The Birth of Akra Minus
Rai narrowed his eyes.
"Uh... ah..."
Following the light, he took a few more steps forward.
And there, it stood.
A girl, motionless in perfect silence.
Thud.
Rai's footsteps stopped dead.
"......"
No words came out.
The girl wore her snow-white hair long, letting it spill down past her waist. In the windless alley, it swayed slowly, rippling like water.
Skin white as porcelain. A dress of pure white. And around her, a faint shimmer of blue current drifting through the air.
But above all of that—
A massive blue magic circle floated above her head, its rings upon rings of circular bands rotating in different directions, carved densely with characters and sigils Rai couldn't begin to comprehend.
And then, her eyes.
They were blue—but not an ordinary blue. Her irises seemed layered with countless overlapping geometric patterns, as if someone had trapped an enormous kaleidoscope inside them.
Those eyes were looking straight at Rai.
"......"
His body went rigid. A primal revulsion rose in his throat. The thing before him clearly wore the shape of a person, yet his instincts were screaming a single, relentless warning.
(That thing... is not human.)
In all his life, he had never once seen a being like this. It was alien. So profoundly alien that Rai's throat went bone dry.
Still, he forced himself to sound calm.
"You're... you're a Visitor, right...?"
The girl gave no answer. She simply gazed at his face in silence, those kaleidoscopic blue eyes seeming to see straight through him.
After a long moment, she spoke.
"Demand."
"......"
"I demand a choice."
Rai's eyebrows lifted slightly.
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"I demand a choice."
"A choice for what, exactly?"
The girl fell silent for a moment. Then, in a perfectly flat voice, she said:
"Will you become the savior of this world?"
"......"
Rai's expression hardened.
"Savior?"
"......"
"Where did that come from all of a sudden?"
He stared at her, dumbfounded.
"No, hold on a second."
Rai scratched his head.
"I just came in here because something fell from the sky, okay? That's all."
The girl said nothing.
"And then I walk in and there's some weird lady standing here, and..." He glanced up at the magic circle hovering over her head. "...You are a person, right?"
"......"
"No, forget it."
Rai let out a long sigh.
"Savior my ass."
He turned his back on her.
"Go scare somebody else."
The moment he moved to leave the alley—
"My name is—"
The girl's voice rang out. Rai stopped walking.
"......?"
He turned back slowly. She was still standing in the same spot, utterly still.
"La Place."
"......"
"That is my name."
Rai's eyes narrowed.
"...Now, all of a sudden?"
La Place continued, her face expressionless.
"I am the Mediator of this world."
"......"
Rai made a face.
(Seriously? Now you decide to introduce yourself?)
Seconds ago she'd been demanding he become a savior, and now she was offering up her name like a business card. None of it made a shred of sense to him.
"...Right. Noted."
He answered vaguely, but only one thought occupied his mind.
(Is she just some kid with a few screws loose?)
That was the moment.
KUUUUUUM—!!
"......!"
The entire city shuddered. Rai staggered.
"Wh... what the hell?"
CRASH—!!
Glass shattered somewhere in the distance. Building walls trembled, and the small stones piled along the gutter bounced into the air.
Swoosh.
Instinct made Rai tilt his head back toward the sky.
And then...
"What... is that."
A colossal fissure had opened in the heavens.
SCREEEEEEECH—!!
The sky was tearing apart. From a black void at its center, blue cracks spidered outward in every direction, like some great door wrenching the world itself open as it swung wide.
"A Gate...?"
Rai murmured, dazed. But this was on an entirely different level from any Gate he had ever seen. The scale was different. The presence was different. That one fissure alone seemed to press the whole city flat beneath it.
And then, something moved on the other side.
KUGUGUGUGUGU—!!
"......!"
Rai swallowed hard.
WHOOOOOSH...!!
A black shadow emerged.
At first it looked like a mere speck. But it grew. And grew. When it finally shouldered its way out of the Gate, its size defied imagination—a face larger than any building, a black body with no end in sight, eyes burning crimson.
A monstrous beast so vast it blotted out the city's sky.
"......"
Rai's mouth hung open.
"What... the hell is that..."
The monster slowly pushed itself fully into the world. And then—
KUUUUM!!
The city rocked again. The mere impact of the beast touching ground sent the surrounding buildings crumbling.
KWAAAANG!!
"GYAAAAAH!!"
Screams erupted from every direction. Cars flipped over. Building facades sheared away and fell. The asphalt split down its seams.
"KYAAAAAAAK—!!!"
"RUN—!!!"
"A m— MONSTER!!!"
In the span of a breath, the city dissolved into chaos.
Rai's face drained of all color.
"...This is insane."
La Place said nothing, simply gazing up at the sky. Rai wheeled around on her.
"HEY—!!"
Her kaleidoscope eyes slid toward him.
"We have to get out of here, NOW!!"
TWACK—!!
He grabbed her wrist.
"Come on!"
La Place offered no resistance, and Rai hauled her out of the alley at a dead run. But in that instant, far away, the monster turned its head.
KUGUGUGUGU—!!
Those crimson eyes locked onto the two of them as they fled. And then—
"......!"
Its mouth opened.
"GRUUUUUUUAAAAAAH—!!"
The roar detonated across the city. It wasn't merely sound. It was a shockwave—a physical wall of pressure.
KWAAAAAANG!!
Entire buildings swayed. Every window in sight shattered at once. Streetlights bent like stalks of wheat. Cars went skidding airborne across the road.
And the shockwave crossed the distance and slammed into Rai head-on.
"SHIIIIIIIT—!!!"
BAM!!
His body was hurled through the air like a rag doll.
"Ghkk... hghk...!!"
TUDUDUDUDUDUDU KUM—!!
He rolled across the pavement again and again before finally crashing down into a heap of collapsed rubble.
"Ugh... ughh...!"
His skull felt like it was splitting open. Every inch of him throbbed. Blood trickled warm down his face.
Rai lifted his head with a groan.
"Hey... you okay...?"
No answer.
"Where'd you go...?"
He forced his eyes to scan the wreckage around him.
And there she was.
La Place stood a few meters in front of him. Completely untouched. Not a speck of dust on her clothes, not a strand of hair out of place.
Rai gaped at her.
"...The hell?"
Then.
KUUUUM......!!
Another massive tremor rolled through the streets. Rai looked up slowly. The monster was advancing. Every time one of its colossal feet came down on the road, the earth itself quaked.
"Why..."
He clenched his teeth.
"Why does it have to come HERE...!"
He dragged his bloodied body upright. He had to run. If he stayed here, he was going to die.
But in that moment—
"Somebody..."
A small voice drifted from somewhere nearby. Rai froze.
"......"
"Somebody... please help me...!!"
He turned his head.
A girl lay collapsed among the rubble of a ruined building.
Her leg was injured—she couldn't get up. Her eyes brimmed with tears.
"Help... me... please..."
Rai's expression hardened.
"...Damn it."
He should run. He should be running already, right now. But his body was already moving.
"Hold on—!!"
He sprinted toward her.
"I'm coming!"
One step. Two steps. And then—
KUUUUUUU...!!
A vast shadow fell over Rai's head.
"......"
He stopped. Raised his eyes slowly.
There was no sky to be seen. Only an arm—the monster's arm, stretched out to a grotesque, impossible length—and it was aimed with perfect precision at Rai and the girl.
"Oh, mother..."
There was no dodging it. His body froze solid. The moment that thing came down, both of them—the girl before him, and himself—would be erased without a trace.
And then...
Swoosh.
His gaze slid sideways.
La Place was there. She was looking at him. And she slowly extended one hand, blue light blooming from her fingertips.
"Will you become the savior?"
Rai's eyes wavered.
"......"
There was no room in this moment for a choice like that. He gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached.
"Savior, no savior—!"
He screamed until his throat tore.
"If it's the power to walk out of here ALIVE—!!"
La Place's blue eyes flared bright.
"THEN HURRY UP AND GIVE IT TO ME—!!"
In that instant—
KUUUUUUUUUUNG!!
An overwhelming torrent of blue light erupted from La Place's body. In the blink of an eye, it swallowed the entire city. The sky. The buildings. The streets. Everything drowned in blue.
And then—
KWAAAAAANG!!
The monster's colossal arm, seconds from crushing Rai and the girl beneath it, shattered into fragments in a single instant.
TUDUDUDUDUDU—!!
Black shards scattered into the empty air, and the monster bellowed in agony.
"GYAAAAAAAAAH!!"
Rai watched, unable to utter a single word. He could only stare at La Place in a daze.
And then... the girl who had lain trapped in the rubble slowly lifted her head.
Someone was standing before her.
Black armor. An enormous frame. A body jet-black as the void, a massive sword held in one hand.
A figure standing between her and the monster—shielding her.
A giant black knight.
The girl's breath caught.
"......"
The black knight said nothing. It simply raised its sword, slowly and deliberately.
And in that moment, La Place's voice echoed softly in Rai's ear.
"The choice has been made."
Rai turned to look at her. Her kaleidoscopic eyes were glowing.
"As the Mediator of this world—"
"......"
"I choose you."
And so, on that day—from a single careless word Rai spat out—
the story that would rewrite the fate of the world began.
Clank.
The black knight. No—Rai opened his mouth.
"THAT IS THE MOST BADASS THING I HAVE EVER SEEEEEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIIIIIIIFE—!!!!"