—Western Kyokutou: On the Sea Near the National Border—
While battles raged across Kyokutou, the world around Shion had transformed entirely.
Lead-colored swells heaved beneath black clouds that swallowed the daylight whole.
A localized storm—born from the repeated clashes of ice and fire—blanketed the sea surface.
As rain lashed down like needles, two shadows collided at the heart of the tempest.
Torrents of flame roared.
Luary's arms and hair blazed, the falling raindrops turning to steam the instant they made contact. With every swing of their arms, the sea split apart and the air screamed.
Shion, meanwhile, stood among the waves, wreathed in frigid air. Ice crystals scattered around her, and with each step, the sea froze beneath her feet. Though she had few outward wounds, her breathing was ragged, and weariness seeped through the rain trailing down her cheeks.
"...Heh. Nice. Really nice."
Luary laughed. Their voice carried both pleasure and a beast-like exhilaration.
"Been a while since a human could fight me like this. ...Since the Witch, maybe?"
"I'm honored."
Shion narrowed her eyes, and Luary licked their lips with a shrug.
"Then again, the Witch and you are both just good enough to serve as my playmates. You're nothing more than tiny creatures I could reduce to cinders the moment I felt like it."
At those words, Shion's eyes flashed cold.
"...Why is destruction all you're capable of? You have intelligence—I'd think putting that power toward something else would be far more beneficial."
At Shion's question, the smile vanished from Luary's face.
"...'Destroy'? Did you just say 'destroy'?"
Their red eyes gleamed fiercely, and the raging wind intensified.
"You humans are the ones who've destroyed countless things since the beginning!"
As if answering their roar, the sea thundered. Heat ballooned outward, and flames scattered wildly. Steam formed a white wall, cutting off their view of each other.
"You humans fight, steal, and destroy—and still have the nerve to act like it isn't enough! You preach about not wanting to destroy, yet you build nothing but tools for destruction! You pile up sophistries and slaughter each other until the last one's standing! You keep destroying, dragging everything else down with you!"
Rain-soaked hair clung to her cheeks, and Shion's frigid gaze wavered.
"It's true. People have always fought. But there should have been things learned from it, too."
Those words sounded as much like she was telling herself.
"Learned?"
Luary's heat erupted into a raging tempest.
"Do you have any idea how many times you've repeated this! You pretend to learn, then start fighting over things again—and slap the word 'progress' on it to justify the same mistakes!"
Sparks grazed Shion's cheek. Luary's fury was not just anger—it was accumulated disappointment itself.
"...Even so, not everyone is like that. There must have been people who tried to stop it."
"They couldn't stop it. That's why things are the way they are now."
Luary's voice went quiet, and the flames converged.
"In the end, it's humans who destroy the world. So—we decided to 'clean up' after them."
Flames gathered in their palm.
"Because you humans are the world's garbage."
Within the storm scorching sea and sky, killing intent swelled once more. Flames rose around Luary, writhing in rhythm with their breathing. Shion, too, gathered cold at her fingertips.
That was when it came.
"—Holy Javelin."
A clear, dignified woman's voice tore through the storm's roar.
White Chalk Light became a spear, piercing through space and surging toward Luary.
"...What a killjoy."
Luary thrust out their blazing left arm, trying to burn away the white radiance with a hand of fire. Light and flame collided, and the air shuddered.
"—! This magical power... don't tell me...!"
The white chalk spear would not be burned away. Unable to counter its momentum, Luary was slammed straight down into the sea.
The ocean surface erupted, steam and spray engulfing the entire area.
"Shion, are you all right?"
When Shion turned toward the voice, there stood a woman wrapped in White Chalk Light—Luna. Her hair and her eyes both shone with the same white.
"...That voice. Could it be Luna?"
"Yes."
At the relief on Luna's face, Shion offered a brief smile in return.
"...Heh. You've gotten pretty cool, haven't you."
"Thank you."
As the two spoke, a low rumbling echoed from beneath the sea surface. As if bursting through the wall of steam, crimson flames erupted from the water. The boiling sea burst apart, and a wave of heat pushed back the surrounding air.
White smoke rose from their drenched body, and wet hair blazed in an instant.
"You... traitor!!"
Crimson eyes bored straight through Luna. The roar shook the sea, evaporating even the raindrops around them.
Flames swirled at Luary's feet, spreading outward as if to scorch the sea surface itself.
"...Traitor?"
As Luna faltered in confusion, Pixie's voice echoed in her mind.
"...Don't worry about it. ...That one's just saying whatever."
"What do you mean?"
"...Mom—the fairies and those demons, they're both Mana Lifeforms, but their ways of thinking are exact opposites. ...Mom never once allied herself with the demons."
Luna gave a small nod and steadied her breathing deep within.
"I see. So they call me a traitor simply because our ways of thinking differ despite being the same kind of Mana Lifeform."
Just as she was about to accept that, the air burst once more.
"If you weren't here, the world would have found peace by now! Losers should stay down! —Don't get in our way anymore!"
Luary roared and closed the distance in an instant. A flaming fist seared through the air.
"Luna!"
Shion spun around and threw herself between them. An ice wall that formed in the blink of an eye collided with the flames and shattered with a thunderous explosion.
In the split second Shion had bought, Luna activated Shift, carrying both herself and Shion away to put distance between them and Luary.
Then, manipulating wind and lightning spirits with both hands, she unleashed her magic.
"—Tempest!"
She trapped Luary inside a tornado, and a massive bolt of lightning crashed down from above, merging with blades of wind to tear into Luary.
"Damn it...!"
Luary forcefully blasted a hole through the tornado with Ignis and broke free. They wreathed themselves in flames once more, but whether from lingering numbness left by the lightning-charged wind blades, their movements had grown noticeably sluggish.
Shion closed the distance as if swimming through the air and loosed a blade of cold. The ice blade sealed off Luary's path, and in that unguarded instant, the white chalk spear flashed once more.
Ice, light, and flame—three powers intertwined as magical residue scattered across the sea.