“I hope Mayumi is okay,” Kasumi whispered.
“She might be up against Minoru, but I doubt she will be defeated that easily,” Izumi said.
Her tone was uncertain, but her expression was calm. She must have been less worried than her voice let on.
Mayumi was currently the most powerful magician in the Saegusa family. Kouichi, the head of the family, did not participate in the same stamina tests as his children, so the extent of his power remained elusive. But it could still be said that Mayumi was the strongest among her siblings. Even when combining their strengths, Kasumi and Izumi couldn’t surpass her. Even employing their most powerful techniques and strategies, they failed to match her strength.
There was nothing else for the twins to do but talk and keep watch. They had already completed the first aid for their injured teammates. None of the injuries were severe, and an external inspection didn’t reveal any major blood loss or fractures. One of the magicians seemed to have hit their head when they fell, but unfortunately, brain damage was beyond the scope of the twins’ care. They cooled the magician’s swollen areas while waiting for the Saegusa family medical team to arrive in place of an ambulance.
Though they hadn’t discussed it out loud, both Izumi and Kasumi were thinking the same thing: If the medical team didn’t arrive soon, they would have to transport the injured magicians to the nearby hospital.
“No one’s coming.” Kasumi sighed.
“You can say that again,” Izumi agreed.
Neither twin was very patient. It was no secret that Kasumi was easily irritated, but even Izumi lost interest in things fairly quickly. In short, she followed the beat of her own drum. Ultimately, the sisters had about the same painfully short tolerance for boredom. With a mere glance, they realized their thoughts were in sync. The twins turned toward the hospital’s rear entrance in unison. But the moment they were about to request assistance for the injured, something completely different came out of their mouths.
“Watch out!”
Unfortunately, their warning backfired.
The two magicians guarding the hospital’s back entrance turned their attention to the twins. The moment their focus wavered, a spell was unleashed from the darkness.
Intense bursts of light erupted in the air. The spell, Spark, forcibly extracted electrons from matter to trigger an electrical discharge. Though it was a basic emission-type spell, it required a high level of event interference. Most magicians could ionize gases only within a very limited range due to the low density of the gases, which was a fraction of the volume in any given space.
The Spark spell just unleashed was widespread enough to cover two entire people with plasma. It encompassed the magicians at the back of the hospital from their chests down. Though their heads were unaffected, they still lost control of their bodies, convulsed, and collapsed to their knees.
“Who’s there?!” Kasumi yelled while casting a spell.
A faint light illuminated the darkness between streetlights. Despite Kasumi’s question, she was certain it was Minoru. In fact, if anyone other than Minoru had emerged into the light, the shock might have rendered her speechless.
Minoru only squinted mildly at the dazzling flash from Kasumi’s spell, which robbed him of the ability to resist. The intense light cast deep shadows across the boy’s face, accentuating the otherworldly charm of his striking features.
“Hands in the air, Minoru!” Kasumi exclaimed.
She cast Freeze Air Bullet, a spell that cooled and compressed air to convert extracted thermal energy into a projectile. It was like Mayumi’s trump card, Dry Meteor, but traded out carbon dioxide for regular air. Since the freezing point of nitrogen and oxygen was lower than that of carbon dioxide, a nitrogen-oxygen mix didn’t freeze. However, the icy, compressed bullets behaved differently from dry ice projectiles.
As Kasumi unleashed her spell, Izumi erected a defensive barrier against Area Interference. As the spell’s blinding light faded, Minoru’s figure was consumed by the darkness.
Kasumi’s Freeze Air Bullet collided with a magic barrier and shattered. The air, freed from the confinement of the spell, adhered to the laws of physics and reached temperatures well below freezing. After rapidly expanding, it formed a chilling block of ice.
However, even the frigid air failed to penetrate Minoru’s shield. A mist formed as the cold air met the barrier’s surface. The resulting condensation sent water droplets trickling down the transparent shield. Minoru’s magic shield was as solid as a physical wall, repelling Kasumi’s attack with unwavering strength.
Just as Freeze Air Bullet dissipated, Minoru launched his own attack. A new intervention appeared within Izumi’s territory, where she had cast Area Interference.
Area Interference was not a spell that relied on magic sequences. It was a defensive technique that continuously utilized the magician’s own intervention power. When an enemy cast a spell, Area Interference registered it by transmitting a tangible sense of resistance back to its caster.
Izumi did everything in her power to nullify Minoru’s magic, but she was swiftly overpowered. An electric charge shot through the air. It was smaller in scale than the Spark spell that had struck the Juumonji magicians. Izumi’s Area Interference had probably helped to weaken the event modification. However, with Minoru’s magic already in motion, this offered little consolation.
A burst of plasma sparked violently as it struck the Saegusa twins. But luckily, a gust of wind blew the plasma away. Thanks to Kasumi’s quick thinking, her second spell against Minoru turned into a defensive one.
“Izumi! Are you okay?” Kasumi exclaimed.
She rushed over to her sister, who had been hurt in the clash of event-altering forces. But Izumi grabbed Kasumi’s hand before it touched her shoulder.
“We can’t keep fighting him one by one,” Izumi insisted.
“You’re right.” Kasumi nodded.
She knew exactly what Izumi was trying to say. Since this was a two-against-one situation, they were, of course, not fighting Minoru individually. They were working together in sync.
But what Izumi was talking about was not simply a matter of numbers. She meant that they couldn’t defeat Minoru by casting two different spells; they needed to combine their strengths into one powerful move. Kasumi was completely on board.
The two intertwined their fingers with Kasumi’s right hand clasping Izumi’s left. Their palms pressed firmly together. They then faced one another, joined their opposite hands, and pulled each other close. Psions flowed from Kasumi’s left hand into Izumi’s right, and from Izumi’s left hand into Kasumi’s right. Through their linked fingers, psions circulated between the sisters’ bodies.
As if on cue, Minoru cast a spell. The force of his event alteration bore down on the twins from above. However, the magic failed to materialize. The Area Interference spell protecting the twins had grown stronger than before and effectively nullified his spell.
“Here I go,” Izumi whispered.
“It’s all you!” Kasumi smiled.
Izumi used the CAD around her left wrist to set an activation sequence via thought manipulation. With Multiplicative Cast, there was no fixed hierarchy of who led and who followed. While it was true that Kasumi often constructed the sequences and Izumi applied Area Interference, the opposite was equally effective.
Minoru appeared in the darkness, illuminated by a glow that was just strong enough to light up his face. He looked perplexed under the magic light, clearly not understanding why the twins would dedicate effort to a spell with no offensive power.
Of course, this was just the preparation stage, a step to make it easier to aim the next magic attack.
Izumi cast another spell. Minoru was not distracted, but uncertainty seemed to dull his decision-making. This time Izumi was quicker.