“Bloom—Queen of the Night, Multiflos.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The second she murmured those words, time started moving again.
Behind her, twelve queen of the night flowers unfurled their petals like in a mandala.
Twelve seconds and twelve flowers—in other words, she had been afforded a hundred and forty-four seconds. She didn’t know what would come afterward, nor did she care.
As Julis became one with the pale flames, the miasmic arm approached to crush her, only to be instantly sliced in half by a huge blazing sword.
“Burst into bloom—Gladiolus.”
Swinging the blood from her sword, Julis murmured the name of her next technique.
“…I see. So you’ve seen the other side…!”
Orphelia was visibly surprised, but she seemed to understand everything.
A slight smile appeared on her face.
Without responding, Julis rose up into the sky and called out at the top of her voice:
“Burst into bloom—Antirrhinum Majus, Multiflos!”
The flaming dragon, infused with enormous prana thanks to her Queen of the Night, swooped down on Orphelia, rearing its seven heads.
“Ku gar ilulu yankashiw.”
The next moment, a jet-black dragon forged from Orphelia’s miasma rose to meet it head on.
Pure white flames and pitch-black miasma collided, beginning a fierce struggle.
“Wh-what a contest! This is incredible! I have no words except to say this is totally incredible!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Yes! I’ve always, always wanted to see a fight like this!”
But neither Mico’s nor Zaharoula’s voice reached Julis’s ears.
At that moment, everything but Orphelia had faded from her consciousness.
The dragons’ duel ended in a draw, and both exploded like a barrage of fireworks, leaving behind scattered sparks and wisps of miasma.
“Burst into bloom—Saururus Gregarious!”
With a wave of her arm, countless white lizard’s tail flowers rose up across the stage then exploded all at once.
This attack had an enormous range, and it obliterated the battlefield.
Orphelia leaped up into the air to evade, and Julis took aim at her, unleashing another attack: “Burst into bloom—Erythrina!”
With that, hundreds of flaming swords appeared overhead, surrounding Orphelia in midair.
Julis had surmised that Orphelia lacked the ability to fly. If she could, she wouldn’t have waited this long to reveal it.
In which case, it should be impossible for her to dodge this next strike.
“…Ningishzida.”
But Orphelia ensnared the fiery blades with a barrage of tentacles emerging from empty air—no doubt made up of the same liquefied gas that she had employed earlier.
Not only that, but the space around Julis began to distort, too, and more tentacles lashed out at her.
“Tch!”
In her current state, Julis had the speed to deal with them—but the fact that they had appeared suddenly and out of nowhere was a bad sign. She managed to pull away with a flap of her wings, but then—
“Uh-oh…!”
By the time Julis realized what was happening, Orphelia was already using the tentacles as a foothold, her right arm stretched out toward the sky.
This will be a big one…!
“…Gugalanna!”
A huge amount of miasma formed a dark cloud near the top of the stage, falling directly toward Julis in a terrifying torrent, as though several huge waterfalls had been bundled together.
“Burst into bloom—Redcrown Breeding!”
Julis’s next technique’s pentagonal petals, strengthened in the nick of time, shielded her like an umbrella, holding the miasma at bay.
The world lost all color as a terrifying roar filled the air.
Even now, Julis continued to manipulate her prana, pushing it ever wider, ever deeper.
Her opponent, it seemed, was doing the same.
As soon as the cascading miasma subsided, both fighters’ voices overlapped, echoing across the stage.
“Burst into bloom—Rose Odysseia Garden!”
“…Erragal!”
Julis’s technique summoned small flaming roses, the same type that had won her match against Xiaohui Wu. They were around the size of small fists, but with the added effects of her Queen of the Night, they were powerful enough to break through all of Orphelia’s defenses.
These flowers contained the memories that the two of them had nurtured in the orphanage’s greenhouse together.
The same precious flower was embroidered on her handkerchief, the one that had set everything in motion.
And those roses—thousands of them, sparkling like stars—began to fill the stage.
Meanwhile, a huge quantity of miasma engulfed Orphelia, taking on the appearance of a malevolent god. It had to be over thirty meters tall, with a skeletal head and a horrifying, wraithlike body.
“Burn!”
Julis issued her order, and the roses flew straight for the underworld titan as more explosions than could possibly be counted lit up across the stage. But the giant paid them no heed, reaching out to crush her.
Julis quickly sped up to dodge it, but the titan pursued her with a speed unthinkable for something so huge. Meanwhile, roses of flame continued to burst in every direction, chipping away at the giant’s body, though they seemed no more effective than a volley of cannonballs fired at a mountain.
“In that case…!”
Julis concentrated her fire on the titan’s abdomen.
At last, the figure’s miasmic body was wearing away.
The titan writhed in agony and turned its gaping eyes—or rather, its empty sockets—toward her.
A chill ran down Julis’s spine and she raced to fall back, when a ray of super-compressed miasma shot out from the creature’s eye, carving the stage in two.
She had dodged the beam in the nick of time, but it had severed her wings, and she lost control. She crashed into the stage, which was now reduced to rubble.
At the same time, the hellish titan disintegrated, melting away from the stomach as Orphelia crawled out.
Julis had less than thirty seconds left before her Queen of the Night reached its limit.
She would have to settle this.
Both she and Orphelia staggered to their feet, panting, and locked eyes.
They had both realized it.
No technique would be enough to decide this contest.
In stoic silence, the two approached each other—and then, in the blink of an eye, they kicked the ground and struck out with their fists, using all their strength.
Julis’s punch landed in the pit of Orphelia’s stomach.
Orphelia’s struck her in the face.
Both of them now had inexhaustible prana, and they lashed out at each other with fully charged strikes.
Before either could so much as groan, they were both blown away, rolling and tumbling over the ground.
But they quickly rose back to their feet, Julis wiping the blood from her battered nose, Orphelia spitting up blood as she fixed her opponent with a glare.
Both hits had hurt. Of course they had.
Both of them would have concentrated their prana to maximize their defenses, but those boosts wouldn’t be able to match their increased attack power.
In all likelihood, neither would be able to withstand the next blow.
Julis understood. This was a fight—a fight between two children.
“Juuuuuliiiiisssss!”
“Orpheliaaaaa!”
Screaming out each other’s names, they let their fists fly once more.
This time, they both dealt heavy blows to each other’s flank.
Their voices were replaced with airy pants as they each buckled at the knees, leaning against the other.
“…Hey, Orphelia?” Julis asked.
“…What, Julis?” Orphelia’s voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
“Don’t you think…this is getting ridiculous?”
“…I agree.”
“Then we’d better wrap things up,” Julis said, summoning the last of her strength.
“…”
As Orphelia knelt, staring up at her, Julis raised her hand high into the air.
“This is payback…Orphelia.”
The next moment, she slapped her hard across the cheek.
A soft, audible smack reverberated across the stage.
Orphelia curled up in surprise, then opened her eyes as though on the verge of tears. Just like that, she fell flat on her back as the tears began to spill out, joined by the sound of laughter.
✦ ✦ ✦
