Volume 1 – Following the Maze Drawn With Lines of Blood
Responding to Cutie’s call, the furniture transformed into ‘beasts’.
The chair became a wooden dog and bit into Hemlock.
“Kyahah!☆So you’re Empress! But this is mere child’s play!”
She hit the dog with her artificial arm.
She could destroy it in one strike with Wheel of Fortune’s power.
But, when the two arcana powers collided, something unusual happened.
Sparks flew as they hit each other.
A test of strength – the result was going to be decided by the volume of mana.
Wheel of Fortune seemed to have used more mana for the first attack than Empress.
So Hemlock was pushing on, but Wheel of Fortune’s power should have been enough to easily end this already.
This went against expectations and took more time than planned.
“You’re more stubborn than I expected!”
“Never underestimate arcana!”
Cutie shot at Hemlock.
Hemlock withdrew, but the ceiling fan above her head transformed into a ‘bird’ and chased her.
She repelled the bird’s beak with her right hand.
The bird slashed at her with its wings when her stance was disturbed.
(It’s cramped here and there’s too many, damn it! But her Sorcery Rating is below mine!)
They both used arcana – Hemlock undid her disguise, and Cutie’s jammer disappeared.
Hemlock’s Sorcery Rating was 12582, and Cutie’s was 11894.
The numbers were on Hemlock’s side
But a difference of just around 1000 could be overturned easily in a battle between two sorcerers with a Sorcery Rating of over 10000.
Hemlock used Wheel of Fortune’s powers while cursing and the ground swelled out.
Her body floated up and the fan bird’s wings grazed her.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Ami clumsily screamed.
The bed started moving and turned into a giant crocodile.
Its large gaping mouth turned at Hemlock moving in the air.
This familia clearly had more mana used on it than the others.
Hemlock held her right hand up, and stopped its fangs with Wheel of Fortune.
Then, a ‘ray’ flew at her from above her head. The curtain had transformed.
Hemlock caught the poisoned needle on its tail fin with her left hand.
The magical powers of Empress and Wheel of Fortune clashed while emitting an intense flash of light.
Further, the ‘dog’ and the ‘bird’ also moved to attack again and Hemlock couldn’t help but shout in the face of such an overwhelming numbers difference.
“Is this a zoo or what!?”
“Yes, it’s a fitting cage for a low-life like you, isn’t it?”
“Then I request an improvement of the breeding environment!”
The walls warped.
Hemlock couldn’t move her artificial arms or legs freely, and there were not many rotating objects left in the room, but a hole big enough for a person to fit through opened up in the wall.
“Preparations are important, after all!”
“Wait, the clock in the corridor!?”
“You’re too late to notice!”
Hemlock escaped the room.
The ground was full of glass marbles, and it was a perfect environment for Wheel of Fortune.
Furthermore, there was still a ‘trap’ Hemlock did not use yet.
She could use that now, or run away and hide to painfully kill Cutie and the others.
(At any rate, it’s my victory now that I’m out of here.☆)
Hemlock landed on the floor.
Cutie quickly made her beasts head for the hole, but it immediately closed.
“Phew…… that was close. I was really surprised when that princess saved me back there. Everything is okay now! Things will move according to plan!”
She was disguised, but it was still uncomfortable to spend time in the same room as her enemies.
Of course, Cutie could still continue the fight if she opened the door and left the room.
But, it wouldn’t go like it did inside the room.
“Lady of Majoram, you hear me, right? It’s okay, you can come out. I’m going to fight you out here this time!”
There was no reply.
But Cutie did hear her.
“Oooh, are you scared? Yeah, of course! From what I can see, the only objects you can transform into animals with the power of Empress are things you touch. And you can’t use it on ‘rotating’ objects, right? You must be scared, since there aren’t any objects you ‘touched in advance’ outside that room!”
Knowing Cutie’s character, she instigated her in hopes that Cutie would come out.
Well, she was fine with not getting a reply.
She thought that Cutie was bitterly regretting this now, and that she was lamenting her defeat.
“Yes, you can’t use your powers on something unless you touch the object. You have to touch it, in advance-”
Then, Hemlock remembered something.
She remembered something outside the room that Cutie touched, something she had seen a little earlier.
“……Oh, the pen.”
Right after she remembered, she heard a small winged insect flying behind her.
She turned around.
Something pierced into her chest.
Hemlock stopped this ‘something’ with both hands.
“Haah, ahah, ahahahaha! A dragonfly!? You can make insects too, huh? You’re a talented lady.”
She stopped it from stabbing her heart by a hair’s breadth and reflexively laughed.
Then, Cutie kicked the door open and left the room.
Hemlock frowned.
“And you’re coming out! But if you move the door…..!”
The glass marbles on the floor in the corridor outside the room moved around.
Countless glass marbles blocked Cutie’s way.
Since she could not fly, there was no way for Cutie to get close to Hemlock.
“You must be suicidal if you left that rom, Cutiiieee!”
Hemlock grabbed the pen and crushed it, then took a gun out of her pocket and aimed it at Cutie.
It was a gun with real bullets that ‘revolved’, same as the one Indi used.
Cutie moved before the trigger was pulled.
“The state budget isn’t high enough to kill me!”
Then, of all things, she kicked around the glass marbles by her feet.
The glass marbles of course started moving and revolving.
This put them under Wheel of Fortune’s effects.
(This lady is ridiculous!)
Hemlock couldn’t be happy about a move she didn’t understand.
But she figured that she could kill Cutie now, so she generated power spots around the glass marbles.
However…
“Nothing is happening?”
The glass marbles were revolving but they did not listen to what Wheel of Fortune told them.
Hemlock had a bad feeling about this and quickly pulled the trigger, firing at Cutie.
Then, the glass marbles around her grew wings and floated up.
One of them blocked the bullet Hemlock fired and broke it.
“So this is Empress’s power……”
“That’s right. When I touch something, it becomes my familia. Even if it’s revolving. It looks like you wanted to use the glass marbles scattered here to kill me, but……”
Cutie kicked, and dozens of glass marbles transformed into small birds and started flying around her.
“You cannot resist Empress. My victory is certain!”
She leaped at Hemlock with murderous intent.
Hemlock raised her hands in front of herself, generated power spots around the rotations and created a protective wall to stop Cutie.
“Guh, aaaagh…..!”
The glass marbles were small, so the mana loaded into them with Empress was low volume.
Their threat was weak compared to the crocodile or the dog from earlier.
But, their numbers more than made up for it.
“I can’t block…… so many! Tsch, my Wheel of Fortune is being pushed back…..!”
“It’s a checkmate!”
“Not yet, I still have ways of killing you!”
An explosive noise roared above Cutie’s head.
A small propeller installed inside the plumbing – it was an object that revolved when the air slightly changed.
Rubble rained down on her.
However, the thing that was a door just earlier protected Cutie.
The door turned into a huge bat…..!”
“Everything I touch is my familia. I can still defeat you so easily, you know?”
Saying that, the furniture that Cutie turned into animals earlier left the room and surrounded Cutie.
They bowed before their empress, threatening Hemlock to attack her any time.
“Damn it. This is just too much…..! Aah, am I going to lose!?”
Her heart broke.
In that moment, a small bird pierced through her power spot and stabbed Hemlock’s neck.
Then, numerous birds suddenly rushed her.
“Ah, aggh, ugh, aaaaaagh! Stop, stoooop!”
Unable to maintain her power spots any more, Hemlock’s flesh was gradually pecked at by the birds.
“Get away! Don’t come any closer! I won’t let some damn birds eat me! Agh, gaaaah!”
Cutie was in distress as she watched Hemlock’s body get covered in blood.
(……I have to kill her like this.)
She had never killed anyone before.
In the first place, this was the first time she had used her arcana powers in a fight.
Of course, Hemlock was going to die if she left her like this.
But that would take too much time.
(What are you afraid of, Cutie? It’s easy to kill people. I can’t be a lady of the Majoram family if I don’t even have the resolve to do that much!)
Indeed, it was a simple thing.
She could send a crocodile and make it bite her neck, and……
“Aaaaah! Aggh!….. Aah…… Aaagh. Noo. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. But the pain livens me up!”
Hemlock spoke as her flesh was pecked at.
“My artificial legs are becoming… so ineffective. But I can still use my own body instead.”
She muttered while facing Cutie, as if trying to convince herself.
“I don’t want to lose. So, I’m gonna do it…… Kyahah! ☆”
Fwooosh, the wind suddenly raged.
The small birds clinging onto Hemlock’s body were blown away and scattered.
“Uugh! No way, you can still move!?”
Cutie covered her head in shock while shouting.
Hemlock stood up.
Then, she held her arms out towards Cutie, and said:
“Blood revolves all around your body. Wheel of Fortune, use my body up!!!!!”
As long as it made a full rotation, anything could be used.
Even Calaria became an object of this power when she made one round around the same spot, so there was no reason a human’s body wouldn’t work.
“I don’t want to lose. Even if I have to use up my own life, I’m going to kill you, even if you are a ‘finished product’!!”
“Crap – Familia, protect me!”
The animals that were waiting attacked Hemlock.
“Impudent!”
But she raised her arms, and Empress’s magical powers were blown away as the animals transformed into simple debris.
Even the bed crocodile with a lot of mana, and the ray, ended up the same way in seconds.
“This is completely different than before…… This power output, I can’t stop it!”
“I’m betting my life on this! Some rich lady who is used to living comfortably can’t understand it!”
Blood spurted out from all over Hemlock’s body as red liquid flowed from her eyes and mouth, and she approached Cutie.
It wasn’t because she was injured.
It was because her body began to crumble while she used it for her sorcery.
It was a special attack with her life on the line, just as she said – Cutie, who had pretty much the same Sorcery Rating as her, obviously couldn’t stop it.
Cutie was overwhelmed.
If she made any bad moves, she would be caught within range of the glass marbles rolling around.
Still, she could not return to the room either. Hemlock approached within an arm’s reach of Cutie.
At that moment, a figure jumped out from inside the room.
She leaped up from the floor, then leaped down from the ceiling and attacked Hemlock.
“Thousand Corpse……”
Her hands were holding the scythe of the Death God condensed from a thousand corpses.
“……Burial Scythe!”
The blade with massive amounts of mana slashed at her foe.
Hemlock stopped it with both hands.
Just as Empress and Wheel of Fortune clashed – no, even more fiercely than that, the two’s mana clashed and exploded.
“Tsch, don’t get in my way, Death God!”
“Of course I will, Wheel of Fortune!”
Mary’s recovery was not perfect yet.
Only half of her legs had grown back, but she still felt the murderous intent emitting out from the corridor, and couldn’t stand around without doing anything.
The two’s magical powers were almost evenly matched.
“Haaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Ooooooooh!”
But that meant an overwhelming disadvantage for Hemlock.
Because the fight was not one on one.
“Mary, I’ll support you too!”
Cutie returned to the room for a moment to grab a lot of pens, and threw them at Hemlock.
They all turned into different insects and erased the power spot surrounding Hemlock.
“Ugh, shit…… In the end, I’m being pushed back…… Why…..? This is absurd…..! Even my lifeforce isn’t enough! I’m so full of hatred, but I can’t even kill one of you!”
No matter how far past her limits Hemlock went, she couldn’t stop these two together.
The last fight headed for its finish.
She also felt this, and started shouting.
“Why? Why do failed creations like us have to lose to the blessed ones like you!?!?!?”
“You sound like Magrat!”
“He’s my brother! We lived with the same grudge!”
That’s why they look alike, Mary thought.
But she didn’t feel anything else.
If she was a relative of the person who killed Francis, then Mary would kill her without a second thought.
“You! It’s all because of people like you! If only you were not booorn!”
“Don’t act like the victim when you took my sister from me!!!!”
After Mary’s shout, Wheel of Fortune’s powers bursted and disappeared with a crackling noise.
Mary’s scythe cut Hemlock in a straight line.
“Ah……”
A red line appeared at the center of her body.
“Well, whatever. Nothing will change.”
As if leaving behind a curse, a faint smile appeared on Hemlock’s face as she spoke.
“Noone gets away from their fortunes! Kyahah. ☆”
Her body then split in two and collapsed.
However, Mary and Cutie did not have time to think about Hemlock’s last words.
The tense air suddenly became loose with Hemlock’s death.
“Aah…… Aah…… Aah……”
“Phew… Thanks for saving me, Mary.”
“No…… I should say the same to you……
“Aaaah~……”
Mary and Cutie breathed a heavy sigh at the same time, and sat on the floor shoulder to shoulder.