I deployed my Anti-Material Field.
"There..."
The moment I pinpointed his location, I began thrusting ice swords into the spot in rapid succession. The enemy naturally dodged, sprinting along the walls to evade them, but I could perceive his every movement as clearly as if I were holding him in the palm of my hand.
I moved to intercept his path, using an ice sword as a focal point to activate Ice Flower Profusion. The blade transformed, blossoming into an intricate floral shape.
Ice flowers bloomed one after another, encircling my opponent as they burst into existence. There was no escape. My field continued to track his every move with perfect precision.
"Wh—what is this...? Can you see me!?"
"No. I can't see a thing."
"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!!"
His panic was real. I could sense his expression even now, contorted in agony.
In his desperation, he unleashed a flurry of daggers. I already knew they were all coated in poison. Driven by an Inside Code, they flew at an extraordinary velocity, but...
The moment they entered the Anti-Material Field, they were erased.
"...Calm down. It's fine... I can win... I can still win..."
He muttered under his breath, trying to regain his composure.
He was a professional who killed for a living, after all. He suppressed his emotions quickly, searching for a way to break the deadlock, but it was already too late.
—The moment I deployed this field, your defeat was set in stone.
My ice swords continued to slash at him relentlessly. While I avoided landing a fatal blow, I inflicted steady, certain damage.
"Hah!"
Blood spilled from his wounds and gathered around his magic sword. The liquid shifted, hardening into a massive volley of needle-like thorns before being fired at me.
However, they vanished the instant they entered my field. Presumably, that magic sword granted him the power of blood manipulation—interfering with the Code via the bloodstream to control the liquid at will. Perhaps it wasn't limited to blood; any liquid might satisfy the condition.
But right now, none of that mattered. It was time to settle this.
"—!"
The assassin gasped. He released the wide-range interference magic he had been maintaining, allowing a faint light to return to the basement... but I had no further need for light.
I see. Releasing the spell meant he intended to focus entirely on his escape. But I wouldn't let him go.
I lunged forward.
The enemy bolted straight for the exit, but I activated Ice Flower Profusion to block his path. In a final, desperate struggle, he threw more daggers and fired needles created from his own blood, but they were all instantly negated.
"...It's useless. Your attacks can no longer reach me."
The Anti-Material Field. It was a domain composed of two distinct parts: the Perception Field and the Restoration Field.
The Perception Field could be extended to a radius of fifty meters. It allowed the brain to directly perceive any Prima Materia within the area without relying on the five senses. It didn't matter if the target wasn't a living being, so long as Prima Materia was present.
The Restoration Field first used 'Deceleration' to lower the state of any matter or phenomenon I hadn't specifically designated. From there, it 'Locked' them, activated the Anti-Material Code all at once, and completely 'Restored' all matter and phenomena to their base components.
Since both processes were handled automatically the moment the field was activated, I only had to act according to what I felt.
To be honest, I had hesitated to use this, but there were no signs of a Magic Area Overheat occurring.
—I'm ending this now.
"Ugh... damn it!!"
"Give up. You've lost. You realize that, don't you?"
"—!"
"Oops. I assume you were about to take your own life... but you're too late for that, too."
There was no visible change, but the opponent found himself unable to move. He could do nothing but groan in place.
"Aaaah... AAAAAAA... AAAA...!"
"I've already stripped you of your motor functions. You won't be moving again."
The assassin collapsed face-first onto the ground. From the moment he entered my Anti-Material Field, I had been weaving a specific Code into his own magic.
The name of the spell was Diamond Dust.
It was my Origin Magic—a technique that generated microscopic ice within the body to erode the target from the inside out. I had used the Anti-Material Field to analyze his magic, traced the path of his spells, and incorporated my own magic into his Code.
I had deployed it in advance, predicting he would use his speed to try and flee, and it seemed my intuition was correct.
"Uu... such... density... uuuugh..."
Clarice, whom I was still holding, seemed overwhelmed by the density of the Prima Materia. When I gently set her down, she wobbled and sank slowly to the floor.
"Are you all right, Clarice?"
"Yeah... somehow. But, um... Ray, you..."
"Yes. I am the current Ice Sword Sorcerer."
"I see. Well... when you put it like that, it actually makes sense... So Ray was one of the Seven Grand Sorcerers all along. I see..."
"...I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner."
"Does everyone else know?"
"Amelia, Elisa, and Evi already know. Also, Master... she was the previous Ice Sword Sorcerer."
"Hah... I mean, looking at how you've acted, I always suspected you were someone special... but I didn't think it was that."
Clarice pressed a hand to her chest, looking pained.
"Do you feel sick? Are you okay?"
"Yeah... sorry... the Prima Materia just got to me... I'll just rest for a second..."
"Right."
Judging by her condition, her life wasn't in danger. She had simply been hit by the sheer density of the Prima Materia I'd released.
As I watched over Clarice, I sensed another presence approaching... but it was one I knew well.
"Ray, is it finished?"
"Club President... yes. It's over."
"My apologies. It seems wide-range interference was in effect... I'm late to the scene, but did you get him?"
"Yes. But I didn't kill him."
"So it seems. Well, leave the cleanup to us. You have somewhere you need to be. Amelia Rose is still fighting. If you go now, you should still make it."
"Is that true...!?"
Amelia was still fighting? She was still standing her ground against Ariane? My heart trembled at the thought.
"Club President. Please, look after Clarice."
"Of course. She'll recover from this soon enough. Go, Ray. Amelia needs you."
"Yes, sir!!"
I took off running.
With a desperate urge to see Amelia, to sear the image of her strength into my eyes, I sprinted with everything I had.
What thoughts were driving her now? How was she holding up?
I raced toward the light at the end of the tunnel, eventually emerging at the top of the spectator stands.
When I looked down at the field, I saw her... Amelia, collapsed on the ground.
Her body was covered in charred, black marks and she was bleeding. Even so, she refused to avert her gaze from Ariane, who stood before her.
Ariane wasn't unscathed either. She, too, bore prominent scorch marks.
They had both been pushed to their limits to reach this point. But in Amelia's eyes, I saw a faint shadow of despair. Her fighting spirit—her will to continue—was beginning to fade.
She must have fought so hard to get here.
All alone, in the center of this massive crowd, she had faced Ariane—the girl hailed as the strongest—with nothing but single-minded devotion. Even when her heart was on the verge of breaking, Amelia had spurred herself on.
Despite how much she had been trembling before the match, she hadn't given up. This was a battle against Ariane, but it was also a battle against herself. And Amelia had refused to lose to her own fear.
That was why—
There was only one thing left for me to do—
Just one thing—
"AMELIAAAAAAAAAAA!! STAND UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!"
My voice, carrying every ounce of my feelings, tore through the silence of the arena.
And then, I saw it. The will to fight returned to her eyes.
Deep, burning red Crimson Butterflies overflowed from her back. They spiraled upward, ascending toward the heavens. The sight was fantastical, completely removed from reality, yet I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
Those infinite butterflies, burning with a scorching red light, were the crystallization of all her efforts. They were no sham. She hadn't been faking it. She had simply been lost, just as I had been.
It wasn't a falsehood; it was the process of becoming the real thing.
But that time was over.
Amelia, you aren't a bird in a cage. You have wings strong enough to soar into this vast sky.
The current you can surely take flight—freely, and into the highest reaches of the heavens.
In that instant, a single bird took flight into the vast sky from out of nowhere.