"——Domain Expansion, Matrix Redefinition."
That worn, stock phrase was nothing less than a declaration of war upon the world, or so the
Magic was the act of chanting to defy the laws of nature and impose one's will upon reality. It was, in essence, a refined yet barbaric act of forcibly rewriting the script and changing the ending.
In other words, the incantation of a magic spell was nothing more than a polite inquiry: "I am about to destroy the world now."
Of course, being merely a greeting, it could be ignored or refused.
The formula might be shoddily constructed, the mana insufficient to trigger it, it might backfire and produce an unintended result—there were any number of ways things could go wrong.
In truth, this analogy was beside the point entirely.
What he intended to do was not magic.
It was simply that the stock phrase he was about to utter served the same purpose as a declaration of war on the world—its essence was the same.
And so this was—— "——Domain Expansion, Matrix Redefinition."
A death sentence delivered by himself, to the world that did not want to be destroyed.
Kill. Break. Shatter. Trample. Ravage. Desecrate. Tear apart. Carve to pieces. Burn to nothing. Crush flat. Smash to dust. Melt down. Saturate.
Any word would do. It was the same as magic. What mattered was that the essence was the same.
So long as the final words did not change, the process was irrelevant.
No matter what happened, no matter what it took, he would—remove
That conclusion would never, ever be allowed to change.
And so, for that—— "——Domain Expansion, Matrix Redefinition."
Even if it meant reaching for the starlight beyond the infinite, he would get there.
△▼△▼△▼△ ——Four thousand sixty-one.
Surprisingly, the hardest person to eliminate from the board was the Border Count with her flippant attitude.
The Border Count's sharp insight and battle-hardened nerves meant that emotional appeals and sob stories were utterly useless. And her attitude toward anything that didn't serve her faction—or rather, her own self-interest—was mercilessly strict.
Given the circumstances, there was nothing he could offer as a benefit, so he had to resign himself to the fact that dangling profits in front of her to win her over was a non-starter. But being sensitive to gains and losses also meant she had an above-average nose for detecting losses. So the best approach was to make her think she'd lose something if she didn't go along with him. Once he figured out that angle, unspooling the tangled thread became much easier.
He couldn't say he felt no guilt about ultimately exploiting the situation Shult was in, but to avoid plunging the Bariel domain into chaos down the line, he would have needed someone's help anyway.
Go ahead and carve away at whatever you like. She wasn't anywhere anymore, after all.
——Nine hundred seventy-two.
Next to cause trouble were the demon sisters, and the elder one in particular was a formidable opponent.
He had known beforehand that caution would be necessary with them. Avoiding her almost supernatural intuition was no trivial feat. But she had a clear vulnerability—her younger sister, from whom her 'memories' had been stolen and whom she had only just reunited with. The one weak spot in an otherwise impenetrable defense.
She wanted to bring her precious little sister back to base as quickly as possible. That awareness was always present, so prodding at it was the way to go. But balancing the line between overt and subtle was itself a demonic difficulty, and there was plenty of grueling trial and error before he hit the goal.
And the younger sister, whose caution was lower compared to the elder's but who had layered her own complications in the Empire atop the 'memories' she had lost, was no less of a tough nut to crack, weaving bonds that never showed on the surface.
Exploiting the sisters' love stung, but it was fine. She wasn't anywhere anymore, after all.
——Six hundred thirty-three.
The person hardest to bring to emotional agreement was the domestic administrator who was strict toward outsiders.
Despite his soft appearance, he was tough in temperament—and underestimating him by thinking he was a pushover would earn you severe burns. Dealing with him felt like fighting a bull with its horns raised.
His approach was similar to the Border Count's in direction, but because he was far more human than she was, Aldebaran presented realistic compromise points from his side, negotiated the terms, and got him to say yes.
No weapons, a three-day limit, accompaniment by a trusted military officer—all were reasonable constraints that didn't cost him anything. He learned a hundred times over that trying to be greedy in front of that man was dangerous. Once negotiations were cut off, there was absolutely no chance of resuming them.
His weak point, too, was the same. By removing his own unstable self from the picture, he could make the person who would feel responsible for that disappearance reconsider.
Prying at someone's kindness was painful, but it was fine. She wasn't anywhere anymore, after all.
——Ninety-four.
Though the number of attempts was small, excluding the anemic from the sand-sea traveling party was an absolute condition.
The poised, refined anemic would have been quickly confirmed as a traveling companion if left to her own devices. There was no doubt whatsoever about her character or ability, but the blood flowing through her veins was an obstacle to his purpose.
Still, the most efficient and reliable way to move a considerate person in the desired direction was to use that consideration against them. Once he knew she had a strong sense of belonging to the group and an extreme aversion to disrupting the harmony, drawing a path of least resistance was not difficult.
At this point, he could say he had almost fully mapped the interpersonal dynamics of the camp—including people he had never even met face-to-face. If he thought it through, her inclusion would create a poorly matched pair, which would burden the young child who would feel anxious—and she would take the initiative to resolve that.
The key wasn't to make the impossible possible. It was to actualize a possibility that wasn't zero.
He had no comforting words to offer, but it was fine. She wasn't anywhere anymore, after all.
——Five.
He knew the inclinations of 'her' heart intimately, and honestly, it was easy.
Gentle, compassionate, and overflowing with empathy—an 'her' who was easily deceived and did not know the meaning of doubting his words, taking everything at face value. Her innate tolerance meant she should never have failed once—and so, her failure was not her problem but his.
If he ignored even that strain in his heart, filling 'her' purple-blue eyes with anguish was simple. She was already someone trying to stay close to his wounds. If he told her what the best thing he could do for 'her' was, her resolve would fall into place naturally.
He was a man who truly could not be saved, but it was fine. She wasn't anywhere anymore, after all.
——Zero.
And he had never once failed against Natsuki Subaru.
He knew Subaru inside and out, and he harbored absolutely no hesitation.
All he needed was to time it right.
Because—— "——Ol Shamak."
Conditionally, the top priority was dragging
"————"
The unfamiliar incantation and the sight of a never-before-seen formula being constructed caused Beatrice's response to lag by a split second—and that became a fatal opening in the defense of Natsuki Subaru.
On instinct, she reached to pull him into her arms to respond—a reflex worthy of the pinnacle of contracted spirits. But that was exactly what Aldebaran's true aim had been.
"Three days. When you've got three days, you start getting cautious that something might happen on the third day, right?"
——Ol Shamak, the trump card against the 'Witch,' was a forbidden spell designed to forcibly seal the target's gate, immobilizing them in a binding and sealing curse.
It was a spell whose very existence was forbidden from being revealed—the 'Witch' who created it avoided leaving it in any written record, passing it down through oral tradition only, and only to Aldebaran.
Or rather, it was a forbidden spell that could even kill its creator, the 'Witch' herself—and the reason it was entrusted only to Aldebaran was not out of affection or trust for his disciple, but because of a cold certainty: Aldebaran would never misuse this forbidden spell.
"In the end, people are most relaxed after a good conversation on the first night."
In truth, Aldebaran had never considered using this forbidden spell against the 'Witch' or any other 'Witch,' nor had he ever pointed it at one. To be precise, it would be more accurate to say he couldn't have used it on the intended target.
In other words, the forbidden spell that had been devised and passed down was finally seeing the light of day.
"I know, brother... no, Natsuki Subaru. I'm not going to kill you."
During the battle against the 'Great Calamity,' he had used it as a trump card against
And so, this was the first time the forbidden spell 'Ol Shamak' had activated properly.
"————"
He picked up the object from the floor—it looked like a black glass marble.
Inside the sphere, which he never showed the interior of, Natsuki Subaru and Beatrice were now sealed together. Beatrice, the great spirit of shadow—he could not afford to have the forbidden spell analyzed by her.
Including her within the spell's range and having her become a target of the forbidden spell had been a gamble.
But he won the gamble. Beatrice, who had contracted with Natsuki Subaru and shared a gate with him, had become a target of the spell and was now sealed within the sphere.
Arranging the situation up to this point had been grueling work. But it was only grueling work.
She wasn't anywhere anymore. And so—— "I'm starting now, Teacher. —So that I can be me."
The very instant Aldebaran said that with firm resolve—— "ROOOOAAAAARRR——!!"
With a tremendous roar, kicking the library floor hard enough to crack it, a golden beast hurtled forward at arrow-like speed.
The supple, powerful arm raised to strike was loaded with enough force to shatter Aldebaran in a single blow and strip him of all combat ability in less than a second.
If even a graze across his shoulder—let alone his head—connected, it would take more than half his consciousness with it. However, that was only if the fist was actually thrown.
"——gh"
"You bastard!!"
The beast, Garfiel, that had closed the distance at superhuman speed burned with fury in his emerald eyes—but rather than punching Aldebaran away, he seized his arm and slammed him to the library floor.
Aldebaran couldn't even break his fall before being overpoweringly subdued, his jaw slamming against the floor. He groaned, but Garfiel ignored the sound, pressing his knee into Aldebaran's back and baring his fangs.
"What the hell did you do to the Captain and Beatrice!? Where are they!? That spell from before——"
"Wrong, Garf."
"Gah!?"
To Garfiel, who was coming at him with an interrogative lunge, Aldebaran answered in a low voice. Garfiel's throat rumbled in response, but such intimidation was meaningless.
In the first place, this entire exchange was meaningless.
"Don't try to subdue me—knock me unconscious on the first move."
While dutifully engaging in this pointless exchange, Aldebaran worked his tongue inside his mouth. Then, ignoring Garfiel's confused reaction to his words—he untied the drug packet he had hidden in his molars and swallowed it.
A tremendous surge of heat boiled all the blood in Aldebaran's body—— × × × "ROOOOAAAAARRR——!!"
The floor burst apart with explosive force, and the beast charged in at arrow-like speed.
But its target wasn't to punch Aldebaran away—it was to seize his arm and pin him down. In that instant, Aldebaran dodged the incoming arm and swung his elbow upward.
"Guah!?"
"And with this——"
Just as he thought he'd blunted the opponent's momentum, impact struck Aldebaran's torso.
Garfiel had caught Aldebaran's rising elbow square on his snout while charging in—a front kick delivered with blood streaming from his nose that shattered Aldebaran's hip bone in a single blow and sent him flying backward.
Being rendered immobile would be fatal.
"You...!!"
"Next."
Tumbling backward through a bookshelf, Aldebaran opened the drug packet amid the buried mound of books.
Impact pierced through his entire body—— × × × "ROOOOAAAAARRR!!"
The beast charged in with a roar. Aldebaran dodged the reaching arm and deflected the elbow.
If this merely struck the opponent's snout, the result would be the same as before. Even knowing that, Aldebaran had no way to dodge the front kick launched at that speed.
So he just had to make it impossible to throw the front kick.
"Guwabah!?"
Against the face hurtling toward him, he drove his elbow—wrapped in a stone gauntlet—with the force of slamming a pickling stone into it, straight into the snout.
Garfiel, his face receiving a counter boosted by its own momentum, arched backward in midair, spraying blood as he flew past Aldebaran's side.
"And with this——"
Garfiel rolled across the floor, buried in the avalanche of books spilling from the toppled shelf.
Keeping that in the corner of his eye, Aldebaran launched himself backward in a great leap, having successfully evaded the first strike.
And then—— "——El Shihah."
The instant the short incantation was uttered, Aldebaran's body, having just planted his foot on the floor, grew heavy—no, it hadn't become heavy. His entire body was being encased in restraint.
The true nature of that constriction was a massive volume of water that had no business being in a library—— "I am fully aware that moisture is the archenemy of books, and I apologize for my unrefined conduct."
"——gh"
"But fire is completely out of the question. I would also prefer not to ransack the library with wind or soil the books. I would appreciate your understanding that this was a split-second decision born of dire necessity. Now, I have already explained my reasoning for choosing water——"
Speaking calmly, the small figure——Ezzo Kadner—approached slowly, flipping his black cloak.
Rather than being theatrical, this was a magician's tactical caution, keeping distance and watching for movement.
Being guarded against in such a way was flattering, but Aldebaran could not possibly meet those expectations.
After all, what encased him was the bare minimum volume of water to envelop his body—a perfect, body-suit-like fit that robbed him of both freedom of movement and freedom of breath.
Against such extraordinary magical skill, Aldebaran had no way to fight back.
However, Ezzo maintained a fixed distance from him and spoke: "Al, will you not offer an explanation that satisfies us? That unknown magic from before—something even I did not recognize? What have you done with Natsuki and Lady Beatrice through it? Those two were worried that you might do something reckless and neglect yourself. For their sake——"
——One hundred six.
What Ezzo articulated, step by step, was what could only be called the reasonable opinion of a grown adult.
Despite his youthful appearance, Ezzo Kadner was a remarkably upstanding and sincere person. He returned sincerity with sincerity, respect with respect—a deep-rooted decency that permeated his very core.
Because of that, the absolute prerequisite in dealing with Ezzo was honesty and respect. So long as those were upheld, he would always end up taking the passive role. He had a tendency to place too much trust in others. In that regard, he was fundamentally different in nature from Roswaal, despite both being magicians.
If it were Roswaal, he would not have cared about the 'Books of the Dead.' He would have burned Aldebaran's limbs with fire magic, invaded his lungs with wind to render him unconscious, and sealed him with earth.
That was why Ezzo didn't do it.
"——You fool!"
The instant Ezzo broke off his words and shouted with a rigid expression, a vivid crimson color swirled around Aldebaran's face through the membrane of water.
The proof—internal organs melting and burning, regurgitating upward through the throat and overflowing from the mouth.
Ezzo immediately released the magical binding, switching to healing magic, but it was too late.
By the time his mind processed it and he realized, Aldebaran's—— × × × "——El Shihah."
"El Donaa!"
Compared to that fluent, refined incantation, this one was graceless and utterly devoid of elegance.
But the ugly earthen armor, hastily activated, swiftly enveloped Aldebaran's entire body, smothering the delicate water membrane's binding and absorbing every last drop of moisture.
"What!?"
The earthen armor rapidly changed to mud armor in an instant, and Aldebaran resumed the footwork that should have been disrupted, shattering the armor as he launched himself backward.
Sliding his heel across the library floor, he repositioned, fixing both hostiles within his now-cleared field of vision.
Ezzo, wary of him—and Garfiel, emerging from the buried books of the fallen shelf—— "Hah, like hell!!"
Garfiel thrust his arm from the mound of books, shoving the toppled shelf aside as he recovered. He strode wide to avoid stepping on the books scattered across the floor, glaring at Aldebaran.
He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand—but in just those few seconds, the bleeding had already stopped. His very existence was built on a different level of combat power from Aldebaran's.
Dragging that sturdy, indomitable body forward, Garfiel prepared to close the distance—— "Wait, Garfiel! Recklessly approaching him is dangerous!"
"Hah!? Like I've got time for that, Sensei! The Captain and Beatrice got turned into that incomprehensible marble! Right now, right this second..."
"Exactly! A spell like that—something even I have never seen! Above all, he just perfectly evaded both my attack and yours! This is abnormal!"
"——gh"
"I have never once shown him my hand. And yet, he neutralized the water binding by absorbing it with earth—a perfect counter. That cannot be explained by calling him merely a skilled combatant. Stay calm. Right now, the only ones who can pin him down are you and me."
Holding back the hot-blooded Garfiel, Ezzo steadily adjusted the tone of his voice.
The persuasiveness of Ezzo's words was evident in how Garfiel's expression of rage and excitement gradually settled.
Above all, Ezzo's insight was extraordinary—after a single exchange, he had detected the edge of Aldebaran's foul play, recognized it as wrong, and called it out.
In truth, Ezzo was correct.
No matter how elaborately he planned, there was no way to eliminate either Ezzo, who had already reached the tower ahead of them, or Garfiel, who was accompanying them as a compromise point of
But at the same time, this also meant he had succeeded in limiting the opposition's fighting strength to just this terrifyingly powerful warrior-and-magician combination.
"Even so, this is more than enough of a pain in the ass."
Muttering a curse under his breath, Aldebaran studied the two of them carefully.
Ezzo, who was watching his every move with sharp eyes—and Garfiel, who was regaining his composure thanks to Ezzo's words. They had formed an extremely troublesome formation.
And so—— "Y-you...!?"
"——You fool!"
Listening to the astonished voices of Garfiel and Ezzo, Aldebaran crumpled to his knees. Falling forward onto the floor, tumbling down the library's tiered levels, his body went limp with all strength drained—from beneath his helmet, blood gushed forth in torrents—— × × × "Wait, Garfiel! Recklessly——"
The instant Ezzo called out to Garfiel to stay back, Aldebaran grabbed a nearby bookshelf, yanked it down in one motion, and sent it toppling toward Ezzo on the lower tier like dominoes.
Normally, the 'Taigeta' bookshelves, packed with heavy 'Books of the Dead,' would not budge an inch. But when a 'stone' had been secretly wedged underneath, that was a different story.
——Three hundred seventy-seven.
From the very beginning, he had intended to use this obstacle-rich, easily prepped location as the battlefield.
His preparations were already complete. Every time he was suspected, he simply moved on to the next opportunity.
"——Damn it!"
Against the bookshelf toppling toward him, Ezzo instinctively conjured wind, forcibly halting the domino chain to prevent the 'Books of the Dead' from crashing to the floor.
His consideration for the books was admirable—— "Dona."
But Aldebaran then toppled the shelves to Ezzo's left and right, and behind him, boxing him in on all sides.
Faced with the collapsing shelves and the avalanche of books, Ezzo grimly abandoned his effort to protect the books and launched himself on the wind, escaping the damage.
"Sensei!"
And Garfiel, whom Ezzo had failed to restrain, eyes wide, turned his rage toward Aldebaran.
Into those emerald eyes burning with extreme fury and excitement, Aldebaran drove the final nail.
In his hand—held by his middle, ring, and pinky fingers—the black sphere. With his remaining two fingers, he pried open his helmet and shoved it through the gap—— "Nng."
—forcing the horribly unpalatable thing down his throat in one gulp.
"You——goddamn——!!"
Seeing this, Garfiel erupted in volcanic fury and lunged.
Sensing that ferocious wind bearing down at a speed the eye could barely follow, Aldebaran—fully confident that he had severed the enemy's coordination and destroyed their composure—was sent flying.
Blown away by the merciless fist, with his organs gouged, nearly vomiting the sphere back out while his dinner sloshed inside his helmet and his molars clenched—— "——Domain Expansion, Matrix Redefinition."
——He spoke the declaration of war upon the world once more.
△▼△▼△▼△ ——Rage dyed Garfiel's vision crimson.
The rage was directed partly at Al, for turning Subaru and Beatrice into black spheres, but even more of it was aimed at his own worthless self.
Garfiel had been entrusted with a crucial role by Otto, Emilia, and the others.
Everyone had wanted to be with Subaru, who had just finally returned from the Vollachian Empire.
But everyone had roles they had to fulfill, so they had swallowed their various feelings and entrusted everything to Garfiel. Of course, Beatrice and Petra, and Meili too, who had come along, had been expected to play their parts.
Even so, protecting Subaru's safety was Garfiel's job.
And yet—— "You—goddamn piece of shit!!"
The molars he clenched cracked, were repaired by the 'Earth Dragon's Blessing,' and cracked again from being clenched once more. That was how intense Garfiel's fury was.
He had been watching Al's actions.
Following Ezzo's input from the top of the tower, he had been mindful of keeping an eye on Al to make sure he didn't do anything reckless alongside Subaru.
But at the same time, Garfiel had someone else to watch besides Al.
None other than Subaru himself.
*"Listen, Garfiel. Keep a close eye on Natsuki-san. He probably won't do anything rash over what happened with Priscilla-san... but he might do whatever he can to help Al-san without thinking twice."* "——gh"
The wariness his big brother figure had drilled into him was slightly dulled by the collision with the additional wariness that had been piled on top. As a result, Garfiel's response to Al's actions was half a step slow.
And Al had closed that half-step gap as if he had known it all along. No—what Al had seen through was not just that half-step. Every step beyond it, too.
"Ruuuaaah!!"
Garfiel's backfist missed by a hair as Al ducked beneath it at the last instant, the blow grazing only the soft underside of his pinky. Garfiel bit down on his molars.
He wasn't landing hits. Despite throwing this many punches, not a single one had connected cleanly.
Worse than that—— "Dona."
The short incantation, the sensation of magic interfering with the world—every hair on Garfiel's body stood on end as he tilted his body.
The next instant, as if meeting his tilted face, a stone block materialized in the air and slammed into his cheek with brutal force.
"Pwaah!" A grunt escaped, and his mouth was cut. In terms of raw power, it was weak. At least, for Garfiel, who had fought a continuous battle against a supreme warrior of the Empire and even clashed with a 'Dragon,' it was not enough to even count as a meaningful injury—let alone render him combat-ineffective.
And he didn't think the opponent had been holding back either.
"Hah, hah..."
Panting, Al kept his guard up without letting his guard down after launching the spell that had struck Garfiel.
His posture was not meant to bait Garfiel into overextending—he was genuinely out of breath. Of course. By Garfiel's estimation, the gap in their abilities was such that Al would be rendered combat-ineffective after taking a single clean hit from their attacks.
He didn't even need to land a perfect blow.
Of the punches Garfiel threw, if even one connected, it would be over. And Garfiel could throw dozens of those finishing blows in a single breath.
Facing that, the drain on both mental and physical stamina was incalculable.
And yet, despite knowing that—— "I'm not... hitting him...!!"
Unable to understand the meaning of what was happening to him, Garfiel was thrown into confusion.
Al's movement, his counterattacks—there was a massive skill gap between them and Garfiel in every respect. It was not arrogance but fact: as a warrior, Garfiel was several tiers above Al.
And yet, the attacks that should be landing weren't, and the dodges that should be working weren't.
Garfiel's attacks kept whiffing, and Al's attacks kept connecting.
They didn't have the power to put Garfiel down, but they were more than enough to halt his advance and prevent pursuit—an infuriating exchange that—— "Garfiel, fall back! I'll provide cover!"
Once again, Garfiel's advance was blocked by something settling beneath his feet.
From behind, Ezzo shouted, urging him to create distance while providing magical support.
For an instant, Garfiel considered following Ezzo's words, trying to read Al's incomprehensible tactics—— "Oh yeah, fall back, fall back. Go cry to your big sis and grandma, Garf."
"——I'll kick your ass!!"
The instant he glimpsed the moment to pull back, the taunt hurled at him tore his thoughts to shreds.
Vision flooded with fury, Garfiel charged at Al with both arms raised. This time, resolved to break through any and all interference—arms and legs be damned, he would tackle and pin him down if he had to.
"Actually, having you do that would be the worst."
Reading Garfiel's intent, Al muttered under his breath with heavy breathing.
As if to say "see, I told you so," Garfiel stomped the floor even harder—and, fearing his footing would be manipulated again, he hurled his body forward with a swift kick.
In that instant, Garfiel's body closed the distance to Al with tremendous force—his vision went white.
"——gh"
A familiar sensation washed over his eyeballs, and a groan leaked from Garfiel's throat.
It was the same sensation he had experienced when the sandstorm in the sand sea on the way to the tower had hit him head-on. Fine particles of sand flew into both his eyes, mercilessly robbing him of his vision.
Another of Al's petty tricks. It would have been enough to make him stop in surprise—had he not been resolved that he would not stop, no matter what.
Al had been most wary of this reckless charge.
So even if he had to eat the blinding, the best option was to hook Al with some part of his body and strip him of combat ability.
"——Garfiel!!"
Right after his resolve to continue the charge, Ezzo's desperate voice reached him.
Sensing something hurtling toward him head-on from that warning, Garfiel opened his mouth wide and caught the incoming blow with his teeth.
A full-power punch, launched from the blinding trap, aimed straight at Garfiel's face. But this was not enough to break his resolve that he would not stop, no matter what.
"I'll fix ya right after I knock ya out!!"
With his teeth sunk into the fist, Garfiel promised to heal him after taking away his combat ability, and clamped his jaw harder.
A cruel judgment, but Al had only one arm. Fighting with only his right arm, if his right arm's function was taken away, he would be unable to fight. If he just tore from the back of the hand to the elbow with his teeth—— "——Huh?"
As he bit down harder, he noticed.
The fist he had caught in his teeth was shaped like a left hand—something Al should not have had.
"——What the—?!"
The next instant, the fist inside his mouth swelled explosively. The bones of his jaw, unable to withstand the pressure, snapped—upper and lower canines shattered and went flying.
Worse, the fingers that had grown inside his mouth pierced deep into Garfiel's throat, triggering an unbearable gag reflex—the pharyngeal reflex that occurs when a finger is shoved down the throat. His body froze. And then, a hard, heavy blow swung from behind connected squarely with Garfiel's jaw at an angle.
"Ca... gh"
His vision stolen, the world went pitch-black, and his sense of direction flipped upside down. The blow to his jaw rattled his brain, annihilating his equilibrium. His knees buckled, and he could no longer stand.
Even as he was being so thoroughly dominated, Garfiel realized belatedly.
That desperate cry from Ezzo had been an urgent warning, made with full knowledge of what would happen if Garfiel took Al's attack head-on.
In other words—up to this point, Al's bait had worked perfectly.
"Being desperate isn't actually the toughest thing. Stupid people aren't my enemy."
The frustration and humiliation of those provocative words dyed Garfiel's thoughts an ever-deeper red, red, and crimson.
△▼△▼△▼△ The relentless chain of attacks was like a storm or a tornado—those caught in it were sent flying like leaves or broken branches, with no chance to do anything else.
Despite how one-sided the exchange was, the result cut the opposite way.
"Garfiel!!"
Watching this abnormal phenomenon unfold, Ezzo shouted toward Garfiel's back.
Garfiel swung both arms wide, refusing to let Al escape, and charged forward. His vision was stolen by a thin film of sand spread across his path.
There had been no magical reaction. That was simply ordinary sand—a blinding measure he had brought with him when ascending from the sand sea outside the tower, scattered at just the right moment.
And seeing the attack that followed the blinding, Ezzo screamed.
Al had used magic to reconstruct his missing left arm out of earth and was swinging it in a hammer blow.
Garfiel opened his mouth wide and caught the earthen arm—but that was not a good thing. Ezzo's premonition proved correct, and the arm detonated violently inside Garfiel's mouth.
"——What the—?!"
The expanding arm destroyed the inside of his mouth, and Garfiel scattered teeth and blood.
On top of that, Al now covered his right arm in a stone gauntlet and struck Garfiel's reeling jaw at an angle, a devastating blow.
Garfiel crumpled to his knees. —A seamless chain of actions with absolutely no wasted motion.
"Even a choreographed sparring drill wouldn't produce something like that...!"
At Al, who had flawlessly halted Garfiel's charge with a combination that not even a rehearsed demonstration could match, Ezzo's wariness climbed to its peak.
But if Garfiel's advance was stopped, perhaps that was a blessing in disguise—— "I no longer have any grounds to consider you beneath me! Not just your left arm—be prepared to lose a leg! —Ul Shihah!!"
Concerned for Garfiel, who was engaging in close combat right next to Al, Ezzo resorted to a powerful magical spell he had held back until now to strip the enemy of combat ability.
With Ezzo's incantation, released mana was intercepted by a formula that rewrote reality. What was unleashed was a torrent of raging wind.
A false incantation—disguised as a Shihah-type chant for manipulating water, while the spell that actually fired was changed to something else.
Furthermore, he combined this false incantation with a silent incantation Goah, laying a pincer trap from both directions.
Simultaneously activating two different spells was said to require two brains and was an extremely advanced technique. In all the world, there were fewer than five who could achieve it.
Compared to Roswaal, one of those five, there was a slight delay in the simultaneous activation—but this was within the range that could be compensated for by combining the false incantation with the silent incantation.
"With this——!"
Even if it didn't finish the job, it would land a devastating blow.
But that perception of Ezzo's was clearly overwritten by Al's subsequent movement.
Without hesitation, Al turned his back on the invisible wind assault bearing down from the front—and with the wind blasting his back, he plunged straight into the wall of flame behind him.
Of course, it was not firepower meant to incinerate, but taking it head-on would still mean severe burns. Into that, Al unprotected himself—or rather, stretched the stone gauntlet on his right arm into a thin shield—and burst through the wall of fire head-on.
"Uoooaaah!!"
Even breaking through the fire wall, he would still be sent flying by the wind.
Al should have been whirled around by the wind, slamming his body against walls and floor until he could no longer move.
But—— "What..."
Ezzo muttered in stunned disbelief, doubting his own eyes at the sight before him.
Whirled by the wind, Al had indeed been slammed helplessly against various surfaces throughout the tower. —But at every point of impact, Al had pre-emptively created a cushion of mud, almost entirely negating the force of collision and escaping the wind's grip.
"————"
At this point, Ezzo was forced to consider what had seemed an absurd hypothesis as a reality.
The undeniable truth that Al, who was clearly inferior to Garfiel in warrior skill, had evaded even Ezzo's guaranteed-hit spell—the most powerful in the kingdom—meant some kind of foul play was at work.
Most likely, by his estimation—— "Could it be—extremely short-term precognition?"
The fact that he had to seriously verify this ludicrous possibility sent a chill down Ezzo's spine.
Among skilled warriors and martial artists, there were some who could read an opponent's intent—their fighting spirit, so to speak—and intuitively perceive the next move.
In the world of magic, it was theoretically possible to read an opponent's next move through the shape and quality of the mana sculpted with pre-spell intent.
But the phenomena surrounding Al could not be explained by such reasoning alone.
This was not mere intuition or empirical rule-of-thumb. —It was all, every last bit, the optimal solution.
Humbly speaking, Ezzo was fortunate enough to have opportunities to teach knowledge to others. From that vantage point, he knew well that unnatural answers were accompanied by unnatural processes.
An answer that skipped the reasoning steps needed to arrive at it—its true nature was almost always a peek at the answer.
The same possibility applied to the phenomena Al was producing.
The problem was—— "Beyond sealing Natsuki and Lady Beatrice, he has used unknown magic as well...?"
Magic that even Ezzo, who had read every available text and mastered the vast majority of existing spells as knowledge, had never seen. If they were forbidden spells of the kind that were difficult to record, it was entirely possible that incantations falling outside the six basic attributes had been devised.
"————"
When the realization hit that all his moves could be read, Ezzo assessed Al's threat at its absolute maximum.
He could no longer afford to think of him as merely a dangerous unknown who wielded mysterious magic. The danger level was more than sufficient to classify him as equal to a Sin Archbishop or a 'Witch.' And so—— "While I still have mana to spare, I will settle this!"
△▼△▼△▼△ When the roaring first reached her ears, Petra wanted to believe it was some mistake.
But—— "——gh"
She bit the inside of her cheek hard, letting the pain bring her back to reality.
Wanting to believe—such feelings were dangerous. People easily gravitated toward comfort and ease. But if nothing bad happened, that would be fine. What would she do if it did?
Would she risk the things and people she treasured, all for a moment of self-pity?
"——Meili, come here."
Saying that, Petra pulled Meili, who had been helping with dinner cleanup, closer.
As always, Meili was all talk and no help, but it was good to have her nearby. Thanks to that, Petra could reach out a hand.
Meili, drawn over by Petra, glanced up toward the ceiling from which the sound came.
"...Petra, someone's fighting with someone up there."
"——Do you know who?"
"Well, it can't be Onii-chan and the fang guy—they've got no reason to fight each other, ri? So it's gotta be either Sensei or Helmet Uncle, right?"
"Al-san, and Ezzo-san..."
"If it's Sensei, ah, we've gotta watch out for Flam, too."
In contrast to Petra's rising tension, Meili's tone and expression were unchanged.
The difference between Meili, who was accustomed to battlefields, and Petra, who was not, was starkly apparent. Still, Petra's experience in the Empire had kept her from panicking—she was grateful for that.
She hoped the events in the Empire would at least be useful to her life going forward.
"What do we do? Should we go up too?"
"...No, let's not. If we'd been there from the start, maybe, but if we barge in now, we'd just get in the way."
"That's right—pass. We could send Koko-momo alone on a scouting mission, though..."
Perched atop Meili's head, the little red scorpion clicked its pincers.
Being eager and combative was all well and good, but a scorpion that tiny heading up there couldn't possibly be useful. It would be no different from Petra and the others going.
Petra shook her head, damping the little scorpion's enthusiasm.
On top of that—— "——No matter what happens, at least we need to be mentally prepared."
If Meili's words were to be believed, there was a high probability that someone was fighting on the upper floors—in the 'Books of the Dead' archive. Those who had gone to handle post-dinner duties should have been there, and the two people Meili had mentioned would naturally be among them.
And—Natsuki Subaru, too.
"Subaru...!"
With a prayer-like feeling, Petra wished for his safety wherever he might be.
Beatrice would be at his side, and Garfiel. With those two with him, he should be far safer than if she were there—she hoped so.
And then—— "——Petra!! Meili!!"
"——Garf!?"
Suddenly, Garfiel's roar reached them, and Petra's head snapped up.
Hearing her response, Garfiel burst into the room where they were with tremendous force.
Petra nearly brightened at the sight of a familiar face—but that was impossible.
"You're terribly hurt...! What happened!? Let me treat you——"
"Nnnn-ah-fih-! Muh-ore, thah-ight magic, cuh-on meh! Ish-quick!!"
"——gh!"
Garfiel's face was caked in blood. At the plea from his mouth with several teeth missing, Petra froze for an instant—then immediately cast a boosting light magic spell on Garfiel's body.
Her light magic was still immature, and casting it on someone else's body was unstable at best, but Garfiel's intensity left no room for argument. If that was the case, Petra simply had to overcome her immaturity right here.
"Rah!"
"Kyah!?"
While enduring the effects of Petra's light magic, Garfiel drove both hands into the room's floor with brute force and ripped up the stone.
At the incomprehensible action, Meili shrieked, and then asked Garfiel, who was lifting the torn-up floor: "Wh-what are you going to do with that?"
In response, Garfiel turned toward the room's entrance and shouted, muffled and unclear: "Theeere—stayy baaack!"
Then he slammed the slab of floor into the entrance, sealing it.
Whether that was meant to keep something from getting in or to keep them from getting out, Petra wanted to ask his back what had happened—but there was no time.
She could see it through the gap between the door and the slab Garfiel had wedged in.
"——Water!?"
Meili screamed again, and the little red scorpion on her head thrust its pincers and tail skyward in shock.
Petra's eyes went wide too. Beyond the entrance Garfiel had sealed, a raging torrent of murky water was flooding down the fourth-floor corridor of the tower with terrifying force—she could feel it through the sound and the pressure.
Why, for what purpose, and who had created it— "I gotta—read ahead—but I can't—read any farther—can't predict—this kinda attack—!!"
Garfiel, his legs braced against the floor, continued to resist the ferocious pressure of the water, his cheeks twisted in a grimace.
In that savage, combative grin tinged with rage, Petra felt a chill. What kind of opponent was Garfiel fighting with this face?
And why had he come running here alone to Petra and Meili?
"Hold on—!"
Swallowing the many questions that welled up in her chest, she braced her hands against Garfiel's back.
"——gh"
With Petra's hands supporting his back, Garfiel's entire body tensed.
Of course, Petra's slender arms could not meaningfully add to Garfiel's strength. Focusing her light magic would have been far more helpful.
But in this moment, Petra entrusted all her worry and trust to Garfiel's back.
And she believed Garfiel was giving his all in return.
Eventually, the thunderous sound of the massive torrent that had been scouring the corridor subsided, gradually becoming as faint as water dripping from a gutter after rain.
Garfiel, who had been bracing with all his might, relaxed his legs, shoved the slab that had sealed the entrance aside, and let out a long breath.
Then, he turned to look at Petra, whose hand was still on his back—— "Garfiel! Come quickly! Upstairs! Not in the 'Taigeta' section!"
It might have been an application of magic—incredibly loud, so loud that distance became meaningless—Ezzo's voice boomed, and Garfiel's head snapped up as if he'd been struck.
With his usual sharp fangs broken, he hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should explain the situation to Petra and Meili—— "With Meili—you—explain—!!"
"——Is it Al-san?"
"...Yeah."
Sharing only the bare minimum—whom they were dealing with—Garfiel hurried out into the soaked corridor to rendezvous with Ezzo.
Watching his back disappear, Petra exhaled a trembling breath and covered her face with both hands.
"Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry...!"
Desperate to drive back the terrible feeling welling up inside her, Petra kept repeating those words.
Even so, she could not stop what kept rising.
"Petra."
Gently, a hand was placed atop Petra's head—Meili's, with her usual disregard for personal space.
Then, ruffling her hair, Petra would later realize that what had felt like harassment was simply Meili being terrible at patting someone's head.
While clumsily comforting Petra, Meili let out a small sigh.
"It might be my fault, y'know. ...Not everyone can be helped by the kindness of their Onii-chan or Onee-chan, you know."
"That's not... true..."
She wanted to say "not true" with certainty—but the words caught in her throat, and Petra could not speak them with conviction before the sob that came first.
△▼△▼△▼△ When the torrent filled the corridor and swept over him, unrelated to provocation or bravado, Aldebaran was overcome by a sense of helplessness at the realization that his opponent had genuinely found the optimal solution.
To wield this much of an advantage, this much of a trump card—and still have the experts close the gap like this.
Their strength was, without excuse, genuinely admirable.
"——Gah."
The inescapable surge of water would not allow him to brace himself or hold on to anything—it swept his body away in an instant, mercilessly draining his stamina and body heat.
The more he struggled against the water, the more his strength was sapped, the more exhausted he became. Washed from head to toe as water flooded through every orifice in his body, there was nothing he could do.
Unlike wind with some degree of directionality, water flow could not be countered with earthen walls or stone barriers.
Therefore, all Aldebaran could do was be carried along by the water, battered by it, and nearly killed by it. In truth, he had no idea how much water he had swallowed.
But—— "Gu, bu, bah...!"
Gagging, spitting out the water he had swallowed, Aldebaran drew ragged breaths.
His body had no strength left. Propping himself up on one arm, he fought to drain the water that had bloated him like a water balloon.
Water seemed to pour from his nose, his mouth, his eyes, his ears. He could no longer feel his lower body, and he was too afraid to check whether he had lost control of his bladder.
Spitting out every last drop of water he could, at the very end of his spitting—— "Now then—I believe you have no strength left to resist, but I will hear your defense."
Descending the stairs with measured steps, the magician and warrior looked down at Aldebaran.
He had been carried up the stairs he had helplessly slammed against while being swept along—and the two who climbed after him with steady steps, though fatigued, still had fighting spirit to spare.
Aldebaran, by contrast, was a bedraggled, soaking-wet rag of a man, battered beyond recognition.
"Hah."
Aldebaran released the arm supporting him and collapsed onto his back.
The sky, where the sun had set and the curtain of night was beginning to fall, was dotted with faint starlight. Feeling those twinkling stars looking down on him, Al truly despised the sky.
He hated stars.
Stars that gazed down from on high and simply shone however they pleased—he hated them.
"You did this to the Captain... and Beatrice..."
Lying on his back, Aldebaran heard the words from Garfiel, whose fangs were still missing.
Rather than the grudge over his mouth being torn apart, Garfiel's priority—Subaru and Beatrice over everything—was admirable enough to make you want to cheer for him. Unfortunately, Aldebaran's opinion was the polar opposite.
He was truly sad. It wasn't that Aldebaran hated Garfiel.
He didn't hate anyone.
Not Garfiel, with whom he had just fought. Not Ezzo. Not Petra and Meili and Flam, who were in this tower. Not even those he would likely clash with in the future. He hated none of them.
The only ones he hated were himself and Natsuki Subaru.
"Hey—you—ain't listenin', are ya!?"
"Compose yourself, Garfiel. And Al—your silence here will be taken as provocation, and rightly so. Unnecessary provocation, at that. You should understand that much by now."
"————"
"You appear to possess the ability to wield unknown magic—something of the forbidden variety—but even that is not omnipotent. Whether it's me or someone other than me, countermeasures will be developed. No matter how skilled a fighter you are, you cannot win every battle."
Holding back the emotional Garfiel, Ezzo spoke with strict rationality.
To Aldebaran, who had been run roughshod over to this extent, the persuasiveness of Ezzo's words was considerable. With his solid skill and powers of observation, Ezzo had cracked Aldebaran's authority.
Unable to move a single finger at this very moment, Aldebaran could not even make excuses.
But—— "Ezzo—you're right. I can't win every battle."
From his prone position, Aldebaran affirmed Ezzo's words.
At those words, Garfiel and Ezzo reacted differently—Garfiel with irritation, Ezzo with even greater wariness.
Even saying that much, they wouldn't let their guard down. How tiresome.
How tiresome, but it was fine. She wasn't anywhere anymore, after all.
——Seven hundred forty-eight.
That many attempts, spent drifting through helplessness with nothing he could do.
The only thing he could test was where the torrent would swallow him. After being swept away by the water, there was nothing a tiny creature like Aldebaran could do.
In exchange, he kept drifting until he finally drew the winning card.
"I can't win every battle. —So I only need to win the last one."
"What are you..."
"I came here because I wanted to be here. This was the only place where my victory conditions existed."
Ignoring the question marks on Ezzo and Garfiel's faces, Aldebaran continued.
He had no breath to spare for back-and-forth. Even now, he was rattling off anything he could think of to keep from losing consciousness.
He wasn't gloating, and he wasn't trying to be unpleasant with a victory declaration.
He just wanted them to understand. —The magnitude of what Aldebaran had piled up, star dust by star dust.
"————"
Sensing the bewilderment radiating from the two, Aldebaran—still lying on the floor—managed to raise one arm and point in a direction.
Following where Aldebaran pointed, the two noticed what lay there and choked.
Even if they didn't understand the significance of its presence, they could feel that something was off.
It was—— "A 'Book of the Dead'...!?"
"Whose is it!?"
Soaked but still maintaining its form as a book—a single 'Book of the Dead.' Lying open on the floor with its waterlogged pages exposed, the sight of it made the two stare wide-eyed, their voices trembling.
They couldn't process it yet. Honestly, even if they heard the answer, they wouldn't understand.
But from the very beginning, Aldebaran had come to this tower to find and use that book.
He knew that without it, the preparations to remove Natsuki Subaru would not be complete.
The title of that 'Book of the Dead'—what was written inside it was—— "My name."
"————"
The answer delivered, and for a moment, a blank emptiness seized Ezzo and Garfiel.
It was a clear opening—but unfortunately, Aldebaran lacked the strength to exploit it. The once-in-an-eternity opportunity was not something he could grasp.
And so, leaving the use of that once-in-an-eternity opportunity to 'Aldebaran'—— The eyes that had been gazing down at the soaked 'Book of the Dead' lying on the floor slowly rose and faced forward.
And the creature draped in pale blue scales, regarded as the most tenacious being in the world, spread both its wings and spoke.
*—The stars were against me.* The next instant, directed at the magician and warrior standing frozen in place, the breath of the Divine Dragon