"... Wang Xian"
Suddenly, a short rhyme came over.
The black cat, which had swallowed Aruba's body up to his shoulders, stopped moving. Orange, who was watching the development of the incident as if he were a bystander, also reacted immediately to the sound.
Behind Aruba stood a man, wearing a black coat and with a serious expression and full of unbearable distress.
It was as if he had been here from the beginning, and there was no sign of him appearing. The man in black grabbed Aruba with one hand and easily pulled him out of the black cat's mouth and placed him on the floor. The black cat touched one of the three barriers on the man's body, so it could not move.
The man turned to face the woman below him, and as he did so, the previously relaxed atmosphere gradually disappeared, as if the apartment itself was tense to welcome its real owner.
"—Long time no see, Aozaki."
"Ah, same here, although I don't want to see you. However, your presence here means that she—"
The first floor and the second floor - like heaven and earth, Orange and the culprit named Araya Soren confront each other.
"She is in my hands."
Araya calmly tells the helpless reality.
"It seems I am a little late."
"No, you're early. We were supposed to end this without you knowing, but it seems Aruba has gone too far. I can't prepare sixty-four bodies by myself."
"I'm afraid it's more than that. The injuries on your body were caused by Shiki—"
Orange fixed his eyes on Araya's chest and neck, where there was a knife wound each deep enough to see the bone.
"—If I had been wounded like this, I would be dead by now."
"As you said, I'm not in a good condition right now."
Araya did not hide his serious injury because he knew that it was meaningless to do so.
"If I could, I would like to talk to you for a while, but I'm sorry, my body won't allow me to do that."
"I see. It seems that Shiki is fine for now. But to be on the safe side, I'd like to ask you - do you plan to return Shiki to me?"
"It's up to you if you want."
"Hmph, so you can only fight once, right? Really, I'm not good at fighting to begin with, so I should leave this to that brat."
"Just to be on the safe side, I'm asking you a question. Aozaki, are you going to help me?" Araya asked with an unchanging hostile look and murderous intent.
Orange answered—her amber eyes clearly conveyed her will: Never.
"... Really? What a pity."
With a heavy look of distress on his face, the magician walked towards the stairs step by step.
"... I have found the way to the source. My wish will come true in a few more steps. Anyone who comes to hinder me will be regarded as a deterrent."
The air in the hall became increasingly tense. The air was frozen, with a dangerous sense of oppression that was perhaps distorted by the magician's murderous intent.
In the process, she watched her former classmates from afar. In the end, she asked Araya Soren in the identity of a magician, Aozaki Touko.
"Araya, what are you pursuing?"
"True wisdom."
"Araya where are you pursuing?"
"Only in my own heart." The man answered without hesitation, and his footsteps stopped at the entrance of the stairs.
In order to eliminate each other's existence from the world, the two began to take action.
Araya raised a hand from under his black coat.
Slowly, he raised his left hand to shoulder height, his palm open weakly, as if calling out to someone far away.
He raised one hand and confronted his opponent. This was the fighting posture of the magician Araya Sōren.
In contrast, Aozaki Touko just looked up at the black magician, the suitcase under her feet remained motionless, and she watched the enemy's actions intently.
Her familiar, the black cat, is currently sealed behind Araya and unable to move.
Orange has seen through that Araya has established a triple barrier with himself as the center.
That is the magician's spider silk that stretches between the ground and space, between the plane and the three-dimensional. As long as a living thing touches the line that forms a circle, its power will be instantly taken away.
Generally speaking, a barrier is a boundary that protects things that cannot move and cannot move. With oneself as the center, you can see but cannot feel the breath, making the way you attack the enemy like a monster. Therefore, if there is no targeted means, Araya Soren can be said to be invincible in close combat.
But on the other hand, Araya Soren only has this trick. Unlike Aruba, he has no means of direct attack, and the only way to defeat Orange is to fight. Araya is a man who has lived through the turbulent times and only uses his body to fight. In Orange's cognition, there is no one in the world who can match him.
But even knowing this, Orange still waited for him to get close. She certainly didn't want to fight Araya in close combat, that would be tantamount to seeking death, she was just waiting for an opportunity to attack the moment Araya walked down the stairs and into the hall.
However, the magician just stood in front of the stairs and slightly moved his outstretched hand.
"—Su." Accompanied by a low shout, Araya's open palm suddenly clenched.
At the same time, Orange's body began to vibrate, and her coat, which could conceal the circuits of various magic systems, broke into pieces and scattered on the ground.
It was an impact that could not be seen by the eyes, hitting the whole body evenly from all directions, and Orange fell to his knees involuntarily.
That was a completely different attack method from the one he used in the first battle with Shinji. That time, Araya only applied pressure to the atmosphere. This time, Araya crushed the entire space where Orange was standing. To give an example, before it was like being hit by a car, but now it was like being run over by a steamroller.
When Orange realized what was happening, she let out a sound of disbelief. She hadn't expected that Araya could also have magic that could affect space with just a little movement.
"... I got hit. Damn, how many ribs are broken?" Orange swallowed the blood flowing out of his mouth while checking the damage on his body.
As Orange, who had not exercised, could not accurately judge her injuries like Shinji. She was sure that she could only save her life because of the coat. If she was hit again, she would be crushed.
Then, she can't show mercy.
"—go ahead!"
Before he finished speaking, the black cat whose movements were sealed suddenly moved.
The stiffness just now was just acting, and the black cat pounced on Araya, who was relieved that his back was turned.
"What!"
Araya showed a hint of surprise and turned around quickly, then without stopping, he opened his outstretched hand and clenched it tightly again. A buzzing sound was generated around him.
Orange saw the space in front of Araya, gradually collapsing inwards. The black cat jumped up before being crushed. As if gravity was reacting, it stood on the ceiling and looked at the magician.
"That's it."
The other hand hidden under the black coat clenched its palm tightly. The black cat was crushed along with the ceiling. A hole appeared in the corner of the ceiling, and the black cat was compressed until its eyes could no longer be seen, and then it disappeared.
"Your chess piece disappeared... You said in the academy that a magician doesn't need to be a strong person, as long as he can make the strongest item... Indeed, when the puppeteer loses, he loses."
Araya turned to look at Orange again and said this with his palms open.
Orange listened to this with an unhappy look on his face.
"Well, what I said is still correct. However, you are really amazing. This is equivalent to your body, you can destroy the space at will. I have already jumped into a huge magic... Hum, since you are so prepared, why did you almost get cornered by Shiki?"
"—It's not easy to capture her alive. If you're not careful, you might crush her. But it's different now. For an opponent who deserves to be killed, I will use all my strength to deal with him."
"I hope you don't make things worse."
After resolving his nearly falling posture, Orange slowly leaned against the wall.
"Araya, there are three ways to make people scared, do you know? First, the monster cannot speak human language. Second, the monster must be unknown. Third, the monster is meaningless unless it is immortal."
"!" Araya seemed to have thought of something and turned around quickly.
On the ceiling that should have been destroyed, the black cat was living as if nothing had happened.
"—Su!" He clenched his fists towards the ceiling, and the space was compressed in an instant.
The black cat was swayed by the distortion, and it jumped down towards the magician, then opened its mouth with a snap. Araya was unable to escape and was bitten.
"--Ah!" He cried out a death-wail.
With a "swish" sound, the magician had no time to fight back and lost more than half of his body.
The magician, with only his head and shoulders left, fell to the ground with a thud. With an expression that looked like death or anguish, the piece of flesh that used to be the magician rolled down the stairs.
Orange calmly observed the scene and spoke briefly:
"If you want to solve it, you have to kill it with one strike. Araya, that's what a sneak attack is."
Orange left the wall and turned to walk out.
At this moment, she felt someone pushing her back hard. Her already shaky body could no longer remain steady and she fell to the ground in a mess.
Before she could figure out what was happening, a dull sound like dead wood hitting leather reached her ears.
Then, a dark cloak appeared before her eyes.
The owner of the cloak had blue curly hair and was holding a dagger behind him to protect her.
"Shinji?"