The Founder

An hour before this encounter, the royal palace of Nebulis was engulfed in a tremor

that was more severe than anything that had come before it. The earth rumbled in a

way that seemed to proclaim the end of times. Fissures erupted in the ground. The

glass windows in the palace blew out one after another.

"I can feel every bit of astral power in the Sovereignty resonating all at once. What's

the meaning of this?"

Queen Mirabella Lou Nebulis IIX followed the underground passageway that

continued to quake before entering the ceremonial chamber. Ahead, just down the

slope of the natural limestone cave, she could make out two soldiers kneeling on the

ground, illuminated by a bonfire.

"What is going on? What could have possibly compelled you to call on me right when

we're dealing with this?"

"Ma'am! That's because…!" The two snapped their faces up and pointed behind her.

The queen followed their extended fingertips with her gaze and stopped at the

monumental black stone pillar, where the slumbering Founder Nebulis was affixed.

"Have the Revered Founder's bindings come undone?!"

The chain clasps that had wound around her arms and legs were broken into pieces.

"What happened?"

"We don't… The Revered Founder's hand started moving all of a sudden, and—"

"You're saying she tore them off herself. The rumbling must have started around the

same time. That's why you called me here," the queen extrapolated.

As the girl with copper skin continued to float in the air, she didn't so much as move

an inch. Her head slumped over, and her eyes were still tightly shut, curtaining her

pupils. Based on appearances alone, she seemed to be fast asleep.

"..."

The dark-skinned girl slowly began to lift her head.

"The astral sword… I feel strong wavelengths of astral power… Are they fighting…?"

She strung together a sentence as though speaking to herself. When she finished, her

body flipped over in the air, and an inky, foggy substance started exuding from an

astral crest on her back.

"Is that astral power?! Her body is…!"

Her power manifested as jet-black wings, glossy as a dewy feather. They began to

flutter gently, though her eyes remained closed.

"Is it going into automatic self-defense mode? O, astral power, are you trying to protect

our Revered Founder?!"

The queen had seen how the words astral sword had formed on the Founder's lips.

Though she didn't know what it meant, she knew the current state of affairs was

alarming—enough of a threat to cause the Founder's astral power to make a defensive

move.

"Revered Founder!"

"——The astral sword… You will be returning it…"

The dewy black wings concealed her body, and the ancient mage vanished as though

she had become one with the air.

"Did she disappear?" The guards were dumbfounded.

The queen approached the black pillar, sparing the guards only a backward glance,

and touched its rocky surface, the resting place of the Founder Nebulis, with her

fingertips.

"…The reason is still unknown. And I did not think we could call on her to rise from

her slumber. But if we have her power…" She continued with a cold smile, and she

wasn't talking to anyone in particular. "…Then the day of the Empire's defeat draws

near."

The yellow sand swirled up in a dust cloud, dense enough that visibility was almost

nil. When the wind passed through to clear it away, Iska saw a giant gash on the earth

with the curvature of a mortar.

It was a crater. The ground had been gouged out, leaving a gaping hole in the soil.

In the past, Iska had seen a rocket blast into an uninhabited wasteland for a training

exercise, but that wouldn't even come close to rivaling this destructive power. More

importantly—the attack that had caused this was entirely invisible, and he couldn't

tell what had happened. And the catalyst of this explosion was just a girl.

"The Founder Nebulis…"

She was a young girl with dark skin and pearlescent hair, floating high in the sky with

something resembling dewy black wings on her back.

"I-Iska? Uh, um… Who is this 'Founder'?"

"I think you already know. The Grand Witch Nebulis has been alive all this time—for a

hundred years, back when she caused that incident."

Everything had started when some Imperial researchers discovered this inexplicable

source of energy, this "astral power," deep in the earth. It'd taken those humans as

hosts and shared its unusual power with them, leading to the creation of the first

mages—those the Empire scorned as witches and sorcerers.

…Among them, one girl was showered by the greatest amount of energy.

…Which made her the most feared witch in the Empire at that time.

She'd been persecuted with more fervor than anyone else and eventually became the

one to loathe the Empire more than anyone else: the Grand Witch.

"This is so unfair! We've only got the two of us on our team…!" Mismis complained in

a trembling voice, pointing at the two mages in front of her eyes.

"The Founder Nebulis…? I can't believe you'd have this legendary witch as backup. Do

you think it's fine to do whatever you want now that negotiations have fallen through?

Is that how Nebulis does things?"

"W-wait!"

Their eyes met Alice's.

Her glistening blonde hair became disheveled from her frantic reaction. "No! I didn't

do this!"

"…What?"

"Rin, don't tell me you did?" Alice asked.

"N-no, I didn't. The last time I saw the Revered Founder was underground with you,

Lady Alice. I haven't heard anything about this, even from the queen!" Rin yelled in a

hoarse voice.

As she shouted, the pitch-black wings on the Founder's back flapped above her head.

"I manipulate the planet's memories."

"I contact the Will in the third layer. I beckon it to the surface of the planet."

Psht. A cleft formed by the feet of the Grand Witch.

The sky that had been pure-blue until that moment cracked into two, splitting as a

flickering red something peeked its face out of the fissure.

…What is that? Something is appearing out of thin air, just like Nebulis.

…Red. "Beckoning"? No, it can't be.

Shit. With full faith in his own judgment, Iska hollered, "Jump into the crater!"

He grabbed Mismis's hand and pulled her forcibly toward it.

"Hide, Alice!"

"What?"

"You'll be engulfed in flames!" He slid down the slope of the crater with Mismis in hand.

The moment Alice and Rin tumbled down behind them, that red thing crawled out

from the ruptured space.

It was the astral power of flames. No—that thing far surpassed what could be

considered astral power, gushing with energy incomprehensible to humankind.

"Mow them down."

There was a massive detonation.

As the flames from the astral power seared the atmosphere, the heat caused the gases

to expand, instantly creating a shock wave. Combined with the present oxygen, the

attack created a fierce inferno and set off a chain of explosions.

There wasn't any way to escape this hellscape other than ducking into the crater. But

even then…

"Holy crap, it's hot!" Mismis yelped as she squeezed her hands over her ears. "This is

bad, Iska. The heat is pooling into the bottom of the crater—"

"Close it up," Alice ordered, and frigid winds came at her command, forming a wall of

frost that glittered like white gems.

The thin film obstructed the oncoming hot air.

"Lady Alice, why bother protecting them?"

"This isn't the time to argue."

Rin flashed Iska and Mismis a look of suspicion as Alice focused her gaze on the sky

beyond the thin sheet of ice, keeping track of the one called the Founder—the one that

should have been their ultimate reinforcements. But Iska could see Alice's confusion.

"Her first attack as well as that blast of fire… The Revered Founder is attacking us,"

Alice observed.

"B-but… isn't it because she saw these Imperial soldiers?"

"It would be unbearable if that's the only reason she attacked the two of us, Rin. I

mean, we wouldn't have made it if Iska didn't warn us in time. Am I wrong?"

"…You… you're right." Rin balled her hand into a fist and nodded once. "It's true… that

we were saved by an Imperial soldier. I'm guessing the Revered Founder has not

recognized us as her brethren—" she answered, kneeling.

"Hold up. That Founder or whatever isn't on your side?" Iska cut her off.

Besides the obvious fact that they were being attacked by the Grand Witch Nebulis,

Iska and Mismis couldn't wrap their heads around what could possibly be going on

among the three from the Sovereignty.

"First off, we don't even know if that's actually Nebulis," Iska said.

"Are you seriously doubting that she's real? Even after you've witnessed her power?"

Rin glared at him. "The Empire calls her the Grand Witch. In Nebulis, we call her the

Revered Founder, the one who established our country."

"Then why attack Alice? Isn't Alice her direct descendant?"

"..." The astral mage of earth swallowed her breath.

The way she averted her eyes made it clear to him that answering his question would

mean divulging the Sovereignty's secrets.

"Her astral power is going into automatic self-defense."

"…Lady Alice."

"There's no reason to hide it now that they know the Revered Founder is alive." The

princess of Nebulis turned around. "After her battle with the Empire a hundred years

ago, the Revered Founder had exhausted her powers and fell into a deep slumber to

recover. No one knows the identity of the astral power in her. We call it the 'astral

power of time and space,' but that's nothing more than an epithet."

"Astral power that no one knows about, huh…"

"It's been protecting the Revered Founder as she sleeps," Alice continued as though it

was completely obvious.

Among astral powers, there were those who would try to protect its human host. Iska

remembered hearing that these methods of self-preservation were more visible when

a mage's astral power was stronger. But in the Empire, the concept was nothing more

than a hypothesis.

"Does that mean Nebulis is still asleep?"

"That's my guess. I don't know what her time-space astral power responded to, but I

believe she's been attacking us indiscriminately because she isn't awake, meaning she

can't control it. At least, that's the only way I can make sense of this, but…" The

princess choked up.

"This is so frustrating…," she said faintly.

"Frustrating?"

"—"

Her eyes had been locked on the sky until now. For the first time, she turned to face

him with bugged-out eyes like a pair of blood moons. Her eyelids snapped wide open,

and her ruby irises unblinkingly quavered as she looked wordlessly at Iska.

"I wanted to finish this thing of ours with you and me alone." She chewed on her lip.

It was as if she was trying to hold something back. For a brief moment, she couldn't

completely conceal her emotions and smiled tearfully at him.

"Ever since we ran into each other in the neutral city, something weird has been

building up in my chest… I know this feeling makes me a failure of a princess. I came

here intending to end all that—to settle our fight in the Nelka forest, which was cut

short. That's why I came in the same clothes as our first battle."

She gripped the hem of her royal gown tightly until it was all wrinkly.

"…I was looking forward to it. I didn't tell my mother about this. I even told Rin she

wasn't allowed to intervene. I wanted to settle this with you without anyone else

getting in our way. But out of all the things that could happen, that jerk butted in and

ruined everything!"

"Th-that jerk?! Lady Alice, you can't speak about the Revered Founder—"

"It's fine. Anyway, we can't continue holing up in here. Let's escape."

Alice snapped her fingers.

The ice film burst and scattered, colliding into the scorching current of air that

continued to blow and wreck the wilderness. The two gales seemed to bite into each

other as they mixed and canceled out each other.

"Captain, run."

Iska dashed up the side of the crater.

Waiting for him in the air was the Grand Witch, surrounded by scattering embers, still

bearing the same emotionless look. She turned her face to them, but her eyes remained

tightly closed.

…They're right. She's not conscious.

…What Alice said about her still being asleep is probably the most accurate.

The Grand Witch had felt the presence of an Imperial soldier and automatically

launched a counterattack. They could assume that the astral power of space and time

had continued to loyally follow the orders of Nebulis for a century, before she'd fallen

asleep.

"Revered Founder, I'm grateful that you've come to help, but I would like to settle this

with him on my own!" Alice squeezed out. "Revered Founder, please return to the royal

palace!"

"—"

The oldest astral mage remained silent. But even though she was unconscious and her

head lolled to the side, she seemed to lend an ear to Alice as she remained suspended

in the air. However…

"No! You can't, Lady Alice!" Rin grabbed her master's hand and yanked her back.

Rin was a top-class mage who had trained to protect Alice from the earliest days of

her childhood. Her finely tuned ability to sense danger allowed her to read the

Founder's movements a split second before she could unleash an attack.

"Does an astral mage dare to get in my way? If you choose to join forces with the

Empire…"

The Founder was the oldest mage in existence, bearer of a seething, roiling hatred.

Even the words of a fellow mage were nothing more than a faint spray of water

compared to her rage.

But Alice hadn't known that.

In other words, the Founder considered anyone who got in the way of her revenge an

enemy.

"Begone from this planet!"

A towering flaming sword appeared from the sky, even higher than Nebulis, far up in

the heavens.

From the rift above, an inferno in the shape of a blade sliced through the air as it came

crashing down. The unbelievable heat it gave off melted the soil. As the fiery hundredyard sword came closer and closer—

"Lady Alice, get away!"

An earth golem crawled up from a spot by Rin's feet.

Though she was loyal to the Founder, Rin had been suspicious of her motives all along

and had secretly prepared this countermeasure just in case.

"Rin?!"

The golem hurled Alice out of range of the impact. That was the last moment she

caught a glimpse of Iska, who was holding on to Mismis.

—The massive sword bore into the earth.

The ground all around it turned into lava, while a massive crack opened up along the

sword's path, spitting out enormous waves of flame and heat. Embers scattered into

the air, starting even more fires.

"Iska! The firestorm is heading toward the city…!" Mismis shrieked with a grim

expression as she witnessed the sky of the neutral city burn crimson. "We need to help

them fast!"

"Calm down, Captain. It looks worse than it actually is. It's just burning ash. Most of it

is gonna drop to the ground and go out. So long as everyone stays calm and handles

the situation properly, it won't cause a major fire… If anything, our biggest issue is the

opponent in the sky."

They needed to figure out how to deal with their trickiest problem—the Founder

Nebulis. Even if they requested help from the capital, they were too far away. They

couldn't hope for Jhin or Nene to run to their aid.

Just as Iska was about to say as much out loud, something else caught his eye.

"Rin?! Rin, answer me!"

The attendant was collapsed on the scorched earth. Alice desperately held Rin and

shrieked her name. Her golem had crumbled to pieces in front of them and dissolved

back to dirt.

Rin had managed to get Alice away from the sword, but that left her no time to escape,

so she only managed to take cover in the shadow of the golem. She'd avoided taking a

direct hit from the flames, but she couldn't do anything about the heat that suffused

the air.

"Rin, please open your eyes…"

"Don't move her around like that."

Iska gripped his black astral sword and stopped Alice from trying to shake her

attendant's shoulders. He leaped in front of the two girls.

—A flash of light.

With his black sword, Iska severed and destroyed the second wave of fire aimed at a

defenseless Alice. It disappeared, melting into the air.

"That's what your astral power is for."

"What?"

"Use ice to cool Rin down. That's how you treat burns."

"…Oh!" The princess jerked her face up to meet his.

At the same time, a chill seeped out of her fingertips and curled around Rin over her

clothes.

"Captain Mismis, take her to the hospital! Better yet, take her to a specialist, an astral

power healer!" Iska pointed at the neutral city of Ain, shooting a glance at the falling

embers.

"Then alert the city inhabitants. Make sure they do not leave the city walls under any

circumstances. From this point forward, this wasteland is going to become the most

dangerous battlefield in the world."

"…What? Uh, um…"

"Hurry!"

"O-okay! Be careful, Iska!"

The captain quickly came to her decision and lifted the mage who was supposed to be

an enemy onto her back. Then she started running toward the distant city.

Iska didn't watch as she left. He had already turned to stare at the opponent above his

head: the Founder Nebulis. The strongest astral mage. The one who had been possessed

by her hunger for revenge.

"Nebulis."

Iska held the black astral sword in his right hand and the white in his left—the only

pair of astral blades in the world, which his master had entrusted to him.

"One hundred years ago, you might have been the hope that guided every astral mage.

But now, you're different. After seeing your actions, I've finally come to a realization.

Right now—"

"This era doesn't need you!" yelled out a voice, ringing as if it were a wind chime made

of ice—a cry that was strong, clear, and absolutely unwavering echoed through the

wilderness. "You call yourself the Founder? Have some shame. No one needs you

anymore!"

The one who had uttered those words was the girl standing next to him.

"You interfered when Iska and I were trying to settle things, threatened the neutral

city, and even hurt Rin, a fellow mage!… Nebulis, you—and you alone—are a real witch!"

Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX, the princess who shouldered the burden of the modern

Sovereignty, pointed at the architect of her own country.

"Your powers will give birth to nothing. You can't help anyone achieve happiness."

"I agree. You don't know anything about this generation." Iska tried taking a step forward.

"Imperial soldier. Astral mage. You're both—"

""Quiet.""

The Founder was cut off by the boy and girl in perfect unison, speaking to the witch

captured in a dream that she refused to wake up from.

"What you are doing is meaningless. It's not the future I want," Iska said.

"It isn't the world I'm aiming for, either."

The two of them understood it in their own way: They were enemies.

The day would come when they would fight each other. But that was for them to settle.

They didn't need anyone else butting in.

"That's why—"

""(Revered) Founder, (please) go back to sleep for another century!""

Iska, the Successor of the Black Steel, and Alice, the Ice Calamity Witch, hollered

together, back-to-back.