“...Yo, Conductor. You’re looking pretty rattled. Was this twist missing from your script?”
“H-Hugo Clay...! You... what have you done?! Why are you not bound by the power of [Word]?!”
“Who knows? Why don’t you ask yourself? You’re the all-powerful Conductor, aren’t you!”
“Ggggh...!!”
Stung by the biting sarcasm, Abyss let out a strangled cry of frustration and humiliation.
Still reeling from Hugo’s inexplicable awakening, he desperately activated his [Word] ability once more.
“Everyone... freeze!”
“Ugh...!”
“Not again!”
Melt and the others felt their movements seize up as Abyss once again forbade the act of moving. Forcing a command that required imagining the complex motor functions of limbs was a strain to maintain, but Abyss didn't let his concentration slip. He was certain the command held... yet an impossible sight filled his vision.
“HRAAAAAAAAH!”
“How...?! Why are you still moving?!”
While Melt and the rest remained frozen, Hugo alone charged forward with a roar.
He wasn't just resisting it; he was moving with fluid agility, as if the command had never reached him at all. Abyss screamed in shock just as Hugo’s boot slammed squarely into his face.
“Gah...!”
“I-I knew it! Yugo-san is the only one immune to [Word]!”
“Hugo! What did you do?!”
“I don’t know! I just saw Marcos get hit and Melt about to be killed, and I thought I wouldn't let Abyss hurt anyone else... and then this power just surged through me!”
Commands and defenses alike were failing against Hugo. As he explained himself to his bewildered allies—he who was now nullifying the very power that nullified all else—Abyss lost the last of his composure.
“Don't give me that! The power of [Word] isn't something you can just overcome with ‘spirit’ or ‘emotion’! You're doing something... Yes, something! You... you're...!!”
The smug confidence Abyss had displayed was gone. He glared at the boy his power couldn't touch, and then, mid-sentence, the realization struck him.
[Word] wasn't a power that could be bypassed by willpower. It was a force so absolute that even Magic Items struggled to counter it. If there was anything in this world capable of opposing it, it could only be the power of another Clear Plate.
“Is it you...?” Abyss groaned, his head shaking in denial. “Are you... The Person Chosen by the Last Piece?!”
“So that's it...”
Seeing the silver-white sparks dancing from his Bracelet, Hugo understood as well. He deactivated his Blaster armor, revealing his face from beneath the shattered helmet. He stared Abyss down.
“Looks like my trump card was with me all along.”
Abyss had scattered the Clear Plates across the island the moment they arrived—that was what Lost had said. Hugo recalled a specific incident on the deck of the ship as they approached the shore. He clenched his fist tight.
“The thing that hit me in the head on the boat... that was the missing Clear Plate! The Final Trump Card has been right here from the beginning!”
Back then, he had assumed a member of Blue Ever had thrown something at him. He was wrong. The Plate had chosen him. It had fallen from the sky, struck him, and been absorbed into the Micro-particle Metal inside his Bracelet. That was why even Abyss couldn't find it.
Hugo recalled Fee’s comment about the shape of the scar on his forehead. Everything clicked.
“It's not ‘Super Transformation’ anymore. Not with this character...”
The old shout no longer felt right. Hugo spread his arms wide, striking a pose that traced the lines of a specific Kanji character with his body. He flashed a fearless grin, unleashing a torrent of Silver-white Magic Power.
“Great Transformation!”