Chapter 105

Two people lay collapsed on the mountainside of the Fallen Angel Mountain Fortress in the Five-Ringed Mountains. One of them was dead. His wings had been plucked, and there was a fist-size hole in his chest. It was the fallen angel who had spent centuries guarding this labyrinth before being taken out by a surprise assailant while preparing to fight the Survivors. A girl with blond hair lay on the ground next to him. She was heavily wounded, but her mouth and chest were moving weakly. Although she was at death’s door, she was doing everything she could to gather her breath and heal herself. “Man, that fallen angel was a real powerhouse!” “…Good grief, I thought I really was going to die this time. Please let that be the last time you put such a strain on these old bones.” Two voices came from her mouth. The first was the incredibly cheerful voice of a girl without a care in the world. The second was the gruff voice of a man in his middle years. “What are you so scared of? We’ve both died and come back. This time now is all just a bonus, Bellocchio.” “You’re as tenacious as they come, Olivia.” “I could say the same to you.” The girl was Dead Man’s Balloon—the body that Bellocchio had ended up with after using Union with multiple dead bodies and undergoing an irreversible transformation. “I really thought I was gone for good. I was positive Argus broke my core.” The other voice belonged to Olivia—a holy sword thought to have died defending Nick from Argus of Combat Masters. “And yet you survived. Perhaps Argus ripped your core out of your blade and kept it instead of offering it to the demon god,” Bellocchio theorized. “It sure pays to have apprentices!” Olivia said. “Then when the demon god’s egg was destroyed, you partially melted along with the other magic items.” “What are the chances of that?!” “That is what allowed you to fuse with me when I was about to die. I sure was lucky you were there, given your specialty of optimizing a person’s body and soul… I still didn’t think we’d make it in time.” Bellocchio hadn’t completely died on the bottom floor of the Colosseum of Carnage. Because the body containing his soul was partially made up of corpses, his life force had already been faint before charging into the demon god’s egg. His soul had remained attached to his body, leaving him alive in a magical sense. However, he would not have survived long in that state. His body and soul were not tough enough to undo the damage he had suffered in the demon god’s egg, and the lifespan of his mismatched body was incredibly short. But by some miracle, a crystal dense with mana—the holy sword core belonging to Olivia, the Sword of Might—had landed next to his corpse, and the fading soul and fading crystal had joined together. “Your body’s lifespan wasn’t just lowered because of the cobbled-together nature of this body. It also happened because of the great divergence between your body and your soul. Aligning them is one way to partially fix that,” Olivia said. “I didn’t expect that to entail endless physical training in a world where time has stopped. I hadn’t pushed myself so hard since I was a novice adventurer,” Bellocchio said. “But you prevailed and adapted your soul to your body. Enough to gradually rebuild your confidence from your brush with death and defeat the fallen angel all by yourself,” Olivia said. “I wasn’t by myself, though, was I?” Bellocchio said, and Olivia giggled. “…Are you satisfied, though?” she asked. “What do you mean?” “Your apprentice is fighting right now. Don’t you wish you’d given her some words of encouragement?” Dead Man’s Balloon was a living person, a corpse, and a magic item all in one. That strange combination allowed them to see things that were invisible to normal people, including the fight in the demon god’s world and the raging fire of heavenly bodies being born and dying in the world of the gods. “It took a long time to recover enough strength to even lift a finger. Our lungs didn’t begin functioning for a while, either. We couldn’t waste mana or energy on sending a message,” Bellocchio said. “I guess that’s true,” Olivia said. “I think they’ll be just fine without hearing from us. It sure pays to have apprentices, after all.” “We couldn’t have asked for better students… By the way, Bellocchio.” “What?” “We’re gonna run out of mana and die if we don’t do something… And I mean soon. We’re in serious trouble.” “Someone will surely notice us. Adventurers will naturally head this way once they are done fighting the Stampede at the foot of the mountain. Let’s just wait.” Bellocchio looked up at the nearest mountain peak, unconcerned by Olivia’s panic. The volcanic crater was up there and, directly below it, the gate to the demon god’s world. What they saw there was straight out of myth. The battle against the demon god in the other world was unfathomably intense. The mana that leaked from the battle projected the forms of the demon god and the hero, and the adventurers fighting monsters below roared, emboldened by the sight. The monsters also cried savagely and fought with renewed vigor. “There’s nothing else we can do but believe in them, huh?” Olivia said. “Indeed. We have front row seats, so let us sit back and watch as the fate of the world is decided,” Bellocchio said. Sometime later, a victorious shout echoed throughout the land. The conclusion of the never-ending fight was finally in sight. The sun sank toward the Five-Ringed Mountains. By the time it set, the battle was over.