All of the world’s grief and suffering that Ney had felt through her ability to read minds reached Maha, raging and coursing within her.
“Well? Do you still believe living to be worth it?” Ney asked.
“You…you showed Ruri this?!” Though unsteady, Maha managed to stay on her feet. The lamentations of the world still rushed about within her, but she felt an even stronger emotion now. Acting on it, she stepped forward. “Ruri, wake up. There’s more to the world than just these sad voices.”
With uneasy steps, Maha drew closer to Ruri. Ney watched her pass by but made no move to stop her. Maha’s feet rose and fell one step at a time, her progress slow but steady. A sliver of doubt began to appear on Ruri’s face.
“Everyone is suffering… I have to save them…”
“There’s no salvation in oblivion, Ruri.”
“But Miss Maha… Don’t you hear them? Everyone is crying.” She covered her ears with her hands. “They keep telling me. Stop the sadness. It’s too much. Help us.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s okay to end the world.”
“What else is there to do? Miss Maha. Please. Tell me.” Ruri pleaded desperately.
“Ruri, you loved people, living, seeing new life—all of it, more than anyone. Are you going to deny that all now?”
“If this world…!” For an instant, clear will returned to Ruri’s eyes. “If this world is going to be so full of sadness, then I’d rather not have been born into it at all!”
That was unmistakably the cry of her soul. No tears streamed down her face, but none could doubt this gentle homunculus was full of lament for the world’s pain. Maha stopped in her tracks for a moment. But she soon began walking forward once more.
“…You want to bring an end to all suffering?”
“Yes…”
“Even if that means there will be no more happiness?”
“Yes…”
“Is life not worth living?”
“Yes…”
Maha was almost before Ruri.
“You don’t really mean any of that.”
“…How can you say that?”
“Because why else would you be crying?”
Confusion appeared on Ruri’s face. She touched her cheeks and found them dry. “But I’m not—”
“No. You are. Listen to me, Ruri.” Maha spoke with all her heart. “You and Ney might be right. If the world and everything in it became nothing, and all the suffering disappeared, we just might be better off.” She paused to look Ruri in the eyes. “But you know…” She smiled awkwardly. “I can tell you’re waiting for someone to tell you such a sad truth can’t be.”
Ruri’s red eyes shot wide. Tears began to well up and trickle down her face, like her wounded heart was finally allowing itself to bleed.
“I once wished I hadn’t been born too,” Maha continued. “So I understand what you and Ney mean to say. But no matter how painful, or miserable, or difficult things become—I don’t for a moment want to give up this precious life I have with you.”
That was, in Maha’s own way, an admission of her feelings for Ruri.
“Do we wish we weren’t born because that’s what we really want? Or are we just blinded by the difficulty of living in the moment?”
That had been Maha’s case. She had falsely believed she wasn’t loved by her mother, been bogged down by her constant battles, and wound up wishing she had never been born.
“I don’t believe it’s what we really want. I believe we all want to live, to cry out with all our heart that we were glad to be born. We shouldn’t hate the lives we were given but look to overcome our troubles and suffering.”
Maha saw her words as something akin to a prayer. An earnest prayer for herself to be able to live the way she described, and for Ruri to do the same.
“It’s better that we be born for the wrong reasons and live than to let such a sad truth be the answer. Just because something is logical, doesn't mean it can’t be wrong. But deep down, you know that already, don’t you?”
The return to nothingness Ney and the demons wanted might be the most logical thing to do, but Maha’s words resonated deeper with Ruri’s heart. They reached past Ruri’s superficial wish of never having been born and called out her true wish hidden deeper within. Ruri felt that flame within her, the one that had almost gone out, ignite once more.
“Even if there’s sadness, even if there’s contradiction, that’s not all life has to offer. You should know that yourself, Ruri. You were the one to teach me that, after all.” Maha finally stood before Ruri.
Still on her knees, Ruri looked up at her. The light was gradually returning to her eyes.
“I saw how you saw beauty in the world, how you had fun playing with children, how you smiled at that baby. You were the one who made me think that life wasn’t so bad if you were in it.”
“…Miss Maha.”
“Come back to me, Ruri.” Maha reached her hand out. Ruri tried to grab hold of it, but before their hands could touch—
“That’s far enough.”
A crude slab of metal wedged itself in between them.
“Such a shame. I had hoped I would have humanity’s approval as I returned everything to the void.”
The one blocking the two was, naturally, Ney. She had brought her massive sword down, a look of sad disappointment on her face.
“Even if you did somehow get our approval, that wouldn’t mean you had humanity’s,” Maha said.
“Wouldn’t it? Ruri was made for the continued existence of humanity. She essentially represents their collective will. If she of all people were to wish for humanity’s end, then wouldn’t that be the opinion of humanity?”
“That doesn’t make a bit of sense.”
“Hm. Perhaps that was too much for you to understand. No matter.” Ney lifted her sword and rested it on her shoulder. She dropped to a knee and reached her other hand out to the magic circle on the floor. “You’ve left me with no other choice. I’ll do things by force.”
The instant she made contact with the magic circle, its complex pattern began to glow. No, perhaps glow isn’t the word. A dark light, perhaps nothingness itself, began to rise from the magic circle.
“Ruri, run!”
“I-I can’t! I can’t move!”
Maha looked down and saw Ruri’s legs were caught in the magic circle from where she kneeled. She tried to pull her out, but the circle held onto Ruri as though it had a will of its own.
“Ney! End this foolishness already!”
“There’s nothing foolish about granting salvation to the world.”
“…Is there nothing I can say to persuade you?”
“No. If you want to stop me, then show me your strength. Life or nothingness. Let’s decide here what path the world will choose.”