“Your time has long since passed, dusty fossils! Why do you continue this fruitless struggle?! You must know the horde is too great! Babel will fall!”
“Is that right? Well, you won’t mind if we just delay the inevitable for a while, then!”
“And try to take as many of these monsters down with us as we can!”
Nothing Olivas said could strike fear into the adventurers’ hearts. Bahra and Dyne just laughed and continued their slaughter.
“If you want to stop us so bad,” shouted Noir. “Then why don’t you quit your yapping and come down here yourself?!”
“Grh…!”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of a few monsters?!” he added with a taunting grin.
“Y-you feeble little man!” fumed Olivas. “To arms, my followers! Ready your bows and magic swords!”
He raised his arm, and then…
“Attack! Kill them all!”
On his signal, bolts of fire and lightning and a hail of arrows rained down.
“…Heh.”
The lightning scorched Bahra head to toe. It was a fatal wound. She dropped to her knees, a smile on her lips.
“…Ha-ha…”
The explosive flames hit Dyne dead-on. The results were devastating. He fell to the ground with a grin.
“Gaah!!”
Blood gushed forth as Noir was riddled with arrows. They skewered his vitals, feathering his back. There was no surviving that.
Yet Noir made sure to watch the last smiles of his friends. Urged on by their final will, he roared loudly enough for the three of them.
“Raaaaaaaaahhh!!”
Then he cut down a monster, shook off the blood, and dashed forth. Olivas and his men watched on in utter shock as Noir summoned the last of his strength and ran toward the city center.
All eyes were on him and his final mad sprint. The last bright gleam of a soul’s final moments. It burned a memory into the eyes of all who saw it.
“Dyne… Bahra… Noir…”
Finn watched, too. His predecessors, leaving to join the great march in the sky. And Noir, who put off his departure for just a little while longer.
“Captain! You’ve got to send someone out there! Save them!!” Raul screamed and pleaded with tears in his eyes.
“…We can’t,” was Finn’s answer. His head was hung, his hair over his eyes, so no one could see his emotions. “We have no one to send. We have to protect the strongholds and our people. Noir’s insubordination has left holes in our ranks… Fixing them takes priority.”
“Captain!!”
“Do not defy me, Raul. This is an order.”
“No! Please! We can’t! They…!”
Raul shook his head in denial. He failed to realize how tight his captain’s fists were clenched, or how much they shook. He let the tears stream down his face, no matter how pathetic it made him seem.
“They’ve done so much for us! They’ve taught us, rescued us, watched over us! And we’ve done nothing for them!”
“………”
Finn did not cry. No tears stained his face; only rivulets of crimson rolled down his knuckles.
It’s not your fault, Finn.
Far away, Noir thought of what he wanted to say to the young prum.
We’re only passing the torch.
We’ve sat around, outliving our purpose for long enough.
It’s time we let you take over the story.
This is your age. Make of it the greatest tale of heroes this world has ever seen.
These were the words that Noir bequeathed to this city.
“Seventy years and change, huh?”
The sea of monsters turned. Noticing the lone swordfighters who had foolishly challenged them, they let out a bloodcurdling roar.
Noir kicked off the floor and leaped high into the air. Staring down at the endless horde, a wicked grin spread across his lips. One hand slipped beneath his kimono.
“Nothin’ but trouble, every last one, yet I wouldn’t change a thing about ’em!!”
The air roared. A massive wave of heat surged past as an enormous explosion spread out from the point Noir landed.
It was a combination of dozens of the Evils’s self-destruction devices, plucked from the corpses of fallen cultists.
The result was a gigantic vortex of flames, with a power far surpassing any that had been seen in the war so far.
The last light of a dying generation, a supernova that lit up the faces of all who saw it.
Any nearby monsters were incinerated immediately; even their magic stones did not survive the blast.
When the dust had settled, not a trace remained of the first-tier adventurers who had given their lives. Not even ashes to remember them by. The only proof they had ever existed…was a large void in the monster horde on the north side of the barrier.
“They blew themselves up in the middle of the horde…?”
Olivas was stunned as he gazed upon the fruits of a struggle he had called fruitless. The old adventurers had proven without a doubt the truth of their words and the strength of their wills.
“Curse you… Curse you aaaall!!”
His wild bellows joined the chaos of monster screams as they noticed the gaping hole among their number.
“Noir… All of you…”
Compared to the vastness of the monster horde, that hole was only a drop in the ocean. They had bought a minute of time at best for the boaz at its center.
But for the adventurers who would decide this city’s fate, it was a crucial win.
Loki shed no tears. She only said a few words.
“I’m sorry… And…thank you.”
“NOIIIIIIIIIIIIR!!”
Instead, it was the young man who cried. A boy forced into a war zone where he didn’t belong. Raul’s painful cries rent the city.
Elsewhere, a single chariot stopped and heard the news of the veterans’ sacrifice.
Another one returns to dust.
Another one falls by the wayside.
All I ever hear is screams.
Screaming’s not going to save anyone.
Why can’t they do anything?
Why are there only corpses in my wake?
You guys are useless.
Why can no one follow in my tracks?!
“Rrraaaaaaaaaaghhh!!”