My older sister raised her axe toward Xie. It seemed she intended to throw it. If it were a simple axe throw, it wouldn't hit Xie, who possessed Heavenly Reflection and Earthly Severance....
That couldn't be the case.
The physical properties of the earth change. The flow of the wind shifts. The iron melted into the ground draws magnetic field lines. On one side is my sister's axe, on the other is Xie. The two poles of this world are redefined, and the axe and Xie are placed in a destiny where they must inevitably collide.
A sure-hit effect? Such a thing is merely a product of imagination. This axe and Xie unconditionally collide like magnets. Not imagination, nor coercion, but an effect obtained by twisting the laws of nature.
"Stick to it."
Demonic God's Law, originally one.
There is no need for the law of a sure-hit. My sister's axe, twisted by the Demonic God's Law, takes on the exact opposite polarity to Xie. The axe will never miss. No, it will actively try to stick to Xie!
"Stop!"
I put my hand into my coat and took out the deck of cards I had been hiding. The moment I gripped them, a tingling sensation ran through my entire body. Diverting the current so my fingers wouldn't burn, I grabbed the card deck with one hand.
Diamonds and Spades. Red, which conducts lightning, and black, which doesn't. The deck of cards, layered with alternating colors, becomes a battery. Lightning is stored here. The lightning I was struck by while coming all the way here!
"Earth Arts, Elixir, Lightning Array...."
I read and grasped with my eyes the laws of nature my sister twisted. Magnetic field lines, N and S poles, eddy currents, planetary magnetic fields. I understood how my sister twisted the rules to achieve that result, and I exploited it.
My head throbs. I am the King of Humans, naturally gifted at seeing things and understanding rules, but my sister's thought speed is equal to or greater than mine. I drove my mind to the limit and barely kept up with my sister's rules.
Infusing the bundled steel card deck with lightning, I transformed it into a magnet with the same polarity as Xie. The moment my sister's axe left her hand, my deck of cards also flew out at the speed of lightning to intercept it. The square piece of metal imbued with lightning looked just like a hammer from mythology.
King of Diamonds. Mjölnir.
Steel, earth, and lightning. A card combination shot out by containing the Demonic God in the Diamond card and even reversely utilizing my sister's rules.
Mjölnir shot forward, outpacing thunder and lightning. Becoming the sharpest spear within the altered laws of nature, it deflected the axe and aimed for my sister, who had rewritten those rules.
Ambushed by the rules she herself created, my sister smiled lightly upon seeing my card deck.
...Smiled?
"No wonder you got struck by lightning, you were prepared. You've been scheming."
She grabbed my card deck with her free hand. Even caught in my sister's hand, the card deck still struggled violently, trying to advance. However, that was only the case as long as it maintained its shape.
"Lightning cannot hurt me."
My sister put strength into her fingers. Crunch, crackle. The cards made of adamantine steel crumpled in one hand. The lightning that had seeped into the cards bounced wildly. Yet, without suffering even a scratch, my sister casually deflected the lightning. Mjölnir thrashed about only within my sister's grasp, then lost its power as it discharged.
Fizz. My carefully hoarded trump card vanished into nothingness. Now, I have no cards or strength left.
"See? Keep that in mind."
Yet, to my sister, it was merely a flick of the wrist. She casually took out a second axe.
"The decision you made to fight me... how reckless it was."
She casually drew a second axe. And she lightly threw it at Xie. The axe was not light at all.
Xie managing to deflect the first axe was close to luck. She reacted with Heavenly Reflection and swung Earthly Severance. Earthly Severance, possessing a weight like Mount Tai, clearly deflected my sister's axe, even if it was pushed back slightly.
However, the axe, spinning as it was deflected away, rushed back toward Xie before it could even get far. Even faster than before.
The axe and Xie are opposite poles of a magnet. Beyond a sure-hit, they pull at each other. Xie's body is also pulled up, drawn by the axe. The axe charges at an even faster speed.
Heavenly Reflection reacted, but Xie's body couldn't keep up. Thud—the two became one in the way that hurt each other the most. The axe dug into Xie's body as if her body were a tree stump. Shattering bone and severing flesh.
Xie glared and vomited blood.
"Ah...!"
A fatal wound. An injury that will kill her without immediate emergency treatment. Since Xie is a regressor, it might not matter if she dies... but it matters to me. If Xie regresses, it's the same as the current me dying!
"Stop! That's enough!"
"No."
My sister stuck out her tongue slightly and took out a third axe. It's alchemy. The combat power of someone like Xie is neutralized by an axe created so effortlessly.
The cost-performance ratio is completely off. It's absurd. Did humans possess such an absurd power?
"Bleh."
Even though I rushed in to stop her, my sister playfully threw the third axe. The axe that would surely take Xie's life left my sister's hand. I reached out, but it was slightly too far to block.
However, there was someone who snatched it before I could.
It was the Sword Empress. Seeing Xie's crisis, she saw my sister's axe. Convinced that it would kill Xie, she lunged at my sister to stop it. Because that was the only way to save her disciple.
My sister looked puzzled at the intruding Sword Empress.
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"Hm?"
"Grant me one move."
Before the words even finished, the Sword Empress thrust her fist. It was as if lightning flashed from her fingertips. So fast, the awl-like, piercing fist struck my sister.
She tried to dodge, and nearly did, but the Sword Empress's fist persistently chased my sister. It kept up with a speed that surpassed the agility of the King of Humans.
"Ouch. You..."
Pure admiration appeared on my sister's face. Fists buried into her jaw, collarbone, and temple in succession. Enduring the brain-rattling impact with sheer physicality, my sister violently swung her arm at the Sword Empress. The air current was powerful enough to be visible, but the Sword Empress, who had learned Heavenly Reflection, dodged it as if it were natural.
"More than all other humans..."
An artificial storm followed immediately. My sister decided to use her Demonic God instead of fighting back with martial arts.
It was a Demonic God meant to hinder the Sword Empress's movements. Amidst the gale that made it hard to even stand, the Sword Empress spread her senses and let out a long breath.
Heavenly Reflection, Void.
The pinnacle of balance. Even amidst the swirling water and wind, the Sword Empress rode the flow. There was no collapse or correction of her stance. Falling was moving, and collapsing was loading power. Subdividing the rhythm again and again, the Sword Empress maintained her own balance even within the chaotic storm and continued her offensive.
The fist filled with qi struck my sister. It didn't seem to deal a massive blow, but it was definitely pressing my sister.
"Fast. More than all other humans... Yes. You are special."
What makes the Sword Empress faster is her judgment speed. Her body reacts before thought and judgment. She is half a step, half of a half step faster than the pinnacle of humanity.
However, that is only meaningful when the numbers work out.
"I've gotten used to it."
My sister muttered and instantly thrust her head forward. Crack—a collision sound rang out. If a fist and a jaw collide, the jaw should naturally take more damage, but everything in the world is relative.
My sister's jaw struck the Sword Empress's fist. The impact point shifted slightly, delivering a shock to both sides. Compared to the Sword Empress who used her fist, the shock to my sister should be greater....
Immediately after the impact, my sister revealed her savagery and smiled.
Heavenly Reflection, which eliminates the process of thought and judgment, is fast. However, as long as Heavenly Reflection is used for attack, the moment of impact, the shock must be delivered to both sides. That is the law.
If so, it doesn't matter how they are hit. As long as they make contact, it is unconditionally to my sister's advantage. Because my sister's body is far tougher and stronger.
A physical war of attrition. My sister made grand motions and churned the space. The Sword Empress dodged my sister's attacks by a paper-thin margin and counterattacked, but each time, the one ultimately taking damage was the Sword Empress. Even the interval of her counterattacks was growing shorter.
She is gradually being pushed back. The choices the Sword Empress can make are narrowing. She is still fast, but that's not the problem. The problem is that my sister is gaining leeway.
If my sister devises a way to kill the Sword Empress, the Sword Empress will die. Even if she held the upper hand in this momentary close-quarters fight, she is crushed before the supernatural.
"Scatter."
The Sword Empress, who had been dodging by a paper-thin margin until now, sensed danger and leaned her body back drastically. She was nearly a meter away from my sister's fist.
However, ripples surged from my sister's fist. The air became like water, and the wave dispersed my sister's power throughout the space. The Demonic God of Waves widely spread my sister's brute force.
A roar and shockwave erupted, and the wave riding the space pierced through the Sword Empress's entire body. Even Heavenly Reflection couldn't block it. She couldn't dodge it either. The vibration didn't stop.
Even in the midst of that, she succeeded in deflecting some of the impact, but only to some extent. The Sword Empress didn't even have time to think about wiping the blood flowing from her mouth. Because she felt the trembling of the distorting space from my sister's fist.
Still, she had bought enough time.
I took out a card. I tossed one face-down at my sister's feet, and then one each at the feet of the Sword Empress, Xie, and Hilde. The iron cards gleamed.
There is still one card I have hoarded and saved. It's finally time for it to shine.
I raised my head and shouted.
"Elisha! Now!"
And gravity changed its direction.
Asteroid Minnie is visible above our heads. Watching us leave, she moved the moment we stepped out of the Sky Saintess's domain. Wary of my sister, she had finished preparing to extract us from a lofty orbit.
Apple of Universal Gravitation.
A gravity anomaly occurs locally. Using the reflected light of the cards I threw as a signal, the direction of gravity acting on Xie, me, and the Sword Empress precisely reverses. As if promised, we soared into the sky simultaneously.
And at the same time, hyper-gravity is applied to my sister's body. The magnitude of the force is over 100 times that of gravity. A powerful gravity that crushes the ground whole and sucks in the atmosphere.
I'm glad I deployed it in advance. My sister is powerful, but the source of that power is a Demonic God, after all. If it's the same Demonic God, it can resist my sister's power.
[You were late in finding me. You should have called me a little earlier. You couldn't have escaped on your own, and Xie just got hurt for nothing!]
A voice mixed with reproach reached me. She's right, but there is such a thing as timing in this world. While rising, I moved my body and supported the critically injured Xie.
"Ugh, Hughes..."
"Alright...! Ms. Xie! Just hold on a little! We've come this far, don't let it be for nothing!"
"Are you... worrying about me...?"
"What do you take me for? I at least have enough humanity to worry about an injured person!"
Grumbling, I inspected the axe embedded in Xie. It was stuck in firmly, as if she had been born with it. The only silver lining was that because it was stuck in so perfectly, not much blood was flowing.
The axe still retained its magnetism, so it seemed it would take tremendous force to pull it out. That could be carefully extracted later, but....
Suddenly, an ominous imagination crossed my mind.
...Still?
Xie is already marked. Under the rules altered by my sister's Demonic God's Law, Xie has been given a certain polarity. If my sister throws a new axe, it will definitely reach Xie.
Of course, if I intercept the axe in the middle and destroy it with alchemy, it won't matter. I have the ability to strip it of its polarity.
But I still can't rule out another possibility.
If my sister marked Xie and granted her a polarity.
She could do the same thing to herself.
"Come here quietly. Don't make your sister sad."
I make eye contact with my sister down below. The worst-case scenario I had feared becomes reality. Xie's body, which was soaring due to the gravity reversal, feels resistance, and at the same time, my sister's body rises.
My sister intends to chase Xie and catch up to us directly!
"...Ah, come on!"
What do I do? How can we escape my sister's rule from here?
Xie learned qigong. Forming Heaven and Earth and grasping the flow, she perfectly etched herself between heaven and earth. No matter how much she used the power of the Demonic God, she wouldn't be able to arbitrarily alter the body of a Qigong Master.
But if the rules encompassing the world change, it is no different from Xie changing. Humans are merely insignificant creatures living within the world.
"A way... huh?"
Before I could even think of a way, a swift and resolute hand pushed me away.
There was no time to read her thoughts. Before her mind could even comprehend, Xie sensed it instinctively and moved. Heavenly Reflection fulfilled Xie's will exactly as it was.
Xie pushed me away, and grew distant. Even the gravity reversal couldn't completely cancel out my sister's Demonic God's Law. With the axe still buried in her body, Xie desolately reached out her arm and fell down below.
Perhaps surprised by her own action of pushing me away, her eyes widened for a moment, but soon, with a face of resignation, Xie opened her mouth.
"...I'll be fine. Even if I fall."
What does it matter if you're fine! Are you going to die like this? If you die, the world will turn back again. If you regress, all the adventure we've had so far will be for nothing!
'Huh...? What kind of expression is Hughes making?'
Are you going to irresponsibly turn back here? Our lives living in this iteration will disappear. I don't care if you're a regressor or not. My life in this iteration is real! I can't let it disappear!
'Could it be, are you worrying about me?'
Even as she fell toward death, Xie smiled foolishly. Smiling like that with an axe buried in her body, she looked like the most foolish and pitiful human in the world.
'Ah, I'm happy.'
Yes, too pitiful. So foolish it's annoying. It's been like that from the start.
While reason said it was okay to die, she was always desperate to survive. She had to prevent the world's destruction, but her own life was also a priority. If she had to give up one, she would agonize over it, but until that moment arrived, she gave up neither.
There are things she must protect even at the cost of her life. But sometimes she forgets.
It's a waste to throw away her life. Yet she moves despite the risk of death.
It's a contradiction. No, it's stupidity. The standard changes every time. Her judgment sways with her emotions. It's exhausting and unpredictable.
But. It is the most human.
If I am precious, then the world is precious. Because I must live in the world.
If the world is precious, then I am precious. Because I am the entirety of my world.
Ultimately, what matters is oneself. Even if it seems like a contradiction, it is not. Life is always honest, and the pursuit of life is beautiful. Everything begins with self-love.
The reason I save the world is only one. For myself.
That was the reason I helped Xie. For myself.
'Out of joy, out of happiness, out of love, I can never abandon. The one who always cherishes me.'
At the same time, an emotion swelled like an explosion. The massive emotion of Xie, just one layer away, revealed its edge. I only saw a very small fraction, but I was seized by an emotion as if a giant were watching over me. Goodwill and affection, filled to the point of hardening, were directed at me.
As expected, Xie had met me before. But she didn't readily let me read that memory. She probably knew even of my mind-reading, and grasped the actions beyond it.
'You might have been disappointed in me. Because I have changed. But, I can't help it.'
That I was helping Xie's self-love.
'Because you have become more precious to me than myself.'
I gripped my outstretched hand again. Now I can't even grab her. Xie doesn't seem to have any intention of being caught either.
I watched Xie, shining in seven colors, staring straight at me until the moment she fell. Until the Asteroid Minnie picked me up and rose, continuously.