Chapter 87
Tokyo Magic University had established a sturdy defense against the zombie panic.
That said, what they were doing was simple. They had merely put up defensive magic around the university's perimeter to keep the zombies out, then fired arrows, bolts, and magic down at them from high places such as the academic buildings and the Ice Tower.
When zombies given false life suffered severe damage, their bodies collapsed, they underwent a magical death, and returned to dust. Otherwise, piles of zombie corpses would have formed around the university.
The zombies were nothing more than ordinary walking corpses with no special abilities whatsoever. They could not use magic, and if set alight, their tattered clothes caught fire and burned. They could not even get over the high, sturdy walls of defensive magic; at most, they could scratch at them or try to push through.
The Blue Witch could have gone outside the university and dealt with them through sheer physical force without even needing magic, but there were simply far too many of them. In addition, remembering the assault by the Arataki Group, the Blue Witch had chosen to stay right beside Professor Ohinata without leaving her side.
The command post on the roof of the academic building was occupied by professors who had been caught up in the zombie panic because they had remained in their laboratories until night. The professors who were not at the command post and the unlucky students who had stayed late were helping repel the zombies.
The ones discussing the situation around a map spread across a table, lit by magical fire, were Professor Sendo of the Monster Studies Department, Professor Inui of the Mutation Studies Department, and Professor Tsukumosawa, a professor of general education courses.
Professor Sendo listened to a report from his eyeball familiar, nodded, and wrote a new number on the map over Mitaka City.
Then he surveyed the entire map, pushed up his glasses with his index finger, and reached a conclusion.
"Apparently, the Witch of Setagaya, who was allied with the zombies, was defeated by the Witch of Mitaka.
Judging from the uneven distribution and density of the zombies, there is no doubt that their source was the territory controlled by the Zombie Witch. The reason they appeared in Bunkyo Ward was probably that they used the underground passageways. Even if humans cannot use them, zombies can pass through flooded sections without breathing.
It seems a considerable number also came from Saitama, but strictly speaking, that is not the case. Considering that the underground passageways cut off and collapsed during last year's prolonged rains cannot be used, it also explains why there are so few zombies in Shinagawa, where the underground route directly connecting it to Kunitachi has been completely blocked. Conversely, the underground passages connecting it to Saitama are still open. Rather than assume there is another source separate from the Zombie Witch, it would be more rational to conclude that the Zombie Witch's zombies traveled through the underground passages, gathered in Saitama, and are now invading Tokyo from the surface."
Next, Professor Inui of the Mutation Studies Department gave his findings while fluttering an anatomical chart.
"Our department performed pathological dissections on ten zombies in all, and we found no mutations in their bodily structures. They were unquestionably human. Magical death caused by massive bodily damage is not something that could happen to monsters or Transcendents, either. Nor did they possess Gremlins. Every one of them was a zombie created by the Zombie Witch's magic.
Combined with Assistant Professor Nanase's assessment, this completely eliminates the frame-up theory. We can safely conclude that the Witch of Setagaya was working with the Zombie Witch."
"......Um, is there any point in my being here?"
Professor Tsukumosawa of the general education courses raised her hand slightly and spoke in a sulky tone.
"I have no opinions left to offer. My specialties are history and astronomy, you know? I might be more useful joining the zombie hunt with a crossbow."
"That may be so, Professor Tsukumosawa, but it was you who came up with the idea of dragging an old crossbow out of the Combat Studies Department's storage and using it, wasn't it? We can never have too many clever people."
"Assistant Professor Nanase joined the repelling force right away......"
"Assistant Professor Nanase has undergone combat training. They say three people together are as wise as Monju, and you have no experience practicing with a crossbow, do you, Professor Tsukumosawa? Our arrows are limited, too, so please stay here."
At Professor Sendo's request, Professor Tsukumosawa nodded reluctantly. Sandwiched between two elderly professors of considerable authority, the relatively young female professor, still a newcomer, looked uncomfortable.
They had enough combat power to oppose the zombie panic. The problem was determining what the problem actually was. The professors put their heads together and repeatedly debated the incident's root cause and its full scope.
Professor Tsukumosawa mostly listened, asking only the occasional minor question. After a while, however, she looked back over the notes she had taken of the discussion from the beginning, raised her hand slightly, and spoke, even as she questioned her own idea.
"I had one thought. Could this zombie incident be a diversion?"
"A diversion? With nearly four million zombies deployed? No matter how you look at it, this is an all-out area-suppression operation. They secretly infiltrated zombies through every usable underground passageway, then took advantage of the darkness on the night of the new moon to spread across all of Tokyo at once in conjunction with an invasion from the surface. It was deliberate and cunning."
"But don't you think the ultimate objective is unclear? The invasion was certainly carried out skillfully. I did wonder whether an incident like this had occurred as expected while Future Sight was in Hokkaido.
But even so, the zombies' capabilities are unavoidably poor. There were no particularly powerful zombies, either. They could probably overwhelm magicians through sheer numbers, but they cannot stand against Transcendents. They simply lack the firepower at their core. At this rate, the witches would wipe them all out in less than three days. They seem to have been working with Setagaya, but this is nowhere near enough to face the entire Witch Gathering. In fact, Setagaya was defeated by the Witch of Mitaka alone.
This armed uprising has no endgame. I cannot believe that the Zombie Witch, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly awakened to an urge to destroy......"
"Hmm, that is true. We hear that they have attacked and occupied magic-tool shops, trade markets, and dynamite production facilities, but now that you mention it, causing all this just for those objectives is a weak justification. Even if they can occupy them temporarily, there is nothing to follow it up. It is certainly possible that they have another objective."
After hearing Professor Tsukumosawa's explanation, Professor Inui agreed with a satisfied nod. Professor Sendo nodded as well.
The three of them discussed what the real objective might be if the zombies rampaging through Tokyo were a diversion, but they could not come up with anything.
Concluding that the wisdom of Monju had taken them no further, Professor Inui decided to ask a witch's opinion.
He called loudly to the Blue Witch, who was some distance away, keeping Professor Ohinata at her side while firing magic within the range of natural recovery provided by the amulets.
"Blue Witch-sama! May I have a word? Someone suggested that this zombie uprising might be a diversion――――"
It was one hour before sunrise. The world was still dark.
After hearing that the zombie panic might be a large-scale diversion, the Blue Witch took Professor Ohinata to a secret room beneath the university and hid her there safely. Then she cast return magic and hurried to Okutama.
!?
The Blue Witch took shape from golden particles and returned to the backyard of the Dairi residence. The moment she opened her eyes, a gigantic fist of silver light, nearly as tall as she was, was rushing toward her face.
With inhuman reflexes, the Blue Witch activated the emergency defensive mechanism in her wand and deployed sturdy defensive magic. The silver fist collided with the defensive magic, became a torrent of light like a raging wave, and was diverted, blasting away the ground.
After the silver torrent, thunderous noise, and tremors passed, she turned around.
The Blue Witch shuddered when she saw the devastation. The ground had been gouged deeply in a fan shape from the defensive magic's point of impact, as if a missile had exploded there, and smoke was rising from it. If she had been even a moment slower in activating the emergency defense, she would have died.
The one-use absolute defense Dairi had built into the wand had unquestionably saved the Blue Witch's life.
The powerful magic's brief duration ended, and the Blue Witch glared toward the direction from which the silver fist had come, on maximum alert.
The Magic University's professors had been right. The zombie army had been a diversion.
The enemy had come to Okutama.
Standing beyond the thin smoke and fading silver remnants was a single boy.
He looked about ten years old. He had golden hair and murky black eyes. The eerie boy's entire body was covered in seams and stitches, and he held Demon King Gremlin in his hand as he smiled.
She did not recognize his appearance at all. It was an unfamiliar face.
"You're late, Blue Witch――――"
Yet the moment she heard the gentle, kind, pleasant voice the boy spoke in, the Blue Witch understood who the enemy before her was.
"!! Freezing Javelin!"
"―――Unfortunately. It's already too late."
The Blue Witch did not answer the words of her nemesis, Iruma the Wizard. Iruma the Wizard dodged the ice spear spell with half his body and was pursued by shooting magic cast without an incantation. But Iruma the Wizard also conjured a silver shield without an incantation and completely blocked the shooting magic despite his unbalanced stance.
Her trauma came flooding back. Her old anger and hatred surged up.
At the same time, however, a cold, sharpened murderous intent was awakened within her.
"That was an extremely refined spell cast without an incantation. But I'm not so easily outdone, am I?"
"Boil, my blood!"
A great mass of golden, petal-like objects erupted around Iruma the Wizard and rushed toward the Blue Witch. She chanted strengthening magic and sprinted at full speed. The golden petals that landed behind her transformed the ground they pierced into gold.
The storm of black beams she fired without an incantation as she ran was completely blocked by a silver dome deployed in every direction.
"Won't you talk? If that is what you want, I am prepared to resolve this through dialogue."
"That spear was made of ice, snow, and sorrow."
The Blue Witch answered with magic in the form of a trident. Iruma the Wizard avoided it by having golden tentacles seize him and fling him away.
The Blue Witch did not answer Iruma the Wizard's words. She did not speak.
If she had enough leisure to say even one word, it would be better spent firing one more spell.
She had already learned six years ago that talking with Iruma the Wizard was utterly pointless.
Why had Iruma the Wizard come back to life?
How had he broken through Okutama's defenses?
What was he plotting?
All of that was trivial.
Iruma the Wizard had to be killed here and now. That was the only thing she knew for certain.
The sight of the gruesome human experiments Iruma the Wizard had conducted at the expense of Ome's residents flashed through her mind, making her nauseous.
If she let him escape, it was terrifying even to imagine what kind of hell he would create.
She had realized after only a short battle that Iruma the Wizard was somehow weakened now.
He was firing unknown spells one after another without incantations, but in exchange, he could not use spells that required incantations.
His way of dodging and blocking magic also made it clear that his physical abilities had been severely impaired.
That was probably connected to the Spider Witch, whom she had glimpsed lying on her back and convulsing just outside the Dairi residence.
Okutama's defenses had been breached, but Iruma the Wizard had not escaped unscathed, either.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to finish off the cunning Iruma the Wizard.
"The pure white that monster spat out will... the world――――"
"Maybe you will listen if he says it. Dairi!"
At Iruma the Wizard's call, Dairi emerged from behind a general store that had been half-destroyed by the aftereffects of the magic.
The Blue Witch was deeply relieved that Dairi was alive, and furious at the sinister magical mark carved into his heart.
Her murderous intent toward Iruma the Wizard, which she had thought could grow no stronger, overflowed even further.
However, when Dairi entered the line of fire at an unguarded jog, the spell charged with the Blue Witch's murderous intent and magic fizzled out.
Iruma the Wizard stared at the dissipated magic, then widened his eyes and applauded as if moved.
"Love, Blue Witch! Wonderful. As I thought, love is the most precious, wonderful, and powerful thing in the world. Who would have thought a hostage would really work? People can change."
"Hey, Hiyori, would you mind getting killed? I'd be happy if you died and became a zombie."
"Irumaaaaaaa!!!"
Hearing the words Dairi spoke as though he truly wanted that, the Blue Witch could not hold back and let out a scream of hatred.
Iruma the Wizard laughed happily and, exploiting the opening, launched a gigantic silver fist he had woven together.
"We are the fortress!"
The Blue Witch activated Kyanos's compression ring and compressed the basic defensive magic used to create magical walls, condensing it into a single shield. The defensive magic, reinforced in its condensed form, was shattered by the silver fist. The silver torrent that punched through struck the Blue Witch hard as she tried to retreat with a backstep.
"Do your best, Blue Witch. You mustn't hurt him, all right? Come on, aim only at me!"
Laughing, Iruma the Wizard seized Dairi with golden tentacles and swung him around as an absolute shield against the Blue Witch.
Clinging to a final sliver of hope, she looked at Dairi, but he remained docile and unresisting, without even showing any sign of dislike.
The Blue Witch's position became overwhelmingly disadvantageous.
Unable to attack properly, the Blue Witch was tormented by the golden and silver magic of the laughing Iruma the Wizard.
Fortunately, it appeared that Iruma the Wizard also did not want to put Dairi in danger.
He used Dairi as a shield, but swung him around with enough care to avoid killing him, even if he might injure him.
Given that he had not put Dairi on the battlefield as a hostage from the beginning, and given Iruma the Wizard's utilitarian nature, it was clear that he would avoid killing Dairi—a weak, fragile, irreplaceable person of importance—as much as possible. He wanted Dairi intact.
However, it was equally clear that if danger threatened him, he would protect himself without mercy, even at the cost of Dairi's life.
Infuriatingly, Iruma the Wizard never misjudged the balance of profit and loss.
"You don't have a heart, but you did have one. Isn't that wonderful?"
"Gah......!"
The second silver fist struck her directly, though its point of impact had been shifted. The Blue Witch spun through the air and was blown away, landing on the riverbank and stopping only when she crashed into a waterwheel.
Holding himself in the golden tentacles, Iruma the Wizard came down to the riverbank with Dairi, looking cheerful enough to hum a tune.
The Blue Witch spat blood.
Her internal organs had been injured, and several bones were broken. Her left arm would not move.
The Blue Witch wept from the depths of despair.
Unable to bear the pain, she punched a stone on the riverbank.
Iruma the Wizard had to be killed here, without fail.
But to do that, she had to kill Dairi.
After being thoroughly battered, the Blue Witch finally accepted that there was no other path she could choose.
Iruma the Wizard kept his distance and watched her from afar without lowering his guard.
He was gauging the severity of her injuries from the blood she was coughing up and the bleeding.
The Blue Witch looked at Dairi, hanging in the air from the golden tentacles, and spoke from the bottom of her heart.
"Dairi. Please, could you tell me that you trust me?"
Before Iruma the Wizard could interrupt, Dairi immediately answered with an untroubled smile.
"Of course! I trust Hiyori more than anyone in the world."
At those words, the tears running down her cheeks stopped.
After wiping the blood from her mouth, the Blue Witch stood decisively on both feet and raised Kyanos. Iruma the Wizard sighed when he saw her.
"Dairi, you mustn't trust the enemy."
"Huh? Oh, all right. Then I won't!"
She blocked the silver arrows Iruma the Wizard fired without an incantation with a shield likewise conjured without an incantation.
Then the Blue Witch began gathering the magical power for a great spell.
Compared with the past, the Blue Witch's control over her magic had improved by leaps and bounds.
Her wand's functions had improved as well.
Even so, she could not control this spell. It was utterly impossible to hit only Iruma the Wizard while avoiding Dairi.
Cold spread from beneath the Blue Witch's feet, and the surface of the river began to freeze.
Iruma the Wizard saw the portent of the great spell and stepped backward.
"Oh...... Are you serious?"
Using Dairi as a shield, Iruma the Wizard tried to put some distance between them.
However, his feet were caught by ice shackles activated in parallel without an incantation.
The ice shackles were extremely weak. The brittle restraints would barely hinder even a child, but they were fatal to Iruma the Wizard, whose physical abilities had been greatly reduced.
With his feet caught, Iruma the Wizard fell, striking his body hard against the ground, and the golden tentacles vanished.
"You, sink into the glacier――――"
A wave of cold spread out. The trees along the riverbank gradually turned white.
Iruma the Wizard tried to make Dairi carry him, but Dairi's leg had been injured and he dragged it after being handled roughly—Iruma had only cared that his life was safe.
The volley of silver arrows fired in desperation was perfectly blocked by a translucent shield that imitated Iruma the Wizard's silver shield in an inferior form.
Realizing that his desperate struggles would not work, Iruma the Wizard let out a long, final sigh and raised both hands to signal his surrender.
Then the spell was complete.
"――――Sleep in the permafrost!"
"I wish you bad luck, Blue Witch. You are killing me for the second time. At least spend the rest of your long life suffering."
A pale-blue wave was released from the magical wand Kyanos.
The wave smashed through the three silver shields Iruma the Wizard had put up as though they did not exist, freezing everything in an instant.
A cold wind howled, sending diamond dust swirling through the air.
As beautiful white ice crystals danced around them, Dairi and Iruma the Wizard were trapped inside an iceberg and died.
Iruma the Wizard's corpse, given death once again after being granted false life, turned to dust inside the ice and vanished into a void from which it could never return.
Dairi's form, left alone inside the iceberg, looked as though he were sleeping.
The Blue Witch, left alone as the victor, placed a hand against the iceberg and bowed her head.
Dairi Kenshi had said that he trusted the Blue Witch, Aoyama Hiyori.
Even after being subjected to puppet magic, he had still said that he trusted her.
Then she had no time to cry. She had to answer that trust.
A long, long journey of suffering without Dairi was about to begin.
The Witch of the Kindled Flame had once said:
"Kill me with Great Glacial Magic and seal me away."
In the end, it was not carried out because she was sealed by another method, but the Witch of the Kindled Flame had understood the true nature of Great Glacial Magic.
The giant monster that had turned Tokyo into a sea of fire was killed by Great Glacial Magic.
The Witch of the Kindled Flame, who worked on thawing the giant monster's unmelting ice, noticed something strange.
The magical power possessed by every living thing gradually decreases upon death. There should be no exceptions to this.
Yet the giant monster, killed by Great Glacial Magic and imprisoned in ice, retained all of its body and magical power perfectly, no matter how much time passed.
It suffered no deterioration, magical or physical, as though it were asleep.
The giant monster remained dead, with time stopped, until it was thawed and exposed to the air, at which point deterioration began.
To a magical civilization, physical death was not death.
One could come back to life.
Great Glacial Magic was a spell that put someone to sleep until the day they were certain to come back to life.
The sun rose over the mountains beyond Okutama, and its light reached them.
Resurrection magic existed.
Humanity still did not know that, however.
Somewhere in the world, there was bound to be someone who knew resurrection magic.
Then she would search for it.
By any means necessary.
No matter whether it took decades, centuries, or millennia.
For the beloved person who had told her he trusted her, she would find resurrection magic without fail.
Unable to bear leaving him behind, the Blue Witch set off, looking back again and again and burning the sight of Dairi sleeping inside the ice into her memory.
The Blue Witch's long, long journey had begun.