Chapter 7: Dancing Thoughts on the Wind
Chapter 7: Dancing Thoughts on the Wind
War had suddenly broken out between the spirit and demon worlds.
“What...”
The situation was so unexpected, I couldn’t even work my mouth properly after finding out. I was struggling to think clearly.
Don’t tell me... Was this the “unimaginable risk” R had mentioned? Even if it was, all-out war was way too over the top...
“How did the war start?”
As I was still rendered mute, Corona questioned the spirit soldier in my place.
“How would I know their reasons?! Maybe a new Demon King was born and decided to attack our lands! Just like that sealed Demon King did long ago!” The spirit soldier snapped irritably.
Meanwhile, the “sealed Demon King” herself was thinking calmly.
“What about the gate...?” she asked.
“What?” the soldier stammered.
“You have to open the gate to get from the demon world to the spirit world. What happened to it?”
“It’s been opened, obviously! That’s why the Demon King’s army is attacking us!”
Uh-oh... We had to pass through that same gate to get Pastel’s ring from the demon world, so if the Demon King’s army was coming through it right now, then we wouldn’t be able to return to Earth with what we needed. Nartessia had given us a time limit of three days. We’d already used one getting this far, so we only had two days left. In those two days, we had to travel from here to the Demon King’s castle, and then to Aburaamu to visit the magic research facility and steal some magic books... All the extra time we’d saved by using Iris’s spaceship was gone in an instant.
“All right. I get the picture.” Corona glanced over at my troubled self before turning back to the spirit soldier. “You. Lead us to the Spirit King immediately.”
“Huh?! What are you...”
“Hurry up. We know how to cure those being controlled by Ghostdemon sickness... And who was responsible for all of this.”
▽
The spirits were extremely wary of a group of outsiders like us at first, but fortunately, we had Lyun and Sophie with us. Once they explained how their Ghostdemon sickness was cured, we were granted an audience with the Spirit King.
“So, Corona, what did you mean before? You said someone was responsible for this?”
“If it were just the drying of the mana spring and the spread of Ghostdemon sickness we were dealing with, it could have been written off as a natural occurrence. But those afflicted with Ghostdemon sickness attacking the capital at the same time the Demon King’s army is invading through the gate... That cannot be a mere coincidence. Someone planned for these two events to overlap. That’s why I deduced that the Demon King’s army is the one using Ghostdemon sickness to control others.”
“That’s strange. The Ghostdemon sickness is just an infection that turns fairies and spirits into zombies, right? How can someone control that?”
“What if the cause of the Ghostdemon sickness wasn’t an infection?”
“Huh?”
“In other words...”
Just as Corona was about to answer me, the Spirit King appeared in the parlor with several guards in tow.
“I’ll explain the rest to everyone,” Corona said.
She stood up and faced the Spirit King. We all hurried to do the same, but the Spirit King raised a hand to tell us it wasn’t necessary.
“Please leave the greetings for later. We don’t have a moment to lose right now. I left my subordinates in charge just to come hear what useful information you may have. I ask that you make it quick.”
“Your Majesty! Um, there’s a method to cure the Ghostdemon sickness...!”
“Wait.” Corona interrupted Lyun’s rushed words. “That comes later. There’s something more important you need to know first. It’s about the one behind this war.”
“Who?” The Spirit King looked at Corona doubtfully.
“The soldier we met just now said the Demon King’s army was attacking in an attempt to take over... Is that what everyone here thinks?”
“That’s right,” the Spirit King answered.
“On what basis? How did you determine it was the Demon King’s army?”
“Their army is composed of species with the same characteristics as the demons described in the legends of old. But the most conclusive evidence is the fact the gate between the spirit and demon worlds is open. Only myself or a Demon King could have opened it. Why do you ask?”
“I was making sure there were no errors in your judgement.” Corona answered the Spirit King calmly, then leaned in to whisper to me. “My territory is being watched over by Eskro, who’s pretending to be me, is that right?”
“Y-Yeah.”
I had explained the current situation in Corona’s lands to her when we’d saved her from the underground labyrinth and asked to borrow Pastel’s ring. Why was she double-checking that now?
“Spirit King, I have no intention of fighting. Don’t act rashly once you see my true form.”
“...What?”
Black flames suddenly engulfed Corona, eventually burning away to reveal her in all her glory as the Demon King.
“You! Are you the Demon King?!”
The Spirit King’s guards seemed to sense something menacing from her, and they moved to surround her immediately.
“Hold it!”
At the Spirit King’s order, the soldiers froze.
“Y-Your Majesty?”
“Those sinister horns and tail and that extraordinary aura... It’s true this is a Demon King, but this one means no harm.”
After the confused soldiers backed down, the Spirit King turned to Corona once more.
“Well, then... What have you come here for?”
Despite recognizing Corona’s lack of animosity, the Spirit King’s face was stern as he confronted the Demon King.
“I’m glad to see this generation’s Spirit King is also sensible.”
A bitter smile flashed across Corona’s face for a moment, but it was soon replaced with a serious expression.
“I am Zaia Gardendos Corona, the 197th head of the Zaia clan, one of the three royal families of the demon world. I once invaded the spirit world with my brethren before I was defeated and sealed in the lowest floor of the Ruler’s Dungeon.”
That declaration got several of the guards’ hackles up, but the Spirit King held up a hand to tell them to stand back, then motioned for Corona to continue.
“I only left the dungeon yesterday. The Zaia throne cannot be succeeded without the proper rites, so Zaia is currently without a king.”
Wait, Corona was lying just now. Last time, she said she had 25 siblings who could have inherited the throne after she was sealed. But it was true that the Zaia throne was essentially vacant right now. Eskro—one of Corona’s underlings—was using illusion magic to do what he wanted in her place, so there was no real king... But it would have been weird for Corona to know that since she was only released from her seal yesterday, so she made up a story to go with it. Because...
“This means that the Demon King who opened the gate and invaded the spirit world is from one of the remaining two families.”
That was her conclusion. I was starting to see where Corona was going with this.
“Furthermore, I have a fairly good idea of which of the two royal families it is... Rekka.”
“What is it?”
“Tell the Spirit King about your lineage, and explain how you and I were heroes in Aburaamu, too.”
“R-Right.”
I told the Spirit King about my bloodline and how I defeated the Demon Overlord in Aburaamu with Harissa’s help. When I mentioned that she was a sorcerer from Aburaamu, Lyun and the spirit soldiers all gave Harissa dirty looks, but I squeezed her hand to reassure her.
“Your story is hard to swallow, but let’s suppose it is the truth. What do you make of this situation?” asked the Spirit King.
“It’s all very simple, Spirit King. The overlord that I once fought and sealed in Aburaamu and the overlord that Rekka fought mere months ago are one and the same: the Demon King of the Baran family, one of the three royal families of the demon world.”
“...What?!”
That dragon demon with several forms... was actually a Demon King from Corona’s world?!
“Wait a minute, that can’t be right! Why was a Demon King in Aburaamu? Shouldn’t he have been stuck on his side of the gate?!”
“The Baran family specializes in summoning magic—dimension-crossing magic, to be precise. He used that magic to travel to Aburaamu and tried to take over their world.”
“Now that you mention it... he was summoning armies all over the land and causing chaos.”
The Demon Overlord I defeated was sounding an awful lot like what Corona was describing...
“I don’t know how he broke the seal I put on him... but after he came back, he attacked Aburaamu again by summoning his demon followers. Which means that after he broke free of the seal, he regained his status as the Demon King of Baran. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to resume his invasion. But after that, he was defeated a second time by Rekka a few months ago.”
“Is there any possibility of another Demon King emerging after his defeat?” the Spirit King asked.
“There is, but the fight for the throne is a bloody and brutal one. It would be impossible to have a victor in just a few months’ time.”
“Then—”
“Yes, the one behind all this is most likely from the last royal family—the Demon King of Sahab.”
That was apparently who Corona suspected was behind all of the events happening in the spirit world.
“That’s not enough information,” said the Spirit King. “How is the Demon King of Sahab controlling the fairies and spirits with Ghostdemon sickness?”
“The king I knew several hundred years ago was very passionately researching dark magic. He believed he could achieve world domination by mastering the dark magic that only Demon Kings can use. On top of that, he had the worst personality. I hated him the most out of all my fellow demons,” Corona spat out bitterly. “There’s one thing I’d like to ask, Spirit King.”
“What is it?”
“Once, when I invaded the spirit world long ago, a strange sickness spread through my army... a sickness that made moving painful and drained the magic in the body. It slowed my army quite a bit, but fortunately, a strange sickness spread through the spirit world at the same time, so we were able to avoid huge losses.”
“...!”
“I don’t know the name of that strange sickness, but... could the Ghostdemon sickness in the spirit world now be the same thing that spread through my army several hundred years ago, carried into this world when the demons attacked?”
“You’re right,” said the Spirit King, confirming Corona’s suspicions.
“Ghostdemon sickness probably originated from dark magic that the Sahab family created, not a natural infection. The fact that no one realized that until now means it’s been modified quite carefully... The dark magic was probably spread to coincide with my invasion in a highly contrived plot to weaken the spirit world. The Zaia family territory may have been targeted, too.”
Corona explained her theory about the Sahab family’s dark magic. Basically, there were three new traits to the magical sickness that the Sahab family had developed.
The first was that it drained magical power. And this affected everything—fairies, spirits, demons, and even mana springs.
The second trait only affected beings with astral bodies, like fairies and spirits. It took over their minds once their mana was completely drained. They would then attack those who were unaffected, and would spread the sickness even further.
“And the third effect is that those fairies and spirits with their minds compromised can be freely controlled. The ones attacking the capital as we speak are probably being controlled by the Demon King of Sahab.”
“So, that’s how it is...!”
The drying of the mana springs, the spread of Ghostdemon sickness, and the invasion of the Demon King’s army... All of it could be explained with Corona’s theory about another Demon King using dark magic to create the Ghostdemon sickness.
“But... why now? There are still areas around the capital that haven’t been affected by Ghostdemon sickness, and the Spirit King himself is still healthy,” I asked. “No one knew that the Ghostdemon sickness was caused by that Demon King of Sahab, so why did they choose to start a war now?”
At an especially troublesome time for us, no less.
“About that...” Corona mumbled hesitantly, “It’s probably your fault.”
“M-Me?!”
I was so surprised that my voice cracked. Every eye in the room was on me.
“Judging by the effects of the Ghostdemon sickness, the Sahab family’s main target was the spirit world itself. Demons still have ridiculously strong bodies even without magic. They might have an advantage in a battle, but there would still be great losses fighting against magically inclined creatures like spirits. The Sahab family probably created the Ghostdemon sickness with the intention of weakening the entire spirit world before striking.”
“I got that, but how is it my fault...?”
“Rekka, do you remember when you healed the Ghostdemon sickness of that sylpheed there?”
That was actually just a stroke of dumb luck, but looking at the situation objectively, I suppose it would seem that way, yeah.
“The Ghostdemon sickness is key to Sahab’s plans to take over the spirit world. The fact that spirits can rid themselves of the disease by purging the infected mana wasn’t a problem, since that would still lower the overall mana in the spirit world. But the plan would all be ruined if a genuine cure was found.”
A cure for Ghostdemon sickness...
“You mean...!”
I gasped and I looked down at the girl clinging to my waist—Mio.
“The Ghostdemon sickness was probably made to magically inform the Sahab family when someone with Ghostdemon sickness was cured unnaturally.”
In other words, there was a magic alarm on it...
But Corona seemed to be slightly off. She’d said “when someone with Ghostdemon sickness was cured,” and based on what I knew, it couldn’t be just anyone. More specifically, it had to be a spirit or fairy. Corona didn’t know it, but last time, her Ghostdemon sickness was healed by Mio’s song, and that hadn’t set off a war.
What the main reason for that was—whether demons just didn’t count, or if the alarm was only triggered on denizens of the spirit world—I wasn’t sure, but that didn’t matter right now. The problem was that this time, the Demon King of Sahab had realized something was up, and had started a war as a result. So now the clock was counting down to that as well as our deadline to meet up with Nartessia. Honestly, this was the worst possible situation.
“I understand your story so far. However...” the Spirit King said, then gestured to the soldiers around him to prepare an attack.
“What?!”
“Do you have any proof you’re not working with this Sahab Demon King? I will not be convinced so easily without evidence.”
Corona had been sealed in the Ruler’s Dungeon until yesterday. It was literally impossible that she’d been the one to open the door between worlds... is what I wanted to say, but that wasn’t exactly evidence. It’s not like I had anything to prove it. If this went anything like last time, even if we told them we weren’t servants of the Demon King, they wouldn’t believe us.
Just then, a lone soldier came running into the parlor.
“Your Majesty! The western barricade has been breached! Please send reinforcements immediately!”
It seemed this worst-case scenario was only getting worse... We didn’t have time to pick a fight with the Spirit King!
“It... would be difficult for me to give you evidence I haven’t colluded with the Demon King of Sahab here and now. However, I can prove it to you.”
“And how will you do that, exactly?”
“Spirit King, you’re more troubled by the fairies and spirits controlled by Ghostdemon sickness than you are the Demon King’s army right now, no? You don’t want the sickness to spread through your army, and you certainly don’t want to kill your own people. Am I wrong?”
The Spirit King frowned at Corona’s points.
“That’s where this comes in... Rekka, my sword, please.”
“R-Right.”
I handed the Hero’s Sword to Corona. When she unwrapped the cloth around the blade, the spirits started to mutter restlessly.
“That’s...!”
“Since you know what it is, I’ll skip the explanation. My sword has many advantages in a magic battle. It can neutralize, drain, reflect... and even seal magic.”
“Oh...!”
Last time in Windsong Valley, Corona had shot something out of the Hero’s Sword when she swung it at the attacking sylpheeds, neutralizing them harmlessly.
“I’ll use my sword to seal the astral bodies of those affected by Ghostdemon sickness so that they can’t move. Then, Mio can use her song to cure them.”
“...What? A song? What do you mean? Can the Ghostdemon sickness be cured with that?”
Singing didn’t seem to be a part of spirit culture, judging by their clueless expressions. The soldiers all questioned Corona with confused looks on their faces.
“This girl here is Mio. She can cure the Ghostdemon sickness by singing her song.”
I lightly put my hand on her back to get her to step forward, but she clung tightly to my waist and refused to move.
“Your Majesty.... this girl really can cure Ghostdemon sickness.” Lyun, who had been listening silently until now, spoke up.
“Is that true, sylpheed girl?”
“Yes. My sister and I were both saved from the Ghostdemon sickness by her,” Lyun said, placing a hand on her Sophie’s shoulder.
Hearing it directly from another spirit seemed to lend a great deal of credence to Corona’s story. The Spirit King’s serious expression unwound a little.
“I have but one question, Demon King Corona.”
“What is it?”
“As a Demon King that once threatened the spirit world, why are you helping us now?”
“...A fair question. But it’s a long story, and now is not the time.” Corona took a few seconds to find the right words, then continued. “To put it briefly... I simply want to return the favor I owe the previous Spirit King for sparing my life.”
“I see. Then...”
The Spirit King nodded and started to speak, when all of a sudden...
“...Guh!”
A thin, black, needle-like object pierced through the center of his muscular body.
“What?!” everyone gasped.
“To think I’d be hindered by this girl once more...”
An unknown voice echoed through the room, and the black needle in the Spirit King dissipated into smoke that gathered together to form the shape of a skull. When it did, the king collapsed to the floor. Was this smoke the same as the black fog we saw looming over the capital when we arrived? The smoky black skull that took up over half of the room glared at Corona.
“That unpleasant voice... Is that you, Grausam?” Corona asked warily.
The unpleasant voice laughed haughtily as if to confirm her suspicion.
“Hey, who’s Grausam?” I asked.
“The previous head of the Sahab family I mentioned earlier. I’m surprised he’s still alive after so many years.”
“I could say the same about you. I thought for sure you’d have bit the dust after being sealed underground by the Spirit King for hundreds of years. Tch...”
The skull—Grausam—clicked his tongue in distaste. Echoing the sentiment, Corona did the same.
“You’ve sure made some dramatic changes. I recall you looking more like a washed-up old bat in the past.”
“Hmph,” Grausam scoffed. “This is the result of my research.”
“I see your new form didn’t change your personality at all. Now, what did you do to the Spirit King?”
“...So, you’ve seriously taken the spirits’ side, have you? Have you lost your pride as a demon?”
“I’m no benevolent figure myself; I just never liked your prejudiced ways.”
As Corona continued to bicker with Grausam, she signaled for me to stand back.
Things got pretty dire the moment the final boss showed up. There were too many noncombatants on our side. We had to evacuate them while Corona bought us time.
As we gradually inched our way back, Grausam opened his skull mouth again.
“You want to know what I did to the Spirit King? It was nothing fancy. I simply injected the Ghostdemon sickness directly into his astral body.”
“What?!”
So now Grausam had control of the Spirit King?!
“The Spirit King won’t be controlled so easily! Hurry and get Mio before he can...!” Corona cried in a panicked voice.
But Mio’s grip around my waist tightened painfully. Her face was white as a ghost.
“Hey, are you all ri—”
I was trying to ask Mio if she was okay, but before I could finish my sentence...
“I won’t let you!”
Black fog flooded into the room from the window and headed straight for us. Was this stuff controlled by Grausam, too?! It was totally aiming for Mio! Based on the timing of his entrance, there was no doubt he’d overheard that her song could cure Ghostdemon sickness. That had to be was why he was attacking like this.
“I’ll destroy you!” shouted Corona.
“That’s my line,” sneered Grausam.
The spirit soldiers had received the same direct dose of Ghostdemon sickness the king had and attacked Corona, who was brandishing the Hero’s Sword.
“Tch!”
She sliced through the spirit soldiers’ magic, but their constant stream of attacks kept her pinned down. Grausam took that chance to come after us.
“I won’t let you hurt Rekka and the others!”
With a valiant yell, Lea fired a spear of water at Grausam’s skull. The water spear shattered the skull into pieces with a shrill sound, but the black fog immediately regrouped to form the skull again.
“A non-spirit shouldn’t be able to use such strong magic...! But it’s a pity for you that it has no effect on this body!” Grausam roared and used his black fog to attack us from every direction.
“Rekka!”
Ellicia pulled Tsumiki close with one arm and reached out for me with the other.
“Here!”
I grabbed her hand and—realizing what she was trying to do—pushed Mio forward so that Ellicia could grab onto her, too. The next thing I knew, all four of us were sinking through the floor.
“Mio!”
I knew Ellicia’s ability was going to drop us on the floor below, so in order to protect Mio, I held on to her and landed on my back to break her fall... And damned if it didn’t hurt!
“Hurry and get up! We have to run!”
“R-Right!”
My back was killing me, but we’d really be killed if we didn’t run. So the four of us ran for all we were worth until we found a small storeroom to hide in.
“Hahh... hahh... hahh...”
The three of who weren’t used to being so active were completely out of breath from running just that short distance. The only one who seemed to be totally fine was Ellicia, who was used to a rough life in the underworld.
“What about... hahh... Satsuki and Harissa...?”
“I don’t know... but Iris and Lea were there, so they should be fine.”
I sure hoped so. Corona was there, too, and having fewer people to protect should make things easier for her. Ellicia had escaped with the three of us who weren’t much use in a fight. But that didn’t mean we were just going to hide and wait for things to end. We still had something we needed to do.
“Mio.”
When I called her name, she started a bit and shrank to the floor. She was as pale as ever. I really felt bad for asking her to do things in this state, but... there was no other option with things this bad. She had to do it.
“Mio, please... Will you sing?”
“Right... here?”
“No, to the fairies and spirits with Ghostdemon sickness. We have to do something about the Spirit King, too, but first we need to do something about the fairies and spirits being controlled by Grausam.”
“...”
“I’ll have to take you to the front lines. It’ll be quite dangerous, but we’ll protect you... So, please, Mio, will you save everyone and sing?”
Mio didn’t answer. She just hugged her own trembling body. It didn’t seem like she was scared of Grausam or going out onto the battlefield, though...
“Mio.”
I called her name for the third time. But this time, I wasn’t going to ask her to sing. I was going to get to the bottom of her story.
“What happened on the roof?”
She jumped a little again.
“Last time, you told me you were pushed off a roof. In the end, you never recovered your memories of the incident, so I don’t know what caused it... but it’s probably the reason why you want to quit being an idol, isn’t it?”
Tsumiki looked shocked to hear what I said, but Mio only continued to quiver silently. Her memories on the whole were pretty vague last time, but she definitely said that she wanted to quit being the idol MIO. And the reason for that... was also the reason she was so afraid to sing now. This was all a gut feeling, of course, but I had faith in my hunch.
“I... I... After you saved me, we were running through the city in the chaos of the Psychic Hazard.”
Slowly but surely, Mio started to tell her story and recount her memories from two time lines ago.
“There were so many people in the streets, so we entered a building... We went to the roof to try and figure out what was going on.”
Yeah, I could picture that. I’d already seen the way the city looked in the chaotic aftermath of the Psychic Hazard, after all. I wondered what was going through my mind when I looked down on that disaster two time lines ago...
“We’d gotten separated from Tsumiki at the concert hall... You saw her from the roof and said you’d go get her. You asked me to wait for you... And that’s when he came.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know his name. But because of the Psychic Hazard, I could read his heart and I could tell that he was one of my fans. He... asked me who I’d just been with. He probably meant you. I tried to answer, but... before I could, I heard his inner voice...”
“...”
“I had no idea... I had talked to fans before and thought I knew what kind of idol I was, but... I didn’t know my fans looked at me in that way. He didn’t care about my songs at all. He just wanted to do things to me... and I was so, so very scared...”
Mio hid her face behind her knees and recounted the moment tearfully.
“It seemed like he picked up on my fear... And he got really angry... He cornered me on the roof, and then...”
“He pushed you?”
“Yeah...”
“I see...”
What the hell? Why would he push Mio off the roof? Wasn’t he a fan? Didn’t he like her? Why would he want to hurt her? Surely this was ultimately the reason Mio was so terrified of singing. She’d seen the true nature of the people she was singing for.
Reality was always different from fantasy. Yang had a change of heart when he was confronted with the inevitable reality of his friends’ deaths. But when Mio faced the reality of how her fans felt about her during the Psychic Hazard, she’d closed off her heart and shut down.
One thing was clear for sure now. This was the truth of Mio’s story. R had said that Mio succeeded in escaping the Psychic Hazard the second she traveled back in time, but her story was much greater than that. The Psychic Hazard had traumatized her. And since returning to the past didn’t erase her memories, naturally that trauma didn’t disappear, either. Living with that would be the bad ending for Mio’s story that I had to prevent.
But how was I supposed to heal the heart of a little girl who’d been traumatized by the darkness she’d seen in other people? It would’ve been nice if we had a counselor in the group, but it was just me, Tsumiki, and Ellicia. None of us had that kind of expertise. That was why...
“I don’t normally listen to music, and I haven’t been to your concert before... but I think your singing is amazing, Mio. It’s like your voice reaches straight to the heart. This probably sounds corny, but when I heard it, I really thought, ‘Ah, this is what an angel’s voice would sound like.’”
I tried to find the words to express how I really felt. The only way to restore her faith in people was with honesty.
“There’s a power in your song, a power that touches people. I believe that’s why you were able to break through Grausam’s dark magic. Won’t you use that power for everyone? Just like when you healed Corona and Sophie.”
“R-Rekka...” Mio stuttered. “Y-You’re the one that saved me... s-so I can trust you... b-because I know you truly wanted to help me.”
Come to think of it, Mio and I had our hearts connected by the Psychic Hazard two time lines ago. What happened back then was probably why she was clinging to me now. She was relying on me because she’d seen the inside of my heart and knew she could trust me.
“But... not other people... They’re scary... I’ve seen what they’re like on the inside, and even though I can’t read their hearts anymore... I’m terrified because I don’t know what they’re thinking now.”
What should I do? How could I help Mio get back on her feet? I’d gotten caught up in her story, the story of an idol who was too traumatized to sing anymore. But it was her inability to sing and continue as an idol that was causing her misery and despair, right?
If she really wanted to quit being an idol, then she could just quit singing. My Namidare bloodline wouldn’t have gotten me involved. If that was what she wanted to do, then it wouldn’t be a bad ending.
But she clearly wasn’t happy with things as they were. That meant Mio’s happy ending had to be her continuing as an idol. She wanted to keep singing. Now and far, far into the future.
“...Being unable to understand people’s hearts is normal, you know.” After listening to our conversation so far, Ellicia spoke up. “Unless you’re a psychic, of course. People weren’t meant to understand the inner workings of each other’s hearts. So you don’t need to be worried about something you weren’t meant to understand.”
Mio looked up at Ellicia.
“I’ve had my psychic powers since I was born, and I’ve suffered a lot for it. I hated it, too. The suffering you’re going through now, the dark side of people... I’ve seen it all before. People show their bad sides more than they do their good. But that’s natural.”
“That’s... natural?”
“Yes. It’s normal for people to have a dark side. But having a dark side means there’s a light side, and that’s normal, too.”
Mio’s eyes went wide.
“It might be hard to believe in people after you’ve been betrayed. But if the whole world was really that bad, it would have destroyed itself by now. Yang wouldn’t have had to lift a finger.” Ellicia softly patted Mio on the head as she continued. “You believe in Rekka, right?”
“...Yes.”
“Then how about you try believing that there are still other people like him in the world? You’ve been around a lot of people as an idol, right? Do you think each and every one of those fans wanted to hurt you?”
“...”
“U-Um...!” Tsumiki cut in. “I-I’ve always been a fan of MIO. I heard your debut song on the radio and thought it was amazing that you were the same age as me, so I’ve always looked up to you until now, and... and...”
“Tsumiki, calm down.”
I patted Tsumiki’s back as she started to stumble over her words.
“Shut up! I am calm!”
Tsumiki slapped my hand away and took a deep breath before looking straight at Mio and continuing.
“I just want you to know that you have fans like me who have always liked you for your singing! Sure, there are some people who act rudely at concerts... but not all of them are bad!”
She grabbed Mio’s hand with both of hers and squeezed it, desperately trying to get through to her. To get her to believe.
“Mio...” I called out to the cowering girl once more. “Why did you want to become an idol, Mio?”
“Because I loved to sing... and... because I wanted to shine. I wanted to be as brilliant as the idols I saw on TV. That was my dream.”
Mio’s words came tumbling out. I listened intently to what she had to say.
“Because of the Psychic Hazard, you saw people’s true selves. And it was a disappointment. It was different from what you imagined it would be.”
“...Yeah...”
“But not all of your fans are like that, right? There are more fans like Tsumiki who really love MIO and MIO’s music.”
“Yeah...”
“I said this at the start, but I’ll say it again. There’s a power in your singing. Even if someone wasn’t interested in your singing... On the off chance that someone like that actually existed, your voice would draw them in anyway!”
I clenched my hand into a fist to emphasize my point.
“Do you really think so...?”
“If it’s you, Mio, then yes! With your singing, you’ll shine as brilliantly as anyone! I guarantee it!”
Mio’s eyes widened as she placed a hand gently over her chest. I must have struck a chord in the heart that lay just beneath her hand. And the beat of that heart would drive her and her dream forward. She had the power to climb to the top of the idol world once, so she definitely had the strength to get back on her feet now.
“I... I want to sing. I want to sing more. More and more,” Mio muttered under her breath as if reassuring herself. She then looked at me and said, “And... if it’s possible, I’d like you to be my audience again.”
“You bet I’ll be there to see you shining on stage.”
But in order to do that, we first had to return to Earth. And Mio knew what she’d have to do to make that happen. She took my hand and stood up, then nodded.
“Now, let’s go release those fairies and spirits. We’ll use Ellicia’s ability to pass through the wall and get outside, then...”
I got interrupted.
“...I found you!”
All four of us whipped around at the sound of the unwelcome voice and saw black fog seeping into the room from the doorway. We’d been discovered by Grausam!
“Everyone, this way!” Ellicia yelled.
We all grabbed on to her hands and waist to move through the wall to the next room.
“Not so fast!”
However, our enemy was persistent, and the black fog appeared no matter where we went. The parlor where we met the Spirit King was on the fifth or sixth floor. We could still flee down a few floors, but that tactic no longer had any element of surprise.
“Maybe we should just get to the ground floor and leave the palace!” I suggested.
“But he’d catch us instantly if we ran out in the open! I can’t do anything against fog with my power!” Ellicia responded.
She had a point. I couldn’t do anything against it, either. If we could meet up with Lea or Corona or even Iris, we might have a chance. But it seemed like running was our only option for the time being... Wait, what was up with the floating sensation I was feeling? It was like... there was no floor under my feet?!
“Oh, crap!” exclaimed Ellicia in a panic.
I glanced down, and yup... Sure enough, I saw empty space.
“W-We’re falling!”
Had we accidentally left the building while we were running around? As that thought crossed my mind, we continued to fall further and further... W-W-Wasn’t there anything we could do?!
“Guh!”
I held my arm out and stuck it through the wall of the building using Ellicia’s power.
“Ellicia! Turn off your wall walking ability!”
“What are you gonna do?!”
“If you turn it off now, my arm will be stuck in the wall! We’ll stop falling!”
“You’d have to support the weight of four people all at once! Rekka, that could rip your arm off at this speed!”
“At least it’ll slow us down! It’d be better than slamming into the ground like this!”
“...!”
Ellicia’s face twisted in distress.
“Hurry...!”
I was yelling for her to make a decision, when...
“Wind guardian, heed my call!”
I heard a girl’s voice from somewhere above my head. The next moment, the four of us were enclosed in a cage of wind and lifted into the air, instantly stopping our fall.
“Nammy!”
This unique nickname was...!
“Lyun!”
“What are you doing?! You can’t even fly!”
Lyun just yelled at me as she and Sophie used their spirit magic to carry the four of us to safety.
“Lyun! Mio’s going to sing to the fairies and spirits! Head towards the battlefield!”
“Oh! Got it!”
Lyun and Sophie redirected us west, the direction of the barricade that had been broken through. We’d start from there, and...
“I won’t let you!”
We weren’t the only ones on the move.
“Grausam!”
I looked up overhead. The skull made of black fog was floating above us.
“I’ll shoot you out of the sky!”
Two dark splinters coalesced out of the black fog and went flying at Lyun and Sophie. It looked like the same attack that had gotten the Spirit King earlier! If that hit the sylpheed girls, they’d immediately fall to the Ghostdemon sickness. They’d be unable to move... which meant the rest of us would fall!
“Ugh...!”
Lyun and Sophie tried to dodge Grausam’s attack the best they could, but they couldn’t change directions easily while carrying us with their spirit magic. The splinters were about to hit the girls, but a blade-like projectile came flying from the side and deflected them.
“Bwuh?!”
“I’m not going to just stand by and let you hurt them.”
Tapping the Hero’s Sword’s against one shoulder, Corona—the one who shot the projectiles—flew towards us. Apparently she could use flight magic, too.
“Where’s everybody else, Corona?!”
“Calm down. They’re just over there.”
I looked in the direction she was pointing to see Satsuki and Lea flying over to us, too. Harissa was clinging to Lea’s back, and Iris was jumping from roof to roof towards us.
“I’m glad you’re all safe.”
“It’s all thanks to Lea and Corona protecting us,” said Satsuki.
“Hey, make sure you tell Rekka about what I did, too!” Iris objected from below.
At any rate, I was really glad they were safe.
“What happened to the Spirit King?”
“We left him behind,” answered Corona.
“You left him behind?!”
“There was nothing we could do at the time. If I tried to excise the tainted mana with my sword, I would’ve cut his entire astral body. I considered sealing him instead, but that would have left him vulnerable to being injected with more dark magic, which would have made more trouble for us. You see, when an astral body is sealed, its ability to recognize and resist the Ghostdemon sickness is sealed, too. So we have to do something about Grausam before the Spirit King falls completely to Ghostdemon sickness.”
Corona glared up at the skull in the sky.
“Hmph... I suppose this is easier than chasing you all over the place. I can crush you right here instead.”
“That’s my line, Grausam.”
Corona smirked and raised the Hero’s Sword with both hands, building up energy.
“You shouldn’t have let us escape outside. Now that you’re in the sky, I don’t have to worry about my surroundings anymore.”
“You...!” Grausam seemed to realize something as he let out a great roar.
“Too late!”
But before he could do anything, Corona swung the Hero’s Sword. The blade shot out something larger than ever before. It flew towards Grausam, cleanly cutting right through the looming back fog.
“GYAAAAAAAAAH!”
A third of the black fog dissipated in that one attack.
“Did that do it?” I asked.
“No. I did some damage, but it wasn’t enough to reach his true form.”
“His true form?”
“You could also call it the core, or his weak point. He’s cast aside his restrictive physical form and taken up a half-magical one instead. That’s why my sword is effective against him, but... we still have to reach his core to fully defeat him.”
There was less fog now, though upon closer inspection, it didn’t seem any weaker than before. We hadn’t really defeated Grausam yet. But he was reeling from Corona’s attack. At least for the moment, he’d stopped attacking us.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to get Mio to sing, but we don’t have time to go around the whole battlefield.”
Corona swept her gaze over the capital. From the air, we could see there were battles breaking out all over the place.
“You can leave that to me!” Lyun interjected.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“We’ll use the wind to carry Mio’s song to everyone!”
“You can do that?!”
“Sure can. But we can’t keep you and the others afloat at the same time, Nammy, so we’ll have to put you down.”
“All right.”
Lyun then lowered us onto the roof of a nearby building.
“Wah!”
Incapable of flight, Tsumiki and I clung to the roof and struggled to find stable footing.
Our vantage point was a lot lower than before, but there were even fights breaking out in the sky between spirits and demons that could fly. We could still see plenty of them from where we were.
The spirits were putting up a fairly good fight against the demons, but they were helpless against their own kind that had been taken over by the Ghostdemon sickness. All they could do was try and shake them by flying in circles. If they succeeded in shaking them, they would launch counterattacks against the demons, but it didn’t work every time. Sometimes they weren’t able to get away, or they were being picked off by the demons as they flew in circles.
“Sophie and I will use our wind magic to project Mio’s song all across the capital. Sophie! I’ll take the east and south. You take the west and north!”
“Okay, Sis!”
The sylpheed sisters nodded at each other and closed their eyes at the same time.
“Great wind, reach the beyond!”
“Great wind, reach the beyond!”
They chanted the same spell together, and when they did, a soft wind spread out from them like a ripple. That wind would carry Mio’s voice to everyone!
“Mio, please!”
“Okay.”
Mio took a deep breath...
“Not far away, not behind me, what’s in front of me is...”
And she softly began to sing.
It was a song called “The Day Before the Future.” Mio’s beautiful voice conveyed the painful feelings of a girl who was suddenly separated from the person she loved. The girl didn’t know where they’d gone, and she didn’t know if they’d ever meet again. But the girl sang for her love anyway. It was a prayer to see her beloved again, a song of hope for the future.
And because we cherish the present out of hope for the future...
Mio sang. Her voice rang out through the battlefield. And then...
“Look! The spirits who were being controlled are falling.”
I squinted in the direction Iris was pointing to see several shadows falling from the sky. Since they were all species that could fly naturally, they tumbled gently like feathers to the ground.
Mio’s song seemed to take effect much faster than last time, most likely because she was singing with purpose now. Right now, Mio was singing to save the spirits and fairies. Those feelings gave her song greater power, and her voice reached the hearts of all who listened.
“Okay, now the spirit army only needs to contend with the demons. Their fight should be a lot easier,” Corona said with a nod.
That was one less worry, but...
“Curse you! Now you’ve done it...”
A voice deeper than the pits of hell descended from on high, ironically. I looked up to see the sky above the capital cleared of the black fog that had covered it before. In its place, a large mass had formed in the shape of an enormous floating skull. It was almost as massive as the World Tree.
The skull wasn’t made from the black fog, but blue flames. Its eye sockets glowed eerily white as flames billowed out from their corners. Flames also fanned out of its mouth like it was breathing, but the flames had no smoke and simply dissipated into space. Underneath the skull was a heavily distorted spine, lined with over a hundred centipede-like legs that wriggled with a grating screech.
“So, you’ve finally shown yourself, Grausam.”
“Silence, Zaia Gardendos Corona.” Flames spewed out of the mouth of the skull as the unpleasant voice continued. “You’ve foiled my plans once again. If you hadn’t ended the war last time, this world would have been mine by now.”
“And you wanted my territory on top of that? Hmph, seems like I was right to end the war.”
Corona adjusted her grip on the Hero’s Sword.
“Lea, was it? Can you still fight?”
“No problem.”
“Rekka, what about you?”
“I want to fight, but I can’t...”
While I had the will, I had no way.
“Is that so? Then... Harissa.”
“Y-Yes?”
Harissa started when she suddenly heard her name.
“If you’re a summoner, you should know how to create spirit armor, right?”
“Huh? I-I do...”
“Then use it on Lyun and Rekka.”
“H-Huh?! U-Um...”
“I’m counting you.”
After hastily giving her orders, Corona rose into the sky with Lea at her side. She went straight to crossing swords with Grausam.
“Nguuuh!”
Grausam shouted as he activated his magic. There were at least several dozen spells, as far as I could see. Each and every one of them took a different trajectory as they came at Corona.
“No matter how well your sword can cut magical energy, you still need to swing it. Let’s just see you try and cut down all of my magic at once!”
“Tch!”
Corona deflected the attacks with the Hero’s Sword, but she couldn’t get any closer to Grausam while she was under constant fire. And neither could Lea, though the barrage seemed slightly less intense on Lea’s side. It was probably because Grausam was focused on the Hero’s Sword, but it might have also meant that his magic was limited. We’d need numbers to get the upper hand here...
“Harissa! What exactly is spirit armor? Could I fight if I had that?” I asked with a sense of urgency.
“Um... Spirit armor is a type of applied magic, a subset of summoning magic. It allows a human to equip a spirit, to become one with them and gain their power. That’s how the spell works.”
“Become one with a spirit...?”
Corona had told her to cast it on me and Lyun, so did she want us to merge together and fight? But that was... I turned to look at Lyun. We made eye contact, but neither of us said a word.
Harissa and I both knew that spirits hated being used by humans. Could we really ask Lyun to let us cast this spell on her? Wouldn’t we basically just be using her? As I pondered the details...
“What are you waiting for? Hurry up and do it,” said Lyun.
“Huh?” I involuntarily and dumbfoundedly exclaimed at Lyun’s sudden and unexpected declaration.
“I don’t want to be used by an Aburaamian summoner, either, but... this isn’t the time to be worrying about that, right? The fate of my world is on the line,” Lyun blurted out in a rush. She then looked at Harissa. “I always thought the worst of humans because they forcefully summoned us and used us as they pleased.”
“That’s... um...”
“But now you’re fighting to save our world.”
Harissa looked up at Lyun when she said that, and the wind spirit’s expression softened.
“If there were more humans like you out there... then maybe if spirits and humans sat down and talked it out properly, we’d be able to understand each other.”
“Oh...”
“But right now, our world is in big trouble! We’ll save the talking for later... So, please, mage of Aburaamu, lend us your power!” Lyun bowed her head deeply at Harissa.
“Okay! I understand!”
Harissa rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, then braced herself.
“Sir Rekka, please come over here!”
I did as I was told and stood next to Lyun.
“Here we go! Spirit armor! Mudara Waffe!”
“Whoa...!”
White light flowed out of the end of Harissa’s staff, enveloping me and Lyun. The next time I opened my eyes, the sylpheed standing next to me had disappeared. In her place, there was a wind wrapping around me. Not only that, but my ankles and chest were covered in greenish armor. I even had huge pauldrons and gauntlets... It was like armor made out of wind!
“Is this... Lyun’s magic?”
Looking closely, the wind armor was emitting a green light. It seemed Lyun’s magic was a grass green color, similar to how Satsuki’s was blue and Harissa’s was white.
“Hey, don’t space out.”
“L-Lyun?”
It was kind of strange to hear her voice directly in my head. It was like we were sharing the same body. But, wow... I could feel the flow of the wind in my fingertips. This had to be one of the sylpheed’s abilities. It felt like I could control the wind freely in this state. Spirit armor wasn’t half bad!
“All right, now I can fight! Satsuki.”
“What?”
“Corona said Grausam had a core, a weak point. Can you find out what that is with your Magic of Omniscience?”
“I’m on it!”
“I’ll have Lea connect me to you telepathically later. Iris and Ellicia, please protect everyone here.”
“Leave it to me!”
“Yeah, I can manage that.”
Once Iris and Ellicia agreed, I prepared myself to take off.... when suddenly, Tsumiki stopped me.
“Wait! Give this to Lea!”
Tsumiki handed me a container filled with dark matter. Come to think of it, she’d been carrying it with her all this time.
“I forgot about this! Now Lea can use as much power as she wants. Thanks!”
“Enough of that! Get out of here already!”
“Right!”
With everyone’s encouragement behind me, I wrapped the wind around my body and leaped into the sky. I had flown with wings before, but using a spirit’s wind magic to fly was completely different. Mostly thanks to Lyun’s support, I could move around pretty freely.
“...Hm?”
Grausam noticed me as I was ascending. Several boomerang-shaped black blades came flying my way.
“I’m gonna dodge those! Don’t move, Rekka!”
Lyun gave me a mental warning, then proceeded to evade each boomerang with my body. It seemed like the spirit armor state allowed her to control my body, too. Lyun was more used to the sensation of flying than I was, so I left all the evading to her as I charged straight towards Lea.
“Lea! Take this!”
“Hm...? Oh, this will be helpful.”
Lea took the dark matter and went to gobble it down immediately.
“Wait, hold it!”
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
“Corona and I will distract Grausam. Wait for the right moment to replenish your energy, then get him when his guard’s down!”
“Oh, I see. Roger that.”
“I’m counting on you! Also, connect us all with your telepathy! I’m having Satsuki search for his weak point right now.”
Leaving her with those brief instructions, I took off. I charged with Lyun into the barrage of dark magic.
“Hey, can I use magic, too?”
“Sure, just imagine something good!”
“Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation!”
I had no choice but to try. Erm, imagine something good...? Like shooting a wind bullet? I held the palm of my gauntlet towards the dark spears flying my way and shouted.
“Fire!”
A whirlwind-like blade flew out and deflected the incoming attacks.
“Huh, I guess it worked!”
Thank goodness this spirit magic didn’t have any chants or spells...
“Rekka, can you hear me?”
“Hm? Is that you, Satsuki? I can hear you loud and clear!”
Lea had connected everyone together with her telepathy.
“Lea and Corona, I need your attention, too. I’ve found Grausam’s weak point.”
“Where is it?” I asked mentally.
“Can you see the thing that looks like a symbol on the forehead of the skull? There’s a small jewel in the middle of it. That’s the core.”
The middle of its forehead? If I strained my eyes, I could just make out three round symbols on its forehead. There was a blue jewel shining in the middle of the design.
“Corona and I will distract him. Lea, use that chance to change into your Leviathan form and launch an all-out attack.”
“Got it.”
With that sufficing as our strategy meeting, I went to the right of Grausam, and Corona went to the left.
“Raaargh!”
With a yell, I shot wind bullets in every direction.
“Whoa! That was close!”
“What are you doing?!”
I was so focused on trying to distract our opponent that I nearly let his dark magic hit me. Thankfully, Lyun had used her control over my body and her powers of flight to dodge it. Phew.
“Gah! How annoying!”
Grausam’s irritated voice echoed through the air, but he never relented on Corona and her sword. He was attacking Corona and Lea easily three, four, or even five times as much as me. I would’ve liked a little more of his attention, but that didn’t matter! What was important was keeping him unaware of Lea’s true strength.
“I’m gonna take this chance!”
Corona called to me and Lea telepathically, then recklessly barreled right into the next oncoming barrage of Grausam’s attacks.
“Nugh?!”
The white light shining out of the skull’s eye sockets flared brightly. And then...
“Gyaaaoooh!”
Recharged with dark matter, Lea unleashed all her power at once and transformed into a giant white snake.
“What?!”
Grausam was shocked by the sudden appearance of Leviathan.
“Gyaaaah!”
Lea gathered all the water from the rivers and reservoirs in the nearby water spirit areas and brought it to her. She then turned the torrent of water into a raging stream directed at Grausam.
“Nguuuooohhh?!”
One beat too late, dark flames like the fires of hell gathered in the mouth of the skull. Grausam launched them right at Lea’s stream of water, and their magics collided head-on.
“Ugh...!”
“The aftershock is causing a lot of turbulence! I can’t get any closer!”
Lyun wasn’t kidding. We’d had a smooth flight thus far, but this was rough. The fierce magic of both parties colliding unleashed enough energy to shake the very air.
“Lea...!”
As expected of a Demon King, Grausam showed power on par with a Lea powered up by dark matter.
“Guh... Hrrngh...”
But he’d been caught off guard, which gave Lea the upper hand. We could push forward like this! Or so I thought... Just then, a huge cluster of light came flying from a completely different direction and hit Lea dead-on.
“Gyaaaaah!”
The white snake screamed out as Lea’s thoughts were conveyed to us telepathically.
“Tch! What now?!”
The interference just now had thrown off Lea’s water magic, allowing Grausam’s dark magic to blast both spells away simultaneously. I turned to see where the light had come from... and gasped in shock at what I saw.
“The Spirit King...”
There in the sky overhead hovered none other than the Spirit King. We’d last seen him when he fell to Grausam’s Ghostdemon sickness in the palace, which meant...
“The Spirit King’s mind is being controlled by Grausam!”
“That can’t be!” Lyun screamed in my head.
I could hardly believe it, either. Our already bad situation was just getting worse.
“Fwahahaha! Too bad for you!” Grausam cackled.
But...
“I was waiting for you to let your guard down!”
Corona had snuck into Grausam’s blind spot and was lying in wait directly above him. She held the Hero’s Sword in a backhand grip and, the moment the opportunity presented itself, she thrust the blade into his weak point—the blue jewel on the skull’s forehead.
“G-Gaaaaah!” he shrieked in agony.
Corona had the Hero’s Sword buried halfway into the skull, when...
“What? It’s stuck?!”
I could hear her confused voice through our telepathic connection.
“Don’t you daaaaare!”
Grausam shouted out as he attacked Corona with the twisted bones along his spine that I had mistaken for legs earlier. Each one of the hundred or more spikes dwarfed her in size and mass, and they came whipping around at her all at once.
“Guh!”
Corona held up both of her arms to defend herself against the attack, but taking the blow directly still knocked her off the skull. To make things worse...
Ka-chink!
The Hero’s Sword had been hit, too, and it snapped clean off at the hilt.
“The Hero’s Sword... broke?!”
So, not even the Hero’s Sword—which could cut through magical power of all kinds—could withstand an intense blow to the side of the blade?!
“Curse you!” Corona shouted.
She was able to regain her balance midair after being knocked off, but the hilt of the Hero’s Sword fell to the ground. Its blade remained buried in Grausam’s forehead.
Her surprise attack was our only hope... Now we’d lost everything. And to make matters worse, the unharmed Grausam was still controlling the Spirit King somehow.
“Spirit King, you...!”
Corona was glaring in disgust at the zombie king floating next to the skull.
“Heh heh heh, I was a little worried when you wrested control of those fairies and spirits from me, but that just left me with all the more dark magic to pour into the Spirit King instead.”
So, he was using all the power he had on thousands of fairies and spirits... just on the Spirit King? No wonder Mio’s singing hadn’t worked on him. Maybe we could cure him if Lyun and Sophie focused all of Mio’s singing power directly on the Spirit King, but there was no way Grausam would let us get away with that.
“Leveling my new land leaves a bad taste in my mouth... but I have no choice.”
Grausam sighed as though his victory was a foregone conclusion at this point. He and the Spirit King then both started to prepare their respective spells. Were they going to fire that at the city together?!
“Lea!”
“I know!”
Corona and Lea quickly called to each other and moved into the trajectory of the incoming spells.
“Die!” Grausam roared.
“As if!” Corona roared right back.
Corona’s dark magic met the Spirit King’s light magic, while Lea’s water magic met Grausam’s dark magic.
“Uwah!”
“Kyah!”
Shock waves several times stronger than before hit me, causing me to lose control of my flight powers and fall out of the air.
“Take this!”
Lyun managed to create a cushion of wind to soften my landing just before I crashed into the ground. Thanks to her, I was unharmed, but...
“Lyun, can we still fly?”
“It’s impossible... We can’t get close to Grausam, much less fight him.”
“Damn it!”
A curse spilled from my mouth. Corona and Lea were doing their best, but the shock wave had affected them, too, and they were getting pushed back. Was there nothing I could do but watch...? I chewed at my lip.
“Sir Rekka!”
“Rekka!”
Just then, Harissa and others moved from the roof and ran over to me.
“Satsuki... is there any way I can get closer to them?”
“...”
My all-knowing childhood friend was silent.
“Um... Sir Rekka...”
Harissa called my name and hesitantly offered something to me. It was the hilt of the broken Hero’s Sword.
“I picked it up after it fell. Maybe... you could use it...?”
“...”
I was the silent one now. The Hero’s Sword was broken. Even if it wasn’t, I couldn’t imagine myself being able to stab the sword through Grausam’s jewel when Corona couldn’t do it.
“Guh... gwah!”
“Aaaaahhh!”
I could hear Lea and Corona’s pained screams even from a distance. Was... Was there really nothing I could do? Think. Come on, think!
What would happen to the spirit world if it all ended here? Grausam would overrun the place and destroy everything. Not even Corona would escape it unscathed. And what about Mio, who came to me from the future to be saved? Or Yang and Ellicia, who’d given up their revenge and left the organization in my hands?
“Tch...!”
Considering everyone who was relying on me, I couldn’t give up! I had to fight it out to the bitter end! But what was I supposed to do? What else could I do? I had to think... Think things all over from the top... How could I protect the spirit world, go to Aburaamu, and return to Earth...?
“Return... to Earth...?”
That’s right! We could still do that! But the number of times we could do it... No, wait! The difference between this time and last time... R had warned me about changing the past, but that was exactly what gave us hope right now! Hmm... But we still didn’t have a way of destroying Grausam’s weak point...
“Rekka? What’s wrong?” Ellicia asked me from behind.
“Ellicia... Oh!”
Her worried voice gave me the answer I needed! The last piece to the puzzle!
“Harissa! Ellicia! There’s no time to explain! Please do as I say!”
I explained the new plan to the two of them.
“Don’t worry. That should be possible,” said Ellicia.
“I’ll get ready right away!” said Harissa.
“All right!”
And the three of us immediately got to work.
▽
It didn’t take long to get everything ready, but we were desperately short on time. Corona and Lea were being driven back and could be crushed at any moment. The two of them were holding on as best they could.
“Lea! Corona! Keep it up for a little longer! We’ve got a plan!”
“What are you going to do...?” Corona asked.
Even her telepathic voice in my head told me how worn out she was. They were likely at their limits.
“Watch this!” I declared. “Harissa!”
After sending a few words of encouragement to our two front-liners, I turned to Harissa and gave the sign.
“Here I go! Eclena Cashu!”
With the last word of her chant, the connection magic activated with a flash of white light.
The last time we came to the spirit world, one of the catalysts Harissa had for connection magic had already been used up. She’d had three to begin with, and she’d expended one as a test to make sure the magic was working correctly. The second one was used after that experiment to get us to the spirit world, and the remaining catalyst was used to cross over to Aburaamu.
But this time, I was in such a hurry that I’d stopped Harissa from doing her test. Thanks to that, we now had an extra catalyst with us, which meant an extra use of the connection magic. And we used it on the hilt of the Hero’s Sword. The Hero’s Sword belonged to Corona, but what would happen if we used the connection magic on just the broken hilt of the sword? Would it still go to Corona? No, it shouldn’t! Because...
“?!”
As the magical white light faded, we were in the air... right in front of Grausam’s forehead where the blade of the Hero’s Sword was!
That was the trick. The broken hilt had a strong connection to its maker and its wielder, sure. But it had a much, much stronger connection to something else—the blade itself! After all, the two of them were meant to be one.
“Lyun!” I shouted.
“Leave it to me!”
Lyun did her best to control the wind blowing all over the place by the force of the fierce, colliding spells around us, and she brought us closer to Grausam’s forehead.
“Gwuh?! When did you lot get there?!”
Grausam, who had been totally focused on casting spells, finally noticed our presence. He tried to smack us down just like had with Corona earlier, but...
“Gyoooaaah!”
Targeting Grausam the moment he was distracted, Lea poured all of her remaining magic into an attack to blow away his dark magic.
“What?!”
In a panic, Grausam tried to repel Lea’s tsunami. Thanks to that, he lost his chance to knock us out of the air. Now there was no way he would get to the Hero’s Sword before me. However...
“Ha! You clearly inferior races won’t be able to destroy my core no matter how much you struggle! Not when she couldn’t even do it!” Grausam cackled evilly.
Not even Corona the Demon King could smash through the gem before the Hero’s Sword broke. Grausam had probably strengthened his only weakness as much as possible. There was no way a normal human like me had the strength.
Yeah, that much was true. It was impossible for a normal human—but what about an abnormal one?
“Ellicia!”
When I called out to her, Ellicia activated her wall walking ability, passing the power onto me through direct contact.
One of the interesting things about her power was that it didn’t just affect living creatures. If that were the case, then my clothes and shoes—or the pouch at Ellicia’s waist, for example—wouldn’t come with us. That meant her wall walking power also worked on anything we were holding.
In other words, if I held the blade of the Hero’s Sword in my hands, then it could pass through anything, no matter how tough or hard it was!
“What?!” Grausam yelled in surprise.
“Okay, Ellicia, that’s enough!”
Ellicia then powered down her ability. When she did, the blade of the Hero’s Sword—which I’d just pushed the rest of the way into Grausam’s forehead—returned to its physical form, cracking the blue jewel down the middle like a wedge. With a little push, the sword split it clean in two.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
With his core destroyed, Grausam let out a horrific yell as the blue flames and black fog that made up his body started to dissipate. I thought he would melt away just like that, but then...
“S-S-S-Spirit King! Destroy theeem!”
The Demon King was stubborn and refused to give up until the very end. Under Grausam’s control, the Spirit King redirected the light magic he was using on Corona to us instead.
“Lea! Connect the Spirit King with your telepathy!” Corona yelled out psychically before he could attack.
Lea complied, and then Corona turned her words on the Spirit King himself.
“How long are you going to be controlled, you coward?! Your father was tougher than that, you know!”
Immediately, the Spirit King froze. It was as though he was offended at being called a coward, however, rather than seeming like he was resisting Grausam’s dark magic.
“Gu... Guooh...”
But it was enough. Before the Spirit King could fire his light magic at us, Grausam’s body completely fell apart. His spiny bones and skull burst into a cloud of tiny fragments and blew away in the wind.