The End of Rayna Forest
"Ngh—"
Rayna checked her wounds.
The Blood Bow let you wield power you were never meant to have, and the strain was no joke. It had been so long since she'd last used it that whatever resistance she'd once built up felt all but gone. On top of that, she'd accidentally triggered the Geas, and her head felt ready to split apart.
The wounds were severe, and a curse had taken hold as well. Her condition was serious — but if there was any consolation, it seemed the injuries weren't quite fatal. Not yet.
What matters to me is what comes next.
Because of the Geas, she had no idea how to pass anything on. She couldn't share a scrap of information about Alex. Even if they somehow pieced it together and started asking questions, she couldn't so much as nod.
At best, if they figured it out, asked her, and she tried to answer, the Geas would fire — and they could read the truth from that. The trouble was that whoever did the asking would need extraordinary intuition, a razor-sharp sixth sense, and a whole host of faculties that had nothing to do with logic. And Rayna would be in excruciating pain.
A cheap price to pay for betraying the one who saved the world, I suppose... And this attack is almost certainly Alex's doing. How is he even capable of something like this?
She'd known Alex was hiding something. But commanding a Demon King Army Cadre? Until now, whatever faith he might have held toward the kingdom, Rayna had still looked at Alex and seen a human. If he could move a Cadre, that changed everything.
She didn't know what was going on. She wanted to give them information and couldn't, and even if she could, it wouldn't have been proper information. Honestly, it was maddening.
But then—
"Are you two all right?"
"Les, thank you. If you hadn't blocked that, we would have died."
"I-I'm fine..."
Of the three of them, Les was the most badly wounded. Blocking that attack head-on had been reckless, no matter how you looked at it. The curse would keep him from moving properly; they'd need to perform a purification later. The same went for Sylphy and Rayna, of course. The curse was one thing, but the wounds were ugly too. Fail to stop the bleeding, and they'd die all the same.
"Sylphy, are you okay?"
"......"
Sylphy looked down at his own body. The wounds were quite serious, and his condition wasn't exactly promising — but he didn't seem about to die this instant.
"For some reason, I don't feel like I'm going to die. A moment ago I really thought I would..."
"It's the Protection of the World Tree."
"Protection?"
"I don't know how, but the Protection of the World Tree has activated. It's boosting our life force so we can survive wounds that should have killed us."
Sylphy was a half-elf, but an elf was still an elf — he fell within the Protection's reach.
"Anyway, you get treated. I need to go help take down those wyverns right now."
"I-I'll go too."
"Don't push yourself... Not with that arm..."
"No."
Sylphy's eyes went wide. Rayna followed his gaze and turned — and there was Bane, fading away, looking straight at them. Floating in midair, he glared down.
"You bastard...!!"
"Don't worry. I'm dying... Even I can't survive a shattered core. Frustrating, really — to think I'll die without even properly using the Evil God's power."
"So what."
"So I've decided to leave you a gift."
"What?"
A second falling star takes shape in the sky.
Target: Elvenheim
Whooooom...
At that ear-splitting roar — a sound he had heard before — Sylphy's eyes flew open. He looked up toward the familiar noise, and there it was again: the shape of a Meteor taking form overhead.
"Hahahaha!!"
"This bastard — he was preparing this while fighting us!?"
Preparing a spell like Meteor while fighting a powerful enemy was normally a fool's errand. But Bane had been underestimating them, and at the same time he'd been laying in a contingency — so that even if he died, he could take his enemies with him.
As the dust cleared, Bane laughed to the very end.
"Well then — if there's really such a thing as a next life, I'll see you there!! Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!!!"
Laughing with wicked glee until the last, Bane vanished completely from that spot and died.
"It's smaller than the last one. But it's more than enough to wipe out this entire area."
If it had been like before, they could simply have ordered everyone to evacuate. But now a great many elves lay fallen, and thanks to the Protection of the World Tree, many who had been knocked unconscious by grave wounds still clung to life. If that Meteor came down, the danger was obvious.
"I'll do it."
"What?"
"If I fire the Meteor Bow at maximum power..."
"You'll die in that condition!"
"I'll die even if I don't. In that case, it's better if only I die."
"Why..."
Rayna felt it instinctively. This man named Sylphy was, at his core, the same kind of person as Olivia or Titania. To achieve his purpose, he would do anything.
As Rayna saw it, the extremely good and the extremely evil had something in common. By mere chance, the good had chosen goodness as their method, and the evil had chosen evil. There was something that people of the middle simply could not understand.
Perhaps it was the quality of a hero. Perhaps it was the quality of a savior. A spirit that words could scarcely name.
...I have nothing. But.
If Sylphy did this now, he would die for certain. He couldn't handle it the way Titania could — if he used it, he would die. In that case, there was only one thing to do. Do the thing Sylphy didn't know. The thing only Rayna knew.
It was a somewhat underhanded method, but it couldn't be helped. There was no need to ask who had more right to survive.
"All right. Then let's fire it together."
"What? Is that even possible?"
"We just split the mana. Then both our survival rates go up. There'll still be a chance of dying, but at least there'll be a chance of living. Better if everyone lives, right?"
"...Understood, if that's what you wish, Rayna. Still, I'm glad. If we succeed at this, maybe my sins will become a little lighter."
"I don't know. This might be my fault."
"What?"
"No time! Shoot!"
"Yes!"
"I'll hold the bow. You draw the string!"
"Ah — yes!"
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Rayna took hold of the bow, and Sylphy, staggering, drew the string. Gripping the Meteor Bow, they looked up at the meteor above. They had to deal with it somehow before it fell.
No more deaths from this damned attack!
The thought left her, and Rayna smiled awkwardly. This, too, was surely selfishness. The root cause of this raid — even if not directly, she was indirectly the culprit. No. If you traced it all the way back, calling it direct might not even be an exaggeration.
"Pour in your mana! To the limit!!"
"Yes!"
Mana gathered in the Meteor Bow. The power of a Meteor Bow released in a single burst would be on a completely different level from what Sylphy had fired earlier. Back then, Sylphy had loosed it without even knowing how the Meteor Bow was meant to be used — but Rayna, at least, knew the method.
So even if she couldn't match Titania's precision and delicacy, she could gather the mana properly, and a Meteor Bow fired the right way packed considerable power. If anything, the fact that Sylphy had pierced the body of Bane, a Demon King Army Cadre, without even using the proper method was the truly remarkable thing.
Meteor Bow... So it fits in my hands too. I have no right to it whatsoever — but think of it as me borrowing Sylphy's claim for a little while. Just a little while. I'll give it right back.
"Good. That's enough mana! The recoil will hit the moment we fire! Got it!?"
"Yes!"
"We shoot on three! One, two, three!"
"Yes!"
"One!"
Sylphy clenched his teeth. He poured every nerve into channeling mana, leaving the task of holding that power steady to Rayna, and looked up at the meteor.
Shoot on three. Shoot on three. On three.
"Two!"
Thwack!!
"Huh?"
For an instant, Sylphy couldn't comprehend what had happened. The moment Rayna grabbed the bowstring he'd been drawing, she kicked him away.
Tumbling across the ground, Sylphy stared at her with a face that couldn't understand — and at the same time, mana flared massively around Rayna. It was an atmosphere, a feeling, almost like when Titania fired.
"Rayna?"
"Sorry. I lied."
"What?"
"The Meteor Bow only damages the one who fires it, at the moment of release. One of the two of us takes a hundred percent of the burden."
"So what does that even—"
"One of us is definitely going to die. In that case... this is the wisest way."
It was true that she'd needed Sylphy's mana. And Sylphy had needed Rayna's technique. More than anything, even if the burden really had been halved, if Sylphy — who could barely move from mana depletion — took the Meteor Bow's recoil, his mana nerves would all rupture and he'd likely die.
Well. It wouldn't be any different for me.
Someone had to die. And even a passing child could answer who that should be.
A good person and an evil one. Sylphy and Rayna. The answer was already decided.
"Again...!! You can't! You're not Titania! You'll die!!"
The arrow mixed with Sylphy's mana and Rayna's would surely be powerful. It might not compare to Titania's — but even so.
Meteor Bow
FWOOOOSH!!
The ground cracked, and the shockwave spread wide. It was the mark of an amateur — unlike Titania, the mana spilling out around them hadn't been fully compressed. But it was enough. There was enough mana, and the rising arrow swelled in an instant, growing large enough to swallow the meteor whole. Considering that most of that mana had been Sylphy's, the quantity was absurd.
The Meteor shatters in the sky.
KRA-KOOOOM!!
With a tremendous roar, the meteor overhead exploded.
For a sinner's last act, this isn't half bad, I suppose.
Was there a hell? She hoped there was. At least then there'd be hope of atonement. But then—
In the end, I never even apologized.
I'm sorry. She had never managed to say those words to her victim. To the very end, clinging to regrets, dying selfishly. She laughed at herself.
Her mana nerves ruptured, and blood ran down.
And then.
"Rayna?"
"......"
At that small voice, she turned her head. The woman who had arrived here, held in Lois's arms, was a wreck — like a corpse on a battlefield. In a sense, she looked even worse off than Rayna was now.
Olivia.
And yet she was alive. Of course. I can't even beat her once.
"Rayna!"
Olivia pulled free of Lois's arms and caught the fallen Rayna. The flowing blood. The ruptured mana nerves already seemed to be spelling out her fate.
Why.
Rayna looked at Olivia. This wasn't a bad ending for her. One of the people she needed to take revenge on was dying, and Elvenheim had been saved. As a Hero, she protected people, and at the same time the one she had to punish was dying — it might not be the best possible ending, but it wasn't a bad one.
And yet.
"Why are you making that face."
"Don't die!"
"W-why..."
"You think this pays for your sinsp>
sins? Don't make me laugh!! There's no such thing as a sin you pay for by dying!! I'm the victim — I should be the one to decide! Why are you dying on your own!? Whether you take punishment or whatever else, you have to live! You have to live and pay for your sins! And you're just dying however you want!?"
"......"
Rayna had often seen Olivia being emotional. But this was... how to put it. The direction of that emotion was different.
"You have to live and atone for your sins!! You can't die like this! You're running away! Taking the easy road called death!! Coward! Idiot! You're being selfish to the very end!"
"......"
That face, on the verge of tears — Rayna couldn't tell if Olivia was in pain watching her die, or if she felt it was unfair. Perhaps both? Or was it just Rayna's self-serving gaze making her think that way?
"If you die here, I'll resent you forever! So don't die!! Properly... pay the price... for the evil you committed..."
"......"
She wanted to tell her everything, just as it was. She wanted to give her the little information she had. But it was impossible. Even in this situation, the Geas was working perfectly.
Still, there was one thing she'd prepared. The little Rayna knew would be of help. By dying like this, that condition would surely be fulfilled.
For now. All she could do was—
"I... I'm sor..."
Should she apologize? Or die in silence? She had agonized over it. Would this apology only hurt Olivia more? But that wasn't for Rayna to decide.
Bowing her head, apologizing, forever atoning for her sins — that was Rayna's duty. How to receive it, how to respond, was for the victim to decide. If it displeased her, then she must never speak an apology again. If she accepted it, then she must apologize forever.
"...Cow...ard."
Olivia murmured.
"...Die well, Rayna. ...Suffer in hell a pain that matches your sins."
"Y-yeah."
That face, as if about to cry — why was it like that. She didn't know. Was that the face of the Hero, Olivia Reinhardt? Or was it simply Olivia's face? Rayna, who had never managed to build a proper relationship with her, couldn't even grasp the true meaning of that expression.
Only this: the hands they held trembled.
"......"
That was the end of Rayna Forest.
She had completely stopped breathing. You couldn't even tell where those eyes were looking anymore, and she drew no breath at all.
Olivia laid Rayna on the ground and looked at her for a brief moment. Then she rose.
"Lois! Help me! We're going to kill the remaining wyverns! Sylphy, Les — fall back to the rear! Get treated right now, and have that curse purified!"
"Lady Olivia..."
"......"
Olivia drew the Holy Sword and spoke.
"Let's go, Lois."
"......"
Lois looked at Olivia quietly for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes. Let's go."