An arrow that fired last and struck first.
Reversed causality.
There was no chance of dodging it. Blocking it was out of the question.
Except…
She let the razor-sharp feathered blades slice her palm open, barely propping herself up with her bloodsaw, and Kujou Katora grinned at Kujou Iruka like a woman possessed.
Around her neck, a conspicuous ruby necklace glimmered with a sinister light.
Beneath it, the pale skin of her throat still bore the marks left by wearing a collar for far too long.
Of course Kujou Katora would never have taken off the collar Miss Yuzu had "bestowed" on her just for the sake of ornament.
She had swapped the collar for this necklace for one reason only—
To stop Kujou Iruka.
Before the battle had even begun, they'd guessed it. Once the fighting started, Kujou Iruka would go straight for the biggest threat first: Tsukiyomi Fuya.
This necklace was an evil relic the Shingai family had brought out—
"Evil Relic: Martyr's Cursed Necklace."
It was said to have been left behind, hundreds of years ago, by a Baroness of Flowers who fell into the Abyss. She left it at her death, steeped in her boundless resentment and jealousy.
The Martyr's Cursed Necklace transferred all harm dealt to others onto its wearer.
It was originally meant to rely on its dazzling, bewitching appearance, a voodoo doll of a necklace for taking revenge on, or assassinating, some innocent girl.
Later… the paladins of the Holy Royal Court developed a new use for it.
Protecting fragile Healing-type Espers on the battlefield.
Her blood-soaked right hand touched the necklace hanging at her throat. As if alive, the sinister thing drank the blood from Kujou Katora's hand. She looked at Kujou Iruka. "Recognized it?"
"Truly worthy of The Empire's once-brightest Valkyrie… The Empire's number-one archer."
"My dear Sister—" Kujou Katora's voice was ground out through clenched teeth, like a vengeful ghost returned from Purgatory.
"Take a guess—"
"How many people's scents has this necklace memorized by now?"
Kujou Iruka stared at Kujou Katora in silence. The hand on her bowstring was still steady, but… it seemed it would never draw again.
She swept her gaze over the swarm of insignificant vermin.
Over those silent wretches who took it for granted that they could exploit the last softness in Kujou Iruka's heart, and who charged at her swinging their greatswords.
Humans—
Still as despicable as ever.
Nothing seemed to have changed since twenty years ago.
"You already ruined me once—" Brilliant starlight fell from the sky and burst around Kujou Iruka. In an instant, the dark-red erosion domain was lit up as bright as day.
"Ruined everything I had—"
The evening gown on Kujou Iruka's body evaporated in the starlight and was destroyed.
In the end, within the dazzling white starlight, only a faint, blurred human silhouette could be made out.
"And now—"
"You're forcing me…"
"To destroy everything all over again?"
Farther away, a group of people wearing the signature lab coats of Epiphany Manufacture were ceaselessly recording and correcting data.
Among these researchers, Unohana Chiyo gazed out at the distant battlefield.
Beside her sat a silver-haired girl with long, straight hair, expressionless and merciless in her wheelchair.
She was nothing like the frail, delicate, pitiful girl Su Yuzu had first met.
Now, with her hands folded beneath her chin, her gaze was just as empty as before, but her expression… could only be called frightening.
Even without any assistive tools, Unohana Chiyo could see clearly what was happening on the battlefield.
She felt the staggering power erupting from it.
"Is this really all right?" Gripping the armrest on one side of the wheelchair, Unohana Chiyo looked at the girl beside her, who not long ago should have been Yuzu's enemy.
Unohana Chiyo watched the battlefield. In the explosion of starlight, bright as day, Kujou Iruka's somewhat disheveled figure… slowly came into view.
Had this been twenty years ago.
Unohana Chiyo wouldn't have doubted for a moment that a starlight explosion like that could cripple Kujou Iruka in a single blow.
But… twenty years had passed.
Her opponent was The Empire's once-brightest Valkyrie.
The one who, having given herself over to the Abyss, rapidly reached the Sixth Sequence: "The Abyss of Eternal Smiles."
When Su Yuzu said that Kujou Iruka had already stepped into the Seventh Sequence, Unohana Chiyo never doubted it.
Because Unohana Chiyo, who had personally endured Kujou Iruka's terrifying, overwhelming power, knew better than anyone how dreadful that woman was.
An attack like this would probably only enrage Kujou Iruka.
Kujou Iruka, her evening gown already in tatters and her pale skin bared in large patches, suddenly spread her wings.
Her wounds healed at a startling speed, as if time were running backward.
Even the tattered evening gown was restored, as though time had been rewound.
Unohana Chiyo had witnessed that kind of despair before.
She had struggled, given everything, staked her very life, and barely managed to break the woman's arm and tear open her wings.
Only to find that every bit of that effort had been utterly in vain.
Kujou Iruka needed only a single breath to reset everything.
"This will only enrage Kujou Iruka."
"The moment Kujou Iruka steels herself and draws her bow on Kujou Katora, that will be the end of everything."
"Not yet—" the girl in the wheelchair said flatly.
She looked toward the battlefield.
In her fury, Kujou Iruka drew her bow on Kujou Katora.
Tennouji Jurei swung her sword and lunged to block it, but Kujou Iruka drew far faster than she could close the distance.
Blood-red light burst open again behind Kujou Katora.
The whole world seemed to turn a single sheet of red. Kujou Katora's silhouette staggered and fell, exactly like a key story character in a game being taken down in one hit by the boss.
But this time… the necklace at Kujou Katora's throat burst along with the blood-red light.
"She can't let go—"
"Otherwise… the battle would have ended long ago." The girl's cold face showed no ripple, like a still, ancient well.
"From the very start—"
"She's only been playing."
In the blood-red world, the petite Seat of Evil suddenly appeared behind Kujou Iruka.
Her crystal-cluster longsword plunged savagely into the small of Kujou Iruka's back, as if to gouge off Kujou Iruka's wings in one stroke.
Kujou Iruka twisted free and kicked backward. Her Sharp High Heels slammed into the Seat of Evil's chest and sent the slight girl flying like a cannonball.
In the next instant—
Luminous blue motes of light flickered over Kujou Iruka's body, and in that glow her broken wings mended once more.
"Garan."
Kujou Iruka flared her wings and glared down at everyone in fury.
Dark golden vertical pupils seemed to burn with the flames of Purgatory.
Shingai Hitomi gripped the handrims on her wheelchair's wheels, as if to turn herself around.
Unohana Chiyo reached out and turned the wheelchair for Shingai Hitomi.
In the researchers' camp, Sakura Koishin was being helped into a suit of power armor, angular and sharp yet sleek, by a group of researchers.
"Twenty years."
Shingai Hitomi listened to Unohana Chiyo's breathing.
"Have you figured it out yet… what exactly Kujou Iruka's 'Garan' is?"
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