Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 11 - Chapter 3

3. Jesus Again

“I can keep going.” Kuzaku had been mumbling that to himself for a while now. “I can keep going. I can. I can keep going. I still can.”

While muttering that to himself, he rammed his large katana into a guorella’s mouth. When the tip of his sword burst out of the back of its head, Kuzaku pushed the creature back. He pushed, which pushed it over. Then, rather than pull his large katana free, he turned his wrist over and slid it to the side.

The large katana exited the guorella through its right cheek, and while Kuzaku muttered, “I can keep going,” he stomped on the fallen guorella, and took a slash at another one that was nearby.

“I can keep going. I still can. I can keep going. I can keep going, I can still keep going, still.”

He’d been panting for a good while now. Kuzaku wasn’t moving quickly at all. In fact, he even seemed to be going slowly.

Urgh... His head leaned back, and he wound up for a swing of his large katana.

Ngh...! He swung down.

It couldn’t have been a bigger swing. How could a slash like that connect? How could it so easily break through the shell-like skin that covered the guorellas’ entire bodies?

He was wheezing painfully, and there was no doubt he was in agony, but between those labored, far too labored breaths, he whispered, “I can keep going. I can. I still can. I can. I can keep going. I can. Still...”

He didn’t stop. His large katana seemed to move with a will of its own, seeking enemies, and it was as if Kuzaku was being pulled along by it.

Because he was thoroughly exhausted, he couldn’t restrain himself or dig in, and rather than Kuzaku swinging the large katana, the large katana seemed to be swinging him around.

No, that wasn’t true. That wasn’t it.

Most of the time, paladins remained cautious when they swung. To explain it in extreme terms, they didn’t swing with their whole body, only their arms.

If they stepped in as far as they could, swinging their body with the attack, that increased the attack’s power, but it would inevitably create openings and neglect their defense. That was why paladins protected themselves with their shields, and worked to cover their comrades while attacking with quick slashes and thrusts. If the perfect chance didn’t come along, they wouldn’t unleash a full-force blow. That was the solid fighting style of the paladin.

That wasn’t Kuzaku now.

Not only was he not only swinging with his arms, he was throwing his whole body into it as he swung through with his large katana. What was more, each swing, without exception, was desperate, throwing safety to the winds.

“I can still... guh—keep going...!”

Kuzaku slashed another guorella diagonally. Honestly, it was a surprise. Kuzaku’s large katana cut a straight line from its left shoulder to its right hip, severing it in two.

That guorella had faltered and tried to jump back right before it was hit. Kuzaku had caught it perfectly, and cut it up.

“I can keep... going.... Gah! Still! I can... Hah! I can keep going...!”

While the guorellas weren’t running around in pell-mell terror of Kuzaku, they were definitely hesitant to come out. Kuzaku was single-handedly dominating the guorellas.

But that wasn’t going to last. There was no way it could.

“Oohrahh...!” Kuzaku bent backwards, swinging his large katana up with both hands.

Then he stopped.

He had to be well past his limits. He had fought beyond his limits, and reached a point he couldn’t have reached otherwise. Now, his feet were slipping beneath him. There was nothing beyond that. Only a fall. If he fell, he wouldn’t survive.

Haruhiro prepared himself for the day, not far off, that it would end up like this. How was his body? Honestly, he didn’t know. Haruhiro worked up all his strength and ran.

How far could he go?

It wasn’t just Kuzaku. Everyone—Haruhiro himself, Yume, Shihoru, and Setora who was defending Shihoru with a head staff that wasn’t hers—they were all doing what they could. He tried to step forward, but he couldn’t immediately. His weapons were awfully heavy, and his field of vision strangely narrow. He wasn’t thinking straight, either. It was the same for all of them, probably. They were using every ounce of power they had. They really were giving it their all.

Haruhiro suspected that anything he thought while in this state was going to be wrong. He believed he had a grasp of the situation, but maybe he didn’t actually. Nothing was certain. Maybe there wasn’t actually anything left he could do.

Even so, Haruhiro ran. He couldn’t not.

The guorellas were trying to swarm Kuzaku. Haruhiro clung on to him. He’d made it, somehow. He pulled on Kuzaku as he shouted, “Shihoru!”

“Dark, cry out!”

Shihoru unleashed Dark the elemental. Dark let out an oscillating otherworldly shuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuvu sound as he flew.

While the guorellas were flinching, Haruhiro needed to get Kuzaku away from them. But where to? He didn’t know. But even if he didn’t, they had to go.

“Haru-kun!” Yume lent him a hand.

Oh...

“Haru!” Setora, too.

Even with the three of them, he was heavy. Kuzaku was a big guy, and unlike the others, he was wearing heavy armor. He had a helmet covering his head, too. To think he could fight like that with all this heavy equipment. It was nothing short of incredible.

Ultimately, Haruhiro, Yume, and Setora carried Kuzaku near the door to the jail.

“Spread out!” Shihoru called.

From the door, Shihoru swung her staff. The Dark that was flying around and intimidating the guorellas with his otherworldly noises burst, spreading in no time.

This was Dark in mist form. Dark Mist.

To the guorellas, there was a bizarre sound, and then they were blinded by black mist. That was more than they could take. Haruhiro couldn’t see them through the black mist, but it looked like the guorellas were running around in confusion. If they could, he wanted them to stay that way.

Of course, that was asking for the impossible. Shihoru couldn’t maintain Dark Mist forever. Or rather, she wouldn’t last that long.

Kuzaku was sitting on the ground, his back against the jail wall. It might be more accurate to say that they’d sat him down there. If Haruhiro and the others didn’t support him, Kuzaku would surely collapse. Yet still, Kuzaku was gripping his large katana as if it had merged to become one with his arm, and made no attempt to let go of it.

“...I can keep going. Still... still... I can...” Kuzaku was mumbling inside his helmet.

“I can still keep going.” He was repeating those words that Haruhiro had said.

It’s okay, you’ve done enough, Haruhiro wanted to say to him.

But he couldn’t.

If he said that, the very moment he did, Kuzaku would drift off somewhere, and he might never come back. It might break the string that was tying Kuzaku down to where Haruhiro and the others were.

Haruhiro was afraid. Afraid to call out to him. Afraid to leave him alone. Even at this very moment, Kuzaku might be about to leave them. If so, he had to call him back.

“Kuzakkun...!” In times like this, Yume’s decisiveness helped.

When Yume called his name and shook his shoulder, Kuzaku took a short shocked breath, and then tried to stand up in surprise.

Haruhiro was stunned. You’re kidding me. You can stand? No, before that, you can even move?

It looked like standing was beyond him, but Kuzaku lifted his visor with his left hand, and glanced around the area.

“...Haruhiro. Everyone... Huh? Where’s Merry-san?”

“Inside, resting.”

Who was that? Haruhiro thought. Who had said that?

He soon realized, it was him. Though the words had come out reflexively, he was amazed he could be so brazen.

Haruhiro was ashamed, but also thought, This is fine. The fact was, she was resting. It wasn’t a lie, or so he tried to tell himself. Or maybe that was just what he wanted to believe.

Yume looked into the prison from the door. Then, with a glance at the head staff Setora was carrying, she turned to face Haruhiro.

Haruhiro averted his eyes.

“I... see...” Kuzaku nodded repeatedly.

“Foooooooooo, foooooooooo, foooooooooo!”

They heard a voice from inside the black mist. It was pretty close, too. No, not pretty close, really close.

Was it coming?

That one?

When a male guorella matured, the hairy horns that densely covered the area from the back of its head to its back like a mane turned red. A guorella troop was usually centered around one of these powerful redbacks, with a number of females that were its mates, along with their offspring. However, the troop that had pursued Haruhiro’s party all this way, and was now attacking Jessie Land, was different. It had multiple redbacks, and an awfully large number of members.

Was it an especially large and powerful redback leading multiple troops? That had been Haruhiro’s hypothesis. There had, in fact, been an exceptionally large redback in this troop, but Kuzaku had taken it down.

Even with that oversized redback dead, the guorellas had not been disturbed by it, and were still rampaging around. That large guorella hadn’t been the leader of this exceptional troop.

Probably, it was that one.

One of the redbacks pressed through the veil of black mist and appeared. It was no coincidence that its eyes met Haruhiro’s. It was looking at Haruhiro with intent. Like it had been searching for him, and had found him.

The shell-like skin covering its face wrinkled up. Had it smiled?

Another smile.

There was no doubt about it. It was the smiling redback. That one was the leader of this troop.

Haruhiro tried to call out and warn the others.

“Every—whuh...”

The redback turned heel. It faded into the black mist, and he could no longer see it. Haruhiro was dumbstruck. What had that been just now?

“Fooooooo, fooooooooooo, foooooooooooooo!”

He heard that voice in the black mist again.

“Ho!”

“Heh!”

“Hoh! Hoh!”

“Heh, heh, heh!”

“Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!”

The guorellas began shouting, and it echoed.

Oh. So that was how it was.

While feeling shame at how dull he’d been, Haruhiro realized. It had come to confirm their location for itself. Then, rather than take them out itself, it was having its fellow guorellas do the job.

So? he wondered. What now?

There isn’t a moment to lose. I have to so something. Anything.

Is there anything I could do?

I don’t see what.

“Nobody die!” Haruhiro shouted.

Those words weren’t an order. They weren’t even encouragement. They were simply Haruhiro’s wish. One with little chance of coming true, at that.

“Scatter!” Shihoru swung her staff. The black mist that was spread out dispersed. Shihoru didn’t miss a beat before summoning Dark again. “If we kill that redback...!”

“...’Kay!” Kuzaku tried to get up using his large katana for support.

Just when it looked like he couldn’t get up, Yume gave him a hand. “Mew!”

“You have me impressed...” Setora said sarcastically as she readied the head staff.

At her feet was Kiichi, who had gotten there at some point, with his back arched and his hackles raised. It was like he was saying he was ready to fight along with his master.

The black mist had long since cleared, and Haruhiro could see the guorellas clearly. Two redbacks—no, three. More than ten young males. There were female guorellas behind them, and up on the roofs of the buildings, too. He didn’t see the smiling redback.

I’m pretty calm, Haruhiro thought. He must have become defiant.

“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuzaku shouted, probably trying to psyche himself up, then moved forward.

His steps were heavy and slow. With both hands on the hilt, he was dragging his large katana behind him. Its tip cut a thin line in the ground.

Suddenly, the tip flew up.

His large katana drew a lightning-like trail.

The right arm of the redback right in front of him fell to the ground, along with its head.

Kuzaku nearly stumbled forward after that.

He dug in his feet just in time to stop himself, and his head bobbed down. Lowering his shoulders, he let out a deep breath. “Whew...”

There was a young male about to attack Kuzaku. Haruhiro grappled it from the front. Even though it was a young male and hadn’t turned red yet, its mane of hairy horns was hard, sharp, and they stabbed into Haruhiro’s body.

Like he cared. He pounded his stiletto through the young male’s left eye. The young male twitched. Haruhiro pulled on his stiletto, then thrust. He stabbed it in and out.

“Boooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh!” the young male howled.

It tried to grasp Haruhiro’s head with its right hand. It grabbed Haruhiro’s left flank with its left hand, trying to pry Haruhiro off of itself.

All he could do was twist the stiletto. Stab, and stab, and try to strike a fatal blow.

Die, die, die. Come on, please, die.

The young male’s hand—no, its entire body—went limp.

It collapsed to the ground. Before that, Haruhiro got away from it. But he didn’t have time to catch his breath.

“Haru!” Setora cried.

Behind him and to the left. There was another guorella about to pounce on Haruhiro. A redback, huh.

“Go!” Shihoru shouted.

If Shihoru hadn’t sent out Dark in the nick of time, Haruhiro might have been pushed down by that redback, and snuffed in an instant.

Dark sunk into the redback’s left shoulder. The redback shuddered. Blood flowed out of its eyes and nose. The redback was stumbling. However, it wasn’t dead yet, so it might still recover.

Haruhiro rushed over to the redback, thrusting his stiletto into its right eye up to the hilt.

Not yet. One strike wasn’t enough. He needed to kill it good and dead. He fully intended to do that.

“Gahhhh!” Kuzaku went flying, and when Haruhiro looked over, that one was there.

The smiling redback.

It hadn’t been there before. It was back now?

It looked like Kuzaku had eaten a jumping kick from the smiling redback.

It turned towards Haruhiro. He thought it would smile, but it didn’t. It slammed both its hands on the ground. Then, bending both its legs, it supported itself with its arms to swing its lower body like a pendulum, and—it came flying at him.

Haruhiro made a desperate jump to the side.

He rolled, then got up.

Had he avoided it? If he hadn’t, he’d probably be dead about now.

What about the smiling redback? Where was it? He couldn’t afford to be looking for it.

A young guorella barreled towards him while shouting something.

Haruhiro twisted to avoid it by a hair’s breadth—oh, crap!

Haruhiro instantly leaned back, and a different guorella’s violent swing went right past his nose, then something grazed his right leg, and he fell. Reflexively, he let out a “Whoa!” despite himself, rolled desperately to get away from the guorella trying to stomp him, and hit it.

The wall of a building? The jail? Was he cornered? He had to fight back. To stand. To get up, then take it from there. He might not make it. Even if he didn’t, though, he had to do it.

“Zahhhhh!” Kuzaku hollered.

Kuzaku.

Kuzaku, huh.

Is that Kuzaku?

Kuzaku slammed his large katana into the male guorella that was about to pound Haruhiro to death, “Nuagh!” he cried. “Gahh! Dah! Rah!” Again and again, he slashed. “Haru—” Until that guorella fell. “Hirohhhhhh!”

“Yeah!” Haruhiro jumped up.

What am I shouting “yeah” for? It’s not over yet, he thought. I’m not dead yet, so it can’t end. Even if I lose someone, even if I’m sad, even if it hurts and it’s painful—even then, if it was going to end, it would have already. But it can’t end. The end doesn’t come that easily. We can’t let it end so easily.

“Nghhhh!” Kuzaku swung his large katana. He probably aimed for a guorella, but he missed, and that guorella sent Kuzaku flying with a single blow.

The guorella got on top of the fallen Kuzaku.

“Gwah!” Kuzaku desperately thrust out his large katana, and, perhaps coincidentally, it pierced the guorella’s chest.

However, it wasn’t done yet. The guorella wasn’t dead. The guorella raged.

“Gu, ho! Ga, hy!” It reached out for Kuzaku with both hands.

“Ngh! Gah!” Kuzaku tried to kick the guorella off of him.

Haruhiro clung on to that guorella’s back, stabbed his stiletto into its right eyeball, pulled it out, and stabbed, pulled it out, and stabbed. The guorella’s body went limp.

When Haruhiro moved away, Kuzaku kicked the guorella’s body away from himself. “Grahhhh!”

When Haruhiro tried to take Kuzaku’s arm and pull him up, he felt something—he could only say that it was something, but when he looked, seven to eight meters away, Yume was spread-eagled.

“Yume!”

Haruhiro let go of Kuzaku’s arm. He tried to run in Yume’s direction. A guorella ran in from the side and obstructed him.

Damn it. You’re in my way. Don’t get in my way. I’ve gotta get to Yume.

But Haruhiro didn’t have the power to remove that guorella by force. Haruhiro’s body wasn’t responsive enough that he could slip past the guorella to get to Yume.

Dark flew in with a vwooong, and made a guorella start convulsing. However, it wasn’t the guorella Haruhiro was facing. It was a different guorella that Kuzaku was trying to attack.

The guorella reached out for Haruhiro. He managed to dodge it at virtually the last possible moment. He was worried about Yume.

While managing to dodge the guorella’s attacks somehow, he peeked at Yume.

Not a good idea. If he didn’t focus on the enemy in front of him, it’d get him.

“Kuzaku, help Yume!” he screamed.

It was fine to try saying that, but what about Kuzaku? Was he in any condition to fight? The guorella kept coming at him, so he couldn’t check.

He felt like he saw Yume jumping to her feet. However, he wasn’t certain of it. That might have been because the enemy’s offensive was tough, so Haruhiro was always a move behind.

If he lost his balance now, he’d likely get hit. If it landed even one shot, he couldn’t take it. He couldn’t even afford to be wasting time on this one. There were other enemies.

Lots of them. Too many.

“Delm, hel, en, giz, balk, zel, arve!”

Someone was chanting a spell. It wasn’t Shihoru. The voice was different. Besides, Shihoru hadn’t used any magic other than Dark in forever. But Haruhiro knew this spell. No, he’d probably heard a similar one.

Boom! An incredible shockwave, explosion, and heat came straight at him, thrusting up from below, too.

Though Haruhiro wasn’t sent flying, his head was knocked back, and he nearly collapsed. Haruhiro saw a number of guorellas pitched into the air.

It was an explosion.

There was a fairly wide scale explosion, and he understood in an instant that it had been the product of magic. He had some idea whose, too. If it wasn’t Shihoru’s, there was only one person left.

Jessie.

Haruhiro was almost... no, completely certain he was the one who’d done it.

“Damn it!” Haruhiro shouted as he stabbed his stiletto into the guorella rolling around on the ground and clutching its head next to him.

Damn it, if you could use this kind of magic, couldn’t you have used it from the beginning? Shouldn’t you have used it right away? Before the damage spread? If you’d done that...!

While finishing off the panicking guorellas that had been sent flying by Blast... or perhaps a higher level version of the spell, Haruhiro wasn’t sure if the words were coming out, or he was just shouting incoherently.

Here and there, he saw green-coated figures throwing bottles at the guorellas. They were the rangers, armed and trained by Jessie to defend Jessie Land. There had originally been twenty-four of the rangers, but there had been casualties in the guorella attack. Even so, more than ten of them seemed to have survived.

The rangers weren’t just hitting them with bottles. A number of the rangers had bows at the ready. What they had nocked to those bows weren’t any ordinary arrows. The heads were on fire. They were fire arrows.

The fire arrows flew in. Without a longbow with a lot of power or a crossbow, it probably wasn’t possible to pierce a guorella’s shell-like skin. However, those fire arrows didn’t need to.

Several guorellas were lit on fire. Most likely, those bottles were filled with a liquid. It looked like it was some sort of flammable oil or something. That liquid had been ignited by the flaming arrowheads.

It wasn’t what you would call a blaze. But still, the guorellas were screaming and rolling around on fire. The flames spread from guorella to guorella, or to the ground where the liquid was splattered, and then spread.

Haruhiro lowered his posture, pulling up the collar of his cloak to cover his mouth. The smoke was incredible. The fire was starting to spread to the buildings, too.

The buildings of this village that was roughly the middle of Jessie Land were mostly made of wood, and their roofs were thatch. Once the fire started, they’d burn down almost entirely before there was time to put it out.

It was hard to imagine the rangers had done this of their own volition. They were only following Jessie’s orders. Jessie meant to burn the village, guorellas and all.

There might be villagers who were still trembling in their houses, having been unable to escape, but the vast majority had either been killed by the guorellas or run away. If the buildings burned down, they could just build them again. If you thought of it that way, it wasn’t a bad move—maybe?

Certainly, if there was any other way to exterminate this vicious and cunning guorella troop, Haruhiro couldn’t think of it. Jessie might have been forced to make this hard decision because he had no other choice, but it was still hard to understand.

Jessie had advised Haruhiro to use the jail.

Haruhiro had understood why in an instant, and done as Jessie said. If they were surrounded by the guorellas in an open place, they wouldn’t stand a chance. If they shut themselves up in as sturdy a building as possible, and defeated only the guorellas that came in, they could hold out for the time being.

However, as a result, Haruhiro had to say that it had been a serious, painful, and ultimately fatal mistake for them.

What was it to Jessie, then?

“...Bait. We were bait.”

When Jessie had said, use the jail, he hadn’t been offering advice. Most likely, that man had intended to use Haruhiro and his group.

By setting them up as a decoy, drawing in the guorellas, and buying time that way, Jessie had used that time to set things up.

Haruhiro and the others had been bait dangled in front of the guorellas.

Didn’t you sow the seeds of that yourself? he thought he heard a voice say, and it felt like the tears might start flowing.

Haruhiro and his group had brought the guorellas all the way here. Thanks to them, a great number of the residents of Jessie Land had died. If they were used as part of the effort to defeat the guorellas, that was to be expected. He was in no position to complain to Jessie about it. Did he think he had the right to criticize Jessie? There was no way he did.

But, oh... Still...

“Merry.”

He called out her name. He hadn’t wanted to. He didn’t want to speak her name. Haruhiro was afraid.

He had the sense that once the thing that was vague and blurry for the moment became clear, it would take on an indisputable form, rise before him, and block his way. If possible, he wanted it to stay vague. Forever. Until the end of time, if possible.

If he could make it so it hadn’t happened, he wanted to. If her absence remained vague and blurry, he could continue floating around with the hallucination that there might be some way to negate it. For instance, maybe this was all a dream. He’d wake up, and be relieved that, Oh, it really was just a dream. Somewhere in his heart he believed that was not completely impossible.

He’d probably see several of them after this. Dreams where she was still with them. In those dreams, See, it was a mistake, she’s here, why did I think I’d never see her again? Haruhiro would think with a wry laugh. Then, he’d wake up. The worst possible awakening would come.

Haruhiro had already had that sort of experience, so he could very clearly imagine what his feelings would be like in that moment.

But still, Haruhiro tried to think. If I can have dreams with her in them, it’s not so strange that I’d have dreams where she’s gone. So, since the sense that she’s gone is so vague and blurry, this might actually be a dream. I mean, there’s no way she could really be gone.

It’s a lie that Merry’s dead.

He’d been used by Jessie, and Merry had died as a result.

Though, to begin with, if they hadn’t led the guorellas here, this wouldn’t be happening at all.

Haruhiro had made so many mistakes.

Because of that, Merry was dead.

She’d died right in front of Haruhiro’s eyes.

She’d been killed.

No.

I practically killed her myself, didn’t I?

At the very least, I let Merry die.

It was me.

It’s my fault.

Sorry, Merry.

You smiled for me at the end, but why you smiled, I have no idea.

I mean, it was my fault, wasn’t it? I let you die.

Even though you were my precious comrade.

Even though I liked you, Merry.

I loved you.

I couldn’t protect Merry. Worse yet, if Merry hadn’t intercepted the guorella coming into the cell that time, I might have been the one who died. It would totally have been me. Merry saved me.

It’s thanks to Merry that I’m still alive.

I let Merry die, and here I have the gall to go on living.

“Hy, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!” There was an incredible shout that echoed.

It was immediately apparent it was from that one.

The smiling redback.

It was less than ten meters from Haruhiro, howling towards the sky. It wasn’t smiling. Probably, it was enraged.

He could understand its feelings. Haruhiro was the same, after all. This went beyond mere irritation or anger.

While there were many targets for its anger, most of the redback’s rage was likely directed at itself. It—and Haruhiro, too—had been set up. More than the person who set them up, they found themselves unable to forgive themselves for falling for it.

“Weruu, ruu, ruuuu, ruu, ruu, weruuuuuuu!”

But this was no ordinary guorella. The smiling redback had been screaming into the empty sky a moment before, then suddenly it jumped up and began making a strange call. That call, if Haruhiro recalled, it was the sign to retreat.

Like I’d let you go!

Haruhiro ran. He couldn’t run fast. The best he could do was a little more than a fast walk, but he still couldn’t stop.

I know. I know you. Even if you back off now, you’re sure to come back.

For as long as it lived, it would tenaciously pursue Haruhiro and his comrades. It was only making what might be called a strategic retreat so that it could continue that.

What can I do to end this?

“Weruu, ruu, ruuuu, ruu, ruu, weruuuuuuu!”

While calling out to its comrades, the redback was trying to run away.

It peeked in Haruhiro’s direction.

It had noticed.

He still had another five meters to go before he reached it.

“Get that one!” Haruhiro shouted as he raced over.

Kuzaku, Jessie, the rangers, it didn’t matter who. That thing. They had to do something about that thing. It needed to die here. They couldn’t let it go. Or it would be in vain.

Her death, Merry’s, would be in vain.

Having meaning or not wouldn’t change it. That was the result, and the facts wouldn’t change. But wasn’t that just too sad? Shouldn’t it at least have been for something?

Merry had died, and because of that Haruhiro had survived, and he was going to be able to take that one down.

Never, in all eternity, was a story like that going to bring him any solace, and this wound would likely never heal. Because Merry, the one who healed his wounds, was dead. Nothing could fill this void. That was why, in the end, it was meaningless. No matter what Haruhiro did here, it was impossible to give Merry’s death meaning.

Ugh, win or lose, I don’t care anymore. For now, either I’m going to kill you, or you’re going to kill me. One or the other.

He was going to end this.

It was time to settle things.

But it was fast.

Or was Haruhiro just slow?

Either way, the distance between them doubled in no time.

“Oorahhhhh!” One of the rangers threw a bottle at its face.

Cream-colored skin. Red eyes. It was that ranger. Yanni, or whatever her name was.

The bottle shattered, the oil splattered everywhere, and the smiling redback was soaked. Paying it no heed, it continued racing away with its knuckle walk.

A different ranger loosed two or three fire arrows, but none found its mark.

“Delm, hel, en—”

He knew that was Jessie’s voice, but where was that man? He couldn’t see him. However, Jessie was chanting, and about to use magic. That was Arve Magic.

“Saras, trem, rig, arve!”

Where the smiling redback had been heading, a great column of fire that seemed like it could burn the sky rose up. The column of fire didn’t weaken, and it stood in the smiling redback’s way.

Firewall. Or its higher-level equivalent.

What was the smiling redback going to do?

It didn’t stop.

It meant to dive straight in, even though it was soaked with oil. It meant to break through that column of fire without avoiding it and escape.

The column of fire was burning loudly with several nearby buildings having been caught in it. If it went straight through that fire, where would the redback come out?

Haruhiro estimated where it was heading, and took a route around the column of fire and burning buildings.

He found it.

Trailing flames, it was far ahead of him and racing away. It was almost out of the village.

Now it was out.

“Wait...!”

Even if he shouted that, it was never going to wait. Haruhiro ran. He nearly tripped and fell several times, but he pushed himself onward, and onward.

A damp, moist wind was blowing.

It was awfully dark.

Where were the other guorellas? About how many of them had escaped?

Like he cared.

It was none of his concern.

No—How was it not his concern? Besides, what was he chasing that one for, anyway? It was still running, but it was a ball of flame. That burning wasn’t normal. Even if it was a guorella, it wouldn’t come away from that unharmed. If he thought about it normally, it’d stop moving eventually. Probably, Jessie and his people would track it down and finish it. There was no need for Haruhiro to chase it.

Before that, weren’t there other things he should be doing? What about his comrades, for instance? Were they okay? Shouldn’t he turn back and verify that first? Why was he doing this?

He knew. He was doing something meaningless. Even if he knew that in his head, he couldn’t stop. He didn’t want to stop.

Haruhiro went outside the village, too. The sky was rumbling. Lightning.

The smiling redback was racing through the fields. The fields were thick with a wheat like plant that was bearing grain. When it moved forward, it lit fire to that grain, or scorched it. There was a trail clearer than footprints leading to where it was. Haruhiro just had to follow that. In the field, it was fine if he fell, because he could just get up again.

When he left the village, the smiling redback had been more than ten meters, maybe twenty, ahead of Haruhiro. How about now? Was it ten meters? No, closer. It was five, maybe six meters. Sometimes, he even felt like if he reached out he could touch it. Its speed was definitely falling.

Haruhiro hadn’t turned back once. He pursued the smiling redback without looking away.

Were Jessie and his comrades following behind him? Were there no other guorellas around? He didn’t know. It wasn’t that he wasn’t concerned about that. He didn’t want to know. It was no good that he was acting like this. No good at all.

But he wanted to end this.

He would catch that thing which was still burning here and there, spreading smoke as it ran, and terminate it personally. With that, he wanted to end it all.

Merry. Merry would definitely be mad.

If it were Merry, she’d scold him. Don’t say that, she’d tell him. Forget about me. You were with me up until now, and you were my comrade, and that was enough. Haru, keep moving forward like you were before.

That seemed like the kind of thing Merry would have said.

You don’t get it, Merry, he retorted. Nothing. You don’t understand at all.

I mean, you’re super considerate of your comrades, you’re a good person, and the best healer we could have, and—and, really, you’re ridiculously pretty, and you’ve got a cute side, too, but somehow, Merry, there are times when you act like you’re not good enough... even though that’s not true at all. It could never be true.

I wanted to hold your hand tight.

It’s presumptuous of me to say this, but I wanted to give you more confidence in yourself.

You were smiling more than you had in past, but I wanted to make you smile more.

To tell you the truth, I wanted to hug you with all my might.

To take your hand, and keep walking together forever.

Merry.

Merry.

Merry.

I can’t imagine a future without you.

Even in Darunggar, there was a sun that rose. But without you, Grimgar will be in total darkness. I won’t be able to see anything. Or hear anything, either, I’m sure.

I can’t move forward.

If that’s the future that’s waiting, I don’t need it.

I mean, really.

I’ve had enough.

Let this be the last.

“Once I’ve killed you...!” Haruhiro worked up the last of his strength and pushed himself to go faster. That was when it happened.

The smiling redback fell forward.

Thanks to that, Haruhiro finally caught up to it.

It’d get up soon, and recover, he was sure. It’d run, or it’d fight back. But who cared? Not him. It didn’t matter.

It had fallen face down, with only its face turned to the side. Haruhiro jumped on its back. The flames on its body had been almost completely extinguished. It was just smoldering. It wasn’t even that hot. But there was something strange.

It didn’t even twitch.

“Hey...” Haruhiro murmured.

What was the meaning of this? Haruhiro mounted its back, and was in a position to stab his stiletto into its blatantly defenseless eyes at any moment. Despite that, he felt nothing.

Hey? Hey? Hey? Hey? What’s wrong, huh? Are you biding your time, waiting for a chance to strike back? That’s it, right? Say that’s it, will you?

But still, it was weird. It was too different from before. Like it was a completely different thing now.

A different thing.

Yes, it was, indeed, a completely different kind of thing. There was no sign it was a living thing from it. It was just a thing now.

Haruhiro adjusted his grip on his stiletto.

There was no strength in his hand. Not just in his hand. In his entire body. Like there was a hole in it somewhere, and his vitality was flowing out through it. He had to find that hole quickly, and plug it.

He knew what he had to do. That was decided, so all that was left was to do it. It was a simple thing. There was nothing hard about it. He could do it. There was no way he couldn’t.

Now, do it, he told himself. Do it. Hurry up.

Scattered rain began to fall.

It was large drops.

It quickly picked up in intensity.

There was a crazy amount of thunder. The rain poured down like a waterfall.

Because of that, he didn’t hear the footsteps. A man in the green coat came up to his side and said something to Haruhiro. Whatever he said to him, Haruhiro didn’t get it. That was why he neither nodded nor shook his head.

That man with the blond hair and blue eyes—Jessie—knelt down, not so much next to Haruhiro as to the smiling redback. He peered at its face, taking a serious look. Particularly at its open eyes and its nose. Then Jessie grabbed its jaw, and shook it around.

“Yeah... This thing’s dead.”

By that point, the rain had lessened a little. The thunder had stopped sounding, too. The sky was even beginning to brighten.

“The inside of its mouth is burned and swollen,” Jessie said. “Judging from this, the burns probably reach its throat. It wasn’t able to breathe properly. I’m impressed that it got this far. It must have run out of strength.”

“...What the hell?” Haruhiro muttered.

Haruhiro rolled off its back and fell into the mud. The now lighter rain lashed at his cheeks.

What the hell was this?

Following after Jessie, a number of rangers gathered around.

“Haru-kun!” Yume cried.

“Haru!” Setora shouted.

“...Haruhiro-kun!” yelled Shihoru.

“Haruhiro!” Kuzaku called.

Hearing the voices calling his name, Haruhiro closed his eyes. He placed his left hand over his closed eyelids.

Haru-kun. Haru. Haruhiro-kun. Haruhiro.

There were voices for four people.

Four people.

“What happened to your priest?” Jessie asked.

Haruhiro couldn’t answer immediately.

He moved his hand from over his eyes.

When he opened them, Jessie was looking down at him.

How was Haruhiro reflected in this man’s unreadable blue eyes, which gave no indication of what he thought or felt?

It’s your fault, Haruhiro almost said, but then, That’s wrong, he thought and ground his back teeth. It might not actually be wrong, but he really felt it was.

“I see.” Jessie blinked, then took a short breath. “So she died.”

“...Don’t say it.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t say it. Don’t you... say that.”

“I was only asking because you seem pretty badly hurt, and it looked like you could use some healing.”

That doesn’t matter. I don’t care anymore. You get that. Don’t you? Yeah, you probably don’t.

You’re weird anyway. You took a solid hit from my Backstab, but you seem just fine. You don’t look like a mage, and you were apparently a hunter, but you can use magic. Incredible magic at that. You look human, but you’re clearly not.

Haruhiro rolled over to lie on his front, then tried to get up. His comrades were coming. He couldn’t lie around.

But his body felt heavy. So heavy. His arms and legs wouldn’t push him up.

“Haru-kun!” Yume called.

In the end, Yume helped him up. Though he was up now, he couldn’t stand without support. He wasn’t just weak with exhaustion. Like Jessie had said, he noticed he was fairly seriously injured. He didn’t feel much pain, but he was bleeding all over, and it looked pretty bad. If he didn’t get treatment, he’d eventually pass out, and his heart would stop.

“Haru—Argh, you’re in the way! Move, hunter!” Setora pushed Yume aside and held Haruhiro in her arms. “Are you okay? Hey, Haru, keep your senses. The guorella troop scattered. If this is their leader dead here, then we should be safe for the time being, at least. Listen, Haru, whatever else happened, we won.”

“...We won?” he asked numbly.

“Yes. Even if you can’t believe it, think that we won. For now—”

“We won...”

Haruhiro wanted to push Setora away. But even if he searched for the willpower to take on such a momentous task, he probably didn’t have it left.

That was why Haruhiro just shook his head. Again and again.

Shihoru moved up next to the smiling redback’s corpse. She wasn’t just winded, she was almost completely out of breath. Shihoru sat down where she was.

Kuzaku tripped somewhere about six to seven meters behind Shihoru, and he didn’t get up. Haruhiro could hear his wheezing, labored breaths all the way over here. That ranger that walked over to Kuzaku was probably Yanni.

“Yanni!” Jessie called out to her.

She hurriedly ran over in this direction, so it looked like that was, in fact, Yanni.

Jessie gave Yanni some sort of order. It was in a language Haruhiro couldn’t understand, but the words “vooloo yakah” stuck in Haruhiro’s ears. Maybe that was because when Yanni heard those words, a look of tension and fear came over her face.

When Yanni gathered the rangers and gave orders, he heard her use the words “vooloo yakah,” too. The rangers led by Yanni split off into a number of groups and dispersed.

The rain had fully stopped, and the sun was even peeking through the clouds in places. It had apparently been a passing storm.

“Well, fortunately...” Jessie shrugged.

What was fortunate?! At that point, Haruhiro snapped.

Jessie said, “Our shaman survived, so assuming we heal the wounded immediately, the only problem is your priest. For now, we can’t say anything until I see the state she’s in, but—”

“Merry’s...!” Haruhiro pushed Setora aside and closed in on Jessie. “She’s dead! Merry died! I... I let her die! None of this shit about the state she’s in! What—What are you even talking about...?!”

“No, listen...”

Even with Haruhiro holding him by the collar, Jessie was unperturbed. He wasn’t intimidated, but he didn’t have a hint of a smile. It wasn’t a blank look, either. Did this man even have emotions? Maybe he didn’t have human emotions. This man’s behavior was unnatural enough to make a person suspect that. Haruhiro thought it, and anyone who saw Jessie now would have had to agree.

“We can’t say anything until I see the state she’s in,” Jessie said. “Did I not tell you that?”

“She died! There’s no state to look at! We have to hurry... Hurry, before No-Life King’s curse affects Merry... Before she ends up like her old comrades... Right, we can’t let that happen to Merry...”

“The curse of Enad George, the No-Life King, huh.” Jessie snorted, and then scowled.

That was unnatural somehow, too. Maybe it was better to say it seemed disjointed.

“Enad George...?” Haruhiro repeated.

“Let go.” Jessie hit Haruhiro in the chin. No, Jessie just pressed his palm hard against Haruhiro’s chin.

Despite that, Haruhiro flipped over.

Haruhiro struck his hip, and hit the back of his head. All the strength left his body.

Yume and Setora were protesting to Jessie. No matter what they said, Jessie didn’t take them seriously.

Haruhiro moved just his eyeballs to look at the man. Jessie was creepily silent, and he was looking down at Haruhiro in a way that had no apparent implications.

“Her state...”

His voice was as weak as a mosquito’s, and Haruhiro himself had no idea what he was trying to say.

No, the truth was, he knew. Haruhiro was trying to question Jessie. But it was ridiculous. After all, Merry had died. What was he getting his hopes up for?

Don’t cling to it, he told himself. Don’t think about stupid things.

It would be foolish to have hope. Indeed. He must have been an incredible fool. If he were clever, this never would have happened.

“Depending on her state, are you saying there’s something that can be done...?”

“There’s a way,” Jessie responded immediately. Then, with a snort, he added, “Just one.”