2
“The sun illuminates all.”
The horizon turned red.
The freezing night took on the color of crimson, heralding the sun that would illuminate the world. It was dawn, a time bordering night and day.
“Behold, Alice and Kissing!” Talisman joyfully declared, his white coat fluttering around him. “A new age of knowledge is soon to come!”
“Ice!”
His voice was closing in on her. His very presence seemed to be pursuing her.
The strange pressure made Alice break into a sweat as she thrust out her right hand before her.
“Wall— Ah?!”
It shattered.
Right before her very eyes, the ice wall created by her astral power blasted away without a single trace.
With a single blow of the man’s fist.
Even the Imperial forces’ machine guns and tanks hadn’t been able to destroy her wall.
“Impossible…!”
“There is nothing to fear, my dear Alice.”
Beyond the shattered ice, she saw his enlarged, shudder-inducing eye and smile. She almost felt like vomiting from fright.
“This is the form our new knowledge will take.”
His arms swelled until they were the size of logs.
The white suit he had so elegantly worn swelled and, unable to contain his monstrous form, split with a piercing sound.
Not only that, but she saw glowing, blackish-red crystals protruding from the breast of his suit.
They pulsated almost like a heart, but the crystals couldn’t have possibly been anything human. Was this really the head of the Hydra who had once been so radiant?
“Lord Talisman! Is this…what you wanted?!”
“Hmm. What a strange thing to ask, Alice.”
His neck twisted to a grotesque degree as the man that was once Talisman smiled joyfully.
“It does not matter whether I sought it or not. This is the planet’s will.”
“Wall—crush!”
The lawn froze and turned white.
Tendrils of ice formed below Talisman’s feet, twisting around his legs to bind him. Two ice walls approached him from the right and left in an attempt to squash him.
“Now!” he roared in delight.
Alice hadn’t been able to see it. Talisman’s eyes seemed to disappear…then the next moment, her three-meter-tall walls shattered.
Had he broken them with just a punch?
That shouldn’t be possible. He had cleaved through the walls, which were tougher than steel, as though they were pudding.
……Do I use my ice-flower shield?
……No, I don’t have enough time to create it.
She wouldn’t make it in time. She couldn’t stop him.
“Alice, I am beckoning you into a new world.”
“Turn into stars.”
Thousands, then tens of thousands of thorns appeared in the night sky.
Behind Alice, Kissing raised both her arms and launched countless thorns from above her head.
They were like meteors.
The terribly dense rain of astral power thorns erased everything they came into contact with. The lawn, the metal container, and even the large truck seemed to melt out of existence.
“How elegant, Kissing.”
“……What?!”
“A waning moon is the most beautiful. Without Lord Mask, the House of Zoa is far from a full moon. But you still glitter in the sky as a crescent. And…ah, what intense, offensive astral power you have!”
As the thorns fell like a meteor shower, Talisman began to run at a terrifying speed, his coat fluttering behind him. He spared none of the thorns a backward glance as he dodged all of them.
Kissing couldn’t hit him.
“So these are your thorns. Anything that the thorns touch disappears… I see, how fitting for someone who fears contact with others. It’s quite pitiful.”
“…Huh?!” Kissing swallowed her breath.
She had realized that Talisman was unscathed. Not a single thorn pierced his white suit, sending a shiver down her spine.
He was toying with them.
“Monster!”
“Monster? Ah, yes, humans only have two designations for things which they do not understand. You are either a monster or a genius. I much prefer the latter.”
Talisman stood before Kissing.
He raised his trunk-like arms, balling his hands into fists.
“Allow me to teach you a lesson. I have reached the pinnacle of knowledge!”
“Ah…ah…”
She couldn’t move.
Because the monster had looked down on her gleefully right before her eyes, she had seen him for what he truly was.
Talisman’s entire body erupted with the dark power of the calamity that had infested him.
“Sorcerer……”
Her whole life, Kissing had only ever felt fear from the bottom of her heart when she faced Elletear, the true witch.
And now she had found it again, another monster created by the power of the calamity. Not only that, but he was a powerful, war-crazed man. Even Alice’s ice hadn’t been able to freeze him, and not a single one of Kissing’s thorns had been able to touch him.
This was Talisman, the true sorcerer.
“No, Kissing, run!”
“This is my—”
At the same time Alice screamed, delight came over the sorcerer. And…
“I almost didn’t recognize you, Talisman.”
A black sword flashed.
“And I mean that in a bad way, of course.”
“Ugh!”
The sorcerer leaped back.
Though the sorcerer had scoffed at Alice’s ice and Kissing’s thorns, he shuddered upon facing the astral sword.
“Iska!”
“You’re late! That monster was about to make us his playthings.”
“Sorry.”
Iska couldn’t turn around to look at either of the princesses.
He couldn’t let Talisman out of sight for even a second. This was the man who would skillfully distract his opponents through his elusive comments, then assault them with his Wave power.
“The tyrannical Talisman. That nickname is a far cry from my true nature, however.”
“Why, hello. You seem in good health, romanticist.”
Talisman’s left eye was bright red and open wide.
Yet his gentlemanly smile still reached his right eye.
The two-faced man, who likely had the most extreme form of asymmetry in the world, raised his right hand in lieu of a greeting.
“This is the Empire. It’s not at all odd for you to be present. And I am so happy to see you. I now understand how valuable that astral sword you wield truly is.”
“…”
“That is the super-crystallization of astral energy. Or rather, I should say it’s the ultimate crystallization. Simply looking at that sword makes the calamity within me shudder. Just how much astral energy must be in there.”
“Talisman…”
Iska grit his teeth as he glared at the man who had turned into a monster.
“Do you remember what you once said to me?”
“Hmm?”
“You said that we were similar. You were the one who said that!”
“You need some madness to reach perfection.”
“You and I are the same. We are demons who have mastered power.”
Though he had said such ostentatious things, Iska hadn’t been able to help but believe in those words.
“You said that figuring out the physical conversion of Waves took you six years! And then eight more years to learn it, then another thirteen to perfect it! You spent nearly thirty years on your craft!”
“Indeed I did. Because I am clumsy.”
“But that shouldn’t be something so easy to abandon!”
Talisman had fought like a demon for thirty years.
Even if those thirty years had been spent without anyone praising the fruits of his labor, once he had put in the work, his identity became that of someone who sought to perfect his astral power. Iska had seen him when he had still been that person.
Iska felt pain seeing him now.
Why had he chosen the calamity’s power?
“Instead of the power you spent thirty years building as you fought to the death, are you really going to pick that twisted, destructive power?!”
“Human history is all about the history of energy.”
Fwoom.
A shock wave ran through the air.
Talisman was right in front of Iska’s face. As the sorcerer brought his fist up, he was so close Iska could hear him breathe.
……He’s fast?!
……He’s not just fast, this isn’t possible for human legs!
It was almost as though he had teleported.
It wasn’t as frightening as Kelvina’s phototeleportation ability that allowed her to appear anywhere. It seemed all he had done was physically leap to move as quickly as possible.
Since Talisman wasn’t using any tricks, that made it even harder to counter.
“We went from the age of fire to the age of coal.”
He brought down his right fist.
Iska leaped back using all his strength, and still the attack grazed his bangs. A gigantic crater formed by the fist’s impact with the ground.
“From coal to electricity.”
He swept his left fist to the side.
As Iska leaped back again, this time Talisman grazed his torso. Iska felt an intense impact against his lungs.
“……Guh?!”
Was that just from the shock wave caused by Talisman’s fist?
……It’s not enough even if I dodge him perfectly!
……The wind pressure he creates using his fists is enough to smash a person into nothing.
Talisman was using sonic booms.
Those only occurred when something moved through the air faster than the speed of sound, creating a large shock wave and a sound like an explosion.
“From electricity to astral power.”
He brought up his right fist.
“And now from astral power to the calamity.”
To counter him, Iska gripped his swords and spun like a top. He dodged a blow that would have sent his head flying off his body by a fraction of a centimeter.
However…
Talisman kept assaulting him with successive sonic booms until he lost consciousness for a moment.
“…Ah……”
“Iska?!”
Alice and Kissing both screamed.
He could hear them, but his mind was so shaken that in his confused state, all he saw was the sorcerer calmly looking down on him.
Talisman caught the ice arrow Alice shot at him with one hand.
Then, using Alice’s arrow, he knocked away Kissing’s thorns, canceling them out.
He treated the two princesses’ assaults like a playful distraction as his swollen eye looked down at Iska.
“Mankind is captivated by stronger energies. I have gotten closer to understanding the mystery of this planet. I feel nothing but gratitude toward Elletear. I believe I just need to go a little further…a step, and I will reach the pinnacle of knowledge.”
“You’re so…wrong…”
Iska still couldn’t move.
After being hit with a sonic boom, he experienced a pain so intense that his whole body felt as though it was about to tear apart.
“I will show you the same world I see.”
He brought down his fist.
Alice’s ice and Kissing’s thorns wouldn’t work on him. Iska wasn’t fast enough with his astral sword.
But then the fist stopped.
“…………Huh?”
Alice blinked.
Beside her, Kissing looked at Iska, but he didn’t know what had happened, either.
He hadn’t done anything.
“Oh my, pardon me.”
Flop.
Talisman’s left arm fell to the frozen lawn. Iska heard another flop. The right arm had also fallen and seemed to turn white as it withered away.
His body was falling apart.
At least, that was how it appeared to Iska.
“Hmm. Well, this is as expected.”
Only Talisman calmly looked down at his own arms.
His left shoulder began to bulge, forming into a new arm, which was even more twisted than the one that had just come off.
“Even Elletear wasn’t able to withstand the undiluted solution extract of the calamity’s power. It was within my calculations that I might not be compatible. How intriguing. Now, what would happen if I were to inject myself with more? Would my body continue to fall apart, or would that hasten my evolution?”
“Lord Talisman!”
The Lou princess shouted as though she couldn’t hold back her emotions any longer.
“Please stop! That form can’t be what you truly want!”
Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX had felt conflicted.
Even after confiding in her attendant, Rin, she still continued to brood.
“We need to defeat the calamity. But there’s something I need to be ready for in order to do so. Do you know what that is?”
“Are you referring to who we’ll need to sacrifice…?”
“I’m sure we’ll lose some people as well. But there’s something else that’s bothering me right now. I’m talking about the dismantling of the Sovereignty.”
If they defeated the calamity, the Nebulis Sovereignty would fall.
All the astral powers would leave to go back to the core, and they would also leave the astral mages’ bodies.
No matter what she chose to do, only unhappiness waited.
If they didn’t defeat the calamity, then the entire planet would be destroyed.
If they did, then the Sovereignty would be destroyed instead.
Naturally, she couldn’t allow the former to happen. Though she knew this, she doubted any astral mage could make the second choice so easily.
The options were cruel.
She had agonized over it—until now.
“Lord Talisman!”
Alice yelled so loudly at the monster that had once been the Hydra’s head of house that her voice grew hoarse.
“I’ll defeat the calamity! I agonized over the decision so much, but you showed me the answer!”
“Oh?”
The sorcerer didn’t even turn toward her.
He still faced Iska as he asked, “And what do you mean by that?”
“I was worried about what the cost of defeating the calamity would be…but I was wrong. If we don’t defeat it, the world will change! Like you have!”
His body had warped. Even now, it was falling apart. The spectacle was repulsive to watch.
However, more importantly, what she truly couldn’t stomach was how Talisman’s mind had warped.
“I don’t think your original self would have been all right with you having the power of the calamity or your transformation. Your mind has been consumed by the calamity, too!”
His body and his mind.
Both were becoming one with the calamity.
“It’s not like you. No, it’s not like any human being!”
All her hesitations were gone.
She didn’t want this to happen.
Even if her astral power left…she would still be her. That was how she wished to be.
“Once we defeat the calamity, no one will know if you will lose your powers days or decades from then, Alice. But I’m not interested in that.”
“Even without astral power, you’re still you.”
Since Iska had told her that…
I won’t fear a world where we lose our astral powers, she thought.
“I don’t want to see you this way. I want to believe it’s precious to live as a human being! So in order to do that, the calamity—”
“What a philosopher you are, my dear Alice.”
The wind blew.
No, it wasn’t wind but something similar—a wave.
“What makes a human? How is it that we should be? Allow me to answer. I have the answer right here.”
It was another sonic boom.
Talisman swept his fist through the air. With that one swipe, Iska, Alice, and Kissing flew like leaves in the wind.
“I am the answer. Alice, I believe you can see that, too.”
“N…o…!”
She hit the ground hard.
The force knocked the breath out of her for a moment, and she nearly lost consciousness.
“The future I see, the answer I seek, isn’t you!”
O Ice!
Even as she sputtered and coughed, Alice commanded her astral power.
She didn’t need a shield to protect herself.
If she could make an ice shield, it was enough to make it for Iska.
“I need to put a stop to your tyranny, Lord Talisman!”
“Knowledge is power. As long as I know the truth, I will be more powerful than anyone.”
He mercilessly broke through the ice wall that towered over Iska.
She knew. Even her ice wouldn’t buy him more than a second of time. But that was enough. If she could just give him enough time to get up and ready his swords after being blown away…
“My dear, dear Alice, to accept a gracious defeat is what makes a good princess.”
“Shut up!”
She bared her teeth as she barked at him.
Who cares about what makes a good princess?
“I only know how to struggle to the end. I’ll do it in order to stop you here!”
“Well, then—”
“Uncle, please stop!”
The head of the Hydra was cut off.
Someone’s strained voice echoed from behind Alice.
“You…?”
Alice turned around to look at the person.
It was the girl with the blue hair, still in her restraints.
Mizerhyby, the Hydra princess, was a sobbing, swollen-eyed mess.
Mizerhyby Hydra Nebulis IX had been conflicted the entire time.
She had been tormented by a sense of malaise since arriving in the Empire. The emotion that had spurred her on until that point was rage.
She knew that. But…
Who was she most angry with?
Though Elletear had been the direct cause of these events and was the target of Mizerhyby’s revenge, the head of the household had been transformed by the calamity.
Then was the true target of her rage the calamity?
…………
……But was it really?
She felt something was off.
Though she had thought it hadn’t been a mistake to target Elletear and the calamity, in her heart of hearts, she couldn’t help but feel some kind of distress building up in her—something dark and oozing.
Who was the true person she couldn’t forgive for what had happened?
She couldn’t think of anything or anyone except Elletear and the calamity.
She had agonized over it—until now.
“Uncle!” Mizerhyby sobbed and yelled at the head of her house, the person she respected and adored more than anyone in the world.
She had finally figured it out.
This was her repentance.
“I couldn’t forgive myself for being so afraid!”
She had been frightened of the witch.
She couldn’t help how terrified she had been. That was why she had wanted the same power to face Elletear. But she was really upset at herself for being so weak of heart.
She had finally realized it.
After seeing the head of the family’s transformed state, she had realized it all.
She wanted the power to defeat Elletear.
That still held true now.
But what she needed wasn’t a stronger power but a more noble one.
“Uncle!” she yelled a third time.
However, the head of the household turned his back on her. He was only interested in his battle against Iska.
So she spoke to his back.
“Even without that borrowed power, you are stronger than anyone, Uncle! You faced Elletear as I cowered. I saw a radiant purpose from you back then!”
“Right now, you’re exactly what Kelvina feared. Humanity would live in fear of you.”
But her uncle had not.
Or rather, even if he truly had been frightened deep inside, he still had faced that fear to keep Elletear from fleeing.
……I remember.
……That was what I looked up to.
As Talisman had faced the witch, Mizerhyby had found true glory in him.
He had carried a purpose as noble as the sun.
Through this, she had been taught that glory was the manifestation of humanity’s courage.
So she shouted, “Open your eyes, my head of house!”
The light shone.
The shadows before daybreak were scattered away.
The astral light of Glory welled from Mizerhyby’s entire body.
“You are the head of the Hydra. And the sun must be the most noble of all!”
She bit her lip so firmly that it almost bled.
She ignored her battered, exhausted body.
“…”
She leaned forward, close to collapsing at any moment, and took a step.
She reached both hands out as far as she could toward the two princesses who had turned to her.
“Re…mem…ber…”
Princess Aliceliese of the Lou.
Princess Kissing of the Zoa.
Though she stooped forward with her arms outstretched, she still reached their shoulders.
“The stars and moon can shine…because the sun is here…”
Show the glory of the light.
She used the last of her strength.
Then the Hydra princess fell to her knees.
Talisman, who had his back to them, noticed none of it. He never even tried.
He had no interest.
His sole interest was the knowledge he would gain from the Saint Disciple Iska’s astral sword.
“The calamity is far more powerful than the astral powers. However, that sword is the only exception. Even Elletear was afraid of it.”
“Elletear was? You are, too!”
Iska wiped the blood from his mouth.
Talisman’s fists were nothing more than concentrated physical energy.
He might even be able to physically destroy the astral sword. Even if Iska avoided a sonic boom or narrowly escaped it, the successive one would hit him.
The astral sword was more or less Talisman’s natural enemy.
Everyone had likely sensed that. However, only Iska—
“Romanticist Saint Disciple…”
The sorcerer lifted his fists.
Though his arms had already surpassed their limits while fighting, he was about to bring them down with enough force to threaten his own life.
“…with this…”
“Atmosphere, freeze!”
A wall of ice that glittered blue formed to protect Iska.
But how would that help?
Talisman’s fists could break anything whether it be metal, diamonds, or even Ice astral power.
Creak.
But his fists that could pulverize anything were brought to a halt.
“What?!”
Alice’s ice shield had stopped Talisman’s fist.
Alice’s ice, which was already harder than steel, had become even stronger.
Why?
Why couldn’t he break it with his fists?
And what was this radiant, blinding light that covered the blue ice?
The radiance of the sun.
The most noble power in the world was contained in Alice’s astral power.
The Glory astral power could make regular astral mages as strong as purebred types.
And so, when Mizerhyby strengthened a purebred type, their power suddenly rivaled that of a true sorcerer.
“But—?”
“I finally got you.”
Something stabbed into Talisman.
Kissing’s thorns were impaled in his chest.
Her thorns had also been strengthened.
They were faster and more powerful than before on an entirely different level. Before Talisman could break them, the thorns began to erase parts of his chest.
“—!”
He let out an unintelligible scream.
Though his body should have been in a state beyond being able to feel pain, he felt it now intensely.
“Kiss—”
“It’s time for you to go down.”
He saw the flash of a sword.
As Iska passed by him, the astral sword sliced through Talisman’s chest, which made up the core of the calamity in him.
“That’s what the princess wants, too.”
“…………”
The sun rose on the horizon.
After losing the root of his power, the sorcerer stood with his back to the sun, his eyes empty.
Ahead of where he gazed…
“Uncle…”
…was the Hydra princess, who sobbed.
She was on her hands and knees on the ground, looking up at the head of her family.
“I’m sorry, Uncle… I…was the one who did this…”
“Mizy…”
“Huh?!”
“Don’t be embarrassed by your tears.”
The man in the white suit suddenly smiled. He pulled out a pure white, unsullied handkerchief. With his weak hands, he entrusted the handkerchief to the wind.
“You’re more beautiful than you’ve ever been. You’ve grown into a fine young lady.”
“Uncle…?”
As the Hydra princess looked up, her eyes red, Talisman, the head of the household, slowly fell to the ground, his back still to the rising sun.
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