2
An unnamed laboratory.
In the basement of the building that she knew only as the Birthplace of Witches, she continued to sprint breathlessly forward.
“Miss Sisbell, over here!”
“Y-yes, I see!”
In response to Nene waving for her to come, Sisbell ran up the stairs leading to the ground level.
“Miss Sisbell, is there a hidden door somewhere?! Like an emergency exit to get outside?!”
“…I don’t remember. But since they kept me underground, I think there must be a direct way out of here.”
The pharmacy.
Sisbell bit her lip as she glanced around the unfamiliar room.
She had been unconscious. She didn’t know where she was. Even now, running after Nene and Commander Mismis, she felt as though she was wandering through a maze.
“Guess all we can do is go back the way we came. I don’t feel too comfortable running through that dark floor again, though.”
“Jhin, um…it hasn’t been long since we met each other, all things considered, but…” Sisbell turned only her head to the sniper, who brought up the rear. “Thank you. You shot her for me, didn’t you?”
“Why are you thanking me?”
“…Never mind. I’m sure you understand, so I won’t mention it again.”
It was the timing of his shot.
She couldn’t believe it wasn’t intentional on his part.
“How about Elletear?”
“Did she still look human on the outside? What color was her skin? Her eyes? Did she sprout fangs? Oh, or perhaps two heads—?”
Kelvina had treated her sister like a monster.
At the time, Sisbell must have looked horribly enraged, but Jhin’s bullet had silenced Kelvina.
“I feel relieved. But it would have been even better if she hadn’t gotten away with just a grazed cheek. If only she had been punched right in the face.”
“That’s Iska’s job. Not mine. Also, keep running.”
“Y-yes, I know!”
She was following Nene and Commander Mismis as quickly as she could. There was no light coming from the ceiling. Before her eyes, the pair disappeared into the darkness.
“Wh-where are you, Commander Mismis?! Miss Nene!”
“Miss Sisbell, over here!” Nene’s voice echoed against the walls. It was all Sisbell could go on in this pitch-black maze. The floor was already dark as it was, and if there were any obstacles, she was liable to trip. “Ugh, enough… I have no choice.”
Sisbell put her hand to her collar. She unbuttoned it, exposing her chest—her astral crest. There was a faint glow. The match-like light was much better than total darkness.
“…Even I am aware that my astral light is hardly useful.”
“Seems handy to me.”
“It makes me feel like a human electric generator, so I’m not fond of it. Also, Jhin, please refrain from staring. It would not be gentlemanly of you to peek at a girl’s chest.”
“Is there even anything to look at?”
“There is… Mghf?!”
“Shush.” Jhin had latched onto her from behind. He had placed a hand over her mouth.
Maybe she shouldn’t have shouted? That was what crossed her mind, at least. Jhin, on the other hand, was frozen in place, staring at the pharmacy.
“…That light.”
They caught glimpses of an intense violet luminescence. Just as Sisbell noticed it, the door of the pharmacy flew open and crumpled from an explosion. Out from the flames crawled something humanoid and spectral. It was one of the artificial astral powers—a monster.
“Could it have been following me…?!”
“Run!”
She didn’t need him to tell her. Before Jhin could yell, Sisbell had already started taking off as fast as she could down the dark corridor.
“I have no interest in humans. But you are special, former Saint Disciple Iska.”
The hall was filled with faint astral light.
The once-human thing, now half transparent like glass, slowly rose. It was like a vile angel, free from the shackles of gravity.
“I wanted to have a superhuman like a Saint Disciple as one of my subjects. I begged the Eight Great Apostles for one. And as luck would have it, it seems I’ll be able to get one myself.”
The Eight Great Apostles. Iska scowled internally when he heard those words. At that moment, two sensations overcame him. He was simultaneously shocked at the perpetrators, yet certain it had been them. The two opposing feelings clashed and swirled in his chest.
…This unsettling research. I knew that someone big had to be behind it.
…But the Eight Great Apostles of all people!
Even the Imperial headquarters was probably unaware. They had come into contact with the most dangerous darkness lurking in the Empire.
“That is why—”
“You sure run your mouth in combat.” He heard someone leap from the ground. The malevolent angel Kelvina hadn’t even noticed. Rin, who had been standing next to Iska, had swerved around behind the woman.
“I’ll pluck those grotesque wings.”
She moved like a leopard, pouncing from the floor nearly three yards into the air before she brought down the two large daggers she held.
Klink.
A dull sound.
Followed by the shattering of two daggers echoing throughout the place.
“But these were precious blades from the royal family!”
“I’m just about as hard as the Planetary Stronghold. Even a shot from a tank wouldn’t break me.”
Kelvina’s wings wriggled. They weren’t composed of plumes but rather a countless number of protuberances from her body. Each of them had begun to glow. They were like a giant machine gun barrel on the verge of firing.
The luminescence started to converge. Dozens of lights gathered into one and brightened the hall as though it was midday.
“Rin, don’t let that glow hit you!”
“Nightgaze.”
The malevolent angel released it from her wings—the same blast of ultimate astral energy that the Object had once shot. The belt of light let out a shrill sound as it scorched the air, rocketing toward Rin.
“Rin!”
“Kick me away!”
Rin, who was stuck in midair, was kicked by the earth soldier that had leaped up with the luminescence… It touched the beam and evaporated.
“You blasted away my doll?!”
Rin turned pale as the light that had barely grazed her began to melt through the floor. It even touched the back wall and created a large explosion.
“Guh?!” Rin landed as the wind from the blast hit her.
“I have no interest in you, witch.”
Dozens of lights burned in the other wing. They once again converged and lit the hall with rays as strong as the sun.
“You think I would let you?”
The flash cut off halfway. Iska had brought down his black sword after leaping in front of Rin.
“You severed the light?”
“I saw this shot from the Object. I remember it, whether I like it or not.”
Cold sweat rolled down his back. He tried his best to keep her from realizing his right arm was paralyzed as he gave the malevolent angel the most natural glare he could muster.
…What I did just now was reckless.
…Cutting through that beam was nothing short of a miracle. And it’s not like I knew I’d be successful.
In this instance, Iska couldn’t rely on his skills. But if he hadn’t taken a risk, Rin would have been scorched out of existence.
“I suppose I should have expected this, but you were wrong to save the witch.” The malevolent angel Kelvina jeered. “You cannot move that right arm of yours. I’m sure the pain of holding that sword is excruciating.”
“……Tsk.”
“My astral energy is adhering to your right arm. When you sliced through the glow, it grazed your right hand slightly, yes?”
Blood dripped from Iska’s right hand. As though she was taking her time to observe it, the malevolent angel’s eyes narrowed.
“Still, your astral swords are truly magnificent. If you can cut through my astral energy, there is a possibility they could even be used on the planet’s demise.”
“……What are you talking about?”
“I have a great spirit of inquiry.”
The malevolent angel stretched her arms into the air. It was as though she were compelling him to offer up the blade.
“My thirst for that sword is rising. I hear it is the ultimate instrument, forged by the Astrals themselves.”
“Shut up, monster.”
“Hmm?”
That had come from a corner of the vast hall. The girl, who had been thrown aside by the astral energy, rose to her feet. Rin ran straight at the malevolent angel Kelvina, still in midair. Even from Iska’s perspective, her charge was absurd.
“You can’t! Don’t go near her, Rin!”
It was too sloppy.
She had just broken her dagger without making a scratch on the malevolent angel. Most importantly, she couldn’t use her astral power. There wasn’t any earth for her to control.
“You’re desperate, then.” Kelvina sounded disappointed. “How pitiable for an earth witch. Take away soil to manipulate, and you’re powerless. I’m sure that soldier was your final pawn.”
“…”
“What do you think you will accomplish with your fist—? Ughhhhhh?!”
The malevolent angel Kelvina staggered. A human girl much smaller than her had jabbed her in midair and sent her flying. She wouldn’t have seen that coming.
Since Kelvina was a mass of astral energy, no one in their right mind would have thought a mere human fist would work on her. That should have been the case, yet she had been clobbered anyway.
“You were saying?”
Rin turned after landing.
As though showing off her right fist, she lifted it toward the monster in the air. It was covered in earth.
“Astral energy works against you. That makes things easy. I formed a sphere of soil around my fist using astral power and nailed you as hard as I could.”
“…………”
A small crack had formed in the angel’s cheek. It didn’t look particularly painful, but the blow was enough to show the threat that Rin posed as an astral mage.
“Earth witch. Was that your astral power?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“…But you had no earth to use.”
“It’s right here.”
Crack.
Below Rin’s feet, a flask filled with soil broke.
“Earth astral mages are powerless without our element? We’ve known that since a hundred years ago. For generations and generations before me.”
The Imperial mad scientist had underestimated her. She had underestimated the wisdom and tenacity of astral mages who had waged a war over a hundred years.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t come here empty-handed.”
She pulled up her skirt.
As she did so, boldly exposing her pale thighs, she revealed dozens of glass bottles filled with soil lining the underside of her outfit.
Those made an almost beautiful array of sounds as they crashed and broke at Rin’s feet one after another. It captivated the malevolent angel. It was elegant—a type of art, almost a sleight of hand.
“One jar holds about fifty grams. It’s only a little over two pounds of soil from twenty bottles.”
The dirt rose.
When it came into contact with the earth astral mage Rin Vispose’s astral energy, it took form in the palm of her hand, transforming into earth daggers.
“Perfect for tearing off your wings.”
“…How adorable.”
Kelvina watched as though enraptured. The inhuman monster stared down at the girl below her.
“I didn’t think much of you, but it seems you are a diamond in the rough, witch. If you are an assassin who came to save the princess, then might you be one of the Astral Guards who exclusively protect the royal family?”
“I don’t feel like responding.”
“I have all the time in the world to look into it. That is no obstacle.”
Rin’s eyes were emotionless, like the sand of a desert. The girl, who didn’t hide her animosity, lifted her lips into a smile as she looked at the inhuman angel with more and more mirth.
“Another quality witch in addition to Princess Sisbell.”
“I told you.”
Rin’s footsteps echoed loudly in the hall as she leaped from the ground. It was nearly explosive.
“A blade made from the earth.”
“Come, astral flames.”
The witch’s and malevolent angel’s voices overlapped. The air burst with a roar. Purple flames that were hot as the sun surged from all over Kelvina’s body. Rin didn’t stop as she closed the distance between them as quickly as she could.
“Violet Asteroid Belt.”
The blaze swirled, swelling into a fireball that could engulf Rin.
“Tsk.” Rin clicked her tongue at the inferno before her. The next instant, the girl picked up speed. Tearing off the excess fabric of her skirt, which was long enough to reach the ground, she turned it into a miniskirt that exposed her thighs.
“Is that your combat outfit?”
“You think I’m wearing this because it’s my taste?”
She leaned down, skimming the ground to slip past the flames, and came up right before Kelvina’s eyes. Rin aimed for the center of her chest and thrust her dagger. Even Iska barely realized it.
The angel had disappeared.
Without any warning.
Rin’s blade gouged the air. The monster wasn’t there anymore.
“This is the reason…”
“…Impossible?!”
“The reason I called myself an angel.”
The malevolent angel was above Rin’s head.
How had she moved there?
Even Iska, who had been watching from afar, shuddered after seeing everything from start to finish. It wasn’t that he hadn’t just not seen her move. He hadn’t been able to perceive it.
…There wasn’t any sound or indication. Not even a breeze.
…She appeared as suddenly as she disappeared. Does she teleport like you can with astral power?!
But this was different from teleportation astral power.
That movement couldn’t be produced by an astral mage. It was a phenomenon of astral power—one that transcended the laws of physics.
She was of a higher order than humanity could ever attain. Now it was dawning on Iska why Kelvina had called herself an angel—a being of divine allegory.
“Just one to start.”
“Guh?!”
She brought her distorted wings down on Rin’s head.
They fell like a guillotine. Rin’s daggers returned to earth in an instant and reassembled into a shield.
She blocked the wings.
“Very quick at reconstructing, I see. Now you’re getting interesting,” the malevolent angel said almost affectionately. With a wing, she lightly pushed down on the shield Rin held. “You can still be good for research even if your bones and flesh are slightly squashed. So don’t worry about me crushing you.”
“…You monster…” Rin gritted her teeth as she kept the shield up. Though she was pushing back with all she had, it wouldn’t budge, almost as though she were pushing back against a steel wall.
“You fiend… How far must you stray from humanity before you’re satisfied?!”
“Ah, praise.”
“…I see. In that case, I’ll think of you as human. No more holding back.”
The earth shield burst. The soil, which had turned into a whip in Rin’s hands, coiled around Kelvina’s wing.
“You can’t move if I catch you.”
“What?”
“Get her, Iska!” Rin howled. Even before she screamed, however, Iska had already taken a straight shot at the malevolent angel. He could cut her with the astral sword. They had proof it could from the battle with Vichyssoise.
“Tsk.” For the first time, Kelvina showed signs of dismay. Though her wings were still caught in the bonds of earth, she turned around and thrust her hand in Iska’s direction.
“Though I’m loath to lose a precious sample…turn to ash.”
The raging astral flames shot out.
The fireball split into an innumerable number of embers and rose into the air, then showered down on Iska like a sudden rain.
“Your right arm— What?!”
He cut off Kelvina’s wail and simply kept heading forward. Iska gauged the trajectory of the fireball that tinged the entire hall violet as he brought up his astral sword.
“Hah!”
He cut through the astral inferno raining down ahead of him, then severed the fireball that came at him next. Then Iska dodged the flames coming at him from an angle above and sliced the flames following him along the ground behind him with near-perfect precision.
He did all of that with the black astral sword in his left hand.
…I knew it.
…You haven’t changed on the inside at all, Kelvina!
Though she had transformed into something that transcended him, at her core, she still thought and acted like a researcher.
All the Saint Disciples could use either hand as though it were their dominant. Through training, he had developed these skills that no ordinary person could imagine.
It was the final step.
The last step before his sword was within striking distance of Kelvina.
“Beautiful.”
Her smile was inhuman.
“Saint Disciples truly are magnificent. Your technique in battle is like a god of war’s. Though you rely on intuition, you certainly have the judgment to know how to ensure your survival. You truly are a superhuman soldier.”
“…What are you…?”
“But you are nothing compared to an angel.”
Her entire body glittered. It was different from when she had been overflowing with astral flames. Her jewellike, transparent form glistened like a pearl—then exploded.
It burst into thousands of tiny particles of light and melted away into the air.
…She exploded?!
…She self-destructed?! No, it’s too weak for that.
He would expect a giant blast as powerful as that to pulverize the entire hall. An overwhelming sense of dread ran through him.
…Which manifested as a scream from Rin.
“Iska, behind you!”
What?
He hadn’t had time to even wonder that. Rin’s eyes opened wide as she shouted. At that moment, one thing was clearer than all else—he could sense the threat of death approaching him from above.
A flash.
As Iska threw himself away, he felt a great amount of astral energy graze his neck.
A fraction of a second.
Had he hesitated to leap, his head would have been sliced clean off his neck.
“Top marks for your quick thinking, earth witch.”
Iska turned. Up above, he saw untold thousands of pearls of lights coalescing together. They morphed into an angel, flapping her malformed wings.
“You thought you could use your earth astral power to keep ahold of me so I wouldn’t be able to use my Leap? That’s spot-on. Since there’s astral energy in the soil you control, it’s the one snare that could possibly capture my physical form.”
Kelvina had perfectly reshaped. After turning into particles of light and fully disappearing, she had re-formed behind Iska. But until Rin had yelled, he hadn’t sensed her in the slightest.
…I knew it.
…Her teleportation doesn’t have any tells and can be performed instantaneously. It’s beyond the five human senses!
This was a first.
The first time anyone had so easily taken him by surprise from behind.
“Unfortunate, isn’t it, witch? The deficiencies of that soil you manipulate. The astral energy you could put into just a thousand grams of dirt wasn’t enough to bind me.”
“…Huh!” Rin scowled.
At that moment, Iska and Rin realized what truly separated this monster from the rest.
This wasn’t the same as facing a human.
And she wasn’t a machine like the Object.
They were fighting astral power itself. That was what this was.
“What a lovely face you’re making, witch. And you as well, former Saint Disciple Iska. It seems to have dawned on you. Human abilities will never match that of an angel. This isn’t a matter of being on different levels. There’s a disparity in our potential.”
Malevolent angel Kelvina flung open her arms. Ominous astral light overflowed from the great number of protuberances that made up her wings.
…And then she disappeared.
Without sound or trace.
“Damn it. Where is she coming from next…?”
“I’m behind you, witch.”
The sound was dull.
Iska hadn’t even had the time to yell. The girl flew into the air like a piece of paper as Kelvina’s wings blew her away.
“Rin!”
“……Ugh…”
Her back crashed into the concrete floor. Her whole body convulsed as she tried to scream, but nothing came out.
“Rin!”
Iska stepped forward suddenly.
He had changed direction.
He ran straight for the monster that had blown away Rin.
“You’re abandoning her, then? How fitting for an Imperial—abandoning a witch—”
“Nine seconds.”
“Huh?!”
“That’s the amount of time between that thing you called a Leap. Am I wrong?”
She could invoke her imperceptible teleportation for nine seconds. Once she did, it was unlikely anyone could perceive her approach.
…The next time she uses it, even I won’t be able to dodge her.
…This is my only chance!
He didn’t have the time to rush to Rin. He needed to end this in the nine seconds he had.
“But you only have five seconds left.”
She sneered—the sneer of something that had given up its humanity.
“You think you can capture me?”
“Not me.”
He stepped forward without hesitation. Gripping the astral sword in his left hand, Iska headed toward the malevolent angel that was rising close to the ceiling.
“But Rin.”
Krish.
A fissure opened in the wall directly to Kelvina’s side.
An earth golem leaped in, smashing the wall.
It attacked.
It pinned the airborne angel’s arms behind her back. It took only a second for the whole thing to be done.
“A golem?!”
Kelvina hadn’t expected any of this.
The witch was unconscious. The golem shouldn’t have been able to move without her orders. And besides, since when had something so large as a golem—?
“From the start,” Iska said.
He gripped the sword in his left hand. Iska leaped at the monster.
“That golem was waiting outside the building this whole time.”
“Huh?!”
“As long as she’s got earth, she can do anything. As soon as this battle started, Rin instructed the golem to come underground.”
Then she had made it stand by behind the wall. It had waited for the moment the malevolent angel Kelvina had come close enough that it could break through the wall to take her by surprise.
…The time interval is nine seconds.
…We weren’t defeating her in that time. All we needed to do was catch her.
In the golem’s net.
All he’d needed to do was force her into the trap.
“Impossible.”
The mad scientist’s eyes went wide. She had finally realized it. In order to make sure she had the nine seconds before she could use her invincible Leap, she had jumped away from Iska as he closed in.
And that was checkmate.
In fleeing from Iska, she had fallen into the trap of the golem waiting behind the wall.
Nine seconds had passed.
The malevolent angel couldn’t use her teleportation—her trump card.
The vast astral energy of the earth golem holding on to her prevented her from invoking her power.
“I have a piece of advice. From one Imperial to another.”
“…Impossible.”
“Don’t underestimate an astral mage’s tenacity. That’s the first thing they teach you in the Imperial forces.”
A flash of the black blade.
With his left hand, Iska brought down his sword and sliced through Kelvina’s wings.
“…Ah!”
They fell.
Kelvina had lost control now that her wings were gone. As the golem still kept her entire body restrained…
…she crashed through the glass lid to the furnace and plummeted into it.
Roar!
Astral energy surged out of the furnace.
Not just from one of them. The furnace next to the one Kelvina had tumbled into also ferociously erupted, like a volcano, and started to emit an intense light.
“…It’s resonating…?!”
Rin lifted her face as the place trembled.
“…The astral powers trapped in there are trying…to escape…”
It wasn’t just human beings.
There were also astral powers being held against their will in the forbidden lab—and they had been released.
Elza’s Sarcophagus. Birthplace of Witches.
First aboveground level. Eastern facade.
Unit 907’s voices echoed across the lightless floor where all windows had been sealed.
“Miss Sisbell, quickly!”
“Jhin Big Bro, what about your gun?!”
“No use. Can’t hurt these guys with firearms. The bullets just go straight through them… Just run!”
She had no idea where they were heading. Sisbell relied on Nene’s and Commander Mismis’s voices ahead of them as Jhin’s bellows pushed her forward from behind. She continued sprinting as fast as she could.
“Jhin! Can’t you do something about this…?”
“I just tried. How am I supposed to shoot a monster when the bullets go right through it? Best way out of this is to run.”
“…Wait, that sound.”
Skreeeeee.
The screech was like glass being scraped. Sisbell turned around and found the concrete wall right in front of her was glittering violet and melting like sludge.
“I-it’s behind the wall?! Did they get ahead of us?!”
“Get down!”
“…Ah!”
The silver-haired young man pushed her down.
Sisbell tumbled to the floor and watched as the concrete wall burst open from a terrific explosion as easily as someone slicing through paper. A dense cloud of dust rose from the wall. She saw the faint outline of humanoid astral energy appear from behind the smoke. It was radiant and eerie, like a ghost.
“…Artificial astral power!”
It was one of the monsters who emitted astral power–like light. It must have been set loose from the research room underground and followed them all the way here. Since guns were useless against it, all they could do was run from it now.
“Over here! Over here, Miss Sisbell, Jhin!” Commander Mismis beckoned for them to come from farther into the hallway.
How far had they run already? Her side was throbbing from sprinting at full force, which she rarely did, but she would have to keep it up if she wanted to live.
…There’s still no sign of Iska and Rin even though they’re supposed to meet us here.
…How is their battle against that mad scientist going?
She hid herself in the shadows of the hall.
“Haah…tsk…ah…”
“Miss Sisbell, are you all right?”
“Y-yes…”
Her chest throbbed so much, it felt like it would burst. Even just responding to Nene took all she had.
…But we did gain something from this.
…We finally know what the witch Vichyssoise is and what was in the core of the Object.
Someone had been conducting forbidden research.
The monsters coming to attack her. Now that she knew they were the product of Imperial experiments, she had to find some way to tell the queen.
On the other hand, there was a new mystery.
She needed to find out what “that” thing the mad scientist had kept going on about was.
“The thing that the Astrals revered, which they dubbed the Great Planetary Calamity. Similar to astral power, yet different…”
“Very rarely, it will rise from the planet’s core through a vortex.”
Astrals? The Great Planetary Calamity?
What were those things? Even Sisbell, who had listened in on conversations within the Nebulis Sovereignty using her Illumination astral power, had never heard those words before.
“……Found you.”
That had come from directly below her.
The moment Sisbell heard the murmur that sounded almost like a repulsive curse, her whole body shuddered.
She felt something brush her ankle.
The instant she realized it, something gripped her ankle with unfathomable force. A faintly glowing humanoid shape that looked almost like a ghost was peeking out from the dusty floor. Only its head was aboveground.
…But?!
…Did it rise directly from the underground lab through the floor all the way up here?!
She had been caught.
The moment she realized that, it was all too late.
“Miss Sisbell?!”
“Damn it! Let her go!”
Jhin’s bullets and Nene’s stun gun wouldn’t work against it. The artificial astral power, whose head and arm were the only things visible above the concrete floor, began to glow steadily brighter as it kept a hold over her ankle.
“Life-form integra.”
“Huh?!”
Sisbell recalled the crimson disaster she had seen in the independent state.
A flash of ultimate luminescence that had scorched away everything. If something like that was unleashed here, even if they weren’t directly hit, the heat wave would blast away every human being in the area without a trace.
“…That’s enough! You can all leave me behind!” she yelled.
Even she hadn’t understood why she had yelled that now, at the last minute.
The Imperials were supposed to be enemies. Their lives weren’t even worth chewing gum wrappers to her. The most they amounted to was valuable hostages. A Nebulis Sovereignty princess such as herself had been taught that for many long years. She still believed that now. The former Saint Disciple who had value as a guard was the only one who was special.
She didn’t care about the other three in the unit…or so she had thought.
“You’ve done enough! So you don’t have to…!”
The ominous light gathered.
It released destructive luminescence that would turn everything into dust.
Sew sia lukia Sec amuy. Sera lu E lukia Ses qelno—I will show you my memories, so you show me the future.
The astral energy burst from the underground furnaces.
Dozens, no, hundreds of faint glittering lights blasted away the life-form integra that had just been fired. The glow from the astral powers washed away the artificial astral power itself.
“…………Huh?”
Sisbell couldn’t even imagine what had happened. She had no way of knowing that right at that moment, in the underground hall, Iska and Rin had destroyed the furnaces.
“…I’m…saved…?”
Sisbell looked up, taken aback. The astral light that pierced through the roof and surged out left a glittering rainbow behind as it disappeared far into the blue sky.
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