Stella 2

"Serve me, Lævateinn."

She summoned her own Device in response to Ouma's fast approach, and what appeared from her magic power was not just her sword.

「S-Spheres of burning heat appear behind Contender Stella! And what an incredible number!」

Stella swung Lævateinn like a conductor's baton.

"Burn to dust─Broken Arrow."

She commanded the hundred burning orbs behind her, and answering that command, they shot forward vigorously as a barrage of fiery missiles that would consume everything in the ring. Stella's unmatched and overwhelming magic power left no gaps for Ouma to dodge.

「D-Direct hiiit! Flames sweep the ring and black smoke billows!」

More missiles rained onto where Ouma had been swallowed up, and through the explosions, none could see Ouma's figure. And how would they? It was an excessive level of violence against a single person.

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"Empress Dress."

Stella responded to that gaze with another move. Turning Lævateinn upright in her hand, she stepped forward as well.

「Contender Stella has covered herself in a dress of flame! The heat is visibly twisting the air around her!」

Stella's flame, Dragon Breath, had a temperature of three thousand degrees Celsius. Just getting too close would sear the skin, never mind a direct hit.

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She poured more magic power into the Dragon Breath flame enveloping her blade.

"Haaaaa!"

The crimson flame swelled and rampaged as its temperature and brightness soared. Remembering having seen this before, Touka gasped.

"That's… during the training camp…!"

It was the windup for the long-distance shot Stella had used during their mock battle, the Noble Art Dragon Fang. But while the motion was the same, the intensity of heat from the sword was incomparable. And this was because Stella intended to shoot Dragon Fang seven times in unison, each holding destructive power that Raikiri could barely intercept!

"Scatter and devour! Satan Fang─!"

Immediately, seven missiles─no seven dragon heads flew from Lævateinn. Their maws filled with molten teeth approached Ouma from many angles to bite him.

But Ouma's expression did not budge.

"Who knows how many average Blazers' worth of magic this spell alone requires? Dramatic… but should I fear a handful of snakes? Fuujin Kekkai."

He stabbed Ryuuzume into the ring, activating the Noble Art that had shielded the audience from Stella's Bahamut Howl during the first round. Wind swirled around him, and blades of that wind tore the incoming dragons to embers that spiraled into a tornado rising into the sky, disappearing from sight. Ouma had easily negated Stella's full-powered long distance attack.

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"How's this, Sword Emperor!?"

From the rippling heated air behind Ouma, a red-haired girl appeared and swung her sword at his neck. Flame Veil, Stella's Noble Art that hid her body by refracting light in an area with high-temperature air.


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The moment Stella decided so, her body moved, stabbing Lævateinn into her chest without wavering. Her body knew her power and how to use it, as humans knew to breathe without thought. Heat exploded from Stella's body, launching winds that scythed down the forest in all directions, turning trees to ash without even giving them a chance to burn.

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「Th-There's a burn mark on Contender Ouma's forearm, as if Contender Stella's fist has branded it…!」

「It must've literally burned into his bone, huh? Which means─」

"Graaahhh…!"

Kneeling, Ouma held his arm and howled in pain. But who could blame him? Stella's punch had not only shattered his reinforced arm, but scorched it as well. His bone had become a hot metal rod, charring his flesh and torching his nerves from the inside.

「He might be used to external pain, but getting burned from within will be hard to deal with.」

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The blade slid into Stella without a sound. Like Ikki's Blade Steal, Ouma's Amaterasu had also reached the level of Twin-Wings, surpassing the reaction speed given even by Stella's dragonic power. Ryuuzume cut through Stella's body. Ouma felt it slice flesh and bone as blood arced through the air. It did not reach her organs, but this would be enough to slow her advance─

"Take this!"

"Gah…!"

Not only did Amaterasu fail to slow Stella's advance, she stepped forward even faster, and with one long leg she lashed out at Ouma's right shin. The kick broke through Tenryuu Gusoku and crushed Ouma's bone. Wobbling in pain, Ouma tried to understand what had happened. Even if Amaterasu could not deal a fatal wound, it should have done enough to stop Stella's movement. But Ouma saw the truth instantly.

This is…!

Stella had a large gash on her skin, but not a drop of blood flowed from it. No, he could see the wound stitch itself at an unbelievable speed. A dragon's vitality─in the myths, a dragon must be decapitated, for no lesser wound would suffice. Stella had inherited this nigh-immortal vitality. His indecisive wound was useless.

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Stella's Katharterio Salamandra did not stop at the Sword Emperor of Wind, slashing apart the Bay Dome as well as Osaka Bay beyond. The audience seats and the dome's main screen were burned. A deep trench was carved into the seabed. In accordance with the extraordinary destruction and dramatic closure, the announcer's broadcast was suitably excited.

「A-Amazing! Contender Stella has cut the sea along with the Sword Emperor!」

「S-SCARYYY!」

「If World Clock hadn't stopped time to get everyone evacuated, we would've been cut too…. What an outrageous princess.」

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"What other reason is there besides this fool and her lack of control, destroying the building?"

"Ahh, I see, Madam Director was also making repairs."

"Because it's my student who made it necessary, after all…."

Stella harrumphed.

"What do you want from me? I'm still not used to checking my power in my trance state. Blame the place for being too small to begin with."

"No Festival venue can take a slash that extends a kilometer. Hold back a little next time."

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Someone else [Stella Vermillion] can manipulate heat that rivals the sun.

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Yes. Stella understood. She understood the extent of her strength. If wielded against humans, her ability was nothing short of somewhat gratuitous brutality, to the point where reducing human life to ash was a thing of ease. So she had to be aware of the opponent she had to fight at all times, taking care so as to not burn them to death, even if they were a hated enemy who had hurt her friends

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Tatara's body, having taken Stella's mighty blow to the side, folded in two at the waist, and with a spray of spittle and blood it collapsed upon the ring floor.

「She's bent at that weird ninety-degree angle… what kind of arm strength does Vermillion have?」

There was nothing beautiful about that move. It was a breakthrough via brute force. But even with her arm destroyed to such an extent, Stella still knocked Yui unconscious in one strike. And it was even using a body blow, with which it was normally hard to knock a person out.

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But even so, she was one of the previous year's national top eight. She was one of Japan's elite. She would not retreat or show fear. The magic she unleashed from her monocle—a rare sight among Devices—was one that could instantly reduce the temperature of a selected area within her vision to absolute zero.

"Satin Ice!"

A glaring light wrapped in a frigid, cutting shroud shot forth from the monocle. This magic's speciality was that its effect triggered instantly upon her focusing on a target. In other words, this magic travelled at what was effectively the speed of light. In a split-second, the temperature around Stella fell below freezing point right through to absolute zero. Even liquid nitrogen, which was well-known to be able to freeze objects instantly, reached only around minus 200 degrees Celsius. No human could remain unharmed when exposed to temperatures even lower than that. It would freeze them right down to the marrow―their heart having stopped long before that. No matter the terms in which one spoke of it―activation speed, range or stopping power―it was a first-rate ability. With it Mikoto could go toe-to-toe with any of the powerhouses in the Seven Stars Sword-Art Tournament.

That was true. Only one person—

"Empress Dress."

—the strongest fire user in the world, was exempt. Turning the entirety of the utterly frozen atmosphere into steam under extreme heat, she caused it to dissipate before the raiment of roiling flames that was clad about her.

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Once again, Stella brandished her sword in her right hand alone as she put her full weight into a diagonal slash. It was a broad stroke that relied on momentum alone, but having been thrown from atop the lion Rinna had landed on her rear. There was no way she could dodge that. The same heavy hand of Stella's that had taken Yui out in a single strike fell upon Rinna, hitting not only her but also collapsing a portion of the ring itself.

It was unmistakably a killing blow. But Stella did not count to two. The reason for that was a voice that spoke from within the dust cloud churned up by that explosive impact.

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"Tch… it's like hitting steel. It looks like you blocked it with your bare hands, but if one looks closely, there is a one millimeter gap between your skin and the blade. So the ability that you are able to use under Rinna's influence is the projection of a defensive barrier."

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"Empress Dress!"

While that was a mighty blow, Charlotte had made a poor move. Using close-combat maneuvers on Stella that involved bodily contact was close to suicidal. Summoning the fiery raiment about herself, she raised its output to the maximum. The flames ran up her forearm and onto Charlotte's leg, and then her whole body was aflame. Stella's flames too were magical, and they would not abate unless she dismissed them, or was herself dismissed from life.

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Disregarding Stella's counterattack, Charlotte continued to pursue her own assault. Using Stella's left arm as a platform, she launched herself into the air.

"I am also her gun."

Ichirin Junka materialized as tens of long, sleek blades that she gripped between her fingers in a fan shape before hurling them at Stella.

She's using her barrier like throwing stars…!

She had already experienced the keenness of her barrier first hand. It would be troublesome if she was hit by them.

"Yaaaaah!"

Judging thus, she swung Lævateinn with all her might, blasting the hail of shurikens away with the force of a sonic boom, swirling up a gale like with a giant fan.

What a terrifying sword-arm. That strike was an imposing sight. But then something happened that was outside Stella's expectations.

Around ten or so of those blades, sent flying every which way, were now streaking towards the stands.

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The flames then dissipated, and Stella held Lævateinn in her once-broken left hand. A greatsword like that, always having meant to be wielded in two hands, was now so wielded. It shouldn't have been possible with a broken arm. That she could, meant that she had healed that arm.

And yet a fire user like Stella could not use healing magic. So how—

Something flashed across Charlotte's mind, something reckless, incoherent. Her voice was almost pained.

"Could… could it be that you used your fires to melt and weld your broken bones back together…!?"

Stella did not reply. She merely smiled in triumph. That smile said it all. It was exactly that―she had melted down the calcium in her broken bones and put them back together. And now with both her hands restored to her, she was no longer held back by anything.

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"Pierce the heavens, O you fires of purgatory—"

Holding her sword aloft, she activated her mightiest Noble Art. A pillar of crimson fire burst forth from Lævateinn, searing through the sky, its incomparable flame turning blue even as it grew ever hotter and hotter, before finally losing all coloration―becoming light. A blade of light fifty meters long, with which to mercilessly incinerate all in its path.

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Like two Western gunmen at high noon, they moved as one.

"Katharterio Salamandra!"

"Bloom wildly―Senben Junka!"[1]

Stella let fly her blade of light and heat to slice Charlotte and Rinna behind her clean in twain. Charlotte responded, pouring all her magic power into an impregnable shield the likes of which surpassed Ichirin Junka by three orders of magnitude in order to protect her master.

Their strikes met—

—and a raging storm of light was born, as though to sweep everything in the Dome away in its wake.

"Haaaaaa!"

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

「Cordé's shield, which has withstood Vermillion's repeated attacks up till now, now meets the unbridled fury of Vermillion's strongest Noble Art in the middle of the ring! These fierce magics blow wildly about the Dome, the might of their flowing magic evident! The keenest spear and the hardest shield battle it out furiously, neither yielding an inch… victory lies in the balance still!」

And yet, there existed no such equality between spear and shield in real life. A spear that pierced all could not coexist with a shield that blocked all. One must triumph. And as though to prove that point, the force behind that nimbus of light began to destroy that fine balance.

It's…heavy… so hot….

The one being driven back was Charlotte. The thousand petaled Senben Junka was starting to wither and shed petals under the relentless push of Katharterio Salamandra. And as the shield began to fail, so too did its ability to block out the heat given off by that Noble Art. With sickening gurgles, the ground began to melt and bubble. Skin and hair began to darken and char. Despite the fact that her shield was holding against the blade itself, the energy it was giving off had that kind of power.

What outrageous strength.

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The flame-haired knight produced a second blade of light not in the least inferior to the first in overwhelming might without wasting another breath, before swinging it downwards.

She can launch consecutive attacks of such power… so quickly!?

"That's why I said that it's impossible for you."

In all honesty, Stella had felt right from the start that it would have been difficult to break Charlotte's defense in a single blow. But what did that matter? If one strike was not enough, then she would just strike out with two, three strikes, one after the other. The Crimson Princess did, after all, have enough to spare to launch twelve such consecutive attacks of Katharterio Salamandra.


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The Device of a fire user could be said to be like the core of a sun, and to freeze something of such singularly high temperatures was something wholly out of the ordinary. Stella herself was quite shaken by this turn of events.

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Through the cords of Black Widow that he had burrowed into Mikoto's brain, he gave the order to use Satin Ice. This order was carried out swiftly, and thus controlled the eyes of Icy Scorn froze Stella solid.

But the dragon's pulse did not cease. Within that frozen coffin, crimson eyes blazed with a fury. The dragon roared.

"Bahamut Howl[3]!"

Then color fled from the world. No, it was beyond the ability of man to perceive color, not within this whirlwind of light and flame. Surging forth from Stella in every direction and none all at once it swallowed Deus Ex Machina, the marionette Mikoto, and at last the whole ring, stopping just short of the audience as an invisible wall halted its advance, before soaring upwards, searing through the skies in a pillar of glory.

Twenty seconds passed―and when the burning light, so bright one could not gaze upon it, faded, there was nothing left. The ring itself had melted, its turf turned to ashes, its soil blasted and blackened, like the wastelands of a primordial earth.

At ground zero, Deus Ex Machina looked much the worse for wear: its body of slurry and concrete had all but sloughed away in melting puddles, leaving naught but a charred skeleton of metal, which collapsed to the ground, clattering bonelessly as it did so.

That warcry, that power from earlier had enveloped the entire ring. If she had used it from the start, the match would have ended right there and then. In other words, had she so wished, she had the ability to one-sidedly end the match. She did not do so, however, and there was a single reason as to why: Bahamut Howl was too powerful. Its area of effect was not limited to the 100-meter-wide ring. It had the power to consume the whole Bay Dome, and even the surrounding ghost town. Such a thing should not have been used even in Illusory Form, since Illusory Form was only harmless to humans, but the uncontrollable heat from that technique would have completely destroyed the surroundings.


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He could feel the building heat even at the edge of the ring. His expression stiffened as he replied, “I’ve already decided. Against you I can’t be picky about how I win!” In the next instant Stella released such heat and killing intent that the light itself began to twist and warp.

(This pressure..! There’s no mistaking what’s coming!!)

“BAHAMUT HOWL!!”

In the same moment that Ikki understood what was coming, Stella released her greatest area flame attack. Light and heat flooded from Stella in all directions.

“Th-This is the Noble Art that we saw Stella use in the first round!!”

Upon seeing her activate the Noble Art, Kurono and the others tasked with protecting the crowd rushed to contain the flames. Of course they would. Stella’s Noble Art reached beyond the ring – beyond the crowd and even the entirety of the dome. And unlike the first round, Stella was no longer held back by her illusion form. If not for the magic knights containing the heat the crowd would have been flash ignited. And those magic knights had been chosen for this job specifically because of their skill. They were put in place so that skills like Stella’s Bahamut Howl could be used without fear of harming anyone else. The crowd was safe.


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He pierced through. He was through the flame in an instant. The only visible damage was a slight singe to his hair, but he did not stop. His body had become arrow aimed straight at Stella as Intetsu pierced through her chest!

“…………”

Stella stood with the blade through her chest for a moment longer before she shimmered and disappeared like a mirage. She had been nothing more than a bending of light from the Noble Art Flame Veil. Even after unleashing such a massive skill like Bahamut Howl, Stella had not expected Ikki to fall. His charge had been expected. She used Bahamut Howl to obscure his vision for the second that she needed to use Flame Veil, and then when he charged in to attack her illusion….

“YOU’RE MINE!!” She was directly behind him, having concealed herself with Flame Veil as well. Now she could strike him, but..!

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As she swung her blade down on Ikki, Stella felt a shiver of doubt run through her. As Ikki looked over his shoulder at her, his expression was calm like a pond without a single ripple.

He knew.

There was little use doubting that. After all, this was the “Worst One .” In the past Stella would have hesitated, but now was different

(Fine by me!)

Even if he anticipated this and made a plan, that’s fine. Stella did not falter and drove her blade down towards him! But…

“Third Secret Sword Art – MADOKA!”

The blow that struck Stella far exceeded anyone’s expectations.

“~~~~~~~~!!?!?!?!”

The sound could only be described as an explosion as Stella was thrown across the ring. Despite planting both of her feet into the surface of the ring, her body continued to slide backwards until she finally stopped just before the edge.

“Would you look at this! It’s as if Kurogane wanted revenge for earlier! He’s sent her flying to the edge of the ring just as she did to him! He’s turned the fight around!”

The sudden reversal of positions and Ikki’s completely unexpected attack had the crowd heating up even more. Amid the noise of the crowd, Stella remained calm. Her hand clenched around the hilt of Laevateinn, feeling the lingering numbness in her hand.

(This feeling… his power… that isn’t Ikki’s.) Stella well knew Ikki’s ability. She knew that Ikki’s body could not produce this kind of attacking power. Not even Ouma could do that. The only person that could unleash an attack with this much power… would be herself. Which means…

“You stole my power, huh.” Her voice sounded somehow pleased, and in response Ikki smiled.

“I did.”

That’s right. The power that had sent Stella flying just now was her own. He had accepted and flowed her attack in a circle around him, sending her own power straight back at her with his counter.

“That’s the trick of my third secret sword art, Madoka.” It was one of the more difficult of Ikki’s sword techniques. All it took was a slight misreading of his opponent’s trajectory and timing and he would end up accepting their blow head on. He had to have perfect timing to land the counter. Even for someone with Ikki’s skill, it required absolute concentration to perform. Which is why it had been too difficult for him to use the ability well in his fight with Runner’s High.

“Thanks to copying Twin Wings’s sword I’ve become much better at accepting attacks and flowing with them. I could never have done this when I first came here, but now I can take an attack from your sword head on and return its power right back to you.”

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    “DRAGON’S NEST!!”

        She plunged the blade into the ring. Light so bright that it could hardly be seen poured from the cracks of the ring followed by a flood of bloody crimson that split the ground.

        “Kyaaaaaa!!”

        “It… It’s hot..!!”

        “No, no way, this is…?!”

        The spectators’ screams filled the air. But they weren’t alone.

        “Hey, hey….This is going too far….”

        “…I didn’t expect this.”

        Even mage-knights like Kurono and Saikyo were dumbfounded by Stella’s display of power. How could they not be.

        “I… I can’t believe it! Stella has melted the ring and the ground beneath it!” It was just as they said. The ring and all of the earth around it had been blasted with her ‘Dragon Breath’, melting it into a sea of magma.

        The only place left to stand were the bits of stone that remained floating throughout the sea of magma. But even those were slowly melting away and sinking into the molten depths.

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He gave Stella an opening to approach. As she charged across the magma as if it were solid ground heading straight for Ikki, ‘Laevateinn’ aimed straight for his throat.

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  It was Stella’s molten iron left fist that had punctured his abdomen. The downward attack with her right hand just now had was a decoy. The real one was a blow to his body with her fist. It was the combination she had used in the first fight against ‘The Unturning’ Tatara Yui. Her molten fist had punched into his gut at such high speed that it ripped through his muscles and shattered his ribs into dust. On top of that the heat burned and charred his intestines. Her power far exceeded that of any normal human and the damage she caused with that one blow was evidence of that fact.

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The shine produced from her flickering and beating body grew more intense. The outline of the existence named Stella began to blur into the light itself. The shine and waves of heat released from it was not the same amount as before. Her shine filled the surrounding area like midday to the extent of the stadium lighting having no purpose now, and the sea of magma boiled even more.

But more than the changing heat and light, the people in the venue felt it–

The feeling of being drawn to Stella. It was not their imagination. Any small scrap of trash or rubble was being pulled towards Stella who had become light. A gravity-user like Saikyo Nene quickly understood what was happening. It was magnetism.

(She’s created huge concentration of heat energy that she’s throwing the magnetic fields out of order, generating a gravitational force..!)

The moment any of the debris and rubbish that were being pulled came near Stella, light was flashing like lightning, leaving none of the trashes behind. The powerful heat made all objects touching it go through liquid and gas phases, turning them into plasma. At this point it was like a star. It was a crimson star shooting out light and creating magnetism on its own.


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Having decided it in her mind, Stella increased the heat on her body with almost no limit, creating an armor of light. The heat would cause anything attempting to strike her to simply cease to exist the moment it touched. Ikki’s blade could no longer reach her. The moment the blade of ‘Intetsu’ touched Stella’s radiance, its existence would vanish. Her defense was impenetrable. All that remained to be done was to impale him with the tip of her blade.