“Stand up. You know how this works.” But Michele knew with certainty that it wasn’t over yet. Guiding Light glowed amidst the cloud of dust. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Regression] The Pure Concept conjuring brought Menou back from the grips of death. All of the time up to Menou’s death—from the fatal wound from Michele’s punch to her severed arm and even the dirt on her clothes—was reverted as if it never happened. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger Gun, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Branch: Barrel] Branches of Guiding Force bloomed from the dagger and created a gun’s barrel. Menou pointed the shining muzzle at Michele. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Acceleration] There was no holding back now. The bullet’s speed was multiplied immeasurably, sending it flying with a resounding roar. Menou’s arms were knocked back by the immense recoil. Breaking the limits of the very concept of acceleration, the bullet tore through time and across space, erasing the distance to its target. Michele swung her broadsword. Its blade, nearly the length of Michele’s body, hacked through the Acceleration-enhanced bullet. Sparks burst in the air. The two halves of the bullet crashed into the ground behind Michele, digging out two deep craters. The lightning speed of her swing surpassed even that of Menou’s accelerated bullet. Such a movement seemed impossible for a human—impossible for anything, by the laws of physics. It was supernatural in its own right. The aftermath of the slash shook the air. A shockwave sped toward Menou’s body, though she was far outside the range of the blade. Menou’s lips tightened as she faced down the impossible strike. Ever since the battle began, Michele’s every move had been superhuman. She was a successful result of human experiments to reproduce Dragon, said to be the strongest and fastest Pure Concept. The overwhelming Guiding Force that flowed freely from her soul was enough to far outclass Menou, who used the Pure Concept of Time. But even as she witnessed this powerful being, the pinnacle of Guiding Enhancement, the will to fight never faded from Menou’s eyes. She had known all along that Michele would be strong. The amount of Guiding Force Menou could access had jumped up thanks to her connection to Akari, but it still did not compare to the power at Michele’s command. But it wasn’t as if her only option was to fight fire with fire. Menou’s form vanished into thin air. Guiding Camouflage. It was a technique achieved by honing one’s Guiding Force manipulation to an almost pathological degree, controlling Guiding Light to fool the eye completely. Such a skill boasted countless uses, whether for stealth missions, battle, or even in everyday life. However, because it was a Guiding Force manipulation technique and not a conjuring, this exceptional technique could be used without any tool. Menou merged with the scenery and masked her presence. In her training as an Executioner, she had perfected the art of moving without making the slightest sound. An assassination during a head-to-head battle. Menou’s stealth made such a contradictory strategy possible. In response, Michele gripped her broadsword tightly in her right hand. She made no attempt to track down the vanished Menou. She simply poured Guiding Force into her broadsword. This wasn’t to activate a crest conjuring. Her immense Guiding Force simply kept flowing into the single blade. She violently crammed it in with all her might, compressing it, condensing it, and twisting its very nature. The still-invisible Menou had crept up behind Michele and was about to strike. Then Michele thrust her broadsword into the earth. The earth exploded at her feet. As soon as the dull edge of the Blade of Judgment plunged into the ground, the Guiding Force that Michele had flooded into it was unleashed, spreading out into a massive shockwave. A tidal wave of dirt and sand broke out from the ground. The earth had been turned up from where Michele thrust her sword into the ground, turning into an attack that surged in all directions. But even more terrifying to Menou than the earth was the wave of Guiding Force that accompanied it. The violent swell of Guiding Force broke through Menou’s body. It hadn’t been given any direction in the form of a conjuring—it was pure power rolling off of Michele. When the Guiding Force of one human enters the body of another, it causes a strong reaction. Menou’s soul shook, her spirit was rattled, her body trembled, and her Guiding Force manipulation was thrown off. Menou’s Guiding Camouflage was torn away. Her location was exposed, and Michele immediately locked on. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Double Invoke [Gale, Guiding Thread] A flash of focused water cleaved Menou in two. It was a flawless transition from stillness to motion. Michele’s miraculous combination of overwhelming destructive power and deft techniques that were no less refined for all her strength made her a superhuman force on the battlefield. “Tch!” Michele clicked her tongue in irritation as she saw the result of her seemingly perfect strike. The Guiding Branches that had taken on Menou’s form fell apart. Menou had created a decoy by projecting Guiding Camouflage onto the Guiding Branches that stretched from her dagger gun. On top of being able to fool Michele’s senses, what was even more impressive was that Menou managed to maintain her own Guiding Camouflage even through that wave of Guiding Force. It wasn’t only Michele who boasted both abundant Guiding Force and precise techniques. Menou had achieved that combination, too. Standing in Michele’s blind spot with her gun at the ready, Menou silently pulled the trigger. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Weathering] No ordinary attack could harm Michele thanks to her powerful Guiding Enhancement. However, physical strength had no meaning in the face of Time conjurings. Michele blocked the conjuring fired from Menou’s gun with her right arm, which was instantly exposed to the amplified effects of Time and began to fall apart. Without hesitation, Michele cut off her own arm. The limb crumbled into dust before it hit the ground. Though this looked like an obvious opening, Menou didn’t take the chance. It was another blow that would be the end of any normal battle, but just as Menou’s fatal wound had been reversed by Regression, the loss of a body part was no major setback for Michele, either. Guiding Light reconstructed the outline of the lost right arm. In moments, the limb was restored, as if the world itself remembered Michele’s powerful form. “You get it, right? When you get too good at Guiding Enhancement, the planet itself learns your shape.” Menou’s mind quickly found an explanation for the phenomenon before her eyes. She thought back to the world of souls she had visited. Michele’s much-too-powerful Guiding Enhancement must have expanded its influence from the physical world to the world of souls, bringing about the conjuring phenomenon known as “Michele” and maintaining her physical body. “You and I both have bodies that refuse to die properly.” The fight so far had just been a prelude to the battle that was about to begin. Michele, an imitation of Dragon, and Menou, who used the Pure Concept of Time. Their battle wasn’t one of causing each other physical harm. It was a race to wear each other down, to determine which would run out first: Menou’s memories that were the price of her Pure Concept, or Michele’s Guiding Force that granted her immortality. “I hope you’re prepared to fight dirty.” With that, Michele ramped up her Guiding Enhancement output. The Guiding Light that surrounded her grew even brighter. She had already been dominating Menou in head-to-head combat, and yet she still wasn’t even at full power. Slowly but surely, her Guiding Force grew stronger. She broke through what Menou assumed was the human body’s limit and kept on going. Her presence became so overwhelming that it scarcely seemed physically possible, and still she kept going. Even when Menou turned pale with fear, despite her experience with the world of souls, Michele kept going. Her power grew stronger and stronger. The being known as Michele was strengthened by Guiding Force. As her physical strength rose, her aura and presence expanded. “Look.” Michele’s voice boomed around the area. Her vocal cords were so strengthened by Guiding Force that even her speaking voice was transformed into something terrifying. “This is the next level of Guiding Enhancement.” Menou stared up at her opponent in silent awe. Michele’s physical form hadn’t changed at all. She had only increased the output of her Guiding Enhancement, which didn’t make her body look any different. And yet she seemed to loom incredibly large. Michele’s sheer presence seemed to stretch up to the skies with untouchable power. Intimidated despite herself, Menou unconsciously took half a step backward. Michele gave a small flick of her wrist. Just like that, there was a huge hole in Menou’s chest. “What?” Menou couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. She and Michele were more than ten paces apart. Michele hadn’t thrown anything, nor had she used a conjuring for a long-distance attack. All she had done was wave her hand as if warding off an insect, far away from Menou. The excessive Guiding Light that surrounded Michele had followed her movement and created a physical blow that carved out part of Menou’s body. “But…how…?” In spite of her strong surprise, Menou’s voice came out weak and feeble. The organs needed to keep her alive had been obliterated, and Menou’s consciousness quickly faded. The excessive Guiding Enhancement had resulted in the world misrecognizing Michele’s existence, expanding the range with which she could interact. The Guiding Light followed the outline of what the planet had mistaken for the size of Michele’s body, causing a powerful physical phenomenon to correspond with her every action, even without using a conjuring. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Regression] When Menou lost her life, Regression activated automatically and brought her back. “You have got to be kidding me…!” The first words out of her mouth as she regained consciousness were a petty complaint. She’d always known Michele was strong. She went into their battle with the utmost caution. She fought to the very limits of her abilities, expecting the worst. Yet Michele easily transcended all of Menou’s expectations. She’d underestimated Michele’s strength. Standing up, Menou leapt back as far as she could, trying to put distance between them for now. Michele took a single step toward her in response. “…!” The movement sent a mass of Guiding Light plunging to the earth. A huge crater was gouged in the ground. Almost as an afterthought, Menou was crushed, her body splattered. As a dirt cloud rose around her, Regression revived Menou again. She’d died twice now without making any progress whatsoever. This was no longer even a real fight. All Michele did was walk. That alone was enough to kill Menou. No wonder she never used her full power in cities or underground. Michele’s power was such that she could easily crush an entire town like a child stomping on a sandcastle. This was the true strength of the ultimate human weapon, modeled after the Pure Concept of Dragon. “Is that all you’ve got, Flarette?” Michele’s voice boomed. Even speaking in a level tone, her voice shook the air, making Menou’s skin prickle through her Guiding Enhancement. She felt as if she wasn’t even fighting a human anymore. Michele had grown into something monstrous. Menou’s only possible hope of salvation was the Pure Concept of Time. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Acceleration] Menou closed in on Michele at unbelievable speed. She broke the sound barrier, moving as if the world around her was standing still. If her opponent had been any ordinary priestess, she wouldn’t even be able to follow Menou with the naked eye. But Michele caught up with her easily. As Menou reached out to strike, Michele caught her wrist and crushed it, then casually threw out a front kick that mercilessly bored a hole in Menou’s torso. An unbelievable amount of blood flooded from Menou’s mouth. Michele reached for Menou’s skull without even waiting for her to regenerate, but Menou hadn’t gone down for nothing this time. She knew going in that Michele could handle her Accelerated speed. “Kaboom!” Just as Menou mimicked an explosion out loud, a crest conjuring activated in the dagger she’d slipped into Michele’s blind spot. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale] Michele was distracted by Menou’s exclamation just long enough for the dagger behind her to plunge toward her with the explosive power of a burst of wind. At the same time, Menou aimed a finger gun at Michele. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Weathering] One was a physical attack aimed at her vitals, the other a time conjuring that would mean instant death if it struck its target. Menou had pinned Michele between two different kinds of attacks to finally strike back—but to no avail. Michele didn’t dodge either attack. As soon as the dagger touched Michele, it bounced away without even piercing the skin. Even with the Gale conjuring, what should’ve been a direct hit didn’t have any effect at all. The Guiding Force that overflowed from Michele’s body into her surroundings overpowered the Guiding Force that formed the Time conjuring and broke it down. Menou’s eyes widened in shock at this unbelievable outcome. Then Michele’s fist plunged into her surprised face, splintering it apart. Her power was overwhelming. Michele fended off a Pure Concept conjuring with nothing but sheer strength. The Regression conjuring activated to erase Menou’s death, rewinding her flesh. “……” Restored to perfect health, Menou stared down numbly at her own body. With time turned back, there wasn’t a single scratch on her. Even the dirt on her clothes had been purged away, and her stamina was fully restored. But what good did it do to come back to life? She didn’t see any way she could win this fight. “Good. Keep using that Pure Concept.” From far away, Michele reached out her hand and closed it into a fist. The mass of Guiding Light bound to her movements crushed Menou’s body before she could react. Regression activated again. It kept consuming her memories to bring her body back to life, refusing to allow Menou to die even though it seemed pointless by now. “Lose your memories. Become a Human Error.” None of Menou’s attacks could touch Michele, yet Michele’s every move killed Menou instantly. She understood why her physical attacks were being repelled, but she’d never imagined having even her Pure Concept conjurings shut down so thoroughly. At this point, Menou didn’t have a single strategy that would work on Michele. “Then when Time appears, I’ll break that, too, and ruin Hakua Shirakami’s plans once and for all.” Slowly, Menou was ceasing to be herself. The repeated deaths she’d experienced in such a short time dulled her senses and sent her thoughts fading away. Her memories were being whittled down by too many uses of Regression. As Menou’s sense of self blurred, her cream-colored hair took on a darker tinge. “…!” Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Suspension, Teleportation, Fracture] It was difficult to explain what happened in the next moment. First, Michele’s fist was stopped in midair before it could strike. The Suspension had hardened the air to block her attack. At nearly the exact same time, Teleportation sent Michele up into the air, and a spatial fracture sliced her in half. It was Menou, her hair a mix of black and white. A triple invocation of Pure Concept conjurings. What’s more, one of them was a spatial conjuring, an evolution of the time concept that Menou had never managed to use in regular space. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger Gun, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Branch: Barrel] The Guiding Branches formed around Menou’s arm, nearly covering it. She raised it, a barrel far larger than the one that had destroyed Hakua’s body double. She aimed it straight at Michele, whose body was already restoring itself even as she was flung into the air. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Acceleration] The bullet from Menou’s arm tore through Michele. This conjuring made Menou’s previous use of Time look like an incomplete scrap of the Pure Concept’s true capability. The bullet transcended the limits of the laws of physics, burning the air and spraying off plasma. The recoil caused the ground to tremble and sink beneath their feet. “…Ha-ha, now that’s more like it!” As the battle became a true battle once more, Michele grinned. Even with half her body blown off by the accelerated bullet, she hadn’t lost an ounce of her Guiding Force. The world obeyed the overpowering Guiding Force that defined the Dragon imitation known as Michele, reconstructing her lost flesh. Michele landed and launched herself off the ground. Now that she had truly come into her own, even the ground was too brittle a foothold. Cracks spread beneath her feet. She pushed forward anyway, swinging her fist up as the impact shook the earth. “Ngh!” “Hah!” The pair’s fists collided. Both their bodies were blown back by the impact, and the vestiges of the Guiding Force that were already rebuilding Michele’s body flashed through the air more vividly than any spray of blood. Menou watched this happen with all the detachment of someone absentmindedly gazing at a movie screen. The battle only intensified. As Menou’s hair kept getting darker, her gunfire carved holes in the ground. Michele’s blade broke the earth’s surface and compressed the dirt and sand. If anyone were there to witness their battle, they would never imagine that it was taking place between two humans. At the height of these attacks that reshaped the land around them, Michele’s attack struck Menou in the temple. Menou was driven into the ground with enough force to bury her, and Michele was upon her instantly. She punched. And punched. Blow after blow, so quickly that Menou couldn’t resist, escape, or even regenerate with Regression fast enough to keep up. “Gaaaah!” Raising a bloodied fist, Michele let loose an animalistic howl. With every punch, the ground buckled as if struck by a bomb. So this is where it ends, Menou thought to herself dimly. There was no way to recover from here. Her memories were nearly spent. Her Pure Concept conjurings didn’t work anyway. Even if she did become a Human Error, she couldn’t imagine herself winning against Michele. But Menou’s body still moved. Something—someone—deep down inside her heart refused to break, even under an assault so fierce that Menou herself had given up. “Cut it out…” The black-haired girl who dwelt within Menou’s body focused Guiding Force on what was left of her fingers. “Don’t bully my Menooooooou!” The cry opened Menou’s eyes wide. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Weathering] The ground around them shriveled into sand under the weight of untold Time. Michele was thrown off balance by the unexpected transformation of the terrain. As she staggered back, the sole of Menou’s foot pierced through Michele’s chest. Michele was knocked violently back by this unforeseen attack. As she flew into the air, the black-haired Menou glared at her with seething hostility. This wasn’t possession, nor was it a takeover by Time. She was simply trying to protect Menou. Slowly, Menou’s spirit was being restored. The other spirit that was meant to be attached to her body was whittling away its own soul. And the empty space made room for Menou to exist, whether she wanted it or not. Terror surged suddenly through Menou’s mind. “N…noooooo!” Menou screamed. She couldn’t let the other girl control her body for even one more second. At this rate, she was going to fight until her own soul was entirely lost. That much was horrifyingly clear. Menou hadn’t given up on herself just for the girl she was trying to save to throw away her own soul. So she grasped the last fragments of her fading memories tightly. She pulled her own consciousness back to the forefront. What Menou was gripping was the dagger gun. It was a weapon that someone precious to her had once used. Even if she couldn’t remember who that was, the lessons that person had drilled into her remained in Menou’s muscle memory. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Fracture: Confer] It was the attack that had ripped Michele apart not long ago. Closer to a Human Error than ever before, Menou conferred the spatial conjuring onto her weapon. The blade of Menou’s dagger gun pierced Michele’s heart. Michele stared in astonishment. A person about to turn into a Human Error had recovered control of herself through sheer force of will. In a thousand years of memories, Michele had never heard of such a thing. But such a minor exception wasn’t enough to put Michele at a disadvantage. “It’ll take more than that…!” Michele roared. The Guiding Force imbued in her echoing voice took on physical power and struck her opponent. Menou was blown back, unable to stand up to the wave of sound rolling directly over her. Michele thrust her broadsword into the opening it created. Even if Menou recovered her mind, it wouldn’t turn the tides of the battle. Just having one blade stuck into her heart wasn’t enough to slow Michele down. Michele took pride in her power. Even if it was strength she hadn’t asked for, it still made her the strongest even of the Elders Hakua had chosen. And while her immortality was less complete than the others, her strength was in a league all its own. For she was a living weapon, the crowning achievement of the ancient civilization’s advanced technology. Michele was the successful result of the experiments to reproduce Dragon, the strongest and fastest of the Pure Concepts. During the peak of conjuring technology, in the midst of constant war, scientists sacrificed countless test subjects in their efforts to create the ultimate human body. Michele was the only one to survive. Michele’s latent Guiding Force was enough to power an entire city, and not just a city in the current era. She had such an enormous capacity that she could have powered a great metropolis during the peak of the ancient civilization. But what made her massive Guiding Force more than just a power source for a city was that all of it could be used for armed conflict. Michele had walked the border between life and death more times than Menou could even dream of. She had fought more than anyone else in this world. The sheer violence of her Guiding Force capacity. The excessive amount of battle experience. Equipped with everything she could possibly need to fight, she was even able to crush countless Pure Concepts in her life on the battlefield. Her body would regenerate anyway. The material part was secondary. The true essence of this world was Guiding Force. It was the purest form of energy, existing before any physical matter came into being. The “power” known as Guiding Force made up the world, and eventually the material part of the world latched on and constructed the physical side. The Guiding Force at the wellspring of the planet weaved reality into being, spinning the past and future of the world into material form. In a world that was a grand and enormous conjuring phenomenon, the being who had more Guiding Force than anyone else—Michele—was truly the strongest force imaginable. So there was no way she could possibly lose. Guiding Force: Connect— The beginnings of a crest conjuring formed in Michele’s chest. Her gaze dropped to the dagger gun Menou had thrust deep into her body. That dagger gun was showing signs of invoking a conjuring. “What?” A murmur of bewilderment escaped Michele’s lips. Menou wasn’t touching the dagger gun. No matter how excellent her conjuring skills might be, it was impossible to invoke a conjuring without a direct link to the medium. (Via Guiding Thread)— But the dagger gun lodged in Michele’s chest was attached to an ultra-fine thread, shimmering with Guiding Light. Dagger Gun, Crest— It was Guiding Thread. And on the other end of the thin line of Guiding Force was Menou. Invoke [Guiding Branch: Mistle Sword] Michele’s eyes flew open with shock. “What is this…?!” The crest conjuring was invoked, but it wasn’t an attack conjuring. The branches of Guiding Force expanded rapidly, absorbing Michele’s Guiding Force to feed their growth. Until just a moment ago, Menou would never have thought of such an approach. They were fighting head-on to drain the other’s power source. Menou simply met Michele’s Guiding Force with her Pure Concept. And yet, as if she’d suddenly remembered how she used to fight, she struck a blind spot in Michele’s defenses. Menou intended to use the crest conjuring to consume Michele’s Guiding Force. Immediately, Michele’s hand flew to her chest. If her Guiding Force ran out, she would lose her immortality. She had to destroy the dagger gun, the medium of the crest conjuring, to avoid that worst-case scenario. But of course, Menou was expecting such an obvious movement. Menou moved the hand that held the Guiding Thread connected to Michele’s chest. A thin strand of Guiding Light twined around Michele’s arm. It was absurd to think that she wouldn’t be able to break such a slim thread with her Guiding Enhancement. Michele didn’t even pay attention to it as she tried to destroy the crest conjuring that was absorbing her Guiding Force. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Suspension] Before Michele could move, Menou put Suspension on the strand of Guiding Force around Michele’s wrist. Even Pure Concept conjurings had little effect on Michele herself. So she used Suspension on a different target to entangle Michele in matter suspended in time. The Pure Concept of Time cut the thread off from the world entirely, rendering it utterly immobile. The Suspended Guiding Thread could even stop Michele at her full strength. But even that would only slow her down for a few seconds. “This won’t…stop me…!” The Guiding Force thread binding her gave an ominous creak. In her current state, Michele’s body could even break through time and space. But the obstacle still bought a few precious seconds. That was all she needed. Menou raised a finger gun for the finishing blow. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Acceleration] She aimed the Acceleration at the crest conjuring that was growing in Michele’s chest. All at once, the Guiding Force branches spread out rapidly. The growth was exponentially faster than before. The effects of the crest conjuring accelerated, too, growing taller and taller. “Urgh?!” A groan escaped Michele’s lips. She was withering away. The Guiding Force branches were growing into a tree with Michele as its source of nutrients. It spread across the sky and sent roots through the ground, the trunk growing taller and taller. Michele was buried under the enormous Guiding Force tree, barely able to move. Her desperate struggles were in vain: The Guiding Force that had expanded Michele’s presence in the world was flowing out of her at a terrific speed. The power that made her who she was slipped through her fingers. Soon she lost the strength to fight against the Suspended Guiding Thread. Michele had lost. “Ah, damn it all…” As Michele was pressed down by the increasingly enormous tree of Guiding Force feeding on her, Menou receded into the distance. She knew the battle was over, too. Soon, Michele lost sight of the girl who had taken her down. She didn’t feel bitter that she had lost. Still, she had other regrets. Deep down, Michele had always known that she hadn’t allied with Hakua to make enemies of people like Menou. She believed that Hakua would eliminate other people like herself. A thousand years. It was more than enough time to break a person. Over a thousand years, Hakua Shirakami had turned into a monster. Long ago, when people reached out to her for help, she couldn’t refuse their pleading hands. Slowly, Hakua was changing. Her Pure Concept of Ivory specialized in “accepting.” It couldn’t be a coincidence that her copy, Menou, worked with the Pure Concept of Time. Hakua could transfer other people’s Pure Concepts onto her blank white slate. She kept accepting other people’s burdens, trying to save as many as possible. She kept answering the cries for help. Until Hakua’s pure spirit was altered beyond recognition. From the moment she saved that first person, the Hakua Michele admired was gone. And Michele, too, was just one more person who had clung to her and twisted Hakua’s way of life. “I should have stopped her…” That was Michele’s last remaining duty. But she’d lost to Menou. As she lamented her first defeat in a very long time, the Guiding Force welling out of her broke into the atmosphere. Guiding Light whirled through the air, the pressure scattering everywhere. The branches sucking up Michele’s Guiding Force grew at a tremendous rate, turning into an enormous world tree. “…That’s an amazing amount of Guiding Force.” A familiar voice rang out. A young girl walked up to the defeated Michele. It was Maya. She was talking to the monolith that floated behind her. “Will this work? Okay, I thought so. All this Guiding Force ought to be enough, right?” Michele recognized the monolith, too. If she remembered right, it was Gadou’s Chamber. Maya could evidently communicate with the mind within the monolith, as she kept reconfirming with it. “Mm…aya…and…Ga…do…” Michele tried to call out their names, but her mouth wouldn’t move. Nevertheless, Maya appeared to have heard her halting syllables. Her kimono sleeves fluttered as she crouched down and looked Michele in the eyes. “…Okay. It’s ‘Michele’ now, right? I know you’re not really a bad person…but we’re going to take all this Guiding Force.” It was inevitable. Michele no longer had the strength to resist, nor did she have any right to defy Maya. As the Guiding Force flowed out of her in great waves, Michele’s consciousness faded away, too. “Still…Menou’s really amazing, too, for being able to beat someone who was the same as Ryuunosuke.” You’re damn right she is. Silently agreeing with Maya’s praise, Michele let herself fade away. As soon as she won, Menou was alone. The strength drained from her body, and she let out a long breath. Menou herself had been pushed back by the increasingly massive growth of the Guiding Force tree, moving her away from Michele. Still, Menou didn’t need to check on Michele’s state to know she had won. As the Guiding Force tree reached its full height, Menou tugged on the Guiding Thread to retrieve her dagger gun. It was a narrow victory. With desperate effort, strategy, and a lot of luck, she’d managed to win a battle that, by all rights, she should have lost. If they were to fight again, Menou would lose. She was sure of that. But even though she’d snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, Menou felt an emptiness in her heart. “…I have to go.” She raised her head, like she’d just remembered something. But where? Ignoring the question that arose in her mind, Menou tried to drag her feet forward and start walking. Then she noticed something strange. For some reason, her body wouldn’t move. It was like her feet were stuck to the ground. Despite her attempts to step forward, she couldn’t move a muscle. Huh…? A soundless voice escaped her lips. There was nothing wrong with her body. She should be able to move just fine. And yet her limbs wouldn’t budge. Menou stood there in a stupor. There was still so much that she had to do. Nothing would change until she thrust her blade into Hakua’s throat. She had to do it for all the people who had put their faith in her—she couldn’t remember their names anymore, but she was certain they existed. Menou had to defeat Hakua and save Akari, no matter what. And yet her body wouldn’t move. “Why…?” Why did she have to learn what normal emotions felt like? Suddenly, a question that seemed completely unrelated to her present condition bubbled up in her chest. It was when she shared her heart with Akari that she realized the true gravity of the sin of having taken people’s lives. Ever since she came to experience emotions with Akari, who knew a normal life in the truest sense of the word, Menou had become weak. Back then, Akari was by her side. They shared their whole selves with each other, understood everything about one another. Menou truly believed that she could go on living if Akari was by her side. She still believed that, even now. That if only Akari was by her side… But now there wasn’t a single person who would save Menou. Of course not. She didn’t deserve to be saved. Surely, she’d known that since the first time she killed another person. She was beyond redemption. But for some reason, even though she’d known for a very long time that there was no salvation in her future, she couldn’t bear to look at that future now. “Ah……” Unexpectedly, a sob escaped from her throat. The emotions flooding up from her chest overwhelmed her tear ducts. Tears blurred her vision, cries coming up like nausea. As her body rejected reality, Menou’s emotions lost balance. “Ahhh…” They weren’t tears of sadness. She wasn’t mourning a loss. She was scared. “Ah…aah…nnngh…” Tears dripped down Menou’s cheeks and soaked the soil below. Menou was crying out of pure fright. She had reverted to being a child who cried for fear of the dark. Normally, there should have been words to help her overcome that fear. There must have once been someone who told her there was nothing to be afraid of, no matter how deep the darkness. “You’ll surpass even me.” But she couldn’t even remember who told her that anymore. Menou dropped to the bare earth with a thud. “Please…” She gazed up at the sky, her tears falling to the earth, as she whispered a plea. “Someone, please…save me…” For the first time since she became an Executioner, Menou was asking for someone else to help her. Her feeble words melted away into the empty air. She was surprised at herself for uttering something so stupid. That’s not fair, she thought. What kind of a pathetic coward am I? She knew no one else would ever save her, yet she had still voiced the wish that she wanted to be saved. She was so hurt by her own cowardice that she went on weeping. There was no one to comfort Menou, who’d chosen to cry alone. She kept crying without anyone reaching out to help her. For how long, she didn’t know. “…Right.” She nodded once and stood up. Menou’s expression was refreshed and clear. The tears had finally stopped and dried up. Her heart wasn’t healed. Her hopes and salvation had simply dried up, too, temporarily paralyzed so she didn’t feel a thing anymore. And so she was able to walk again. She wiped her eyes, hiding the evidence from her face. She would use Guiding Camouflage if necessary to keep her tears a secret. She just wanted to live alongside Akari. But sure enough, that was probably impossible. Menou’s heart wasn’t strong enough to support her wish, so she propped it up and covered it with lies and bluffing. She would keep up her act of being strong for the rest of her life, until she saved Akari and disappeared. In other words, not for much longer. Menou began to walk because she knew the end was near. But someone stood in her way. “…Who are you?” The person blocking Menou’s path was a lovely young girl. Her wavy pink hair was tied up in pigtails. Judging by her outfit, she must have been a priestess, probably the serious type. The hearts that decorated her indigo sleeves would look strange on an ordinary priestess, but they suited this adorable girl quite well. Based on her looks, she couldn’t have been older than her mid-teens. It would take more than average abilities and accomplishments to don the indigo robes at such a young age. The girl didn’t introduce herself despite Menou’s question. She just gazed evenly at Menou, her green eyes glittering. “I’ve come to save you.” This unfamiliar figure spoke the very words that Menou had been longing desperately to hear. A short silence fell after Momo spoke. “Ah… I’m sorry.” The first thing Menou said was an apology, her perfect eyebrows furrowing. “You must be someone I once knew.” Her amber hair had turned almost entirely black by now. She didn’t even try to hide the loss of her memories. Momo’s chest twinged painfully. The forced smile on Menou’s face was a far cry from the smile Momo had seen that day in their childhood. Menou pulled out a diary from her breast pocket. Although she’d just been locked in a tumultuous battle with Michele, the Regression had turned back time for her clothes and equipment as well as her body. She was completely unharmed, as was the notebook where she’d written her memories. Menou flipped through the little book, asking questions. “Sahara?” “Certainly not.” “Maya…but you’re not quite the right age for that, are you?” “No.” “And you can’t be Abbie, so… I see.” As she eliminated possibilities from the list of people who might speak to her, she finally reached the right answer. “You must be Momo.” Even when Menou finally said her name, Momo didn’t let the heartbreak of being treated like a stranger by her darling Menou show on her face. “What did you mean, saying you’ll save me?” “I’m going to stop you. Your current plan.” “…I thought you were supposed to help me?” “I know all about your goal. Nono Hoshizaki told me.” “…This ‘Nono’ person must be quite a blabbermouth.” “Agreed.” “She has some nerve to spread people’s private information around.” Their faces relaxed a little as they insulted the girl with the star-shaped Guiding Light in her eyes. Nono’s Pure Concept could predict the future. She used people for her convenience so she could craft the future that suited her best. Though she was always smiling and speaking lightly, she used information about the future to entice people to do exactly what she wanted. Even now, neither Momo nor Menou knew Nono’s true intentions. With the mood lightened ever so slightly, Menou ventured to speak again. “I won against Michele, you know.” “Yes, I know. I saw.” One used a Pure Concept, the other was the masterwork of the ancient civilization. Ultimately, this monstrously destructive battle that reshaped the landscape had ended in Menou’s favor. Michele was the ultimate human weapon who had lived since the days of the ancient civilization. She could cut down the average Human Error with a single stroke. If she had one weakness, it was that she had been earnest to a fault until the very end. “Do you think you can stop me, even though I beat Michele?” “I can, and I will,” Momo replied bluntly. Momo had been angry all this time. The fury that raged within her was always directed at herself. Ever since the day that the holy land fell and she parted ways with Menou, Momo hadn’t been able to forgive herself. When she was young, Momo was abandoned by her family and wound up at a monastery. Then, one day, Menou’s smile saved her. In place of the normal life she had lost, Momo placed her faith in Menou and believed in her blindly. She lived her life by following Menou as her guide. So that day in the holy land, all she could do was exactly what Menou told her. She adored and obeyed her, even though she had vowed to protect that smile. It felt good to be treated kindly by Menou. Momo stayed by Menou’s side so she could bask in that kindness. Now Momo was furious for contenting herself with that naive adoration when it was utterly useless to her darling Menou. It was because she took the role as Menou’s assistant and always stayed a step behind her that Momo couldn’t save Menou’s heart. So obeying Menou’s wishes half a year ago was also Momo’s way of punishing herself. She thought it would be better to spend some time apart. “I’m going to defeat you, darling. And then I’ll save you.” So she could get stronger. So she could become the kind of person who could save Menou for real this time. Momo confronted the person she cared for most in all the world. Menou’s heart wasn’t in it. She was all too aware that her mind wasn’t focused on battle as she gazed at her would-be opponent. A short, adorable girl with pink hair. Menou had just learned her name. Momo. She was a priestess with no last name. Evidently, Momo was her assistant. So why in the world did Menou have to fight her? What was the point? This might have been the first time Menou lost her concentration in the face of an obvious threat. Menou’s movements were listless as she drew the dagger gun from the strap around her thigh. What did fighting this girl have to do with taking down Hakua? Nothing. It was a pointless battle. “Must we fight?” “Yes, we must.” Menou’s sorrowful question was met with an immediate answer. “I have to win against you.” “You’re very stubborn. Winning against the likes of me won’t do you any good, you know.” “Yes, it will. If I win, a path will open up. The path to saving you.” “Any path that requires defeating someone else…isn’t worth following, I’d say.” “A path is a path. Sometimes you just need to use a little brute force.” “…I suppose.” Menou had walked such a path herself. Her way of life was stained in dark red. “The thing is…I’ve done so many terrible things.” “……” “I did it because I was taught that it was for the good of the world. Because that’s what the person I looked up to did.” “You mean Master.” “Yes, perhaps that’s who it was. But now I just want to be with my friend.” “Depending on how things go, I might end up killing your friend.” “…I see.” “I came here prepared to do whatever it takes.” Menou looked down quietly. She wanted to say that there was no point. No matter how strong one’s emotions, they could never shake reality. Even Menou herself had forgotten the strong feelings she once held. Her feelings toward this girl, who must have been so important to her. “You know…I’m planning on giving up this body to Akari.” Akari would go into Menou’s body when her last memories vanished. In exchange, Menou would enter Akari’s body. Having taken on all of the Pure Concept of Time, Menou’s soul would enter Akari’s body and turn into salt. Which would leave Akari, alive and set free from her Pure Concept. Menou didn’t think this ending was so bad. But the eyes of the girl in front of her were burning with anger. “Do you have any idea how I felt when Nono Hoshizaki told me that was what you were planning to do?” “…Bad?” “Very bad.” Please just give up on me. I’m not worth it. Menou opened her mouth to say this, then changed her mind. How pointless would those words be? Menou herself had certainly never given up just because someone told her to. Even after Akari became a Human Error, Menou carried on. She kept fighting, determined that there must be some way to save her friend. Even when Nono informed her there was no way to nullify the effects of the Sword of Salt, she kept searching for a way forward. And now she had finally carved out a path to save Akari. Menou wasn’t going to try to convince someone else to stop with words that never would have persuaded her. It would be nothing short of looking down on her. Surely, the girl blocking her way had something she believed in every bit as much as Menou did. “All right.” The pair faced each other down. Each for the sake of the person they believed in most. One girl was utterly depleted, and the other still had hope in her eyes. “Come at me.” Menou glared with cold intent to kill at the girl whose name she had forgotten. Guiding Light phosphorescence flashed. They moved faster than the average person would be able to follow. Launching toward each other at the same time, they closed the distance in the blink of an eye. “Gah!” The cry came from Momo. As she charged forward with Guiding Enhancement coursing through her body, Menou met her with a merciless elbow strike. Momo had been so focused on Menou’s daggers that she couldn’t dodge or defend herself in time from this unexpected attack. She barely had time to react at all before the elbow hit her jaw, drawing a strange yelp from her throat. Usually, this one attack would be enough to rattle someone’s brain and knock them out. It was so dangerous that it could potentially even kill the target. But not if that person was strengthening their body with plenty of Guiding Force. Momo grimaced at the impact, but she didn’t lose consciousness for a second. Instead, she used the momentum to swing her leg up high. Menou’s response to the point-blank counterattack was levelheaded. She brought up the tip of her dagger to catch the kick. “Ngh!” Momo couldn’t stop her forward motion; the blade tore into her ankle. She felt heat before the pain. While a normal person would be screaming and writhing, Momo only narrowed her eyes. But fighting spirit alone wasn’t enough to stop Menou. “Too slow.” Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale] It took only a fraction of a second for the Guiding Force to flow into the dagger and the crest conjuring to activate. A burst of wind swept Momo upward. Her feet were no longer on the ground. The human body’s mobility is drastically decreased without any support. Menou’s hand shot out. Floating in midair, Momo had no way of avoiding her. She tried to shake her off, but Menou grabbed her. Then she flicked her wrist downward. Momo’s body turned in midair. She could see the sky, her perspective flipped upside down. Menou smashed Momo headfirst into the ground. “…!!” This time, she didn’t even make a sound. Even after throwing her down violently, Menou didn’t stop moving. The sole of her boot careened toward Momo’s face. Momo just barely managed to roll and avoid the kick. Menou was strong. She was overpowering Momo with her combat techniques, but Momo was only just getting started. The Guiding Light around Momo grew a shade brighter. All at once, her movements changed. Her thoughts steadied. Momo’s abilities had evolved. Her mind was cold and clear. She suppressed her heightened emotions with the power of reason and grasped her burning feelings with her fist. During her time with Michele, Momo’s Guiding Enhancement had become far more refined. Her eyes blazed with Guiding Light. Momo’s limbs whirled. A single hit would break bones and crush flesh, but each and every fierce strike in her volley struck nothing but air. Menou expertly read Momo’s movements and stayed a step ahead. Menou’s dagger gun pointed at Momo, who was wary of its ability to fire Pure Concepts. Almost on reflex, Momo kicked Menou’s weapon upward. The dagger gun was knocked out of Menou’s hand and sent flying into the air. But this was just bait Menou had laid to entice Momo into moving. Menou had let go of her weapon an instant before Momo’s foot struck the dagger gun. Now both her palms struck Momo squarely in the chest. “Urgh!” Momo’s breath caught. The impact to her lungs hindered her breathing. The dagger gun spun through the air and landed right back in Menou’s hand. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger Gun, Crest—Invoke [Thunderclap] The crest conjuring struck Momo with lightning. “Ah…nnngh!” As Momo’s consciousness threatened to fade, she bit down hard on her lower lip with a fang-like tooth to force herself to stay awake. Her mouth tasted of iron. Menou’s eyes narrowed when Momo failed to pass out from the Thunderclap. “It’d be easier on you if you fainted.” That was absolutely none of her concern. Momo’s eyes flashed. They welled with tears as she glared at Menou and yelled in frustration. “Why are you always like this?!” “Like what…?” “You always try to sacrifice yourself first…! Why don’t you ever try to save yourself?! Even when we were in the monastery! You decided to become an Executioner just to spare those random idiots…! You’re so strong, you could’ve become anything you wanted! So why do you always go out of your way to choose the hardest path?!” “Shut up already!” A sudden shriek tore out of Menou’s lips. The harsh objection made Momo gasp. The Menou she knew would never have reacted like this. It was utterly unlike Menou to lay her emotions bare over just a few angry words. “Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don’t care about the past! Any of it!” And yet the Menou in front of her now was letting her feelings fly, spitting venom without any attempt to control it. “I don’t know anything anymore! It’s all gone!! I can’t remember a single thing about the past. All I have are these useless flashes of déjà vu! I can’t understand my own feelings, either…! You have no idea what that’s like—so how can you say I could’ve become anything?!” Menou headbutted Momo. While it had the air of a child throwing a tantrum, it was still a powerful move. She broke through Momo’s guard at once, then swung a kick, driving her foot into Momo’s torso. “I don’t even know why I’m fighting anymore…so what could I possibly become now?” Menou wasn’t fighting to achieve her goal anymore. She was only fighting for that goal to hold herself together. “I feel like I’m losing my mind… Ha-ha. No, maybe not.” As Menou mocked herself, she spat out a mixture of blood and saliva. “Maybe I lost it a long time ago… Can you tell me?” Menou asked Momo with a smile that looked like it would break at the slightest touch. “From your point of view, am I still ‘Menou,’ or not?” Momo stood there, stunned.
Chapter 147
43 min read