Chapter 69

“Kanami… Aikawa, Kanami…”

Maria repeated my true name over and over.

As she did, her flames began to weaken. The flame sword flickered, unable to maintain its shape as a blade, and the heat beneath my left hand—the one pinning hers down—started to fade.

I could feel my words reaching her. Furthermore, the magic “Dimension: Overwinter” was stripping away her heat and dampening the confusion dwelling within her body.

“Yeah. I won’t let you suffer anymore, Maria. I won’t let your love end in ‘unrequited tragedy’ either. I’ll belong to you. With that, everything ends…”

I made my declaration without letting down my guard, continuing to cool her body.

Upon hearing this, Maria allowed the flame sword in her hand to dissipate and slowly leaned her weight against me. Buried in my chest, she called out my name with a joyful tone.

“Kanami, Kanami, Kanami…!! Kanami! Your name is Kanami—!!”

I released my grip on her hand and used it to stroke her head. While being pet, Maria looked up at me with moist eyes and cried out. She confessed.

“Kanami, I love you…! I love you so much! I love your kindness, I love how incredibly soft-hearted you are, I love how pathetic you can be, I love how cowardly you are, I love how childish you are… I love you, I love you, I love you! I love every single part of you—!! At last, I’ve finally remembered!!”

Ah, they were so similar. They really were alike…

I had thought so for a long time. Now, I could say it out loud. Maria was just like my sister, Hitaki.

“I love you like family… like an older brother. And of course, I love you as a man, too. So, please… stay with me forever!!”

As she screamed, it felt as though the surrounding temperature spiked. The emotions she vented turned into flames that danced around us. For a moment, I grew wary, wondering if her confusion was increasing again. However, sensing it against my skin, I realized it was a needless worry.

Those weren’t the harmful black flames from before; they were pure red flames of ecstasy. I continued to cool Maria down even as she let those flames out. To put her at ease, I drained away every last bit of heat.

“Yeah, I’m yours, Maria. I promise I won’t leave you alone again. So, please forgive me…”

I pulled her close, pouring all my emotions into a surge of cold air to chill her. Maria accepted it. With an expression I had never seen before, she hugged me tightly.

“Ah… Kanami, you feel so cool and wonderful…”

With those final words, Maria’s flames vanished completely. I felt the heat dwelling within her body fade away as well. Having exhausted the emotions she had been bottling up, Maria whispered in a voice clear of all worry.

“Finally… you’ve finally looked at me… I can feel you right here beside me…”

Those words were everything. All I had to do was look at her properly and stay by her side. Romance, jealousy, flames, and confusion—none of those complicated things mattered. If I just didn’t look away and spoke truthfully, that was enough—

Her status was visibly recovering. My prediction had been correct.

I understood it now. Her emotions had fueled the flames, and the flames had fueled her emotions. Simply suppressing the flames with cold or the emotions with words wouldn’t have worked. Maria could only regain herself by quieting both at the same time.

As I held Maria, I felt a surge of joy at having brought her back without a single scratch.

—However, naturally, there was someone who wasn’t satisfied with this.

A heat source ignited between Maria and me, and a small vortex of flame popped. It forced us apart. Then, the fire remaining in the air spoke.

“Wait, Maria… Do you really believe that? Christ is a man who has done nothing but lie. These are just more empty words. He’s trying to trick you just to settle the situation. He’s taking advantage of your kindness…!!”

Alti was undoubtedly inside Maria. That was why she could only interfere with us through flames. I tried to move closer to extinguish Alti’s fire. Even as I did, Alti continued to scream.

“You can tell with your ‘Eyes,’ can’t you!? If Christ has exposed his true heart, your ‘Eyes’ will work on him! Look! That man will never make you happy! He can’t! Every single one of those heroes is selfish in the end, scattering nothing but misery to everyone around them!!”

Maria shook her head, signaling for me to stop my approach. Her eyes held a firm resolve. I could sense her determination to settle her own affairs. After a moment of hesitation, I stopped and chose to trust her.

“Yes… I can see it with my ‘Eyes.’ But, I believe in Kanami. I want to believe in him…”

“You mustn’t believe him!! I can tell…! I know!! A hero—Christ—never keeps his promises!!”

Alti’s flames roared, trying to warm Maria’s cooled body. She howled amidst the blaze. In response, Maria remained calm.

“Alti… through our synchronization, I felt a little bit of your life. Because of those ‘Eyes,’ you lost everything. You were much more tragic… and much more miserable than me. I understand you’re trying your hardest for my sake because you don’t want me to walk that same path…”

Maria harbored no hatred toward Alti. I could tell from her tone and her gaze.

“But, I want to believe. I can’t trust ‘Christ’ or ‘Master.’ However, I can trust Kanami. So, please let me move forward, just as you once tried to do.”

“No, no, no!! Even if you believe, it will only get harder!! Unreachable feelings will just keep piling up, making you suffer more and more until he finally betrays you!!”

I couldn’t understand what the two of them were talking about at all. Because I had spent my time running away, I knew nothing of their relationship. But I could tell they were discussing something deeply important to them. That was why I didn’t say a word.

“No, we don’t know that. Not yet. Because Alti and I are different people. It won’t necessarily end the same way.”

“It will! It’s bound to be the same! It’ll be exactly the same! Because, Maria, you’re the same as me—”

“No. I had you, Alti. But in your life, there was no one like you. That is a massive difference.”

Maria spoke slowly, her words filled with gratitude toward Alti.

“……!!”

Alti faltered for a moment upon hearing that. However, she quickly regained her momentum, and her flames surged violently as she screamed.

“Someone like me isn’t enough of a difference! I can tell! I know it in my soul! That’s how it was for me! The ‘Eyes’ tell me you’ll never be happy! So—!!”

“Alti, thank you. I’m going to take a different path. And I’ve figured out how to do it. Yes… I failed because I could see with these ‘Eyes’…”

With those words, Maria moved her hands toward her head.

“With this, no one will know what lies ahead—”

She then plunged her fingers into both of her eyes.

“A-Aaah! Aaaaaahhh, Maria—!!”

I moved to stop her, but I was halted by Alti’s agonized cry. Right now, Maria was gouging out her own eyes of her own free will, without being controlled by anyone. I could tell from Alti’s voice that this was the outcome she found most unbearable.

Trusting Maria’s will and resolve, I stayed my ground and watched.

“Ngh—ugh, aaaaaahhh—!”

Enduring the excruciating pain, Maria pulled her eyes out as she scorched them. Then, she immediately used her flames to incinerate the eyes into ash.

“Ah, Maria! How could you… how could you do such a thing—!!”

Alti screamed as if she were weeping. To her, Maria replied in a gentle voice.

“Now, you and I aren’t the same anymore… I won’t be misled by these ‘Eyes’ ever again. For my own sake, I will believe in Kanami. Alti, please… let me believe that this won’t end as an ‘unrequited tragedy’…”

“Ah… aaaaahhhh…”

Alti lamented and sobbed, her flames trembling. The fire began to leak out of Maria, crawling out like thick, molten liquid. As it gathered, it solidified and took on a human shape.

It took the form of a young girl.

The girl made of flames—Alti—pressed her hands against the ground and muttered.

“Ah… the last of our affinity has crumbled… We can’t be together anymore. I… I’m alone again…”

I could no longer feel any strength in Alti’s flames.

Looking closely, the surrounding flames were also beginning to weaken.

Alti’s heart was on the verge of breaking, and in response, the fire on the battlefield was dying down. Just like Maria’s, Alti’s flames were tied directly to her emotions. There was no doubt that the exchange just now had been the deciding factor.

Alti flickered like a candle flame just before it burns out, then weakly pulled herself to her feet. The haughty aura she once possessed was gone. She looked toward me with eyes that resembled those of a child her age.

“Alti, are you still going to fight…?”

Believing the battle was over, I asked for confirmation. Alti was a magic specialist who had lost her shield, Maria; she had no chance of victory.

“Yeah, I’m going to do it…”

However, Alti suppressed her weakness and replied with the same arrogant tone as before. It was a hollow front. It was obvious she lacked the power to back it up. By now, she was already—

“True, Maria’s ‘unrequited tragedy’—no, her ‘love’—might have been fulfilled… But my own ‘unrequited tragedy’ has yet to be realized. There is still a reason to fight…”

Alti continued to bluff. She formed a flame sword in her hand and maintained a faint smirk as she walked toward me, her words continuing to flow. She reminded me of an insolent criminal heading toward the guillotine.

“‘When humans and monsters meet, they kill each other. That is the unwritten law of this world,’ huh… Haha, Teida’s personal rules hit upon the truth every once in a while…”

Yet the flames on her body and her flame sword looked as if they might vanish at any moment.

“You…”

I had no intention of forgiving Alti. I picked up my fallen sword and took a stance, ready to intercept her at any time.

However, after hearing Alti’s cry of anguish and seeing Maria return to her senses, it was true that the anger within me was beginning to subside. Having finished that maddening exchange of confessions, my brain was regaining its composure and suggested the possibility of a reconciliation with Alti.

“Shut up…!! More than anything, I absolutely hate people like Christ!! Die! Heroes should just go extinct—!!”

That possibility was instantly snuffed out by Alti’s grudge-filled scream. She kicked off the ground, closed the distance, and swung her flame sword horizontally. I caught the blow with the flat of my blade.

It was light. Both her physical strength and her flames were light.

“Alti, enough—”

She had no strength left. She was on the verge of disappearing, like the final flicker of a candle. Even considering that she had layered grand magic, endured my cold air, and been rejected by Maria, this lack of power was abnormal.

Only one explanation came to mind.

—The method to kill a Guardian without fighting.

A Guardian loses their power and eventually vanishes once their ‘lingering regrets’ are gone. Alti was losing her regrets. I couldn’t think of any other reason.

Was it because she had been parasitizing Maria and felt Maria’s goal being achieved firsthand? Did she feel a fragment of the ‘fulfillment of an unrequited tragedy’?

No, that wasn’t it. While that might have been a factor… I instinctively felt that wasn’t the answer. Alti was about to disappear because some other ‘lingering regret’ had been resolved.

It was likely something only Alti herself understood—the one regret she probably didn’t want to acknowledge the most.

That was why Alti screamed.

“Not yet—! I still have ‘lingering regrets’! I can still do this!!”

Perhaps sensing my thoughts from my expression, Alti desperately insisted that she still had reasons to stay. She vented flames and swung her sword as she shouted. To my eyes, she looked like she was simply trying to burn away the very last of her remaining strength.

Gradually, I found myself unable to fully parry her desperate blade. Even if Alti was about to fade away, I was also on the brink of death myself.

—As a result, unable to hold back, I delivered a glancing slash across Alti’s body.

Even then, Alti didn’t stop. Her flame sword almost reached my neck, and in a reflex, I severed her arm.

Alti’s slender arm danced through the air, and red blood painted the ground. The severed arm vanished into flames, and the red blood caused flowers of fire to bloom on the floor.

It was unbearably beautiful, and unbearably sickening. The fact that I had cut off Alti’s arm. The sensation of it. All of it was revolting.

In contrast, Alti laughed. She muttered with a face that looked satisfied, forming a new flame sword in her remaining hand.

“Ah, ‘blood and flesh are burning’… ‘Adding the oil of blood, the physical body blazes’… But it doesn’t matter. Because ‘man does not live by the flesh, but by the flame ignited in the heart’… As long as the ‘purgatory burning in the soul’ does not vanish, I will not stop…”

Alti ‘chanted’ while spitting up blood, lunging at me. No, it wasn’t blood she was spitting. Alti was fighting while whittling away at the flames—at her very self.

I was slightly overwhelmed by her sheer intensity. Her death-defying resolve made my own sword hesitate.

However, even so, Alti’s sword did not reach me. Her final strike was blocked by a flame sword that had intervened—Maria’s. The two flame swords tangled, melted into one another, and vanished.

“I’m sorry, Alti—”

“Ma… Maria—”

Alti called her name back sadly—and then, her expression shifted rapidly. A tapestry of various emotions—sadness, joy, frustration, and satisfaction—played across her face until she finally stepped back.

She put some distance between us, looked down, and whispered.

“I lost…”

Alti muttered.

“It’s my loss… Congratulations, Christ. No—Kanami Aikawa. With this, the 10th-floor ‘Trial’ is over…”

She declared the end.

Alti’s torso was nearly torn apart, she had lost an arm, and her flames and mana were all but depleted. To anyone watching, the victor was clear. Alti herself acknowledged it.

However, her demure acceptance of defeat was short-lived. A faint smirk quickly returned to her face as she glared at me defiantly.

“But I didn’t lose to you. I lost to Maria. Don’t go getting that mixed up.”

As she spoke, Alti looked at Maria and smiled. Then, as Maria and I watched, Alti thrust her fingers into her own eyes.

“Hey, Alti! What are you—”

“Normally, the victor is granted a magic stone. But not this time. Sorry, Kanami. This is the one thing I won’t hand over.”

Still smiling, Alti gouged out both eyes, brushing off my concern with an irrelevant answer. The eyes she removed vanished into flames, just as Maria’s had. Alti had become ‘the same’ as Maria.

Seeing this, Maria seemed to sense something and stepped forward with a solemn expression. I felt a sense of danger and tried to stop her, but she signaled me to stay back.

With a grave look, Maria approached Alti. With a similar expression, Alti moved toward Maria. They joined hands, pressed their foreheads together, and bid each other a final farewell.

“Now, we’re the same. —Take me with you, Maria.”

“Of course. You are my ‘best friend,’ Alti—”

I didn’t know what kind of history existed between the two of them. To me, Alti was nothing more than a monster who had driven Maria to madness. Yet, Maria called her a ‘best friend.’ For some reason, that realization caused a sharp, stinging pain somewhere in my heart.

If things were as they should be, that role surely belonged to—

Alti could no longer maintain even her head in a solid form. She turned to offer her final words to me.

“Kanami. Don’t you dare bully Maria. I’ll be watching.”

I couldn’t say anything back. I didn’t know Alti well enough to have a retort. I hadn’t tried to know her. It was as simple as that.

Seeing my silence, Alti let out a sigh. However, she looked somewhat satisfied. She didn’t say anything more.

Alti looked up at the sky with a look of contentment. The sky had turned overcast, filled with a massive amount of flame and smoke. Yet, Alti gazed up at that grey expanse as if it were dazzling. Gradually, her flames began to convert into light.

“Ah, this is the worst… but I think I finally got to say what I wanted to say this time. That… is… enough…”

Muttering to no one in particular, Alti spoke to the sky. Her entire being was turning into light, and her words were fading into a rasp.

“I… real-ly… tried… my best…”

With those fragmented words, Alti vanished. As she disappeared, a single magic stone fell into Maria’s hand. However, it quickly lost its shape, turning into a small flame that was absorbed into Maria’s body.

The ‘Display’ flashed across my retina, confirming that the monster named Alti had truly died.

With Alti—the master of the flames—gone, the fire surrounding us began to weaken. Simultaneously, it started to rain. As if trying to erase the existence of this fiery space, rain began to fall from the cloudy sky.

“R-rain…”

The fires catching on the houses were extinguished, and the temperature began to drop, which was convenient for me. However, if the flames vanished all at once, the Wald guards and others who couldn’t get close because of the heat would likely begin to approach.

I hurried over to Maria and spoke to her.

“Are you all right, Maria? Your eyes…”

“No, I can see as long as there are flames. More importantly, Kanami, you look…”

Maria cupped her palms to create a space, birthing a small flame within it. I didn’t know when she had learned it, but it was likely the same ability Alti had. It seemed she could pick up information about her surroundings through it.

“I’m fine. More importantly, we’re leaving. Once the fire is gone, people will come flocking here.”

To be honest, if I let my guard down for a second, I felt like I would lose consciousness. But I couldn’t allow that to happen here. I couldn’t pass out until we left Wald and secured our safety. If possible, I wanted to regroup with Lastiara and the others today.

Once we met up, there would be nothing left to fear. Then everyone would be back to the way they were. A lot had happened, but I had brought Maria back. With this, once again—

As Maria and I whipped our collapsing bodies into motion to start walking—

—I heard the sound of clapping.

A chill ran down my spine, as if a cold hand had traced its way up my back. I had experienced this sequence, this applause, many times before. The moment a situation settled and my guard dropped, I would realize someone had managed to close the distance. The usual pattern—

The clapping came from a corner where the flames had weakened. From the other side of the fire, a single man walked toward us.

“Congratulations, big brother Christ. No, I suppose it’s Kanami Aikawa now.”

Appearing while happily clapping his hands was Palinchron. It was Palinchron Legacy.

“—Palinchron! Why are you here!?”

I cried out in shock. I thought he was chasing after Lastiara and the others. Yet, Palinchron had appeared as if he had been waiting for the perfect timing.

“Things wrapped up quickly on my end. A few things happened that killed the mood, so I decided to come over here.”

Wrapped up…? Did that mean Lastiara’s group had lost to Palinchron?

In terms of pure strength, that was impossible. Even with injuries, every one of them was superior to Palinchron. Above all, Palinchron had a look of dissatisfaction on his face. It seemed something unexpected had happened and things didn’t go according to plan, which was why he had returned here so early.

Palinchron looked at his blood-stained sword, seemingly remembering something. He looked disgusted…

I immediately began running through escape routes in my head. To be honest, I didn’t feel like I would lose in a one-on-one fight. If I could just whittle down a bit more of his Max HP, I should be able to win without a scratch, just like with the other ‘Celestial Knights.’

—However, I didn’t want to fight him.

Don’t fight this man.

My instincts were screaming it at me. If we were to run, the only way was the opposite direction of Palinchron. But that was the direction of Huzya. Moreover, since Maria’s speed was lower than Palinchron’s, he would easily catch us if we just tried to flee.

I desperately racked my brain while ‘Focusing’ on Palinchron’s every movement. In response, Palinchron made a declaration with a relaxed expression.

“Congratulations, Kanami. But not quite yet. The ‘Trial’ isn’t over. Right, I think I’ll borrow a certain opening line.”

The trial isn’t over? An opening line?

A shudder ran down my back. At the same time, I had the illusion that the rain falling from the sky looked black—

“It starts now. From this moment, this Allied Nation is the 20th Floor. The floor of Teida, ‘The One Who Steals the Dark Principle.’ I apologize for the makeshift nature of this business trip, but please consider these countries to be the 20th floor of the Labyrinth. Now then, shall we begin the ‘20th Trial’?”

Palinchron leveled his blood-stained sword, showing his clear intent to fight.