Kana
She heard footsteps from up the stairs. There was just one person coming down right now.
They had set a trap right around the end of the steps. If they would get caught there, that would make things faster. Frederica had had a long career as a magical girl, but she was no mage. She shouldn’t be able to see through a magic trap in one glance. Since it worked on contact, she also couldn’t evade it with her crystal balls.
In their earlier fight, Kana had been unaware of her tricks, had been entirely played, and had failed. But now, by having asked so many questions about Frederica, she had a grasp on Frederica’s magic that was about as good as Frederica herself. Her defense was automatic, so absolutely no projectile weapons. There would be no careless oversight on her part.
A figure came down the stairs. And then there was a yellow light as a sound rang out. That was an electrical trap activated by stepping on a floorboard. Calkoro and Halna’s chant began.
Kana leaped. As the figure stood there, she jabbed it with her elbow and was about to strike it across the jaw when she was stopped.
“Oh, that was close, that was close.”
A blackened crystal ball was lying in the corner of the staircase. Frederica herself kept from touching the ground, standing on her toes on a crystal ball.
Moving horizontally through the air, Frederica approached Kana. She stayed close to Kana, so close it was more like she was sticking to her. Kana had seen this strategy already. She had come up with a counter. Kana had slid a magically created adhesive underneath her clothing. If Frederica came as close as she had before, Kana wouldn’t let her go again. Right after she started chanting the spell to activate it, Frederica backed up horizontally in the same way she had come.
“Your ideas are quite nice, but they’re transparent.”
Intense pain ran through her right thigh, then her left.
Some of the Lightning swords that had been lying up aboveground were thrust into her right and left thighs. As she was distracted by those, a heartbeat later, a blade was thrust into her throat and blood welled up within her mouth. Her chant was forced to stop.
Frederica moved horizontally again to swoop toward her. She grabbed Kana’s shoulder and zoomed farther into the entranceway. Calkoro’s chanting stopped. She hesitated, worrying she might hit Kana as well. Halna’s chant didn’t stop, but she wouldn’t make it in time.
Kana was unable to resist and pushed on inward. She had been wounded almost to death to begin with. Halna and Calkoro had healed her with their magic but just enough so that she was barely able to jump. Repairing the flesh of an incarnation required a specialist caster and facilities.
But if she could do nothing here, then there would be no meaning in her having stayed behind. Snow White had even given up her body in volunteering for this.
Kana clenched her right fist, just like Tetty Goodgripp did with her mittens. She then grabbed Frederica’s collar. Just one more attack—if her body would move that much, it was enough. If she could swing down her fist on Frederica’s head, then it would be done.
“Not enough.”
Frederica lifted her chin. She had rows of little crystal balls wedged between the fingers of both hands. She threw them.
It was a throw from an incarnation’s body. Only Kana was able to react. She grabbed them out of the air right before they reached her face. But she was too busy to stop the attacks toward the others.
Calkoro leaped out from the illusory wall that they had made to hide and plunged into the opposite wall. The illusion vanished like smoke. While dodging the crystal balls that flew toward her, Calkoro tackled Halna, guarding her from the projectiles that were targeting her.
But the crystal balls were even faster and harder than magic bullets. They dug into Calkoro’s shoulder and fired into Halna’s throat, sending her glasses flying up to the ceiling.
“The principal has insulted magical girls. I will make very sure that she dies.”
Four more shots followed, three of which struck Halna and one of which went through Calkoro’s body to reach Halna. Underneath Calkoro, Halna’s body spasmed violently.
Frederica was cut off when the wall crumbled. This was not an illusory wall, it was a real stone wall. Dory and Arlie leaped out just according to plan, and they charged in with drill raised, but with the plan not going well, Frederica’s guard was firm, and she dodged the drill without difficulty, swinging up a knife hand.
Kana tried to step forward to stop her, but her leg wouldn’t move right, and she stumbled.
Frederica’s knife hand swung down. It struck Arlie’s helmet, warping it mercilessly. She and Dory were kicked away together to roll to the corner of the room. As the two of them rolled off at about the same time, Frederica threw crystal balls at them. When they struck, they sent Arlie’s helmet flying, and Dory cried out and fell face-first.
A wind touched Kana’s skin. An invisible something ran up, tearing through the cloud of dust as it went, approaching Frederica from the ground. Frederica picked up Dory’s drill in a very natural, mundane manner.
“It seems…I’m no longer bound by that girl Weddin’s magic.”
She pointed the spinning drill to the sky. The invisible something that had chased Frederica tried to avoid the drill, but when it made contact with the spinning point, it was flung away and scattered to bits.
“It must have decided that I am no longer Pythie Frederica. Such a shame—but now I shall accept that with gratitude.”
The scattered something was trying to gather itself together once more. It was the magical girl in the shape of a lamp genie, Tepsekemei.
Before she could take form, Frederica thrust out the drill once more, and Tepsekemei was entirely dispersed.
With blood gushing from her thighs, Kana leaped in and punched at her. But Frederica soundlessly backed up, leisurely dodging the punch Kana had been willing to die for. Kana desperately tried to pursue her, but her legs wouldn’t move, and Frederica kicked her away and sent her rolling on the ground.
Kana pulled out the knife that was stuck in her throat. The blood wouldn’t stop right away. But she should be able to burn up what life she had left to chant a spell, at least. This time for sure, she would not let her get away.
As Kana was readying herself, thinking, Now come at me, Frederica shrugged at her.
“You are my insurance in case of the worst. If the flowers or seeds are destroyed first, then I will need you.”
Moving just her feet, Frederica backed up. Ahead of her were the ruins. Kana could hear her voice coming from the darkness. Gradually, the voice receded into the distance.
“If you treat those who are wounded, then they might be saved. I leave that to you.”
The voice faded away.