A New Resolve
The former will of the Holy Shroud — now the Bombardment Fairy — did not care for her new master.
For one thing, the girl was nothing like a Saintess. She played the part well enough in front of others, but the moment no eyes were on her, her words and deeds strayed far from anything saintly.
That alone was enough to put the Fairy off.
A master of the Holy Shroud ought to possess a certain dignity. That dignity was sorely lacking.
Next came her insufficient reverence for the Goddess — so lacking, in fact, that it was hard to understand why the Goddess had chosen her as a Saintess at all.
But the thing that bothered the Fairy most was something else entirely.
"Ten shots left. Maybe I should start practicing firing on the move."
Scolds you for even thinking of moving while firing bombardments when vigorous movement still causes you pain.
Tells you to just stay put and shoot.
"I can handle a little pain. It's fine."
She did not know how to spare her own body. From the Fairy's vantage point, watching her all day long, the girl drove herself to the brink with reckless abandon.
It made no sense. Why push herself so hard?
She was already strong enough. Until she ran into the Four Heavenly Kings, she had utterly dominated the demons on every battlefield.
Because she couldn't beat a Heavenly King?
The Four Heavenly Kings were monsters even the Empire could not handle. The very idea of taking one on alone was foolishness.
And her master, it seemed, was a fool.
No matter what anyone said, she clung to her stubbornness and kept overdoing it.
In the end, the Bombardment Fairy gave up caring.
Do whatever you want. If you collapse from overwork, it's none of my business.
She had just settled on that conclusion and was about to ignore the girl entirely when a memory from the past suddenly surfaced.
…Honestly.
If she had just stayed dormant, she wouldn't have had to care about any of this. Of all the times for her dormancy to break.
The Bombardment Fairy did not care for her new master.
Denounces her master as an idiot who doesn't even understand the importance of rest.
"…Fine, I lose! Okay, okay! I'll finish my remaining shots and go rest! And could you maybe talk a little nicer to your master?!"
Complains that if you're the master, you should act like one.
So, the Fairy decided, a little grumbling of this sort was perfectly acceptable.
"I can't even fire my bombardments in peace. This is so unfair I could cry."
If the Bombardment Fairy hadn't been nagging the whole time, I probably would have landed a few clean hits — and that made the disappointment sting even more.
I only got thirty shots a day. I needed to make every single one count.
That was why I'd been firing through the pain, forcing it down.
And I still had shots left.
Notes that while you deny it with your words, you are displaying textbook addiction symptoms.
"Every time you're losing an argument, it's 'bombardment addiction this, bombardment addiction that.' Fine. I'm addicted to bombardment. Happy?"
Come to think of it, what was wrong with a Saintess blessed with the Grace of Bombardment being addicted to bombardment? If anything, it was the ideal attitude.
Anyway, the Fairy's relentless pressure had worn me down, so I figured I'd rest for a bit.
"Here are the materials you requested, Saintess."
"Ah, thank you."
I thanked the priest who'd fulfilled my request and accepted the stack of papers.
Every last page was a record or document related to the Four Heavenly Kings.
Sighs and asks if this is what you call resting.
"What choice do I have? Even if I try to rest, there's nothing to do."
At best I could take a nap, pray, or read the Goddess Church's scriptures. That was about it.
Even the military wasn't this boring. At least the army had television, back before smartphones were a thing.
Suggests you try finding a hobby.
"I'll think about it."
With that, I began slowly leafing through the documents.
Only two of the Four Heavenly Kings had ever appeared in Imperial history. The other two had never even shown their faces.
As a rule, a Heavenly King appeared on the battlefield once every few decades.
It wasn't an absolute law, of course. There had been cases where one reappeared only a few years after its last showing.
"No real pattern to find here."
Their combat records, though, were enough to leave anyone speechless.
"Wiped out an entire order of knights single-handedly?"
Granted, those were from humanity's weakest era, so the numbers needed some discounting — but even then, the sheer scale was dizzying.
Still, something felt off.
"They're this strong, so why do they only show up on the battlefield once in a while?"
If the Four Heavenly Kings had kept appearing on the front lines without pause, humanity would have been wiped out ages ago.
"So why?"
…Might as well look at the rest of the information.
I moved on to the individual profiles of the Four Heavenly Kings.
First, the one I'd already met — the Heavenly King clad in black-stained armor.
Heavenly King Vexetia.
A humanoid demon — a demonkin.
His epithet: Saintess Slayer.
He'd earned the name by killing a Saintess who had come to the rear to treat the wounded.
What stood out most was that he was a monster who had taken countless lives with nothing but raw physical power and swordsmanship — no special abilities to speak of.
"Or he could just be hiding them."
I desperately hoped he had no special abilities. He was more than enough of a problem without them.
The other known Heavenly King, unlike Vexetia, was a beast-type demon — a demonic beast.
"A lizard? Or a dinosaur?"
Judging by the illustration alone, it looked a bit like a carnivorous dinosaur.
This Heavenly King, known as The Slaughterer, was named Ursa.
Its defining trait was the ability to control any blood that left its body for a set period of time.
It used that power to massacre friend and foe alike without distinction, rapidly increasing the volume of blood under its control.
Hence the epithet: The Slaughterer.
"Just hearing about it is terrifying."
I was starting to wonder whether I was even allowed to be resting right now.
The remaining Heavenly Kings were apparently just as nightmarish.
With that thought, I quickly skimmed the rest of the papers — and reached a conclusion.
"There's something here. Something's going on, but there's just not enough information."
The Demon King held the Four Heavenly Kings as a cheat code, and yet he refused to use it.
On top of that, two of the four had never even shown themselves.
Given that Ursa had appeared only once in the entire history of the Empire, it was fair to say that the only Heavenly King who had ever slaughtered Imperial forces on the battlefield was Vexetia alone.
I couldn't make sense of the Demon King's choices.
Not even after seeing the ending of Grand Fantasy.
"…I think I need to meet a Heavenly King again."
Asks if you've finally lost your mind and decided you want to die.
I knew. Saying I needed to meet a Heavenly King again was the same as saying I intended to walk straight into the afterlife.
Having faced one myself, I understood that better than anyone. And still — I had to meet one.
"Don't you find it strange too? If the Demon King sent all four Heavenly Kings to the battlefield, humanity would have been finished ages ago. So why doesn't he?"
Agrees that you have a point, but insists that meeting a Heavenly King is still a terrible idea.
"There has to be a purpose behind it. If I know that purpose, I can counter whatever he's planning. And right now, the only demons who might know that plan are the Heavenly Kings."
The Bombardment Fairy said nothing. She couldn't argue with that.
I quietly spoke five words aloud.
"Clear conditions."
To return to your homeland, you must view the True Ending of the Grand Fantasy DLC version.
Five years remain until the Tutorial Chapter of the Grand Fantasy DLC version.
You have not yet viewed the True Ending.
"Right. Looking back, this was weird too."
True Ending. The real ending.
If there was a true ending, that meant there were false ones as well.
But as far as I knew, Grand Fantasy only had two endings.
The one you saw if you cleared the game: defeat the Demon King and wipe out the demons.
And the one you saw if you failed: the extinction of humanity.
So I'd always assumed the clear ending was the True Ending.
But then why specifically call it the True Ending, instead of just saying "see the ending"?
What if there were conditions for viewing the True Ending?
What if failing those conditions meant you only got the ordinary ending instead?
And what if the questions I'd been asking about the Four Heavenly Kings were connected to that True Ending?
"…Hah."
Of course, I didn't need to see the True Ending. Getting home after viewing it would be wonderful, sure — but my priority was stopping the worst-case scenario of humanity's extinction, then surviving.
If anything, chasing the True Ending might only dump me into an even higher difficulty.
But my gut was telling me something.
"…Yeah."
I could not afford to let go of the thread I'd just grabbed.
I needed to know the whole truth.
But my head was heating up. Everything was getting tangled. My stomach churned.
The fear of the unknown swelled. The dread of ignorance only deepened.
My fear-soaked emotions screamed at me to ignore the gut feeling.
You don't need the truth. Just cut the Heavenly Kings' throats and kill the Demon King. That'll be enough.
I drew a deep breath. Then let it out.
I stood up from my seat and headed straight for the training ground.
Without hesitation, I picked up the Holy Relic.
And I spoke.
"Limit Release."
Limit Release
Safety limit on the Holy Relic removed. Firepower drastically increased.
I stripped away the limit holding me back.
Ignoring the strain on my body, I pulled the trigger.
To sever my hesitation.
To steel my resolve.
The bombardment fired. It looked at least twice as powerful as usual.
The beam shot straight ahead and struck my target as if being sucked into it.
A thunderous roar. The tightness in my chest seemed to crumble away.
In the moment of firing a bombardment, even fear and dread could be forgotten.
"…I think I'm starting to understand why the Goddess gave me the Grace of Bombardment."
I stared for a moment at the crater the blast had punched into the Memory Mud, then flopped onto my back.
The hesitation was gone. My resolve was set.
"Fine. Let's see it, then. Whatever grand secret you've got buried in there."
Fear of the unknown? Dread of ignorance?
If anything, that was exactly why I would uncover every last thing I didn't know. I would drag every mystery the DLC version had newly added into the light.
I wouldn't dodge what stood in my way — I would blow it apart. That was what bombardment was for. That was what I decided to believe.
I was sick of not knowing.
And exactly one hour later—
"I shouldn't have fired that…"
My body still hadn't fully recovered, and the aftermath of forcing a Limit Release added a full week to my projected recovery date.
Clicks her tongue and says your brain has genuinely been replaced by bombardment.
…I felt a little sad that I couldn't even deny it with a straight face.