Then Tsushima deliberately forced the fight into close quarters, a style he disliked. Judging by her combat methods, Finé shared this weakness with him. Her high-powered, wide-area Code would be difficult to wield at close range without risking self-destruction.
It was a gamble, but Finé boldly accepted the close-quarters fight as Tsushima closed in. She hardened a band of light, gripping it like a sword. Tsushima countered with his heat-charged fists.
True to her reputation as a knight, Finé had superb sword skills. Every movement of her blade was precise, with not a single wasted motion.
Tsushima’s technique was rough by comparison, but he pressed forward with sheer strength. As he batted away her blade and closed in, Finé’s expression darkened slightly.
Tsushima stayed on the attack, not allowing Finé to open up the distance between them. If she could keep him at sword’s length, he would have no chance of winning. So he committed fully to close-quarters combat, closing the gap as much as possible.
His fists grazed her jacket several times, and he began to feel he might be able to overpower her.
That’s when he noticed the shift in her demeanor.
The killing intent that had been so palpable just moments before was now fading away. The reason was obvious from the look on her face.
Finé had lost all interest. She regarded Tsushima with the same indifference one might show a pebble on the ground. Then, in a barely audible voice, she murmured, “Disappointing.”
The moment those words reached Tsushima’s ears, a violent impact struck him before he could even process what was happening.
There were barely a few inches between him and Finé—a distance he had maintained to prevent her from using her specialty Code.
But her abilities far surpassed anything Tsushima had imagined. With pinpoint accuracy, as though she was threading a needle, she unleashed an arrow of light that plunged into Tsushima.
The projectile had followed a perfect trajectory that missed Finé by mere millimeters but struck Tsushima dead-on, stabbing into his side.
Tsushima doubled over and was sent flying, and he crashed into a distant pile of rubble, where he came to a stop.
In just one moment, with just one hit, the tables had turned.
No—that wasn’t it. There had never been a moment when Tsushima was actually pushing back against Finé. To demonstrate that, she flicked her long hair, as if saying she was utterly bored.
“Canus lost to a man like you? For one of the Six Imperial Swords, that’s just pathetic.”
Looking at Tsushima, who now had a spear of light impaled in him like a gravestone, Finé let out a sigh. An expression of disappointment crossed her face for a change.
“But a lion never holds back, not even against a mouse,” Finé continued. “That’s something I learned from my master, and it’s true. I’ll finish this with my full power.”
With that, Finé reached her hand toward the sky and whispered, “Celestial Crown Light Blade.”
She had executed one of the most powerful techniques in her arsenal.
Bands of light formed on the ground, layering over each other and rippling like a dragon as they rose into the sky. The lights climbing into the dull sky shone with a radiance reminiscent of the descent of gods, forming a single, massive ring.
From that glowing ring, countless golden spears hung like a chandelier. So many beams of light formed in an instant that it seemed pointless to even try to count them, all aimed at Tsushima.
“This is the ultimate attack, one that will return everything to nothing. In the next world, take pride in having died from it, Tsushima Rindou.”
To Finé, Tsushima the Informationist was now just another nobody in the crowd. She turned her back to him, saying she had no interest in how her final blow would bring about his death.
Sitting up halfway, his mind hazy, Tsushima gazed at the light from Finé’s Celestial Crown Light Blade technique. That ring of light was the very same spectacle he had seen on that day in his nightmare. That realization jolted his instincts awake.
In that moment, the pitch-black emotions that had lain dormant deep in Tsushima’s gut finally awakened. Shion, growing cold in his arms as he’d held her tightly, giving him one final, gentle smile.
This irreplaceable person had taught him warmth and kindness. An image of her cruel death flashed through his mind, and intense emotions surged up within him.
Resentment, hatred, anger—all the negative feelings he had harbored and refined for over a decade now surfaced as a thirst for blood.
And then a demon awakened within Tsushima and whispered a curse in his ear:
The root of all your suffering…is this person.
“So it was you… You were my sister’s killer all along,” Tsushima murmured, his expression curiously at peace, as if he had finally been saved.
Immediately afterward, countless shards of light rained down on him from the ring of light floating in the sky.
An intense glow—so blinding it was impossible to open his eyes—filled the entire area, followed by a billowing cloud of dust. In the blink of an eye, the spot where Tsushima stood was hit by such overwhelming destruction that the terrain itself warped. The relentless attack struck at the speed of light, erasing Tsushima’s body.
When the thunderous explosions behind her finally ceased, Finé, certain of her victory, made to leave. There was even an air of regret about her, as if she had just had an extremely tedious experience. She was the very image of an absolute victor.
However, this time was different. The moment she took a step forward, she sensed something was wrong. Amid the rising smoke and lingering afterglow, she felt a strange, distorted presence.