Chapter 81
-Grind.
'Ten minutes, if you can call it that...'
It was anyone's guess how much longer I could hold out against the thing that had already begun to catch up with StellarShift.
-Rustle...
The long white hair that normally streamed down my back had been partially and clumsily cut short today, leaving it uneven.
[Alice? Are you okay?]
'...It doesn't matter.'
It was uselessly heavy hair that I maintained solely for the sake of the concept, anyway.
Even if a little of it had been cut off, it only put me in a slightly bad mood. I felt nothing beyond that. If I had been a real woman, I might have been shocked that hair I had painstakingly grown had been cut, but mine was a fake created by transformation.
In any case, if I dispelled the transformation and transformed again, I would return to Alice's usual appearance.
'If anything, losing some weight is a good thing. It's not as though I grew it because I wanted to.'
[...Be careful. That thing is much smarter than Leviathan.]
'I can tell that at a glance, you damn rabbit.'
Why was it only telling me something as obvious as the fact that the sky was blue now, an hour later?
'Instead of wasting time saying that, tell me its weakness. Do you know anything? It's rare to see an Abyssal this talkative, going on about being a knight and a gardener.'
[The Abyss isn't exactly small... It's a dimension that invades other dimensions. It's vast and powerful, incomparably larger than Earth, so do you really think there are only one or two Abyssals calling themselves kings across all that land?]
'...Annoyingly true.'
The mascots had never actually visited the Abyss either, so they did not know the details.
Still, there was information they had inferred from their long battles.
The Abyss was... incredibly vast. It truly lived up to its name: an endless expanse where monsters born from its depths crossed into other dimensions to gather negative energy and return so they could survive.
Even Earth must have had hundreds, perhaps thousands, of “self-proclaimed nations” throughout history. How many lunatics calling themselves queens could there be in an Abyss far larger than Earth?
Considering Tokkaengi and the other Abyssals I knew, there had to be at least hundreds of those “self-proclaimed kings.” Unlike the mascots' world, the Abyss was not managed by a single transcendent being; it was a world where the strong preyed on the weak.
[In the first place, that Abyssal is powerful enough to claim a suitable territory and call itself king. The fact that something like that is obediently following another Abyssal's orders means... what on earth is above it...?]
<Are you conversing with a doll?! You have time for that with an enemy in front of you? I see you still have plenty of leisure!>
-Kwaaang!!
"Ngh!"
I already had minor wounds all over, and my legs in particular, after being driven relentlessly through a life-or-death chase, were screaming even under Alice's enhanced magical power.
That did not mean I could stop.
-Thump, thump.
Merely bringing down that heart-like, pulsating sword created a crater large enough for dozens of people to fit inside; trying to block it head-on would be suicide.
-Tremble... tremble...
"Haa... haa..."
<Weren't you the one who introduced yourself earlier as the hero who captured a sea dragon? Where did that spirit go, contractee?>
"Sh...ut up. People exaggerate a little, you know..."
'These damned bastards... I'm really reaching my limit...'
It was a miracle that I had held out this well until now.
Even if Leviathan had been easy to dodge because it was huge but stupid, this one was built for fighting people, and its destructive power was no worse than Leviathan's.
Not all S-rank Abyssals were the same. The rank was merely an arbitrary label attached for convenience... Not all S-ranks were on the same level...
<I can see you now. Try dodging this one too, contractee.>
-Whoosh!
The sword came at me again with a murderous sound.
I couldn't get away by simply rolling on the ground. Despite its brutish size, it controlled its direction with astonishing skill, so anyone trying to dodge had to kick off the ground properly; in my current condition, I couldn't jump completely beyond the sword's reach.
It wasn't an opponent ignorant of that, either... Just as it had said, it was probably trying to lure out StellarShift.
[StellarShift]
'If I keep showing it this...'
Huh.
-Swoooosh!!
Why, already... here...?
-Wham!!
"K...gh..."
-Thud! Thud! Crash!
"Keh... cough..."
-Tremble... tremble...
Its fist... no, its forearm slammed into my abdomen, and the impact sent me rolling backward for a long while before I finally managed to come to my senses.
"Urk... blegh..."
The pain surging from my abdomen was so intense that I could barely get words out, but instead of suppressing the nausea rising from that impact, I deliberately let it come up. I even deliberately aggravated it.
It was an unsightly scene for a magical girl to show, but I didn't think there was any lunatic filming this scene calmly. Even if there was, surviving came first for now.
"Hoo... hoo... You son of a bitch..."
-Quiver...
Even immediately after vomiting, the pain still wracking my body naturally made my legs tremble, but I raised my head, filled with the anger of the moment.
<Hmm. I was aiming with my fist, but you dodged it. You are certainly a useful warrior. You would be more than qualified to become a new gardener.>
"Shut up... bastard. You expect me to serve as a knight to some crazy bitch who keeps playing kingdom games even after she's dead? Your head's fallen off, so that's the kind of crap you spout."
<I thought your speech was foul despite not matching your appearance. Clearly, physical pain increases the intensity of one's insults. As expected, people seem much the same even across dimensions.>
"Good for you, you bastard..."
'...Hoo.'
I could feel that I couldn't go on like this.
StellarShift was blocked. I had to use StellarShift to evade attacks, but if I used it incorrectly, the attack could strike a vital point and make dodging meaningless.
Just now, I had somehow twisted my body slightly at the last moment, so it had been satisfied with hitting me with its forearm; if I had been hit by the fist as intended, at best I would have suffered ruptured organs, and under normal circumstances, I would nearly have had a fist-shaped hole punched straight through me.
'...I guess it can't be helped.'
This was certainly not the time to keep holding back.
-Whirr...
-Flash!
<...Hmm? What did you do?>
"I emptied some of my emergency reserves."
I dispelled Stellar Escape, my unique magic that manipulated the light normally directed at Alice so that cameras could not capture her.
This gave me some breathing room in terms of magical power. Since the computational capacity I had unconsciously kept allocated while in Alice's form was freed up as well, I could say I had more leeway than before.
However, that only meant I had dipped into my emergency reserves, as I had just said. If having a little more magical power had been enough to beat this Abyssal to death, I would have dispelled it and pummeled it from the beginning. I had kept it active by force because I couldn't do that, and I never knew when civilians or cameras might be watching from somewhere nearby.
If I got caught on camera now? Well, there was nothing I could do about it. Alice was human too. She could swear a little while fighting an Abyssal. It might even be reinterpreted as a concept where she never swore at people but let loose at Abyssals.
'I'll think about that after I survive first.'
-Hiss...
[Emerald, how much longer? It's almost been ten minutes.]
[J-just a little! Hang in there just a little longer! You're okay, right? Huh? Your stomach's okay, right?]
Emerald had already been sending worried messages ever since the Abyssal punched me in the abdomen and sent me flying, but I had told Emerald not to worry about me and to hurry up, finish things, and come here.
[...I can't hold out like this. I'm going to use a big one, so support me properly on your end.]
[What? Now? More importantly, where did you get that magical power? It suddenly just...]
-Flash!
Alice's staff, which I usually swung at close range and used for combat.
It was certainly large enough and its center of gravity was well balanced, so using it posed no problem, but the real Alice resolved most fights with long-range magic.
The reasons were... “Alice's fighting style must be elegant,” and “that alone was enough to solve things.”
Starlight Shower, Luna Blast, Fractal Nova, and so on—I also frequently used Alice's long-range magic. Since it lacked sufficient firepower on its own, however, I often ended up swinging the staff at close range.
<...This is no ordinary technique. Is that your ultimate move?>
"Did you know that stars come out even during the day?"
<...What did you say?>
"The sun, the star closest to us, comes between us and the other stars, but the stars are actually always there. We simply can't see them because we fail to look, having turned our eyes elsewhere."
Ah, this was an incantation. It wasn't as if I wanted to say such ridiculous things.
Alice could use most magic without an incantation... but I couldn't perfectly copy this spell, so I had no choice but to chant. More precisely, it was an incantation meant to follow the way the original Alice used magic as closely as possible.
-Spark!
"So Alice wondered. How could she make that starlight always reach Alice... and everyone?"
I raised the staff high with one hand and clutched my head, which was screaming in real time, with the other.
It required an overwhelming amount of computation—something I hadn't even dared attempt while maintaining Stellar Escape. It was magic of such insane difficulty that, if the brain had been an electrical circuit, I would have heard sparks flying.
That girl had cast this magic with a playful remark and a smile on her face.
<...!>
You thought this attack would be different now, didn't you?
If it had been her instead of me, your skull would already have been crushed.
-Spark! Spark! Spark! Spark!
<Yes...! Accepting an opponent's technique is also a knight's duty! If this is your symbol, then I shall endure it for Her Majesty's honor!>
The sky opened. Though it was still bright in the afternoon, countless tiny stars appeared overhead, as though jewels had been stamped across the sky, turning it into night.
Each blink doubled their number. The stars that had barely been visible at first multiplied with every few blinks, swelling like a wave made of stars, until they began to form a Milky Way like the one at night—indeed, one even more crowded.
Then, at last, one of the countless stars hanging in the sky dropped with a plop, and the countless starlights following it raced toward some destination, as if they had realized that this was not where they belonged.
The stars were heading toward... the knight whom my staff, once pointed at the sky, now tilted to indicate: a figure much larger than a human, yet less than a speck of dust against the universe.
"Do you understand now? The answer is..."
-Ba-ba-ba-ba-bam!!!!
<Krrgh....!! Krrrgh...!!!!>
Before my words could continue, the stars' trails reached the knight.
[Alice in Cosmos]
"...Alice doesn't know either."
The incantation ended with the gesture of lowering an invisible hat from above my head with my hand.
...Ah. I overdid it.
-Eeeeeee
-Whum!! Whum!! Thud!!
I managed to finish the incantation just before my head exploded, but I had already poured out everything I had.
My vision narrowed, and I could no longer hear anything.
Vibrations that did not depend on hearing traveled through my entire body, but because I had also thrust the staff forward, I couldn't use it to support myself, and I felt my field of vision tilt.
I had recently received Mental Cure and been sleeping fairly well, so I thought my condition was good enough to attempt this once... but I had nearly let the magic burn my brain to a crisp.
'Tokkaeng... tell Emerald...'
Alice's ultimate move... More precisely, it was the strongest technique I could use, but even with this, I wasn't confident I could defeat that Abyssal in one blow.
This was an S-rank Abyssal different from Leviathan... At the very least... it would take one or two more ultimate moves from other S-rank magical girls to exterminate it. That attack would... at best, take off half its health.
That alone was impressive... but what good was it if I died?
'...Ah. Kariel should have been here.'
An S-rank support-type magical girl and the number-two-ranked magical girl. She definitely would have had a favorable matchup against that Dullahan, which made her absence all the more unfortunate.
'...I hope as many of them as possible are still alive.'
...Otherwise, there would be no point in fighting with my life on the line like this.
This time...
...This time, I hope there will be even fewer people left grieving.