Alba stuck out one arm.
The moment the black cat seemed to reach the first step of the staircase, the air trembled slightly,
and the stairs burst into flames.
A sea of blue flames engulfed the stairs, like a mirage rising up from the ground.
In only a few seconds, the flames engulfed the atrium all the way up to the second floor.
It was as if a volcanic geyser had erupted. The sea of flames, that seemed to consume all oxygen in
the lobby, incinerated the black cat. This much was certain. The heat of the flames which exceeded
a temperature of one thousand degrees Celsius would have melted the bodies of any creature like
butter and evaporated their mass into the atmosphere. There wouldn’t even have been a split second
for it to have gone through the liquification process.
And yet, Alba saw it.
As the flames burned out, all of the sudden, the bizarre shape of the black cat suddenly appeared.
“That’s impossible!”
His blue eyes stared fixedly at the stairs.
The black cat sat licking at its thin black body in disappointment before shifting its gaze to the
Magus in the red coat.
The black monster resumed its dash.
Alba wasted no time trying to determine what the cat was.
“I order you to repeat...!”
With cutting sharpness, Alba repeated his spell.
The stairs erupted into flames, however this time the cat did not stop. As if used to the flames, the
cat continued in a straight line toward the Magus.
“Repeat!”
The sea of flames erupted again, then disappeared.
The cat had already arrived at the top of the stairs.
“Repeat!”
The fourth iteration of flames ended meaninglessly.
The black cat arrived at the second floor landing and opened its jaws wide as it drew near to Alba.
The human-sized cat’s body opened from its feet. The top of its head opened as if on a hinge, like
the lid of a treasure chest.
The inside of the cat, which should have been smooth and featureless, was instead filled with the
monsters it had swallowed and what looked like sludge was stuck to its insides.
Finally, Alba became aware of the reality before him. What resembled a cat was in fact a living
being that was nothing more than a giant mouth in the shape of a cat.
“Repeat––!”
He chanted this last spell with the fear someone staring directly into the jaws of death would have.
But before he could finish his last spell, the cat’s mouth, like the jaws of a shark, slammed shut
around the Magus. Alba lost consciousness as his red coated figure was encompassed by the round
sphere-like form.

Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners, Volume 5, Spiral Paradox 9 /12