A few years after I’d left Chaos Raid, I’d ended up being brought on to join the group of people who’d later be known as the Great Four on their journey to defeat the Demon King of Twilight. Back then, demons were boastful of their great power, and to humans, were the ultimate symbol of fear.
Yet demons were just barely able to coexist with humans, for no other reason than the fact that they weren’t a monolith, and each demon primarily acted on their own. But everything changed once the one called the Demon King of Twilight came into existence. Under him, all demons came together as one organization and began pushing humans into a corner. The hearsay back then was that humanity was at a huge disadvantage.
But as if to reverse that opinion, our party steadily made progress. Before we knew it, people began calling us heroes, and looked to us for hope. When we got close to the Demon King’s castle, our battle with the demons intensified. In what would later be known as the Grand Quartz Battle, a sudden mortal combat began between us and the Demon King’s army.
“Ha ha ha! You weak humans! Feel the true strength of demons!”
The demon standing in front of us was named Guilltina, and worked at the Demon King’s side as his tactician. Today, he was riding on the shoulder of one of his giant demons while looking down at us.
“Crumble in despair, heroes!”
At his order, the giant demon swung his hand down towards the ground, and when it made contact, the earth shook, cracks formed, and sent fissures all around us.
“Abel!”
“Sir!”
My comrades screamed in worry. I see. The enemy’s aim is to split us up. Thanks to Guilltina’s machinations, I’d been separated from the rest of the party.
After a little bit of time had passed after Guilltina’s plan had separated our party, I heard someone calling out my name.
“Sir... Sir!”
Who is it? It’s too dark.
“Oh wait! Maybe this is my chance!”
Oh. This stupid-sounding voice belongs to Ayane.
She’d been a fellow member at Chaos Raid, but after it fell apart, there were a lot of twists and turns, and she ended up accompanying our Hero Party frequently.
“Time for a kissy kiss!”
When I opened my eyes, I saw Ayane’s gross lips getting closer to my face. Sensing the danger of them making contact, I flicked her on the forehead.
“Gaaah!” she screamed as she rolled away from the force, skirt and all. “Sir! What are you doing to a young maiden like me?!”
Hm. As usual, she’s got a sturdy body and mentality. If she’s this energetic, then I don’t think I have to worry about her.
“Ayane, give me a report on the situation.” At this point, the first priority was confirming the state of things.
“Hmph! Don’t go all serious mode on me so quickly! It seems that due to that huge demon’s attack, the Hero Party’s been separated. Apparently there was a teleportation barrier set underneath the ground. Maria, Daytona, and Cain were all sent to different areas.”
I see. That old general got one on us. Each of us had a magecraft we were proficient at, and by working together, we could take down demons. In other words, now that we were split, our chances of victory were slimmer.
“By the way, I’ve been wondering this, but did I lose consciousness?” I asked.
“No, you were simply put to sleep,” Ayane replied. “It’s not like you to be so careless, Sir,” she added.
I fell silent, not having any words in response. She was right. I couldn’t believe that I’d been put to sleep during a battle.
“You work too hard, Sir. You should rest a bit or you won’t last the entire battle.”
It’s true that I’ve been fighting to my limits a lot recently. Maybe after getting wrapped up in this teleportation barrier, my body decided to switch to sleep mode.
“My shikigami, Chirpy, found a village nearby. How about we take a break there before we meet up with Maria and the rest?” Ayane suggested.
Chirpy was a bird-type shikigami that Ayane had made. She mostly used Chirpy for scouting from the sky.
“Sorry, but it doesn’t look like we have the time to take things so leisurely.”
“Huh?”
This isn’t a human’s presence. It’s obviously a demon that bears us ill will.
“Wha— That’s—!”
Ayane noticed what was going on after I did. Looking up into the sky, we saw what was known as the dragon platoon—the Demon King’s strongest forces. There were easily over twenty demons screaming at us from above.
“I’ve been counting the days until we could meet, black cat!”
The one flying at the front was an evil dragon, one whose body was over three meters long.
“The rest of you take on the girl,” the dragon ordered his underlings. “Don’t mess up!”
“Yes, Sir!”
It seemed that the forces he brought were split into two, with their leader focused on me and the rest of the small fry focused on Ayane.
✦ ✦ ✦
Fighting Zeke two hundred years ago had been extremely difficult, a match of unprecedented proportions. At the time, he and his lackeys had been known as the strongest of the Demon King’s army—the highly revered Dragon Battalion. As their leader, Zeke was in a league of his own, more powerful than any of the demons I’d faced up until then.
“Hmph...not bad. Never did I even dream that there’d be a human who could match me,” Zeke spat.
The battle had been a constant back and forth, but without a doubt, I’d been the one in control. Despite that, his regenerative abilities were as strong as ever, and I was in a tough spot.
“Urk... I’m in a bit of a pickle too, Sir, even with how amazing I am.”
It seemed that Ayane was having trouble too, due to the incredible amount of enemies she was against. Though they were all small fry, handling over twenty demons alone was backbreaking work.
“Heh heh, I know you humans’ real weakness,” Zeke said cryptically, before constructing a large-scale magecraft.
Is he trying to end this battle in one attack?
“Black Spear!”
Upon Zeke chanting the spell, thousands of black spears appeared in the sky.
“Think you can survive this?” Zeke taunted.
I see. It’s powerful magecraft, but not something that’ll stop me.
There was a loud, sharp whoosh as the spears rained down from above. Though I was able to dodge them, I couldn’t help but find it strange that despite how powerful the attack was, it didn’t feel like he was trying to kill me. Instead, it was as if he was trying to distract me.
Then it hit me. His attack wasn’t meant for me.
His cryptic words from before flashed through my mind, and it became clear that he wasn’t aiming for me at all—his target all along had been Ayane.
By the time I turned around, it was already too late. One of the spears shot towards her, incredibly fast, and since she was so busy fighting off all the other demons, she had no idea.
The sickening sound of tearing flesh filled the air as the spear pierced through her back.
“Wh-Wha...” A surprised sound escaped Ayane as her blood splashed on the ground, a pool of red spreading at her feet.
“The weakness of a human is their heart,” Zeke declared. “How does it feel to see your comrade killed in front of you? You can’t even construct magecraft properly anymore, can you?”
I don’t have a clear memory of what happened after that. All I can recall is a blind rage that I’d never felt before.
“Th-This isn’t possible! How am I being pushed back by a mere human?!”
This was the last line from Zeke, one that I could just barely remember. His hubris didn’t allow him to accept failure. It was a pathetic ending for him.
“Shut up,” I said, after I had defeated him.
I didn’t have the time to keep fighting him and deal with his regenerative abilities, so instead I sealed him away. But I was still too late to do anything for Ayane. I ran over to her, but her body had already gone cold, her soul starting to leave her body. At this point, even using Revival Magecraft wouldn’t have been able to bring her back.
A time before Chaos Raid came to mind, of when I lived in the sewers—the day I found the corpses of my friends. All of them dead, mercilessly killed by Haoran, a foreign mage.
“Again... I couldn’t protect anyone again...”
Something like a fog clouded my eyes. It was as if all my emotions had been kept in a bucket, filling it to the brim, and that bucket had just been violently kicked over. I could distantly sense that I’d broken down crying.