Recital (5)
A cacophony that felt like it was violating my eardrums. The unpleasant melody echoed across the blood-filled surface, making the water convulse as if struck by an earthquake. In the next instant it swelled into a colossal tidal wave that swallowed the shoreline. We, standing on the sandy beach, froze for a moment before retreating.
Rumble—! The ground trembled. As though trying to reach the sun suspended in the sky, the dark-red waves rose to an unimaginable height. The surging blood boiled and frothed. Given the extreme concentration of magi it carried, the liquid was no different from hydrochloric acid. Anything it touched would melt away in an instant.
“We have to stop it.”
“Yeah.”
With that answer, Charlotte stepped forward. She gripped her sword with both hands and advanced one pace toward the cascading tsunami. Not a flicker of unease showed in her transparent eyes. Mana gathered at her fingertips, and soon a brilliant radiance erupted along the blade.
“Sever.”
Her lips moved lightly. The slash she drew through the air unleashed a fierce blade of energy that pierced the blood-colored mist. A single streak of light collided head-on with the massive wave.
And then—
BOOOOM!
The oncoming tide shattered into fragments. The blood scattered as tiny droplets. Only the few closest to shore fell above our heads. I raised an umbrella of shadows to shield myself, and Charlotte, who had been dodging the drizzle beside me, spoke between ragged breaths. Even that single exchange seemed to have drained a considerable amount of her strength.
“This… my hands hurt.”
“The power is no joke.”
“I went all out, yet I could only block it.”
Charlotte clenched and unclenched her tingling fingers. Watching the girl’s strained reaction, I muttered with a troubled sigh.
“It looks like they poured a lot of effort into creating this one.”
The force had exceeded my expectations. This was the Conductor’s thought form. Originally Charlotte should have subdued it with ease, but since it had been a long time since his return, it seemed he had prepared with unusual intensity. I felt genuinely surprised. Using this much power would have been a burden even for him.
I spoke while lost in thought.
“This fight won’t be easy.”
“Seems that way.”
“Are you all right, Your Highness?”
“No problem. More importantly, do you know anything about these strange phenomena?”
“Well…”
I knew the Conductor well. I had faced him countless times in the original story. Wherever his music lingered, nightmares became reality. The melody steeped in magi bewitched people, corrupted their very essence, and transformed them into beings no longer fit to be embraced by God. The victims became monsters that could only repeat slaughter and performance.
It wasn’t for nothing that he was called the worst Katasto.
His ability was optimized for massacre. Of course, it did not begin on such a catastrophic scale. It started from a small seed—the virtual space called the “Recital” that the Conductor created. He trapped several hosts inside, waited until they had absorbed enough magi, and once their mutation was complete, unleashed them beyond the boundary. The ferocious melody spread like a virus, turning everything it touched into ruin.
The cathedral where we stood was the same: a time bomb that could detonate at any moment. If we failed to defeat the boss in time, the accumulated magi would run wild and easily wipe out an entire village. No—given that he seemed to be exerting more power than usual, this time it might swallow the surrounding villages as well. The damage that would cause meant we had to stop it at all costs.
The method is simple.
The Conductor’s domain was sustained through his “thought form.” It was easiest to think of it as the strongest host; most of the magi coalesced around such an entity and grew in size. In other words, it was the heart of the Recital. Once the thought form was neutralized, the domain would lose its balance and collapse.
I pointed at the woman visible in the distance.
“We just need to subdue her first.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Will it be difficult?”
“Killing her might be barely possible.”
“Haha… please hold back. She may not look it, but she’s someone who helped me in many ways.”
“Can’t be helped. Capturing her alive is beyond my ability.”
Charlotte shook her head. Then she tilted it, as if something felt off.
“Does capturing her alive even have meaning?”
“Hm?”
“She’s already been consumed by magi. It’s an irreversible state—why bother taking her alive?”
“Just follow what I say for now. You’ll understand soon enough.”
“I see… I’ll do my best, then.”
The girl fiddled with her sword. Perhaps the aftermath of the first clash had been stronger than expected; she was still gripping her throbbing wrist. But the opponent whose eyes had rolled back was in no state to consider such things.
The woman standing in the middle of the sea continued her performance.
Screeech—! She laid the bow across the strings. The elegant gesture that followed produced a melody so unpleasant it was almost unbearable. Could a violin truly produce such a horrible pitch?
“It’s coming.”
Ruuuuumble—! Once again the surface churned. The vigorously boiling blood scattered in every direction, then slowly rose into the air and hardened into sharp blades. Hundreds of blood swords now glared at us.
On a bright-red sea beneath a bright-red sky, the sight of those crimson blades gathering was utterly overwhelming.
Even so.
“……”
The girl exhaled a calm breath. Her posture remained perfectly composed.
Thud—! She drove the sword she held into the ground. The blade sank deep into the sand. Gripping it firmly, Charlotte detonated the mana inside her body. A dazzling light flashed across her blue eyes. Leaving the raging aura behind her, her soft crimson lips recited the activation words—the words that would unfold her own domain.
“Swords, be dyed.”
Charlotte-style Domain Swordsmanship Secret Art
Ash Garden
Rumble—! Vines of steel surged from the earth, swirling around us like a storm. They intertwined, sliced one another, and formed a single vast landscape—a splendid rose garden in full bloom. When Charlotte lightly twisted her sword, thousands of blades scattered like flower petals and rode the incoming gale forward.
Crashcrashcrash—! The violent beach. The two ferocious storms collided and tangled fiercely. Blood and petals sprayed in every direction.
“Haa…”
Amid the deafening roar, she leveled her sword. The woman playing the discordant melody was now reflected in Charlotte’s once-transparent pupils.
***
Charlotte and the Conductor’s thought form. The battle continued with fierce intensity. The thought form pressed forward with an overwhelming volume of magi, and each time Charlotte neutralized the threat with precise defense or counterattack. Especially when the distant blade energy struck true, the waves shook violently.
“……”
I simply watched. In the fight I limited myself to light support, never attempting a direct strike. I wanted to gauge exactly how much Charlotte had grown. Only with a clear standard for the present could I make proper plans for the future.
Charlotte did not question my stance.
—I have no intention of revealing your identity. You don’t seem like a bad person.
—I’m simply… curious about someone like you.
Since she already knew about my power, she seemed to trust that I would handle things appropriately. The girl merely focused on her own battle.
Clang!Kagagak…!Thud!
The Conductor’s thought form. Charlotte was holding her own in a near-even match. An enemy that should have appeared around the second year, yet she was evenly matched while still in her first year—an encouraging sign. Moreover, unlike the children whose growth I had directly intervened in, Charlotte had developed entirely on her own. She truly deserved to be called the greatest genius in the story.
Of course.
That doesn’t mean she’s perfect.
Because this was still the first-year point, there was a clear gap compared to the third-year Charlotte I remembered. Her swordsmanship still had room to grow, and her ultimate technique, Ash Garden, had not yet taken on its proper hue. Those things would likely be resolved with time.
Because she’s a genius.
At least where growth was concerned, I wouldn’t need to worry. There were complicated issues regarding the “rose,” but those were matters I could resolve without difficulty.
I organized the situation in my head. While I was momentarily distracted, Charlotte suddenly staggered. She dropped to one knee; it seemed her stamina had finally reached its limit. Rough breaths escaped her lips.
“Haa… haa…”
Her domain was half-destroyed. The once-solid garden lay in ruins, the steel roses snapped and broken. The bushes were withering, starved of mana. Charlotte caught her breath for a moment, then looked at me with an expressionless face.
“Sorry. This is my limit.”
So subduing the enemy alive had been too much after all. I nodded at her declaration of surrender.
“You did excellently, Your Highness.”
“If the goal had been to kill her, I might have managed. Capturing her alive made it difficult.”
“You simply need to become stronger. It’s fine.”
“I was supposed to buy time. Was this enough?”
“More than enough.”
“That’s a relief.”
Charlotte gave a faint smile and sat down completely. She didn’t seem particularly afraid. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say her emotions themselves felt faint. In many ways she was a girl who existed on a completely different wavelength.
Leaving the exhausted princess behind, I took a step toward the thought form that glared at us. The woman remained in the middle of the sea, still playing her violin.
“Will you be all right? She wasn’t an ordinary opponent.”
“No problem.”
“Yeah. With your power, it should be possible.”
“The sea full of magi is troublesome, but if I cross it in a single leap, that’s all there is to it.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“If you could draw her attention for just a brief moment, that would be good.”
“Understood.”
“I’ll give the signal.”
I raised a blue screen in the air to check the remaining output.
Ding!
Current Remaining Output: 82.7%
It was a comfortable margin. I loosened my fingers lightly, then gave the girl the signal that would decide the moment I stepped forward.
“Now.”
“Yes.”
Srrrng—
Charlotte seized the sword she had dropped. She closed her eyelids as though focusing, then scraped together every last drop of mana left in her body. A blue aura swirled around her. Whoooosh—! A sudden gust swept across the sandy beach. Brilliant light bloomed at the tip of her blade, dyeing the air pure white. As if opposing the dark-red landscape, a sword strike rained down like a white curtain. It was a dazzlingly beautiful scene meant to seize attention.
“Kiaaaaa!!”
Perhaps sensing the unusual current, the thought form widened its eyes. Rotten blood dripped like tears down its lifeless cheeks. The woman adjusted her grip on the bow, preparing for the coming attack. Within her blackened pupils, only the platinum-blonde figure was reflected.
But.
“That was a feint, you know.”
A full-powered fake. By pouring all the remaining mana into a flash of light, it became nothing more than a harmless luminescence effect—in other words, a wholehearted Lie.
The real move came from behind.
Clap—!
The crisp sound of applause rang out. In the next instant I stood behind the thought form. It spun around in surprise, but my hand was faster. I seized its neck.
Crunch—!
“……!”
Its dead lips could not even scream. As I gripped its throat with enough force to snap it, the thought form flailed its limbs in a desperate attempt to shake me off. It was meaningless resistance. The shadows I had already released had bound the woman’s body like a spider’s web.
“……!!”
Was this its final struggle? It plucked the violin strings. Ting—! A bitter noise rang out, and the magi spread across the sea began to swirl. The dark-red traces merged into a giant wave, as though intending to drag us into the depths.
Gurgle!!
Waves convulsed with a grotesque sound. The magi scattered in the air gathered at a single point, forming dark-red clouds that became a massive storm. As a final act it was incomparably more violent than before, yet I remained unmoved.
“……Pfft.”
I simply scoffed. It was a futile, meaningless gesture. I felt a faint pity.
“Hear my call.”
I recited the verse calmly.
“The Lord immediately said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’”
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
The wind ceased.
Because it calls the lost lamb.
I lifted the eyelids I had kept lowered. Transparent, pure-white pupils. They held both light and darkness and flickered eerily. Following the holy gospel, the sea that had raged like a storm grew calm and still. A serene landscape without the slightest noise.
I infused a Lie into my fingertips. The shadows creeping upward dyed the surrounding air black. And then—
“Shatter.”
The direct statement that would bind all sin. Huge cracks formed across the sky. Crack, craaaack—! As if a mirror were breaking. The blood-mist-covered background shattered into pieces, and blue sky began to show through the gaps. The woman I held slowly regained her vitality.
Medro Gardnier.
Her eyes blinked blankly. She seemed unable to tell whether the current scene was a dream or reality. She had been submerged in a nightmare only moments ago.
“Saint…?”
A faint voice. I quietly drew her into my arms. Then I whispered into her ear.
“Let’s go back, my child.”
Before we knew it, we were standing upon a blue sea.