22 Catastrophe

While Mage City was engulfed in the ravages of war, elsewhere…

…two people were dashing through the nightscape of the New Principality with bated breath. One was the Seventeenth Minister Elea the Red Tag. The young elf girl with her did not yet have a second name. However, this girl Kia was an almighty Word Arts user, known as the World Word, a fact known to a seldom few.

The citizenry of Lithia were absorbed in anxious conversations, conjecturing the truth behind the mysterious beam of light that had just flashed across the sky and the wyvern army that had flown off in the direction of Mage City. Thus, no one paid any heed to the two running against the crowds.

"Find Lana."

At Kia's whisper, a small patch of cloth floated into the air, as if come to life, and guided the two forward. The sight, looking like nothing more than a child playing games, made Elea once again fear the power of the World Word. Her omnipotent Word Arts were even capable of revealing unknown things to Kia.

"Kia. Please don't use any powers that'll draw attention to ourselves. We're only going to sneak into the bandits' hideout and rescue Lana. If there's a fuss, it'll put us and Lana in even more danger…"

"Isn't Lana your friend?! How can you say that at a time like this?!" "Yes, well…I suppose you're right."

The truth was quite different. Right now, Elea's top priority was snuffing out Lana the Moon Tempest. If she had been killed immediately after being captured, there wouldn't be any need to rush through enemy territory and brave danger. All she could do was make for the captive and ensure there was no chance Lana was left alive.

"You two over there! What are you doing? Right now, the area around all

military facilities is under high alert. Go back toward the city area imme—" "He's with the bandits. Knock him out!"

"What…? S-sleep."

Kia appeared slightly bewildered, but she was an elf child, unacquainted with wider civilization. Pressured by Elea's tone, she made the two patrolling guards fall unconscious.

A sturdy physique or technical skill with a sword or bow were all rendered meaningless before the power of the World Word. The power she held gave her the authority to negate such average ideas of strength through an entirely different axis.

Elea didn't immediately follow Kia as she continued on ahead, instead stopping and crouching down by the two unconscious soldiers.

"…? Elea, are you okay? U-um, so…I'll knock out all the bad guys, got it? Hurry up—let's go! Nothing you need to worry about!"

"…Yes, I'm fine. Sorry for slowing us down."

Elea raised her head and forced a distressed smile. She needed to make certain to dispose of anyone who witnessed Kia's Word Arts. After making the two soldiers swallow poison capsules, she knew they would never be opening their eyes again.

Kia's detection arts are guiding us down the shortest possible route. If that light earlier was a surprise salvo from the Cold Star, then most of these patrols should be rotating over to defend the city…

"It's on the other side of this wall. Open a path."

Without a moment's hesitation, Kia used her Word Arts to create a passage that pierced right through the thick stone wall. Even with such a large-scale alteration, the phenomenon would appear before her words had left her mouth.

"From here on out, we need to make sure the bandits don't notice us. Can you make it so we're not visible to other people?"

"…I didn't consider that. Conceal us."

From the shadows of the stone walls to the backs of the soldiers. The New Principality's defensive and labyrinthine construction worked entirely to the two's benefit. Kia's Word Arts had cleared every road to be as short as possible, and Elea's skills as a spy got past any contact with the soldiers. The few she reluctantly had to repel were all expunged, away from the eyes of others.

The pair continued through the military facilities, which were indeed on high alert, without being seen by anyone. It was an overly brash gamble, one that common sense would deem impossible, but what was truly terrifying were the World Word's Word Arts that made such an impossibility feasible.

Kia issued a command and was easily able to reposition the buildings themselves, shutting the path behind them.

"Block the path. This way, we won't have to worry about anyone following us. Well, not like it'd be a problem for me anyway."

"…When we head back, let's not close the roads behind us, okay? It'll cause problems for the people of the city."

"It's not like it's that big of a deal, though, right? They can just make new roads."

Finally, the two arrived in the basement of one of the military facilities. It appeared to be a jail for serious criminals, with heavy steel doors all lined up in a row.

"Lana must be in—"

"I know. It's this one. Cut it."

With a single command, Kia sliced off the lock to the cell where Lana was imprisoned.

"We came to save you!"

In response to this sudden intrusion, the person sitting in the corner of the cell tensed and took in her visitors. Seemingly unable to believe her own eyes, she wrung out a timid question…

"...Kia?"

Lana looked to have endured fewer wounds than Elea had expected. When she considered that the salvo had been fired not long after Lana's capture, she imagined Taren's side also felt it necessary to move things along quickly, before Aureatia realized their informant had been captured.

"Kia. I'll look after Lana; you watch outside. There's a chance a guard might come by. If someone does show up, please make sure to let me know."

"Okay."

Lana didn't hide her trembling as she looked between the two in front of her.

"Elea, too… Why…?"

"Lana, can you stand up?" "…N-no, wait, this isn't right."

Right before she grabbed Lana's outstretched hand, Lana stopped moving. "Both of you…how did you get here?! Even if you mobilized every agent left in the New Principality, you couldn't have made it through all their

defenses! Wh-why is Kia here, too…?!" "..."

"…No, Elea, it can't be."

Lana's eyes were trained not on Elea, but Kia. Instructor Elea's small new student, with whom she had spent that afternoon playing.

She was scared. Terrified of the possibility that the all-powerful World Word, the almighty savant beyond all theoretical understanding, actually existed despite having gone undiscovered by the myriad search teams Taren had scattered across the world.

No one knew exactly what sort of appearance the being had. Moreover, no one would ever imagine an unassuming, ordinary young girl like Kia would be omnipotent.

"Y-you found her… A long—"

"Don't say another word. You'll aggravate your wounds."

Elea the Red Tag locked eyes with Lana crouched on the floor. She realized that by choosing to brute-force their way to her cell, she couldn't avoid exposing the truth to Lana herself.

The possibility was unlikely, given Lana's mental fortitude, but there was a chance she had already exposed pieces of Aureatia's strategy, and it was too late to silence her anyway.

It wasn't a problem either way—she had come to Lana's cell to shut her mouth for good.

She had already prepared a way to neutralize her without Kia realizing.

Elea stretched her hand out to Lana's mouth—

"Someone's here," Kia whispered, standing just outside the hallway. Elea immediately looked toward her.

The torch farther down the hall was extinguished, and she could just barely make out a silhouette in the darkness. It did not belong to a minia. Covered in countless vines…it was the outline of a large mandrake.

"All the sentries on the route here were knocked out." The indifferent words echoed through the cold corridor.

Lana the Moon Tempest groaned with desperation. "W-wait…Higuare."

"Yes? What is it?"

"These two came to dispose of me. I haven't told them anything! It's the truth! D-did Taren…order you to kill me?!"

There wasn't a shred of her usual aloofness in her tone.

The World Word may have possessed reality-bending Word Arts, the likes of which no one in their world could even imagine. Elea the Red Tag, the merciless intelligence commander, might even try to take the imprisoned Lana's life this very minute.

However, even if that was the case… no matter how high a possibly that may have been, Lana knew for a fact that if Kia fought Higuare the Pelagic, she would die.

"I have a question. Who is that child?" asked Higuare mechanically, not a single trace of emotion in his voice.

"How did you make it this far?" "…Elea."

Kia grabbed the hem of Elea's clothes. The young girl was unfamiliar with the present atmosphere—the sensation of death that sealed all futures, terribly far removed from her peaceful daily life.

"…That's right, Higuare! Do you know?!" Lana prattled. She wanted to delay for as long as she could the moment Higuare drew his blades.

"Do you know the location of the World Word the New Principality was looking for?! They're right—"

"Avert!" Kia shouted. Higuare's enormous mass of vines burst forth violently, filling up the space of the corridor, now blocked off with nowhere to run, and were severed from his body. The surging wave stretched across their whole field of vision, with not only Kia but both Elea and Lana standing farther back inside the cell having nowhere to run.

His second name was Higuare the Pelagic. No matter how many creatures he faced, no matter how much distance they tried to put between them, even if they hid behind cover, there was none who could survive being swallowed up in the middle of his slashing attacks.

"..."

"What are you?"

Higuare peered into the depths of the viny sea filling the corridor.

A pair of impossibly clear turquoise eyes stared back at Higuare from over a shoulder, through the gap in her long blond hair.

"…No, avert wasn't the right word."

Kia gathered herself and took a deep breath.

"Protect us from all danger."

The vine's slashing attacks, which should have been impossible to evade, missed the three entirely.

While the result of tremendously precise Force Arts interfering directly with the trajectory of the mandrake's attacks, there wasn't a single person, including the World Word herself, able to perceive the entire process.

The girl had simply given a command to ensure the attacks didn't hit them.

"I see."

The gladiatorial mandrake flatly and frankly accepted the facts before him, like he always had. No matter what inconceivable superpowers he may be squaring off against, such situations had become commonplace for him.

"It seems the outside world's home to many techniques I have yet to understand."

His sole constant was the idea that the next match will be even more dangerous; this time it's your turn to die.

"I've come to learn something new. Thank you."

Therefore, he had naturally assumed there would be opponents he'd be unable to scratch with his lethal blades.

The leaves on the vines flooding the corridor opened slightly. The movement was extremely subtle, beyond the perception of an inexperienced young girl like Kia. Escaping from the tiny opening was a colorless and lethal poisonous gas.

It was one of the numerous trump cards Higuare the Pelagic concealed within him. The world's strongest mandrake, having trained himself over a long period of time, could manifest his race's unique lethal poison as a gas at

will.

"If your Word Arts are triggered with speech, that means you need to breathe, yes?"

"…?"

Kia blinked repeatedly. She seemed to have no idea what was going on.

The vines that had stretched out to envelop the three of them were themselves the toxin's point of origin. In this confined underground space, it would instantly kill any living creature before they could take a second breath. It was already too late.

"I mean, of course I need to breathe." "..."

The poison had no effect.

She opened her eyes and mouth in the poisoned air and spoke, as if nothing was awry.

"Didn't you hear what I said? Protect us from all danger."

They might have been Thermal Arts that melted matter. Perhaps they were Life Arts to force a chemical reaction. A combination of the two, even. Kia simply issued commands to enact her desired outcome. She composed an exceedingly complex process, utterly impossible for the average Word Arts user, to continuously dissipate Higuare's poison.

An all-powerful existence, eminently simple and therefore impossible to overcome.

Unassailable, due to her omnipotence. "Just what…are you?"

For the first time, Higuare experienced the emotion fear. Even back when the threat of the True Demon King was right before his eyes, he had been a simple gladiator, accepting the reality before him to survive.

"..."

With his final words, he crumpled where he stood. Collapsing on the cold stone floor, he stopped moving.

Kia blinked once more. "...Did you…kill him, Kia?"

Judging the supernatural clash over, Elea finally relaxed her defensive posture. The vines stuffing the corridor withered, reflecting the death of their host.

Even though Elea knew Kia's defenses were flawless, the mandrake had

been the first fearsome opponent she had faced.

That's how it should have been. Kia's powers were on such an entirely different level, Elea couldn't even know if the skills she displayed here were the perfected limits of her abilities.

"Y-yeah… But I never said…anything like that. Is he really, truly dead…?"

"...…"

An inscrutable enemy. And his mysterious death.

However, as she surveyed their surroundings, Kia realized there was something more important to worry about.

"E-Elea…! Where's Lana?!" "..."

"While I was fighting just now…she ran off…!"

"Kia. We need to escape from here as soon as possible. Lana can definitely make it out on her own. Just getting her freed from her cell was great work."

"No way… There could still be dangerous people like that mandrake around, right?! I can't leave her behind! Lana's my friend!"

Elea looked at her own palm. Continuing the relentless pursuit of Lana would only lead to additional chances for the World Word to be exposed to more people. From the moment she had released Lana from her cell, Elea had achieved the bare minimum of her objectives.

"We need to go save her, Elea!" "That's not…"

However. When her own pupil was entreating her from the bottom of her heart…as an educator tasked with mentoring her, how was Elea supposed to answer?

The elf girl's clear turquoise eyes looked up at Elea. She believed in her teacher with all her heart.

Elea thought her foolish. Her true character didn't feel a single ounce of guilt over tricking the naive Kia and using her for her own means.

"The two of us can totally do it."

"You…you really are quite the selfish child, aren't you, Kia?" "I can act selfish with my teacher, can't I?"

Higuare the Pelagic was dead. However, it was not the World Word who had killed him. That had been done by someone hiding around the corner, on the opposite side of Higuare from where Elea's group was located.

"Bwa-ha… Sheesh, and I was hoping to clean up these troublesome guys first."

A languid and self-deprecating chuckle slipped out.

"I don't know if it's lucky or unlucky that we got through it all without a fight."

He had come for Higuare. Thus, from his distant position, he had been unable to see the figures of Kia and Elea on the other side of the vine mass Higuare had launched down the corridor.

One possessed omnipotence itself, and the other could deal certain death.

There had been a paper-thin difference in timing that allowed the two wielders of absolute power to avoid bumping into each other.

"…Sorry, my mandrake friend. My angel's power is just as cowardly as mine, you see."

He was a man with a stubbly beard, wrapped in black clothes. There was one second where the mandrake's attention had been wholly consumed with Kia. The angel, wielding a blade of true instant death, greater than the daggers of the mandrake, didn't let that chance slip by.

What truly killed Higuare the Pelagic was his choice to attack by filling the underground corridor with poison gas…

The attack was a malicious one, enveloping everyone in its radius. Therefore, Nastique the Quiet Singer had been able to instantly appear at Higuare's back and pierce him with Death's Fang.

This didn't allow the mandrake time to diffuse his lethal concentration over to the man's distant position down the corridor.

"So anyone who tries to kill me? They all end up dead."

The other killer dispatched by Hidow the Clamp had arrived at the innermost section of the New Principality of Lithia.

The name of the assassin, cursed by the angel of death, was Kuze the Passing Disaster.