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“Ugh, I feel so grossed out.” Mei picked up her knife off the ground.
She bitterly looked up into the sky. The barrier of flames had disappeared.
“I can’t believe I had to help a witch. Don’t tell Risya, okay?”
“Got it.”
Iska picked Kissing off the ground and put her onto his back, then slowly rose to his feet.
“Guess we should meet them at the sacred ground.”
“If we gotta. What a chore. Can’t catch a break.”
Despite her grumbling, Mei led the way. She had started walking ahead of them because she knew Iska would be carrying Kissing.
“Mei, you care about your subordinates more than I expected.”
“Hmm? I make a point of being a good boss,” Mei answered, as though it were a given. “I’m pretty nice to everybody in the forces. You’re all one of my own. That includes you, Isk.”
“I guess so…”
“It’s not the same in the Sovereignty, right?”
Her words were directed at the Zoa princess on Iska’s back.
“I know all about it. The royal families battle to become queen in the Sovereignty. And each family has its own troops who are divided into factions.”
“That’s right…”
“Sounds so futile.”
“Uncle always said it was fate.” As Kissing clung to Iska, he felt her press her forehead into the middle of his back. “He says the competition forces the royal family to grow. Not just the Zoa, but the Lou and the Hydra, too.”
However…
…none of them had any idea that their “factional” disputes had gone far beyond what they knew and had turned into an unprecedented battle of life and death.
The most threatening part of Elletear’s Planet’s Requiem was that there was no way to defend against it.
It didn’t matter if one plugged their ears, used a special helmet, got into a tank, or hid inside a steel fortress—any defensive measure was useless. The Song could slip through any wall.
And it would destroy one’s mind.
A single phrase could put the strongest of foes into a coma. Elletear was proud that her Song made her invincible against anyone she was up against.
Or so she’d thought.
“Well… What kind of trick are you trying to pull?”
In that moment, the monstrous jet-black witch showed a small amount of panic for the first time.
“I brought down Lord Mask and his contingent of Zoa forces, along with dozens of Imperial soldiers at their base. It was almost entertaining to see them fall powerless at my feet.”
“…”
“Did my Song not reach you?”
“…”
The only response she received was labored breathing.
The Hydra had collapsed helplessly. Only three—or rather, surprisingly three—of them were still attempting to stand. They muddied themselves as they struggled to lift themselves up.
That group of three consisted of Talisman, the head of the household; Princess Mizerhyby; and the witch Vichyssoise.
In truth, Elletear had suspected that Vichyssoise might not fall after being exposed to her song. They were both witches who had been imbued with the same powers.
Consequently, Elletear had expected Vichyssoise would have some measure of resistance to the calamity’s power.
What she didn’t understand were the other two.
“How are you still standing? Knowing you, Lord Talisman, you must have a trick up your sleeve.”
“A trick?”
Talisman clutched his chest as he rose to his feet. His face was contorted with pain, and he was struggling to stand.
“What a dreadful power you have. It terrifies me how it invades the senses… But allow me to disabuse you of the notion that I had known about your Song before now. I was utterly underprepared for it. It’s a blessing I can even stand.”
“What…?”
A note of suspicion entered the witch’s voice.
If he hadn’t come up with any countermeasures against her Planet’s Requiem, then what blessing had he relied on to get through it?
Why hadn’t her Song broken him?
“Won’t you tell me what this blessing of yours is?”
“You said that no shield can protect the mind, Elletear.”
Though he staggered forward, for the first time, Talisman showed her a belligerent smile.
He clutched his chest as he did so.
“But you’re wrong. There is a shield for the mind.”
“It couldn’t be…?”
Elletear stared at the pair in front of her—at Talisman and Princess Mizerhyby. There was only one thing that they both had in common.
“Astral power!”
“Exactly right. Only Mizy’s and my astral powers seem to have been enough to withstand your Song.”
Astral power and the calamity were at odds. They were like fire and water. Theoretically, it was possible for astral power to fight against the Planet’s Requiem.
But in reality, it should have been impossible. That was because people’s astral energy was concentrated in their astral crests. Alice’s was on her back, and Kissing’s was in her eyes. Their astral energy was concentrated in those body parts. In other words, that was the only part of their body that was safe from the Planet’s Requiem.
“Your Song assaulted my entire body from all directions.” Talisman smoothed out his hair with a hand. “Now I get how you were able to wipe out the Zoa’s elite forces. The astral energy in our crests protects part of our body, but that’s not enough against your Song, which attacks from all angles.”
Astral crests only ever formed on sections of the body. And since Elletear’s Song affected the entire body, it was still able to knock out astral mages.
Or at least it should have.
“Princess Mizerhyby, it seems you truly are my natural enemy.”
“So it does…”
Still on the ground, the princess looked up. She was too hurt from the Song to stand, but her astral crest on her forehead was glowing even more brightly than it had before.
She possessed the astral power of Glory, which could amplify astral energy to its full potential. This wasn’t just something she could do for others; Mizerhyby could also use Glory to circulate the astral energy within herself.
“I’m grateful for my astral power. It’s the most sublime power in this world…”
That was Glory’s special quality. Princess Mizerhyby’s vast amounts of astral energy circulated around her body, warding off the power of Elletear’s Song like an immune system.
As for the other two who were still standing…
“Uncle, all I can say is that I am impressed and not surprised.”
“It was just a coincidence, Mizy. But if I must say, I believe this was the planet’s will.”
Talisman smiled. Yes, his Wave astral power also applied to his entire body. He would wrap his astral energy around himself, converting it into physical energy. That was why he, too, was Elletear’s natural enemy.
The Zoa hadn’t had any way of resisting Elletear’s full assault. But the Hydra were different. Talisman’s and Mizerhyby’s astral powers just so happened to endow them with natural resistance to the witch’s Song.
“Hah! How do you feel now, Elletear?!” Mizerhyby bellowed. “That Song you’re so proud of fell quite short. So what will you do now? Next—”
She was acting hopelessly idiotic.
The air quivered.
The witch’s rage was enough to send tremors through the atmosphere.
“You really…really…are such a fool. The greatest fool in the world…”
“Ah?!” Mizerhyby exclaimed at Elletear’s voice and when she saw the witch’s form.
For the first time in her life, Princess Mizerhyby shrieked out of fear. The monster, which was nothing more than a black silhouette, suddenly developed bright red eyes. They were almost bloodshot as they swiveled to look at her.
Elletear’s frigid gaze was so terrifying that Mizerhyby felt as though her heart was being squeezed.
“How were you able to endure it?”
“…Huh?”
“This Song was my way of being merciful to my enemies. Now that you’ve shown you can resist it, I’ll have to break you by crueler means.”
Her nails started to grow and twist.
“Mizerhyby, what contempt you have shown. You didn’t even try to understand that lulling someone to sleep is an act of mercy. But it’s time to cast kindness aside.”
“…Uh…ah…?”
She couldn’t speak.
Somewhere in her heart, Mizerhyby had thought she was still fighting Princess Elletear of the Lou. But she was wrong.
The thing in front of her wasn’t human. It was the embodiment of the calamity.
“If I can’t break your mind, then I suppose I have no choice but to break your body instead. Isn’t that right, Mizerhyby?”
She finally understood.
But she also realized she was too late.
Elletear would break her. In a crueler, more painful, more distressing, more horrifying way than Mizerhyby could possibly imagine.
“Ah-ha-ha! I’m not used to this, so I might overdo it. I can’t allow my mother to see me like this.”
The air went quiet. Mizerhyby was paralyzed with fear. She couldn’t move a finger.
Vichyssoise seemed to be the same. Because she was a failed creation, she understood just how much more powerful a successful one was. She couldn’t say a word as she sat there.
She wasn’t resisting. Both of them had realized that the witch was destined to take them down.
“It seems you’re drowning in your power.”
A cloud of dust flew up. Talisman rushed past the two cowering young women, charging at Elletear.
“My Lord?”
Elletear was entirely puzzled. It was as though she’d seen something amusing.
“Are you trying to protect the princess? Oh, how moving! But your foolish attack can’t stop me.”
“Oh, but it can.”
He appeared to be throwing himself at her in one last desperate bid to do something.
Muscular though Talisman was, physical assaults wouldn’t work on Elletear’s current body.
They would just cause her to ripple slightly.
“Right now, you’re exactly what Kelvina feared. You could probably destroy the world, just as you’ve convinced yourself. Humanity would live in fear of you.”
“Oh, yes. That’s the witch I’ve always wanted to be.”
“Which is why Kelvina did this.”
They were shoulder to shoulder.
Just then, the head of the Hydra raised his right hand high.
“She developed a secret weapon to stop you.”
Zoosh…
Talisman stabbed something into Elletear’s neck.
It was a syringe. The liquid in it, which glowed a deep purple, flowed into Elletear from the needle.
“Uh?!”
Her eyes widened into almost perfect circles.
Was this because she was being injected with an unknown substance? No. She was frightened precisely because she knew what was in the syringe.
“It’s an extract of the calamity’s power that Kelvina left in her laboratory. Normally, this would be diluted over a thousand times before being administered, but I believe that she gave you a 50 percent formula, Elletear.”
The witch Vichyssoise had received a 0.0002 percent dose, which had been her maximum.
Elletear, on the other hand, had been able to withstand an abnormally strong formulation. She had a higher affinity for the calamity than anyone else, which had allowed her to become the strongest witch.
However…
“One drop too much, and the cup shall runneth over.”
“You couldn’t…” Elletear’s voice quivered.
Was it from fear? No. It was because she already felt the changes in her body.
“This is an undiluted extract. And now, my dear Elletear, the one-hundred-percent solution—a level which you cannot possibly adapt to—will ravage your body.”
“Urgh?!”
“An overdose, if you will.”
Elletear began to spasm and shake.
She couldn’t pay attention to Talisman anymore. She pitched forward and spread her arms, looking up at the sky.
A bottomless scream and bursts of black mist erupted from her entire body.
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