Mage Frang (2)
"Hero. Do you think you can break through that barrier?"
This was the critical point. Even I couldn't see a way through that barrier as it stood, so I wasn't expecting much. I'd only asked on the off chance.
"...I shall try."
The Hero raised her sword. Power surged into the blade. She brought it crashing down on the barrier — and the sword bounced off, utterly, hopelessly.
"This cannot be."
Their last hope had just gone out. They'd been counting on the Hero alone being able to shatter the barrier, so the reaction was only natural.
"I—I can't hold on anymore."
"It's over..."
As the examinees let go of the last thread of hope and began to collapse, I noticed something strange. A hairline crack.
The reason Saryeong-wang's barriers were so hard to break was their ceaseless regeneration. Holy Power, physical force, Magi — none of it mattered. The barrier restored itself faster than anything you could throw at it.
But the Hero's strike hadn't been undone. I had a theory. The Hero possessed the power of Annihilation — a force that could erase anything completely. That was why she was so much better at putting down ghosts and the undead. Of course, even that power hadn't been enough to kill me. I still wasn't sure what kind of twisted immortality I was working with, but I figured that was why the barrier couldn't heal the wound.
With that in mind, I told the Hero.
"Hero. Look closely."
"...It looks intact to me."
"No. If you look carefully, the scratch it left isn't fading. What if you hit it again? And again?"
The Hero's face lit up. At the eleventh hour, their greatest hope had come roaring back. Word spread among the other examinees, and the Hero brought her sword down on the barrier once more. Those who had been crumbling found their hope again.
"We can make it!"
"We're going to survive this!"
The scratch became a fissure, and from that fissure a hole began to open. The hole grew until a hand could slip through. And I started to worry. Were they really going to just sit there and let this happen?
Sure enough, the Greater Demon that had been watching us started to move. The Hero's strikes grew more frantic. She knew as well as I did. Another Greater Demon — a living nightmare — was about to show itself.
Fortunately, we weren't completely without options. I looked at the Sword Saint. I'd witnessed him reach the rank of Expert, if only for a moment, and I wanted to put some faith in that. I'd already pushed my body far past its limits. Even with a dagger, there was a real chance I'd drop dead mid-swing. I could come back, sure — but if Frang died while I was still reviving, if the examinees were slaughtered and the Hero awakened because of it... what would be the point? I had to stay alive as long as possible. I had to watch them all make it out.
The Sword Saint felt my gaze and spoke. Something about his tone was kinder than before.
"What is it?"
"The power of an Expert. Can you use it again?"
He shook his head.
"I cannot say for certain. I only managed to draw it out because I wanted it so desperately. I cannot promise I can call forth a miracle like that a second time."
So he could use it. The Sword Saint was a prodigy among prodigies. Honestly, he was even more gifted than the Hero. It didn't matter that he wasn't sure. I'd make it possible anyway.
But the Greater Demon I'd expected to charge us stopped moving and began preparing something right where it stood.
"...That's not what I expected."
I could feel Magi condensing behind us. The worst-case scenario I hadn't even accounted for. Why was there a demon black mage here?
Most demons didn't have the intelligence to learn black magic. The madness and violence born from Magi dulled their minds. But a rare few were born with enough intellect to master it even in that environment. Those demons were far more powerful than ordinary black mages. A human black mage had to go through hell just to obtain Magi. A demon generated it naturally. The advantage was incomparable. Their nature as demons kept them from using the more sophisticated forms of black magic, but a simple bombardment from one of them could level an entire area. I never imagined one of the Greater Demons here would be that kind of monster. The Demon King's army treated these things as precious resources. And they'd spent one here.
That black mage had been hiding out of sight, weaving its spell. Which meant we were in serious danger. The enemy was about to fire a bomb, and we had no defense prepared. Worse, it was already too late. Even if everyone scattered and ran, they wouldn't make it out of the blast radius. Better to gather everyone together and put up a shield that could actually resist it.
I called to the Hero, who was still hammering at the barrier, refusing to let go of hope.
"Hero. We'd be better off bracing for an enemy attack."
"...I cannot do that."
"It's already too late. We need to prepare. Everyone, get ready."
Shnk.
I drove the dagger into my own hand again. A self-sacrifice with no warning at all. Frang cried out and rushed toward me.
"Argal, what are you doing?!"
"If I don't, we all die."
Asel seemed to have figured it out too. She stared up at the towering sky and murmured, her body trembling.
"Up there. Death is... coming down."
Better to burn my own life away if it meant saving everyone. A black speck appeared in the sky. Last time, it had been a demon falling. This time, a black magic bombardment was coming down on us.
The examinees who grasped the danger tried to get clear of the impact zone. Too late to run. So I used black magic immediately. While everyone was still reeling, a black magic shield enveloped every last person here.
I said to the Sword Saint,
"Reinhardt. You protect Asel."
"I shall."
"Hero. Keep the casualties as low as you can."
"I will see it done."
Leaving Asel alone after she'd used One-Point Thrust twice would have been too cruel. So I left her to the Sword Saint. My vision flickered. I'd pushed myself far too hard. By all rights I should have been dead by now, but for various reasons I was still hanging on. After this last black magic, I wouldn't be able to move at all.
...And Frang happened to be right beside me. Even if the blast scattered everyone here, she'd still be next to me. She touched my body, realized how close I was to dying, and her voice broke.
"Y-you're not going to die, right? Argal? You're not really dying, are you?"
"I'm not dying."
My mouth was dry. My vocal cords barely opened. I might meet a physical death here, but one way or another, I don't die. So there's no need to be so sad, Frang. I left them with one last thing.
"All of you. Stay alive."
The Sword Saint answered.
"...You stay alive too, Argal."
The Spear Saint murmured quietly.
"...Don't die."
The Hero clenched her teeth.
"Please. Live, so that I may repay you for this."
Those were the last words she gave me. The black magic falling from so high above had already swallowed the sky. And then the explosion came.
Everyone caught the blast and went flying. Without the shield, they would have been vaporized without a trace. The black magic wrapping had kept them alive — but that was as far as it went. It couldn't stop the shockwave from hurling them far away. Which meant every examinee had been scattered. Could they all hold on? The one mercy was that Frang had been clutching me tight, so the two of us were thrown to the same place.
Yes. The end had come. The moment to burn my second life in the most meaningful way possible.
Frang came to only a short while later. An explosion violent enough to knock her unconscious had gone off, and it was fair to say the black magic shield was the only reason she'd survived. The instant she was conscious, she frantically searched for Argal.
"Argal! Argal! You're alive, right? You're still alive?"
She had watched Argal's devotion from beginning to end. Not only had he managed the surviving examinees through everything — at the last, he had essentially ground away more than half his remaining lifespan to save them all. Eighty years of life, sacrificed. Even if he survived this, didn't that mean he would die soon anyway?
Watching it all, Frang's heart was too full to bear. Was it because someone who knew the Pinnacle couldn't be allowed to die? Or was it because she couldn't stand the thought of losing the friend who had so calmly stroked her hair? She would never let him die.
Fortunately, even unconscious, Argal's heart was still beating. Faintly.
"...Th-thank goodness."
But there was no denying how close he was to death. Frang hoisted Argal onto her back and started moving — to get out of the forest, or at the very least to find the other examinees.
"You're so... light."
Frang had never thought of herself as particularly strong. Average for a girl her age, at best. Which made Argal far too light. Then again, maybe that was for the best. If he'd been too heavy to carry, that would have been worse. With Argal on her back, Frang made her way slowly through the forest.
The Hero, Asel, Reinhardt — any examinee would do. Please, anyone. Just let her find someone who could help Argal.
"...I don't even need the Pinnacle."
The truth spilled out of her. What did she actually want? The Pinnacle that every mage dreamed of? No. She didn't need it. She'd been chasing it hollowly, a girl with no real purpose. Now she had one. She wanted to save Argal.
"Just... stay alive."
Step by step, she pressed on. Her mouth went dry, her breath grew short, but her legs kept moving. Then, at some point, she felt a presence. A gaze watching her from the hill above. Frang allowed herself a small hope.
"Yes. It's another examinee, right?"
She lifted her head and looked ahead — and froze like a statue. A robe covering its entire body. Skin of pure black, a color no human could possess. And Magi it couldn't even try to hide.
The black mage that had just fired the bombardment stood before her.
"Ah..."
The demon smiled.
Frang's heart hammered as if it would burst. They were going to die. This was certain death. Not just Argal — Frang herself.
"P-please, spare us."
She knew the majesty of a Greater Demon. There was no room for confidence. Her strength left her and she sank to the ground. The thick killing intent made it hard to even breathe. Someone. Anyone. If someone would just come and save them.
The Greater Demon gathered Magi. Black magic capable of killing them both unfolded with casual ease. A black sphere shot toward the two of them in an instant.
"Shield!"
Even then, a mage's cold reason made her throw up at least a defense. But it wasn't enough to close the gap with a Greater Demon. The shield shattered in an instant, and the black sphere closed in on Frang's face. Everything slowed down. Like the flash of a life before dying. Frang spoke one last time.
"Anyone... please help..."
Her voice was thick with tears.
"Even if it's just..."
She had never been more desperate.
"Even if it's just Argal, let him live..."
"...No need for that."
CRACK!
The hand he thrust out shattered the demon's black magic to pieces. The help Frang had so desperately wanted. Given by the one who had been on the verge of death.
"Argal! Are you all—"
Frang realized something was wrong. She had read countless books, even forbidden ones, and she knew the energy coming off him was not ordinary.
"...What is that?"
Beside him, something like a contract — assembled from scraps of paper — floated in the air. Frang ransacked the knowledge in her head and recognized it. That was a contract with a devil.
"...What did you stake? To make a contract with a devil?"
"I gave it my assets. Devils take money too, and I happened to have the check Reinhardt gave me."
At that, Frang let out a breath of relief. Staking property was the safest form of contract. A contract could be made over anything from one's own life to someone else's. Thinking of that, she was grateful Argal hadn't offered his life to a devil.
But something felt off. Property was the lowest-value offering. A contract that brought a dying man back to his feet in exchange for nothing but money... that shouldn't have been enough to take. Frang murmured under her breath.
"It can't be."
If he really had offered his life. She wouldn't have been able to bear it, so she denied it.
"It isn't. It really isn't."
She believed that.