The Light That Clears the Sky
A short while after the witch vanished, I heard Sylvia’s shout from a distance. "Scarlet!!!"
"Sylvia! Over here!!!"
I ignited my arm with flames and waved it. Seeing my signal, Sylvia, who was riding atop something that looked like a cluster of stars, approached me at high speed. Was that a high-speed movement spell? I remembered her learning that much later in the original story, yet here she was, already mastering it. As I marveled at her competence, she reached me, grabbed my shoulders, and cried out.
"What happened?! Are you alright?! I saw flames suddenly appear and rushed over!"
"I'm fine! More importantly, there’s a cocoon-like thing inside that circle of people! If we destroy it, we might be able to stop the people being controlled, but I can’t break through it on my own!"
At my shout, Sylvia looked toward the cocoon woven from the bodies of the controlled victims.
"There's a way to stop the people being controlled... Then, first, we need to detach them."
Muttering that, Sylvia closed her eyes, and a brilliant light flowed from her body. As the light enveloped the crowd, I could see the strength draining from the bodies of those who had been clinging to one another. As their power faded, the people who had been bundled together began to fall away one by one. Once we had detached everyone—their bodies covered in bruises from how tightly they had been holding on—the glistening cocoon hidden within was revealed.
"If we just destroy this..."
We could finally put an end to this horrific situation. My fist, wreathed in flames, slammed into the cocoon.
The cocoon shattered and burned away with disappointing ease. "Is it... over now?" Sylvia asked.
And then, feeling a strange sensation—or rather, a lack thereof—in my hand, I muttered, "Something is wrong..."
Even though I had destroyed the cocoon, I felt no resistance. When I had first witnessed it, the cocoon had been pulsating. That would have been impossible if there wasn't something inside. But the cocoon I had just shattered had been pierced and broken as easily as an empty shell. What had the witch said? Surely, inside that...
The hair on my arms stood on end. I quickly checked the floor of the flowerbed where the cocoon had been, and I saw a hole that looked as if something had escaped through it.
"Damn it! It got away!"
"W-what did?"
"The Maju! There was a Maju inside this cocoon! We have to find it quickly!"
As I shouted that and examined the hole to see where the Maju had gone, I heard Sylvia’s cry.
"Scarlet! Over there!"
I turned my gaze to where she was pointing and saw a Maju that looked like a large flying insect flapping its wings high in the sky. Checking its altitude, it was just a bit higher than the flames I had shot up earlier. Having made my judgment, I immediately manipulated my prosthetic arm, gathering my flames, and shouted, "We have to shoot it down!"
"Understood!"
While Sylvia chanted her spell and I gathered my flames, I stared intently at the Maju’s movements. If it had been flying erratically, it would have been hard to hit, but the Maju was flying straight, as if on a set path. Still, could we really hit a target that high up?
"Stars that dance in the void, gather into a single point of judgment!"
⟨ Alf Ad Astra ⟩
"I'm ready!"
While I was worrying, Sylvia finished her incantation and shouted. Looking at my prosthetic arm, I saw the gem in the center of the palm glowing red. I reached out toward the Maju. My arm was trembling. I thought it was strange, as a metal arm shouldn't shake, before realizing that my entire body was trembling. The tension of knowing I absolutely could not miss made my breathing shallow. Just then, Sylvia, who was standing to my right, gently brushed her shoulder against mine and whispered.
"I will definitely hit it, so you can relax."
"...Don't get cocky."
Even though I said that, I didn't think Sylvia would miss. No matter what anyone said, she was the main heroine of the original story. I probably trusted her even more than she trusted herself. And then, she looked into my eyes and said,
"You will definitely be able to hit it. I trust you as much as I trust myself, Scarlet."
At those words, I felt my trembling stop as if by magic. "...Thank you."
As I muttered that, Sylvia replied, "You're finally saying thank you."
Even in such a critical moment, for some reason, I found myself smiling. I saw the Maju flying in the sky. I raised my left hand, and Sylvia raised her right hand toward the creature. Through our touching shoulders, I knew the timing to fire without needing to say a word. I counted in my head. One, two, and three.
"Hit it!!!"
With our simultaneous shouts, flames and starlight intertwined and shot up into the sky. Straight, in a perfect line. The fired flames and starlight blew away the Maju’s left wing and half of its body, respectively.
"We did it!!!!"
"We succeeded!!"
We let out cheers of joy at the sight. "...Ah?"
And it didn't even take a second for those cheers to die down. The Maju was still flying. Even after losing its left wing and half its body to our attack, it acted as if nothing had happened. I soon realized how that was possible. The Maju, which had been in the shape of a flying insect, trembled for a moment before scattering and turning into a hazy cloud. That cloud was made up of countless tiny Maju.
"It wasn't just one from the beginning..."
Was it deception, or mockery, that they had flown in a swarm to look like a single insect? Even after blowing away half of them, the number remaining was still dizzying. Countless Maju were flying in the sky. Higher, and higher. Now, they were beyond the reach of my and Sylvia's attacks.
I heard screams from beyond. Even though about half of the Maju had vanished in our attack, the screams didn't stop; they continued to ring out, over and over. Suddenly, I felt like I understood why there were so many of them. If the Maju that had entered people's minds were paired with these Maju... it meant there were still just as many controlled people left in the city.
At that moment, the Maju gathered once in the sky, then began to scatter and fly across the entire city, as if to say, "Find us if you can."
I slumped down in despair, blankly looking up at the sky where the Maju were scattering. How many more victims would there be until we found and caught all of them? Until then, could the city even function properly? My mind was already painting a future. That future was as dark as the sky filled with storm clouds.
Rain falling from the dark sky lashed against my face. What flowed down my eyes along with the raindrops was despair. I bowed my head, feeling like I wanted to give up. And then,
"It's not good for your health to get caught in the rain."
As soon as I heard that voice, the feeling of rain hitting my body vanished. I slowly raised my head to see Yoon Siwoo, who was blocking the rain with the barrier of his Holy Sword.
"Sorry, I went far away to save people, so it took a while to get back."
"...You could have, you could have come just a little faster."
Even if it was Yoon Siwoo, there was no way to catch the Maju scattered high in the sky like that. I muttered to him in a hollow state of mind. Yoon Siwoo looked at me, then turned his body to look up at the sky for a moment. After watching the sky in silence, he opened his mouth.
"Your expression isn't good. It's all because of those things, isn't it?"
Yoon Siwoo said that, as if he could see the scattered Maju even from this distance. Though his back looked calm, his voice was filled with rage.
"...Yes. But there's no way to stop them now."
I answered his question weakly. Then, Yoon Siwoo silently drew a sword from the air. A two-handed sword glowing with a soft golden light. It was the Holy Sword that prevented the wielder from falling into hallucinations and seduction. The Radiant Holy Sword.
Grasping the sword with both hands, Yoon Siwoo stared quietly at the sky. ...That's impossible. I thought as I watched him. No matter how much of an absurd genius Yoon Siwoo was, and even if he had formed a new contract with Lucy faster than in the original story, it was impossible in terms of time. Just as I was thinking that, Yoon Siwoo muttered in a low voice.
"O light, a single ray to illuminate even the deepest darkness."
I held my breath at the familiar phrase he spoke. Even if there were countless famous swords and magic swords in the world, there were only a few special swords called Holy Swords. The reason a Holy Sword was called a Holy Sword was that it contained power too vast to be called a mere sword. Therefore, a master without the skill and ability to withstand that power could not be recognized by the Holy Sword and could not use its true power. Even the Yoon Siwoo of the original story had only managed to use it in the latter half of the plot; it should have required eons of effort and immense enlightenment. But what Yoon Siwoo had just said was a kind of ritual to use that very true power.
"Holy Sword—"
The Radiant Holy Sword in Yoon Siwoo's hand flashed once, and "Release."
The next moment, bright light filled the surroundings. The sword blade that had been glowing with a soft golden light vanished, and now, only the light that illuminated the world remained, revealing its true form in Yoon Siwoo's hand, shining brilliantly. I took that light into my eyes. Some would call that light a blessing, and some would call it a miracle. And right now, to us, that light was hope.
Yoon Siwoo's hand, holding that hope, slowly swung toward the sky. Originally, light descends from the sky to illuminate the earth. But as if defying that providence, the light that began from the earth soared rapidly toward the sky. The light of the earth impartially illuminated everything in the sky it passed by. The rain pouring from the sky. The Maju flying in the sky. Even the storm clouds that had been filling the high sky.
The sight of each and every one of them being swallowed by the light felt like it was driving away the darkness that had fallen upon this world, and Sylvia and I watched that magnificent spectacle with bated breath.
The light that had been illuminating the sky as if it would never end gradually subsided. But even though the light that had started from the earth faded, the world was no longer dark. Because in the sky that the light had passed through, neither despair nor storm clouds remained.
And the boy slowly turned around and said,
"I'm not too late."
The boy, with the clear sky at his back, was shining so brilliantly. "Because I will make sure it doesn't turn out that way."
The person reflected in the eyes of the boy I faced, "So, don't cry."
Now, was no longer crying. I raised my head and looked up at the sky. As if to say that even in a world that seemed filled only with despair, there is hope. The sun, which had been hidden behind the storm clouds, was shining brightly. The rain, which I had hated so much, had stopped.