Chapter 12

7. GHOST “KIRLILITH” One hundred years. It had been a full century since her execution. She’d awakened several times over the course of that century, but that only amounted to about two years in total, and her body hadn’t matured at all. And within that time, she’d met him, a boy who’d tried to fulfill her wish. He’d shared her hatred, the loathing she’d harbored after being executed for a crime she hadn’t committed, and he’d erased countless people off the face of the earth for her. But right now, that boy… “I see.” …was dead. His limp body was at her feet, missing its right eye. A single glance was enough to tell he’d suffered a fatal injury. However, when Air stepped forward… “Ah…” …the boy’s body leaped up. His upper half jumped as if on a spring, reaching out to grab her, but Air spotted that clumsy attack and moved back, easily avoiding his arm. There was a huge gap in ability between a Ghost like her and this normal boy. So she was confident that no matter what he tried, he’d fail to even touch her. She’d handled him with surprising ease during the bullet royal, not taking a single blow, because of her superior strength. But the next moment— “What?!” I can’t get away! An ominous premonition assailed her. And before Air could even take any evasive measures, the boy slammed her down against the ground. “Urk, ah!” Every bone in her body screeched, but before her consciousness shut down from the pain, his palm pressed against her neck. “Ugh, aaah…” The boy started strangling her with unnatural strength. Her vertebrae creaked. “O-oh…” But even as she was being strangled to death, Air shifted her gaze to the boy… “So that’s…what’s going on…” …to Rain’s right eye. “Now I know…what felt so off about you.” “…Yeah, I guess you do.” Rain no longer seemed to be on the verge of death. His right hand gripped Air’s neck tightly, while his left wiped the blood from his eye. The fabric of his shirt was covering his eye socket, but it still remained visible. “Though honestly, I didn’t think I’d become such a monster.” His eyeball swiftly regenerated, turning black and red. “Well, go figure.” Air smiled faintly, looking truly happy for the first time since she’d met Rain. “You’re just like me.” “Guess so. But I can’t say I expected it to grow right back.” The boy’s right eye had turned black and red, a combination of colors he’d seen several times over the last few days. The colors signaled the use of a unique brand of magic. “It’s nice to meet you, Ghost Rain Lantz.” Rain’s right eye had regenerated, which tipped Air off to the truth. “I can tell from our scuffle just now. Yours is the Ema divinity, which belonged to the Lupines… Wow, I didn’t think it still existed.” “The Lupines…” Air was still against the ground, her neck in Rain’s grip. If the boy truly wished to strangle her, he could do so with little effort. The balance of power was firmly in his favor, but Air didn’t falter. “You didn’t know?” “The eye was implanted in me against my will. I never learned where it came from.” “Against your will?” “Mm-hmm… Listen, I’m no Ghost. I haven’t died yet. And…originally, I wasn’t even a mage. I was just an ordinary human being, born without any capacity for magic,” Rain said. But his eye proved that he’d gained the divinity of the Ema, the race said to be closest to God. “Then you’re…” “Yeah,” Rain answered, exposing the secret he’d kept hidden for so long. “I’m an artificial mage.” “Hmm… But still, to think you were given the same power we were.” “Yeah, it’s weird. Normally, the quality of a mage’s Qualia and mana are decided at birth, but everything changed once this artificial eye was implanted in me.” “I finally understand… The Ema’s divinity is fixation of events… It’s on a whole different level from the future sight mages employ. You don’t predict the future—you ascertain it. Anything you see comes true without exception, making battle trivial.” In other words, it was a power that let Rain create the future he saw, which explained how he’d easily captured Air despite their difference in strength. The Ema’s eye activated over an extremely limited space and time, so the future it could ascertain was less than half a second ahead. But that was still more than enough; the briefest of movements controlled life and death in a battle. “Who gave it to you?” “…The West.” Rain spoke between ragged breaths as his ability unconsciously activated. “For the first ten years of my life, I lived in a town called Luno. It was the closest town to the border.” Rain had decided to share his darkest memories with her. “But seven years ago, it became a battlefield. And once the massacre ended, the remaining residents were rounded up and used as test subjects. They were trying to figure out if any of us were compatible with this eye, apparently.” Air’s brow furrowed when she heard Rain’s explanation. “…They tried implanting divinity into human beings with no aptitude for magic?” “I know. Insane, right? There was no reason for them to think it’d ever work, but…” He held his breath for a long moment as he reached that part of the story. “…the eye stayed in the hundredth person.” “Hmm…” Rain still vividly recalled that particular sequence of events. They’d used magic to implant the artificial eye in him, and then, after a night of hellish pain and visions of the other ninety-nine people dying, he was found compatible… “I see. So is that eye the source of your grudge?” “Not exactly.” Rain hated the West, but not because of anything he’d said already. “In a way, I’m glad I got this eye. I always wanted to be a mage, so it helped make my dream come true. But…I’ll never forget what happened to my family.” Rain’s expression never changed as he continued to speak of his depressing memories. “I still remember their faces… I still remember exactly what happened when this eye rejected them. See, the moment it’s implanted in someone, it begins to eat away at them. And if they succumb to its power, their entire body burns and disintegrates. It’s a horrifically painful death. On that day, I saw my family, my friends… I saw everyone I ever loved get consumed by this eye, one by one.” When the East had eventually arrived to recover the bodies, they’d shuddered at the ghastly sight. Rain had seen mountains of corpses countless times in his life, but that was the one time they’d barely resembled human beings. And that sight had stoked the dark flames of revenge that burned within his heart. “My only goal in life is to find the person responsible for that atrocity and kill them. That’s why I became a cadet at Alestra Academy.” The blood clots finally cleared from his eye, ruptured bones and skin mending as it returned to normal. The flickering flames reflected in his eyes. The very same flames that had appeared in this brand-new world. “Tell me everything.” “Wh-what do you…? Eek!” “This isn’t a threat.” Rain still had Air by the back of her neck, so he pushed her against the ground and stuck the muzzle of his gun against her brow. They were only a few inches apart, and she’d been rendered immobile. Air may have been a skilled mage, but it was impossible to avoid a shot from such a close distance. “Hmm…” She likely understood the situation. Air eyed the muzzle of his gun coldly, a smirk on her face. Rain, on the other hand, was determined to settle everything right then and there, so he’d had enough of her arrogant attitude. I’m at my limit here… He’d been waiting for a chance to pin Air down and squeeze more information out of her. And it’d taken a great deal of planning and resolve to get that far, so he was ready to shoot her dead if she resisted. Unfortunately, it seemed his rather evident murderous intent wasn’t enough. The girl remained undaunted as she said, “I see you’ve grown a backbone.” Her composure hadn’t cracked one bit. “…Tell me everything you know.” A strong breeze blew through the burning city as he made that demand and pressed the gun into her with renewed force. “I don’t have enough information to understand all the illogical things that’ve been happening around me. And I know I won’t survive if I keep running around like a headless chicken.” “And if I say no?” The sound of a gunshot boomed through the air. Smoke trailed up from Rain’s gun as the blast rattled their eardrums. “Eek…!” “I’ll start with your limbs…and keep going until you cooperate.” The bullet had shot off a bit of her lush, silver hair, and Air grimaced. The beautiful strands danced through the wind, glittering faintly in the moonlight. “…Fine, I suppose I owe you some answers.” Air nodded, finally agreeing to talk. Apparently, she’d given in to Rain’s demands. At her attitude, Rain decided to start with the most pressing question on his mind. “What happened? How’d things end up worse?” The world had shifted, so why had even more people died? His remaining classmates had even told him that most of their friends were dead. “The Ghost, Kirlilith,” Air said, then paused for a moment and added, “She manipulated Alec like a puppet and hid behind him. It seems like she’s the true mastermind behind these attacks.” “…Kirlilith.” A girl who personified destruction, a being of pure red who contrasted Air’s silver. Kirlilith… Rain remembered her vividly. She was the girl who’d shot out his right eye. “This isn’t just about Alec. Kirlilith mentioned your name.” “Yes, I figured she would,” Air admitted with a blank look on her face. “So you really do know them?” “Yes. I’ve known Alec for quite a while.” “Erase Alec…” Air had already known Alec was a Ghost when she’d given Rain that order. And yet, she’d still wanted him gone. “…Are they both dead people, like you?” “Yes.” Her answer was brief. “There are several Ghosts in this world. They creep into each nation’s military and leech off the currents of history like parasites. This time, Alec got in my way, so I had him removed. We’d been at each other’s throats for seventy years, so that was a long time coming.” “Wait, slow down!” Rain had started to lose track. Nothing about the Ghosts made any sense to him. “What are Ghosts? You mentioned battling Alec over the last seventy years, so does that mean you revive every time a war breaks out to continue your fight?” “That’s right.” “But why? What for?” “I’ve told you already, I don’t know.” Air presented the black shell dangling from her neck to emphasize her point. “All Ghosts have their existences sealed into black bullets like this one. But we don’t know who’s responsible for that practice or even who’s managing this entire affair. But what’s clear is that whenever a large-scale war breaks out, we Ghosts are brought into existence through these bullets. And…” She paused there, unsure whether to tell him more. “Everything ends once we die. There’s no second resurrection.” “…Seriously?” She doesn’t know why, but she has to keep fighting through the ages? “So why are you fighting each other? You don’t hold some personal grudge against Alec or Kirlilith, do you?” “Do you gun down enemy soldiers because of some personal grudge?” “That’s different.” “No, it’s really not.” Her answer rang cruelly in his ears, but Rain knew she was telling the truth. “You’ve heard my story already, so I’m sure you understand. Alec was a renowned soldier from the first war who was assassinated during an insurrection. And the rest of the Ghosts I’ve met are much like him and me…” Air paused at that point and rolled up her sleeve before continuing her speech. “All of them are war heroes who’ve gained this mark in death, along with the power of the corresponding Divine Sentinel.” She’d exposed the Belial’s mark on her flesh, the proof of Air’s inhuman power… “There aren’t that many out there, but I’ve seen the Traxil’s, the Rentogral’s, and the Achiral’s specialized powers… Plus, you just experienced Alec’s Oud ability, right?” Alec’s power had been most unusual. He’d had a bullet that let him control anything, even inanimate objects. “I think I understand all that now, so let’s get back to my first question.” Rain changed the subject to get the answer to his most pressing question. “Why did everything turn out worse after the world shifted?” The battle should’ve ended with Alec’s disappearance, so what had gone wrong? “It’s simple, really. The Crimson Ghost, Kirlilith, set up all this ahead of time.” “Wait, what? How?” “Alec was bait. She assumed they would run into trouble, so she set him up to take the fall. That’s the best explanation I can come up with.” She’d assumed Alec would die…? She’d actually used an exemplary commander with unrivaled powers as mere bait? “It just goes to show that Kirlilith is exceptional, even among Ghosts.” “Wait, that makes no sense. This only started after I erased Alec…” “Well, what if she predicted that the Devil’s Bullet would wipe Alec out of existence?” Rain shuddered at the thought. “And so here we are. We only met once, forty years ago, but she’s a true monster who’s lived as a Ghost for one hundred and fifty years now. I don’t doubt that she’s learned about my Devil’s Bullet’s abilities after fighting for so long.” That meant Kirlilith had inferred the Devil’s Bullet’s ability and worked around it? But that’s insane… “It’s clear she used Alec to lure me out.” Is that…even possible? Letting Alec take command while assuming he’d be erased, pretending to be at a disadvantage, and then turning the tables once history had been rewritten to gain the upper hand… How could someone have planned and executed that so flawlessly? “In chess terms, she allowed her pawn to be captured in order to clear a path for her queen to checkmate the enemy king. With Alec’s disappearance, a unit that’d previously been left behind switched to the front lines. The crimson flames burning this town to ashes prove that.” The fire that was raging around them wasn’t a normal blaze. It scorched everything in its path without wavering even once. “Hers is the Traxil divinity, a bullet that invokes death.” “Death…” “Yes. Kirlilith’s divinity imbues her bullets with the ability to inflict death upon anything they hit. My bullets only affect humans, but that’s because they’re tied to the concept of history. Kirlilith’s bullets, however, inflict death on an atomic scale. Anything they strike, human or otherwise, is utterly annihilated. Ever since she first revived as a Ghost, Kirlilith has slain tens of thousands of people with that power, drowning cities in flames, just like you see now.” Air’s face didn’t betray any hint of emotion as she told him all that, which spoke to the number of times she’d face similar horrors… It was a unique, unusual state of mind that all Ghosts shared. They’d long since accepted the necessity of having to kill other Ghosts and spill innocent blood, even if they despised such acts. They’d repeated that process over and over and over again…and Air was no different. “Rain.” Rain turned his eyes back to Air when he heard her say his name. Her gaze had retained its intensity even though he had her pinned; she stared straight at him as her eyes glinted sharply in an attempt to read him. “Your feelings are absurdly misplaced.” “That’s…” Air had seen right through him. She’d realized a sense of sympathy, of misguided pity, had taken up residence within Rain’s heart. “I lost the right to be pitied the moment I was placed in this body.” “…Placed?” “Yes,” Air said before going quiet for several moments. “I suppose this is as good a chance as any. How do I explain this…? Well, I suppose I already told you once, actually. This body may have been shaped according to Air Arland Noah’s soul, but originally, it was someone else’s. I’m simply parasitically inhabiting this shell.” As she said that, Rain realized that the hand he had around her neck was shaking. He hadn’t noticed earlier, but Rain had been touching the silver chain of Air’s black bullet the whole time. This is… His memories ached, releasing something that’d sunk into the depths of his consciousness. Something that had surfaced countless times in his dreams, only for him to seal it away. A silver chain… A beautiful necklace… It was the first thing Rain had ever bought for her… It can’t be… “Do you remember what I told you once?” Air ignored Rain’s confusion and continued her explanation. “Whoever made the Ghosts has a bullet that can seal souls. And the owner of that bullet found worthy individuals, sealed their souls into black bullets like this one, and placed them inside other people’s bodies. The mind of those hosts is then taken over…and their body morphs into the shape of the Ghost’s soul as the container for a new life. We Ghosts have used many people as hosts throughout the ages.” Air was no exception; she’d been inhabiting a body she’d gained during the fourth war for as long as Rain had known her. A certain someone’s body… “Are you still listening?” Her words snapped Rain out of his thoughts. “Look, when they implanted that eye in you, you saw countless deaths. You saw the blood of the innocent, the way that inferno even those who begged on their hands and knees. And that ignited the black flames in your heart, didn’t it?” Rain’s desire for revenge didn’t stem from himself, since he was alive and well. The rage burning inside him was a result of someone else’s death… “This body’s former owner was…Rilm Lantz.” The name hit him like a kick in the chest. Rilm Lantz—that made it all clear. What Air was, how she’d come to be…and the hatred festering within him. “My body was once your younger sister’s.” Air had said it. Her body had originally belonged to Rain’s sister, Rilm Lantz. “Ah…!” Rain was in a stupor, and yet… “You don’t believe me, do you?” …Air remained unperturbed. “But there’s no doubt in my mind. After all, some of her memories still linger in this shell. Its original name was Rilm Lantz. She was a perfectly ordinary eight-year-old child, born and raised in O’ltmenia.” She was the youngest child of the Lantz family, as well as their first daughter, Rilm Lantz. And seven years ago, during that battle in the city…her older brother had watched her die. The West had launched a raid and taken the citizens hostage. Rain, who was at that point a completely ordinary ten-year-old child, was one of their victims. They destroyed the town, killed 30 percent of its residents, and dragged the rest off without any rhyme or reason. The soldiers took Rain to an isolated large white facility. Over a hundred people were stuffed into one small room. He’d heard the men call it the “rat cage,” and the prisoners were certainly treated as such. Every few hours, soldiers appeared and picked five people at random. Their cuffs were unlocked, and they were taken outside with a gun shoved to their backs, never to be seen again. Anyone who resisted was shot on the spot. Their corpses were left where they fell, and after the third one, everyone stopped resisting. After a few days, only the children remained. They had no way of knowing what had truly happened, but they assumed that everyone who’d been taken had died. And then came that day…the final day. Rain and Rilm were still in that room. They’d been watching the people they knew disappear to become corpses for several days now, and they’d seen their remains being carried off countless times, as well. They were the ones who’d been unable to withstand the divinity implanted in them, whose psyches had snapped from the unbearable pain. And yet…Rilm never once cried. She shivered in terror within that cramped room, but she simply clung to Rain and withstood it, refusing to cast aside the last thing she had—her pride. He’d only just bought her that pendant…but she’d hung it on a silver chain that had just a bit of alloy mixed into it, and she clasped it tightly in her small hands, refusing to let her heart break under the pressure of all this violence. He wanted to stay by her side. As Rilm’s brother, he’d resolved to struggle against death alongside her. But when his turn came, the West’s soldiers tore them apart. And without her brother to hold on to, Rilm was left truly alone… That was when she finally cried. That was the last time he saw her alive. He’d only accepted her death when he later saw the mountain of corpses being transported away. They were all people who’d been in the room with Rain. And when he looked through it, he found the remains of the children as well. “Only one person from that room survived, boy…,” one of Rain’s western guards had said. “You.” “And he lied to you,” Air proclaimed. According to her, she’d risen from the grave after her death a hundred years ago, and she now inhabited Rilm’s body… “Only a few people from that room were transported to the West. Four, to be exact. And Rilm Lantz was one of them… It just so happens that I claimed her body.” “Don’t fuck with me!” Rain had barely managed to keep himself in check. “You stole her body? That’s impossible. You two have nothing in common. She had auburn hair. She looked nothing like you.” “None of that matters. Rilm’s body was mere fodder.” Air’s tone was perfectly even, as if she were just talking about the weather. “…!” And Rain lost all control of his emotions. He’d tried to understand her situation, but it had all been pointless. He loomed over Air and activated his Bullet Magic, unleashing it into her body. “Aaah, ow…!” He hadn’t hit her directly, since the bullet had discharged next to her face, but a blast of electricity drilled into her all the same. “Aaaaaah, gaaah…” He’d tried to curb its effects, but the spell’s primary use was to kill multiple people in one shot, so even a weak version hurt. The current running through her body peeled off her skin as white smoke rose from the wounds. Rain wasn’t spared any of that pain, either, since he was so close to her, but… “Answer me.” …he didn’t budge. “How do I get you out of Rilm’s body?” “You can’t— Ah, aaah!” He attacked her again. Air’s body jerked from the electrical current, spreading a charred stench around them. “Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha…” “Ugh… There has to be some way. Just tell me the truth!” Air answered Rain’s question with weak laughter; she didn’t waver even under heat strong enough to reduce her to ash. Rain increased the output and fired off a third attack, yet Air didn’t tremble in the slightest. A fourth followed. Then a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, and eventually… “Ugh…” …Rain had exhausted his mana reserves. His artificial eye had turned black and red like a Ghost’s, and a hot current circulated through his body. Rilm… Fury. Regret. His seething emotions dominated his consciousness, painting the world red. And they were all directed at one person. However— “You can’t…because Rilm Lantz is dead.” “Ah!” Her answer was blunt and concise. “She passed away before I was placed into this body. Immediately after the West took Rilm, they tried implanting an artificial eye in her, which ended in failure. And then my soul entered her body, where I slept until I met you.” The person Rain had sworn to protect, even at the cost of his life, was here before him. He’d lost her once because of his weakness, and now she’d returned—but it was wrong. It was all wrong. He’d once watched his family get butchered. But now he knew that his sister, the one who’d suffered the most gruesome fate of all, had become the host of Air Arland Noah’s soul… ...... How exactly was he supposed to accept all that? “Listen, you didn’t pick up those silver bullets by accident. I needed a person driven by hatred, and Rilm’s memories revealed the most driven, most tenacious individual out there. That was how I knew you’d have a heart strong enough to use my Devil’s Bullet, to erase people’s existence without batting an eye.” Air had known what motivated him all along. She knew why he wished to use the Devil’s Bullet. His lofty goal of ending the war hid his true desire—a simple, common desire to reclaim what he’d lost. “You want to kill one specific person with the Devil’s Bullet.” The person behind his family’s death. Rain wanted to find the one responsible for the attack on his town, kill them with the Devil’s Bullet, and shift the world to a state in which they’d never even existed. “You believe that will bring back your family, don’t you?” “…No, I don’t.” “You think it’ll fix everything that’s been broken.” “No.” “You’ve killed countless people, all for that naive desire.” “That’s not true! I…” Rain tried to keep talking, but the rest of the words got stuck in his throat. He knew anything more would’ve just made him look like a child throwing a tantrum. I… I’m… Rain had fought countless battles, waded through raging infernos that reeked of blood and gunpowder. And the only thing that kept his sanity intact through all that pain, the only thing that justified all his actions, was the superficial excuse he’d repeated in his heart. I’ll end this war for good! He’d convinced himself his actions were the only way to end the cycle of sorrow, but… “Don’t kid yourself, Rain. Ending the war is nothing more than a justification for your actions. Your only real wish is to bring back the sister you failed to protect.” If Rain found the person responsible for ruining his childhood and used the Devil’s Bullet on him, the world would shift. Then, his hometown and family would never have been put to the torch. He’d never have spent time on a battlefield at all. And that was the actual reason Rain had erased so many soldiers from the West. Air had called him out on his subconscious thoughts, merely fueling Rain’s anger and fury. But as much as he wanted to deny her words, he couldn’t. At his very core, he was too obsessed with revenge. Rain’s sole reason for standing on the battlefield, his one and only wish, had been to avenge his friends and family, but that had changed with the introduction of the Devil’s Bullet. However— “It’s impossible.” Air, the one who knew the Devil’s Bullet best, rejected his subconscious desire. “…Why? Theoretically speaking, it’s definitely possible.” “Maybe, but it’ll never happen. I’m not sure why, but in exchange for its power, the Devil’s Bullet invokes a curse on its owner.” Her hands curled, her fingernails digging into the fabric of her shirt. “The Devil’s Bullet will never grant you what you desire most.” Air tore her thin clothing apart and exposed her upper body. If it hadn’t been for the tense situation, Rain would’ve flinched, just as he had when she’d flipped up her skirt. “That’s…” He was shocked by the sight of Air Arland Noah’s exposed body— “You see, these are all the scars I’ve gained during my battles as a Ghost.” Her body was laced with the markings of deep wounds. There were lacerations and burn marks everywhere, and Rain thought he saw many gunshot wounds as well. They were all far too ghastly, far too gruesome on the soft white flesh of a beautiful girl. A wave of nausea struck Rain. “These aren’t Rilm’s scars. They’re mine. And even when I erased the people who wounded me, the scars never faded. They are my mark of shame.” That was the curse of the Devil’s Bullet. It would never grant the user’s true wish, including Air’s wish to wipe her scars away. All she wanted was to obtain a perfect, unblemished body, a desire that spoke to the brutal life she’d lived on the battlefield. “…Enough.” “Mmm? Enchanted, are you— Bwah!” “Quit teasing me and put this on. I get what you’re trying to say, okay?” Rain rose to his knees and finally removed his weight from her. And as he stood up, he took off his uniform’s jacket and dumped it over her, unintentionally lowering the barrel of his gun. This…is a Ghost. But he didn’t lift it up again. He’d finally realized why Air always freaked out when someone tried to touch her. The reason she’d knocked Rain down to the ground and nearly killed a fellow classmate was because she hated her own body. …Goddammit! Her soul had been imprisoned in another person’s corpse, and she was covered in grisly scars that served as the sole proof of the life she’d lived.