“Phew!”
“Haah!”
Origami’s Einherjar and Artemisia’s laser blade clashed over and over, sending magical light scattering into the darkness of space.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hngh…” The weight of the sword shot through Origami’s lance, and her arms trembled.
She wasn’t simply being beaten back. In her current form, she had a new way of fighting that had previously been unavailable.
“Metatron!” she cried out, and the group of feathers hovering over her back like wings shot off as if each had its own will. The tips turned toward Artemisia and emitted deadly beams of light in unison.
“Whoopsy!” Artemisia murmured as she neatly twisted her body and dodged the attack.
“I won’t let you get away.” Origami narrowed her eyes sharply and telepathically issued Metatron commands.
About half of the innumerable feathers deployed to Artemisia’s rear, creating a lattice of beams that blocked any escape route. The other half clustered at the tip of the Einherjar Origami held and transformed into something akin to an enormous drill.
“Haah!” Origami cried as Metatron spun at high speed. The light it launched carved a spiral as it closed in on Artemisia.
“Look at you.” Artemisia sneered, and narrowed her eyes. In the next instant, the feather-like parts attached to her backpack opened fire at the concentrated Metatron.
“Ngh!”
The two torrents of light collided spectacularly.
The brief stalemate ended when Artemisia threw the laser blade at Origami’s head.
“Tch!” Scowling, Origami leaned back to dodge.
Artemisia took advantage of the millisecond, whirled around, and used Einherjar’s hilt as a stepping stone to escape from Origami’s siege.
“Phew! That was a bit of a close one.” Artemisia sighed as she got some distance from Origami and used her Territory to pull back the sword she’d thrown. “So, this is the combination of Spirit power and generated magic, hmm? Fascinating. Unfortunately, I don’t really have time to play today. I’ll finish this—”
Her words got stuck in her throat.
Origami looked at her warily, wondering what was going on, then followed the girl’s gaze and saw for herself.
Goetia and its pilot, Ellen Mathers, were plummeting toward the Earth, black smoke streaming behind them.
“Ellen?! That can’t be… Goetia?!” Artemisia was usually relaxed, and yet for the first time, agitation flickered across her face.
“You lost,” Origami said, keeping the tip of her lance pointed at Artemisia, her guard still very much up. “Accept defeat and go.”
“…”
After a moment of silence, Artemisia turned to glare at her.
“…Don’t get the wrong idea,” she said. “It’s true, Ellen being shot down was unexpected, but that doesn’t mean you’ve won. Our objective today is…”
“…” Origami inhaled sharply at this ominous pause.
“…‘take down a Spirit,’ ” Artemisia finished, her gaze shifting to the right.
“Hngh! Metatron!” Origami immediately issued orders to her Angel. But she was too late.
Artemisia fired a beam of magic that slipped past Metatron’s defenses and raced toward Shido and Tohka.
✦ ✦ ✦
“A-ah…”
The world was blinking in and out. Mukuro was bewildered by the sudden change in her world, the confusion. Her body was overwhelmed by a sensation like blood suddenly flowing to numb extremities.
Confusion. Yes. That was exactly what she was experiencing.
She should not have been able to feel confused. Her heart had been locked up by Michael.
Ah, no, that was why. Indeed. Understanding gradually came to her. The inserted key. Michael. Shido. Shido Itsuka. Lataib. Open. Her heart. The lock on her heart. Her heart, so long sealed away. Now, a torrent of emotion. Flowed. Pouring out. The invisible color she had long been insentient to. Indignation at her heart’s forced opening. Curiosity at his surprising methods. Shido, the boy who had done all this for her sake with no thought of himself—
“Mukuro!”
She heard a voice call out to her. With her dam broken and emotions flooding, she wasn’t sure how to respond. Her feelings and mind were still not connected. Somewhere in the chaos of her mind, though, she was able to piece together the situation she was in from the visual information.
Approach. A beam. An arrow of light aimed squarely at her.
This had to have been what Shido had yelled to her about. But. However. Even so. The violent waves of emotion kept her from moving in any way she knew how. In another second, she would be pierced by that beam of light.
Oh, I’m scared.
Yes. Scared. Pain was scary. Dying was scary. For the first time in a very long time, terror took root in her heart.
However…
“Ngh!”
In the next instant, that terror was tamped down by another emotion.
Shido had thrown his arms around her to protect her from the oncoming beam of light.
“Ah,” she groaned.
“Zafkiel!” Shido cried, and a shield of ice formed at his back. A heartbeat later, a powerful burst of magic slammed into it.
“Gah. Ah!” Shido cried out in anguish. The impromptu ice shield couldn’t absorb such tremendous force all on its own, and the spillover sent him and Mukuro flying.
Mukuro felt a curious sensation. The mysterious warmth around them only a moment earlier vanished, and an invisible force abruptly began to tug on her.
It didn’t take her very long to realize that this was the force of Earth’s gravity. Propelled into the darkness of space by the magic attack, Mukuro and Shido had been pushed out of the mysterious region where Shido had been active.
If they didn’t do something, they would plunge into Earth’s atmosphere. She tried to open a door in space with Michael and escape to safety. But no matter how she concentrated, she couldn’t get her body to do what she wanted.
“Hngh! Raphael! Zafkiel!” Shido called. A wind swirled around them, and a wall of ice formed. He squeezed Mukuro tightly. “It’s okay…Mukuro! I’ll…protect…you!”
Thump, thump. She could feel the pounding of his heart.
“…”
A single shade rose from the rich colors of emotion in her heart.
Before she realized which emotion it was, she and Shido were swallowed up by the blue planet.