Exchanging a glance with Soga Yura, Su Yuzu instantly understood what was on Soga Yura's mind.
She wanted to surround and slaughter all those mermaids.
And... they couldn't be allowed to get anywhere near the fishing boat.
The mermaids' savage, razor-sharp tails posed an enormous threat to the hull—even though this fishing boat had actually been specially reinforced.
But for a Third Sequence 'Beast,' a single sweep of the tail might be enough to snap the boat clean in half.
The problem now was—
why were there so many Third Sequence—even nearly Fourth Sequence—'Beasts' here?
Back then, that Leviathan on the verge of reaching the Fourth Sequence had forced Su Yuzu to unfold the domain of the 'Throne.'
Why were there so many of them here?
Much like the Espers among humans, among the 'Beasts'—or the Aberrants—the Fourth Sequence was also a sharply drawn dividing line.
Soga Yura could only count herself lucky that, for the moment, no Fourth Sequence 'Beast' had appeared here yet.
The girl stood gracefully upon the fishing boat, the domain of 'Domination' already quietly unfolding.
Beside her, a girl who looked remarkably like her was discussing something with Sakura Mai.
The Knight Princess, bracing herself against the hull, was flushed with shame.
Just then... Soga Yura's mental power, stabbing straight down into the seabed, seemed to suddenly break through some boundary.
Beneath an abyss that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the depths ever charted for these waters...
a pair of dark golden vertical pupils slowly opened from within a suit of armor.
In the pitch-black, fathomless seabed, a figure stood alone within an iron Throne, its dark golden vertical pupils gazing coldly upward.
In an instant—
the school of mermaids, who had been hunting the fish and preparing for a little feast, seemed to hear some command.
The lithe, graceful mermaids swiftly swished their tails and rose, their nearly seductive forms closing to within visible range in the span of a single breath.
Su Yuzu could even see, directly through the beam of light sweeping across the sea's surface, the mermaids' snow-white, rounded shoulders and their alluring peaks.
And... the dark golden vertical pupils opening in the dark of night.
A dark red Catastrophe Domain unfolded in an instant, sweeping toward the fishing boat.
The bright beam sweeping across the sea flickered as if about to go out, and the electronic devices connected to the survey ship dissolved into a snowy screen after a burst of hissing static.
At that very same moment———
Soga Yura, too, exerted her power almost in the same instant.
The mind shapes the world.
Centered on the girl standing gracefully amid the raging sea winds and tides, the domain of 'Domination' rapidly unfolded.
Back then it had been able to erase even the alien domain brought by a 'Pseudo Throne'—a world stripped of all color; a mere, utterly ordinary Catastrophe Domain was naturally no challenge at all.
Above the sea's surface———
the dark red domain was swiftly wiped away, as if smeared out by the eraser tool on a drawing board.
The girl stood quietly at the center of the world, looking down upon the battlefield.
Her silk dress, soaked through by the waves, clung tightly to her body. Her figure was frail and not quite voluptuous, yet she stood towering and unmoving, ruthlessly crushing everything into submission.
The mermaids revealed their true forms within Soga Yura's field of vision.
Damn it... why are these gals all so big, every single one of them...
—
Even at a time like this, Soga Yura's train of thought could still veer wildly off course.
On the fishing boat, Tsukiyomi Fuya, calmly bracing herself against the control console, watched Soga Yura with some astonishment.
The domain Soga Yura had unfolded far exceeded her expectations.
The strength of Soga Yura's domain had already far surpassed that of some ordinary Fourth Sequence Espers. It even... exceeded that of certain Fifth Sequence Espers of the body-enhancement type who weren't skilled in this particular art.
The domains of normal Espers could usually only manage to counteract a Catastrophe Domain, warding off its effects.
But Soga Yura... this domineering erasure suddenly reminded Tsukiyomi Fuya of someone.
Soga Retsu.
That Sixth Sequence overlord.
The fearsome man who had dived alone into the Abyss—and even managed to come back.
Should one say that a tiger father sires no dog of a daughter?
So then... what about Yuzu?
Tsukiyomi Fuya turned her gaze onto Yuzu—and then suddenly froze.
Su Yuzu's right hand was gripped in front of Sakura Mai's body.
The shame-stricken girl had her head tilted and her eyes cast to one side; her burning, reddened ear-tips and faintly trembling legs and shoulders spelled out the turmoil in the Knight Princess girl's heart.
Though she was Third Sequence... Sakura Mai, who should have served as the main combat force in this battle, had lost the lion's share of her fighting strength due to certain subtle factors.
As a result, at a time like this... she could only serve as a scabbard, offering up her bosom-sword to the girl... ah, no—her cursed sword.
Su Yuzu drew the Sword of Erasure cleanly and neatly.
Sakura Mai's body gave a shudder—rather with the feel of a final shiver signaling that the bullying was over.
The Sword of Erasure, which in Yuzu's hand had once been pitch-black and dark, blazing with flames that would devour even Light itself, now looked nowhere near as awe-inspiring as it once had.
In fact... the transparent tip of the Sword of Erasure seemed to have gone somewhat soft, like jelly.
Su Yuzu could plainly feel the Sword of Erasure's dread and its shrinking away from her.
But—
this was easy enough to handle.
Under Soga Yura's somewhat puzzled gaze, Su Yuzu held the Sword of Erasure, stuck out the tip of her tongue, and lightly licked along the edge of the blade's spine.
In a flash the Sword of Erasure sprang up stiff and rigid, its scorching, brilliant flames beginning to burn.
Soga Yura felt strange, with the nagging sense that something about this situation wasn't quite right.
She wanted to get jealous even over a mere sword.
Soga Yura even felt as though a whole flock of sheep from the Green Green Grasslands had come climbing onto her head.
One sheep was named Sakura Mai, and another sheep looked exactly like a sword-in-human-form.
Su Yuzu leapt straight down from the fishing boat.
"Senpai!!!" The little rabbit was thrown into a slight panic.
Just then, silver ripples suddenly spread out beneath the girl's feet; Su Yuzu stepped upon the waves, yet trod them as though walking on level ground.
Tsukiyomi Fuya recognized in an instant what it was.
"The 'Immaculate Pure Land'!?"
That was the Holy Relic once possessed by her dear old friend, Saionji Sagara.
Only... after that child's Event, Saionji Sagara had come to believe that she could never again fight for the beauty in her heart, could never again wield this Holy Relic, and had left Imperial Capital University.
And now——
she had actually handed this Holy Relic over to Little Yuzu?
Tsukiyomi Fuya's gaze upon Yuzu's slender back grew all the more kindly and tender.
A child able to earn the recognition of the 'Immaculate Pure Land' must surely be one who fought for all the beauty in her heart.
A girl with a heart like that could surely never be a bad person.
Tsukiyomi Fuya grew even fonder of this Yuzu.
Only, Tsukiyomi Fuya could probably never in her wildest dreams have imagined that Su Yuzu... had forcibly driven the innocent into ruin—coercing the 'Immaculate Pure Land' into becoming the slave beneath her.
Mimicking a stance straight out of anime, Su Yuzu, sword in hand, charged straight at the lead mermaid.
"Taste my ex-calibur!"
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