Wind was blowing from the broken dome, passing through between Kazuki and Clark.
Due to the damaged dome, whether it was the projected fake sky or the real sky that could be peeked from the hole in the dome, both were changing color into the dark blue of the evening sky. For a while nobody was saying anything.
After a silence, Ginny and Mary’s bodies were blown away. Arthur and Beatrix quickly rushed to Kazuki holding their respective weapons.
Ginny and Mary were blown away several meters away without any resistance like dolls that didn’t have any strength in its limbs, they collapsed and didn’t move anymore. They were silent without any sign of will.
Arthur looked at Kazuki from the corner of his eyes and asked “What is it they did to you?”
“My power is sealed.”
“Only from one attack just now? Don’t tell me…” Arthur lost his words.
To think that the power of Basileus was sealed just with one attack, certainly it was unbelievable. One attack that took away the country’s greatest battle strength. A single attack that overthrown a country. There was no doubt that it was an Original One that made the possessor of the attribute and the Diva shoulder a really great risk.
Risk―in actuality, that kind of bullet wouldn’t hit Kazuki without some kind of really ingenious plan.
And then almost all of the magic power wavelength of Jeremy who had finished firing the bullet was completely disappearing.
Surely that girl was betting her everything inside that single attack.
“Jeremy, fall back, you can never fight again right?”
Clark cared for Jeremy like that. Hearing the word never, that word reverberated inside their ears.
Kazuki opened a distance and directed his gaze at the collapsed Ginny and Mary.
“What did you do to those two?” A slight fury colored his tone.
“So you don’t think that they just normally betrayed you huh. …But that’s correct. Both of them are controlled by drug and electrode. After all I thought that they might betray me.”
Machining human body. America had that kind of technology. Even the wavelength of their magic power felt different.
“They might become cripple from the after-effect. But it can’t be helped, they are sacrifices.”
A tone so cold like steel in midwinter made fun of Kazuki.
Fury welled up even more inside his chest. This woman wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice anything.
“Lotte, Miyabi-senpai, please look at these two. Help them somehow.”
Miyabi-senpai and Lotte who excelled in mind magic rushed to Mary and Ginny in panic.
But apart from his rage, his head was calm. Kazuki asked with a calm tone.
“You shouldn’t understand how the Indians would move. Thinking about that, isn’t this method leaving too much to luck?”
She made him misrecognized the number of the Chiefs. She brainwashed the two people that earned Kazuki’s trust, changed their body, and made them pretend as the Chiefs. But to have all those tricks go so well on the battlefield, most of them was only thanks to luck and ad-lib performance. He couldn’t think of the plan as skillful. No, it couldn’t even be called a plan. This was―.
“Of course it was a gamble. The battle of the weakling is always a match of betting all your human resource to come out on top. I came this far from winning all those bets. From now on too I have to win them all… to protect America’s dignity.”
That resolve cornered Kazuki until this far. *Step*…Clark walked closer to Kazuki.
Kazuki quietly stared at Clark. Arthur and Beatrix readied their weapon.
“Right now the battle should be continuing at Colorado river, but you are planning to fight us here?”
“We are also in an overwhelming advantage at the fight of Colorado river. The report just came from the radio just now. My bad, but I don’t have any more use of you. Medicine Wheel… will be defeated by me.”
Clark was talking with a smooth tone that everything was going exactly as she planned.
“Well, that’s fine. This situation is also desirable for me.”
Kazuki withdrew a beam of light from his waist, Ame no Murakumo was once again pulled out from its sheath. Looking at that, Clark’s eyebrow shook. It was only a little movement from her expression, but it was a sign of shock he never saw until now.
“That’s the Sacred Treasure a Basileus have…? Even though your Basileus power is sealed… you can use it?”
The Excalibur that Arthur possessed, couldn’t be used by anybody other than Arthur.
The Sacred Treasure that a Basileus possessed, was a symbolic item of such.
Even for Kazuki, he was recognized as the Basileus of the Japanese Mythology by obtaining the three Sacred Treasures.
But there was no such symbolic weapon in the Solomon Mythology because they were only a pure sorcery Mythology.
Clark was making a mistake.
“What you sealed―is only the power of Solomon Mythology’s Basileus!”
Clark didn’t know at all, that Kazuki was a Basileus of two Mythologies. Kazuki stepped solidly on the asphalt surface. “What!?” Clark spouted out her agitation.
Kazuki directed the tip of Ame no Murakumo at Clark and thrust while pouring magic power.
Right now Kazuki couldn’t use Amaterasu’s magic. He lost the circuit of positivity level with Kamimura-san and became unable to obtain her contracted Diva.
But the Japanese Mythology had already subordinated themselves to Kazuki. The Sacred Treasures had also recognized him as their user. Ame no Murakumo remembered―the fight between Kazuki and Susanoo.
Ame no Murakumo emitted heat inside Kazuki’s palm, it beat with pulsation.
At this time Kazuki felt for the first time affection that he had never felt before towards Ame no Murakumo. Perhaps it could be even compared with the feeling that he held for his lost <Doufuu> that he held somewhere in his heart until now.
Clark’s left arm shined. Magic power burst out from there, materializing a pentagon steel.
“O the protection that supported my justice, take form right here. Vibra Pentagon(National Defense Shield)!”
A star was drawn at the center, around it was a two layer frame of red and white enclosing it, it was a shield with a design like the US flag. The solid shield that emitted cold tried to block Kazuki’s straightforward thrust.
“Distort, Ame no Murakumo! Battou Kaikon―Kushihebi no Tachi!!” (TN: Long sword of skewered snake)
As if to answer Kazuki’s affection, Ame no Murakumo vibrated. It insisted to use the power, use it, use it. The sword blade where Kazuki poured his magic power was *guneri!* stretching out and twisting in long range, it circumvented the shield.
Kushihebi no Tachi―Ame no Murakumo was a sword that appeared from the inside of the severed tail of Yamata no Orochi. Therefore there was also a legend that it was a sword that carried the power of snake. Ame no Murakumo that circumvented the shield stabbed at Clark right from her side.
Clark staggered while scattering the blue light of smashed magic. She directed an expression like steel at Kazuki.
“You cheated me a lot huh, brat!”
“It’s your own misunderstanding right? Be aware that your are walking on top of thin ice, Clark! It’s the end if your reading is mistaken!!”
Most likely Kazuki had been read by Clark for about 90%. But what gave birth to Clark’s miscalculation was the result of her judgment using theory if Kazuki couldn’t rely on the power of King Solomon.
{Kazuki…!} An urgent voice reverberated inside Kazuki’s brain.
{Use the Power of Harmony at Itsuki-chan…!! Quick!!”
It was Amaterasu’s voice. Kazuki turned back at Kamimura-san wondering what made her so impatient.
“Sayonara~. sayonara~, fuo~eba~”
Kamimura-san’s figure looked faintly transparent, she was waving both her hands with a tranquil expression.
Kazuki lost his composure ten times greater than when he lost the power of Basileus.
“Wa, wait wait wait a second!! What are you doing trying to enter heaven like that!?”
{Kazuki, pull her through with the Power of Harmony-!!} Amaterasu’s yelling voice was conveyed to him.
Is that so… Kamimura-san was supplied with magic power from the circuit of King Solomon’s positivity level, with that her flesh was preserved. But right now that circuit was cut off completely, making Kamimura-san’s power supply of life just Amaterasu. It was insufficient with only that.
Kazuki followed Amaterasu’s advice and used the [Power of Harmony]. Kamimura-san’s drying up flesh sucked up magic power like a dry land given water.
Kamimura-san barely recovered her body, but her feeling of substance was shaky.
If she got hit by attack magic and her magic power was shaved down, she might rise to heaven.
“Kamimura-san fall back until a safe place!!”
When Kazuki seriously yelled that in worry, Kamimura-san withdrew while saying “A, aii―”.
And then there was no enemy that would purposefully wait for such a conversation to take place peacefully.
“O light that break evil, dwell in my hand and become a flash!”
Magic power was approaching from behind―she was coming to strike him. Even without looking Kazuki could feel that.
“Justice Knuckle(Fist of Judgement)!!”
Kazuki blocked that strike while turning back.
Clark’s appearance was changing into her Magic Dress.
That steel-like expressionless face was covered by a streamlined helmet. It was shaped with a design of America’s symbolic bird, the eagle. On her back was a flapping mantel, with distinctive color as a Magic Dress, her whole body was covered by a metallic suit. Holding <Vibra Pentagon> at her left arm, she struck at him with her right arm. That appearance was exactly a hero that embodied American Justice.
Clark’s contracted Diva, <Super One>!
At the same time the Numbers were also descending down in attack, they were met by Kazuki’s comrades.
“Unfortunately my reading missed! …You can only face me from the front!”
Fist and blade clashed, a resolute voice came from behind the approaching helmet.
“What the hell the person who just now aimed for the back is saying right now!”
“…Kuku-“ A slight chuckle could be heard from the inside of the helmet, Kazuki doubted his ears.
Was she laughing, this woman? Even in front of a pure head-on fight…?
“You guys! I’ll beat this guy(the Basileus)! Hold out until I finish!!”
“Everyone! I’ll beat this guy(the King)! I’ll wait until you all take care of those guys!!”
Saying those words for the first time, Kazuki felt a special meaning from that.
This was… his first [battle against a Basileus]. It was different with the time when he wagered the seat of Basileus with Ikousai. They were carrying the Mythology on their backs. They were carrying their own ideals on their backs. This was not a simple contest of strength or killing each other.
What came from the weight of what they shouldered was not nervousness, it was exaltation. Kazuki felt he understood the meaning of Clark’s laugh. Even this Clark could feel like that in this situation.
“Kushihebi no Tachi!”
Ame no Murakumo flexibly transformed while blocking the fist. The edge of the rippling blade was circling while attacking Clark. Clark agilely reacted and grabbed at the blade with her right hand.
The eye-visor of Clark’s helmet shined glaringly at that instant.
Clark was striking at him with the Vibra Shield at her left arm. Kazuki separated his right hand from Ame no Murakumo that he held with two hand and blocked that shield with his hand. Just like that their strength was balanced.
“O light of freedom, illuminate the darkness, show the justice! Justice Blast(Beam of Judgement)!!”
Clark’s eye-visor at her helmet let out strong red-hot light.
From there a straight beam was shot with a *ZAP!*
Although Kazuki had Foresighted it, he couldn’t evade with his posture still in a lock with Clark. Kazuki immediately released his left hand that was holding Ame no Murakumo and averted his body using his right hand that was grasping at the shield as fulcrum.
“You let go of your weapon!?”
No―Ame no Murakumo undulated like a snake and automatically twined around Kazuki’s hand.
However the aim was to break Kazuki’s posture, Clark’s right hand―the <Justice Knuckle> was held aloft. <Yasakani no Magatama> at Kazuki’s left hand pulsated―[Use me, use my power] it was as if it was saying that.
…Because the power of King Solomon was sealed, the three Sacred Treasures were self-asserting themselves in a way they had never done before.
By any chance these guys, they might be actually feeling really jealous.
“Shut and seal, <Yasakani no Magatama>! Kaicho Kaikon―Hachimon Shibari!!”
With a snap the string of magatama enlarged and enfolded out From Kazuki’s left wrist, tightening at Clark’s body in many layers.
But just before Clark’s whole body was tied, she shifted her own body and made only her lower body escape from the binding. She stepped strongly on the ground with her free right foot, and swung her left foot powerfully…!
“O Stars and Stripes, please inspire the hero’s dancing movement… Dynamite Kick(Glory’s Explosive Foot)!!”
*ZUBAAAAAAAAAN!* Kazuki received a terrific impact at his flank.
He bled off its power by jumping back behind just before it hit, but even so… it was heavy.
It was a power that made him question if his defensive magic power might explode if he ate that kick fully.
“Being a hero the instant you put on your helmet, are you really that kind of character huh, Clark Moore!”
“I am America’s justice! There is not a single speck of shadow in my pride!!”
“Throwing away your human heart, using inhuman methods, you can still say that that’s justice!?”
Kazuki attacked verbally what he wanted to say all this time but couldn’t say because of his cooperative position with America.
“I can say it! This country knows… that power is justice! In the first place this America never cares of its method!!”
Once, in the old ear, America as the strongest country in the world was a country that acted as the agent of order and justice. If such a country was overturned and lost its power… perhaps it was only something natural for the people of the country that had thinking like Clark to appear. When they were once a strong country, they implicitly said to the weak [if you have any complaint then try to be like this], and so maybe now that they were weaklings themselves they didn’t make a single complaint, they didn’t even beg for help, only dignifiedly trying to do something about it themselves.
Power was exactly justice―both when they were strong and also when they were weak, America continued to consistently persist in that proudly.
Clark was going to pursue Kazuki who was blown away by the kick. With her upper body still tied by the magatama, Clark emitted light from her helmet once more.
“Justice Blast!”
Kazuki performed ukemi on the ground while―with his body moving half by itself, he held up Yata no Kagami at the light. It could be said that the mirror was moving Kazuki’s body as it pleased itself.
“Become the light that doesn’t recognize that, <Yata no Kagami>! Fuukyou Kaikon―Tsukuyomi no Kagami!” (TN: Seal Mirror Soul Release―Tsukuyomi’s Mirror)
The moon read―the direction of the light. And then it freely controlled that. It was the power of <Tsukuyomi>. Yata no Kagami was a worshipped object of Amaterasu, but each of the three Sacred Treasures was conceiving the power of each of the three honored gods.
Yata no Kagami disassembled the vector of the powerful heat beam and reflected the energy as it was to Clark. “Fuh!” However Clark powerfully opened both her arms and tore off the binding of the magatama, and then she scattered the light using Vibra Pentagon on her left arm.
The magatama shrank back to its previous form because the magic power that Kazuki poured into it had been destroyed, before it twined itself around Kazuki’s left wrist once more. Both of them glared at each other while fixing back their stance.
Strong. Of course his power of Solomon was also sealed but… however she unexpectedly didn’t have any bad habit with fortitude and vigorous strength, her way of fighting that picked at the opponent’s weak point with numerous magic worked really well. And most important of all, compared to all the enemies he had faced until now… her mind was strong.
Even without any of her scheming, Clark’s most special characteristic was surely her [unshakeableness].
“I am justice.” With her silver suit and her flapping mantel, she said that once again.
Aah, perhaps you didn’t need to be ashamed for anything. However…
“That justice of yours, I’ll deny it with my justice!!”
Kazuki didn’t retreat for even a single step and talked back strongly.
―The Basileus of Japanese Mythology must constantly possess a wide field of vision no matter what.
In order to use the Power of Harmony to the whole battlefield.
In a slight distance away from the one-on-one fight between Kazuki and Clark, the remaining five Numbers and Kazuki’s comrades were also confronting each other. There was a large difference between their numbers, but even though the other side was almost completely uninjured, all of Kazuki’s comrades were burdened with quite an exhaustion.
Using the Power of Harmony, Kazuki distributed magic power to six people of Kanae, Beatrix, Mio, Koyuki, Kaguya-senpai, and Hikaru-senpai. With this, those six people’s magic power were completely recovered and even boosted past that.
They couldn’t use the telepathic communication, but Mio intuitively understood Kazuki’s feeling.
“Right now, let’s fight with the people that were distributed with magic power by Kazuki!”
Six people―if the number of people was too much then each one’s magic power would become smaller, increasing the danger of being hit by a powerful attack in the worst chance. But it was also important to win in the number of moves against an opponent with a large number of people.
Japan VS America―even while Kazuki was concentrating at Clark, he determined the starting members with the Power of Harmony.
…Kazuki himself, still had yet to use the Power of Harmony on himself.
“King said to hold out, but she won’t mind even if we defeat them all right?”
“Calm down, Thomas. There is the Basileus of Britain at the other side see. Never forget of self-awareness that we are a young Mythology.”
“But Adylle. Isn’t that Britain Basileus drawing back to the rear? …Also it seems like for some reason the Japanese are also giving us just six opponents. I wonder if they are underestimating us?”
“That’s why calm down, Thomas. I felt their magic powers are moving largely. Their magic power is concentrated on those six with some kind of method. I’m not feeling it at all that Japan is cutting corners here.”
The five Numbers had already transformed into their Magic Dresses. Those were strange dresses from looking at them. Before the battle, those five were unanimously introducing themselves saying “It’s a rare chance that we are normally facing each other like this.”
“My name is Thomas Hanks. The third Numbers that is contracted with the embodiment of [Hollywood movies], <Enjoy & Exciting(Wild Enthusiasm)>. I’m going to crush all you Japanese except Mister Kurosawa.”
She was a gorgeous woman with sunglasses and a fur coat put on her shoulder. Her attire looked like a simple celebrity clothing at a glance, but golden lights were emitted from here and there on her outfit.
“My name is Adylle Anderson. Symbolizing [contract] and [lawsuit]… I am contracted with <Black & White(Justice Scales)>. The Number 4. I’ll judge your right and wrong.”
She was a small statured girl with bob hair and a monocle. Putting on a mantel with extreme border design of white and black, her lower body was like underwear figure and on her back was an avatar of scale floating.
“I am Madonna Vicmanish! The magician of Diva <Queen Bee(Queen of Light)> of [cheer spirit]! My number is 7! I’m rooting at everyone and make them shine!”
The woman with amazingly sensual lips and body figure was shaking her butt in her cheerleader-style Magic Dress while talking. Her butt was a splendid butt that would make one go ‘ooo-‘ even if it was the same sex that was seeing it.
“This one is Domingo Clemens. Numbers 8 that art contracted with the Diva that symbolized [baseball], <Make Drama(Dramatic Victory)>. This one art thinking to work hard at this Japan-America baseball.”
Regardless that she was a woman, her hair was shaved in crew cut, showing her solid head. She was wearing a Magic Dress that had no way to be described other than a baseball uniform as it was.
“…Ridley Spillback. Diva of [space development] <NASA(Visitor)>… the last number 9.”
Was it the influence of Ridley’s Magic Dress, but her skin had a blue discoloration, her look that was wearing a silver suit was the typical alien of the fiction world.
Number 1 Red, Number 2 Jeremy, Number 5 Mary, Number 6 Ginny, those four were missing, but their majestic appearance… no, their eccentric appearance made Mio shudder.
“So this is American Justice’s Numbers! How should I say it… it feels like the large gathering of variety shows isn’t it? As expected from the country of freedom… it’s just too free. Moreover, somehow, many of you are not moe…”
American Justice Mythology was not a mythology that had been talked in a long history. The symbolic spirituality of the modern American culture was made into Divas as a mass of magic power.
However it seemed that there was almost no personality in the Divas.
“Kana-chan and Beatrix are the vanguards, me and Hikaru are the mid-range. Mio-chan and Koyuki-chan will support from the rearguard. I think Otouto-kun chose us with that kind of intention.”
Kaguya-senpai quickly gave instructions.
“…Kaguya-senpai, I think if it’s the current me then I can chant the level 10.”
Koyuki pulled at Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress and said that.
Mio who was standing right beside her went “Eeehh-!?” and directed eyes filled with shock and doubt at Koyuki. Kaguya-senpai also opened her eyes wide and made a face that searched for Koyuki’s true feeling staringly, but she immediately *pon* clapped her hand in understanding.
“Is that so, in the first place Koyuki-chan is an elf that has a lot of magic power after all…! Perhaps the Power of Harmony also influences the original size of the vessel.”
“Perhaps Kazuki also planned for that, that he poured a lot of magic power into me.”
Mio kicked and struggled saying “Favoritism is unfair~ unfair~”, but Koyuki decided to ignore her.
“We should end this in a brief battle with a single powerful strike without getting damage as much as possible. If we can win with spare strength left, Kazuki can use that for himself with the Power of Harmony. Our magic power is already not just ours anymore.”
Mio who was protesting unreasonably pondered with a serious face then she soon nodded from hearing Koyuki.
Japanese Mythology too was by no means a strong Mythology. The way of fighting of Japanese Mythology was exactly to economize their use of power.
“In other words it’s all fine if I disturb those bunch without getting damage. That’s exactly my specialty.”
A muddy black magic power was coiling about at the katana <Michikage> in Kanae’s hand. What possessed the black blade turning it into a Sacred Treasure was―the Demon King of rage, <Beleth>.
“Applaud my secret sword, Kuroneko Michikage! Battou Kaikon―<Kokui Musou>!!” (TN: Peerless Black Cloth)
Beleth and Kanae’s souls hailed each other, the black magic power emitted from Michikage became a <Sacred Treasure Dress> that resembled a Magic Dress. That Dress would burst up Kanae’s power the more her movements reached closer to her quintessence.
“I don’t get the difficult things but… anyway it’s fine if I just rampage! Those bunch’s appearance are completely unclear but, I’m looking forward to what kind of attack they are going to use!!”
Beatrix was happily preparing her two-handed sword.
“Looks like your discussion is over already! Let’s go!!”
Thomas proclaimed that and began her spell chanting―”Slow-!!”
The moment she reached the end of her incantation, the black cat was already in front of her eyes.
“…Eh?” Thomas who looked at that unknown speed had a diagonal line of light running through her body.
Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword the second―<Shin’iki>. The slash that was launched with a perfect movement shook the magic power of the person chanting a spell. It granted impact at the most vital pillar that configured the magic phenomenon, destroying it completely.
Beleth gave his blessing to that perfect technique, boosting its destructive power.
While Thomas was blown away, the sensation of her spell dispersed into nothing made her raise a scream.
“The, the spell is… broken!”
“Fa, fast-…!?” Toward Adylle that opened wide her eyes at the side,
“Nyaaaaaaa!” Kanae immediately slashed with her returning blade. The second attack was a little rough and it didn’t reach Shin’iki, but “Guh-!” it was enough to scare Adylle.
“I see… with the magic power allocated from Nii-sama, my body is lighter than usual. My Enchant Aura is becoming sharper. It has benefits even for swordsman like me.”
With the speed and power that were more than usual, Kanae felt just a little heartrending numbness. Kanae felt numb from this easy power-up precisely because of her habitual severe training that she kept repeating, yet she was also feeling moved.
“You art fast, but it’s a speed that this one can hit!”
The baseball uniform woman, Domingo approached Kanae while her hand grasped a golden light.
“The one hit of victory for the sake of the sick little girl right here… Golden Bat(The Promised Home Run Until Outside the Stadium)!!”
A sharp horizontal swing attacked Kanae. Kanae had already Foresighted it and took a back-step.
But it didn’t end with that. The bat that was hitting empty air deviated from its original trajectory, ignoring physical phenomenon like the law of inertia the bat pursued Kanae. That action rather than saying it was Domingo that was swinging the bat, it was more like the bat was turned into a tracking missile that pulled Domingo along. “Uwaa-, don’t come here with gross movements like thatt-!!” Kanae screamed from the repulsiveness.
“If it something like that then try to compare your strength with me!! I’m going to take your attack without running away!!”
In front of Domingo that was chasing Kanae, Beatrix quickly cut in with her large sword.
*KAKIIIIN!* Weapon and magic power aura collided.
“O divine protection of warrior, double the megin whirling in my body! The will of god spurring me to unlimited fights, in this body! …Meginjord!”
Beatrix obtained the divine protection of strengthening from Norse Mythology’s Diva Thor and pushed back.
“If thou think that this one art skillful in only hitting then it’s a major mistake… o protein residing in this body, combine with my magic power and form a body of steel Clemens… Destroy Steroid(Explosive Flesh Tempering Muscle Art)!!”
As if a balloon had air blown as hard as one could into it, Domingo’s body swelled out several times larger. Her Magic Dress was not torn up though it strained tightly on her. Of course that growth was not from air but it was all muscle. “I want that magic!” Beatrix’s eyes opened wide.
“How does the Diva of baseball do something like that!?” Kanae retorted with a startled face.
“NGOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The enlarged Domingo was pushing at Beatrix.
“Fu-fu-fu… but you cannot win against my beloved muscle that received magic power from Kazuki! Muscle is not about volume, it’s about quality!! FUNNUOOOOOO!!”
“Im, impossible… NGOOOOOOOO-!!”
The muscle daruma was overturned after being outpushed by Beatrix. (TN: Daruma=Tumbling doll)
“Fuh-…it’s interesting doing contest of strength, but being toyed around by Kazuki’s technique is more enjoyable. Kazuki who no matter how I chase and chase yet he keeps getting away… is exciting.” (TN: I don’t know if Beatrix here is saying ‘exciting’, or it’s her saliva spilling out.)
“…Nii-sama being popular didn’t start since just now, but this girl is really a bad news…”
Kanae was looking at Beatrix with completely cold eyes.
“Thy is sinful! My scale changes that sin into heavy mud!”
At that time, Adylle was sending magic power at Kanae and Beatrix.
“Guilty Conscious(Black Mud Imprisonment)!”
The magic power that was emitted from that fingertips coiled around the bodies of the two and produced something that looked like black mud.
“Mu!?” It was heavily punishing the two.
When Beatrix slashed further at Domingo, the weight increased with each of her strikes.
“Sin she said… so this is a magic that imposes weight in response to damage that we inflicted on then. Fufufu, interesting! Show my how heavy you can be!! Show me if you can make me submit with that weight!!”
“Eh… this person, she is a masochist? Sca, scary…” Adylle was trembling.
“Eeei, it’s hard to move with this heaviness!”
Kanae was making a bitter face with her greatest weapon stolen, yet she kept chasing around Thomas with <Kuroneko Michikage> in hand. “Let me use magic too! Don’t chase just me with that spell-obstructing sword!” Thomas ran while crying.
In order to give backup to those people, Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai and Mio, then Madonna and Ridley, they were firing attack magic and support magic at each other from long range.
“Koyuki! Come on, finish your chanting quickly!!”
When Mio turned to Koyuki saying that, Koyuki replied “Understood” while dribbling with cold sweat from the difficult spell chanting.
Unnoticed the evening sun was going down. The curtain of night was falling both in Las Vegas dome’s outside and inside. The moon that was reflected on the dome and the true moon that was at the other side of the damaged dome were rising up to the sky.
The towering skyscrapers were clad in light of electricity. There was shadow dancing in that light.
“Comprise all possibility, o spider string, cut the wind and fly! The single fleeting string is harder than steel, pulling closer even destiny…! Spiders Drive(Flying Dash Net)!!”
Pure white string flew from the right wrist of Clark. While the string was like a steel it was thin, its tip was possessing a terrific adhesive power. Clark let flew the spider string to the skyscraper and moved three-dimentionally at the night sky. Just when Kazuki thought that she was dancing at the night sky like Tarzan, she kicked the building and accelerated even more, flying around freely. Even if he could Foresight her movement, it was hard to follow along with that movement.
Kazuki released pure white light from Ame no Murakumo and unleashed its power.
“Become the Yahiroshiro Chidori and soar, <Ame no Murakumo>! Battou Kaikon―Shiratori no Misasagi!!” (TN: Yahiroshiro Chidori=Eight fathom white wisdom bird, might be a name from myth. Shiratori no Misasagi=White Bird’s Imperial Mauseloum.)
Just like Yamato Takeru that turned into a white bird and soared to sky, Kazuki received white wings with soft plumage at his back and pursued Clark in the air. *BANG ! BANG! BANG!* Clark kicked the building one after another and flew around in sharp angle relying at the spider string.
Suddenly, Clark grasped with her right hand tightly.
“…Tangle Calamity(Twining Spider String)!!”
Kazuki who was pursuing Clark was lured into trap before he noticed it. At the zone where Kazuki flapped his wing and entered, there were countless spider threads laid out. Those strings were all connected to the five fingers of Clark right hand―the instant she made a fist tightly, all of the strings fell all at once onto Kazuki.
The strings that were approaching in super high speed were tough even while being thin―it was the same like a slash that had incomparable sharpness. “You really give me a lot of trouble, but there is no place to escape for you!” Clark yelled.
*ZING!* All those were approaching from every single directions.
It couldn’t be cut? Did it really couldn’t be cut―he could cut it!
“Show me your power not as a Sacred Treasure but as a single katana, Ame no Murakumo! I am a sword user that won’t shame you!!”
Determining a single string from the countless strings that came flying at him drawing complicated trajectories, Kazuki swung down Ame no Murakumo. If his slash slanted for even a little then the sword edge would only slide from the string. The swung down flash from moving the muscles of his whole body went through the right angle with not even a bit of deviation―*PAAN!* The strained sting was bisected.
“No way!?” Clark yelled while gliding in the air,
Kazuki who opened a way to escape from the slashes that were besieging him by bisecting one of the string, slipped through the zone of death. He flapped the wings of white bird and read which building Clark would fly next.
Circling ahead to that destination, he finally overtook her.
Tangle Calamity―it was the same name with the technique that man used.
“You really liked Red Metallica aren’t you, Clark!”
Now that they were settling their dispute, he didn’t need to hide that anymore.
“Damn straight! You killing him…made me really furious, Hayashizaki Kazuki!!”
He couldn’t see her expression from her helmet but―Clark spouted out human-like words that were far removed from her impression until now. He thought it was far likable compared to the Clark until now.
“That guy’s fate is to be defeated by someone someday!”
He didn’t have any plan to be a naïve person whose blade would dull from guilt at this late hour now that the situation had reached this point.
“What do you bastard know about Red!”
Facing Kazuki who arrived before her at the building ahead, Clark threw the Vibra Pentagon at her left arm.
Against the flying shield, Kazuki held Ame no Murakumo aloft vertically. The blade run along the side of the flying shield and with a delicate control the shield tilted diagonally. There was not even a little impact at Ame no Murakumo, the trajectory of the approaching Vibra Pentagon changed and flew past Kazuki in paper-thin difference, breaking the building in its path.
“Acting skillful just with a single sword!”
The eye-visor of Clark’s helmet shone, *ZAP! ZAP!* and beams was fired consecutively. Kazuki flew slipping through the several streaks of beam and slashed at Clark right from the front.
Clark tried to grab at Kazuki’s sword,
“Kushihebi no Tachi!”
Ame no Murakumo that Kazuki swung undulated, it slipped through and cut apart diagonally.
“I know about you and Red, I caught a glimpse of your and his past!”
Clark’s expression distorted in surprise for an instant. Even while her body was shaking from the impact of the smashed magic, Clark landed on the side surface of the building, “Where did you see things like people’s past! That’s really a shameful act!”
Clark once again kicked at the building and flew at him in a bounce.
“I’ll stop the way you all do thing! I won’t let you sacrifice anyone anymore!!”
Once again both of them clashed. Kazuki swung down Kushihebi no Tachi once again. The instant the sword’s line twisted like a snake, Clark’s eye-visor shined with light.
…He was seen through! The instant Kazuki had that hunch, Clark’s left hand grabbed Kazuki’s Ame no Murakumo.
“I’ll say it to you simply! You think I pay sacrifice because I like it huh!!”
With a terrific herculean strength, Kazuki was swung around together with his sword by Clark’s left hand. *BOOOM!* He was let go with great momentum and crashed into the building. Splinters were fluttering down in pieces.
…That’s right. Now that he fought her he understood, she was doing what she did not because she liked it from the bottom of her heart. Right now, Clark was enjoying fighting a Basileus right from the front.
But she couldn’t keep continuing her way.
“You cannot use anything except the power of Sacred Treasures.”
Clark stood on top of the destroyed building and talked to Kazuki who was caved in at the wall of the building right ahead.
“I’m observing the situation because I don’t know what kind of King’s Authority you have but…most likely you don’t have any power that you haven’t used yet, right now you cannot use anything right?”
Kazuki was startled inside his heart. However he exerted himself to not show that agitation in the surface.
Kazuki was not using the Power of Harmony at himself.
“From your reaction just now, I hit the bull’s eye huh.” Regardless of Kazuki’s expressionless face, Clark drew that conclusion. “Your shoulder is tense you know? That’s a reaction of stress.”
Of course Kazuki also noticed―Clark too wasn’t using King’s Authority.
If she used the <Power of Wealth> ahead of him….
“Your fingertips are full of tension there. Even if you endure your stress, it will come out somewhere in your body. You are going to be troubled if I use mine first right?”
“…I wonder if it’s fine for you to use yours first?” Kazuki bluffed like that even while he thought that it might be useless.
“I thought exactly like that. I was observing the situation thinking if you have ability like null effect, seal, or deprivation. …But it’s fine to discard that worry. Most important of all those Numbers can’t hold out. In other words it’s like that. You are waiting for the battle at the other side to end.”
The gaze behind Clark’s visor felt like she was flipping over the card open that he importantly faced down. It was useless no matter what he said.
Clark spread both her arms and chanted loudly like singing.
“…The highly proud hero, is standing here carrying the heroically flapping Stars and Stripes on his shoulder.
Passing the darkness of suffering of a number of nights, until the arrival of the faint light of the dawn.
The Stars and Stripes fluttered throughout the night, until it’s wrapped in the joy of victory.”
The spread arms were pulsating. From inside Clark, magic power wavelength that was different with Clark herself was welling up like a vortex. It looked similar with someone who was being encroached by Diva.
“The long darkness of night dwells in my body.
The land that should be saved in the sky, pray to be blessed with victory and peace.
Storing the night of suffering, the power to protect the country to the end is shouldered here.
O riches of sacrifice, o wealth, become spilled black blood and flow in my body.”
He had the feeling that the lights of the buildings of Las Vegas were becoming darker. Not only Las Vegas, all of America’s civilization and riches were turned into magic power and flowed into Clark.
Cracks were running on her silver suits and helmet.
“I am a proud hero, everything other than Stars and Stripes are going to be dyed black.
O god, o justice, see this jet black clearly.”
The silver suits and helmet cracked. Dazzling blonde hair and black magic power brilliantly overflowed out from the broken silver cracks. The Diva’s original Magic Dress was overwritten by Clark’s own personal pitch black. The raised King’s Authority was painted pure black by the jet black method of the owner.
“Super One(My America)”
The ominous black magic power that overflowed out distorted the Magic Dress irregularly with its left and right looked asymmetry, making it lost its original motif(heroic). What was standing there was a figure that couldn’t be called as anything other than demon. Her helmet was completely broken―exposing bare the unpainted face of Clark who believed herself as justice.
The personification of the black justice was standing in Kazuki’s way with her back facing the two moons.
…Judging from the thickness of her Enchant Aura, she was different. It was so different that it made his skin felt frizzy from being opposite of her. Kazuki unintentionally became concerned of his comrades’ battle situation.
“…Just now, you were concerned about the other side huh.” It was her usual cold tone that was like steel.
Kazuki kicked the building where he was caved in right away and flapped the wings of the white bird. Without even hiding his intention to buy time, Kazuki attempted to gain distance from Clark.
“…O black will that is residing in the earth, resonance, paint over everything. Gravity Bind(Hand of Creeping Up Power).”
It was as if the flying away Kazuki was pulled by an unseen hand, he was drawn to the ground. He somehow adjusted his stance and landed down. Kazuki sent his gaze at Clark who was jumping down to the ground in pursuit of him. Clark’s silver suit was cracked, from the black protuberance that was growing out all over it, some kind of magic power was emitted. …Even by reading the flow of magic power, Kazuki couldn’t grasp the magic phenomenon’s true character. …Was it gravity?
…Wrong. It was not merely making the body heavier. Blood drew back from inside his head and his consciousness felt like it was getting far away. It was similar like being in anemia, this was…,
“It’s magnetism. My black magic power is exerting its influence at the iron inside your blood.”
―The blood that was flowing through his whole body was heading down to the ground, with that his whole body became heavier.
“Your sword skill is the result of your delicate technique right? I wonder how much you can endure with your body sense going mad.”
Clark’s eyes shined, *ZAP!* firing beam at him. It was not a surprise attack, he could Foresight it. He bent his body back evading that, but his body staggered feebly.
His blood interfered with him…it harmed his body sense to a fatal degree.
“I wonder how much you can hold out with my current magic power!”
With a powerful body with black magic power covering it like an armor, Clark kicked the ground.
“Shut and seal, <Yasakani no Magatama>! Kaicho Kaikon―Hachimon Shibari!!”
Kazuki immediately let loose Yasakani no Magatama. The string of magatama that spread out widely while flying entangled itself at the coming Clark.
“You think the same way will work, against this me!”
The instant the string of magatama tried to restrain Clark, Clark’s body distorted due to the black magic power.
The location of her joints, the shape of her muscles, her original form and nature as human experienced a sudden change. Like a ninja that escaped a rope binding, no just like an amoeba that naturally could get away from a rope! Clark slipped away from the string of magatama.
“The current me is closer to a Demon Beast than a human!”
Kazuki was shaken. Clark had quit being a human while still retaining her self!
Flesh was nothing more than a container of soul. But just because of that regulating the absurd transformation on one’s own body because of magic power was impossible to do without extraordinary willpower.
If it was normally, just like when Takasugi brothers turned into Yamata no Orochi, or like when the Chiefs turned into chimera, their mind would be completely crumbled.
Clark threw away everything except her pride and victory, she even threw away her existence as human and turned into monster before assaulting Kazuki.
Clark’s right arm swelled out explosively while swinging down at Kazuki. Furthermore the blood in Kazuki’s whole body was controlled through magnetism, it was as if he was going to leap at that destructive attack by himself.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOO-!”
Kazuki forcefully controlled his body while yelling. He blocked the enlarged fist of Clark with Ame no Murakumo, without trying to go against that tremendous impact, he warded off the attack with his body handling.
“You really did it huh!” Clark raised an admiring voice.
<Instant Positioning>. The fist that Clark swung with all her power was warded off to the wrong direction and her body posture broke.
No, her posture didn’t broke―the joints at Clark’s body twisted. Distorted. Kazuki immediately noticed.
Even in a posture that was impossible to launch an attack if it was with human shape―if it was the current Clark then it wouldn’t become a problem.
The current her was able to seamlessly unleashed an attack with her whole strength no matter what kind of posture she was in!
She completely ignored the concept of form and combination in martial arts!
Clark’s right arm shriveled, this time it was her left arm that expanded imbalancely. That left arm flew at him turning and twisting like jelly from impossible direction.
His blade wouldn’t make it in time, Kazuki blocked that fist with Ame no Murakumo’s pommel.
By no meant he opposed the pressure of the fist―he shifted the vector slightly.
“With your current out of order sense, you think you can do that technique with your sword handle huh!”
“Kuh-!” However against the difference of pressure that was too much, it was Kazuki whose posture was broken.
Right after that, Clark’s kick came flying from a direction that should be impossible for a body to bend.
“WHAT THE HELL WITH THATTTTT!!” Kazuki reflexively raised a yell of desperation.
Clark’s fierce attack was a [violence] that overturned Kazuki’s identity as martial artist from its root. It was as if that body was completely sneering at the martial arts that was trained from human limbs―!
No, it was the end if his mind yield. …Who would lose here!
Kazuki brought his courage and blocked that kick right from the front.
At the moment of clash he bent his upper body as much as he could while taking a back step. He rotated his body vertically―like a feather dancing in the wind, he made the impact of the kick vanished like mist.
Kazuki rolled backward on the asphalt using the momentum.
“Even martial arts looks like acrobat when it reach the extreme huh! But you cannot run anymore from there!!”
Clark’s right hand enlarged to crush Kazuki while swinging down.
The ground was at his back―there was nothing he could do anymore. Kazuki was crushed by the palm of giant and caved into the asphalt. His defensive magic power ruptured and completely gone. If he was caved into the ground then martial arts wouldn’t do a damn at all. Clark raised her right hand and then like a child throwing a tantrum she kept hitting over and over.
Still not yet!? Kazuki yelled inside his heart. Was his intention not conveyed to Koyuki…!?
At that time, from the separate distance that was in the middle of battle, a large magic power was swelling, a cold that was felt even until this side was generated. He knew this magic power.
―Diamond Dust・Absolute Zero!
“…So the Numbers got done in!”
Clark clicked her tongue while even now she was going to persistently swung down her palm to Kazuki.
‘It’s fine already, borrowing everyone’s power…!
―That instant, with the Power of Harmony, Kazuki concentrated all the magic power everyone had to himself.
Vitality overflowed his whole body, powerfully accelerating him. This was everyone’s…Power of Harmony!
Like a squashed spring springing up from the recoil, Kazuki shook himself free from the asphalt and stood up. He held up Ame no Murakumo at the swung down giant palm.
It was not parrying the attack, he opposed it right from the front!
Vast magic power and magic power clashed and shockwave exploded. Stepping firmly on the rising ground, Kazuki’s two legs broke the asphalt further while the asphalt got buried to the ground, Clark’s body floated.
With that Kazuki finally leaped back and he was able to recover some distance.
“Kazu-nii!” “Kazuki!” “Otouto-kun!” “Nii-sama!”
While several of his comrades called at him, they rushed to his side.
“Burn to ash all that you touch…the flame embrace without any place to go! Self Burning・Embrace!!”
With Mio transformed into Chouki Magician her magic was reinforced, with that Kazuki was wrapped in armor of flame that was like the wings of the undying bird enclosing him in an embrace.
“Lightning placed on yearning granting the lightning thought and god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Connect Ligthning(True Spirit Thunder God)!!”
With Hikaru-senpai transformed into Chouki Magician, her reinforcement magic could be targeted to someone else other than her which she used at Kazuki, it accelerated his body.
“Sink even the splendor, lock in the eternal freeze o stream of black freeze…my betrayer is also there! Judeca Cocytus(River of Unceasing Freezing Grief)!”
“O tear of mermaid, reveal the grief of your heart to the world. That neighboring chair with no person, the blank space of album, wake them up in the freezing world…Solitary・White Album(Lonesome Ice White)!”
Kaguya-senpai and Koyuki, with their transformation to Chouki Magician they released ice magic that had its power reinforced to Kazuki’s direction. The black and white freezing air whirled like a spiral toward him.
“Carry the mystery in your blade crest, <Ame no Murakumo>! Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”
In one swing Kazuki tore apart the two color of freezing air with Ame no Murakumo. With the Sacred Treasure’s power that controlled every natural phenomenon, the freezing air was thoroughly compressed inside the sword blade.
…He felt as if he had obtained a combat ability that could oppose his opponent.
Clark took a glance at Kazuki’s comrade that came running.
“…So the Numbers, lost to the Japanese that wasn’t helped by Britain’s Basileus.”
“Don’t think that I’m defiling this one-on-one fight okay.”
Kazuki said that from his awkwardness of relying on his comrades.
“I’m not looking for anything like one-on-one fight.”
“You liar, you enjoyed it right?”
Clark’s expression shook hearing what Kazuki pointed out.
“I enjoyed it you know. Though in the latter half it’s already the best I can do to just endure.”
Clark chuckled ‘kuku’. “You are a charming man huh.”
Looking at that smiling face…Kazuki rethought back Clark as human. Thinking about it, even while he was thinking of her as a monster, he was also feeling her human aspect all along in while fighting her.
“…The one who take out the power of America’s civilization and wealth first is me. Then this is not anything like a one-on-one fight, it’s a fight to compare the thing we shouldered.”
“That’s right huh, I too have thing that I shouldered…!”
Kazuki prepared his freezing blade. With that as the signal, Clark who was honestly waiting for Kazuki to take his stance leaped at Kazuki.
Sword and fist clashed. Kazuki tilted his blade and parried the fist. Clark distorted her whole body again and let loose a barrage of full swing from impossible posture.
But compared to before, she was an instant slower. …Clark’s fist that was blocked by his blade froze from the chill, by approaching Kazuki closer her body was burned by flame. The impact of her smashed magic constantly paralyzed Clark’s body a little.
Kazuki whose flesh and mind were accelerated overtook that barrage this time. Like a willow swayed by the wind, he cancelled all of their momentum. His combat strength was completely overtaking it.
“Are you matching the current me equally…this me that is shouldering this many things…!?”
At the other side of the heat of the flame, a slight fury was appearing at her human look.
Her smiling face just now, and this fury too, was cues of emotion that wouldn’t exist in a person that had thrown away her humanity.
“The thing that I shouldered is also not light.”
“Bond you mean…that’s the power of greed.”
“You cast away too much everything.”
“This means this is a battle between me that throw away all that I have, and you who fight in order to protect…!”
That moment, as if a steel mask was broken, emotion overflowed at Clark’s face.
A fist of fury came striking at Kazuki. Kazuki followed that speed and blocked with his blade that was carrying chill. It became a strained blade locking contest, the face of the two drew near at each other’s.
Clark bared her fang at Kazuki with a ghastly expression.
“In other words this is a chicken race of whose desire goes farther! Those Indians throw away everything and didn’t desire anything! That kind of thing is just running away…! I throw away everything except the barest pride as bet! That is…the way I do thing as a weakling that was born in the street!!”
“I desire everything! All of my comrades, I won’t throw any single one of them!”
“You naïve brat! If you have the confidence to not lose to anyone to do that then just try it! …I won’t lose to someone like you!! Lose to me in this place…and lost everything!!”
From Clark…he could feel an excessive emotional strain.
Kazuki parried a fist fueled by anger by turning around his body. Clark’s posture was destroyed, however from there she modified her body and incessantly tried to repeat her attack―her jet black body stiffened with its shape still human. At that time, Clark failed her modification.
Right now in this moment, Clark was completely returning to human.
Her mind was wavered from the clash of her will against Kazuki’s will.
The moment human expression came to her surface, she became unable to wield that power perfectly.
“What happened…!?” Clark raised an agitated yell. The act of distorting your own flesh body was impossible when the mind couldn’t cast away your own humanity. Clark was completely unaware of it herself.
“Otouto-kun, don’t lose!” A cheer came from Kaguya-senpai.
He thought that he didn’t want to show her his disgraceful appearance.
Kazuki’s power of bond exhibited its power exactly because it was exerted by human emotion.
“There is no way I’ll lose to you, Clark Moore!!”
Kazuki’s second slash, overflowing with emotion, captured Clark’s stiffened body.
Super high speed sword and fist crossed each other on countless occasions―which one hit the opponent, which one hit empty air, people other than the two were absolutely unable to perceive what was happening.
But during the several times, several ten of times exchange of slash and fist, in a little bit of time the magic power of one side was obviously shaved. The impact of the smashed magic from each time of that pushed the stance of defense and offense into disadvantage, Clark who wasn’t in her demon form anymore couldn’t rally herself using the flesh modification.
The magic power and concentration of both of them were all poured into this intensifying offense and defense, there was no gap to exchange chant.
Several hundred. This wouldn’t be decided in one go by a grand magic, only paper-thin slashes tilting the trend to one side bit by bit, these offense and defense sliced to pieces even the mind of the inferior side.
Clark opened wide her eyes that were dyed deep red in rage. At that moment a critical hit ran diagonally through Clark’s shoulder until her hips, finally Clark’s body was sinking behind while she was looking up to the sky.
“You don’t lose anything.”
Kazuki accosted the collapsed Clark like that.
“I’ll also protect America to stay America. I won’t change anything.”
Against those words of Kazuki―there were two people among Kazuki’s comrades that were rushing to him, that showed symmetrical reaction. Arthur whose objective was to spread to the world the faith of the chief god that he was contracted with, and Shouko who was the leader of Ryouzanpaku that opposed the ideology invasion of Chukadou. Arthur’s expression was a little bitter, he had hesitation, while Shouko’s expression had a faint smile.
Clark made a single sigh as if exhaling out her soul from the bottom of her stomach, and accepted those words.
Wind was blowing from the broken dome, passing through between Kazuki and Clark.
Due to the damaged dome, whether it was the projected fake sky or the real sky that could be peeked from the hole in the dome, both were changing color into the dark blue of the evening sky. For a while nobody was saying anything.
After a silence, Ginny and Mary’s bodies were blown away. Arthur and Beatrix quickly rushed to Kazuki holding their respective weapons.
Ginny and Mary were blown away several meters away without any resistance like dolls that didn’t have any strength in its limbs, they collapsed and didn’t move anymore. They were silent without any sign of will.
Arthur looked at Kazuki from the corner of his eyes and asked “What is it they did to you?”
“My power is sealed.”
“Only from one attack just now? Don’t tell me…” Arthur lost his words.
To think that the power of Basileus was sealed just with one attack, certainly it was unbelievable. One attack that took away the country’s greatest battle strength. A single attack that overthrown a country. There was no doubt that it was an Original One that made the possessor of the attribute and the Diva shoulder a really great risk.
Risk―in actuality, that kind of bullet wouldn’t hit Kazuki without some kind of really ingenious plan.
And then almost all of the magic power wavelength of Jeremy who had finished firing the bullet was completely disappearing.
Surely that girl was betting her everything inside that single attack.
“Jeremy, fall back, you can never fight again right?”
Clark cared for Jeremy like that. Hearing the word never, that word reverberated inside their ears.
Kazuki opened a distance and directed his gaze at the collapsed Ginny and Mary.
“What did you do to those two?” A slight fury colored his tone.
“So you don’t think that they just normally betrayed you huh. …But that’s correct. Both of them are controlled by drug and electrode. After all I thought that they might betray me.”
Machining human body. America had that kind of technology. Even the wavelength of their magic power felt different.
“They might become cripple from the after-effect. But it can’t be helped, they are sacrifices.”
A tone so cold like steel in midwinter made fun of Kazuki.
Fury welled up even more inside his chest. This woman wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice anything.
“Lotte, Miyabi-senpai, please look at these two. Help them somehow.”
Miyabi-senpai and Lotte who excelled in mind magic rushed to Mary and Ginny in panic.
But apart from his rage, his head was calm. Kazuki asked with a calm tone.
“You shouldn’t understand how the Indians would move. Thinking about that, isn’t this method leaving too much to luck?”
She made him misrecognized the number of the Chiefs. She brainwashed the two people that earned Kazuki’s trust, changed their body, and made them pretend as the Chiefs. But to have all those tricks go so well on the battlefield, most of them was only thanks to luck and ad-lib performance. He couldn’t think of the plan as skillful. No, it couldn’t even be called a plan. This was―.
“Of course it was a gamble. The battle of the weakling is always a match of betting all your human resource to come out on top. I came this far from winning all those bets. From now on too I have to win them all… to protect America’s dignity.”
That resolve cornered Kazuki until this far. *Step*…Clark walked closer to Kazuki.
Kazuki quietly stared at Clark. Arthur and Beatrix readied their weapon.
“Right now the battle should be continuing at Colorado river, but you are planning to fight us here?”
“We are also in an overwhelming advantage at the fight of Colorado river. The report just came from the radio just now. My bad, but I don’t have any more use of you. Medicine Wheel… will be defeated by me.”
Clark was talking with a smooth tone that everything was going exactly as she planned.
“Well, that’s fine. This situation is also desirable for me.”
Kazuki withdrew a beam of light from his waist, Ame no Murakumo was once again pulled out from its sheath. Looking at that, Clark’s eyebrow shook. It was only a little movement from her expression, but it was a sign of shock he never saw until now.
“That’s the Sacred Treasure a Basileus have…? Even though your Basileus power is sealed… you can use it?”
The Excalibur that Arthur possessed, couldn’t be used by anybody other than Arthur.
The Sacred Treasure that a Basileus possessed, was a symbolic item of such.
Even for Kazuki, he was recognized as the Basileus of the Japanese Mythology by obtaining the three Sacred Treasures.
But there was no such symbolic weapon in the Solomon Mythology because they were only a pure sorcery Mythology.
Clark was making a mistake.
“What you sealed―is only the power of Solomon Mythology’s Basileus!”
Clark didn’t know at all, that Kazuki was a Basileus of two Mythologies. Kazuki stepped solidly on the asphalt surface. “What!?” Clark spouted out her agitation.
Kazuki directed the tip of Ame no Murakumo at Clark and thrust while pouring magic power.
Right now Kazuki couldn’t use Amaterasu’s magic. He lost the circuit of positivity level with Kamimura-san and became unable to obtain her contracted Diva.
But the Japanese Mythology had already subordinated themselves to Kazuki. The Sacred Treasures had also recognized him as their user. Ame no Murakumo remembered―the fight between Kazuki and Susanoo.
Ame no Murakumo emitted heat inside Kazuki’s palm, it beat with pulsation.
At this time Kazuki felt for the first time affection that he had never felt before towards Ame no Murakumo. Perhaps it could be even compared with the feeling that he held for his lost <Doufuu> that he held somewhere in his heart until now.
Clark’s left arm shined. Magic power burst out from there, materializing a pentagon steel.
“O the protection that supported my justice, take form right here. Vibra Pentagon(National Defense Shield)!”
A star was drawn at the center, around it was a two layer frame of red and white enclosing it, it was a shield with a design like the US flag. The solid shield that emitted cold tried to block Kazuki’s straightforward thrust.
“Distort, Ame no Murakumo! Battou Kaikon―Kushihebi no Tachi!!” (TN: Long sword of skewered snake)
As if to answer Kazuki’s affection, Ame no Murakumo vibrated. It insisted to use the power, use it, use it. The sword blade where Kazuki poured his magic power was *guneri!* stretching out and twisting in long range, it circumvented the shield.
Kushihebi no Tachi―Ame no Murakumo was a sword that appeared from the inside of the severed tail of Yamata no Orochi. Therefore there was also a legend that it was a sword that carried the power of snake. Ame no Murakumo that circumvented the shield stabbed at Clark right from her side.
Clark staggered while scattering the blue light of smashed magic. She directed an expression like steel at Kazuki.
“You cheated me a lot huh, brat!”
“It’s your own misunderstanding right? Be aware that your are walking on top of thin ice, Clark! It’s the end if your reading is mistaken!!”
Most likely Kazuki had been read by Clark for about 90%. But what gave birth to Clark’s miscalculation was the result of her judgment using theory if Kazuki couldn’t rely on the power of King Solomon.
{Kazuki…!} An urgent voice reverberated inside Kazuki’s brain.
{Use the Power of Harmony at Itsuki-chan…!! Quick!!”
It was Amaterasu’s voice. Kazuki turned back at Kamimura-san wondering what made her so impatient.
“Sayonara~. sayonara~, fuo~eba~”
Kamimura-san’s figure looked faintly transparent, she was waving both her hands with a tranquil expression.
Kazuki lost his composure ten times greater than when he lost the power of Basileus.
“Wa, wait wait wait a second!! What are you doing trying to enter heaven like that!?”
{Kazuki, pull her through with the Power of Harmony-!!} Amaterasu’s yelling voice was conveyed to him.
Is that so… Kamimura-san was supplied with magic power from the circuit of King Solomon’s positivity level, with that her flesh was preserved. But right now that circuit was cut off completely, making Kamimura-san’s power supply of life just Amaterasu. It was insufficient with only that.
Kazuki followed Amaterasu’s advice and used the [Power of Harmony]. Kamimura-san’s drying up flesh sucked up magic power like a dry land given water.
Kamimura-san barely recovered her body, but her feeling of substance was shaky.
If she got hit by attack magic and her magic power was shaved down, she might rise to heaven.
“Kamimura-san fall back until a safe place!!”
When Kazuki seriously yelled that in worry, Kamimura-san withdrew while saying “A, aii―”.
And then there was no enemy that would purposefully wait for such a conversation to take place peacefully.
“O light that break evil, dwell in my hand and become a flash!”
Magic power was approaching from behind―she was coming to strike him. Even without looking Kazuki could feel that.
“Justice Knuckle(Fist of Judgement)!!”
Kazuki blocked that strike while turning back.
Clark’s appearance was changing into her Magic Dress.
That steel-like expressionless face was covered by a streamlined helmet. It was shaped with a design of America’s symbolic bird, the eagle. On her back was a flapping mantel, with distinctive color as a Magic Dress, her whole body was covered by a metallic suit. Holding <Vibra Pentagon> at her left arm, she struck at him with her right arm. That appearance was exactly a hero that embodied American Justice.
Clark’s contracted Diva, <Super One>!
At the same time the Numbers were also descending down in attack, they were met by Kazuki’s comrades.
“Unfortunately my reading missed! …You can only face me from the front!”
Fist and blade clashed, a resolute voice came from behind the approaching helmet.
“What the hell the person who just now aimed for the back is saying right now!”
“…Kuku-“ A slight chuckle could be heard from the inside of the helmet, Kazuki doubted his ears.
Was she laughing, this woman? Even in front of a pure head-on fight…?
“You guys! I’ll beat this guy(the Basileus)! Hold out until I finish!!”
“Everyone! I’ll beat this guy(the King)! I’ll wait until you all take care of those guys!!”
Saying those words for the first time, Kazuki felt a special meaning from that.
This was… his first [battle against a Basileus]. It was different with the time when he wagered the seat of Basileus with Ikousai. They were carrying the Mythology on their backs. They were carrying their own ideals on their backs. This was not a simple contest of strength or killing each other.
What came from the weight of what they shouldered was not nervousness, it was exaltation. Kazuki felt he understood the meaning of Clark’s laugh. Even this Clark could feel like that in this situation.
“Kushihebi no Tachi!”
Ame no Murakumo flexibly transformed while blocking the fist. The edge of the rippling blade was circling while attacking Clark. Clark agilely reacted and grabbed at the blade with her right hand.
The eye-visor of Clark’s helmet shined glaringly at that instant.
Clark was striking at him with the Vibra Shield at her left arm. Kazuki separated his right hand from Ame no Murakumo that he held with two hand and blocked that shield with his hand. Just like that their strength was balanced.
“O light of freedom, illuminate the darkness, show the justice! Justice Blast(Beam of Judgement)!!”
Clark’s eye-visor at her helmet let out strong red-hot light.
From there a straight beam was shot with a *ZAP!*
Although Kazuki had Foresighted it, he couldn’t evade with his posture still in a lock with Clark. Kazuki immediately released his left hand that was holding Ame no Murakumo and averted his body using his right hand that was grasping at the shield as fulcrum.
“You let go of your weapon!?”
No―Ame no Murakumo undulated like a snake and automatically twined around Kazuki’s hand.
However the aim was to break Kazuki’s posture, Clark’s right hand―the <Justice Knuckle> was held aloft. <Yasakani no Magatama> at Kazuki’s left hand pulsated―[Use me, use my power] it was as if it was saying that.
…Because the power of King Solomon was sealed, the three Sacred Treasures were self-asserting themselves in a way they had never done before.
By any chance these guys, they might be actually feeling really jealous.
“Shut and seal, <Yasakani no Magatama>! Kaicho Kaikon―Hachimon Shibari!!”
With a snap the string of magatama enlarged and enfolded out From Kazuki’s left wrist, tightening at Clark’s body in many layers.
But just before Clark’s whole body was tied, she shifted her own body and made only her lower body escape from the binding. She stepped strongly on the ground with her free right foot, and swung her left foot powerfully…!
“O Stars and Stripes, please inspire the hero’s dancing movement… Dynamite Kick(Glory’s Explosive Foot)!!”
*ZUBAAAAAAAAAN!* Kazuki received a terrific impact at his flank.
He bled off its power by jumping back behind just before it hit, but even so… it was heavy.
It was a power that made him question if his defensive magic power might explode if he ate that kick fully.
“Being a hero the instant you put on your helmet, are you really that kind of character huh, Clark Moore!”
“I am America’s justice! There is not a single speck of shadow in my pride!!”
“Throwing away your human heart, using inhuman methods, you can still say that that’s justice!?”
Kazuki attacked verbally what he wanted to say all this time but couldn’t say because of his cooperative position with America.
“I can say it! This country knows… that power is justice! In the first place this America never cares of its method!!”
Once, in the old ear, America as the strongest country in the world was a country that acted as the agent of order and justice. If such a country was overturned and lost its power… perhaps it was only something natural for the people of the country that had thinking like Clark to appear. When they were once a strong country, they implicitly said to the weak [if you have any complaint then try to be like this], and so maybe now that they were weaklings themselves they didn’t make a single complaint, they didn’t even beg for help, only dignifiedly trying to do something about it themselves.
Power was exactly justice―both when they were strong and also when they were weak, America continued to consistently persist in that proudly.
Clark was going to pursue Kazuki who was blown away by the kick. With her upper body still tied by the magatama, Clark emitted light from her helmet once more.
“Justice Blast!”
Kazuki performed ukemi on the ground while―with his body moving half by itself, he held up Yata no Kagami at the light. It could be said that the mirror was moving Kazuki’s body as it pleased itself.
“Become the light that doesn’t recognize that, <Yata no Kagami>! Fuukyou Kaikon―Tsukuyomi no Kagami!” (TN: Seal Mirror Soul Release―Tsukuyomi’s Mirror)
The moon read―the direction of the light. And then it freely controlled that. It was the power of <Tsukuyomi>. Yata no Kagami was a worshipped object of Amaterasu, but each of the three Sacred Treasures was conceiving the power of each of the three honored gods.
Yata no Kagami disassembled the vector of the powerful heat beam and reflected the energy as it was to Clark. “Fuh!” However Clark powerfully opened both her arms and tore off the binding of the magatama, and then she scattered the light using Vibra Pentagon on her left arm.
The magatama shrank back to its previous form because the magic power that Kazuki poured into it had been destroyed, before it twined itself around Kazuki’s left wrist once more. Both of them glared at each other while fixing back their stance.
Strong. Of course his power of Solomon was also sealed but… however she unexpectedly didn’t have any bad habit with fortitude and vigorous strength, her way of fighting that picked at the opponent’s weak point with numerous magic worked really well. And most important of all, compared to all the enemies he had faced until now… her mind was strong.
Even without any of her scheming, Clark’s most special characteristic was surely her [unshakeableness].
“I am justice.” With her silver suit and her flapping mantel, she said that once again.
Aah, perhaps you didn’t need to be ashamed for anything. However…
“That justice of yours, I’ll deny it with my justice!!”
Kazuki didn’t retreat for even a single step and talked back strongly.
―The Basileus of Japanese Mythology must constantly possess a wide field of vision no matter what.
In order to use the Power of Harmony to the whole battlefield.
In a slight distance away from the one-on-one fight between Kazuki and Clark, the remaining five Numbers and Kazuki’s comrades were also confronting each other. There was a large difference between their numbers, but even though the other side was almost completely uninjured, all of Kazuki’s comrades were burdened with quite an exhaustion.
Using the Power of Harmony, Kazuki distributed magic power to six people of Kanae, Beatrix, Mio, Koyuki, Kaguya-senpai, and Hikaru-senpai. With this, those six people’s magic power were completely recovered and even boosted past that.
They couldn’t use the telepathic communication, but Mio intuitively understood Kazuki’s feeling.
“Right now, let’s fight with the people that were distributed with magic power by Kazuki!”
Six people―if the number of people was too much then each one’s magic power would become smaller, increasing the danger of being hit by a powerful attack in the worst chance. But it was also important to win in the number of moves against an opponent with a large number of people.
Japan VS America―even while Kazuki was concentrating at Clark, he determined the starting members with the Power of Harmony.
…Kazuki himself, still had yet to use the Power of Harmony on himself.
“King said to hold out, but she won’t mind even if we defeat them all right?”
“Calm down, Thomas. There is the Basileus of Britain at the other side see. Never forget of self-awareness that we are a young Mythology.”
“But Adylle. Isn’t that Britain Basileus drawing back to the rear? …Also it seems like for some reason the Japanese are also giving us just six opponents. I wonder if they are underestimating us?”
“That’s why calm down, Thomas. I felt their magic powers are moving largely. Their magic power is concentrated on those six with some kind of method. I’m not feeling it at all that Japan is cutting corners here.”
The five Numbers had already transformed into their Magic Dresses. Those were strange dresses from looking at them. Before the battle, those five were unanimously introducing themselves saying “It’s a rare chance that we are normally facing each other like this.”
“My name is Thomas Hanks. The third Numbers that is contracted with the embodiment of [Hollywood movies], <Enjoy & Exciting(Wild Enthusiasm)>. I’m going to crush all you Japanese except Mister Kurosawa.”
She was a gorgeous woman with sunglasses and a fur coat put on her shoulder. Her attire looked like a simple celebrity clothing at a glance, but golden lights were emitted from here and there on her outfit.
“My name is Adylle Anderson. Symbolizing [contract] and [lawsuit]… I am contracted with <Black & White(Justice Scales)>. The Number 4. I’ll judge your right and wrong.”
She was a small statured girl with bob hair and a monocle. Putting on a mantel with extreme border design of white and black, her lower body was like underwear figure and on her back was an avatar of scale floating.
“I am Madonna Vicmanish! The magician of Diva <Queen Bee(Queen of Light)> of [cheer spirit]! My number is 7! I’m rooting at everyone and make them shine!”
The woman with amazingly sensual lips and body figure was shaking her butt in her cheerleader-style Magic Dress while talking. Her butt was a splendid butt that would make one go ‘ooo-‘ even if it was the same sex that was seeing it.
“This one is Domingo Clemens. Numbers 8 that art contracted with the Diva that symbolized [baseball], <Make Drama(Dramatic Victory)>. This one art thinking to work hard at this Japan-America baseball.”
Regardless that she was a woman, her hair was shaved in crew cut, showing her solid head. She was wearing a Magic Dress that had no way to be described other than a baseball uniform as it was.
“…Ridley Spillback. Diva of [space development] <NASA(Visitor)>… the last number 9.”
Was it the influence of Ridley’s Magic Dress, but her skin had a blue discoloration, her look that was wearing a silver suit was the typical alien of the fiction world.
Number 1 Red, Number 2 Jeremy, Number 5 Mary, Number 6 Ginny, those four were missing, but their majestic appearance… no, their eccentric appearance made Mio shudder.
“So this is American Justice’s Numbers! How should I say it… it feels like the large gathering of variety shows isn’t it? As expected from the country of freedom… it’s just too free. Moreover, somehow, many of you are not moe…”
American Justice Mythology was not a mythology that had been talked in a long history. The symbolic spirituality of the modern American culture was made into Divas as a mass of magic power.
However it seemed that there was almost no personality in the Divas.
“Kana-chan and Beatrix are the vanguards, me and Hikaru are the mid-range. Mio-chan and Koyuki-chan will support from the rearguard. I think Otouto-kun chose us with that kind of intention.”
Kaguya-senpai quickly gave instructions.
“…Kaguya-senpai, I think if it’s the current me then I can chant the level 10.”
Koyuki pulled at Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress and said that.
Mio who was standing right beside her went “Eeehh-!?” and directed eyes filled with shock and doubt at Koyuki. Kaguya-senpai also opened her eyes wide and made a face that searched for Koyuki’s true feeling staringly, but she immediately *pon* clapped her hand in understanding.
“Is that so, in the first place Koyuki-chan is an elf that has a lot of magic power after all…! Perhaps the Power of Harmony also influences the original size of the vessel.”
“Perhaps Kazuki also planned for that, that he poured a lot of magic power into me.”
Mio kicked and struggled saying “Favoritism is unfair~ unfair~”, but Koyuki decided to ignore her.
“We should end this in a brief battle with a single powerful strike without getting damage as much as possible. If we can win with spare strength left, Kazuki can use that for himself with the Power of Harmony. Our magic power is already not just ours anymore.”
Mio who was protesting unreasonably pondered with a serious face then she soon nodded from hearing Koyuki.
Japanese Mythology too was by no means a strong Mythology. The way of fighting of Japanese Mythology was exactly to economize their use of power.
“In other words it’s all fine if I disturb those bunch without getting damage. That’s exactly my specialty.”
A muddy black magic power was coiling about at the katana <Michikage> in Kanae’s hand. What possessed the black blade turning it into a Sacred Treasure was―the Demon King of rage, <Beleth>.
“Applaud my secret sword, Kuroneko Michikage! Battou Kaikon―<Kokui Musou>!!” (TN: Peerless Black Cloth)
Beleth and Kanae’s souls hailed each other, the black magic power emitted from Michikage became a <Sacred Treasure Dress> that resembled a Magic Dress. That Dress would burst up Kanae’s power the more her movements reached closer to her quintessence.
“I don’t get the difficult things but… anyway it’s fine if I just rampage! Those bunch’s appearance are completely unclear but, I’m looking forward to what kind of attack they are going to use!!”
Beatrix was happily preparing her two-handed sword.
“Looks like your discussion is over already! Let’s go!!”
Thomas proclaimed that and began her spell chanting―”Slow-!!”
The moment she reached the end of her incantation, the black cat was already in front of her eyes.
“…Eh?” Thomas who looked at that unknown speed had a diagonal line of light running through her body.
Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword the second―<Shin’iki>. The slash that was launched with a perfect movement shook the magic power of the person chanting a spell. It granted impact at the most vital pillar that configured the magic phenomenon, destroying it completely.
Beleth gave his blessing to that perfect technique, boosting its destructive power.
While Thomas was blown away, the sensation of her spell dispersed into nothing made her raise a scream.
“The, the spell is… broken!”
“Fa, fast-…!?” Toward Adylle that opened wide her eyes at the side,
“Nyaaaaaaa!” Kanae immediately slashed with her returning blade. The second attack was a little rough and it didn’t reach Shin’iki, but “Guh-!” it was enough to scare Adylle.
“I see… with the magic power allocated from Nii-sama, my body is lighter than usual. My Enchant Aura is becoming sharper. It has benefits even for swordsman like me.”
With the speed and power that were more than usual, Kanae felt just a little heartrending numbness. Kanae felt numb from this easy power-up precisely because of her habitual severe training that she kept repeating, yet she was also feeling moved.
“You art fast, but it’s a speed that this one can hit!”
The baseball uniform woman, Domingo approached Kanae while her hand grasped a golden light.
“The one hit of victory for the sake of the sick little girl right here… Golden Bat(The Promised Home Run Until Outside the Stadium)!!”
A sharp horizontal swing attacked Kanae. Kanae had already Foresighted it and took a back-step.
But it didn’t end with that. The bat that was hitting empty air deviated from its original trajectory, ignoring physical phenomenon like the law of inertia the bat pursued Kanae. That action rather than saying it was Domingo that was swinging the bat, it was more like the bat was turned into a tracking missile that pulled Domingo along. “Uwaa-, don’t come here with gross movements like thatt-!!” Kanae screamed from the repulsiveness.
“If it something like that then try to compare your strength with me!! I’m going to take your attack without running away!!”
In front of Domingo that was chasing Kanae, Beatrix quickly cut in with her large sword.
*KAKIIIIN!* Weapon and magic power aura collided.
“O divine protection of warrior, double the megin whirling in my body! The will of god spurring me to unlimited fights, in this body! …Meginjord!”
Beatrix obtained the divine protection of strengthening from Norse Mythology’s Diva Thor and pushed back.
“If thou think that this one art skillful in only hitting then it’s a major mistake… o protein residing in this body, combine with my magic power and form a body of steel Clemens… Destroy Steroid(Explosive Flesh Tempering Muscle Art)!!”
As if a balloon had air blown as hard as one could into it, Domingo’s body swelled out several times larger. Her Magic Dress was not torn up though it strained tightly on her. Of course that growth was not from air but it was all muscle. “I want that magic!” Beatrix’s eyes opened wide.
“How does the Diva of baseball do something like that!?” Kanae retorted with a startled face.
“NGOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The enlarged Domingo was pushing at Beatrix.
“Fu-fu-fu… but you cannot win against my beloved muscle that received magic power from Kazuki! Muscle is not about volume, it’s about quality!! FUNNUOOOOOO!!”
“Im, impossible… NGOOOOOOOO-!!”
The muscle daruma was overturned after being outpushed by Beatrix. (TN: Daruma=Tumbling doll)
“Fuh-…it’s interesting doing contest of strength, but being toyed around by Kazuki’s technique is more enjoyable. Kazuki who no matter how I chase and chase yet he keeps getting away… is exciting.” (TN: I don’t know if Beatrix here is saying ‘exciting’, or it’s her saliva spilling out.)
“…Nii-sama being popular didn’t start since just now, but this girl is really a bad news…”
Kanae was looking at Beatrix with completely cold eyes.
“Thy is sinful! My scale changes that sin into heavy mud!”
At that time, Adylle was sending magic power at Kanae and Beatrix.
“Guilty Conscious(Black Mud Imprisonment)!”
The magic power that was emitted from that fingertips coiled around the bodies of the two and produced something that looked like black mud.
“Mu!?” It was heavily punishing the two.
When Beatrix slashed further at Domingo, the weight increased with each of her strikes.
“Sin she said… so this is a magic that imposes weight in response to damage that we inflicted on then. Fufufu, interesting! Show my how heavy you can be!! Show me if you can make me submit with that weight!!”
“Eh… this person, she is a masochist? Sca, scary…” Adylle was trembling.
“Eeei, it’s hard to move with this heaviness!”
Kanae was making a bitter face with her greatest weapon stolen, yet she kept chasing around Thomas with <Kuroneko Michikage> in hand. “Let me use magic too! Don’t chase just me with that spell-obstructing sword!” Thomas ran while crying.
In order to give backup to those people, Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai and Mio, then Madonna and Ridley, they were firing attack magic and support magic at each other from long range.
“Koyuki! Come on, finish your chanting quickly!!”
When Mio turned to Koyuki saying that, Koyuki replied “Understood” while dribbling with cold sweat from the difficult spell chanting.
Unnoticed the evening sun was going down. The curtain of night was falling both in Las Vegas dome’s outside and inside. The moon that was reflected on the dome and the true moon that was at the other side of the damaged dome were rising up to the sky.
The towering skyscrapers were clad in light of electricity. There was shadow dancing in that light.
“Comprise all possibility, o spider string, cut the wind and fly! The single fleeting string is harder than steel, pulling closer even destiny…! Spiders Drive(Flying Dash Net)!!”
Pure white string flew from the right wrist of Clark. While the string was like a steel it was thin, its tip was possessing a terrific adhesive power. Clark let flew the spider string to the skyscraper and moved three-dimentionally at the night sky. Just when Kazuki thought that she was dancing at the night sky like Tarzan, she kicked the building and accelerated even more, flying around freely. Even if he could Foresight her movement, it was hard to follow along with that movement.
Kazuki released pure white light from Ame no Murakumo and unleashed its power.
“Become the Yahiroshiro Chidori and soar, <Ame no Murakumo>! Battou Kaikon―Shiratori no Misasagi!!” (TN: Yahiroshiro Chidori=Eight fathom white wisdom bird, might be a name from myth. Shiratori no Misasagi=White Bird’s Imperial Mauseloum.)
Just like Yamato Takeru that turned into a white bird and soared to sky, Kazuki received white wings with soft plumage at his back and pursued Clark in the air. *BANG ! BANG! BANG!* Clark kicked the building one after another and flew around in sharp angle relying at the spider string.
Suddenly, Clark grasped with her right hand tightly.
“…Tangle Calamity(Twining Spider String)!!”
Kazuki who was pursuing Clark was lured into trap before he noticed it. At the zone where Kazuki flapped his wing and entered, there were countless spider threads laid out. Those strings were all connected to the five fingers of Clark right hand―the instant she made a fist tightly, all of the strings fell all at once onto Kazuki.
The strings that were approaching in super high speed were tough even while being thin―it was the same like a slash that had incomparable sharpness. “You really give me a lot of trouble, but there is no place to escape for you!” Clark yelled.
*ZING!* All those were approaching from every single directions.
It couldn’t be cut? Did it really couldn’t be cut―he could cut it!
“Show me your power not as a Sacred Treasure but as a single katana, Ame no Murakumo! I am a sword user that won’t shame you!!”
Determining a single string from the countless strings that came flying at him drawing complicated trajectories, Kazuki swung down Ame no Murakumo. If his slash slanted for even a little then the sword edge would only slide from the string. The swung down flash from moving the muscles of his whole body went through the right angle with not even a bit of deviation―*PAAN!* The strained sting was bisected.
“No way!?” Clark yelled while gliding in the air,
Kazuki who opened a way to escape from the slashes that were besieging him by bisecting one of the string, slipped through the zone of death. He flapped the wings of white bird and read which building Clark would fly next.
Circling ahead to that destination, he finally overtook her.
Tangle Calamity―it was the same name with the technique that man used.
“You really liked Red Metallica aren’t you, Clark!”
Now that they were settling their dispute, he didn’t need to hide that anymore.
“Damn straight! You killing him…made me really furious, Hayashizaki Kazuki!!”
He couldn’t see her expression from her helmet but―Clark spouted out human-like words that were far removed from her impression until now. He thought it was far likable compared to the Clark until now.
“That guy’s fate is to be defeated by someone someday!”
He didn’t have any plan to be a naïve person whose blade would dull from guilt at this late hour now that the situation had reached this point.
“What do you bastard know about Red!”
Facing Kazuki who arrived before her at the building ahead, Clark threw the Vibra Pentagon at her left arm.
Against the flying shield, Kazuki held Ame no Murakumo aloft vertically. The blade run along the side of the flying shield and with a delicate control the shield tilted diagonally. There was not even a little impact at Ame no Murakumo, the trajectory of the approaching Vibra Pentagon changed and flew past Kazuki in paper-thin difference, breaking the building in its path.
“Acting skillful just with a single sword!”
The eye-visor of Clark’s helmet shone, *ZAP! ZAP!* and beams was fired consecutively. Kazuki flew slipping through the several streaks of beam and slashed at Clark right from the front.
Clark tried to grab at Kazuki’s sword,
“Kushihebi no Tachi!”
Ame no Murakumo that Kazuki swung undulated, it slipped through and cut apart diagonally.
“I know about you and Red, I caught a glimpse of your and his past!”
Clark’s expression distorted in surprise for an instant. Even while her body was shaking from the impact of the smashed magic, Clark landed on the side surface of the building, “Where did you see things like people’s past! That’s really a shameful act!”
Clark once again kicked at the building and flew at him in a bounce.
“I’ll stop the way you all do thing! I won’t let you sacrifice anyone anymore!!”
Once again both of them clashed. Kazuki swung down Kushihebi no Tachi once again. The instant the sword’s line twisted like a snake, Clark’s eye-visor shined with light.
…He was seen through! The instant Kazuki had that hunch, Clark’s left hand grabbed Kazuki’s Ame no Murakumo.
“I’ll say it to you simply! You think I pay sacrifice because I like it huh!!”
With a terrific herculean strength, Kazuki was swung around together with his sword by Clark’s left hand. *BOOOM!* He was let go with great momentum and crashed into the building. Splinters were fluttering down in pieces.
…That’s right. Now that he fought her he understood, she was doing what she did not because she liked it from the bottom of her heart. Right now, Clark was enjoying fighting a Basileus right from the front.
But she couldn’t keep continuing her way.
“You cannot use anything except the power of Sacred Treasures.”
Clark stood on top of the destroyed building and talked to Kazuki who was caved in at the wall of the building right ahead.
“I’m observing the situation because I don’t know what kind of King’s Authority you have but…most likely you don’t have any power that you haven’t used yet, right now you cannot use anything right?”
Kazuki was startled inside his heart. However he exerted himself to not show that agitation in the surface.
Kazuki was not using the Power of Harmony at himself.
“From your reaction just now, I hit the bull’s eye huh.” Regardless of Kazuki’s expressionless face, Clark drew that conclusion. “Your shoulder is tense you know? That’s a reaction of stress.”
Of course Kazuki also noticed―Clark too wasn’t using King’s Authority.
If she used the <Power of Wealth> ahead of him….
“Your fingertips are full of tension there. Even if you endure your stress, it will come out somewhere in your body. You are going to be troubled if I use mine first right?”
“…I wonder if it’s fine for you to use yours first?” Kazuki bluffed like that even while he thought that it might be useless.
“I thought exactly like that. I was observing the situation thinking if you have ability like null effect, seal, or deprivation. …But it’s fine to discard that worry. Most important of all those Numbers can’t hold out. In other words it’s like that. You are waiting for the battle at the other side to end.”
The gaze behind Clark’s visor felt like she was flipping over the card open that he importantly faced down. It was useless no matter what he said.
Clark spread both her arms and chanted loudly like singing.
“…The highly proud hero, is standing here carrying the heroically flapping Stars and Stripes on his shoulder.
Passing the darkness of suffering of a number of nights, until the arrival of the faint light of the dawn.
The Stars and Stripes fluttered throughout the night, until it’s wrapped in the joy of victory.”
The spread arms were pulsating. From inside Clark, magic power wavelength that was different with Clark herself was welling up like a vortex. It looked similar with someone who was being encroached by Diva.
“The long darkness of night dwells in my body.
The land that should be saved in the sky, pray to be blessed with victory and peace.
Storing the night of suffering, the power to protect the country to the end is shouldered here.
O riches of sacrifice, o wealth, become spilled black blood and flow in my body.”
He had the feeling that the lights of the buildings of Las Vegas were becoming darker. Not only Las Vegas, all of America’s civilization and riches were turned into magic power and flowed into Clark.
Cracks were running on her silver suits and helmet.
“I am a proud hero, everything other than Stars and Stripes are going to be dyed black.
O god, o justice, see this jet black clearly.”
The silver suits and helmet cracked. Dazzling blonde hair and black magic power brilliantly overflowed out from the broken silver cracks. The Diva’s original Magic Dress was overwritten by Clark’s own personal pitch black. The raised King’s Authority was painted pure black by the jet black method of the owner.
“Super One(My America)”
The ominous black magic power that overflowed out distorted the Magic Dress irregularly with its left and right looked asymmetry, making it lost its original motif(heroic). What was standing there was a figure that couldn’t be called as anything other than demon. Her helmet was completely broken―exposing bare the unpainted face of Clark who believed herself as justice.
The personification of the black justice was standing in Kazuki’s way with her back facing the two moons.
…Judging from the thickness of her Enchant Aura, she was different. It was so different that it made his skin felt frizzy from being opposite of her. Kazuki unintentionally became concerned of his comrades’ battle situation.
“…Just now, you were concerned about the other side huh.” It was her usual cold tone that was like steel.
Kazuki kicked the building where he was caved in right away and flapped the wings of the white bird. Without even hiding his intention to buy time, Kazuki attempted to gain distance from Clark.
“…O black will that is residing in the earth, resonance, paint over everything. Gravity Bind(Hand of Creeping Up Power).”
It was as if the flying away Kazuki was pulled by an unseen hand, he was drawn to the ground. He somehow adjusted his stance and landed down. Kazuki sent his gaze at Clark who was jumping down to the ground in pursuit of him. Clark’s silver suit was cracked, from the black protuberance that was growing out all over it, some kind of magic power was emitted. …Even by reading the flow of magic power, Kazuki couldn’t grasp the magic phenomenon’s true character. …Was it gravity?
…Wrong. It was not merely making the body heavier. Blood drew back from inside his head and his consciousness felt like it was getting far away. It was similar like being in anemia, this was…,
“It’s magnetism. My black magic power is exerting its influence at the iron inside your blood.”
―The blood that was flowing through his whole body was heading down to the ground, with that his whole body became heavier.
“Your sword skill is the result of your delicate technique right? I wonder how much you can endure with your body sense going mad.”
Clark’s eyes shined, *ZAP!* firing beam at him. It was not a surprise attack, he could Foresight it. He bent his body back evading that, but his body staggered feebly.
His blood interfered with him…it harmed his body sense to a fatal degree.
“I wonder how much you can hold out with my current magic power!”
With a powerful body with black magic power covering it like an armor, Clark kicked the ground.
“Shut and seal, <Yasakani no Magatama>! Kaicho Kaikon―Hachimon Shibari!!”
Kazuki immediately let loose Yasakani no Magatama. The string of magatama that spread out widely while flying entangled itself at the coming Clark.
“You think the same way will work, against this me!”
The instant the string of magatama tried to restrain Clark, Clark’s body distorted due to the black magic power.
The location of her joints, the shape of her muscles, her original form and nature as human experienced a sudden change. Like a ninja that escaped a rope binding, no just like an amoeba that naturally could get away from a rope! Clark slipped away from the string of magatama.
“The current me is closer to a Demon Beast than a human!”
Kazuki was shaken. Clark had quit being a human while still retaining her self!
Flesh was nothing more than a container of soul. But just because of that regulating the absurd transformation on one’s own body because of magic power was impossible to do without extraordinary willpower.
If it was normally, just like when Takasugi brothers turned into Yamata no Orochi, or like when the Chiefs turned into chimera, their mind would be completely crumbled.
Clark threw away everything except her pride and victory, she even threw away her existence as human and turned into monster before assaulting Kazuki.
Clark’s right arm swelled out explosively while swinging down at Kazuki. Furthermore the blood in Kazuki’s whole body was controlled through magnetism, it was as if he was going to leap at that destructive attack by himself.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOO-!”
Kazuki forcefully controlled his body while yelling. He blocked the enlarged fist of Clark with Ame no Murakumo, without trying to go against that tremendous impact, he warded off the attack with his body handling.
“You really did it huh!” Clark raised an admiring voice.
<Instant Positioning>. The fist that Clark swung with all her power was warded off to the wrong direction and her body posture broke.
No, her posture didn’t broke―the joints at Clark’s body twisted. Distorted. Kazuki immediately noticed.
Even in a posture that was impossible to launch an attack if it was with human shape―if it was the current Clark then it wouldn’t become a problem.
The current her was able to seamlessly unleashed an attack with her whole strength no matter what kind of posture she was in!
She completely ignored the concept of form and combination in martial arts!
Clark’s right arm shriveled, this time it was her left arm that expanded imbalancely. That left arm flew at him turning and twisting like jelly from impossible direction.
His blade wouldn’t make it in time, Kazuki blocked that fist with Ame no Murakumo’s pommel.
By no meant he opposed the pressure of the fist―he shifted the vector slightly.
“With your current out of order sense, you think you can do that technique with your sword handle huh!”
“Kuh-!” However against the difference of pressure that was too much, it was Kazuki whose posture was broken.
Right after that, Clark’s kick came flying from a direction that should be impossible for a body to bend.
“WHAT THE HELL WITH THATTTTT!!” Kazuki reflexively raised a yell of desperation.
Clark’s fierce attack was a [violence] that overturned Kazuki’s identity as martial artist from its root. It was as if that body was completely sneering at the martial arts that was trained from human limbs―!
No, it was the end if his mind yield. …Who would lose here!
Kazuki brought his courage and blocked that kick right from the front.
At the moment of clash he bent his upper body as much as he could while taking a back step. He rotated his body vertically―like a feather dancing in the wind, he made the impact of the kick vanished like mist.
Kazuki rolled backward on the asphalt using the momentum.
“Even martial arts looks like acrobat when it reach the extreme huh! But you cannot run anymore from there!!”
Clark’s right hand enlarged to crush Kazuki while swinging down.
The ground was at his back―there was nothing he could do anymore. Kazuki was crushed by the palm of giant and caved into the asphalt. His defensive magic power ruptured and completely gone. If he was caved into the ground then martial arts wouldn’t do a damn at all. Clark raised her right hand and then like a child throwing a tantrum she kept hitting over and over.
Still not yet!? Kazuki yelled inside his heart. Was his intention not conveyed to Koyuki…!?
At that time, from the separate distance that was in the middle of battle, a large magic power was swelling, a cold that was felt even until this side was generated. He knew this magic power.
―Diamond Dust・Absolute Zero!
“…So the Numbers got done in!”
Clark clicked her tongue while even now she was going to persistently swung down her palm to Kazuki.
‘It’s fine already, borrowing everyone’s power…!
―That instant, with the Power of Harmony, Kazuki concentrated all the magic power everyone had to himself.
Vitality overflowed his whole body, powerfully accelerating him. This was everyone’s…Power of Harmony!
Like a squashed spring springing up from the recoil, Kazuki shook himself free from the asphalt and stood up. He held up Ame no Murakumo at the swung down giant palm.
It was not parrying the attack, he opposed it right from the front!
Vast magic power and magic power clashed and shockwave exploded. Stepping firmly on the rising ground, Kazuki’s two legs broke the asphalt further while the asphalt got buried to the ground, Clark’s body floated.
With that Kazuki finally leaped back and he was able to recover some distance.
“Kazu-nii!” “Kazuki!” “Otouto-kun!” “Nii-sama!”
While several of his comrades called at him, they rushed to his side.
“Burn to ash all that you touch…the flame embrace without any place to go! Self Burning・Embrace!!”
With Mio transformed into Chouki Magician her magic was reinforced, with that Kazuki was wrapped in armor of flame that was like the wings of the undying bird enclosing him in an embrace.
“Lightning placed on yearning granting the lightning thought and god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Connect Ligthning(True Spirit Thunder God)!!”
With Hikaru-senpai transformed into Chouki Magician, her reinforcement magic could be targeted to someone else other than her which she used at Kazuki, it accelerated his body.
“Sink even the splendor, lock in the eternal freeze o stream of black freeze…my betrayer is also there! Judeca Cocytus(River of Unceasing Freezing Grief)!”
“O tear of mermaid, reveal the grief of your heart to the world. That neighboring chair with no person, the blank space of album, wake them up in the freezing world…Solitary・White Album(Lonesome Ice White)!”
Kaguya-senpai and Koyuki, with their transformation to Chouki Magician they released ice magic that had its power reinforced to Kazuki’s direction. The black and white freezing air whirled like a spiral toward him.
“Carry the mystery in your blade crest, <Ame no Murakumo>! Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”
In one swing Kazuki tore apart the two color of freezing air with Ame no Murakumo. With the Sacred Treasure’s power that controlled every natural phenomenon, the freezing air was thoroughly compressed inside the sword blade.
…He felt as if he had obtained a combat ability that could oppose his opponent.
Clark took a glance at Kazuki’s comrade that came running.
“…So the Numbers, lost to the Japanese that wasn’t helped by Britain’s Basileus.”
“Don’t think that I’m defiling this one-on-one fight okay.”
Kazuki said that from his awkwardness of relying on his comrades.
“I’m not looking for anything like one-on-one fight.”
“You liar, you enjoyed it right?”
Clark’s expression shook hearing what Kazuki pointed out.
“I enjoyed it you know. Though in the latter half it’s already the best I can do to just endure.”
Clark chuckled ‘kuku’. “You are a charming man huh.”
Looking at that smiling face…Kazuki rethought back Clark as human. Thinking about it, even while he was thinking of her as a monster, he was also feeling her human aspect all along in while fighting her.
“…The one who take out the power of America’s civilization and wealth first is me. Then this is not anything like a one-on-one fight, it’s a fight to compare the thing we shouldered.”
“That’s right huh, I too have thing that I shouldered…!”
Kazuki prepared his freezing blade. With that as the signal, Clark who was honestly waiting for Kazuki to take his stance leaped at Kazuki.
Sword and fist clashed. Kazuki tilted his blade and parried the fist. Clark distorted her whole body again and let loose a barrage of full swing from impossible posture.
But compared to before, she was an instant slower. …Clark’s fist that was blocked by his blade froze from the chill, by approaching Kazuki closer her body was burned by flame. The impact of her smashed magic constantly paralyzed Clark’s body a little.
Kazuki whose flesh and mind were accelerated overtook that barrage this time. Like a willow swayed by the wind, he cancelled all of their momentum. His combat strength was completely overtaking it.
“Are you matching the current me equally…this me that is shouldering this many things…!?”
At the other side of the heat of the flame, a slight fury was appearing at her human look.
Her smiling face just now, and this fury too, was cues of emotion that wouldn’t exist in a person that had thrown away her humanity.
“The thing that I shouldered is also not light.”
“Bond you mean…that’s the power of greed.”
“You cast away too much everything.”
“This means this is a battle between me that throw away all that I have, and you who fight in order to protect…!”
That moment, as if a steel mask was broken, emotion overflowed at Clark’s face.
A fist of fury came striking at Kazuki. Kazuki followed that speed and blocked with his blade that was carrying chill. It became a strained blade locking contest, the face of the two drew near at each other’s.
Clark bared her fang at Kazuki with a ghastly expression.
“In other words this is a chicken race of whose desire goes farther! Those Indians throw away everything and didn’t desire anything! That kind of thing is just running away…! I throw away everything except the barest pride as bet! That is…the way I do thing as a weakling that was born in the street!!”
“I desire everything! All of my comrades, I won’t throw any single one of them!”
“You naïve brat! If you have the confidence to not lose to anyone to do that then just try it! …I won’t lose to someone like you!! Lose to me in this place…and lost everything!!”
From Clark…he could feel an excessive emotional strain.
Kazuki parried a fist fueled by anger by turning around his body. Clark’s posture was destroyed, however from there she modified her body and incessantly tried to repeat her attack―her jet black body stiffened with its shape still human. At that time, Clark failed her modification.
Right now in this moment, Clark was completely returning to human.
Her mind was wavered from the clash of her will against Kazuki’s will.
The moment human expression came to her surface, she became unable to wield that power perfectly.
“What happened…!?” Clark raised an agitated yell. The act of distorting your own flesh body was impossible when the mind couldn’t cast away your own humanity. Clark was completely unaware of it herself.
“Otouto-kun, don’t lose!” A cheer came from Kaguya-senpai.
He thought that he didn’t want to show her his disgraceful appearance.
Kazuki’s power of bond exhibited its power exactly because it was exerted by human emotion.
“There is no way I’ll lose to you, Clark Moore!!”
Kazuki’s second slash, overflowing with emotion, captured Clark’s stiffened body.
Super high speed sword and fist crossed each other on countless occasions―which one hit the opponent, which one hit empty air, people other than the two were absolutely unable to perceive what was happening.
But during the several times, several ten of times exchange of slash and fist, in a little bit of time the magic power of one side was obviously shaved. The impact of the smashed magic from each time of that pushed the stance of defense and offense into disadvantage, Clark who wasn’t in her demon form anymore couldn’t rally herself using the flesh modification.
The magic power and concentration of both of them were all poured into this intensifying offense and defense, there was no gap to exchange chant.
Several hundred. This wouldn’t be decided in one go by a grand magic, only paper-thin slashes tilting the trend to one side bit by bit, these offense and defense sliced to pieces even the mind of the inferior side.
Clark opened wide her eyes that were dyed deep red in rage. At that moment a critical hit ran diagonally through Clark’s shoulder until her hips, finally Clark’s body was sinking behind while she was looking up to the sky.
“You don’t lose anything.”
Kazuki accosted the collapsed Clark like that.
“I’ll also protect America to stay America. I won’t change anything.”
Against those words of Kazuki―there were two people among Kazuki’s comrades that were rushing to him, that showed symmetrical reaction. Arthur whose objective was to spread to the world the faith of the chief god that he was contracted with, and Shouko who was the leader of Ryouzanpaku that opposed the ideology invasion of Chukadou. Arthur’s expression was a little bitter, he had hesitation, while Shouko’s expression had a faint smile.
Clark made a single sigh as if exhaling out her soul from the bottom of her stomach, and accepted those words.
