Kana
Halna cast the spell, and Calkoro assisted her. While somehow watching them, Kana had been continuing to ask questions in her head and so had managed to gain a certain amount of information.
She had managed to get a grasp on what Frederica was trying to do. She was trying to kick out the current Three Sage’s system and then fit herself into the open space.
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The Sage system consumed massive magic power when invoking a soul into a new incarnation. The system had only been arranged for one person, originally speaking. Since three people had been caught up in it due to a chance accident, it had brought about an unanticipated energy shortage.
Once, Ratsumukana-honome-no-kami had learned about that fact through her magic. Speaking about this fact casually would certainly cause chaos not only for the faction but for the whole Kingdom. Ratsumu couldn’t even tell the leadership of the Caspar Faction and just kept it to herself, suffering and agonizing; as a result, she had wound up leaking it only to Pythie Frederica, her personal attendant. Having learned about the Sage system, Frederica had tried to use it for her own desires.
Ironically, if Frederica were to take over the system in place of the Three Sages, that would resolve the energy shortage issue. Of course—since the system that had originally been made for one would return to operation as anticipated.
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Kana joined in on Calkoro and Halna’s task. They put up illusory walls on both sides of the entrance area, making the size of the room seem different. By doing this, they aimed for a surprise attack from within the walls.
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Kana had also always been thinking that they could not let the Sage system continue. And then it was because she had been waffling around wondering what to do that things had wound up like this.
Actually destroying the system would take an incredible amount of time. Negotiation and adjustments within the factions, discussions and bargaining between the factions, with even more internal conflict than before happening again and again—it would be slower than even a meandering slug. If they did make progress with time, that would be on the better side—it was possible that they would stall and go in reverse. Actually, that was extremely likely. And then all the while, blood would be spilling endlessly. Fools who thought themselves clever schemers would clash in attempt to be the ones to benefit after the Three Sages were gone. Ordinary mages would fall into great confusion. More people would wind up dead.
Thinking about that, Frederica, who was trying to accomplish things with violence, stamping out everyone who would get in her way with speed beyond haste, was in a sense correct. While people who tried to cling to power were trying to resolve things with discussion, the Magical Kingdom was declining further.
Of course, it wasn’t as if everything was right about Frederica’s style. The greatest problem of all was the fact that, after that, Frederica herself would stand in the position of leading the Magical Kingdom. Kana knew just what sort of person Frederica was—awfully well. They could never work together.
But Kana had failed at eliminating Frederica through her own martial force. Plan B in the case that they couldn’t eliminate Frederica was to forestall her and make her goal unusable.
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Frederica would not appear yet. They would prepare as much as possible. They would lay traps on the steps. This was makeshift, so they couldn’t expect dramatic effects. Even if it was unlikely that they could kill her instantly, so long as they stopped her, slowed her even slightly, that was enough for now.
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The relic, which was the system itself, had been made in the image of a plant. The relic would suck up magic power, bloom a flower, and bear fruit; and when that fell, the magic power that was stored in the seed inside the fruit would burst, and it would send the souls of the Three Sages into the new incarnation candidates that were on standby in their respective hideouts. Frederica’s goal was certainly to acquire the relic fruit, and its seed. They would go into the ruins ahead of Frederica and secure the seed. If they could not do that, they would destroy the seed.
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Kana put her hand to the floor. She felt vibrations. They were not from the ruins. They were smaller, and closer. They were coming even closer. The vibrations grew more intense. She took her hand off the floor. The flagstones were shaking. Halna and Calkoro stopped what they were doing. Kana restrained the two with a hand and turned in the direction the shaking approached from, facing the right wall.
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Right now in the ruins, the Puk Puck flower should be blooming, and the Grim Heart fruit should be growing. It was due to their influence that the ruins were being activated.
It took a fixed amount of time for flowers to bloom and bear fruit on the relic. If they destroyed that now, then Frederica would be unable to do anything for the time being. If they could destroy the flowers as well, then that would buy them an even longer amount of time. However, if they did that, then the souls of Puk and Osk would be released from the system, and the incarnations would never be born again.
This was something Kana should be doing, fundamentally. While their relationship was not so great that she would call them “fellow Sages,” even so, they had associated for a very long time. If Puk and Osk were here now, just how would they react? Kana didn’t know. They might say, “Kill me for the sake of the Magical Kingdom,” or they might be angry and say, “That’s like being killed while you’re asleep.” Kana’s magic would not give her answers about the uncertain future or hypothetical scenarios.
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The walls of the ruins entrance were both magically defended and physically sturdy. They would be undaunted whether they were directly under an earthquake or an air raid or under assault by a group of armed magical girls.
And in that wall, suddenly, there was a crack, and before they could even be surprised, it broke open and crumbled. An earsplitting sound rang through the room. Kana had heard this sound before. This was Dory’s drill. The drill that rotated at high speed gradually slowed its spinning, and its owner, Dory, looked around the room with an uneasy expression; from behind her, her sister Arlie also showed her face.
“You’re unharmed, then?” asked Kana.
Dory wailed something, and Arlie nodded. The translucent dancer-esque magical girl floating at Arlie’s side nodded as well.
“You know this girl?” Kana asked Arlie and Dory.
The pair looked at the floating magical girl. Dory shook her head and said, “Never met her.” Arlie nodded. If Arlie knew this girl, then that meant she was an ally.
Kana swiftly asked a bunch of questions in her mind and confirmed who this magical girl was.
Halna was confused; Calkoro was frightened.
“This is fortunate,” Kana told them. “We have more help. Now things might just work out, somehow.”
“Uh-huh…somehow.”
“Somehow.”
She didn’t know how many people they would need in order to fight back against Frederica. They didn’t know what Frederica might pull. At the very least, just her, Halna, and Calkoro wouldn’t have been enough.
Kana was the one who originally should have been going into the ruins. But she hadn’t been able to. Right now, she was heavily wounded, and she doubted she could do the job in the ruins properly. Even if she were to push through her injuries and go in, if she failed at her mission, it would all go to waste. So what should she do?
Snow White had heard Kana’s inner voice and made her proposal.
Kana had questioned her, to make sure of her intentions and to make sure that she was prepared for it.
And then it was over. There had been no need to let the others know of their conversation. If Halna were to hear the content of their conversation, she would have refused cooperation. Even Calkoro might have refused to help.
There was nothing for it but to apologize and thank her. Snow White was even fully aware of the danger of the technology of fusion, and with that knowledge, she had accepted the unpleasant task. Kana could offer Snow White her life a hundred times and it wouldn’t be enough, and Snow White wouldn’t even want that.
There was other work that Kana should do. She would take up position in front of the ruins, and if Frederica came, she would kill her, and if she couldn’t do that, then at least she would stake her life on slowing her down. It would be pretty tough to slow her down with the three of them, but with the addition of three more, they had better odds.
Dory wailed furiously, but no one understood what she was saying.