Disciple And Master (4)

“Ugh—ah—gah…!”

Kardia, struggling to keep his consciousness against the Demon King, groaned in pain.

“Kardia! Do you remember the magic circle for purification!?”

Noi shouted as she scrambled to counter the Demon King’s spells one after another.

“I… re—mem—ber…”

Though Noi had devised that circle a hundred years ago, Kardia had used parts of the purification array in his own refined transfer magic.

“Then you can weave it, can’t you!?”

At Noi’s cry, Kardia’s body responded.

But the faint movement was immediately seized by the Demon King. From the fingerwork Kardia tried to begin, the Demon King forced a wholly different array.

Even so, that spell was instantly canceled by Noi.

“Move your fingers—spin the mana! Purify the Demon King—with your own hands!”

Her clear voice, as if it could reach the sky itself, seemed to strike Kardia straight on. He tried to move his fingers in answer—only to have control torn away again.

Yet the Kardia within the Demon King did not give up.

Again and again, without quitting, he repeated the effort. Slowly, he began to sketch the outlines of the purification array.

But it was still far from complete.

Before he could finish, the Demon King began a different circle, and the purification array never advanced.

“—Ornis! You’ve been watching my magic, haven’t you!?”

By Noi’s side, Ornis—who had been tracking the duel between Demon King and Kardia—gaped.

“…Eh!?”

“Just for a moment. Buy me time—I’m counting on you.”

“W-wait—that’s impossible! That’s beyond the scale!”

To his cracking protest, Noi nodded firmly.

“You can do it! Don’t give up!”

“Grit-your-teeth speeches are what I hate most!”

“Fool! Who are you? You’re the disciple of the Horizon Mage Kardia!”

Ornis let out a guttural sound, then, in deep frustration, hissed “damn it” and set his fingers moving.

The Demon King spawned countless flaming arrows. Ornis slammed the sea’s surface with fierce wind magic; the water burst upward and fell like rain, snuffing the flames.

As expected of Kardia’s disciple, Ornis had the knack.

He couldn’t spin vast circles like Noi, who was tapping the Demon King’s inexhaustible mana, but he threw fast, effective spells to keep damage to a minimum.

“Not bad—you’ve got good instincts.”

Noi said with a quick smile, hands never stopping.

He clicked his tongue loudly.

He learned quickly and thought on his feet—but he wouldn’t last long.

Noi shouted up to Kardia:

“Kardia! Start from the beginning and keep weaving! I’ll—start from the end!”

Ornis, listening nearby, stared in shock—but with no breath to argue, he snapped his focus back to the Demon King’s arrays.

His surprise was only natural.

Until now, only one mage could interfere with a single spell.

That had been the world’s common sense.

Two mages—moreover, weaving the same array from opposite directions—no mage had ever imagined it, much less tried it.

To stitch a magic circle “backhand” meant reversing the progression and spinning the mana inverted; on top of that, one had to calculate perfectly how much mana Kardia would use and how fast he would advance.

The difficulty was beyond measure.

Even so, Noi cried out, bright and sure:

“Let’s go, Kardia! We can do this—you and I!”

She raised both hands high and sang in a ringing voice:

Spool the thread, round and round,
Turning as we spin the ancient strand;
Stretch and draw, clatter-clack—
Come, now begins our voyage of magic.

Trulala, lala…

Threads flow out, soft and fine,
Dancing in air, the glittering line;
Gleaming colors, flicker-spark—
Through heaven’s ring, the magic door.

Trulala, lala…

Weave the threads, stitch by stitch,
From hither to yon, from near to far;
As we will, light-feathered falls—
With magic threads our wish comes true.

Trulala, lala…

“…A practice song,” Ornis murmured.

By the time Noi finished her song, the master-and-disciple array bloomed around the Demon King’s body— and the world was wrapped in white light.