Chapter 5: And I Save, and Am Saved
Chapter 5: And I Save, and Am Saved
I was over my worries.
I was weak. But everyone would compensate for my weakness. Where I lacked power, they would lend it to me. That was how I could save them all. I could protect everyone. I could resolve these stories.
That was the path I’d chosen. And the first step was the story of the magical scientist who’d gotten me into all this.
“Hey, Kult!”
“Meifa... Meifa... Hmm? Oh...”
Kult looked up from his sleeping lover in a daze. He looked like he’d aged ten years in just a few minutes.
“Snap out of it! I need your help.”
“Hmph... What can I do now? Just leave me be.” Kult weakly cradled Meifa’s body. “I couldn’t save anything. Not the world, not even the heart of the woman I love...”
“You mean the nightmares Zolphiakd was talking about? He was making that crap up.”
“How can you be sure? If he was lying, then how was he able to revive?” Kult asked.
If Zolphiakd had managed to break the seal and revive, that meant he’d gotten his hands on darkness energy somehow. Since he was linked to Meifa, it seemed like the only place he could have gotten it was from her. In other words, her nightmares.
There were tears in Kult’s eyes.
“I never should have gotten her involved. I never should have told her that she was the only one who could seal away Zolphiakd. She was so kind... When she heard that, she must have felt like she had no choice... I took advantage of her kindness and forced her to endure this horrible suffering. No amount of atonement will make up for this...”
“Then...” I grabbed Kult by the collar of his white lab coat. “You’ll just have to do what you can!”
“Wh-What?’
“Only a coward would give up before he even tries, right?”
“But if Meifa wakes up and sees this disaster, she’ll blame herself,” he said.
“Yeah,” I replied.
Meifa had sacrificed herself to save her world. That was the kind of person she was. If she saw that Zolphiakd had revived, she’d surely blame herself.
“I know. That’s why we’re going to fix all this before she wakes up.”
“Is that possible?” Kult’s eyes widened.
“To do it, I need your help.”
“...”
“Listen, maybe she did regret choosing to sleep for eternity, and maybe she did have nightmares. But that doesn’t mean she blamed you, does it?”
“What do you mean?”
It was true that Zolphiakd was back. That probably meant that she was having nightmares in her long sleep, but it didn’t mean that the nightmares were what the demon said they were.
“Anybody would feel bad after having to say goodbye forever to the person they love, right?”
I’d never had a girlfriend, so maybe it wasn’t my place to talk, but that was beside the point.
“It hurt you too, didn’t it? So believe in her. Believe that she felt the same thing you did. And this time, why don’t you try for it?”
“Try for what?”
“What else?” I gave him the brightest smile I could muster. “A happy ending where everyone is smiling.”
▽
I was on Lea’s back like a dragon-riding knight. Since she’d lost most of her power, she was now small enough that I could wrap my legs around her torso. Together, we were flying above the clayman battlefield.
I’d borrowed Kult’s dowsing pendulum and was using it to look for Zolphiakd. He made it sound like he was going to watch the fight, which meant that he was probably hovering somewhere around here, looking down on the claymen and laughing as they spilled each other’s blood...
“Rekka, I found him,” Lea said to me telepathically. She could see much farther than a human could.
“Okay, we’ll launch a surprise attack from above...”
“No, he’s already noticed us too,” she said.
“All right... then charge in!”
“Understood!”
Lea accelerated. The wind whipped around us as we surged forward. No normal human could withstand this kind of acceleration or this kind of wind. That is, unless they were protected.
I was wearing a hero’s armor, the Infinity Reviver. Kult had removed his modification to turn the wearer’s Fate Ratio into energy, and had restored the armor’s original function: converting one’s Fate Ratio into pure combat power.
Kult’s crystal ball had told him that Hibiki’s bloodline made her the perfect person to power it... but my fate was just as crazy as hers!
In fact, my whole body felt like it was overflowing with power. Despite wearing heavy armor, my body felt light and limber.
I looked down at my clenched fist and saw a burning red aura. With this kind of power, I should be able to fight even a darkness-eating demon.
“Rekka, he’s throwing something!”
Lea’s telepathic message got my attention. I looked up and scanned the horizon. Zolphiakd was still just a dot in the distance to my human eyes, but I thought I could make out him raising the arm that wasn’t holding Hibiki. His hand emitted a malignant aura that instantly formed into a spear of pure darkness.
“Dodge!”
I reflexively ducked. Of course, Lea dodged too, but the spear passed right over my head.
“He’s fast. And what’s more...”
I felt the unease in Lea’s voice and looked behind us. The spear I’d just dodged had circled back around and was headed straight for us again.
“It looks like he can control them too!”
Lea rolled to dodge the spear that threatened to impale her from behind. But yet again, the spear turned and came right back at us.
“Lea, let me handle this.”
“Are you sure? You haven’t tested how much that armor actually enhances your power yet, right?”
“I’ve gotta fight him either way. This is as good a chance as any to figure it out.”
I glared at Zolphiakd, who was now close enough to see clearly. The spear was just a distraction. If I couldn’t handle it, there was no way I could beat a demon.
“All right. I’ll try and dodge close enough for you to reach,” Lea said. She understood exactly what I was getting at.
This time, the spear of darkness came down on us from above like a meteor. I looked right up at it and steeled myself.
Hero’s armor... No, “Infinity Reviver.” Lend me your power. Draw out my own.
The instant we crossed paths with the falling spear, I threw my gauntleted fist out and smashed the spear’s edge. The red aura and the dark aura intermingled, but it was only for an instant.
With a noise like a tree splitting from a lightning strike, the spear shattered and vanished. It was made from energy rather than physical matter, so there was nothing left of it.
I could see Zolphiakd’s lips curl into a grin.
“Okay! We can do this!”
With Lea’s speed, I’d be close enough to hit him in only a few more seconds. But just when I was ready to punch that smirk right off his face...
Spears appeared one after the other from both of his hands. Almost instantly, there were more than thirty of them. Dodging or knocking down that many would be no easy task. Maybe this was the end of the road for me.
But more importantly...
“Hibiki!”
When Zolphiakd raised his other arm and let go of her, Hibiki started to fall to the ground.
That bastard! He threw Hibiki away as soon he found a new toy to play with. Damn it!
“Lea!”
“Right!”
Lea instantly went into a steep dive. We were faster than the gravity pulling Hibiki’s body downward, but the flock of black spears was still chasing after us.
“Don’t be afraid! Just focus on catching her!” Lea yelled.
“...!”
Her words kept me from turning around.
She was right. Lea would dodge the spears for me. My job was...
I watched Hibiki as she fell. Suddenly, her eyes opened. The roar and pressure of the wind must’ve woken her up.
“Ugh, ah... Kyaaaaah!” She screamed when she realized she was falling.
“Hibiki!”
“R-Rekka Namidare?”
She seemed confused when she heard my voice. Maybe she didn’t recognize me in the armor I was wearing.
I clenched my legs tightly around Lea’s torso and let go of the ring I’d been using as reins so that I could reach out with both arms. Hibiki must’ve understood because she reached out for me too.
“I’ll kill you if you touch me anywhere weird!”
“Is now really the time to worry about that?!” I yelled back.
The instant Lea caught up to her, I grabbed on to Hibiki.
Lea pulled out of her dive, zig-zagging her way through the spears.
I put Hibiki behind me to protect her from the wind. With my armor, I could block it from reaching her.
“Hang on tight!” I yelled.
She cooperated and wrapped her arms around me tightly. With her holding on to me, I was able to use my hands again.
The red aura gathered around my fists once more as I struck at the black spears.
“Don’t fall off!” Lea warned me as she began to rapidly climb.
The spears turned around, hoping to impale us from below.
I clung to Lea and tried to support both my weight and Hibiki’s with just my legs. If I relaxed even a little, we’d both fall straight off. This was harder than I expected!
Damn it! Come on, Infinity Reviver! Give me more power! I swore I’d give everyone a happy ending!
“I won’t let it end here!”
As I screamed, my whole body pulsated with red light. I felt a great power surging through me. My legs, which had been on the verge of slipping off, held fast to Lea’s torso and I could see the aura around my hands get stronger.
For some reason, I felt like I could really do this. I relaxed my fist and moved all five of my fingers. Just like I’d hoped, red lights gathered at my fingertips. I looked around and counted the remaining spears.
“Go!”
The red bullets of light that burst forth from my hand were faster, more agile, and more precise than the spears. My five bullets easily destroyed the twenty spears or more that were left.
“Nice work, Rekka.”
“No...”
Lea was impressed, but I didn’t know why I’d suddenly powered up. In the heat of the moment... what had I been thinking?
“Rekka, were you able to save Hibiki?” Satsuki asked through Lea’s powers.
“Yeah, she’s fine. You stay with Kult.”
“Roger.”
After telepathically confirming things with Satsuki, I turned my mind back towards Lea.
“Lea, follow the plan.”
“Right,” she responded. Her horned head nodded at the front of her long torso.
Then we took off for Kult, but of course, Zolphiakd followed.
“Hey, where are you going? Entertain me more!”
Compared to a moment ago, his voice was clearly more excited. He was like a berserker who’d found a new rival. Zolphiakd chortled with glee as he threw spear after spear. His attacks did feel more like he was playing than seriously fighting.
“Lea, connect me telepathically to Hibiki and the others.”
I kept knocking the spears away as I prepared to move to the next stage of the plan.
“All right, you’re connected,” she said.
“Thanks. Can you dodge the spears behind us for a while?”
“It looks like our foe is just toying with us. I’ll be fine.”
“Understood.”
I put Lea in charge of handling Zolphiakd for the moment, and focused my mind on Hibiki and Kokomo.
“Hibiki, Kokomo, can you hear me?”
“Wh-What the heck? I suddenly heard a voice...”
“Rekka Namidare, is that you?” Hibiki asked.
“Telepathically, yes. Listen to me, both of you.”
I explained the plan quickly, including what I needed them to do.
“Can you do it?”
“...I can do it. But what about you, Rekka Namidare?”
“Me?”
“Are you willing to involve the people you care about in a story like this?”
Of course that was what she’d be concerned about.
“Everyone says they’re willing to help.”
“But...”
“And it looks like I don’t have the right to refuse them, either.” She probably couldn’t hear it through the telepathy, but I was laughing to myself inside my armor. “They all said they wanted to be with me, Namidare or not.”
“...”
“So, Hibiki... Once this is all done, let’s go see your friend in the hospital.”
“Huh?”
“You were good friends, right? You should at least talk to her so you can tell her how you really feel and find out how she really feels too.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
Huh? Did I just feel six cold stares? Was that even possible with telepathy?
“Um, anyway, if you’re worried about it, I’ll go with you.”
“But...”
I could hear the hesitation even in her thoughts.
Just like how Satsuki and the other girls had decided to stay with me even when they knew about my bloodline, maybe her friend would feel the same way. I could tell that that was what she was thinking, but it seemed like she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“It’ll be fine! Believe in your friend.”
I gave her a little push.
“She’s very shy. She won’t be able to talk comfortably if you’re there.”
“I see...”
“...But you can still go with me to the hospital?”
What was with that question mark?
Well, whatever. Of course I’d go with her.
“So what about you, Kokomo? Can you do it?”
“I...”
Hibiki’s arms held on tightly to the Infinity Reviver, but I knew it was probably Kokomo’s doing.
“I... I can’t do it.”
“You can’t, huh?” I asked.
“I’m a coward! I can’t even use magic right! But now I’ve gotta fight that scary demon? I...”
“I’ll get scared and run away again! I know it!”
The last part didn’t come telepathically. It was a pained scream.
“Even if your helping us meant we didn’t have to seal away your mother, and we could save her instead?”
This time I was sure I could save everyone. But in order to do it, I was going to need everyone’s help.
“I want to save her! But I can’t do it!”
Kokomo was refusing, but I could feel that he really did want to save his mom. He was still a kid. And a wimp. So I could understand why he wanted to run away. But...
“Kokomo, if you want to try being courageous, now’s the time.”
“But I’m not strong, so I don’t have the courage.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I cut him off. “You need courage because you’re a wimpy kid.”
“...Huh?”
“If you’re strong, you don’t need courage. When you’re strong, you can do whatever you need to by yourself. But the weak are different. You’re weak, so there are a lot of things you can’t do. And because of that, you lose out a lot. You can end up losing things that are precious to you. That’s how it is for me, really.”
“For you too, Rekka?”
“Yeah. Most of it you can probably put up with if you make the right excuses. You might be able to forget about something once you’ve lost it. You might even be able to pretend you never had it in the first place... but the day will come when you just can’t do that anymore.”
You know, like... right now, for instance.
“You know how weak you are, but someday there’ll be a reason you can’t give up! So you grit your teeth, and hang in there for all you’re worth! You ball your shaking hands into fists! You stand tall on your shaking legs! You have to fight, even if it means facing someone stronger than you! And that’s when you have to wring out every last drop of courage from the depths of your heart!”
“I... I...”
“Strength doesn’t mean courage. Courage is what the weak have when they need to be strong.”
I turned around and raised the visor of the Infinity Reviver’s helmet. I looked straight into Hibiki’s eyes, into Kokomo’s mind.
“Kokomo, I’ll say it again. If you want to be courageous, now’s the time!”
“I...” Kokomo spoke using Hibiki’s mouth.
There was still weakness in his voice. But that just meant I had to support him. Then he’d be able to find his courage. Because...
“Kokomo, don’t let them beat you.”
“I...”
“Fight.”
“I...”
“Say it! Tell them!”
“I...”
Because I knew how Kokomo really felt right from the start.
▽
I dropped Hibiki off with Kult and the others, then flew with Lea to monster mountain. I was going to face off with Zolphiakd where we could look down on the battle below.
“You’re not going to run anymore?” he asked.
“Nope.”
It would make it easier for Kult to do his part if I pulled Zolphiakd away from the fighting claymen. And here, if something happened, I could deal with it.
“Then entertain me some more!”
“!”
Zolphiakd suddenly charged at me.
His thick, hard skin worked like natural armor... and a weapon. His deadly fist flew right at me.
“Tch!”
I just barely managed to block his punch with both arms, but I lost my balance and almost fell off of Lea.
“What’s wrong? There’s lots more fun to be had!”
Three more punches from both fists followed. My ears were ringing from the impact.
“Damn it!”
I gathered the red aura in my right hand again and let it fly.
“Not happening!”
Zolphiakd easily dodged the red bullet, then summoned a spear of darkness to knock it out of the sky.
“Tch! But my bullets were stronger than the ones before!”
“Fool. All I had to do was increase the energy in the spears.”
“You make it sound so damn simple...”
“Come on, is that all you’ve got? You still haven’t entertained me!” he yelled.
“Why, you...!”
“Here I come!”
This time, Zolphiakd charged with his spear.
“Gyaaaoh!” Lea roared as she flicked her body to dodge the spear.
“You won’t dodge my attack so easily!” Zolphiakd shouted.
The spear’s tip began to grow. So he could freely manipulate things made of darkness energy like that?
“Watch out!”
I knocked the spear away with my gauntlet, but his black spear was more powerful than my red aura now. Punching at it chipped away at the Infinity Reviver’s gauntlets. I still didn’t have enough power to defeat him! From there on out it was all I could do to defend, and I started to get more and more worried.
If I wanted to save everyone, I needed a way to defeat this darkness-eating demon and his ability to infinitely absorb energy... But I’d just gotten the hint I needed. Something had been changed when I’d become able to fire those bullets of red light. If I could figure out what that was, I could probably draw out even more of the Infinity Reviver’s power.
Think. Don’t stop thinking. Don’t give up. You’re just an ordinary human! It’s the least you can do!
“Ggyaaahhooohhh!”
And then I heard a roar from far below. It was the victory cry of the nine-tailed fox. The other monsters had lost their ability to contain her, and were summarily defeated.
“Oh no!”
I took a quick look down at the mountain, and then back up above. I’d put “them” in charge of buying time if the nine-tailed fox won before Kult was ready. But I didn’t see them yet.
“Lea! We’ll back the monsters up! Head for the mountain!”
“I’ll do my best!”
Lea answered me, but she didn’t sound as confident as I would’ve hoped. While we were speaking telepathically, I was still fighting off Zolphiakd. Since I couldn’t fly, Lea was keeping up with his incredible speed for me.
Gradually she descended lower and lower, until we were low enough to see the fox’s tails... But it didn’t look like I’d be able to get down there and help!
“Grrraaoooh!”
The nine-tailed fox roared again and began to float up into the air.
Oh crap... It could fly too?
That worried me even more. And then a huge shadow passed overhead. Not a moment later, a silver spaceship slammed straight into the nine-tailed fox.
“Iris, you made it!”
“Yup! It just took a little longer than I thought to get ready. But talk about timing, huh? Tell me how perfect that was!”
I could hear Iris’s cheerful voice through Lea’s telepathy.
If anybody besides Lea or Kult could fight the nine-tailed fox, it was Iris with her super high-tech spaceship.
“I-Iris, if you’re going to slam into it, at least tell me first!”
I could hear Harissa’s voice from aboard the ship too. She sounded like she was going to cry. I assumed they were wearing seatbelts, but still, this was more like a traffic accident than anything else.
“Grrrrrr!”
The nine-tailed fox raged at its new and mysterious enemy.
“Oh, tough little thing, aren’t you? Too bad I loaded this baby up with enough armor to crash straight through an asteroid belt.”
“Grrr!”
The fox tried to leap at its foe, but...
“Uwah! Ealim Nekram!"
Harissa’s invisibility magic made the ship disappear.
“Grrr?”
The fox looked around, but of course, it couldn’t find them. And then, the now invisible ship slammed into it again.
“Gwaah!”
The angry fox’s eyes went blood red as it formed whirlwinds and pillars of flame all around it.
“Iris, Harissa, get out of there if things get dangerous!”
“Everything’ll be just fine! Leave it to me!”
“I-I’m okay, too! Be careful, Sir Rekka!” Harissa added.
We ended our telepathic communication as we each turned to face our opponents.
“Hmph.”
For some reason, Zolphiakd’s attacks were slowing down.
“You’ve been distracted. Don’t you realize that you should be playing with me and me alone?”
“...I’m not doing this for you,” I said.
“What?”
Zolphiakd and I glared at each other. But Kult suddenly interrupted before things could escalate further.
“Can you hear me? We’re ready.”
“You’re done already? That was fast.”
“Indeed. Tetra was a splendid assistant.”
“Rekka! Are you okay?” a female voice cut in.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Good work, Tetra. Kult, get started.”
“Certainly. I’ll have it done within ten minutes.”
Ten more minutes.
Kult would make it happen. I was sure. He was a genius who’d already saved a world once.
Then it would just be up to me to do my job. And what’s more... I was getting really tired of this asshole.
“Zolphiakd, you sure you’re not mistaken about something?”
“Me? Mistaken?”
“How many people do you think are involved in the stories you play with for fun?”
I squeezed both my hands into fists.
“How much do you think the stories you destroy mean to the people who are part of them?”
A red aura burst forth around my hands. It was hot, and it shone with its own light. It burned like real fire, as if in response to my anger.
“This isn’t some game. These stories are people’s lives.”
I’m not letting you destroy them.
I’m not letting that happen.
The only place I wanted to see sad, emotional stories was in fiction. What reality needed were hopeful stories with happy endings, no matter how unrealistic they might seem. And if the blood within me made that possible...
“In the name of the Namidare family, I’m going to save them all!”
No more running.
When this story began, I ran away from everybody. I told myself it was because I didn’t want to hurt them, but it was actually because I was afraid they would reject me. I tried to make it so I couldn’t be a part of anyone’s life at all. But that was impossible.
And so now I was going to stop hiding from the truth. I couldn’t stop being me. That was obvious. That was normal. I should’ve known that.
The important part was realizing who I was, and then making a decision: what did I want to do about it?
If only I could save a story, then I would save it. If the stories put the people around me in danger, I’d save them too. If everyone would help me, even when I was weak, I would use their support to help protect them too.
That was my decision. And when I said those words aloud...
“!”
As if in response, the red aura expanded around my fists and burned all the way up to my shoulders.
“Save them all? You think you can do that when I have the power to destroy everything? You just try!” Zolphiakd cried, his voice cold and hollow.
As if making good on his threat, he formed dozens of spears with a wave of his hand. I could feel that the power in these was far stronger than the ones from before.
“...”
But they didn’t seem like a danger to me now.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest, and then pulled them back like I was drawing two giant bowstrings. When the spears started to move, I released the power building up in my arms. Crescent blades made from the red aura rocketed forward, striking down the spears.
“What?!”
I could hear the shock in Zolphiakd’s voice as I opened and closed my fists to see how it felt. The red aura had gotten stronger again... which meant that I was starting to draw out the power of the Infinity Reviver. But what was the key to doing that?
“You interest me... But it’s too early to get cocky!” Zolphiakd sounded happy.
But then something weird happened.
Black particles rose up from the ground and started to gather beneath him. The black particles—they must have been darkness energy—were coming from the claymen’s battleground and monster mountain.
“Hahaha! This place is filled with energy to feed me. That mad beast and the war between those humanoid things are producing lots of powerful darkness.” Zolphiakd laughed and created dark spears in both hands. “Now entertain me more!”
We clashed with each other harder than before. The red and black auras collided, exploding like fireworks.
We could both manipulate our weapons however we wanted, so there were sometimes blades, sometimes bullets, and sometimes other types of weapons as we slashed, stabbed, punched, and fired at each other.
Zolphiakd and I seemed almost equal in strength. That just meant he was still enjoying himself. But...
“Gyaoh!”
“Lea! Are you okay?”
“Tch... Sorry. He’s getting too fast for me!”
Lea couldn’t keep up with us. I was fighting, but leaving all of the moving and maneuvering to her. That was becoming a fatal flaw. The white dragon was covered in wounds, and I had cuts on my sides and legs too.
“Lea, don’t try to force yourself to keep up with him!”
“But...!”
“I’ll protect you! Don’t try to dodge! Just slam me into him!”
“Got it!”
I was her shield. I focused on following his movements and blocking his attacks. I was especially careful to block anything going for Lea.
“What’s wrong? You’re having trouble keeping up!”
“You think so, huh?!”
The Infinity Reviver’s glowing red gauntlet and Zolphiakd’s fist shrouded in a dark aura collided.
Zolphiakd didn’t move his fist. He just leaned in and moved his face closer to mine.
“My power is still getting stronger. At this rate, you’re eventually going to die.”
“Thanks for the warning... but don’t worry about me.”
“What?!”
“My plan’s working just fine. That ‘eventually’ is never going to come.”
I deliberately laughed.
The next thing I knew, I felt the unique sensation of telepathy in my brain.
“It’s me, Kult. We’re all ready here!”
“Huh? Can you hear me? Um... It’s me, Tsumiki! I made what you asked for and gave it to Otomo!”
“Roger!” I yelled aloud as I sent the same message telepathically.
“Now it’s time for my counterattack!”
I pushed myself away from Zolphiakd. When I put some distance between us, the telepathic channel opened again.
“Rekka! Lea! I’m teleporting what Tsumiki made to the sky above you with my magic! Make sure you grab it!”
Lea and I looked up as we heard Satsuki’s voice. Several dozen meters above us, there was a large, black object—the dark matter that Tsumiki had cooked from the laughing nuts on monster mountain.
“Diediediediediedie!”
They were telling something to die...
Those things had been creepy before, but at least their laughter was cheerful. What the hell did Tsumiki do to them? Well, that didn’t matter now.
“Gyaooh!”
Lea grabbed the dark matter in her maw and swallowed it down. Instantly the wounds on her body healed, and she began to grow. She still wasn’t back to her full strength, but where she’d been the size of a large shark before, she was now the size of a steel transmission tower. As the power flowed through her, something that looked like a floating pair of golden headphones appeared around her head.
“Mmm... Tsumiki’s cooking is always the best.”
“Really?”
I still couldn’t believe it, but Lea loved that stuff. It was also the most efficient way for her to get her power back.
“Let’s go, Rekka!”
“Right!”
Lea’s body snaked back and forth as she charged at Zolphiakd. His dark spears tried to pierce her flesh, but spears of water sprung from the golden headphones and knocked them away. And that wasn’t all. A waterspout seemingly appeared out of nowhere and threatened to suck him in.
“What’s going on?!”
Zolphiakd seemed a little frightened by our sudden power-up, and he formed his black aura into a small blade to cut through the waterspout. In the momentary opening that created, Lea rammed him.
“Gwah!”
Struck by something several hundred times his mass, Zolphiakd groaned in pain. Now that the tide of battle was turning in her favor, Lea continued the onslaught using both her body and her water magic. But she was still up against a demon with the power to destroy worlds. Even if he was on the defensive now, he didn’t seem to have taken damage from anything except the initial impact. He was still deflecting her attacks.
As the battle carried on, we found ourselves back near the fighting claymen. The last time we were here, we’d been high up in the sky, but now we were close enough to the ground that I could see their bare clay faces.
“Heh. Are you sure it’s a good idea to bring me close to a battlefield? The hatred and sorrow created by war is the perfect energy source for me.” Zolphiakd laughed at my apparent slip-up.
“Hah! Just try it!” But I laughed at him too.
The demon seemed uncertain.
“What do you mean?”
“Look down!”
“?”
As he did, his uncertainty became shock.
Just like before, thousands of claymen were below us, crowded together. But the yelling had stopped, and they all had lowered their weapons.
“How?! It’s too soon for the battle to be over! The dark energy of hate and sorrow can’t have disappeared this quickly!”
“They lost their reason to fight.”
“Impossible! You can’t stop a war that easily!”
“Then do you know why they were fighting in the first place?”
“...”
“If you don’t know, then I’ll tell you. It was over the color of their skin. They were fighting because they were different colors.”
“The color of their skin?!”
Zolphiakd looked down again. All the claymen below had turned white. Despite their huge advantage in numbers, there was not a single gold clayman to be seen now.
The trick was Kokomo’s transformation magic and Kult’s instant sorcery capsules. First I’d had Kokomo use his transformation magic to turn into a white clayman. Then I’d had Kult replicate that magic with his instant sorcery capsules and use the Battle Kult Ship to scatter them on the battlefield. Now all the claymen were the same color.
And without a reason to fight, the battle was over.
“Rekka, I’ve connected telepathically to all the claymen.”
“Thanks, Lea. Give them a really loud howl.”
“Indeed.”
“GWYAAAOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
Lea’s extra loud roar echoed from one end of the massive battlefield to the other. The claymen, who were still uncertain how to handle this sudden development, all looked up at the sky. They saw Lea—or rather, Leviathan, who looked just like the dragon god they worshipped—and they all fell silent.
“Do you hear my words?” I spoke directly into the minds of the claymen.
Of course, I was met with many surprised thoughts. But since I couldn’t answer each question individually, I got right to the point.
“Heed me well! God has seen you fighting over the color of your skin, and is deeply grieved! She has changed all of your skin to white so that this war may never happen again!”
To the claymen, this had to have come out of nowhere. But the transformation magic was permanent unless Kokomo broke it, and they were now convinced that Lea and I were messengers of their god. In other words, they probably had no choice but to believe me.
“The real enemy lies elsewhere!” I kept going. “Behold! The demon in front of you is your true foe! He lurked among you, building up your hatred for those of a different color, and drove you to fight! Now that the power of god has driven that hate from your hearts, the demon has no choice but to manifest himself! Now ready your weapons against the real enemy! Join me and defeat the demon!”
I had no idea how I’d been able to come up with that lie. But part of the plan was to give them a concrete enemy to fight instead of taking things out on each other.
“We joined with messengers of god to defeat the demon called discrimination.” If I could make them believe that, surely it would end their discrimination for good.
The claymen let out a rallying cry as their archers let fly a barrage of arrows at Zolphiakd. The soldiers without bows started throwing stones.
“Wh-What’s going on?!”
Zolphiakd was surprised at this sudden turn of events. He brushed away the arrows in annoyance.
“Now, Lea!”
Lea roared as we rushed Zolphiakd once more.
“Hmph. I’m not falling for that again.”
Zolphiakd soared over her head to evade her. His intent was probably to dodge with the minimum amount of effort necessary, and then strike at her exposed torso as she passed under him. But I’d already planned for that!
I ran up Lea’s long torso to get closer to him. With my speed enhanced by the Infinity Reviver, I closed the distance to Zolphiakd in only a few seconds.
“!”
Since we’d only fought in the air so far, Zolphiakd had no idea how fast I could run. His surprise slowed his reaction time just enough. I summoned all the red aura into my clenched fist that I could, and slammed it right into the face of the so-called “Demon Who Eats Darkness.”
“Gwaah!”
Listening to his ugly scream, I thought about his body shattering as I channeled more of the Infinity Reviver’s power. The red light expanded and burst.
“GYAAAAAH!”
His screams grew louder.
The red light traveled through Zolphiakd’s body and erupted from within him, cracking his stony skin from the inside.
Now!
I leaped on top of Zolphiakd’s badly damaged body and grabbed his bat-like wings to keep him from flying away.
“Graah! Let go of me!”
“Ever gone bungee jumping with no bungee?” I asked him.
I’d done something similar once.
As we fell, I could see the claymen scattering below where it looked like we would hit the ground. Next thing I knew, there was a loud sound and a massive impact that rattled me in my armor.
“Owww...”
Without the Infinity Reviver, I would’ve died instantly.
“You little insect...!”
A few meters away, Zolphiakd was climbing to his feet. He’d hit the ground just as hard as I had. His armored skin was cracked here and there, and his bat wings were broken in several places.
I could still see him gathering darkness energy, but it was visibly less than before. The war of hatred and prejudice was over, and now all the claymen were fighting for one goal—to defeat the demon. Zolphiakd was probably drawing strength from their aggression, but even that was a lot less pure than the energy there’d been just a few moments ago.
They were fighting for hope now, not despair.
“Lea, I’ll handle the rest myself! Get back!” I yelled towards the sky.
She gave me a quick telepathic response and flew off. She’d gone to prepare for the final step.
“You think you’ve won...?”
Zolphiakd seemed to interpret my sending Lea away as humiliation.
“What if I do?”
Zolphiakd fell silent.
Even if his ability to absorb darkness energy was infinite, there was a limit to how much darkness energy there was around him. Energy was spread throughout the entire universe. He couldn’t absorb all of it at once.
If he had that capability, he would have used it to destroy Kult’s world instantly. But if they were able to seal him away, they must’ve gotten the upper hand while he was taking the time to collect more energy from farther away.
In a long, drawn-out battle, Zolphiakd was probably invincible. But in this instant, I was far more powerful than he was.
“You...”
...lose, I started to say, but then the battle shifted to a new phase.
“Grrraaooo!”
A white beast fell from the sky and landed between us. Well, it wasn’t entirely white—it had nine golden tails.
“Grrrrrrrr!”
It had probably fallen here while it was fighting Iris and Harissa in their invisible spaceship. The nine-tailed fox looked at me and Zolphiakd with bloodshot eyes, trying to figure out what to do.
“Hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
I could hear the demon laughing on the other side of the great fox.
“At the very last moment, luck is on my side!”
Zolphiakd leaped up onto the huge beast in a flash and plunged his fingers into its hide.
“Gugyihh!”
There was a spurt of blood as the animal screamed. And then a black aura poured out of its body and into Zolphiakd. It was the poisonous ki—a dangerous type of ki responsible for plagues and disasters—that had driven the nine-tailed fox mad. In other words, the fox was filled with high-density darkness energy. And Zolphiakd was absorbing all of it.
Just like Lea had eaten Tsumiki’s dark matter to restore her wounds, Zolphiakd was consuming the poison ki to instantly heal himself.
“Grruh...”
Now drained, the great fox flailed its tails about weakly and slumped to the ground.
“Delicious,” Zolphiakd said.
“!”
The dark spear he flung impaled my shoulder.
“Gaaah!”
My aura was supposed to protect me up to my shoulders. Had he pierced through it...? The energy he’d just absorbed from the nine-tailed fox seemed to make him more powerful than ever.
“So this is the climax, huh?”
My defeat here would mean the end of all the stories. I couldn’t lose. And to win, I needed more power!
The Infinity Reviver had powered up twice so far. That wasn’t a coincidence. There had to be a clear reason why. I remembered both times it had happened—when I grabbed Hibiki as she fell, and when I’d fought Zolphiakd above monster mountain.
“...”
...Damn it! What was the trick?!
“All right. This is your last chance to entertain me. And once you’ve done that... Die.”
Zolphiakd’s next spear made a beeline for my chest.
“Tch!”
It was fast. And powerful. The tip pierced my defenses and dug into my skin.
“Hahaha!”
Zolphiakd snapped his fingers, and the earth underneath me exploded like a landmine. I was blown into the air like a rocket before crashing back into the ground and rolling a ways.
I groaned in pain and quickly stood up. He was faster and stronger than I was. I needed to think. My one hope of victory was to keep thinking.
I tried coming at things from another perspective. For example, why had Kult’s crystal chosen Hibiki, not me, to wear the Infinity Reviver? The Namidare and Banjo bloodlines were the same. The only difference was the sex they affected. The Infinity Reviver had the ability to turn someone’s Fate Ratio into pure power. A Fate Ratio was supposed to be “the weight of a person’s fate,” so why Hibiki and not me? Thinking about that, and the last two times the armor powered up...
What was the difference between me and Hibiki? What decided the weight of someone’s fate?
“I suppose it’s time to end this.”
Zolphiakd poured more energy into his dark spears. Newer, sharper blades shot out from the hilt like branches from a tree. And with a crackle, jaws of black lightning sprang from around him and came at me from all directions.
If all of those things hit me, I was gonna end up like a pincushion... wasn’t I? It was a stupid thing to think about at a time like this, but I laughed a little.
“Die!”
Zolphiakd cackled madly as he hurled his spears. The spears all moved at once, and together with the black lightning they flew at me like a snake ready to devour its prey.
There was no way I could block them all with just my arms. But...
“Rekka! Everyone’s in position!” Lea called to me telepathically.
“Roger,” I answered—and plowed into Zolphiakd head-on.
The burning red aura collided with the black lightning and exploded. The flames and lightning were canceling each other out. Then the spears came to pierce me through the chest.
“Graah!”
I grabbed two of them. But they were made from his energy, and he could change their form however he wanted. The other spears closed in on me to impale me... But the red flames burst from my shoulders to cover my whole body. The spears shattered before they could even touch me.
“What?!”
“—!”
Assured of his victory, Zolphiakd had let down his guard, and I was able to able to instantly close the distance now. I was right on top of him in a split second. Zolphiakd quickly moved to regain his balance.
“Nwaaaaahh!”
“Aaaaah!”
Our fists crossed paths as both of us hit each other in the face.
“Nwah!”
“Gah!”
Zolphiakd staggered, and the visor on the Infinity Reviver shattered. But instead of flinching, I threw my next punch.
“Damn you!”
Zolphiakd grabbed my fist and hit me back. This time, I grabbed his fist. We were locked in a grappling match now as we pushed against one another.
“How? How can a mere human draw out such power?!”
“Because I realized... I realized how to use this armor’s potential! What determines the weight of your fate... is the burden that you carry.”
Both Hibiki and I had been running from our bloodlines, but she’d known about hers since she was little. She’d spent years training to deal with it. The crystal ball had sensed her resolve.
That meant that I needed resolve too. I would carry the burden of lineage. I would carry my own burdens. But that wasn’t enough.
I wasn’t alone. I would carry the weight of the stories of everyone I’d met in all my sixteen years, and everyone I would meet in the future. That would be my life as long as I was Rekka Namidare.
“I may not be as good as a real hero who fights the Demon King for the sake of everyone, though!”
I was born an average kid. Normal. But I had my own fate to carry. It was easy to curse a fate that felt too heavy to bear. But it was wrong to curse the fact that you were born.
Once you’re born into this world, it’s all you can do to live as best you can. And if you’re going to live for all you’re worth, then celebrate the fate that brought you into this world! That’s the trick to living a happy, normal life.
“I was born to be me, no matter what that means! And that’s how I’m going to live! And to do that, I’ll fight whoever I have to!”
“Hah! But what can you do? We’re evenly matched right now, but I am still slowly absorbing darkness energy. Eventually, I will win.”
“Idiot. You’re still only looking at me?”
A white ray of light sliced across the ground. One, then two, then three... Six lights in total gathered, forming a pattern around us. And when that pattern was complete, Zolphiakd began to sink into the ground like he was being pushed down by an invisible giant.
“Ngaah! Wh-What is this?”
“You probably wouldn’t know, huh? I hear it’s called sealing magic.”
Sealing magic was a way of getting rid of poisonous ki. If it would work on the nine-tailed fox after absorbing too much of the stuff, of course it would work just as well on Zolphiakd after he did!
When Lea had said “in position,” this is what she’d been talking about. Satsuki, Iris, Harissa, Tsumiki, Tetra, Lea... Each heroine stood at a point of the star, forming a giant hexagram on the ground. It was a huge, inescapable trap.
To seal the star, I gathered the fragments of Meifa’s sealing pendant that Zolphiakd had destroyed. It had turned a misty black, but I’d gotten Kokomo to use his magic to purify it. Then I gave one piece to each heroine.
“How...?! If you had this magic, why didn’t you use it before?”
That was a good question. The answer was that if I’d used it when he’d landed, he wouldn’t have absorbed the darkness energy from the nine-tailed fox first.
“Maybe my goal was to get you to draw out the poison ki from that nine-tailed fox.”
When the fox interrupted us, it was my plan was to lure Zolphiakd towards it. But the demon was confused. He had no idea why I’d want to do something like that.
“What does that mean?!”
“I told you. I’m not fighting alone.”
That’s right! There was also someone fighting to save his mother, who’d been driven mad by the poisonous ki.
“Kokomo! Hibiki! Now!”
“Don’t tell the enemy, you idiot!” Hibiki, who’d been approaching Zolphiakd from behind, yelled at me as she leaped off the ground.
There was no hesitation in her eyes. The fox ears on her head were even poking straight up like they were standing tall in the face of fear.
“Gwah! Let me go...!”
“Hell no, idiot. We win.”
I think I grinned the biggest smile I ever had in my life.
A white light like a flame gathered in Hibiki’s hand. She touched Zolphiakd with it from behind, and Kokomo recited the sealing incantation in Hibiki’s voice. The hexagram on the ground started to shine.