The Day We Confirmed the End
On the day we confirmed the end, the spear plunged into Raksha's chest. The third time. This time, I didn't even hear the sound of it piercing. Just, right before my eyes, his body folded once and flew straight back. The thud of his back slamming into the floor. The splatter of blood bursting. The crack of ribs shattering and curling inward. They all clawed at my mind at once. The center of Raksha's chest was empty. Like the spot where his heart had been was gouged out whole. My breath caught first.
"......Three."
Bell counted off indifferently. I gritted my teeth. I told you not to count with numbers. Clearly.
Raksha didn't so much as twitch. He didn't drop to his knees. He didn't force himself to hold on. He lay sprawled on the red floor. His eyes were closed. His chest didn't rise. Only the blood spread slowly. Recovery surged at my fingertips. Red light flared uncontrollably. I clenched my fist.
"For the third one, you have to watch if your Reinforcement moves first."
"Don't touch him with your Recovery until you feel his heart start beating on its own."
Real madman. ...And I'm the crazier one for letting him keep it up.
"......Raksha."
His name circled only in my mouth. My jaw clenched so tight it felt like it would shatter. Bell said nothing. In the center of the training field, quieter than any battlefield, time stretched endlessly with nothing felt. I could attach it, but I waited. Just watching. Him possibly dying. That fact drove me insane.
That was when it happened. Not from my hand, but from deep inside Raksha, something stirred first. From the hollow center of his chest, scattered flesh and bone gathered inward—faintly, but unmistakably. Reinforcement. Raksha's power seeking his heart on its own. Precariously. Like it could snap any moment.
"......It's good."
The instant I felt it, I reached out. Red light poured into Raksha's chest. Recovery forcibly clung to the spot Reinforcement had barely gathered. Shattered bones meshed together. Flesh filled the empty hole. Over the newly formed heart—once. Twice. A pulsing sensation, dragged in against its will, transmitted to my palm.
"......Ha, damn it."
My breath burst out only then. For a moment, I couldn't tell if it was mine or Raksha's. He survived. Went all the way to the third death, and barely.
Raksha's eyelids trembled only much later. His eyes slowly opened. Blurry focus turned toward me. I hated looking at that face. More than the relief of him being alive, I hated myself for letting it come to this.
"......You survived."
I spoke first. Raksha smiled faintly.
"Yeah."
Every inhale made his chest throb visibly. Yet he checked first.
"The Reinforcement......moved one more time."
"Up to three, confirmed the heart restarting on its own."
Three times. The mouth tallying death in numbers, and me standing here listening. Neither sat right with me.
Bell rose from the edge of the red pit.
"Then, shall we try the final training?"
We'd made only one clone today. But the power packed into that one was archangel-class, he said. Bell himself, smiling as he said it.
"This should be on par with Raphael, or maybe a bit messier."
I couldn't say a word. Because facing an archangel barehanded to beat an archangel had become too natural now.
Bell raised his hand, and the air sank heavily. Barriers lit up one by one over his palm. Thin, but dense. Ten layers stacked thickly. To my eyes, black translucent layers overlapped so much I couldn't tell where one ended and the next began.
"Conditions stay the same."
Bell said.
"Reinforcement only on the heart."
"No weapons."
Bell added with a grin.
"A demon fighting without abilities? Heaven would find it hilarious."
Raksha replied flatly.
"Think of it as a battlefield where abilities don't work."
The sentence drilled into my ears for twenty years. That line again. Still, it wasn't wrong. That's what made me hate it more.
Raksha stepped onto the red floor. Bare body. Blood and scars. Torn and patched flesh and bone scarred across his entire form like branding. Reinforcement clung thinly only to his heart. A bit back, I clenched both fists tight. Hold only the heart. Let the rest shatter. I forced the absurd thought into my head.
Once, I just wanted to stand beside him. Stand on the battlefield together, get splattered in blood together—that was enough. Now, I couldn't even follow his speed with my eyes, just counting this man's deaths. Was this standing beside him, or just picking up the pieces from behind? I couldn't tell.
I missed the moment the first barrier shattered. One second Raksha stepped forward, the next he was in front of the clone, and then the barrier caved inward.
───BOOM!!!
The sound of smashing something thick head-on. Raksha's fist halted, pressing down on the clone's chest. The first layer tore inward.
"......One."
Bell muttered. I ground my teeth at the number again.
The second was with his elbow. As it slammed diagonally, the second barrier burst like shattering glass.
"Two."
The third, his knee. The clone's body twisted—or so it seemed—then I only saw Raksha's knee slicing through the air.
────THUD!!!
The barrier curled inward, shoving the clone back. The third layer scattered.
"Three."
My palms went numb. I'd gripped so hard my nails dug into flesh. Every time Raksha broke a barrier, I knew without seeing that he broke too. My Recovery stayed still. Because I did.
Before the fourth barrier, I finally saw the motion a bit clearer. The clone swung a fist down from the side, and Raksha shoved his arm between it and the barrier. The forearm bone snapped at a bad angle. With that arm, he shoved forward, smashing the fourth barrier. Even as it bent backward, the barrier broke first.
"Four."
The arm was a wreck. Yet he clenched a fist with it again.
'......Please, just stop.' It didn't leave my mouth. Even if I said stop, I'd still follow him here in the end.
Fifth, sixth, seventh. I couldn't see exactly how he broke them. Just, every shatter came with part of Raksha's body flying off too clearly. Headbutting through, wedging with his side, slamming with his waist.
"Five."
"Six."
"Seven."
While Bell counted, I tallied something else inside. Where had he broken now? What angle to reattach? And with each, my helplessness grew bit by bit.
From the eighth, it was pure momentum. Raksha advanced, barrier shattered, his body more broken—that's all that registered.
"Eight."
Raksha's breath grew ragged enough to hear from afar. Inside his chest, the heart I'd just patched throbbed too hard. Reinforcement strangled around it like tangled stitches. At this rate, not sure if Reinforcement would snap first or the heart tear.
Before the ninth barrier, Raksha paused. Only then did I notice Reinforcement seeping through his whole body. The band around just his heart thinly covering everything—for a brief moment.
"......You can stop now."
The words slipped out this time. Raksha spoke without looking back.
"Not yet."
That one word pissed me off most. Not yet. On battlefields or training fields, even with death up to his neck. Raksha always said not yet, and I kept him alive from the side. Unable to let him die, unable to let him truly live.
Raksha charged the ninth barrier. Couldn't see the motion again. Next instant, it tore from inside as half his body flew. Arms, legs, waist twisted in different directions. Traces of taking barrier and attack with his torso alone.
"Nine."
Raksha propped on one arm and rose. That arm wouldn't lift right, one shoulder slumped. Legs shook with every step. Still, he stood. The final layer.
The tenth barrier clung tight to clone Bell's body. Innermost. Thickest shield. Bell smirked.
"Roughly tuned to archangel standard."
Archangel. I bit the inside of my cheek. Tasted blood. Raksha's gaze didn't change. Fixed ahead. The clone raised its fist. Gluttony energy gathered at the tip. Black mass condensed to fist-size. One hit could've erased Raksha's head without surprise. My hand rose on its own. Recovery beaded at my fingertips.
"Raksha—"
Before I could call, Raksha moved first.
Honestly, I didn't see that moment clearly either. Fragments caught my eye. Clone's fist flying at Raksha's face. Tenth barrier swelling thick like a sphere along the path, covering Raksha. And— Raksha stepping forward another half-step. Exactly half a step. With that, he twisted his head, shoving his shoulder between fist and shield.
────KABOOM!!!
Gluttony exploded over his shoulder. The sound alone conveyed bones shattering. Raksha's right shoulder lost form. Flesh caved in, bones curled inward. I held my breath. Head survived. Shoulder died instead. And in that gap. Cracks spread across the entire tenth barrier. From inside out. Raksha's left fist rose. That scene burned strangely clear. Angle stomping the ground. Flow of power rising from waist. Force aligning straight from shoulder through arm to wrist. All at once. To one point. Fist smashed dead center into the crack.
CRACK,───────KABOOOOOM!!!
The tenth barrier burst from within. And behind it, clone Bell's head and upper body exploded too. Gluttony half-compressed inside detonated on Raksha's fist. Black shards. Flesh chunks. Blood. All scattered to pieces at once. The clone, legs and waist left from vanished upper half, staggered once and collapsed. No regeneration. Gluttony had blown out from inside.
Clap.
Bell clapped once from the edge.
"......Ten."
Bell grinned.
"This'll knock an archangel flat."
Sounded like praise, but nothing felt good to my ears. Because it meant Raksha had died countless times to build a body that could kill an archangel.
Raksha pressed his shoulder once. Feeling the whole path of Bell's fist inside mangled, his face twitched faintly with every breath. Inside his chest, the heart I'd patched throbbed roughly still. Only then did I exhale the held breath. Recovery surged from my fingertips. This time, I didn't hold back. Red light enveloped his shoulder, ribs, arm, waist. Shattered bones meshed again. Flesh covered the whitely exposed spots. I didn't make it perfectly smooth. Left scars deliberately. Marks of death visible. So I wouldn't forget.
"Status."
I asked roughly. Raksha inhaled once.
"Fine."
Short words, but clearly thrown at me. Fine. He'd endure to here. Meant to reassure me, which only pissed me off more—but that's why I couldn't let go.
Bell rolled his shoulder once.
"No need for this anymore."
Bell glanced at Raksha.
"That body can face an archangel head-on without a single ability."
I glared at Raksha.
"Never experiment with your life again."
Stepped closer, wanted to grab his collar right then. But ended up just clenching my fist harder in place.
"Today's the end."
The words spat roughly from my mouth. Raksha looked at me briefly. Face as impassive as ever, even after over twenty years of breaking and mending. Then he nodded.
"Yeah."
Words simple as always. I couldn't believe if he really got it, if today truly ended. Wanted to believe, but couldn't.
On the red training floor, blood still cooled slowly. Over that blood, Raksha inhaled once more, and just knowing that breath didn't cut off let me hold on—for a moment, barely.