What right does she have? What does she have that lets her defeat me!?
What right does she have to drag so many innocent people into this just because of such a ridiculous reason!?
"You've really disappointed me, Talulah." Surtr's pupils narrowed slightly. "I thought that after eliminating that blabbermouth snake, you would grow into a better person. I thought that with Enferia by your side, you, a Drac, would not stray from your path. Yet now you've disappointed me beyond measure."
The force stored within Laevateinn tripled under this blow. The vague outline of a dark-red giant flashed above the battlefield. The air was torn apart and incinerated. The ground shattered, while groundwater, natural gas, and thousands of tons of building debris were recklessly ripped from the earth and hurled in every direction. At the tip of the sword, a humanoid figure wrapped in Drac flames crashed into a building like a meteor flying backward.
The building was pierced through, lines of flame stretching from one side to the other. Then the second building suffered the same fate as the first. Then the third, and the fourth. Only after the fifth building was covered in web-like cracks did Dragon Girl barely manage to steady herself after being struck directly by Laevateinn. Her entire body was cracked, blood spilling from countless wounds before being forced back into place and completely healed by some unknown power. Yet the giant's will had already reached the air directly above the fifth building.
And so the fifth building shattered.
It was as if the sky itself had collapsed. The sturdy building was crushed and twisted like fragile building blocks, like clay being pounded, like a rag being wrung out. The giant's outline solidified, while the flames and uncontrolled force reduced this achievement of mortal industry to a wasteland.
The buildings fell like mountains collapsing.
The ruins and crushing weight of those mountains blocked the Drac from regrouping. She was pinned to the ground beneath hundreds and thousands of tons of construction debris and the giant's faceless hand. Aside from the sword still clutched in her hand and her deliberately relaxed tongue, not a single muscle in her body could move.
"I'll give you one last chance."
Surtr's form appeared before her. The flame-haired Sarkaz wore an expressionless face. Only fire burned within her vertical pupils. Her skirt fluttered lightly, and the black boots touching the ground instantly turned the earth beneath them into lava. The pool of flames spread outward, while heat intense enough that even a true dragon could not take it lightly gathered with her breath, like a volcano storing its strength.
"Put down your sword and come with me to Rhodes Island. I'll find a way to cure your arrogance and madness. As for the civilians and your followers who suffered innocently because of your atrocities, you will spend the rest of your life atoning for this sin."
The Flame-haired Woman's tone was utterly flat, and her gaze did not change.
"But I do bear some responsibility for you becoming like this. If I had stayed by your side longer back then, if I had not taught you those impractical ideals, perhaps you would not have become what you are now. I'll accompany you on your journey of atonement. Until everything is repaid with the arrival of the inevitable new age, I'll make sure you do not stray from the right path a second time."
She repeated herself once more.
"Put down your sword."
Yet the white-haired Dragon Girl was smiling.
"Just look at how vast a power you possess. There is no other human in this world as powerful and invincible as you. And you are still growing stronger—every hour, every moment, every minute, every second. You become stronger than you were before."
"The Reunion Movement, regarded as the banner of the Infected, fell apart simply upon hearing that it would have to oppose you. Bodegard, the terrifying legend of the frozen wasteland who never retreated or compromised, obediently reasoned with you instead of remaining stubborn. Rulers fear you and call you a demon, a god of evil. Heroes fear you, weaving your deeds into fairy tales and legends so their descendants will regard you with fear and respect. Your methods of concealing your identity are not particularly clever, but the clever people of this world all pretend they cannot see through your mask. Because they are afraid. They know, they understand, that calamities, gods, and demons should all be met with fear."
"So what? You came after me for that reason?" The Sarkaz tilted her head slightly, and the tangible phantom of the giant silently dispersed. The suppressed cries of fear rising from the city suddenly grew louder. Then the survivors within the city fled toward the outskirts at several times their previous speed.
"With this trap that never had the slightest chance of succeeding? With this scheme that served no purpose except to provoke my anger? A pointless effort. You are simply throwing away your followers' lives."
Yet Dragon Girl's smile only deepened. It even transformed from an expression into a sound, like silver bells, yet also like a roar.
"But are you really angry?" She raised her head, her back still straight despite being pinned beneath the ruins. "Even just a trace, even the slightest bit. Do you truly feel any anger at all?"
"Of course I—"
"Do you really? Have you ever truly trusted anyone?"
"..." Silence.
The piled stones and ruins began to tremble. The suppressed Drac broke free. She still held her sword, but she knew that as long as she did not swing it, she would have the chance to keep speaking.
"You have never trusted anyone. You have never been willing to let anyone earn your trust... During the time I spent with you, I recognized this nature of yours. And throughout the long years that followed, I confirmed that this suspicion was true."
"You save people on your own and do good on your own. As if it were merely a job, a responsibility, an obligation... You have always been alone. Yet you do not know, nor do you care, how many people once exhausted themselves trying to keep up with you and offer you their help. But you cast them aside and kept moving, too hurriedly and too quickly. You never even gave them the chance to approach you."
"There is no sense of justice in your heart, but neither is there evil. You are simply carrying out some task—yet even a player using the earth as a chessboard would care about victory and defeat. You do not even care about victory or defeat. You are simply playing."
Miss Surtr deeply furrowed her brows. She tightened her grip around Laevateinn's hilt. Then—
She listened as Talulah continued.
She realized with some sadness that what this white-haired Dragon Girl said might be true. What was even sadder was...
...No, she could not even feel sad. She simply wanted to hear Talulah finish speaking, because Talulah was not attempting to resist at this moment.
So Talulah gently drew a breath.
"Yet you, with all that, possess the greatest military power in the world... You trust no one. And that means that at some point in the future, you will run over certain people standing in your way like a wheel. Even if the people of Terra achieve equality and liberation as you once taught me, you will still crush them like a patch of gray dust. You will not hesitate at that time, because you will believe it necessary."
"You are a machine. You will fulfill a wish without caring how many people that wish kills. At any time, you could turn the Terra of the future back into its original form, even if it had reached a new era with your help."
Surtr tilted her head. Her heart had instead grown calm. When a tool has been used up, it must be thrown away. Isn't that only natural? This was nothing but a baseless accusation, judging her for things that had not yet happened beneath a grand-sounding justification. She had already predicted such a development dozens, even hundreds, of times.
She simply had not expected Talulah to be the one standing here and saying these things to her.
"I always thought Kal'tsit, or Amiya, or someone else would say this to me. And then I could leave Rhodes Island after it reached the land of ideals in a perfectly natural manner and head somewhere else. I just never expected to hear it from your lips first."
She shook her head and watched as the white-haired Dragon Girl finally broke free of her restraints. Flames ignited along the Laevateinn in her hand, and she waited for Dragon Girl's next move.
"Never mind. It was bound to happen sooner or later."
"Since this is a trap you set for me, and since you burned away everything belonging to the Reunion Movement just to defeat me, then I'll give you a chance. Talulah, use whatever means you have. I'll give you time to prepare, and I'll allow you to choose the battlefield."
Yet the white-haired Dragon Girl before her was still smiling. She could feel a force erupting from Dragon Girl's body, spreading and expanding.
Then crystals of Originium broke through her skin.
"Defeat you? No. Not even the most arrogant person would dream of defeating a calamity or a god of evil. Everything I have done, everything I have sacrificed, was only to make you understand how much those who follow your shadow are willing to pay to stand at your side, so that you will no longer be alone."
She winked playfully.
"When you walked into the central control tower, I swallowed an entire piece of refined Originium. That allowed me to hold out a little longer before you..."
"...And release, at the right moment, a burst of power strong enough to draw your attention, even if only for an instant. That way, I could unleash a sword strike you could no longer hold back against. The people from Rhodes Island have already arrived in this city. If you try to dodge, they will certainly die by my sword."
On her body, tangible fire-aspected energy erupted wildly.
"Have you ever seen someone commit suicide in front of you, Miss Surtr?"
Light and darkness on the earth
Flames swelled, spread, and contracted.
Then the surging heat covered everything.
Surtr was not omnipotent. No matter how strong she was, there were things beyond her reach.
She could not stop Talulah from swinging her sword, even if she was fast enough to sever Talulah's arm before the latter could raise it. The Originium energy would still erupt from Talulah's body, ultimately reducing the white-haired Dragon Girl to nothing but bones and dust.
So she did not stop her.
At the instant that sword was swung, she merely answered with an equal degree of force and redirected the excess heat into the sky. The disaster's cloud layers were shattered as a result. A hole resembling an eye was torn open in the enormous vortex of clouds. The distant stars of the dark universe glittered within it, but soon vanished beneath the violently reacting cloud curtain.
Talulah was not dead yet.
Before you continue