The stage was still rising, and now there was a tornado on it surrounding a clash of weapons so intense there was no time to breathe. At this point, the battle was high enough that no one—not the announcer, not the commentator, and not the audience—could see the combatants while Kelvin reaped the wealth of great combat to be had today. Even now, he and Sylvia were inside the Tempest Barrier, engaging in close combat in an endless exchange of attempts on each other’s lives.
Ugh, I somehow managed to avoid a direct hit, I think! Ema thought, having just attempted another assault on Kelvin. She had matched her timing perfectly with Sylvia to create a pincer, but her charge had suddenly been cut short by the appearance of a tornado. This tornado did not just defend her opponent; it was also a disaster that sliced through everything in the area. In other words, it was a troublesome thing that also served as a counterattack. Ema couldn’t nullify magic like Sylvia could, so being hit by it was more than enough to be fatal.
But Ema wasn’t one to freely get hit. Her reflexes were much better than the average person’s. Though she’d been cut a little, she managed to fire a jet with her sword to avoid any more damage. Thanks to the force of it, she’d been flung quite a ways away, but since she could move easily through the air, that wasn’t a great loss.
“Did you think you could separate us by making a wall?” she asked rhetorically.
She made her flames burn even hotter, sure that with a powerful enough strike, it would be possible to blow away the tornado that was acting as a wall. With that in mind, she once again charged toward it...
“Are you really going to ignore me after coming this far, Ashley?” Shutola asked suddenly.
It took a brief moment for Ema to react. “No.”
Unfortunately for her plans, she’d been interrupted before her charge could get into full swing. The culprit was the other star of the day’s events, who had been staying behind Kelvin: Shutola. She used her magic threads to stabilize the stage so she could maintain her balance while standing, and she was also surrounded by several unfamiliar puppets. Of course, those puppets were connected to her with magic thread. Also, there were several more threads wrapping around Ema’s sword at the moment, stopping it from moving.
“Wouldn’t you agree that it’s wrong for a knight to point their blade at the person who was once their lord and is now their friend?” Ema asked.
“You know, if you said that to Kelvin, he’d burst out laughing. He’d say there would be no point in having this objection system in that case,” Shutola replied.
“Ah, yes, that does sound like something he’d say,” Ema conceded. “So, what’re those puppets?”
Shutola had introduced Ema to her favorite plushies before. Among them had been the large battle bear, Georgios, and the all-rounder knight puppets called Royal Guards. Shutola had been very excited as she introduced them, her eyes sparkling as she explained everything. Even now, Ema remembered it all very well. After all, Shutola had gone on so long she ended up having to stay overnight, only to continue in the morning. Anyway, it had been carved deep into her memory along with all the exhaustion, which was why she felt she was more familiar than most with how Shutola fought.
However, even after the match started, Shutola had yet to pull out said puppets and plushies. She’d retreated to the rear at the very beginning and deployed her magic threads, but then she simply stood there. At a glance, she seemed unguarded, but Ema could feel something unfathomable going on with her and knew Shutola had something planned. She knew because she was best friends with Shutola, which was also why she had a strong feeling that whatever it was would be troublesome. Truly troublesome. And so, that had led to her wanting to work with Sylvia to finish Kelvin off before Shutola could do anything. However, that plan had failed. Now, she was facing off against Shutola and a bunch of puppets she’d never seen or heard of before.
“These children? Hee hee! If you want an explanation, it will take a while—” Shutola started.
“Given the situation, couldn’t you give a quick summary?” Ema cut her off. She had to move quickly to avoid exposing herself to more of this particular kind of trauma.
Shutola paused for a moment to think. “I see this match as an extension of the parade earlier: our first activity as a pair. These children were made by Kelvin-san. You could say they’re a kind of golem. Custom-made golems created specially for me to control with magic threads.”
“Golems? Weird. That means they were made from the ground using Green Magic, right?” Ema asked.
One of the reasons she and Sylvia had launched the entire stage up into the air was to half block Kelvin’s Green Magic. Unlike his White Magic and wind-based Green Magic, which could be used anywhere, his earth-based Green Magic needed materials from the ground—or at least, that should have been the case. And yet, Ema was currently looking at golems said to have been made by him. It was unthinkable.
Are those illusions made with Shutola’s Blue Magic? No, but...hmmm? She was spending quite a bit of time in thought, likely influenced by the fact that she was facing Shutola.
To spoil the surprise, the trick behind this was quite simple. The instant Sylvia had launched the stage into the sky, Kelvin had used the ground under the ice as material to form several Obsidian Edge blades and stick them into the underside of the ice. Although these blades couldn’t break the ice, they had managed to come up into the air along with it. As they ascended, he’d used them to create Shutola’s puppets.
“Indeed. What a mystery,” Shutola replied. Of course, she wouldn’t tell Ema that. She wanted to use this creepy unfathomable feeling of it all to gain a psychological advantage.
“By the way, these children are Adamantite Arachnids. There are a total of eight of them, and I will not use anything besides them in this fight, so no need to worry about that,” Shutola announced.
“Hrm, that just makes me worry more,” said Ema.
The golems around Shutola were special ones shaped like spiders. They had eight sharply pointed limbs, eight eyes emitting a red glow, and jet-black armor that glinted with dark luster. It looked like Shutola’s magic threads were being used like a spider’s nest. However, even if they were shaped like spiders, they weren’t creepy. In fact, the clean lines of their silhouettes looked futuristic.
“They look tough,” said Ema. “Zolub.” With a wry smile, she raised her beloved sword, Solforme. Its blade turned red, instantly melting the magic threads entangling it.
“So you transformed your weapon,” said Shutola. “You don’t need Perusus anymore?”
“I can just turn it back if I need to!” Ema replied.
Perusus was specialized for mobility, while Zolub featured overwhelming heat. This was a transformation ability for Ema’s beloved sword that she had developed to handle all situations. It seemed she’d decided that cutting through these spider puppets with regular heat would be too difficult, so she’d gone with melting them instead. She kicked off the stage, closing the distance to Shutola all at once.
Meanwhile, Shutola twitched her fingers, activating her Adamantite Spiders in earnest. They traveled across the magic threads while shooting out more threads, which they used to construct a new web to obstruct Ema with surprising speed.
“Don’t think such thin thread can stop my sword!” Ema shouted.
“Do you really think I’d do something with no purpose?” Shutola asked.
One side was determined to break through, while the other was determined to stop the first. Each combatant swung their weapon, whether red sword or blue thread, to assert their will. The clash was impending—it would happen in less than a second. However, that was more than enough time for something else to get in the way.
Schwaaah!
Kelvin’s tornado in the middle of the stage was cut apart right before the two clashed. It was split in half perfectly, including the stage underneath.
“Aaaggghhh!!! That was close! I’ve never had so much trouble swinging my scythe before! That was seriously close!” Kelvin shouted.
“Mm. Too bad. In the end, the healing caught up,” Sylvia remarked.
Clive’s grand magic had been easily torn apart, revealing Kelvin, smiling though he was full of holes; and Sylvia, who looked sad despite her face being as impassive as always.