The footage streaming on the command room's monitor showed Brave in the process of crumbling apart.
Watching that scene, Mia's eyes were wide open and her breathing was ragged.
"K-Knight—sama?"
She couldn't comprehend the image before her eyes.
It felt like she was having a bad dream.
When Mia pressed both hands to her head, her hair became disheveled.
"It's a lie. It's a lie. Something like this has to be a lie!"
Mia shed tears.
Fin, who had been kind to her—who had protected her—had been struck down by Arroganz.
Mia couldn't process that fact.
The one casting sorrowful eyes on Mia was Bartfalt.
Without calling out to Mia, he looked at the monitor.
"I told you so many times not to make Mia cry—as I thought, you really were a stupid boy."
His subordinates around him wore despairing faces.
The Empire's strongest knight had been defeated.
And Arcadia had its power reactor destroyed.
Recovering from this point was nearly impossible.
The magical creature that was Arcadia's core glanced at Mia, then turned bloodshot eyes toward Bartfalt.
"Bartfalt, at this rate we will be defeated."
Bartfalt folded his arms and didn't direct his gaze at the magical creature.
"No, that's wrong. It's our loss."
"There is no defeat for us! I have lived solely dreaming of destroying every last scrap of iron at the bottom of the sea, of annihilating the Old Humanity! I have endured an unfathomable span of time!"
Having endured that long, the result being defeat seemed to be something the magical creature couldn't bear.
Bartfalt let out a snort of laughter.
"Arcadia's power reactor has been destroyed. This fortress will fall soon as well."
"Not yet! It's not over yet—I shall absorb the mana, and lay waste to their stronghold completely! Even if Arcadia's main body is gone, we shall not know defeat!"
The menacing aura of the magical creature made everyone around hold their breath.
Its attitude was that, for the sake of their victory—the New Humanity's victory—it didn't matter what happened to the Empire.
Bartfalt was disgusted with himself.
(I was a fool for trusting this thing and going to war.)
But he didn't regret having taken on the fight.
If he hadn't fought, someone other than Bartfalt would have stood up and started the struggle for survival.
The reason Bartfalt had picked this timing for the fight was so that, whether he won or lost, things would go well.
"What good would destroying the Kingdom do at this point? Do you intend to lay the world waste again?"
"Rather than be ruled by Old Humanity scum, it is better to destroy them! —Bartfalt, lend me your hand."
The magical creature stretched out its hands toward him.
The hands that emerged from its body were very small, but many of them came out and were approaching Bartfalt.
He sliced through all of them with the sword he was holding.
"Bartfalt!"
"We need the Kingdom's hero to stay alive. If we cannot finish him off, then he shall live on—and let us, the people of the Empire, live too."
Based on Leon's personality as he'd heard about it from Fin, he wouldn't destroy people just because they were descendants of the New Humanity.
Bartfalt, too, had never intended to destroy the descendants of the Old Humanity from the start.
The reason he had to fight anyway was that neither side wanted to live a cramped, marginalized existence.
But if he lost, he'd accept it.
He had no choice but to accept it.
If that came to pass, Bartfalt as Emperor would surely be executed.
His entire family might be targeted as well.
He had taken on this fight prepared for that much.
"The Empire's strongest knight has lost. Arcadia is sinking too—we have been defeated."
He readied his sword to slay the magical creature.
Then the magical creature opened its great mouth and showed him a laugh.
"In that case, I shall ask my master! Miliaris, don't you want to take revenge on him? Don't you want to kill with your own hands the one who killed your beloved!"
The magical creature stretched its hand toward Mia.
Around Mia, who had collapsed to the floor, the thin, small arms of the magical creature coiled in a surrounding ring.
But it didn't touch Mia.
It also carried the meaning of taking her hostage against Bartfalt.
Bartfalt lowered his sword.
"Your master is supposed to be Mia, isn't it?"
"Indeed. That is why I say let us fight together! For the sake of destroying every last bit of filth that is the Old Humanity, I will go this far!"
The magical creature, which utterly despised the Old Humanity, turned its great eyes on Mia.
When Mia raised her face, the light had vanished from her eyes.
Bartfalt stretched out his hand.
"Mia!"
Mia was looking at Arroganz reflected on the monitor.
Seeing the figure picking up Brave's greatsword, she shed tears.
"It's fine. If the Knight-sama's revenge can be carried out, I don't care what happens to me."
"Stop it! Mia, the war is already over!"
"It's not over!"
Mia, still shedding tears, took on an expression tinged with anger.
"It's not over yet. I will avenge the Knight-sama."
"Well saaaiiid!"
The magical creature enveloped Mia, then opened its great mouth wide and swallowed her whole.
Bartfalt lunged at the magical creature.
"How dare you do that to Mia!"
But he was knocked back by the magical creature's arm and sent flying.
As his subordinates rushed to Bartfalt's side, the magical creature began fusing with the floor.
Veins rose to the surface of the command room and began to pulse.
Bartfalt, blood streaming from his forehead, watched the spectacle.
"Mia!"
The magical creature swelled up, and then a crack opened, from which Mia emerged.
She was nude, her entire body covered in silver.
She appeared from the navel up, and when she spread her hands, a black sludgy liquid gathered from her surroundings, and her form gradually grew larger.
Mia did not speak.
In her place, the magical creature let out a cry of jubilation.
"Excellent, my master! Together we shall annihilate the Old Humanity!"
When the Mia who had been absorbed by the magical creature opened her eyes, her pupils had become red jewels.
Just like that, she broke through the ceiling and exited outside.
Bartfalt stretched out his hand.
"Miaaaaa!!"
◇
Arcadia's power reactor had been destroyed.
The members aboard the Licorne who received that report were in no position to rejoice at the sight before their eyes.
Noelle stood dumbfounded.
"What does this mean? This—what is going on!"
What had emerged from the sinking Arcadia was a black something, star-shaped and bristling with spikes.
It was about twenty meters in size, but it was still absorbing magic armor and continuing to swell.
Cleare confirmed the target at maximum magnification.
"This—it's Arcadia's core! And what's more, Mia-chan has been absorbed into it!"
Marie clutched her staff to her chest.
"Why is Mia-chan absorbed into it?!"
"Without information, I can't tell. More importantly, this is bad. We destroyed the power reactor, but a massive amount of mana has gushed out, and the monsters are multiplying."
Wherever they looked, there was nothing but monsters.
Some had gained flesh and blood through the mana and appeared, while others were drawn by the mana and gathered from the surroundings of the battlefield.
Cleare analyzed the enemy from the data.
"This is bad. It's an incredibly bad situation. No matter how you look at it, that thing is strong."
Noelle immediately asked back.
"How strong?!"
"—It will fire Arcadia's main cannon at us repeatedly, multiple shots in a row."
"Why is it that strong?!"
Up until a little while ago, it had taken time to fire the main cannon.
Yet it couldn't make sense that it would become stronger after the power reactor was destroyed.
Cleare explained to Noelle.
"There was a solidified mass of high-density mana inside the power reactor. It was using that as a base to increase its mana, but now that it's exposed to the outside, it absorbed it."
Marie looked down.
"And I thought it was over."
Noelle, too, stood frozen in place.
Saying it was stronger than Arcadia was just too unfair.
In the battles so far, all of the spaceship's defensive ships had been lost, and many of the spaceships themselves had been shot down.
More than half of the Kingdom's army had been lost as well.
The magical creature—the Arcadia Core—was absorbing mana.
At this rate, once it finished absorbing all the mana, it would become unstoppable.
"—No good, we can't defeat the Arcadia Core in any pattern!"
By Cleare's calculations, defeating the Arcadia Core with their current forces was impossible.
Monsters were also gathering around the Licorne, and their allies were desperately resisting, but there were too many to handle.
Angie ground her back teeth.
"Isn't there some way? Something—Livia?"
Livia, who had been being supported, spread her feet shoulder-width apart and stood up firmly.
Sweating and with a pained expression, she was looking forward.
"Angie—lend me your strength."
"To me? I'll lend you as much as you want, but what are you planning to do?"
Livia squeezed Angie's hand tightly.
"If it's monsters, I've blown them away with my power before."
Angie recalled their first year.
There had been a monster called "ultra-large" that they had blown away with Livia's power.
"Is that the one you used in the war with the Principality? Can you do it?"
Angie turned her gaze to Cleare.
"—She can, but it will be quite a burden. Not just on Livia-chan. It will be a major burden on Angie-chan too."
Angie cracked a smile.
"Who cares about that."
Multiple displays appeared around Cleare, and they were all numbers.
"—I'll entrust the Sacred Tree's energy to Livia-chan. It will blow away monsters over a wide area, but it'll take time. And unlike before, we've also done maintenance, so I can't predict what will happen if Livia-chan goes all out."
The scale was different from before.
The performance was different from the royal family's ship, and the Sacred Tree's energy had been added in as well.
Even Cleare couldn't predict what kind of result it would produce.
"Please. We want to save Leon-san with our own power."
When Livia began to glow softly, Angie gently embraced her.
"I'll lend my strength too. —Livia, do it."
The Licorne, too, was beginning to glow.
Cleare provided support.
"I'm not responsible for whatever happens, okay. —Give me just three minutes. I'll provide as much support as possible, but I need that much time."
Looking outside, monsters were swarming toward that very Licorne.
◇
"Master, this is a dangerous situation."
Even drawing breath was painful, and what had emerged was Mia-chan, who carried the air of a final boss.
Her surface was silver, her pupils red jewels, and the figure she presented was nude.
I cracked the best joke I could manage.
"Mia-chan, with that much skin showing—Fin's going to be sad, you know."
I coughed, spitting up blood, and Mia-chan reacted.
"After you killed the Knight-samaaaa!"
The black, spiky mass launched its spikes at me.
Thanks to Luxion's autopilot, Arroganz somehow dodged them.
"Master, I cannot provide adequate support at the moment. Arroganz cannot demonstrate its true performance either. I advise retreat."
"It's not going to let us escape, is it."
I gripped the control stick, but I couldn't put strength into my hands.
"Yeah, that's it. —As I thought, it was the right call to keep my trump card in reserve."
When I muttered that, Luxion shouted at me.
"Master!"
"There's no other way, is there."
Mia-chan, who hadn't quite gotten used to her movements yet, was receiving advice from her fusion partner—the Arcadia Core.
"My master. Aim well! This is the man who killed the one you loved!"
The magical creature egging Mia-chan on—how to say it, it gave off a really unpleasant feeling.
Brave had said he hated it, too.
The deck was becoming covered in spikes.
Arroganz fled around in the midst of it, but it gradually lost places to escape to and took a direct hit.
Its right arm was pinned to the floor.
"Purging right arm!"
"Arroganz is in tatters too."
My vision was blurring.
Before I could no longer move, I issued an order to Luxion.
I knew Luxion would surely object—but this was the only way.
"Luxion—the final dose."
"—!"
However, before the dose could be administered, Mia-chan's behavior turned strange.
The magical creature began to panic.
"Master! That white ship is dangerous. Destroy it first."
Mia-chan's gaze was directed toward the Licorne.
"—Ship?"
"S-stop!"
Seeing my panicked appearance, Mia-chan seemed to have figured it out.
"Someone important to you is on board, isn't it? Then—I'll make you taste the same feeling as me."
Mia-chan was about to start an attack aimed at the Licorne.
"W-wait!"
I tried to stop her, but in my current state, my body couldn't move properly.
Mia-chan looked down on me and said,
"Watch from there as someone important to you dies. Just like me!"
◇
The Licorne, being attacked by monsters, was in a dangerous situation.
Noelle steeled her resolve and raised the back of her right hand.
"I won't let you!"
On the back of her right hand, the crest of a priestess recognized by the Sacred Tree shone.
When the priestess's crest appeared directly above the Licorne, several magic circles glowing green appeared.
From them, tree roots and sharp tree leaves were scattered onto the monsters around.
They impaled, pierced through, and turned the monsters into black smoke.
Noelle's crest was protecting the Licorne.
Yumeria embraced the Sacred Tree's sapling.
"Please. Lend us your power."
When she pleaded, the Sacred Tree rustled its leaves and made a sound, despite there being no wind.
When the Sacred Tree glowed a pale green, Noelle's crest also shone brightly.
Cleare relayed that the output was rising.
"Output increase! Just hold out for three more minutes!"
Noelle's face grew pained.
She somehow managed to keep the monsters from getting close, but there were too many to handle.
"—This really is tough."
When she muttered that, the Republic's airship drew near the Licorne's side.
Noelle noticed immediately.
"Lelia?!"
Glowing directly above the Republic's airship was a priestess's crest with a slightly different design from Noelle's.
A magic circle appeared, dealing with the surrounding monsters in order to protect the Licorne.
Lelia's face appeared on the monitor.
"Sis, this is gonna work out, right? Right?! The round thing said so, so I'm helping, but seriously, do something about it!"
Lelia was clutching her head and crying.
It seemed that the spherical AI deployed for communications had been explaining the current situation.
A red armor flew out from the airship.
"Aneki! I'll protect you!"
The one who had sortied in the red armor was Erik.
Manifesting the crest recognized by the Sacred Tree, he took down monsters.
Cleare relayed the remaining time.
"Two minutes left!"
Thanks to Lelia's group's cooperation, they were somehow about to pull through, but the Arcadia Core had made a move.
Leon was fighting on Arcadia's deck, but it seemed to have changed its target to the Licorne.
Cleare cursed.
"That thing decided we're the more dangerous one!"
The Arcadia Core began an attack aimed at the Licorne.
Then—Fact and the other spaceships moved out in front of the Licorne.
Marie was surprised.
"Y-you guys."
Receiving the Arcadia Core's attack, Fact and the other spaceships couldn't endure and exploded one after another, falling.
Fact's figure was projected on the monitor.
"—We were underestimating you all. We are revising our evaluation of you upward."
Just when she wondered what he was going to say, he started in on something about evaluations.
Cleare got angry, telling him to consider the situation.
"What are you talking about at a time like this!"
"Because it's a time like this. Our battle had meaning. That much—we were able to confirm."
The last remaining Fact, too, took concentrated attacks from monsters and Arcadia, with various parts exploding.
Fact said at the end,
"That we awakened in this era—surely—it is—desti—ny."
At that point, the communication cut off.
And then, Cleare quietly announced,
"—Those guys properly did their job at the end. Livia-chan, anytime now."
When Livia glowed, her hair swayed as if a wind were blowing from below.
Livia's pupils, opening slowly, shone with light.
"—Yes."