Earth's Ripple came into Shei's hand.

Normally, she would have had to undergo a trial. For some reason, however, Earth's Ripple remained silent instead of showing her a mental image. It simply lay still, entrusting its full weight to the Regressor.

She did not know why, but it was a welcome development. Shei could wield Earth's Ripple now.

"Earth's Ripple...!"

Shei sensed victory, but the Earth Sage apparently disagreed. She charged forward, reaching out as though to snatch Earth's Ripple from Shei's grasp.

Yet Shei was not nervous.

In the Earth Sage's hands, Earth's Ripple would be a tremendous power capable of tilting mountains and splitting the ground.

At the same time, it was a counter to the Earth Sage's very existence. By its nature, her own power could never surpass Earth's Ripple.

'As long as this is in my hands, victory is guaranteed!'

She had to demonstrate the difference in their strength, so that this woman who would not fall could give up and accept defeat.

Shei thrust Earth's Ripple forward and shouted.

"Earth Sage! Stop!"

The Earth Sage answered with a stomp.

The ground shook beneath Shei's feet. Before the shock reached her, she hastily drove Earth's Ripple into the ground. The vibrations traveling through the earth were swallowed by the sword.

But doing so left her defenseless. The Earth Sage closed in on her exposed upper body.

Sky Cherry Blossom was the only weapon she could move now.

'Then I have no choice.'

Gripping Sky Cherry Blossom, Shei lowered her stance.

'I'll cut her down to calm her down.'

Shei had once been this world's last hero. A weapon master who wielded the sword of the sky and the sword of the earth together. Her skill was not overwhelmingly superior to everyone else's, but no one could draw out the power of those two swords as she could.

She brought Earth's Ripple and Sky Cherry Blossom together. The thin, keen blade rested atop the pitch-black, weighty greatsword. The two swords, so different that they seemed polar opposites, became one like a blade finding its sheath.

The essence of the weightless sword, Sky Cherry Blossom, was the lofty firmament. A slender blade forged from compressed space.

The essence of the recoilless sword, Earth's Ripple, was an unshakable mountain. A thick club made by gathering and compacting the earth.

Until now, she had wielded only Sky Cherry Blossom. But the firmament needed the earth to stand upright, and the earth changed and flowed under the influence of the sky.

It might have been different had Earth's Ripple fallen into her opponent's hands. But it was in Shei's. Both swords were now in the hands of the woman who had been humanity's greatest fighting force on the eve of its destruction.

Even with her body exhausted and battered, victory was decided.

Using Earth's Ripple as a sheath, she laid Sky Cherry Blossom against it.

Then she released the compressed space in a single burst.

The recoilless sword, Earth's Ripple, was the heaviest gun emplacement in the world. It fired the full, immense power of Sky Cherry Blossom straight ahead.

Heaven-and-Earth Sword and Staff. Secret Art.

Horizon Cleaver.

Even parallel lines that seem destined never to meet eventually become one at infinity. At least, that is how they appear.

Far, far away, sky and earth meet to trace a peaceful line. Beautiful. Majestic. A single straight line that must have existed since the beginning of time.

She split it vertically.

Space was sliced at an angle.

The Earth Sage's right arm, the pitch-black darkness, the heavy air, even Tantalus itself. None could withstand the slash that surged like lightning.

Ears went numb. Within the bottomless pit, enclosed by walls on every side, a sound came sweeping in from impossibly far away.

The slanted ceiling split open, revealing the sky through the gap.

As though the sun had just set, the sky briefly visible through the opening was violet. A spreading wash of color that appeared only in the instant before light became darkness.

The glimpse of sky vanished as the heaving ceiling settled back into place, closing the gap.

"... Ha."

The Earth Sage staggered backward.

THUD.

The belated sound came from the heap of corpses. It was the Earth Sage's right arm, severed by Sky Cherry Blossom.

Leaving its owner behind, the arm rolled away until it caught against a protruding corpse and stopped.

Shei let out a deep breath and spoke, hiding the weakness spreading through her entire body.

"Don't resist, Earth Sage. Swear you'll stay put, and I'll reattach the arm I cut off."

In truth, there was no power left in Sky Cherry Blossom. She did not even have the strength to lift Earth's Ripple from where she had planted it.

But this was the sort of fight the shameless won. Feigning composure, Shei continued.

"It was a clean cut, so with the right treatment, I can reattach—"

"Why...!"

The Earth Sage cried out, her face stricken with grief.

"Why? Why does the future belong entirely to you...!"

Shei fell silent. Those words were clearly directed at the Holy See, but they struck a nerve in her as well.

Had Shei not come, the Earth Sage would have obtained Earth's Ripple. Then she would have marched alone to hold the Holy See accountable for its crimes.

Because that was what had happened, Shei had erased that future.

She had used regression rather than prophecy or foresight, but in this future, she had effectively robbed the Earth Sage of hers.

"I have never rested for a moment! I never spared my own life...! Though I made compromises, I never strayed from the righteous path! And what of them? They murdered the Grand Master as they pleased, concealed the truth, and enjoyed their golden age, pretending to be righteous...! While we were merely struggling to survive...!"

'Uh, well. So the Earth Sage really was telling the truth back then.'

Honestly, Shei felt sorry for her, and she did think the Holy See had gone too far.

But what could she do?

The Holy See was hardly a transparent organization. Even Shei, who had been involved with it in ways large and small throughout her regressions, could not claim to know everything about its inner workings.

Nevertheless, they shared her determination to prevent the world's destruction. That was why she had taken their side.

"Does knowing the future alone excuse all of that? Absurd! We must not even hold them accountable for their crimes because it would spark a war? Preposterous! Must we simply submit to a predetermined future...!"

It was a harrowing cry, as though she were coughing up blood. The Regressor sympathized with her feelings to a degree.

But that did not mean she would feel regret or sorrow.

No matter how bitterly the Earth Sage cried out, this was better than leaving her alone and letting the world be destroyed.

Having poured out her emotions, the Earth Sage murmured as though drained of all strength.

"Kill me."

That made the Regressor grimace.

"No. If you die, the world goes to shit."

"Because the Holy See would suffer a blow? The world would collapse over that? Are they truly the pillars holding up this world?"

"You! It goes to shit because you die!"

The Regressor shouted in frustration.

"Your followers, the Military State's citizens, the scattered followers of Mother Earth! They swear to avenge you, or refuse to cooperate anymore! They demand to know why the Holy See brutally murdered someone with such noble aspirations!"

The Earth Sage's death had not sparked a war for no reason. She was, at least in name, a brigadier general of the Military State, a hero to its people, and someone who could be called the representative of Mother Earth's faith.

"Please, if you're going to die, do it quietly, on your own! If someone as important as you dies a martyr, no one can stop what comes afterward!"

At the Regressor's rebuke, the Earth Sage gave a derisive snort.

"... Now, even if I wished to, I could not. I have lost that right. In the end, the Grand Master... could not acknowledge me, I suppose. All I wanted was... a place where we could belong..."

"I don't know about the rest. But if it's a place for your people, I'll make one after I prevent the world's destruction. Just stay alive until then."

"Heh heh..."

The Earth Sage turned unsteadily. Holding her severed shoulder together with her energy arts, she slowly climbed back up the mountain of corpses.

"Take your right arm! I told you I'd reattach it!"

"Leave it there."

The Earth Sage spoke without so much as a glance.

"This is the path I took, and what I achieved. I will not turn back. I will not tear it down. I do not regret my choice."

"You're so damn stubborn..."

"And..."

With a drained expression, the Earth Sage murmured.

"... The Grand Master entrusted you with her power. You must inherit her duty, champion."

"I keep telling you, I'm not a champion."

Without answering, the Earth Sage trudged up the mountain of corpses. She looked for all the world like an ascetic wandering in search of suffering.

As Shei watched her retreating figure, it happened.

RUMBLE.

An ominous sound came from overhead. Shei hastily looked up. The slanted ceiling—the ground of Tantalus—was screaming.

'Is it going to collapse?'

Shei tensely tightened her grip on Earth's Ripple's hilt.

Just then, Tyrkanzyaka burst through the concrete ground at a crack farther away. Landing at the foot of the corpse mountain, she looked around and shouted.

"Hugh! Where is Hugh?"

Fortunately, it seemed the ceiling was not collapsing. Shei sighed in relief.

"He was fine when I saw him earlier."

"Thank goodness...! Where is he?"

"He threw Earth's Ripple from the summit earlier. I can't see him now, so I guess he fell over backward. Just what the hell did that guy used to do...?"

Deflecting Sky Cherry Blossom? Fine, say he could have managed that by chance.

Seeing through her stealth? Fine, say he had pulled that off through psychological warfare.

"Something's been strange from the start. Fixing your heart... and unsealing this keepsake, Earth's Ripple. I don't know whether he went through its trial or not, but the Earth's Ripple he gave me..."

In a previous regression, Shei had grasped Earth's Ripple and undergone a trial within its mental image. She had been given Earth's Ripple at the very moment three hundred thousand people were being buried alive. There, she had made a choice.

The method Shei chose was simple.

She drew Earth's Ripple and attacked the Overlord.

Even within a mental image, the Overlord was a match for ten thousand. Nothing she tried could defeat him. But the Regressor treated it as training and kept challenging him until she succeeded.

Only after she had exhausted all the strength the mental image had prepared for the Overlord did Earth's Ripple, with nothing more to throw at her, reluctantly lend her its power. She could not use its innate authority over the earth arts, but as a "weapon," it performed flawlessly.

Shei had been perfectly satisfied with that performance, but...

"This power I'm feeling now is earth arts."

Now, Shei was certain. She would be able to wield the full power of Earth's Ripple.

Though she had no idea how this had happened.

"And that master? What happened to her?"

"I've neutralized her for now. There, she's kneeling at the summit..."

RUMBLE.

Again, an ominous sound came from overhead. Broken fragments of concrete struck their shoulders. Shei snapped her mouth shut and looked up at the ceiling.

"Hey, Tyrkanzyaka. Something seems a little wrong with the ceiling... Doesn't it look more tilted than befo—"

RUMBLE.

Her ominous premonition became reality.

Cracks raced like horses galloping toward the ends of the earth. Thunderous rumbles rang out as lightning-shaped scars etched themselves across the ceiling. Crumbled concrete poured down like rain, and broken rubble fell like hail.

The ceiling was collapsing.

Then again, the Earth Sage had drawn on it without restraint, Tyrkanzyaka had torn through its interior, and Shei's final technique had split the ground. After all that havoc, it would have been stranger if it had remained intact.

Shei shouted urgently.

"Tyrkanzyaka! Catch the falling rubble!"

"I cannot support all this ground with shadows! Hugh, where are you? Come to my side at once...!"

"No! Help me blast this ceiling away! It'll be better than letting this whole mass of earth fall on us...!"

Shei immediately created a Stepping Cloud, kicked off the ground, and landed on it. Then she gripped Earth's Ripple in both hands, raised it overhead, and pressed it against the slowly sinking ceiling.

"You intend to lift the ceiling with that sword? Impossible!"

"No, I can do it!"

"... You can? How?"

"Earth's Ripple is incredibly heavy! It may look like this, but it should weigh about as much as Tantalus!"

"Then how are you holding it?"

Shei did not waste her breath explaining its authority.

"That's what makes Earth's Ripple so great!"

"They make such curious swords these days..."

Tyrkanzyaka murmured in wonder. In fact, the keepsake had been made some hundred years before Tyrkanzyaka's birth, but no one cared about that now.

"All right. Now that I can use earth arts, I'll lift this entire mass of earth! I can do it now...!"

She glanced around and heard Nabi and Azi yowling and barking in the distance. Rash, Callis, Nabi, and Azi were pressed close to the opposite wall, relatively safe from the rubble.

"I'll take care of the big pieces. Just handle the small ones!"

"Very well!"

As the slanted ceiling sank, most of the lights around its rim cracked, scraped against their surroundings, and shattered. The light gradually faded.

In proportion, countless black knights rose all around them. Darkness gathered around the knights, and every one of them grew enormous.

A shadow's size changed with the position of the light. Clad in shadows three times their bodies' size, the giant black knights obeyed their orders and caught the falling rubble. Head-sized pieces of concrete slowed as they touched the shadows, as though sinking into water.

"All right, here goes!"

Heaven-and-Earth Style: Earth Pillar.

But just as Shei was about to swing the sword, her arms stopped.

Earth's Ripple was surely as heavy as a great mountain, but apparently Tantalus's weight mattered even to a mountain. An unfathomable burden bore down on the Regressor's hands.

Earth's Ripple would not move.

"Ngh...!"

Her exhausted body resisted fiercely. Her depleted energy screamed in protest.

Even so, the Regressor gritted her teeth and summoned her strength.

Her body would barely move, but this was when her energy arts came into their own.

Heaven-Reversing Realm, the energy art that engraved movements into her body and forced it to move.

Heaven-Reversing Realm, Offensive Form: Vertical Slash.

"Haaaaah!"

The Regressor swung her sword, and Earth's Ripple answered her will.

The ground forming Tantalus was made of blessed concrete, the product of earth arts inscribed into it.

That was why the Earth Sage had been able to use earth arts on it so easily despite its being concrete.

And so, the wielder of Earth's Ripple could move Tantalus.

The Grand Master's last remaining thread of will echoed out. Immediately afterward:

THOOOOM.

It was, in a sense, like flicking a steel door away with one finger. A feat that would ordinarily be utterly impossible.

But the peculiar nature of this ground, the power of Earth's Ripple, and Tantalus's design all came together to make Shei's attempt succeed.

Shei swung Earth's Ripple and "sent Tantalus flying."

The slanted ceiling receded farther and farther. The faintly glimmering lights along its rim showed that this mass of earth was rising. The glittering lights grew steadily smaller.

A feature of the landscape had been launched skyward by a single human's strength. As the slanted ceiling receded, it briefly leveled out, then began tipping the other way.

Tantalus's ground continued to turn over, until at last it began to topple away. The nearly destroyed artificial lights vanished in a scattering of radiance.

Through the opening, the sky arrived.