They felt the mana of Anna’s Fair-Faced Angel swell…and even Serephina couldn’t help but tremble at its overwhelming power.
Ugh, we can’t win…! There’s no way we can win against something like this…!
She was soon drenched in cold sweat.
“…Why…?” Randy, despite his shaking, threw out a question. “I don’t care about your organization or whatever… Just, why are you so obsessed with Shino…?”
Then…
“You, do not disrespect Shino—no, Lady Shino—with such insolence.”
…suddenly, Anna’s tone of voice shifted, taking the group aback.
Then she again turned to Shino and bowed reverently.
“Finally… Finally, it seems you have awoken, O great leader.”
“…?!”
“Huh?”
“Shino is…your leader…?”
Ignoring Serephina and the others, Anna seemed to be carried away with passion.
“We the Faith Faction have long awaited this day—eagerly anticipated this day of reckoning for an eternity!” she cried. “In order to reawaken your great Sphere, we dared to impose such mental burdens upon you as inciting a sea monster to attack your ship and instigating battles with mortal fools such as Gordon. We hope you will forgive such irreverence. However, it was all for you, our great leader’s sake!”
“…Sea monster…? Gordon…? You aren’t saying…that was all you…?!”
“We have already prepared everything for you, my lady. For you indeed are our one true guide. Our sublime shepherd. Our sage ruler. The leader of this world. Please, lead us where you will. Walk alongside us on the path to the ultimate truth. Lady Shino Whytenight—our emblem of truth and the great founder of faith magic. Or should I say…the Dusk Demon, Lady Shenola?!”
A wave of shock washed over them.
“Shino is…?”
“The Dusk Demon…?!”
It was a name every person in the world knew.
If they didn’t learn it from their childhood nursery rhymes, they surely learned it in their history of magic class at the academy.
The name of the strongest mage in history, who ruled over the Mythical Era two thousand years ago in a reign of death and darkness. The dark lord of tyranny and gluttony. The most heinous criminal in all of human history—the Dusk Demon.
And that same Dusk Demon…was Shino?
It was unbelievable; it had to be a lie…at least as far as her friends were concerned.
Shino closed her eyes in resignation, let out a sigh, and then spoke quietly.
“Yes. I am the Dusk Demon, Shenola…or I was.”
“Was?”
“In my previous life. My current self is a reincarnation of Shenola the Dusk Demon. When I was killed by that man, I was supposed to have died completely, but it seems I’ve been reborn into this age. Though I have no idea why.”
“Yes! The Dusk Demon’s soul was miraculously reincarnated into this modern age after being so unfortunately defeated by the swordsman two thousand years ago. And so it was foretold in our sacred text, the Hael Prophecy! What divine coincidence is this? Or is it a miracle? Nay, none of these! It is inevitable! It is fate! The Dusk Demon, Lady Shenola, has risen once again to guide us in our ignorance, to reign once more at the pinnacle of this world, and to unravel the truths of the universe!
“This—this is the great will of this world! Come, Lady Shenola! Please, show us once again what lies beyond the mastery of faith magic! Guide us on our journey of exploration of the abyss!”
In front of the group, who were all still frozen in place, Anna spoke with a look of feverish glee and reached out her hand to Shino…
“Screw you.”
Shino spat that response back at her.
“Lady Shenola…?”
“Faith magic? Are you stupid? Faith Faction? Give me a break. Do you have any idea just what I…what the Dusk Demon did? Have modern people…learned nothing from history? Ha… You say faith magic is the closest to the truths of the universe? That it’s the greatest and most sublime power? Don’t make me laugh. That’s nothing…but a load of crap!”
Shino was shaking with anger.
“And I, the one who went so far as to create and practice such crap with a sense of purpose, am even more of an extraordinary load of crap! I’m a scumbag fiend, worse than a piece of garbage,” she added. “What are you calling faith magic?! This idiotic, comical tap dance as you overstep the bounds of the human realm?! How many innocent people do you think I killed while I was swallowed up by that ridiculous power, swept up in the joy of destruction and carnage?! What a joke! Ah-ha-ha-ha?! You want to know what lies beyond the mastery of faith magic, you say? Here, I’ll tell you! Absolutely nothing!
“You drown in power, become intoxicated by it, and end up doing nothing but seeking more, killing, destroying, torturing others, bringing endless carnage and tyranny—and beyond that, there’s nothing! Not the friends I wanted to protect! Not the family I loved! Not my beloved hometown! Nothing! Nothing! There was nothing! Nothing…! I just…loved magic so much…!
“I only wanted to use that magic…to put smiles on the faces of the people I cared about, if even just for a short while… Among all the war and chaos…I only wanted to protect as many people as I could… That was all I wanted, and yet…! And yet…I…ugh…! Sniff…”
Suddenly, Shino broke down in tears.
Randy, Serephina, and Annie were lost for words.
The reality that Shino was the Dusk Demon still hadn’t fully hit them, and even if it was true, they had no idea what in the world they could say in response to her inner conflict and anguish.
This was a story from long, long past, one they had only read about in their history textbooks.
But it was clear that her regret was deeper than the sea, and the guilt she felt crushed her with the weight of mountains.
And those feelings of despair, helplessness, and emptiness they caused her were her true nature.
Randy and the others could only imagine what had happened in that far distant past.
But Shino’s tears and her unconcealed cries gouged deep into their souls.
“Shino…”
“…Shino…”
The idea of all the conflict and anguish she must have been through was enough to bring tears to their own eyes.
“Well, I figured you would say as much.”
Anna said this matter-of-factly, even though she had been left high and dry by the others.