“I almost didn’t recognize you, Talisman.”
✦ ✦ ✦
A black sword flashed.
“And I mean that in a bad way, of course.”
“Ugh!”
The sorcerer leaped back.
Though the sorcerer had scoffed at Alice’s ice and Kissing’s thorns, he shuddered upon facing the astral sword.
“Iska!”
“You’re late! That monster was about to make us his playthings.”
“Sorry.”
Iska couldn’t turn around to look at either of the princesses.
He couldn’t let Talisman out of sight for even a second. This was the man who would skillfully distract his opponents through his elusive comments, then assault them with his Wave power.
✦ ✦ ✦
“The tyrannical Talisman. That nickname is a far cry from my true nature, however.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why, hello. You seem in good health, romanticist.”
Talisman’s left eye was bright red and open wide.
Yet his gentlemanly smile still reached his right eye.
The two-faced man, who likely had the most extreme form of asymmetry in the world, raised his right hand in lieu of a greeting.
“This is the Empire. It’s not at all odd for you to be present. And I am so happy to see you. I now understand how valuable that astral sword you wield truly is.”
“…”
“That is the super-crystallization of astral energy. Or rather, I should say it’s the ultimate crystallization. Simply looking at that sword makes the calamity within me shudder. Just how much astral energy must be in there.”
“Talisman…”
Iska grit his teeth as he glared at the man who had turned into a monster.
“Do you remember what you once said to me?”
“Hmm?”
“You said that we were similar. You were the one who said that!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You need some madness to reach perfection.”
“You and I are the same. We are demons who have mastered power.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Though he had said such ostentatious things, Iska hadn’t been able to help but believe in those words.
“You said that figuring out the physical conversion of Waves took you six years! And then eight more years to learn it, then another thirteen to perfect it! You spent nearly thirty years on your craft!”
“Indeed I did. Because I am clumsy.”
“But that shouldn’t be something so easy to abandon!”
Talisman had fought like a demon for thirty years.
Even if those thirty years had been spent without anyone praising the fruits of his labor, once he had put in the work, his identity became that of someone who sought to perfect his astral power. Iska had seen him when he had still been that person.
Iska felt pain seeing him now.
Why had he chosen the calamity’s power?
“Instead of the power you spent thirty years building as you fought to the death, are you really going to pick that twisted, destructive power?!”
“Human history is all about the history of energy.”
Fwoom.
A shock wave ran through the air.
Talisman was right in front of Iska’s face. As the sorcerer brought his fist up, he was so close Iska could hear him breathe.
……He’s fast?!
……He’s not just fast, this isn’t possible for human legs!
It was almost as though he had teleported.
It wasn’t as frightening as Kelvina’s phototeleportation ability that allowed her to appear anywhere. It seemed all he had done was physically leap to move as quickly as possible.
Since Talisman wasn’t using any tricks, that made it even harder to counter.
“We went from the age of fire to the age of coal.”
He brought down his right fist.
Iska leaped back using all his strength, and still the attack grazed his bangs. A gigantic crater formed by the fist’s impact with the ground.
“From coal to electricity.”
He swept his left fist to the side.
As Iska leaped back again, this time Talisman grazed his torso. Iska felt an intense impact against his lungs.
“……Guh?!”
Was that just from the shock wave caused by Talisman’s fist?
……It’s not enough even if I dodge him perfectly!
……The wind pressure he creates using his fists is enough to smash a person into nothing.
Talisman was using sonic booms.
Those only occurred when something moved through the air faster than the speed of sound, creating a large shock wave and a sound like an explosion.
“From electricity to astral power.”
He brought up his right fist.
“And now from astral power to the calamity.”
To counter him, Iska gripped his swords and spun like a top. He dodged a blow that would have sent his head flying off his body by a fraction of a centimeter.
However…
Talisman kept assaulting him with successive sonic booms until he lost consciousness for a moment.
“…Ah……”
“Iska?!”
Alice and Kissing both screamed.
He could hear them, but his mind was so shaken that in his confused state, all he saw was the sorcerer calmly looking down on him.
Talisman caught the ice arrow Alice shot at him with one hand.
Then, using Alice’s arrow, he knocked away Kissing’s thorns, canceling them out.
He treated the two princesses’ assaults like a playful distraction as his swollen eye looked down at Iska.
“Mankind is captivated by stronger energies. I have gotten closer to understanding the mystery of this planet. I feel nothing but gratitude toward Elletear. I believe I just need to go a little further…a step, and I will reach the pinnacle of knowledge.”
“You’re so…wrong…”
Iska still couldn’t move.
After being hit with a sonic boom, he experienced a pain so intense that his whole body felt as though it was about to tear apart.
“I will show you the same world I see.”
He brought down his fist.
Alice’s ice and Kissing’s thorns wouldn’t work on him. Iska wasn’t fast enough with his astral sword.
✦ ✦ ✦
But then the fist stopped.
✦ ✦ ✦
“…………Huh?”
Alice blinked.
Beside her, Kissing looked at Iska, but he didn’t know what had happened, either.
He hadn’t done anything.
“Oh my, pardon me.”
Flop.
Talisman’s left arm fell to the frozen lawn. Iska heard another flop. The right arm had also fallen and seemed to turn white as it withered away.
His body was falling apart.
At least, that was how it appeared to Iska.
“Hmm. Well, this is as expected.”
Only Talisman calmly looked down at his own arms.
His left shoulder began to bulge, forming into a new arm, which was even more twisted than the one that had just come off.
“Even Elletear wasn’t able to withstand the undiluted solution extract of the calamity’s power. It was within my calculations that I might not be compatible. How intriguing. Now, what would happen if I were to inject myself with more? Would my body continue to fall apart, or would that hasten my evolution?”
“Lord Talisman!”
The Lou princess shouted as though she couldn’t hold back her emotions any longer.
“Please stop! That form can’t be what you truly want!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX had felt conflicted.
Even after confiding in her attendant, Rin, she still continued to brood.
✦ ✦ ✦
“We need to defeat the calamity. But there’s something I need to be ready for in order to do so. Do you know what that is?”
“Are you referring to who we’ll need to sacrifice…?”
“I’m sure we’ll lose some people as well. But there’s something else that’s bothering me right now. I’m talking about the dismantling of the Sovereignty.”
✦ ✦ ✦
If they defeated the calamity, the Nebulis Sovereignty would fall.
All the astral powers would leave to go back to the core, and they would also leave the astral mages’ bodies.
No matter what she chose to do, only unhappiness waited.
✦ ✦ ✦
If they didn’t defeat the calamity, then the entire planet would be destroyed.
If they did, then the Sovereignty would be destroyed instead.
✦ ✦ ✦
Naturally, she couldn’t allow the former to happen. Though she knew this, she doubted any astral mage could make the second choice so easily.
The options were cruel.
She had agonized over it—until now.
“Lord Talisman!”
Alice yelled so loudly at the monster that had once been the Hydra’s head of house that her voice grew hoarse.
“I’ll defeat the calamity! I agonized over the decision so much, but you showed me the answer!”
“Oh?”
The sorcerer didn’t even turn toward her.
He still faced Iska as he asked, “And what do you mean by that?”
“I was worried about what the cost of defeating the calamity would be…but I was wrong. If we don’t defeat it, the world will change! Like you have!”
His body had warped. Even now, it was falling apart. The spectacle was repulsive to watch.
However, more importantly, what she truly couldn’t stomach was how Talisman’s mind had warped.
“I don’t think your original self would have been all right with you having the power of the calamity or your transformation. Your mind has been consumed by the calamity, too!”
His body and his mind.
Both were becoming one with the calamity.
“It’s not like you. No, it’s not like any human being!”
All her hesitations were gone.
She didn’t want this to happen.
Even if her astral power left…she would still be her. That was how she wished to be.