“Geshti Nanna.”
✦ ✦ ✦
As Orphelia murmured those words, huge treelike plumes of miasma burst out all over the stage.
“Whoa! This is how Landlufen defeated Hilda Jane Rowlands in the fifth round…!”
“This is a formidable move, all right, combining the Gravisheath’s powers with Orphelia’s own abilities…!”
With that thought, Julis fled into the air using her Strelitzia wings—but of course, this onslaught wasn’t so easily dodged. The huge, treelike masses continued to stretch their branches upward and diagonally, binding her in an ever-shrinking cage.
“It’s like a primordial jungle has just engulfed the stage! Every one of those mammoth trees has to be over twenty meters high! And they just keep coming, one after the other!”
Even Hilda, the great Magnum Opus, who should have been Orphelia’s equal, had been unable to withstand this. Julis, however, had witnessed it before, and she had prepared a countermeasure.
“Bloom!”
As Julis’s order boomed over the stage, the ground began to explode, one area after the next—the seeds of the Impatiens Balsamina technique that she had deployed earlier.
Of course, a few explosions wouldn’t be enough to dispel this miasma—but with the Stargazer Pollen acting as combustion fuel, their power was greatly enhanced.
She wasn’t aiming to wholly incinerate the trees. They were growing out of the ground, so if she could just burn their roots…
“All right…!”
Several of the huge trees closing in on her broke off at the base, collapsing into a heap.
But not all of them fell. Though Julis had boosted her attacks with the help of the pollen, Orphelia’s power output was on another dimension. The trees that had managed to withstand the explosions at their base continued to aim for her, hoping to knock her around like billiard cues hitting a ball.
“Ngh…!”
Far more had survived her counterattack than she had anticipated.
With a flap of her flaming wings, she flew around the stage in an attempt to avoid the strikes, but they grazed by her countless times, dangerously close. Having to continuously dodge these attacks—any one of which would mean immediate defeat if it connected—was a test of endurance both physically and mentally.
That she was able to dodge them at all was half thanks to the success of her preparation and countermeasures. The other half was pure luck—as several of the giant trees collapsed, they pushed others out of the way, momentarily keeping them at a safe distance.
“Phew… Phew…!”
Even so, she only barely made it through.
When the chaos finally stopped, the huge trees filling the stage slowly disintegrated into gaseous miasma.
“Bloom—Rafflesia!”
Julis thrust her Rect Lux into the ground from midair, immediately activating a preprepared move, which incinerated the surrounding miasma and gave her space to land.
“Sh-she pulled through! Riessfeld just managed to survive Landlufen’s incredible assault!”
“Only narrowly, mind you. I doubt she’ll be able to withstand it a second time.”
It might not be impossible, but Zaharoula was probably right that Julis would have a hard time if Orphelia tried the same move again. And knowing Orphelia, she might very well do just that.
Julis activated her Stargazer Pollen ability a second time, littering the battlefield with a fresh coating of the combustion fuel.
Whatever happened, she had to be ready.
“…”
But contrary to her expectations, Orphelia merely stared back at her.
“Ahhh…,” she said at last with a soft sigh. “Yes. Yes, I see. Very well, I acknowledge it.”
“Huh? You’re acknowledging my ability?”
“Yes.”
It was a simple, lighthearted remark. But Julis was considerably taken aback by the praise.
“…That’s an honor.”
“So from here on, I’ll go all out.”
“…!”
Julis’s eyes went wide.
“Oh…? I’m surprised you’d make light of your opponent like that. You’re saying you’ve been slacking off all this time?”
That was impossible.
No matter who she fought, Orphelia wasn’t the type to let her guard down. No, she would seek to utterly destroy them from the very outset.
“No. I would never cut corners. It’s just…I wasn’t able to give it my true all before, even if I’d wanted to.”
With those words, Orphelia gripped the Gravisheath tightly in her right hand and stroked its urm-manadite core. Her movements were quiet and gentle, and at first glance, they might have seemed affectionate. But they weren’t. There was nothing but grief and resignation in her demeanor. Perhaps the Gravisheath itself understood that, as looking closely, Julis could see it trembling ever so slightly.
And then—
“Gyaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!”
All of a sudden, a pained scream echoed across the stage.
An enormous quantity of miasma was flowing straight from Orphelia’s hand directly into the Gravisheath’s core—an infusion so potent, it would probably have killed a person in a split second.
The urm-manadite flickered with frenzied purple light, illuminating the stage. Its death scream dragged on, slowly weakening as the light of its core dimmed…until finally it was extinguished, and the Gravisheath ceased to function.
The next moment, Orphelia casually tossed the Orga Lux away, sending it rolling across the stage with a dry, metallic sound.
“Huh…? Eh? Whaaaaat?! Wh-what’s going on here? Landlufen just destroyed her own Gravisheath, and with her bare hands…?!”
“…What’s the meaning of this, Orphelia?” Julis asked, glaring at her opponent.
“You already know, don’t you?” she replied, staring back. “My miasma is so strong that it eats away at my own body. That’s why Dirk Eberwein has been controlling it with medication, to suppress its effects as much as possible.”
“Yes, I’ve heard.”
“But it will take my full power to fully implement the plan. It might be possible for me to carry it out under the medication’s influence, but it would be difficult to spread my miasma to every corner of Asterisk. A good number of people would no doubt survive. Which is why I stopped taking the drugs a good while back.” Orphelia spoke nonchalantly, as though none of this concerned her. “But if I self-destruct before the plan is carried out, it will all have been for nothing. So…”
“…!”
Having heard this much, Julis finally understood.
“I see… So the Gravisheath was basically functioning like a limiter on your abilities.”
One might wonder why Orphelia, who already possessed such overwhelming power, had gone to the trouble of acquiring a new one in the form of the Gravisheath—but that would be to misunderstand her situation. The Orga Lux’s functions as a weapon were merely a bonus. From the very beginning, she had needed it to weaken and regulate her powers by absorbing her toxic blood.
“…”
Orphelia nodded. “Hilda Jane Rowlands said that, for me, the Gravisheath was the worst possible partner… But the truth is the opposite. For regulating my powers and inhibiting my full strength, there was nothing better.”
As she spoke, an enormous quantity of prana seeped from Orphelia’s body, transforming the mana around her into toxic miasma.
“Wh-what…?!”
In Julis’s head, alarm bells were already ringing at maximum volume.
Driven by instinct, she leaped backward to a safe distance.
“Huh…? Wh-what’s going on…? Orphelia Landlufen’s powers are increasing at an accelerated rate… No… No one could possibly handle all that…”
Zaharoula’s voice betrayed her confusion.
And then—
“Eh?! U-um, h-hold on…! Right! Um, sorry for interrupting, but we’ve got breaking news! Large-scale terrorist attacks seem to be taking place all across Asterisk! The Rikka Administrative Authority and Stjarnagarm have issued a mandatory evacuation order! All residents and visitors are to seek safety indoors!”
“Terrorist attacks…?!”
When she heard this shocking announcement, Julis glanced around.
After a short pause, a wave of anxiety and confusion spread through the crowd as the audience forgot its excitement.
Air-windows began to snap open throughout the audience seating, lighting up one after the other as though in a chain reaction. Everyone must be trying to get a handle on the devastation outside.
There was no way to know the extent of the damage, but a mandatory evacuation order was the highest level of alert that the Rikka Administrative Authority and Stjarnagarm were capable of issuing. Things must have been in an awful state.
“U-um! For now, it’s safest for everyone here to stay inside the building. All visitors to the Sirius Dome, please remain calm and—”
Uh-oh.
This was going to cause a panic.
It was one thing to tell the audience that they were safest staying put, but with this many people in one place, there would always be some narrow-minded individuals who would refuse to trust that advice. Once they began to sow confusion, the chaos would quickly multiply and spread.
And if a large-scale panic were to break out here, with more than a hundred thousand people crammed into the venue…