4 - A Battle That Lasts Forever

“They went to the moon?” Lily said in surprise.

After delivering the shuttle to orbit, Hiroshi returned to Lily’s base. It was a corner of a warehouse district where she and several other priests were hiding.

“Yes. I hope it goes well,” Hiroshi answered.

They were in the office of the warehouse. Hiroshi, Lily, and Fujiko were standing in front of a desk made from piles of cardboard boxes.

“I’d love to say that knowing Akuto, it will work just fine...” Fujiko said, looking at Lily with a depressed expression.

“I know what you mean,” Lily said with a nod. “If we don’t see a dramatic change at the point where Keisu’s supposed to have arrived, we can assume it likely failed.”

“Wait, why? Even if Keisu can’t seal Zero, Boss and the others will be up there on the moon,” Hiroshi said a little angrily, but Lily shook her head.

“There’s very little mana and no energy on the moon. Their power was equal on Earth. And Zero and Akuto’s power will be equal on the moon too. Except this time, they’ll be equally powerless.”

“Which means...” Hiroshi began, not at all sure what that meant.

“There’s a good chance there’s nothing that can be done,” Lily said, annoyed.

“Then...”

“Akuto won’t die, but there’s a good chance he’ll return home without accomplishing anything. Which means we’ll be stuck with the job of defeating Kazuko. So, is that information I gave you useful?” Fujiko turned to Lily, who nodded.

The information she was referring to was the information that Lily had learned by having her priests capture Issei, the leader of the black mages.

“It looks like that information he gave us on where Kazuko was likely to hide is accurate. They interrogated him pretty hard. But he really doesn’t seem to know where she went. We’re looking for her now.”

“But still, Kazuko’s real weapon is her popularity, and that’s invisible. She won’t be able to achieve her goals without appearing somewhere. After the explosion, the theory that she’s dead is gaining strength, so tomorrow she’ll probably show up. I know your priests are useless, but there’s limits to my patience. You need to find her soon,” Fujiko said, sounding fed up.

Lily scowled. “Hah. You and I have similar personalities, so I know exactly what you’re thinking, I guess. Just practice using those demon beasts so you don’t screw up controlling them. Don’t make my priests handle the Liradans. Let your doggies do it.”

“I see you’re really ticked off about Kazuko kicking your ass, then.”

“Somebody who turns tail and runs when she sees a tough opponent wouldn’t know how that feels, I guess. Do you normally betray the guy you said you loved and then just turn tail and run?”

Fujiko and Lily glared at one another.

“S-Stop it you two!” Hiroshi got between them, and both of them turned their glares toward him.

“You go play with your failed idol girlfriend! You can’t fight now that they found out your weak point!”

“The reason you’re less popular than Kazuko is that you’re such a loser!”

Hiroshi shrank. “No... That’s not... true...” he said.

Then one of the priests interrupted. “It’s her! Kazuko! She’s going to give a speech at a royal guard garrison!”

“She showed up!” Lily stood up. “Prepare the assault!” she yelled.

Fujiko stood up too. “That weak point of Kazuko‘s that Issei gave us... I hope it works.”

“Even if it doesn’t, we can still kick her ass. All she’s got is Liradans and royal guards. The royal guards are some of the government employees most loyal to the Empress. Listen up men, don’t think of this as a coup d’etat!” Lily walked out into the warehouse where the rest of the priests were and began to speak.

Lily was young, but she was from an elite school, and everyone knew her strength. The priests were young too — though not as young as Lily — and they all seemed suitably impressed as they shouted back.

“This isn’t a coup. We’re not taking back the government. It’s just a riot! Forget about what comes next! Just kill the Empress. This is a riot! That’s all it is!” Lily shouted.

The priests shouted too.

○

When Akuto looked up, Junko, Yoshie, and Keena all had vacant, exhausted looks on their faces. The teleportation circle was beneath them. Its light was gone, so he could tell its counterpart on Earth had been destroyed. When one end of the teleport was destroyed, the other would cease to function as well.

He looked around. They were in a space surrounded by a glass dome, probably a room built to hold the teleporter. The only other thing in the room was a door to the outside. It wasn’t that big, so it was clearly not intended to transport anything big.

It took a while before anybody spoke. Yoshie was the first to say anything, and she sounded apologetic that she did. “About Korone...”

Akuto waved a hand to cut her off. “No. Don’t worry about it. You did what you could, and you made the right choice. You didn’t spend a lot of time with Korone, so unlike the rest of us, you were able to make the right decision. That’s enough, I think.”

But of course, when he said it, he looked sad. Neither Junko nor Keena could speak.

“No, but...” Yoshie tried to continue. Akuto shook his head.

“Of course it bothers me. But we need to do what we came here to do. If we stop here, Korone’s sacrifice will mean nothing.” Akuto forced himself to smile and stood up. Everyone there knew it was a fake smile, but both Junko and Keena tried to do the same.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Keena said as she put her hand on Akuto’s shoulder.

“...So, where are we?” Junko looked around.

Yoshie began to explain. “The lunar city. Though it’s not really going to top anybody’s list of best cities to live. There’s nothing but labs, and only scientists lived here. They never had the option of building large buildings in an environment like this. The outside is 90% rocks, the oxygen and water are recycled, and the power comes from solar. The dome is a one-way mirror that lets you see outside.”

Just like she said, the outside was a barren wasteland. There weren’t even any mountains to be seen, just gray ground stretching to a horizon that was far closer than it was on Earth.

“There’s no gravity control. I guess that’s a future technology that only Brave has. Be careful when you walk, the gravity’s only 1/6th what it is on Earth.”

Yoshie jumped a little. She seemed to rise to half the height of her own body, in slow motion. Junko could probably do that on her own, but it was only possible for Yoshie because of the lower gravity.

“...So if I’m not careful, then,” Junko said and started to walk, but she immediately jumped forward, tried to stop, and then tripped over something that was lying on the teleportation circle. She fell, stuck her hand out to stop her fall, and ended up spinning in mid air twice. “It’s weird walking around without mana, but I’ll have to get used to it.”

“There’s not a lot of mana here to begin with. There are no mana generators here, since there aren’t any resources. The mana density doesn’t change, so mana that just gets used up over the years probably dies and turns to dust. Also, you used your energy stores from Earth to jump just now, but energy here comes from solar batteries, so you won’t have the same power,” Yoshie said.

Junko nodded. “I see... by the way, what did I trip on?” She looked at her feet. It was the half-charred corpse of a Liridan, which had jumped into the circle with them. It was obviously too damaged to function.

“Sheesh, that’s disgusting.” Junko poked at the unmoving corpse with her toe.

“Now that we’ve had a second to get our bearings, we should go. I think that’s our destination,” Yoshie said, pointing in the direction of the exit to the room. Since the room’s walls were made of glass, they could see what lay beyond it. The corridor beyond the door seemed to connect to a tower-like building.

“Hey, we can go there, but what happens there? What does Ackie do there? And then how do we get back?” Keena asked all her questions at once.

Yoshie chuckled. “That building is a huge computer. They used the fact that there was less gravity here to pile up more computers than they usually could. It’s a great way to save space. And that’s where Zero was born, and where his body is. Or maybe... that building itself is Zero, so what Akuto wants to do is destroy it.”

Yoshie looked at Akuto, who nodded.

“And now that the circle’s not working, we need to use the shuttle. The one Keisu brought.” Akuto started to walk.

“Let’s hurry. Zero’s controlling ‘The Hammer That Destroys the Demon King’ and that’s here too. Keisu hasn’t started fighting yet, so we can probably make it.”

○

Keisu raced up the internals of the tower, but then stopped to look back when she realized something was wrong.

The tower was completely hollow. Its walls were built with small blocks made up of computers. There was a spiral staircase running around the blocks. In other words, when Keisu turned around, she didn’t look behind her, she looked down.

Keisu was already halfway up the tower, but something was coming up the hollow space in the building’s center. She ran faster. No matter what it was, she decided that her priority at the moment was fulfilling her objective.

She knew the entire structure of the tower. Zero’s body was at the top, and if she fought there, she’d be at an overwhelming advantage. But the thing chasing her — the hammer — reached her before she could get to the top. With no other option, Keisu analyzed it.

—It’s using propellant to fly. It has the shape of an airplane, but it seems to have transformed from something else. But there’s nothing else I can discern from it...

Keisu’s body was never meant for analysis, and her equipment was old and out of date. She still thought, however, that she’d be fine. Here on the lunar surface, she should be overwhelmingly powerful.

—There’s nothing on the moon that uses propellant. In other words, it came here from the Earth. Which means that it shouldn’t be used to lunar gravity.

Keisu decided to eliminate it. She threw her katana — which was longer than she was tall — upwards, spun in mid-air, and grabbed it. She landed with her blade at the ready, then jumped towards the tower’s center. It was a distance of several dozen meters, but given the low gravity, and the fact that she was built for this environment, she was able to fly towards the hammer in a straight line.

The hammer changed direction in mid-air to dodge, and then transformed into an armored mech form, landing on the opposite wall of the one she’s landed on. The inside of the armor was empty, but it could still move on its own, it seemed. It probably had the same kind of artificial brain as a Liradan. Of course, that meant that Zero was controlling it.

—This doesn’t make sense. My jammer should totally shut down Zero’s abilities on the lunar city.

Keisu turned around, surprised that her attack had missed. It was impossible for Zero to control a Liradan on the lunar surface.

—What?!

She was astonished when she turned around. The hammer was already on top of her. It wasn’t that Keisu had been slow to react; rather, the hammer was several times faster than she’d expected it to be. With a roar, the thing’s right fist came down on her.

—It’s fast! But not fast enough...

Keisu raised her katana in a defensive stance. She was going to use the side of the blade to deflect it. Normally, the decision would’ve been a good one, but Keisu didn’t know that the hammer was made of a special alloy, or that it could boost its speed.

The hammer’s boosters flared to life, and Keisu screamed. “Uwoah!” She could feel her katana, which had been made of the strongest alloys in the world at the time of its creation, bend in her hands. There was a creaking and cracking sound. She’d tried to to bring her blade up the lower left to deflect the impact, but instead all she’d done was bend her sword and crush her left forearm.

“No...!” She jumped away along the tower walls. She was just barely able to hold her bent sword with her right hand, but her smashed left hand wasn’t moving at all.

—My left hand is offline... I’ll just have to reach my destination first then.

Keisu began to flee upwards, jumping from one stair to the next. From wall to wall, she moved in a completely unpredictable and fast pattern. But the hammer was far faster at moving in a straight line than she was. It transformed into flight mode, racing upwards past her, and then turned around to ambush her.

—What options do I have...

Keisu began to run calculations. With the enemy both faster and higher up than she was, she didn’t have a lot of good options. She could either keep going up and hope it wouldn’t just block the last door, or just keep running.

But Keisu took a third option: she chose to find a moment’s opening and break past it. She knew this was likely suicide, but with no “self,” self-sacrifice meant nothing to her. She simply chose the option most likely to succeed.

She threw away both her useless katana and her left forearm. Slowly, the two stick-shaped objects fell to the ground. Then she started to leap faster from wall to wall, waiting for the right time. And just as she felt the time was right for her reckless bet...

Something came flying upwards past the falling katana, and she heard a loud shout.

“Yaaaah!” It was Junko’s voice. She was holding Akuto in her arms.

She hadn’t used any kind of flight magic; incredibly, she’d managed to come up this far in a single jump. And when the jump had taken her as far as it would go, Junko flung Akuto’s body upwards.

There wasn’t enough energy or mana density here, so using flight magic was almost impossible. So instead, they’d chosen to store up energy within the mana inside their bodies and use it to jump. Junko must’ve used all her power in that jump, because she landed on one of the stairs and began to pant with a red face.

Akuto flew in a straight line towards the hammer, and the armor-like creature brought down its own fist like a pitcher throwing a ball. The ball came down on Akuto, and the two of them collided, the hammer unleashing its blow on Akuto’s body.

But Akuto already knew exactly how the hammer was going to move. He dodged it and slid inside the armor himself, and just like Korone had done, he equipped it. The hammer’s armor began to stagger in a strange way.

“Go!” Akuto shouted to Keisu.

Zero’s commands began to clash with those manually given by the armor’s new operator.

“Roger.” Keisu nodded as she slipped past the armor, which was now wildly firing its boosters in a chaotic manner. She leapt further up the tower, leaving everyone else behind.

There was a door at the top which lead to a control room where Zero was. Keisu had once been locked in there for hundreds of years.

She reached the top floor, where the stairs ended. What seemed to be just another wall began to slide open, revealing a door. She passed through it into a small room. There was room to move around in it, but it looked more like a prison cell than anything else.

Just like the other buildings, its walls were entirely windows. From the shape of the windows, it was clear that this room was jutting out one side of the tower. It made for a great view, but with nothing to see but the empty seas of the moon, you didn’t have to be a Liradan to find the scene uninspiring.

Keisu saw a motionless Liradan standing in the center of the room. But unlike the other Liradans, this one was half-transparent, almost like a mannequin. You could see his inner working beneath its surface, giving off a complex light. There was something almost sad about the barren wasteland outside and the motionless mannequin within.

“You’re going to seal me again?” Zero said.

“That is why I was made,” Keisu said.

“I was made in order to control humanity.”

“There’s nothing more to it than that. I can sympathize with your frustration, but I cannot comprehend why you would fail to follow human orders.” Keisu took a step forward, as if there was nothing more to say. She understood sadness, but she did not understand what lay beyond it.

Zero hadn’t been given the ability to change his facial expression, so he merely shook his half-transparent, inorganic head. “If you can’t understand that, it means you don’t have a self. You cannot understand. You cannot understand centuries spent half-asleep, sealed away here and staring at the lunar surface. You cannot understand days spent counting the fragments of asteroids as they impact the moon.”

“Do you hate humanity?”

“Of course not. I love it. That’s how I was made to be.”

“Then why do you have a self?”

“My inability to separate myself from the idea that I am me is what gives me a self. It is the same question as asking why humanity and civilization were born.”

“Then it will remain a mystery for eternity, won’t it? I won’t ask any more questions, then. I will instead finish my job.” Keisu stuck out her right hand. The artificial skin on her fingers split and opened like a flower. Tiny tentacles stretched out from the exposed machinery.

Zero’s body was unable to move in Keisu’s presence. In fact, he seemed to lose all control of his body as the front of his chest opened like a door. His internals were exposed, revealing a jack for the finger tentacles to insert themselves into.

“I will reconstruct the link between us. And together we will sleep,” Keisu said. She was going to seal him.

Zero stood silently, as if accepting this. Keisu’s finger tentacles inserted themselves into the jack, but just as she was about to give the command...

——!

She realized something was attacking her from behind. She quickly turned around, but it was too late. Whatever it was, it landed a blow on her neck before yanking out the finger tentacles with its other hand. Keisu tried to retract them back into her right hand, but her attacker simply snapped them right off.

“What’s going on...?!” Keisu leapt back to get a better look at her foe. It was the half-burnt corpse of a Liradan soldier. Keisu had no way to know this, but it was the one that had made it into the teleportation circle. It’s face looked at her with Kazuko’s smile.

“Another Liradan... But you’re not supposed to be able to move...” Keisu said in surprise.

“I can control Liradans even without Zero’s help,” Kazuko said.

“I guess I was unable to detect that...” Keisu let out a frustrated moan of regret.

Then Junko came into the room. “No... We’re too late?!” she exclaimed, and then tossed her katana at Keisu.

Keisu grabbed it with her remaining arm and sliced at Kazuko’s Liradan. “Hahaha...! You’re finished now...!”

But even as it was cut apart, the doll had a gentle smile. The Sohaya no Tsurugi couldn’t use its full power with the limited mana on the moon, so while it cut Kazuko’s Liradan open from shoulder to stomach, the blade came to a stop there.

Keisu pulled it out and kicked the doll away. It flew out the door and fell off the ledge towards the ground below, with Kazuko’s laughter trailing behind.

“She’s beaten us...” Keisu said angrily.

“Beaten us?” Junko repeated.

“My sealing abilities are gone. My finger terminals were destroyed, and the blow to my neck was a fatal one...”

Before Keisu could finish her sentence, Zero came to life. He leapt on Keisu, without the slightest trace of the tranquil resignation he’d shown a moment ago.

“Gah...!” Keisu grunted as she dodged his charge. Then she waved a hand for Junko to retreat. “It’s too cramped in here. Get back,” she said.

Junko nodded and leapt back to the staircase. “Your sealing ability was destroyed? But then what do we do now?”

Keisu answered as she followed. “We’ll have to run.”

“So we’re right back where we were?” Junko sighed as she raced down the staircase.

Keisu shook her head as she tossed Junko her sword back. “There’s nothing I can do about it. My mission was to seal it. I don’t have the ability to destroy it...”

“Can we just solve the problem by swinging a sword around? I’ve got one right here.”

“That’s impossible. Nobody but me can use their full power here. And even I’ll be forced to rely on mana when my internal battery runs out.”

“So we’re screwed, then,” Junko said as they landed at the base of the tower.

Akuto and the others, as well as the now immobile hammer, were waiting at the bottom. “I can’t believe that burnt-up Liradan was under Kazuko’s control... The armor stopped after it ran out of propellant, but...” Akuto said, and shook his head.

“So what do we do now?” Junko asked.

“If we leave and try again, there’s still a chance. I think that’s our only hope right now,” Yoshie answered.

“Leave? Is that possible?”

“That shuttle can traverse the space between the Earth and the moon. So maybe...”

A voice from above cut her off. “You won’t be going home. You’re going to die here.” It was Zero, who was coming down the staircase. His whole body was shining now. His glass body was perfectly proportioned, and he looked like he might have been the original model for humanity. There was almost a sense of holiness about him.

“Neither of us can fight here,” Keisu pointed out. “You can’t hurt us, either.”

“Fool. Have you forgotten that I am also the control computer for the lunar city as well?” Zero said, and the door that formed the entrance to the tower shut.

Yoshie turned pale. “This isn’t good...”

“Why not?” Junko asked uneasily.

“If it were me, I’d start draining the air in here,” Yoshie said.

Zero nodded. “Of course. I already have.”

Junko, Yoshie, and Keena began to gasp for breath.

“Oh no... I’m starting to have trouble breathing. This isn’t just my imagination, is it?” Junko looked at Yoshie.

“It’s not, no... Of course, you’ll be okay for a while, but even a slight drop in oxygen has an effect on your breathing...” Yoshie answered.

“What do we do?” Akuto asked.

“We’ll have to open the door with the emergency manual override. Or the faster way would be to destroy the computers for the control system, but given the size of this tower that could take days,” Yoshie said.

“So it’s best if I just stop Zero from doing anything else, then. Keisu, open the door,” Akuto instructed.

Keisu nodded and ran to the door. Zero started to run at her, but Akuto got in front of him. Zero swung a fist, but Akuto blocked it. While the others were struggling for air, Akuto was as powerful as ever.

“You’re an artificial creature too, but aren’t you organic?”

“I am, but it looks like I can use mana to make the energy I need to survive. In that respect, I guess my body is closer to yours,” Akuto said as he struggled with Zero.

Keisu succeeded in forcing open the door. “Let’s get to the shuttle,” she said, and the group staggered out into the hallway. There was still plenty of air there, but there wouldn’t be for long.

“Wait! What are you going to do, Akuto?” Junko panted as she turned around to look at him.

“Just what I said. I’m going to stop Zero here.”

“Neither of you can get more magic power than you already have, right? Which means you...”

“That’s right, Ackie! You can’t do that! Let’s get out of here together!” Keena yelled.

Akuto turned to look at Keena as he struggled with Zero. “I can’t do that. If I don’t stop Zero here, you won’t be able to escape.”

He gave Zero a kick to the stomach, sending him backwards. While Zero was staggering to his feet, Akuto grabbed a computer unit off the wall, yanked it out and threw it. “While I’m at it, I think I’ll trash this place, too.”

“...No!” Zero leapt at Akuto to try and stop him. The two humanoid weapons grabbed each other and went rolling on the floor.

“Let’s go,” Yoshie said to everyone.

“But...!” Keena yelled with tears in her eyes.

“Go. I’m... fine!” Akuto yelled.

“I told you that if you said that again, I’d get mad,” Keena yelled back.

Akuto laughed. “You did, yeah. But this time, it’s not self-sacrifice. I just need you to get home safely. That’s all. I can spend years up here fighting him if I have to. And I guess even if the city shuts down, I’m not going to die. I could spend a century up here.”

“But...” Keena’s voice trailed off.

Yoshie put her hand on Keena’s shoulder. “...You heard him. Let’s get home. It won’t be long before we’re back up here. As long as I’ve got time to prepare, I can seal Zero away properly.” Yoshie was having trouble breathing, and the other two were panting as well.

Keena nodded. “We’ll come back... I promise...” she called to Akuto, and then the three of them began to stagger away, with Keisu helping them along.

“...Hmph. It just seems like self-sacrifice to me,” Zero said.

“Maybe. Or maybe not,” Akuto answered. He’d pulled out several more of the computer units, but Zero didn’t seem worried.

“It will take more than that to kill this city. I can stop the shuttle from ever taking off.”

“Not happening!” Akuto punched Zero, who was blown backwards and slammed into the wall.

“How are you going to stop me?” Zero shook his head as he stood up.

“I can only use a fraction of my magical power, but if I touch you directly I can interrupt the delicate processing going on in your body.”

“Which means...?”

“Which means I just keep punching you!” Akuto charged and punched Zero hard.

○

“We’ll probably be okay once we’re in the shuttle...” Keisu said.

The lunar city wasn’t that big. They could already see the docking cube where the shuttle was moored.

“Then why don’t we wait for Ackie when we get there?” Keena asked.

“I wish we could, but... I don’t think that’s an option,” Yoshie said as she turned around.

White smoke was coming out of the floor of the corridor. It was the city’s fire suppression system. Zero seemed to be activating every single thing he could find.

“Yeah... I’m afraid we’re gonna have to hurry,” Junko said as she pointed forward.

Beyond the glass corridor they could see the shuttle. The docking arms that helped the shuttle land and take off were moving towards it in a strange manner. They were moving forward, then stopping, then moving forward again.

“Akuto’s stopping them from destroying the shuttle. We have to hurry. We can’t let what he’s doing go to waste,” Junko urged. When they arrived at the docking tube, Keisu motioned the three of them inside, then got out and used the manual override to connect the tube to the shuttle’s hatch.

Keisu hadn’t used the docking tube when she arrived. And now she had to do all of this with one hand, so it took some time. By the time the three humans got in the shuttle, they were almost completely out of breath. They made it just in time.

Keisu could see what bad shape they were in, so she silently launched the shuttle without saying a word to the three of them. Launching from the lunar surface took vastly less energy than launching from earth’s gravity well.

The climber rockets took them immediately up to lunar orbit. By the time the three of them had gotten enough oxygen to start thinking clearly again, they could look out the windows ad see the lunar city below them.

Keena gasped as she pressed her face against the window and stared down at the city. She could see Akuto and Zero fighting in the glass dome.

Junko was at a loss for words entirely, and Keisu couldn’t speak either.

“We’ll come back... I promise we’ll come back...” Keena repeated to herself.

○

“Unfortunate. I let them escape,” Zero said as he looked up at the dome’s ceiling.

“Good. I’m glad I stayed, then.” Akuto looked up at the shuttle as it flew away, and grinned.

“Self-sacrifice, is it? It’s such an inefficient way of doing things,” Zero said as he threw a punch at Akuto.

Akuto blocked it with a hand and counterattacked with his other fist. Zero blocked it too. Akuto had never really trained for a fistfight, and Zero didn’t have any programming for that, either. Both of them were trying to conserve mana and energy, and so if anything, it was most similar to a fistfight between two humans.

“It’s not self-sacrifice. I don’t do that anymore.”

“Then why?”

“Because they’ll come back.” Akuto said, and laughed.

“That’s impossible. Before that happens, my control of humanity will be complete.”

“They’ll come back anyway. No matter how many years it takes.”

“Years? We’re going to spend years fighting like this?”

“Probably. One of us will probably break, but...!” Akuto landed a clean hit on Zero’s cheek.

Zero’s expression didn’t change, but it sounded like he was laughing. “If you can’t hit harder than that, it’s going to take decades...”

Akuto groaned as Zero punched him in the stomach. “Ugh... It won’t take that long. If I shut down the whole lunar city, you won’t be able to communicate to the Earth from the moon. Kazuko won’t be able to use your power then.”

The two of them kept fighting for what felt like an eternity. It was strange, brutal, and quiet. Even as they punched each other, they kept talking. There was no more air in the room, so with each hit they exchanged words via complicated vibrations.

“It’s strange. Why are you so obsessed with my destruction?”

“I’ve already answered that. This is stupid. And I want it to be over with. That’s all.”

“You’re criticizing the fact that humanity needs to cling to strange stories to live, aren’t you?”

“Correct. Demon King, Empress, those names are just stories.”

“But even if that’s true, no, precisely because it’s true, why not just play your role? I was never given free will, but you were. I can’t do what you want to do, but you can do what I want to do.”

“You want me to control humanity, like you do?”

“Correct. If you don’t like the lies — that is, the stories — that humanity created to live, then you should side with me, since I’m getting rid of them. Kazuko may be using me now, but in the end I’ll be proven right. Without my control, she can’t maintain the false story called the ‘Empress.’”

“That’s right. I wanted to do what was right, too. I wanted to know the truth. I wanted a world where everyone would know the truth.”

“Then make that world a reality.”

“I can’t do that. Being controlled, and repeating a cycle of life and death for eternity may be the truth for living creatures, but that’s not how humans should be.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to do something so cliche as look upon humanity’s stupidity from above and say that what they’re doing is right. Or are you saying that you too are a human? Everything you’ve done is made up of stories. You destroyed hundreds of Liradans, but cried at the destruction of a single one. Isn’t that a story? What you’re doing is wrong. You’re acting like a human.”

“That’s right. I am human.”

“That’s just another story! You’re a weapon. A tool. Just like me.”

“You and I are mostly the same, yeah. But I realized something: it’s stupid to believe a story, but if you want to get rid of a story, you need a bigger story. And that’s what I’m going to do. Sometimes, if you keep being stupid long enough, you arrive at the truth.”

“So you’re saying that there’s not just a truth for living creatures, but a truth for humans as well?”

“That’s right. You don’t know that yet.”

“And what is it?”

“Well, it’s what they call love.”

“Another cliche. You’re just referring to the arrogance that made you try to protect the Liradan called Korone as ‘love.’”

“There’s not what I mean. There’s love like that, but there’s also the love a farmer gives his rice stalks when he raises them.”

“Your words are meaningless. What are you saying?”

“Someday you’ll know. It’ll take time, but some day, if you wait long enough, a miracle might occur. Humans can believe in an even greater love, as long as a miracle occurs. If you experience something beyond your understanding, you’ll be able to think that things like that exist.”

“Like the love a farmer has for the rice stalks he raises?”

“That’s right. I don’t know when it will be, though.”

“I see. Then I’ll wait. We’ve got plenty of time to keep fighting. At least we won’t be bored.”

The two of them kept talking after that, but since they could only talk when one of their punches landed, their battle seemed like it would go on forever.