Chapter 33

Rain released the trigger as exhaustion and shock overwhelmed him. I knew it’d be powerful, but… Its output had been over ten times what Rain had expected. It blew the forest away entirely. He shuddered, imagining a power like this deployed en masse. He didn’t even want to think of the sheer havoc they would wreak. Deadrim’s unit, which had taken the blast head-on, had toppled over some distance away with its armor completely melted. …Wait, hold on; the armor melted?! Graimar-nuclear-alloy armor could withstand thousands of degrees of heat, but the Turret Model’s blast rendered it powerless. Like ice against fire. He never imagined the second-generation Exelia would be so powerful… Thinking about it sent shivers down Rain’s spine once more. “Rain.” “…I know.” Still, they didn’t have time to stop and admire its handiwork. After Air prodded him, Rain got out of their Exelia and touched down on the ground. The impact of the fall sent a jolt of pain through his body…and his wound started bleeding again. “Here,” Air said as she lent him her shoulder. “It won’t be long now. There’s only one thing left to do.” “…Right.” Thanks to her support, he made it to the ruins of Deadrim’s unit. Once they got there, the sight of Isuna’s black, charred body greeted them. “……” The sight disturbed Rain. He had melted; it was hard to tell his body was ever shaped like a human at all. The ebony Ghost’s body was right next to it. “Deadrim…” Her body didn’t look nearly as bad as Isuna’s, but a good half had turned black. She’d likely dived for cover and landed on her side as the blast hit, which helped her evade a fatal wound. “Agh…” She probably only had moments left to live no matter what, but even with half her body burned, she clung to life. “Rain,” Air said, looking down at her. “I’ll leave the choice to use it up to you. You should decide for yourself.” She relinquished the key decision to him. “If we shoot Deadrim with the Devil’s Bullet, history will change, and we’ll have safely delivered the second-generation Exelia to its destination. If she ceases to exist, everything that happened on this mountain will be undone.” “……” The Devil’s Bullet. A transcendent power that wiped anyone it pierced from the history books. If they shot Deadrim with it, the incident on the mountain would never have even happened. After all, no one other than the ebony Ghost could have launched such an absurd surprise attack on a moving train. And most importantly— My wound… The hole in Rain’s chest had already robbed him of most of his strength. He’d managed to stand upright thanks to Air’s support, but if she let go of him, he’d collapse at once. If things didn’t change, he likely wouldn’t even survive another hour. And so— “Deadrim…,” Rain muttered as he fixed his gun, loaded with the silver bullet, on the wounded girl. “You were quite the warrior.” Even holding up his pistol felt like torture at that point, but Rain gripped it as tightly as possible out of respect for her. However, right when he prepared to pull the trigger… “Ah…!” …Rain’s left leg suddenly buckled, which made him tumble to his knees. He looked down, sensing something tug at him. And when he did, he noticed it was Isuna, the one who’d been burned to a crisp. “Wait… Please…,” he mumbled. “Heh-heh-heh… First time I’ve had to…play dead…” His wounds were absolutely fatal, but it appeared he still had a few moments left in him. “But thanks to that…I heard something interesting…” “Isuna, you’re…” “The Devil’s Bullet…you said…” His burned skin spasmed, and he could barely move. His throat appeared to be crushed; his voice was hoarse. “I knew…Ghosts had unusual abilities, but…a bullet that erases people from existence…? Ha-ha-ha… How absurd…” Isuna had listened in on Rain and Air’s exchange. He knew about the Devil’s Bullet, as well as their plan to shoot Deadrim with it. …… Rain ignored Isuna’s hold on his leg and fixed his muzzle on Deadrim again, but… “Ugh…!” …the man suddenly tightened his grip like a vise. “Stop it,” Rain said as he looked down at Isuna. His strength was unnatural for a dying man. “…Could you use that bullet…on me instead?” “…What?” “If I didn’t exist…Deadrim would never have become a Ghost…” Isuna Cole, the boy who’d lost Deadrim ten years ago, begged them for help. “She didn’t resurrect for no reason… She only appeared again because…powerful emotions bound her to the world… And those likely only existed…because she died in front of me.” All Ghosts harbored powerful grudges. Deadrim had died in front of the boy she loved. On a day that should have been special and celebratory, they’d disagreed over something trivial. Then Deadrim had perished while holding on to that regret. “If I didn’t exist, Rim, she…would have died…and stayed dead…” Isuna’s voice grew fainter as his strength left him. “Becoming a Ghost made her sadistic. She used to hate having to hold a weapon, but now she uses a sword…and takes pleasure…in killing people… “P-please…,” he continued with all the energy he could muster. “I can’t…forgive myself for letting her go around killing people as a Ghost…and wiping away the pride she had when she was alive… And I…can’t bear the thought of her never existing in the first place…” Thus, he wished for another outcome entirely. “If you erase me, Deadrim’s Ghost will be wiped out… Please…” The grip on Rain’s leg slackened. Isuna had lost consciousness. He clearly only had a few moments left until he passed on. “……” Rain shook off Isuna’s hands, resisting the pull of emotion, and pointed his gun at Deadrim once more. “Wait!” Air exclaimed, stopping him. Then she walked up to Deadrim, squatted before her half-burned body, and reached into her exposed innards. Rain wasn’t sure what she was doing at first, but when she withdrew her hand, he saw a bullet in her bloodstained palm. “Ugh, gross…,” Rain muttered. But even through the blood, he saw the vivid black color of the metal. Isn’t that…? A jet-black bullet was hidden within Deadrim’s body. “What’s that bullet…?” Rain asked. “A pact bullet,” Air answered. “Pact? You mean like…?” “Yes, the same bullet I shot into you. This is Bullet Magic all Ghosts share. One that allows us to control other beings in exchange for sharing our power with them.” Her explanation sounded familiar to Rain. When he’d gained the power of the Devil’s Bullet, Air had shot him with that very same bullet. Due to that, she could order him to do anything at any time, even kill himself if she felt so inclined. But something didn’t add up. Why was a pact bullet inside Deadrim’s…inside a Ghost’s…body? “It’s simple, really…,” Air said, gritting her teeth in visible anger. “Another Ghost shot this pact bullet into Deadrim to force her to fight.” A pact bullet could only be used by a Ghost, but it worked on both living humans and Ghosts. When the bullet activated, it etched the shooter’s name onto it, so Air wiped away the blood in order to examine it. “The person responsible is…Kaisei. Kaisei Reisman.” Isuna had mentioned that name to Rain the prior night. “Though, that’s mainly because Kaisei keeps arranging battles for her…” He was a man who ostensibly supported Deadrim. “Kaisei… Deadrim mentioned him,” Air said, seemingly also familiar with the name. …… They only had circumstantial evidence, but everything fit perfectly. “She used to hate having to hold a weapon, but now she uses a sword…and takes pleasure…in killing people…” According to what Isuna had said, Deadrim’s behavior had changed. During battle, she’d acted entirely unlike how she used to in life. If that change had happened due to the bullet in her…then she’d likely been under Kaisei’s sway without even knowing it. “Do you think this Kaisei forced Deadrim to fight?” “Well, we don’t have any definite proof, but it makes sense to assume that,” Air said as she reached into her shirt and pulled out a black bullet dangling from her neck. She’d once said it contained her soul. “This bullet is similar to the accessory I carry, which originally turned me into a Ghost. If it’s truly the same as mine, then this Kaisei person might not even be a Ghost…” Air paused for breath. “He might be the one who created the Ghosts in the first place.” “That’s…” “Yes, a clue about the origins of Ghosts. Something I’ve spent a century searching for. A possible solution to the question of who created us.” The information came from an unexpected source, but it got them closer to cracking a question they had no way of answering. Sure, it was just a single name, but progress was progress. “I can’t believe it… I finally found something,” Air stated with disbelief. She’d taken a major step forward. Unfortunately, they had no time to celebrate. “Gaaah, ah… Ugh, aaah…!” Deadrim started coughing, a bloody froth spewing from her mouth. She appeared to be on the verge of death, and the Devil’s Bullet would not affect a dead body. They had to decide what to do right away. “……” “Air,” Rain said as he closed his eyes before opening them once more. “Yes?” “I’m going to do what I think is right. Is that fine by you?” “Go ahead. No matter what happens, I’ll watch over you from the sidelines.” That’s good… Those who wielded the Devil’s Bullet needed someone to stay by their side and observe their choices. “Isuna Cole,” Rain called the man’s name as he held up his pistol and turned the muzzle toward him. “Your existence shall disappear from this world, but I won’t ever forget you. Even when I reach the deepest depths of hell, I will remember you.” A gunshot resounded. A moment later, a silver bullet pierced Isuna, the man Deadrim longed for even after death. Thus… …the world shifted.