The Spirit's Name (Finale)

A water balloon.

If I had to sum up my current situation in a single word, it would be this: a water balloon. To be more precise, a water balloon jammed onto a showerhead cranked to maximum pressure. Or, to put it in even simpler terms—

"Yuria."

"Huh? Yeah?"

"I'm gonna pop."

"What?"

That. That was the situation.

They'd said Evil would come pouring in while Dark was using my body as a vessel for manifestation, but this was ridiculous.

"Gyaaaaagh…"

This was way too much.

"Yuria."

"Yeah?!"

"I'm gonna die."

"Huh!? E-Eugene!!"

"Kh—"

I staggered, on the verge of going down, and Yuria lunged forward in a panic to catch me.

Dammit. Is that bastard still not back yet?

I thrust a hand toward him in a hurry.

"Kh…"

"Huh?! What did you say?"

"Dark… of, Darkness…"

"…Ugh."

Yuria.

A crash, a tangle of limbs, the floor.

Even if your old friend's name had turned into something that awful, you couldn't just drop the patient you were holding up.

"Hwaa, Eugene! I didn't mean to!! I-I'm sorry!!"

She apologized in a fluster and tried to get her arms back under me, but collapsing had at least given me a moment of clarity.

I'm actually going to die.

A few more seconds of delay and I would be a popped balloon. No question.

A click. I forced my body to move, wrenched the bottle open, and shook every last Dawiraenol into my mouth.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

I could feel the bitter, clumped medicine mixing with saliva and seeping into me.

A stopgap. A few dozen seconds, at best.

I had to find a way to live inside that window, or not at all.

But…

The Dark of this moment was the Dark who had, for the first time, fully accepted the death of Villainess Yuria.

Which meant the grief of losing Villainess Yuria ran deeper than the joy of meeting this one. I knew that much.

I knew that the only way out of grief like that was to pick yourself up. I also knew something else.

If someone yanked you up hard enough, you could get back on your feet just fine.

"Grit your teeth."

"…?"

"Grit. Your teeth."

A vicious, stretching crack.

"Ghk!!"

A warm heart full of concern (physical) seemed to have gotten through, because Dark's eyes came back into focus.

"Why is there pain…?!"

Now. This was the opening. I dragged the wavering Dark into my arms and whispered toward wherever I figured his ear was.

"C-call an ambulance."

"An ambulance? Never mind that—this is no time to be looking for a carriage!!"

"Aish, you moron…"

That was as far as I got.

"Save m…e."

"Eugene?! Who in the world did this to you!!"

"You…"

You did.

"You lunatic…"

To cut to the chase: Eugene was a human with an exceptional affinity for the attribute of Evil.

A high attribute affinity means one can draw that much closer to a spirit.

That was why I had asked.

"…Lend this body to me, if only for a moment."

Even Yuria had not lasted ten seconds. But Eugene, I thought, might manage it. And he had. I had held my power in check, yes—but a mere human body had carried me for a full minute.

Because of that, I had met Yuria again. Because of that, I had been able to accept the truth I had spent so long turning my face from. And that was not all.

"…You have my thanks. Truly, I thank you… Eugene…"

"Yeah. Cry as much as you need, then go."

"…Thank you. Truly…"

"Cry quietly, you."

He had endured pain that should have broken him, and in doing so had bought me time enough to grieve.

I should have noticed even then.

Gifted as he was with a born talent for Evil, Eugene was still human. For a human body to absorb a spirit's attribute was an impossibility.

"The collapse is accelerating."

To contain the power of an attribute, one needed the complete body of a spirit, and a name bestowed directly by the Spirit King of that attribute. Eugene was not a spirit. He had even lost the minimum condition of wholeness.

"…If only he were whole, at the very least."

There was no precedent for even attempting it—but had there been so much as a sliver of possibility, I would have bestowed a name.

No. Even then, the odds of success would not reach one in a hundred.

And so I resigned myself.

It seems the time has come.

A human in a state of attribute rampage would, without exception, meet death. But if it were me—if I offered my life as a sacrifice and activated that—

I can save him.

Even this was no certain method. But the possibility of saving him existed.

And so, Eugene.

The grace I received from you, I shall repay even if I must grind this body's life to dust.

A single heartbeat of hesitation, and the moment I resolved myself—

A brutal grip.

"Guh?"

"Hey. You're thinking something stupid again, aren't you."

Eugene's hand had closed on me. How had he even grabbed a spirit? Had he not been in agony a moment ago? I had no time to answer either question before he started dragging me along.

"Worry not. I shall—"

"Shut up. Hand over a name."

"…What?"

"The names you haven't bestowed yet. One of those. Cough it up."

…How did he know about that?

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This is always the problem with these fantasy bastards.

They put their lives on the line at the drop of a hat. They throw themselves away for the people they care about without a second thought. Exactly like right now.

"…Eugene. I understand what you mean, but absorbing my death-soul would be the safer path."

I barely got my mouth open.

"You said we were friends."

"That is precisely why I mean to save you."

"The way Yuria saved you?"

"…What?"

Caesar, companion to Villainess Yuria. He had chosen to vanish with her—and then the contract had broken, and he had been thrown back into the spirit realm. Because Villainess Yuria, in that same moment, had chosen to sacrifice herself for him.

"So. Did it feel good, surviving alone?"

"…"

"Yeah. Of course it didn't."

Losing someone you love and being left alone is never a happy thing. You'll get through it someday, sure. You'll find some other happiness, inevitably. But still.

"It was hard for you, wasn't it? Well, it was really hard for me too."

Hard to a truly horrific degree.

"So don't you ever try to make that kind of choice in front of me again."

"But—!!"

"It's draining, so cut it out. Let's do what we came to do."

I was on my feet before the sentence had finished. A rattle, a scatter. I yanked the bottle out, turned it upside down, and shook. Five pills. That was all that was left. Right now the medicine was losing to the speed of the collapse, but—

If I swallow every last one of these and pull the entire effect up in a single burst?

For at least one instant, I would have a whole body again. There was no time for a long explanation. I showed Dark a smile, knocked back the Dawiraenol, and tossed the words at him on the way down.

The next instant.

Aura Emission. A simple skill that, as the name suggested, did nothing more than dump every scrap of aura you had outside the body.

What if I applied it inside?

The same way it burned things on the outside, it could burn the impurities that existed within. Smaller still. Concentrate the aura as hard as possible on the place where the medicine was dissolving. Break down the pills that hadn't melted yet, then use the aura to send the decomposed effect through my entire body.

A faint hiss. A slow seep.

The body that had been splitting like a cracked glass bottle began to mend.

Did it work?

Ten pills remaining. Body recovery at sixty percent. If I'd had more medicine, I could have reached a whole body even if it took time, but—

If I keep going like this, I fail.

I needed to raise the rank of Aura Emission, or I needed more pills. But both were impossible. I yanked open the borrowed skill list in a hurry.

I'd opened it on the off chance. Not a single skill in there was fit for this.

A wet splitting sound. Skin coming apart again. A dull crack. Bone fracturing inside twisted muscle. Thud. Thud. Thud. A heart pounding louder than it ever had. Everything in me seemed to be screaming the same word: give up. A situation that looked like despair from every angle.

I was not going to give up.

"Dammit!! Just a little more!!"

"E-Eugene!? You're okay, right!?"

"Yuria!! Barrier first!!"

"Ah—right! Grandpa!!"

The things I had vowed not to lose included their hearts, too.

Another gamble, then?

The day I'd cleaned Paloma out.

Among the rewards I'd pulled from that sub-mission, there had been a ???'s Skill Rental Pass.

Even at one-in-a-million odds, it might be a skill that helps right now.

A blatant gamble. No—less a gamble than buying a lottery ticket and praying it hit. I didn't think about it long.

If I don't want to die, all I can do is kick.

I selected the ???'s Skill Rental Pass and was about to fire it when Yuria, who had somehow already reached my side, caught my hand and spoke through tears.

Aura roared up as if someone had thrown oil on a campfire. The pills I had left vanished in a single breath, and every scrap of remaining medicinal effect scattered through my whole body.

The body that had been coming apart found its function again, if only for a moment. And that meant—

"Dark!!!"

"I am already prepared!!"

—that I had recovered my wholeness, and was ready to receive a name.

If I take the name and live through it.

I wouldn't just survive. I would come out of this far stronger than I was now.

"Odds of success?"

"…One in a hundred."

I looked at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the tense Dark and laughed.

"That's better than gacha rates."

"Gacha-what?"

"Don't worry about it. Just give me the name."

"…Very well."

Dark raised a hand.

It felt a little like watching a friend clock in for their actual job.

"Ooh~ you're really giving off king energy."

"…Silence. We are in the midst of a sacred rite."

"King-tti~"

"Hold thy tongue."

"Got it-tti."

Dark's brow seemed to furrow. Not my problem. I kept waiting.

"…And so, Eugene: raise both hands, and receive the name bestowed upon you."

The instant Dark finished speaking, a black system window unfurled.

I didn't need to think about it.

"I accept."

The next instant.

The savage pain that had been crushing my entire body faded as if it had never been there at all.

"…It worked."

I patted myself down, checked that everything was still attached, and held a fist out toward Dark.

"…Yes. Even having lived, you must be angry. Strike until the fury leaves you."

"Huh? What are you talking about. Fist bump."

"Ah. A-aah. Yes. That is what you meant."

Come on. What did he take me for? What kind of lunatic would just throw a punch out of nowhere?

"So? What's my name?"

"The language of spirits can only be seen and understood by spirits. It has likely been converted into words you can comprehend."

"Yeah? How do I check?"

"If you wonder about it, it will surface on its own."

I nodded and closed my eyes. Dark had been right. A slow drift, a slow gathering. Like letters of ink left to bloom across the surface of water, the scattered characters wandered, then drew back together. And in the next instant, the name I had been given rose in my mind.

I opened my eyes at once and strode straight toward Dark.

"…Hm? Another fist bump?"

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Not this time.