Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjo, Aruiha Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen - Volume 8 - Chapter 6.2

2

Snow and Sun. The astral power engineering and research institute.

In general, the flames generated by the astral power died out after a few minutes. Even if the flames raged and painted the lawn red, it would never result in a massive fire.

However…when astral energy crystallized to make an astral flame, it was different. Minutes could pass, but until the astral power disappeared, the flames would never go out.

It was an invincible flame.

“Ah-ha, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha. You fool!”

A dome of violet flames.

Bewitching, inhuman laughter bounced off the barrier made of inextinguishable astral flames.

“That won’t even tickle me. I’ve already told you that!”

A whirlwind like a tornado had formed around them. The figure of a girl leaped out from the wind that could blast an Imperial tank into bits.

Vichyssoise the witch.

Even when the blades of wind lacerated her thighs and neck, not a drop of blood flowed from her body, which was semi-transparent like glass.

“There! Burn!” She chucked a ball of violet flames.

If one were to touch them, the flames would rage until the person was reduced to nothing. The most terrifying fireball in the world. And it was coming toward Salinger.

“Comical.”

She was going up against the transcendental sorcerer.

“You’re content with the flames like that?”

The handsome man didn’t move a step, simply dug the balls of his feet against the ground.

Grrrrah! The ground groaned, heaving up and down, as an earth golem emerged from it. Salinger used it as a shield to stand between the astral flames.

“Don’t soil me with those flames. They’re dirty.”

The burning golem was on the move, taking the astral flames and swinging its gigantic fist at the witch. However…

“Get out of the way.” Vichyssoise flung her arm, bringing the golem down. The melting point of soil was almost two thousand degrees. The clods of earth forming the golem couldn’t hold up to the astral flames and melted into lava.

“Aren’t these flames wonderful?” Vichyssoise held out the palm of her hand. The flames burning there were as beautiful as a budding violet flower. “Astral mages cannot produce these flames. Even the royal family who are the descendants of the Founder, even the most powerful astral mages, cannot create them.”

“……”

“It’s fate. A mere mage can’t win against a witch who has fused with astral power. It’s only logical.”

The violet petals fluttered.

The astral flames decomposed midair and turned into hundreds of lights that poured down on him. Making contact with even one of them would mean bursting into flames. And if he caught on fire, Salinger would have no way to extinguish it.

“So you’re a one-trick pony.” Salinger had invoked an ice shield around him.

The twelve blue pieces of armor took on the violet lights. The energy collided into it, canceling each other out.

…Sizzle. The ice melted. In the next moment, there was a clear sound as all twelve shields melted and disappeared at once.

“Tsk.” Salinger went on the move.

More accurately, he had been forced to move. He used his powerful legs to leap up and out of the way to the side. The light passed his cheek by a mere fraction of an inch.

“Don’t you understand how different we are?” Vichyssoise asked. She watched the retreating sorcerer, her eyes narrowing into crescents. She spoke like she was toying with him. “Word of your Water Mirror has long since spread. You’ve stolen over a hundred astral powers; you’re feared by the royal family. But you can only steal half the actual power. Which basically means you have a collection of odds and ends.”

“……”

“Well, then I’ll—”

“That’s enough. No need to talk. I fear your stupidity is contagious, and I might catch it.” He grew bored—or at least, that’s what his attitude implied. The man with white hair huffed. “So you’re not even close to having good judgment and etiquette. Most of all, you lack elegance. I thought that if the head of household was around, this would amount to something, but here I am met with a mere wench.”

They were barely twenty yards apart, far enough that their words weren’t guaranteed to reach each other. Salinger told the inhuman girl, “Thirty years ago, I faced a monster who was exactly the same as you. I just came here to confirm that. You think there’s a difference in power? Have you shown me anything yet?”

“Oh, you can be so amusing.”

Astral light burned in the witch’s hand. It wasn’t violet. This was her actual power.

“I was still holding back. It would be boring if I burned you with astral flame and that was it. I’ll crush you with one of my Magic Shots.”

“Trifling.” Salinger cracked his neck.

As though he were looking at a fallen pebble on the ground, he appeared incredibly disillusioned.

“This stage is—”

A crash echoed through Snow and Sun.

A wall blew open. Window glass shattered. The earsplitting sound even reached the astral flame dome that surrounded them.

“Is that coming from the top floor?” Salinger scowled.

“Mizerhyby, what do you think you’re doing at a time like this?!” The witch bit her lip and stared up at the epicenter of this explosion. “…Is it the Imperial unit? No way. Not at a time like this—”

“O Terra Burst.”

Astral light appeared from the sorcerer’s palm. Vichyssoise had made a bad move when she got distracted by Snow and Sun.

“Awaken. Pierce the heavens with your wrath,” Salinger stated.

The earth overturned. Not just the surface layer. The planet churned deep below its crust. With enough force to send cars flying like ping-pong balls, the earth swelled and flung the witch out of the astral flames.

“Guh?!”

The barrier was broken, and Vichyssoise shot through the air into the third-floor wall of Snow and Sun.

She didn’t look injured.

Since she was outside her barrier, however, the dome quickly weakened, and its flames extinguished.

“You see now? I can take out those flames in more ways than I can count.”

“…You! You think I would let you leave?!”

“How unsightly. It seems all you do is bark.” Salinger didn’t pay any mind to the witch who was attempting to pry herself from the building wall. He stepped toward the front doors.

There were no guards. They had been flung aside by Terra Burst. Not a single one of them was standing on their feet.

“Well, now that’s odd. I’m sure the Gregorian Descant is on the top floor. Likely in his room.”

But the earlier explosion had come from within the top floor. The walls had caved in. Debris continued to rain down on him.

The sorcerer’s voice lowered slightly. “Who is that? Who are the other intruders who came ahead of me?”

Snow and Sun. Fifteenth floor.

He made his way out of the dense black smoke and headed for the hidden staircase. There, Iska saw the never-ending spiral stairway—and its central pole warped out of shape and burned.

Just minutes ago, he had used those steps to go up.

“No way… What happened?”

He leaped down the partially destroyed stairs. Each time he went down a step, the metal creaked, and the stairway seemed to wobble. It would collapse any minute now.

…This isn’t the flame produced by the royal guard in the room. It’s other astral power.

…In which case, Commander Mismis and the others must be in danger!

Were they safe? Had they been able to escape or—

Crunch. Under Iska’s feet was a white carpet of snow.

Snow? In a skyscraper?

“This is astral power, too!” He quickly dove off the snow.

As if they were following him, snow soldiers leaped out from the pile of snow, carrying ice lances sharp enough to be mistaken for metal, which they thrust at Iska’s back.

“Snow golems,” he said.

They’d skewer him through. Before they could, Iska turned back and sliced through their weapons using his astral sword.

“Oh? So we did have an Imperial soldier who escaped us. It’s you.”

Below, there was an elderly woman in bright red clothes standing with open arms as if she were welcoming Iska as he came flying down the stairs.

“Former Saint Disciple. Iska, is it?”

“…The Witch of the Midnight Sun?!”

She was one of Talisman’s royal guards. A big shot who had made it onto the Imperial headquarters’ witch list. He had heard the elderly woman had attacked the villa owned by the Lou from Jhin.

…Just my luck! Running into her here?!

…It’s no joke. I don’t have the time to fight in the middle of the enemy’s base.

He was fighting to get out, not to kill. Now that he had determined Sisbell wasn’t there, his mission was only to escape the building.

“Boy, do you want to know what has happened to your friends?”

“Not interested.”

Iska ran down the stairs. That was what she’d been waiting for. The snow crashed toward him. It attached itself to the stair poles like a living organism.

Krish. The handrail and pole were crushed before his eyes.

“Are you trying to flatten me?!”

“That’s the easiest method to deal with you.”

The stairs collapsed. With a deafening sound, they broke apart, turning to rubble, and fell tens of yards below, rushing down like a waterfall.

“…Damn it!”

His footing had been destroyed. He thrust his sword into the wall and barely stopped himself from plunging down.

“Are you planning on clinging to the wall? Well, I expected that.”

He heard the sound of something large slithering. When Iska looked up, the snow on the wall had turned into a giant snake that was slowly rearing its head. The Witch of the Midnight Sun stood on its head, looking down at him.

“You’re out of moves. I would like to watch you like this for longer, but I have a grudge to settle with your friends. I need to hurry and stop them.”

The snow snake opened its maw. From deep in its cavernous split mouth appeared a lance as big as a log.

“Pierce him.”

“…Gah!”

The weapon shot at him like a bombshell. He had no way of avoiding it from where he clung to the wall. His sword was still stuck. So, Iska kicked away from the wall, still holding his lodged sword.

When the spear hit the wall, Iska was already gone.

Because he’d leaped into the air.

There was no handrail or floor waiting for him. Just air. He plummeted dozens of yards.

“You jumped? So you choose suicide?!”

“Yeah, right.”

He let gravity pull him. Then, Iska’s fall stopped abruptly. Sharp metal screeched.

A light—the one footing he had been able to use. The light was connected to the wall.

“Ngh?! Soldiers!”

The gigantic snow snake broke apart midair.

It turned into dozens of human-shaped soldiers that flung their lances at Iska. However…Iska had made a decision long before those could reach him.

“Hah!” He breathed out as he cut though the metal wall. A hole revealed a hidden door—an exit that led from the staircase back to the floor.

“There’s a light here, so I knew there had to be a door around, too.”

“Ah… Curse you, Saint Disciple!”

“I’ll fight you on the battlefield.”

He headed into Snow and Sun from the hidden door and ended up on the eighth floor. The layouts of the second to fourteenth floors were basically the same. They were there to do astral power research and were mostly divided into research and experimentation rooms.

…Seven floors until the ground level.

…This is where it gets dangerous. How am I going to get to the first floor?

Though he’d shaken off the Witch of the Midnight Sun, nothing about his situation had changed.

“An intruder is currently prowling the eighth floor.”

“All researchers should take shelter. Guards will immediately come to apprehend him.”

“Damn it, it’s the surveillance cameras!”

He clucked his tongue at the emergency announcement and broke into a run. He had to choose one of two methods to get down: the elevator or the general use stairs.

The elevator? That would be absurd. As soon as the doors opened, there would be soldiers with guns waiting to fill him with lead.

“…Guess it’s the stairs again.”

He headed to the center stairs. Unlike the narrow spiral staircase, this space was made large enough for dozens of people to walk down them at once. Except not a single soul was there.

…No one’s here? That’s ridiculous.

…There were dozens of guards below.

The researchers were hiding. But what about the guards? There was no way they wouldn’t have lookouts there.

He headed from the eighth floor to the seventh, then from the seventh floor to the sixth.

He hadn’t run into a single guard even after he’d landed on the fifth floor. Why?

If the story about Salinger attacking were true, maybe they were focusing their troops on him?

No.

“…She would want to get this back.”

In Iska’s pocket was the earring the princess had called the Gregorian Descant. She wouldn’t hold anything back to retrieve it. So, maybe he hadn’t run into soldiers because they still hadn’t gotten here yet.

Or they had already surrounded him.

“…But can’t get close or they’ll get caught up in whatever this is!”

He made a decision. He abandoned going down the stairs. Iska decided to go back to the hallways of the building and prepared himself to run into soldiers as he left the stairs—

Right behind him rumbled a violent sound like thunder.

Clap, clap. He heard humble applause from the intersection of this open hallway.

“Two more seconds.”

He heard the sound of shoes right after. Past where the hall intersected, he heard a girl’s elegant voice.

“Just two more seconds. If you had stopped at the stairs, I could have killed you.”

“……”

“I underestimated you. I followed Vichyssoise’s advice; I didn’t let my guard down in the slightest. But I misunderstood her warning. It wasn’t enough not to be careless.”

A light like a star twinkled, approaching him. It was a purebred, a perfect representative of the Hydra bloodline.

“Ngh, you…”

“Oh, you mean this? This is what happens when I get upset.”

Mizerhyby. The maiden of dawn.

Iska had lost the ability to speak when he saw the transformation that had overcome the beautiful girl. Her long lapis lazuli hair was swept in all directions from the astral energy that she emanated. Tendrils of her hair writhed like serpents. She looked almost exactly like Medusa, the legendary monster.

“Would you be so kind as to return the earring you stole?”

“Is this your attempt at negotiating?”

“No.”

She had once worn the simpering smile of a maiden, a smile as calm and collected as Talisman’s. That had disappeared.

“Since you’ve messed everything up, I’ll just steal it from you by force!”

Her footsteps sounded explosive. Iska’s clothes billowed from the wind pressure as Mizerhyby approached.

“O Glory, the sun goddess’s path—astral power, lead me.”

“So that’s your astral power?!”

There was an explosiveness to her that no ordinary person would have. Mizerhyby’s astral power, which had been shrouded in mystery, finally became clear to Iska.

…It’s not an astral power that gives astral energy!

…The true power lets her control the people she’s strengthened!

In exchange for power, she made them obey her. In order to strengthen the astral mages, they had to have been brainwashed slightly. And now, Mizerhyby was likely yielding to her own power for this battle. In return, she had gained immense physical strength.

However…

“Now…,” Mizerhyby began.

“You’re too slow.”

She halted in her tracks.

As she tried to lower her arm, Iska stopped her from the side by smacking his pommel against her right elbow.

“Guuh?!”

“Don’t underestimate a Saint Disciple.”

“…You grate my nerves. Had I touched you with a single finger, you would have been unconscious!” Mizerhyby held her swollen elbow and leaped back.

Iska pursued her.

“Shriek! Scream,” Mizerhyby commanded.

A sound, like a gong ringing in his eardrums, was amplified as Iska stepped forward. It wasn’t the wind.

“Ugh… Sound, huh…?”

The vertigo and nausea from being shaken made him spit up blood. A sonic wave shook his ears. People hit with maximum Sound would lose their sense of balance, making it impossible to keep upright. They could even lose consciousness. The Imperial forces also had a sonic-wave weapon, which had been inspired by this astral attack.

And Mizerhyby had strengthened it with her power.

“Think of this as an honor, Imperial soldier.”

The princess’s smile was gruesome. She had broken into a cold sweat from her swollen elbow and the pain that came with it. Her eyes opened wide enough to send shivers down his spine.

“I’ve built my troops. I cannot believe stopping one soldier has led me to these lengths— Now, howl!”

At the very back of the hall, a royal guard leaped out, strengthened by Glory, before howling.

Crack. The astral power of Shriek broke the windows one after another.

The main issue was that it was sound. And since sounds were diffused into the walls and ceilings, Iska couldn’t cut it with his sword.

“…Now you’ve done it!” He’d lost his sense of balance to the point he couldn’t even run. Almost on all fours, he leaped off the floor and headed into a room ahead of him.

This was an astral power research center. Since the experimentation rooms had to be airtight, if he could just close the door, that would block off the sounds.

…This is the only way to escape it.

…But that’s basically the same as me being stuck in this room.

Mizerhyby’s legion was on the other side of the door. As soon as he opened the door, they would flood in like an avalanche. Iska was preparing for that as, from his right side, from the other side of the floor, he heard a strange creaking sound.

“So now you’re blowing your way in?!”

The thick wall turned bright red. It was explosive fire.

The explosion from the next room over broke the wall into bits that pummeled Iska. The rubble was like machine gun fire, having been accelerated by the blast. It struck him in the shoulder, hard.

“Ow…”

“That’s not all. This isn’t all my legion can do.”

Breaking apart the walls that separated the experimentation rooms, Mizerhyby leaped in from the dust, controlling five of her legion.

“Hellfire!”

A tidal wave of bright red flooded his vision. However, Iska had already seen this on the top floor. Before the fire could reach him, he cut through the void using his black astral sword.

Then there was an explosion. The fire split in two around Iska and charred the floor and walls.

“I almost died before. I kinda had no choice but to remember this hellfire.”

He held his white astral sword in a backhanded grip. Iska raised it with his left hand, ripping up through space.

An astral release.

He released the hellfire that his black sword had intercepted. The tidal wave coursed Mizerhyby and her legion. It was a perfect recreation of it. The stronger the astral power, the stronger the white astral sword would be when its power was released.

“What an eyesore.” Through the flames, the astral light of Dawn twinkled. “Tempest, blow him away!”

The greatest source of energy in this world came from a natural disaster—not lightning, not volcanic eruption, not even an earthquake, but a violent windstorm.

That storm became Mizerhyby’s shield, extinguishing the hellfire. It pushed Iska back as he had tried to approach her, pressing him into the wall behind him.

“A wind barrier…so your legion’s even got defenses.”

“You puny little soldier! Stop making me try too hard. How much power will you force me to use just to get back my stolen earring…?!”

The witch’s hair stood on end as she stepped closer to him.

Her eyes and tone made her seem like a different person. Her expression had gone from exuding the gentleness of the spring sun to the harshness of the desert sun threatening to dry the vegetation.

“Die already.”

“You wish.” Iska forced himself up and wiped his bleeding lip with the back of his hand.

…This princess.

…She’s impossibly strong.

She was too fast. Having one purebred releasing five attacks wasn’t nearly as fast as five individuals attacking one at a time. That was what gave Mizerhyby’s Legion of Dawn so much value.

The Imperial forces had assumed they should simply be cautious of the threat Mizerhyby posed.

When she had a legion with her, however, she had to be one of the strongest powers in the Nebulis Sovereignty.

“Now I need to report another thing to headquarters. If I get home alive.”

He glared at each of the approaching six people in turn—Princess Mizerhyby and the formation of five subordinates to her sides.

“Attack—and don’t hold back. I do not mind even if you break the earring. Just obliterate that boy from here without a trace.” She swung her right hand. “Now!”

It all happened at once.

With Mizerhyby’s command, the five Legion of Dawn used all their astral power.

And Iska reacted to their attacks.

And then…

…The air exploded between them.

A whirlwind flashing with lightning blasted through the area suddenly. All the walls on the floor were riddled with holes and started to collapse.

“…What?!”

“Wh-what is this?!”

Iska and Mizerhyby both turned at the same time.

As it crackled, lightning raced low over the floor and the wind swept up the debris on the ground. Their vision was filled, turning a sandy color, and they couldn’t see much ahead of them.

…This isn’t one of Mizerhyby’s legion. What just happened?

…No, don’t get distracted. There’s no time to think!

Iska cut through the thick dust, narrowly avoiding a coughing fit, and launched himself off the ground before immediately starting to run. This wasn’t the battlefield. Getting out of the building was the priority.

He turned away from Princess Mizerhyby and sprinted. He leaped out of the room in seconds and ran through the hallway with the twister pressing at his back.

As the wind kicked up clouds of dust, Iska passed by someone.

“Hmm?”

“…Huh?”

The two of them turned toward each other, but they could barely make each other out.

A researcher?

One of Mizerhyby’s subordinates?

He had no way of finding out. Iska ran to the emergency stairs.

Snow and Sun. Central stairs. Fourth floor.

“That…senile sorcerer. When will he stop being so arrogant?!”

“Hmm? I was wondering who it was. It’s you,” Salinger sneered, looking down on the witch who yelled at him from far below.

He had spotted a redhead scowling at him. Her white thighs were exposed beneath the hem of her coat because she wasn’t wearing anything under it.

He didn’t recognize her.

But he did recognize her voice.

“Ha-ha, how comical. So you hastened to return to a human form? You wouldn’t want to expose your disgraceful appearance to the researchers in this building, I suppose.”

“Shut up and stay put. I’ll come get you in no time!”

“Someone’s cheeky.”

Vichyssoise ran ferociously up the stairs. Salinger didn’t wait for her. He raised his right hand, which glowed with astral light.

“I have grown tired of your face.”

Water Mirror had the ability to transcend and boost the stolen astral powers to new levels.

—A Sanctus of lightning and wind.

The air seemed to writhe.

Earsplitting thunder boomed, and lightning blasted away the walls and the floor Vichyssoise stood on.

“Gah?!”

Wind and lightning. The unusual combination of these two astral powers made Vichyssoise even forget to breathe. The wind stopped her movements and the lightning assaulted her body.

“Disappear.”

“…I’ll have……you remember…how…frightening…a true witch can be!”

Vichyssoise pitched down from the window.

But the electrical storm did not stop there. It brought down the walls between the rooms of the fifth floor, unilaterally striking the mercenaries employed by the Hydra with lightning.

Even the floors turned to dust.

“Was that her sad attempt at cursing me out?” Salinger scoffed at her last words and headed through the floor.

A cloud of dust greeted him.

He saw something else ahead, approaching him, before he had even walked a few steps.

Who was it? Someone frightfully agile.

When Salinger sensed the presence and turned toward it, it was already right in front of his eyes.

Whoever it was ran past him as fast as the wind.

All that was left was a swirl of dust and a vague memory of a humanoid shape.

Salinger had no desire to speculate. If soldiers came to him, he would show no forgiveness, but it went against his principles to pursue someone running past him.

More importantly…there was a more wonderful adversary waiting in his way within this building.

“That blue hair… Yes, I believe I remember hearing about it.”

He’d caught one look at the girl in the dust. His mouth turned up in a smirk. His laughter was derisive—a jeer.

“Mizerhyby Hydra Nebulis IX. The successor of the Hydra, huh.”

“…I see I have another guest.” The girl combed her fingers through her bangs, like she wanted to show off her astral crest. “I won’t ask who you are. This might be the first time we’re meeting, but my dear uncle has told me so much about you. I was wondering where you could have gone after you disappeared from the prison spire.”

“Oh?”

“I suppose you’re after the Gregorian Descant? What if I told you it’s not here?” The stand-in for the head of household, Mizerhyby touched her own ear. “It was stolen. By someone a step ahead of you.”

“…What?”

“I almost had it back. Was that your astral power earlier? What a horrible nuisance it was.”

“I see. Well then.” The lips of the conspicuously beautiful man curled. “Then let my correct myself. Produce the true descant for me.”

“Wha—?!”

“The experiments conducted by the Hydra produce the wildest of beasts. And the descant records them. You think I believe that you allowed that to be stolen? Don’t play dumb. That was a replica with a fragment of what was recorded. What I want is the original.”

The man looked down on the girl biting her lip. Though Mizerhyby was tall enough to be a model, the sorcerer was a whole head taller than her.

“……” She looked down, silently clenching her hands into fists.

And…

“Does everyone here want to get on my nerves?!”

Light exploded. Princess Mizerhyby’s body stirred with a glimmer like a vortex. Her lapis lazuli hair whipped around in the wind.

“You wretched sorcerer! You crawled back into the real world, but you’re nothing now. I’ll show you where you stand compared to the royal bloodline!”

“I can’t bear to even listen to you.” The white-haired man issued an exasperated sigh in reply. “Dignity does not lie in blood but in principle. You grew overconfident with the strong astral powers that you were gifted at birth and have lost the desire to improve yourself. How is that royal?”

“Now you’ve said it.”

“Let me tell you something. Don’t speak back to me when you have nothing other than royal blood.”

Salinger. The transcendental sorcerer.

What made him transcendental was his ambition to transcend the royalty.

There had only ever been one—only one person he considered an equal—a girl from thirty years ago. Other than that, he believed everyone else was below him.

“So, is the real descant on the top floor?

“Like I’d let you leave. You end here!” shrieked the princess.

A wave of astral energy surged from the broken windows and shook Snow and Sun.