Confrontation (4)
A day passed.
"Ugh."
When Amy opened her eyes and moved as she always did, a wave of ache rolled through every muscle.
'Feels like I fell off a cliff.'
She clutched her sore lower back and hobbled to the window.
She could see Nane and Shura, already up at dawn, tending the small vegetable patch.
'What are they doing?'
The world was racing toward ruin, and yet this so-called Buddha of the age was hoeing a field.
Nane felt her gaze, straightened, and looked around the hut.
Watching his smile, Amy remembered what he'd said yesterday.
'He'd better say something sensible.'
She could accept the idea of trying to see things from Shirone's perspective in order to understand him.
'Is love something you can make happen just because you want it?' As she asked herself that, another question hit her.
'Why do I love Shirone?'
Maybe, as Nane had said, love was simply throwing your heart at someone.
"Ah, whatever. It's not my problem, is it?"
More worrying than that was the news Shura had told her yesterday—that the army of Heaven had arrived.
'One Habitz was already more than enough. Iruki's going to have a rough time. No, scratch that... this will be the worst war in history.'
When her thoughts reached that far, Amy looked at Nane with a different feeling than before.
His face was covered in tattoos and looked fierce, but his smile was pure and innocent.
'He doesn't seem like a bad man.'
She couldn't bear to imagine what would have happened if she'd been grabbed by Habitz instead of Nane.
'If he sided with Shirone...'
Above all, Nane had swallowed Anke Ra's dream of controlling Heaven's army.
As if he'd read her thoughts, Nane shook his head with a mischievous expression.
"Heh!"
He'd said he loved her just moments ago.
'No, no—that can't be it.'
Expecting that sort of thing was dangerous, so Amy shook her head.
'I'll have to fight.'
Her body was still too weak to run, but magic wasn't something done with the body.
She opened the hut door. Shura stood, taking off the hood she'd been wearing.
"You lazy thing. Come help."
"Why should I?"
"Those who don't work don't eat. Don't you know? If I don't want to starve you, at least pick stones."
Skipping a single meal wouldn't kill her, but she wasn't about to indulge petty stubbornness.
"I'll take the hoe—"
Nane cut in.
"Are you all right?"
"Don't worry. I'll earn my keep."
Seeing Amy pout and puff out her cheeks, Nane smiled, an amused crinkle at his eyes.
"You don't need to work, guest. Leave it to us and do what you want. There's a place in the forest good for training the mind."
"I'm fine. And stop acting so friendly—it's creepy." Nane didn't seem offended.
"Come on, go see. You're a soldier. If the world is on the brink of destruction and you sit idly hoeing a field, you'll be tearing your hair out. It's not good for you either."
Remembering her mission, Amy snapped herself back to focus.
"Right. What am I doing here? Whether you feed me or not, I'm going to train." She turned and walked off without waiting for an answer. Shura flung down her hoe in annoyance.
"Ugh, irritating! It's nothing, really."
"It's not nothing when it concerns the Fire Realm."
Shura shut up.
Amy might once have been just a powerful mage, but now she felt like a system unto herself.
'That pillar of flame back then.'
The massive inferno that had ripped through the sky on the Kanian Plateau still burned bright in her memory.
"Tch!"
Shura shot a glare at Nane.
"In that case, you don't have to be nice to him. Someday he'll be our enemy."
"I told you, if you can't understand Shirone, you can't become a true Buddha. The same goes for Shirone. He's probably realizing the truth of the void right now."
"Is it just because he's pretty?" Shura's eyes went blank.
"What kind of Buddha says that?" Nane reached out and tousled Shura's hair.
"Pretty is pretty. The first quality in facing truth is not turning away from facts."
A Buddha's words were always right; she should have accepted them this time too.
'Why am I like this?'
From the moment Nane had confessed to her, something had been tightening around Amy's heart.
'Buddha, why am I at your side?'
For the first time, that small fact felt larger than the world's secrets.
Shura didn't press further, and Nane, with his gentle smile, simply went back to the field.
"Ignite!"
The ignition spark of basic fire magic clicked into place, and a flame shot up from Amy's body.
"Whoa."
The power was staggering, even to herself.
'Is this Flame Incarnation?'
She felt not like a mage commanding flame but like the flame itself.
"But this still isn't enough."
If she couldn't reach the power she'd used on the Kanian Plateau, she couldn't fight Heaven's army.
"Hoo. Hoo."
She'd once narrowly escaped death and was afraid to take the first step, but she was a soldier.
"Let's go."
Crown of the Void.
As her focus drilled endlessly toward the void-crown, her mind seemed to open and her consciousness blurred.
'Don't give up!'
If she couldn't control the inertia of the Crown of the Void, she'd die like on the Kanian Plateau.
"Ughhhh!"
Her crimson eyes flickered thirty times a second. Control failed and the flames swelled without end.
'No! No!'
The moment she realized the line of control had snapped, the blaze roared as if more oil had been poured on it.
Then Nane's voice rolled across the world, and the inferno sank as if pressed.
"Gasp!"
It felt like someone had yanked her up by the hair just before she drowned.
"Hah! Hah!"
Amy's mind snapped back to the world.
Her pupils dilated; she panted for a long time before slowly turning her head to the side.
Nane scratched his brow, looking a little embarrassed.
"This is troublesome. I suggested mental training, not training with a fight-to-the-death resolve."
"What's it to you?"
She wanted to snap, but his words had helped, so her voice came out soft.
Nane walked over with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Your Flame Incarnation is dangerous. It's rare for a human to awaken an elemental force as an incarnation unless they're someone like Shirone."
The spirit itself had been nothing but light.
"Of course, Amy, you're unusual too. It seems a spirit of fire has taken residence in your mind."
'Jack-o'-Lantern.'
The fire spirit Shirone had given her on the outskirts of Heaven had grown alongside her.
"So it manifested as an incarnation?"
"You've maintained a higher affinity with fire than others. Reaching that state takes intense training. It's a double-edged sword. If you can't handle it properly, it'll hurt the practitioner."
'Flame Incarnation isn't simple.'
It's not something that gets stronger through repetition like ordinary magic, as she'd just shown.
'Seeking.'
It required a special enlightenment that could control not only the mind but the heart.
'But I can't exactly spend my days meditating now. Would that even work?'
Amy knew better than anyone that she was far from being a seeker.
"Shall I help you?" Nane asked.
"No. I'll research it myself."
If she hadn't heard Nane yesterday she might have accepted, but she didn't want to owe him anything more.
"Don't overthink it. Helping someone immersed in spiritual pursuit is only natural. It has nothing to do with Shirone. And besides, I'm probably a decent teacher."
He spoke like someone who was close to the world's righteousness.
"I know. Still—no."
Nane let out a rueful laugh.
"You're stubborn. Here's a hint: you're not far off. Enlightenment often comes as a flash. Slightly change direction and the problem can be solved in an instant."
"An instant?"
"Yes. It depends on you. But to do that, you have to put down your stubbornness for a moment."
Amy pushed out her lower lip.
"Then let's try again. Don't worry and fully open your incarnation."
Nane spread his right arm.
"Dharma Wall."
An ochre-colored wall unfolded like a fan and enclosed the surroundings like a net.
Amy raised a skeptical eyebrow. Nane shrugged.
"I at least have to protect my own ground."
"Hmm, fine."
She hadn't heard his mantra, but she understood what he meant by opening the incarnation fully.
'She's scared.'
This time she'd control it.
"Crown of the Void."
Her crimson eyes flared and flame bloomed around Amy once more.
"Ughhhh!"
So that's why it was hard.
'I understand it in my head... I thought the heart was lighter than a feather, but fear still clings.'
Her mind began to be sucked inward.
"Gasp!"
Again the blaze went out of control and struck the ceiling of the wall Nane had made.
'I have to stop here...'
At that moment Nane's voice echoed in her head.
"Don't stop."
What?
"You are fire. You don't stop until you've burned everything. Grow bigger. Become endless."
"Endless?"
A flash of insight struck Amy's brain.
'I see!'
The only thing that could control the fire.
"Yaaah!"
Amy broke through the boundary of fear and, in a state of abandon, raised her firepower.
'Yes! Burn! Burn it all to ash!'
As if she'd become a bomb, her mind was swept up by the will of fire.
"Urrrgh!"
The fire's will pierced beyond the speed of the Crown of the Void, and a massive catharsis washed over her.
"Yes."
Nane smiled.
"That's it."
When Amy came back to herself, she saw flames wrapped around her.
"This is..."
Small in scale, the flames nonetheless jabbed outward like the quills of a hedgehog.
"The will of fire."
Nane held up a finger. "The truth of the Fire Realm is that fire becomes itself before it consumes itself. Remember: to subdue a realm of fire, you must be an even greater Fire Realm."
"Ha—"
Dazed by his words, Amy suddenly threw up both hands and shouted.
"I did it! I did it!"
She had mastered fire.
It was the level she'd longed for since her days at the Magic Academy.
"I did it! I did it! I...!"
Tears welling, she jumped about excitedly. Nane watched her with a pleased smile.
"You really love magic. Congratulations."
Amy froze mid-action.
"...In the end, you helped me."
"You did it. I was a mage once too, so I know how desperate it feels. And a few words don't count as help."
"If it were the Buddha's words, it would be different. Honestly, if it had been anyone else, I wouldn't have risked my life to follow them."
"If you dig that deep—"
Nane scratched his head, embarrassed, and Amy felt a little guilty.
'Right. A favor should be accepted as a favor.'
"I truly have no ulterior motive. You risked your life; no seeker would ignore a lost person..."
"Thanks."
Amy smiled. "This time, I'll accept that I was helped."
Blinking at the unexpected response, Nane suddenly understood.
'I see.'
He felt he understood Shirone a little better.