108 - Episode 34: An Angel's Love Song Dedicated to the Golden Spider
(T/N: The author's note regarding lyrics and platform limitations has been omitted as per standard translation practice for the main text.)
The moment Alber's massive body closed in, Shannon reflexively threw Lumilia, whom she had been holding, to the side.
While apologizing in her heart to the small scream that rose, she stared straight ahead, and Alber had already raised a fist. Despite the wind-up being slow, the downward strike was at a speed that generated a shockwave. Shannon held her spear diagonally, barely parrying it by letting it slide along the shaft.
But, naturally, it did not end there.
A barrage of punches and kicks assaulted her. Because the setups were relatively slow and the trajectories easy to read, Shannon was able to dodge or parry all the consecutive attacks, but with every strike she blocked, her concentration and physical strength were drained.
After all, while the preparatory movements were sluggish, the attack speed exceeded the speed of sound. A mere graze shattered her light armor and tore her clothes, and even when she parried with her spear, the impact numbed her hands, eroding her grip and stamina.
"Ahahaha! This is fun! I didn't think it felt this good to move my body freely back then!"
"Kuh!"
And Alber was in high spirits. Without showing a shred of fatigue from the barrage, the attack speed accelerated even further, as if the body were just warming up.
Shannon attempted to set up an Afterglow to stop it, but...
...No! I'll catch Lumilia-sama in the crossfire here!
If she turned this place into a battlefield, Lumilia, who possessed no power to fight, would be caught in the aftermath. Therefore, timing her movement with Alber's raised fist, she stepped forward.
A downward-striking fist. Using that extended arm as a foothold, she leaped, drove her spear into the crown of Alber's head in a handspring-like motion, and landed behind him.
Against a human, that would have decided the match, but the feedback she received was a hardness as if she had dealt with a steel plate. Naturally, Alber turned around as if nothing had happened, his lips curling into a smirk.
Perhaps he disliked receiving a counterattack even if it wasn't damaging, for Shannon felt the temperature of his eyes drop slightly, contrary to his expression.
Therefore.
"────Over here!!"
"Oops, a game of tag? Fine by me! It's just right for warming up the body!!"
Confirming that Lumilia had vanished from Alber's consciousness, Shannon began to lure him toward the castle gates, backing away to further increase the distance.
●
"────Not a ceiling I don't know, but a sky I don't know."
Having suddenly woken up, Marianne tried uttering such a joke. However, realizing there was no one to react, and that it was merely a cringeworthy remark, she sighed and sat up.
(My, I had quite a nostalgic dream...)
A dream of a previous life from long ago.
Back when Marianne was still Jinnai Tsubamehiko, the encounter and parting with a girl who changed the way he lived thereafter. The regret and longing gained then formed the core of who she was.
(Thanks to that, I remembered. Your name.)
As if guided by those reminiscences, forgotten memories were unearthed one after another.
Yes, the name of the Golden Spider, which she knew but had forgotten.
"Marianne-sama..."
"Oh, Lumilia-sama. What is the matter? You are spacing out."
Marianne, who had even recalled the mystery of the shadow beasts, stood up while brushing off dust, and was called by Lumilia. Though she had been swallowed by Alberstein and nearly dissolved by gastric juices, having had quite an adventure, she was safe without any major injuries.
However, her expression was dark, reminiscent of a discarded puppy.
"I was left behind by Shannon."
"Hmm?"
"Just how powerless am I..."
She confessed in fragments.
"I heard that the failure of the ritual four years ago was not my fault. But I am responsible for not being able to see through it. The result of that is that Alber, and I can do nothing anymore."
"Why do you say you can do nothing?"
"What is needed now is the power to fight. Even if it is called secret arts, I can only do things like fairy-transformation to increase affinity with the spirit tree. Far from being useful to Shannon, I would only be a hindrance."
In the direction of her gaze, loud crashing sounds could be heard from the castle gates. They were fighting. Shannon was. But she could not go there. No, she could go. But what could she do once they joined forces?
"Why am I so..."
"It is because you keep looking down like that that you are powerless."
Marianne interrupted the words about being powerless.
She simply didn't like it. Seeing someone give up.
"If you stretch yourself and look up too much, you neglect your footing, and if you look down, you lose sight of the path you should take. So, look forward. Unless you start from there, nothing will change. ────At least, that is what I learned long ago."
"But, I────"
"But, however, because. How convenient. For making excuses."
She liked beautiful things, but a resignation that remained beautiful was utterly distasteful.
"Shannon said she likes you as a woman. Until just two weeks ago, she was moping and turning away from her own feelings, but she has become quite an interesting woman now."
"Eh..."
"As for power, you can just borrow it. As for fighting, you can just involve someone else. Because you try to do everything alone, you are crushed by that sense of powerlessness."
Then, what to do.
"It is fine to like what you like. It is fine to say it loudly. As long as you do not force it on others. ────Since I, who was once a child who didn't even realize that, am saying this, there is no mistake."
It was decided.
"Shall I ask again. ────Is there no absurdity (serious) you wish to destroy?"
Things she didn't like, she could simply rewrite into things she did.
As Marianne stared and questioned, Lumilia closed her eyes for a moment, then opened her mouth as if having made up her mind.
"────There is. I want to destroy the absurdity covering this country. And..."
It was a continuation of that day.
When asked the same question by Marianne in the Radock territory, she had wished for that. To destroy the absurdity that sought to destroy her homeland. But, she added one more selfish wish.
"I want to walk beside Shannon. Not behind, but beside. Not just to be protected, but to protect. ────It may be different from other people, but surely, that is my 'like'."
To the girl who finally spoke her true feelings, Marianne laughed softly and took a step forward.
"The understanding of others is not necessary. If you are convinced, satisfied, and the person standing beside you smiles and shares the same feeling──"
Fluttering the hem of her stage costume, she took a microphone from her storage magic.
"In another world, they call that love, desu wa."
She had heard her resolve. She had confirmed her feelings. All that remained was to kick away the bothersome idiot.
"Hyakki Yagyou────Come here, desu wa! My orchestra!!"
The summoned shadow beasts took up instruments, anthropomorphized, and obeyed Marianne.
Then, now is the time to call.
The King of the Shadow Beasts────a further absurdity (Great Demon) to smash the absurdity (Evil Fairy).
●
There is a myth called Ama-no-Iwato.
"────A beautiful tomorrow will never come"
In Japanese mythology, it is a cave where the sun goddess Amaterasu-Omikami hid away in anger at the atrocities of her younger brother Susanoo-no-Mikoto, and to open it, Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto danced, and everyone laughed and lured her out────or so it goes.
"But you are here Even if you lose your beauty You, still beautiful, are in my heart"
The Golden Spider was not hiding of its own accord, but its summoning (luring out) required a corresponding unknown.
"In these days when I'm alone I've been dreaming thought it was in vain"
Last time, it was surely attracted to the unknown soul that was Marianne.
"I hear the voice of you In this unreasonable cage, your voice"
However, by connecting the pass, for the Golden Spider, she had likely already become known rather than unknown.
"Before my memory fades, break this cage"
Therefore, the main body would not come out, and to the call, it lent a part of its authority────the power based on the contents of the ancient documents (the Seventy-Two Pillars of Solomon) that Marianne had obtained, known as the shadow beasts.
"Although I even fell in love with this absurdity"
Therefore, to leap beyond the known and carve an unknown melody into this world────she sang that song in an unknown language (English).
"But still, for you, I set off from here"
This stylish song, used as a special ED for a yuri anime and entrusted to her by the one she longed for, had shocked Marianne (Jinnai Tsubamehiko) when she was a high school student, and after heavy rotation, she had even perfectly copied it in the original key.
"If you call my name in the sky of another world"
Linked with the shadow beasts, she had them accompany her with that mellow rock melody, and sang the final verse with magic infused into her voice.
"────I will continue to exist only for you"
Immediately after, a giant magic circle was carved in the sky.
But still, the Golden Spider did not show its form.
Then, all that remained was to call its true name.
"Honestly────aren't you tired of sulking by now, desu wa?"
The seventy-third (...) of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Solomon.
An extra (...) that does not exist, a missing number (...) not even permitted to be in memory (lost...).
The Demon of Memory, the Grand General of Hell.
The king (supervisor) of the shadow beasts (Solomon Emulators).
And the only (...) summoned beast that Marianne Romanet contracted with.
That name is────.
"Come! Mishandra────!!"
Thus, the Golden Spider (Mishandra) manifests in this world.
Next time is next week.