Touma Kamijou and Fiamma of the Right each swung around his “arm.”
Several shock waves rattled their surroundings, the magical aftereffects turning into a flood of light and scattering nearby. Aside from the direct collisions, light sporadically flickered around them, bloodred rays firing in multiple directions. These were attacks utilizing the 103,000 grimoires.
However, their clash was not even.
Little by little, like a sharp beak picking away at meat, with every collision the strength drained from Fiamma’s third arm. He could tell that his arm, for which he had obtained special flesh and blood through various rituals, was crumbling into dust.
It wasn’t that Kamijou’s power was special.
The source of the power supporting Fiamma of the Right was just steadily breaking.
Why? wondered Fiamma.
His third arm, which was supposed to have incredible strength, was rapidly losing output. As for the Star of Bethlehem, which he’d put together using the essential parts of churches and cathedrals from around the world, it was cracking here and there, and it had lost its original shine. And no matter how much time passed, he was unable to bring the surface, which was supposed to alter in the same way as the golden sky, under his control. Far from it—in fact, small, dull stains had appeared in a few places in the field of gold. Something was wrong. It seemed stopping one cog’s rotation had hindered the motion of every single other part of the mechanical contrivance.
Nothing was going as he wanted it to.
At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to keep up.
His power’s emission had grown larger than its supply, and that would result in Fiamma weakening.
“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
Fiamma, screaming, exercised his third arm faster and with even more strength.
But he himself had realized the action was contradictory. His arm was all-powerful to begin with. If he swung it, it would hit—he didn’t need speed. If he struck, he would crush, so he didn’t need to seek force, either. Despite that, Fiamma was relying on his shallow arm strength. Proof that the “essence” supposedly residing in that arm was wavering.
Bu-boom!! came a low shaking.
The entire Star of Bethlehem was rumbling. But it wasn’t because of Kamijou and Fiamma’s battle. This quaking was completely isolated. The very fortress was about to experience a collapse.
The fortress’s speakers turned on by themselves.
Fiamma didn’t know this, but the voice belonged to a girl named Lesser.
“The English, Roman, and Russian Churches have begun disengaging the spells on the Star of Bethlehem’s joints! Once me and—um, the Russian Church’s Sasha Kreutzev have embedded a relay point for the disengagement spell, we’re getting into an escape container. There are barely any containers left! You need to hurry, too, please!!”
Once again.
An irregular, one that Fiamma of the Right hadn’t even considered, had struck a blow to his plans.
A factor by the name of goodness.
“It’s over, Fiamma,” said Kamijou quietly, readying his right fist. “The core of your plan, your right arm, is losing power. Your ritual site, the Star of Bethlehem, will be useless soon. And most importantly, if you’d really wanted to save the world, you would have been happy that the goodness in people’s hearts won out over the evil…And since you can’t be happy about it, that means your illusions have already broken down.”
“You may be right.”
Fiamma chuckled.
“I’m at a disadvantage in this situation. If that essential power is diminished, my grand plan cannot continue. My purification of the surface has stalled as well…Even if I swing this right arm, losing power as rapidly as it is, I wouldn’t even be able to take the surface with me. At this rate, everything will be brought to nothing.”
“…”
“At this rate anyway.”
They were ominous words.
And then—
Wham!! The golden skies overhead swayed. Shading appeared in its glow. Then, all at once, a mass of light headed for the Star of Bethlehem. Clumps of energy, produced one after the next, taken in, compressed into the fortress’s interior.
As Kamijou’s expression changed, Fiamma shook the remote-control Soul Arm a little. “I didn’t use this, just so you know. This is something all of you caused.”
“What…?”
“I couldn’t get anyone’s support, but time has taken my side,” Fiamma explained.
He wasn’t going to open the door to Heaven. The world around him had turned into something incredibly sacred, and he would remake it in Heaven’s image.
The changes progressed over time until they crossed the line.
“Originally, the surface was supposed to change, too, a little at a time, in stages. But because your so-called goodness has refused that at every turn, like continental plates bending and building power, the lot of you have created unnatural distortions between the skies and the surface.”
Even now, huge quantities of energy were pouring into the Star of Bethlehem. Once it exceeded its capacity, he wouldn’t be able to hold back the buildup any longer.
“And as a result, enormous swaths of power are descending from the telesma-filled skies to the telesma-less surface like a flowing electric current…It’s honestly not the route I had in mind, but as long as the earth is filled with that light, it changes nothing. This world’s transformation will continue.”
“You understand what’s happening?” said Kamijou through clenched teeth. “It’s a huge chunk of energy, like for making an angel body. If something like that falls to the surface, it won’t just be a transformation—there’s gonna be an insane explosion covering the whole map!! It was the same with Misha during Angel Fall. If that level of power goes out-of-control crazy, it could wipe out human civilization as we know it!!”
“That’s right—it’s certainly too bad. For you anyway. Judging by how much power it is, it’ll at least engulf the entire Eurasian continent in its light.”
A fire still flickered in the lights of Fiamma’s eyes.
This was the first time the phrase Never give up had come across in such a wicked fashion.
“A little goodness may have sprouted during this war, but this overwhelming destruction will blot it out from above. Now you realize it was all for naught, that brandishing your goodness could not stop this tragedy. And the hopelessness of that realization will change into something far deeper, far heavier than the evil that was around from the start.”
And that highly dense mass of evil borne of resignation would whet the power within Fiamma. Even more than before. Even more strongly than what Fiamma had predicted. He would stand at the pinnacle of all things living on this planet, wield his power however he wished, and transform the world.
“The colossal divine punishment will easily raze the trifling unity of humanity. Just as the Tower of Babel’s destruction split apart human bonds. It will create evil, and I will respond to that, once again able to draw forth incredible power.”
“…Fiamma…”
“You were too late to save the world by your methods,” he declared, smiling, as Kamijou gripped his fist tighter than he had ever before.
It was a comforted smile, one borne from having leeway—of a supply of immense power guaranteed.
“And now, I have won.”