Jungle on every side, a bottomless gorge at their flank.
In that harsh landscape, thunderous booms kept ripping the air.
"Ha!!!"
Alicia, wreathed head to toe in roaring flame, drove her longsword at "Silence" again and again.
But the blade never reached its target. An invisible bulwark caught every stroke.
Damn it! How is she this strong!?
Alicia was going all out, yet the woman before her turned aside every attack with ease.
Did Tsunayoshi give her extra spells?
No—that's unlikely.
A flash of red at the edge of her vision—Alicia reacted first, leaping.
Clang!
A katana scythed in beside her.
It bit against the air in front of "Silence," and something unseen cracked like glass.
The katana ground forward an inch.
"Flames—full burn!"
Alicia braced both hands on her sword and brought it down with all her weight.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
The splintering swelled, nearing its limit—and then the barrier shattering between Alicia and Kaguya vanished with a brittle scream.
"Gospel!"
A sudden, droning chime slammed into their eardrums the instant the barrier burst.
The shockwave hurled both of them away.
Alicia tumbled midair, then smashed through a tree.
Thud!
Blood surged and rolled in her chest. The breath caught, and her body locked against the trunk.
"Hah… hah…"
Her ears whined with a needling buzz. Leaning on the tree, she could barely steady herself; the world wheeled and swam.
She couldn't hear anyone else. She couldn't even hear her own voice.
Using her sword as a cane, Alicia forced her head up—only to see a shadow of black settle in front of her.
Not good!
She felt the danger before she could move. With no way to dodge, Alicia steeled herself to take the blow—
A tower shield crashed in from the side.
"Silence" kicked the face of the shield.
The impact rang like a cathedral bell, and the backlash blasted the shield—and Alicia behind it—clean off their feet.
They fell more than a hundred meters, slammed into the river in the middle of the gorge, and only after a long, long moment did two bodies bob back to the surface.
When they finally floated up, both were barely breathing.
"Silence" descended in a languid arc. Black heels settled on the river as if on glass, a thin sheen of force between her and the water.
She spread her hands.
The two girls rose from the surface, buoyed by an unseen lift.
All eleven of Astraea's girls lay side by side on the ground in careful rows.
Having completed that tidy rescue, "Silence" stood quietly at Tsunayoshi's side.
Tsunayoshi surveyed the tableau and shook his head faintly.
"Without the weakness of a sickly body, 'Silence' is no easy opponent—even toned down to Lv.4."
"And her magic isn't just for offense."
"Sound magic can defend, too. Much like Ais's magic, it has innumerable applications—and its strength scales with how much power 'Silence' pours into it."
"If you can't find a way to counter that magic, trying to slug it out with 'Silence' head-on is… difficult, to say the least."
Astraea looked at her children, lined up and limp, and sighed in resignation.
"Even if they knew all that, they'd still charge."
"Alicia is stubborn. If she doesn't slam into the wall once, she won't turn back—not even if her forehead's bleeding."
Despite the sigh, a smile tugged at her lips as she gazed at the neat row of fallen girls.
"I imagine the shock of reality hit hard."
"And no wonder. Once they worshiped 'Silence' as the world's destroyer. Only recently did they learn the truth—that they were the ones 'Silence' chose to leave behind as her seed."
"That realization made them want to perform better—to be worthy of the ember 'Silence' planted in them."
Astraea paused, then added:
"And after that ambush by the Dark Factions, when they nearly lost everyone… that rattled them deeply."
"It taught them their weakness."
Tsunayoshi nodded; he could see why Alicia chased strength so desperately. She didn't want "Silence's" self-sacrifice to be in vain—so she pushed herself harder.
But understanding didn't soften reality.
"Lady Astraea, I get their urgency, but strength isn't built in a day."
"'Silence's' magic is like Ais's—versatile, adaptable."
"In a fight she can make it do almost anything, and if she feeds it enough power, its destructive force surpasses even Riveria's."
"By any measure, 'Silence' is a walking taboo."
"Setting the bar high at the start is fine. Forcing everyone to the brink of death isn't."
Astraea knew that truth as well as anyone. Precisely because she knew, she let them run headlong anyway.
"Some things can't be taught. Let them crash. Once their heads are cracked and they see how thick that wall is, they'll understand why 'Silence' shouldn't be their target for now."
"In that case, should we just leave them to rest here?"
If that was Astraea's stance, Tsunayoshi had a more… extreme suggestion.
"Instead of patching them up so they wake bright-eyed tomorrow, it might be better to let the pain keep them in bed for a while."
Astraea considered a heartbeat and nodded.
"Let's do that."
"Healing them to fighting shape by morning would be easy. Giving them enough time to rest—and to cool down—might be better."
"They've just tasted defeat. Let them digest it. Give them time."
Tsunayoshi dipped his chin.
Since Astraea agreed, he wouldn't treat the girls right away.
They couldn't enter the challenge space again for a week anyway.
A week of bed rest should help them accept where they truly stood—and think more clearly about what comes next.
(End of Chapter)
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