by Yuu Miyazaki
“How…!?” Silas turned in a panic, his face colorless, and began to back away as if preparing to flee.
In front of him stood a boy with a greatsword in his right hand and a girl in his left arm, cloaked in a profusion of prana so thick that it was visible to the naked eye.
“Wh-what are you…?” Silas stammered.
Julis was speechless with wonder, until she returned to her senses and immediately addressed Ayato. “Hey—put me down already! I refuse to be a burden!”
He could hardly fight unencumbered while carrying a person, she thought. On top of that, he was wielding the Ser Veresta one-handed, which, judging from the size of the sword, had to pose a significant burden in itself.
“No. If I leave you alone, then he’ll be after you for sure. Sorry, but you’ll have to put up with this a little while longer.”
“But you can’t fight with one arm…!”
“Don’t worry about that. This thing is lighter than it looks,” said Ayato and swung the Ser Veresta to demonstrate. The blade had been white as fresh snow, but now it was covered in black patterns—no, they were floating in the air, twining close around it.
Those strange patterns made Julis think of black flames escaping from the pit of hell. That must have been the truth behind the sword’s epithet.
“Well, to be honest, I can’t keep it up very long… But I can handle someone at his level.” Ayato turned his eyes on Silas.
“You may be able to hold your own, but don’t underestimate me!” Silas was making an effort to regain his composure, but they could see that he was clearly rattled. “I won’t hold back this time…”
The dolls, lined up roughly in rows, now arranged themselves neatly into formation. The front ranks held long weapons such as spears and battle-axes, and the rear held guns and crossbows, while in between stood those with swords and hand axes. At the very back was Silas.
“This is the true spirit of my Maelzel Corps! They have the destructive power of a whole company of infantry! Defend yourself, if you can!”
The front rank of dolls mercilessly rushed in.
As Ayato leaped to dodge the numerous blades pointed at him, a hail of bullets of light followed. He deflected those with the flat of the Ser Veresta, but as he landed, more dolls jumped at him with swords. Ayato ducked underneath them and took a large step back, putting some distance in front of him.
Julis was finally able to breathe out.
The dolls had gotten close enough for sharp edges to graze their throats. She couldn’t help but tighten her clutch around Ayato’s neck, but each time she did, the fact of her clinging to him made her face warm. She admonished herself for thinking that way at a time like this—but there was nothing for it.
Silas broke into jeering laughter. Seeing Ayato on the defensive had restored his arrogance. “You’re very good at dodging. Are you going to do something besides running from them?”
“Maybe. I learned a lot just now.”
“You learned something?”
“You can only move about six types of dolls at the same time. Isn’t that right?”
“Huh?” Perplexed, Silas frowned. “What are you talking about now? Are you even looking at them? Can’t you see that I’m controlling over one hundred—?”
“Sure, I see that. But there are only six types moving freely, and the rest just follow simple patterns. And I think you can control around sixteen individual dolls at once. The rest of them just repeat simple motions like pulling triggers and swinging their arms.”
Silas said nothing to this.
“It might be useful as a bluff, but now I see why you can only fight with sneak attacks. If you participated in a regular fight, it wouldn’t take very long for people to see through your lousy ability.”
Silas trembled as the color drained from his face, confirming Ayato’s statements.
“Oh, six types and sixteen dolls. Are you Imaging a game of chess?”
“Chess—! I see!” Julis exclaimed.
Dantes and Stregas controlled their powers by conjuring specific images in their minds. Just as Julis Imaged flowers, Silas must be Imaging chess pieces.
This all made sense to Julis, but she was in awe of Ayato’s perception. If he really had deduced all of that in just a few moments of combat, then his abilities were far beyond what the likes of Silas could handle.
“You might think you’re quite the grand master,” Ayato went on, “but I’d say you’re a pretty mediocre player.”
“Damn yooooouuuuu!” In a full reversal, Silas flushed dark red and howled in rage. “Crush them! Crush them dead!”
The front ranks of dolls rushed at him again, but this time Ayato did not even bother to dodge them. He walked toward the swarming dolls and casually swung the greatsword. That was enough to slice in half three dolls with spears in their hands. His blade had moved at an extraordinary speed. He looked as if he were waving away gnats, but the dolls fell, several at a time.
“It’s no use. Taken one by one, your dolls aren’t very strong. And once I’ve figured out how they move, they’re as flimsy as marionettes.” Ayato thrust out his sword without looking, and one of the dolls jumped to impale itself as if of its own free will. With a sizzling sound, it melted to the ground. He had a complete grasp of their movements.
“So…let’s finish this already.”
The moment those words left him, Ayato jumped into the horde of dolls. With each flash of his blade, there were fewer left standing. Some of the dolls made as if to defend themselves, but to no avail. The Ser Veresta was so immensely powerful that ordinary Luxes could not even parry its blows. It simply cut through any other blades of light that tried to halt its path.
The dolls that were trying to shoot at Ayato from behind pillars and rubble melted like butter along with their cover of debris.
Julis couldn’t suppress a shudder of horror at that overwhelming power. A sword against which there is no defense…? Even for an Orga Lux, this was absurd. And Ayato’s attacks were too fast to dodge.
In less than three minutes, it was over. Every last one of Silas’s dolls, over one hundred in number, had been slain. The heavyweight models built for Lester, the heat-resistant ones built for Julis—they all lay halved on the ground.
“It can’t be… This can’t be happening. It just can’t…” Silas looked on the scene as if completely petrified, but then screamed and fell on his posterior as Ayato trained the Ser Veresta on him.
“The game is over, Silas.”
“Not yet! I still have a piece left!” Although still without his balance, Silas waved his arms wildly.
The pile of rubble behind him blew apart, and from it an enormous shadow emerged.
It must have been five times the size of the other dolls. Its head would have smashed through the ceiling if there were not already a hole in it. Its arms and legs were as thick as the pillars. It was humanoid, barely—more like a gorilla.
“Go, my queen!” Silas cackled. “Get him!”
At his command, the giant doll rushed at Ayato with a speed unbefitting its huge stature. It held no weapons, presumably because it needed none. An attack from such massive limbs would crush even Genestella.
Ayato sighed and readied the Ser Veresta again. In the very moment that the doll raised its fists to mash them to death, the sword flashed.
“Rend the five viscera and sever the four limbs. Amagiri Shinmei Style Middle Technique—Nine-Fanged Blade!”
Despite her close-up view, Julis had no idea what Ayato did. The Ser Veresta flashed briefly and then the giant doll fell to the ground with a crash, its arms and legs cut off. Large chunks of its torso had been carved through, but she hadn’t glimpsed the kind of attack that could leave such damage. She couldn’t even say how many times Ayato had swung his sword.
Silas sat, utterly unable to speak.
As Ayato approached him, he scrambled to flee, his face contorted in terror. He squealed, almost sobbing, aimlessly tumbling between the remains of
his dolls.
“You really don’t know when to give up.” Ayato frowned in mock exasperation, then his expression turned serious.
He was about to make a move, but Silas was one step ahead. Silas clung onto the remains of a doll and floated into the air. Technically, it was the piece of a doll’s body floating, but that amounted to the same thing. It accelerated upward with Silas and flew through the hole in the ceiling.
“Sorry, Julis. Can you wait here while I chase him down?”
“Fine with me, but can you catch him?”
“I think it’s going to be close.” Silas was already near the top floor. There was no telling what kind of trouble he would cause if he got away, Ayato thought.
“Then this is a job for me,” said Julis.
“Huh…?”
“I told you before. I refuse to be a burden!”
Julis smiled dauntlessly and focused her prana.
“Burst into bloom—Strelitzia!”
Mana gathered onto Ayato and numerous pairs of fiery wings sprouted from his back. He cried out in surprise.
“Let’s get moving!” said Julis. “I’ll steer. Now give that sneaky little prick a good wallop!”
“That’s…definitely not something a princess would say.”
She ignored Ayato’s quip and made the wings flap in one grand motion, lifting from the floor like a rocket. They shot up through the hole in the ceiling out into the dusky sky.
Julis had never flown the weight of two people before, but she had no misgivings. She could feel the strength welling up from inside her.
Accelerating even faster, they overtook Silas in a breath, then turned around to face him.
Ayato pointed his sword toward the master of dolls, who stared at them in disbelief. “It’s checkmate for sure this time, Silas Norman.”
“No, don’t—nooooooo!”
They flew past him with a single flash of the sword. The doll piece shattered, and Silas plummeted down into an alley between abandoned buildings, leaving only the echo of a scream.
Silas was a Genestella. The fall would not kill him.
“Claudia and her team should be waiting for him down there,” said Ayato. “Should we leave the rest to them?”
“That sounds good.” Julis closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. A lot had happened, but their work was done for now. The wind that buffeted them felt pleasant on her skin.
“What a view…,” he murmured.
She opened her eyes again. “Oh, it is a beautiful view.”
The city was painted red in the setting sun. The streets, the sky, the lake—all crimson.
As the wings of fire flapped above them, Julis and Ayato exchanged smiles in the sky.
Suddenly he made a muffled cry, his face twisted in pain.
“What’s wrong?” Julis asked him, startled, but before he answered, she could feel something strange happening.
The mana around them was being sucked into Ayato—by extraordinary amounts.
“Wh-what’s going on…?” There was no hint of a Strega or Dante nearby.
Which meant that this could have been prepared in advance. Such a thing was not rare. There were many abilities that could be activated after a time lapse or only when certain conditions were met.
But what on earth could someone be doing with this much mana…?
Ayato screamed as magic circles surrounded him. Chains of light shot out from them, then coiled themselves around him—binding him.
“It’s the same…!” These were just like the magic circles that had emerged earlier, when his prana had risen so intensely.
Then all this is to suppress his powers? Such a tremendous amount of mana, just for that…!?
She heard him groan. “H-hey! Ayato, hang on! Ayato!”
But his body went limp as he fainted.
Luckily for them, Julis was the one controlling the wings of fire. But it was no longer safe to be this high in the air. For one thing, Ayato had been holding her up earlier, and now she had to cling to him with all her might.
“Argh! I can’t believe this!”
Julis flapped the wings and looked for a place to land nearby.
“I’m sorry, Ayato.” Smiling, and yet on the verge of tears, the girl placed her hand softly on his head.
“Haruka…?” The boy in his threadbare student robe looked back at her in confusion.
It was just the two of them in the moonlit dojo, nothing else in that hollow space but the hushed chirping of insects and the clinging night air.
That night, there was something different about her.
Her kind and gentle bearing, her regal voice—those were the same as ever. Still, the boy sensed something unusual in the way she looked at him.
Just as he opened his mouth to ask her, she closed her eyes as if to stop him.
“I’m sorry.” As the girl repeated those words, a terrible impact rushed at him, as jarring as if sky and earth had reversed.
A shriek tore from his throat. Violent shocks of pain ran through his body as if he was being electrocuted. He could not even writhe in agony, suddenly bound by countless punishing chains that had emerged from thin air. When he managed to look up, he was able to see myriad intricate symbols, like magic circles, swirling around his sister’s raised hand.
The boy did not know why this was happening.
No—he did. He knew. This was her ability: the forbidden power to seal off the flow of nature and restrain anything and everything. The infernal power of a Strega.
But the girl hated her powers, and there was nothing in the world that would make her turn them on him. Or so he had believed.
“H-Haruka… Why…?” His voice was weak and hoarse. The strength drained from the depths of his body.
Her eyes still closed, the girl murmured solemnly:
“With these fetters do I confine thy power.”
And then everything vanished, as if his very senses had snapped apart. It was like plunging into a bottomless swamp. The world sank mercilessly into darkness. In that hazy state, his consciousness fading, he knew nothing but the girl’s subdued voice ringing inside his skull.
“Remember what I told you years ago? I said that I would protect you. That’s why…”
Even that voice faded, and he reached out, desperate for something to hold on to.
“But I don’t want this! I said I would protect you—!” He had been training so hard for that reason—only for that. But now—
“Good-bye, Ayato. I love you.”
Those were the last of her words that he remembered.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Julis’s face right in front of his, looking worried.
She brightened as soon as she noticed that his eyes were open. “Good, you’re finally awake. I was starting to wonder.”
“Um, where are— Ow!” Before his awareness fully returned, Ayato tried to get up and winced at a jolt of pain. That made him remember what had happened. “Oh. So I did faint.”
“Don’t overexert yourself. We’re on the roof of that abandoned building. I sent a message to Claudia, so people will come for us any minute now.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll need the help.” In fact, he doubted he would be able to walk for a little while.
He idly looked around to see that the sun must have long since set. A sky full of stars spread out above them.
“I—I don’t want your thanks. You’re the one who saved me.” With that, Julis curtly turned away.
Her usual brand of sincerity. Somehow it made Ayato glad.
He was gazing at her when it suddenly occurred to him that something was not quite right.
His head was resting on something too soft to be the bare roof. He could smell a faint floral aroma.
“H-hey! Don’t move so much!”
And her face was so close… Ayato had been lying with his head on Julis’s thighs all this time.
“Gah! S-sorry! I’ll get off—nngh!” Alarmed, he tried to heave himself up, only for pain to sh
oot through him again like lightning.
“It’s fine. Just keep still, you idiot! It obviously hurts to move, so don’t move!”
“B-but—”
“I say it’s fine, so it is! Deal with it!” Julis turned away again, now so red that it looked like she might spontaneously combust. She smacked him lightly on the forehead.
“Uh—okay.” There was nothing he could do but give her a tiny nod of acquiescence, his face also flushed red.
She cleared her throat and glared down at him from the corner of her eyes. “More importantly, are you going to give me an explanation?”
“Um, explanation for what…?”
“Oh, let’s start with that power holding you back—it must be a Strega or a Dante. Who did this to you?”
“Um, well, it…” Ayato avoided looking at her and tried to come up with something, but as Julis brought her face closer to his, he let out a resigned sigh. “It was my sister. Her ability is the power of imprisonment, to chain and confine all things.”
Her expression darkened as she took this in. “Hmm… So, what I just saw was your true strength?”
“You could say that. But you could also say that it’s not.”
“What does that mean?” she retorted, annoyed. “That’s not a very satisfying answer.”
Ayato smiled bitterly. “Isn’t it weird to call it my ‘true strength,’ when I can hardly control it?”
“It looked to me like you could control it just fine.”
“For a limited amount of time, that’s true. But this was the first time I lasted more than five minutes. And after that, I’m like this for a while, I can’t even move. It’s not exactly something to brag about.” The first time he’d unleashed his strength, he lasted only ten seconds.
“Why would your sister do this to you?”
“I’d like to ask her that myself. But she went missing five years ago.”
Julis bit her tongue, looking as if she regretted the question.
Ayato waved it away. “It’s okay, though. I think she had her reasons. There must be some meaning to what she did. Oh, can I ask you something, too?”
“Hmm? What is it?”
