The flour blade roaring forcefully towards Kamijou did not hit his right hand.
He avoided the strike coming for his face by moving his head out of the way.
As he did so, he purposefully fell to the ground and grabbed a bento box sized piece of shattered wall from the ground.
As he stood back up, Kamijou threw the stone at Terra as a counter.
"Precedence: Stone – Lower, Human Skin – Higher," Terra said almost as if he was singing.
The stone hit Terra on the forehead, but his expression did not change in the slightest.
Matching the timing with which the stone hit, Kamijou put his hand in his pocket. Terra stared at him grimly, but Kamijou ignored him, aimed for Terra's eyes, and threw the object that had been in his pocket.
The flour guillotine roared.
But when Terra saw the object that had been ripped to shreds by it, he looked confused.
It was a simple wallet.
Kamijou had thrown that piece of synthetic leather that had no effect as a weapon and watched Terra's reaction.
"Now why did you do that?" Kamijou spoke these cutting words. "You easily repelled Itsuwa's spear and Tsuchimikado's magic. So why didn't you use your 'precedence' on a simple wallet?"
"…!?"
Terra swung the flour guillotine as if to keep Kamijou from speaking.
Kamijou continued doing so as he destroyed it with his right hand.
"If you think about it, some things just don't make sense."
Kamijou stepped forward as if to split the powdery remains of the guillotine.
"For instance, Itsuwa and I took a direct hit from that white blade, but we're still alive. You have no reason to hold back and you certainly don't seem like the type to let those that lose to you go. The answer to this is simple. When you hit us with that blade, it wasn't that you didn't feel the need to kill us. You couldn't kill us even though you wanted to."
The flour blade did not have enough intrinsic destructive power to kill a human. Its power had to be amplified using the precedence spell.
Which meant…
"Your 'precedence' isn't very adaptable. The blade's power was always decreased on the first attack after you stopped one of our attacks. In other words, your 'precedence' can't be used on multiple targets at the same time. When you move from one precedence to another, you have to reset each one every time. It has to be something like that."
"Heh," Terra laughed.
He once again brought up his giant blade as his expression relaxed.
"…So the weakness in the 'Execution of Light' that your friends spoke of was that."
His voice was filled with relief at the solved mystery.
"You see, this is unadjusted. I was actually fairly curious about what they meant."
The clergyman smiled.
"But," Terra's words returned to those of scorn, "now I know they weren't anything to be worried about. Terra of the Left is not so naïve as to lose due to something like that!!"
The white blade flew with the sound of sliced air.
Kamijou blew it away with his right hand and chased after Terra who had back stepped away.
"Terra!!"
He yelled, but Terra was faster. He swung the flour guillotine again and spoke as it struck straight down.
"Precedence: The Floor – Lower, Flour – Higher."
The thick stone floor was blown off and the small pieces flew towards Kamijou. The boy jumped to the side to avoid them and shouted.
"Why are you going this far!? It isn't just us! You got everyone in the town of Avignon wrapped up in this! Is this really worth that!?"
"Ha. Most of the uproar was caused by your side, Academy City!"
Terra moved back with small hops and gathered the flour in his hand.
"This is for the Holy Kingdom, the ultimate goal of the entirety of the Christian Church."
"What?"
"Oh? More people in Christian cultures know about this than know what the colors of a traffic light mean. But I suppose someone from a non-religious island nation in the Far East can't be expected to know." Terra spoke with slight boredom and disappointment. "It is the kingdom that God himself will create after the Final Judgment. Only those who have devoted themselves to their strong faith will be allowed there. It is a place of eternal salvation. Doesn't it sound truly wonderful? That is my goal and I aim to help others who also wish to reach that place."
Terra swung the flour guillotine and Kamijou blew it away with his right hand.
A few cylindrical shells on the ground were blown away by the wind pressure.
Terra spoke while staring at his weapon that had been turned to powder.
"But I had a thought."
There was no wind, but the powder returned to Terra's hand with an almost eerie amount of precision.
"Won't people create conflicts in that Holy Kingdom? Even if God creates a perfect kingdom and only those with true faith are gathered there, will the various 'groups' people create really live up to His expectations?"
Kamijou ran forward as he listened.
Terra fired the guillotine to stop him.
"God will lead those who have kept their faith in the Christian Church to the Holy Kingdom. But even the Roman Catholic Church is split into innumerable factions. Even if God only provides salvation for devout Roman Catholic believers, the problems that arise from the different factions within the Roman Catholic Church will just be transferred over to the Holy Kingdom."
Terra moved his right hand and the flour squirmed and formed a giant blade.
The white guillotine struck Kamijou's fist.
"…No matter how perfect a kingdom God creates, it is meaningless as long as there are ugly divisions among the people inside it. If the conflicts we have now are brought to the supposedly perfect kingdom, it will all be for naught. I wouldn't call that 'eternal salvation'."
As the flour guillotine was negated by his right hand, Kamijou listened.
Terra must have decided that falling back further would be pointless, because he moved forward.
"I wish for salvation. And I wish to bring salvation to others. Even if God's plan is perfect, we humans can ruin it all if we do not live up to His expectations! That is why I must know whether humanity will still have its current conflicts in the Holy Kingdom!! And if it will, I just have to guide everyone in the right direction before the Final Judgment!!"
"That is the very purpose of God's Right Seat!" Terra roared.
Unlike another member, Vento of the Front, he had chosen this path for the sake of the Roman Catholic Church.
He may be going as far as he was because he truly wanted to protect those who believed in the Roman Catholic Church.
But…
"…Is that really what salvation is?" Kamijou said as he grit his teeth.
The face of the woman who had taken a bullet to get him to act, Oyafune Monaka, came to Kamijou's mind.
He thought of Tsuchimikado and Itsuwa who had fought alongside him.
"It can't be the Roman Catholic Church at fault here. I can't imagine that the teachings of the church that brought up Orsola and Agnese could be that twisted. Your problem is much more basic than that. You don't know what the word 'salvation' means!"
The rioters rampaging throughout the city of Avignon.
And the powered suits that had come to suppress those riots that Terra had destroyed.
"There's no way this god of yours could be spreading salvation to create conflicts like this! Screw that. If you're going to come up with your own definition for salvation and be satisfied with that…"
He glared at the man in front of him.
That was the enemy.
"Then I'll destroy that fucked-up illusion right here and now!!"
Kamijou leaped towards Terra as he yelled.
Terra moved back and brought the guillotine up with his right arm. Kamijou wasn't going to catch up to him at this rate.
But even so he continued forward.
The sole of his foot landed on one of the shells on the ground, but he ignored it and stepped down even harder.
And he kicked something at his feet forward as hard as he could.
It was the Friuli Spear Itsuwa had dropped.
Spears weren't easy to kick up, so it just slid across the floor. It hit the anti-barrier shotgun the powered suit had dropped and headed for Terra's ankle with a slightly altered trajectory.
"!!"
Terra swung the guillotine down and smashed Itsuwa's spear to the ground.
He went out of the way to use his guillotine to block an attack he could have easily avoided by lifting his foot up.
(I was right.)
Kamijou took that opportunity to get even closer to Terra.
He got right up next to Terra where he hadn't been able to before.
(If Terra himself had a large power from the beginning, he wouldn't need magic that switched out the order of precedence. Those reigning at the top don't need to change anything. His intrinsic power is nothing special.)
Kamijou put all of his strength into his right fist.
(In other words,) he concluded, (Terra of the Left isn't all that strong. Some guy who looks strong while hiding in a safety zone can't possibly be stronger than people like me or Itsuwa who truly set foot in the battlefield!!)
After Terra knocked Itsuwa's spear to the ground, he mumbled a "precedent" and shot the flour guillotine in return, but Kamijou destroyed the attack with his right fist.
"Too slow!!"
His fist continued on and struck Terra's face.
A thick sound rang out.
Kamijou felt a dull recoil go from his tightly gripped fist to his wrist.
Because he had put all his weight into the blow, his body pitched forward.
(Got him!!)
He was sure of it.
But Terra did not collapse.
"You damn pagan aaaaaaape!!"
Strength returned to the God's Right Seat member along with the rage.
The bottom of his shoes slid across the floor. Terra almost fell when his legs hit the collapsed powered suit. He lost his balance and bent over backwards, but his fighting spirit was not broken. Terra swung his right hand while still in that unstable posture and the flour guillotine flew fiercely towards Kamijou's gut.
"Precedence: Human Body – Lower, Flour – Higher!!"
The blade was set to cut right through people.
And Kamijou had only just thrown his punch to Terra's face.
It was a difficult position to touch the guillotine with his right hand from. Same for dodging out of the way.
(…!!)
Kamijou quickly trampled the objects at his feet.
All that was there was the thick anti-barrier shotgun from the powered suit Terra had defeated.
The shotgun was lying diagonally slanted due to the rubble on the ground, so it moved like a see-saw when Kamijou stepped on it. The mass of metal stood up in front of him.
"You're too naïve!!"
But Terra's expression did not change.
The anti-barrier shotgun was heavy, so Kamijou couldn't pick it up easily. And even if he could grab the giant gun, it would take several seconds before he could aim it at Terra and pull the trigger. His last-ditch plan wasn't going to work. As Kamijou desperately tried to grab the shotgun, it was slammed forcefully into his gut by Terra's guillotine.
A tremendous noise resounded through the Palace of the Popes.
Red blood flew through the air.
The liquid was dripping from Kamijou's mouth as he doubled over. He hadn't been able to block the attack with his right hand. He hadn't been able to dodge out of the way. He had been hit by the attack as it came directly for his gut and strength fled his body.
"Wha-…?" came the shocked voice.
But it was Terra of the Left's voice, not Kamijou's.
But you couldn't blame him.
He had amplified the destructive power of the guillotine with his precedence magic and yet Kamijou's body had not been sliced in two.
"…"
Kamijou smirked and used his right hand to grab the guillotine that had struck him in the gut.
And with that the flour blade came apart.
Terra of the Left started to move back, but Kamijou moved forward before he could.
He was now in range of Kamijou's fist.
"What kind of result was that? Imagine Breaker is supposed to only be in your right hand. What happened? Don't tell me a pagan ape like you has already achieved that power!!"
"That wasn't it."
Kamijou tightly clenched his right fist.
"That had nothing to do with Imagine Breaker."
"Then wha-…!?"
Kamijou moved before Terra could finish yelling.
He aimed directly for Terra of the Left's face that was currently colored with shock.
"Do you really think I'm going to answer?"
A thick sound rang out.
This time, Terra's body was thrown to the ground.