Chapter 6: How We Fight When We’re Powerless

After we finished our preparatory measures on the surface, we made for Jizu Village at top speed.

We didn’t go straight through the hole because I needed something from Jizu Village for my plan to work. So while it meant taking the long route, first we were going to head underground, then make our way through the door in the Hall of Sealing.

We had one small advantage. Even if a few hours had passed here in reality, it would have only been a few minutes on the fake Earth there.

But if I wanted to save Lea, I still needed to get to Jizu Village ASAP. That much was obvious, but...

“Iris, watch out! You’re scaring me! I just brushed against something! Try to be careful!” I screamed as I clung to Iris’s back.

“But you’re in a hurry, right, Rekka?”

“Hurry safely, please!”

“Okay, Rekka. Just hold me tighter. Then it’ll be a little safer,” Iris cooed in a sweet voice as she rubbed her cheek against mine.

“Aaah! Iris! Please watch where you’re going while you’re running!”

Tetra, the other girl with us, was in tears. She had her head buried in Iris’s chest, which meant that she couldn’t see what was in front of us. It made this little trip that much scarier for her.

I wished I could take her place, but... You know, as a guy, I couldn’t go burying my face in Iris’s chest, now could I? If I had, Satsuki and the others would have wrung my neck before we even left.

“It’s fine! I’ve even got a light.”

Iris, however, didn’t sound concerned at all.

She was a Fineritan, meaning she had physical powers several times that of a human. She was carrying both me and Tetra, as well as a light she’d grabbed from her spaceship. Even so, running full tilt down the treacherous underground path didn’t faze her at all.

I was glad she was there.

“‘Rekka, you’re hurt! I need to treat you, quick!’ Why not cop a feel while she’s distracted?” Like always, R had come without anybody asking her to. And, like always, she cheerfully recommended sexual harassment. Best to ignore her.

At first I’d thought about using Satsuki’s magic to fly us down to Jizu Village, but I needed her and Harissa to stay behind at Nozomiya to make sure the hole didn’t get any bigger. That was crucial, too.

So the best way to get back was for Iris to carry us, but...

“Gyah! Don’t just jump down!”

“But this way looks faster!”

“Aaaaah!”

I was regretting it just a little.

▽

And now I felt utterly exhausted... But we’d reached the bottom in a third of the time it had taken us before. The way down had been an adrenaline rush unlike any roller coaster. Maybe it was worth it just for that.

Iris and I rested a little in the temple while we waited for Tetra to gather the villagers. I needed their help for my plan, too.

The villagers arrived shortly, all walking in a line behind Tetra.

“This is all of them.”

“Thanks, Tetra.”

The room with the coffin and the statue of the goddess was filled with about fifty men and women. They were all different ages, and they all... looked kind of spaced out.

They were here because they were told to come—that was really the only reason. They were like sleepy students lining up for a morning assembly. Not that I ever listened to what the principal said at assemblies, either...

But right now, I needed their attention.

“Um... First, thank you for coming here on such short notice.”

“......”

Nobody responded to my awkward greeting. I kept talking anyway.

“I think you all know this by now, but the Monster Who Defied God is thrashing around beyond the seal even as we speak. Lea... My friend is holding it back, but that won’t last long.”

“...”

Nobody said a word. Some of them were even so bored they were talking to the person next to them.

“If that monster escapes the seal, it will destroy this world. So please... Lend me your aid. I need your help.” I bowed as low as I could.

But there was still no answer at all.

Did they not believe in me enough? Or was I just bad at explaining things? Whatever it was, this was looking grim.

Tetra had said that whatever was put into the coffin would grow in number endlessly, but the speed at which it grew depended on the number of people praying. And only the people of Jizu Village could use it, which meant that without their help, it was going to take a lot longer to get what I needed to defeat Bahamut.

Just when I opened my mouth to say something else, Tetra stepped forward.

“Tetra?”

“Please leave this to me, Rekka,” she said. Her face tensed up as she turned to the crowd. “Everyone, listen. As of today, we will be relieved of our role as guardians. That means that we will no longer be able to use the miracles of God.”

For the first time, the people began to respond.

She probably meant the mysterious light that illuminated the village, and the coffin that made things multiply infinitely... Without those, Jizu Village was probably doomed.

“How do you know that?!” screamed one of the villagers.

“It’s what I’ve learned from piecing together the legends.”

“That’s a lie!”

“It’s not a lie.”

The villagers were starting to get riled up, but Tetra answered calmly.

“Has anyone here read the old scrolls and books, or investigated the legends more than I have?” That shut them all up. “What I’m telling you is the truth. Today, Rekka is going to defeat the Monster Who Defied God, and we will complete our task as guardians... From now on, we need to find a new way for all of us to live.”

The hall fell silent.

I could tell that everyone was uncertain of how to react to what they just heard. They’d spent their whole lives relying on God’s miracles, and to suddenly have to survive without them... If I were in their shoes, I probably wouldn’t know what to say, either.

“...Then maybe he shouldn’t defeat the monster, right?” Someone whispered.

It might have been what was going through all of their minds, but...

“Shut up!”

Tetra shot the idea down immediately.

“If the Monster comes through that door, our village and the surface will both be destroyed! Weren’t you listening? If you were and you said that anyway, you really are terrible!”

Her raised voice reverberated throughout the room.

“Don’t you all hate this? Does it not bother you to live down here where there’s no pain and no joy? God has decided everything for us until now! Today is our chance to choose!” Her voice was strong as she spoke. “Whatever trouble may befall us, however lazy we’ve become after tens of millions of years... If we work together, we can overcome it. So stand up and fight! Fight the Monster! Fight yourself!”

She spoke from her heart—the heart of a girl who’d always wanted to do something to help the village.

“...What do you want us to do, Tetra?”

They were words only she could have said, and the only words that could move the hearts of the people.

“Thank you, everyone.” Tetra bowed and then turned to me. “Rekka.”

“Yeah.” I nodded and took out the bag that Tsumiki had given me. It was filled with dark matter. “First, I want you to make more of these. And then...”

As I explained the outline of the plan to the villagers, I whispered “thank you” to Tetra. It was because of her that I would have everything I needed to fight.

The rest was up to me.

▽

The three of us were standing in the fake temple on the fake Earth. It was the second time for me and Tetra, and the first time for Iris.

“Okay, make SURE you stay hidden. Got it?”

“Got it.”

I insisted again, after already having done so many times, and Tetra nodded. It was the response I wanted, but still, I was worried about her. She hadn’t gotten any real rest for over a day now. Yet that hadn’t stopped her from coming back to the artificial world to witness the conclusion to her story.

“I’d still feel better if you waited in Jizu Village.”

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble. But I want to see this through.”

Tetra was staggering a little, but she wasn’t going to change her mind. I sighed in resignation... just in time to hear a booming noise outside the temple.

“Iris, let’s go!”

“Right, Rekka!”

We started to run.

What we saw when we went outside was truly a sight to behold—a battle that was destroying the world.

Lea in the form of a giant snake, “The Strongest Beast.”

And Bahamut the massive elephant, “The Perfect Beast.”

Each time the two of them collided, the fake Earth howled.

Saying “the world was about to break” was an understatement. Flames, waterspouts, whirlwinds, earthquakes... Pandemonium stretched out before me. And this was all just the aftershock of the two beasts fighting! The sealed world that God had created was already in tatters.

It was clear just from watching it that a normal human like me had no business getting involved at all. And yet here I was.

“Lea...!”

How many minutes had passed here while we were gone? I didn’t know for sure. But she was already a mess. Her wings were torn. Half of one horn was missing. Covered in cuts and bruises, she was bleeding everywhere.

“Tch...!”

I could’ve used the warp watch to get us to Lea instantly, but... it took ten seconds to activate after inputting the coordinates. If Lea moved during that time, we’d be heading straight for the ground.

Instead, I had just the tool!

“Iris, do it!”

“Leave it to me!”

Iris stuck her hand into her bag... and pulled out a flight unit that sat two people. It was originally a vehicle intended for making repairs to the outside of her spaceship, she’d said.

It was hard to keep my balance on it, and all I could do was make it float and climb. That’s why I had Iris pilot it.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t be asking you to do something so dangerous.”

“Don’t worry about it. This time, I was barely able to be with you at all. I’m happy I got to be useful.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Okay, here we go!”

“Right!”

I got on the back of the small craft, which looked like a motorcycle with no tires, and wrapped my arms around Iris’s waist. It silently rose up, then suddenly and forcefully accelerated.

This wasn’t going to be an easy ride. Our path was filled with the whirlwinds, fires, spears of water, and dust storms they were kicking up. There was no end to the forces trying to block our way.

“A-Are you okay? Iris?!”

“I-I’m fine! I can do this! But it’s gonna get rough, so hold on tighter...”

“Wah! Look in front of you! In front!”

Were we really going to be okay?! There went another fireball, right in front of us! I screamed when I saw that it was big enough to swallow us both, but...

“Upsy-daisy!” Iris whistled a little as she dodged it.

I was really impressed. No joking.

“Iris, are you a good driver?”

“I used to be a big tomboy. I would go wherever I wanted in my spaceship, and sometimes I’d go adventuring on dangerous planets. So fireballs and stuff are no big deal.”

If you asked me, she was still a tomboy... but I really was glad to have her along. After that, Iris kept artfully dodging obstacles until we arrived at our destination.

“Here, Rekka. If you speak through this, it’ll make your voice louder.”

“Thanks. Wait, this is really small.”

She had handed me a microphone the size of my fingertip. From Lea’s perspective, we were like fleas right now. Without this, we wouldn’t even be able to talk to her.

“Lea! It’s me! Look over here!”

I held the tiny microphone between my fingers and shouted in her direction. Just then, one of Bahamut’s explosion spells struck her square in the chest.

“Gyaaah!”

“Lea!”

Her huge snake body twisted in the air and fell to the ground. We quickly followed after her.

“GUGYAOOOH!” Bahamut gave a roar that threatened to burst my eardrums.

I couldn’t tell if it was joy that he’d shot down Lea, or whether he’d just gone insane. After all, even when I looked up, only his bottom half fit in my field of vision.

Bahamut had grown even more massive than before. Lea was big, but he was several times bigger. A single step from him would be enough to squash a small mountain or two flat.

From Bahamut’s perspective, I wasn’t even an ant. I was more like a speck of dust.

This was Bahamut, the Perfect Beast. The king of beasts who had once been greater than all the creatures of the earth.

I was sure that not even the armies of the world working together would have stood a chance against him. If there was anything that could, it was...

“Lea!”

It had to be her.

“...Rekka.”

The wounded snake turned its gaze on us.

“Why did you come back? I...”

“We came to save you!” I cut her off as I snatched Iris’s bag out of her hands.

Leviathan was the Strongest Beast, the ruler of the seas. The second king of beasts whose power had once rivaled Bahamut’s.

Even Bahamut had feared her might. So why was she losing so badly now? The answer was obvious: there wasn’t any food here in this world. She’d simply run out of fuel.

And that meant all we had to do was help her recover!

“We’ll talk later! For now, just look up and open your mouth!”

Lea was visibly confused, but did so anyway. I opened the bag and dumped out what was inside—the dark matter that had been multiplied in the temple coffin.

A black waterfall poured from the bag straight into her mouth. It just kept going and going. I’d figured it was best to have as many as possible, so I’d brought as much as I could.

And then Bahamut howled.

It seemed he’d noticed us. He’d responded to the dark matter last time, so maybe that was what did it.

“CQGQQQQQGYYYYY!”

Bahamut raised one of his colossal legs. The shadow cast by a single one of his thick claws turned the area around us from day to night.

Was he going to step on us?! I didn’t even need to ask. That was clearly his intention.

A gigantic leg came thundering down towards us. As the terror of death overwhelmed me, I reflexively shielded Iris. And then there was a roar like two meteors colliding.

I thought that Bahamut’s attack had shattered the ground. But it looked like Iris and I were still alive.

“...Huh?”

I opened my eyes, afraid.

It was then that I realized the huge white snake had coiled itself around us. Lea had protected us from Bahamut’s attack.

“Are you two okay?”

I could hear Lea’s voice in my head.

“Lea! How are you talking to us?”

“Now that I’ve got my power back, telepathy is easy for me.”

“Huh? Wow, this is amazing!”

“This is Tetra... I can hear you guys, too!”

I heard Iris’s and Tetra’s voices after Lea’s. Her telepathy must have connected everyone else’s mind with my own.

“If you have your power back, does that mean you’re okay now?”

“I meant to save you, but instead you saved me again, huh? ...But yes, it’s okay now.”

She pushed back against Bahamut’s leg with all her might. The huge elephant staggered backward and the earth screamed.

“Get on my head. If you’re flying around, you might get caught up in the battle.”

“Okay! Rekka, let’s go!”

The flight unit started to climb again. Once we reached the right altitude, we landed on Lea’s head and stowed the flight unit back in Iris’s bag.

She’d regained her power as the Strongest Beast. Just as the legends said, her body had grown even larger than Bahamut’s. She was big enough to swallow a sea in a single gulp. Her broken horns and her ruined wings had regenerated, and her wounds were healed. There was no trace of the damage she’d suffered earlier.

“I’m glad we made it in time...”

I was so relieved that I almost let my guard down.

When Lea had left us, she truly intended to die. I’d never had to walk away from someone who was willing to do that before. It honestly scared me. And I was really glad I was able to save her.

But her story wasn’t over yet.

“GUFRYOOOOOAAA!”

Bahamut roared, and thousands of flames appeared around him. They all formed into spears the size of skyscrapers, and every last one of them was hurled... in our direction. The fiery bombardment raced straight for us.

But...

“I’m not who I was a moment ago.”

The bolts of flame, which were each big enough to turn a metropolis into a conflagration, were shot down by equally large spears of water that extinguished them.

“Both of you, hang on!” Lea called to us telepathically as she flew high up into the sky.

Bahamut was slow and earthbound. In contrast, Lea’s winding body lashed back and forth in mid-air as she attacked. She slashed at Bahamut’s back with whips made of water, like dozens of Amazon Rivers wound together.

His towering, mountainous body shook from the impact. Bahamut wailed in rage and attacked back with more roaring flames. Lea used a shield of water to block them as she dove towards her foe.

“R-R-R-R-Rekka, a-are w-w-we okay?”

“W-W-We... We... We’re f-f-fine! D-D-Don’t f-fall, Iris!”

“Are you two all right?”

I sent a quick telepathic “we’re good” message back to Tetra.

Iris and I clung tightly to Lea as we watched the clash between the rulers of the beasts. The battle was basically even—but Lea was the more aggressive one. I guess it was partly because magic water was stronger than magic fire or something, but it also seemed that as the Strongest Beast, she was better at attacking than Bahamut was.

But...

“D-Does it look like it’s working?”

“...No.”

Lea had landed direct hit after direct hit on Bahamut, but he wasn’t hurt at all.

“I thought that my attacks weren’t working before because I was still in a weakened state... but maybe this is just the nature of the Perfect Beast.” Lea sounded troubled as she spoke directly into my head.

Perfect: unharmed and whole. If you looked it up in a dictionary, you’d probably see something like that. So did that mean while Lea had stronger offensive capabilities, Bahamut had perfected defenses?

The artificial world was reaching its very real limits.

If Lea and Bahamut didn’t finish their fight, there would be nothing to stop it from spilling out into the outside world. The mole people, the humans on the surface, nature itself—everything would be destroyed. I wouldn’t let that happen!

Our enemy was capable of surviving even Lea’s attacks unscathed. But he didn’t have defensive wards like Messiah, or the ability to neutralize magic like the Demon King. He was taking Lea’s darts of water head-on; they just weren’t harming him.

I’d borrowed the laser gun from Iris, just in case, but there probably wasn’t even a point in trying. All I had left was my trump card.

“Lea, I need a favor. Can you stop him from moving?”

“I think so, but why?”

“I have a plan. If you can pin him down, I’ll jump on his body.”

“That’s dangerous.”

“Of course it is. Now do it.”

“...Why are you doing all this, Rekka?”

“Huh?” I didn’t realize what she was asking at first.

“Rekka, you humans are quite frail, aren’t you? You don’t have mighty bodies like mine. So why are you willing to do all this?”

“Why else?” I didn’t know if she’d be able to tell via telepathy, but I smiled at Lea. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re weak or strong when it comes to protecting what you care about.”

▽

“Hang on tight!”

Lea flew through the sky like a shooting star, leaving a trail of light behind her. She went back and forth from skillfully evading Bahamut’s fireballs to knocking them out of the sky as she closed in on her target.

“Gnnuuh!”

I braved the wall of wind pressing into me as I waited for her to get close enough to Bahamut. And at last, they were close enough for their fangs to reach each other.

“Ggyaaah!”

Lea dodged an attack from the tusks of the raging elephant. Then she slid beneath Bahamut and wrapped herself around him, effectively locking him in place.

“Rekka!”

“Right!”

I stood up and ran across Lea’s head. The top of her head alone was bigger than the track and field area at school. I was completely out of breath by the time I arrived at the edge.

“Doryaaah!”

I slid down it, then jumped the remaining distance to land on Bahamut’s forehead. Next, I retrieved Iris’s space-age medical gun from her bag that I borrowed.

It wasn’t just the dark matter that I’d multiplied in the temple coffin. I’d had all the villagers donate a little blood, and then multiplied that, too.

That’s right. This oversized syringe was filled with the blood of the guardians—Bahamut’s one weakness. All I had to do was inject him, and it would be over!

I wrapped my arms around the medical gun, which was almost as big as I was, and used both arms to pull the trigger... But the needle snapped when it hit Bahamut’s tough hide.

“What?!” I screamed in shock at how naïve I’d been.

I’d assumed that even if Lea couldn’t beat Bahamut, the blood of the guardians would still be enough. But hadn’t we just witnessed his ultimate defenses firsthand? Even if it was the latest in space technology, a tiny little needle wasn’t going to cut it.

I’d screwed up. Big time.

And then Bahamut’s gargantuan trunk came flying at me from the side.

“Aaah!”

From my perspective, it was like a wall rushing at me at high speed. There was nothing I could do as it smacked me into the air and I fell toward the earth.

“Rekka?!” I could hear the girls scream.

But I couldn’t answer. Not only was the damage nearly enough to rip my body to pieces, but I was falling from the equivalent of Earth’s stratosphere.

“......!”

It’s hard to describe the terror of skydiving without a parachute. The pressure alone keeps you from screaming.

I did my best to stop the pain and fear from shutting down my mind.

Something kept hitting my back, and it hurt. I looked to see what it was, and saw Iris’s bag slamming into my back as it flailed in the rushing wind... Of course! I carefully pulled it closer so that the wind wouldn’t blow it away.

The surface had seemed so far away, but now it was close enough that I could see the fake temple.

Hurry, hurry, hurry! Each time I tried to undo the fastener on the bag, the wind pushed it back into place. It was starting to piss me off. The lost time and the quickly approaching ground were bad enough, but my biggest fear was that the wind would rip the bag out of my hands. But carefully... carefully...

I passed by Bahamut’s knees. How much longer before I hit the ground?

Finally, I was able to open the bag. I reached my hand into the wormhole inside. The ground was almost—

“Found it!”

I pulled the flight unit out of the bag. From there I tried gunning the throttle, pulling the levers, and kicking the pedals—whatever I could think of to get it to start.

I was still falling. I couldn’t see anything but dirt. I kicked even harder on the pedal, fighting the urge to cry.

Suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of the engine sucking in air, and the flight unit fought back against gravity to stop my descent.

“Uwah-wah!”

The recoil yanked my hands from the grips and threw my body upward.

“Gweh!”

My back slammed hard against the ground, forcing the air from my lungs.

But I was alive.

“Hahh... Hahh... Hahh...”

Call me a coward if you want. I’m never going bungee jumping.

I looked around, and the flight unit was right next to me. I tried it again. Thankfully it still worked.

My whole body hurt. I felt something slick running down my face. I licked the corner of my mouth and tasted blood. I must’ve split open my cheek.

“Rekka? Rekka?! Are you alive?” I could hear Iris crying. The telepathy was still working, too.

“I’m okay... somehow. What about you?”

“Lea’s grappling him so he can’t crush you. Can you come back up here?”

“...”

I could use the flight unit to regain the elevation, but after that I’d have to risk my life jumping onto Lea’s body. That didn’t bother me.

The problem was that once I’d gotten back up there, nothing would be solved.

“Gufwah fwah fwah!” Suddenly, unpleasant laughter echoed in my head.

I knew it.

“Bahamut? How—”

“Telepathy is a simple skill for a king of beasts, as you know. It’s child’s play for me to intrude on your conversation. Gwahaha!” Bahamut answered Lea’s angry question with a laugh.

“Didn’t you go insane?” This time it was my turn to speak.

“Gyah hyah hyah hyah! Where’d you get that dumb ideaaaaa? If I totally lose my miiiind, how can I enjoy the thrill of destroying thingsssss?”

“That’s insane enough as it is!”

“Hah! Probably from a human perspective, yesssss.” Bahamut laughed. “Rekka Namidare, I know what you’re afffffter! You’re trying to get that Tetra girl’s blood inside my bodyyyyy!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“You little insects don’t have any other hooooope! But you caaaaan’t pierce my skinnnn! Keep it up, and I’ll step on yooooouuu!”

Damn it. He’d guessed my plan.

“I won’t let that happen,” Lea growled at Bahamut.

“Feh! Gwahahaha!” But he just laughed again. “Why do you think I’m wasting time talking about this?”

“—?!”

A dreadful chill shot up my spine as I finally realized what was around me. It was warm and bright—but we were supposed to be in the artificial world where there was only a dim light. I looked up to the sky.

There was a fireball above us so big it blocked out the whole sky.

“This is my ultimate spell, ‘Celestial Sphere of Inferno.’ What do you think, Leviathan? While you slept away all these millennia, I’m now perfect—and the strongest!”

“What?!”

I could sense Lea’s panic in her thoughts. Enough to know she couldn’t defend against this spell.

“It’s almost ready. It’s going to incinerate everything inside the seal, so there’s nowhere to run! Gwahahaha!”

“GUHYAAAAAOOOU!”

His mocking telepathic messages overlapped with the roar he let out as the crimson sun grew even brighter. It was like the burning sky was falling to the earth...

And with Bahamut’s perfect defenses, he’d probably walk away no worse for wear.

So what about us?!

“Tetra, run into the back of the temple!”

It was all I could do to scream telepathically. There was just no hope. Even if we could protect ourselves somehow, the seal wouldn’t withstand something like that. We wouldn’t be able to protect the world outside.

For a moment, utter despair sank into me.

But...

“Wait! Lea?!” Iris yelled as Lea started to move.

I saw a blue sphere fly from Lea’s head. It was a thin capsule made of water, and I could see Iris inside of it.

After sending Iris to safety, Lea let out a roar that shook heaven and earth.

And all the seas of the artificial world answered her call. Hundreds of torrents rose up from the seas and flew toward the Celestial Sphere of Inferno. They were enough to slow it down, but they couldn’t stop it.

The Celestial Sphere was going to fall.

“Giyaaah!” Lea roared again.

She threw herself before the spell, using her body to shield the seal. Her screaming threatened to rip apart the already unstable world as it filled with the smell of burning flesh.

“Lea!” I knew she couldn’t hear me, but still I screamed her name at the top of my lungs. And then...

“Don’t... give up...” I heard her voice telepathically. “You showed me the way, Rekka. If we all work together...” Her words resounded in my heart.

The one thing I couldn’t do was stop thinking. That was the same as giving up!

My only weapon was a single medical gun filled with the blood of the guardians. If I could get that blood into Bahamut’s body, it would kill him like a poison. But the medical gun was already half-broken after I tried to stab it into his impenetrable skin. One more failure and it would be useless.

The biggest problem was his perfect defense. Lea’s attacks hadn’t so much as scratched him. The Hero’s Sword and the laser gun wouldn’t help either.

“Damn it! Isn’t there something...?”

I racked my brain, but there was no way to hurt him. Especially not with some syringe needle... Wait a second.

I had already seen how to hurt him. The guardians’ blood had burned away his flesh.

“...That’s right.”

Bahamut was the king of beasts, created by God to be perfect. Nothing of this world could hurt him. It would take something else created by God’s hand. That’s why Bahamut’s bane was the blood of the guardians.

Not only that, but God himself had struck down Bahamut millions of years ago.

“There’s a spot on Bahamut’s back where God’s spear pierced his hide, and it’s still bleeding.” That’s what Satsuki had said.

The light bulb came on. If I could get to that wound, I could inject him with the blood of the guardians, even with a broken needle!

I grabbed the flight unit off the ground and gunned the engine. As long as I could keep my balance, I could use it to go upwards. Iris was still in mid-air, protected by Lea’s magic. This part was on me.

I looked up at Bahamut’s hulking body. I’d just have to use the craft to ascend right beside him and jump off when I reached his back. I’d only get one chance.

But Lea had suffered so much to give me this chance! I couldn’t let it go to waste! I threw open the throttle on the flight unit and took off. I almost toppled over several times, but desperation kept me clinging to the vehicle as it climbed higher and higher.

Before long, Bahamut’s back stretched out as far as the eye could see. I leaned off the flight unit... and then jumped.

“Guuuh!”

Somehow I managed to grab on with both arms and legs. I almost slipped right off, but his rough skin acted like footholds.

“Lea! Just wait a second! I’ve got this!” I yelled to her telepathically.

She must’ve been too busy to answer. There was no reply. Instead...

“Hmm? Rekka Namidare? What are you trying to do?”

Bahamut heard me.

“I couldn’t tell you!”

I mostly ignored him and started to run. He’d already found me out. He’d quickly realized that my target was the wound on his back.

So I ran as fast as my legs would carry me.

I could guess about where it would be. While he was in his super-deformed “Bah” form, there was a bandage on his back. I still remembered where it had been.

Smack in the middle of his back. That was where I was going.

“You—you bastard! You can’t...!”

Bahamut was onto me. I continued to ignore him and tried to run faster.

“Ha! I found you!”

I could see it out of the corner of my eye. Geysers of blood were shooting out of a gaping stab wound here and there. Just like Satsuki had learned from the Magic of Omniscience, the wound God had inflicted on him still hadn’t healed.

“Tch! Fine, I’ll shake you off!”

I quickly dropped down and held on to his coarse skin again. A few moments later, an incredible shockwave raced through my body as he flung himself back and forth. I dug my nails in and held on for everything I was worth.

“Fall off! Fall off, you stupid insect!”

“Hah! Yeah, I bet I am just a flea to you, but...” Not even an elephant can shake off a flea!

From my perspective, Bahamut’s back was so vast that it was almost like being on the ground. Unless he hit me with his trunk like he did before, it would be harder for me to fall off than stay on. And there was no way his trunk could reach me here.

But still, it wasn’t easy to run across the shaking ground, so I had to crawl to my destination.

“Damn it! Damn it! I am Bahamut, the Perfect Beast! You humans are tiny and helpless! You only exist to give me something to step onnnnn!”

“...Yeah, that’s right. You’re perfect.” Maybe Bahamut really was a creature without any flaws, complete unto itself. “That’s why you don’t need other people.”

He didn’t need anyone. He was perfect on his own. That was the reason he’d be able to destroy everything without hesitation.

“Everyone probably looks weak to you. Humans, animals, plants, even Lea who’s supposed to be the strongest creature of them all. They all look weak. But...”

Crawling on my belly along his hard, rock-like skin had ripped open my uniform, and my chest was already covered with blood. It was starting to sting pretty bad.

But I kept going anyway. Because...

“...Since we’re weak, we hold on to each other. We work together. Alone, we could never beat a perfect being like you. And that’s why...”

Without the blood of Tetra and the other guardians, I never would’ve had a way to defeat Bahamut. Without Lea’s sacrifice, I never would’ve been able to confront him. And without Tsumiki’s help, Lea never would’ve gotten her power back. Iris, Satsuki, and Harissa, too... Without them, I would’ve died a long time ago.

I certainly wouldn’t have made it here, Bahamut’s open wound, on my own. I took the medical gun out of the bag again.

“Noooooo!”

Spindles of flame burst from the Celestial Sphere by the hundreds and spiraled towards me.

But I didn’t care. There was nothing I could do to stop them anyway. And that’s why...

“Rekka!”

Lea would protect me with her walls of water.

I felt bad for making her work even harder, but instead of apologizing, I would do what I had to do.

“We weak creatures will work together and defeat you, the ‘perfect’ beast.”

I jammed the medical gun into one of the blood vessels I could see exposed in the wound, and pulled the trigger.

The ocean’s worth of guardian blood in the syringe—a fatal poison to Bahamut—immediately began circulating through his body.

“GYAAAOOOOOOOO!” Bahamut’s yowling cries echoed throughout the fake Earth.

Damn... It was really loud...

I supported myself with the medical gun to keep from falling over. Eventually, the beast’s screams went silent. And that was the end of the “Monster Who Defied God.”