I felt the black bow in my hands fill with the power of Gluttony as it transformed. Then I fired the Bloody Ptarmigan Cross. When I used it in the kingdom, I had fired it using only my own strength. Now the Crossing added Greed’s strength to my own. It was a more powerful, more complete attack than it had ever been in the past.
“This! Is! It!”
The two bolts of black lightning streaked toward the holy beast, spiraling around each other. I channeled everything I had into the attack, and it was a direct hit, piercing through the core of the Aquarius.
“We did it!” I said.
Roxy flapped her wings joyously as the holy beast tilted askew, smoke pouring from its body. Then it began to fall. At first, I was gladdened, but then it dawned on me what would result from a creature of this size falling to the earth below.
“Greed, if the Aquarius continues to fall…”
“Your intuition doesn’t lie,” said Greed.
The Aquarius was falling along the same trajectory that we had flown to reach it. I wanted to believe this was all a joke. I wanted someone to tell me that. I’d used so much of my power to take it down that I was barely in the Domain of E. If I gave up any more of my power, any future attacks would be useless. I looked at Roxy, who was as distraught as I was, because she was in a similar position. Dispersing the Aquarius’s huge energy beam had drained her powers.
“Libra even anticipated this eventuality,” Greed said.
“Dammit! But what of the people of Hausen?! There must be something we can do!”
The holy beast accelerated as it fell, flames wreathing it when it hit the atmosphere like an immense meteor. If something so big collided with the surface, the earth would literally buckle under it, leaving a crater so deep as to seem bottomless.
“I won’t tolerate things ending like this, not after we’ve come so far!”
“Greed?!”
“Luna, she followed her beliefs to the very end, but all I ever do is watch. How boring…right? Don’t you think, Kairos?”
The black bow in my hand began to glow and change shape.
“Fate, forgive me this moment of selfishness… I can’t just stand by and watch. Not this time. I won’t remain silent any longer!”
“What are you doing?!”
I had a bad feeling, but Greed had already changed before I could stop him.
“The Fifth Level: the gauntlets. They control ten black threads. With these, nothing can escape our grasp.”
I didn’t care about that. I wanted to know what he was doing.
This isn’t how it works! Greed always required the sacrifice of my stats to unlock a new form. But here, now…I had given him nothing. So who had paid that price?!
“Greed, did you—”
“Let’s do it, Fate! You care about the people down there. There’s no more time to think. We know what we have to do. So make good use of me, the mighty Greed!”
“You idiot!” I shouted. “You always tell me not to overdo it, and then you go and do this?!”
We’d entered the Crossing again. Using it multiple times was an incredible mental drain, but it was now or never, and I would not disappoint Greed.
“Roxy, take us closer to the holy beast.”
“Understood.”
She said nothing more. Perhaps there was nothing more she could say. When we caught up to the Zodiac Aquarius, now a literal ball of meteoric flames, Roxy released me.
“Good luck,” she said.
I looked down at the pair of gauntlets that covered my hands as we fell. “Let’s go.”
The flames of the holy beast were rendered harmless by my Fire Resistance skill. Ten black threads shot from the fingers of the gauntlets as Greed took control of my body.
“Sorry, Fate,” he said. “Try to think of this as a gift.”
The black threads wrapped around the holy beast like a cocoon. Then they filled with a magical energy that didn’t feel like my own. With a creaking sound, the black threads pulled tight.
“Still not enough, huh? Not to worry; I came prepared.”
The black gauntlets transformed. Was this the Fifth Level secret technique?! But this required a sacrifice of stats too. At the Fifth Level, that would be no small amount.
Yet this too was a price I didn’t pay. It had to be Greed.
“Fate, watch closely, and don’t forget this sensation.”
Greed had taken control of my body, so I couldn’t speak, but my feelings still reached him.
“You worry too much,” he said. “I’m a weapon. You, the others, you’re different. There’s no reason to be sad. I finally found…something to protect.”
There was a genuine, heartfelt joy in his words, and a moment later, he unleashed the Fifth Level secret technique: Dimension Destruction.
The luminescent threads cut through space itself, the unstoppable razor wire shredding the holy beast. Those tiny pieces of Aquarius burned up in the atmosphere. Then a metallic voice rang in my head, signaling the end of battle. All the while, I continued to plummet. The Crossing was severed.
“Fay! Take my hand!”
Roxy flew close and grabbed my hand. We had saved Hausen from the Zodiac Aquarius, but… All I could do was hold onto the black sword in my hands, now that it had transformed back into its usual shape.
“What?! What’s going on over there?!” exclaimed Roxy.
Just then, we heard an incredible rumbling of the earth. At first, I thought that a region on the horizon was being destroyed, but I soon realized that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t an earthquake or an explosion. The land itself was pulling itself free from the world to float into the air.
“If that’s where I think it is, that’s Galia, isn’t it?”
I nodded silently. Perhaps my father had succeeded in opening the Door to Distant Lands. The region of Galia rose into the air. The world had lost its balance. Roxy and I could only watch as the huge floating landmass was bathed in the light of the setting sun.
“Greed, what do we do now?” I asked.
But the sword didn’t answer. The sword who never missed an opportunity to boss me around and bicker with me.
“You unlocked the Fifth Level, so you can speak with everyone, right? Say something… Please, Greed…”
“Fay…”
Roxy held me in her arms. A dam of emotions broke within me, tears overflowing. My friends and allies were gathered on the surface, waving as they rushed to meet us.
“Greed…” I murmured. “Come back, please…”
That was the day…
The day I lost the partner who meant so, so much to me.