Itsuki was in the sky.
"Owowowowow--!"
"President, hold onto the broom with your butt or your knees. I told you it would hurt if you slacken!" Honami, who was sitting in front of him, warned in a cold voice. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get himself straight.
"E, even if you say that, the broom is digging in between my legs... owow!"
Itsuki grabbed onto Honami's slender back, pressed his knees together tightly, and screamed.
He was on a broom.
He had been seated on the back of Honami's broom and taken away into the sky. Some might envy his position, but such a thought didn't cross Itsuki's mind for even a nanosecond.
"It's because your nerves are so sensitive from not exercising."
Trying to regain his posture, Itsuki was met with those frank words.
"It can't be helped. I've never practiced riding on a broom," he responded sullenly.
"Ah."
"Wh, what?"
"That's the first time you've talked back."
Honami chuckled.
Feeling a little awkward, Itsuki hesitated to speak.
"It's fine. You won't mature without that sort of thing. However, you should save it for now. --Look over there."
She pointed straight at the ground.
Below the pointing nail of her supple, quivering finger was the sprawling expanse of the goblin factory.
"... gh."
"Do you understand? Hey."
Honami asked again to Itsuki, who had swallowed his breath.
"... Y, yeah. It's swirling."
At the center of the factory, a mass of spell power was swirling like a typhoon. When he had seen it from the ground, he had only noticed that the factory had changed appearance, but if he looked from this point, he could understand more clearly.
Honami nodded and continued.
"That is the beginning of... a <Night>."
"<Night>?"
"Basically, it's a storm of spell power that runs ley lines. It's because spell power is an easily alterable form of energy. What controls that altercation is magic, but--if you just leave it there, it'll quickly turn into something strange. This is spell wave pollution. It's best to think about a <Night> as an incredibly huge version of this spell wave pollution."
Itsuki blinked at Honami's words.
"Spell wave... pollution?"
"Take a look."
The girl pointed with her oak staff.
At about the same time, the spell power changed even further.
--First, a smokestack was twisted.
As it bent flexibly like fired glass, the concrete of the factory became transparent. A white wave boiled up from the empty ground overrun by weeds, and with a crashing roar, the entire grounds of the factory was washed away by a huge wave of water.
It was only about a hundred square meters, but--it truly was a black ocean.
"The mountain... into an ocean...?!"
"It's because this mountain used to be a seafloor. It's 'remembering' that time. Recurrence is a popular phenomenon for <Night>s, though this one's kinda small."
Pushing up her pointed hat, Honami narrowed her eyes.
Itsuki remained in a shocked state.
He still couldn't believe the scene he was looking down upon. With a snap, he opened his eye wide, remembering something.
"That's right... what about Mikan-chan?"
In a flurry, he looked down.
Then, he dropped his jaw again.
At the surface around Mikan, who was waving her arms around--the water had receded in a circle of space about eight meters in diameter. It was an unnatural space that seemed like it had been cut out of the air.
{We're fine down here!}
"Huh?"
Suddenly, he heard Nekoyashiki's voice from behind him. Immediately after, he turned to see a white cat holding on to his shoulder.
"B, Byakko-kun?"
It was Nekoyashiki's cherished, pure-white kitten. Through some sort of contrivance, whenever a "Meorw" came from its throat, Nekoyashiki's voice could be heard at the same time.
{Ahaha. I had him cling to your back at the beginning, but didn't you notice? Were you surprised? Did I scare you?}
"I, I didn't realize it..."
At Itsuki's astonishment, Byakko-kun puffed up with pride. Up in the sky on a broom like that, he was indeed a cat, but also a handy tool.
{Rather than 'shikigami,' this could be called 'shikineko.' --Right. We're fine over here thanks to Mikan-san's spirit barrier.}
"Mikan-chan's?"
{Yes, yes. The special magic ability of Shintou is entirely to purify uncleanliness with <misogi>, after all. If Mikan-san overlaps her spell power, then even smack dab in the middle of spell wave pollution, we can get a perfectly sealed paradise. Thanks to her, I can completely focus on Byakko-kun,} Nekoyashiki--or rather, Byakko-kun speaking with Nekoyashiki's voice, said, waving around his vast stock of knowledge.
"Special magic ability?"
{Yes, I told you a bit about it earlier. Magical arts are all used to manipulate spell power. So, depending on the method of manipulation used, certain specialties and weaknesses arise. For Mikan-san's Shintou, there's the spirit barrier, and for my Onmyoudou, there's shikigami--these things are beyond the control of a familiar. These kinds of things are special magic abilites.}
Skillfully bending his forelegs, Byakko-kun managed to bow.
"Oh, I see. Like how you said one could specialize in summoning magic."
{Yes, like that. Even so, there are of course loopholes, and personal differences exist as well, so it's not absolute. Eventually, though, whatever the magical art, practitioners of magic all end up in similar positions--}
"Nekoyashiki-san, you're talking too much."
{Oh, excuse me.}
"... I was planning to explain all that to him," the girl sighed so quietly that no one else could hear. She then changed the subject, asking something else. "So, have you found the core of this <Night>?"
{Ah, just now I tried to divine it, but it didn't work out. The density of the spell power is too high compared to the scope, so I'm working on it. If I we don't get close enough then we won't be able to recognize it.}
"The core of the <Night>?" Itsuki asked.
"I told you earlier, right? That this is natural magic."
"Oh, yeah."
"That's why..."
{That is to say, if there's magic and spell wave pollution, then there's a core that is manipulating spell power. Whether with curses, or ceremonies, or magic circles, or with seals--whatever, it could be anything. The method to dispel it would be the same, so it would naturally be prudent for us to locate the core fastest and destroy it. It would be quite a chore even without <Goetia> around.}
"Hey, Nekoyashiki-san!"
Honami became deep red and turned around.
{Oh, sorry about that. When I'm asked something, I end up wanting to explain it to the end. Ahaha.}
The girl snorted slightly, glaring at the joyfully laughing white cat.
Then,
"So, did you understand all of that?" she asked Itsuki.
"Ah... y, yeah. Generally."
"I see."
Honami stared at his face for a moment, but then finally turned forward.
"Oh, that's right. If we... fail to dispel the <Night>, what happens then?"
"It's just like a storm. Until the <Night> ends, it'll continue to rampage violently. Just like the name says, they pretty much disappear in the morning, though in certain nasty situations they can wipe out a whole region, similar to what happened to the Tungus."
"..."
Ignoring Itsuki, who was at a loss for words, Honami gently ran her finger across the broom.
"Nekoyashiki-san. I'm going to approach the <Night>, so tell me a route with little spell wave pollution."
{Yes, yes. I'll use katatagae[1]. If we go by the flow of today's stars and ley lines... we should enter from the south south west side...}
Nekoyashiki's voice flowed through.
Following his directions, the broom took a nosedive toward the water's surface.
*
"Sustaining a Shintou ooharai[2] barrier, using Onmyoudou katatagae to confirm a route, and then having Honami use Celtic magic to search... how inefficient," Adilisia sighed at the edge of the phantom sea as the waves pummeled the shore.
"Allocating different roles to several types of magic is nothing but a loss of spell power, time, and ability."
One of the apprentices behind her nodded.
"Not to mention, they cannot support each other with differing magical abilities. Why are they even a magical group? It pains me to try to understand them," she said in a vexed manner. She turned around.
The preparations were already finished.
On the ground behind her, a large, purified paper was placed, with the sanctified names beginning in EHYEH and ending in LEVANAH written on it, along with a magic circle and several triangles and stars of David.
"Begin."
At the girl's words, the apprentices who were on standby began to chant.
"... I do invocate and conjure thee."
"... I do invocate and conjure thee."
All members whispering the same words, they grasped the "pentagrams of Solomon" to their chests.
"... I do strongly command thee, by Beralanensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachia, and Apologle Sedes: by the most Powerful Princes, Genii, Lichide, and Ministers of the Tartarean Abode: and by the Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion--"
Monotonously, they continued on, speaking nothing but the long spell. Conjuring up images of snakes and spirals, the words slowly flowed out, and acted as if to arrest the stars in the night sky.
Finally.
Within the magic circle, a white ether body floated lightly.
"I will show you how <Goetia> does things, Honami."
Adilisia raised her lips.
Her golden hair fluttering in the moonlight, the girl proudly chanted.
"Respond to my order, Shax! Great Marquis supporting thirty armies!"
It looked scary even if you saw it from above, but if you were to pull in closer, it would truly seem like a haunt of the wicked.
Here and there across the ocean were large whirlpools, shooting up violent currents of water like geysers. The surface of the water reflected the pitch-black color of the sky, occasionally changing to red, blue, or some impossible color to reflect the shadows of the monsters lurking below the water's surface.
Floating near the verge of this haunt were two people and one animal.
"Wh, what's this...?"
Itsuki moaned, having finally recovered from his vertigo.
{A primordial sea--though somewhat unique, as it looks like it's been quite polluted with spell power,} Nekoyashiki's voice chimed in from beside. Honami, putting her hand to the back of her neck, looked down at the demonic ocean.
"It's deeper than I thought. It seems like it'll take some effort to find the core."
"This 'core' thing... where would it be?"
"I dunno. But its form should be changed into something in the sea, so it might be a fish, or a stone at the ocean floor. Moreover--"
"Moreover?"
Honami turned toward the summit of the mountain.
"--It looks like they've set up their resources over there."
From that direction, tens--no, hundreds of black pigeons were flapping toward them. Furthermore, each and every one of their feathers was emitting a deep, black spell power. These were clearly not normal pigeons.
Itsuki changed his expression.
"... Are those by any chance... Adilisia's?"
{Yep, that's Shax--one of the seventy-two demons of Solomon, used for searching out hidden things. It looks like they plan on finding the core, obstructing us all the while.}
"That's so like Addie, to evoke something so troublesome. --President, hold on tight to the broom, and the cat."
"Wh, what are you doing?"
"Bite your tongue."
Suddenly, the swarm of pigeons began to close in on them.
The countless eyes stained with maliciousness sought the weakest target first--Itsuki.
"... eegh!"
Faster than he could scream, sharp beaks began to approach his eyeball, but--
Suddenly.
The two burst forward with the broom.
"-----Waaaaaaah!!!"
"Meeeeeowww!"
The broom instantaneously sped straight ahead so forcefully that Itsuki felt as though his organs were being wrenched from their positions and flung out of his mouth.
Rustle rustle rustle rustle!
The broom pierced the center of the black pigeons.
It was as if the broom was a single arrow. Just like a cloud, the flock of black pigeons split into two parts. Another word for a comet is "houkiboshi," and that was certainly true in this case.[3]
Slicing through the night sky, Itsuki and Honami soared toward the moon. Just as they flew into the upper-air, Honami's hand grew misty.
"Above me is the goddess of the moon! That is the one holding the divine protection of moonlight and mistletoe who will not oppose the curse of the north!"
As she chanted the spell, mistletoe spears rained down!
"JQWZYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The flock of black pigeons let out an indescribable scream.
A fire arose, and a chunk of the swarm was destroyed.
However, the black pigeons showed no care for the wellbeing of their friends, and the flock split into three groups. One headed into the ocean, one swept across the surface of the water, and the remaining group returned to the sky, rushing toward Itsuki and Honami.
Then, the flock of black pigeons spread their wings and let out another strange cry.
"President, cover your ears!"
"ZWQTYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
In ancient times, it was said that a dog's bark was blessed with the power to fend off evil spirits.
As for these black pigeons, it was the exact opposite--these were twisted, evil voices that let out curses causing people to be rotted to the bone.
"...!"
The black pigeons chased after the spinning, falling broom with cries of delight.
They had become a single body, as if they were one, giant monster. The monster opened its jaw, and extended its tongue to devour the small broom and the humans.
However.
Just before they reached, the broom turned up at a steep angle.
Drawing a brilliant half-circle, the broom turned around at the halfway point, and zoomed off in the opposite direction of the black pigeons.
{Oho, an immelmann ・ turn!}
Held against Itsuki's chest, the white cat's eyes sparkled.
Immelmann ・ turn.
It was an aerial combat technique developed during the Second World War. However, for a witch to have mastered it was unthinkable!
"I will repeat! Holding the protection of the moon and mistletoe, destroy the calamity in the northeast!"
The spears, just before striking the flock directly, split into four parts.
The separated parts of the mistletoe spears sliced through the feathers of the black pigeons. In a moment, the pigeons stopped moving, and then immediately burst into balls of flame, dropping down toward the black surface of the ocean.
Honami first made sure that there were no more of the flock alive, and then let out a deep sigh.
"They were pretty low-quality, as expected. Are you alright, president?"
"I'm... just a little... sick from all the moving..." Itsuki nodded with a blue face, holding his hand over his mouth. It was a wonder that he hadn't been thrown off.
After it was all over, his tongue hurt, he felt sick, and he was in a mess.
"That's great. If you were even a second too late with covering your ears, your heart might have stopped by now."
"...!"
Causing Itsuki to faint in agony from just one word, Honami looked over the surface of the water.
The remaining Shax flapping their wings over the black water seemed to make it even blacker. They made Itsuki think of ants squirming in dirt.
{Hey, what are we going to do?}
"There's a huge difference in our numbers. If we take them head-on, then the core will definitely be taken by Addie."
Honami made a rare frown and sighed.
"Is the 'job' of making the <Night> end really that important?" Itsuki asked from behind.
{Huh?}
"Eh?" Honami replied.
Suddenly, her eyes grew stern.
"You still don't understand, president."
"No, no, that's not what I meant! I get that if <Astral> doesn't finish this offer, we'll get erased from the registry, but... isn't Adilisia the same?"
"Addie is..."
Honami fumbled around with her words.
I definitely didn't think that he'd come this far without being serious, but...
Even though they were the same demons, depending on the spell power and ceremonies, their abilities could greatly increase or decrease. For Shax to have been evoked to the point that there was a flock of pigeons, a substantial amount of fetishes and power would have to have been expended.
<Goetia>.
Even among the magic group's large ranks, there were a select few among them who were the far off descendants of Solomon.
However, was this "work" something that required such a strenuous effort on <Goetia>'s part?
Honami didn't understand.
A <Night>, after all, was a natural disaster consisting of spell power.
From the scale of the damage, the <Organization> handled the assignment of a rank to the "work," but in this case, the recompense wasn't very large for the amount of effort required. She didn't think the 'work' had the kind of merit that would cause <Goetia> to push away <Astral>.
Or... is there something there?
She followed her suspicion.
Was there something wrapped up in this <Night>?
"Honami?"
"I don't understand. What do you think, Nekoyashiki-san?'
Honami expressed her opinion frankly.
{Hmm... If you compare it to a standard <Night>, there's definitely an artificial feel to it... What do you think, Mikan-san?}
{I don't understand it. I'm no good at analyzing spell power.}
The sound of Mikan sulking could be heard from Byakko-kun's throat.
{I see, well, we'll handle the analytics on this side, you guys find the core--}
Then,
"--I cannot let you do that."
A cold voice echoed across the night air.
Directly below the broom was the demonic ocean of the <Night> that was periodically changing color.
In that ocean, a giant silver chimaera[4] was floating. Its craggy, rocklike face bared a set of fearsomely long fangs. Unlike a similar shark, its fangs looked like they could rip apart a whale.
And then, from its flat back, a golden-haired girl looked upward.
"Addie."
"Adilisia."
At Itsuki and Honami's words, the girl's red lips twisted into a complacent smile.
"Since my apprentices told me to, I tried letting you have a go at finding the core, but in the end it did not buy us any time. I am fine with that, this way is more exciting anyway."
She made a lovely smile.
Like smiling before plucking a flower, it was a smile injected with deadly poison. Shivering from cold sweat, Itsuki blinked.
"Well then, are we gonna fight directly this time? With your Forneus," Honami asked coldly.
Forneus was apparently the name of the silver chimaera that Adilisia was riding. Even though it was beyond Itsuki's eye patch, he could perceive that Forneus' spell power was incomparable to Shax's earlier.
It wasn't a simple comparison of amounts.
It was an issue of dimensions. If the black pigeons were hundreds of carelessly gathered knives, then this silver chimaera was machine gun that could cause a massacre by itself--it was that kind of difference.
"With this little darling? Unthinkable. I will not do any such thing."
Faster than Itsuki could relax, Adilisia smiled again, holding up a brass container with her right hand.
"I do not underestimate you that much," she called out.
"Come forth, Marbas. King who rules over thirty-six armies!"
In the raging ocean waters, a golden lion stood towering over everything around it.
"Come forth, Glasya ・ Bolas. Powerful count commanding thirty-six armies!"
Underneath the moon flapped a wolf with the wings of an eagle.
"Come forth, Eligol! Firm knight governing sixty armies!"
Finally, next to the girl, a silver knight holding a spear and a snake appeared.
"Th, three of them!?"
Itsuki grabbed his eye patch, flailing backward.
Along with Forneus, that was four demons. Studying the demons in his sight, his right eye hurt as if it were being ripped out of its socket.
With just that, he was able to understand.
--This was different.
Forget the black pigeons, even Forneus was an unfavorable comparison to the three that stood before him. They gave off a demonic presence, as if just by existing they could make a human go insane.
The lion, the wolf, and the knight.
Especially the third one, the knight...
Adilisia, looking up, gave an elegant smile.
"These are the very best of the seventy-two demons, the evil spirits of blood and war. With this, we can start having fun."
"I'm happy you think so highly of me. How many years did it take you to evoke those?"
"Oh, roughly a year and a half. I am glad to have the opportunity to hear your opinion of them."
"It's a real privilege," Honami exaggerated.
However, this time, her usual confidence was smeared with the color of a bluff.
{Ho, Honami-san? Wait a second, do you really plan on going against her in your current condition?} the white cat whispered to Honami from Itsuki's arms.
"... I know. But I can't think to just let her get away freely."
Her voice was distressed.
Adilisia threw her hand to the side horizontal to her chest.
"Well then, my demons have worked up quite an appetite. Eat all that you like!"
The thread of the thirst for blood loosely connected the two girls.
It was a replay of what had happened one week ago at night in the park.
However, who was on the offense and who was on the defense had completely switched. That time, Adilisia had said that it was "not the time or place for this." Itsuki now understood what she meant. She had always been waiting for this opportunity.
"..."
Itsuki's throat was completely parched.
Goosebumps sprang up all over his body, and a chill began to expand in him as though his blood vessels had been turned into dry ice.
However.
"--W, wait a minute, Adilisia-san."
Ah...
Itsuki suddenly held his hand to his mouth.
He didn't have the intention to interfere. Even so, his mouth had moved on its own. Adilisia's face loosened just a bit upon seeing her panicking classmate.
"Oh my."
However, her face immediately returned to its former frigidity.
"What on earth could you be thinking? I warned you, you know. I told you to pull out of this offer."
"That, that's..."
There was no way he could say he forgot.
"What is the matter?"
"Ah, no, it's just... why is this 'work' so important to you? If there's a reason, we might be able to cooperate."
"..."
Adilisia, took a deep breath after a long silence.
"I have no reason to tell you that. Still more, I have no weapons to lend to magicians," she declared clearly.
It was a complete rejection.
"Thanks, president. --It's alright," Honami whispered gently to Itsuki, who couldn't manage to say anything.
And then.
The two witches confronted one another.
"...!!!"
Itsuki realized with horror that the cold atmosphere from earlier was better than this.
He remembered what Honami had said to him before.
--Once a true battle between magicians begins, it's already over.
--Eh, why?
--No matter what kind of magic you use, there's a certain amount of preparation required. There's almost no kind of magic that just needs spells and movements to be used. It's like a card game where you compete with limited hands. The fight is generally decided by who brought the better cards.
That is to say, the next chant was it.
Rather than when the actual fight started, it was when the enemy was determined that the battle truly began. Hypothesizing every attack, deducing every defense, the magicians set up a hand tailored to their opponent.
Adilisia said she had spent a year and a half.
In this fight, what could Honami do against Adilisia's year and a half of preparation? This was the nature of the fight.
YIJYAAAAAAAAAA!
Suddenly, a painful voice reached them from behind.
When Itsuki turned around, he saw the Shax gathered at one point in the ocean.
"--It also seems that they have found the core of this <Night>."
As if boasting of a perfect victory, Adilisia laughed.
Then, something bizarre occurred.
*
On the ground, in a circle of about eight meters in diameter, salt was being lightly scattered.
The lines of that salt were the purificiation of a sanctified place.
Though "kekkai"[5] is a Buddhist term, there was no difference between a spirit barrier in Shintou in this case. It was an expression of the stern, unwavering will of the separation between here and there.
That was why a <Night>--even if it were a primordial sea, could not enter the inside of the salt. The cylindrical area of air excavated out of the sea somehow had a surreal appearance.
"Nekoyashiki-san?"
Mikan, waving her tamagushi inside the cylinder, raised her voice.
"How are they going to deal with that? What will happen to president onii-chan?"
"No, it might seem like they're in a touchy situation, but I'm getting a spell power analysis report from Genbu-kun right now..."
Nekoyashiki scratched his cheek in a troubled manner.
Sitting in zazen beside Mikan, he held a black cat on his knee.
Genbu-kun was a constantly sleepy, fat cat. Nekoyashiki used four cats in his shikineko, but among them, Byakko was the best at remote tuning while Genbu excelled at spell power analysis.
"Report? Is there something there?"
Mikan opened her large eyes wide.
"Yes, how should I say this... It's not quite clear, but..."
Stroking Genbu-kun's head, Nekoyashiki put on a sour look. Incidentally, he only had his right eye open. In order to keep in tune with Byakko-kun, he kept his left eye shut tight.
"Forget it. If there's something weird hidden in there, my misogi will clear it up. If you keep sulking like that, you'll get washed away by the ocean."
Mikan pointed her lips.
To her, Nekoyashiki made a wry smile--tinged slightly with impatience.
"Sorry... If this analysis is certain... it looks like someone's magic is behind the core of this <Night>. That is to say, it seems like it's because of that magic that the spell wave pollution is corrupted."
Mikan's breath stopped.
After several seconds, the little girl said,
"You mean... this <Night> is happening because of the influence of some other magic...?"
The bizarre thing happened at that moment.
The black pigeons that had gathered at a single point--the Shax--evaporated.
They evaporated.
It was a disappearance that could be described with no other word.
"Eh..."
"Wha..."
Honami and Adilisia were at loss for words.
Along with that, odd, rainbow-colored ripples began to expand across the ocean surface, and then even into the air, rushing towards Itsuki and Honami's position.
"No... Has it already happened?"
Suddenly coming to her senses, Adilisia placed her hand on the pentagram of Solomon on her chest.
"Marbas! Glasya ・ Bolas! Eligol!"
Receiving her call, the three demons moved.
The evil spirits of blood and war. Befitting of their name, they moved as fast as the reverberation of a thunderclap. In the space of a moment, they stood between Adilisia and the waves and focused their spell power.
They were probably all able to wield monstrous spell power.
However.
That was all a waste.
Even faster than they had moved, the rainbow-colored ripples seized them.
That was all they had to do.
The golden lion, Marbas.
The wolf with the wings of an eagle, Glasya ・ Bolas.
The silver knight holding the spear and the snake, Eligol.
They all vanished in an instant.
As if they were statues of sand. As if they were water balloons crushed in one's hand. As if they were graffiti being washed away. It wasn't too fast, but rather an indiscreet way of disappearing.
"No way..." Honami whispered.
It wasn't magic.
It couldn't be magic.
If it was magic, then such a ridiculous thing could not have occurred.
"The demons' ether bodies were... disintegrated from the inside out...?"
"Wh, wha, what?"
Unable to grasp the situation, Itsuki clung to the broom.
The white cat in his arms raised a stunned voice.
{Honami-san--we've done a spell power analysis, and I've got a bit of a bad feeling about this...}
"Ye, yeah. President! We're getting out of here!" Honami shouted, running her finger along her broom.
The broom, receiving its order, whizzed upward in a sudden movement, separating away from the ocean surface. To the expanding view of the scenery, Itsuki swallowed his breath.
"--Honami, what's that?"
He pointed.
He pointed to the area where the Shax had evaporated before.
The disintegrated ether bodies were gathering there. Not only that, the ocean <Night> seemed to be narrowing into a funnel there.
"Impossible... are they being devoured?" Honami said breathing roughly, almost gasping for air.
"Even the four demons... no... the whole sea is getting swallowed up... It's eating all the surrounding spell power... incarnating into... a new form..." she said in blank amazement.
Itsuki couldn't pull his eye away from the scene.
No.
It was different.
His eye wouldn't pull away from the scene.
From beneath his eye patch, Itsuki's right eye was supporting his body. From inside of it, something was determinedly fixed to the funnel in the ocean.
[LOOK]
Creaaaaaak!
Something grated inside his head.
No, that wasn't the right way to describe it.
His right eye spoke.
[LOOK. LOOK. LOOK. THAT... IS TRUE MAGIC.]
"Wh... what?"
He pressed his hand against his eye patch. He dug into his eye with his fingers. It was horrifyingly hot. It throbbed, it felt numb, and it stung.
The view before him reflected in his right eye.
A definite substance bonded him to the spiraling funnel in the ocean.
Devouring the four demons, swallowing the ocean of the <Night>, something with an overwhelming spell power was being born.
Only Itsuki's right eye saw this.
Itsuki's vision focused entirely on that.
[THAT IS... A SEED OF... ♦↑=...]
"..."
{President?}
Suddenly, Byakko-kun called out to him.
{Huh?}
All of a sudden, he had bent over.
If he pulled back at that moment, he could have probably returned himself to an upright position.
However, as he panicked and tried to regain his grip on the broom, he saw a shadow directly below him, normally, with his left eye.
Adilisia was standing completely still in the middle of the ocean.
Standing absentmindedly on Forneus' back, she had a face as though she had finally reunited with a long lost lover.
Her profile was dyed with rainbow-colored ripples.
Consuming the four demons, the ripples stagnated for several moments, and then moved on to pull in the golden-haired girl and the silver chimaera.
"Adilisia-san?"
At that moment, Itsuki lost his balance.
"Ah..."
{President!}
"President!"
Honami threw out her hand. She was too late.
By the time she had realized what was happening, Itsuki had already fallen from the the broom.
Itsuki fell upside-down toward the demonic sea of the <Night> and the rainbow-colored ripples.
Finally,
"... Icchan!"
He felt like someone, somewhere was calling out to him with his old nickname.
And then everything went dark.
Everything except his right eye.
Itsuki was in the sky.
"Owowowowow--!"
"President, hold onto the broom with your butt or your knees. I told you it would hurt if you slacken!" Honami, who was sitting in front of him, warned in a cold voice. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get himself straight.
"E, even if you say that, the broom is digging in between my legs... owow!"
Itsuki grabbed onto Honami's slender back, pressed his knees together tightly, and screamed.
He was on a broom.
He had been seated on the back of Honami's broom and taken away into the sky. Some might envy his position, but such a thought didn't cross Itsuki's mind for even a nanosecond.
"It's because your nerves are so sensitive from not exercising."
Trying to regain his posture, Itsuki was met with those frank words.
"It can't be helped. I've never practiced riding on a broom," he responded sullenly.
"Ah."
"Wh, what?"
"That's the first time you've talked back."
Honami chuckled.
Feeling a little awkward, Itsuki hesitated to speak.
"It's fine. You won't mature without that sort of thing. However, you should save it for now. --Look over there."
She pointed straight at the ground.
Below the pointing nail of her supple, quivering finger was the sprawling expanse of the goblin factory.
"... gh."
"Do you understand? Hey."
Honami asked again to Itsuki, who had swallowed his breath.
"... Y, yeah. It's swirling."
At the center of the factory, a mass of spell power was swirling like a typhoon. When he had seen it from the ground, he had only noticed that the factory had changed appearance, but if he looked from this point, he could understand more clearly.
Honami nodded and continued.
"That is the beginning of... a <Night>."
"<Night>?"
"Basically, it's a storm of spell power that runs ley lines. It's because spell power is an easily alterable form of energy. What controls that altercation is magic, but--if you just leave it there, it'll quickly turn into something strange. This is spell wave pollution. It's best to think about a <Night> as an incredibly huge version of this spell wave pollution."
Itsuki blinked at Honami's words.
"Spell wave... pollution?"
"Take a look."
The girl pointed with her oak staff.
At about the same time, the spell power changed even further.
--First, a smokestack was twisted.
As it bent flexibly like fired glass, the concrete of the factory became transparent. A white wave boiled up from the empty ground overrun by weeds, and with a crashing roar, the entire grounds of the factory was washed away by a huge wave of water.
It was only about a hundred square meters, but--it truly was a black ocean.
"The mountain... into an ocean...?!"
"It's because this mountain used to be a seafloor. It's 'remembering' that time. Recurrence is a popular phenomenon for <Night>s, though this one's kinda small."
Pushing up her pointed hat, Honami narrowed her eyes.
Itsuki remained in a shocked state.
He still couldn't believe the scene he was looking down upon. With a snap, he opened his eye wide, remembering something.
"That's right... what about Mikan-chan?"
In a flurry, he looked down.
Then, he dropped his jaw again.
At the surface around Mikan, who was waving her arms around--the water had receded in a circle of space about eight meters in diameter. It was an unnatural space that seemed like it had been cut out of the air.
{We're fine down here!}
"Huh?"
Suddenly, he heard Nekoyashiki's voice from behind him. Immediately after, he turned to see a white cat holding on to his shoulder.
"B, Byakko-kun?"
It was Nekoyashiki's cherished, pure-white kitten. Through some sort of contrivance, whenever a "Meorw" came from its throat, Nekoyashiki's voice could be heard at the same time.
{Ahaha. I had him cling to your back at the beginning, but didn't you notice? Were you surprised? Did I scare you?}
"I, I didn't realize it..."
At Itsuki's astonishment, Byakko-kun puffed up with pride. Up in the sky on a broom like that, he was indeed a cat, but also a handy tool.
{Rather than 'shikigami,' this could be called 'shikineko.' --Right. We're fine over here thanks to Mikan-san's spirit barrier.}
"Mikan-chan's?"
{Yes, yes. The special magic ability of Shintou is entirely to purify uncleanliness with <misogi>, after all. If Mikan-san overlaps her spell power, then even smack dab in the middle of spell wave pollution, we can get a perfectly sealed paradise. Thanks to her, I can completely focus on Byakko-kun,} Nekoyashiki--or rather, Byakko-kun speaking with Nekoyashiki's voice, said, waving around his vast stock of knowledge.
"Special magic ability?"
{Yes, I told you a bit about it earlier. Magical arts are all used to manipulate spell power. So, depending on the method of manipulation used, certain specialties and weaknesses arise. For Mikan-san's Shintou, there's the spirit barrier, and for my Onmyoudou, there's shikigami--these things are beyond the control of a familiar. These kinds of things are special magic abilites.}
Skillfully bending his forelegs, Byakko-kun managed to bow.
"Oh, I see. Like how you said one could specialize in summoning magic."
{Yes, like that. Even so, there are of course loopholes, and personal differences exist as well, so it's not absolute. Eventually, though, whatever the magical art, practitioners of magic all end up in similar positions--}
"Nekoyashiki-san, you're talking too much."
{Oh, excuse me.}
"... I was planning to explain all that to him," the girl sighed so quietly that no one else could hear. She then changed the subject, asking something else. "So, have you found the core of this <Night>?"
{Ah, just now I tried to divine it, but it didn't work out. The density of the spell power is too high compared to the scope, so I'm working on it. If I we don't get close enough then we won't be able to recognize it.}
"The core of the <Night>?" Itsuki asked.
"I told you earlier, right? That this is natural magic."
"Oh, yeah."
"That's why..."
{That is to say, if there's magic and spell wave pollution, then there's a core that is manipulating spell power. Whether with curses, or ceremonies, or magic circles, or with seals--whatever, it could be anything. The method to dispel it would be the same, so it would naturally be prudent for us to locate the core fastest and destroy it. It would be quite a chore even without <Goetia> around.}
"Hey, Nekoyashiki-san!"
Honami became deep red and turned around.
{Oh, sorry about that. When I'm asked something, I end up wanting to explain it to the end. Ahaha.}
The girl snorted slightly, glaring at the joyfully laughing white cat.
Then,
"So, did you understand all of that?" she asked Itsuki.
"Ah... y, yeah. Generally."
"I see."
Honami stared at his face for a moment, but then finally turned forward.
"Oh, that's right. If we... fail to dispel the <Night>, what happens then?"
"It's just like a storm. Until the <Night> ends, it'll continue to rampage violently. Just like the name says, they pretty much disappear in the morning, though in certain nasty situations they can wipe out a whole region, similar to what happened to the Tungus."
"..."
Ignoring Itsuki, who was at a loss for words, Honami gently ran her finger across the broom.
"Nekoyashiki-san. I'm going to approach the <Night>, so tell me a route with little spell wave pollution."
{Yes, yes. I'll use katatagae[1]. If we go by the flow of today's stars and ley lines... we should enter from the south south west side...}
Nekoyashiki's voice flowed through.
Following his directions, the broom took a nosedive toward the water's surface.
*
"Sustaining a Shintou ooharai[2] barrier, using Onmyoudou katatagae to confirm a route, and then having Honami use Celtic magic to search... how inefficient," Adilisia sighed at the edge of the phantom sea as the waves pummeled the shore.
"Allocating different roles to several types of magic is nothing but a loss of spell power, time, and ability."
One of the apprentices behind her nodded.
"Not to mention, they cannot support each other with differing magical abilities. Why are they even a magical group? It pains me to try to understand them," she said in a vexed manner. She turned around.
The preparations were already finished.
On the ground behind her, a large, purified paper was placed, with the sanctified names beginning in EHYEH and ending in LEVANAH written on it, along with a magic circle and several triangles and stars of David.
"Begin."
At the girl's words, the apprentices who were on standby began to chant.
"... I do invocate and conjure thee."
"... I do invocate and conjure thee."
All members whispering the same words, they grasped the "pentagrams of Solomon" to their chests.
"... I do strongly command thee, by Beralanensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachia, and Apologle Sedes: by the most Powerful Princes, Genii, Lichide, and Ministers of the Tartarean Abode: and by the Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion--"
Monotonously, they continued on, speaking nothing but the long spell. Conjuring up images of snakes and spirals, the words slowly flowed out, and acted as if to arrest the stars in the night sky.
Finally.
Within the magic circle, a white ether body floated lightly.
"I will show you how <Goetia> does things, Honami."
Adilisia raised her lips.
Her golden hair fluttering in the moonlight, the girl proudly chanted.
"Respond to my order, Shax! Great Marquis supporting thirty armies!"
It looked scary even if you saw it from above, but if you were to pull in closer, it would truly seem like a haunt of the wicked.
Here and there across the ocean were large whirlpools, shooting up violent currents of water like geysers. The surface of the water reflected the pitch-black color of the sky, occasionally changing to red, blue, or some impossible color to reflect the shadows of the monsters lurking below the water's surface.
Floating near the verge of this haunt were two people and one animal.
"Wh, what's this...?"
Itsuki moaned, having finally recovered from his vertigo.
{A primordial sea--though somewhat unique, as it looks like it's been quite polluted with spell power,} Nekoyashiki's voice chimed in from beside. Honami, putting her hand to the back of her neck, looked down at the demonic ocean.
"It's deeper than I thought. It seems like it'll take some effort to find the core."
"This 'core' thing... where would it be?"
"I dunno. But its form should be changed into something in the sea, so it might be a fish, or a stone at the ocean floor. Moreover--"
"Moreover?"
Honami turned toward the summit of the mountain.
"--It looks like they've set up their resources over there."
From that direction, tens--no, hundreds of black pigeons were flapping toward them. Furthermore, each and every one of their feathers was emitting a deep, black spell power. These were clearly not normal pigeons.
Itsuki changed his expression.
"... Are those by any chance... Adilisia's?"
{Yep, that's Shax--one of the seventy-two demons of Solomon, used for searching out hidden things. It looks like they plan on finding the core, obstructing us all the while.}
"That's so like Addie, to evoke something so troublesome. --President, hold on tight to the broom, and the cat."
"Wh, what are you doing?"
"Bite your tongue."
Suddenly, the swarm of pigeons began to close in on them.
The countless eyes stained with maliciousness sought the weakest target first--Itsuki.
"... eegh!"
Faster than he could scream, sharp beaks began to approach his eyeball, but--
Suddenly.
The two burst forward with the broom.
"-----Waaaaaaah!!!"
"Meeeeeowww!"
The broom instantaneously sped straight ahead so forcefully that Itsuki felt as though his organs were being wrenched from their positions and flung out of his mouth.
Rustle rustle rustle rustle!
The broom pierced the center of the black pigeons.
It was as if the broom was a single arrow. Just like a cloud, the flock of black pigeons split into two parts. Another word for a comet is "houkiboshi," and that was certainly true in this case.[3]
Slicing through the night sky, Itsuki and Honami soared toward the moon. Just as they flew into the upper-air, Honami's hand grew misty.
"Above me is the goddess of the moon! That is the one holding the divine protection of moonlight and mistletoe who will not oppose the curse of the north!"
As she chanted the spell, mistletoe spears rained down!
"JQWZYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The flock of black pigeons let out an indescribable scream.
A fire arose, and a chunk of the swarm was destroyed.
However, the black pigeons showed no care for the wellbeing of their friends, and the flock split into three groups. One headed into the ocean, one swept across the surface of the water, and the remaining group returned to the sky, rushing toward Itsuki and Honami.
Then, the flock of black pigeons spread their wings and let out another strange cry.
"President, cover your ears!"
"ZWQTYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
In ancient times, it was said that a dog's bark was blessed with the power to fend off evil spirits.
As for these black pigeons, it was the exact opposite--these were twisted, evil voices that let out curses causing people to be rotted to the bone.
"...!"
The black pigeons chased after the spinning, falling broom with cries of delight.
They had become a single body, as if they were one, giant monster. The monster opened its jaw, and extended its tongue to devour the small broom and the humans.
However.
Just before they reached, the broom turned up at a steep angle.
Drawing a brilliant half-circle, the broom turned around at the halfway point, and zoomed off in the opposite direction of the black pigeons.
{Oho, an immelmann ・ turn!}
Held against Itsuki's chest, the white cat's eyes sparkled.
Immelmann ・ turn.
It was an aerial combat technique developed during the Second World War. However, for a witch to have mastered it was unthinkable!
"I will repeat! Holding the protection of the moon and mistletoe, destroy the calamity in the northeast!"
The spears, just before striking the flock directly, split into four parts.
The separated parts of the mistletoe spears sliced through the feathers of the black pigeons. In a moment, the pigeons stopped moving, and then immediately burst into balls of flame, dropping down toward the black surface of the ocean.
Honami first made sure that there were no more of the flock alive, and then let out a deep sigh.
"They were pretty low-quality, as expected. Are you alright, president?"
"I'm... just a little... sick from all the moving..." Itsuki nodded with a blue face, holding his hand over his mouth. It was a wonder that he hadn't been thrown off.
After it was all over, his tongue hurt, he felt sick, and he was in a mess.
"That's great. If you were even a second too late with covering your ears, your heart might have stopped by now."
"...!"
Causing Itsuki to faint in agony from just one word, Honami looked over the surface of the water.
The remaining Shax flapping their wings over the black water seemed to make it even blacker. They made Itsuki think of ants squirming in dirt.
{Hey, what are we going to do?}
"There's a huge difference in our numbers. If we take them head-on, then the core will definitely be taken by Addie."
Honami made a rare frown and sighed.
"Is the 'job' of making the <Night> end really that important?" Itsuki asked from behind.
{Huh?}
"Eh?" Honami replied.
Suddenly, her eyes grew stern.
"You still don't understand, president."
"No, no, that's not what I meant! I get that if <Astral> doesn't finish this offer, we'll get erased from the registry, but... isn't Adilisia the same?"
"Addie is..."
Honami fumbled around with her words.
I definitely didn't think that he'd come this far without being serious, but...
Even though they were the same demons, depending on the spell power and ceremonies, their abilities could greatly increase or decrease. For Shax to have been evoked to the point that there was a flock of pigeons, a substantial amount of fetishes and power would have to have been expended.
<Goetia>.
Even among the magic group's large ranks, there were a select few among them who were the far off descendants of Solomon.
However, was this "work" something that required such a strenuous effort on <Goetia>'s part?
Honami didn't understand.
A <Night>, after all, was a natural disaster consisting of spell power.
From the scale of the damage, the <Organization> handled the assignment of a rank to the "work," but in this case, the recompense wasn't very large for the amount of effort required. She didn't think the 'work' had the kind of merit that would cause <Goetia> to push away <Astral>.
Or... is there something there?
She followed her suspicion.
Was there something wrapped up in this <Night>?
"Honami?"
"I don't understand. What do you think, Nekoyashiki-san?'
Honami expressed her opinion frankly.
{Hmm... If you compare it to a standard <Night>, there's definitely an artificial feel to it... What do you think, Mikan-san?}
{I don't understand it. I'm no good at analyzing spell power.}
The sound of Mikan sulking could be heard from Byakko-kun's throat.
{I see, well, we'll handle the analytics on this side, you guys find the core--}
Then,
"--I cannot let you do that."
A cold voice echoed across the night air.
Directly below the broom was the demonic ocean of the <Night> that was periodically changing color.
In that ocean, a giant silver chimaera[4] was floating. Its craggy, rocklike face bared a set of fearsomely long fangs. Unlike a similar shark, its fangs looked like they could rip apart a whale.
And then, from its flat back, a golden-haired girl looked upward.
"Addie."
"Adilisia."
At Itsuki and Honami's words, the girl's red lips twisted into a complacent smile.
"Since my apprentices told me to, I tried letting you have a go at finding the core, but in the end it did not buy us any time. I am fine with that, this way is more exciting anyway."
She made a lovely smile.
Like smiling before plucking a flower, it was a smile injected with deadly poison. Shivering from cold sweat, Itsuki blinked.
"Well then, are we gonna fight directly this time? With your Forneus," Honami asked coldly.
Forneus was apparently the name of the silver chimaera that Adilisia was riding. Even though it was beyond Itsuki's eye patch, he could perceive that Forneus' spell power was incomparable to Shax's earlier.
It wasn't a simple comparison of amounts.
It was an issue of dimensions. If the black pigeons were hundreds of carelessly gathered knives, then this silver chimaera was machine gun that could cause a massacre by itself--it was that kind of difference.
"With this little darling? Unthinkable. I will not do any such thing."
Faster than Itsuki could relax, Adilisia smiled again, holding up a brass container with her right hand.
"I do not underestimate you that much," she called out.
"Come forth, Marbas. King who rules over thirty-six armies!"
In the raging ocean waters, a golden lion stood towering over everything around it.
"Come forth, Glasya ・ Bolas. Powerful count commanding thirty-six armies!"
Underneath the moon flapped a wolf with the wings of an eagle.
"Come forth, Eligol! Firm knight governing sixty armies!"
Finally, next to the girl, a silver knight holding a spear and a snake appeared.
"Th, three of them!?"
Itsuki grabbed his eye patch, flailing backward.
Along with Forneus, that was four demons. Studying the demons in his sight, his right eye hurt as if it were being ripped out of its socket.
With just that, he was able to understand.
--This was different.
Forget the black pigeons, even Forneus was an unfavorable comparison to the three that stood before him. They gave off a demonic presence, as if just by existing they could make a human go insane.
The lion, the wolf, and the knight.
Especially the third one, the knight...
Adilisia, looking up, gave an elegant smile.
"These are the very best of the seventy-two demons, the evil spirits of blood and war. With this, we can start having fun."
"I'm happy you think so highly of me. How many years did it take you to evoke those?"
"Oh, roughly a year and a half. I am glad to have the opportunity to hear your opinion of them."
"It's a real privilege," Honami exaggerated.
However, this time, her usual confidence was smeared with the color of a bluff.
{Ho, Honami-san? Wait a second, do you really plan on going against her in your current condition?} the white cat whispered to Honami from Itsuki's arms.
"... I know. But I can't think to just let her get away freely."
Her voice was distressed.
Adilisia threw her hand to the side horizontal to her chest.
"Well then, my demons have worked up quite an appetite. Eat all that you like!"
The thread of the thirst for blood loosely connected the two girls.
It was a replay of what had happened one week ago at night in the park.
However, who was on the offense and who was on the defense had completely switched. That time, Adilisia had said that it was "not the time or place for this." Itsuki now understood what she meant. She had always been waiting for this opportunity.
"..."
Itsuki's throat was completely parched.
Goosebumps sprang up all over his body, and a chill began to expand in him as though his blood vessels had been turned into dry ice.
However.
"--W, wait a minute, Adilisia-san."
Ah...
Itsuki suddenly held his hand to his mouth.
He didn't have the intention to interfere. Even so, his mouth had moved on its own. Adilisia's face loosened just a bit upon seeing her panicking classmate.
"Oh my."
However, her face immediately returned to its former frigidity.
"What on earth could you be thinking? I warned you, you know. I told you to pull out of this offer."
"That, that's..."
There was no way he could say he forgot.
"What is the matter?"
"Ah, no, it's just... why is this 'work' so important to you? If there's a reason, we might be able to cooperate."
"..."
Adilisia, took a deep breath after a long silence.
"I have no reason to tell you that. Still more, I have no weapons to lend to magicians," she declared clearly.
It was a complete rejection.
"Thanks, president. --It's alright," Honami whispered gently to Itsuki, who couldn't manage to say anything.
And then.
The two witches confronted one another.
"...!!!"
Itsuki realized with horror that the cold atmosphere from earlier was better than this.
He remembered what Honami had said to him before.
--Once a true battle between magicians begins, it's already over.
--Eh, why?
--No matter what kind of magic you use, there's a certain amount of preparation required. There's almost no kind of magic that just needs spells and movements to be used. It's like a card game where you compete with limited hands. The fight is generally decided by who brought the better cards.
That is to say, the next chant was it.
Rather than when the actual fight started, it was when the enemy was determined that the battle truly began. Hypothesizing every attack, deducing every defense, the magicians set up a hand tailored to their opponent.
Adilisia said she had spent a year and a half.
In this fight, what could Honami do against Adilisia's year and a half of preparation? This was the nature of the fight.
YIJYAAAAAAAAAA!
Suddenly, a painful voice reached them from behind.
When Itsuki turned around, he saw the Shax gathered at one point in the ocean.
"--It also seems that they have found the core of this <Night>."
As if boasting of a perfect victory, Adilisia laughed.
Then, something bizarre occurred.
*
On the ground, in a circle of about eight meters in diameter, salt was being lightly scattered.
The lines of that salt were the purificiation of a sanctified place.
Though "kekkai"[5] is a Buddhist term, there was no difference between a spirit barrier in Shintou in this case. It was an expression of the stern, unwavering will of the separation between here and there.
That was why a <Night>--even if it were a primordial sea, could not enter the inside of the salt. The cylindrical area of air excavated out of the sea somehow had a surreal appearance.
"Nekoyashiki-san?"
Mikan, waving her tamagushi inside the cylinder, raised her voice.
"How are they going to deal with that? What will happen to president onii-chan?"
"No, it might seem like they're in a touchy situation, but I'm getting a spell power analysis report from Genbu-kun right now..."
Nekoyashiki scratched his cheek in a troubled manner.
Sitting in zazen beside Mikan, he held a black cat on his knee.
Genbu-kun was a constantly sleepy, fat cat. Nekoyashiki used four cats in his shikineko, but among them, Byakko was the best at remote tuning while Genbu excelled at spell power analysis.
"Report? Is there something there?"
Mikan opened her large eyes wide.
"Yes, how should I say this... It's not quite clear, but..."
Stroking Genbu-kun's head, Nekoyashiki put on a sour look. Incidentally, he only had his right eye open. In order to keep in tune with Byakko-kun, he kept his left eye shut tight.
"Forget it. If there's something weird hidden in there, my misogi will clear it up. If you keep sulking like that, you'll get washed away by the ocean."
Mikan pointed her lips.
To her, Nekoyashiki made a wry smile--tinged slightly with impatience.
"Sorry... If this analysis is certain... it looks like someone's magic is behind the core of this <Night>. That is to say, it seems like it's because of that magic that the spell wave pollution is corrupted."
Mikan's breath stopped.
After several seconds, the little girl said,
"You mean... this <Night> is happening because of the influence of some other magic...?"
The bizarre thing happened at that moment.
The black pigeons that had gathered at a single point--the Shax--evaporated.
They evaporated.
It was a disappearance that could be described with no other word.
"Eh..."
"Wha..."
Honami and Adilisia were at loss for words.
Along with that, odd, rainbow-colored ripples began to expand across the ocean surface, and then even into the air, rushing towards Itsuki and Honami's position.
"No... Has it already happened?"
Suddenly coming to her senses, Adilisia placed her hand on the pentagram of Solomon on her chest.
"Marbas! Glasya ・ Bolas! Eligol!"
Receiving her call, the three demons moved.
The evil spirits of blood and war. Befitting of their name, they moved as fast as the reverberation of a thunderclap. In the space of a moment, they stood between Adilisia and the waves and focused their spell power.
They were probably all able to wield monstrous spell power.
However.
That was all a waste.
Even faster than they had moved, the rainbow-colored ripples seized them.
That was all they had to do.
The golden lion, Marbas.
The wolf with the wings of an eagle, Glasya ・ Bolas.
The silver knight holding the spear and the snake, Eligol.
They all vanished in an instant.
As if they were statues of sand. As if they were water balloons crushed in one's hand. As if they were graffiti being washed away. It wasn't too fast, but rather an indiscreet way of disappearing.
"No way..." Honami whispered.
It wasn't magic.
It couldn't be magic.
If it was magic, then such a ridiculous thing could not have occurred.
"The demons' ether bodies were... disintegrated from the inside out...?"
"Wh, wha, what?"
Unable to grasp the situation, Itsuki clung to the broom.
The white cat in his arms raised a stunned voice.
{Honami-san--we've done a spell power analysis, and I've got a bit of a bad feeling about this...}
"Ye, yeah. President! We're getting out of here!" Honami shouted, running her finger along her broom.
The broom, receiving its order, whizzed upward in a sudden movement, separating away from the ocean surface. To the expanding view of the scenery, Itsuki swallowed his breath.
"--Honami, what's that?"
He pointed.
He pointed to the area where the Shax had evaporated before.
The disintegrated ether bodies were gathering there. Not only that, the ocean <Night> seemed to be narrowing into a funnel there.
"Impossible... are they being devoured?" Honami said breathing roughly, almost gasping for air.
"Even the four demons... no... the whole sea is getting swallowed up... It's eating all the surrounding spell power... incarnating into... a new form..." she said in blank amazement.
Itsuki couldn't pull his eye away from the scene.
No.
It was different.
His eye wouldn't pull away from the scene.
From beneath his eye patch, Itsuki's right eye was supporting his body. From inside of it, something was determinedly fixed to the funnel in the ocean.
[LOOK]
Creaaaaaak!
Something grated inside his head.
No, that wasn't the right way to describe it.
His right eye spoke.
[LOOK. LOOK. LOOK. THAT... IS TRUE MAGIC.]
"Wh... what?"
He pressed his hand against his eye patch. He dug into his eye with his fingers. It was horrifyingly hot. It throbbed, it felt numb, and it stung.
The view before him reflected in his right eye.
A definite substance bonded him to the spiraling funnel in the ocean.
Devouring the four demons, swallowing the ocean of the <Night>, something with an overwhelming spell power was being born.
Only Itsuki's right eye saw this.
Itsuki's vision focused entirely on that.
[THAT IS... A SEED OF... ♦↑=...]
"..."
{President?}
Suddenly, Byakko-kun called out to him.
{Huh?}
All of a sudden, he had bent over.
If he pulled back at that moment, he could have probably returned himself to an upright position.
However, as he panicked and tried to regain his grip on the broom, he saw a shadow directly below him, normally, with his left eye.
Adilisia was standing completely still in the middle of the ocean.
Standing absentmindedly on Forneus' back, she had a face as though she had finally reunited with a long lost lover.
Her profile was dyed with rainbow-colored ripples.
Consuming the four demons, the ripples stagnated for several moments, and then moved on to pull in the golden-haired girl and the silver chimaera.
"Adilisia-san?"
At that moment, Itsuki lost his balance.
"Ah..."
{President!}
"President!"
Honami threw out her hand. She was too late.
By the time she had realized what was happening, Itsuki had already fallen from the the broom.
Itsuki fell upside-down toward the demonic sea of the <Night> and the rainbow-colored ripples.
Finally,
"... Icchan!"
He felt like someone, somewhere was calling out to him with his old nickname.
And then everything went dark.
Everything except his right eye.
