Ep.11 - The Dark Mage and the World Tree (3)
"Hey...! Focus! Fuuuck..."
Riko's shout snapped Chichi back to her senses. When she looked toward the front line, Riko was collapsed on the ground, badly injured, receiving treatment from Helen.
"Stop spacing out in a situation like this and do your damn job first!"
It was a fair point. Which was exactly why Chichi grew even more agitated.
The whole thing gave her a headache — the fact that this grueling battle, this exhausting struggle, was happening only inside her own head.
It was strange. Ever since meeting him, she kept having these unpleasant experiences.
All the composure she once possessed had shattered, and her heart, always so quiet and still, was now battered by storms and tossed in turmoil.
"Enough! Chichi, please take care of Eva...! We'll finish this!"
What was love? What were emotions?
Why did they keep making her heart ache like this?
Chichi, who had always monopolized everyone's admiration and envy, found herself shrinking in this party. She kept catching sight of her own pathetic flaws, and watching Delin turn toward the other women stung her heart.
"Neva! We have to end it now!"
"Now...!"
The stumbling black mage finally lost her balance under Neva and Kaede's attacks,
and seizing that opening, Riko, having finished recovering, spun swiftly and tore into the lich's abdomen with her dagger. Just as a crocodile thrashes its prey in a death roll, her dagger churned through and devoured everything inside.
The lich was nearly immune to physical damage, but with the accumulated damage from before combined with Riko's venom spread through every bone and shred of flesh, it finally dropped to its knees.
"Haah, fuuuck... that was shitty and exhausting. Kill it for good before it pulls some other weird crap."
Chichi bit her lip as she watched the women try to deliver even the finishing blow. Even without her, they were so strong they seemed able to break through any obstacle.
"P-Professor! Are you okay?"
Only Eva, who had rushed over on trembling legs, poured her concern onto Chichi. In the middle of all this, Chichi clenched her fist tight and squeezed her eyes shut.
She had thrown everything away to chase after Delin, yet ironically, all that remained were the bonds from Raftel.
"W-Well? Of course I'm fine. You think a witch like me would be taken down by an enemy like that?"
"I'm so relieved... I-I was so scared... I-I mean, so..."
...Chichi suddenly became aware of one thing. Beneath Eva's skirt was damp, and a faint trickle was running down her legs...
"P-Please help me with this... I-I used up all my mana..."
"..."
Chichi stood blankly for a moment, staring at Eva, then soon shook her head and cleaned up Eva's lower half.
With magic, she dried her completely, without a single trace of moisture, leaving not even a scent.
"Th-Thank you... h-hic... I was so scared..."
Thinking about her own situation — reduced to wiping up piss and casting miscellaneous junk spells like these — Chichi grew despondent and hung her head low.
How on earth had the great witch Chichi come to suffer such humiliation...
"Even so, Professor...! Your magic is always pretty, and perfect, and the best! To me, you've always been the best, Professor!"
Now she even felt like she was receiving pity from Eva, and Chichi could only nod weakly.
"Really! Professor, your mana..."
"W-Wait!"
Then, suddenly,
Chichi shouted, alerting everyone.
Something from the black mage that only she, a master of magic, could feel...
"This is...?"
Chichi was faster at casting magic. The wave of her staff immediately drew small magic circles above all the women's heads.
And those magic circles descended rapidly, gathering all of the women near Chichi herself. Forcibly relocating such immensely strong individuals came with tremendous strain, but Chichi alone could endure it.
"Everyone behind me!"
Neva, quick to grasp the situation, immediately raised her shield and stepped out in front of everyone. Following her lead, all of them grabbed hold of Neva's body and...
"...What the hell."
tried to brace themselves,
when before their eyes appeared a kind of magic they had never seen in their lives.
"What is that..."
Above the dumbfounded Riko's head, some kind of mark appeared. She was not alone. Above Neva's, Eva's, and Kaede's heads too, that ominous mark appeared.
The thing, like a small crystal, was connected to a bizarre vortex the black mage was creating in front of herself, sending forth thin streams of light—
and only Chichi could look at that configuration and deduce the attack that would follow.
"Th-That's..."
And only Chichi could despair at it.
"Everyone jump back! Quickly!"
Chichi's urgent cry followed. The women, having no idea what was happening, retreated at her command, but Chichi shouted even louder.
"I said run! Everyone except you, Helen!"
Only Chichi and Helen remained on the front line. Helen smiled quietly and asked Chichi,
"What do you need me to help with?"
"Keep that black mage's mana in check like you did before. We have to sever the connecting light. We can't kill it in one blow...!"
Chichi's eyes fixed on the black mage. Having already conjured a blur of countless arms, the thing continued condensing the strange vortex it had formed in front of itself.
In response, an even stronger light was drawn from the small crystals floating above the women's heads. From the heads of those fleeing far away...
"Nngh...!"
Chichi kept firing attacks at the black mage with one hand, while with the other she forged a blue sword and condensed power into it. Helen too clung to her blue sword and poured her strength into it with her prayers.
"J-Just a little more..."
The shape of the sword gripped in her left hand began to vibrate fiercely. It gave off a sensation that was downright chilling.
Magic that a single human being could scarcely dare to handle was being prepared.
"More, more...!"
Continuously amplifying its power, Chichi exerted herself, somehow suppressing the sword that was trying to rampage madly.
Yet the anxiety piling up in a corner of her heart — the fact that her heart was churning just like her magic — was it because the black mage was taking no countermeasures at all, even while beholding this unimaginably dangerous magic?
Those ghastly green pupils were clearly staring straight at her magic...
The black mage took no measures whatsoever. She simply compressed the vortex into a single point and drew what she desired from it.
The light, the darkness, and the eerie currents converging into a small point subsided quietly...
then gradually swelled in size and began sucking in everything around it.
The light of the stars embroidering the sky,
the weakest little witch among those fleeing behind, and the sturdy body of Neva holding onto her and bracing,
Kaede's tail as she held onto the two being pulled and dug in, even Riko gripping that tail tightly, stabbing her dagger into the ground and trying to hold on—
everything began to be drawn in. The only ones not being drawn in were Chichi and Helen.
Helen glanced at the women being pulled in the distance and asked Chichi. Her words carried a trace of worry.
"Shouldn't you swing it now?"
"Not yet...!"
Chichi knew.
She had to gather just a bit more to completely sever the black mage's magic.
She could shatter that thing that was increasing its pulling force, devouring everything.
Chichi's eyes met the black mage's. One was struggling desperately, blood seeping from her lips, while the other watched that struggle with an utterly cold face...
"Nnnngh...!!"
Chichi lifted the sword-form she had gathered with all her might and slashed the space before her wide open.
Following the direction of the strike, the light, the darkness, all the air, and even the dismal aura were all cleaved apart. Just as Moses parted the sea, Chichi's magic parted and tore through everything.
"Keuheup...!"
And yet.
Chichi's magic ultimately could not surpass the black mage's.
The pulling force had finally swallowed everything. It swallowed so fast that Chichi could not even properly see the other women as they were dragged into the black mage's magic.
Cough, cough—
A blood-tinged cough burst from the overstrained Chichi's mouth, and Helen sank down, having likewise overexerted herself considerably.
That was the end of the battle.
All that remained was a slight wrinkle in the clothes, left by Eva's right hand that had gently clutched the tip of Chichi's shoulder.
"..."
Chichi looked at the black mage. The black mage, who had swallowed the four women, was staring at her own hand in silence. From that hand, a violet mana of unknown meaning was rising.
And that mana was soon aimed at Chichi and Helen. She was not the sort to leave her enemies alive.
But the black mage...
"...Witch, and human who wields holy power. You two, follow me."
With those words, she withdrew her mana and lowered her hand. She did not finish them off.
The lich had thrown off the robe that had covered her face completely, revealing newly sprouted flesh, as if she had been reborn as an elf once more.
All manner of magic tattoos had surfaced across her body, and bizarre linear patterns were engraved upon it, so it took quite a long while to accept that this was bare flesh.
"It's already over. I have lost."
The elf black mage said. It was something Chichi could not comprehend. She was even stronger than before. A mighty mana of immeasurable depth, yet a mana that flowed quietly and steadily, could be felt.
"Follow me."
And yet, the black mage declared her own defeat and began walking quietly.
Chichi turned her head with great effort and looked at Helen. Helen, of course, also looked at Chichi.
The two had no choice. All they could do was meet each other's gazes and watch the black mage's retreating figure.
Looking at the afterimage of the black mage shining in violet, the two came to feel a quiet truth emanating from her. It was something of an entirely unfamiliar kind.
Slightly sorrowful, and yet somehow tender...
such was her mana.
The ashen mana had already been buried and vanished within that violet mana.