4

Powerless.

I’m so powerless.

It was the only thought that Eugeo could entertain as Administrator was charring Cardinal’s body with her tremendous bolts of lightning.

The Sword Golem, which seemed like some horrific demon from the land of darkness, had started off just as human as Eugeo. The thought itself was a shock, and the realization that the pontifex was capable of envisioning and creating such a thing made him quake with fear. But what wounded Eugeo deepest of all was the despair that he was unable to do anything about it.

The entire reason that Eugeo, Kirito, Alice, Charlotte the spider, and Cardinal had come to the top floor to battle the supreme ruler was because Eugeo had wished he could save his childhood friend Alice Zuberg from the clutches of the Axiom Church. It was Eugeo who had put them in this terrible situation. It should have been him standing at the very front, fighting and taking all the wounds of battle. It should have been him.

And what did I do?

He’d fallen prey to Administrator’s seduction, allowed her to steal his memory, and pointed his sword at his best friend, Kirito. And when he’d finally regained his wits, he’d encased Kirito and Alice in ice and gone back to the top floor to defeat the pontifex, but he couldn’t manage it. In the fight against Chudelkin, the only thing he’d done was distract the enemy with sacred arts. And then with the Golem, all he’d done was watch as it had sliced up Charlotte, Kirito, and Alice.

Am I really this powerless?

Alice’s memory fragment is only a dozen or two mels away…somewhere in the mural on the ceiling. But I failed to get it back and survived only through Cardinal’s sacrifice, and now I’ll be thrown out of the tower. Is that the end of my journey?

The pontifex would surely send Eugeo, Kirito, and Alice to far separate locations. He might not even wind up in Norlangarth Empire. He might never find Kirito again or get back home to Rulid. He’d live the rest of his life in a strange, foreign land, trembling in fear of the Axiom Church’s retribution and cursing his own foolishness and lack of ability…

At the very least, he could keep his eyes open, to fully take in the blinding flash of the lightning that struck Cardinal.

And then he realized at last: Accepting the offer of banishment to another realm was the worst possible choice he could make.

The pontifex herself had said she would turn half the people in the world, forty thousand of them, into swords. A veritable army of horrifying, tragic monsters to fight against the army of the land of darkness.

It meant that every family, every couple would be torn apart. Just like Eldrie and his mother. Like Deusolbert and his wife. Like Alice and the Zubergs.

And then they’d be turned into the most hideous and horrific weapons imaginable. It couldn’t happen. It mustn’t happen.

Stopping that tragedy is my final duty. That’s why I’m here right now. I don’t have Kirito’s and Alice’s skills with the blade or Cardinal’s talent for arts…but I know there’s something else I can do. Don’t waste your time lamenting your lack of power, Eugeo—find a way to fight.

And so Eugeo stood in place, thinking his hardest.

The Blue Rose Sword was half ice, so it might break the barrier that rebuffed all metal, but if he just swung it at Administrator, she would either blaze him with her lightning or send the golem to slice him to pieces. At best, his Memory Release power might stop her in her tracks for a moment or two.

He couldn’t destroy the Sword Golem first, because its one weak point, the Piety Module, was safely stored in its chest, far from his attack range. Even assuming he could reach it, he’d have to strike through the tiny one-cen gap between the three swords that made up its spine—while avoiding the attacks of its rib swords. If that was possible, he’d need the pontifex’s ability to fly and armor that deflected sharp blades.

If only he could make his body as hard as ice, like the vision of Blue Rose and permanent ice that he’d seen in the Great Library, and become one with his sword. Become so hard that neither lightning nor flame could stop him…nor any blade cut his skin.

Eugeo’s eyes flew open.

There was a way he could do it. There must be.

But even if he could achieve it, there was something else he would need. A power like that which operated the Sword Golem. Some miraculous power that would call forth his Memory Release.

Just then, he felt like he heard someone calling his name.

His gaze was drawn upward to the ceiling.

Running around the side of the massive dome was a mural that depicted the creation of the world. The gods that built the sky and earth. The ancient humans who were allowed to live there. The gods choosing a single priestess and giving her the role of guiding humanity in their stead. The birth of the Axiom Church, and the building of the white tower in the middle of Centoria.

It was the same as the history book that Eugeo had practically devoured while he was in the library. But it was probably all fiction. A story that Administrator had cooked up to make it easier for her to rule humanity.

At the edge of this ceiling of lies, there was a fine picture of a small bird. It had a stalk of barley in its beak and was flying away. This was the blue bird, from the children’s story, that took the stalk from the strictly regimented fields of the great nobles and flew it out to the rural areas before it died. At this point in time, it seemed that this might be the one story that was actually true.

The crystal embedded in the bird’s eye glittered.

It was a glitter that had been familiar to Eugeo all his life. The light that sparkled in the eyes of the little blond girl his age…

And then Eugeo realized his role to play at last.