Boom!!!!!!
A moment later, a third of Misha Kreutzev’s total power was gone.
✦ ✦ ✦
An angel was a body comprising a certain type of energy. It didn’t normally possess a physical form. The insides, for lack of a better term, of Misha Kreutzev’s nonphysical body had suddenly and drastically thinned. And that was enough to make Fiamma, his senses partially linked to her, catch his breath.
“What…did you do? No, this is…”
“Have you forgotten? I am Acqua of the Back. One of God’s Right Seat, the most secret organization in the Roman Church. The symbol of blue, the moon, and the back—and the one who commands Gabriel of the Four Archangels.”
“Wait, have you…taken it into your own body…?!”
“The sealing and release of telesma—angelic power—is the most basic fundamental in Crossist spellcasting. And my body itself functions as the greatest medium to link with Gabriel…If I thoroughly absorb this water-aspected telesma, it goes without saying what will happen to its source, which is Gabriel’s power.”
“…”
It was insane.
No normal sorcerer, to start with, would ever consider packing all the power of an archangel into their own single body. No matter how one viewed it, the person would explode and die in the process.
However…
“It is certainly not impossible.”
Acqua’s voice cut through the walls of common sense.
“In fact, you set your eyes on that Russian nun you used because she was able to do just that.”
“You fool…It was only because she had the knowledge and capacity that it flowed naturally into her during Angel Fall!! It’s not something just anyone can do. Even if you cloned Sasha Kreutzev herself, I doubt the clone would have the same capacity!! Without that much inborn talent, even I would never consider using it in that manner!!”
“That is not what I am saying…If someone else can do it, then so can I. I offer only that simple fact.”
I see, thought Fiamma. He is still part of God’s Right Seat. I suppose this means trying to argue with him using common sense is the wrong move.
“Then go ahead and try.”
“You can be certain that I will.”
“Still, I do hope you’re aware that your reckless challenge will shatter your power. What you’re doing is suicide, plain and simple.”
✦ ✦ ✦
One man stood alone in snowy Russia.
He was a short distance from the national border with the Independent Nations. He was distant from Fiamma’s fortress, but that presented no inconvenience for the spell he was about to perform.
He’d stuck his great sword, far longer than his height, into the ground halfway and used it to support his own tall frame.
The surrounding air distorted.
The man stood in the middle of an abnormal swaying, as if a large amount of sugar had been dissolved into water.
Immense power.
It flowed inside.
Attached with the color blue and responding to the light of the moon—an enormous amount of telesma.
“Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa???!!!”
A rush.
A vortex of power, seeping in through every pore, collecting at the center of his body. The quantity was too much to reside fully within a human body. It was the same as how only a certain amount of air could fit into a balloon. If you tried to pack even more into it, the eventual outcome was clear.
Red blood sprayed out from his arms and legs.
He felt like sparks were arcing across his spine and neck.
His blood vessels and nerves weren’t safe, either. He now knew the feeling of all that wiring, split up into countless branches, splitting and tearing apart. His two legs shook madly, and his body, which had been so sturdy before, was now on the verge of breaking.
But he wouldn’t fall.
The sword he had driven into the ground—and his own heart. Steadying himself with only those two things, this man would never crumple.
The damage didn’t stay in his physical body.
Something important, something that had maintained his functioning as a sorcerer, continued to pull apart.
He was a saint—and a member of God’s Right Seat. A fusion of the two talents was within him, and he was one of only a very few sorcerers who wielded such immense power. He could feel the wellspring of that power shattering, crumbling to pieces. Even now, with every passing moment, more of his magical power was lost. He would probably drain himself of it utterly. And it was likely things wouldn’t stop there. Even as he felt himself breaking apart from within, he didn’t stop.
The enemy’s strength would weaken for every bit of telesma that flowed to him.
The angelic power of salvation would decrease the chances his opponent would kill others.
That was enough.
As long as that held true, the man would be able to continue gritting his teeth and confront this incredible telesma.
And…
✦ ✦ ✦
Roar!!!!!!
Accelerator’s attack landed squarely on Misha Kreutzev.
The Eradication it had tried to rain upon them lost control over its aim, only causing the night sky to shake before stopping.
As Misha Kreutzev careened away, Accelerator and the angel of science headed toward it.
To deliver a follow-up attack.
To prevent it from further reducing the battlefield to scrap metal and rubble.
And…
✦ ✦ ✦
Fiamma of the Right smiled slightly.
The total telesma Acqua of the Back had forced into its own body was around half of what Gabriel could muster. Even that alone was plenty threatening—but nevertheless, humans were humans. Unless he was a special exception like Sasha Kreutzev, he wouldn’t be able to contain the entirety of an archangel.
And.
“Even fifty percent is more than enough to win,” said Fiamma, sounding bored. “To have lost both your sainthood and your place in God’s Right Seat, only for it to end now? Your life will go unrequited.”
Kill them, he commanded.
That would be the end.
The archangel Misha Kreutzev would kill the angel of science and Academy City esper, then swiftly eliminate Academy City’s armored units. None could stop Fiamma’s plans. As long as he had Misha, even if over fifty thousand nuclear missiles were fired at the same time, they could never bring down the Star of Bethlehem.
That was how it should have been.
✦ ✦ ✦
But she wasn’t moving.
Misha Kreutzev, to whom he had given his command to kill, was frozen.
✦ ✦ ✦
He had a bad feeling about this.
He had a perfectly advantageous position—and now it had very slightly tilted. It was no more than an extremely tiny movement, and yet, he felt an unease that he couldn’t ignore, as though everything, strangely, was about to slip away.
And—
“That bastard…”
Fiamma of the Right figured it out.
One other thing.
There was one other presence that could only use his full power on this irregular battlefield.
“That bastard.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Meanwhile.
Touma Kamijou was in a corner of the Star of Bethlehem. At the ritual site on the fortress’s rightmost section, where Misha Kreutzev’s summoning using Sasha’s body had been conducted.
Fiamma had apparently embedded the Index-remote-control Soul Arm into his staff in order to control Misha. If Kamijou could destroy that staff with his right hand, it should stop Misha, but to do that, he’d have to clash with Fiamma, an unknown value.
And there was one more thing.
Kamijou had thought of a possibility that could stop Misha Kreutzev with more certainty and also quicker.
“…Misha Kreutzev appeared after the Star of Bethlehem did,” he murmured—as if to explain to Sasha next to him or perhaps to confirm it to himself. “If he could use something as strong as an archangel in the war, he didn’t need to conserve it. He wouldn’t have to cause World War III. He could have just done everything with the one archangel. But he didn’t. Not until the Star of Bethlehem appeared.
“In other words,” he continued, “he needed the Star of Bethlehem to summon the archangel Misha Kreutzev and control it!! He couldn’t have used it before the fortress went airborne, even if he wanted to!! There’s something in the Star propping up Misha. If I can find whatever it is and destroy it with my right hand, then…!!”
Touma Kamijou had grabbed onto a thin pillar-like object in the ritual site.
It was about three centimeters across. There were dozens of straight-standing pillars with black fluid flowing through them. Others had white fluid in them, too. According to Sasha, white and black formed a pair, controlling the ritual site’s “gate,” used for drawing occult powers from outside to inside. There were dozens of them because, apparently, that “power” needed complex routes to travel through.