Reunion
The Guardian Star of the Red Cult. Acrab's slashing blade came down in relentless waves.
Just like it had two years ago, on that day.
"I have no interest in you. Where is Antares?"
"You insolent little brat!"
KAANG—!
If there was anything different from back then, it was the gap in their strength.
Me, who had clawed her way through the world all the way to the title of Saintess. Acrab, who had done nothing but crouch in a dark underground lair. A river that never stopped flowing and a stagnant, rotting pool—right down to their depths, the two were simply not the same.
KAANG—! KAANG—!
"Saintess! We'll check the soldiers for any heretics hiding among them!"
"Do so."
Having noticed the disparity in their power, the Holy Knight Commander chose not to join the fight, instead setting off to hunt down the spies lurking within the ranks of soldiers.
At the sight of him withdrawing, Acrab let out a shriek brimming with fury.
"You dare look down on me?! I'll show you the essence of the Colossus that I was granted!"
A fierce light blazed from Acrab's eyes as she fell back, and moments later a crimson mist swallowed her whole. Bat wings unfurled from her back, her claws and fangs growing unnaturally long. And she did not stop there—fur erupted across every inch of her body, until no trace of a human form remained to be found.
"KHAHAHAHAHA! Her blood flows together with mine!"
Does Antares transform into something that hideous too? I'd rather she didn't.
Whenever something displeasing stirred in me, nothing beat a cigarette.
I pulled one from my pocket and leveled it toward the direction where Acrab stood.
"Your little moment of composure ends here. Your flames won't work on me anymore."
"Burn."
Flame spiraled up from my palm, whirling out to light the cigarette—and in the same breath, it swallowed Acrab whole.
"GRAAAAAGH?! H-hahahaha! The power of my blessing now surpasses your firepower! Something of this level—"
"Holy Fire neutralizes another god's blessing, and then flame consumes the flesh. You mean you haven't heard that such a tactic was developed?"
"What?"
"Should have gotten some fresh air once in a while."
At the snap of my fingers, brilliant white Holy Fire surged up through the crimson blaze.
Fwooosh!
The moment the Colossus's blessing caught fire, Acrab's body crumbled like a moth diving into a bonfire, scattering into a handful of ash that the wind carried away. The cigarette smoke curling from my lips followed after it.
"Pretty fragile, for something so hideous."
With a faint sense of relief, I turned my gaze toward the Holy Knights who had gone on ahead. Several corpses were already burning in Holy Fire—I couldn't tell how many heretics they'd flushed out.
I'll leave this to the knights and go after those bastards.
Being tied up with Acrab had let the distance between us grow far too wide. If this went on, Antares and they might make contact first.
"I did tell them not to lay a finger on her… but how am I supposed to trust those fools?"
Spurring my horse forward, I raced toward the cave.
"Fall back! Fire!"
"Yes sir!"
KWAAANG—!
Though Yuka, the one who kept the team's overall balance, was absent, the Hero party was a band of heroes whose names rang out one and all. Even after felling Aldebaran and plunging straight into a running battle, they were holding their line with steady composure.
"GUWOOOOOAR!"
"Kali! You don't have anything stronger?"
"I've been firing my strongest arrows since the start!"
But Acrux was a monster on an entirely different plane from the other Guardian Stars. Cutting off its life was no easy task.
"Hey, Hero runt. The wrist I cut off just grew back. Drag this into a war of attrition and we lose."
"I expected as much, but it really is strong. I'll have to release the Holy Sword."
"Careful, now? We're in a cave. Remember those pancakes you had this morning? That's what we'll all look like if this goes wrong."
Under the Sword Saint Albatross's guard, the Hero unlocked the Holy Sword's true power. If the Saintess was the human chosen by god, the Holy Sword was a blade forged from the jewel the gods themselves had chosen. In the power to destroy evil, nothing could stand against it.
"I call upon your power!"
Sensing the crisis, Acrux accelerated. It batted away Kali's arrows and swung its fist at Albatross, who stood blocking its path. In raw strength Acrux was overwhelming, but Albatross met the blow with sheer technique, deflecting it lightly—and in the same instant, lopped off one of its legs.
"Mister!!"
"Go on! Let 'er rip—the big one!"
Heat like the sun itself welled up from behind them. Instinctively knowing the Holy Sword's charge was complete, Albatross threw himself flat against the cave wall.
"Smite your enemies in my name!"
KWAGAGAGAGAGAK!
"GRWOOOOOOAAAAR!!"
With a dying shriek as if its very vocal cords were being wrung out, Acrux's upper body split clean in two. Blood soaked thickly across the cavern floor.
"Hey, runt. Whatever happened to that woman, by the way?"
"I believe she was caught up in the Holy Sword's aura during our first strike…"
The Hero party recalled Antares—the woman they'd all but forgotten while dealing with Acrux—and swept their eyes across the ground. She was the powerful enemy the Saintess herself had named, the one she had hammered home she would take as her reward for this commission. A thought flashed through Ain's mind: if they subdued her here and now, this whole journey could be wrapped up neatly.
"There she is. Ugh… what is she doing? That woman."
Cause by the Holy Sword's aura after all, Antares—covered from head to toe in wounds—was crawling toward the bisected corpse of Acrux.
"Don't tell me she's trying to perform a resurrection ritual. Runt. Let's stop her first and ask questions later."
"Yes."
Ain re-gripped the Holy Sword and kindled a purifying flame along its blade.
At that very moment, Ain felt an overwhelming killing intent press against his skin from behind. It was a sensation far more intense than anything he'd felt back in Velsendon—chilling enough to curdle the blood.
"You… you bastards, what the hell do you think you're doing…?"
"How dare you point that accursed sword at someone?"
The Saintess, Paula, was radiating a killing intent so ferocious it seemed bent on annihilating every living thing in the chamber. Under the weight of that presence, the warhorses all bucked and bolted from the cave in a panicked stampede.
"H-hey, miss. By the time we found her, she'd already transformed into a demon—"
"SHUT UUUUUP!!!"
With a scream so raw it carried open hatred, Paula forced even the Sword Saint to his knees, then began walking slowly toward Ain.
"Let the scales be tipped."
In one hand, she gripped an executioner's axe wreathed in flame.
"Saintess. That man was already claimed by the Colossus—"
"Shut your mouth. The royal army is crawling with spies, and you raised a blade against Antares when I told you to leave her untouched. Every last one of you—filthy, rotten mongrels! Everyone involved in this… I will hunt down and butcher every single one of you."
Neither Hero Ain nor Sword Saint Albatross could stem Paula's fury. Only one person in this place could quell that rage.
"Paula… run… go on…"
"Antares? Y-you're… you're alive?!"
With a faint voice, Antares pushed herself upright.
"The Colossus stirs within my soul… the Colossus… it demands… blood."
The moment her hand touched the pool of blood spilling from Acrux's corpse, the aberration began.
HUUUUUUUUM—!
In the space of a heartbeat, every drop of Acrux's blood, every shred of its flesh, was drawn into Antares's body. The wounds that had torn her open to the bone healed over in an instant—and where her shredded clothes had been, scales sprouted across her skin to cover her instead.
Antares, transformed into something that truly looked like a demon, turned to face Paula.
"More blood… bring me a sacrifice to free me from this endless thirst!"
Antares, fully transformed, spread her wings and lifted her body into the air. Her form was already shrouded in the Colossus's crimson mist.
"The Colossus's power? What in the world is happening?!"
As if mocking the confusion flooding Ain's voice, Antares unhurriedly stretched out her hand toward the deepest reaches of the cave. Moments later, with a ripple of splitting air, a halberd flew to her and settled into her grip.
"Runt, look out—!"
The instant Albatross lunged forward, Antares's halberd swept a razor curve through the air.
SPLATCH—!
"GRAAAAAGH!!"
Before Albatross's severed arm had even hit the ground, Ain swung the Holy Sword at Antares. But the moment the light-condensed blade sought her neck, Antares's tail coiled around his arm.
"Ah—"
KWAKWANG—!!
Before he could utter so much as a dying gasp, Ain was kicked flying backward. And of all directions for his body to sail—straight toward Kali, who had been lying in wait for her opening.
"GYAAAAAAAAAH!!"
THUD!!
In the blink of an eye, three members of the Hero party lay toppled with grievous wounds.
"The Heroes… defeated… impossible…"
"It's a demon!! A demon has appeared!!"
"WAAAAAH! I—I can't die here! Run, RUUUUN!!"
The soldiers began scattering, each one racing the other to flee.
Watching them with eyes full of contempt, Paula pressed forward through the fleeing crowd without a word.
"Sword Saint. Take the other fools and get out."
As Paula's divinity swirled through the cave, the bleeding from Albatross's severed arm stopped. Even the flesh rotting from the poison smeared on the halberd slowly began to recover its natural color.
Albatross stared at himself, marveling—and Paula answered his gaze with a look of pure scorn.
"Now."
"Yes, ma'am."
Albatross sprang up at once, tucked Ain and Kali under his arms, and sprinted out of the cave.
In the hushed silence that followed, the only sound left was the soft beat of Antares's wings.
"Antares. Now it's just the two of us."
"Yes… now, at last, I can devour you… and fulfill my duty."
"Really? You want to kill me, and devour me?"
Paula drew one hand to the back of her neck and tugged her collar down slightly. Her snow-white skin came into view, along with the curve of her collarbones, shifting faintly with her breathing. Antares's gaze drifted to her throat, where her life pulsed.
"Is cutting off this neck truly what you desire, Antares?"
"Yes. That neck, right now… take it in my hands… and you… no!!"
Antares's body, her eyes, wavered like a branch caught in a storm.
"Paula… Paula! I have to protect you—no! I must…"
After pouring out her rambling words for a long moment, Antares abruptly shot away, flying deep into the cave.
"I knew you were still in there."
Letting out a breath of relief, Paula wiped her tears with the back of her hand and followed Antares down into the depths of the cave.
Antares sat atop a ruined building on the outskirts of the cult's abandoned grounds, at the very deepest heart of the cave.
"It's been a long time since I've seen this place."
It was where the Red Cult had once dwelt—the home that she and I had shared. But now the floor and ceiling were riddled with cracks, and the structures had all collapsed into little more than unsightly wreckage.
"Have you been waiting for me?"
"You should have stayed away. I'm… I'm about to lose my mind."
Her voice was more laden with anguish and exhaustion than it had ever been. Sure enough, her figure looked so fragile she might collapse at any moment.
"I absorbed the Colossus's soul. But before it could settle… I was attacked, and I ended up consuming its blood. Now what's left of the Colossus is rampaging inside me."
I know that curse all too well.
It was the agony I had endured in my past life—the cruel curse that had driven me into the cold arms of death. Weakened compared to what I had carried, perhaps, but the suffering was no less for it.
"To shoulder even this in my place… it's too much. It's simply too cruel."
Antares had taken everything that tormented me in my past life. Because I knew better than anyone just how agonizing that curse, that situation, truly was, guilt pressed down on me like a stone.
"It's all right. I'll put you back the way you were."
"Then… while I still have my mind, why won't you just kill me?"
"No."
With sorrowful eyes, Antares raised her halberd. Her hands and the weapon alike trembled without pause.
"If you don't kill me now, then in the end… I will be the one to kill you."
"Ha. You mean to say you'll kill me?"
The pain of losing the only person I loved. For two years, I had fed that pain to the fire like kindling and let it burn.
"Antares, understand this. You can no longer defeat me. True, your raw power might rival mine."
Wielding the Colossus's strength, Antares would indeed stand equal to me in power. But two years ago, she had surrendered to me the strongest weapon she possessed.
"Besides, I have plenty of weapons. You remember, don't you?"
Showing her the Zodiac Silver Bracelet, I spoke the very same command she once had.
"Let the scales be tipped."
The bracelet gleamed, and a savage executioner's axe settled into my hand. The children slumbering within it had fought alongside me all this time, waiting for this very moment.
"Seems you've finally learned to wield it properly."
"That's right. I've all grown up now."
One step closer toward Antares.
I wanted the woman who had loved me to finally be happy. I wanted the woman who had shouldered the agony meant for me to suffer no more.
And so I loosed my words like blades honed to a keen edge.
"So for once, be selfish."
"Everything I do is for my own sake too—"
"Do you really think you can say that while refusing to protect even your own life?"
"I didn't want to hurt you. I'd rather it be me who—"
"Whether you hurt me, whether you nearly kill me—do whatever it takes, so just please say you want to live!"
"…Stop it!! Just—stop!"
For the first time, her voice cracked with raw venom as she screamed at me.
"You think I'm doing this because I want to die?! I want to live! I never wanted to give up on the children either! I wanted to save every single one of them, not one left behind!! I can't even stand the sight of these disgusting wings and this tail!"
Antares spewed out her grief in thick, heavy tears. Every emotion and every wound accumulated over the long years laid bare at last.
"I wanted it all to be over. And then, as someone a little better… Paula… I wanted to see you. I wanted to be with you…"
The corners of my mouth curled into a soft arc. It felt as though the lump that had been jammed in my chest was being swept away all at once.
"Then I'll make it all come true. Let's leave here together. I'll get the children back for you. And… stay with me forever."
"All of this… how can you be so certain you can make it happen?"
"Because you're the one who taught me hope. Oh—and I won't be granting that wish about the wings and tail. They look lovely to me."
Antares let out a faint, quiet laugh.
"You really are… such a strange child."
And then, as if she had finally reached her limit, she pulled up the halberd propped beside her and took her stance.
"I'll believe in you. Paula."