"Found it! This is the main body of [Finale]!"
"It’s so massive it was hard to miss!"
While Yugo and Abyss were locked in a desperate struggle on the castle rooftop, Melt and the others had made their way back inside and discovered the heart of the destruction weapon, [Finale].
Since the weapon was designed to devastate the entire island, the group stood in awe, looking up at its overwhelming scale.
As Melt and her companions stared at the complex structure and the barrel section extending toward the roof, Sakura raised her naginata with confidence.
"If we destroy this, Abyss's plan shall come to naught! Now, without further delay—!"
Sakura leaped high into the air, putting all her strength into a strike against [Finale].
However, her momentum was abruptly halted mid-jump as if she had slammed into an invisible wall. She plummeted back to the floor with a heavy thud.
"Gah!? What... what was that!?"
"This is... a defensive barrier. And a remarkably reinforced one at that."
"It seems even Abyss wouldn't leave the heart of his plan completely unprotected. Unless we can breach this, destroying [Finale] is going to be impossible."
Anhel and the others began inspecting the invisible wall that protected [Finale].
As they clicked their tongues in frustration at the barrier’s unexpected sturdiness, Melt glanced around the room, her eyes darting restlessly.
"Is something wrong, Melt? Did you find something else?"
"Well... Abyss gave Clear Plates to Cyan and the others to turn them into his pawns, right? But we’ve only run into one of them. I was just wondering where the other two went."
Melt was right. Abyss had granted Clear Plates to three individuals—Cyan and two others—to use as his handpicked pawns.
They had encountered Cyan in front of the castle, and he was currently still fighting Ryuga... but where were Woz and Torin?
Melt was unaware that Torin had already been eliminated by Lost. Even so, Woz should still have been accounted for.
Melt had assumed the two would be guarding [Finale], so she seemed genuinely puzzled that they hadn't shown their faces yet.
"Urgh...! This barrier is far tougher than I anticipated! It seems breaking it will be difficult even if we all combine our strength!"
"True. At this level of defense, a frontal assault is basically out of the question."
"Then we’ll just have to deal with the magic formula or the magic item maintaining the barrier. The only problem is finding where they’re hidden..."
Anhel and the others had finished their inspection. Realizing their attacks wouldn't be enough to shatter the shield, they decided to target the source instead.
The group began searching for signs of a magic formula or a magic item, but the task proved daunting.
"It’s covering the entirety of the massive [Finale] and it’s this strong. No human could maintain it for long. There has to be a dedicated magic item powering it somewhere, but..."
"But if it’s putting out that much magic power, shouldn't we be able to sense it if it were nearby? I’m not picking up any reactions like that inside the castle."
"That would mean it’s installed some distance away. But for a barrier of this scale, the device would have to be quite large. Why hasn't anyone noticed it? Even if its physical form was hidden with invisibility magic, they shouldn't be able to mask such a massive magic power reaction."
"...Perhaps it is a matter of 'hiding a tree in a forest'?"
Raiha, who was well-versed in such matters, had already confirmed there were no traces of a barrier-generating magic formula within the castle.
Therefore, the barrier had to be powered by a magic item located elsewhere. As the group struggled to understand why they couldn't locate such a powerful source, Sakura spoke up.
"A magic item capable of generating this barrier would certainly emit an enormous amount of magic power. However, this island currently hosts [Finale], which emits far more power than any other source. Could it be that our magic power measuring devices and our own senses are being drowned out by the weapon’s influence, allowing the barrier's magic items to remain hidden?"
"So that’s it...! That was part of the plan too!"
"If Woz and Torin aren't here because they're guarding those items, then everything makes sense!"
"Now we just need the location! If we can find them—!"
"...I am already tracing them. I have been using shikigami to follow the flow of magic power originating from the barrier to pinpoint the magic items. But this is...!"
"What is it, Raiha?"
Raiha, having successfully located the magic items activating the barrier, let out a distressed groan.
The atmosphere shifted as Setsuna sensed something was terribly wrong. In response to her friend's concern, Raiha shared the answer she had discovered.
"The magic items are too far away... There are two of them, installed at the western and eastern ends of the island respectively!"