PROLOGUE 2
All My Thorns
It was fantastical.
That was the only way to describe the scene.
The black-haired girl stood out hazily against the moonlight.
She was both captivating and ethereal. She looked so fantastical that she could have easily served as a muse in a painting.
However…
The girl fell to her hands and knees.
“I surrender.”
Iska stared down at her in dumbfounded amazement.
He was holding his astral swords. Until moments ago, he had been battling against her.
“I wanted to test your abilities. I apologize for my impoliteness,” the girl said.
He knew she would have rather died than utter those words in the past.
He was Iska, an Imperial soldier.
And she was Kissing Zoa Nebulis IX, an Imperial princess.
In other words, a Sovereign princess had lowered her head to an Imperial soldier. Iska knew the mere act of bowing to him was torture for her. This couldn’t be an act.
“Please fight the witch Elletear alongside me. I will offer you all my thorns.”
Kissing was the Purebred of Thorns.
The several thousand purple thorns she had produced simultaneously clattered to the ground. Her ghastly astral power allowed her to wield thorns that erased any matter they came into contact with.
Even now, the walls of the Imperial training area were dotted with gaping holes from Kissing’s thorns.
Silence hung between Kissing and Iska.
The black-haired girl held her head down and didn’t so much as budge.
In that moment, Iska couldn’t even utter a sound.
Kissing waited for his answer, and the Imperial soldier failed to find one.
“Yo, Isk!”
A cheerful voice broke the silence of the training grounds.
Then he heard footsteps.
Through a gigantic hole in the wall from which the moon was visible, he spied a feral-looking female soldier. She jumped through the hole, landing right in front of them.
“Mei?”
“Heard that a witch girl was going on a rampage around here! I’ve been waiting for this!”
She was the Saint Disciple of the third seat, Mei the “Incessant Tempest.”
Her hair was unkempt, and her skin was tan. The glimpses of her arm that her combat uniform offered revealed muscle as strong as steel. There was something catlike—and predatory—about her.
Her eyes glinted ferociously.
“Heard she was pretending to be good during the day when she went through questioning. So she’s finally shown her true colors? All right, girlie, this is where your life… Huh?”
Mei blinked in surprise.
It seemed she had finally noticed Kissing wasn’t putting up any resistance. The witch hadn’t budged from her position on the ground.
“Hmm? Far as I heard, the black-haired witch escaped and went on an uncontrollable rampage. Didja strike her down and make her bow to you or something, Isk?”
“Uh, about that…”
He had also rushed over.
Kissing, the Purebred of Thorns, had been going berserk. Upon hearing that, he’d hurried over under the assumption that he would find massive casualties at the Imperial base, but when he got there…
“Apparently, she only did this to test my skills…,” Iska said.
“What?”
“I’m glad you came over as soon as you could, too… But, uh…as you can see, she’s fully surrendered and doesn’t seem to intend to fight.”
“But I ran all the way over here!”
Mei let out a long sigh.
She and Kissing had no ordinary connection. They were meant to battle to the death.
“I am Kissing Zoa Nebulis IX.”
“How about I teach you why I’m called the Incessant Tempest?”
Their fates had been sealed when the Imperial forces had tried to attack the Nebulis palace as part of a covert operation.
Mei and Kissing had engaged in mortal combat with each other at the Moon Tower. Iska figured that Mei had only run all the way over for a rematch.
“Haah, this blows…”
Mei looked up at the sky.
The witch wasn’t putting up any resistance. She’d taken all the fun out of fighting for Mei.
“Okay, okay. Let’s get this going. I’ll just keep watch from over here, so you apprehend her, Isk.”
Mei sat down on the rubble and urged him to hurry it up.
However…
Before he could do that, Iska had a question for the witch.
“Kissing, why me?”
“Um.” The black-haired girl shuddered.
“The Zoa planned to attack the Empire. You were taking advantage of the Founder’s awakening. But they were annihilated when they ran into Elletear… So if you want revenge on her, why would you choose me?”
“…”
“There should still be other members of the Zoa royal family in the Sovereignty. So why would you ask an Imperial soldier like me for help?” he asked Kissing, who was keeping her head down.
Until she offered him a response he could accept, he couldn’t simply go along with her request.
“I…,” the Zoa princess said, beginning to speak, “…saw Elletear’s astral power.”
“…What did you just say?”
“No one knows the nature of that witch’s power. But when she used it against us, my uncle saved me alone, allowing me to escape its range.”
“Oh, hey. Now this I’ve gotta hear.” Mei, who had been silent until then, languidly shifted. She still had her chin propped in her hand as she raised her head. Her eyes glinted dangerously. “It must’ve been the same move she used back then, right? At the base, where she made all my people start catchin’ z’s. So nobody’s been able to find out what her powers do. But you’re saying that you know what it is?”
“It’s her voice.”
“Hmm?”
“Elletear Lou Nebulis’s astral power is called ‘Voice.’ But during our encounter, she said that she’d evolved it into the astral power of Song.”
“Listen to the world’s last witch and the blight of her song.”
“I will let you listen to the requiem of the planet.”
“You’re telling me a song did that?! They all just flopped over when they listened to it?!”
“Yes.” Kissing’s reply came quickly. “Everyone who heard her song fainted. They went down, one after another…even Uncle. I could find no way to protect myself. My thorns cannot guard me against sound. My automatic astral defenses didn’t even react. Elletear’s song—her curse—can slip through any manner of fortification.”
“It bypasses them?” A chill ran down Iska’s back.
Did that mean there was no escape from Elletear’s astral power once someone was in range? Would hiding behind steel shutters and gigantic fortifications still not save them?
……If this is true, then we’re basically done for if she uses her power.
……We’ll have no way of defending ourselves.
Even the Imperial forces’ defense system would be useless…
Elletear’s power could bypass the abilities of any astral mage from the Sovereignty. And it had an unbelievable area of effect.
“But…” The Zoa princess raised her head, imploring Iska with her eyes from her position on the ground. “I think your swords could still cut through her.”
“I see…”
Then he understood.
He knew why she had chosen him; why a Zoa princess would surrender and prostrate herself before an Imperial.
It was because the only thing Elletear feared were the astral swords in his possession.
“Ah, that hurt…”
“It’s just like Kelvina said. My natural enemy would be incredibly high purity astral energy. And if the astral swords are the most potent form of it, I see that it’s true.”
“I, Kissing Zoa Nebulis IX, capitulate to the Empire. I—”
She lowered her head again, pressing her small forehead into the cold earth as she said in a quavering voice, “I will not allow that witch to get away with this.”
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