Arc 9, Part 50: "Decisive Battle on Ice"

—The six-colored light that had pierced the heavens and earth slowly unraveled and faded away.

Color gradually returned to the sky, which had faded to an ashen gray, forgetting its original hue. Eventually, the azure firmament began to clear into a pale translucence, as if remembering why it was called blue in the first place.

"————"

Witnessing this scene, Roswaal saw tears streaming from Ezzo’s eyes beside him. Whether they were tears of joy or frustration, it was a sight that naturally evoked such emotion. Though it took the two of them, Roswaal and Ezzo had achieved a feat that would be etched into magical history for the first time.

The extreme magical control divided into four and two colors, the perfect ritual construction that allowed for not a single flaw, and the ultimate harmony that would have failed with even a split-second’s misalignment—it had surpassed the 'Divine Dragon’s' Halo. It was a super-magic that could not have been realized if either Roswaal’s refinement or Ezzo’s inquiry had been lacking. However—

"Someday, I will construct this ritual... even if I am all alone!"

Roswaal laughed at the sight of Ezzo boasting so, even as his tears flowed uncontrollably. It wasn't out of exasperation or irony. —Yes, that was exactly what it meant to be a magic-user. Image is everything to magic. Anything one can imagine, magic can achieve.

"Isn't that right, Teacher?"

As he whispered those words, Roswaal’s body tilted, nearly collapsing to the ground. Ezzo reached out to support him, but sadly, having exhausted himself even more, he fell first. As it was, the falling Roswaal was about to crush Ezzo—

"—I have made it in time. Good news."

At the critical moment, that cool voice and powerful arms saved both Roswaal from falling and Ezzo from being crushed beneath him.

"————"

Roswaal exhaled as he looked up at Clind, who was supporting him. The all-purpose steward had flown into the far reaches of the sky during the battle and returned after shattering a star. He had already put his monocle back on and retracted the black horn on his head, returning to his normal state. However, he hadn't been able to restore his usual perfect grooming; his clothes were disheveled, a rare sight indeed.

"Still, to be almost unscathed except for your butler suit... being a Dragon-kin is quite un~fair, isn't it?"

"Master, with all due respect, I must correct you. It is not because I am a Dragon-kin, but because I, a Dragon-kin of the 'Divine Dragon,' am special. Assertion."

"...You're boasting after all, aren't you? Because of your 'vessel,' we've ended up in this state, you know?"

"Don't point at me! My waist... no, my whole body is just limp, and I can't stand!"

Ezzo, still sprawled forward and unable to rise, barked his sore loser's excuse. Clind shrugged his shoulders as if expressing regret, but really, he had quite the personality.

"You've changed. You used to be the more detached type, fitting for a transcendent species."

"If that is the case, I shall return those exact words to you. Restitution. —Master, were you not the one who intended to remain a clever, underhanded, and mediocre magic-user? Confirmation."

Clind narrowed his eyes behind his monocle, hitting the nail right on the head. Indeed, that had been the plan. And yet, Roswaal had been unable to stick to it. In the end, he had stood up and committed an act of recklessness he had never imagined. But that was—

"I simply realized... that throughout all these days, I haven't been walking a~lone."

"————"

At Roswaal’s answer, Clind fell silent. For some reason, so did Ezzo.

"Is 'for some reason' a bit too disin~genuous, perhaps?"

Clind, having known him for so long, surely understood. As for Ezzo, during the activation of the super-magic just moments ago, their consciousnesses had nearly merged. The emotions and prayers Roswaal held then could not have been hidden from him.

"Speaking of which, I'm used to the situation of consciousnesses merging, so I understand it, but why are you unharmed, Ezzo-kun? Normally, one would go mad, you kno~w."

"Don't say such terrifying things so casually! ...It's likely the blessing of the 'Books of the Dead.'"

"The 'Books of the Dead' from the Pleiades Watchtower?"

"Yes. While I was on standby at the tower, I read more than ten 'Books of the Dead.' To do that, I had to master the technique of emptying my mind..."

"I see, so this is what it means to be a magic-user. Understanding."

Roswaal felt like Clind had reached a rather rude conclusion, but he chose not to pursue it here. He didn't particularly think what Ezzo had done was strange. Regardless, the priority now was—

"Master, we have indeed fulfilled the role entrusted to us. Completion. However..."

"Yes, I kno~w."

Taking over Clind’s unfinished sentence, Roswaal exhaled quietly and looked into the distance. Clind and Ezzo, still on the ground, looked in the same direction—beyond the horizon, where the rocky plains had been drastically altered by the battle with the 'Divine Dragon.' Toward the final destination of Al’s group—

"—The Mogolead Great Crater."

Passing through Roswaal’s mind was the final clash between the Dragon and the magic that tore through heaven and earth. The 'Divine Dragon,' having seen off the Dragon-kin who rose to meet the falling star, had weighed two choices: eliminating the two magic-users weaving the super-magic, or fulfilling its own role.

The arrogance of believing it would surely win did not exist in the 'Divine Dragon' at that moment, not even a fragment of it.

Therefore, the 'Dragon' followed the convictions of the personality dwelling within its shell and chose one of the two—with its released breath, it sniped the giant hole in the earth, far removed from the battlefield.

Why Al’s group aimed for that place remained unknown. However, the 'Divine Dragon’s' action could not be unrelated to their goal. The 'Divine Dragon' had prioritized the strike on the hole with its breath, even prepared for its own defeat.

The meaning of that act would surely be revealed soon. All that remained was—

"—Whether what you have cultivated can surpass your opponent, Subaru-kun."

—Irregular.

Rem recognized that this was the role expected of her, the duty she had to fulfill. Al, who used the extraordinary Authority of 'Time Reversal' to break through every obstacle in his path—to stop him, an 'Irregular' was necessary.

『To be sure, that helmeted bastard’s Authority is a fearsome thing. In all my years, I’ve rarely encountered a power so far beyond reason. —But no matter how strong the power, the one wielding it is nothing more than a human.』

『Force countless unexpected situations upon him and keep making that helmeted bastard use his Authority. There is a limit to how far back he can go. Layer it, layer it, and overwhelm him.』

『If you grind down his remaining strength, even that helmeted bastard will make an irreparable mistake. —That is the way to seize victory against him.』

That was the suggestion from Old Man Rom, who had once driven Al to the brink. To Rom’s strategy, those well-versed in tactics like Ram, Roswaal, and Clind had offered no rebuttal. Therefore, Rem believed in that suggestion wholeheartedly. What they needed to strike Al with was an 'unexpectedness' that would make him give up. And if what was required was a contest of endurance, Rem was not one to be underestimated. After all—

"—I have been watching that person from the closest possible distance."

If one were to ask what her greatest chance of victory was, that was it. Whether to call it fortunate or not, Rem had been forgotten by everyone until very recently. During the time she lacked her 'memories,' her contact with Al in the Empire could not be called frequent. Even less so if one spoke of her contact with him regarding the Royal Selection before that. But because of that—precisely because of that—Rem’s actions had the potential to catch him off guard. However—

"Hyaaaa!!"

With a shout and all her might, Rem swung her arm, and the morningstar she released roared through the air. Straight ahead, the spinning spiked iron ball aimed for the red-haired shinobi, Yae Tenzen. The battle, which had been continuing as they fell through the 5,000-meter-deep Agzad Valley, had shifted to the next stage against this formidable shinobi.

It was a contest of raw strength on a makeshift footing: an ice disk created in mid-air. Even this was a result of Rem and Emilia’s cooperation to force an 'Irregular' situation, but there was a sense of frustration at having been forced into this circumstance themselves. It wasn't just Al’s side that had been hit with an 'Irregular.' Their side had been too.

"————"

The strike, howling as it cut through the wind, was heavy and sharp. The threat of the spiked iron mass was not something that could be deflected by any blade, no matter how sharp, nor by bundled thin threads. It surged all at once toward the 'Irregular' that was Yae.

"—!"

Letting out a small sound from her throat at the approaching threat, Yae abandoned any attempt to intercept and performed a side-flip. The iron ball passed harmlessly beside her as she rolled across the ice disk—

"Ei-ya!"

A sharp, almost carefree shout met the iron ball with a resounding thud. It was the sound of Emilia, on the opposite side of Yae, kicking the iron ball flying toward her with her ice-booted foot. Emilia’s long, slender leg swung around, and the iron ball was forcibly repelled—chasing after Yae’s slender frame as she escaped via her roll. As it was, the iron ball was about to sink ruthlessly into Yae’s flank—

"That won't happen."

Immediately after she spoke, the surface of the ice disk where the rolling Yae placed her hand was stripped away by steel wires, forming a shield to cover her and intercept the pursuing iron ball. Of course, it was a thin shield to completely stop such a strike. It cracked in half a second, snapped in a quarter, the spikes pierced through in an eighth, and it was blown apart in exactly one second. However, for the agile shinobi, that one second was enough to make her next move.

"No way!?"

The one who cried out in surprise was Emilia. But Rem felt the same. In their field of vision, Yae, having escaped the follow-up attack with the makeshift ice shield, performed a light leap and landed her bare feet on the fully extended chain of the morningstar, sprinting across it in an instant. Emilia stared wide-eyed at the acrobatics and sense of balance, while Rem was further shocked by the footwork that didn't transmit a single ounce of weight through the chain. But the surprises continued—matching the movement of Yae’s swinging arms, swords made of ice and stone began raining down on the two of them from above.

"This is—"

These were the various ice and stone weapons that Emilia and Al had created while fighting in mid-air twenty seconds ago, which had been left floating. Yae had used her steel wires to pull them down from above, repurposing them as a dangerous rain.

"Because I didn't clean them up properly!" "Al-san didn't clean them up either!" "Having a master who's bad at tidying up is a struggle for both of us, isn't it?"

Reflection, follow-up, and provocation overlapped as Rem and Emilia were forced to deal with the falling blades. Emilia struck them away with her dual ice swords, but the situation was bad for Rem. Her right hand was occupied by the morningstar, and that morningstar was currently being used as Yae’s footing, so she couldn't pull it back carelessly. She had to defend with only her empty left hand.

"In ti—"

I won't make it, she thought, bracing for impact. —In that moment, someone shoved Rem’s shoulder aside, and that someone was pierced through the chest by a falling stone sword.

"————"

Rem’s eyes widened at the sacrifice, and her surprise deepened even further when she saw who had done it. It was a heroic figure who, despite being pierced through the chest, still gave Rem a brave thumbs-up—

"—Subaru-kun!"

Before Rem’s eyes as she cried out, the one pierced through the chest was Natsuki Subaru—or rather, an ice doll crafted in his likeness. The incredibly detailed ice Natsuki Subaru had protected Rem, and with a brave smile just like the real person, he collapsed.

"Ueeh? Was that just now you, Emilia-sama?"

"Yes, that’s right. —And besides, Subaru isn't alone!"

Immediately after responding to the grimacing Yae, six figures leaped out from behind Emilia. All of them were ice statues with the same appearance as the Natsuki Subaru who had just fallen. Each of them, as if possessing their own will and personality, snatched up the weapons that had been deflected and stuck into the ice disk, and lunged all at once toward Yae as she ran across the chain. If even one of their ice fingertips reached her, it would be the foothold needed to corner the nimble Yae—

"Unfortunately, multi-person combat is what I'm best at."

In an instant, twenty dancing steel wires bound the lunging ice Subarus. The wires around their necks, torsos, and limbs tightened, and the six bodies were ruthlessly shredded into pieces.

"Subaru—!!" "Subaru-kun!!"

Rem and Emilia’s cries overlapped for the ice Subarus turned into pitiful wreckage. Beyond the scattering fragments of ice, Yae continued to run along the chain, heading toward Rem. With a split-second decision, Rem let go of the morningstar’s handle, robbing Yae of her footing. As the shinobi was about to scramble in mid-air, Rem twisted her body to deliver a massive spinning back-kick—

"As expected, I'd rather not take a direct hit from an Oni’s kick."

Yae spoke as she tucked her knees, responding to the slack in the chain—a detail that caught the corner of Rem’s eye. Dropping her center of gravity, Yae didn't lose her balance in mid-air, and the lethal wires released from her fingertips looped around Rem’s neck. Her head would be taken, or she would be strangled—just before that, the chain beneath Yae’s feet snapped taut, defying her expectations.

"Wha—"

Yae’s eyes widened, and she reflexively kicked off the chain with her toes to leap away—a testament to her skill. Her eyes caught exactly what had pulled the morningstar’s chain in Rem’s stead. It was the ice Natsuki Subaru who had been the first to fall, struck by the stone sword in the chest. —Even after falling, the ice Natsuki Subaru who hadn't given up on the fight had saved Rem. This person really is always doing reckless things for someone else’s sake...

"He’s not the real thing, you know!"

"Even so, he is!"

Rem’s full-powered back-kick slammed straight into the center of the chest of the grimacing Yae.

—Irregular.

Yae recognized that preventing such things was the role expected of her, the duty she had to fulfill. In Yae’s mind, her evaluation of Al as a whimsical and terrifying monster remained unchanged. —However, the things that exhausted him and placed a burden on him were the accumulated 'Irregulars.'

『Listen, kid. Even I’ve been on the verge of death plenty of times fighting folks way above my pay grade. The world’s full of monsters, it really makes ya sick. —But in the end, I’m the one who survived, which means there ain't nobody who can't be killed.』

『If both sides are at their best, there’s a gap ya just can't bridge. That’s why we do things bit by bit to close that gap—that’s the secret of the underhanded techniques we’ve spent our lives polishing.』

『If ya strip away the opponent’s "best," even a chance to slit a superior’s throat will come around. —That’s the bloody way of life for folks like us.』

That was the advice from the village head, the 'Evil Old Man,' who had taught Yae the way of the shinobi and her techniques. Yae had no disagreement with the village head’s thinking. However, she hadn't had many chances to test it. After all, most opponents were weaker than her. She wouldn't even lose in a head-on fight. Her first defeat had been against Al, and Yae’s way of being had been twisted. Now, she wanted this person—who made her whole body shudder with fear just by being near him—to disappear as quickly as possible. To that end, Al had to fulfill his wish, his prayer. That was why—

"—I don't want anything that corners that person to get close."

Distorted, bent, completely warped. Yae was self-aware of this. But it couldn't be helped. Yae liked spicy things and disliked sweets. But that was a nature she was born with, a karma she couldn't change herself. Since she was born this way, she would live her life this way.

Yae had her own ideal way for her relationship with Al to end. To achieve that, removing 'Irregulars' was her way of being warped. However—

"—!"

Taking a direct hit from the kick of Rem—the girl with the horn—Yae suppressed a cry of pain deep within her aching body, using body control to disperse the impact into her limbs. It was a survival technique of the shinobi, allowing her to send her will even into her muscles and internal organs. But even with that, she couldn't escape without damage. Her extremities felt numb.

It wasn't that she had underestimated the power of the Oni. However, for Yae, who could generally grasp an opponent’s strength by observing their stance and movements, the racial trait of the Oni—explosively increasing physical ability by absorbing mana from the horn—surpassed her expectations. In addition—

"Emilia-sama’s ad-libbing is far too troublesome, isn't it~?"

Enduring the bitter feeling, Yae whispered while maintaining a look of composure on her face. In reality, the hit had been quite effective, but she couldn't let them realize that. A shinobi does not let the opponent gain information. If they do, it is false information meant to mislead. With a hit like that, Rem—and Emilia, who was watching—would surely think Yae had taken considerable damage. Despite that, if Yae remained unfazed, it was human nature to hesitate in following up.

"Emilia-sama!" "Yes! I'm coming!"

However, that only applied if the opponent was a conventional, skilled combatant. After landing the blow, two shadows pursued the blown-back Yae, completely disregarding her composed expression. She wouldn't call it thoughtless. They were desperate, earnest. That was what was most difficult to deal with right now.

"In that case, I'll counter with my own bad habits!"

Countering, Yae spread her toes wide and manipulated twenty steel wires along with her hands. She snared the various swords—made of ice and stone—stuck in the ice disk with her wires, making them dance as she met the pursuing Rem and Emilia head-on.

Matching her skillful finger movements, the swords spinning through the wind and the invisible, silent steel wires became a dual attack of heavy and light. A gale that created errors in their response raged across the ice. If they followed the swords with their eyes, the steel wires would catch their limbs and strip them of their combat ability. Al had ordered her not to kill, but even if she cut off a finger or two, or even all four limbs, as long as they stayed alive, she could fulfill the requirement. With that thought, Yae let her killing intent surge. However—

"Haaaaaaaa!!" "Ya! Tei! Taa!"

The defensive strikes of the shouting Rem and the fierce Emilia struck down every one of Yae’s attacks. A tag-team play where Rem handled the swords and Emilia handled the steel wires. Rem wrapped the chain of her favorite iron ball short around her arm to make a makeshift gauntlet, and Emilia transformed her dual swords into a giant halberd. With a certain combination that required no words, they blocked the attacks completely.

"How..."

Defending against visible swords required only ability, but defending against invisible steel wires required a reason. Yae, questioning that reason, noticed her breath clouding slightly white in her vision and realized. —The coldness piercing her skin was greater than what should be expected from falling from a high altitude or being on a giant piece of ice.

"—Ice mist."

Tiny ice particles danced in her vision, their glint revealing the path of the steel wires. Yae felt a quiet admiration for the method Emilia used to see through the invisible wires and the sense that made it possible. And she also realized the possibility of things getting even worse.

"—Icicle Line."

In an instant, matching the chanted incantation, the atmosphere began to let out a high-pitched scream. The ice particles that made up the mist linked together, and the cold air that dyed the world white bared its fangs even more ferociously. The first victims were the steel wires, which lacked mass. The advantage of the steel wires—their lightness and thinness—was crushed by the freezing world. Wires can cut the wind, but they cannot cut a blizzard. —Therefore, her decision was immediate.

Yae kissed the ring on her finger, and in an instant, fire traveled along the steel wires, creating an explosion on the ice. A heatwave that pushed back even the freezing gale. It meant abandoning the strength of the wires being 'invisible,' but in exchange, it clad them in a power that wouldn't lose to the cold even within the ice mist.

"I'll have you join me in a fire dance!"

Brandishing the fire-clad steel wires and releasing scorching wire strikes, the dance of the 'Crimson Cherry Blossom' was performed. Against that fire dance brilliantly illuminating the valley, two figures accompanied by clear ice and snow—no, nine shadows, including the seven ice statues, lunged in.

"I'll accept the invitation!" "Sorry if I step on your toes!"

Into the range of Yae, who was creating a vortex of hellfire on the ice, Emilia slid in with her dual ice swords. She glided across the ice disk with her bladed ice boots, drawing a circular orbit as she launched a fluid, curved, yet sharp and dangerous attack to match the fire dance. Alongside Emilia’s attack of varying speeds, Rem’s choice—charging in a scrum with the ice statues—was straightforward and overwhelming—

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh—!!"

Howling like a beast, Rem, with her hands empty, rained down a barrage of white-knuckled punches. A barrage that could only be described as a storm of blows descended. Yae twisted, ducked, arched, stepped over, and dove repeatedly, dodging them by a hair’s breadth with her dance-like movements.

"If it's just bare-handed strikes, I'll never let you catch up."

Even with an Oni’s physical ability, if the limbs extended from a torso, the flow of power through the muscles was clear, and Yae’s eyes would not miss it. Rem’s Oni power was extraordinary, but it did not surpass Yae’s reaction speed like the 'Sword Demon' had. By that logic, the seven ice statues, which made incomprehensible movements for a human structure to provide cover between Emilia and Rem’s attacks, were the 'Irregulars' that defied Yae’s imagination. At this rate, as she had declared, Yae could continue to face the two of them forever—

"—No."

Yae, who was about to drift toward the easy choice, stopped herself. The opponent chose this battlefield. If she let them do as they pleased, she would be playing right into their hands. To prevent 'Irregulars,' she herself had to become an 'Irregular' for them. For starters—

"This footing—"

The ice disk that Emilia and Rem had worked together to create, which separated Yae and Al. As it was exposed to the wind, it lost its transparency, and Al’s figure was blurry beyond the white-clouded ice. Deciding this footing was no good, Yae parried Rem’s barrage, slipped under Emilia’s attack from behind, and leaped into the air using one of the ice statues attempting a tackle as a stepping stone. Then, she fired her steel wires from both hands and feet in all directions of the disk and, with all her might, added a twist to her entire body. The result—

"I'm changing the situation. Is this also part of your calculations?"

Matching Yae’s full power, the battlefield atop the ice disk changed—the disk began to spin like a top, and a powerful centrifugal force acted on everyone on the ice. The battle shifted to the next stage.

—'Irregular.'

Emilia roused herself, thinking that it meant something unexpected, and that accumulating such things was their weapon now. When surprised suddenly, even Emilia couldn't immediately start her next action or thought. The same could be said for Al. Al must have thought a lot and planned this whole thing, but he couldn't read everything inside Emilia and the others' heads. That was what the 'Irregulars' were for.

『Lia, when you’re in a pinch, you immediately try to solve everything with raw power, don't you? When that doesn't work, that’s when you first start worrying about what to do... but I don't think stopping there is like you, and I don't think it suits you.』

『My cute daughter has the power to just blast through any problem. So don't just try once; try hard by stacking many things together, okay?』

『It’s okay. Your body will naturally tell you what you need at that time. You’re my pride and joy, and you’ve inherited the strongest genes, after all.』

Yes, those words Puck had once said to her resurfaced gently in Emilia’s mind. Lately, it was always Subaru’s words she remembered for support, but now that she knew Subaru was in danger, it was Puck’s teachings that first encouraged her. The attack on Al she had attempted with Rem was currently a struggle due to Yae’s intervention—they had already passed two more marks carved into the cliff, and there were only about thirty seconds left until they reached the bottom. She felt very anxious. However, she couldn't let it overwhelm her. It wasn't something she was very good at, but pushing this feeling onto Al and the others was necessary. To stop Al—no, to properly talk with Al, this time for sure. Because—

"—There’s no way Priscilla would want something like this."

Emilia knew that saying this was cruel to Al. Even now, when she thought of Priscilla and spoke her name, her chest ached and her eyes felt like they might tear up. She wanted Al to let those feelings out. Emilia had been saved by Al before. Even putting that aside, Emilia wanted to be of help to him. Not just because they shared the same pain, but as an instinctive feeling, Emilia wanted to save him. That was why—

"—Subaru!"

A fierce, heat-laden wind swirled, and the ice disk spun with Yae at its center. Atop the ice disk, which had begun to spin vigorously like a plate, the ice soldiers modeled after Subaru were unable to withstand the centrifugal force and were blown away. They were either thrown off the disk helplessly or, worse, met their end by shattering against the rock walls of the valley. But before that happened, she wouldn't forget how they had grabbed Emilia’s hand when she nearly lost her footing, preventing her from falling and saving her.

"Where’s Rem—"

While gliding across the spinning ice disk with her ice skates, Emilia searched for Rem, who should have been in the same situation. She couldn't have been thrown off like the ice soldiers... Just as Emilia was worrying, a roar and a particularly large flame erupted.

The collision occurred at the center of the disk, where Rem and Yae clashed, and the flames expanded. Rem had once again taken up the iron ball she had thrown into the sky and swung it down, while Yae skillfully parried the downward strike using the tension of her bundled wires. As a result, Rem’s large movement was stopped, and Yae’s toe thrust straight into her.

"Kuh."

Letting out a cry of pain, the repelled Rem tumbled across the ice disk, approaching the outer edge. With the rotation of the disk and Yae’s leg strength, there was no way to stop Rem’s sliding body. This is bad, Emilia thought, considering how to leap to her aid—

"—No looking away."

The moment she kicked the ice, Yae’s distracting attack flew toward her as if to pierce her. A two-stage attack consisting of a strike from the stone dragon sword snared by burning steel wires, followed by a wire strike. Faced with an attack that required two stages of evasion over a wide area, Emilia thought—and then abandoned it, remembering the words of the two reliable people, Subaru and Puck.

Leaving it to her senses rather than thinking, Emilia flew toward the blown-away Rem. —Literally, she flew toward Rem, flapping wings on her back.

"Wha—"

Yae stared in shock, stunned by the surprising sight. It was the first time she had shown such a defenseless posture, but unfortunately, Emilia didn't have the luxury of paying attention to her then. She simply flew straight toward Rem, picked her up as she was about to be thrown off the disk, and ascended.

—Emilia, with wings made of ice on her back.

"Th-thank you, Emilia-sama... These wings are?"

"Subaru drew them for me before. He called it an 'Angel,' with wings on its back. Subaru said it sometimes, and when I tried it, I could do it!"

Answering the question of the Rem she had picked up, Emilia’s expression softened. Of course, these were just fake wings that mimicked the shape. They couldn't flap like a real bird’s, so gliding on the wind was the best she could do. Even then, it was a very rare success for a magic that only worked in such a special situation. Subaru would probably be happy if she showed him, but for that, he’d have to fall about 5,000 meters with her. To make that happen—

"Emilia-sama! Let’s strike back!"

"Right!"

Inside the arms of the wing-spreading Emilia, she nodded back at Rem’s brave voice. The words 'strike back' brought something to mind. Believing instinctively that it was the same thing Rem was thinking, Emilia dropped her altitude straight toward the ice disk with her. There, she detached the wings, and the Emilia and Rem released into the air spun—at the same time, their downward heels struck the horizontally spinning ice disk, making it spin vertically with all their might.

"————"

In retaliation for having the ice disk spun horizontally, they spun it vertically. It was very simple, but an extraordinary retaliation they couldn't have done alone. Even Yae, who remained on the disk, must have been stunned. The footing flipped upside down, then back again, then immediately flipped, straightened, flipped, and straightened again, tossing her around. On top of that—

"The horizontal rotation is still there!"

As a result, the ice disk spinning in all directions became a random battlefield that didn't follow any expected trajectory. It was just like the 'attraction' Subaru and Garfiel had built in the training ground behind the Roswaal manor, which wobbled and felt unstable. And precisely because she thought so, Emilia was able to run through the 'attraction' of the ice disk.

"Ya! Ta! To... So-ya!"

While the direction of the force changed with intense momentum every second, Emilia accepted it using only the sensation in the soles of her shoes, using it as a spring to leap forward. She was relieved she could somehow run. On the other hand, she was worried if Rem was okay.

"There is no need for concern!"

Rem, answering so, slammed her iron ball into the ice disk and used it as a fulcrum to pull her body toward the center all at once along the chain. Her momentum was less than Emilia’s, but in terms of certainty, it was much more stable. If anything, it was Emilia who had to make sure she didn't slip.

"That girl is..."

Atop or beneath the chaotic ice disk, struggling not to be thrown off, Emilia searched for Yae, whom she had to pursue, her amethyst eyes blinking. There she was. Yae was still in the center, where the centrifugal force of the ice disk was weakest in all directions. Even so, she should still be getting tossed around—Emilia thought as she was about to extend her coiled legs, then she noticed.

"————"

Yae, crouching on the ice disk with her knees tucked, was not being tossed around by the rotation of the footing. The reason was clear—she had hollowed out the center of the ice disk with her steel wires, creating a safe zone that wasn't affected by the rotation, and was waiting for Emilia and the others.

—In an instant, the fire-laden steel wires were bundled together, and a thick, burning silver flash streaked across her vision.

—A burning, crimson silver flash.

If someone had seen it from a bird’s-eye view, and if that person had knowledge of the technique, they would have realized that what Yae Tenzen had released was an Iaijutsu of steel wires. No one would imagine that something thin and without a consistent shape could form an Iaijutsu. Furthermore, steel wire techniques were a phantom art that even in the long, long history of the shinobi, no one but a few geniuses could even begin to learn, let alone master. The fact that 'Crimson Cherry Blossom,' the greatest shinobi talent in history, had refined that certain-kill move to even greater heights was a truth no one, including Aldebaran, knew. Therefore—

"————"

—Therefore, the fact that Rem was able to block that silver flash of fire could only be called a miracle.

"—Priscilla-san."

The name her lips whispered was that of the woman who was one of the reasons Rem was standing and had been guided this far. And right now, she was the benefactor who had left behind the sign for Rem to save her own life.

—She had felt it. Yae’s certain killing intent, which she hadn't let her feel even once until now.

Human emotions dwell in mana. Those with a superior sense for feeling that mana can easily perceive the emotions of others. It is thought that this sense is why spirits can vaguely read the thoughts of their partners. And Rem, who was absorbing the surrounding mana through her horn due to her Demonification, was perceiving sensations she normally couldn't with a sharpness several times greater.

"Until now—"

She hadn't been able to feel it. —No, it was a sensation she had felt but hadn't noticed. There were various factors behind why she could feel it now. The fact that she had regained herself, and that she bore a sense of mission to take Subaru back. But the main reason was elsewhere. The main reason was the influence of the days she had spent with Priscilla in the fortified city of Gural.

In that not-so-long time, Priscilla had frequently thrown riddle-like words at Rem, giving her the chance to face herself deeply. At the time, due to her insufficient healing magic and her frustration at being useless, she had tried to follow Priscilla’s words only on the surface.

"Now, finally, I feel like I understand just a little bit."

Even now, she couldn't say she understood all the answers to the words from that time. She thought it was a lifelong homework assignment. And she could no longer check those answers. That was sad. Lonely. Her chest ached.

"—Right now, I want to talk with you. Priscilla-san."

She whispered and closed her eyes. And when she opened them, Rem’s talent as an Oni blossomed. What she could sharply perceive was the faint hostility, killing intent, and intent to attack mixed into the mana—in the place where those seemed to take on color, Rem matched her iron ball without a hair’s breadth of error.

The silver flash of fire that approached to cleave both her and Emilia in two—she slammed her morningstar into a position where she could parry it with a single swing, overwriting the released certain-kill into a non-lethal strike.

The high-pitched sound of steel clashing against steel rang out, and while a powerful shock returned to her hands, Rem’s counterattack struck back Yae’s flash head-on.

"————"

Gasping slightly at that fact, the crouching Yae nonetheless prepared for the next move. Countless raging silver flashes—before they were released, they became killing intent and streaked through the air. Knowing this, Rem struck first, driving her iron ball, her chain, and her magic along those lines. For several moments, split seconds that seemed almost simultaneous overlapped, and Yae’s attacks were blocked by Rem.

Ah, a breath escaped her heart. Ah, so this is the view the true Oni saw. —It was the moment when Rem finally hooked her fingertips onto a part of the realm Ram had reached from birth, more than ten years late.

"—Rem!!"

Emilia called out to Rem, who continued to strike down the storm of burning steel wires while making her iron ball dance. The urgency in that voice was not gratitude for being protected, but a plea informing her of a change in the situation—and not a good one. Catching a glimpse of Emilia out of the corner of her eye, she saw her long legs extended as she clung to the ice disk, her eyes scanning the spinning field of vision.

"Al is gone! He’s nowhere!"

"—!"

At Emilia’s desperate voice, Rem finally realized the fact that Al had disappeared from her sight as well. Al, who should have been in a position where he had no choice but to go beneath the ice disk and watch Rem and the others' fight, was nowhere in the sky now that the factors obscuring their vision were gone due to the rotation. Where? The moment she thought that, it hit Rem like a bolt of lightning. —She strained her eyes toward the distant sky.

In the falling Agzad Valley, beyond the long, wide crack that split the earth, she could see a shadow moving away, far in the distance from the falling Rem and the others. It was Al, who, like Emilia earlier, had wings on his back—wings made of stone catching the wind—gliding away at a fierce speed.

In an instant, what passed through Rem’s mind was the strike she and Emilia had delivered to the ice disk. That had made the footing spin vertically and shifted the battle with Yae to the next dimension—but this had been utilized.

"When Emilia-sama and I kicked the footing—"

At that time, Al had been clinging to the back of the ice disk, and he had used the momentum of the rotation from the power of Rem and Emilia’s kicks to gain the propulsion to fly into the distant sky all at once.

"————"

If Al escaped like this, the plan would collapse. They wouldn't be able to pile on 'Irregulars,' grind down Al’s strength, and then strike him with the trump card they were supposed to use. That must not happen—a split-second decision was made, and Rem and Emilia’s gazes met.

"—Rem."

Emilia’s intent, which shouldn't have been audible, reached Rem through the mana. What the Oni’s horn perceived was not just signs of hostility. By taking in unwavering trust and expectation as well, it gave Rem limitless power. In fact, she felt that carrying those feelings was more a source of power than taking in mana. Yes, because she had certainly been given strength—

"—I'm off!" "Have a safe trip!!"

With a full-powered strike she swung up and slammed down, she struck the ice disk, rapidly accelerating its vertical rotation. Receiving that momentum, Emilia, who had been clinging to the ice, was launched into the sky all at once. Clad in the shimmer of ice and spreading her ice wings once more, Emilia caught the wind and the momentum, chasing after the Al who was flying into the distance, soaring, soaring, soaring through the sky of the Agzad Valley.

And so, leaving the pursuit of Al to the flying Emilia—

"—I won't let you follow."

"That’s my line, isn't it~?"

—Passing another mark on the rock wall of the Agzad Valley, twenty seconds until the bottom.

The two maids remaining on the falling ice disk—Rem and Yae—faced each other, and the final clash between the Oni and the Shinobi, the 'Hero’s Attendant' and the 'Crimson Cherry Blossom,' began.