Chapter 742 - Layering the Heat
"You're all truly… unbearable, aren't you…!"
Virtual sweat scattered with her words, evaporating in the heat she herself radiated.
They had played a truly monstrous trump card. And while maintaining the barrage that hounded Haru as he challenged it, they still directed the brilliant gleam of their magic toward her without leaving their post unguarded.
Sometimes, it was an explosive flame, just like hers. Sometimes, a water storm that was in no way inferior to her partner's. Sometimes wind, sometimes rock, sometimes lightning, sometimes ice… Against all this, Hinayo fought with only one thing: heat.
Only by raising her firepower to the Third Stage could she achieve a stalemate. This was a stalemate achieved while the Twin Wings were diverting enormous resources elsewhere.
She shouldn't think of this as two-on-one.
They were truly two as one, merely demonstrating their talent correctly. Therefore, this was the proper form of a contest of strength against those mages.
Thus, she had no complaints on that front.
Her complaint was a single one, directed not just at them, but at multiple people.
Everyone, just everyone, was so happily showing off their 'new moves'—
And yet, what she held was heat, and that alone. From the day she had thrown herself into this virtual world, through countless unspeakable struggles, and obtained the other half of her soul.
The only 'power' Hinayo could pursue was to simply raise its temperature.
No matter how she refined its form, no matter how much she tinkered with cheap tricks, in the end, her destination was simply to burn everything to ash with heat. More than once or twice, she had envied those with versatile skills. More than ten or twenty times, she had admired those who created beauty with their skillful maneuvers. More than a hundred or two hundred times, she had felt distant from those who discovered a new version of themselves.
…But.
"I'll leave the rest to you, then… Honestly."
After swallowing all that envy with none other than heat—
"…When a cute junior makes a request, I have no choice but to do my best to answer, do I?"
—the current [Heat Gaze] was as she was, and there was no hesitation in the gun she raised.
"[Fourth Bullet, Four-Winged Flame that Swallows Brilliance]!"
The trigger she squeezed was pulled with the pride she had built up and layered over time.
This was the current maximum firepower that Hinayo's Anima, [Nova Rescellerate, Mirror Illuminating Six Stars], could normally unleash. It was no longer merely 'flame,' but a manifestation of 'light.' It roared forth as the fourth shot, burning the very air as it went, taking the relentless, multicolored barrage of bullets with it. Its destination was a straight line toward—
"—Heechyaaa!?"
—her partner and junior, so adorable it was infuriating, who was currently playing with the shadow as sakura petals danced around him.
As her ears caught his shriek, her final support was executed without a hitch. As expected, her good boy caught the heat ray with his Sakura. After confirming that and catching a glimpse of the reproduction of Rep=La Nobody being sent flying by the aftershock out of the corner of her eye… she turned to face the stage entrusted to her.
With just over a minute left in the match, it was about time to begin the finale.
"[Eyes of Catastrophe, These Eyes Desire Ashes]."
She donned her burning crown, and in place of her twin guns, a flame lit upon her left fingertips.
Her target was her cute junior, and the one she looked up to. And what she unleashed was…
"I wonder how long it's been since the last time—Of course, you'll accept my challenge, won't you?"
—first, her words, before the cannon.
The eyes that received them were two pairs, four in total. The crimson and aquamarine eyes blinked… one pair curved into a smirk, and the other, for once, also formed a faint smile.
"—[Mi-Helnaria, Brush of Manifestation]."
"—[Ri-Zelnataku, Brush of Dream-Drawing]."
The heroes of the East needed no further prompting.
"'Spin and spin, spin with color.'"
"'Turn and turn, turn with disaster.'"
What manifested was a grand crown, two as one. What was woven was a duet, two voices with different words but the same sound.
""'It is the formless tyrant on the earth that scours the land.'""
""'It is the unjust ruler in the sky that rends the heavens.'""
It was a storm of magic, raging and taking shape with each passing moment. Hinayo watched it—her fingertips still shaped like a gun, unmoving.
"'Fear not, for what is shown here is a faceless mercy.'""
"'Waver not, for what is held there is the guidance to which you must return.'""
She wasn't allowing it. She wasn't asking for it. She wasn't acting.
At this moment, what the lady who held more heat than anyone else had her eyes fixed upon was…
""'O omnipresent true name, roar forth as such—to the beyond that no one can know.'""
…truly, how long had it been?
"Alright! Here we come, Hina-chan, are you ready!?"
"No holding back…!"
"Just what I wanted!"
This was simply what lay at the end of a serious battle.
""[Fatal Zephyr Emerald Line]!!""
That dazzling victory, and nothing else.
"[Ars Nova, Gaze of the Brilliant Queen]."
And so, the bullet was fired—and wind and heat manifested upon the stage.
It was not a complicated affair in the slightest. It was a clash of pure, unadulterated power.
It was a giant spear woven from countless threads of wind, compressed by truly supernatural power to the point of being visible. And it was a colossal flash of heat, truly like the sun itself. A clash between powers on a scale that should not be permitted to an individual was synonymous with a collision of natural disasters themselves. All the onlookers could observe was the violence of light and sound—
Which is to say… very few would have been able to determine that they were not evenly matched.
"Tch…—Still… not enough… huh…!"
Feeling a pressure from her fingertips that she could never hope to resist, it was [Heat Gaze] who let her frustration slip.
This was the maximum firepower she could currently unleash, having surpassed the ordinary through the power of her crown. Or more accurately, the maximum firepower that the current Hinayo could draw out from the other half of her soul, her Anima.
She could bare her fangs, but that was all.
The heat that the current Hinayo held was still just slightly… not enough—
◇◆◇◆◇
"—What… the hell… is this…!?"
To be honest, I was in a situation where I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I was still alive, even with my complete resistance to one of the parties.
The clash between absurd firepower and idiotic firepower had unceremoniously ended my one-on-one with the shadow. I was sent flying by an impact that was probably a grand magic spell in itself, but I had calmly used [Flash Traveler] to kill my inertia and land on my feet. That was a hundred percent a miracle. As an added bonus, since I was blown toward Hina-san's side, I was spared from having my bright red health bar chipped away by the aftershock of the wind… but.
The very fact that I was blown this way probably told the story of the difference in their powers. My thought that she was being pushed back was apparently neither my imagination nor a mistake.
She was being overpowered. Definitely.
Even though it had no color, I could see it. I could make out the heat being scattered, little by little, by the incomprehensible violence of the wind. In conclusion, they were both monsters. When you get to this dimension, the difference in power is probably a trivial matter. All one can offer is awe and praise. Honestly, win or lose, I can't do anything but applaud.
…But, but, just before the sun appeared on stage, I saw the will for victory in my big sister's eyes, so I couldn't just stand by and watch her lose. I turned the same gaze as my partner toward the enemy.
I looked, and said one thing.
"Phantom Cherry Blossom Fragment."
And then, I thrusted my left hand forward.
Its murderous intent moved exactly as I had perfectly, breathtakingly predicted. Buffeted by the aftershock of the clash between two techniques so grand they could hardly be called mere special moves, I was helplessly plastered against the wall, and it came straight for me. The same single-minded focus as the last minute or so. Without a single glance at anything else, the shadow came to claim my life with its own claws. I thrust the Sakura Memento—which had received fuel time and again from my partner and become a greatsword easily surpassing the height of my transformed body—straight at it.
As for the myriad magic circles that had instantly surrounded me upon its arrival, I'd just let my reliable red star-sword, Stella, handle them. I could completely ignore them.
Anyway, I know your game. If you're in a position to block, you'll almost certainly try to catch my attack with those prized claws of yours, a smug look on your featureless face. And I've known since I fought you with Arche. I know the limit of those claws—the number of attacks or impacts you can nullify at once is two, one for each hand!!
"[Ouka Kenran]!"
Go on, try and stop this—The final sword unleashed by the Sakura Memento in its super-charged state is an instantaneous ultra-combo, with the number of hits corresponding to the number of petal-blades it has absorbed.
GRRRGH—, ——————
The petals were released, a storm of cherry blossoms raging wildly. The claws that had blocked my sword exactly as I'd planned were shredded and annihilated along with both of its arms. The blade of the sacred sakura reached its body and pierced the chest of the shadow beast.
As always, there was no sound. At this point, it was probably just that kind of magic. I didn't care if I couldn't finish this thing here. More important than that, what I had to decide was where to fire.
I only had a split second.
A single moment before the reproduction of the shadow, which was probably not an entity that could be defeated in the first place, shook off the hundreds of attack judgments buried in its chest and took my head. A single moment before the Sakura Sword, its duty fulfilled, scattered into blossoms, and I was inevitably reduced to a useless Level 1, though it would reset after the match. There was no time to move my hands, no time to move my legs. All I could rely on were my eyes.
With the power of the [Hellgread Ignis]—a magic stone that burns by copying the nature of the magic it touches—what would I see with the eyes of [Heat Gaze] that now dwelled within this body?
In that instant, a small heat burst forth.
Compared to the sun-like light fighting against the absolute wind, it was a tiny flame. But compared to an ordinary fire, it was an immense, brilliant explosion.
It was born within the spear formed by the raging wind. The heat born in the midst of the power the mages had brought into the world drew in more heat.
And so they mixed, and the single flash of light swelled, if only slightly. In response, the formless storm, its belly torn open, had its fury disrupted, if only slightly… and thus its course was altered. The heat from my eyes, which had been just a little bit short, received the help it needed—
—and, blazing crimson, it burst forth, incinerating everything.