Not a difficult victory. I didn’t know what he’d been aiming for, but I’d thwarted his plan. So why, then, did alarm bells still seem to be ringing inside me?
Did he still have some secret tactic in mind? I wanted to look him directly in his single eye, to see what I might detect there, and the moment I leaned forward to do just that I saw his right hand give a hard jerk. Immediately, I sprang to the side. There was a flash, a bang, and something grazed my cheek and nicked my earlobe.
Dammit! I let my guard down!
I hit the floor, and as I rolled, I deployed a shield of light in case there was a second shot. The Black Dog was already up, smoke curling out of a gun concealed in his breastplate. He reached down and drew a handgun from the holster of the first orc I’d killed.
Once he saw I already had my shield up, though, he held back from firing and unsheathed a knife with his free hand. My attack would usually have been impossible to avoid, but he’d seen right through me; he could tell I was aiming to disarm him.
As I was getting up, the Black Dog dove at me, seeking to get around my shield, pointing the pistol in his left hand at my face. The black muzzle lined up with my pupil. I twisted my body with a violent wrench while repositioning the shield. Would I be fast enough?
The Black Dog pulled the trigger, but I was just a fraction of a second quicker. There was a shrill shriek as the bullet skimmed the edge of the shield. However, the gun spewed not only a bullet but a bright flash of gas, obscuring my vision.
I jumped back to put some distance between us. Not only was I momentarily blinded, but my ears were ringing too, compromising another of my senses. Relying almost solely on pure fighting instinct, I swung my left arm toward him.
Augh!
Pain raced through my arm, as if someone had thrust a hot poker against my flesh. I let loose a kick toward the spot where I believed his attack had come from. It wasn’t a straight-on blow, but I had definitely connected with something. I hoped it would buy me a second or two in which to better regain myself.
I kept my guard up, and my shield facing forward, as my vision gradually returned. An afterimage of the flash still lingered, but I could now see through it. So, where was he?
The Black Dog was a short distance away, in a crouch with just a spent gun in one fist and a dagger in the other. Seeing I was ready to come at him again full force, he fell to his knees and raised his hands, his weapons clanging to the floor. He was finally out of tricks.
No—I saw from the fire blazing in his lone eye that he wasn’t truly ready to give up. Gambling on the hope that I’d take him in alive, he was surely only going through the motions of surrendering for now, until some mode of escape or rescue presented itself to him later.
I heard a clatter from the stairs. Thankfully, it was the garrison, not more orcs. The guards immediately surrounded the Black Dog, and one of them slammed the orc with the butt end of his pike.
“Stop!” I commanded before he or the others could go any further. I’d been through so much to take this person in alive!
Still, the blow to his head had knocked the Black Dog unconscious, and as he collapsed, something round rolled out of the pouch he wore. This blue, gem-like object rolled along the complicated glowing patterns of the magic circle until it came to a rest at my feet.
The moment I picked it up, I felt something like a blessing suffuse me. It wasn’t as if I’d heard a voice or seen a vision, but somehow I just knew where this sensation originated from. It had to do with the same unknown presence that kept sending me off to other worlds.
But why was I experiencing this sensation now? That entity had only ever blessed me for one reason: when I had succeeded in saving a world from its crisis. Was the blue gem itself the source of a world-threatening crisis, then?
I stared at it in contemplation. I didn’t know what the Black Dog had intended to do with it, but he must have had some specific mission in mind, to brave infiltrating this place with so few troops. Perhaps the crisis only came into play when this stone and the Black Dog were paired together, like a bomb and a fuse.
If all this was true, I didn’t know what my next step should be. However, my intuition guided me to a surprisingly simple answer. It hadn’t even been a year since I’d arrived in this world. If I were to save it right here, right now, it would definitely be my record for the fastest I’d ever done this. I stared at the blue gemstone again, imagining that soon enough I’d be standing upon my own world again.
Well, if that was what was going to happen, I should get on with it.
In my right hand, I manifested a knife-sized spear of light. The simple answer that had come to me was this: if I shattered the gem, the crisis to this world would be ended.
And yet, how would things go if I chose not to break it? If the blue gem was the source of this world’s crisis, would I be able to stay here as long as I wanted if I left it intact?
I’d played with this system before. For instance, I’d held off from finishing the demon lord so I could properly say goodbye to my comrades. By taking my fate into my own hands, might it be possible for me to remain in this world forever?
If the matter was left unresolved, though, a threat would always linger. No, I mustn’t let myself be fooled by the devil’s temptations. My conscience spoke up sternly. Do you intend to just die one day in this world? Didn’t you promise that girl you’d fight as a hero? Do you want to disappoint her? Quit it with these pointless thoughts. Hurry up and save the world, and go home.
Oh, but doubts assailed me. Would breaking this mysterious object truly save humanity here? Perhaps they would be safer for a while, but by now, the orcs could already have broken through the fortress walls and driven the humans to extinction, even without the aid of this gem. The only reason they hadn’t yet was that they felt such a campaign would be more trouble than it was worth. Breaking this object might only be delaying that extinction.
For guidance, I reached out with my thoughts to that unknown presence, but received no answer…as always.
Another of the conflicting voices inside me whispered temptingly: What if by remaining here you could help build an even better future for this world? What if you can achieve a peace treaty with the orcs? And most importantly, if you stay here, you’ll be able to fight forever!
Oho, conscience. You sounded pretty noble for a minute there, until you became honest at the end. Not to mention contradictory.
Words Meg had spoken to me suddenly came to mind.
“You yourself could choose to live free, Hero.”
I glanced at the Black Dog, who had regained consciousness. He was watching me with a glare that betrayed his indomitable fighting spirit, but he also seemed curious as to what I was thinking.
If I gave up resisting and just destroyed the gem, then all would be settled. But then, only those who didn’t give up could ever really know freedom. No, I wasn’t ready yet. I would experiment a bit with destiny. I could always give up later.
I stuffed the gem into my pocket and ordered the guards, “Tie him up, but listen…you aren’t to kill him, no matter what.”
In my head there arose a strange uproar. This was the first time the unseen entity had ever reacted in this way. I actually found it refreshing.