Chapter 21.1

「Katrina, you…」

「Older Sister…has it truly eaten into you so much that you are no longer human?」

Knowing full well that it was useless to say anything to this unsightly form of Katrina that was hard to even directly look at, Elena and Layotte still spoke to her. All Katrina did was smile without saying anything.

「Big Sister…」

Seeing Katrina’s deteriorated form, Aearis murmured in a truly saddened tone. Perhaps because of her being a vessel for the goddess, she found it difficult to hate other people, so in a sense she was more twisted than Katrina. That was why she found it entirely incomprehensible as to why Katrina had harbored such hatred. Therefore, she was simply saddened at this.

「Elle, I don’t think there’s any point in askin’.」

「I wonder what this means?」

「Can ya return those two to bein’ human?」

They sadly shook their heads at Hiroshi’s question. When living creatures had been infiltrated by miasma to the point where there very form had been altered, there was nothing that could be done to return them back to normal. When you went that far, even being involved in joyful events like reaping plentiful harvests for the year, defeating powerful monsters, or just anything in general that required effort to bear fruit would get these people into a bad mood, and like when Aearis had been born, whenever lots of blessings were uttered all around the room, those afflicted with miasma would take life-threatening damage.

Miasma was normally something that was easily purified just by being in the type of atmosphere that respectable people enjoyed, after all. The festivals in this world happened to have another role of driving away all of the daily accumulated miasma. So for people who could no longer even so much as come into contact with those sorts of things, even if they regained their sanity, they would never be able to live the same way again.

「Haruna, could you do something like step forward and attack while singing?」

「It’s not all that difficult.」

「What about Elemental Dance?」

「Well in that case, I wouldn’t be able to do anything afterwards, so we should probably leave that one alone.」

While Hiroshi and Barold were continuing their glaring contest and Layotte and Elena were trying to talk to Katrina, Makoto and Haruna merely had a brief discussion.

「So has the disagreeable, hypocritical conversation reached an end yet?」

「Hypocritical, you say…」

It wasn’t like they were trying to act self-righteous as they were talking or anything, but they knew full well that no matter how they tried, it was impossible to communicate with these two. Even trying to object to any of their statements was a waste of time, so it would be faster to just get it over with and knock them down.

「One thing I do know is that there’s no way to get through to you. How about we hurry up and settle things?」

「So as soon as you decide you can’t get through to us, you resort to getting rid of us. As I thought, everyone who affiliates themselves with that rotten goddess are savage barbarians.」

「Not even any point commenting on what you say, so I just won’t.」

At the same time as he said that, Tatsuya activated the damage-inflicting binding magic, Gravity Chain. This was the type of magic that was a gamble to get working, so although not entirely unexpected, it nearly broke through their defense but failed, canceling at the last second.

「Julius! You get Barold! Ernest and I will take care of my older sister!」

「Understood!」

Adhering to Layotte’s instructions, Julius immediately rushed to the front lines to close in on his opponent. Combined with that, Haruna’s song rang out. The battle crashed right into the climax.

「Ufufufufufufu…」

Giggling in an unpleasant manner, Katrina crawled slowly over. While wincing at how repulsive that form was, Elena mercilessly hurled several blades at her, as if testing them out. Unlike Aearis, she no longer had any hesitation whatsoever at the idea of attacking Katrina.

Unlike earlier, she showed no sign whatsoever of suffering when she heard Haruna’s song. One might think that it no longer had an effect on her, but in actuality, you could tell that she was beginning to deteriorate further and further. Judging from the overall state of things, Aearis’s purification one-hit KO might not actually end up being that.

「Ufufufufufufu…」

Despite being pierced with blades and having her wrists, serpentine hair, and the tip of her tail cut off, Katrina didn’t show the slightest sign that it was affecting her, simply continuing to giggle as she crawled toward them. Perhaps because of her bodily structure being a whole different beast from a human, she didn’t even care about blades being stabbed right through her heart.

「This is just seriously revolting.」

「Ufufufufufufu…」

「Sure, I didn’t think she was human anymore, but now she can’t even speak properly?」

「Ufufufufufufu…」

Layotte couldn’t even sigh in exasperation anymore at Katrina, who would simply giggle in response every single time. It wasn’t like he had expected much, and it was also true that no matter what sort of things came out of her mouth, it wouldn’t change the fact that the only option was to cut her down, but he at least would have preferred that she be a human when he cut her down so that she could understand the gravity of what she had done.

「Well, whatever.」

Readying the longsword that Hiroshi had given to him, Layotte decided to get it over with. Although it didn’t surpass either of his sisters’ daggers as a weapon, it was still exceptionally strong and the strongest weapon among anything in this room. With this blade, which also happened to have purification capabilities with its mythril silver origins, no matter what regenerative capabilities Katrina had, she would not be able to withstand this.

「Older Sister, I’m afraid you must die.」

As soon as Layotte began to start attacking, Katrina, who had been only giggling up until now finally began to move for an attack. Her snake body gave her the advantage of coiling up in order to leap forward to instantly press in on her opponents. Having regenerated when they least expected it, the right hand talon that should have been cut off by Elena’s flying blades was back, and she aimed not at Layotte or Elena, but rather sought to tear up Aearis, who was all the way in the back.

「Ufufufufufufu…」

Continuing her giggle as she brandished her right arm in a wide arc, Layotte cut it off, and the body that had been lunging at its target was blocked by Douga and his shield, blown away by his brute force. Despite quite the resistance, the cut-off arm was completely purified and disintegrated, and the main body itself didn’t currently show any signs of regrowing the arm.

「Big Sister, did you really detest me that much…?」

「Aearis. Even if you are connected by blood, there is no need nor any meaning in sympathizing with a fool who destroyed themselves in unjustified resentment.」

「Ufufufufufufu…」

Aearis seemed sad from the bottom of her heart to see Katrina continue to giggle despite what was being said about her or done to her, whereas Elena threw her a gaze that was reminiscent of looking at a worthless rock by the roadside. As of right now, the only person who had so much of a shred of pity for Katrina was probably just Aearis.

By this point, it was evident that Katrina could never go back to normal, in more ways than one. There was of course the fact that she had changed form, but above all else she had been cut by Layotte and purified, and her body was writhing in pain, and yet she still had the same giggle as before. This made it fairly obvious what state she was in. Her heart was already trapped in its own world, and her body was merely mechanically adhering to the deep-rooted delusion that she had harbored before all of this.

By the time her form had changed, the person known as Princess Katrina had died.

「Big Sister…」

「Aearis. If you’re thinking of our older sister, then it would be best that we put her to rest as soon as possible. She always had pride, and I doubt she would enjoy seeing herself in this state.」

She nodded at what Layotte said, beginning preparations for purification. The chances were extremely slim, but maybe, just maybe, she could return to her original form.

「Aearis. I will strike down our older sister. Purify her after that.」

「…I understand.」

While looking close to tears, Aearis courageously made the decision to deal with her own sister. The preparations to purify her had already been made.

「Aearis! If you feel ready, launch the blade over!」

Aearis, who had been focusing on Layotte’s movements, heard Elena give the order. When she looked, she saw the tattered Barold swiveling around in midair at tremendous speed. Judging from the imprints he left as he rotated around, he seemed to be drawing a magic circle.

「He’s probably doing that because he doesn’t think he can get past our wall in the front line. Seems to be using the type that amplifies physical attacks. With all the little modifications he’s making in the air, I suppose he’s planning a sudden, quick charge?」

Apparently he had seen through the tank, Hiroshi’s, weakness. Hiroshi didn’t have much equipment on him, nor even a shield for that matter, so if a large mass were to quickly crash into him, it would tend to throw him off-balance. Assumably Douga would try and do something about it, but it was all too easy for any person standing between Hiroshi and Douga to become a casualty.

Hearing that, Aearis understood and followed Elena’s example, sketching as many loci that she could think of in order to hinder his movement and continuously shooting out blades. However, unfortunate as it was, Elena and Aearis were both amateurs. Neither of them had the slightest sense for how to precisely shoot down a target moving at rapid speed in the air. Not only that, but whatever he was doing to make these magic circles, it was resistant enough to not disappear even when they tried cutting the lines with the blades.

「Ernest! In case anything happens, get in front of Haruna and Tatsuya!」

「But Milord…」

「Older Sister…I mean, Katrina is no longer able to battle! Besides, everything is almost over!」

「Understood.」

Obeying Layotte’s command, Julius slipped past the writhing Katrina and stood in front of Haruna. After seeing him do that, Layotte got ready to lay the finishing blow, activating the secret royal family move. He had determined from the sensation that not only cut off the four limbs, but to take down the entire body in one hit, he had no choice but to use the secret royal family technique. As one would expect from this situation, there was no time to just keep cutting her until she died.

「I pay a tribute to you by burying you with the royal family’s technique! Take this, Dimensional Slash!」

This was, just as the name suggested, an extra skill that borrowed the power of the space-time goddess Alfemina, able to cut through the dimensions themselves. Though it was previously said that it was a secret technique passed down in the royal family, in actuality anyone could use it, even if they were not from the Farlane royal family bloodline. Essentially, as long as you had direct aid from Alfemina and a certain degree of swordsmanship, anyone could do it.

「Aearis!」

「Okay!」

With the core cut off via Dimensional Slash, Katrina was practically a wreckage, whereas Aearis’s light of purification fell down upon her, as if ceremonially beheading her. With every last bit of her miasma purified, the remains of Katrina briefly spasmed violently. That form grew smaller and smaller until it returned Katrina to her original, beautiful figure.

However, she was only back in her attractive form for an instant. Katrina, with her eyes closed with a slightly peaceful expression on her face showed no signs of opening her eyes, turning promptly to ash and crumbling away, leaving no trace in that area of there ever being a person named Princess Katrina.