“Having someone to protect makes you stronger.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Eve remembered how Rinko had pushed through her injuries.
Thnk!
The memory was apparently so infuriating that Eve smacked herself upside the head, trying to physically knock it out of her mind.
“Goddammit…”
She cracked her neck, glaring at Lloyd.
“I don’t want this world getting messed up,” he said. “I want to protect my friends and the world we live in. That’s why I fight. Nothing more, nothing less. I bet your reason for fighting is awfully shallow. Tell me—why do you fight?”
“I just wanna have fun!”
Lloyd was in full therapist mode now. “Really?” he asked. “You don’t seem to be having any fun right now.”
Oblivious as ever, he dug right to the crux of the matter.
Mind games were Eve’s forte, and he was trouncing her. Which left her flailing.
“Any sports team puts themselves through the wringer before the big event! That’s all this is,” she said.
“If you’re so sure of that, how come you’re not attacking? I’m wide open here.”
That made her snap. “Shut up!” she roared. “You don’t—you can’t understand the suffering of someone who’s got everything and can do everything!”
It was hardly a fair retort, but Lloyd didn’t bat an eye.
“You were always kinda lonely, right?”
“Was not! Damn kid…!”
“I know better! There’s no real difference between can and can’t! If you’re too good at everything for anyone else to keep up, then I’ll keep up! That’ll end your suffering!”
“You’re hardly a match for me! I admire your nerve if nothing else, village wimp!”
Eve’s bellowing filled the Last Dungeon’s depths.
Her fury spilled over, and she threw every power she had at Lloyd, trying to crush him.
Lloyd raised his handkerchief.
“Here goes.”
Their eyes met. Sparks flew. And—
✦ ✦ ✦
Bam! Ba-bam!
✦ ✦ ✦
Both shot forward and met in a violent clash.
“Gah!”
That grunt came from Lloyd.
Eve’s fist had dug into his ribs.
“Lloyd!”
“Lloyd?!”
He was down on one knee.
Eve had finally scored, and she looked quite smug about it. “How’s that? No tricks at all! Just a straight punch, all my power behind it! I may have slipped up and let myself get hurt, but if I apply all the demon lord powers—oh?”
The smug look drained away as realization dawned.
Clnk. The golem rocks fell from her arm.
Flop. The writhing roots rotted away.
Swsh. Abaddon’s wings fell from her back.
“?”
Eve herself had no clue what was happening. She just stared at the palm of her hand.
It was drying out; its gloss and tone were gone.
But this wasn’t her first time seeing this.
This was old age.
Her palm was rapidly turning back into the wrinkled mess she’d so loathed, and she couldn’t bear it.
“Huh? Why?!” she wailed, her voice shaking. “He only brushed me! Where is my super healing? That handkerchief barely touched me! Or…was it his handkerchief?”
Her brain caught up, and she realized Lloyd had diligently drawn something on that cloth.
“Was that…a rune?!”
She’d been too far gone—and had totally forgotten all about that.
“Wh-what did you do?! What rune was that?!”
Lloyd got up, clutching his side, and showed her the rune on his handkerchief.
“You can’t mean…”
“Rinko just taught it to me! The rune that cancels immortality.”
Eve staggered backward. “N-no! You’ve gotta be kidding!”
It was a reasonable reaction. Rinko had made it sound like only she knew about it.
“You just learned it?!” Eve wailed. “That’s hardly enough time! There’s no way you could master this rune in less than an hour! This isn’t real! It’s just an illusion!” She wanted that to be true, but her skin was indeed aging in real time. “Fake! Smoke and mirrors! Learning new runes is not that easy!”
“No, it’s true. Rinko just taught it to me.”
“Huh?! Then what? You’re a secret rune master?! Please. I ain’t losing to that Gary Stu bullshit!”
Lloyd just quietly shook his head. “I’m no master. This rune is just very similar to one I use all the time. That’s why I learned it so fast.”
“All…the time?” Satan said, looking closer. “Oh! Now I see it. It’s based on the same thing as the disenchant rune!”
“Seriously?” Anzu said. “The same thing he used to free the king from Abaddon’s possession and cancel out Dionysos’s curse? The one he uses all the time when he’s cleaning house? Makes sense!”
Anzu started nodding.
Eve’s screech went up another octave. “How does that make any sense, Anzy?!”
“It cancels curses and spells. And to Rinko—immortality was a curse.”
Rinko had created this rune to free herself from the fate of not aging with her beloved, of seeing her child die before her. What was that but a curse?
There was nothing odd about the similarity to a disenchant rune. They served similar functions.
“Freedom from immortality’s curse… Lab Chief Rinko’s wish was in line with the disenchantment rune Alka had previously developed.”
“And Lloyd happened to learn that rune to help clean. That’s why we call him a miracle.”
Meanwhile, Eve was left aghast. And furious.
“I don’t think it’s a curse! No, no! That’s not my curse, mine is—”
✦ ✦ ✦
She could do anything, acquire anything. She had power and fame, but she was never close to anyone.
✦ ✦ ✦
“?!”
A glimpse of her old self had brought out the truth.
Her rapidly advancing age was addling her mind, making her life flash before her eyes.
But the words that had just left her mouth made her stop and think.
When she’d still been in Asako’s body—
That dreaming girl had seen the Azami girls having a pajama party, and she’d been envious. Eve had dismissed that feeling.
But had she actually shared that desire? Perhaps her impulsive rejection had been because she was a kindred spirit. She’d caught a glimpse of her old self. And—
“Oh, right. That’s why I was able to possess her.”
It was all clear to her now.
Because they’d both shared the same dream, their minds had been able to break the laws of nature and share a body.
Her dream had never come true—and she’d rationalized it by saying she’d abandoned it for the bigger picture. She’d averted her eyes from the pain.
And immortality had made that permanent.
The rationalization was the only thing getting her through life, but it had warped her personality—what was that but a curse?
Somewhere inside, she’d always known it was. And the proof was in the aging of her body.
At last, she admitted it. She watched as the wrinkles carved themselves into her hand, and she felt a weight falling off her shoulders.
“……”
The anti-immortality rune glittered.
Lloyd never took his eyes off Eve. They were shining, like the first ray of light at the end of a long night. As warm as sunlight itself.
Eve smiled and sat down on the floor, legs crossed. Like a soccer player collapsing to the field the moment the final whistle blows. Like the kind of girl who cares more about running her heart out rather than worrying about the final score.
“Enough. I’m done.” Eve waved a hand, acknowledging the loss.
Lloyd didn’t relax yet. He knew she was a liar, and he wasn’t letting his guard down easily.
She held out her hand. “See?” she said. “Look how powerful it is. That rune lifted the curse.” She managed a wistful smile. “All this time, I’ve been forcing myself in a body that wasn’t my own. I was little more than a ghost, but I clung to this world anyway. I can feel the strength escaping now, like so much hot air.”
“……”
Lloyd said nothing, and Eve kept talking.
“I imagine canceling immortality wouldn’t ordinarily age you instantly like this. Maybe it’s because this isn’t my body? It’s being dragged up to my real age. I certainly can’t fight anymore.”
She meant every word.
Sensing she’d worked through something, Lloyd finally put his hands down.
“Okay.”
That was all he said.
This cross-world villainess had trashed his brother—yet now that it was over, he had nothing to say.
He just stood there, watching her age.
“Yeah,” she said with a feeble smile. “You never had much of a grudge against me. You barely knew who I was.”
There was a hint of spite in the words.
“That’s why I admitted my loss. You may not mean to, but you run right on in and unravel the things that are all tangled up in people’s hearts. That’s what’s good about you.”