I Die Here Today
I am here—
Blash was startled yet again by Laward’s question.
“Laward, what are you talking about? What do you mean, where is this? You claim you don’t even know where you are, yet somehow you got inside?”
“A coffin. I got hit by a coffin and ended up here.”
“A coffin?”
“Yes. I climbed into a coffin, and when I came to, I was here.”
Laward kept his voice as steady as he could.
“Inside a coffin? Did you die or something?”
“What, you were here too?”
The tone Laward used to answer Chris was nothing like the respect he showed Blash.
“Laward, explain. What happened?”
Blash stepped between them and asked. Laward laid out everything that had occurred—his kidnapping, meeting his teacher, and the coffin.
“So you met Hasgard inside that space.”
“Technically it was my teacher, but… it wasn’t my teacher.”
“What in the world are you saying?”
“It was a strange place no matter how you look at it. The kind of place that couldn’t possibly exist in reality…”
“Mm. That sounds almost like…”
After listening to the whole account, Amelia murmured,
“Spatial distortion.”
Kairon nodded at her words.
“Magic of the Magic Tower Master. He’s already dead, but it seems he left behind quite a few legacies.”
“But… the Death God Cult killed the Tower Master… why…?”
“They were cooperating, but the Cult planned to betray him from the start. Of course they did.”
Amelia thought of the fox.
“If you can simply steal someone’s magic, why bother cooperating with the Tower Master? Just take it. But at first they lacked the power to kill him. Only after seizing my eldest brother’s magic did it become possible. It makes sense when you look at it that way.”
“And right before that, Daywin…”
“Yes. He killed him with only a single day to spare. They failed to take the Tower Master’s power, but the things he created are still here. Annoying relics. At this rate, everything we’ve tracked so far is meaningless.”
“It isn’t meaningless.”
Laward cut in.
“There’s still a coffin here.”
“Still here?”
“Yes. I moved from coffin to coffin. The one in this place never vanished. We might be able to go back.”
“So an entrance and exit exist.”
“Probably.”
“Then we go.”
Blash spoke at once.
“In that case, Laward, we simply return together to the place you came from.”
“…Oh. Right.”
“Don’t tell me you hadn’t thought of that.”
“No… I’m not that thick. I heard voices and decided to follow them first—and those voices turned out to be all of you. From what you’ve said, this is a foreign country? I never imagined I’d been sent somewhere completely different…”
Laward hurried to explain, but Chris eyed him with open suspicion.
“What are you looking at?”
“…Nothing. Never mind.”
“Commander, my teacher came looking for me. We’ve missed each other for now, but we have to bring him back.”
“Very well.”
Blash nodded and looked at Laward.
“Laward, lead the way.”
“Yes.”
Laward turned and began retracing the path he had come—when the sound of water rose around them.
Shaaaa—
“What’s that noise?”
Chris turned his head and spotted something moving through the filth of the sewers.
“Commander, over there…”
“I see them.”
Chris pointed to the right, but Blash was already staring straight ahead. They were in front of him as well. They were everywhere.
“Looks like they have no intention of letting us leave quietly.”
Shaaah—
Daywin had been right. The moment the sewer water drained away, they became visible.
Like a terracotta army standing rigid in sleep, the statues revealed themselves at last—people and monsters turned to stone. With heavy, grinding footsteps they began climbing into the sewer passages.
“There are too ma—”
“Chris. Keep your head.”
Blash spoke calmly as he settled into a stance, yet his own pupils were trembling. From the direction he watched, figures in armor—now stone—were walking toward them.
The Holy Knights who had never returned.
He had told everyone not to be shaken, but the sight made coldness impossible.
“We were supposed to meet at headquarters.”
Grnnnk—
The petrified knights drew stone swords.
“Why come back looking like this?”
Blash met his brothers with a fighter’s guard.
“I’m sorry. I’ll send you to the Goddess’s side soon.”
Hummm—
Light gathered around Blash’s fist.
Swish!
A sword of stone flew at his head. He dropped low, slipped inside its arc, and—
Hook!
—rose like a spring, driving his fist into the jaw. The instant the gathered light met the petrified knight,
KWAANG!
it erupted, shattering not only the undead but the sewer ceiling in a single blow. Another knight statue swung; Blash twisted aside as if he had already known it was coming.
Tap. Tap.
Even while dodging he never stopped stepping.
Crack—
With a pained expression he hammered his fists into the heads of his former brothers.
KWAANG!
Meanwhile—
“Duck!”
Laward shouted from behind Chris. Chris bent at the waist on pure reflex.
Slash!
A beam of light shot from Laward’s hand like a blade, carving through the statues. Diagonal red lines appeared across their bodies; a moment later they toppled with dull thuds.
“You’re in the way—move!”
“What did you say?”
“You’re useless under a roof!”
Chris bristled, but the jab wasn’t entirely wrong. Chris specialized in raining artillery from the open sky; underground he could use barely half his power.
“You sinful little lamb… think being champion means you can say anything?”
“Then does being stuck in the round of sixteen mean you can?”
In that instant Kaine drove between them like a wedge. Nearly three meters of armored bulk, yet she moved with a speed that defied her size and weight.
Thud-crack!
She charged a humanoid statue and shattered its head with a high kick.
“Hey, Chris. You gonna keep spacing out?”
Kaine snarled over her shoulder. Chris clamped his mouth shut. Kaine used honorifics and lowered herself before everyone—except her juniors.
“This is never going to end.”
Crunch—!
Amelia’s hammer smashed a statue to gravel. At some point her hood had fallen back, fully revealing her bright face.
“How many of them are there…?”
“Exactly as Her Highness says! At this rate there’s no end!”
KWAANG—!
Blash’s fist reduced another statue to rubble as he continued,
“We get out of the sewers first!”
“We can’t! I have to go back! My teacher is still inside!”
The instant Laward shouted it, he acted. He shot past Kaine and Blash and sprinted the way he had come. The statues blocking his path—
CRACK-CRASH!
—he pulverized with shockwaves fired from his halo and kept running.
“Laward, wait!”
“For Daywin’s disciple, he certainly has a different feel about him.”
“Commander, that one truly doesn’t belong in the Order.”
While the Holy Knights reeled at Laward’s sudden charge—
“No. We’re going too.”
Amelia followed after Laward. Kairon did the same.
“…Your Highness.”
“Wasn’t that the plan all along, Commander?”
“But we might never return—and if we do, there may be even more statues waiting!”
“I will not abandon Hasgard. Even if I die here, I’m bringing him out.”
“Your Highness…!”
“Forgive me. We part ways here.”
“You mustn’t! If anything happens to Her Highness, everything we’ve done until now—!”
“Without Hasgard none of it has meaning to begin with.”
Hammer in hand, Amelia pursued Laward. Kairon offered the knights an apologetic gesture, then glued himself to Amelia’s side and ran.
“Commander, what will you do?”
“……”
At Kaine’s question Blash stared blankly at the ground. There lay the remains of the brothers he himself had reduced to powder.
“…We follow.”
“Yes. Daywin is important, but we can’t leave Her Highness like that…”
“I feel the same way.”
Blash lifted his head toward the direction Laward had gone.
“I’m the one who still has a debt to repay.”
Damn it.
Where the hell did he send him this time?
“Where did you send him?”
“Hah… hahh…”
Chronos spat blood as he forced out an answer to my question.
“…The sewers. I sent him through a coffin linked to that place…”
The sewers.
I’d heard of them from Blash. Not another subspace—just the neighboring country. That meant Laward could still make it back to the Academy before the term started… as long as he didn’t do anything stupid trying to rescue me.
Maybe I should have found some way to tell him to meet me at the Academy.
“Now that the boy is gone, we can clean this up…”
Chronos was right. Laward was outside, but the place was still a disaster. Prisoners were escaping; roars and screams echoed from every direction.
“If we don’t restore order quickly… he will come here…”
“Who will come? What are you talking about?”
While Chronos was speaking, an alien sound reached us.
Sssaaah—
The sound of a serpent flicking its tongue.
“It’s already… too late. It seems he has arrived.”
Chronos’s face went hollow as he gasped for breath. Then he looked up at the sky. I followed his gaze.
Ssshhk—
Black clouds swallowed the heavens.
No.
Not clouds.
I knew exactly what those were.
Countless arrows blotting out the sunlight, massing like a flock of storm clouds—and then they fell. Like rain. Endlessly.
“Lord Karma, return at once…!”
Clunk!
A coffin appeared behind me and yawned open.
“Lord Ballad does not know you as Karma. He will attack you without hesitation!”
The ever-composed Chronos raised his voice for once.
“Ballad.”
The serpent of the Death God Cult.
Medusa.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—!
Black arrows rained down upon the prisoners. Just as one cannot dodge the rain, the prisoners could only stand helpless under the deluge. The moment a single arrow punched through a man’s arm—
Crrrk-k-k—
—the pierced limb turned ashen gray, and in the next breath his entire body locked solid. The prisoner became a statue still wearing the face of a scream.
“U-uaaaaah!”
“Run!”
Those lucky enough to avoid the first volley sprinted the opposite way at full speed. It was useless. Arrows that had missed and struck the ground simply changed direction and chased their targets, hunting until they hit.
“They’re coming after us!”
“Gyaaah…!”
“R-run… where…?”
Prisoners who failed to evade the endless arrows turned to stone. Prisoners who fled and were caught by the arrows turned to stone. Even those who gave up running and raised whatever scrap they could find as a shield turned to stone along with their makeshift defenses.
You cannot dodge them.
You cannot block them.
Ballad’s arrows—shafts tipped with the heads of serpents—were that sort of weapon.
Neither flight nor resistance was possible.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—!
A second wave hammered into bodies, trees, rocks, and earth.
“Lord Karma, hurry!”
Lucia seized my collar and tried to shove me into the coffin.
“We’ll be hit too!”
“Lord Karma, it is already too late! I will come find you again—wait for me!”
Dragged by Lucia’s strength, I kept my eyes fixed on the cliff. Atop it, a man sat at ease, expressionless, pouring arrows without mercy. The wind scattered his black hair. Even across that distance I felt as though our eyes met.
I fight here.
Confirming the results of your choice.
You engaged in combat at full power, yet will be defeated with a 100% probability.
I kill Ballad here.
Confirming the results of your choice.
You engaged in combat at full power, yet will be defeated with a 100% probability.
I kept running the simulations.
No matter how I fought, I lost.
No matter how many times I repeated it, I lost.
I…
Then I…
I die here today.
Confirming the results of your choice.
You will die with a 100% probability.