The World (3)
"It's all right to sleep a little longer. You no longer need to stand and fight… You can rest now."
No! Get up! You still have work left to do! So get up this instant……!
…Even so, I cannot simply let this pass.
"Not coming? Are you going to turn tail and run? And you call yourself a hero?"
The Inquisitor squeezed her burning eyes shut, then forced them open again. The moisture drawn by the irritation clouded her vision just a little.
"The Great Demon you must kill is right here."
It was true. Still, she could not cross that line. The Great Demon was waiting for her in the open; the place reeked of a trap.
"Ah, so not a hero after all—just a coward. How disappointing."
…But if she did not go, then what?
If she failed to take that demon down, Berserk’s decision to stand alone before that monster would lose all meaning. If she failed to protect the people, then the reason the Demon Knight had come here alone would…
Ah. The Demon Knight.
The Inquisitor lifted the head that had somehow drooped.
She could not feel the Demon Knight’s Demon Energy. Of course she couldn’t. Amid that vast torrent of Demon Energy, his own would never stand out.
And yet… and yet…
There was not even the sound of battle. What did that mean? That he was already too wounded to fight? Or that he… that he had…
"No!"
He could not be dead. That man could not have died. He had simply been hurt badly and withdrawn. That had to be it.
That man dying…
Really?
The image of a certain back rose unbidden—the back of someone who would simply accept death when the moment came, without even thrashing. The back of a man so cold he never once offered a hand to grasp.
“Do not be late. Fate will not wait for you.”
The Inquisitor’s lips crushed against her teeth.
Clang. An iron-gauntleted hand smashed against her own forehead in the next breath. Unwilling to release the mace, she struck herself with the weapon still clenched in her fist and wrenched her eyes wide open.
"Well. No matter how hard you deny it, you look every bit the coward right now."
In the meantime the voice that had twisted her denial into something else sneered. She paid it no mind.
The Inquisitor’s green eyes caught the swirling sparks and glittered like gold.
"Prattle all you like, demon!"
Whether the Demon Knight still lived or not, one thing was certain: he could no longer move. Equally certain was that she could do nothing for him at this moment.
With difficulty the Inquisitor accepted those truths. She could not save the Demon Knight right now.
"I will never be swayed by your tongue!"
Yet had that acceptance driven her to despair? It had not.
If reality was so, then she must not stop—must not stop even more. Behind her the people she had to protect stood in throngs.
Those who had already given their lives to create this single moment lay thick beneath her feet; she could never retreat.
Boom!
So she first drove her shield into a nearby mimic. Perhaps because the higher being—the Great Demon—had given separate orders, the creature made no move to dodge, and killing it was easy.
Having taken the mimic’s life in a single stroke, her hands snapped back into a defensive guard.
"If you want me, then come yourself!"
Gargoyles streaking through the air slammed into the Holy Power barrier she raised and plummeted.
Crunch! A mace blow burst a head open. The headless body slumped naturally into death.
"I will not let a single one of you pass!"
"Ha. So that is how you choose to play it."
The Great Demon chuckled. The Inquisitor did not so much as flinch.
Her foremost duty was to buy time for the people to flee, not to duel a Great Demon. Unless it moved to slaughter the civilians, there was no need to force a fight while it remained still.
Boom!
What she needed to fight were the others.
The Inquisitor intercepted every demon that tried to slip past her, striving to cut their numbers by even one. The fewer that leaked through, the fewer people would die; the logic was simple.
"I will make you pay dearly for forcing me to move myself!"
Bang!
And at last the Great Demon stirred.
A lava giant smashed buildings with its colossal hands; the streets flooded with something like molten metal.
"With your death!"
Rising amid that flood was a faceless demon.
As Berserk had told her: Pandemonium, Seat of Greed and Avarice.
One of the axes of evil that would someday have to be erased extended a finger toward her.
Chunks of rock saturated with fire began to rain down. Each one was so deadly she wondered whether she could possibly block them all.
"O God."
Yet this was the moment she had chosen after setting aside both the Demon Knight and Berserk. In such an hour there was no room left for words like “I cannot.”
"Your humble servant prays."
The Inquisitor cast aside every lingering doubt of “Can I?” that she had carried this far.
"May the ground I tread become Your ground, and the hand I stretch forth become Your hand."
She would do it. She would succeed.
"And thus may every evil upon this earth be extinguished! This I dare to beseech!"
Holy Power surged outward from her like a rising tide, flooding the world with light.
"Therefore be with me!!"
A sun rose upon the earth.
A sun fierce enough to burn away even a young man’s tears.
"Shut up, worm. He has already done enough."
You little brat—! Do you even understand what you’re doing?!
"Turn that way! There’s something I need to grab from the workshop!"
Even in this frantic rush, Deathbringer felt his temper spike at the man who had the gall to make demands.
"Do you seriously think your research matters right now?!"
"Of course it does!"
Crazy bastard! Insufferable bastard!
The shout of a pampered noble young master who had never known want and had always done only as he pleased made Deathbringer’s neck tighten for no good reason. If the other man had not been a talent the entire city treated as precious, he would have shoved him clean off the horse.
"But what I’m after isn’t research materials!"
"I don’t care what it is—just leave it and go!"
"What the hell do you know……!"
"Fuck, I don’t know how valuable your research is, but I damn well know how precious the people are who walked into death just to buy time for the rest of us to evacuate!"
How many, after all, had gone to their deaths to buy that time?
And among them, those who had headed for the most dangerous places of all were his own companions—the Demon Knight, Berserk, even the soft bookworm.
Every last one of them had left for their own private hell.
And this bastard wanted to spend the time they bought on personal greed?
Should I unhorse this idiot who can’t read a situation even now? Dangerous impulses flooded Deathbringer’s mind again.
"…You think I don’t know that?! I’m doing this because we absolutely need the water-purifying device! The river near Tsverg Hill is foul—drink it raw and you’ll get the runs!"
In the end the impulse was forced down. If the man had been packing for pure selfishness it would have been different, but something for the people after evacuation was worth the minutes.
"Better than letting the people we sacrificed to save die of the shits!"
"Then say so from the start, you damn bastard! Where is it?!"
"Turn right! And the one who never gave me time to explain was you, wasn’t it?! Stop showing off that half-baked head of yours!"
Deathbringer hurled curses at Meister and absorbed them in return while swinging the horse’s head around.
Luckily the workshop district lay along the evacuation route; they would not need to detour far.
"Here!"
In his haste Meister leapt down before the horse had even fully stopped, flung the workshop door open, and vanished inside.
The moment he entered, lights flickered on of their own accord and illuminated the interior.
"Damn it, I should have cleaned this place up beforehand……!"
It was filthy beyond description, crammed with every conceivable object.
Deathbringer tied the horse at the door and stepped carefully inside, face contorting. Whether the desired item could even be found in this mess was doubtful.
Thud.
Something Meister had carelessly knocked while rushing in finally toppled to the floor. An object that had been balanced precariously on the desk had lost its fight with gravity.
"For the love of—if you can’t find it in five minutes, we’re leaving."
"I remember exactly where it is. There’s just a lot to clear……!"
Ah, how wonderful it must be to have such a fine memory. Deathbringer followed Meister deeper, wondering if there was anything he could help with. At the same time he scooped up the fallen object and set it back on the desk.
Wooong. The thing pulsed with a faint vibration and sparkled in the strangest way. What in the world was something like this even used for?
"Need a hand?"
"Move that pile aside. What’s in the white box is what we need right now."
How many crates had the man stacked? Deathbringer scowled and followed the instructions. Two solidly built adult men made short work of the dozens of boxes; they vanished into the corridor and the desired item finally appeared.
Thankfully it was not as large as he had feared.
"Now let’s g—"
Meister, already turning as though finished, abruptly froze.
"Why is that glowing?"
"What?"
"That! The Meister’s Battery!"
What Meister pointed at was the very “this thing” Deathbringer had just picked up.
"Don’t listen to those words. Sleep a little longer. When you wake again, then……."
"People keep pouring in without end."
"Bemyurhen is a major city, after all."
As a mage he had been able to cast from the safest position, and even during the evacuation he had received priority and fled early.
Yet even if he wished to turn back, reality forbade it. Helping the evacuation was one thing, but a mage’s characteristically pathetic physique was the larger problem.
With a body like this he would only go to a dog’s death. The Archmage gazed with a heavy heart toward the land where the young ones still remained.
The endless procession of evacuees looked like a rolling wave.
"Don’t push! Don’t push! Exit calmly!!"
Fortunately most people followed orders without panic.
She silently admired the lord’s foresight in organizing a civilian security force for the times when the regular army could not move, then checked her magic once more.
The protective barrier raised from the castle gate was insurance for the worst case.
"The water is rising……."
"Everyone spread out! Prepare for mermen!"
Then she felt the waterways filling faster. The soldiers nearby grew correspondingly more urgent.
Redeploying the troops that kept arriving, guiding the formless flood of residents, escorting the wounded to the temple, and preparing for riots or surprise attacks—all of it already fell on their shoulders, and now one more task had been added. There was nothing for it.
"In my heart I would like to raise even one more barrier……."
But regret and reality were separate matters. Her mana had already been spent raising the existing barriers, and whatever recovered would be held for true emergency.
She could not step forward now. The Archmage bowed his head once more under the weight of helplessness.
"So you’re alive."
At that moment someone approached, limping and supported by others. It was Surging Cheongsanho.
Startled, the Archmage helped the young mage lower Cheongsanho into a nearby chair. “Good work. You may go.” The young mage, face flushed with humility, bowed deeply and hurried away.
"Should you already be moving?"
"Of course not."
…No, of course he was not all right. His head was cracked and the magical backlash had left him with severe internal injuries.
The temple’s policy of turning away anyone whose wounds were not immediately fatal—perfectly reasonable, given that the people they were treating now were far worse—meant the care he had received was little more than first aid. That he could open his eyes and walk at all was a miracle.
"Then rest a little……."
"If I could, I would not be here."
"……."
"The children you were looking after?"
"Fighting over there."
"Well, of course they are. Stupid question."
Yet the feeling was not hard to understand. Word had it that Cheongsanho’s own grandson still remained behind as well.
Two old men who had left their precious ones in a place of death twitched their fingers and swallowed the emotions that rose hot in their throats.
Kyaaaaaak!
A tremendous scream slammed into the evacuation line. It had come from not far away.
"Stay calm and keep moving! Trying to rush will only make you leave later—remain composed!"
Soldiers urgently soothed the agitated citizens; some broke into a run toward the rear.
"We should go as well."
"Will you be all right?"
"…I want to see my grandson arrive before I close my eyes."
"That sounds like dying talk. Ban the phrase ‘close my eyes.’"
"That would be the fault of those who mishear it, not mine."
They joined the flow. The soldiers fretted, yet no one could override the will of two Great Sages.
Kyaaaaak!
"Uwaaaaak!"
"Save me!"
"Get clear! This way!"
"All hands, large formation!"
And the place they reached, limping, was filled with a blood-soaked harpy and citizens being slaughtered without resistance.
"A demon……."
They clenched their teeth.
"More are coming."
Despite the sacrifices of the young, the demons’ claws had finally reached the people.
"…It’s over."
One citizen’s cry rang with unnatural clarity in their ears.
"Because the place where you originally belong will welcome you home."