An Unbearable Future (2)
I will judge you.
I never imagined I would have to pass a sentence meant for sinners with unforgivable crimes onto Olivia.
- That person is a demon!
Franz's words came back to me.
- If only that barrier hadn't been there, everyone could have survived! But that damned wretch...
On the day the tsunami of unimaginable height bore down on them, Rebekah had been in Ikail too. It was the moment she had been about to issue evacuation orders to the citizens.
"Stay outside."
A light flickered at Olivia's fingertips, and Rebekah lost consciousness.
When she came to, she was in an unknown meadow.
"This is..."
Around her lay the paladins who had been acting as her escort, all unconscious. Olivia seemed to have moved every one of them.
But they were the only ones.
The citizens of Ikail were nowhere to be seen. Not a single one.
Then, Rebekah heard a desperately pounding sound in her ears.
The sound of something beating frantically, over and over, again and again.
- Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Beyond her blurred vision, countless people were pounding on something.
Only after rubbing her eyes several times did she realize that her blurred vision was not an illusion.
There was a translucent barrier of unimaginable size stretching before her.
[■■■■■■■■■!]
The people trapped within the barrier were shouting at Rebekah. It was a scream, a shriek, a prayer, and also a plea. They pounded on the barrier until their fists were ready to burst, and they clutched their children's hands and sobbed.
But no sound came through.
The barrier did not even allow their voices to escape.
Only vibrations reached Rebekah.
'What on earth...'
Unconsciously, Rebekah placed her hand against the surface.
It was hard.
It felt like touching armor.
But if that were all, there would have been no reason for them to be so terrified.
A barrier of this size should easily have withstood even the highest of waves...
Rebekah's thoughts were cut short.
Kugugugugu...
A tremor incomparably greater than before resounded. The shaking was so violent that most of the unconscious paladins regained their senses.
"Th-that...!"
One of the paladins pointed somewhere with his finger. It was the direction of the lighthouse. In the next moment, the lighthouse was swallowed by a shadow and swept away by the tsunami.
In that instant, Rebekah understood why the people had been pounding on the barrier so desperately.
This was not meant to block the wave.
It was meant to keep them from running away from the wave.
'No.'
A Holy Spear formed of pure white Divine Power materialized before her eyes. Rebekah seized it without a moment's hesitation.
And struck.
Boom!
Rebekah's Holy Spear bounced right off. Her eyes flew wide open—she had been certain it would pierce through in a single blow.
The immense recoil sent a sharp pain through her wrist.
'This is...'
Rebekah realized this was no ordinary barrier. The density of mana was so high that her Divine Power scattered the instant it made contact.
This barrier could not be breached with Divine Power.
She instinctively knew it had been designed that way from the start.
"...Why."
Rebekah murmured in a moan. Out of tens of thousands of mages, there was only one who could create a barrier of this size.
Tens of thousands of thoughts raced through Rebekah's mind.
Had she been devoured by a demon?
Had it finally come to that after all?
There had been no warning signs. For close to half a year, Asmodeus had not shown herself.
Rebekah had never been optimistic, but it was also true that she had let herself feel relieved.
"...This barrier."
Franz spat. The other paladins seemed to have realized it too. After pounding on the barrier for a long while, they gritted their teeth and shouted.
"...Saintess! We cannot break it with our power! Use the Holy Spear!"
"I already... tried."
Watching the paladins' faces change in real time, Rebekah squeezed her eyes shut.
It was over.
If the barrier had contained even a trace of Demonic Energy, she might have been able to persuade the paladins.
She could have told them it wasn't Olivia's doing. That it was the work of a demon that had gnawed away at her mind.
But the demon had not used even a sliver of Demonic Energy until the very last moment.
"Ha... haha..."
Rebekah let out a hollow laugh. She herself was on the verge of confusion; it was obvious how the paladins, who knew nothing, would take this situation.
When Rebekah lifted her eyelids, the faces of all the paladins were contorted with burning fury.
She was the only one who felt sorrow.
You knew nothing. Olivia—Big Sis—was in the same position as they were.
'...Please don't look at her with those eyes.'
But contrary to that sentiment, Rebekah was issuing orders to the paladins.
"...Franz, return to the Holy Kingdom immediately and request reinforcements. As many as possible. If we do not stop this now, the damage will only grow."
"Yes, Saintess."
"Everyone, stand back."
Rebekah raised her Holy Spear once more. Then she thrust the spear as if facing her mortal enemy.
Each time her wrist swelled, she regenerated the muscle with Divine Power.
Even when she wanted to stop, she could not, so Rebekah drove herself forward without rest.
"...Saintess."
I could do this.
"Saintess!"
I had to.
'If not me, then no one...!'
Perhaps that was why Asmodeus had told her Olivia's secret.
To make her despair.
To make her despair again at the fact that she could do nothing.
To make her suffer, watching those gazes when others looked at Olivia as though she were a demon.
"Raaaaaaaaah!"
Even the blow she staked her entire being on left not a single scratch on the barrier.
'Ah...'
Rebekah staggered and collapsed onto the grass. Beyond the barrier, the water had already risen to shoulder height. If it was like that on the outskirts of the city, the coastal areas must have been submerged long ago.
[■■■■■...!]
Even as they sank into the seawater, parents lifted their children above the surface. To give them even a single extra breath. To cling to the thread-thin possibility that the Saintess beyond the barrier might still save them.
Countless eyes were fixed on Rebekah.
The higher the water rose, the more the color drained from their eyes.
Rebekah clawed at the undergrowth with both hands.
Though she could not hear their voices, that did not mean she could not hear their emotions.
'...Please don't.'
Until the moment they died, those people would curse Olivia. They would hate her and resent her.
'...Please, don't do that.'
That was exactly what the demon wanted.
On her knees, Rebekah wept. They would not see her tears. Could not see them. Because they were already underwater.
The vibrations stopped.
One by one, heads dropped to the ground.
Their eyes lost their light and changed into a single color—the same color as the sea that had swallowed them.
The enraged paladins punched at innocent trees. Some hurled their swords at the barrier like madmen.
But still, Rebekah was the only one who grieved.
That fact was unbearably bitter and painful.
- You speak as though you know this body's master well, but you do not. What you know is a mere speck.
That day, I should have kept Olivia tied down until the very end.
Even if it meant she would feel betrayed by me.
I did not know what Olivia's goal was. Even Esti could not understand her, so I could understand her even less.
But that did not mean the time we stayed in Ikail was worthless.
As the price of protecting a single city for a hundred years, Esti lost her emotions.
Then for what, exactly, had Olivia been lashing herself for a span of time close to an Eternity?
For that amount of sacrifice, shouldn't she at least have been granted the salvation of the world?
"...Saintess. We have arrived."
When she opened her eyes at the familiar voice, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted her.
Only then did Rebekah realize that she had been unconscious for ten days.
Thousands upon thousands of paladins were arrayed across the earth.
"...Sir Johann."
Their commander was Johann, the mightiest of all paladins.
Johann did not say much. He merely spoke a single sentence with silent eyes.
"The barrier is showing signs of lifting."
"...Ah."
And Rebekah knew, in her gut.
The time for her choice had come.
*****
Olivia stared at Rebekah.
She was floating in midair, but Rebekah was flying too, so their eyes were level.
"...Rebekah."
"..."
Instead of answering, Rebekah aimed her Holy Spear.
'...It's over.'
Olivia knew it in that moment.
No matter what she said now, Rebekah would not listen.
'If I am "Asmodeus," she will annihilate me. If I am "Olivia," she will judge me, if only to keep me from further staining my honor.'
This Clue was a failure.
If it ended like this, Rebekah would try to pass judgment on her in the present as well.
I couldn't let that happen.
Mana gathered at Olivia's fingertips. Because she had maintained the barrier until Ikail was completely destroyed, her physical condition was far from good, but she could still cast magic of this level easily enough.
"I'm sorry your big sis lost."
"...!"
If only I had overcome the temptation to see the Genocide Ending, things wouldn't have come to this.
Rebekah, who had been flying toward her, froze. Her eyes flew wide open, and teardrops clung to the corners of her eyes.
To that Rebekah, Olivia gave her the same smile she always had.
"So I'll change it."
[Skill 'Summon' activated.]
- Summoning Wave Catcher Esti.
Esti appeared right next to Rebekah. Looking flustered by the sudden spatial transfer, she glanced around her surroundings.
"Olivia! What is the meaning of this all of a sudden...!"
Esti's words did not continue.
To be precise, they didn't reach this side.
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[Within a Clue, you may only make contact with one regressor!]
[Clue use has been forcibly terminated.]
My vision went distant.
My body fell toward the ground.
"Big Sis...!"
An unrecognizable voice reached me.
-Rumble.
Soon, my consciousness cut out.