"Heh... Kuhahaha! You people really are quite the optimists, aren't you!?"
"Wait...!?"
"W-What... my body...!"
"I can't move...!"
Abyss let out a low, rumbling laugh—a stark departure from his previous tone—and the moment he looked up, Yugo and the others felt their bodies seize, frozen almost completely in place.
As they struggled in confusion, Abyss addressed them with a look of manic glee.
"Yes! Yes! Exactly! Words only take form when there is an image behind them! Your deduction that I cannot negate actions I haven't imagined was absolutely correct! ...So? Now that you've figured it out, what exactly do you intend to do about it?"
Abyss spread his arms wide, looking entirely defenseless as he approached Marcos.
Marcos poured every ounce of strength into his immobile frame, trying to force his arms to move even a fraction of an inch, but he couldn't manage anything remotely useful for combat.
"I can easily conceptualize various types of [Move], such as [Walk], [Run], or [Jump]. I can’t dominate functions like speech or blinking, but for the sake of sealing your resistance, this is more than enough, don't you think?"
"Hah! So you hurriedly played your trump card because the weakness of the ability you were so proudly flaunting was exposed? You're acting quite desperate. It seems you're a much smaller man than I thought... Gah!?"
"Marcos!!"
Marcos had mocked Abyss for the secret of his [Word] ability, but Abyss, unable to tolerate the counter-provocation, drove his fist into the boy's stomach with a burst of rage.
As Yugo shouted, watching Marcos get sent flying with a sharp groan, Abyss let out a laugh as if to mask his irritation. He turned his gaze back to the paralyzed group.
"You fools likely didn't realize it, but the conclusion was decided from the very beginning! No matter what you do, no matter how much you struggle, no one can defeat me! Even if there’s a bit of ad-libbing along the way... you are destined to be defeated and die exactly according to the script I have written!"
"Like hell things will go according to a script written by a third-rate hack like you! We haven't lost yet!!"
"No matter how much you shout, it's useless! People like you, exceeding the imagination of Conductor Abyss? Don't be ridiculous! The most you can do is expose the nature of my power... you can't do anything beyond that, can you?"
"Gugh...!"
Marcos groaned in pain, unable to even stand back up because his movements were sealed by the power of [Word].
As he lifted his head slightly to look at his comrades with an expression of pure agony, Abyss laughed loudly.
"It’s about time I taught these ignorant children the meaning of despair. I'll dispose of you one by one. Now then, the first person to exit the stage is—!!"
"......!!"
Abyss raised his right hand to eye level and pointed his finger at Melt, magic power pooling at the tip.
Melt turned pale, realizing she was the target. Abyss spoke to her with sickening playfulness.
"Thanks for that lovely butt-punch earlier, young lady. As a token of my gratitude, I'll let you go without any suffering."
"Stop it...! If you do that, I'll definitely—!!"
"Run, Melt! You have to break the curse somehow...!"
"Useless, useless, useless, useless, USELESS!! Anything you do is useless! There's no way people like you could ever oppose me!!"
Abyss screamed in a high-pitched, ecstatic voice, his face twisted into a grotesque smile.
As the magic power at his fingertip emitted a malevolent glow, he spoke to the helpless group.
"Witness your friend’s miserable end! Feel the cold touch of despair! I'll have the rest of you follow her soon enough! Now... the curtain falls for the first victim!!"
"......!!"
"Run! Melt!!"
Melt squeezed her eyes shut as the light intensified.
Setsuna’s scream echoed through the air as a green ray of light erupted from Abyss's finger, and then—!
"...What?"
A sharp crack rang out. Hearing a sound far too loud and heavy for a ray of light piercing a girl’s soft body, Abyss blinked. He let out a confused, hollow sound as he processed the scene before him.
The smirk of arrogant pleasure vanished instantly. Standing right there—in front of Melt—was Yugo. Part of the armor covering his head had been shattered.
"Huh? What? H-How...?"
Abyss looked back and forth between Yugo and the spot where the boy had been standing only a second ago.
He was certain Yugo had been over there. How could he—a man whose movements should have been completely sealed by his ability—be shielding Melt? Bewildered by the impossible phenomenon, Abyss watched as Yugo's face, twisted with incandescent rage, became visible through the cracks in his helmet.
"Don't you... mess with me...! Don't you dare lay a finger on my... friend!!"
"Wha—!?"
With his flames of anger burning at full mast, Yugo took a heavy, deliberate step forward, as if physically throwing off the weight of the gravity trying to crush him.
Then came the next step, and the next. Abyss watched in horror as Yugo’s movements grew faster and the invisible pressure seemed to dissipate with every stride. Then, Yugo threw his fist.
"Uooooooooooh!!"
(C-Calm down! There’s no need to panic. His attack won’t reach m—)
Abyss didn't understand how his ability to seal movement had been broken. However, he still had his absolute defense created by his [Word].
Just like all the attacks before it, Yugo’s punch should have been nullified by his defensive concepts. Abyss tried to steady his breathing, but then a dull, heavy pain exploded across his face.
"Gueh!? Gah... aaaaagh!!"
"Eh!? What!?"
With a thunderous crack, Yugo’s fist slammed into Abyss’s jaw, forcing the villain to taste genuine, agonizing pain.
Melt and the others watched in stunned silence as Abyss was sent tumbling backward. Suddenly, they felt the invisible shackles fall away. They let out shouts of joy as they realized they could move again.
"We did it! My body... it's moving! Abyss’s ability is broken!"
"W-What...? What did you do? You... how could you possibly...!?"
He shouldn't have been able to move. The fist shouldn't have reached him. Under the power of [Word], Abyss should have been the master of all reality.
And yet, Yugo had negated every one of those absolute laws and struck him down.
As Abyss completely lost his composure in the face of these impossible events, Marcos watched from the ground, a smile tugging at his lips.
"That's right, Yugo. It's always like this... always!"
Marcos didn't know exactly what had happened. He didn't know the mechanics of how Yugo had defied the [Word]. But there was one thing he knew for certain.
He whispered the thought under his breath.
"Always... the wind that calls for miracles blows from you...!"