“S-Senpai...?”
He noticed me too. Something was clearly wrong, though. His eyes were vacant and he seemed to be in intense pain.
“Ugh...”
His slender body swayed as he fell to his knees.
“Kudou!”
I immediately went over to him and tried to support him, but was startled when my hand went right through him.
“Huh...?”
“Unfortunately, he’s not actually here,” the first savior said. “His form is simply being projected. I made it so those who have even the slightest potential can be contacted.”
“What do you mean...?” I asked.
“I’m telling you he’s the third one with potential,” he answered casually.
“Kudou is?” I said stiffly.
It was unexpected. I’d been under the impression that the power to manipulate his servants as pawns and the ability to form a connection to others’ hearts were mutually exclusive, but then I remembered my conversation with Berta.
“He didn’t gain power when he decided to walk down the path of the Demon King. Having escaped the Colony, he refused to give up. He struggled to survive in the Woodlands. That was when I became his servant.”
That said, that potential had already been lost before it could bloom. It had been a possibility, but now, it was nothing more than the remnants of a trampled future that would never be.
“Just as I’d expect of you, Senpai,” Kudou said, agony clear in his voice. “Even in a place like this, you remain calm.”
The first savior had drawn him here. By all rights, he shouldn’t be able to reach this place.
“I only heard the last bit, but it seems I won’t be able to help.” He looked up at me, a self-deriding smile on his lips. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Just sending Berta to us was more than enough.”
“Is that so...? Has she been doing well?”
Perhaps because he was so weakened, Kudou was more defenseless than normal. Unlike his usual emotionless expression, he smiled broadly. I could see clear resolve in his eyes. What was it? When I saw him like this, I felt an indescribable anxiety in my heart.
“Kudou...”
I’d chased him through those worlds, and now we finally met. There was so much I wanted to tell him. There was so much I wanted to ask him. I’d heard a lot of new information from Berta. She’d been keeping the fact that she’d become his servant before he became the Demon King a secret. But she was so bad at lying. She had an innocent nature that made it impossible for her. A doubt came to mind.
Did Kudou really not know?
Why had he sent Berta to me?
What was he thinking? What did he hope for?
If we had the time, I wanted to talk. But we didn’t. Before we could speak, another voice called out to me.
“Is that enough? This is the limit to the time I can make for us.”
Time was up. Kudou’s figure vanished immediately. The first savior was no longer able to interfere with this world. I could feel his threads of control coming apart. I stood up and turned around.
“Are you prepared?” he asked calmly. “You must escape the Calamitous King’s grasp.”
“You make it sound so easy...”
It was unreasonable. My opponent was the exploration team’s hero, the Sword of Light. He’d unveiled his true nature as the Calamitous King too. It would be hard enough just to run away, but I had to snatch the Dimensional Cornerstones too. Honestly, even if I staked my life on it, the probability of pulling it off was pretty much zero. This was far too reckless. Nevertheless, if I didn’t do it, everyone would die.
“One last thing,” I said. “There’s something that’s been bothering me.”
“What’s that?”
“Why did Nakajima Kojirou do this?” I asked. It simply didn’t make any sense. “If he’s a Conduit, there was no need to chase the Dragon and go through those worlds with me, right?”
Anything I could do in those fabricated worlds he should’ve been able to accomplish with ease.
“I don’t know either,” the first savior said, shaking his head. “However, it may have nothing to do with necessity.”
“What?”
“I mean to say we may not be able to understand by applying logic to his actions. Keep that in mind. The one you’ll be facing is abnormal—abnormal enough to threaten the world in the truest sense.”
What came to mind was the radiant figure of a boy who was a hero among heroes. He had every member of the exploration team in his heart. It truly looked like he was cheering them on with all sincerity. He was endlessly amiable to us as well. If none of that was just for show, then that actually made him...
“The world is in your hands.”
Nevertheless, I had to defy him. With those last words from the first savior, I surfaced from my inner world.