Published at 25th of March 2019 10:11 pm

Volume 9 Chapter 2 - Sky of End (Part 6-8)

Part 6

The next morning, Kazuki and the others crept out from the snow huts along with the dawn and lined up in front of the tremendous rock wall while looking up at it. When they tried to take a detour, they soon hit a deep valley in their way. No matter what they had to challenge this wall in order to climb to their destination.

What was in front of them was not a slope anymore, but a wall that stood upright like a folding screen. The angle began from around 50°, and then the angle gradually became closer to being vertical. The rock surface was exposed due to the wind but here and there were snows piling up inside rock cavities, making the wall look like a pattern of brown and white speckles. The wall continued until very high without the end in sight.

It was as if they were witnessing the god of earth.

“When I climbed this mountain in the past, there was no wall like this that looked like the Grandes Jorasses though.”

Liz Liza-sensei said that while breathing out white vapor. “Haunted Grounds will change even its terrain with the thickness of its magic power. With days and months that passed, the Haunted Ground will evolve into something outrageous.”

“This, how will we climb this?”

“There is no other way than to cling onto the wall with both legs and arms like a lizard and climb. Let’s have Koyuki create one more ice axe for each of us.”

Ice axe―a hammer in a T-shape model. It was a mountain climbing assistance tool in a shape like a bar with its tip turned into a sharp blade. With ice axes in both hands, they had to drive in the blade in position as high as they could one hand at a time.

Crampons―similarly with the ice claws Koyuki made for them on both of their legs, they had to kick in the claws on their toes in position as high as they could one foot at a time. They nailed the ice axes at their hands and the crampons on their feet alternately into the rock surface. They crawled up little by little. There was no other way to go up other than to steadily do that.

They supported their body by alternately stabbing the blade and claw into the rock surface deeply. So that they would be fine even if their balance broke and fell, they stretched out a rope between them so that all members were supporting each other.

They wouldn’t die even if they fell, but… they would need to climb back steadily from the start again.

“There will be falling rock, Demon Beasts will also come attacking.”

The one in the head that would support the comrades that were following after him in critical times must be excellent in stamina.

“Should the one that becomes the lead be me or Kazuha-senpai?”

“Shall I do it?”

“There is no doubt that Kazuha-senpai who can manipulate general magic flexibly is competent for this role, but what is really demanded in this role is being calm, cool, and collected to quickly deal with the problem that can happen.”

If just that one point was excluded, Kazuha-senpai would be even more suitable than Kazuki for this. But just that one aspect made him thoroughly uneasy about letting Kazuha-senpai do this.

Kazuha-senpai focused her eyes and considered Kazuki’s words. And then she immediately averted her eyes uneasily.

But she also couldn’t retract her previous offer and so her mouth kept closing and opening wordlessly.

“Also with a girl in her Magic Dress right above me will only make me unable to concentrate from all the lewdness, so as I thought it’s better if I’m the one in the lead.”

Kazuki threw out a life line to Kazuha-senpai which made Kazuha-senpai’s expression relieved before she pushed Kazuki’s shoulder while saying “Yo, you pervert! As I thought you are the one that will be in the lead!”

With Kazuki being in the lead decided, all of them were joined with each other using rope in turns.

At last Kazuki half-crawled the steep slope and began to climb. The ice axe and the crampons which had its hardness increased due to Koyuki’s power over cold easily pierced the wall when Kazuki strengthened his physical ability and nailed it on the wall. Relying on that Kazuki advanced above step by step.

“Like this… steadily…”

Looking at Kazuki’s figure that was clinging on the wall, Mio let out her impressions.

When Kazuki had climbed around three meters, that Mio also clung to the wall. She only had the power of a girl that wasn’t used to using Enchant Aura habitually, but her ice axes and crampons easily drove into the wall.

“Kazu-nii-, pull me up if I’m going to fall okay♪”

Mio looked up at him while saying that.

Kazuki looked down right below him and replied “Naturally.”

“Ehehe~, how reliable♪ I wonder if I should try to fall purposefully.”

“You are going to fall at me then.”

Koyuki who was following right under Mio replied with a cold voice.

“I’m going to thrust this ice axe into the bottom of the falling Amasaki-san.”

“FUEEEEEEEEE-!?”

Mio spontaneously raised a scream but she had defensive magic power so she wouldn’t actually get stabbed if that happened. It was just a frivolous talk. The relation between these two had also improved really well.

With only pain accumulating inside him, the monotone act where he couldn’t see when it would end was continuing.

The scenery of white mist above him didn’t change at all no matter how far he was steadily climbing up. The wind that was whirling in rumbles in the air was filled with snow and turned into blizzard that crashed into the rock surface and got blown below. Kazuki and co who were clinging into the rock wall and were trying to climb up―especially Kazuki who was climbing in the lead had his face struck fiercely by all the falling snow.

However he had to keep his face lifted up by all means, after all they didn’t know when the Demon Beasts would come attacking from the sky. The really violent blizzard reduced the visibility to zero with just his naked eyes, but he continued to focus single-mindedly on reinforcing his eye sight with magic power and saw through the other side of the blizzard.

And then it came―a swarm of giant bird that was covered in pure white fur where they were flapping their large wings to draw near and to peck at Kazuki and co. with their sharp beaks.

His companions shot them to death with a rapid-fire of attack magic.

When Kazuki tried to chant his magic, his companions scolded him to preserve his strength.

―His body that should have been warmed already inside the snow hut was once again beginning to creak. During his war of attrition against the rock wall where he didn’t know when it would end, the cold was gnawing into his body unstoppably.

What was exposed into the fierceness of the blizzard right at the foremost was not just his face but also both his hands. The tips farthest from the heart that were his fingers were the first to have ischemia occurring at it from the hypothermia.

Kazuki was witnessing his fingertips slowly changing color into brown.

Even so as long as the wall was continuing vertically, he kept raising high both his hands alternately above his head, he must not stop driving his ice axe into the wall’s surface by any means.

How far he had climbed, he wondered. He had no sense of distance and sense of time.

The surrounding was isolated by the blizzard. The senses of his whole body also went numb and began to vanish. He was feeling as if he was floating in a world of pure white.

Kazuki’s heart was suddenly assaulted by anxiety.

Were his comrades still there at the end of the rope that was tied onto his waist, following after him?

If the rope didn’t get pulled then that meant that there was no one that fell down. In the first place Kazuki was able to sense the current location of his companions.

Yet regardless… it couldn’t be helped that he felt uneasy from how he was unable to detect the existence of everyone inside this world of pure white.

“Everyone, are you still there!”

Kazuki called out to right under him.

“I’m fine!” “I’m still here!” Replies were coming from numerous mouths, Kazuki was relieved from the bottom of his heart.

His chest became warm. Everyone’s voices became a second breath for him and turned into strength inside his body.

“Hey! Let’s take a roll-call periodically okay!!”

Kaguya-senpai proposed that perhaps from feeling the same uneasiness as Kazuki.

“Then when I call out [Everyone!], everyone will give their reply in order!”

“Understood!” Mio who was right under Kazuki replied. “But what should we reply with?”

“Anything is fine, within appropriateness! Let’s try it now… everyone!”

“Nyaa―!” Mio immediately replied after she was told that anything was fine.

“Puu.” Koyuki continued.

“Wan wan-!” Lotte energetically said.

“Pan pan!” Kaguya-senpai who recently began as a panda character raised a panda’s barking voice(?).

“Eh!? I don’t have any material for that kind of impression though!?” Kazuha-senpai raised a troubled voice.

“NII-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Kanae shouted.

“PENIS!” Hikaru-senpai yelled out something incomprehensible.

“What the hell are you saying!?” Liz Liza-sensei who was at the end of the line scolded with a baffled voice.

Spontaneously Kazuki was experiencing the building up of laughter inside of him. That laugh was again changed into energy and he thought that he could still do his best.

While climbing Kazuki periodically took a roll-call.

“Nyaa―!”

“Puu.”

“Wan wan-!”

“Pan pan!”

“I don’t have that kind of special voice desu! I’m a normal human desu!”

“NII-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAA! NII-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

“PENIS!”

“I told you not to say anything obscene already!?”

The end of the path came too quick―what appeared at the other side of the blizzard was not a rock surface but the clear sky.

What got fixed at the edge of the rock surface was not an ice axe but fingers, Kazuki lifted up his body.

Part 7

The edge of the mountains―Kazuki and co formed a single line and advanced following the ridgeline. The scenery made them think that the ridge line would continue on forever, but finally they met the end of the line. A circle was drawn in the end of the ridge line like a crown, waiting for Kazuki and co. The summit of Fuji Mountain, the crater on the very top.

At one of the edge that formed the circle, there was a light that was obviously of a different nature.

They immediately understood the true identity of the light when they got near. A single sword that pierced the edge of the crater was emitting a glaring light of sharpness that the blizzard couldn’t hide.

That sword that was waiting for them at the highest summit of Japan, looked exactly like the proof of the King just from its appearance.

When they forced their exhausted bodies and got nearer, they discovered that a human shadow was standing beside the sword.

Her long black hair was swaying due to the blizzard.

It was the female that held a mysterious and dear impression for him―the master of the seal.

The woman was already dead. But as the result of changing her very own life into the power of the seal, the woman’s mental body was haunting this ground together with the seal.

The woman and the sword were waiting for Kazuki. Kazuki and others that were forming a line at the edge of the crater dragged along their exhausted body to walk. The woman was watching that directly and quietly without even hurrying them along.

With Kazuki in the lead, they advanced forward while receiving that gaze and the blizzard right from the front.

When they arrived until a distance of just a few meters, the woman of the seal suddenly pulled out the sword that was pierced on the mountain summit and heroically thrust it to the heaven.

A figure of a hero of the ancient era was right in front of their eyes.

The woman kicked the edge of the crater―and sharply stepped into Kazuki’s direction.

The heroically raised sword was directed at Kazuki and swung down powerfully.

Even while being shocked, Kazuki ran his sword out from its sheath with a natural movement. With a flash from the drawn sword he warded off the opponent’s swung down sword and parried its strength diagonally below. After the opponent’s posture broke down, he flipped up his blade in a sharp angle and swung up his blade as the second slash.

The most basic of the Hayashizaki-style, two stage preparation of sword drawing art.

But Kazuki stopped his second slash right before it cut.

The woman whose posture was broken by Kazuki had also stopped her movement while still in the low posture from swinging down her sword.

“You really have become strong.”

The woman said with a mellow voice like a silk.

“You too…”

Kazuki felt a cold, uncomfortable feeling from the echo of the word [you] that came out from his mouth.

But he didn’t understand what would be fine to call her with other than that word.

“I understand that you are also strong from that single slash just now.”

The woman’s step-in was sharp and the force of the swung down blade was truly powerful. The force was similar with a single blow from Beatrix―truly in reverse from her willowy appearance.

Kazuki’s sword was something that was backed with the sword art that had been handed down in generations and steady training.

On the other hand, the woman’s sword was―a <wild technique> that was honed by necessity in the middle of real battles that were approaching her.

Surely, this person was originally not a knight or anything like that.

The truth was that she just recklessly continued to fight, and became strong until this much.

Thinking of such hardship, Kazuki’s chest was blocked.

“You are…”

Kazuki sheathed his katana. And then he gripped the hand of the woman that was still in the swinging down posture. It was a thin and delicate hand that was really like a female. It transmitted warmth through Kazuki’s fingers that were covered with frostbite.

The woman was not just a mere mental body, but a materialized body.

She must be using up the magic power of the seal that had finished its task and temporarily created a physical body of flesh.

“You are… my mother aren’t you?”

In no way the shaking of Kazuki’s words originated from the cold.

The woman released the sword from her hand and made Kazuki take a hold of it.

“I didn’t know about the true identity of this sword for a long time. The name of this sword is… <Ame no Murakumo>. Symbolizing the King’s authority, a sword of great destiny,”

The woman’s silky voice was slightly dyed in sadness.

“…This is a sword that forces a person to fight. This sword was waiting for you in this place.”

The woman drew back reservedly from the distance where their breath seemed to be able to touch each other.

“Long time no see huh, Hibiki.”

When Leme materialized beside Kazuki, the woman replied like she was meeting an old acquaintance.

“Leme too, long time no see. Though I never really had the chance to feel you this clearly before.”

The woman’s shoulders were slightly downcast while she began to talk to Leme.

“There is one thing that I want to ask, but… this fate, how much of it was really destiny?”

“What do you mean?”

“…This child is, my child after all, is that why you chose him?”

It was a question that really went into the heart of the matter. But Leme didn’t show any agitation and shook her neck.

“Certainly he caught my attention because he was your child, but Leme is also not such a cheap kind of person that would choose him just because of that. This guy happened to have the qualities that is worthy for Leme’s choice. Sword skill, exceptional ambition and mental strength, and above all his aspect that treasured his bonds… The Hayashizaki house raised up that kind of guy by their own accord.”

“Aah, now that you mentioned it… isn’t your ability more convenient when it’s used by a male child I wonder?”

“Of course that’s also one of the factors. The concept this time is a lovey-dovey harem king. Well, though you too could also use the magic of the same sex Liz Liza Westwood well enough before.”

When Leme said that jokingly, Kaa-san narrowed her eyes for the first time with her mouth bursting open in smile.

“Fufufu-, Liza and I were lovey-dovey after all.”

“Wha, what are you saying, Hibiki-neesama!!”

Liz Liza-sensei’s face went beet red and advanced forward out from the group of everyone.

“Be, besides you, you made a boyfriend but you kept it quiet from me… furthermore you even had a child without me knowing!”

“Because if I told that to Liza who loved me, I thought that it would make you jealous♪”

The woman―no, Mother unexpectedly stuck out her tongue playfully.

“I’m not jealous or anything, I just wanted you to talk with me properly!”

However Liz Liza-sensei’s eyes were both wet with tears and her body was trembling in shivers while she talked in reproach, it looked completely fitting with her child-like appearance.

“You didn’t tell me anything! You also entrusted your child that was just born to the orphanage! …Even though it would be fine even if you relied on me! You didn’t say anything and left to fight, and then you didn’t return back…!”

Mother smiled wryly in sadness.

“I’m sorry, Liza. At that time all the people around me were targeted, so I didn’t tell any of that to anyone. I also didn’t tell anything to the people at the orphanage and left him in front of the gate… without doing anything else.”

Mother was stealing a glance at Kazuki worriedly with her voice dulling.

Not saying anything and then in front of the orphanage’s gate… she abandoned him without doing anything else.

That was what she said.

“You were not doing nothing.” Kazuki interrupted between the two.

“At the spot where I was left behind, I had been told that there was a memo accompanying me where the name [Kazuki] was written.”

Mother looked at Kazuki with a look of realization and immediately looked down awkwardly.

“…Yes. I conveyed just that. I was thinking that I wanted to raise a boy that is really close to what is important for him, and possessed the strength to protect that important thing to the end like a large tree…”

“It might be thanks to that naming, that this guy was growing up into an ideal harem king.”

Leme interjected. “That’s also a form of education you know. Just as I thought this might really be a destiny.”

Name―perhaps unconsciously he wanted to become a human that was suitable for the name [Kazuki(一樹)]. He felt that he had the awareness more than average person that his name was really important.

“But things like naming… just something like that cannot be called as an education or raising him up. Just as I thought, I have never done anything that is like a mother…”

“Kaa-san!” Kazuki interrupted her from a sad and gloomy tone.

To call the young woman in front of his eyes that he was still unfamiliar with as mother from his mouth needed courage.

The important name of [Kazuki] encouraged the courage inside his chest, Kazuki spouted out the thing that he felt had to be said no matter what.

“I, don’t resent Kaa-san at all! Because I’m not unhappy or unfortunate! I am happy all this time!”

Kazuki lowered his head and thanked her.

“For giving birth to me… thank you very much. For continuing to fight, for this country, for protecting the future where we lived, thank you very much.”

“…You really have grown up strong, aren’t you? And then the one that raised you up this happy…”

Mother averted her eyes away from the bowing Kazuki as if to escape.

After that she was facing to the direction of his companions.

“Kanae-san.”

“Ye, yes! Okaa-sama !!” Kanae straightened her back and answered with a nervous voice.

Mother then lowered her head deeply.

“Thank you very much. For raising this child into a person this kind and strong. Your family was the one that did what I couldn’t, pouring the greatest love and growth for him…”

“That’s preposterous! I’m exactly the one… who received the best Nii-sama that I can ask for!”

Kanae too lowered her head. Kazuki too, Mother too, Kanae too were lowering their heads.

Mother then laughed “Fufu-“ amusedly.

“How weird… despite how I’m supposed to be the worst mother. Everyone happily lowered their head like this… I wonder if this is what they called a fortune.”

She was not the worst or anything. The situation just couldn’t be helped. Mother had to fight no matter what the cost at that time.

The current Kazuki understood well about such a position.

Mother loved someone. But that time was different with now, at that time it was not known that a strong emotion would become a trigger of magic power and distorted the reality completely. Magic power influenced the act of mixing the strongest feelings of man and woman, and completely hindered any contraception, such thing was unknown at that time.

If he himself didn’t know about such thing beforehand, then even he would surely have done the same act already.

Mother loved someone and conceived a child. That was why she went away from the battle.

But during the time Mother was leaving the battlefield… the situation rapidly worsened.

Moreover the people around Mother were targeted.

That was why… she had no other choice than to not tell anyone about her child and abandoned him.

And then without even informing her best friend that was Liz Liza-sensei, she went ahead to the battle alone without doing anything else.

That kind of mother, who in the world could condemn her?

―’Why in the world was it only Kaa-san who had to shoulder such an heavy burden?’

‘Tou-san is’… Kazuki was going to ask, and hesitated.

[All of my important people were targeted]. Those words had already implicated the heavy and painful fact.

“…This is not destiny or anything like that.”

Once again Mother murmured to herself.

“Kanae-san, to let me reunite with this child, thank you…”

Mother lowered her head to Kanae once again.

After that with a timid manner she faced Kazuki once more.

“While protecting the seal in this place, I have regretted the fact that I abandoned you and headed to the fight all this time. Why do I have to fight, I always thought that it was unreasonable. Now, you are chosen by Leme and this sword, inside me there is also the sad feeling that you are shouldering the same fate like me. I wanted to raise my boy normally, unrelated from all this fighting… But… I also had the dream of you being chosen and you coming to this place. I wanted to have a glance of the grown up you. After all, I’m just something like a bounded ghost that cannot leave this place.”

That’s just like a doting parent though, saying that Mother smiled self-derisively.

“You know, the moment when I gave birth to you, I had the feeling that a special, strong child had just been born. That was why I was hoping, that surely you will be chosen and then you will come here. For such a thing to happen, the possibility must be so low like expecting a miracle to happen, but… Kanae-san, everyone that is here, you all had raised Kazuki to be this strong. You let us to meet fortuitously like this once more. …To come until this far here, I’m really thankful to all of you.”

Again Mother lowered her head, to Kazuki, to Kanae, to everyone else, one by one she lowered her head at them.

She was just earnestly lowering her thin back with a sorrowful face, and continued to lower her head.

He wanted to say something. But his feeling couldn’t be turned into any word. He was not unhappy. He didn’t resent anything. He was thankful. All his feeling that he wanted to convey beforehand, he had easily finished conveying them all.

He had the feeling that there was something more that he should say.

However that feeling couldn’t come out beautifully as words from his mouth.

Mother too was wordlessly and timidly staring at Kazuki as if holding herself back.

Amidst the pure white blizzard, they were staring at each other as if the time had stopped.

Suddenly―something changed.

The warm atmosphere was―sharply changed into cold.

The magic blizzard around them was not becoming stronger. Mother suddenly realized something with a ‘hah’ and her gaze became grim, then she thrust away Kazuki beside her strongly.

“Kaa-san…!?” Spontaneously and unintentionally, Kazuki leaked out a voice like an abandoned child.

No, wrong, this situation…

“Get away! Everyone, get away from me!!”

Mother yelled with a sharp voice as if a hero’s sense of responsibility was awakened inside her.

The sky at the other side of the blizzard was roaring thunderingly from the blowing wind. The wind moved pitch black clouds to their direction and completely covered the sky. The surroundings suddenly turned dark.

From the dark clouds, a dreadful voice was reverberating.

{O people that continue to stop at the boundary of life and death, know the karma of your deep sin.}

Kazuki and the others looked at the sky altogether.

{My name is Hel. Thou is already a dead person. …In accordance with that fate, offer that everything to me!!}

Pitch black lightning flashed from the dark cloud―piercing the back of Mother.

Helheim Drive!!”

It was something that happened in an instant where no one could do anything. He was not even allowed to Foresight what kind of magic phenomenon would be caused by the dreadful and strange magic power.

The black lightning melted into Mother like an evil spirit. Mother went “Guh-!” and her body writhed in pain, blue magic power light was emitted from her whole body.

Kazuki knew this light. He had seen it before.

This emitted light was completely the same like that time when Loki encroached into Kaya.

It was the light of the existence itself being usurped by a Diva.

The emitted blue magic power and the encroaching pure black magic power mixed with each other, depicting a marble pattern. Little by little the pure black surface was increasing, it was trying to erase the existence of Mother.

It was as if he was seeing the process of a food that became spoiled in fast forward.

‘…This is a lie right?’

Kazuki stood stock still in a daze. He couldn’t possibly think that the happening in front of his eyes was reality.

Whether it was the miracle that he could reunite with Mother like this.

And even how such a miracle was currently disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Whichever it was… was unbelievable.

He couldn’t think that everything in this moment was all reality.

Kaa-san is disappearing. He couldn’t believe it.

‘This is a lie right… The thing that I still haven’t conveyed yet…”

However he didn’t understand what kind of words he should use…

They were just exchanging awkward gazes while holding back just now…

Not yet… not like this…

Who was it, the one with this black magic power.

Why would they do something like this!?

His body couldn’t move from the numbness. His situational judgment, didn’t work at all.

This was his first experience, having his body and his heart freezing completely like this in a time where he should fight.

Even his lips were freezing. ‘This is a lie right? Stop’, he thought that, but he couldn’t even raise a voice to yell.

“STOPPPPPPPPPPP!!”

―Someone was yelling as Kazuki’s proxy.

A gust of black shadow was jumping forward in front of his eyes.

It was the back of Kanae with her ponytail trailing behind like a cat’s tail.

“Don’t you dare to disturb this person and Nii-sama!! Only that, I will absolutely not forgive!!”

Kanae drew the black katana―Michikage, and swung down at the black magic power that was eating away at Mother. That slash―spontaneously he was inappropriately fascinated by the beautiful trajectory that slash drew. It was as if he was seeing a black rainbow.

Kanae’s spine, skeletal structure, all of her body was working together without even a little bit of wasteful movement. There was no deviation at all, it was a movement that looked perfect for Kanae’s flesh body. The quintessence movement.

The black rainbow that was unleashed from such a movement, tore apart the magic power that was encroaching into Mother in the timing right before it was going to swell up even larger.

It was a truly perfect timing, as if an expert martial artist had read the breathing of the opponent and took the sail out of the opponent’s move.

A perfect movement, and a perfect timing―it was exactly a divine work.

“Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword the Second, Shin’iki…!”

For some reason it was Kaguya-senpai who yelled that technique’s name while her body was trembling.

It was Kanae’s technique that even Kazuki didn’t know about. That instant, something miraculous happened. The instant the black blade was swung down―the magic phenomenon that completely covered Mother were all breaking down.

{That’s impossible! What just happened!?}

That Diva―Hel’s panicked voice was resounding. The black magic power was blown away from Mother’s back, where it formed the figure of a girl that fell on her butt. She was not an avatar but a materialized body, it was a Diva with the appearance of a very young girl.

In contrast with the materialized Hel, Mother powerlessly fell on her knees at that spot. It was not only power leaving her whole body, the magic power that constructed her body was also thinning down, faintly like an illusion, her figure was changing into a half-transparent light.

The powerful Diva that had already accomplished materializing was trying to steal the flesh body of Mother that materialized from the power of the seal. But that magic phenomenon was broken by Kanae.

However in that case―Mother’s little remaining magic power was completely stolen. Possibly her magic power had already been running out in the first place.

Kazuki caught the body of Mother, that was thinning out, in his arms in panic.

“You bastard… against my role for the sake of papa… how dare you…!!”

The Diva that fell on her butt―Hel was glaring at their way with a gaze filled with hatred. Her long blue hair that reminded him of Loki was bristling up from the blizzard right behind her.

This girl was going to steal Kaa-san… she was trying to make her a hostage.

Guessing that―violent emotion was surging inside Kazuki’s head. This girl…!!

Hel yelled. She turned at Mother.

“…Zero Knight! I won’t recognize you! Your role, your objective, I won’t let you accomplish them all! I won’t let you misunderstand, thinking that you won against papa!!”

At the same time a fierce magic power whirled out from that body. She was trying to cast some kind of powerful attack magic. The tip of that magic power was heading at Mother’s back.

Kazuki’s rage instantly changed into terror and trepidation.

If an attack was directed at Mother right now…!

It was a fear that he had never experienced before. His body and thought froze instantly.

“Lose and die again! O lamentation of the dead, carry away that soul from my hand… Hell WindNifl Driva!!”

When Hel thrust out her bluish-white palm, from there was blowing a devilish wind as if the blizzard of the Haunted Ground that had been hurling at them thoroughly until now was compressed several hundred times in it.

“Kaa-san, dangerous!”

Kazuki immediately embraced Mother close to his body and covered her with his back.

Yet in front of them a black shadow was standing in the way.

“…Don’t you bother these two!!”

―It was Kanae. Kazuki covered his mother, and Kanae covered those two. The three of them were blown away altogether and fell from the ridgeline. In such dangerous situation Kazuki used his sword―<Ame no Murakumo> to pierce the ground and held out along with his mother that he held in his left hand.

“Kaa-san…!”

Inside Kazuki’s hugging left arm, like water that was spilling out from a cracked jar, the magic power that was composing mother’s existence was vanishing. She was vanishing!

Mother leaked out a weak voice. “…Just now, it looks like my last remaining magic power was used up. But I had already accomplished my role, so…”

Accomplished her role? Already?

Wait. Please wait! There is still…

“Don’t be a hindrance! Follow after Kanae!!” Liz Liza-sensei called out to the others and rushed at Hel’s direction.

“The final time between Kazuki and Hibiki-neesama… I absolutely won’t let you bother them!”

Don’t say that this is the last time…

Mio, Kaguya-senpai… all of his companions, they all cut in between them and Hel to protect him and mother, they were shining with the light of spell chanting simultaneously.

“You plan to stand in my way! You bunch of humans!”

Hel yelled. “Against a materialized Diva, it’s futile no matter how many humans gather here, futile! Are you looking down on me!? I’ll massacre you all and get one over papa!”

What incomprehensible thing was she yelling, this girl…

His head didn’t work watching the situation in front of his eyes. Rather than that kind of thing, mother was…

Even faster than his companions magic, Hel’s magic was invoked.

“…O Grand Haunted Ground of ancient times… please offer the souls that are rotting away in this land as the dress that is armoring my body… Helheim Drive!”

Once again several black lightning were falling to Hel’s body from the dark cloud. That black magic power was whirling on Hel’s body while creating Prima Materia, its substance changed―transforming into something like a Magic Dress.

It was a strange dress. As if several Magic Dresses were mixed up messily… there was no uniformity among every single part. However every single design of the parts had the shape that they had the feeling of seeing before somewhere.

The parts looked like the Magic Dresses that the students of the Magic Division wore on their bodies.

“STOP!”

Liz Liza-sensei yelled after noticing the true form of that power.

“Stop it, don’t you dirty those guys’ souls!! You trash!!”

One part of the Magic Dress that Hel wore―the red wings were emitting orange light like a fire shadow.

Unbelievably, Phoenix’s avatar emerged out beside Hel.

“The dead is my power, mine to use as I please! …Respond to my accusation and burn to ash! Israel Judgment!!”

It was a vortex of magic power he had seen before. It was a magic that even Kazuki and others had seen before, but it was activated with a lot more abbreviated chanting.

“I told you…! Don’t you dare become a hindrance for Nii-sama-!!”

Right before that magic was invoked, the shadow of a black cat leaped once again with a force that was like flying.

With a perfect step-in and timing―once again, it was that miraculous technique.

The wavelength of Hel’s magic power that swelled up right before the magic was invoked vanished like a lie with a *PACHIN!* sound.

“What’s going on, this technique!? …Eei!!”

Hel opened her eyes wide with rage and shock but―she immediately directed a different magic at Kanae.

“Freeze and be silent… Glacier Wind!!”

A part of Hel’s Magic Dress―the floating crystal on her back was emitting a deep blue light, Vepar’s avatar emerged out.

…She was making the soul of the Magika Stigmas that once died in this Fuji’s sea of trees to posses her own body and enslaved them. That death god was activating the magic of the contract through the souls of the dead.

This time even Kanae didn’t have the composure to unleash that technique. The cold magic that Koyuki was also specializing at assaulted Kanae without giving her time to dodge.

At exactly the same time, Hel also invoked her own magic.

“You that is already dead come to this side too! Nifl Driva!!”

Hel raised her palm and then she overlapped the blowing blizzard with the [Glacier Wind] from just now.

The chill of the mermaid and the blizzard of the world of the dead mixed with each other, amplifying each other.

“Uguu-!!” Kanae raised a scream and got blown away helplessly.

Besides her defensive magic power that got smashed, she was also writhing around from the chill that was violating her mind.

The black breastplate of Hel’s Magic Dress shone. This time an avatar of a black bird, Halphas’ avatar was emerging. She was chanting magic one after another with a speed that was hard to believe.

“Suffer and die! O god of war of the spirit world, under thy Divine Protection, I’ll sacrifice the wailing of that bitter enemy… Inferno!!”

Hel created two gigantic pure black pillar of flame in both her hands, she then met both her palms and combined them into one and created a bow and arrow of black flame. It was Halphas’s level 7 magic that Yumeno-san once used to finish off her other self.

It was a rapid-fire of magic just like the Quad-core Magika that was the result of Nyarlathotep’s research. No, her magic invocation was even faster than that.

The giant mass of black flame was fired at Kanae who was writhing in agony.

“O principle of time, listen to the calling voice of my sage! To the other side of the long stagnation, exile away that calamity… Leap Stasis!”

Liz Liza-sensei’s chanting―an avatar of clock emerged out in order to protect Kanae.

When he thought that the hand of that clock was fiercely rotating, the black flame that was flying near vanished.

“You trash Diva! I blew away your magic to the space-time!!”

Liz Liza-sensei’s Original One―it was once cast with her own body's aging as the target, an evasion magic that postponed the <change> in exchange of vast magic power, especially with that short chanting.

This time Hel was not surprised.

“Hmph, there is no way the likes of human can consecutively use that kind of convenient magic!”

The red wings, the crystal, the black breastplate, all of them shone simultaneously. Hel’s own magic power that caused the blizzard of the world of the dead was also included.

“Hayashizaki Kanae! Do that technique more! Block them all!!”

“That technique is not something you can do successfully that many times! Damn-!”

Liz Liza-sensei and Kanae shouted angrily at each other.

Finally at that time, the magic that the others’ were chanting were all invoked simultaneously.

“O water surface that sway from my singing voice, manipulate the small wave skillfully, gather, and become a giant tsunami! Come from the beyond and wash away to the distant place… Tidal Wave!”

Koyuki invoked Vepar’s magic of tsunami. It ignored the space and a tsunami that was created behind Hel using magic power came surging.

“Nifl Driva!!”

Hel immediately turned back to the tsunami and fired a blizzard.

The violent blizzard froze the tsunami all over and destroyed the power of that phenomenon making it disappear.

“O the calling voice of the ruler of flame, set free the rage of the bottom of the earth! Open the gate of my rampart here… tower in heaven and earth, isolate the impurity! Fire Wall!!”

“O shapeless and mute shadow, become the fish that swim in the darkness that is pregnant with obstructive thought! The origin of nightmare, the vicissitudes of materialism, respond to both hope and fear and bite…! Deep Specter!”

Mio and Kaguya-senpai’s magic was invoked at the same time. A wall of flame was going to rise from the bottom of Hel’s feet. Pitch black shadow was crawling up from inside the shadow.

Hel detected the danger and tried to run away from that spot.

“This hand reached out to the height of Babel, right now this hand grasped the falling thunder of god! In accordance with my life, o lightning, whirl following my will! Collider Field!!”

But Lotte equipped a gauntlet on her left hand and locked Hel inside a barrier of electromagnetism. Hel’s body was paralyzed by the electricity and she was rooted to that spot.

Furthermore there was several small lights that were floating around Hel.

“The fate of all creation is inside the great celestial sphere… o binding of constellation, stop the revolution of the sky! Horoscope Stasis!”

Line of light was running between countless stars, that [constellation] tied up the paralyzed Hel.

“…This kind of irritating act!?”

The body of the yelling Hel was swallowed by a wall of flame. Even further her head was chewed apart by the giant monster that jumped out from the shadows.

From inside the wall of flame, from inside the mouth of the black monster, a dark blue defensive magic power was shining and scattered.

“O Mikadzuchiaugust lightning that rain down due to god’s rage! The spilt blood of Kagutsuchi dripped down to the hilt and gather, become a flash of blade! The large drum of lightning sound of lightning speed, Mikafutsu SoulMikafutsu no Mitama!!”

Kazuha-senpai created a golden blade―with that heavily curving katana that hid a destructive power like lightning, she slashed at Hel with all her strength.

Hel that couldn’t move her body was blown away along with a thunderous roar.

Consecutive attack―but Hel immediately stood back up.

“Hikaru! Mio-chan! Koyuki-chan!” Kaguya-senpai yelled at her comrades of the Witch’s Mansion.

“This girl cannot be defeated with average magic! We are going to use Chorus Magic!!”

The four people began to match their magic power wavelength.

In order to protect them, Kanae and Kazuha-senpai and Lotte stood as the vanguards and prepared their weapons.

“…You bunch of humans… hand over the Zero Knight and the Sacred Treasure…!!”

Along with a voice that made the listener shudder, Hel tore off the binding of constellation with brute force and ripped apart the biting big jaw of the shadow monster with both her hands, at the same time she then once again shone with several magic power lights.

―Kazuki was largely unaware of the battle that was currently happening.

The sounds of the fighting felt like it was far away as if a thin membrane was filtering all of it.

That was how much Kazuki was concentrating on what was inside his embrace, his mother that even now was disappearing.

“Kazuki.”

His mother was, for the first time, calling Kazuki with the name that she named him with.

But just from such a little matter, it made Kazuki’s sight damp with tears.

“Kazuki… the Ame no Murakumo…”

He didn’t need that kind of thing.

Rather than such thing, right now, the person that was going to disappear inside his arms was someone that was far more important. His mother’s body temperature, body weight, were vanishing away in no time at all, he knew that.

“I don’t need that kind of thing, Kaa-san… Kaa-san, I, I’m living perfectly happy.”

Kazuki repeated the thing that he had already said like a spell. Even though what he wanted to say was not this kind of thing. For some reason, the feeling that was rampaging inside his chest couldn’t be turned into words.

Even though if he kept wasting time like this, she was going to vanish completely.

“I see. I’m glad.”

His mother smiled hearing that―she raised her thin white arm and stroked Kazuki’s head.

Even though it was weak like the branch of a tree that swayed from the wind, it was a gentle hand movement.

It was a completely unknown sensation for him.

He had the feeling that sparks scattered inside his head, inside his eyes that were wet with tears.

From inside the head of Kazuki who was searching for words, all words and reason disappeared, a pure white emotion completely covered everything.

He noticed. There was nothing that he still wanted to convey.

What he was looking for, was not that kind of thing.

He was only merely, overflowing with emotion.

When he noticed that emotion ―Kazuki hugged tightly the thin and weakened body of his mother, then he buried his face into her chest.

“Kaa-san… I don’t want you to go.”

―What was rampaging inside his head uncontrollably was easily coming out from his mouth.

He felt something that he had never noticed was armoring him until now, disappear completely.

Once it had come out, it was pouring out of him together with tears and scream.

“No! I don’t want this!! No!!”

It was not something exaggerated like something he wanted to convey or anything.

‘I―just want to be spoiled by Kaa-san.’

Their relation was not something exaggerated like the previous King and the King that succeeded after her.

‘I am my mother’s child!’

‘No! I don’t want this!’ Kazuki cried like a child.

“…Fufu-“

His mother returned his hug weakly and let escape a faint chuckle.

“You should not say something selfish.”

After saying that, she stroked his head once again.

‘―Kaa-san, I, have never said anything selfish through my life until now.’

No matter what happened even if it was unreasonable, he had never done anything like giving up.

Even without anyone rewarding him, he overcame all kinds of hardship with his hard work.

He had never seriously yelled words like ‘don’t wanna’ or anything like that.

He almost never cried at all.

Despite so, could what he did right now be called as selfishness.

What’s with that… that kind of thing…

“No way! I don’t want something like this! I don’t want…!!”

She was disappearing! Merely, just during this short instant, his mother was!

‘Don’t say what I’m doing is selfish!! By all rights, isn’t what I’m doing only natural!!’

“No! I have been patient for all these fifteen years!! There was no one at all that patted my head saying that I have done my best! I didn’t even realize that such a thing is strange! I realize now! That all this time I wanted my head to get patted by Kaa-san!! It’s strange you know! This kind of thing… I don’t want…!!”

‘I shouldn’t be defeated by this kind of thing’, Kazuki thought.

This is irrational. For the first time since he was born, Kazuki was overpowered by this monster called irrationality.

He pressed his face that was messily stained with tears onto his mother’s chest, he cried and shouted as if to spew out everything from the bottom of his throat out of his heart. It was as if he was completely changed into an existence that was just crying and shouting.

The tears and screams that had been piling up without him even noticing during these fifteen years were all overflowing without pause.

“Kazuki…”

His mother put a faint strength into her weak arm that was like a dry wood, and hugged him back.

Gently, sweetly, warmly, because of that his tears were overflowing out even harder.

“Thank you. For giving me a chance to spoil you in the end. With this I finally…”

His mother too, during this fifteen years she was enduring until now in this land.

When he understood that, the weight of this monster called irrationality became doubled.

“With this we could finally do something like a true mother and child…”

Vanished.

On the other side of his sight that was stained messily with tears, the chest of the mother that he was hugging, was turning into countless particles of light before disappearing.

Her lingering voice entered his ears before disappearing.

The warmth seeped into his chest and disappeared.

From within Kazuki’s embrace, a dried up sound was spilling out and fell onto the ground. It was a white skeleton.

“Aa, aaaa…”

She was a person that had already died fourteen years ago.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!”

Refusing the truth, Kazuki cried and shouted.

“NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The countless light particles that were scattering were floating lightly in the air before entering into Kazuki’s chest.

{We are going to be together from now on you know. After all, we could even meet like this.}

Certainly that was a miracle.

{If we can just meet, humans can be changed forever in an instant. That kind of magic had already been used by humans since the time long ago.}

The small particle of magic power became the final voice and it was absorbed into his chest.

Certainly, he would never forget everything that happened here forever.

{Thank you for growing up happily, Kazuki.}

{Thank you.}

{I just keep saying thank you but, I’m really happy.}

{…Thank you.}

Suddenly a scene was opening up inside of Kazuki’s head.

Those were the scene that was shown by the small magic power that was absorbed into Kazuki’s chest. At the same time with the magic power making his mother’s feeling into voice and conveying that to him, his mother’s past memory was recalled inside Kazuki.

Kazuki’s oldest memory―this scene was the continuation of that.

The orphanage at night. Avoiding the eyes of the people, his mother abandoned Kazuki in front of the gate.

His mother turned her back at the crying Kazuki and even while looking back many times she kept walking through the night street with an unsteady gait.

Even her tears were drying up. This was her last determination.

She couldn’t consult anyone. She couldn’t even let anybody see her current figure.

If she didn’t head to the battle alone, the victims would only increase.

She had to fight no matter what. Without anybody seeing her off, without anybody even cheering her on, with her everything snatched away entirely, she even abandoned the child that she obtained at the very end from the person that she loved.

―She had to fight.

While walking alone unsteadily, the light of the town that she passed through cursed her. When she thought about how there was as many happy families as there were the light shining, it couldn’t be helped that she felt accursed. Negative emotions like rage and sorrow were raging crazy inside her chest.

Why was she the only one who couldn’t get her hands on such an ordinary thing.

No. I don’t want to fight. This is unreasonable.

Even so, other than her… there was no human that could fight that enemy.

When she was faced with such ultimate truth―it made her realized that this thing called self-sacrifice was by no means a deceit.

She was made to realize that she loved this unreasonable world.

Even with all her important people killed and torn away from her, still…

She had to fight.

Together with that determination―the world of memory was cut off.

Kazuki returned to reality.

―Inside the blizzard, Kazuki was hugging the white skeleton. While hugging the white skeleton so that it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, Kazuki heard the sound of his comrades fighting. Those sounds were finally reaching his ears.

He understood just from the sounds that it was a difficult enemy. He understood that if it kept like this his comrades would fall into danger.

“No…”

Kazuki was still continuing to cry while hugging the skeleton.

But, he had to fight. No matter how unreasonable it was.

Fight, there was something he had to protect at all cost.

Until now, everything of this world had been kind to him.

He had already made a lot of people that he loved and that were important to him.

There was also the irrationality but, there was even miracles.

Such an obvious world, was obviously lovely.

He was not some special existence.

He was going to stand up after crying just for thirty more seconds, Kazuki decided.

“I… don’t resent anything Kaa-san. I’m not unhappy. That’s why…”

Kazuki grasped a handful of snow, using Pyrokinesis to plunder the heat he made the snow even colder and pressed it together. He made a small snow hut to store the skeleton there so that it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind.

“…I’m going to fight, Kaa-san.”

Holding Ame no Murakumo in hand, he stood up.

Kazuki rushed to the decisive battle at the crater.

He finally recovered the clearness of his head in order to fight.

Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Mio, and Koyuki were entering the preparation for Chorus Magic. But that cooperation wouldn’t tolerate even a slight disturbance in it, it became even more difficult than normal inside this fierce blizzard.

The blue haired death god named Hel was displaying an absurd power.

Kanae and Kazuha-senpai and an armed Lotte challenged Hel determinedly, each time they dealt a single attack on the opponent, they received a fierce magic counter and got blown away. That divine work of Kanae also often failed, even if it worked it did nothing more than blocking a single gunport (opening) of Hel.

―There were three. There were three souls of Magika Stigmas that Hel made to possess her body and turned into parts of her dress. And then with her own magic there was a total of four rapid firing magic that was continuously invoked.

Even in the case where it was high level magic that was used, that casting speed of hers was dreadfully fast.

All three of the vanguards were equipped with the armor of [Seusenhofer] that Lotte chanted, yet the armors were already in destroyed shapes.

Their strategy was in the process of failure. The limit of the three vanguards for buying time was going to come first before the Chorus Magic could even finish.

―During such thing, Kanae who failed to make her divine work succeed was hit right from the front with a high level magic. Kanae’s small body was blown away like a scrapped rag.

“You, die while feeling a special agony!”

Hel’s black breastplate shone and made the avatar of Halphas emerge.

“Inferno!”

The jet black flame that possessed both physical destruction and mind destruction attacked Kanae at an inescapable timing.

“Leap Stasis!!”

Liz Liza-sensei just barely [postponed] that single arrow.

Combined with the previous one she had activated this magic twice in total, the magic postponed the magic that was heading to Kanae. But surely when this magic was cancelled later on Kanae would taste a hellish agony. Though that was only if they could safely go home.

Liz Liza-sensei’s magic power too was also wholly carried away to beyond the space-time as the compensation of the postponing. That magic power wouldn’t return back until after the magic was cancelled.

Hel also saw through that and directed the brunt of the attack magic at Liz Liza-sensei.

“You don’t have any magic power left anymore right! …Sink a hundred ships, o threat of the sea that is lurking in the deep sea…show that whole face!”

Vepar’s avatar floated on Hel’s back. The power of Solomon 72 Pillar was forcefully dragged out from their contract with the dead people. There was no one among his comrades that was in a state that could immediately react to that.

―He had to protect them.

Kazuki ran, passing through his comrades at the rear that were preparing for Chorus Magic and cut in front of Liz Liza-sensei with Ame no Murakumo in hand.

“Hayashizaki! …What about Hibiki-neesama!?”

For an instant, Kazuki’s chest was blocked up from Liz Liza-sensei’s words.

“…Stab your fang! Ice Breaker!!”

Several vortex of magic power were created in front of Kazuki’s eyes, giant icebergs were sticking out from there surging at him. Kazuki held up Ame no Murakumo.

How did his mother handle this sword ―he could faintly sense that <Battou Kaikon>.

“Mow down the whole creation, <Ame no Murakumo>! Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!!”

The power that Yamato no Takeru used in legend that time he was falling into the trap of the fire plan―inside this royal sword there was the power to bring an end to natural phenomenon.

His magic power was absorbed into the blade where it emitted a golden light.

When Kazuki swept Ame no Murakumo to the side, as if an unseen blade was flying, all the surging icebergs were bisected into two.

“That power… was Zero Knight’s…!”

Hel leaked out a shocked voice.

It seemed that she had fought his mother before.

Kazuki grasped the sword naturally and he felt power filling his hand.

“The power of Solomon King and, the power of Japanese Mythology’s King that Zero Knight used…? But even if you are a King twice, you are still just an inexperienced King aren’t you!? If that’s so then even I alone will suffice!”

“Everyone! The Chorus Magic will be complete with just a little more! Until that time, I will buy time! Those whose exhaustion is severe are to draw back!”

Inexperienced King. Certainly, he might be so.

However the bonds had been already tied. ‘That is my power. I don’t know where this Diva came from but, I’ll make you regret making light of me as inexperienced’, Kazuki thought.

“Intending to win against me… I’ll make you regret that.”

Hel too spouted out words that were in the same mood as Kazuki.

In another words this Diva also still had a trump card. She was going to use that now.

Hel removed the eye patch that covered her right eye and from there a deep red light burst out.

The Magic Dress on Hel’s whole body disintegrated and reduced into a pure magic power light.

“O dead people that are tired of waiting for glory, you are together with me! Become my brethren!!”

Even more countless lightning ran from the dark cloud and went towards Hel. Enormous souls of the dead were gathering inside Hel’s small body. Hel’s body floated in the sky like a dark saint.

“Together right now, celebrate the beginning of Ragnarok loudly!”

The pitch black magic power that completely covered Hel’s body―called out to an endless number of dead people and brought to fruition a single magic.

“Now, let’s begin the legend! Announcing Ship of God and Evil’s Mortal CombatNaglfar!!”

The assembly of the black magic power swelled out enormously. It was huge―as if covering the sky.

Yes, it was physically large.

What appeared from the materialization of that magic power was not in the scale of Magic Dress. Hel was buried in the core of that enormous mass, he was already unable to confirm by sight her shadow or shape.

The thing that was floating in the blizzard sky was―an outrageously gigantic jet black ship.

Naglfar―even Kazuki knew that name. It was the ship that brought about the huge turning point in the world of Norse Mythology. Until the promised day, Hel who was the king of the dead gathered the nails of the dead that were filled with grudge and magic power from all over the world in order to make a gigantic ship. And then in the advent of <Ragnarokthe day of twilight of the gods>, a great amount of evil giants would ride Naglfar and advanced to the world of the gods.

It was the huge symbol of nightmare of the end of the world.

That was Hel’s trump card.

There was no sail on the ship that was floating in front of Kazuki’s eyes, it was covered with thick board, rather than calling it a ship from the Middle Ages, it was more like a <battleship>.

Its black thick armor had an uneven surface with disorderly scaly appearance. When he looked more in detail the ship was exactly like in the myth―it was formed from the pitch black nails of the dead.

It was like the finger tips of humans that went into necrosis from the cold, a bloody jet black color that was mixed with purplish red color.

The grotesque battleship of darkness was lording over Kazuki and the others.

‘…I’m going to defeat her, and I’ll begin.’

“This is not a power on the level of gathering the souls of three Magika Stigmas from this mountain like before! Know the seriousness of the death god!!”

At the same time with her proclamation of war, there were several vortexes of magic power that floated up in the frontage of Naglfar. It was told in the myth that magic power was residing inside the nails of the dead. That magic power was floating in the frontage of Naglfar. The magic power was whirling while converging―*DON!* such sound rang out and a magic bullet was fired. *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* Several sparks of black magic power were scattered.

It was undoubtedly a ship’s bombardment.

“Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!”

Kazuki tore apart that first volley with one swept of Ame no Murakumo and extinguished them. But with a *JIIN* the heaviness of the bombardment numbed the hand that was holding the sword. He didn’t feel such thing at all when he cut apart the [Ice Buster] from before, the heaviness of the bombardment felt like it was several tens of times of that.

DON!* *DON!* *DON!* ―the magic bullet was fired rapidly even now without pause. Kazuki took a stance of slashing with Ame no Murakumo.

…He was unable to invoke [Kusanagi no Tsurugi] with the same speed of the enemy’s rapid-fire.

Kazuki had such a hunch too.

“Tenkuu Battou Rengehou!”

He had already chanted a magic that could deal with a large amount of magic power attack.

Countless Sacred Treasures were created behind him, then all of it was fired one after another.

The magic bullets and Futsunushi no Kami’s Sacred Treasures collided, the blizzard sky shined.

It couldn’t block them all―the magic bullets that couldn’t be neutralized were heading at Kazuki and his comrades behind him before raining down.

“Zekorbeni!”

While trembling from the intensity of the bombardment, Kazuki used his trump card.

Right now there was nothing he could do except using this power for the sake of defense.

“I will protect everyone! …Mode・Phoenix!!”

Enormous flame spewed out from Zekorbeni on Kazuki’s chest, creating an armor in firelight color. That orange light connected Kazuki’s mind with Phoenix directly.

“O the calling voice of the ruler of flame, liberate the rage of the bottom of the earth! Open the gate of my rampart here… tower in heaven and earth, isolate the impurity! Fire Wall!!”

With a loud voice the defensive magic of the flame wall was invoked. Zekorbeni could amplify the might of the magic the more magic power was poured into it. Kazuki poured several times the amount of magic power that was originally needed for this level 2 magic in one into Zekorbeni.

A thick wall of flame was built up all at once.

The flame wall swallowed the magic bullets that couldn’t be neutralized.

Even so the remaining small magic bullets that looked like dregs of the original were still raining down on Kazuki behind the wall like a shower. Even the comrades behind Kazuki were―.

“Kyaa-!” Mio’s scream was raised.

Even just this much might become a hindrance for the chanting of the Chorus Magic.

The flame wall lost its power and vanished. But Naglfar was still floating in the sky while creating vortexes of magic power even more. The bombardment would continue without pause…!!

The attack was simple, but it was an excessively thick curtain of attack.

“Damn-!” Kanae raised a voice that was irritated with herself who couldn’t do anything.

…A swordsman couldn’t do anything in this situation.

“Kanae, you move back with Liz Liza-sensei whose magic power is used up! Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!!”

Kazuki yelled while once again bisecting the raining down magic bullets all at once in a single slash.

He slashed Ame no Murakumo directly horizontal. There Kazuki’s movement that was controlling the sword stopped. The magic bullet unceasingly flew at him in that gap.

This gap had to be filled.

Ame no Murakumo was still hiding more power but―a Sacred Treasure was not something that could be mastered where the user could use all of its powers right from the start. Training was needed.

He couldn’t hold back the bombardment just with the power of Ame no Murakumo. His power as the King of Solomon was also necessary.

“Fire Wall!!”

Kazuki poured a lot more magic power into Zekorbeni and unfolded a thicker wall of flame. At the same time he chanted [Tenkuu Battou Rengehou]. He was working at full capacity.

“Lotte!” Kazuki shouted.

“Yes desu! …Hit and run attack right desu!!”

Lotte understood Kazuki’s intention even without being ordered.

“O guardian of human race, the wisdom for the sake of opposing the will of the tyrannical god right here… Custom Liberion!”

Lotte equipped armors that were lined up with countless small type thruster units on both her legs and arms, she immediately ignited them―flying to the blizzard sky. She circled to right beside the battleship of darkness that was flying in the sky and scattered bullets from the large type gatling that was attached on the armor.

“You’re a nuisance, you fly!”

Naglfar also directed several vortexes of magic power at Lotte and fired rapidly magic bullets from there.

Lotte who was clad in [Custom Liberion] that excelled in mobility flew around Naglfar and ran away from that line of fire. No, she has also gotten hit with several shots that she couldn’t evade. Each time she got hit, smoke rose from the armor. Yet Lotte continued her hit and run with preparedness for death.

But with a lot of the [gunport] directed at Lotte, the attack to Kazuki and everyone behind him that were chanting Chorus Magic was lessened. There was also a limit on how many gunport Naglfar could take out each time.

“Tenkuu Battou Rengehou!!”

Kazuki intercepted the lessened attack with countless Sacred Treasures.

“Tenkuu Battou Rengehou!!” Kazuha-senpai too imitated Kazuki and invoked the same magic.

This time it was Naglfar that couldn’t neutralize the countless Sacred Treasures and the gatling bullets, the armor of the battleship of darkness was beginning to be impacted by the projectiles.

They displayed a situation of a fierce bombardment exchange.

“Many of you combining your power… it’s annoying! Even though I’m just alone! Even though papa too won’t lend his hand to me… everyone, everyone is ganging up and making fun of me!!”

A voice of an irritable child escaped from the inside of the eerie Naglfar.

…No, was she a child? Papa… did she mean Loki?

Putting that aside, she was held back enough.

Even with a materialized Diva as the opponent, if he united his will with his comrades in this number then they could hold her back.

They have arrived at the place where they could stand against a god with the power of a human.

And then, if there was the power of bonds, and this sword that he inherited from his mother… they could defeat her.

For that sake, a momentary opening was necessary. Naglfar’s bombardment would stop, Kazuki believe that that moment would come before long and persisted in defense.

“ “ “ “Shem ha MeforashWe know thy true name!!” “ “ “

That time was approaching.

Finally the Chorus Magic of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion entered the climax. Mio, Koyuki, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, the four of them created enormous pillars of magic power that felt like it could reach the heavens.

Those magic power pillars emitted wavelengths that were accurate to the inch while mixing with each other.

“ “ “ “Thy true name is Baal… though that be so, all of evil was born in the Middle Ages! Calculating faith, and sham loyalty stained the sublime Baal! Born from falsehood the army of demons multiply in multiply and thy stand at the summit!” “ “ “

Behind the four people the golden great king that carried the power of the stars, Baal was floating and materialized.

But under the identity of Baal there was one other face that hid a more mighty power. Baal’s greatest magic was―obtained in posterior due to curses, now all of it was liberated.

The contractor, Hikaru-senpai, commanded.

“The great god of Ugalit Mythology Baal… answer my command, liberate all of that curses!! …Thy stained name is… King of FliesBeelzebub!!”

“Very well… watch it thoroughly!!”

Together with a voice that was filled with rage―Baal’s golden figure was breaking down and decayed like mud.

He was stained jet black exactly the same like the accursed Naglfar in front of their eyes!

And then the thing that was Baal became Beelzebuba swarm of countless giant flies.

Like a dark cloud that was flowing, the giant swarm of the flies passed overhead Kazuki and the others and surged to Naglfar.

Due to Christianity in the Middle Ages, Baal who was a god of a different teaching was repainted as a devil and received the curses of the people. That curse was―one of the seven deadly sins [gluttony].

Beelzebub was maximizing that nature.

The swarm of flies was bathed in countless magic bullets. But the flies ate at that. While eating away the bullet curtain one after another, the flies finally clung to the black armor of Naglfar. And then, even that armor that was made from the nails of the dead began to be eaten.

“Thi, this…!!”

Hel raised an impatient voice and created vortexes of magic power, she fired magic bullets at the side of the giant flies that were eating greedily. Several of the flies vanished from the hit at their side. But the flies too were eating greedily at the armor into shreds with momentum that was not inferior to that.

It was a fierce devouring at each other between the Heldeath god and Beelzebubthe king of demon.

Of course Beelzebub’s summoned body couldn’t stay in this world for long.

But―right now was the time to go out in offensive. The bombardment had stopped, Naglfar’s armor became littered with moth-eaten damage, the path for the sake of bathing Hel with a blow was opened widely.

“Everyone!”

Kazuki gave out a signal to his comrades. After that he immediately poured magic power into Zekorbeni.

“…O undying bird that soar from dusk to dawn, please grant that wings of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”

The swarm of flies moved aside and conceded a path to Kazuki that spread out wings of flame and flew away.

And then―the greatest magic that he could use from Mio’s positivity level of 155, level 8.

The trump card that he hadn’t used until now because of the intensity of his fatigue was now used.

“O undying bird that repeated life and death! Liberate the flame of one’s last moment, become the sun of the surface… Sun of the EndImitation Flare!!”

The avatar of the firebird was liberated and headed to Naglfar from Kazuki.

The avatar of the firebird exploded like a bomb.

Phoenix that symbolized the sun liberated all of his own flame that was in the juncture of life and death and burned the target to ashes. That phenomenon was reenacted in this place.

The energy liberation that rivaled the solar flare(sun surface explosion) also sacrificed the flies that were late to escape while swallowing Naglfar.

The giant fire ball that even swallowed Naglfar whole floated in the air like a sun and continued to blaze. Inside it, they could see that the armor that was eaten away by the flies was melting in the blink of an eye.

“(Mermaid Armament)Mode・Merfolk!”

Kazuki instantly switched Zekorbeni―from Mio’s Phoenix, he went to Koyuki’s Vepar. He was enveloped in blue raiment that looked just like the shape of the sea itself. Koyuki’s positivity level had also reached 150 from that date. The greatest fire power of this bond, the level 8 was instantly invoked.

“Time turn drawing circle, the history repeated following the inevatibility, awaken the forgotten era right here… leave behind everything inside the dream, toward the era of glacier! Absolute Ice WorldIce Age!!”

The instant the fire ball liberated all of its energy and vanished, this time it was Vepar’s avatar that emerged―the surrounding of Kazuki and Naglfar was instantly freezing.

A pure cold that surpassed even the blizzard of the Haunted Ground and the blizzard of the world of death―a world of ice.

Naglfar, and Hel that rode inside it were freezing, their movement was stopped.

“Mode・Veritas!”

Kazuki switched Zekorbeni even further―from Koyuki’s Vepar to Lotte’s Prometheus. His body was wrapped with a silver suits with a texture that was hard to consider as something of this world.

Lotte’s positivity level was also surpassing 150. He poured his magic power into the greatest fire power of that, to level 8.

“Turning thy back to the god, pour the wisdom of human history to the dream of destruction… hear the roar of human’s independence! Betrayal’s Romance CannonGustav Dora!!”

A gigantic ordnance towered erectly from Kazuki’s chest to the front direction. It was a gigantic gun battery with length of few dozen meters and the thickness diameter close to one meter. A recoil propulsion system in order to withstand the firing of that gun battery was created on his back. In front of Naglfar, Kazuki also turned into a large weapon and determined his aim.

The unrealistic cannon that possessed the power of magic―fired.

A high explosive projectile that was almost as large as a human’s stature with the weight of a few ton was fired rapidly along with a thunderous roar that pierced your ears.

Masses of destruction landed one after another on Naglfar’s armor that was subjected under rapid freezing right after a super high temperature and exploded grandly. The nails of the dead were peeled off and fell apart.

When Kazuki finished firing all the explosive bullets and made the ordnance vanished―it was at the same time where Naglfar was finally destroyed from the attacks that came one after another.

“For, for a human, moreover a male to fire magic this powerful in rapid succession, how can your magic not run out…?”

Hel opened her eyes wide inside Naglfar that was barely floating in the air with its barely remaining fragment of magic power.

“No… that magic power inside you… that is Zero Knight’s…!”

Hel still survived! Kazuki flapped his wings of flame while taking a stance with Ame no Murakumo.

It was at that time that following the signal of commencing attack from Kazuki just now, his comrades invoked the magic that they were chanting all at once.

“Tearing the skin and blooming the flower of blood, the scream that echoed eternally… fell the betrayer and awaken the hell right here! Cocytus!”

Behind Kazuki who was slashing at Hel, a piercing cold of hell was overtaking him.

At that time the Ame no Murakumo in Kazuki’s grasp reverberated *JIIN* as if saying something to him.

…He could hear, the voice of the Sacred Treasure!

In this kind of time, this Sacred Treasure must be… used in this kind of way!

“Carry the mystery in your blade crest <Ame no Murakumo>! Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”

Kazuki immediately made a half turn on the spot and ran his blade not at Hel but at the cold of [Cocytus]. While Ame no Murakumo was enveloped in cold, it shone as if in echo.

Like Kusanagi no Tsurugi that tore apart magical phenomenon and dispersed them―it was not, the magic phenomenon was absorbed into that shining blade. The golden blade was frozen into deep blue and all the cold was compressed in it.

The essence of [slash] was to compress the energy within the narrowly linear range.

Katana could [cut] things by compressing the movement energy into the sharp blade.

Ame no Murakumo could even compress the magic energy into the blade’s narrow range.

That was this Battou Kaikon―[Tsumugari no Tachi].

Kazuki used his movement of cutting Kaguya-senpai’s [Cocytus] just like that to rotate in full circle and cut at Hel with the blade that carried cold.

“UOOOOOOOOOO!”

With Ame no Murakumo that was carrying the power of [Cocytus], Kazuki pursued the blown away Hel and dealt her one more blow even further. Hel was thrown onto the rock surface of Mt. Fuji.

“O lightning god, disturb the law of heaven following my will, liberate the undulation of destruction that is hidden in the atmosphere! Super Lightning Arc DischargeArc Flash Hazard!!”

Hikaru-senpai also cast Baal’s level 7 magic. The power of the Haunted Ground’s atmosphere was compressed into the two poles of positive and negative energy and raised a vortex around Hel, that equilibrium broke and caused a pure white great explosion. That was not something that was caused by nature, but by plasma.

Instantly, Kazuki cut at that plasma with Ame no Murakumo.

“Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”

He swung that blade at Hel that was crashed into a rock wall. The compressed electric heat destroyed Hel’s defensive magic power with each blow.

It didn’t stop at one attack. Second, third, fourth…he repeatedly hacked her to pieces. The recoil of the defensive magic power gouged a crater at the surface of Mt. Fuji like an explosion, with each blow Hel was buried even deeper.

“O bird of paradise whose body is carrying the light of heaven, respond to my accusation and burn to ash the sin on the surface! Israel Judgment!!”

“Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”

Mio had already guessed everything and directly fired Phoenix’s heat ray not at Hel but at Kazuki’s blade. That power was settled smoothly and the blade of sun’s heat slashed apart even further at Hel.

“Ga, ganging up on me like this while borrowing the power of a great number of people! You, you coward! Not fair! Even though papa is not helping me…!! Give me back Naglfar!!”

“O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing blankness… White Album!”

“Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”

Koyuki also invoked her magic and Kazuki’a Ame no Murakumo accepted it. Hel was buried until a depth where she couldn’t even move her body anymore while Kazuki earnestly stabbed his sword.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I’m, vanishing! If you keep doing that… I’ll vanish!!”

It was evident that her defensive magic power was almost extinguished.

When Kazuki thought whether he was going to stab his blade just like this until the end, for an instant, he hesitated.

He could win. But, would he kill her?

{It’s not like the Diva will die you know? When she used up her strength then she will only fall asleep for a long, long time.}

Leme told him through the telepathic communication.

―Her appearance was a little girl but, this opponent was a terrifying Diva. For the sake of protecting his comrades he couldn’t afford to go easy on her.

If he gave her an instant of opening here―the next moment it would be Kazuki who fall into a pinch. He had already used up his magic power to the limit. He had already spent everything to bring the situation into this direction.

He would finish her off until the end! Kazuki resolved.

But suddenly―Kazuki felt a magic power expanding in circle shape around Hel. It was not a magic power that came from Hel. It was an unknown magic power from someone that was isolated from them with a distant space.

It was hard to predict what was going on.

This was not an attack magic. If he created [Futsu no Mitama] he thought that perhaps he could destroy the magic phenomenon, but he wouldn’t make it in time if he chanted only after he noticed this.

The circle shaped magic power that expanded with the buried Hel as the center instantly materialized into a huge ring.

Ring―the thing that was like a string that was connecting through several magatama.

This was an enlarged Yasakani no Magatama!

Its inside instantly became pitch black and connected into another dimension, a different space. The exhausted Hel was absorbed into the black dimension while the girl herself was making a confused face saying “What’s this!?”

“Ikousai!?”

Reflexively Kazuki almost threw his body into the other dimension, but recalling his own exhaustion he stumbled his step. If enemies were waiting at the destination of the other dimension, his current self would be unable to do anything.

There was no reply to answer Kazuki’s calling voice, after the ring swallowed Hel inside the other dimension, the ring of Yasakani no Magatama shrank in the blink of an eye and vanished.

Part 8

Aisu Ikousai with her body wrapped in her trademark Japanese clothes was standing still inside her own sword dojo that was prepared in Oosaka. Some composure came out in her expression ―her special training was bearing fruit.

At the space before her eyes the enlarged Yasakani no Magatama was floating along with magic power. It was connected with the deep black dimension in its inside and with a plop it dropped off Hel who was in a worn-out state of body and mind.

“You really got beaten up mercilessly huh. …If you got worn out until this bad then you won’t be able to come out at the frontline for a while until your divinity is restored.”

Hel was limply sinking on the cool floor of natural wood inside the sword dojo where it seemed she couldn’t even hear Ikousai’s voice.

Yasakani no Magatama smoothly became smaller and wrapped on Ikousai’s wrist naturally.

“Wh, why…?” Finally a voice escaped Hel.

“Yasakani no Magatama is a Sacred Treasure that can only display its effect within my perception sphere.”

Ikousai had already tested the Sacred Treasure many times, she was already able to completely grasp its effect.

“Something like exerting the power of this Sacred Treasure at the far away Fuji’s sea of trees originally should be something impossible. But… the Three Sacred Treasures resonated with each other, like a power that called to each other. Most likely it was the moment when Hayashizaki obtained Ame no Murakumo in his hand, that Yasakani no Magatama and Yata no Kagami reacted. Yata no Kagami projected your figure fighting that guy holding Ame no Murakumo. If it’s visible, then that place is a range where my imagination can reach… it’s inside my magic perception range. That was why I could save you using the power of Yasakani no Magatama.”

Yasakani no Magatama―it twisted the space between its string.

“Hel is my master that taught me the way to handle a Diva’s power. I heard the story from Loki… I was thinking whether there was any way for me to go help you. It was something miraculous, but I’m glad I made it.”

Ikousai had a really arrogant personality, but toward someone that gave her something―toward the existence that she called as mentor, she was someone that paid her respect from the bottom of her heart. Hel too was not an exception.

“Uu… uu, ueeee…”

“Hel?”

“UEEEE~N, IKOUSAI~!!”

When Ikousai just thought that she was seeing tears gathering inside Hel’s round eyes, Hel suddenly clung at Ikousai’s chest while crying loudly like a child.

“Uwaa, don’t you press your soppy face to my clothes.”

“Ueee~! Why~! Why is everyone making fun of me~! Why is papa not praising me~! Give me back my Naglfar~! Even though I worked really hard to gather a lot of dead people’s souls, why did it get broken like that~!! I hate everyone~!!”

Feeling troubled of how to deal with Hel that was crying like a child, Ikousai just kept patting her blue haired head for the time being.

“Ueee~! I hate everyone except Ikousai~!!”

Hel bawled even harder, like a child that was scolded for the first time.

Gilgamesh -- persistence. It's a king's quest to find immortality for his dead commoner friend. He loses it on the way back.

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