A Small Miracle (2)
The moment Demonic's dagger pierced the demon's heart, a brilliant light poured from the blade.
Umbra's agonized scream tore through the air. Then the light streaming from the dagger wrapped around Umbra, coiling tighter and tighter until it sealed every gap like a cocoon. Umbra's screams dwindled as the cocoon closed around them.
"..."
Demonic watched in silence, then quietly shut his eyes. Everything from here would unfold according to the will of God. He had only to believe, and to act.
A brief span of time passed.
— Crack.
A thin shell-breaking sound rose from the cocoon of light. The tiny fissure widened, racing across the entire surface.
— Shatter.
The cocoon burst into fragments and scattered. Inside, it was filled with starlight. At the center of those stars, eyes closed, lay Kenis. One by one, the scattered stars settled into her body.
At last every star sank into her.
"Kenis!!"
When Kenis opened her eyes, familiar faces filled her vision. Friga with her massive axe, Commander David, and a host of holy knights.
And right in front of her nose — Demonic's face.
"Ah...? Paladin?"
"Y-yes... thank... goodness..."
Demonic managed the words in broken fragments, then collapsed into Kenis's arms.
"W-what—?"
Kenis froze in confusion, then checked Demonic's condition — and her face went deathly pale. Holes riddled his entire body; blood poured freely, soaking the ground. Wounds so severe that death at any moment would have been no surprise. Kenis cried out as if screaming.
"Paladin!!"
From a distance, several priests came running in a panic. They had been tending wounded holy knights, and their robes were stained with blood.
A priest laid the fallen Demonic flat and calmly assessed his state.
Then a gasp broke free.
"...Dear God."
"It's a miracle he didn't collapse long before this..."
"How in the world did he fight with a body like this..."
The priests' eyes grew grave. A body riddled with holes, lower half blackened and rotting, and so much blood lost that his complexion was growing paler by the second.
Their hands moved in a frantic blur — pouring holy power into the gaping wounds, cutting away the rotting flesh. But water spilled from a shattered vessel cannot be gathered back up.
Despite the priests' efforts, the life in Demonic's body continued to fade, little by little.
"Th-this can't be."
"...It's our own inadequacy."
"O Six Gods, please grant your grace to this faithful servant..."
The priests spoke with solemn faces. Beads of sweat rolled down brows that had given everything they had. Some of them had poured out so much holy power that their own complexions had gone pale.
Lying on the ground, Demonic's breathing began to slow. Kenis clung desperately to a priest.
"No, Father, please, no! There has to be — there has to be some way... isn't there something?"
The priest shook his head with a dark expression. In truth, Demonic's body was no different from that of a dead man.
What had moved that dying flesh was his will alone. With nothing but iron resolve, he had forced his body to fight.
Great tears welled in Kenis's eyes. Demonic's warmth was ebbing away.
She seized his limp hand and wept without end.
O Six Gods, please grant your grace to the Paladin...
Clutching that hand as it grew cold, she prayed. In the hardest, most desperate moments of human life, it is always God that people seek.
Kenis prayed to God.
And miracles belong to those who pray.
— WHOOOOOOSH!!
From Kenis's body as she gripped Demonic's hand in prayer, the starlight that had sunk into her burst outward.
Even in broad daylight, five-colored starlight descended upon the earth and blessed everyone present. One by one, the tiny lights settled upon those who groaned and suffered.
— Shaaa...
"O-oh...!! L-Lord!!"
"Ugh... the demon — where is the demon?"
The wounded holy knights began rising one after another. Those the priests had held back from death by sheer force of will stood again in the light.
"Insane..."
Friga watched the starlight settle on her own body as well. A small star, shining bright.
— Sssss...
Following the starlight that soaked in like water, the wounds on her body slowly closed. Power flooded through her clenched fist and into every limb. Beyond merely whole — she was at her absolute peak.
"Kenis, you..."
Just what kind of fate had this girl been born under? Kenis wrapped in brilliant light, praying — she looked as sacred as a painting of a saint.
"..."
As Friga surveyed the surroundings, her eyes grew heavy. The starlight raised even the critically wounded, so long as breath remained in them.
But it did not settle on those already beyond saving. Even a god, it seemed, could not bring back the dead.
If I'd believed in God a little more back then...
Would something have been different? Friga shook off the thought that rose unbidden. She had already wallowed enough in the regrets of the past.
Keep that up and Kenis'll just hit me again.
Friga looked at Kenis, still wreathed in light. How far would that girl go? What could Kenis, so beloved by God, truly accomplish?
Friga found herself deeply curious about the Kenis still to come.
Looks like this 'God' character only has eyes for Kenis.
Friga snorted at the idle thought and let out a short laugh.
"Mmm..."
Demonic's body, which had lain as still as death, began to turn back the clock. Rotten flesh filled in; gaping wounds sealed shut.
The longer Kenis prayed, the faster Demonic's body healed. In equal measure, Kenis's own complexion grew steadily paler.
"...Ugh."
The light pouring from her began to thin. Only when color returned to Demonic's face did Kenis finally stop praying.
"Hah — hahh—"
Drenched in cold sweat, face deathly white, Kenis staggered on her feet.
From far off, a small girl with pink hair streaming behind her came toddling at a full run.
"Ke-Kenis!!"
"Ah, Ruel..."
"Are you — are you okay?! Your body! How's your body?!"
Ruel came scrambling up and checked Kenis over from head to toe. Seeing that pale face, she flapped her arms wildly.
"Good heavens, look at your face!!"
"Ahaha... Ruel, I'm really sorry, but... I need to sleep... just a little..."
Kenis's eyes slowly closed. Her head drooped, and she collapsed. A piercing scream tore from Ruel's throat.
"KYAAAAAH!! Kenis!!! Kenis!!! Open your eyes, Kenis!!"
Ruel shook the fallen Kenis so violently that three nearby priests had to rush in and restrain her.
"No, let go of me!! Kenis collapsed!! Let me go!!"
"Ugh! Lady Ruel, just a moment—!"
"Please calm yourself!! Argh! Watch the staff!!"
"Over here!! Somebody help over here!!"
Thrashing like an enraged kitten, Ruel was only subdued when four more priests piled on.
Friga left the farce behind and approached a priest.
"Hey. Is Kenis all right?"
"Hmm..."
The priest carefully examined Kenis from head to toe, then his face brightened.
"Yes, thankfully she's perfectly fine. She seems to have simply collapsed from exhaustion."
"Hah — good. Ah, and that Demonic fellow over there?"
"The Paladin is also, by the grace of God, perfectly fine. Truly, divine favor was with us."
"Yeah. Divine favor... really lucky."
The priest made the sign of the cross and murmured a short prayer. Friga gave a bitter smile. From the North all the way to here — how many impossible things had she already witnessed?
"...Being around you, at least, is never boring."
Friga muttered, looking down at the sleeping Kenis. Far in the distance, a cloud of dust rose as support forces from the Holy City of Civitas came racing in.
Friga took one look and barked a hollow laugh.
"Ha. Damn. They sure got here fast."
— Whooosh!
"Whoa!"
The golden star in my arms blazed with a dazzling light, then shot upward and away. Streaming bright radiance, it punched through the dark sea and kept climbing.
"...Did that go well?"
It must have gone well, right? The black serpent I'd torn to shreds had already dissolved and melted into the seawater, and the deeps had fallen silent once more.
A quiet stillness wrapped this space in a gentle embrace.
"Huuuh—!"
I flopped flat on the floor and stretched out long. I didn't know what any of it meant, but it seemed to have ended well, so that was a relief.
The water rocked my body pleasantly. Lying there like this, I kept feeling something soft and fluffy seeping into me — and it wasn't half bad.
"Hahh~ oof. Must've used too much energy. Getting really sleepy."
I didn't fight the drowsiness rolling over me. I just closed my eyes. If I slept like this, did that make it a dream-within-a-dream? When I woke up from sleeping here, would I still be underwater?
Somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness, random thoughts rose in a jumble and sank again.
"..."
As my awareness gradually settled and reality grew hazy, a woman's voice drifted through, soft and dreamlike.
"Thank you..."
"Thank you, O Great One..."
— Blub-blub-blub!
The woman's words and the rough sound of air bubbles reached my ears together. Then my body shot upward at speed, the sensation of flying through the sky—
"Whoa!!"
— THUD!
"Ow, ow, my head..."
I clutched the lump rising on my skull and staggered to my feet. A familiar scene — my room.
"Ah. Did I fall asleep again?"
As the fog of sleep gradually cleared, the memories slowly came back. Right, so... the Stage 2 boss had spawned at random, and...
"Ah! The boss!"
I scrambled for my phone screen. I'd fallen asleep mid-boss fight, so I fully expected a total wipe.
"Huh?"
Contrary to every expectation, the Stage 2 clear message was sitting right there. What...? No, how in the world...?
"I cleared it without even touching the controls?"
Why? No, seriously, how? Question marks stamped themselves across my brain one after another. What was this, really?
"Hah — whatever. I'm deleting it anyway. No point overthinking it."
I swiped out to the home screen. And I was about to delete the game app when—
"Hmm..."
The dream I'd just had brushed through my mind. A small golden starlight. Kenis.
...Was I getting way too invested in this game?
Delete the app Idle Weapon Crafting?
I hesitated for a moment. My finger wavered back and forth... then pressed Cancel.
"...If it pulls this crap one more time, I'm really deleting it."
I repeated to myself that this was truly, genuinely the last time.
"Ugh. If this isn't being a total sucker, I don't know what is."
I heaved a long sigh and tossed my phone onto the pillow. I flopped back onto the bed — and a wet, squelching sensation wrapped around my back.
"Ah, damn it!! What is this?!"
Something like black filth covered the entire bed. The stench was so foul it stabbed straight up my nose. Why was I only noticing this now?
"Oh, come on!!"
In the end, I had to buy a new mattress.