Arc 9, Part 41: "Tell the Usurper"

—God, Buddha, Od Laguna-sama. I swear I will never drink alcohol for the rest of my life.

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"—This is total war. It’s okay to just stay quiet and let yourselves be soundly defeated."

The moment Petra made that declaration in the mountains where Al had vanished, the tension swelled and burst all at once. In that instant, the remaining members of Al’s group—the "Divine Dragon" Volcanica, "Gluttony" Roy Alphard, and Heinkel—who had been on high alert since Petra’s appearance, all moved simultaneously. However, there was no coordination between the three; their actions were entirely disjointed.

"————"

Seeing them move, Petra initiated her first plan—no, since the "Flash Remnade" that had used Rem’s presence to distract Al was the first, this was the second arrow in her quiver. It was a strategy to cause Al’s group, composed of formidable enemies who could not be underestimated, to disintegrate into a disorganized rabble.

"First, we isolate Al-san, then we give the remaining people a huge surprise. If we do that—"

『On the count of "Go," everyone will start doing whatever they want!』

Before her eyes, as her voice overlapped with that of the Imaginary Subaru, the Dragon, the Sin Archbishop, and Heinkel each acted according to their own individual judgment. The massive mobilization of forces from the very first move was intended to scatter their choices as much as possible. Of course, this plan carried a significant risk of everyone being wiped out by the Divine Dragon in one fell swoop, but—

"—Al-san’s method of making the Divine Dragon an ally is probably the same as mine."

Petra speculated this regarding the betrayal of the renowned Divine Dragon Volcanica. Petra had heard from Emilia about Volcanica’s state at the top of the Watchtower and understood that the Dragon’s mind had grown senile over the long years. Petra knew better than anyone, through personal experience, the method of forcibly stuffing "something" into those blank spaces of consciousness.

Just as Petra had hosted Natsuki Subaru as a part of her own consciousness through the "Book of the Dead," it was highly likely that Volcanica also hosted an entity cooperative toward Al. And that entity shared a very strong purpose with Al, having decided to turn the world into their enemy together. Petra bet on that. She bet on Al and Volcanica sharing a vow of "Non-lethal Intent."

『—!!』

The first to strike was the Divine Dragon, moving with agility despite its massive frame. The Dragon’s mighty jaws opened, and the breath released was not the light of destruction that returns all to nothingness, but a mist of fresh water created using the Dragon’s vast mana. It engulfed the "Aldebusters"—the Royal Selection Mixed Army—starting with Petra, soaking everyone to the bone. For a moment, confusion arose as they failed to grasp the Divine Dragon’s intent, but that doubt was quickly resolved.

"————"

The sound of creaking air struck their eardrums, and their instinctive movements to brace themselves were hindered. Looking down, a thin layer of frost had formed on their wet bodies, and in an instant, Petra and the others were being encased in ice—

"—Ul Goa."

In that split second, crimson flames surged back to cover the forest that had begun to turn white with frost. It forcibly suppressed the freezing caused by the Divine Dragon’s dense mist with an expansion of fire that seemed to cover the entire field of vision, instantly melting the ice and even drying their wet clothes in a flash. The one who did this was the wizard standing at the center of the group, finger raised, thwarting the Divine Dragon’s aim with a single incantation—the man with the worst personality but the greatest skill in the kingdom, the peerless Roswaal L. Mathers.

Needless to say, the higher the level of magic, the more delicate the control required. To respond instantly with Ul-class magic, release everyone from their frozen state, dry their clothes, and ensure no one suffered a single burn was nothing short of a divine feat. Even the Divine Dragon, who had lived since ancient times, was astonished by Roswaal’s effortless execution. And there—

"The one you should be paying attention to is here. Attention."

A quiet, polite voice was accompanied by a blow beyond imagination. Clind, leaping with a light spring, used his long leg to deliver a magnificent kick to the side of the Dragon’s stationary face. The power of that kick was like a cannonball, not inferior even to Garfiel’s. The Dragon lost its balance, bracing a hand against the ground as a cloud of dust billowed up.

The Divine Dragon’s opening move was suppressed head-on by the duo of Roswaal and Clind. Meanwhile, bursting through the dust cloud was the bared fangs of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony—

"Hahaha! Lining up all these delicious-looking heads, this must be love, right!?"

Roy, practically salivating as he lunged into the battle line, differed from the Divine Dragon who tried to stop everyone; he targeted a single, clearly defined prey in a single bound. Contrary to his wild, gluttonous motivation, Roy approached his quarry with eerily refined agility. The target of Gluttony’s wicked tongue was the pink-haired maid standing within the group—

"—Ram."

His outstretched hand prepared the "meal" by touching something invisible. Roy, who called her name and grinned wickedly, locked eyes with Ram, who met his gaze with a frozen expression. In the next moment, the Sin Archbishop ostentatiously licked the palm that had touched her. The Authority of Gluttony activated, and there, a new tragedy was supposed to sprout—but it didn't.

"Ugh..."

Roy’s eyes widened, and he clutched his mouth as if feeling the nausea of a backfiring "Eclipse." Before the faltering Roy, Ram spun around gracefully, and—

"How foolish."

Ram’s rising knee struck the Sin Archbishop’s jaw with a sharp, vivid crack.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! After coming all this way...!"

While the Divine Dragon and Gluttony had both chosen to attack, albeit with different goals, the choice of the final member, Heinkel, was different. Heinkel, making a choice distinct from the Dragon’s cold breath or the Sin Archbishop’s "vile eating," brandished his drawn sword to keep the front at bay while leaping not forward, but backward. He likely intended to put distance between them and hope that someone else would change the tide of battle. However—

"It won't go quite that conveniently, Lord Head of the Family." "Lord Head, I’ve actually wanted to do this for a long time."

There, the twin sisters who had been hiding in the trees since immediately after the "Compression" descended. Flam and Grasis—the twins serving the House of Astrea—delivered kicks that sandwiched the man’s back and torso from front and back. Ironically, he was the man who was the head of the house they served.

"Gueh...!"

The kicks from the sisters, who had mastered the "Flow Method," produced a thunderous sound unimaginable from such petite girls. Heinkel, his eyes rolling back from the impact that felt like his internal organs were being squeezed out, let out a deathly groan. The three types of collisions occurred almost simultaneously, and the initial dominance was exactly as planned. All that remained was to add to that—

『—It’s a game-changer.』

The snap of Imaginary Subaru’s fingers, audible only to Petra, rang out loudly. With that as the signal, the situation on the battlefield shifted.

—Further "Compression" divisions tore Al’s group even further apart.

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—Petra Leyte recognized the terror of Al’s group far more strongly than the results suggested.

Since the betrayal at the Pleiades Watchtower, Al had gained the Divine Dragon as an ally, evaded Reinhard and the Felt camp, and successfully orchestrated the prison break of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony in the Royal Capital. In the developments so far, the accomplices acting with Al surely played significant roles, but the greatest threat was undoubtedly Al himself.

Having been informed of the true nature of Al’s extraordinary "luck"—the power to pull in the desired result—Petra felt a sense of total understanding. The reason, of course, was the truth about Natsuki Subaru she had learned by reading his "Book of the Dead."

『That guy Al is also a possessor of a leaping ability... if so, I understand how dangerous that is better than anyone. Besides, unlike me, whose personal combat power is pathetic, Al is the type who can fight for himself. Simply put, the opponent is a superior version of me.』

"...Subaru is very reliable too, as long as you're with Beatrice-chan. Besides, when it comes to tricks and cunning, you don't lose to Otto-san."

『But the original me is captured along with Beatrice, and "tricks and cunning" aren't exactly the skill set a strong person proudly shows off...』

Imaginary Subaru spoke with a lack of confidence, but even putting aside her feelings of love or bias for the underdog, Petra did not think Subaru was inferior to Al, let alone a "lower version." Regarding that, she had also heard an interesting analysis from Old Man Rom, who had deduced that Al’s Authority was likely a time leap.

—The theory was that Al’s time leap was merely a redo of a very short period of time.

"If it were truly the same power as Subaru’s, he should have been able to avoid clashing with Felt-sama and Old Man Rom in the first place."

『But we can't be overconfident about that either. There's a good chance the restart point just happened to be a scene where he couldn't avoid Felt and the others. Even I couldn't completely stop Petelgeuse from attacking Emilia-tan and the others.』

"I think it was almost a perfect shutout, though—"

Petra started to say more but bit her tongue, considering "Subaru’s" feelings. As Petra said, if "Subaru" had perfectly contained the Sin Archbishop of Sloth who attacked the Roswaal Manor and Arlam Village, the subsequent tragedies of Rem and Crusch would not have happened. Subaru did the very best he could. That was Petra’s evaluation, but the man himself felt differently. It was sadly connected to Natsuki Subaru’s low self-esteem, which was incredibly frustrating for Petra, but—

"I'll put that aside for now... We're facing not just that incredible Al-san, but also the Divine Dragon, the shinobi maid, the Sin Archbishop, and Heinkel-san who are cooperating with him."

『It really is an outrageous lineup. A Dragon, a ninja, a Sin Archbishop... and even Reinhard’s old man is the father of that Reinhard, so he won't be a pushover.』

"No comment on Heinkel-san."

To the troubled-looking "Subaru," Petra responded by putting an "X" over her lips with her finger, refusing to answer. She had briefly traveled with Heinkel in the Vollachian Empire, but he had projected an attitude that pushed everyone away, so Petra had almost no connection with him. Only Garfiel had looked after him to some extent; if Garfiel knew about the current Heinkel, he would surely be very depressed. Imagining a dejected Garfiel made a simmering anger toward Heinkel rise within Petra. The Emilia camp was a group where everyone got angry as one against those who hurt their own.

"Phew... I have to calm down. It’s meaningless unless Garf-san resolves his own feelings himself, so we just have to pave the way for him."

『Even if you say "pave the way," I don't know where to start...』

"Yes, you're right. It’s easy to get lost. But—"

At the sight of the bewildered "Subaru," Petra smiled mischievously and looked back. Following Petra’s movement, "Subaru" also looked in that direction. There, she saw the figures of everyone who was here—people for whom Natsuki Subaru, who tended to take everything on himself, had stumbled and fallen time and again, repeating failures yet still showing results.

『————』

"I certainly think Al-san and the others are very tough, and I think they're people we wouldn't stand a chance against if we fought normally. —But, we aren't exactly normal either, are we?"

Closing one eye in a wink, Petra made the cutest face she could manage in her life and smiled at the wide-eyed profile of Imaginary Subaru. And so, together with her not-normal and reliable comrades, she had crafted a plan—

—And with Otto Suwen’s signal as the trigger, they began the battle.

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—God, Buddha, Od Laguna-sama. I swear I will never write a letter for the rest of my life.

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—The Authority brought by the Witch Factor of "Melancholy," "Compression," is by no means omnipotent.

The phenomena caused by "Compression" are strictly the compression of achievable events—representative of which is shortening the travel time to a reachable range. Conversely, this means that an event impossible even given time cannot be realized through "Compression."

Therefore, even in the division of Aldebaran’s group, after throwing Aldebaran out of the combat zone first, it was no easy task to further divide the remaining members. If the opponent became wary of "Compression," the difficulty of applying the Authority’s effect would skyrocket. Furthermore, if the opponents were the Divine Dragon or a Sin Archbishop, simply taking them away was a Herculean task. The weakness of "Compression" was that its applicable range narrowed extremely unless the target agreed to the effect or was caught off guard.

The Royal Selection Mixed Army "Aldebusters" overcame this weakness with a barrage of eccentric tactics.

They used superior numbers to unsettle Heinkel, took advantage of Volcanica’s psychological fixation on "Non-lethality," and shut the door on Roy Alphard’s "Gluttony" as he became obsessed with his "feast." None of these were eccentric tactics with a certainty of success until they were executed. —But there is no such thing as a plan with one hundred percent certainty in this world. There is only the effort to get as close to one hundred percent as possible, and the heart that believes they have done their utmost. The spirit of those who can pour water onto that sprout of possibility is—

"Ah, how truly pleasant this is. Admiration."

Nodding as he landed on the soil, Clind stared straight ahead at the Divine Dragon Volcanica. Volcanica, supporting his tilted body with one hand, met Clind’s gaze head-on. In the "Dragon" with narrowed golden eyes, a clear budding of will could be felt. Just as Petra had speculated, another consciousness resided within the Dragon’s shell.

『————』

Volcanica, glaring down at them, had naturally taken almost no damage from Clind’s previous attack. He might have succeeded in surprising him, but it was a blow far from cornering the opponent. But even so, the goal of the initial surprise attack had been achieved. —In the combat zone facing the Divine Dragon’s shell, only two members of the Aldebusters stood against the Usurper. It was only Clind and Roswaal L. Mathers.

『...The same method you used to blow away the Original, huh.』

Pushing himself up with the hand on the ground, the Divine Dragon muttered in a low, heavy voice. The "Dragon" looked around with his golden eyes, noting that they had been moved from the mountains where they were just moments ago to a wide-open plain. It was proof that the movement via "Compression" had been triggered, successfully isolating the troublesome opponent. However—

『Clind, was it? I thought it might be... but it seems there's no mistake that you're the possessor of the "Melancholy" Witch Factor.』

"—Where did you get that information? Question."

『I was taught by a knowledgeable Great Deity I know. Though, it was only to the extent of being mixed in with some tall tales, so I didn't even remember it until just now.』

The Divine Dragon shrugged his shoulders with an excessively human gesture. Clind pondered the fact that the word "Melancholy" had come from his mouth and that he had been identified as the possessor of the Witch Factor. If the Usurper could even draw out knowledge from the Dragon’s shell, there would be no mystery in him knowing that. But if that were the case, his behavior up to this point was somewhat inconsistent. If one were to try to make sense of both, it would mean that while the Usurper had not fully mastered the Dragon’s shell, he had been told about Clind’s circumstances by someone—

"It makes me feel quite excluded when the two of you reach an understanding like that—"

"Master..."

"You are a person capable of meticulous work, but if you go too far, you fall into the category of being called high-strung. How the opponent obtained the knowledge is not the issue-ee. In fact, the plan is working."

『A plan, huh.』

As Roswaal admonished Clind, the Usurper spread the wings on his back wide. That alone created a gale, and the hair of Clind and Roswaal whipped about in the blast.

『It’s not my place to say, but putting aside my allies like Roy and the old man, wasn't it a blunder to separate yourselves from your own comrades?』

"Oh? That is an interesting opinion, isn't it? Might I hear the details?"

『You know it. There’s a high possibility that if there were many people within range, I’d be more likely to shrink back and be easier to handle. With this physique and overflowing "paw-er," holding back isn't easy, you see.』

"I see, that makes sense. If we were aiming for a situation where you couldn't demonstrate your full performance, that is exactly what we should have done-oo... but..."

"—Unfortunately, that condition applies to us as well. Equal."

『What?』

The Usurper in the Dragon’s shell, who had implicitly warned them not to create an environment where he could go all out, narrowed his eyes at Clind’s words, and then immediately widened them. Surrounding the Divine Dragon, lights of various colors were floating up without a single gap.

At a glance, they were faint and brilliant, like a gathering of lesser spirits manifesting in a mana pool. But anyone with a certain degree of magical knowledge could feel that each faint light was a mass of enormous mana—the flicker of a grand spell of terrifying power. Of course, the source was none other than the strongest wizard unparalleled in history—

"Please do not praise me so. To be evaluated as such by you, who knows my Teacher, is a mistake that pains my heart deeply-ee."

Roswaal spoke as if he had read Clind’s inner thoughts. If he were to demonstrate his true potential with maximum firepower, his allies would only get in the way. And that—

"—The same goes for me. Affirmation."

As he spoke, Clind raised his hand and removed the monocle over his left eye. In an instant, the air vibrated slightly. That slight vibration gradually expanded, and little by little, the earth began to rumble with a sound like space itself was cracking.

It wasn't that it was a special monocle. What was necessary was the switching of his consciousness, a step of resolve to return to the self he had sealed away in the past. —By not taking that step, Clind had continued to force himself to remain a bystander.

Having that melancholy and gloom pointed out by a girl with a shining soul, Clind felt ashamed of himself. Having received that final push, he could no longer continue to stand still. Therefore—

『...Hey, now.』

With the sound of creaking bone, two black horns thrust out from Clind’s head, topped with blue hair. They were not the horns that were the proof of the Oni race, nor the horns possessed by mabeasts. —There was only one race in this world that grew such jet-black horns.

A race thought to have gone extinct, their numbers having dwindled so far—the Dragonkin. The next generation of the powerful "Dragons," a new race that chose to shed their dragon shells and take human form. Clind was also one of those Dragonkin, an existence that held a special meaning for the world. Because—

『Finally, I understand the source of that strange sensation. —You are, of this body...』

"Any further words would be boorish. Unnecessary."

The Usurper tried to say more, but Clind cut him off head-on. No one else had more right to silence the Usurper than Clind. More so than anyone else, even more than the original owner of the Dragon’s shell the Usurper had stolen.

"—Disciple of the 'Witch,' Roswaal L. Mathers."

『—'Divine Dragon' Volcanica.』

Roswaal, with grand magic floating around him and feet planted firmly on the ground, announced his name. In response, the Usurper also shamelessly claimed that title for himself. Following that tradition, how long had it been since he had placed himself upon the stage? —While thinking that, Clind also announced his name, his body clad in purple lightning.

"—Dragonkin of the 'Divine Dragon,' Clind."

In an instant, the two entities connected to the "Divine Dragon" moved, and the deployed magic unleashed its power. With a cataclysmic impact and destruction as the trigger, the battle of those who knew the span of four hundred years began.