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“To cut a star is to cut a world.”

Holy Sword opened her mouth. She looked at me against the backdrop of the crumbling planet. Without a sound, it collapsed. Shattering stellar debris began to fly out of orbit in all directions into the distant void. Holy Sword smiled as she sheathed her sword.

“It’s not something you can do with brute force alone.”

“I know that, but….”

The movement of her sword was utterly incomprehensible to me. A single strike that can’t even be called a strike. All I could feel was that the path of the blade never wavered. I stared at the Holy Sword.

“What did you feel?”

I struggled to speak.

“…Unwavering. Honest and true.”

“You have seen well then. You should be proud of yourself for even noticing it. It’s not like you didn’t realize it all those years of fighting me and the one you call the Queen.”

I was still recovering from the shock. I’d always thought of the star-cutting sword as a vague abstraction, but to see it cut a star right before me, I couldn’t even joke about it. Holy Sword chuckled softly as she took my frozen expression and approached me.

“Now, imprint that emotion in your mind so that when you close your eyes, you can see that image in your head.”

Her voice was right in my ear. She stretched out her arm and covered my eyes. I closed them, feeling her warm touch.

“The movement of the stars as I cut them, the sight of them being cut. A world fading away.”

Even with my eyes closed, I could see the star. The star flickered in and out of existence with the flick of the Holy Sword. The Holy Sword’s words imprinted themselves on me as if by suggestion.

“Remember it all as if it had just happened, Elroy. That will be the beginning of your transformation.”

Like water on a cloth, the Holy Sword’s voice dripped into my ears. When her hands pulled away from my face, I opened my eyes. The universe and the star clusters were gone. We stood face to face in the white room.

“Can you remember, Elroy?”

In front of my blurry vision, the Holy Sword stared back at me. I nodded hesitantly. My hands felt like they weren’t mine.

“Yes.”

“Take the sword.”

I grasped the sword. Holy Sword waved her hand, and a training dummy appeared before me. She patted the wood and straw.

“You must think about what you are cutting, Elroy. You mustn’t just cut away the idea. What you must cut lies beyond. The path of your sword is the only way you can find it.”

The Holy Sword tapped the dummy and smiled.

“If you cut through it, there is nothing you can’t cut through. You can reach anywhere you want. Even a God.”

I raised my sword. I tried injecting my mana, but it stopped flowing at some point. My palm gripped the hilt, letting it take root in my hand.

I pulled the sword down. Repeating the movements of the Holy Sword, my sword began to fall in a straight trajectory, and the blade neatly sliced the scarecrow in half.

“…That isn’t it.”

I frowned as I withdrew my sword. I had the sensation that I had just slashed. No. The object being cut shouldn’t be on the blade. It was the cleanest, most flawless slash I’d ever attempted, but I wasn’t satisfied.

“You shouldn’t try to mimic the movement, Elroy. Think it all over again. You don’t know it in your head; you should feel it in your body. Formulating it into a theory in your head is the next step.”

“Show me one more time.”

Holy Sword crossed her arms and shook her head.

“No. You must not let your first impression fade. I will not show it again until you have reached a certain point.”

The Holy Sword was firm.

“You must not become accustomed to its mysteries and its illusions. The more you grope for them, the farther away they will be.”

She snapped her fingers, and the cut dummy rose. I gripped my sword again, not allowing myself to feel any regret.

“Again. Explore alone. I’ll give you plenty of time. However long it takes.”

I nodded and raised my sword, and my training began in earnest.

***

“I have no choice. You can use my office. You will conduct your research and meetings here. I can use the other rooms.”

Laura said with a sigh. Nella’s tensed shoulders finally relaxed. Laura looked at her.

“The atmosphere has changed, Nella. Are you still shaken up from the last raid?”

Nella frowned slightly.

“Uh, no. I was surprised, but I’m feeling all better now..”

“Is that so? So if it’s not because of the raid…, is it because of the Disaster? Or is it because of the Hero who is now dead or–?”

“Why would I worry about him!”

Nella shrieked in exasperation at Laura, who was speaking as if she were drifting off, but then she sank back into her chair with a shudder. Nella couldn’t understand herself. She couldn’t help but think of the look on his face.

“It’s not your fault.”

The Hero sat on the ground, his stomach pierced and bleeding. The image overlapped with Elroy after the fight against the Third Disaster. She remembered him with a broken leg, his arm twisted at an odd angle, and a handful of blood poured from his mouth, staining the beach’s white sand. It was the price he had paid for cutting down the Third Disaster.

“…We defeated it.”

The Saintess couldn’t heal him. She lay down nearby, exhausted, having spent all her energy and magic tending to Georg, whose wounds had accumulated during the battle. He, too, was utterly exhausted, and Arjen, as usual, paid no attention to anyone but Iris. Nella walked over to Elroy, who received the simplest first aid.

“Is he alive?”

“Barely.”

Nella didn’t feel sorry for him. She knew he must be hurting but hadn’t gotten to know him properly. She’d always considered him and the party a means to an end, but it felt different then. They’d been closer to death than anyone else.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Not really. Mind your own business.”

Elroy replied bluntly and stood up. She didn’t understand how he could move his body at will with one of his legs not reaching the ground. Nella watched him hobble with his sword with a sigh.

“Good work.”

Nella muttered in a small voice, deliberately inaudible. The Hero limped back to the barracks. Black waves washed upon the sandy shore. The water was tainted with the bodily fluids and blood of the Disaster and monster that had fallen onto the city.

Then she saw the Hero exchange words with Daphne before being carried away. Nella couldn’t even get close to him because of Daphne. All she could see were Elroy’s turquoise eyes looking at her apologetically.

“So, what are you going to do?”

Nella snapped out of her reverie at the sound of Laura’s voice calling out to her, and she tried to clear her mind of the day’s events as they continued to play out before her eyes. Yes, she was discussing how she would use Tower Master’s office.

“It will be a month before the eleventh floor is fully functional again, and since we can’t postpone our observations until then, we’ll continue from the roof.”

One spare telescope is left, but it’s less powerful than the old one. Still, it’s better than nothing. If the Meteor was approaching at a constant velocity, or at least accelerating at the same rate as the estimates… Nella continued the complex calculations in her head, then looked at Laura.

“Has the Tower Master thinking about how to deal with the catastrophe?”

“For now, I believe the plan you and Daphne have proposed is best. Not merely to stave off destruction, but to eliminate it altogether.”

A smile tugged at Laura’s lips.

“I suppose I needn’t worry about the future with such fine wizards growing up.”

“Well, if we don’t have to worry about that, then the question of who should be the next Tower Master is important.”

At Nella’s words, Laura chuckled.

“I’ll try to look at it positively. If this plan does succeed in preventing the Sixth Disaster.”

Nella clicked her tongue slightly, and Laura’s smile deepened.

“Well, then, I’ll leave the design to you, as it’s far better to leave it to the creator than to get overly involved. Since it’s a spell never seen before, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to submit a paper to the Society once it’s done.”

With that, Laura ended the topic.

“Now, let’s talk about something else.”

As she said this, she snapped her fingers. Just then, something sprang from Nella’s shadow and was snatched up by Laura’s hand.

“Is that… Have you been watching me the whole time?”

“Forgive me; it was unavoidable. I’ve put it on every wizard in the Tower.”

For a moment, Nella’s anger boiled over, but given the betrayal of Edwin, it wasn’t unreasonable. No one could have known how many lurked inside the Tower except for the one in front of her. Nella opened her eyes, trying to control her anger. There was no point in getting angry right now.

“This must have something to do with the raid, and now you can tell me what happened. Who were those people, and what happened to Professor Edwin….?”

Laura nodded slowly.

“But before you do, I suppose I could ask you something.”

“…Uh, yeah, sure. As long as it’s not a stupid question.”

Laura’s expression as she looked at the trembling Nella was more severe than expected.

“Are you confident you can continue to fight the beings that threaten this world, even after this, even if you’ve left the Hero Party?”

It wasn’t hypothetical. Nella frowned, then nodded.

“I can’t let the world end before I become stronger.”

“Then let me tell you a story about people who want the world to end so badly.”

Laura clasped her hands together with a small smile.

“People who want the world to end…?”

At Nella’s puzzled expression, Laura nodded.

“Like, say, the refugees from Bactins’, whose homes and lands have been destroyed.”