Vestige (24)
The hastily erected earthworks and wooden palisades had long since collapsed.
They were nothing now but rubble under the demons' feet — splintered timber not even fit for kindling.
The world had been painted in shades of ash and dried blood.
A boy, dragging a rifle taller than himself, ran until an arrow buried itself in his back and he crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
He convulsed a few times against the dirt, then lay still.
A middle-aged man who had fought the demons for a long while failed to see the enemies closing around him.
Several spears punched through his body at once, and he collapsed without a sound.
This small city would fall soon.
And I would die with it.
Thinking about waking up again in that cramped little room at the Academy left me with a strange, hollow feeling. From the very beginning, with people who couldn't remember me — who dredged up feelings over events they couldn't even recall — from the very start.
The demons were tightening the noose from every direction.
The corpses of a few demons that had just scaled the wall lay strewn in the middle of the road.
The soldiers who dealt with them wouldn't have lasted long either.
Leaving that scenery behind, Levina and I stood on the balcony of a large mansion at the city's heart.
Inside, the nobles who had chosen to stay were making a racket, as if enjoying their last banquet.
No point in mingling with people who'd given up because they'd lost some land and a few of their own.
We didn't join them. We just stood there, listlessly burning tobacco.
The world seemed to smolder along with the cigarettes.
"You said you wanted to live a little longer."
I broke the silence first.
Levina watched the drifting smoke, then turned her head toward me.
"Did I say that?"
"You did."
"This isn't so bad. Just the two of us."
She smiled faintly.
The expression was so utterly out of place against this despair that it felt uncanny.
"Your mage friends are out there racking their brains, slinging spells. Shouldn't you go help?"
"If I were going to, I'd have gone to the capital. I wouldn't have stayed here."
Levina caught my meaning.
Her eyes were calm.
"They'll go. The ones who said they'd stay to the end — that's them."
A deeper smile spread across Levina's face at my remark.
She stepped closer and gently stroked my cheek.
Her fingertips were still cold.
"Why? Suddenly feel like living?"
Instead of answering, I pulled her into a tight embrace.
I stroked her hair for a long moment.
The fine, soft strands slipped between my fingers.
Then I pressed a light kiss to her forehead.
Just as Levina started to lift her head as if to speak, I caught her by the hair and forced it back down.
And without hesitation, I drove my knee into her solar plexus.
A short, choked gasp burst from Levina's lips.
She collapsed to the floor, struggling for breath.
I looked down at her.
I pulled the wooden staff and dagger from inside her coat.
I shoved Levina's staff and dagger roughly into the clothes I was wearing.
Then, still looking down at her, I drew the revolver from my waist and slid it into the empty sheath where her dagger had been.
Levina was coughing, but she kept twisting her body, still breathing.
Unable to form words, she stared up at me with bewildered eyes.
I thought it was a mercy that the question of why couldn't leave her lips.
Because I didn't want to answer.
I forced her to her feet, then kneed her in the solar plexus one more time.
Kurgh!
I caught her retching body, one arm braced against her back, the other firmly behind her knees.
The way Estelle used to ask me to carry her — the kind of hold a princess might receive.
I moved from the spot and walked toward the plaza beside the spire.
There, the last remaining mages had gathered and were desperately firing off spells.
Bolts of blue and red magic streaked through the air, arcing toward the demons.
They tensed when they first saw me approach, but their expressions eased when they recognized Levina in my arms.
One of them asked,
"Have you come to issue orders, at this late hour...?"
Instead of answering, I set Levina down on the ground.
"We've finished our withdrawal preparations. A few more volleys, and we'll fall back as well."
"Take her."
"I understood that she had chosen to remain."
"Which is why I'm telling you to take her."
I watched a few of them hesitate, then step toward Levina, and I turned my back.
I thought I heard voices calling after me, but I didn't look back.
I walked toward the Church.
After Estelle and the priests had left, those who couldn't be evacuated in time had gathered here.
The dead had been moved to the rear, but the stench of blood still hung in the air.
After all, the place was full of soon-to-be-corpses, still bleeding out on filthy cots, staring at the ceiling.
I watched them for a moment, then pushed open the creaking church door and stepped inside.
The interior was eerily quiet.
Light streaming through the stained glass painted long swaths of color across the nave.
The neat rows of pews, and the dais at the front.
I felt a strange sense of peace.
Every place I'd ever fled to, every place I'd gone to face someone, every place I'd gone to wait — it all seemed to be a church.
Maybe because it was where I met Estelle.
I sat down on the edge of the dais, pulled out the remaining tobacco, and bit down on it.
A match flared. Faint smoke rose and dispersed into the shafts of stained-glass light.
Time passed. The sounds of battle outside drew closer.
Before long, screams and countless footsteps echoed around the church.
A little more time passed.
Right outside the church doors, the death rattles of the wounded who had still been alive filtered through.
Then, a moment later, the old doors burst open as if breaking apart.
Six demons crawled inside.
They cocked their heads at the sight of me, glanced around, and began moving toward me slowly.
Maybe because they'd just been fighting on the front lines, but instead of letting their guard down or relaxing their caution, they regrettably approached with shields and spears leveled at me alone, advancing carefully.
I crushed the cigarette against the floor where I'd been sitting, rose to my feet, and drew Levina's staff.
The instant I hurled a fireball from the staff's tip, they scattered, flinging themselves aside.
Two of them caught fire and began thrashing on the ground, shrieking.
Along with the belated thought that I'd given Levina the revolver for nothing, I drew the dagger.
The remaining four lunged simultaneously, thrusting their blades and spears.
The image of the middle-aged man I'd seen that morning, impaled and dying on a spear, flickered through my mind.
I threw myself to the floor to dodge, then slashed at one demon's ankle with the dagger.
As it lost its balance and toppled over me, I buried the blade deep into its throat.
At the same moment, three or four spearheads punched through the demon's body, aimed at me.
I couldn't tell if they lacked any sense of camaraderie, or if they were so overflowing with it that they'd decided to instantly put their comrade I'd grabbed out of its misery.
Either way, I used the corpse as a meat shield to block the attack, then shoved it aside and stood.
And I lightly slit the throat of the closest one.
Demon blood splashed into my mouth.
Foul, metallic, and disgustingly bitter.
The two remaining demons stood frozen, staring me down, before letting out howls and charging together.
The moment the spear from the right came flying, I snapped my fingers and set its face alight.
The creature's trajectory went wild as it was engulfed in flames, and the spear only grazed my side.
Since I'd been visibly fighting with a staff, they must have assumed I could only cast magic through it. The surprise was plain on their faces.
I drove the dagger into the last one's throat.
The instant the blade sank in, it kicked me away, then turned its back and fled with the knife still lodged in its neck.
I moved to chase it down and finish it, but my foot slipped in a pool of gore.
I barely got up before a corpse tangled my feet and I fell again.
A dry, mirthless laugh escaped me.
I swiped roughly at the blood on my clothes and let out a breath.
I picked up a shield the demons had been carrying and a warped sword.
Neither felt right in my grip.
Not long after, three demons clad head to toe in armor strode through the open church doors.
Honestly, they looked less like demons and more like humans with Down syndrome who'd grown their horns a bit long.
They carried comically oversized hammers and maces.
"That feels a little unfair."
At my words, the demons grinned as if they'd understood.
Still, my body was finally moving the way I wanted it to.
I clapped my palms together, then flicked them outward. Globes of water materialized in front of the three demons' faces.
And within them, fire ignited.
Ssssszzzt!
Scalding steam burst out, blinding them.
I seized the opening and hurled the sword in my hand.
One demon batted it away casually.
The moment it deflected the blade, I flung the spear I'd picked up straight at its face.
The spearhead punched through the helm and the skull beneath it.
The remaining two paid no mind and continued their slow advance.
One of them swung its hammer at me.
I twisted my body, trying to evade, but couldn't get clear.
Crrrack.
I heard my left shoulder shatter.
Ignoring the pain was difficult, but my mind was such a wreck that my body kept moving regardless.
I dropped the shield I was holding, drove the sword into the gap of the helm, and wrenched it.
The demon that had crushed my shoulder shrieked and writhed on the floor for an agonizingly long moment before it died.
And then there was the last one, holding the mace.
It swallowed hard, but still advanced on me.
A strange, blank feeling settled over me as I watched it.
The demon moved toward me, and I ran straight at it.
Somehow, I felt like I could dodge the mace swinging at me by a hair's breadth.
I flung myself forward, slipping past the mace by a margin that left my skin crawling.
Then I seized its wrist and tackled it to the ground with my body weight.
My shattered shoulder was still moving somehow.
Though it didn't help much.
I tried to choke it, but the armor made it impossible to get any grip on its throat.
In the end, I placed my hand on its helm.
I jammed my fingers into the eye slit.
And I detonated a spell inside.
Water, earth, wind, fire — I didn't even know what I was using.
You don't need to sing hymns well in church.
You just need to sing them loudly.
I wasn't sure about the lyrics, but the demon in my arms sang its hymn with great enthusiasm, then left me behind and went off to meet its god.