Only I Could Pull This Off (1)

A memory played through my head, vivid as footage.

Iris and I ranging the ruined city together, hunting for survivors. The people we did find — bodies too broken to fight, or hollow wrecks who had already lost the will — and her grieving while I watched from her side. Me laying into every thug who came at us, utterly one-sided. And at the last of it, the two of us trading watches until the day was spent.

When I opened my eyes, I was in Iris's Secret Outpost again. By feel, not even a few hours had passed. By the scenario's clock, a full day had.

This sensation is never going to get familiar.

Skip a game's cutscene and that is the end of it. A scenario's flow of time writes everything that happened in the gap straight into your head — yesterday, for instance, when Iris nearly caught her foot on rubble in the street, and the way she scalded her tongue gulping soup, tangled her pronunciation, and flushed with embarrassment.

"Haaahm~ Good morning..."

"Yes. Your pronunciation is nice and clear today?"

"Ugh! Th-that's..."

She ducked her head.

Turning yesterday's memories over, I knew that searching any further for someone willing to fight beside us was pointless. The late teens, the ones with the most strength left to spare, had all died in the first descent, and what fighting power remained had been killed or maimed in the second. The few still in possession of all four limbs were currently savoring a world stripped of law and order to the absolute fullest — which is to say, they had become bandits. And the very small number who were both physically intact and not committing crimes already had the trauma of two calamities driven so deep into their souls that standing to fight was beyond them. Mention the subject, and they fainted on the spot.

"Iris."

"Yes."

"We should stop looking for people."

"Ah..."

She didn't look nearly as surprised as I had expected. She must have known it herself, deep down — that wandering any longer in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠search of allies was meaningless.

The third descent is tomorrow.

I couldn't spend the one day we had left on some cozy little apocalypse date. It was the only time to prepare a way to stand against this scenario's boss.

"Instead, please tell me about that thing."

From the memories written into my head, a line of hers came back. Through two descents and two defeats, she had come into information of her own.

"I will fight it alone."

"You mustn't...!"

"So please tell me everything you know. Whatever will raise the chance of beating that thing by even one percent."

"..."

The corners of Iris's eyes brimmed. She didn't cry. She held it down, rose to her feet, and answered.

"...All right. I'll tell you. Every piece of information the royal army's full strength bought by throwing their lives away!"

Perhaps because I had cleaned up every thug on the first day so thoroughly that none remained to cause trouble later, the second day brought no special event. It seemed only the information on the giant had been written into my head before the rest was skipped.

Important scenes can't be skipped, so I'm playing this one myself.

The sun had already gone down, and the Milky Way, packed tight across the night sky, shone bright. Iris, seated right beside me, let out a breath of wonder.

"The night sky over the Ruined Royal Capital is beautiful no matter when you look at it. It used to be one of the kingdom's prides."

"It certainly is beautiful."

At least it was a sky you would never see in Seoul.

"They said a clear, wide sky was a gift the gods bestowed on a benevolent king. After the world ended up like this, seeing something like that just makes it sound like nonsense!"

She had learned to thread humor through her words.

"It might not be complete nonsense. If some member of the royal family is still alive somewhere, then in this age that person is the king. And if they are out there, struggling desperately to protect the world, it makes sense that the gods would keep granting a sky like this."

Iris pressed her lips shut. Then she smiled, just a little bitter.

"...Maybe so."

She had a real gift for speaking. Thanks to that, the information on the boss had been set down in my head in considerable detail.

Asking her really was the right call.

A scenario I had never once played. Whatever would appear as the boss was very likely something I had never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fought, and in fact it was an entirely new kind of enemy. The difference between having information beforehand and having none was stark.

Its shape matches the records. It takes the form of a giant... but.

That was only the basic form. You wouldn't call a golden retriever a cat just because cats and dogs are built along similar lines. Pressed on what the "giant" actually looked like...

The things from the Outside.

It resembled the monsters that appear in dimensions where the Channel's influence thins. When I saw the rough likeness in the illustrations especially, I couldn't hold the chill down.

That giant is definitely tied to the Outside.

The inscrutable quest that had come to me — Return to Challenger. And a giant that resembled the beings of the Outside. All of it had to be connected as one.

"...Jaeha?"

While I was still following the thought, Iris leaned her head toward me.

"Are you all right? You've been so quiet..."

"Ah, I'm sorry. I was thinking about tomorrow's battle."

"Of course your heart couldn't be at ease with something like this ahead. I ought to be the one setting you at ease..."

Hearing that from Iris was almost funny. She was the one shaking hardest of all. Even now her fingertips trembled enough to see.

Well. Of course she's afraid.

I knew how she felt. Enduring day after day in a world already scheduled to end. It was less, in the end, than you would think... and more horrific than you would ever expect.

"I'll fight alongside you."

"There's no need. My attacks cover a wide area. If you were caught in them, I might not be able to fight properly."

"Then I'll make sure I help some other way. Without becoming a burden!"

"I won't stop you from doing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that much."

The firewood popped, and the campfire burned low and steady. The night before the decisive battle. For me, a boss fight inside a game. For Iris, the last fight, with the end of the world at stake.

"Let's sleep early tonight. For tomorrow's sake, if nothing else."

"...I..."

I was just damping the embers and making ready for bed when Iris drew her knees into her arms and said it, almost flat.

"I'm glad I met you at the end, Jaeha."

"..."

"When you came to save me... you seemed like hope the heavens had sent."

Mana users were rare in this scenario's world. A superhuman who possessed mana was reckoned as the fighting strength of nearly a thousand people. The reason Iris meant to stand against the giant with only the two of us was that she had seen a small hope in the fact that I could use mana.

She couldn't save even a single person, and then I — a mana user — said I would stand with her.

It wouldn't be strange if, to Iris, I felt like an army of thousands.

"Thank you. For coming to me."

A smile bright as starlight. Somehow that smile — that voice — was not unfamiliar.

What do they call this... déjà vu?

I wasn't sure, but a short laugh escaped me.

"If you're truly that grateful, then once everything is over, do see that I'm handsomely rewarded."

"A reward?"

"I just have a feeling that if anyone could, it would be you, Iris."

"Wh-what is that supposed to mean?!"

"I'll be sleeping first~."

"Please wait! Jaeha! What does that mean!"

I dropped onto the bedding and shut my eyes.

As expected, the second day was over. All that remained was the final day.

The day appointed for the giant's final descent. The day of ruin.

I hadn't thought I would be living through another day of ruin again quite so soon.

"Nnh— hah."

I stretched lightly and loosened up. The appointed hour of ruin was exactly noon. In about ten minutes, it would descend upon the very ground under my feet — the place ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠where the kingdom's castle had once stood.

"It's... about to begin."

Iris came to stand beside me, her face drawn tight with nerves.

"You need to get going. Run at full speed from here, and you'll just barely reach a place where you won't get caught up in it."

"But... leaving you to fight alone..."

"If you get hurt or die doing that, you'll only be a burden. So please go."

If she dies, it's a failed clear even if I take the boss.

When I said it sternly, her shoulders sagged.

"All right... But this. One last thing."

"This?"

"I told you. That I would help, no matter how."

Iris gathered her hands before her chest and took the posture of prayer. Golden light drew in around her, little by little.

Shaaaa—

A bright energy seeped into my body.

For an instant my eyes went wide as lamps.

An S-rank buff?

I hurriedly checked the buff window.

An absurd buff, at an absurd level. When I stared blankly at Iris, she drew her shoulders back with pride.

"Hehe. I have a talent or two of my own, you know."

"...Why haven't you used it until now?"

"Well... to use it even once, I have to gather mana for a long time... half a year, at the least..."

She laughed, awkward, and turned her gaze aside. In short, she had bet half a year's gathered mana on me. The corner of my mouth lifted on its own.

"Take something like this and still fail to win, and I'd be an idiot."

I hadn't intended to lose in the first place. This only made it certain.

I was going to win.

"Please... come back alive. Let's meet again, Jaeha."

"Don't worry. Just watch from far away."

Eyes dripping with reluctance, unable to look away from me until the very last, Iris slipped out of the space.

"You're all laying it on awfully thick. I know perfectly well every one of you is better-looking than I am, even while you talk like that."

"Heh heh heh."

I glanced over the chat and settled my hammer on my shoulder. Then the last of the time ran out.

KRRRRRUMBLE!

The world shuddered, and a black fissure split the sky.

"...!"

A phenomenon much like what I had seen just before the apocalypse, before my regression. The scale was far smaller.

Krr— krr— krr— krr—!

From inside the fissure, a black hand showed itself. Hundreds of black tentacles snarled together into something like a human outline. A dozen-odd eyes clung to the body, and it leaked a grotesque voice no words could shape.

The boss monster of Princess of Ruin.

The hideous monster tore free of the fissure completely.

Krr— krr— krr—!

A being that had vaporized the kingdom across two descents, come now to erase the world entirely.

"Everyone, please don't look away from here on."

I popped a piece of candy into my mouth and bit down.

Crunch!

A brisk sensation, waking the body.

"The first-ever clear stream of the Princess of Ruin scenario begins now!"

One apocalypse is enough.

That was my verdict.