that untouched.”
“…”
“Did you just ignore me?!”
“I am allied with Iska. And I used my thorns to reveal what the eidos’s special ability was. I’ve done my part.”
She wasn’t even going to look Mei in the eye.
Kissing turned away and patted the dust off the hem of her skirt.
“Thanks to that gun of yours, I’m covered in dust. This outfit is special to me—it was a gift from my uncle.”
“Ugh, cram it.” Mei scratched her head after listening to Kissing. “Isk, let’s regroup with them over there. There are probably one or two eidoses in the Astrals’ homeland.”
“I agree. I think—”
There was a murmur.
A chill ran down their spines at the same time.
“Les…orb…mihya…lement.”
It was that indecipherable spell again.
The sound had come from the remains of the monster. Its lower half began to flap like wings, and with each spasm, it cried out the same strange words.
“C’mon…” Mei turned around. She scoffed. Iska had never seen her do that before. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. We blasted the hell out of that sun mark.”
She gulped.
As the lower half of the monster quivered, its upper half began to regenerate. The sun mark also reformed, along with the head. It was back to normal in seven seconds flat. Way too fast.
……Mei and I both misread this situation.
……Was the sun mark not its weakness?!
Iska could never have foreseen this happening.
Would the eidos of the sun keep regenerating forever?
“I think the sun mark is only a weak spot on its body, if anything.” Kissing backed away. She spread her arms and created new thorns. “When it has the mark, it can regenerate in five seconds. Without the mark, it takes seven seconds. There really was a difference in regeneration time.”
“Is that actually useful information, though? Haah… This is such a chore.” Mei clicked her tongue. She was annoyed and slightly impatient. “What do we do with this thing? Don’t tell me it’s immortal and indestructible.”
“Don’t you think the sun symbolizes revival?”
The sun was rising above the horizon.
With the light at her back, the captivating witch Elletear spoke in a rapturous tone. She was preaching to the Hydra, whose symbol was the sun.
“Even when the night comes and the light disappears, the sun always rises again the next morning. It’s the most beautiful rebirth in the world.”
“Hmm. And what do you mean by that?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, my lord. I didn’t mean to tease any of you.” Elletear laughed to herself.
A smirk played on her beguiling lips, and her shoulders shook so much that her ample bosom seemed to dance.
“I couldn’t help but speak on something personal at an inappropriate time… Then again, maybe it wasn’t wrong to bring it up. Especially since I revered everything you did to uncover the secrets of the astral powers and perfect your techniques, Lord Talisman.”
“I’m delighted to hear that.” The man in the white suit gave her the perfect gentleman’s smile. “I never considered myself a match for your intelligence.”
“Hee-hee. Despite the knowledge I’ve accrued, no one in the Sovereignty bothered to find worth in a princess with astral power as pitiful as mine.”
“You’re much more forthcoming than usual.” Talisman shrugged. “I suppose the tremendous powers you’ve gained have allowed you to speak freely on the inferiority complex you always harbored.”
“No.” The witch snickered. She didn’t even hide the excited blush blooming on her face. “I’m only beginning to accrue my strength. LaSelahMilahUls—once I make contact with the Planetary Calamity, I’ll grow even more powerful.”
“And then you’ll remake the world as you please?”
“Yes.” Elletear grinned and nodded. With the sun at her back, she spread her arms. “I’ll destroy both the Empire and the Sovereignty and create a true paradise for the weak astral mages, too.”
“That seems like an idea you would have. However…” Talisman tilted his head to the side. “I think that—”
“You can have that world in your dreams, Princess!”
A beguiling laugh echoed around them. The voice came from behind Elletear, who was still talking with Talisman.
“Tsk!”
“I’m tired of listening to you run your mouth!”
Vichyssoise grabbed Elletear’s forehead.
The witch Vichyssoise had transformed. Her hair was hard as metal, and her body was partially transparent, like that of a jellyfish. She’d come down on Elletear from above.
“Burn!”
Violet flames roared into existence.
The fire started at Elletear’s face, then instantly engulfed her, forming a circle around her and Vichyssoise.
It was astral flame.
Though it looked like the astral power of fire, it was actually a mass of highly concentrated energy. Even cold couldn’t extinguish it. It would keep burning forever… Or at least, it should have.
“Oh, that smarts.”
The sparks burst away like flower petals. Vichyssoise hadn’t extinguished them. Elletear had done nothing but fan at them, as though she was feeling slightly warm, but it was enough to snuff them out.
“Ugh, seriously?!” Vichyssoise clicked her tongue when her astral flames disappeared. “This is why I don’t like fighting monsters…”
“Oh, you’ll hurt my feelings if you call me that.” Elletear’s smile didn’t so much as waver. Despite the fire, her face was unmarred.
Yes. This scene demonstrated just how different their abilities were. Though they were both experiments created by Kelvina, and they were both failures, they were opposites in terms of results.
The witch Vichyssoise was a failed experiment who hadn’t been compatible with the calamity’s power.
The witch Elletear was also a failed experiment who had been too compatible with the calamity’s power.
That was why Vichyssoise knew just how dangerous this overly successful failure was.
“You really get on my nerves!” Vichyssoise raised both her hands. Violet flames burned in them as she tried to engulf Elletear in them again. She had truly used all her power. However…
“Well, aren’t we the same?”
Elletear was the picture of calm in the conflagration.
It was as though the embers were nothing more than a warm shower to her.
“Our powers come from the same source, so I doubt you can hurt me.”
“Ha! I already know that, you idiot!” Vichyssoise smiled fiercely. “Well, there you go, sir.”
The astral flames split like the ocean parting. From in between them came a man in a white suit, who leaped at Elletear.
They had used the flames to give Talisman cover. So what they had actually been planning was…
“My lord?!”
“It seems you’re drowning in power, Elletear.”
When Elletear had been the first princess, she would have been able to see through an attack like this in an instant. But now she had gotten used to having overwhelming power. That had dulled Elletear’s senses.
Talisman could create invisible mechanical energy using his Wave astral power. After years of training, he had learned how to convert this mechanical energy into acceleration. He’d used his tremendous speed to make it seem like he had vanished.
“What?!”
“I’m over here.”
He was behind her.
After moving so fast that he left an afterimage in the air, Talisman punched Elletear in the side with a fist coated in astral power.
No. It wasn’t a simple punch—his fist sank right into Elletear’s side.
It made a squelching sound. Instead of internal organs, as his hand went through her body, he encountered something cold and wet. It was almost like he was sticking his hand in oil.
“What is this?!”
“Ah-ha! You’ve touched my stomach, my lord.”
Talisman’s fist still inside her body, Elletear turned around and brought a hand toward him.
“Then why don’t I do the same so we’re even…? Oh?”
Her hand met thin air. Her flesh was no longer human. Talisman had made a hasty retreat after realizing that a physical assault wouldn’t work against Elletear.
“Hmm… This was generally within expectations.” Talisman looked at his fist. It had sunken all the way to the wrist, but not a drop of Elletear’s blood clung to it. “Most witches undergo an alteration in bodily composition. Depending on how their bodies change, they can become completely resistant to physical trauma.”
He wasn’t good at fighting witches like her.
Most of Talisman’s astral energy was consumed as physical energy.
And Vichyssoise’s powers were the same as Elletear’s. The two of them couldn’t stop her. And that was why…
“It’s your turn, Mizerhyby.”
“Now I will show you the most sublime power in the world.”
As her hair fluttered, the beautiful maiden spread her arms. The astral crest on her forehead was blindingly bright.
“Glory.”
The sound of something burning emanated. Mizerhyby’s light lit each of the elite forces with her like halos.
“This is Glory?!”
Elletear’s shoulders quivered. She was cautious. Though she hadn’t so much as blinked at Talisman’s and Vichyssoise’s abilities, she opened her eyes wide once she witnessed Princess Mizerhyby’s astral power engage.
She had realized this wouldn’t be good for her.
“Fire, my legion!”
A lightning strike powerful enough to split the earth came down. A chill that was cold enough to freeze over the atmosphere swept through. A flame that could have scorched the heavens roared.
The lightning, ice, and flame astral powers had been amplified to their full potential, and they painted Elletear’s surroundings with their colors. The attacks pierced through her defenses and blew her away.
“Hgn!” she screamed.
She wasn’t acting this time. Her fear and pain were genuine.
Then there was an explosion. The combination attack had blown Elletear to smithereens.
“You cannot let your guard down, Mizy. That might not have killed her.” Talisman stood tall in the flames of the blast. “But well done. Things went exactly according to our predictions—to the point where I’m surprised. It seems Glory is indeed Elletear’s poison.”
“It’s all thanks to the time you bought, Uncle. It takes a while to inject my powers into others, after all.” Princess Mizerhyby clapped the two soldiers to the right and left of her on their backs. “If you see Elletear, attack her without hesitation. You’ll be all right. You currently are as strong as anyone in the royal family.”
“Hah!”
Five of the elite soldiers stood in a line with Mizerhyby at their center.
They were no longer simple fighters. They were now part of her Legion of Dawn and had powers on the same level as the descendants of the Founder.
Mizerhyby was called the “walking vortex” because of her power. She could amplify the astral powers of other mages.
And to witches, astral energy was poison. Just like the astral swords, refined astral energy and astral attacks that used powerful energy were effective against the calamity and witches.
“Yes… I can see…that this is a threat.”
Elletear’s voice boomed around them.
A dark purple current swirled and condensed into the form of a beautiful woman.
“Princess Mizerhyby, I have only two natural enemies in this world: a boy who wields the astral swords, and you, a girl who can amplify astral energy.”
“I’m not one for idle banter.”
So she had survived.
Mizerhyby pointed at the regenerated witch.
“Fire!”
The five members of the Legion of dawn launched flame, lightning, ice, shock wave, and earth, their powers now on par with those of a purebred.
“How frightening.”
Clap.
A dry sound rang out as Elletear blasted the attacks away. With a simple wave of her hand, she had nullified all five astral powers.
Mizerhyby couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“……What?”
“Too bad, Mizerhyby. If you had powered up a purebred instead of those little soldiers, I might have been more worried.” Elletear pointed at her with the same hand she had used to brush aside the Legion of Dawn’s attacks. “But the only other purebred here is Lord Talisman. What a pity. His abilities are a terrible match for mine, so there’s no point in amplifying him.”
“But…?!” Mizerhyby’s voice rasped. “What happened to us being natural enemies?! You’re completely composed…!”
“What I said is true. Right now, I abhor astral energy. Just as fire and water do not mix. But the unfortunate thing for you is that you’re all too weak.”
Elletear spread her arms.
She looked up at the sky.
“It’s like I’m a forest fire and the astral energy of the soldiers around you is a spoonful of water. You can’t extinguish my flames like that.”
“……What?!”
“But if you had powered up a purebred type, then perhaps it would have been a bucket of water—no, I suppose it could be more than that. So—”
Her flesh transformed.
The woman with the goddess-like looks transfigured. Her unblemished skin and beautiful hair took on the color of a semitransparent shadow.
“I will be merciless.”
She was a monster with a human silhouette. The members of the Hydra opened their eyes wide as they witnessed her transformation.
“You’re a monster!”
Some were so shocked that they screamed. This was Elletear’s true form. Her Venusian beauty was gone. She was fully a monster now.
Vichyssoise backed away, and Mizerhyby was shocked beyond words. Even Talisman’s dismay was on full display.
“So this is what destroyed the Zoa. Keep on guard, my kindred!”
“I will sing to you the requiem of the stars.”
The area filled with silence.
Elletear sang the Curse of calamity that would transform the very world.
Her Song was on a spiritual wavelength that went beyond the human hearing range. The Hydra could plug their ears, surround themselves with steel walls, or put up any manner of defense, but her melody would still find its way to them.
No physical material could block the Song that destroyed the mind itself.
That was why…
“No shield can protect the mind.”
The true witch looked down and saw that not a single person was left standing. She had defeated them all. Just as the Zoa’s elite forces had failed to withstand her Song, the Hydra’s forces had dropped helplessly to the ground.
And they would never wake again.
“Now, I wonder if Joheim has grown tired of waiting.”
Elletear turned her back to them.
She took one step toward the vortex that continued to the planet’s core, then another.
…Crunch…
Directly behind her, Talisman’s hand twitched, his fingertips scratching the ground.
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