“Once we defeat the calamity, no one will know if you will lose your powers days or decades from then, Alice. But I’m not interested in that.”
“Even without astral power, you’re still you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Since Iska had told her that…
I won’t fear a world where we lose our astral powers, she thought.
“I don’t want to see you this way. I want to believe it’s precious to live as a human being! So in order to do that, the calamity—”
“What a philosopher you are, my dear Alice.”
The wind blew.
No, it wasn’t wind but something similar—a wave.
“What makes a human? How is it that we should be? Allow me to answer. I have the answer right here.”
It was another sonic boom.
Talisman swept his fist through the air. With that one swipe, Iska, Alice, and Kissing flew like leaves in the wind.
“I am the answer. Alice, I believe you can see that, too.”
“N…o…!”
She hit the ground hard.
The force knocked the breath out of her for a moment, and she nearly lost consciousness.
“The future I see, the answer I seek, isn’t you!”
O Ice!
Even as she sputtered and coughed, Alice commanded her astral power.
She didn’t need a shield to protect herself.
If she could make an ice shield, it was enough to make it for Iska.
“I need to put a stop to your tyranny, Lord Talisman!”
“Knowledge is power. As long as I know the truth, I will be more powerful than anyone.”
He mercilessly broke through the ice wall that towered over Iska.
She knew. Even her ice wouldn’t buy him more than a second of time. But that was enough. If she could just give him enough time to get up and ready his swords after being blown away…
“My dear, dear Alice, to accept a gracious defeat is what makes a good princess.”
“Shut up!”
She bared her teeth as she barked at him.
Who cares about what makes a good princess?
“I only know how to struggle to the end. I’ll do it in order to stop you here!”
“Well, then—”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Uncle, please stop!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The head of the Hydra was cut off.
Someone’s strained voice echoed from behind Alice.
“You…?”
Alice turned around to look at the person.
It was the girl with the blue hair, still in her restraints.
Mizerhyby, the Hydra princess, was a sobbing, swollen-eyed mess.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mizerhyby Hydra Nebulis IX had been conflicted the entire time.
She had been tormented by a sense of malaise since arriving in the Empire. The emotion that had spurred her on until that point was rage.
She knew that. But…
✦ ✦ ✦
Who was she most angry with?
✦ ✦ ✦
Though Elletear had been the direct cause of these events and was the target of Mizerhyby’s revenge, the head of the household had been transformed by the calamity.
Then was the true target of her rage the calamity?
…………
……But was it really?
She felt something was off.
Though she had thought it hadn’t been a mistake to target Elletear and the calamity, in her heart of hearts, she couldn’t help but feel some kind of distress building up in her—something dark and oozing.
Who was the true person she couldn’t forgive for what had happened?
She couldn’t think of anything or anyone except Elletear and the calamity.
She had agonized over it—until now.
“Uncle!” Mizerhyby sobbed and yelled at the head of her house, the person she respected and adored more than anyone in the world.
She had finally figured it out.
This was her repentance.
“I couldn’t forgive myself for being so afraid!”
She had been frightened of the witch.
She couldn’t help how terrified she had been. That was why she had wanted the same power to face Elletear. But she was really upset at herself for being so weak of heart.
She had finally realized it.
After seeing the head of the family’s transformed state, she had realized it all.
She wanted the power to defeat Elletear.
That still held true now.
But what she needed wasn’t a stronger power but a more noble one.
“Uncle!” she yelled a third time.
However, the head of the household turned his back on her. He was only interested in his battle against Iska.
So she spoke to his back.
“Even without that borrowed power, you are stronger than anyone, Uncle! You faced Elletear as I cowered. I saw a radiant purpose from you back then!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Right now, you’re exactly what Kelvina feared. Humanity would live in fear of you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
But her uncle had not.
Or rather, even if he truly had been frightened deep inside, he still had faced that fear to keep Elletear from fleeing.
……I remember.
……That was what I looked up to.
As Talisman had faced the witch, Mizerhyby had found true glory in him.
He had carried a purpose as noble as the sun.
✦ ✦ ✦
Through this, she had been taught that glory was the manifestation of humanity’s courage.
✦ ✦ ✦
So she shouted, “Open your eyes, my head of house!”
The light shone.
The shadows before daybreak were scattered away.
The astral light of Glory welled from Mizerhyby’s entire body.
“You are the head of the Hydra. And the sun must be the most noble of all!”
She bit her lip so firmly that it almost bled.
She ignored her battered, exhausted body.
“…”
She leaned forward, close to collapsing at any moment, and took a step.
She reached both hands out as far as she could toward the two princesses who had turned to her.
“Re…mem…ber…”
Princess Aliceliese of the Lou.
Princess Kissing of the Zoa.
Though she stooped forward with her arms outstretched, she still reached their shoulders.
“The stars and moon can shine…because the sun is here…”
✦ ✦ ✦
Show the glory of the light.
✦ ✦ ✦
She used the last of her strength.
Then the Hydra princess fell to her knees.
✦ ✦ ✦
Talisman, who had his back to them, noticed none of it. He never even tried.
He had no interest.
His sole interest was the knowledge he would gain from the Saint Disciple Iska’s astral sword.
“The calamity is far more powerful than the astral powers. However, that sword is the only exception. Even Elletear was afraid of it.”
“Elletear was? You are, too!”
Iska wiped the blood from his mouth.
Talisman’s fists were nothing more than concentrated physical energy.
He might even be able to physically destroy the astral sword. Even if Iska avoided a sonic boom or narrowly escaped it, the successive one would hit him.
The astral sword was more or less Talisman’s natural enemy.
Everyone had likely sensed that. However, only Iska—
“Romanticist Saint Disciple…”
The sorcerer lifted his fists.
Though his arms had already surpassed their limits while fighting, he was about to bring them down with enough force to threaten his own life.
“…with this…”
“Atmosphere, freeze!”
A wall of ice that glittered blue formed to protect Iska.
But how would that help?
Talisman’s fists could break anything whether it be metal, diamonds, or even Ice astral power.
Creak.
✦ ✦ ✦
But his fists that could pulverize anything were brought to a halt.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?!”
Alice’s ice shield had stopped Talisman’s fist.
Alice’s ice, which was already harder than steel, had become even stronger.
Why?
Why couldn’t he break it with his fists?
And what was this radiant, blinding light that covered the blue ice?
The radiance of the sun.
The most noble power in the world was contained in Alice’s astral power.
The Glory astral power could make regular astral mages as strong as purebred types.
And so, when Mizerhyby strengthened a purebred type, their power suddenly rivaled that of a true sorcerer.
“But—?”
“I finally got you.”
Something stabbed into Talisman.
Kissing’s thorns were impaled in his chest.
Her thorns had also been strengthened.
They were faster and more powerful than before on an entirely different level. Before Talisman could break them, the thorns began to erase parts of his chest.
“—!”
He let out an unintelligible scream.
Though his body should have been in a state beyond being able to feel pain, he felt it now intensely.
“Kiss—”
“It’s time for you to go down.”
He saw the flash of a sword.
As Iska passed by him, the astral sword sliced through Talisman’s chest, which made up the core of the calamity in him.
“That’s what the princess wants, too.”
“…………”
✦ ✦ ✦
The sun rose on the horizon.
✦ ✦ ✦
After losing the root of his power, the sorcerer stood with his back to the sun, his eyes empty.
Ahead of where he gazed…
“Uncle…”
…was the Hydra princess, who sobbed.
She was on her hands and knees on the ground, looking up at the head of her family.
“I’m sorry, Uncle… I…was the one who did this…”
“Mizy…”
“Huh?!”
“Don’t be embarrassed by your tears.”
The man in the white suit suddenly smiled. He pulled out a pure white, unsullied handkerchief. With his weak hands, he entrusted the handkerchief to the wind.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’re more beautiful than you’ve ever been. You’ve grown into a fine young lady.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Uncle…?”
As the Hydra princess looked up, her eyes red, Talisman, the head of the household, slowly fell to the ground, his back still to the rising sun.
✦ ✦ ✦
