Crack.
He broke the staff in two.
After tossing the scraps aside, Fiamma smoothly held out his right hand. He had a rough position. He held his palm in that direction, then muttered something under his breath.
Sound vanished.
An intense flash of light burst forth.
It crushed and melted the walls of the Star of Bethlehem in one hit, then blew away several buildings as well, charging in a straight line toward its target.
He didn’t get any feedback.
And if he’d gotten too much, that would have been a problem anyway.
After all, it had probably been repelled by the right arm in question.
Fiamma heard a strange crackling noise from around his right shoulder. His third arm, which had disintegrated before, was on the verge of separating. But for Fiamma, now bolstered by the knowledge in the 103,000 volumes, it didn’t present much of an obstacle.
Tap.
He took just one step forward.
And with only that, Fiamma’s body traveled over five kilometers. Even if there was no floor along the way, even if it was through the very air, it didn’t matter. If there was an open, level route, he could move as far as he wanted.
He arrived in a room.
It was the ritual site where he’d called the archangel using Sasha Kreutzev’s body. His earlier attack had caused over half the room to collapse, and most of its interior furnishings had been dropped onto a lower level as though something had dragged them down there. The boy he was looking for stood alone at the ritual site. He also spotted something red in the hole leading to the lower layer. Maybe someone had fallen into it, trapped by the collapse.
“You seem to enjoy causing me trouble,” said Fiamma—one hand toying with the Soul Arm used for remotely controlling Index. “Thanks to you, I had to execute the ritual before Academy City or Britain could interfere. Which means I’ll be taking that right arm of yours now.”
“…You think it’ll go that easy? You don’t have Misha anymore. I still don’t know why things went so well, but humans managed to beat an archangel. No matter how you think about it, the scales are tipping in our favor.”
“That doesn’t warrant any worry on my part,” said Fiamma, pointing to the sky.
The building’s walls and ceiling had been blown up by his attack. Thanks to that, the unnatural night sky beyond the collapsed structural material was visible.
Yes.
The spiky-haired boy must have realized.
That even though the archangel Misha Kreutzev had been defeated, the sky hadn’t changed at all—and why that was significant.
“The angel’s role ended after it changed the night sky to my liking,” described Fiamma—while spreading his third arm out farther. “I talked about how the symbols of Uriel and Raphael were shifted, out of place, right? And how Misha Kreutzev’s name originates in Michael—and how it is unfit to name itself Gabriel.”
The spiky-haired boy seemed to be on his guard, but it was too late.
Now that Fiamma was talking about it, it was over.
“I lifted only the Star of Bethlehem into the incomplete skies filled with telesma after erasing all stars from the sky using Gabriel as part of a ceremony to regulate a great flow of power and reset the four aspects…You defeated the magic circle that Misha covered a portion of the sky with during Angel Fall, as well as the Croce di Pietro, which used the positions of the stars as seen from earth. I don’t need to explain to you how crucial the magical meaning is that comes with the idea of controlling the skies like a screen. To begin with, the prophet knew of Jesus’s birth by the appearance of a certain star in the sky. The large-scale spell I’m using essentially applies that legendary truth.
“Still, I also affected the flow of power on the surface by moderately destroying churches and temples all over the world, too,” added Fiamma.
Heaven and earth.
Three and four.
In other words, he now had exclusive possession of all numbers crucial to Crossist culture.
“What…? What are you trying…to…?”
“I’ll ask you instead. You didn’t think this would be over just because the Star of Bethlehem had risen, did you?” jeered Fiamma. “You know how it is. I’m just saying I have to prepare the location properly before I can execute the spell I want. Phase one is just about over, but despite how early it is, there’s a nice little bonus in store.”
Ker-crack!! went a strange noise.
A starry sky spread out.
First was yellow, then red, then blue, and finally green. Oddly colored stars began spreading across the pitch-black night sky, as if putting a veil over it, all in time to Fiamma’s signal.
The Star of Bethlehem was a gargantuan planetarium.
“Did you know this little tidbit?”
A starry sky of colors absolutely impossible in nature. An amateur with no knowledge of sorcery would never be able to decipher the detailed meaning behind it. But somewhere, deep inside his very life force, he understood. Understood this clear, true world. Understood the feeling of the four aspects returning to their original locations.
“Fire, water, wind, and earth—each one of these four aspects holds up the edge of its respective power, but at the same time, manipulating one aspect affects, in a broad sense, all the other aspects as well. That’s why in large-scale rituals, excluding realistic combat actions, it’s fundamental to ready not one symbolic weapon, but the entire set. Even if that ritual is of fire. In other words, the ability to control all four aspects rested within my fire from the beginning. I should have gained magnificent power by controlling them all…If only a distortion hadn’t existed in those aspects worldwide.”
To which Fiamma explained:
“One can only fully wield true power in a true world.”
Boom!!!!!! Something invisible exploded out of his body.
It was intent to kill.
A force overwhelming enough to make Kamijou feel like he was on pins and needles.
“…”
But he had no reason to back off.
The man in front of him was holding the Soul Arm that could remotely control Index. To destroy that, he’d have to defeat the root cause of this aura.
Kamijou clenched his right hand into a tight fist.
His mind naturally drew toward Fiamma’s right shoulder.
To the third arm.
Writhing.
Something massive, some power that should have caused it to disintegrate, was gathering in it.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s time I showed you the meaning of true power.”