[607] To Someone (5)
A momentary dissonance of speed occurred the instant Armand's blade coiled around Shirone's body and formed its framework.
Unlike when the Adamantine Armor had materialized and Shirone's robe had suddenly cloaked him without his awareness, he could clearly feel the fibrous flow emanating from the blade—and Nade was closing in at unbearable velocity.
'I can't time it.'
Before Shirone could fully shift into the Adamantine Armor state, Nade's clawed hand raked from his crown down across his face.
'I have to reverse it!'
When he unleashed the Shibulsang Burst, the nightmare in which his face had been burned away dissolved like a bad dream, and a talon streaked past his eyes as he threw his torso back.
It was like a bolt of lightning striking.
"Damn—!"
He rewound one second and dodged the blow, but Armand also reverted to the state before the Adamantine Armor had activated.
'Run!'
He poured everything into a teleport, but the Spark magic leapt through space like an electron's hop and deposited Nade at the destination.
"Grrr!"
As if he could no longer bear the electrical saturation himself, Nade unleashed thunderbolts in every direction again.
When the Spirit Zone and electricity synchronized perfectly, the force it produced exceeded ordinary comprehension; atmospheric charge dumped out and a colossal lightning bolt slammed into the ground.
KRA-THOOM!
There was no why. It was simply a massive lightning strike.
"Shit! What on earth did he do to get like that?!"
Iruki shouted as he rolled down the slope, clutching Oscar.
If Nade's mind had already fused with the electricity, escape would be impossible.
"I… didn't know."
Oscar, who'd been the one to feed Nade the lightning, offered a groveling excuse, but there was no energy left to be angry at him.
"Stay here! We have to save Shirone!"
Iruki scrambled up the incline and saw Shirone looking as if Nade's hand might burn him alive at any second.
'That can't even be canceled.'
Only a god might pull that off.
"Nade! Snap out of it!"
Shirone shouted, refusing to give up, but even his voice no longer reached him.
Thunder struck and Nade, clad in plasma, suddenly loomed before them.
'Adamantine Armor!'
By using the Shibulsang Burst to perceive one second into the future, a grotesque golden outline bloomed, capturing even the countless micro-variations of Armand.
"Ugh!"
By the narrowest margin Armand had been equipped, and the Akamai implanted in the artificial brain triggered its antithesis.
'No effect.'
Stripping the will from a being with no motive for action changed nothing; Nade's claw slammed into Shirone's flank.
"Kugh!"
Where the nails had raked, the silver plating of the Ringer's carapace bulged, but the shock of current running through the conductor was brutal.
"Scattershot Movement!"
Seven photon cannons fired, fanning out in all directions—yet not one of them even brushed Nade.
"In that case…!"
Putting distance between them, Shirone gritted his teeth and lashed out with his tentacles.
Two streams of tentacles whipped with black afterimages and, moving so fast they almost disappeared, enveloped Nade.
With a dull smack the tentacles caught Nade's crossed arms in an X.
"What—!"
When he clenched his fists, the burning tentacles tore apart with soft, snapping sounds.
'That's the problem.'
Iruki bit his lip.
The power of magic assimilation was nearly apocalyptic, but what was worse was the assimilation itself.
'He didn't react by seeing it.'
It wasn't conscious observation but an instinctive sensory response—like flinching the instant a pebble grazes your hair.
'That's the terror of one-hundred-percent affinity.'
If the Spirit Zone equated to electricity, the sensory reaction speed had long since surpassed biological limits.
That was why Iruki judged Shirone, in his current condition, would have a hard time pinning Nade down.
"Kyaaa!"
Still, there were blind spots.
The more Nade's control was consumed by magic assimilation, the further his thinking drifted from human reason.
As expected, he no longer moved from curiosity; he was simply following nature, drawing in the plasma's charge.
"Nade! Please—!"
Sparks flashed and thousands of wire-like arcs leapt from Nade's body.
In the blinding light that made Shirone and Iruki briefly blink away, Nade was suddenly standing in front of Oscar.
"Ahh! Somebody help!"
Shirone and Iruki lunged at once, but Nade's hand, crackling with electricity, was already aimed at Oscar.
"Nade! No!"
"Kyaaaah!"
Just as Nade was about to burn through Oscar's skull, Iruki shouted.
"It's the life Liz senpai gave him!"
The electricity surrounding Nade flickered and the claw froze inches from Oscar's face.
"Hnnngh!"
Oscar, already mentally gone, burst into childlike wails and trembled; Iruki shouted again.
"If you cross that line, you can't come back!"
The charge around Nade began to stabilize.
"Liz senpai was…."
A spent whisper escaped Oscar.
"She was everything to me."
"Please! Please save him!"
Even mages fear death; Oscar—his reason gone—was left with only the desperate instinct to protect a life.
"That bastard really held himself back."
The savagery of lightning-awakened magic assimilation was on another level from what Iruki had seen before, and yet this time Nade suppressed it.
"Shirone."
When Nade turned toward Shirone, a memory that felt alien floated through his head.
'I was going to kill him.'
Facing Shirone, wearing Armand's robe and on high alert, Nade spoke in a choked voice.
"I was going to kill you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
As soon as the words left him, Nade's knees buckled and he collapsed.
"Nade! Snap out of it! Nade!"
Shirone ran up and shook him, but only a single tear fell from Nade's closed eye.
* * *
"Hmm."
When Nade woke, the first thing he saw through his half-closed lids was the dormitory ceiling.
"...."
He couldn't even think about getting up as he tried to reconnect the scattered thoughts in his head.
"Oh? Iruki! Nade's awake!"
Shirone opened the door and called to Iruki in the hallway.
"Oh? He really is."
Iruki's smiling face came into Nade's still-unmoving field of view.
"Slept well?"
"...How long has it been?"
Shirone asked.
"A day and a half. It's almost evening."
"I see…."
Lost in thought again, Nade asked after a long moment.
"Oscar?"
"He's alive."
They figured that would be his biggest concern.
"No, I remember. What happened to him?"
Shirone exchanged a glance with Iruki.
"I went to the square this morning to check and it was posted on the bulletin board. Oscar got a special hire acceptance."
"...."
After all that chaos, whether he'd clung on out of obsession or whether the situation resolved itself, they didn't know, but it was probably the latter.
"Oscar's a mage too, so they made the best call they could."
"Yeah. Adults… they have a rough time."
"There's nothing more important than making a living."
"I talked to him a bit after I fainted—Oscar said he hadn't planned this from the start. He went to a capital social gathering and was proposed to by the head's daughter and was going to go alone, but Liz insisted and even took leave…"
"He was trying to meet me."
Nade understood how she felt.
"What are you going to do now? Want to come with us to the press room? If you're still upset—"
Nade turned his head to the side.
"I don't care. Whether he gets a job at the association or not. I just worry about Liz senpai. She's probably gone by now, right?"
"Likely. Now they know Oscar's situation."
Nade shut his eyes.
"Let me rest a bit more. I'm tired."
Shirone pulled the blanket up to his chin.
"All right. Sleep a little longer. We'll have dinner and bring you yours."
There was no answer; Shirone and Iruki stepped out of the room on tiptoe.
An hour later.
Shirone came back with a tray of dinner and opened the door.
"Nade, eat at least this. Huh?"
Iruki followed and stared around in a daze.
The blanket was neatly folded; the curtains fluttered in the breeze from the open window.
* * *
'She's probably already gone…'
Still, Nade headed to the Dolphin Inn.
He'd come prepared to empty his mind, but when he peered through the window his heart dropped.
"Liz senpai…."
Liz sat at the bar with her head bowed; empty bottles were lined beside her.
Seeing that she still had a reason to stay filled Nade's eyes with tears.
"That woman… isn't she drinking way too much?"
"Leave her. Looks like she got dumped."
Murmurs came from behind as Liz downed another strong drink.
Her body slumped; only a thin wrist precariously supported her heavy head.
"Why…."
Had she come here following Oscar? At the peak of happiness before an engagement, why did the person who came to mind have to be him?
"Grrr!"
The storage shed had vanished without a trace and neither Wiz nor the mages were in sight. Struck by Ultrix's discharge, Nade couldn't suppress the murderous intent boiling up inside him.
"Damn! This is the first time this has happened!"
Sometimes magic assimilation flared up instinctively, but incoming electricity from outside was uncontrollable.
"Arghhh!"
As electricity discharged, the air around Liz blackened and began to char.
"Run!"
Nade choked the words out, fighting desperately to hold back his power.
"Nade! What's happening?"
"Go! If you stay here you'll die too!"
"And what about you?"
She couldn't run from the person who'd saved her life.
"It doesn't matter. I'm—"
A thought reached him and Nade twisted one corner of his mouth.
"I'm not someone worth living for."
Abandoned by family and turned into a monster, life meant nothing to him.
"No. I'm coming with you."
Liz, having made up her mind, stepped forward.
"Are you crazy? Don't come near."
The instant she touched him she'd be electrocuted; unless she could endure his magic assimilation, she wouldn't survive.
"You can hold on. You're holding on now."
Liz slowly reached out and placed her hand on Nade's shoulder.
"Uuuugh!"
He forced himself down; the thought that he couldn't kill her sent ugly veins popping on his face.
"Stop… please. I can't hold on anymore—"
"Then die with me."
Having confirmed it would work, Liz squeezed her eyes shut and threw herself around Nade.
"Ahhh!"
At the same moment the electrical discharge cut off and Nade convulsed in pain.
"Let go! Just go!"
"You can do it! Hold on a little longer!"
"There's no reason to live anyway! Someone like me should just die!"
"Why is there no reason to live? You saved me!"
"You idiot, that's—"
As his mind threatened to explode and his limbs went limp, Liz kissed him.
"Hng!"
The gentle touch of her lips ran along his nerves and the rampaging mind began to calm.
Nade pulled Liz to him; the two trembled with the sense of boundless freedom and surrendered themselves to each other's movements.
Blue electricity.
Liz defined it that way.
It was her first kiss—the kind of memory that would remain as an afterimage no matter how much time passed.
"Sniff! Huh—"
Liz buried her face in her arms and sobbed; outside the window, Nade covered his face with his palms and wept.
"Ahhh. Aahhh."
They didn't need sweet lies.
"Ugh. Sniff."
There had been a time when simply liking someone was enough.
"Ahhhh. Aahhh."
So many things had to be let go because they were pure.
Leaving all of that behind, Nade's most radiant school days were drawing to a close.