Chapter 12: Radiance (7)
~12.7~
*****
"Tch. Tough nut."
"What'll you do? You've thrown two ultimate spells at it and it's barely damaged."
"Yeah. And it regenerates too quickly. I'll have to hit it with something that'll destroy it in one hit."
"Do you think you can?"
"Yes. I have another spell in mind. It's technically an origin spell, but no origin magic requires origin mana. You just don't get world altering effects, which works out just fine here." She glanced back at the barrier mountains. "I should avoid rewriting the map too much."
"I don't know how to respond to that…"
Kye chuckled. "Long story short, it would be classified as ultimate if it were classified, but it's not a spell I'll allow anyone to learn."
"Why not?"
"Origin magic isn't something mortals have any business meddling with. It cannot be learned through trial and error. One must be perfect. One mistake is death. If I make even the tiniest mistake casting it, I'll die."
"You'd better not mess up!"
"Yes, ma'am." Kye smirked. "Oh, the beast is powering up. Heh, it's angry. Oh, it's got a new sword."
"I'm changing back. Odachi again?"
"Yes." Astraia quickly formed back into an oversized katana, exactly as she was at the start of the battle. "Where did it even get that sword? Whatever, no time to think about that now."
The beast rushed Kye, closing the distance quickly, but it did not catch her off-guard. She parried and kicked the beast higher into the air.
"It's focusing too much on its weapon now. That's a fatal mistake against me."
Kye flew upward to meet the beast and exchanged several blows. She landed several counters on the beast with her feet and knees while keeping its weapon occupied with her own. She soon started getting in small cuts. It screamed in pain when Kye cut deep across its chest. It broke off and flew higher into the sky, but she didn't chase it.
"Perfect."
Kye examined the blood left on Hikarimaru. She pulled the mana from it and encased it in an orb of her aether. The beast began gathering mana, which Kye knew wouldn't end well if she didn't act first. She quickly poured an enormous amount of radiant aether into the orb, it growing bigger until it was a meter in diameter. She pointed the orb at the beast.
"This is where I need to do the single massive mana burst. Brace yourself. It's not going to tickle."
"I'm ready."
"<<Light Nova>>!" Kye focused. She rapidly sped up time around her, channeling all the while, and simultaneously compressing her already sped up time to a fraction of a second. In a five-thousandth of a second, she experienced five thousand seconds of channeling, all through her bond with Astraia. In that single instant, the power within the orb grew to a level that the elder royal thought was unimaginable. It was a level of power she had only experienced within Kye's soul, where Elysia wielded her full power.
The orb left Kye's hand with a tremendous shockwave and a bright flash of light that temporarily blinded everyone that could see it. The flash only lasted a second, but in that second, the beast was carried off into the upper atmosphere and beyond, continuing until it escaped the atmosphere entirely.
Alethea teleported next to Kye and berated her. "What are you thinking, using a spell like that?!"
Kye smirked. "Detonation and Kami Ikazuchi barely hurt it. I had to use Light Nova to deal any real damage."
"What about that burst? I couldn't even read it. That was at least beyond two-thousand fold! How far did you go? Was it even safe?"
"Five thousand. And yes, it's fine. I spent the entire fight reinforcing my bond with Astraia to withstand a single massive burst. It's not something that can be done at a moment's notice, but with proper preparation, it's safe." Kye smiled as her spell exploded far above them. She held her hands together. "May you be purified in the wake of my power. The goddess will guide you to your next destination, your soul healed from this torturous state."
Alethea smiled. "You really are something else."
Kye shook her head. "No." Her eyes were fixated on the explosion above. "I am only me. Nothing more, nothing less. And me is hungry."
Alethea clasped a hand across her mouth to keep from bursting out laughing.
"I'm also a little tired."
Alethea smiled at her and took her odachi-free hand. "Let's get you two back. I imagine Astarte and Allison will have some choice words for how reckless you were."
Kye shook her head and glanced at the barrier mountains. "Before that-" She saw the rubble start moving and focused to see who was there. "Heh."
Michelle was floating above the gap in the barrier mountains, using her telekinetic force to piece the mountains back together.
"Want to take human form? Think you can fly?"
"Oh, easily. I'm not exhausted at all. I didn't even realize you were preparing our bond for that burst the entire time. Let me help you now."
Astraia transformed from an odachi back into her human self and Kye leaned back against her. "That took a lot out of me. I'll have to do something special for Mimi for fixing the mountains for me."
"Speaking of…" Alethea floated closer and glared at her point blank. "You blew up mountains. You're gonna have a lot of people talking about that for a while." She stole a quick kiss and pulled away. She held out her hand. "Shall we return to the resort?"
Kye slowly nodded and took her hand. "Yeah."
Alethea smiled and teleported them. They appeared next to Hannah and Allison, and Astarte took her human form again. Kye staggered a bit when her feet touched the ground, and would have fallen if not for Astraia. Liliana and Aliana quickly rushed over.
""Princess!""
"It's fine, girls," Astraia said. "I've got her."
The concern on their faces remained, but they trusted Astraia more than most. Hannah, on the other hand, ignored Astraia and immediately began casting healing magic.
"You gonna be alright?" Allison asked. "We should go back to the lounge. Now that the threat is gone, the staff can handle the civilians."
Michelle appeared next to them and pointed at the mountains. "Done."
"Wow…" Hannah said, looking over. "Blowing up mountains, launching a beast into orbit, repairing mountains… you girls are really something else."
"Fixing them was quite easy, honestly," Michelle said. "Kye left all the rubble there for me. Some of the material on the side facing the explosion was vaporized, so I couldn't reform them one to one, so instead I made some caves. You could monetize cave exploration and call it something like, 'The Exploded Caves' or some such. Heh."
"Monetize?" Alaira asked. "What's that?"
Astarte sighed. "Nothing to worry about. Michelle…"
"Oh right. Money doesn't exist here," Michelle said, holding a hand to the back of her head.
Kye giggled, "What a trip this has been, eh?"
"No kidding," Alethea said. "And it's only been a day!"
"Yeah. Hey, let me down. I wanna lay down in the sand for a sec." Astraia, Liliana, and Aliana gently laid her on the sand, and her kimono returned to bracelet form.
"I like the outfit," Hannah said, still casting healing magic. "Interesting idea, using a bracelet to make it."
"Oh, the uniform? Yeah, it's nice, but I had to make it out of aethersteel. It wasn't comfortable at all. I'll have to come up with a new thing for transforming something wearable and cloth-like. That was more like wearing chain mail."
"That was a uniform?"
"Yes," Alethea said. "That was the uniform we wore during and after the rebellion in our past life together."
"I've used that uniform in a lot of lives," Kye added.
"Me, too! I love it."
"Got a name for it?" Hannah asked. "After that performance, people all over will want to dress like you."
"Oh, uh… no. I guess you could call it 'sentou kimono'." Kye flopped over and drew four kanji in the sand, 戦闘着物.
"Combat kimono," Ginchiyo said with a look of approval. "Nice and simple."
"Shi-chan likes simple!"
"Is Kaede okay?" Kye asked.
"She's with my troublemaker sons," Allison said. "I had them take her through the gate to Atlantis."
"Okay, good. As long as she's safe." Kye closed her eyes and mumbled something unintelligible before falling asleep.
"Huh?"
"Shi-chan said she's gonna take a nap." Alethea smiled as she looked at the sleeping blonde.
Adele scooped her up and held her close with a smile. "We'll be in our hotel room."
Allison nodded. "I'll go fetch your kid."
"Thanks."
*****
Revision: 2024-2-21