The Meaning of Protection (6)
The Meaning of Protection (6)
“You persistent bastard...!”
Libra’s rage boiled over.
“You’re still alive?!”
“What, you didn’t know? There’s no way something that pathetic could actually kill me.”
Han Jae-jung let out a scoff as he moved the Flame Nail. He waved it through the air, clearing the acrid smoke from in front of him. His armor gave way, its small fragments pattering down like rain. It looked as though it might collapse right then, but fortunately the form change proceeded as smoothly as ever.
Alioth.
The fifth star of the Big Dipper, wielding the power of flame.
He aimed its signature weapon, the Flame Nail, at Libra and made a forceful declaration.
“I’ve come to take you down.”
Red Vega stared at his back in a daze. Bewilderment, remorse, despair. A mixture of emotions crushed her.
Not only Libra, but a new monster had appeared. What was she supposed to do? She clenched her fist.
Was this the arrival of a new trial, or a solution to the trial?
‘No...’
No. That man had not come to be her enemy. Past her confusion, Red Vega arrived at relief. Why? She couldn’t say. It might be mere speculation. But she believed he had no intention of harming her.
A magical girl feeling relief from a monster—not fear, not a sense of duty. Red Vega didn’t understand why she felt this way.
In the Big Dipper Monster, clad in armor barely holding together, she saw a path leading toward the North Star.
“You? Hmm... Forgive me, but I came here to witness a just sacrifice. I have no reason to entertain your personal whims.”
Libra cupped his chin as he replied to the challenge.
“Citizens tormented by monsters long for heroes. Not for someone wearing the shell of an inscrutable monster like you. A hero is an emotional dumping ground for the public, a vessel for vicarious satisfaction, an idol. A being that fulfills all of those roles. Even heroes themselves wish to live that way. It is, in the truest sense, a structure in which no one loses.”
One radiant sphere after another rose onto one of the scales resting on his shoulder. It didn’t stop at one; there were two, then three, then four.
“I view this as a sacrifice more just than any other. A hero’s life is staked daily on a battlefield as uncertain as a gamble, and no one questions it—everyone accepts it as natural. What a beautiful definition of justice.”
A quantity of light that seemed to tear through the darkening sky, rendering all other gleams as nothing more than the futile struggle of fireflies. That was what rose onto the other scale.
“A minority sacrificed for the happiness and well-being of the majority. Don’t you find that truly beautiful?”
With that, the scales balanced. The amounts on each side were different, but they stood equal.
“Right now, I must witness the beautiful scene of her sacrificing her life to kill a monster and protect the many. Do not interfere.”
Libra’s armor gradually shed its solid form. It blazed as if it had become a mass of light itself. That undulating light carved infinite afterimages into the empty air, flaunting a magnificent golden radiance.
Immense light.
The abductees who had been trembling at the monster’s arrival, Red Vega who had been fighting desperately to protect them, the citizens watching the battle within this barrier—all of them lost their words and stared blankly.
Absolute majesty.
A radiant golden warrior. That form felt steadfast and infused with a power that dared not be trespassed against. The monster had already been terrifyingly strong, yet now he was even stronger. It was a despair so brilliant it was blinding.
However, there was one person—Han Jae-jung—who did not see it that way.
Han Jae-jung observed the light quietly, then let out a dry laugh.
“You’re weaker than before.”
It was feeble compared to the light he had witnessed previously.
“But then, I suppose you wouldn’t just die quietly even if she did land a life-risking blow.”
As he had said earlier, Libra had declared he would allow himself to be killed by Red Vega’s all-or-nothing attack. He must have devised that plan so that the hero’s sacrifice would produce a more dramatic effect.
But given his goal, dying so compliantly was suspicious.
His objective was to search for a just sacrifice that would create the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
If someone sacrificed themselves, various reactions, aftereffects, and consequences would naturally follow. The sum of that cause and effect was meant to yield the answer to what constituted a just sacrifice.
Yet to die without seeing the result? That was too strange.
“A duplicate...? No—you created a remote-operated body.”
Libra possessed six stars.
There was no reason to offer only four stars while employing a pseudo-divinity state. One could argue he deliberately moderated his power, but that would be a far-fetched conclusion. Why would Libra show leniency to an element disrupting his plan?
“....”
“Your silence suggests I’m right. Considering your Transaction ability can create monsters, something like this would be simple enough. Or you might have sought aid from that Gemini bastard or another member of Dilemma... You left one star with your main body and poured the rest into a spare vessel? A clever method indeed.”
In the end, Libra had never intended to die from the start. The plan was to create a fake body, stage its death, and make everyone believe that Red Vega’s noble sacrifice had vanquished the monster.
And then the real Libra would observe the people’s reactions from the shadows, detached and lofty... A sinister scheme.
“A duplicate...?”
“Yes. That bastard was planning to lose to you from the beginning. That thing you were about to use just now—your life-risking attack. He meant for mutual destruction. But his real body is elsewhere. It’s a form of deception.”
“Then... what I’m facing wasn’t even his full power...?”
Red Vega murmured hollowly. She looked pitiful, but he couldn’t afford to focus on her right now.
“Anyway, step aside. That bastard is my enemy.”
Han Jae-jung stretched out one arm, blocking Red Vega’s path. It meant she should withdraw. The treatment was almost humiliating. Red Vega gritted her teeth. Her indignation spurred her to snap back, but she soon closed her mouth again.
He was right: she was utterly pathetic in her current state. She understood why he’d called her pitiful. He’d seen her foolishness in stepping forward without knowing her place, with so little power, and said as much.
But she couldn’t shake a lingering unease. Could she truly leave everything to a monster? Should she really back down like this?
“...You’re right. I am not at full power at the moment. But what of it?”
Libra nodded in assent. At the same time, he clenched his fists tightly.
“This is the same state your defeat once looked upon. What has changed? Nothing has changed. No—there is one thing.”
Light compressed fiercely within his two fists.
“I am canceling the plan. You will both die here.”
Han Jae-jung instantly realized what he intended to do. The technique that had brought him to the brink of death. Gold, coveted by all. That brilliant and majestic starlight, the very essence of it, filled both fists.
“Red Vega, listen carefully.”
He lowered his voice so that only she could hear, gathering light onto the pointed blade of the Flame Nail as well.
“Right now, did you come to defeat a monster, or to save people? Make your choice.”
Flames hot enough to melt steel on contact, that blazing light, gathered upon the sword.
“What will you do? Throw your life to the ground here in reckless bravado? Or save even one more of those poor people over there? Choose.”
The two types of starlight—the skies of two monsters of differing natures—created light as the day darkened, and shook the very earth.
“Right now! At once!!!”
Red Vega moved. So did Libra. So did Han Jae-jung.
Heavenly Scales, Falling Chaos.
A beam of overwhelming destructive power, as though a star from the heavens were crashing down, melted the ground and rushed toward them.
Han Jae-jung raised the Flame Nail toward that beam.
[SET. Falling Starfire Path.]
A star descends wreathed in flame. He fired a blaze of flame with a heat equal to that falling star.
The two lights collided.
At that moment, Red Vega moved at a speed she had never achieved before, reaching the abducted victims and rescuing them.
“It’s useless! With your current power, you cannot overcome this force!!”
Libra’s words were true.
Han Jae-jung was still weak. Though it wasn’t the main body, the vessel resembled it without limit. The sheer might of the pseudo-divinity state was not significantly different from what he had seen before.
Destruction that shook the sky and overturned the earth. That overwhelming power rendered even a star’s flame as frail as a candle in the wind.
But what did that matter?
The armor enfolding his body trembled. So did both his legs, and the hand grasping the Flame Nail. He wrapped his left hand around his right arm, trying to endure somehow, but it was futile. His feet were forced backward, inch by inch.
Red Vega was still in the process of evacuating people. The moment this line broke, everything would turn to foam. The ideal he had pledged to himself, and the meaning of his actions now.
That was why.
“Fine, I’ll admit it. As I am now, I can’t beat you.”
[Falling Starfire Path manifestation successful.]
“So, I will surpass my current self.”
The armor continued to shatter. The falling fragments turned to mere ash and scattered on the wind. Yet he felt no sense of weakening.
On the contrary, he felt only the sensation of gradually growing stronger.
Power surged up within him.
[Replication Rate 99%. Required threshold reached.]
All the Star Power he had collected from hunting monsters until now wrapped around his body.
The ideal and the prayer are clear. The path ahead is also clear.
[THE ORIGIN.]
“Allow me to ask.”
Just before the flames died out, every piece of armor encasing his body shattered and dispersed.
And then—the starlight hidden within wrapped around him anew. His true form, which he had been unable to find because he did not know the way. Seven stars shot out and illuminated the Falling Starfire Path, the trail of flame.
The dying flames gradually intensified.
“What...?!”
It pushed back the brilliant golden beam, continuously expanding its fiery power. The beam and the flames kept devouring each other until, finally, they canceled out at the center. All that remained now were faint particles of light.
Within that cluster of light, the newly defined shape of his armor became clear.
The thick armor had grown lighter. At its center, near the heart, a circle inscribed with the stars’ revolution rotated ceaselessly. The seven stars that had blazed in the fire flew back to him and wrapped around his face. A green helmet formed, with seven horns covering the eyes.
The star’s power did not stop there but ran down to his neck, bursting forth in the form of a cloth. The scarf, fluttering in the shape of the Big Dipper, shone clearly with starlight.
The giant clad in green and red raised a finger and pointed it at Libra.
“Have you ever even seen a star?”