—Shaping ice into the form you envisioned hinges on solidifying your "image."
When Subaru first proposed the idea of "Ice Brand Arts,"
"No worries! Don't sweat it! Emilia-tan can totally do it!"
She recalled how Subaru had grinned and given her a thumbs-up when she was lost in those doubts.
Looking back now, it was yet another instance of—no, in Subaru's own words, "because I like you"—backing her up with absolutely no logical basis.
Throughout the process of creating "imaged" weapons, Emilia had studied art extensively.
She wasn't particularly talented at drawing the way she was at singing, but through countless sketching sessions with Subaru, her skills had improved steadily.
Watching Emilia study and draw alongside Subaru and
These were memories Emilia cherished deeply—memories she found nearly impossible to let go of.
Memories that everyone else might have lost, but that Subaru still remembered. The thought of that sent a warm, toasty feeling bubbling up from deep in her chest.
"I'm going to turn all of that into courage—!"
Fueling herself with those surging emotions, Emilia led the ice weapons she'd created and the seven ice soldiers fighting alongside her straight toward the Divine Dragon,
As explained earlier, "image" was the key to shaping ice.
That applied not only to weapons but to the ice soldiers as well. In short, the soldiers were frozen in forms that were easy for Emilia to "image."
Put simply, Emilia would be fighting alongside seven Natsuki Subarus.
"Still, they're stronger and nimbler than the real Subaru!"
Subaru might give them a run for their money when it came to sheer stubbornness and energy, but the ice soldiers were fundamentally different in construction.
Their durability depended on the density of mana Emilia infused them with—they were incomparable to ordinary ice sculptures. Just like the ice weapons, they could rival even steel in hardness.
"Go!"
At Emilia's command, the lead ice soldier charged into Volcanica's range.
Volcanica remained motionless, leaning against the great central pillar on the first floor. Judging from its earlier tail strike, its range appeared to be roughly six or seven meters— The instant it seemed to sense the intent to latch onto the pillar, the dragon's blue tail lashed out at tremendous speed.
A bizarre, sharp sound—like the air itself being punctured—and the upper half of the leading ice soldier was blown to smithereens. The direct hit landed square on its chest, splitting the torso clean in two, while the ice soldier's Subaru-like face with its surly expression went flying off into the air.
"Sorry about that! But that proves it would've targeted me too."
She felt bad for the ice soldier that had served as a test subject, but at least Volcanica's targeting was now crystal clear.
Even though the Divine Dragon had gone senile and completely forgotten about the "Trial," its will to intercept anyone who attempted to approach the pillar remained alive and well.
And it would do so regardless of whether the target was living or not. If that was the case, then a path forward existed.
"Soldiers, please!"
Responding to Emilia's voice, the ice soldiers surged past the silver-haired girl in a burst of speed.
The first one had been shattered, leaving six remaining. They scattered in different directions, creating slight time gaps between them as they converged on the central pillar.
—*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* Sensing the approaching ice soldiers, the Divine Dragon recited its proclamation once more.
Those words, now nothing more than a meaningless string of phrases, were being addressed to a puppet with no capacity to listen. Emilia felt a profound sense of loneliness and a gut-wrenching sorrow watching that scene.
Even reduced to that state, Volcanica was still trying to protect *something.* She didn't know who it had made that promise with, or for what purpose—but— —*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* The tail swept out. Two ice soldiers bracing their weapons were shattered in the blink of an eye.
Both had managed to assume defensive stances on instinct, but one lost everything from the waist down, while the other had its right half blown apart—neither capable of functioning anymore, they crumbled to the ground.
At that, the remaining four moved to intercept the tail as it swung back from its attack position toward its resting place.
Currently, Volcanica's means of interception were limited to a single tail strike. Perhaps it wasn't merely senile—its body might have been deteriorating as well.
If standing up was too much trouble, all they had to do was pin the tail down.
"Hold your ground!"
Three ice soldiers linked shoulders side by side, aiming to halt the tail's movement.
In response, the Divine Dragon's tail tip once again tore through the air, leaving sound behind. The mechanism was similar to the whip Subaru wielded, but its speed and power were on an entirely different level.
Subaru's whip was something Emilia could catch by hand, but the dragon's tail strike was another matter entirely.
The Divine Dragon unleashed force comparable to the full-body strike of most living creatures with the casual ease of swatting a fly.
Its tail swept sideways, catching all three ice soldiers that had braced themselves at a low stance. However, the violent shattering sound that should have followed never came.
Behind the three crouching ice soldiers, an ice wall had materialized to support them.
If you knew it was coming, there were ways to prepare.
Despite cracks spreading across their bodies, the ice soldier with the surly boy's likeness had the corner of its mouth curl upward. And from behind the three that had absorbed the blow, the final soldier—the one assigned to the flanking maneuver—lunged forward.
The last ice soldier brandished a weapon known as a *sōno*—a type of polearm.
At the tip of its long spear-like shaft was a curved metal fitting designed not to pierce the opponent but to pin and restrain them. Apparently, it was classified as a restraint tool.
The plan was to pin Volcanica with the sōno and force its unruly tail against the floor.
Even at its thinnest tip, the motionless dragon's tail was as thick as a log—impossible to hold with a single sōno. The three cracked soldiers rushed in one after another with their own sōno.
And with Volcanica's tail pinned in four places by the polearms, one might have thought the Divine Dragon had finally been restrained— —*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* The next instant, a sound like the world being scraped away rang out, and all four ice soldiers that had been holding the tail were violently gouged apart.
Everything from the waist up vanished cleanly, leaving only lower halves that collapsed in a heap. It wasn't a counterattack from the tail, which had been immobilized—it was its claws.
Volcanica, which had been pressed against the floor, swung its left forepaw in place of its tail.
That single motion forced Emilia's ice soldiers into immediate annihilation.
She had nearly been deceived into thinking it was feeble.
"Your tail and limbs are perfectly fine, so... really! Why does only your precious head have to be spaced out like that?!"
—*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* "That's been decided, already—!"
A repetitive monologue that might have made anyone other than Emilia fly into a rage. But even while hearing it repeated over and over, Emilia's fierce determination did not waver. What had shattered were only the ice soldiers—though, of course, her heart ached a little.
"It's okay! It's not like we learned nothing from that."
She insisted the shattered soldiers hadn't died in vain, and Emilia moved into the tail's range.
The ice sōno pinning the tail were still in place—sacrificing four ice soldiers had been worth it. Naturally, Volcanica would now target Emilia with its forepaws instead of its tail—but— "Your forelimbs' reach is shorter than your tail, right? Besides—"
Before those claws could reach Emilia, ice spears were already hurtling past her toward the Divine Dragon.
They were fired by newly spawned ice soldiers behind Emilia, at her original position. The maximum number of ice soldiers Emilia could create was seven, but they could be recreated each time one was destroyed.
In other words, the ice soldiers could rise again as many times as it took—until Emilia's strength gave out.
Just like the real
—*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* "Aaah!?"
Caught in the rain of ice spears raining down from outside its range, Volcanica slammed its forepaw straight down.
The impact seemed to tear through space itself, generating a shockwave that left claw marks lingering in the air and threatened to swallow the entire first floor—Emilia and all the ice soldiers—in a violent gale.
"————"
Struggling against the shockwave's momentum, Emilia strained her violet eyes.
The central pillar that Volcanica was guarding was fortified and sturdy—she still hadn't had a chance to study it properly. From a distance, it looked no different from the other six pillars, but that judgment was premature.
Still, Emilia's true objective here wasn't the central pillar itself so much as— "—Above that, the top of the tower!!"
Fighting against the wind, Emilia stepped forward and kicked off the ground with all her strength.
She was still far from either Volcanica or the pillar—too distant to take any meaningful action. But planting her feet here was the right move.
That was because one of the ice soldiers, regenerated from the state of being shattered earlier, had dropped into a crouch with both hands positioned.
It caught Emilia's feet in both hands as she stepped forward, then launched her skyward in a single powerful leap.
Pin the tail, draw attention to the pillar, and use that opening to reach the true objective at the top floor.
It was an underhanded trick that Emilia rarely employed, but her instincts—honed by reaching this point—were screaming that the tower's summit was where she needed to be.
With the ice soldier's assistance, she soared upward in a massive leap, clearing Volcanica's head entirely and reaching the upper section of the pillar. If she could climb from there to the top floor in one burst— "—Eh."
The next instant, a silent wave of heat grazed the soles of Emilia's feet just as she reached for the pillar.
—No, it wasn't silent. The sheer intensity of its power and heat killed the sound itself. If the concept of sound could be slain, it was hardly surprising that the phenomenon became noiseless.
Emilia's perception registered the simultaneous disappearance of every ice soldier deployed across the first floor.
The one that had assisted her leap, the four that had thrown ice spears to cover her, and the two that had rushed in to reinforce the sōno—all of them, gone in an instant.
And it wasn't the tail or the forepaws that had done it.
—*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* From that mouth, which alone retained its solemnity, came the death rattle of incinerated atmosphere.
Taking the return of that repetitive declaration as her cue, Emilia understood that the murdered concept of sound had been revived—and simultaneously, her fingers found the pillar's upper edge.
Barely managing to anchor herself in place, Emilia looked down below.
The expansive first floor had been scorched white.
Wisps of white smoke rose from various points, and not a single trace of the ice soldiers remained. The sheer heat, the sheer destructive force, the sheer annihilating power— —The Divine Dragon Volcanica's breath had burned everything away.
"Your tail and limbs work fine and you can breathe fire too?!"
—*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* "I get it! I understand! I understand, so... ah—"
Her response was almost anticlimactic given what had just happened, but halfway through, Emilia's eyes went wide.
Slowly, the Divine Dragon's eyes turned upward—those golden pupils reflecting Emilia.
And then— —*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* Even as those words issued forth, Volcanica spread its blue wings and rose to its feet.
△▼△▼△▼△ "This is bad—!"
Realizing the danger of what was unfolding below, Emilia scrambled to reach the tower's top as fast as she could.
Even as she did, the rising Volcanica pulled its pinned tail free from the sōno and began, deliberately, to spread its wings.
It intended to fly.
Of course it would fly—this was the Divine Dragon Volcanica. But Emilia had never actually seen a dragon in flight, so it felt unreal.
Could a creature that large really take to the sky?
"I've only seen Pack and Roswaal fly..."
Pack, as a spirit, and Roswaal, as an eccentric-grade mage, could fly by nature.
She had heard that in the Volakian Empire to the south, there existed so-called winged dragons—earth dragons and water dragons equipped with wings. Perhaps Volcanica fell into the same category.
Or perhaps equating "dragon" with "Dragon" was the fundamental mistake— "Heave-ho! Up we go! Yaah! Taah!"
Calling out her efforts, Emilia climbed toward the tower's top at the fastest speed she could manage.
It was a speed that would leave anyone watching slack-jawed, but even with Emilia's superhuman athleticism, it wasn't quite enough to get ahead of the pursuing dragon.
—*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* That voice sounded closer than before—she hadn't imagined it.
It was no longer echoing from below, but from the same altitude she'd climbed to.
—Spread wide those blue wings, and that inconceivably massive body hovered in the air.
The Divine Dragon Volcanica displayed its undiminished presence against the dune-filled sky with commanding dignity.
Its overwhelming intimidation, the piercing gaze that seemed to pin you in place, the tail, the forepaws, the very breath it exhaled—everything about it lived up to the superlative dragon of legend.
The only thing that betrayed that image was— "Me! I'm trying to go above the first floor, so maybe we don't have to be enemies!"
—*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* Her voice was drowned out as if the dragon had no interest in listening, and its fury descended upon Emilia as she clung to the pillar.
Holding her breath and clenching her molars, Emilia borrowed the power of "nonexistent footholds" and leaped over the incoming tail strike.
"Nghh—!"
An application of Ice Brand Arts—rather than climbing while clinging to the pillar itself, it was faster to create footholds along the pillar's surface and run up them.
"Now I've got both hands free—Hyah!"
The twin ice swords she drew on instinct deflected the tail strike with impressive force.
It was a wild, gut-feeling swing, and both of Emilia's arms went numb from the wrists to the elbows. She wouldn't be gripping a new weapon for several seconds.
But unlike Emilia, who had taken damage, Volcanica had merely flicked its tail.
With that same casual indifference, the Divine Dragon maintained the same altitude as its challenger and swung its tail again—this time to knock down, no, to *crush* the audacious intruder trying to scale the pillar.
"——!"
Against the incoming tail, Emilia held her breath.
If she were knocked away again, she doubted she'd have the energy to reattach herself to the pillar. A direct hit from that scale-covered tail would leave her in terrible shape.
She could not afford to be hit by that tail.
"I can still... push... way harder than this!!"
Both hands were out of commission. But her legs still worked. She could still aim for the top.
She had created footholds to get there, but it wasn't enough. There was a limit to how much ice she could conjure at once—she couldn't waste that process.
She needed something that would serve as a foothold *and* do more than just that— "—I've got it!"
—*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* Another tail strike bore down on Emilia just as inspiration struck.
She dodged it—barely—using an ordinary foothold's power. Then she materialized her newly conceived foothold onto the pillar and reached out to firmly grasp the "hand" she'd created.
"Please, soldiers!"
Answering her call was a Subaru-like ice soldier—one that had been incinerated and wiped out, then freshly recreated—though only its upper half.
It wasn't merely a foothold; it was an ally that could function as both a platform and a supporting partner for Emilia. This was the "Path of Ice Soldiers"—ice soldier upper halves sprouting one after another along the pillar.
Since they only needed to materialize upper bodies, no legs required, she could create more than seven at once.
She spawned roughly ten along the pillar in rapid succession, and Emilia climbed upward, reaching for their hands, higher and higher.
"Yaah! Taah! So! Heave-ho!"
Literally borrowing the hands of the ice soldiers protruding from the pillar, Emilia hauled herself upward toward its peak.
Throughout, Volcanica attempted to intercept her, but the pillar's defenders got in its way from every angle.
Bound by its instinct to protect the pillar, Volcanica could not tolerate the ice soldiers embedded in it.
The newly spawned ice soldiers hurled ice swords and axes at the airborne Divine Dragon, which deflected them one by one while using its tail and forepaws to systematically destroy each soldier in the pillar.
But even while that battle raged, Emilia climbed—to the top, higher, ever higher— "It's a little tough here!"
It was a rather dramatic sight—like walking across thin ice, though far more spectacular. Built on the strength and sacrifice of her ice soldiers, Emilia's hand finally reached the very top of the pillar.
She should have been only about ten meters from the tower's top floor, but the pillar's summit curved outward like a rat guard, making the final stretch nearly impossible.
Even an experienced mountaineer would struggle here, but fortunately, Emilia had always been good at climbing trees. In the past, she'd practiced so obsessively that
"My fingers are numb, but I can manage if I just—!"
Regaining feeling in her tingling fingers, Emilia took on the treacherous overhang.
She grabbed the hand of an ice soldier that had been grown upside-down on the overhang, letting her legs dangle over empty air. The ice soldiers' support kept her climb stable.
All she had to do now was deal with Volcanica's interference— "——!"
In that single instant of lost focus, fate's mischief slipped in.
—*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* A violent tremor spread through the pillar—Volcanica had slammed its tail into it with tremendous force. The shock传导 rippled through the entire structure, splitting and shattering the upper-body ice soldiers that sprouted from it down to their roots.
The ice soldier on the overhang that Emilia had been holding was no exception.
"—Ah."
The hand she'd gripped snapped off at the shoulder, and Emilia's body plummeted. The surly-faced ice soldier tried desperately to hold on, but its other arm couldn't reach.
A sensation of weightlessness enveloped her instantly, undoing all the altitude she'd painfully gained and threatening to return her to the first floor—or so it should have. But it didn't.
"Aaah!"
Emilia had been certain she would fall the full数十meters back to the first floor. But something caught her from below far sooner than she expected.
It wasn't an ice soldier—she could sense that every ice soldier on the pillar had been shattered.
And the surface her flailing hand touched was rough and hard— "Could it be...?"
—*You who reach for the tower's summit, you who tread the first floor, supplicant of omnipotence.* That voice reached her from alarmingly close.
From the proximity of that voice, Emilia realized with a delay what had happened—she had landed on the back of the Divine Dragon, Volcanica.
"——! Can't zone out now! From here I can—"
She could use Volcanica as a stepping stone once more and latch onto the pillar.
That was her immediate thought, but a new difficulty slammed into her before she could act.
Volcanica beat its wings and climbed, twisting its body to shake her off.
"Ugh—guuuh!"
Emilia clung desperately to the dragon's back as violent wind assaulted every part of her.
This was a physical wind unlike anything she'd felt before—the wind was smashing against scale after scale, each one large and tough as rock. She was clinging to them, but she couldn't last long like this.
On top of that, Volcanica was simply flying freely through the sky.
It wasn't attacking with its tail or forepaws, much less breathing fire at her.
It was simply trying to shake her off through sheer aerial momentum.
Losing to something like this was far too— "—I won't be able to see Subaru and the others anymore."
If she carelessly opened her mouth, the rushing air could rupture her lungs.
Lowering her head and clenching her molars, Emilia pictured the people she cared about behind her closed eyelids.
It was a mental preparation akin to accepting death—but that wasn't what it was.
Emilia thought of the people she loved in order to face forward.
To receive the push on her back, the courage to lift her face.
"————"
Even as the gale threatened to swallow her whole, Emilia forced her eyelids open with every ounce of will she had.
She was in a state where it took maximum effort just to keep her eyes open. Yet even then, without letting her violet eyes lose their power, Emilia opened them deliberately—searching for a way through.
People tend to shut their eyes when they're about to be crushed by fear and anxiety.
But the people Emilia pictured in her mind were the kind who faced forward precisely in those moments. The kind who never closed their eyes when it mattered most.
Her eyes had to stay open.
To reach something. To take someone's hand. And— "—You strange little..."
The world around her was nothing but blue—in every direction, above and below, left and right.
Part of that was because Emilia was high above the clouds, and part of it was because the Divine Dragon she clung to was covered in brilliant blue scales.
Everything else flew past at such tremendous speed that even Emilia's dynamic visual acuity—the kind that could track a ball's stitching mid-throw—couldn't take it all in.
So what Emilia's consciousness captured wasn't the world beyond the blue.
—*I, Volcanica. By the ancient covenant, I question the resolve of those who reach for the summit.* Volcanica twisted and contorted as it flew.
It appeared that Emilia was clinging somewhere near the base of the dragon's wings. Strangely, the dragon wasn't flapping its wings with much vigor. Birds and insects needed to beat their wings to fly, but the principles of dragon flight seemed to operate differently.
It was probably similar to how Pack and Roswaal flew.
If that was the case— "Roswaal uses magic... and Pack has his mysterious power, so—"
Unfortunately, she'd never tested anything on Roswaal, and didn't think she ever would.
But Emilia had spent a long time with the one and only family member she'd believed she had.
This past year, separated from that family, she'd felt terribly lonely on many occasions. There were nights when she was on the verge of tears, but memories had sustained her through those times.
And even now, those memories showed Emilia a ray of hope.
It was— "It might be a long shot, but... you're not ticklish on the neck, are you?"
Her opened violet eyes locked onto the Divine Dragon's long, writhing neck. Beneath that great dragon's chin, amid the dense carpet of blue scales, there was a single white scale.
The image of days spent playing with Pack flashed through Emilia's mind.
*'No good, Lia~! If you tickle me like that, I can't concentrate!'* "That's right, Pack."
As she murmured, Emilia focused her consciousness.
Even now in this fierce wind, Emilia lacked the strength to reach that white scale directly. But what she had learned on the pillar still applied—even if the opponent shifted from inorganic to organic.
"—Soldiers."
At the forefront of Emilia's consciousness, ice soldiers materialized once again around the white scale.
Ice soldiers that supported each other with their upper bodies locked together—at their center, one reached out slowly, extending its hand toward the white scale— —*GRRRRRR?!* For the first time, Emilia heard a sound from the Divine Dragon that wasn't its repetitive chant.
△▼△▼△▼△ There exists the word "reverse scale."
Originating from an old Chinese tale, this term refers to a single scale on the neck of a mythological dragon that must never be touched—called the "reverse scale."
A dragon whose reverse scale has been touched will fly into a rage and invariably kill whoever touched it.
From this story, the expression "to touch someone's reverse scale" came to mean encroaching upon something utterly off-limits.
Of course, Emilia had no way of knowing about a parable from a different world entirely.
Her goal in reaching for the white scale on the dragon's neck had been simply to disrupt its concentration as it swooped and banked to shake her off, creating an opening.
But— "Aaaaaah!!"
Emilia screamed as she was flung into the open air, her world spinning end over end.
The sensation of weightlessness, however, was even shorter-lived than when she'd landed on the dragon's back. Something hard caught her, and on instinct, Emilia rolled with the impact.
Then she sprang to her feet in an instant, scanning her surroundings.
"————"
Breathing hard, Emilia cast her gaze in every direction.
Thankfully, there was no sign of a sudden attack bearing down on her. That was only natural—the greatest threat, Volcanica, was far, far above.
"————"
Something was wrong—Volcanica was writhing high in the sky.
It let out a shriek that seemed to bite through the very sky, and Emilia couldn't help widening her eyes.
"Pack liked it, though..."
Then again, whether something was pleasant or not depended on the individual.
Cautious not to impose her own feelings, Emilia checked the sensation in her limbs.
Being tossed around on Volcanica's back had messed with her blood circulation a little.
In a worst-case scenario, she could have suffered enough disruption to lose consciousness from insufficient blood flow to the brain—but Emilia had just barely held on.
And it was while confirming this that Emilia noticed.
"Oh! This place—"
Looking around, her vantage point was one level higher than where she'd arrived on the first floor.
The six pillars that should have been visible from this height were gone—a sign that she had risen above all of their tips. In other words, this place was the top floor.
She'd reached it by being flung off Volcanica's back.
The top floor of the
Her reaction to the moment was, all things considered, rather modest. She clapped her hands together once, then immediately dashed toward the center of the top floor.
If she dawdled, Volcanica—still writhing in pain—would come back.
Before that happened, she had to find the "Trial" that would save Subaru and the others.
"Please, just give me a question I can actually understand..."
Volcanica forgetting about the "Trial" was a huge problem in its own right, but for Emilia, there was an even more fundamental concern: whether she could solve the "Trial" on the first floor in the first place.
Trembling with that fear, Emilia made her way to the center of the top floor. There, at the base of the pillar stretching toward the heavens, she gasped.
It was there. A feature that hadn't existed on any of the six pillars below.
A strange feature found only on this central pillar, on the top floor alone.
It was— "—Someone's... handprints?"
At the base of the central pillar on the top floor of the Pleiades Watchtower was a black monolith.
And pressed into that black monolith were handprints.
—Six of them. Each a different hand, belonging to different men and women.