Chapter 604: Frozen Time

The 13th day of the Month of First Fire.

At last, we left the subway station and made for the amusement park where Lily was waiting.

We did not hide ourselves.

We walked straight toward it, openly and without hesitation.

“…Are we really going to be okay doing this?”

“If that cannon of hers fires, we’ll all be wiped out.”

Even Falkius and Seris looked tense. They had seen through Vivian’s records just how devastating Shangri-La’s secondary gun was, so naturally, strolling right into its sights was enough to make anyone’s nerves scream.

That bombardment was our first obstacle in reaching Lily.

What made it truly terrifying was not only its power, but its range and flawless accuracy.

“We’ll be fine. Lily would never fire on me.”

And this was our answer to it.

I walked in the center, with the others packed tightly around me in a cluster far denser than our usual formation. By using myself as a hostage, I was nullifying Lily’s bombardment.

A cannon that powerful could not selectively kill only the others while leaving me unharmed. If she wanted to target individuals with precision, she would need to rely on ordinary attack magic instead. And if all she had were normal spells, we could deal with that much.

“See? I told you we’d be fine.”

Ignoring everyone’s unease, we reached the main gate of the amusement park without incident. Not only had there been no cannon fire, not a single attack spell had come at us.

It was almost as if Lily had not noticed our approach at all.

Or perhaps she was not even here anymore—

That eerie silence shattered in the very next instant.

“Welcome, welcome! To Destiny Land, the paradise of dreams and magic!!”

“Whoa, what the hell!?”

A bright, booming voice roared out of nowhere, and the dark amusement park suddenly blazed to life with dazzling lights of every color.

It was as if this one perfect park alone, preserved in the midst of a dead and ruined city, had come back to life across the ages, filling the air with cheerful music and loud announcements.

“Today, Destiny Land has been reserved exclusively for the wedding of Lord Chrono and Young Lady Lily! All guests, please follow the guidance and enter through the main gate of the park!”

With a heavy groan, the great white front gate, shaped like some sort of castle entrance, began to open.

So that was it.

She had prepared thoroughly to welcome us.

“Happy wedding! Welcome to Destiny Land!”

From beyond the opening gate appeared a figure in a mascot suit resembling some sort of black mouse, shouting in a shrill voice as it scampered toward us. Behind it came others dressed as ducks, dogs, and other characters.

“Hello! I’m Destiny Land’s mascot, Mick—”

“Grenade Burst.”

There was no time to stand around for this farce.

With the right hand of the Tyrant Armor Maximilian, I raised the Dual Eagle and fired. The bizarre mouse creature, still striking some cheerful pose mid-introduction, vanished into an explosion and flew backward.

Then I kept firing.

Only after I had blasted apart every mascot character rushing toward us did I make my next move.

“Smoke.”

I fired smoke rounds over and over again until the broad courtyard from the main gate inward was swallowed whole. Thick black smoke billowed everywhere, making it impossible to see ahead.

And that included Lily, watching from somewhere out there.

“Move! Everyone, inside!”

There was no reason to honestly accept Lily’s invitation.

The gate was open. That was enough.

We would go in and rescue the hostages.

Once we passed through the smoke, everyone would split off and head for the magical energy points where we believed the prisoners were being kept.

They would handle the rescue.

And I would go on to face Lily—

“I kept you waiting, Lily.”

Then the wind tore the smoke away, and beyond it, I saw light.

A beautiful, dreadful red light.

“Yes. I have been waiting… for this moment, for so very long.”

Above the great fountain at the center of the courtyard floated a fairy maiden wrapped in a crimson Oracle Field.

Platinum-blonde hair rippled in the breeze. Her snow-pale skin was dressed in a one-piece gown of black ancient velvet.

It was, without a doubt, the form I had seen more than any other in this world.

And yet… it was also the first time I had ever seen her like this.

Red-and-black butterfly wings flickered behind her. Only her right eye was a round emerald green. Her left eye was black.

So that was it.

My left eye. The Evil Eye.

Even seeing Lily changed like this, I still felt the urge to run to her and pull her into my arms that very instant.

But not yet.

Not for me.

And not for Lily either.

“Lily. Release Fiona and the others. If you do it now, then maybe—”

I knew it was useless, and yet I had to say it anyway.

Even though I had come here prepared for a duel.

Even though I knew without question she would refuse.

I still had to say it.

Because this was my excuse to myself.

Listen, Lily. I offered you the chance. Even now, we could still go back to what we were. And if you refuse, then I’ll force through my selfish, ultimate desire too.

“Hehe… I’m sorry, Chrono—”

Still wearing that elegant smile I knew so well, Lily raised the gun in her right hand, the Meteor Striker.

The moment I saw blue-white light gathering at the muzzle, every instinct I had screamed at me.

This was bad.

No, worse than bad.

Danger warnings blazed at full force through my entire body. My spine froze. Every hair stood on end.

So I moved with everything I had.

“Over—”

“Dimensional Magic: Cocytus Rift.”

The instant Lily’s words reached my ears, my vision was swallowed whole by white—

Everything had turned white.

Like snow.

Like ash.

The entire world had been transformed into a blank, colorless expanse.

Just moments before, the front courtyard of Destiny Land, where Lily floated, had been beautifully restored after her fierce battle with Fiona, its gardens overflowing with flowers in full bloom.

Now, in a single instant, all of it had become a white world stripped of all color.

Chrono knew of the prison called Cocytus Rift.

And Lily knew of it too.

It was the ultimate prison, created from the ancient ruins beneath Spada’s royal castle, a place from which no one, once confined, could ever escape.

Those imprisoned within it could not move.

They could not even think.

It was said that time itself did not flow inside.

A relic of ancient dimensional magic whose principles modern sorcery could not begin to explain, only its activation and deactivation remained possible through the ruin’s systems.

That was Cocytus Rift.

Lily had never seen it with her own eyes.

And yet she was certain that this white world she had brought into being was indeed that frozen hell, where even time itself was locked in ice.

“Hehe…”

A smile spilled from her lips.

In the center of the white garden stood a fearsome suit of armor like a demon made manifest, towering proudly.

The cursed ancient black armor, crowned with twisted horns and a furious skull-like helm, had been bleached white like the rest of the world around it, and now resembled a statue that had stood there since the beginning of time.

No life.

No magic.

Nothing.

And yet, inside that white-stained Tyrant Armor Maximilian, Chrono remained.

She knew that cursed armor well.

She had seen it herself when he first obtained it.

She knew the scale of the curse sealed within it. She knew the might it possessed. It was, without question, the finest armor that could ever belong to Chrono.

But speed meant nothing here.

Defense meant nothing here.

Even whatever hidden powers its curse had yet to reveal meant nothing here.

Not when time itself had stopped.

“At last… I’ve caught you.”

This Cocytus Rift had been prepared for one purpose only.

A single-use trap meant solely to capture Chrono.

Originally, it had been one chamber of the flying warship Shangri-La. What it had once been used for, back in the age of ancient civilization, Lily could no longer guess.

But the ability to stop time within its effective area still remained.

The cost, however, was severe. The moment it was activated, it would consume nearly all the magical power Shangri-La could currently supply.

It was not that Lily had chosen not to bombard Chrono’s group as they walked boldly toward the gate.

She had simply been unable to.

Inside the fountain and concealed among the surrounding ornaments of the front courtyard, she had hidden the time-freezing devices removed from Shangri-La, all primed to trigger at once the instant she gave the signal.

Lily will never shoot me.

Chrono had believed that.

That was why he had approached openly, without even trying to hide, and stepped straight into this place.

Chrono was not foolish.

This outcome existed because Lily had believed in him too.

She had believed, with all her heart, that Chrono would come straight to her.

And so she laid the trap.

“I’m sorry, Chrono. The wedding will have to wait until another time… perhaps a hundred years from now. What do you think?”

There were still too many obstacles in the way.

Fiona. Sariel. Nell.

Not only her rivals in love, but every person bound to Chrono. His friends. His allies. His enemies too, even the Apostles and the Crusaders.

All of them tied him to this era.

But what if he awoke a hundred years from now?

Or two hundred?

Or a thousand?

In that distant future, in a world where everything and everyone connected to Chrono had long since vanished, what would remain?

Only one exception.

Only Lily.

“I would wait any number of years for you, Chrono.”

With time-freezing in her grasp, Lily no longer needed to stain her own hands by killing Fiona and the others.

Her love rivals, her enemies, her allies, every last thing—she could erase them all simply by crossing into another age.

Without destroying the world herself, she could still change everything in it.

“I would never be lonely. Because I’d be with you.”

All Lily had to do was sleep within frozen time.

And in doing so, she would obtain a world where she was alone with Chrono.

“Come. Let us go together, Chrono… This is our paradise.”

Lily’s battle was over.

Once Chrono himself was locked in frozen time, nothing else mattered.

All that remained was to wait until the flow of history erased every bond he had ever forged in this world.

“So I have no intention of fighting the rest of you—Star Sword.”

Crimson light blades erupted from the glowing Oracle Field.

One after another, four red swords intercepted the four flashing blades rushing toward her from every direction.

From directly overhead came a massive blade cloaked in blue radiance.

From the right, a golden sword like a sacred treasure.

From the left, a blade carrying a violent storm.

And from behind, soundless and shadowlike, a black sword slipped in.

All of them were struck aside by Lily’s Star Sword.

“Damn, she’s tiny, but that power’s ridiculous!”

“And fast too. Fast and precise.”

“Normal magic won’t get through either.”

“No blind spots, then.”

Four swordsmen landed before her.

“Hell yeah! Now this was worth coming all the way to Avalon! She’s even better than I hoped!”

Kai roared, battle spirit blazing around him in blue.

“Well now. To think we’d really end up resorting to Plan B… It’s always the worst premonitions that come true, isn’t it?”

Letting out a weary sigh, Falkius stood tall, sword and shield in hand, like a gladiator once more upon the arena floor.

“Now that Chrono has been stopped, we have no choice.”

With a wind-wrapped saber in hand and black-and-violet energy rising eerily from his body, Seris settled into a quiet stance.

“Yes. We have resolved ourselves. We shall cut down Fairy Lily ourselves.”

Rudra rested his cursed black blade at his hip once more, gripping the hilt.

All of them were swordsmen whose names carried weight in the world.

Each held a beloved blade.

Each stood without carelessness, without weakness, with utter dignity and resolve, challenging a single girl with all they had.

“I’m telling you I’ll let you go.”

Floating above them, Lily looked down upon the four swordsmen with cold arrogance.

“Like hell I’m turning back! I came here because you’re insanely strong!”

“I’m not cold enough to abandon a dear friend and run. Besides, I’m a star, remember? I can’t afford to ruin my beautiful public image.”

“I’m taking Chrono back. And Princess Nell too!”

“My life is cheap. If it is for justice, then I shall wager it gladly.”

Each of them had their own reason for drawing steel.

And once a swordsman had taken up the blade, words alone would never make them retreat.

What remained now was simple.

Victory or defeat.

Life or death.

This was already a battlefield.

“Hehe. Very well. Then I shall entertain you.”

Lily smiled.

In the brightest of moods.

Now that she had gained Chrono, she stood at the peak of joy, at the summit of happiness itself.

The Jealous Queen laughed, in far too good a mood to refuse the foolish little game laid before her.

“Come at me without fear. I’ll bring you down gently.”