79. The Condition for Completing Love
79. The Condition for Completing Love
A body buried alive beneath the collapse of an entire city block.
Surviving that impact should have been impossible, no matter how extraordinary one's innate constitution.
"...Don't say something so absurd."
It had been a trump card meant only to buy time—a desperate cover to create an opening for escape, nothing more.
Yet the fate of a madwoman who cast aside even a moment's hesitation and made an irreversible choice was something not even a fortune-teller with the power to read the future could have foreseen.
"You're... a demon..."
She was one who supported an army that crossed dimensions, trampling countless souls underfoot.
A living catastrophe with a will of its own—an incarnation of malice itself.
That such a being would be bewitched by someone she'd met barely a day or two ago—that a selfish demon would suppress even her survival instinct, the highest priority of her kind, and come running as if spellbound...
There was no precedent for such a thing. So how could she, who relied on divine aid to foresee the future based on precedent, possibly have predicted it?
"Why would you dream of a love like that... only to meet your end alongside him?"
She understood, from reading the past, that this was a being fated for such an end. Yet even as she pitied her, she could not bring herself to respect her.
No matter how much that life had been nothing but torture by hope, using the other person as a tool for one's own obsession could never be called whole love.
"...You pitiful fool."
Yes, no matter how tragic it was, this wretched and foolish woman could not be allowed to remain at her partner's side.
-Scrabbble!
At the very moment she resolved to turn her back without regret, something caught her eye—a figure crawling up from within the rubble-filled crater.
A body indistinguishable from tattered rags.
Shaking off the debris clinging to her form with sluggish, faltering steps, the demon approached her...
"...No, it can't be. How."
She had taken a direct hit from the most powerful curse she could muster.
No matter how much sturdier demons were than humans, her opponent had no defensive abilities whatsoever.
A direct hit on that body should have inflicted wounds severe enough to leave her unable even to stand.
"Ah. Ai... riii..."
That same woman, reduced to rags, took a single step forward. And the moment that step became a leap, Airi found herself not caught in the demon's embrace—but clutching her partner's body instead.
'I have to protect Hyosung.'
Every plan she had built lay in ruins.
Still, she resolved that this one person, at least, she would safeguard. She held his body tight.
-Crash!
But the one who came charging had been aiming not for him, but for her.
Thrown by the body that slammed into her like a collapsing wall, she tumbled across the ground. Yet her opponent, heedless of her own ruined body, simply rose back to her feet.
"...Airi Haven."
The moment her leg, meant to unfold and brace, smashed back into the earth and her knee shattered—
Even so, crawling along the ground, the demon's eyes flashed brighter than any star in the sky as a feverish grin spread across her face.
"You... are the beeeest~!!!"
Not toward him. Toward her.
As if, in this moment, the target of her obsession had shifted entirely—as if this defeat had transferred her fixation to a new object.
"Wh, what... Nggh!"
"I thought... I could finally reach him."
She wanted to put distance between them, but her own stamina had reached its limit.
She had assumed her opponent was in the same state. Yet the demon kept dragging her shattered legs forward, clinging to her.
"I thought I could finally reach him... but because of you, he slipped away again..."
"Let go of me! What are you—!"
"This time, I really thought I could make it happen."
Despite her half-dead body, the grip twisting into Airi's clothes held even greater strength than before.
"Even now, he's close enough to touch... but with you here... I can't bring myself to believe it's possible anymore..."
She hadn't grown stronger.
She had simply lost all inhibition—willing to break her own fingers if it meant holding on, the restraints on her body's output completely undone.
"But if I can't achieve it... that means the desire never ends. Right?"
So far gone that she couldn't even recognize her own state, her reason was utterly paralyzed.
Fixated on one single thing, endlessly repeating the object of her obsession.
And using this moment of 'defeat,' spreading that obsession outward—even to those around her target.
"That means I won't end up like the Demon King... unable to achieve anything anymore, reduced to nothing... Am I wrong!?"
Yes, the demon had been afraid, deep down.
She had spent so long watching the one she admired that she knew, bone-deep, what became of those who lived only for desire.
That the more desires are fulfilled, the greater the next one becomes—and when you finally realize you can never fulfill it, all that remains is emptiness.
That the end awaiting demons who live and die for their desires, pursuing them for eternity, was nothing but that same hollow ruin.
"So~ I finally found my treasure... and I can't let it end like this..."
Before that emptiness could claim her, she had to bear fruit—had to hastily wrap it all up in the form of a happy ending.
Rather than dragging it out and inviting regret, better to keep it short but intense. That, she believed, was the path she ought to pursue.
Even if it was the wrong choice, she had wandered through emptiness for far too long to assess it with any clarity.
Because she had wandered through that emptiness, watching her lord crumble, never to return to what he once was.
"For that love to continue... I needed someone like you."
And then, by chance rather than design, someone appeared before her—someone willing to stop her with everything they had.
Through being thwarted by the person standing in her way, she realized that this love, which should have been consumed by impulse, could now last just a little longer.
Realizing that, her desire swelled—and as a demon who draws strength from desire, she underwent an evolution.
"To complete my love... I need a 'rival' like you!!"
The power she gained from that awakening was enough to endure even the fatal blow that had struck her body moments ago—her very life force stirred into awakening.
By finally discovering the 'hope' that she could sustain the root of her desire without destroying it herself—that she could prolong it just a little longer.
"What on earth are you... Gahk!"
"You're the same, aren't you? You came because you were worried I'd break him. You came to stop me from shattering him!"
Unable to comprehend such madness, paralyzed by terror, Airi felt the demon's hand crawl up her body and begin to squeeze her throat.
Reason lost, a body consumed by frenzy. In the moment it moved independent of will—
The very object of her obsession might be destroyed in the process. And yet the strength in that grip only grew, enough to snap the bones in her own fingers.
"Try a little harder to stop me. Keep stopping me, so my love can go on—come onnnnn!!"
There was no way to suppress it.
Right now, she was madness incarnate.
A demon who couldn't even temper her own love, who dreamed of a double suicide with him—how could she possibly have the presence of mind to rein in reason, lost as she was in the euphoria of revelation?
'I can't... breathe...'
But Airi, too, had burned through all her stamina in the fight up to now.
And the future she glimpsed with what little strength remained held nothing but pitch-black darkness.
Yes. If this continued, she would die.
If she didn't stop this here, she would simply be killed.
-Crackle.
Just as that pitch-black future seemed sealed, a spark flickered to life within it.
And at that exact moment, Airi—snapping back to consciousness—realized the grip around her throat was gradually loosening.
Because she sensed the demon's manic fixation shifting away from her, toward something else nearby.
"Haa, seriously."
Yes, someone was approaching.
A woman in casual everyday clothes, a cigarette dangling from her lips, her expression weary.
Though she looked like an ordinary human at a glance, Airi could tell from her presence alone that this was no normal person.
"I decided to stay here to get some quiet rest and recuperation, you know."
"Where did you little brats crawl in from, raising hell in someone else's front yard at the crack of dawn?"
The Dragon of Smoke—Tasian Paleoi.
A being whose lifespan had ended, yet whose innate existence would not permit her to fade from the world. The oldest and most colossal calamity this world had ever produced.
And, having entrusted her weapon to her partner, a mere 'bystander' who had resolved never to interfere with the world's fate so long as his death remained unconfirmed.
"Ta... sian. Why are you...?"
"And what the hell are you...?"
But perhaps the demon's reason was too far gone to register that presence.
The frenzied creature, having even forgotten that she was choking Airi, forced her ruined knees to straighten and began readying herself to lunge at Tasian.
"Why are you suddenly getting in my way? Are you after Hyosung too?"
"What are you talking about? Why would he be here?"
Frowning, Tasian slid her gaze sideways.
There, oblivious to the ruined city being turned upside down around him, lay a man—collapsed.
Woo Hyosung.
The man entrusted with the fate of humanity—a fate she herself was destined to annihilate.
"...And why the hell is that guy sleeping here with his mouth hanging open?"
"Ah, I see. So you're after Hyosung too, you bitch."
The moment she registered his presence with confusion, one irritating demon came charging straight at her.
"Gooood... I was hoping for a fight anyway! Come on, you dog-shit—"
-Smack!!
She flicked the bothersome demon square on the forehead with a finger. The charging body reversed direction, flying across the road and sprawling flat in the middle of it.
"Ugh, uggh, gahk..."
A single blow sufficient to quell even the madness that had driven a body past its limits.
No—it hadn't even been an attack.
Like scolding a misbehaving child, the dragon who had sent her flying didn't show a shred of seriousness.
"Hey. Half-god brat."
Yes, decayed as she might be, a dragon was still a dragon.
As Airi swallowed hard at the sight, a voice spoke up from behind her as she stared dumbly at the scene.
"Get over here. Unless you want to get smacked too."
"...Y, yes, ma'am."
She couldn't fathom why the dragon was here, but whatever the reason, this was not someone whose mood you wanted to test.
Dragging her wounded body over at those words, Airi looked up at the figure before her with unsteady eyes.
"You know what I am, don't you?"
"Y, yes. I, I do."
Gazing down at her with indifferent eyes, Tasian made Airi feel a terror unlike any she had experienced in her entire life.
Every opponent she had clashed with until now had at least been on comparable footing. But the being before her, though wearing a human form, radiated a presence that felt like standing before a mountain.
If she had to compare: a monster versus a natural disaster.
One could threaten you but be dealt with. The other, you could only wait to be crushed by.
"You can see the future or whatever, right? Then you probably already know what I'm about to do."
Tasian Paleoi flicked away her cigarette butt as if none of that mattered and lit a fresh one between her lips.
Using that leisurely pause to sense her own future with her precognition, Airi smiled wryly and forced out,
"Um... I, I saw myself getting hit ten seconds from now... Could you maybe let me off?"
"......"
Tasian Paleoi stared down at her blankly, cigarette still in her mouth.
Then she exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at her with utterly unimpressed eyes.
"You're basically saying, 'I'm going to get hit anyway, so can we just skip it?'"
"Do you honestly think that makes any sense when you're the one who said it?"
"...No, I suppose not."
-Bam!!
A blow to the forehead, and consciousness evaporated.
The two women's bloody brawl ended in such empty absurdity.
And then.......
****
-Whooosh.
Thick fog, and a gentle wind whispering through the ruins.
Feeling an odd familiarity in it, I let that familiarity guide me and spent a while wandering through the wasteland.
Something I had experienced once, and then again and again in the days that followed.
-Pat, pat.
At the end of that wandering, I found a blue-haired girl sitting in the middle of the ruins, scooping sand with a small trowel.
A child I'd seen a few times whenever I dreamed.
And though we'd never met face-to-face, I felt certain she was someone who had always been helping me.
"...Hey."
Emboldened by that familiarity, I spoke first. The girl immediately stopped digging, turned to look at me, and broke into a bright smile.
"Papa!"
Right. She always called me that.
I wasn't actually her father, but since I was essentially this child's master, I'd more or less accepted it by now.
"Uh, yeah, sure. Papa's here."
"Papa~"
The spirit of the Ego Weapon nestled into my arms, giggling...
Holding the child—who I could only assume was that—I finally realized that this place I was in was a dream.
Meeting this child directly was only really possible within dreams, after all.
"Hehe, Papa, Papa~"
"...You that happy?"
A girl who beamed with joy from nothing more than being held and having her head stroked.
Finding the sight heartwarming, I felt the quiet realization settle in—that the time had come to accept I was something like this child's guardian. I asked her gently,
"Come to think of it, I never got your name. What should I call you from now on?"
"Hmm?"
"Yeah. What would you like me to call you?"
Giving a name to a weapon was strange, but this child had a clear sense of self.
So, to be prepared if things like this happened more often, it'd be best to learn what name to call her by.
"Tachia."
At that question, the girl answered with a radiant smile, as if she'd been waiting for it.
"...Tachia?"
"Yeah! Tachia Pinui!!"
Tachia-something...
I felt like I'd heard a name like that when we first met, too.
And now that I thought back, it was because this child had said those words that I'd ended up saying the same thing in front of her—Tasian.
"Is your name... Tachia Piloi, by any chance?"
A familiar name that slipped out as I recalled that memory, just on a hunch.
"Yeah!"
The girl insisted that was her name.