“You, me, Varda, Ayato Amagiri, the integrated enterprise foundations, everyone in this whole shitty world. I hope we all end up dragging each other down into an ugly, miserable pile, none of us ever winning… That would make me feel ever so slightly better about everything,” Dirk Eberwein said, spitting the words out like a curse as the air-window snapped shut.
“Dear me. Looks like we have more trouble on our hands,” Madiath Mesa said with an exaggerated sigh. He’d been betrayed at the last minute. “I thought he was a little more sensible than this, but I suppose there’s no acting against your own nature. Well, I’m not one to speak, so I can’t honestly say I blame him.”
His voice rang hollowly amid the deserted ruins of the Eclipse arena.
“…What’s the meaning of this?” Ayato demanded.
“Hmm? You mean him?” Madiath grinned as he shook his head. “Who’s to say? His gambit has played off splendidly. You’ve already reached me and Varda, and I, at least, have no means of killing him.”
With those words, he activated the Raksha-Nada. The atmosphere turned suddenly tense.
“But you all are partly responsible for this, wouldn’t you say?”
“…Why are you dragging us into it?” Saya called back with an angry glare.
“You’re the one who had the city guard unearth my past wrongdoings, no? Thanks to you, I had to leave the public eye sooner than anticipated. I was forced to entrust him with total command of the plan. This is the result.”
It was true that Ayato and Haruka were the ones who precipitated Stjarnagarm’s investigation after Minato gave them her father’s old diary. Though it was unfortunate that they had been used by Dirk, their efforts hadn’t been in vain.
“But there’s no point moping about it now. Besides, our plan isn’t ruined yet. Once I dispose of you here and Varda eliminates Enfield and her lot, everything will be back on track… Though I have to admit, I’m a little worried about Varda. That Orga Lux is prone to underestimating her opponents. Probably because she’s always looking down her nose at those from this side of the world.” Beneath his mask, Madiath visibly knitted his brows. “Well, in that case, we’ll just chalk it up to bad luck. It’s a pity, but it can’t be helped. It doesn’t particularly affect my goals.”
“You say one thing, the Tyrant another… Are you all working toward different objectives? What exactly are you hoping to achieve after Erenshkigal destroys the city?”
Ayato wasn’t surprised that the Golden Bough Alliance’s members had disagreements, but he hadn’t imagined that its members were this at odds with one another. After all, they had been advancing such a grandiose plan in complete secrecy for ages. Even with the abilities of the Varda-Vaos, that would have been nigh impossible without some degree of unity.
“Hmm. You haven’t worked it out?” Madiath said, his body filling with prana. “Well, there’s no point keeping you in suspense at this late hour. Yes, the three of us do have different goals. But none of them are particularly elaborate.”
Suddenly, the countless air-windows scattered around them slid shut one by one.
“Miss Orphelia will slaughter every human here, and in response, Genestella supremacists, carefully indoctrinated using Varda’s powers, will launch a series of terrorist attacks all across the world. In other words, it will be a decisive showdown between Genestella and the common man—that is our shared objective.”
“…!”
Ayato knew what they planned to make Orphelia do, but this was the first he was hearing about simultaneous terrorist strikes. His body stiffened, and Saya gasped beside him.
“The Varda-Vaos wants to create a world ruled by Genestella, a world fueled by conflict between them and regular humans, with the former emerging victorious,” Madiath continued. “As for Dirk Eberwein, the Tyrant…as you just heard for yourselves, he wants to turn society upside down, to turn those who have always been winners into losers. I’m guessing he means the integrated enterprise foundations specifically. I’m sure they both have their own plans for whatever comes next, but it’s not my place to get involved.”
“…What exactly is your goal, then?”
The air-windows continued to snap shut, one after the other, until only a single window was left—a live video feed showing Julis struggling against Orphelia.
“Haven’t I already answered that question? To accelerate things!”
The next moment, Madiath’s figure swayed.
“…!”
The slash was lightning fast.
Ayato’s body responded to the wave of bloodlust, moving reflexively at the last minute to block the Raksha-Nada with the Ser Veresta.
That speed…! And the strength behind his strike!
Ayato felt the impact deep in the core of his body. He braced his legs and clenched his teeth.
“Hmm. I didn’t hold back with that one. A young man’s growth and development truly is something to behold.”
Percival, whom they had encountered en route to Madiath’s location, had also been unusually strong. But in terms of agility and physical prowess, Madiath was even stronger, almost monstrously so.
Ayato had anticipated this, however.
During their last encounter, he hadn’t been able to hold his own against Madiath—even fighting alongside Haruka. Ayato was confident he had improved considerably since then, and was proud of his accomplishments, but he had to admit that Madiath’s fighting ability was still head and shoulders above his own in almost every respect.
…But Julis was even better!
Using her Queen of the Night ability, Julis’s power had been like something from another dimension. Just as she had boasted, for a full twelve seconds, she had indeed been the strongest entity in the world. In terms of speed alone, Ayato could barely keep up with her.
Madiath, as he was now, might have been close to that level, but he hadn’t quite reached it.
If Ayato hadn’t faced Julis back then, he probably would have fallen to Madiath’s last attack.
“Unfortunately for you, I’ve faced someone even faster…!”
He pushed back against the Raksha-Nada with all his strength, but the opposing blade refused to budge.
“Ah, I see. That semifinals match…! How about this, then?”
Madiath suddenly withdrew his sword, disrupting Ayato’s stance.
Uh-oh!
Just like their previous encounter, Madiath was adept at throwing off Ayato’s timing.
In fact, it was difficult to read his moves at all—there seemed to be no pattern behind them.
What’s more, a human fighter ought to have a unique tempo and rhythm to their actions—but there was no sign of one here.
Madiath broke into a leisurely grin just as the Raksha-Nada gleamed eerily.
This was bad. Given his current position, there was no way that Ayato could dodge this.
And yet—
“Ba-doom!”
“Ah!”
Instead of plunging into Ayato’s neck, the Raksha-Nada changed trajectory, slicing through the huge bullet of light coming in from behind him.
“…Don’t forget about me,” Saya called out to their foe, her Helnekraum at the ready.
“Saya!”
Ayato took advantage of the brief lull to fall back. Under normal circumstances, it would have been pointless to put distance between himself and the Raksha-Nada, as it was fully capable of long-range attacks—but since he couldn’t read Madiath’s movements, he figured close combat to be even riskier.
If he could observe his foe a little more, maybe he could grasp just enough of his fighting style to—
“I haven’t forgotten you. You’re simply beneath my notice,” Madiath said with a sideways glance as he swung his weapon at Saya.
“Ack!”
A crimson shimmer passed through the air, headed straight for her.
It was a cloud of fragments from the Raksha-Nada, launched toward Saya at blinding speed. One of the Four Colored Runeswords, the Raksha-Nada was said to be impossible to defend against. Its user had the ability to divide the blade into smaller pieces and manipulate them at will. It could be broken up into the tiniest fragments, such as the one Madiath had previously planted in Haruka’s abdomen, and when the whole sword was broken up like this, it could be made to rain down on its target like an eviscerating hail.
Saya swiftly dodged the onslaught, but the airborne shards changed direction, following her like a school of tiny red fish.
She sped over a field of rubble, climbing up a huge collapsed pillar that lay diagonally across her path, but the pieces of the Raksha-Nada continued their pursuit.
“I won’t let you!”
Saya had saved him from a close call earlier, so now it was Ayato’s turn to come to her aid.
Without wasting a second, he poured his prana into the Ser Veresta to activate his Meteor Arts techniques. Then, once the weapon had extended to a full ten meters in length, he swung it around, ploughing through the battlefield.
If he could distract their foe for even a split second, it might be enough to slow the shards chasing after Saya.
“Ha-ha-ha! There’s no need to rush! I’ll take care of you, too, in due course!”
Madiath leaped away from Ayato’s blow, then turned the hand gripping the Raksha-Nada his way. The remaining blade, reduced to half its normal size, split into myriad pieces, coursing straight for him.
“What?!”
How on earth could Madiath divide the weapon into two separate plumes and freely manipulate the both of them?
Ayato returned the Ser Veresta to its original size, spinning around to dodge the fragments streaking down from above and piercing the ground like a heavy rain. The area where he had just been standing was left covered with holes.
Then, as soon as Ayato landed, the fragments rose up once more in pursuit, though he managed to avoid this strike, too, by reflexively leaping backward. The shards must have dug their way back to the surface after penetrating the ground beneath him.
They weren’t so fast that he couldn’t avoid them if he focused on evasion, but that last attack would certainly have ensnared a less capable fighter.
At this rate—
“Saya!”
A bad feeling coming over him, Ayato glanced around to his friend—just as she leaped from atop the fallen pillar and a swarm of crimson blades struck her in midair.
“Ngh…!”
Using the Helnekraum as a shield, she only barely managed to avoid a direct hit.
But while her Luxes were equipped with high-powered defensive fields, they weren’t designed to hold up against the likes of an Orga Lux.
The next moment, the core of the Helnekraum burst into flames. Saya was thrown violently backward by the force of the blast.
“Saya!”