Bright violet flames surrounded Salinger in all directions.
✦ ✦ ✦
The door to the Queen’s Space was blocked, along with the windows he had been planning to use.
The violet flames were separating the Queen’s Space from the outside world.
“What?!”
“I’m sorry.”
Before he could confirm who had spoken to him, Salinger felt an intense pain shoot through his right thigh. He fell to his knee.
A black spike had gone through his leg.
“You!”
“Ah, you should see the look on your face right now. I love it.”
The witch watched him with rapture in her eyes.
Though her entire body was cracked, it seemed she couldn’t feel pain.
“The Zoa and Lou should be here at any moment. I wanted to finish everything tonight, but it seems that I’ll be fully satisfied this evening.”
The witch smiled ecstatically. Even as she smiled, the cracks in her body began to stitch themselves back together.
“I thought you were just a philistine. Who knew the sorcerer Salinger was such a fine man…? You’ve gotten me so excited!”
She took one step toward him and then another.
She looked at him as though he were an animal in a trap as the spike held him in place.
“Yes, please struggle in vain until the very end. You might be able to win against me. Don’t abandon hope that you might be able to still wound me!”
“Who’s the real philistine here…?”
He gritted his teeth.
Though it was clear from his expression he had no intention of backing down, his pierced thigh wouldn’t budge, no matter how he willed it. The open wound on his back was still oozing blood, too.
He felt vertigo from the blood loss.
No matter how strong his will was, his mind would dim with sufficient blood loss. And once that happened, he would be in checkmate.
Even his Terra Burst had not harmed the witch.
She was his natural enemy.
Francoise’s durability made her practically invincible. If even the Nebulis queen couldn’t stop her, then there was no hope for Salinger, with his half-powered astral techniques.
“Was that really the most powerful astral attack you have?” Her voice was threaded with cold, murderous hostility. “That’s too bad. It seems this is over, then.”
The witch Francoise spread her arms. Her shadow swelled, and dozens of black spikes appeared from below her feet. There was no way Salinger’s astral powers could counter a single one of them.
“…Tsk. For a bit player, you sure love running your mouth!”
What would he do? How would he fight this?
His eyes were blurring from the blood loss, and he was losing focus from the pain in his back and legs.
……You’ve got to be kidding me.
……Do you think some scratches from a bit player are enough to stop me?
He couldn’t let himself exhaust all he had at this juncture.
If he was going to let the curtain fall on his life, it would be while fighting her.
✦ ✦ ✦
All of a sudden, the witch spurted jewellike blood and collapsed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?!”
As Salinger lost consciousness and his vision blurred, the witch said, “Ngh. Is it already time? I know the head of household told me I had eight minutes to have my fun, but I can’t believe it was so short…”
Francoise staggered as she tried to stand.
Crystalline drops of blood trailed behind her.
……Is she in pain?
……The monster claiming to be invincible?
Had all astral power attacks she sustained finally added up? Or was it because of something else?
Either way…
“Ha! This is great!”
Salinger cheered from the bottom of his heart. This was his moment to rewrite the script.
Who truly ruled the stage?
It was the audience. The spectator called “fate” had watched this hackneyed plot and turned it on its head. The true star wasn’t the Hydra.
No, the real main character was…
“Me.”
Even as he sweated from the pain wracking his body, he filled with joy.
He hadn’t fully grasped it before.
If the fate of the stars had chosen him as the lead, then there had to be a reason he had been saddled with the Water Mirror astral power, which he believed had never suited him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Salinger, you hate your own astral power, don’t you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Now that he thought about it, when the Battle Automata herself had rudely said that to him, he hadn’t been able to reply.
Because she was right.
✦ ✦ ✦
“All you’re doing is collecting astral power techniques. You think that just using them willy-nilly makes you powerful. But they’re not your own.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That was exactly right.
All his Water Mirror astral power could do was copy half of someone else’s technique. The astral powers he could use were borrowed from others, not his own. Though he raved about transcending the royal family, he could only boast about having other people’s powers.
But was there really no way to turn this problem on its head?
Was this really all the power he had?
No.
Who had decided that would be the story?
I decide.
“On my stage, there are no such things as limits!”
He flexed his knees.
He supported his impaled right leg with his left, which could barely move. Though he was injured to the point that he couldn’t even hide his ragged breathing, Salinger rose to his feet.
“You buffoon.”
He beckoned the witch still crawling along the ground.
He urged her to stand.
“I’ll show you who’s the true star of the show.”
“Ha-ha-ha… You’re so cute when you bluff. You’re pale as a sheet.”
Francoise stood again.
She wore a bloodthirsty smile.
“It doesn’t make sense for you to be the lead of this production. Look, these wounds of mine are from the queen’s astral powers. And I collapsed because I reached my limit. So where does that leave you?”
“…”
“Your astral powers are borrowed. You attack astral mages and steal half their powers—nothing more.”
“But there’s something I can do only because I have halves.”
“……Huh?”
“You’re right, monster. Water Mirror has the ability to split powers in half.”
He had dozens of astral powers. All halved parts.
“And if I connect two halves together, I can create new astral techniques!”
By combining two astral powers, he would reach heights that could never be reached with one alone.
“I’ll transcend all the singular astral powers! I’ll rise up! I will ascend a stage that none of the royal family members or the Founder were able to!”
“Don’t be so arrogant,” the witch howled. “You’ve said too much! You’re nothing more than a plebeian and a thief!”
The shadow at her feet grew and wrapped around her hands, transforming into twisted black claws right before his eyes.
Ten black claws that were sharpened like daggers.
“You’re only here on this stage because of long-past glory.”
She leaped off the ground.
The monster calling herself a witch and the man people called a sorcerer ran toward each other at the same time.
And so…
“This is my stage!”
“No, it’s mine.”
…their paths crossed.