Chapter 650 Still impossible

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Dominion of Oz]

[Winkie Country]

(“If I had to simplify her power, I’d describe it as the ability to induce different kinds of phenomena into the world. She’s essentially making the world respond in whatever way she wants, within whatever limits her ability imposes. The weather manipulation is simply one application of that. At least, that’s what it seems to be.”)

Mikoto considered the possibility, his attention fixed on Electra, who had settled into an almost idle posture several meters away. The thick mist continued to drift around them, obscuring much of the surrounding plain, while his right arm throbbed beneath the damaged gauntlet. Blood had begun to gather along the scratches left by her claws, slipping between the exposed sections of armor and staining the skin beneath. It was an irritating injury, but hardly one worth concerning himself over.

His thoughts, however, were occupied by something considerably more troublesome.

Initially, he had assumed Electra’s abilities were limited to manipulating the weather. The lightning and the sudden appearance of the mist had seemed to support that conclusion. Her interference with his perception was another matter entirely. It suggested that her ability was not restricted to influencing the natural environment. She could seemingly impose phenomena upon his own senses, altering the way he interpreted the world around him.

If she could interfere with his perception as easily as she could summon lightning, then simply keeping his distance and watching for an opening would not help him. He would have to account for the possibility that even his most reliable senses could be turned against him.

Across from him, Electra appeared to be contemplating something of her own. Her light-blue eyes wandered briefly towards his injured arm, taking in the torn gauntlet and the blood beneath it. There was no satisfaction in her expression, nor did she seem especially concerned with the damage she had inflicted.

“I’m starting to wonder whether what you told my more angsty self was actually true,” she mused. Her tone was considerably more casual than it had been earlier, though her attention remained on him. “You made it sound as though you were simply being arrogant when you refused to use your power. I assumed you were trying to look impressive or that your pride wouldn’t let you fight properly. But after seeing how you’ve been handling things, I’m not so sure anymore.”

Mikoto remained silent.

Electra tilted her head slightly, seemingly content to continue considering the matter aloud.

“There’s another reason you’re holding back, isn’t there? It certainly doesn’t look like pride anymore. I don’t know exactly how strong you Angels are, and I doubt I could make an accurate comparison from what I’ve seen so far, but I can tell that fighting without any sort of power is a considerable inconvenience for you. You’re having to rely on your body alone, even when the situation clearly calls for something more.”

Her eyes briefly returned to his damaged arm.

“That must be frustrating.”

Mikoto gave her no immediate response.

(“She’s not wrong. I doubt I can beat her without magic.”)

His physical abilities were far beyond those of an ordinary person. Even without drawing upon mana, he possessed enough strength and speed to overwhelm most opponents. But Electra was not an ordinary opponent. She was a Progenitor, and her physical capabilities were already considerable before taking her unusual abilities into account.

He could continue fighting her like this, but the longer the encounter dragged on, the more opportunities she would have to exploit his limitations.

And he was not interested in giving her those opportunities.

Still, acknowledging the disadvantage did not mean he intended to show it.

“It makes no difference to me,” Mikoto said at last. “I can beat you either way. It might take a little longer, and I may have to put up with a few more of your irritating tricks, but the result isn’t going to change.”

He paused, allowing his gaze to settle on her.

“But you should understand something. If I bring my power to bear, you won’t stand a chance. Whatever you think you’re capable of, whatever you’ve convinced yourself you can do with that ability of yours, it won’t matter. You would be nothing in comparison.”

The words were delivered without any flourish. Mikoto did not raise his voice or make an effort to appear imposing. His delicate features and small frame hardly lent themselves to the image of someone making such a threat, especially with his bloodied arm. Yet there was no uncertainty in his expression. He was not attempting to reassure himself, nor was he trying to frighten Electra into surrendering.

He was simply stating what he believed to be true.

“How smug,” Electra murmured.

She shifted her weight and rested one hand against her hip, her claws drawing slightly inward.

“But whether you’re a monster or prey, it doesn’t change anything about our situation, does it? You can tell me how much stronger you are, and perhaps you’re even right. But that doesn’t change where we are or what’s happening between us. You’re still standing in my territory, and I’m still the one standing in your way.”

Mikoto’s eyes narrowed somewhat.

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asked, his irritation beginning to show. “You’re talking like I came here looking for a fight. Your other self was the one who attacked me first. I was perfectly content to leave you alone and get on with what I came here to do. If she had simply minded her own business, none of this would have happened. You’d still be alive, your little kingdom would still be standing, and I wouldn’t have had to waste my time dealing with you.”

He briefly glanced towards the surrounding mist.

“Don’t act as though I’m responsible for a situation you started.”

“It was my love for these lands that influenced her,” Electra replied.

Her expression remained passive, but there was a slight change in her voice. The casualness receded. She looked past Mikoto, towards the obscured expanse of the plains.

“They’re important to me. More important than you seem to understand. I know they aren’t much to look at anymore, and I know there’s very little left worth protecting, but they’re still mine. I’ve watched them deteriorate for a very long time. I’ve watched everything that once made them worth living in disappear, piece by piece. And then you came along and sullied what little remained.”

Mikoto’s brows furrowed.

He took a moment to process her words, trying to determine precisely what she meant. Her attachment to the surrounding territory was apparent, but the accusation itself seemed rather misplaced. He had not deliberately set out to damage her land, nor had he cared about the condition of the plains before arriving.

Then the answer occurred to him.

(“Oh. She must mean when I tried to teleport and accidentally damaged the ley lines.”)

His expression shifted almost imperceptibly.

(“That would explain it.”)

His earlier attempt to teleport had gone badly because of the ley lines. Their interference with his mana had caused the surrounding energy to behave unpredictably, resulting in damage that had spread beyond what he had intended. If Electra was as attached to these lands as she claimed, then it was hardly surprising that she would take offence to someone carelessly damaging them.

Still, understanding the reason for her anger did not make him any more sympathetic towards it.

He could attempt to explain what had happened. He could tell her that the damage had been accidental, that he had not intended to harm the land, and that the circumstances surrounding his arrival had made the situation considerably more complicated than she seemed to realize.

But he doubted it would accomplish anything.

Electra was still being influenced by her other aspect. Even if this particular personality was less openly hostile towards him, the resentment remained. It was present beneath her words, woven into the way she regarded him and the assumptions she made about his intentions. Explaining himself would accomplish very little if the other personality’s hatred continued to color her judgement.

And he had no intention of wasting more time trying to reason with someone who had already decided he was an enemy.

(“I need to put her down. Now.”)

“If these lands are really that important to you,” Mikoto said, bringing his attention back to Electra, “then fighting something like me seems a little counterintuitive, doesn’t it? You’re trying to protect what’s left of this place, yet you’re perfectly willing to turn the surrounding area into a battlefield. You’re not exactly helping your own cause.”

“Yeah,” Electra admitted.

Her answer came easily, without any attempt to dispute the point.

For a brief moment, her light-blue eyes drifted away from Mikoto. She looked out across the open plains, although the thick mist prevented her from seeing much of the surrounding landscape. Her gaze lingered there, as though she were looking beyond the immediate area and towards something that existed only in her memory.

“But you see, I learned something a very long time ago. Something I probably should have understood much sooner. You can’t afford to remain passive in a world like this. Not when everything around you is already falling apart.”

She lowered her gaze slightly.

“Doing nothing doesn’t preserve what you have. It just gives everyone else the opportunity to take it from you. You wait, hoping things will somehow improve, hoping that if you leave everything alone there will still be something worth protecting when you finally decide to act. But that’s not how this world works. Violence doesn’t wait for you to be ready, and neither do the people who would happily tear apart everything you’ve spent your life protecting.”

Her fingers curled slightly against her hip.

“That’s how things ended up like this. Too much was allowed to happen. Too many people stood by and convinced themselves that remaining uninvolved was the same as doing the right thing. And by the time anyone realized what they had lost, there was hardly anything left to save.”

Electra looked back towards him.

“So even if I don’t particularly want to fight you, what difference does that make? You’re here, and you’ve already damaged something I care about. If I let you continue, you’ll ruin whatever remains. I can’t simply stand aside and hope you’ll decide to leave everything intact.”

Mikoto scoffed.

“I’d be doing you a favor.”

The remark came without much thought, but his attention had already begun to wander elsewhere.

(“She’s really hung up on this country, isn’t she?”)

There was something almost humorless about it. She spoke as though the land beneath their feet was the last thing connecting her to a world that had long since disappeared. She was holding onto it with an attachment that seemed to have outlived whatever reason had originally made it important to her.

(“Someone stuck in the past.”)

Mikoto found the thought strangely familiar, though he would never have admitted as much aloud.

(“I wonder if I ever looked like that.”)

He considered it for a moment, his gaze resting on Electra as she stood amid the mist. He wondered whether he had ever worn that same expression whenever he thought about returning home. Whether the desire had ever been so apparent that someone looking at him could have understood everything he was feeling without needing to ask.

Had he been just as stubborn? Just as pointlessly motivated?

The thought did not sit comfortably.

(“Was I really that pathetic?”)

He could not remember every detail of what he had been before arriving here, and the memories he did possess were not always particularly pleasant to revisit. But he knew why he wanted to return. He knew what he was searching for, and he knew that abandoning the goal would leave him with very little reason to continue.

That was enough.

His desire to return home was not some sentimental attachment to a place that no longer existed in the same way it once had. It was a necessary objective, something he needed to accomplish regardless of what stood in his way.

At least, that was what he told himself.

And given his current circumstances, he could hardly afford to question it.

His attention returned to the problem directly in front of him.

(“But I’ve been lenient enough, haven’t I?”)

His eyes narrowed slightly.

(“Should I really give a shit about what happens to these ley lines? Or what happens to this miserable stretch of land?”)

The thought was not entirely without merit.

The ley lines were the primary obstacle preventing him from using his magic freely. Their behavior was fundamentally incompatible with the way his mana operated. Whenever he attempted to draw upon it, they forcibly absorbed the energy, consuming far more than they should have been capable of taking. The resulting imbalance caused the surrounding ley lines to destabilize, and if he continued pushing his mana into them, the energy would eventually accumulate to the point of an internal rupture.

He could simply ignore the damage and use his magic anyway. The consequences would be considerable, but that did not mean they would be fatal to him. There were ways to endure the backlash, and if he judged the situation carefully enough, he could probably get away with it.

But there was another consideration.

Paimon, Gretel, Shuten-dōji, and Robert.

They were all somewhere within the surrounding area, and depending on how far the destruction spread, they could easily be caught in the resulting explosion. He had no particular desire to waste time worrying about every possible consequence, but there was little point in pretending that their presence did not complicate matters.

Echidna, at least, would probably be fine. General Magnus was still dealing with the Deseruit Beasts, and she could remain near him until the situation had been resolved. With Magnus present, there was little reason to believe she would be in any immediate danger.

(“But Echidna’s really the only one who has any use to me. The others—”)

Mikoto’s expression shifted.

He stopped the thought before it could reach its conclusion.

It was unpleasant, the direction his reasoning had taken, though he could not immediately decide whether it was the thought itself or the fact that he had considered it so readily.

(“No.”)

His eyes lowered briefly.

(“What am I thinking?”)

He knew perfectly well what the most convenient course of action would be. He could disregard the others, stop worrying about the damage to the ley lines, and simply unleash enough power to end the fight. It would be faster and considerably less troublesome than continuing to exchange blows with Electra while she interfered with his senses.

But such an easy way out was hardly something he could accept without question.

(“Mikoto Yukio would certainly never sacrifice his ‘friends’ for convenience, right?”)

He did not like the word. Friends. It was an awkward label, one that seemed to imply a degree of attachment. Yet he had travelled with them, relied upon some, and allowed them to become involved in his affairs. He could hardly pretend that their safety meant absolutely nothing to him.

And besides, talking to Shuten-dōji was nice.

Even if he would have preferred not to think about it.

Then, quite suddenly, the pieces fell into place.

Mikoto’s eyes shifted slightly.

The problem was the mana.

More specifically, the relationship between his mana and the ley lines.

(“The ley lines forcibly absorb my mana, then overconsume it until the energy builds up and they eventually explode from within.”)

He considered the process again, separating each part of it from the rest.

The ley lines were absorbing it. That was important. Their reaction was not caused by an inability to interact with his energy but rather by the fact that they were taking in too much of it. His mana was being consumed at a rate the ley lines could not properly accommodate, and the resulting instability was what caused the damage.

He had been approaching the problem from the wrong direction.

(“I can still cast the spell, even with the ley lines interfering. That’s not the issue. The issue is that they’re absorbing my mana whenever I try to use it.”)

His gaze remained fixed on Electra, but his attention was no longer entirely on her.

(“So why do I need to use my own mana?”)

The thought lingered.

He knew that ley lines could absorb different forms of energy. Mana was only one of them. Their function was not necessarily restricted to a particular source, and depending on the nature of the energy being introduced, they could potentially absorb it without suffering the same destabilizing effects.

There was another source available to him.

One that was considerably more compatible with the ley lines.

(“Mana… but much tamer than my own.”)