“Huh...?”
I fearfully opened my tightly-shut eyes, and before me was...
“Is this... the spiritual realm? It looks like a castle.”
“It sure does.”
R and I took a look around, and like we’d both noted, it really did seem like we were inside a castle. A hall with stone walls and floors. Ornate pillars and other decorations. A long, plush runner. I was fairly familiar with this fantastical setting by now.
“What’s going on? It’s so dark in here...”
Wait. Come to think of it, I’d specifically been to a dark castle like this before. One where the only light was from the torches on the walls. A castle so creepy that it had to have been made that way on purpose. It was just like—
“Who goes there?”
“?!”
I couldn’t help flinching when I heard that low voice from the darkness. It practically rumbled the whole castle... Whatever it was, it sounded like it must be pretty big. And, actually, it sounded familiar.
“Rekka!” R suddenly shouted, pointing down the hall.
“Don’t tell me the human hero dares to set foot in my castle a second time.”
“That’s...”
When I looked in the direction R was pointing, I saw...
“The Demon Overlord?!”
Yup, there was no mistaking it. That was the Demon Overlord who was trying to destroy the kingdom of Aburaamu in Harissa’s story.
I thought I defeated him! Why is he here?!
I wanted the details, but it wasn’t like he was about to sit down and explain them to me.
“Curse you... I’ll destroy you for certain this time!”
“Waaah! No! You’ve got the wrong guy!”
An obvious lie, but still! I didn’t have the Hero’s Sword or a laser gun or anything else on hand right now! I couldn’t play the part of a hero even if I wanted to! But the dragon wasn’t about to have pity on me...
“Ugh!”
I took off in a sprint, fleeing as fast as possible. We were in some kind of hallway, but there were no doors on either side. It just connected to the next hallway, one after another like they went on forever.
“Wh-Wh-Why is the Demon Overlord here?!”
“Who knows? Maybe this is your trial.”
“I can’t slay a dragon barehanded!”
“You saved all those stories, but beating up a dragon is out of the question, huh?”
“I couldn’t even beat up a goblin!”
“Too bad, I guess,” R muttered.
Urgh! This was no time for gallows humor!
“Hold it right there!”
“No thank you!”
I ran straight down the hall in a panic, chased by the Overlord and his angry roar. When I glanced over my shoulder, I could see him stomping along on all fours with terrifying speed.
“He’s fast for a dragon!”
“Well, his stride is much larger than yours.”
“How can you be so calm right now?!”
I was running with all my might, but I was still so slow. Like Yuuhi had warned me, I hadn’t suddenly gotten stronger just because I was in the spiritual realm.
“Oh, looks like Mr. Dragon here’s about to breathe fire.”
“WHAT?!”
R’s warning made me pick up the pace a little.
“Raargh!”
When I saw the next upcoming turn in the hall, I threw myself around the corner in desperation. Not a second later, a blast of flame roared down the corridor where I’d just been running.
Oh my god... I was nearly a human barbeque...
Happy to still be alive, I heaved a sigh of relief. It was premature.
“Rekka, watch out!”
“Huh? Uwah!”
I dove to avoid the bolt of lightning that was sailing towards me out of nowhere, rolling along the stone tiles several times before coming to a stop. Wait, lightning? If memory served, the Demon Overlord didn’t have any lightning powers... So what was that attack just now? I raised my head and looked in the direction the bolt had come from.
To my surprise, a large, wide-open field spread out before me. The stone hallway of the castle ended abruptly, opening to the outdoors. When I’d come to the Demon Overlord’s castle with Harissa originally, we’d warped straight into the Overlord’s room. I wasn’t exactly familiar with the layout of the rest of the castle, but this design was just too nonsensical. And, if I wasn’t mistaken...
“This field looks familiar.”
“It sure does.”
I was hoping it was just a trick of the light, but there was no fooling myself about that bolt of lightning just now. It was definitely an electric magical attack, and this field was...
“So you finally deigned to make an appearance, boy.”
“Oh no...”
A chill running up my spine, I turned to see who it was... And there he stood. The villain of Satsuki’s story, the ultimate mage, Messiah Kyandistrapps.
“Now let us settle our duel over the girl with the Omniscient Magic,” Messiah scoffed, his theatrical cape fluttering in the wind along with his blond hair.
Ah, damn it... Even his laugh was the same. This was definitely Messiah.
“Groooh! Heeeeero!”
Lucky me. That was when the Demon Overlord caught up to us. For some reason, however, Messiah didn’t seem to think anything of a dragon arriving on the scene.
“Come at me, boy!” he shouted, trying to start the duel as though nothing was out of the ordinary.
A mage at my twelve and a dragon on my six? Wait, don’t tell me I’m supposed to take them both on at the same time! Or are King Satamonia’s meteor, Behemoth, and Zolphiakd all going to show up too?!
“It seems this is what you might refer to as the boss rush right before the final boss.”
“These guys are plenty of end-game content on their own!”
I knew R was right, but I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t even have any heroines here to help me out.
“What am I supposed to do?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
▽
Back in Maine’s world at the extremists’ hideout...
After Rekka departed for Sith’s world, the girls who remained behind began cleaning up the current situation, which involved dealing with the Greater Galactic Federation fleet still surrounding the extremist base. But despite all the tension, it was a peaceful encounter. Iris was leading the fleet, after all, and she knew what was really going on behind the scenes.
Hibiki—still acting as a higher-up of the extremist faction—issued a fabricated order from Yuuhi for the extremists to surrender to the Greater Galactic Federation forces. Not all of the extremists were willing to go quietly, but there was no disputing the fact that they were outnumbered and outgunned right now. It wasn’t too hard for Hibiki to convince everyone that their best option was surrender. And so, after informing Iris of the extremists’ cooperation, Hibiki brought Iris alone to the secret underground basement of the hideout, and the doctor got her up to speed on everything that had happened. And that was when the real trouble began...
“Why did you let that Yuuhi woman escape?!”
“We didn’t let her escape. Rekka took her back to her world so they could end the goddesses’ game.”
“I don’t care about that! She killed my father!”
“...”
The doctor was speechless before Iris’s rage. There was no denying what Iris had said, and there was no denying her anger. Yuuhi was an enemy Iris would never forgive, and the doctor couldn’t offer even the slightest objection to that. Neither could the other heroines.
“...”
Iris fell quiet, but her heart was still stirring. No matter how upset Iris was, Yuuhi wasn’t here right now. There was no one for her to take her anger out on. But it wasn’t like she could just let go of her emotions... Instead, she turned them in a different direction.
“Also... was it really okay to let Rekka go?”
“What do you mean?”
“Rekka from the past isn’t as strong as the Rekka we all know, right? Does he really have the power to solve a goddess’s problems? If Rekka from the past goes and dies in another world, what’s going to happen to this world?”
Neither the doctor nor the other heroines could offer Iris an immediate answer. Their belief in Rekka Namidare was absolute. But like Iris had said, the Rekka they’d sent to another world wasn’t the Rekka they all knew. He didn’t have any power to speak of; certainly none compared to future Rekka. They’d only let him go in the first place because, somehow or another, he had managed to stop the extremists. That gave the future heroines a reason to trust him. A reason to believe that he was really Rekka Namidare after all and that things would turn out okay. But confronted so bluntly by Iris, they all began to question themselves. Would it really be okay?
Future Rekka and past Rekka were different people. The doctor thought she knew that better than anyone, but had even she let her biases influence her? Perhaps she should have done a little more research before letting past Rekka go to Sith’s world... That nagging regret grew louder and louder in the back of her mind. But, suddenly, even it was drowned out by the sound of someone stomping and shouting.
“Shut up, you old hag!”