“Dammit! You worthless coward!” Yoshida shouted at himself. “Why couldn’t you grant Aria’s wish?! How much of a pathetic weakling are you?!”
After running away from Aria, he’d moved in with relatives in the neighboring village, but he still condemned himself every single day. He couldn’t forgive himself for his cowardice, and wished he could stop being so weak and frail.
He’d searched for news of Aria, but her whereabouts remained unknown. If she’d moved around in that state, trying to erase all the unpleasant noise around her, it would’ve surely caused an uproar. Perhaps she’d found a way to die, or how to escape from her condition and live a tranquil life. Yoshida hoped the latter was the case, as unlikely as he thought the odds of it were.
Yoshida eventually volunteered to join the war against the demon army, but his aptitude was unfortunately only for the supportive ether element. Moreover, his mana reserves and output, sense for combat, and reflexes were awful. He wasn’t cut out to be a heroic figure valiantly fighting on the front lines.
Maybe that was just an excuse. After all, there was a man named Alan Granger who excelled on the battlefield despite having even less talent than Yoshida. With his fierce courage and resolution, Alan racked up military achievements. In the end, the reason Yoshida didn’t fight at the front was because of his own cowardice and weakness.
Even so, running away is the one mistake I don’t want to repeat.
Yoshida tagged along with Alan or other heroes and did all sorts of odd jobs for them. Powerful people like them confronted countless dangerous locations and strong enemies like it was second nature. Each time, he was frightened to his very core. The thought of running never once left his mind. Despite that, he managed to make it to the decisive battle at the demon lord’s castle, but it was only to protect some worthless sense of pride. He felt that running away at that point would make him look so pathetic he’d want to crawl in a hole and die.
It was there that fate once again knocked at Yoshida’s door.
“Alan has finally done it,” Yoshida mumbled to himself. He’d just received the report of Alan’s victory over Beelzebub at the support base built in a clearing in front of the demon lord’s castle—not that waiting inside the base guaranteed his safety.
“Grah!” A demon with immense mana burst through a nearby wall. He was Zirgus, one of the Seven Black Stars, an imposing centaur guaimo with a body over five meters long.
“Impossible...! Lord Beelzebub was defeated by the likes of you humans? I refuse to accept it!” Many of the Black Stars of the Titanomachy had practically worshipped Beelzebub, but Zirgus took his faith further than most. “With the gate destroyed, we don’t have long in the human world. The only thing to do now is kill as many humans as possible and offer them as tribute to Lord Beelzebub!”
“Damn! This is bad!” Yoshida was the only support personnel who’d come all the way to the demon lord’s castle, but he didn’t have any means of fighting that he could boost with his own magic. His only option was to buy some time and escape.
Remarkably, as that thought passed through Yoshida’s mind, a lone girl emerged from deep inside the forest.
“Hmm? Who’s this little girl?” Zirgus eyed her with suspicion.
Meanwhile, Yoshida was completely rooted to the spot. “Aria...”
It had already been five years since the last time they’d met, but she looked practically the same. However, those clear eyes that had once found beauty in every part of the world around her were muddy.
“I don’t know how you made it here, but you’ll be my first tribute. Prepare to die, inferior creature!” Zirgus swung his three-meter-long axe at the slender girl.
The rest was history. Her Miasma of Rejection rushed out like a raging river and erased Zirgus from existence. The other Seven Heroes felt something was off and rushed to band together to take down Aria. Yet, they couldn’t defeat her. Instead, they used the Imperial Flower Hexagram Seal Array, the most powerful sealing magic known to humanity, and sealed her away.
Yoshida could do nothing at the time. He was blown away the moment Aria erased Zirgus and could only watch in a daze from a distance as Alan and the other heroes fought her. While he had multiple bone fractures, he was able to move—physically, at least. The reason he still couldn’t act this time lay elsewhere.
Despair took over Yoshida’s heart. He hadn’t changed at all. He’d thought he’d improved a little after managing to accompany Alan and the others, but he was still the same person deep down. His childhood friend lived in a world engulfed by noise, constantly suffering from the buzzing in her ears and forced to slaughter people against her will. She’d been right there in front of him, but all he could do was watch.
In the end, the weak boy from the countryside had remained weak.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Things ended up the same this time too, huh? Including Yoshida’s absence, unfortunately,” Alan said as he walked through a forest with the rest of the Seven Heroes, bar Yoshida. During the Titanomachy, that girl had also appeared right after they’d defeated Beelzebub and thought everything was over.
He glanced back. “Though we do have significantly worse injuries than last time, not to mention our age.”
“You’re the one in the worst shape here, bud!” said Norman Lockwood, History’s Strongest Sage. He’d dropped the facade he’d built for himself after the Titanomachy and returned to his raucous looks and manner of speech. As a result of his fierce magic battle, his body was covered in burns, and though his mana had fully recovered, it was still weakened.
“I’ll have you know I feel young as a spring chicken,” said Dora Alexandra the Godfist Saint. Though not to the extent of Alan’s, she’d also survived a brush with death in her hand-to-hand fight with Georgios. She was certainly full of energy, but her footing was a little unsteady.
“Likewise. Besides, I only endured injuries the last time,” said Isabella Stuart the Final Form Villainess. In a stroke of luck, she was essentially unharmed, though if one looked closely, they’d see a hint of fatigue on her face. That demonstrated how hard her battle had been on her nerves—Alan knew just how powerful she was in battles of wits, so he could guess how formidable her opponent must have been. But in terms of physical injuries, she’d fared far better than last time, when she’d fought on the front line with her lightning magic.
“Oh man, why is this happening again? This is a serious pain in my rear,” said Kevin Laphicet the Unrivaled Gadabout. He was as listless as ever, but the wounds riddling his body and missing right arm were a testament to the deadly fight he’d experienced. Despite his complaints, he’d joined the others.
“I don’t really care what, I just need to do anything to keep my mind distracted,” said Derek Henderson the Exiled Dark Priest. His usual sinister presence had receded and revealed an air of loneliness. Given that Derek usually brought his wife along everywhere but there was no sign of her, Alan could more or less guess the situation.
“Thank you for sticking with me to the end, though you each have your own problems to deal with,” Alan told his reliable comrades. He bowed.
“Now, let’s go! We have one last job to take care of,” he said before facing forward.
A single girl was moving toward them in the distance. She looked to be around thirteen years old and was dressed in nothing more than tatters. Her eyes, which seemed like they concentrated all of the world’s chaos and nihility inside them, had fallen on the heroes.
Alan once again drew the sword he’d received from Margaret. The rest of the Seven Heroes followed with their own combat preparations.
“Yoshida has told me everything, little girl. I know that none of this is your fault, but I can’t let you destroy humanity, so I must end your life here. I’m sorry.”
The final battle was about to begin.