Ch.180Aria – 6

“This… is… im… possible…!”

Aria looked around at the corridor that was gradually collapsing just from her standing there. If she made even the slightest movement, the entire surrounding area would cave in.

She couldn’t possibly contain the power threatening to overflow. The wall she had leaned against for balance had long since crumbled under her grip. As a result, she had to stand precariously without anything to support her.

“You… released… the seal…?!”

It was utterly astonishing. How could this possibly happen? The woman who handed over the spear must have been a walking trauma for Miss Mira, right?

If her assumption was correct, Miss Mira should have been paralyzed by trauma the moment she saw that woman, and all the woman had to do was stab Miss Mira to drive her out of her deep memories—a simple task.

The fact that even this simple task failed meant one of two things: either Miss Mira had overcome her trauma, or the woman had refused the order.

“…Surely, she couldn’t have retained her memories…?”

And in Aria’s mind, the probability of the latter was overwhelmingly high.

“That damn woman…! I shouldn’t have given her free will…!”

A harsh curse escaped Aria’s lips.

There were clear limitations to the memories that could be read through the fragments of the world, so she had granted a kind of free will to better embody the woman Miss Mira remembered.

To fill in the missing memories with her own performance, that is.

But what if that woman had started thinking for herself and recalled memories related to Miss Mira from the past? That would explain why the seal was broken. She would certainly prioritize her relationship with Miss Mira over Aria’s orders.

In her obsession with eliminating possibilities, she had created a new one. And a fatally dangerous one at that.

“Ugh… urgh…”

She dry-heaved again. Transparent saliva trickled down the corner of her mouth. The reason hardly mattered now. At this rate, her body would burst before long. She needed to take some kind of action.

Aria tried to extract part of the power and scatter it throughout the world while absorbing as much of the remainder as possible, but the incoming amount was far greater. It was as if someone was deliberately pouring it into her.

‘Is that… what’s happening…!’

She thought she understood what Miss Mira was thinking. She wasn’t trying to regain her power to fight back; she was pushing in more power, hoping Aria couldn’t withstand it and would break the connection.

Judging by this simple but brutal method, it seemed Miss Mira hadn’t found a way to sever the connection herself, but that was hardly a relief. At this rate, she would clearly achieve what she wanted anyway.

“What’s going on! What’s happen—Aria?!”

In the distance, Leona could be seen running toward her. She must have rushed out in such a hurry that her clothes were a mess.

Her shirt buttons were misaligned by not one but two holes, her skirt was barely hanging on her hips rather than her waist. She hadn’t even had time to put on socks, wearing shoes on bare feet.

At least she was carrying her holy sword; otherwise, her appearance would have been indistinguishable from that of an exhibitionist.

Ignoring her own appearance, Leona ran toward Aria and, upon seeing her suffering in the middle of the half-collapsed corridor, stopped beside her at an incredible speed.

“Wh-what happened? Are you okay?”

Aria slowly raised her head. She saw Leona’s face filled with worry, fidgeting anxiously.

The thought crossed her mind that she might be able to use this.

Though the capacity was ridiculously small for resolving the situation, if she forced it in to the limit, she could temporarily alleviate the pain while buying time to devise a countermeasure.

Even if her body burst and she died, unlike Aria who was a unique existence, Leona could be ‘created’ again anytime. She just needed to finish the job and then create her again.

“Um… Leona. Could you reach out your hand for a moment?”

Aria painfully extended her hand. As her center of gravity shifted ever so slightly, the corridor cracked more severely with a booming sound. Screams of students echoed beyond the chaotic corridor.

“H-hand? Why suddenly a hand?”

“Never mind the reason, just hurry…”

“When you suddenly ask like that…”

Leona hesitated. Seeing this, veins bulged on Aria’s forehead. What was she afraid of when she could just be recreated if she died?

Simultaneously, irritation surged within her.

“We’re friends, aren’t we! Can’t you even grant a simple request to hold out your hand?! What are you hesitating for!”

A shout erupted from her. An invisible wave like a shock wave swept through the corridor. All the windows shattered with a sharp sound. The already precarious walls and floor undulated as if about to collapse at any moment.

If it had been Aria before the power backflow, she wouldn’t have cared much about Leona’s reaction. She would have prioritized maintaining her usual demeanor.

But the current Aria wasn’t that composed.

It was due to the sensation of power cramming into her with nowhere else to go, the pain that came with it, and the fear that at this rate, her body might burst and die just as she was about to achieve her goal.

“…”

Leona retreated step by step. Her half-extended hand froze in place. Her golden eyes stared at Aria in disbelief. Aria disliked even that expression.

“…Mira told me something recently.”

The hand that had been half-extended toward Aria lowered. Aria could see Leona’s grip tightening on the holy sword in her other hand.

“She asked who I would choose if I had to believe only one person between you and her. She said if any doubt arose, she might suspect you first.”

‘Miss Mira… said that?’

She calculated when those words might have been spoken. The estimate came easily. It must have been when they all gathered at the imperial palace due to the Succubus Queen’s truce proposal.

“At the time, I told her not to say such nonsense… but now I understand why she said it. Aria, you’re acting strange right now.”

“Ugh… I’m not… acting strange, Leona… I’m just… struggling. I’m just in pain… my body hurts…”

“Then why are you struggling? Tell me why. Tell me where it hurts. I’ll help you.”

She had begun to doubt. Aria concluded that convincing Leona was already a lost cause.

If Miss Mira hadn’t said those words, Leona might have overlooked it, thinking Aria had momentarily lost her senses due to extreme pain. But by planting that seed of doubt, suspicion had sprouted that something might truly be wrong.

With more time, it wouldn’t be impossible to convince her, but in this situation, it was. Before that, she would have to choose between her body bursting or vomiting out the power.

Cough, cough—Aria coughed violently. The accumulated power was boiling over more and more. She needed to take action as quickly as possible.

“…It would end if you just said a few words. That everything’s fine. That it’s nothing… If you just said that, it would be over. Please, Aria… I don’t want to lose either you or Mira…”

Despite Leona’s tearful plea, Aria, consumed by pain and fear, couldn’t accept it at all. It only seemed detestable to her.

Aria had wandered alone in a world where time had stopped for over a thousand years, experiencing a world that froze without a reader.

Her view of others had been irreversibly distorted long ago.

“How dare you… doubt me…?”

Her blue pupils flickered ominously. How dare a mere fictional character, a fake who would soon become a real human, doubt me?

“Look at yourself, Aria! I have no choice! What’s wrong with you?!”

“…Fine, then. I don’t need you either. I can just create you again anyway.”

A magic circle appeared beside Aria. Her purpose had changed. From someone to be used to someone to be disposed of. Malice had settled in her once clear, brilliant blue eyes.

Seeing this, Leona raised her holy sword, tears streaming down her face. She hated that the situation had turned out exactly as Mira had predicted.

The magic circle transformed into a large fireball. The blazing sphere flew directly at Leona. Though it was just a single fireball spell, its impact was far from simple.

Upon hitting Leona’s raised holy sword, the fireball caused an explosion the size of an entire building. Flames shot up as high as a spire and spread as wide as a building, engulfing the dormitory whole.

Despite the size of the flames, the explosion didn’t spread into a large fire. The impact was so strong that everything it touched sublimated.

—KRAGAGAGAK!

Thanks to the power of the holy sword and the warrior’s blessing, Leona barely survived the flames, was thrown far back, crashed into the park ground, and plowed through the vegetation.

“Hot…!”

As soon as her body stopped moving, she urgently used healing magic. Combined with the warrior’s blessing and healing magic, her reddened, burning skin returned to normal.

However, since healing magic couldn’t restore her clothes, Leona had to stand up wearing only a half-burned shirt.

The skirt that had been precariously hanging was now caught around one ankle after being stripped off while she was dragged across the ground, and her underwear was a mess, covered in dirt.

There was no time to worry about her appearance. She looked back at where she had flown from. The nearby building had practically evaporated.

‘This is impossible.’

It clearly looked like a basic fire spell, but to produce that much power with a low-level spell? It was hard to believe, but she had to.

‘She really has changed.’

In fact, from the moment she first saw Aria today, she had felt a strangely unsettling sensation. Like walking with mud filling her shoes.

That was also why she hesitated to reach out her hand. If it had been the usual Aria, she would have followed without thinking, but that unsettling feeling made her hesitate.

In conclusion, following her instinct had been the right choice.

‘Mira…’

She had said she might suspect Aria first if something happened. Could she have known this would happen?

Leona staggered to her feet. Her sight, enhanced by the blessing, caught Aria’s figure through the blazing heat haze. She was writhing in pain, clutching her chest and breathing heavily.

Her heart softened again at the sight of someone who was genuinely in severe pain. She had been a childhood friend for 18 years. It wasn’t easy to shake off those feelings.

‘No.’

Leona squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t afford to be weak. That person was no longer Aria. From the moment she attacked her, she shouldn’t have seen her as Aria.

Because the Aria she knew would never do such a thing.

—KWAAANG!

Leona, who had been muttering to herself as if self-hypnotizing, opened her eyes at what sounded like an explosion.

Aria had reached right in front of her. Behind her was scorched ground. Leona almost instinctively called out “Aria” as she had done for the past decade or so, but swallowed her words.

It was because she met those eerie eyes she had never seen before. She could hardly believe they were the eyes of that kind and innocent Aria.

“…Anyway. If it bursts, I can create it again.”

Just as Aria, muttering incomprehensible words, was about to reach out and grab Leona’s neck, her body flinched and retreated. Leona turned her head in the direction Aria was looking.

Someone was walking out of a space that had split open in a cross shape.

“Mira?!”

It was Mira. With an expression as rigid as Aria’s.

“Be careful, Mira! Aria is…!”

Though she didn’t understand what was happening, Leona warned her first. She needed to let her know that this was no longer the Aria they knew. And that she had become much stronger than before.

“I know.”

Despite Leona’s warning, Mira aimed Eternity at her with a face showing no surprise at all.

“That was originally mine anyway.”