"Although I've heard plenty about you from His Majesty the King of Knights, casually laying hands on someone else's husband is hardly a good habit, Proper Human History."
Aesc slowly lifted her head and turned an irritated gaze on Morgan of Proper Human History.
"..."
Morgan stared back in silence at Aesc, this Lostbelt "herself."
A faint, ghostly blue light began to rise from Morgan's body.
"Aesc, no..."
Shiomi forced the warning out through the grip on his throat.
The instant the words left him, another explosion tore through the riverbank.
The iceberg that had spread over the river shattered into fragments, and the chunks that crashed into the water threw up sprays several meters high.
Hearing the disturbance, Skadi instinctively glanced over in alarm, and that split second of distraction was enough. She was struck by the Magecraft of Morgan's clone and knocked back onto the shore.
It hadn't hit anything vital. Skadi steadied herself, healed as she moved, and pushed herself up, staring toward where the blast had gone off.
"Cough, cough... She blew herself up? No, wait. Did she detonate a second clone?"
Aesc coughed a few times as she waved away the dust.
She'd thought the main body had come to seize Shiomi, but it had been another clone as well.
The clone that had been fighting Skadi landed on the river's surface, its shape swaying slightly with the waves.
After dispersing the smoke along the bank and helping Shiomi up from where he'd been kneeling, Aesc looked back toward Morgan standing on the water.
"So that one isn't the main body either," Aesc murmured, thinking.
Shiomi shook his head. "Looks like both of them are clones, but their strength is almost on par with the original... your specialty."
"That one is Morgan too. It's not strange that she can do the same thing with Magecraft," Aesc said, watching her quietly. "Not sending the true body. That caution is almost worthy of praise."
"It seems this Lostbelt isn't some peaceful dead end after all." Morgan's voice was calm as she looked at Aesc. "To come out unscathed even after I had a clone detonated on you, you've got some skill."
Aesc stepped forward and put herself between Morgan and Shiomi.
"Coming here and trying to take him by force, what exactly do you intend to do with my husband?"
"Even if he's a powerless shell, he's still the proper body of a god. Naturally, that has its uses." Morgan's gaze stayed flat. "It's a shame your reaction was so quick. A rare opportunity, wasted."
Hearing that, Shiomi immediately realized that the wide waters around the First Netherworld were under surveillance as well.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have known he was here.
With monitoring spread across the area, plus the First Netherworld's abnormal magnetic field and the instability of Magical Power, it wouldn't be hard for its ruler to hide what needed hiding.
Especially when that ruler was Morgan of Proper Human History, someone equally adept at Magecraft.
"I can't agree with that," Aesc said evenly. "What you want to do is none of my concern. But you chose to lay hands on my husband. You should understand just how heavy that sin is."
"Heh." Morgan gave a soft laugh, dismissive, as if Aesc's words weren't worth taking seriously. "I'd love to fight you here, but this isn't my true form. Winning like this wouldn't mean much."
Aesc had been ready to keep fighting, but that abrupt declaration of withdrawal made her wary.
"Planning to run?" Aesc said. "But a clone doesn't really 'run.' I can simply dismiss it."
"Run?" Morgan looked at her. "Don't forget, if you want to go deeper into Mictlan, the First Netherworld is an obstacle you can't avoid. And now, that place is my territory."
Shiomi couldn't help laughing.
"Calling a strip of water your territory? Even for a lake fairy, for the great Fairy Queen, mother of so many Knights of the Round Table, that's a pretty shabby claim, isn't it?"
"If you want to win with words, then keep talking," Morgan said, eyes on Shiomi. "Once you've dealt with the Lostbelt, I'll take you for myself."
"Easy to say," Scáthach said, supporting Skadi as she came over to join them. "You're talking like you've already won."
"First, I will take that man. Then I will reclaim the remaining two-thirds of the authority that was split away," Morgan declared, her tone unhurried. "The one who will reshape this world will be neither the alien gods nor Chaldea. It will be me."
Shiomi's brow tightened. "Last time it was Britannia. This time you want to restore the planet's Mystery and turn it into a pure fairy domain, top to bottom?"
"It's a pity King Arthur isn't here," Morgan said, "but it doesn't matter anymore. Even if she became the Holy Lance Goddess, she wouldn't accomplish anything in the end."
She snapped her fingers in the night.
"Some things simply don't work unless you do them yourself."
With that, her figure seemed to blend into the darkness and vanish from the river's surface.
The solid ice formed during the Magecraft battle, no longer sustained by Magical Power, began to melt away at speed.
In moments, the river was flowing as it had before, with only lingering traces to prove that this place had briefly become a battlefield.
"What is this supposed to be, a declaration of war?" Scáthach couldn't help shaking her head, though her tone was grave.
Aesc crouched down and straightened Shiomi's clothes, then replied,
"Announcing her location so openly, even though we already knew it, shows how confident she is. It looks like she's already achieved some preliminary control over my husband's authority."
"Whether it's because we have to break through the First Netherworld, or because we need to take that authority back, we're going to have to fight Morgan of Proper Human History," Shiomi said. "In other words, we have to defeat her and clear this obstacle."
"The fact that she came specifically to take my husband suggests the process of controlling that authority isn't going smoothly," Aesc said, the anger still lingering in her eyes. "That's why she needs my husband as material."
Shiomi knew Aesc wasn't furious only because Morgan wanted to use him.
It was also because of how she intended to use him.
It was like watching the Beast God's Priestess all over again.
Cruelty taken to an inhuman extreme.
"So you're still set on what you said before, fighting her alone?" Shiomi asked, cupping Aesc's face in both hands.
"Of course," Aesc said. "It's my duty as your wife, and it's what I want to do. If it were someone else, I could let it go. But it's Morgan of Proper Human History, an existence equal to me, and yet completely different."
"But you're not her," Shiomi tried to argue. "You don't have to carry the weight of what she's done."
Aesc pressed a finger to his lips, cutting off the rest of his sensible words before he could say them.
"If I can't handle it, then you and everyone else can step in," Aesc said with a small, bashful smile. "But if it comes to that, I don't think I'll be able to stand on my own anymore."
He could lose to anyone.
Just not to "herself."
"I understand," Shiomi said. "We'll do it your way. Tell me what you need, and I'll do everything I can to make it happen."
He rested a hand on Aesc's shoulder, answering her resolve with the same seriousness.