“Hmm. Perhaps that will do to verify this Strega’s abilities. In that case…”
Casting her sword-type Lux to one side, the Varda-Vaos unleashed a torrent of jet-black light straight for Minato.
“Ugh…! Aaaaahhhhh!”
Her skull pounding like something was rampaging inside her head, she collapsed to the floor.
“Good. My power is at its fullest. Wonderful. I’ve never had a body like this before,” the Varda-Vaos murmured with satisfaction.
Then, no longer interested in drawing out their fight, she gave the black ax in her hand one final swing.
Just before it could cleave through Minato’s neck—
“Mwah?”
A blade of light carved through the air and struck out at the Varda-Vaos.
The Orga Lux repelled it effortlessly, but with her attention diverted, the glow of black light faded slightly.
“Geez… This is why I told you to wait.”
Minato felt her body being whisked through the air. Before she knew it, Claudia was clutching her in her arms.
“…Claudia Enfield?”
The Orga Lux appeared on guard as she braced herself with her ax, but Claudia swiftly darted out of range of the black light. Then, the radiant blade that the Varda-Vaos had repelled—one-half of Claudia’s Pan-Dora—spun through the air before falling safely back into its user’s hand.
The whole thing had proceeded as though Claudia had foreseen every moment.
“Thanks to you heading off on your own, it took a little while to clean up the Valiants. I actually meant to finish them off sooner, you know?”
Glancing around, it looked like the Valiants had indeed been destroyed.
“Are you okay? There’s still a task that only you can carry out, Miss Wakamiya, so please, keep to the sidelines for now,” Claudia said as though admonishing a child, before letting Minato fall to the ground with a thud.
“Something only I can do…? N-no, you don’t mean to fight her alone? We should at least fight together…!”
Minato, who had just a few minutes ago rushed into battle despite Claudia’s protestations, had no right to object. Even so, with the Varda-Vaos now in control of Sylvia’s abilities, their foe was an extraordinary threat. While she wasn’t sure how useful she would be in the fight, Minato could at least act as a decoy if push came to shove.
“Don’t be silly. Look at you. You needn’t worry. I’ll handle her by myself,” Claudia reassured Minato easily, as she tried to push herself up from the floor.
“Huh…?”
“You might not know this, but I’m actually pretty strong.” Claudia beamed as Minato stared up at her.
Of course, Minato was well aware that Claudia was one of the most powerful students at Seidoukan Academy—she was the student council president, and the school’s second highest-ranked fighter with the alias Parca Morta. On top of that, she wielded the Pan-Dora, an incredibly powerful Orga Lux with the ability to predict the future, and she had led her team to victory in the previous Gryps tournament. She was one of the strongest individuals not just at Seidoukan, but in Asterisk as a whole.
All the same, from what Minato could see, not even she was skilled enough to take on the Varda-Vaos in Sylvia’s body by herself.
“Minato Wakamiya is right, Claudia Enfield,” the Varda-Vaos declared plainly. “You are strong, but still not as strong as Sylvia Lyyneheym. I have her powers at my disposal, along with my own. There is no way you can defeat me alone. Even using the Pan-Dora’s clairvoyance.”
She presented this information as indisputable fact.
“Oh-ho. Why, thank you for the advice. By the way, may I ask you a question?” Claudia responded while keeping her distance.
“…What?”
“About your goals, the Golden Bough Alliance’s. You intend to take the lives of everyone here in Asterisk using Erenshkigal’s abilities. We already know that.”
“…?!”
Minato’s eyes bulged as she froze in terror at the sheer ridiculousness of Claudia’s claim.
She had known that something was going on…but to think that the situation was one of life or death…
“But that must only be a means to an end, I assume? What we don’t know is your purpose beyond that,” Claudia continued.
The Varda-Vaos fell silent for a moment before slowly responding. “Very well. Even knowing, it will be too late for you to do anything about it… For anyone to do anything about it.” She paused there, glancing up at the sky—the cloud-covered firmament beyond the glass ceiling. “Do you know what mana is? What we are…? I didn’t think so. We are the abandoned.”
“…The abandoned?”
“Yes. Of the world you humans call the other side, a universe filled with mana, a plane of existence where gods exist. Mana is, so to speak, the breath of the gods. You humans are constantly drawing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, no? In the same way, mana is produced through our mere existence.”
The Varda-Vaos’s voice sounded almost nostalgic.
“Mana is an incredibly useful element, as I’m sure even you humans realize, given how much you use it. But it has its limits. Living things cannot sustain themselves in places where its concentration is too high. Unlike the barren, death-ridden universe on this side, ours is overflowing with mana.”
Beyond the dome, the sound of explosions continued intermittently. Even now, a disaster was beginning to unfold.
Nonetheless, Minato found herself absorbed by the Varda-Vaos’s words.
“The stronger the god’s powers, the more mana it produces. And the most powerful entity on the other side is our chief god, residing in our sun. Our chief god has lain dormant for ages, but he continues to produce enormous quantities of mana. And so, the closer a planet is to the sun, the higher the concentration of mana. Our Mercury is no longer an environment suitable to life.”
“There was life on Mercury…?” Claudia asked in astonishment.
“I told you. The universe on the other side is abundant in mana. Each celestial body is inhabited by its own god, whose power is immense within their own planetary sphere. Those gods seek and protect the creatures that believe in them. Well, they do occasionally punish their subjects on a whim, but in general, they take the side of the life-forms within their domain. So all the planets on the other side are inhabited by human life. Or should I say, were inhabited. Now even our Venus is in danger.”
For the first time, the Varda-Vaos’s expression clouded over.
“…The god of our Earth has taken certain countermeasures to protect the humans of their own planet: disposing of excess mana when it becomes too much to bear. They send it to a different world in a different universe—that is, here. Your world is a dumping ground for our surplus mana.”
“What…? So if mana keeps growing in abundance here, you’re saying everyone will die…?” Minato murmured under her breath.