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My eyes.
My ears.
My instincts—my very soul—
were screaming at me about the threat it posed.
That it was an enemy. That it was an evil that must be defeated.

The Shadow that closely resembled Sago Kinemitsu slowly raised its arm and held its palm over the blood-spitting, collapsed Sago.
Seeing pitch-black energy that was obviously dangerous converging in its right hand, Shouta heard the sound of all the blood draining from his body.
Before he could think, he sprinted at full speed. But the distance was too great. Whether to shield him or grab him and run, he wouldn’t make it in time.

“Stop!”

Mind-to-mind understanding. As Shouta shouted while dashing across the iceberg, sound vanished from the world and everything froze.
If he couldn’t make it in time, then Shiori would just have to make it make it in time. Simple as that.

The moment Shouta slid in between the Shadow and Sago and deployed Eternal Guard Blizzard in three layers was exactly when time stop was released.
Something like a terrifying energy wave slammed into them, and all three layers of the barrier named “Absolute”—never once breached until now—shattered like glass. It was a violence beyond human comprehension, far surpassing even the attacks of the super water sphere they had fought before.

But he was given an instant. Thanks to that instant, he managed to scoop up Sago and roll away, successfully moving out of the line of fire of the Shadow’s attack.
A thunderous boom roared along with the shockwave, a chunk of the iceberg was blown away, and a colossal column of water shot up as if it might reach the clouds.
As Shouta tried to hoist Sago and retreat, the Shadow pointed its hand at them once more. An even larger pitch-black sphere began charging, greater than before.

*(It can fire that ridiculous attack consecutively!?)*

Shock ran through him. Psychic powers are not infinite. Like Kaburagi Shiori’s, they often require intervals, or have limits on how many times maximum output can be used.
And yet this Shadow was attacking so casually, as if it were tossing out minor tricks.
The rank of its ability was on a completely different level. Shouta was forced to realize the overwhelming, absolute gulf between them, and froze.

Inescapable. Unavoidable death.
It had been a long time since Shouta had faced that so directly.
The trauma from the first time he fought a World Shadow flashed back, freezing him in place.
The pain of his soul being torn apart. Thrashing, struggling, screaming—only to be devoured by the merciless Shadow that cared for none of it. His arrogance crushed, he wept in helplessness and descended into madness.

He remembered.
That’s right.
At that moment, when strength drained from his body and despair was about to turn into resignation, what saved him was that fiercely blazing———

In front of Shouta, frozen like a frog before a snake, a literal side attack cut in. Crimson spears came flying, stabbing into the Shadow one after another and erupting into flames. The Shadow twisted its body irritably, and the dark energy wave was fired off in a completely different direction, punching a hole through the cloudy sky.

“—Haha, fire’s the damn best after all!”
“Idiot! This isn’t the time to laugh! Get over here, now!”

Yelled at by Touka, who was desperately firing every last flaming spear she had, Shouta picked up Sago and dove behind the iceberg in the world that had once again been stopped after her interval ended.
The giant cat that had been casting a massive shadow on the iceberg smoothly shrank down to normal cat size, sniffed the unconscious boss, and flicked its tail in confusion.
He was ready to kick it if it so much as scratched, but for a cat belonging to Tsukuyomi, it seemed surprisingly well-behaved. Though, considering it had attacked them after gigantifying, “well-behaved” was already a stretch.

When Shouta cautiously peeked out from behind the iceberg, it seemed the Shadow had lost sight of them. The steam left behind by the flames had worked well as a smokescreen, and it was looking around restlessly while stirring up wind to blow the smoke away.

Shouta pulled his head back and pressed Shiori, who had Sago’s head on her lap and was anxiously applying a healing PSI drive, for answers.

“Kaburagi-san, explain! What the hell is that!?”
“I explained beforehand, didn’t I? That’s the World Shadow that separated from Kinemitsu-san. In theory, once that is defeated, then World Shadow will either completely vanish, or be weakened to the point it couldn’t even beat a rhinoceros beetle.”

Color returned to Sago’s face as he was wrapped in warm healing light, but he didn’t wake up. Shiori checked his pulse and breathing as she replied distractedly.

“What do you mean ‘rhinoceros beetle’!? No one told me it’d be that damn strong!”
“It must have stolen or duplicated Kinemitsu-san’s psychic power when it separated. A miscalculation on my part.”
“Miscalculation!? If that’s all it takes, we wouldn’t need executions! Don’t screw with me, we’ll all die here!”
“Hey! Don’t snap at me. If Ka—Shiori-san miscalculates, then literally no one could’ve predicted it, right?”
“Th—! That’s not—”

Realizing she was absolutely correct, Shouta fell silent.

“What we need to do hasn’t changed. Defeat that final and greatest World Shadow. That will end our long fight.”
“It’ll be fine. Calm down, Shouta. We have the Buddha’s blessing.”
“…Yeah. I don’t know about Buddha, I got you, Touka. This is the end. Let’s do this.”

His shaken heart was encouraged, and his resolve renewed.
He had defeated every powerful enemy, solved every challenge, and overcome every hardship so far. Together with Touka.
Throwing it all away now would make everything they’d fought for since middle school meaningless.

Leaving Shiori behind to guard and nurse Sago (there was no way she could leave him alone, and if Sago woke up and returned to the front lines, the tide would swing heavily in their favor), Shouta returned to the battlefield with Touka.
Bracing himself for another energy wave, he instead saw the Shadow raise its left hand. In sync with the motion of grasping upward, Shouta’s and Touka’s bodies were seized by an invisible force and suspended in midair.

“This is the boss’s—!”
“Telekinesis! Shake it off, Touka!”
“I am! But—!”

Touka blasted flames from her entire body, trying to escape the telekinetic restraint, but fire abilities weren’t suited for movement or flight to begin with. She couldn’t produce enough raw thrust to break free from such a powerful bind.
Facing it as an enemy made the terror of telekinesis all too clear. The Shadow raised its right hand as well and began charging a pitch-black sphere of energy. Ever since facing it, Shouta felt like all the blood had drained from him—he felt like he’d mummify at any moment.

Shouta tried releasing cold around them, wondering if he could somehow freeze the telekinesis itself, but there was no response at all. Even when he fired a freezing beam, it collided with an invisible wall deployed in front of them and fizzled out.
He ground his teeth.
Was it stupid to challenge it head-on? No—if it had the boss’s power, then it could use clairvoyance as well. Ambushes and surprise attacks wouldn’t work. No matter how or where they challenged it, the result would be the same. If they kept hiding and observing, they’d be detected and attacked instead. Would the restraint loosen at the moment it fired the energy wave? Could they escape then? Or could they endure by continuously deploying barriers? Would their stamina last? And even if they got through this, there was still no decisive blow—

As he struggled, he considered every possibility, but saw no light.
In the end, there was nothing he could do himself. All they could do was cling to a few uncertain hopes, and as the two of them awaited being crushed into dust while suspended in the air, it was one of those slim hopes that saved them.

The pitch-black sphere turned gray, lost its power, and rolled onto the ground.
That wasn’t all. The Shadow that had been emitting overwhelming pressure froze in place, rapidly turning gray—into a stone statue. The force field holding the two of them vanished, and they fell.

“This is—”
“Medu-chan!”

Shouta had seen the entire sequence of events, and yet he still wanted to doubt his eyes. It was an instant kill.
A gust of wind blew, diamond dust striking the stone statue. But the statue didn’t move.
The World Shadow—stronger than anything they had ever faced—had been neutralized with absurd ease. Terrifying. As expected of an executive entrusted with an overseas branch.

The military-uniformed girl who had appeared beside them without notice, Medu Sagrogo, pushed her goggles up onto her forehead, exposed her dazzling golden demon eyes, and sharply glared at the Shadow.

“Thanks. Is it dead?”
“Not yet. ××××××××× World Shadow ××××. ×××!!”

The reason for Medu’s tense vigilance became clear immediately. The stone statue cracked, and like a chrysalis hatching into a butterfly, new Shadow crawled out from within. That emerging Shadow was petrified again by Medu’s evil eye—but the moment it turned to stone, something inside crawled out once more.
Endless molting. Hideous regeneration and rebirth repeated over and over, enough to make one nauseous. Every single movement was filled with a deliberately nerve-grating, disgusting quality.

Shouta remembered that the Shadow they had fought in ancient ruins had possessed the same kind of function. Even when frozen solid, its unfrozen inside had burst out. You had to blow everything away at once—or strike deep enough to reach the core.
Petrification only stalled it. Freezing didn’t reach the core. Fire was blocked. What worked was—

“What about Ruu-denka’s lightning?”
“I’ll ask…………………………… She already left with an escort from the German branch.”

Touka pressed a hand to her ear, exchanged words over the comm, then shook her head.
Shouta snapped and shouted.

“What the hell!!! Why!?”
“She’s royalty, remember? She’s not someone whose position involves risking her life on a battlefield.”
“At this point!? Then she shouldn’t have come in the first place!”
“It seems an emergency assembly of the House of Peers was convened because of the worldwide anomaly.”
“…………”

There were far too many things that came to mind, and Shouta fell silent once again.

If someone held a position capable of deciding a nation’s fate with a single word, then no matter their personal wishes, they couldn’t be allowed to remain on the battlefield. It was completely logical.
Though Grand Duchess Ermentrude Bates had, rather irresponsibly, seemed to enjoy fighting for the world not as a queen but as a mere individual… with a world-scale incident like draining the entire Pacific Ocean occurring, she had no choice but to return to her role as a cog of the state.
Entanglements, scandals, grudges, duties. This is why the world is the way it is.

As Shouta clicked his tongue, the hulking man known as Oyabun of Tsukuyomi ambled over, dangling animals by the scruffs of their necks. The black cat hanging from his right hand was trying to scratch and bite Ig, while Ig, hanging from his left hand, was trying to escape from the cat, but was unable to escape Oyabun’s clutches.
Ig had worked tirelessly as a healer in fierce battles against the guitar guy and the ninja, and her ability’s stamina was completely spent. Right now, she was nothing more than exactly what she looked like: a common marmoset.

“This one’s your pet, right? Train her better.”
“Wah—”

Touka caught Ig as Oyabun tossed her over. The black cat looked down at the dizzy Ig in Touka’s hands and let out a triumphant meow.
Shouta tensed in caution, but Oyabun didn’t care in the slightest. Instead, he watched with interest the pink-haired magical girl who had appeared out of nowhere and was hammering the Shadow with punches that belied her slender frame.

They had history with Tsukuyomi. They had clashed several times and been interfered with. A bunch of screw-ups. They didn’t seem evil, but they were definitely malicious. And, conversely, malicious but not evil.
Even now, they showed no sign of attacking them, and had gone out of their way to bring over and return Ig, whom they could have easily killed by simply crushing him.

Shouta hesitated.
It was said that the boss of Tsukuyomi had once fought the boss of Amaterasu to a draw.
If only for now, turning him into an ally would be reassuring. He would never forget how, after a temporary truce and cooperation with Tsukuyomi at the ancient ruins, they had snatched all the best parts—but still. Petrification lacked a finishing blow, and if Medu’s stamina ran out, everything could collapse at once.
…No. Even if it meant swallowing that risk.

“Hey, you—won’t you fight with us too?”
“I refuse. Pay compensation first.”

When Shouta asked, Oyabun flatly refused.

“Huh? Compensation? For what?”
“You stole our artifact, didn’t you? A fire user and an ice user. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Apologize properly and show sincerity first. Then we’ll talk.”
“…? …Ah!? Those guys were Tsukuyomi affiliates!? No, but that was— we were tortured too— aaagh, this is complicated! We’ll deal with that later. Just help us, please!”
“I can’t do that. If three years pass after suffering damages from illegal acts, the statute of limitations applies and the right to claim compensation is lost. I won’t let you dodge this by running away, so as early as possible—”
“Damn it! Fine, on behalf of Amaterasu, I apologize! We’re truly sorry!!! We’ll compensate you too. Is that good enough?”

Frustration nearly made him snap and lash out, but he swallowed it and accepted the conditions. There wasn’t time to hesitate or negotiate. With no telling how long two overseas branch executives could hold things back, he needed to secure an ally quickly. One could even say that standing around chatting leisurely in the middle of a battlefield was the real mistake.
He wasn’t a child anymore. Even if he didn’t like it, he could endure it for the sake of the goal. After all, he was the one asking for help—he told himself that, over and over.

Oyabun nodded in satisfaction.

“Very well. I’ll lend you a hand. But I can no longer use my ability.”
“What the hell! Don’t screw with me, you incombustible waste!”
“Wait. I can’t fight, but I have a secret plan.”

Oyabun held back the lunging Shouta with one hand, got smacked on the mouth by the black cat’s tail perched on his shoulder, and grinned fearlessly.

“I’ll teach you an esper’s Ultimate Technique.”