TN: Apologies, this took longer than expected
{Chapter 3} The Super Demon Beast
Inside the vast cavern within Mount Gurwa, Rokiarum, the leader of Sword of Surtur, found himself entirely on the defensive.
Rokiarum was being tormented by nothing more than a Rank D boy, whose ceaseless assaults only amplified Rokiarum’s anger, impatience, doubts, and hatred.
(Ugh, that damn brat! Who is he? Illusions and assimilation-based bewitchments don’t work on him! Tch, does he mean to deny me any time to summon?)
Hiroto allowed no summoning with a thorough barrage of consecutive strikes.
It was a way of fighting as if he were thoroughly versed in combat against summoners.
Whenever Hiroto stepped and closed in on Rokiarum, Rokiarum was forced into nothing but retreat while deploying magical defensive barriers.
Then, bit by bit, Hiroto’s unending attacks began to outpace Rokiarum’s barrier deployment speed.
Hiroto’s beloved sword, Ihaku, slipped through the barrier Rokiarum tried to raise by the slimmest of margins.
“Guh!”
A shallow cut ran from Rokiarum’s left cheek to his left ear, a sharp pain stabbing through him, and he groaned.
The expressionless, cold-eyed Rank D boy immediately cleaved the newly formed magical barrier Rokiarum raised.
“You’re not used to that level of pain, are you?”
Hiroto pressed Rokiarum further back and said, his tone flat and looking down on him.
“What did you say…?”
“If you bog down over that kind of pain, you won’t be good anywhere. You were probably just giving orders from the rear, weren’t you? Typical scum like you — you don’t get hurt yourself, so you can’t even imagine other people’s pain.”
“Don’t get cocky, brat! Acting like you know everything!”
Still, Rokiarum continued to quickly scan his surroundings while raising magical barriers. He needed even the slightest amount of time necessary for summoning.
At that moment Rokiarum decided to take a risky move. He knew perfectly well that the correct way for a summoner to fight was from a completely advantageous and safe position. But now he had been dragged into close combat—an environment unfavorable to summoners. In such a situation, it was difficult to make use of a summoner’s advantages.
Of course, as an experienced summoner, Rokiarum had several techniques for times like this. But Hiroto, as if anticipating even that, remained glued within a five-meter radius of Rokiarum at all times. Under these circumstances, activating those techniques was nearly impossible.
In truth, Rokiarum still harbored a certain arrogance. The fact that his opponent was merely a Rank D boy wouldn’t leave his mind.
There was no denying that that complacency had helped bring about the current situation.
But now, at last, Rokiarum began to realize he would have to abandon that complacency to get out of this. A large part of that realization came from feeling his life threatened by the force and ferocity Hiroto emitted.
Rokiarum put his left arm forward in the same motion he used to deploy a magical barrier against the approaching Hiroto. Hiroto shifted into a higher gear of speed in response.
But suddenly, instead of a defensive barrier from his left hand, Rokiarum fired a Will-o’-Wisp. Hiroto’s face showed a flicker of surprise as he swept Ihaku in a horizontal arc.
Seizing the moment, Rokiarum unleashed his all-out rapid-fire of Will-o’-Wisps while retreating, trying to gain distance from Hiroto.
(This insolent brat… I’ll teach you the difference experience makes. Don’t think brute force alone will win you this fight.)
Though it looked like an effective surprise, Hiroto did not lose his composure—he sliced the Will-o’-Wisp with Ihaku and evaded it, his expression betraying no haste.
Hiroto judged Rokiarum’s pattern as simply switching from a barrier to magic-spirits, ran laterally around Rokiarum, and seemed to be waiting for the timing to dash back into Rokiarum’s flank.
(Muuu, annoyingly calm. But! Kukuku, So immature! So immature!)
Rokiarum shifted his own position little by little, glared at Hiroto, and let a slight twist cross his cheek.
He waited.
He waited for this rude, inexperienced brat to wrinkle his face, to expose his ignorance in combat with ability-users, to cry tears of frustration and die under Rokiarum’s boot with his face ground into the sole.
Rokiarum watched Hiroto’s movements with precision, gauging their relative positions while continuing to unleash Will-o’-Wisps.
(Yes, my strategy will succeed!)
Just as Rokiarum was about to spring his trap… Hiroto suddenly stopped moving.
(Hah!? He stopped!?)
Standing still, Hiroto cut the incoming Will-o’-Wisps with sword techniques too quick to track, then lifted his leg and kicked the ground. Stones and mud from the spot were sent flying like gravel and struck Rokiarum’s left hand and body; Rokiarum instinctively shielded himself.
“You’re pathetic.”
“What!?”
“There! There! And There!”
Hiroto pointed Ihaku at his own right-rear diagonal, his left-rear upper diagonal, and the area above the front.
Rokiarum paused for a moment, wondering what he was doing, but when he looked in the direction Hiroto had pointed, his face registered utter shock.
“You’re setting something up, aren’t you? You were guiding them to positions that would be out of my line of sight. Look… if you’re going to do that, don’t make it so obvious with your gaze and expressions. It makes me embarrassed to fight you.”
“Wha—!”
“Enough. I’ll end this. Listen! Just like you did in Miramar, I have no interest in your plans and no connection to them. I’m here to teach you the humiliation of being felled by someone you underestimate! Know that, and die on this soil of Miramar!”
Sen ki erupted from Hiroto. He raised Ihaku, and even Rokiarum felt cold down his spine under that glare.[TN: I am still confused to what use for [仙氣] it’s furigana was [せんき senki] Qi, Xian Qi, Sen ki, Immortal Fighting spirit, etc, but Sen Ki sounds cool as well so I am using this for the time being]
Overwhelmed by Hiroto’s terrible killing intent, Rokiarum unconsciously retreated.
“W-what is your purpose!? Why do you turn your blade on me like this!? What advantage would you have from defeating me!?”
“Are you stupid? I told you before! I came here for no purpose of my own. I came to defeat you out of hypocrisy and madness!”
Hiroto’s battle qi detonated.
It was an aura of Senki that threatened to fill Rokiarum’s entire field of vision.
(Th-this!? Could it be Senki!? So he’s a daoist after all! This is bad! This is really bad!)
A blast of Senki swept the area, and before Rokiarum knew it, Hiroto had appeared right in front of him.
“Wha—! I can’t see—!”
“Senki Battle Slash!”
The moment Hiroto’s roar of spirit hit his ears, Rokiarum couldn’t process that his view had flipped upside down. For some reason he could see Hiroto’s jaw below him now. He could even see only the lower half of some other body that had no upper torso on the opposite side.
Rokiarum felt the cold cave floor against the back of his head and finally understood his condition.
“…Kah!”
A flood of blood rose from Rokiarum’s throat and he spat it up.
Hiroto looked down at him with a cold expression. Even in that state, Rokiarum did not easily die. Hiroto had sensed it during the fight, Rokiarum’s body was partly that of a demon.
(Where did he get that half-demon body…? It’s hard to believe that this technique, which had caused so much pain in the Demon Realm, is being used here.)
Hiroto’s face showed a momentary puzzled look before he turned his gaze to Mizgard, which was broadcasting the situations in the various cities. Mizuho and the others, Kyoko and the rest, were fighting bravely in those cities.
“Heh! Heh heh? Got one? Rokiarum, you got it? Heh heh!”
Approaching Mizgard, Hiroto confirmed that an enormous amount of magic power was being relayed here and then radiated like a signal to the other cities, and he murmured, “Just as I thought.”
From the start of the fight Hiroto had been concerned about Mizgard. It was still here even after it had lost its mobility. It was natural to think it had some role to play.
At that moment, through Rokiarum’s fading vision he saw Hiroto standing behind Mizgard.
Rokiarum, now only an upper torso, weakly breathed and groped at his chest, drawing out a parchment from a tear in his robe and clutching it tight.
Hiroto moved slowly, raising Ihaku into a high guard and enveloping it with his Sen Ki.
Rokiarum finally opened his eyes, but his vision began to fail and he grew numb.
Hiroto let his refined Sen Ki and intent radiate.
“Haaa!”
With a shout, Hiroto brought Ihaku down in a single, swift stroke from the high guard.
“Heh! Heh heh… huh!?”
Mizgard—whether it noticed Hiroto behind it or not—smirked faintly and, as always, stared off in some other direction. Still, something seemed to pass through Mizgard’s center that it couldn’t ignore.
“So you were controlling the horde of summoned demons. I thought something was off from the start. Even while I and the summoner were fighting, the demons in the images you projected were attacking Miramar. But now you can’t coordinate those summoned demons!”
The instant Hiroto said that, cracks appeared from Mizgard’s head down to the ground.
“Ku Ku Ku…. !”
“….!?”
Blood gushed from Mizgard’s central line.
The huge body split left and right like a fruit under a knife, rolled onto the ground with a dull sound and a slight tremor, and the projections from its many eyes sank into a sea of blood.
Hiroto lowered his stance and slid Ihaku back into its platinum scabbard that had fallen near his left wrist.
“Kukuku…”
“…!?”
Hiroto startled at the mocking throat-noise and turned his head toward its source.
There lay Rokiarum, who should have been on the verge of death, sprawled on the ground. He had supposedly been reduced to an upper torso, but to Hiroto’s eyes he now seemed livelier than before, and he raised a single brow.
“Fuhahahahaha!”
Rokiarum began to laugh uproariously.
The sight of Rokiarum, who should have had no lower half, laughing with excitement sent a chill through Hiroto’s whole body. His caution spiked, and on impulse he drew Ihaku once more.
At that moment, the torrent of blood from the bisected Mizgard gathered together, took the shape of several snakes, and attacked from Hiroto’s blind spot.
“Hah! Guh!”
Hiroto was taken by surprise, but sensing their approach he rolled to the side and braced himself. Still, about half of those blood-snakes altered course and began tracking him. With no time to rest he leapt backward and dodged as the blood-snakes gouged deep into the ground where he’d just stood, carving out several small craters.
In that breathless ambush his right shoulder and left thigh were sliced through along with his clothes, but he immediately regripped Ihaku and readied himself for the next attack.
Hiroto couldn’t make sense of the bizarre scene unfolding before him.
The snakes that had suddenly attacked were only about half of those that had come from Mizgard.
The other half… instead of chasing the Hiroto who had first dodged, continued straight on and, unbelievably, plunged into the body of Rokiarum—the one who should have been Mizgard’s master.
“…! What the—!?”
When he looked, a parchment inscribed with a magic circle had somehow been spread out over Rokiarum’s lower abdomen. The blood-snakes were impaled squarely into the center of the circle drawn on the parchment, and they reached deep enough to pierce Rokiarum beneath it.
“Kukuku… fuhahaha… hahahaha――――!!”
Rokiarum burst into a high, rapturous laugh, and the torso-only Rokiarum, skewered by those blood-snakes… rose to his feet.
No—rather than rising, he was being lifted by the blood-snakes driven into his belly.
Hiroto met the dark, revitalized glare in Rokiarum’s eyes.
“What is this!?”
Hiroto’s eyes widened. He could see something being supplied from the blood-snakes that stretched from Mizgard into Rokiarum. Each time the supply flowed, Rokiarum’s magical power amplified.
Although Rokiarum was only an upper torso, his lower abdomen writhed with multiple blood-snakes like octopus tentacles. No longer appearing human, he looked down at Hiroto with a face of hatred and smug composure.
“Kukuku, foolish brat… you messed up the procedure. From the start you worried about your comrades and the state of the cities of Miramar. I figured you’d do something like this eventually. I was waiting for you to put your hand on Mizgard yourself.”
While Rokiarum spoke, Hiroto immediately wiped any trace of agitation from his face, charged Rokiarum with Ihaku in hand. Rokiarum’s transformation meant nothing to him.
Hiroto’s godlike-speed strike drove into Rokiarum’s chest. Ihaku cut off Rokiarum’s right arm, pierced through his torso, and its blade reappeared around Rokiarum’s left shoulder.
However—
“Foolish…”
The right arm that should have been severed reattached as if he had sliced through liquid. Then, stepping in and sweeping his blade sideways, Rokiarum grabbed Hiroto’s exposed throatt.
“Gah!”
Hiroto’s face contorted.
Rokiarum’s body had already returned to its pre-cut state, and with that restored right hand clamped on Hiroto’s throat he lifted him up. At the same time, blood-snakes that extended like tentacles coiled around Hiroto’s right arm—the arm that held Ihak—with a brutal constriction.
“Kukuku, how does it feel? You thought catching the summoner’s form would be enough, did you? You assumed a summoner could be rendered helpless in close quarters. Foolish! What ignorance! A worthless piece of filth like you could never measure up to a top-rank summoner like me!”
Rokiarum’s fingers drove into Hiroto’s throat; the blood-snakes burrowed into his arm.
“Guu!”
Seeing the fleeting expression of agony cross Hiroto’s face, Rokiarum raised one corner of his lips in amusement.
Hiroto grabbed Rokiarum’s arm—clasping the hand that had reached for his throat—with his left hand and glared.
“Oh? Your eyes aren’t dead yet. As expected of a Taoist. I never thought I’d meet an Immortal practitioner out here. Now it makes sense that you ended up Rank D with that level of skill. A corrupt organization wouldn’t evaluate you properly!”
Rokiarum’s muscular strength surged, and the left hand by which Hiroto gripped Rokiarum began to tremble.
“But in the end you were just an immature piece of trash. When you saw the corpse of my disciple Niesbeck lying there, you felt nothing? It was your mistake to think the Mizgard you cut was merely a controller that manipulates fiends.”
Rokiarum’s gaze flicked for a moment to Niesbeck, lying there like a dessicated mummy, then returned to Hiroto as he smirked.
(W-What!? C-could it be… he used his own disciple as a tool to store magic!?)
The furrow between Hiroto’s brows deepened—for reasons that were not only pain.
“I knew this would happen. Want to know why? You wouldn’t understand, would you—you’re the sort who has no pride as an ability-user, who lets sentiment into battle and gets swayed by worthless, incompetent people. Listen: just as you scrutinized my movements in detail during the fight, I read your temperament from your words and the shifts in your emotions! The motivation that brought you here was utterly trite and worthless! It made me nauseous!”
Rokiarum said that and ground his teeth in loathing. Then he turned his chin slightly toward the flesh-mass that was Mizugard.
“Both that one and Niesbeck have also served as reservoirs for the magic I’ve gathered until now. I spent a hundred years accumulating an enormous amount of magic, gradually altering it into a form more compatible with me so that one day I could absorb it. But that is no longer necessary. With Niesbeck’s magic the altar is complete! Now that I possess this land that gushes boundless magic, I alone can make everything possible!”
“…Guh!”
“I have repeatedly transplanted the bodies of demons I summoned, acquiring for this moment a vessel with vast longevity and the ability to withstand any amount of magical power. Enough! The games are over. I’ll use Mizgard’s magic according to plan! Begin the Great Summoning!”
At once Rokiarum’s body was wrapped in a red-black aura, and Hiroto could see magic welling up from Mizugard being drawn into him.
“…!”
The more of that magic Rokiarum absorbed, the stronger the force tightening around Hiroto’s throat became, and the more the magic flowing from his body thickened and intensified. Conversely, the two-split colossus that was Mizgard, shrunk down.
“This summoning was originally supposed to be shown after the fall of every Miramar city, at which point I would declare war on the world. But if the countless ghosts of those gifted who fell before their time have hurried this along in this form, then I accept it. You yourself opened Pandora’s box! The beginning of the end of this world!”
At last Mizgard’s gigantic body was nothing but skin clinging to the ground, and the blood snakes that spilled out of Mizugard transferred their master into Rokiarum.
“Fuhahahaha! We gifted ones—though we are a higher species than humanity—have been oppressed, and the world is full of deception, bolstered by the world’s own organizations of the gifted. I have opened the front in that war!”
As Rokiarum cried that out, countless snakes growing from his lower body shot out sharply across a wide area and impaled the ceiling, walls, and floor of this vast underground space.
“!”
Hiroto, barely able to breathe, was made to watch it.
“Now, look! Behold the shape of the demon-beast I summon from my hell! Power to rival even the demon gods that will shake the world! With this, my hidden brethren across the globe will rise again. The curtain rises on a world war that will drag in both the surface and the shadows! You foolish brat, who let petty compassion get in the way of our noble ideals—savor the bliss of witnessing the start of this holy war as you die!”
At the center of the blood snakes impaled everywhere, a gigantic layered magic circle rose into the air.
It was not a formula a single summoner could form. It was so immense it defied reason.
As the layered magic circle intensified its light, a mass of darkness that rejected all light appeared at its center. Hiroto flinched.
(That’s a dimensional rift! Such a huge rift… what on earth is he calling?!)
Enormous magic was rapidly channeled from Rokiarum, through the blood snakes, into the layered magic circle.
Rokiarum showed a pained expression for an instant, but it immediately twisted into a hideous grin.
“Nuaaah! Come! Garm, hellhound of the underworld(HELL)! Bring down your true power and strike the world a crushing blow! Destroy everything! Everything! Tear apart every order with that jaw!”
The darkness at the center of the layered circle swelled hugely.
At that moment, Hiroto’s eyes opened wide.
Gradually, the Sen ki he had been refining in his lower dantian had borne fruit.
Hiroto removed his left hand from Rokiarum’s arm and weakly pressed his palm to Rokiarum’s chest.
The instant he did, a tremendous shock exploded through Rokiarum’s entire body.
“Guh! What!?”
Taking the point-blank discharge of Sen ki head-on, Rokiarum’s face contorted.
Rokiarum’s body began to vibrate as if the surface of water had been violently disturbed; his right hand that gripped Hiroto’s throat and the blood snake coiled around Hiroto’s right arm loosened, creating the barest of gaps.
Hiroto kicked both legs upward, spun his body vertically, slammed his body into Rokiarum’s face as he broke free of the restraints, and leapt backward.
Rubbing his throat now swollen and reddened, Hiroto drew a deep breath. “Phew…”
“Hmph! You clever brat… But it’s already too late! You cannot stop Gram’s summoning now!”
Hiroto glared sharply at Rokiarum. Rokiarum’s complexion was clearly bad.
Hiroto understood that he must have used up that much magic.
It should have been a risky move for Rokiarum mid-battle—but he also wore the look of a victor who had already created a situation where risk was no longer a risk.
At that moment, a gigantic paw—one of the demon beast’s legs—crawled out of the mass of darkness.
Merely that was enough to make this vast, sturdy underground chamber tremble; pebbles and chunks of rock rained down from the ceiling.
“W-what is this!?”
A shocked look spread across Hiroto’s face. Even with only a single leg showing, the beast was spewing an utterly impossible amount of magic.
(This beast… is far too powerful! If that thing gets out, then Miramar !?)
Rokiarum propped his body up with the blood-snakes that extended from his lower half as if he’d exhausted his strength, but at the change in Hiroto’s expression he tugged the corner of his mouth into a grin.
“Kukuku… nice expression, kid. You’re like an ant that’s wandered in front of my path!”
“You bastard!”
“Oops, killing me would be pointless. If you get close to me, I’ll move this Garm to the capital Nephy. If you kill me at this moment, who knows what an uncontrollable Garm might do. This demonic beast Garm should be able to keep moving for days on the magic I’ve already fed it!”
“Wh-what!”
Hiroto was left speechless.
Whether Rokiarum spoke the truth or not, if a magical beast rivaling a demon god could rampage for even a few days…
Hiroto ground his back teeth together in anger.
“You’re insane! Do you even understand what you’re doing!?”
“I am not mad! It is this world that is mad! I have survived to see this very day! I care nothing for the lives of worthless incompetents! Those inferior lives, those souls, are all merely fuel for my plan! Scatter those valueless souls as you will!”
“Fuel…?”
The atmosphere around Hiroto changed.
All expressions drained from his face.
At last the snout of the Garm began to emerge slowly from the darkness at the center of the magic circle.
“Yes! Offer your lives to become fuel for our sublime purpose! Look at this foolish country! It has produced nothing but a pathetic political system and pitiful rulers. The ignorant masses will remain ignorant no matter what. Then at least be of use to us! Use your lives for our ideals!”
The glazed look in Hiroto’s eyes sharpened, and his right arm, gripping Ihaku, began to tremble.
“Be of use, you say…..”
Rokiarum cried out, drunk on himself, and slid happily toward the wall with Hiroto in his peripheral vision.
A corner of the rock wall split open, revealing a room with what looked like an altar built inside.
“Kukuku, can’t you feel it? This accumulation of magic that seems endless. With this power I can command Garms forever. Hahahaha! You will be my first sacrifice, you foolish inferior brat! But don’t worry; I’ll soon send others to follow. Offer your souls to Garm’s belly!”
Hiroto’s eyes opened wide.
Rokiarum’s words were replaced in Hiroto’s mind by the voice of the disastrous demon god he had felled in the demon world.
“〝They live inside me…〟”
“〝…they will work for me, with the power of their souls.〟”
In Rokiarum’s grotesque laughter, the faces of the comrades Hiroto had met in the demon world rose up.
All of them had smiled in the same way, and then perished.
And then, the lifeless face of the blue-haired girl he had met in the demon world, Lieselotte, surfaced,
and Hiroto’s heart… began to be swallowed by darkness.
Rokiarum, for some reason, judged the motionless Hiroto to be a brat who would simply sit and wait for death in despair. He moved his blood-snakes—like tentacled octopi, from his lower body and slid into the hidden chamber. He looked weak, as if he’d used up his magic.
When Rokiarum entered the hidden room, the rock door closed and Hiroto’s figure disappeared completely.
Rokiarum dragged his body to the altar somehow; the floor glowed a pale blue and a magic circle appeared.
(This is the end… and the beginning.)
Rokiarum exhaled atop the magic circle, which also functioned as a device to draw in mana.
He began to siphon magic from the mana field.
A shelf stood along the side of the room, lined with glass bottles of various sizes filled with liquid. Inside those bottles, unidentifiable lumps of flesh opened a large eye and glared at Rokiarum, following him with nothing but its gaze.
(First, I must hasten the creation of a second and third Mizugard.)
As Rokiarum thought that, Gram’s roar—shaking the earth from outside the rock door—swept through the chamber.
Rokiarum smiled sardonically, his face still pale.
“Go, Garm. Use that power and cut open the path of Surt’s sword—open a new world for those like us with abilities!”
Rokiarum’s voice echoed through the chilly room, and the Mizgard larvae on the shelves blinked and darted their eyes busily.
◆
At Minra, the Mathew stronghold, the hordes of enemy youma had been almost entirely repelled, the soldiers cheered one another, proud of their mutual efforts.
Mizuho and Marion, the key figures as the pillars of Minra’s defense—returned to the Mathew manor garden where the operations headquarters was set up. When they appeared, the soldiers erupted in cheers and welcomed the two girls back.
Mizuho and Marion responded to the applause, but their expressions did not soften.
“Mizuho-san, Hiroto—what about Hiroto…?”
“Most likely… no, I’m certain he’s engaged in combat with the enemy summoner. The fact that the enemy’s summoning has stopped is proof of that.”
Mizuho glared straight ahead while Marion walked with her head slightly bowed.
“Yes. Um… Mizuho-san, are you— is Hiroto-san all right?”
“Marion, Hiroto will be fine. We know that better than anyone. For now I want information. Let’s go to General Mathew.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Mizuho’s words sounded as if they were directed at herself as well, and when Marion realized that Mizuho’s inner feelings mirrored her own, she stopped voicing any more of her worries.
The mobile-tent command post came into view. Soldiers bustled around it, and people were constantly moving in and out.
Mizuho and Marion saw how obviously hectic the area around the command post was and, wondering if there had been some change in the battle, unconsciously quickened their pace.
And in the middle of that vast courtyard they could also see Nina.
Nina, with her slight frame, was stacking and carrying large boxes full of food and handing them out to the soldiers and the evacuated citizens of Minra. When she found a child crying after being separated from their parents, Nina took the initiative to speak to them.
Mizuho smiled as she watched Nina doing everything she could, desperately, in that moment.
Then—.
A hideous, overwhelming gale of magic swept through Minra.
“Ugh!”
“What is—!?”
Mizuho and Marion twisted their faces and instinctively clutched at their abdomens. That evil, tremendous wave of power felt as if it briefly swallowed the entire town of Minra.
Because they were ability-users, Mizuho and Marion were strongly affected, but some perceptive regular soldiers also looked around and tilted their heads in confusion.
Marion, catching her breath as she stood, suddenly gasped. She recognized this magic.
“Th-this can’t be… Wanko!?”
Marion let the word slip from her mouth and her face went pale.
“What is this—this isn’t a joke of a power!? Just the wave of it steals your consciousness!”
“Mizuho-san, this magic strongly resembles the giant magical beast that attacked us before! And it’s far stronger than that time! You could say it’s a completely different thing!”
“What!?”
It was the colossal magical beast that had attacked during the previous operation. And its magic had grown so enormously strong that comparison to that time was impossible.
Moreover, the extraordinary roar of magic that had just passed clearly came from the north… Mizuho and Marion instinctively knew it came from Mount Gurwa, where Hiroto had gone.
They pressed their lips together and met each other’s eyes.
Would they make it to Mount Gurwa in time if they left now? Even if they did and reinforced Hiroto, would they be of any use?
Mizuho spun around immediately. She couldn’t sit still thinking about Hiroto’s situation.
But Marion grabbed her arm.
Mizuho was surprised by Marion’s action.
“Why, Marion!? Even a little help for Hiroto—!”
” Mizuho-san! I feel the same way! But Hiroto-san left General Mathew and this Minra in our care when he went. We must wait here.”
Mizuho flared up, about to retort, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Because the usually mild, easygoing Marion had tears in her eyes.
And Mizuho immediately knew those tears weren’t born of loneliness or sadness.
It was because Mizuho’s own eyes were already filled with tears.
Those were, most likely, the same tears as Marion’s.
“Marion.”
“…Yes.”
“I’m so frustrated—I’m ashamed of how useless I am! I hate my own weakness! And I hate that I can’t be in the same place as him!”
Marion loosened her grip on Mizuho’s arm.
“Mizuho-san, I feel the same. That’s why I’ve decided now: I will become stronger, no matter what! And wherever he goes, I will protect the place he returns to… no, I will protect it!”
They bit their lips, did not wipe their tears, and stared up at the northern sky over Minra with faces set in determination.
Then… that powerful wave of magic swept across the skies over Minra once more.
“Ugh! Again!”
“…Huff!”
Mizuho gripped her right arm with her left hand, and Marion clutched the rosary at her chest.
—At the same time.
Mizuho and Marion sensed a force different from the magical beast’s power.
An indescribable sense of loss suddenly assailed them.
That loss rose up abruptly and then kept layering loss upon loss, each overlaying the previous.
In an instant, Mizuho and Marion imagined the boy who had headed for Mount Gurwa.
But no matter how many times they pictured him, his image kept fading.
At that moment Nina came into their sight. She stood frozen with an anxious, taut expression, clutching at her chest as she looked around again and again.
“M‑Mizuho-san… this—”
“Yes…”
Instinctively, Mizuho and Marion gripped each other’s hands tightly.
Desperately trying to resist so that this feeling of loss wouldn’t be completed.
Mizuho gazed toward the northern sky with a look of aching sorrow.
“You used it, didn’t you, Hiroto… that power…”
“Again, for the sake of others…”
◆
The vast courtyard of the Mathew estate was packed with soldiers and evacuated civilians. Among them, Nina worked devotedly, moving from person to person as the Mathew daughter, comforting them and encouraging them to set aside their fears.
(Everyone’s fighting. I’ll fight in whatever way I can, too.)
At that moment Nina noticed a small girl who looked to have been separated from her parents.
She hurried over, bent down, and spoke to the sobbing child. Nina greeted the tear‑streaked face with a gentle expression, took the girl’s hand, and helped her to her feet.
“There, it’s all right. Let’s look for your mother together. Soon enough, some very strong big brothers and big sisters will come and beat all those bad people who came near the town. Then you’ll be able to go back home with your mother before long.”
“…Really?”
The girl looked up at Nina.
“It’s true. So stop crying now, okay? Come on, let’s go find your mother.”
“Yeah!”
Nina led the girl by the hand, calling out loudly over the clamor as she searched for the girl’s frantic mother.
Before long, Nina saw a woman ahead shouting what sounded like her daughter’s name in a loud voice.
“Is that the mommy?”
“Ah! That’s mommy!”
The girl let go of Nina’s hand and ran toward the woman.
Nina watched them go and offered a relieved smile.
…At that moment,
Nina felt an indescribable unease and clutched her chest with her right arm.
(Wh‑what is this feeling? It’s like something is being taken away…)
Nina was bewildered by the utterly new sensation.
It felt as if something irreplaceable inside her were being sucked out.
For an instant, the face of that boy who always gave that unreliable smile popped into her mind.
He was the boy who’d thrown himself into a dangerous fight that brought him no benefit, for the sake of the rest of them.
It was because of that boy’s support that she was able to keep going like this.
But now that boy’s image was gradually fading. Nina’s heart cried out in confusion, but the shape nevertheless thinned from her head.
Startled, Nina lifted her face.
“Hiroto!”
Nina cried the boy’s name unconsciously toward the northern sky.
This sensation was impossible to accept.
For some reason, Nina thought she absolutely could not let herself be swept away by it.
“Big sister, what’s wrong?”
“…Huh?”
The same little girl, now reunited with her mother, looked up at Nina with concern.
“Lady Nina, thank you so much! My daughter told me—how can I ever repay you?”
The woman bowed desperately. Nina hastily made a gentle expression and replied. She could not do anything now that would needlessly unsettle the already confused citizens of Minra.
“No, please don’t worry about it. Hee hee, that’s good, now don’t stray from your mother, okay? And you’ll be going home soon!”
“Yeah! There’ll be really strong big brothers and big sisters!”
“…Big brother?”
Nina showed a puzzled look for a moment, then immediately smiled at the child.
“That’s right! There are very strong big sisters, so it’ll be fine! Now then, let’s head over to the evacuation area. Is there anything you’re short of?”
“Ah, yes, thank you. We heard that…there are some people who are a little short on milk for their babies.”
“Understood. I’ll get it right away.”
With that, Nina quickly left the spot.
But something inexplicable still nagged at her heart.
It had been the girl’s casual words.
(…Really strong big brother?)
Nina shook her head to brush it away, telling herself it was just something a child would say, nothing to dwell on, and threw herself back into her duties.
At the furthest chamber of a cave halfway up Mount Gurwa.
In that vast space, a colossal magical beast with the power to destroy a nation was about to take form.
The super‑beast had already revealed its upper body out of the darkness, cramped though it seemed, and was gradually, surely trying to manifest its entire body into the present world.
Hiroto and Garm, standing opposite each other, met each other’s gaze. Garm opened his enormous jaws and was about to unleash a roar that would turn an ordinary person’s body to dust.
But now… Hiroto stared down Garm’s roar without flinching.
Inside Hiroto’s mind appeared the comrades who had fallen in the demon realm and the girl he had loved most.
And in the back of his head Rokiarum’s earlier words echoed.
“Offer those lives as sustenance, be useful to us…”
Then the bodies of the comrades who had shared hardships with him, and the blue‑haired girl Lieselotte, collapsed like sand dolls.
As Hiroto’s expression completely vanished, an overwhelming murderous intent cloaked him, riding his dark, sharp gaze and aimed at Garm. The darkness that lived within Hiroto now began to take control of his heart.
Hiroto’s right foot stepped forward.
{Hiroto…}
Hiroto’s eyes snapped open.
Whether it was an auditory hallucination or only his ears playing tricks on him, a very familiar—and strangely comforting—female voice reached him.
{We’ll always be watching over you…}
From the bottom of the darkness that had covered Hiroto’s heart, a small light shone.
There was no mistaking it, it was Lieselotte’s voice.
In an instant, Hiroto’s expression returned and his field of vision widened.
Faces of irreplaceable friends he treasured rose in his chest.
They were… his everyday friends Matsuri, Ichigo, and Shizuka.
And now his comrades-in-arms, Mizuho and Marion.
All of them knew him friends who had remembered him.
Hiroto felt a surge of courage, rather than giving up his bonds with these friends, courage to remain connected to them welled up in him.
(This isn’t revenge. I’m—me, right now! I’m doing what I truly want to do. Liese! I can’t forgive those bastards. They trample other people’s feelings for their own ends, treat lives and souls like garbage!)
In Hiroto’s mind appeared Mathew—who had given his life to Miramar with grim resolve—and Guaran, who had fallen there.
And then… Nina’s face, sobbing, was projected into Hiroto’s heart.
“That’s why I—!”
With life returning to his face, Hiroto glared sharply at Garm and spread both arms wide.
Small magic circles appeared on both his arms and legs and shattered like glass.
At once, a black shadow suffused with powerful mana rose over the right side of his body and began to eat into him. The shadow writhed and clung to him, creeping even into the eyeball of his right eye.
…!
Noticing Hiroto’s transformation, Garm bared its teeth—rows like a mountain of blades—and rumbled like an earthquake. Immediately after, it condensed the mana it had been storing and unleashed a roar powerful enough to destroy the underground chamber.
Now Hiroto held in his hands the jet‑black longsword Ikoku and the platinum‑hilted blade Ihaku, and an incredible Sen Ki (spiritual energy) surged up from his core.
Before Garm’s gaping jaw, layer upon layer of magic circles unfolded and the space warped.
But… the roar of the super‑demon was for the most part canceled out just before the boy who wielded two swords.
At the impossible sight, the hellhound Garm’s red eyes opened wide.
Then… the boy who had so easily taken the roar revealed his gaze between the platinum blade and the jet‑black blade. Garm met that gaze, irritated that it was still mid‑summon and not yet fully unleashed, and violently twisted its massive body.
In that instant, Garm suddenly saw the boy before it.
The space around the boy distorted from the sheer concentration of power.
From that alone Garm understood that this one’s power—his very presence—was something akin to its own.
Someone bearing such power should not, in truth, exist in the living world.
“Haaa!”
Hiroto, warping the space around him, poured vast amounts of both spirit power and mana into each of his two blades and swung them in a cross.
At the same time, Garm drove forth a full‑force roar with all the strength it could muster.
Rokiarum was quietly recuperating inside the hidden room.
(I’ll keep my recovery to a minimum… getting control of Garm comes first.)
He had used more power than expected to summon Garm.
Rokiarum realized that it likely would have been impossible using only Mizgard’s mana. He could not show weakness to the enemy Hiroto, so he had not let his confident demeanor slip, but in truth, even with the power of this mana field, the summoning had been a near thing.
The cause was that he had rushed Garm’s summoning. Although this magic land’s mana was inexhaustible, it took time to assimilate that power into one’s body.
Ironically, the procedure itself first demanded a considerable amount of mana just to weave the ritual that would let him absorb mana. That power had been obtained by assimilating his disciple Niesbeck to complete the ritual and the altar.
After that, while absorbing mana, he used magic to summon vast hordes of fiends to attack each city.
Because of that, the reserve of mana Rokiarum managed to draw from this land was small. But that had been within expectations—Garm’s summoning was originally supposed to take place after the fall of the cities, once he had had sufficient time to gather enough mana.
But Hiroto’s sudden assault threw the plan into chaos. More to the point, Hiroto’s combat power and skill were high, if they didn’t play any cards right then, defeat would have been a real possibility.
At that moment Rokiarum decided to combine Mizgard’s magic with the magic he had been accumulating and, as a last resort, summon the Garm in its Complete Form. For Rokiarum, it was actually a considerable gamble. That was how overwhelming the pressure he’d felt from Hiroto in battle had been.
(But I have accomplished it! With Garm, this disgusting world will not be able to ignore us!)
Just as Rokiarum thought that, Garm let out a second roar, and the walls and ceiling of the hidden room crumbled slightly.
“Kukuku, that brat is holding up well against a Complete Garm. Such useless struggling—”
At that instant, the rock door that was the entrance to the hidden room thundered and shattered to pieces.
“Wha—!”
Rokiarum, unable to read what was happening, stared blankly as a figure gradually emerged from the broken doorway.
“Y-you are!? What!? What are you!? What is the meaning of this!?”
Suddenly, the fragments of rock and dust from the destroyed entrance vanished, and in their place stood a boy carrying two different swords.
(What? What? What? What is—! What is this? An Illusion? A mental attack?)
“Hey, what are you talking about? Haven’t you forgotten? I’m Rank D, the one who came to take you down with hypocrisy and caprice.”
Rokiarum could not make sense of what Hiroto was saying.
Yes—he could not understand.
After all, despite being a Taoist, he had set the immature, insolent brat against the Complete Form of the super-monster Garm.
There was no way such a thing could be happening.
Behind Hiroto was the great hole in the hidden room that Hiroto had smashed open.
Beyond that hole, Rokiarum saw an unbelievable sight.
A dozen-meter-tall beast was split into quarters from snout to tail—top to bottom, left to right—its body being torn apart and reduced to dust.
Only then did Rokiarum sense the power rising from the boy standing before him.
“W-what! Th-this is—spiritual power and magic power! Why from a Taoist like you!? No, why are spiritual and magical power manifesting at the same time!? And moreover, this immense force—!”
“None of that concerns you. This ends now… there’s no more procedure or anything, right?”
Hiroto advanced slowly toward Rokiarum.
Rokiarum’s thoughts could not cohere in the height of his confusion. The boy standing before him was so different from when they’d first met. The aura he emitted, the pressure, the glimpse of overflowing power—everything exceeded the bounds of a mere human. Rokiarum had lived a long time, but nothing formed in his mind.
All he felt was fear. An enemy had come to kill him and was approaching.
“W-w-wait! Please—wait!”
“Wait for what? It’s over. You and your scheme are finished.”
A terrifying boy, who could be nothing but unknown, was coming closer. None of it made sense. But one thing was clear: he would die if things continued like this. He would be killed.
“I cannot end it here! R-right! Why not join us!? If you do, someone with that much power cannot be stuck at Rank D! If it were you—”
The moment Rokiarum made that offer, Hiroto clenched his teeth and unleashed his fighting spirit.
“You filthy summoner! Listen well, you scum. If you’re going to beg for your life, then why don’t you feel that toward those you prey on!? How can you claim that your goals and wishes take precedence over everything!? It’s not only about you! Everyone in this constrained world is struggling to live! What you’ve done concerns only your own life! Can you atone for the lives and futures of the people you’ve trampled until now!?”
As he shouted that, Hiroto’s two swords crossed. Tendril-like blood-serpents sprouted from Rokiarum’s lower body and both of his arms were blown away.
Without even a moment to scream, Rokiarum was left only with his upper body and thrown to the ground. He looked up at Hiroto with tears in his eyes.
Rokiarum did not have the calmness to grasp this incomprehensible situation. All he had was the unbearable fear radiating from the near-superhuman boy.
At that moment, Rokiarum saw the flow of power pouring from Hiroto.
(T-This is… what the—)
“W-wait! You’re using your own existence to fuel that power!? Fool! If you do that, no one will be able to remember you! Are you okay with that!? If so, then why did you fight me!?”
At that claim, Hiroto turned his eyes to Rokiarum as if looking at something contemptible.
“Even if you gamble everything on that fight you’ll gain nothing! No praise! No honor! No gratitude! Is that what you want!?”
“Are you an idiot? You—”
“Huh?”
Rokiarum couldn’t fathom the true meaning behind Hiroto’s words.
“What do you gain from taking that?”
Hiroto’s eyes, which showed not a scrap of feeling, took on a glare.
“I just came to follow through on my own hypocrisy and perverse whim. I came because I saw the tears of a single girl, you see.”
“Huh? Wha—”
“Unlike you, that girl’s feelings weren’t just about herself; she was looking toward the future of everyone who lives in Miramar. And you tried to crush that future for no reason, no context—just as a self-promotional spectacle! You wouldn’t understand why I came here. I received the hopes of those who chased that valuable future for Miramar!”
“Wha-wha—even if you defeat me and you’ll just be forgotten, getting nothing in return!”
Rokiarum no longer had any method or strength left to overturn the situation.
If this boy so much as struck once, he would die.
“Do I need thanks? Of course not. My actions are mine. Even if I’m forgotten… I’ll just make them remember me again. I’ve already been given the courage to do that.”
(Die… I die? No! Scared! My future! My glorious path will be cut off!)
Rokiarum trembled in despair and planted the swords Hiroto held on the boy’s open palms.
The two blades sank into Hiroto’s hands and disappeared.
Rokiarum couldn’t understand the meaning of Hiroto’s action.
Why put the swords away?
Still, Rokiarum thought maybe this kid—just maybe—
(Has this brat never killed anyone? If that’s the case…)
He kept his face unchanged, but felt as if he’d discovered a glimmer of hope inside. This sweet youngster who had never laid a hand on another might be thinking of taking him alive.
But Rokiarum froze unconsciously beneath Hiroto’s frigid stare.
“Ugh!”
“I may have messed up the order of things, but I don’t regret it. I had decided on how to finish you. I simply stuck to that…”
Hiroto unbuttoned his shirt and slipped his right hand into his chest.
From his pocket he drew out a pistol.
The gun was the one Nina had prepared to take revenge on Rokiarum. Hiroto had brought it here from Nina’s room.
It was likely the first weapon that girl had ever held—when she lost her father and cried in frustration over her own helplessness.
Hiroto gripped that weapon and disengaged the safety.
He pointed the muzzle at Rokiarum’s forehead.
“N-no—eek!”
A pathetic scream escaped Rokiarum.
Rokiarum understood.
He knew what would happen if this bullet struck him now, after he’d already used up nearly all his strength.
Moments later, several gunshots rang out from the farthest depths of the cave halfway up Mount Gurwa.
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