Kana
Three Lightnings rushed her at once from behind, and Kana swung around a chain without looking back to knock aside their swords. The purple lightning that wreathed their blades crackled and crawled up her body, and combined with a lightning strike that she took head-on, a nasty burnt smell rose up from her uniform.
Kana kicked them away, shook them off, and flung them down, but the Lightnings kept coming and coming in droves. Kana punched one, threw another, and then her kick whiffed.
Her enemy had dodged. She looked back automatically. It was Lightning. Her smile was even more condescending than usual as she vanished into the crowd. Though she looked the same, it seemed their strength was not equal. If you paid attention when you looked, you could see a difference in the speed and strength of their movements.
Lightning strikes, slices, dagger throws—the moment Kana showed a weakness, she was showered with them one after another. Kana stepped left to right, sending a few Lightnings flying.
Kana’s memories had been distorted by Frederica, and she had been made to believe that her own magic was far weaker than it originally was. Even without asking someone a question, if she thought of a question in her head, then she could acquire the truth, outside of things that had yet to happen. That was how her magic originally had been.
Who is Princess Lightning working for?
Old Blue.
Is that the Princess Lightning I know?
No. They’re all strangers.
What is their goal?
The ruins in the courtyard and the relic enshrined there.
Kana took a hard step on the concrete of the outdoor passageway between buildings, and when the Lightnings all around her lost balance from the shock, she mowed them all down. Then from behind them, energetic Lightnings charged straight in toward Kana completely unflinchingly.
These Lightnings felt more powerful than the group she had sent flying when she had encountered Adelheid. Though their attacks didn’t work on Kana, more appeared one after another, and they were all strong, some of them even more exceptionally powerful. They weren’t sending in reinforcements every time Kana mowed them down. There was an intent here. There was a place they didn’t want Kana getting close to.
Though the Lightnings had started sending in more skilled fighters, they were no longer trying to defeat Kana. They had noticed that Kana was holding back and avoiding any fatal blows to the Lightnings, and they were taking advantage of that, committing to a harassment-like attack in waves. Though they had to understand that at most all they could do was singe her clothing, they never let up their assault, gradually moving the battlefield, trying to move her away from a certain place—the courtyard.
In the courtyard was the entrance to the ruins. Open the lid, and go down the stairs, and if you went along the way, you would come to a stone corridor—the ruins. The relic was enshrined there. It was not something that anyone should consider making use of. Bringing it out would only lead to misfortune. Even the Puk Puck had not tried to use it.
Ever since Kana had learned of the past through asking questions, she’d been having vivid waking dreams. They felt far too real to write off as delusions due to mental stress. They rose in her mind once more—that green hell.
Even its inventor, the First Mage, had bungled in handling it. It seemed unlikely that the succeeding mages, who didn’t even know the idea behind its design, would be able to handle it any better. The land had been transformed, and many mages had lost their lives. The situation had only been just barely resolved because the developer had sacrificed their own life. And now the First Mage was no more.
The remaining three—Osk, Puk, and Caspar—hadn’t even understood how they had survived, and in order to preserve that which their vanished master had left, they had sealed the ruins. That was the foundation of the Three Sages’ system, without them being aware that this was eating away at the Magical Kingdom. As a result, the surviving three disciples had come to be called the Three Sages, there was nobody who would oppose their positions, and the seal had been protected. But it would not go on forever. With the story not in the records, the Three Sages themselves unaware of the situation, and nobody telling the story, of course some people would pop up who thought they would surely be able to make good use of it.
The start of it had probably been Halna. She was getting a cut of the energy of the formula construction that was at the center of the ruins, most likely without knowing of the origin of the Magical Kingdom. Frederica had certainly estimated that she could do it, based on what Kana had said. That was no good. She doubted it would go well. And even if it did go well that time, they couldn’t give it to Frederica.
A twisted scream. Transformed flesh. Swallowed up, vanishing.
Running to the right, running to the left, she drew the enemy to her, then turned back and raced out. On the way, she knocked aside those who got in her way. Lightnings with startled expressions were blown away, and the school building was pulverized. Kana snapped the garden trees, running straight ahead. The voices of the Lightnings that came at her from behind grew distant.
The Three Sages were what was really in the way of the Magical Kingdom. Whenever she had the time, Kana had been thinking, How can I kill myself without a new incarnation being made? But now that things were like this, she had no intention of dying right away. She would protect Umemizaki Junior High and her classmates. To that end, before searching for each one of them individually, first, she had to secure the courtyard. If there were any foolish people who would try to appropriate the ruins or the relic, that would be a danger to everyone in the vicinity. She had to eliminate such people for good.