Itadaki no Hecate Second

The Heart's Swelling

While the sun set on that day, the Evoker of the Demon Horde walked down a sidewalk, headed to the hotel where he and his allied Flame Hazes had agreed to meet up before skipping town. Hidden within the suit under his poncho was the objective he had just obtained at the cost of the blood of an entire platoon plus one clever son of a bitch. He grinned to himself wickedly. Hell would soon be raised, and the entire world would burn in the fires of total war, and he would revel in it.

His features softened at the thought of what would happen at the end of it. So many would die indeed, for everyone, but it would all finally be over and done with.

But not many would agree with his view. Oh no, they would not. But it was a necessary step; one could only relieve themself of a fatal infection by cutting off the limb, after all. But they were all too soft, not a single one of them was capable of taking the steps that needed to be done.

For peace of mind, he patted the inner pocket that carried the Flame Haze-killing revolver.

Episode 14: The Heart's Swelling

"Okay everyone, brace yourselves," Yuji warned to those around him. Gathered nearby, in a spot where they were sure had nothing in place to begin with, were his friends, Kazumi Yoshida, Keisaku Satou, and Matake Ogata, tightly holding the hand of both her friend Shana and her nee-san-by-proxy Margery Daw. Next to them was the unconscious Pheles, on the ground by the tired and crouching Hecate.

The Mystes began to float skyward in that crimson Seal, his eyes assessing all the damage that had been done. From where he hovered, he could see it all: everything around them for miles—cars, people, structures of concrete, steel, and glass—everything had been torn apart in that furious struggle between the two almighty Crimson Lord females. It would take plenty of control and effort to manage to piece the entire broken puzzle together again, not to mention immense amounts of Power of Existence.

He looked down towards Hecate, who met his eyes with what seemed to be a passive and indifferent expression, but he knew what she really felt. She was staring back at him with a face that told him she trusted him. He was ready for this, this would be but one of the fruits of his training.

He took a deep breath and began to weave a spell in his mind. The Power to Exist could be shaped and molded to suit the user's needs and desires; it could be given tangible or intangible form and manifest itself in the very fabric of reality to realize the impossible. He utilized that power now, and cast his arms sideward, and from his being, numerous cords of unreadable glowing text spread out in every direction. With this string of arcane characters, he bound himself to every corner of the devastated ruins, all in order to both speed up the process as well as make it less strenuous on his part.

"I don't suppose you taught him that," Margery asked the Priestess in a low voice. Hecate did not answer her, nor was she obligated to, but the fact was that she never did teach Yuji to manipulate his powers like that. Her face showed no surprise, nor did that emotion manifest within herself, for she knew from the beginning that the young man had a talent for Methods unrestricted to the mundane world.

The floating Mystes grasped all of the eldritch symbols in his hand, binding them together in a tight grip. It glowed with a faint blue light which gradually became brighter as he poured his own Power of Existence into it.

"Will this really work?" Ogata asked to no one in particular in a soft, quivering voice. "Will this really bring back Tanaka and everyone?"

Shana nodded with a straight expression as she answered. "Yuji might be strange and insufferable, but I've seen him pull off more unbelievable things." For a brief moment, her eyes strayed to the Supreme Throne, who agreed with her own indecipherable gaze.