Chapter 5

Rovinz’s shadow continued gliding above Van and the others while its wingbeats echoed. It had no words and no expression. It was merely a slaughter puppet moving according to orders. Since it had no emotions, its movements were hard to read, making it feel eerie.

“To use the dead in such a manner… it is blasphemy.”

“This must be that spirit’s doing too.”

Ciel was angry, and Selen openly showed disgust. Pariaach’s way of thinking—using anything usable—could be seen clearly.

“Then let’s end this quickly. He’s an enemy, but this guy’s already dead, right?”

“…Yes. We have to move forward too.”

Van wrapped his sword in flames, and Atri gathered mana into her staff. Selen took one step back, and Ciel moved to the very rear. Their usual formation. Van and the others had fought like this many times before.

“—It seems his target is me.”

Luke moved to a position away from Van and the others. Rovinz changed direction in accordance with Luke’s movement. Its behavior seemed to say that Luke was its target.

“Before he died, he held strong emotions toward me. It’s only a possibility, but… that may be related.”

When Rovinz saw Luke ready his sword, the killing intent it emitted grew even stronger.

“Hey, hey, are you planning to stay behind too? And alone, at that…”

“Judging from the situation, that seems better.”

There was no doubt that fighting with more people would be advantageous. But if they wasted time here, the meaning of Glanz’s choice would fade.

“Everyone, go on ahead. I will handle Rovinz. No, I have to handle him.”

“Luke-san…”

“It looks like you’ve made up your mind. Then I won’t say anything.”

A strong will. They felt his determination that he absolutely could not back down. —Then Van and the others had only one answer.

“We’re leaving it to you, Luke. …We’ll be waiting ahead.”

“…Do your best, Blondie.”

“Luke-san. Please do not push yourself too hard.”

“He’ll be fine if it’s Luke. He’s someone that man acknowledges, after all.”

Luke nodded to their words.

Van and the others continued onward. Rovinz paid them no mind and only stared at Luke.

“For everyone’s sake, and more than anything, for my own sake, I can’t lose.”

The ghost of the past and Luke faced each other once more.

Glanz simultaneously released magic of multiple attributes. He aimed at the enemy with a national-treasure-class technique, firing staggered Triple Casts that layered chants. Meanwhile, Dex slammed the black miasma he had obtained through the spirit’s power against them. The magic decayed and never reached Dex.

“That’s impressive technique, but it’s meaningless before my power.”

“Indeed… this is quite a difficult situation.”

Dex swung the sword he held in a reverse grip and sent a miasma-clad slash flying. Glanz put up a barrier and blocked the attack, but the barrier shattered with a crisp sound.

“You should’ve left the ex-knight or swordsman brat behind.”

He avoided a direct hit by rolling away, but his jade-green robe had changed in appearance. The parts that had touched the miasma had vanished as if melting away. He did not need to think deeply to understand that letting it touch his body would be bad. It was an extremely dangerous power.

“Lagias and I had the worst compatibility, but in your case, it’s the opposite.”

“An ability a mage would want to avoid, then…”

Glanz analyzed it calmly, but that was something possible precisely because he was Glanz. He had dodged the first move due to the danger he had foreseen from his many years of experience. If he had only put up a barrier for observation’s sake, Glanz’s body would have decayed away.

“No matter how noble a Sage you are, there’s no such thing as magic that lasts forever.”

“I cannot deny that. …To begin with, eternity does not exist.”

“You talk like it’s someone else’s problem. Then just disappear.”

The spirit factor released from Dex grew stronger. The black miasma writhed as if trying to swallow everything other than Dex.

While running through the air, he cut down the monsters attacking him. The earth seen from above felt similar to looking down from a skyscraper. When he turned his eyes to the sky, countless stars shone. The lack of moonlight due to the new moon was likely also why they looked so beautiful. Since he had not had the time or leisure to slowly look at the stars, it left him deeply moved.

(Well, it’s not like I have any leeway right now either.)

He sensed light from the ground, while his head was covered by a shadow. From below, a dragon’s breath came at him like a cannonball, and above, a griffin waited with its wings spread. The fact that different kinds of monsters were coordinating with each other was proof that they were under Elzen and the others’ control. They were not moving normally.

(Though if we’re talking about irregulars, I’m one too.)

He kicked off an ice wall he had created in midair and changed direction. He twisted his body to dodge the flaming projectile, and the dragon’s breath that missed him struck the griffin. The eagle-lion fell helplessly with its wings burning. There was no way a griffin could withstand the attack of a dragon, the creature that stood at the top of all living beings, and it perished.

An extinction ice spear pierced through the falling griffin’s body and was thrown toward the earth. Gungnir exploded, engulfing the dragon that had fired its breath and the surrounding monsters. He showed no mercy to his enemies. Hiroto’s emotions were reflected in his magic.

(So far, it’s just as expected… or rather, just like the original.)

Van and the other members of the protagonist’s party had climbed the Path of the Firmament. The main characters advanced with the support of the others. In the game, only that side had been depicted, but now Hiroto was fighting hard behind the scenes. You really never knew what would happen in life. Zeke, the foremost villain, fighting to save the world could only be called a bug.

(My role is to fight to reduce the kingdom army’s casualties even a little.)

He had decided to leave Elzen and the others to Van and the protagonist’s party. Even if Hiroto did not recklessly step forward, they would surely answer his expectations.

Since Van and the others had grown stronger than in the original, the enemy had likely gained power as well, but they should not be opponents they could not defeat. There would probably be irregularities, but they were their protagonists. Surely, they would overcome them.

(Though… I’m going to intrude at the very end.)

In a sense, it was the most important role. This idea was likely something only Hiroto, who knew the ending of the original, could think of. The future might be decided by whether this went well or poorly.

If the repeating world Alderic spoke of was true, then although the people living in this world had no memories of it, they had been walking the same lives again and again. If one called that game-like, then it certainly was, and if they had no memories, it might be fine—that was probably what he would have thought if he had not learned the truth of Lagias. —But now that he knew, he could not pretend not to see it. Hiroto had chosen to fight. Not for himself, but for someone else.

(Yes. That’s fine. It should be, and yet…)

Monsters and shadows spawned in excessive numbers against Zeke (Hiroto) alone. He instantly killed them with magic swung around by brute force. His head understood that he should fight while conserving mana. Despite that, his body moved on its own.

(…Am I angry?)

He did not know what this emotion was directed at.

The best course was to entrust Elzen and the others to the protagonist’s party, and it should be most efficient for Zeke (Hiroto) to fight in order to reduce the kingdom army’s casualties as much as possible. As proof, the enemy was targeting Zeke (Hiroto) intensively. The idea was not bad. It was not bad, but…

(—Whose emotion is this?)

Hiroto was only Hiroto, and he did not have multiple personalities. Nor did he suffer from some adolescent-specific mental illness. …Since this was the final battle, he was probably tense. He took a deep breath and calmed himself.

(I’ll do what I can do.)

“You beasts. If you stand before me, I will show no mercy.”

He sent killing intent toward the swarming monsters. They seemed frightened, but they did not stop. They likely could not disobey their orders.

The battle that would decide the fate of the world continued.

“What’s wrong, Sage?! Can you do nothing but run?”

Black miasma was released from Dex. At times it became bullets, and at times it became spears. Its various changes in form increased the variety of attacks. Glanz could only dodge the attacks or parry them with barriers. Even grazing them was dangerous, and if he took one directly, a fatal wound would likely be unavoidable.

“In the end, humans are nothing but pieces. They can’t do anything before the power of a spirit. They’re puppets forced to go along with Diabalet’s delusion!”

Glanz saw an opening and layered multiple barriers. A compound barrier with multiple attributes deployed around Dex as if to surround him. If attacks would not get through, then perhaps he had judged that he should seal him, for Glanz changed his movement.

“…That’s why I told you, it’s useless!”

The barriers shattered with a sound. The miasma swallowed and destroyed the barriers with ridiculous ease. Dex emerged without a scratch. His expression said they were no threat at all.

“It’s over. Disappear.”

The miasma became a writhing, raging wave and swirled around Glanz. Before the raging surge, Glanz was unable to resist and was swallowed up. —After the miasma vanished, nothing remained.

“I felt it. No doubt about that.”

There was a possibility that he had escaped with teleportation magic, but this was the Path of the Firmament, where the spirit’s power remained thickly. If what Pariaach had said was true, then using complex magic such as teleportation here would be equivalent to suicide. Glanz’s existence had definitely vanished. That was the answer.

“Don’t hold it against me, old man.”

It was a result different from every event Dex had experienced in his dreams until now. To begin with, Dex had never fought Glanz one-on-one. Perhaps this was the first step in waking from the nightmare.

“It’s over… finally.”

Dex released his power. The formulas floating all over his body stopped blinking and gradually disappeared.

Dex’s spirit factor was “annihilation.” The manifested power differed depending on the person who had been granted it. It was unclear why Dex’s power was this, but perhaps, deep in his heart, he wished to vanish without a trace. He remembered Elzen pointing that out in the past.

“Then what did you wish for?”

There was no answer. That was only natural. After all, Dex was the only one here, and Elzen was in front of the Gate to the Otherworld.

—Yes. There should have been no one.

—Reverse World.

The presence of someone who should not have been there.

He had certainly sensed it. There was no mistake about that. But the presence he felt behind him was also real. The sensations throughout Dex’s body began to fade.

“Wh-Why? Why are you alive?”

“This was the only way to create an opening against a strong person like you.”

When he turned around, the Sage stood behind him. Large beads of sweat floated on his forehead.

“I could not grasp everything, but… your power is annihilation. Judging from the sensation of magic disappearing, there is no doubt about it.”

“…That doesn’t answer my question.”

“It is simple. I reversed annihilation. That is all.”

Glanz explained that the magic he had cast on himself alone, an original spell he had applied before receiving Dex’s power, had reversed the phenomenon.

“That’s impossible… In other words, you died once?”

“This is a battle that will decide the fate of the world. One or two of my lives are a small price to pay. Do you not agree?”

The fear of encountering an unfathomable existence. Even in the dreams that had continued endlessly, nothing like this had ever happened.

“You said this before. ‘You people don’t know my power. —That’s why you’re scared, right?’ …Do you now understand the meaning of those words?”

Dex tried to use his power again. But the spirit factor did not respond.

“Spirits may be beings that transcend humans, but the essence of their power is mana itself. —In that case, if I temporarily interfere with the flow of that mana…”

“This is Lagias’s…”

His mana was disturbed. It resembled the martial technique Dex had taken when he had fought Zeke in the past. At that time, he had also been blown away at the same time, but in Glanz’s case, it was somewhat different. His hand was merely resting lightly against Dex’s back.

“I am not as kind as Zeke-san. —Atone for the lives you have taken.”

At this point, it was no longer even a technique. Glanz drew his free arm far back. Using a body reinforced by an absurd amount of mana, he swung his fist with all his might. The absolute fist that cut through the wind caught Dex in the back and sent him flying. Dex spun like a drill as he rolled across the Path of the Firmament.

“…Even if this repeats countless times, I suppose I will only ever be on this side.”

Those words reached Dex’s ears before he lost consciousness.

“So will I,” Dex replied in his heart.