CHAPTER 38

Rightfully Yours

What…?! Did Elulu just…?!

Copious amounts of blood trickle down Mash’s neck as he collapses. Crack. Crack. Elulu, covered in blood, moves away from him, then begins to move her arm and leg joints back in place. She stands.

“Wh-what is going on?! That woman just came out of nowhere!”

“Cerceus?! You can see her, too?!”

Elulu slowly licks her bloodstained lips with her long tongue, then turns her gaze at Mash as if she were looking at garbage.

“He was nothing more than a fake hero, after all. And yet, I am still shocked by the difference in power…”

She redirects her piercing gaze at Seiya.

“Your attack surprised me in his subconsciousness. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any less from the true Hero. I can see why Lady Mersais considers you a threat.”

“…?! H-how do you know Mersais?!”

An ominous aura hidden inside Elulu’s body erupts. She opens her mouth, split from ear to ear, and cackles. It’s a shrill, eerie laugh.

“Space-time has been distorted, Goddess Ristarte. I was sent around a decade back in time to Gaeabrande when the Goddess of Atrocity destroyed the spirit world. Why? To reinforce the distortion of the S-ranked world, which is essential for all warped worlds, and to kill you all when you finally made it here.”

“Just who are you?!”

“I am the Devil of Enchantment, Marionelda.”

Th-the Devil of Enchantment?! So Mash wasn’t the only cause of Gaeabrande’s distortion?! H-hold on…!

“If you’re not the real Elulu, then where is she?!”

“She fell into the Abyss and transformed into Igzasion. That’s when I switched places with her. I pretended to be suffering as Elulu, forcing Mash to kill while emotionally scarring him as well. I did it all to control his spirit.”

“I-it was you all along…?!”

“So she’s the real last boss?!”

Cerceus uncharacteristically unsheathes his sword with a serious expression. The devil reacts and faces him.

“I have the Blessing of Atrocity, which transcends the laws of physics, along with my own powers of Enchantment. The Hero, Goddess of Healing, and God of Swords are nothing to fear.”

A sinister aura explodes from Elulu’s body, and her body rapidly begins to decompose, unable to withstand its own evil aura. Her flesh rots off while dropping to the ground, and centipede-like insects start to crawl out of her eye sockets. Countless maggots emerge from the rotting flesh and fall to the ground.

“Eeeeeek!”

Cerceus throws his sword to the ground and swiftly hides behind me, startling me.

“…?! Tch! You really are nothing to fear!”

I turn my gaze from the undependable God of Swords to the dependable Hero, but looking at him only brings me despair. I didn’t notice this during his fight against Mash, but sweat is running down his forehead! And he looks discouraged! He’s breathing heavily, and he looks like he’s in pain!

“S-Seiya!!”

In addition to being in Berserk Mode for a long period of time, he has continued to use Mimic, which requires a massive amount of mana! Seiya used as much mana and stamina as he could to save Mash’s soul!

Seiya sometimes pretends to be weakened or tired to deceive the enemy, but my gut is telling me that this time is different! This isn’t part of any strategy! Seiya is legitimately exhausted!

“Seiya’s in trouble, Cerceus! We have to do something!”

“You’re right! Let’s start off by turning invisible!”

“…?! Are you always thinking about ways to run away?!”

“O-of course not…?” Cerceus stutters while already halfway invisible. Seiya, out of breath, then exclaims:

“You two…don’t need to do…a thing…”

“B-but…!”

“I already know that Mimic exhausts a large amount of mana…and I have already overcome that weakness.”

“Huh…?”

It suddenly gets dark, so I look up…and jump. Countless firebirds are gathered over Seiya’s head like clouds, completely covering the entire sky. Seiya raises a hand into the air, and the firebirds immediately return to him as if they’re being absorbed into his body!

“I am reducing these Automatic Phoenixes to aura in order to replenish my exhausted mana. Through absorbing them, I have already replenished around seventy percent of my mana. This is the true power of Automatic Phoenix Infinity.”

“You’re replenishing your MP through absorbing them?! I had no idea that was even possible!”

“…Heh-heh.”

I suddenly hear a muffled laugh. Although lying on the ground with a severe injury, Mash is looking up at us.

“He’s been preparing for this moment…ever since the day we met… This idiot isn’t normal…”

After absorbing enough mana, Seiya calmly cracks his knuckles, then turns to the devil with a fixed gaze.

“While this may be a warped world, you are going to pay for torturing my bag carrier.”

And yet, even after knowing that Seiya is healed, the Devil Marionelda eerily curls her lips into a smile. I scream to Seiya:

“Seiya! Holy magic’s effective against devils!”

Mash and the Great Mother were holy-type, so Seiya’s dark skills were effective against them, but devils are the complete opposite. Dark spells would hardly do any damage. Instead, their opposite type, which is holy, would be their weakness.

“Rista! Can Seiya even use holy magic?”

Seiya can use Dimension Blade, which is a holy sword skill. He even learned Shining Arrow from Mitis in the past. However, he wasn’t able to learn how to seal curses during the battle against Celemonic. In other words, he isn’t bad at it, but he wasn’t able to master all the high-level holy spells, unlike fire magic, which is Seiya’s specialty.

“Don’t worry! I’ll back you up!”

I rush out in front of Seiya. Yes! Now’s my time to use the curse-sealing ability I learned from the Goddess of Wealth, Baldr…after paying her a hefty fee! It should be extremely effective against devils!

“Yeahhhhhh! Ye-yeahhh! Let’s do this! Yea—”

“Shut up.”

“Bfff?!”

Seiya kicks me on the butt, sending me rolling on the field with my underpants clearly exposed.

“What the hell’s your problem?!”

“I don’t need your help, since I already mastered dark magic in the underworld.”

“But you won’t be able to hurt devils with—”

“Conversion.”

The instant Seiya snaps his fingers, a holy aura suddenly radiates from his body! O-oh yeah! If he reverses his magic type, it’ll be just like he mastered holy magic! Damn! How convenient!

“H-hold on! Are you sure that’s a good idea?! I thought using Type: Opposite in the human realm would make you lose control!”

Seiya’s holy aura is immense, but with that great power comes instability. His aura is all over the place like an electric discharge.

“Yes, and that’s precisely what’s happening. That damage would have been enormous if this were fire or dark magic, but holy magic isn’t much of a problem…unless you are a devil, that is.”

A ray of light shoots out from the aura and grazes the devil’s side. But even after looking at her smoldering arm, Marionelda laughs shrilly once more.

“What amazing power. But it means nothing if you can’t get near me. While you may be the Hero, you are still human. You would be a fool to think you could defeat the embodiment of darkness.”

Marionelda emits a pitch-black aura from her rotting corpse, which transforms into a giant human skull floating in the air.

“Endless Dreamer!”

The skull of dark aura filling the air suddenly vanishes. The bad feeling in my gut swells into my throat until I suddenly feel something on my cheek. But when I touch it, countless squirming maggot-like insects stick to my hand.

“Eeeeeeeeek!!”

I try to fling them off, but my arm is already decaying like an undead, and maggots are crawling out from the tears in my flesh!

Wh-wh-wh-what’s going on?! Was I hit with an attack?! But when?!

“Gahhhhhhhhh!”

There is a man by my side screaming as well. It’s Cerceus…and he’s holding one of his arms!

“My arm fell off! It fell offfffffff! And bugs are crawling out of my bodyyyyyy!”

“M-me too! What is going on?!”

We are freaking out until Seiya calmly calls out to us from behind.

“Don’t be scared. This is just an illusion created by the enemy. Your bodies are completely fine.”

She caught us in an illusion! That makes sense! She did say she’s the Devil of Enchantment, after all!

Seiya helps me regain some of my sanity, but when I turn around…

“Huh?!”

One of his arms has fallen off as well! And his body is way more undead-looking and decayed than mine!

“S-Seiya, you’re not looking so good, you know! Are you okay?!”

“I don’t feel any different at all.”

The devil watches us in amusement.

“The Devil of Enchantment, Marionelda… Using illusions to control people’s minds through fear so she can use them as her puppets… What a cowardly, despicable creature.”

…?! I—I’m pretty sure I remember Seiya brainwashing the townspeople so he could use them, too?! Twenty-four hours haven’t even gone by!

Seiya notices my reproachful gaze and frowns.

“What?”

“N-nothing. Anyway, be careful! Your opponent’s a devil! She’s far more powerful than any demon lord you’ve fought so far!”

The fact that the enemy’s illusion spell is working despite Seiya’s holy aura is proof of that. Her dark magic isn’t normal.

“I have already simulated a battle against a devil, since I am going to have to defeat their leader, Mersais, eventually. This should be good practice for that.”

Seiya then begins walking toward Marionelda, and she laughs with amusement once more.

“Hyah-ha-ha-ha! What a brave Hero you are! But the closer you get to me, the stronger the illusions become!”

Thud.

It’s a dull sound—the sound of Seiya’s left arm rotting off and hitting the ground! He continues to bob toward the enemy, despite not even having anything below the knees.

“Wow! Impressive! I can’t believe you made it this close to me without even batting an eye! But you are about to step into new territory! Behold the power to awaken even your sense of pain!”

“Our sense of pain, too?!”

Right now, we just look like creepy undead, but we’ve taken absolutely no damage.

But if she’s able to replicate the pain from having our arms and legs torn off, then…!

“Hyah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Hero! The pain you now feel is no different from reality! Your arms and legs will rot off as your organs decay until the pain causes you to go insane!”

“S-Seiya!”

One of Seiya’s eyes pops out and drops to the ground the moment I scream.

“Ack?! He lost one of his eyes!” shrieks Cerceus. Seiya, however, continues to trudge toward Marionelda as if he couldn’t care less.

“It’s just an illusion.”

“B-but Seiya…! Your eye…!”

“It didn’t actually fall out.”

But before Seiya even finishes his sentence, his nose rots off and falls to the ground.

““His nose fell off!””

“It didn’t fall off.”

His other eye falls out and rolls on the ground during the exchange.

“Seiya?! Every part of your face is falling off!”

“I can still see her, despite losing my eyes, and I can still walk even though my legs are gone. That alone is proof that this is simply an illusion.”

Seiya continues to walk. Marionelda suddenly notices that Seiya’s holy aura is burning her body, and her expression grows tense.

“Wh-why?! The pain should be too much to bear! You should be writhing on the floor and passing out! How are you still walking?!”

“So this is your ability? What a worthless power.”

Before I even realize it, Seiya is already right in front of the devil. Marionelda’s face is stricken with fear as if she has never seen such a monster. Th-then again, Seiya does actually look like a monster right now! Regardless, she shouldn’t have underestimated the Hero’s conviction and stubbornness! Illusions aren’t going to work on Seiya!

But that’s when I notice something: A trickle of blood has escaped Seiya’s tightly pressed lips and is running down his chin!

Th-that isn’t an illusion! Maybe Seiya really is in extreme pain, and he’s just acting tough?!

“S-Seiya!”

“I’m fine. It isn’t a big deal. Besides…”

Seiya glances at Mash, who is lying on the ground while holding his neck after being bitten by Marionelda.

“There’s someone who has been through much more excruciating pain for the past ten years.”

After deeply exhaling, he unleashes a blinding aura from his body. While Seiya usually doesn’t express his emotions, it feels almost as if his incredible aura is the embodiment of his rage.

“Ooo! My body’s healing!”

Bathing in the powerful light, our decaying bodies slowly regain flesh and return to normal! Meanwhile…

“Gwah…!”

Marionelda’s smoldering body is completely engulfed in flames until Elulu’s body is scorched black and crumbles away…revealing the shadow of an even larger monster inside!

So that’s the Devil Marionelda’s true form!

“Never did I expect to meet someone who could resist my power!”

The shadow monster is floating up toward the sky as she gradually fades, melting into the background.

“S-Seiya! I think she’s trying to get away!” shouts Cerceus.

“Don’t worry. I already have her surrounded.”

“You already have her… Ah?!”

The out-of-control aura radiating from Seiya’s body has already expanded toward the sky like mist. It gathers around Marionelda’s body before promptly materializing into a giant sphere of light, trapping her inside.

“Purge Cage. Furthermore…”

Laser-like beams shoot out of Seiya’s palm like Fenrir Shot, piercing the sphere of light.

“Gwahhh!” screams Marionelda like a wild animal. The rays bounce off the walls inside the sphere like a mirror, relentlessly skewering her body over and over again.

“Everlasting Ray. While not powerful, the rays can essentially continue reflecting indefinitely inside Purge Cage.”

Marionelda’s shadow is relentlessly hit until it’s full of holes. Nevertheless, Seiya continues to shoot Everlasting Ray. A lot of his shots miss because his holy aura is out of control, but each beam that makes it inside the light sphere endlessly joins the others reflecting off the walls, piercing Marionelda’s body. Thousands—tens of thousands—of light rays shower her body until she lets out one last death wail and vanishes.

“Y-you did it!”

“Did that really just happen?! That was a devil! And you crushed her!”

Cerceus and I join hands and rejoice, but…

“Die.”

Purge Cage compresses as Seiya closes his fist until it produces a radiant light and explodes without even leaving a speck. All that’s left is the wild blue yonder. Cerceus creases his eyes and asks:

“Hey, Rista. What was the point of that explosion?”

“Yeah, Marionelda was already dead before he even said, ‘Die’… A-anyway, we won!”

But Seiya’s stern expression doesn’t change. I follow his gaze…to find Mash standing upright. Despite being fatally wounded, he somehow managed to rise to his feet as his legs tremble. He then drags himself over to Igzasion, picks it up, and points it at Seiya. The Hero gets into battle stance as well.

“Wh-what’s going on? The devil’s already dead, right? Wasn’t Mash just being controlled by her?”

“That still doesn’t change the fact that he’s one of the reasons why this world was warped…”

Mash flashes a grin, then throws Igzasion to Seiya.

“Use it. It’s rightfully yours.”

Seiya quietly grabs its hilt and then gets into a middle guard stance. Despite copious amounts of blood pouring out of Mash’s neck and dripping down his legs, he smirks.

“So ‘this world is a mirage,’ and ‘I’m a twisted illusion,’ huh? Heh…I’m starting to think there might be some truth to your bullshit story, after all.”

Mash then throws his head back as if he’s gazing at the heavens and spreads his arms out wide.

“Then send me back. Make me the real me again. Put an end to this shitty decade.”

Seiya silently nods, then vanishes into thin air.

…Everything happens in the blink of an eye. I don’t even hear the sound of his sword. It’s so quick that pain must be a foreign concept. Mash’s head has been removed from his body, and Cerceus looks away as it hits the ground.

“This is…too cruel… It all feels…so hopeless…”

“No, Cerceus. You’re wrong.”

Because at the very last moment, I heard the voice of Mash’s soul.

“Thank you, Master Seiya.”

The tears well up in my eyes, and before long, even Seiya holding Igzasion becomes nothing but a twisting blur. Wait. The world is actually twisting. I begin to stagger as the world shakes and ripples just like when Mersais twisted the spirit world.

…I suddenly realize that Mash’s body is nowhere in sight. Not only that, but the horrifying battlefield has been replaced by a pure-white snowfield. There are no townspeople when I look back. The town of Iglu itself doesn’t even exist. There is only gentle snow falling upon the vast field of Alphoreiz.

“Mash! Rosalie’s calling for you! Hurry, wake up!”

“Mn… Yeah, yeah…”

“Hurry! Come on!”

Elulu is wildly shaking Mash, who has been taking a nap under a large tree.

…Seiya, Cerceus, and I headed over to the Roseguard Empire because we wanted to make sure the warped world had really returned to normal. Since the distortion’s gone, I was able to open a gate straight there. After that, we turned invisible under Seiya’s orders, snuck into the castle town, and searched around until we found Elulu and Mash in a spacious garden.

“Quit it, Elulu! I’m already awake!”

“Massshhhhhh! Wake uuuuuup!”

“…?! For the last time, I’m already awake!”

Mash gets frustrated with Elulu, who’s still shaking his body. Seiya, watching their exchange, quietly says:

“They’re cuter when they’re like this. I hope they never change.”

“…Hmm? Seiya, did you just smile?”

But when I turn around to check, Seiya is already back to his usual emotionless expression. He then turns on his heel.

“Are you sure you don’t want to at least say hello?”

“They probably think I died during the battle against the Demon Lord, and I don’t have the patience to explain what happened.”

“Oh, come on. Just say hello.”

“I still have work to do. There’s still something that concerns me as well.”

Seiya glances at Igzasion, and a chill runs down my spine.

Wh-why does Igzasion still exist, even though we already fixed Gaeabrande?

Right as Seiya starts walking away, Elulu speaks up with clear surprise in her voice.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Mash?”

“I don’t know… The tears just… That’s strange.”

“Did you have a sad dream?”

“Yeah, that must be it.”

“I actually had a dream this morning, too. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I remember being in pain and being scared. It was a really sad dream. But…”

Elulu gently smiles.

“It had a happy ending!”

“Guys!” echoes a voice coming from the castle. Rosalie, with azure hair, walks over to them.

“I was looking for you everywhere, Mash. The bronze statue is finally complete.”

“Y-you mean the statue of Master Seiya?!”

“It’s all thanks to Rosalie for working so hard supervising the project!”

“It took a really long time, huh?”

It sounds like they made a statue to honor Seiya for saving the world. Both Mash and Elulu seem thrilled, but Rosalie is frowning.

“I… I want to destroy that statue!”

“Rosalie?!”

“Why?! You’re the one who said you wanted to make it!”

“Y-yeah, I did, didn’t I? That’s strange… I’m extremely grateful to him for saving the world, and yet lately, I get so frustrated every time I think about him…”

I-is this an effect from what happened in the warped world?! Does her soul still remember her being sacrificed?!

“Sigh.”

Seiya softly exhales.

“I need to go apologize to Rosalie eventually. But only after I fix all the warped worlds.”

“Y-yeah…”

I follow Seiya as he gallantly walks ahead when I randomly remember him squishing my boob in that subconscious world. Hold on! Seiya still hasn’t apologized for that! He even told Elulu and Mash he was sorry but hasn’t shown any remorse for what he did to me!

“Seiya! Don’t you have something you want to say to me?! Like about how you grabbed—”

“There are still many things I don’t understand about the warped worlds. I need to learn more.”

“Don’t ignore me! Hey!”

But the Hero’s piercing gaze is fixed only on what’s ahead.

“Rista, we’re heading back to the underworld. I’m going to talk to Hathies and get to the bottom of this.”