Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 19 - Chapter 7

112A660. He Was Happy

Adachi adjusted the bridge of his black-rimmed glasses with the middle finger of his right hand.

Gathered in the second tower of Riverside Iron Fortress were the four members of Team Renji, including Adachi; Britney, the former chief of the now-defunct Volunteer Soldier Corps office; seven Wild Angels, led by Kajiko; the six members of the Tokkis; eight people from Iron Knuckle, including Max and Aidan; eleven Berserkers, including Ducky and Saga; three volunteer soldiers who didn’t belong to any clan; and Commander Jin Mogis of the Frontier Army. That was forty-one people in total.

They had just finished demolishing the bridge that connected this second tower to the fifth tower, and another that connected it to the sixth tower. They wouldn’t be able to move to any other towers via the bridges now. After looking all around, they had found that this was the only tower where the enemy wasn’t coming in from the ground floor. That was why they had chosen to gather here.

They’d had the option to retake the seventh tower and escape through the secret underground passage in the basement, but the ninth and eleventh towers, which were the only two connected to it by bridges, had already been occupied. While the secret passage was likely intact, no one had confirmed that. It wouldn’t have been funny if they’d fought their way down there only to find out the escape tunnel was now unusable. They were going to head out into the courtyard from the ground level of the second tower, then make their way to the gate. It was the only option.

“But is it gonna work?” Ron, a man with a buzz-cut, mumbled to himself.

“If it doesn’t, we’ll just die. That’s all,” Adachi replied, provoking an exaggerated scowl.

“Don’t say things like that, man. You’re hurting our morale.”

“If you hadn’t asked such an inane question in the first place, it follows that I’d never have commented on it. In other words, you are in the wrong here. It’s your fault.”

“If you ask me, it’s your fault for being too much of a wise guy. Everything is your fault.”

“There’s not much logic in you, is there? This isn’t even worth discussing.”

“Let me tell you, logic isn’t everything, okay?”

“That would be the argument of a loser who can’t think things through rationally, yes.”

“Oh, I so want to slug you one.”

“If you want to do it, then go ahead. I’ll have Chibi-san heal any wound you give me. Your actions would put an undue burden on our little priest, but accomplish nothing more.”

“You know I can’t cause trouble for Chibi! If you say that, I can’t clobber you, damn it!”

“If that’s your decision, I’ll have to respect it. Do as you please.”

Adachi adjusted the position of his glasses with the middle finger of his right hand again. Now, Ron wasn’t the only one here who could be loud and annoying. While Adachi’s other comrades, Renji and Chibi, were especially quiet, most of the volunteer soldiers packed into this cramped stairway were pushing and shoving, bantering, or telling stupid jokes and ribald stories.

“Chibi.” Renji placed his big hand on her tiny head. “You okay?”

“Aye...” Chibi responded hesitantly with a nod, but Renji didn’t move his hand.

Renji wasn’t particularly sociable, and he’d been pretty cold toward the now-deceased Sassa. But when it came to Chibi, you could tell he trusted her implicitly. He was always kind to Chibi.

Still, after they had left the Red Continent to return to Grimgar, Renji had grown even softer on her. At times, he treated her almost like a pet. For one thing, he often patted her on the head. Understandable, given how pettable she was, but he was overdoing it. Honestly, it was hard to watch.

If it were anyone but Chibi, Adachi would have told him not to favor her so much, but he knew Chibi wouldn’t let it go to her head. She was one stoic little woman. Always harsh toward herself and demanding little of others. From the very beginning, she’d had blind faith in Renji. Obviously, her feelings for him probably went beyond that. Adachi had ended up thinking that her feelings deserved a response, and he wished for her happiness more than anyone else’s.

Even so, when he saw Renji showing concern for her like that, irritation began to cloud Adachi’s heart.

Was it jealousy?

Well, there was no doubt that Adachi envied Chibi.

He’d realized that years ago.

At first, Adachi hadn’t been able to accept it himself. No. It’s not true. It can’t be. He’d kept denying it until he couldn’t anymore. Because someone had pointed it out to him.

It had been on the Red Continent.

Why did that vast land across the blue sea have that name? It wasn’t that the soil was red, that the rivers ran red, or that the leaves or trunks of the trees were red. There was a greater variety of races there than in Grimgar. The tailed people, the long-armed people, the tall-eared people, the three-eyed people, the many-eyed people, the iron-headed people, the furry people, the thorny-skinned people, the feather-boned people, the shadowless people, the ball-shaped people, and more. There were all these different groups, like nothing he had ever seen or heard of, and yet they were all considered human. There were many countries. Large and small, too many of them to count. As it turned out, some centuries ago, a great emperor known as the Red King had reigned over the entire continent. And that’s where the name came from.

Everything they saw and touched there had been new to them. Thinking back on it now, Team Renji had been acting uncharacteristically giddy.

One night, they had been camping out in the wasteland. Adachi had found himself unable to sleep, as was often the case, so he’d left his tent to gaze at the night sky. As he did, Sassa had called out to him. With a smile, she’d told him she hadn’t been able to sleep either.

“They call it the Red Continent, but the moon’s not red here, huh? Even though the moon we see in Grimgar always is,” she’d said.

“How many times are you going to bring that up?” he’d replied dismissively.

“Hey, Adachi.”

“What? Why don’t you go to sleep already?”

“You...”

“If you’ve got something to say, could you hurry up already?”

“You like Renji, don’t you?”

“Well...we are comrades, after all.”

“No, not like that. You like like him. I can tell. Because I feel the same way.”

But I like him more, she’d added with a smile.

Why hadn’t he been able to accept it then?

“You couldn’t be more wrong...” Adachi had tried to dismiss it as if it were a joke. No, he’d gone further than that. “Never say that again. Or I’ll make you pay for it.”

He’d gotten angry. Adachi had been embarrassed. He’d threatened her, as if she’d insulted him somehow. But that wasn’t it.

“Sorry, Adachi,” Sassa had apologized.

He’d made her say she was sorry.

“I won’t bring it up again.”

There was no connection between that conversation and how she had lost her life on the Red Continent.

She had been a thief. As part of her job, there were times she had to act alone. That was something she had been fine with. I’d feel lonely if I were always by myself, but sometimes it’s nice to have some alone time, she’d said.

There was a type of dragon on the Red Continent called a nihaloy. They weren’t that large, but they were clever and could change color to blend in with their surroundings. They tended to form packs and amass treasure. She had gone out to scout one of their nests and hadn’t returned. It wasn’t that she couldn’t, but that she didn’t, Adachi suspected. She had likely been detected and injured in an attack by the nihaloys. But if she had returned to the party, she would have brought the nihaloys down on them. Knowing her, she had decided she couldn’t do that to them.

When they’d gotten sick of waiting for her and charged into the nest, it had taken them not one, but two full days to find her. She had already died. In an unrecognizable state.

“It’s better this way,” Ron had said, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Now we’ll only remember her as she was when she was still alive.”

It wasn’t my fault.

That’s what Adachi thought.

The fact was, the odds that her exchange with Adachi had led to her demise were zero, or incredibly close to it. But he wished he’d acknowledged that she was right. What would he have had to lose, being honest with her then? Would she have tattled on him? No. He could say that with certainty. She wasn’t the type to do that.

Never say that again.

Or I’ll make you pay for it.

Adachi shouldn’t have said those things to her. He shouldn’t have made her apologize to him. But even if Adachi hadn’t lied to her, would it have changed anything? Either way, she’d have died in the nihaloy nest. Just the same. They’d have lost her no matter what he did, so he didn’t need to regret it that badly. And yet, regret it he did. Deeply. Why? He had a theory. He regretted it because of what it meant for him.

He should have opened up to her. She’d seen right through him. There’d been no point in him denying it. So, why not come out and say it?

Yeah, I do.

That’s right. Can you blame me? I’ve tried to tell myself I was imagining it. Denied it, saying, “No, I can’t feel that way” countless times. But it’s no use. The feelings won’t go away. They’re the one thing I can’t get rid of. Yeah, you’re right. I do like him. I like him more than I know how to handle. Am I weird? Go ahead, laugh at me. I don’t mind. I want to laugh at myself too. The reason I want to be with him, with Renji, isn’t because he’s an important comrade of mine. No, it must be because I love him.

She wouldn’t have laughed. He was sure she’d have said, You’re not weird. There’s nothing weird about it.

Maybe they would have found they had a lot in common. Renji was fastidious to a fault. If he was going to fall in love with someone, it wouldn’t be one of his traveling companions. He was the type who liked to compartmentalize things, say this was this, and that was that. Adachi had never expected Renji to love him back, obviously, and neither had Sassa.

If Adachi hadn’t been lying to himself, maybe he could have opened up to her. They might have been able to have a genuine heart-to-heart about it. They might have become something more than comrades—true friends.

No, that’s not it. That’s not the problem.

Adachi had wanted to share the emotions that he’d been hiding all this time with someone. She would have heard him out, but he’d lacked the courage. How pathetic. Adachi had thrown away the perfect opportunity. That was all he was regretting. These feelings weren’t for her sake. Adachi didn’t even have the right to pretend to mourn her passing.

“Well, let’s be off, then. Are you all ready to go, my darlings?” Britney’s voice echoed through the stairs of the second tower. Adachi couldn’t see him. Going from the bottom up, the groups were ordered: Iron Knuckle, Britney, Jin Mogis, the Berserkers, the Wild Angels, Team Renji, the Tokkis, and then the three unaffiliated soldiers. Adachi could only see down as far as the back half of the Berserkers.

“Any time you’re ready!”

“We ready, yeah!”

“Aww right!”

“I’m bored! Let’s do this already!”

“Heh!”

“Yayyyy.”

Hearing the Tokkis energetic responses from behind them, Ron shouted, “Yeahhhh!” like the idiot he was, and the other clans started hyping themselves up in their own ways too.

“We! Are! Iron! Knuckle!”

“Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Smash ’em good, Berserkers!”

“Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Don’t any more of you die, my angels! Got it?!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“We love you, Kajiko!”

“The Wild Angels sure are fired up!” Ron was excited too, for some reason. That reason being that he tended to overextend himself when members of the opposite sex were nearby. He wasn’t popular with the ladies, but he liked them too much to control himself. He’d even gone after thorny-skinned and furry women on the Red Continent, only to be rejected there too. It wasn’t so much that they disliked him as that they looked down on him. He was a macho guy with a buzz-cut and a pretty scary face, but something must have given away the fact that, deep down inside, he was just way too desperate for it. More so than should have been humanly possible. Or, worse yet, it was blatantly obvious.

Renji was silent, though one could have read that as him quietly simmering with enthusiasm. He was relaxed. As if he weren’t thinking anything at all. Almost vegetative, in a way.

“Renji.” Adachi called his name.

“Yeah,” Renji replied in a deep voice, turning his eyes to the mage. “I’ll leave analyzing the situation to you. You give the orders.”

“Got it.” Adachi kept his response as curt as possible. It irked him that being trusted with a task like this made his heart race.

He’d just do what he needed to, like always.

Sassa.

She had been the same way.

Or maybe she’d been holding out hope for something. Like, if she served Renji, working herself to the bone for the team, maybe he’d give her a chance one day. Though she had thought it was impossible, some part of her heart had wished it could happen. Prayed for it to. Well, even if that had been the case, he couldn’t mock her for it.

“I won’t let any of us die.” Even if it was just occasionally, Adachi sometimes had foolish dreams of his own. “Because if we lose even one of us, my own survival will be at risk.”

“Yeah, you’re pretty scrawny, after all!” Ron said, slapping Adachi on the back, nearly causing him to start coughing and sputtering.

“You, I’ll use as a sacrificial pawn if it comes down to it.”

“Go for it. If you think that’s what needs to be done, say the word. I’m more than ready.”

“Auhhh!” Chibi was getting mad at Ron—quite an unusual sight.

“R-Right...” he said, abashed, and lowered his head meekly. “Sorry. I mean, it’s just that we can’t rule it out...”

“Wuuuh,” Chibi whined.

“S-Sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have said that. I’ll do my best so everyone can get out of here with room to spare.”

“Uuh...” Chibi shook her head. Ron scratched his buzz-cut.

“Huh? What?”

“She’s saying that no matter how hard you try, that’s clearly just not going to be possible,” Adachi explained on her behalf, causing Ron to turn red with anger.

“Whaaaa?!”

“Don’t snap at me. Chibi-san is the one who doesn’t think you’re up to the task.”

“Chibi’s free to think what she wants, but I don’t wanna hear it from you! Have a care for how others feel, four-eyes!”

“Four-eyes?”

One of the Tokkis hit the wall with his warhammer. It was Tada, the priest who didn’t act much like one.

“You say something to me, you pig-shit bastard?”

“I’m not talking to you! And ‘pig-shit bastard’?! You wanna fight?!”

“Gladly. I’m the one who’d win anyway.”

“No, I would! Obviously, I’d win!”

“Good to see you’re all so full of energy! Time for the operation to start!” Britney shouted. Ron and Tada instantly buried the hatchet. The column of troops started to move.

They’d already surveyed the situation below from the bridge. The fortress courtyard was practically full of strange black humanoids and crawling black things that hadn’t managed to take human form. The volunteer soldiers were going to push their way through those hostile black creatures to the broken main gate. Once they were out of Riverside Iron Fortress, the Lonesome Field Outpost was about ten kilometers to the northeast. In terms of places in the vicinity that they could flee to, the Wonder Hole—which was not far from there—was about all they had left.

It could hardly be called safe, but the Wonder Hole was so vast—or long and deep, rather—that no one even came close to knowing the full extent of it. It was said to reach all the way to the far north. The Wonder Hole connected to the surface in other places too, so they could use it to run far away. Or at least, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to do so.

On top of that, the Wonder Hole connected to multiple other worlds. It was dangerous because the residents of those worlds sometimes wandered into this one too, but if the situation called for it, evacuating to another world might not be unthinkable.

There were also volunteer soldiers who hadn’t come back from exploring the Wonder Hole. If their group could join up with them, that would be especially reassuring.

Honestly, the volunteer soldiers were in a position where their only options were either fanciful optimism or utter despair. Some of them must have been depressed, or giving in to desperation. Even so, they had all managed to work together and were about to engage in what might be their final battle.

Despite being one himself, Adachi had never really liked volunteer soldiers much as a whole. Still, setting his personal preferences aside, every survivor here with them now was a comrade. If they didn’t amass all their strength, none of them were going to make it to the Wonder Hole. He was going to have to think of the volunteer soldiers, and former volunteer soldiers like Britney, as part of his team for now.

“We’re heading out!” shouted “One-on-One” Max of Iron Knuckle.

As Adachi followed Renji down the stairs, there was a certain man on his mind: Jin Mogis. The red-headed general who had brought reinforcements from the mainland of the Kingdom of Arabakia south of the Tenryu Mountains.

Incredibly, he’d managed to retake Alterna after it had fallen to the Southern Expedition. But what had really shocked the volunteer soldiers was the sudden turnaround of him then signing a non-aggression pact with the goblins of Damuro after he’d just chased them off.

Adachi had been a little surprised too, but he’d also thought, I never realized that was an option.

Most of the volunteer soldiers had experience massacring goblins in the Old City of Damuro, so they tended to have a prejudiced view of them. They started out with the assumption that goblins were lesser, brutish creatures, so they couldn’t possibly talk to them.

But from what he’d since heard, this wasn’t the first time there had been a deal between humans and goblins.

It had been nearly 140 years ago, in the year 521 of the kingdom’s calendar. The Alliance of Kings led by the No-Life King had taken the Kingdom of Arabakia’s southernmost city, Damuro.

It had been the last refuge of humanity, and with that final lifeline cut, they’d had nowhere left where they could hold out. They had been forced to retreat completely beyond the Tenryu Mountains, and so Damuro had become the property of the goblins. Out of bitterness, the people of Arabakia had come to call the lands north of the Tenryus the frontier, and the lands south of that the mainland.

However, thirty-some years later, in the year 555, the Kingdom of Arabakia had returned to the frontier.

At the time, the frontier had been reduced to chaos due to events like the death of the No-Life King, but even if you took that into consideration, the bridgehead the kingdom had built was still too close to Damuro. They were only four kilometers apart. It was practically a stone’s throw away. That was the fort that had developed into Alterna.

The goblins must have been bought off by the Kingdom of Arabakia. If not, they wouldn’t have overlooked the construction of Alterna.

The way Adachi saw it, for a mainlander like Jin Mogis, making peace with the goblins wasn’t such an off-the-wall idea. However, it was easier said than done. The man had the ability to make decisions and put them into effect. He was also a capable commander, and ambitious too.

Jin Mogis had appeared as the leader of the Kingdom of Arabakia’s expeditionary force. But he wasn’t a general of the kingdom anymore. He’d taken his forces and separated from the Kingdom of Arabakia. Adachi had heard that after reorganizing his men into a new independent force, he had renamed them the Frontier Army and taken on the title of commander for himself. He might have only refrained from calling himself king because in reality he was more like the mayor of Alterna and the head of its defense force. Even so, he was the master of a nation, small as it was. Or, he had been.

He’d cast his castle and his men away, fleeing all by himself. He had apparently been on horseback at first, but was on foot by the time he’d reached Riverside Iron Fortress. You would expect a man fleeing in disgrace to look more crestfallen, but not him. He had ordered the volunteer soldiers around as if he felt no guilt at all for what had happened, and despite their contempt for him, he wasn’t ignored and hadn’t been driven out. They’d sort of accepted him.

Jin Mogis was by no means a comrade. The man would throw anyone and anything away to save his own skin. He wasn’t so much a Machiavellian operator as a straight-up psychopath.

What was his plan here?

Sacrificial pawns.

They say a captain goes down with his ship, but this man had been the first to flee his own city, Alterna. He’d left his men to die. Worse yet, he might have even used them as bait for the enemy. Sacrificing them to save himself.

Were the volunteer soldiers to be his new pawns, then? How was he going to pull that off, exactly?

Adachi didn’t know, but he was wary. That man was definitely going to try to pull something. It was best to assume as much.

Renji and Ron were almost all the way down the stairs, about to head out of the second tower.

“Let’s go!” Ron shouted as he charged outside. Renji didn’t even appear to be running. He strode out the door, carrying the sword of Ish Dogran as if it were light.

Adachi and Chibi stepped into the courtyard as well. He hardly felt the chill of the after-midnight air. The volunteer soldiers were already violently struggling with the enemy. Dark. Inside the tower, there had been lots of lanterns, but the courtyard had only had watch fires lit here and there, and those must have been knocked over by the black invaders, because there wasn’t a single one left to be seen. Light from the watch fires atop the towers and the fortress barely reached the courtyard.

“Light ’em up!” someone shouted.

Was it Max of Iron Knuckle? Instantly, four or five luminous rods were being chucked around. These were rods that if you pushed one of their ends in and removed the sheath that covered them, they would burn for around two minutes, providing light. They were made by the gnomes who lived under the Tenryu Mountains, and had been carried by merchants in Alterna who specialized in such goods. They had been expensive before, despite being one-use, but now you couldn’t buy them for any price. They were that valuable.

The luminous rods improved visibility a little. Iron Knuckle and the Berserkers formed up into one mass, and it looked like they were managing to push toward the main gate. Max and Ducky were leading the way, with Britney right there next to them, swinging his sword as if he were dancing, his hair streaming behind him. Kajiko and the Wild Angels were following them too.

“We’re taking the left!” Tokimune declared as he ran past Adachi. He probably meant that the Tokkis were going to support the left flank of the leading group, so he wanted Team Renji to handle the right.

“Renji, go right!” Adachi called out, but Renji and Ron were already heading in that direction. Chibi was sticking close to Adachi, but he soon took off after Renji and Ron, who were finding themselves stymied by the enemy and unable to make progress the way they wanted to.

“Ugh, damn it! These guys are such a goddamn pain!”

Ron was using a greatsword that looked like a butcher’s knife blown up to five or six times the usual size. It could cut through most things, but not the hostile black creatures. He couldn’t slash through them, try as he might, so Ron had given up and taken to mowing them down or sending them flying instead.

No matter how many they knocked aside, the hostile black creatures kept rushing toward them one after another. No amount of swinging his sword put a dent in their numbers. That had to be tiring, and frustrating. The stress was intense. Still, he had no choice but to continue. He had to keep at it or he wouldn’t be able to take a single step forward.

But it looked like Renji was having a harder time of things.

Renji favored using the single-edged greatsword that had once belonged to an orc named Ish Dogran. It was a masterwork, several times sharper than Ron’s weapon. Yet all that wondrous sharpness meant nothing here. Against the hostile black creatures, even a sword as extraordinary as that one was not significantly different from an iron club.

Also, unlike Ron, who tried to overpower his opponents with pure strength, Renji was much more skillful. If you were to convert their physical strength into numerical values, Ron’s would be higher than Renji’s. Ron might not have been the taller of the two, but he had an abnormal amount of muscle on him. And yet, if they got into a contest of strength, Renji would come out the victor. Ron used one hundred percent of what he had. Renji, meanwhile, used more like ninety, but used finesse to turn it into one hundred and ten. However, now even Renji was being forced to handle the hostile black creatures the same way as Ron.

No, was there more to it?

From what Adachi could see, the hostile black creatures seemed to be rushing Renji harder than Ron. Renji simply had more enemies—a higher volume of them—to deal with than Ron did.

It was starting to seem less like Ron was batting away creatures that were coming at him and more like he was fending off part of the swarm that was after Renji. Ron was helping Renji.

“Are they targeting Renji?!”

Adachi adjusted his glasses with the middle finger of his right hand. Team Renji had gotten bogged down maybe five or six meters outside the second tower. Iron Knuckle, the Berserkers, the Wild Angels, and the Tokkis were leaving them behind. They were swamped with enemies. Hostile black creatures rushed them from all sides. Yet, despite that, Adachi didn’t sense much danger to himself. Was it because Chibi was protecting him? Yes, Chibi was certainly swinging her combat staff at the creatures and knocking them back. But was she driving off enemies that were coming at them? No, she was taking shots at creatures that were trying to get past her, wasn’t she?

So, in effect, she wasn’t really protecting Adachi. She too was driving off a few more of the black creatures that were aiming for Renji.

In short, Chibi was helping Renji too.

“Why...?”

Adachi thought about it. It was all he could do at the moment. These hostile black creatures weren’t just immune to being cut, they also seemed impervious to magic. Even if the side effects—for example, a blast wave from a magical explosion—could send them flying, he risked injuring his own allies in the process. As a mage, he was practically dead weight. So he needed to at least think. His head. He had to use his head.

Why were the black creatures targeting Renji?

What were they after?

It didn’t seem like there were any clues to work with.

Now isn’t the time to give up. Keep thinking, he told himself. Answers aren’t easy to come by. You have to keep thinking until you find them. Look at it from a variety of angles. They’re targeting Renji. Is it only Renji they’re focusing on? The enemy. Those hostile black creatures. What even are they to begin with?

Those things hadn’t attacked Riverside Iron Fortress until after Jin Mogis had fled here. From what he had told the volunteer soldiers, the mysterious enemies had appeared outside Alterna this morning, before dawn. The Frontier Army had defended the city while Shinohara had led Orion out through the south gate, then vanished. Eventually, Alterna was encircled, and the enemy had gradually started getting inside the walls. With no other choice, the Frontier Army had attempted to evacuate the city but had lost many men in the process. Ultimately, only Jin Mogis had made it to Riverside Iron Fortress. Then, right after he did, the enemy had swarmed the fortress too.

From the sound of things, the enemy was chasing Jin Mogis. The Wild Angels, who were on gate duty at the time, had let him in and then immediately closed the gates, holding the enemy off. That was what Adachi had been told, and it was the reason many volunteer soldiers believed Jin Mogis had brought the enemy to them.

In other words, the enemy had been targeting Jin Mogis too.

Where was he now?

There. In the middle of the leading group. He wasn’t at the front. That man had put himself right in the middle.

Enemies were swarming them as well.

But it wasn’t that the enemy was targeting the leading group. It was that the enemy’s target, Jin Mogis, was in the center of the leading group. That was why they were getting swarmed.

So, he was forcing the leading group to defend him, then, wasn’t he?

Why was the enemy after Jin Mogis and Renji?

“Renji! What now?!” Ron shouted as he launched a black creature into the air.

Aragarfald. Renji’s trump card. He could use his relic’s power to break out of this situation. But Renji didn’t answer Ron. He just kept swinging the sword of Ish Dogran in silence. He didn’t rule out using the armor, but he must have been torn on what to do.

“Renji and his team are falling behind!” That was Britney’s voice. It sounded distant. There were more than ten meters between the vanguard and Team Renji now. Possibly closer to twenty.

The leading group was trying to fight its way into a space between two towers. They were almost at the main gate.

Jin Mogis. Adachi couldn’t help but focus on that man. It might not have been the time, but he found himself unable to look anywhere else.

Was he being irrational? If so, Adachi ought to reconsider what he was doing. Stop obsessing over that man. Just focus on Team Renji. He needed to forget Jin Mogis for the moment.

“Nostarem sangui sacrifici.”

That was when Jin Mogis made his move. What language was that? The words were unfamiliar, but they sounded kind of like Latin to Adachi.

What was Latin?

He didn’t know. Was it some kind of spell? Or maybe a keyword? Whatever it was, it triggered something.

Iron Knuckle, the Berserkers, the Wild Angels, the Tokkis, Britney, and all the rest collapsed at the same time.

No, that was just how it seemed. It wasn’t that the entire leading group hit the ground simultaneously. Some fell down, others dropped on their backsides, while many managed to stay on their feet, but unsteadily. Had they been struck by something? Was it magic of some sort? You’d have expected a scream or two if that were the case, but not one of them had cried out like that. All Adachi heard were small grunts and groans like “Agh...” and “Urkh...” Had they suddenly been overcome by dizziness? Or had their legs given out? Had their strength been sapped somehow? What had happened? Whatever it was, something had been done to them.

That man was the sole exception.

Just one man, the redhead in the black cape, Jin Mogis, was standing upright.

The volunteer soldiers in the leading group—now sitting, lying on the ground, or hunching over, barely able to stay on their feet—seemed to be wrapped in a faint mist, or perhaps a heat haze.

What was that?

And why was Jin Mogis completely fine?

Well, that part was obvious.

It was because he was the one responsible. What had he done? That wasn’t clear, but when he’d chanted “nostarem sangui sacrifici,” it had done something.

Jin Mogis sucked up the mist or haze in no time at all. It just vanished in an instant. Had it all gone inside him? Had the man absorbed it? If so, that meant...

What?

What did it all mean? What in the world was happening?

Adachi didn’t understand. It was a struggle just to put his thoughts in order. Jin Mogis had done something, and it had rendered the leading group unable to fight. Having been separated from the pack, Team Renji—including Adachi—were still fine. But the hostile black creatures hadn’t stopped moving. Their attack was unrelenting.

“One-on-One” Max and Aidan of Iron Knuckle had been at the very front with “Red Devil” Ducky of the Berserkers. Max and Ducky were the leaders of their respective clans, and they had taken it upon themselves to lead the charge, knocking the onrushing black enemies aside one after another. They’d fought harder in the vanguard than anyone, showing off their manly power, winning the respect of their comrades by protecting them, and thus holding their martially-minded clans together. It was unthinkable that such men would be so easily felled. Naturally, victory and defeat were part and parcel of a warrior’s life. Even Max and Ducky, excellent as they were, could have found themselves defeated if their luck went sour. But even if that were to happen, they would have gone down in a heroic display of valor after an intense fight.

Yet Max and Ducky had simply hung their heads, falling to one knee. Then the hostile black creatures had rushed over them in an instant. They’d simply been engulfed. Unable to resist. Unable to run away. Gone in a second.

It had been the same for Aidan and the other members of Iron Knuckle and the Berserkers on the forefront of the leading group. A number of the Wild Angels in the rear had been taken out too.

The Tokkis were slightly separated from the others, off on their left flank. Maybe that was why a number of them were still able to resist the black wave.

Regardless, Adachi had definitely seen Max, Ducky, and Aidan all swallowed up by the enemy. The two clan leaders had been the driving force for the leading group. Now they’d lost them both at the same time.

This is bad. We may be screwed.

Just as Adachi was thinking that, their enemies, that black wave, scattered in all directions.

“What...?!” Renji shouted as he forced the hostile black creatures away with the sword of Ish Dogran.

What was going on? Figure out the situation and report back. That was what Adachi needed to do, but he truly didn’t understand.

The hostile black creatures had swallowed up Max, Ducky, and many others, and were currently devouring the leading group.

They were bearing down on Britney now. But as Adachi watched, the creatures were knocked back.

What was that?

Had Britney kicked them away on his own?

No.

Probably not.

“Urgh!”

Britney tried to rise again, but fell on his backside once more. His body wasn’t following his orders. It was probably the same for the rest of the volunteer soldiers too. Jin Mogis had done something, and it had left them all enervated. Some had tried to brandish their weapons, but they were hunched over like they’d suddenly turned into feeble old men. They couldn’t put up a proper fight like that. And yet, the aggression of the hostile black creatures had clearly waned. Also, that man was gone. The key figure in all this, Jin Mogis, was nowhere to be seen.

“Wha...!” Adachi’s eyes widened as he looked around.

Something was moving. Fast. Incredibly fast.

It wasn’t small. It was quite big, actually. What was it doing? Jumping back and forth around the leading group? There was a constant clamor of whooshing sounds and hard impacts. He couldn’t see clearly what it was doing. It was much too fast for that. Or maybe they were too fast. It might have been multiple things, not just one.

It, or they, was scattering the hostile black creatures. A path to the main gate was forming. The space had been filled with black enemies just a moment ago, but now they were parting. The flow had changed.

The enemy was still targeting Renji, so Team Renji’s situation hadn’t changed all that much. Still, the pressure on them had let up a little, even if it wasn’t a massive shift.

The hostile black creatures were being exterminated by someone who was moving faster than the eye could follow, and the center of the action was shifting away from the leading group, toward the main gate.

“Which means...”

He had no definitive proof due to the limits of his vision, but in this situation he didn’t need it to be sure he was right. Adachi’s brain had put the pieces together.

“That’s Jin Mogis!”

Jin Mogis had done something by chanting “nostarem sangui sacrifici.” That was what had made the leading group collapse. Several of them had fallen prey to the enemy, but his actions had done more than just endanger the volunteer soldiers. That probably hadn’t been his goal. In exchange for putting them at risk, Jin Mogis had gained power. A special power that let him move about at inhuman speeds, mowing down the hostile black creatures.

It was still difficult to believe, but for now it was probably best to set aside his feelings of surprise, as well as his common sense about how things worked, and reach a conclusion based purely on the facts at hand. He couldn’t let his thoughts be hampered by quibbles like, No, that can’t be. There’s no way he could have done that. It’s impossible.

Besides, Adachi knew there was a way for people to do things that seemed impossible—or a type of equipment, rather, that allowed them to.

“Relics!”

At that moment, it all fell into place. A relic. Jin Mogis had a relic and he’d used it.

Relics came in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but some of them could do incredible things. With the right relic, you could do the impossible.

Also, the hostile black creatures had been after Jin Mogis. Just like they were after Renji. Because of a relic. Renji had a relic too. He was wearing Aragarfald. Those two relics were the key here.

“Renji, take off Aragarfald!”

Adachi might have been asking for something unreasonable. Aragarfald covered Renji’s torso, arms, and legs. But it wasn’t like normal armor, which would have had clasps all over it.

The original owner of Aragarfald had been an aberrant warrior, the terrifying sword fiend Arago, who’d stood over two meters tall. That was a massive difference in height from Renji. And yet, something surprising had happened as Renji approached the fiend’s remains after slaying him. The armor the warrior had worn had all come off his body and crawled toward Renji. Adachi and the rest of the party had all warned him to get away from it, but Renji hadn’t listened. The armor of the sword fiend had moved as if it were alive, stripping off Renji’s other armor. Renji hadn’t put on Aragarfald. The demonic armor had wrapped itself around him as if it possessed a will of its own and was choosing a new owner for itself.

If Renji gave the order, Aragarfald would fall off him. That said, they were in the middle of a battle now. What kind of idiot would take off his armor mid-battle?

“Ron!” Renji shouted, sweeping away the hostile black creatures with the sword of Ish Dogran and jumping backward. “Cover me!”

“Yeah, you got it!”

Ron moved up in front of Renji. Sometimes Ron talked about “removing his limiter.” According to him, there was a switch inside his buzz-cut head. Normally it was on, but once he flipped it off, he totally snapped.

“Urah, urah, urah, urah, urah, urah, urah, urah, urah, urah, urahhhh!” Ron swung his greatsword around like it was a toothpick. It goes without saying, however, that his giant cleaver was not, in fact, a toothpick. Once an object started moving in a specific direction, inertia got involved, and it took a considerable amount of strength to stop it. Basically, under normal circumstances, once a massive sword like that started swinging, it needed to swing all the way through. Stopping it before finishing the swing would require the wielder to really brace himself. That was how it should have been, but with his limiter removed, Ron must have been able to unleash incredible bursts of strength or something. However he did it, he was able to swing with inhuman strength, stop his blade, jump up, swing down, stop, and jump again. All of this at terrifying speeds.

Ron would close his eyes whenever he did it. He wasn’t looking at his opponents, his targets. He was just swinging about at random. He swung and he swung, hoping to get lucky. That meant the enemy could just stay out of his reach. Simply move away from him. It didn’t matter how powerful he was if he couldn’t hit them. If his opponents could understand that, then Ron releasing his limiter made little difference. It might work if he caught them by surprise, but beyond that it was of no use other than to intimidate them.

But the hostile black creatures fell for it. Many of the enemies had humanoid forms. They moved in a manner similar to humans too. But some of the enemies were different. There were these slug-like, or perhaps snake-like, creatures too. What were they? That was a total unknown, but in any case they apparently didn’t have the ability to detect a threat and get out of the way.

The enemy immediately charged Ron as he stepped in front of Renji. Was attacking Renji the only thing on their minds? Or did they not think at all? Whatever the case, they would make ideal prey for Ron with his limiter removed. The hostile black creatures were all sent flying by Ron’s massive butcher’s knife. He couldn’t keep it up for long, but it would be long enough.

“Aragarfald!” Renji commanded, thumping a fist on his breastplate. It was almost instantaneous. Renji didn’t take Aragarfald off. It looked more like the demonic armor was opening its ominous maw and ejecting Renji from inside it.

Renji was only wearing the clothes that had been under his armor now. Aragarfald was behind him, kneeling. It looked almost like a headless knight—a dullahan.

“Whoa!” Ron jumped to the side and rolled. He must have been at the limits of his breath and stamina.

“To the gate!” Adachi shouted and started dashing.

Renji jumped over to Ron and pulled him to his feet. Chibi cast some sort of spell on Ron too.

Things went just like Adachi had expected. The hostile black creatures didn’t get in Team Renji’s way. For a moment, he turned to look back at Aragarfald. The enemy was swarming over the demonic armor. Like he’d thought, it was the relics. He still had no idea what these enemies were, but they were after the relics.

“What about them?!” Ron shouted. He must have meant the members of the leading group, who were hunched over or lying on the ground.

Renji rushed over to a female volunteer soldier who was just barely managing to stay on her feet.

“Kajiko, can you move?!”

“Renji... I don’t need your concern!” The leader of the Wild Angels started snapping orders at the other female volunteer soldiers.

Britney was gazing up to the sky. “What in the world happened?!”

“Doesn’t matter! Head for the gate!”

With Renji yelling at them, Britney and the other volunteer soldiers helped their comrades to their feet, encouraging each other as they tried to regroup. Their movements were still noticeably sluggish, though. These were elite volunteer soldiers. All of them had been through some truly difficult battles before. Even mages like Adachi, while they might not have been cut out for melee combat, had the stamina to keep walking all night and all day. Or they should have. Now that was all gone.

Had it been stolen, perhaps? It seemed Jin Mogis was still racing around at super speed, eliminating the hostile black creatures. Adachi’s kinetic vision wasn’t good enough to catch him. However, there were enemies that weren’t part of the swarm going after Aragarfald, and they kept on starting to move in one direction, then shifting to head in another. It looked like they were confused, not just wandering. Meanwhile, explosive impacts kept sounding out all over, each one sending another hostile black creature flying.

“The enemy won’t come for us!” Adachi said, raising his voice. He sounded weirdly shrill, but what did he care? “Hurry! Get to the gate! Keep moving!”

Renji, Ron, Chibi, and a number of the Tokkis—all of the people on their side who could still move freely—were assisting their comrades. Adachi was too. He’d lend his shoulder to a volunteer soldier, get them walking, and then give them the push they needed to start running.

Team Renji was more important than anything to Adachi. He valued Renji, Ron, and Chibi over himself, and didn’t want to lose another member of the team ever again. Honestly, he wished he could focus on just his own party. But he couldn’t leave the other volunteer soldiers here to die. That would be wrong. Not out of humanity or a sense of camaraderie. Adachi wasn’t that emotional.

Renji had taken off Aragarfald for him without questioning it. He’d been so happy to see it that he had almost teared up. Maybe he had actually cried a little. Now, that was him getting emotional. This was different. Adachi was only looking at the other volunteer soldiers as potential assets in combat. It goes without saying, but more was always better when it came to battle. The more volunteer soldiers who made it out of the main gate, the brighter their prospects would be going forward. He wanted to secure as much fighting potential as he could. So that was the only reason he was doing this.

The survivors were finally about to make it through the gate. Adachi might not have been at the vanguard, but he was near the front. There were a number of torches placed high on the walls around the main gate. Thanks to them, Adachi could more or less see what the situation was like in the area.

The main gate, which had been forcibly opened inward, was still jam packed with hostile black creatures, with more of them rushing through by the second.

The volunteer soldiers were supposed to break through that? Was it even possible? Adachi couldn’t imagine it was. No, it wasn’t just him. None of them could. And yet the survivors kept running headlong toward the gate. Weren’t they being reckless? This was suicide. Was there no other way? Adachi questioned it, but the survivors didn’t stop. And being in the middle of the press, Adachi couldn’t either.

It wasn’t like Adachi had forgotten about Jin Mogis. What was he doing now? This was all his fault, wasn’t it? Adachi would resent the man forever after what he’d done. No, nothing could be expected from him. It seemed unlikely that Jin Mogis would do anything that might cause things to change for the better.

Which was why what happened next took him by surprise. Some humanoid figure raced past the survivors at an incredible speed, then charged into the main gate. It blasted away all the hostile black creatures that had been blocking the gate as they streamed in, pushing them back out.

As if on a fixed course, the survivors ran through the main gate. Some of them were surprised, and Adachi even let out a “Wha?!” but they kept on running until they were outside. The darkness spread out before them.

The wind was fairly strong. The skies, cloudy. Dawn was still a long way off, and both the red moon and the stars were nowhere to be seen. Grimgar was blanketed in an impenetrable darkness, too thick for the lights atop Riverside Iron Fortress to pierce.

Adachi drew the short staff that hung at his hip and began drawing elemental sigils in front of him.

“Delm, hel, en, trem, rig, arve.”

A single line of flames rose up, stretching toward the darkness. It wasn’t just the darkness of night spread out before the survivors. Doubtless, the entire area would be awash in hostile black creatures too. Adachi hadn’t used the Firewall spell to attack them, though. Unfortunately, it seemed that the survivors’ enemies couldn’t be burned away with Arve magic. Adachi was just hoping to use the light of the fire to identify how many of them were out there.

Two or three other mages also cast Firewall.

A total of four walls of fire appeared in a sunburst pattern extending out from the main gate.

The survivors gulped.

The hostile black creatures were everywhere.

Black forms blotted out the ground. No, that can’t be right, Adachi’s reason argued. Look closer. The survivors were currently standing on the ground, after all. Some of them were shouting “whoa” and kicking away one of the black things that had wrapped itself around their leg, or “take this!” and beating them back with their weapons. If the survivors stayed put, they might end up buried in enemies, whether it was the humanoid ones or the crawling ones, but that hadn’t happened yet, at least. There was grass, dirt, and stones exposed here and there. It was a bad situation, but they weren’t completely out of places to stand.

“Jin Mogis...” Adachi murmured. His throat was tight, and his voice escaped like a groan.

There was a red-haired man standing between two of the walls of fire that stretched into the darkness, his back turned to them. His sword was drawn.

“Hrmm...” Jin Mogis let out a low groan. Then, immediately after that...

He vanished.

Jin Mogis was gone.

No, not just him. Two of the walls of fire disappeared too.

Adachi’s eyes couldn’t make it out, but it seemed to him that something like a whirlwind had instantly formed where Jin Mogis was standing. That had blasted away the walls of fire and the hostile black creatures.

“How can he move like that?! Is that guy even human?!” Ron shouted.

“Wah-hah!”

Someone laughed in the darkness. Was that human laughter? It was presumably Jin Mogis, but it sounded so bizarre. If a laugh were to escape not just from someone’s mouth, but their eyes, nose, and ears as well, it might have sounded like that.

“Incredible! So this is what it means to be set free from one’s humanity! What a shame that I can only use it once more!”

There was something pale and blue shining in the dark. Adachi squinted. It wasn’t a large light. It was quite small, actually. He couldn’t say for certain, but it was probably Jin Mogis. Was part of the man’s body shining? Or was it something he was carrying, perhaps? Something like a jewel, maybe. Like a necklace, or possibly a ring.

A stone.

A jewel.

A shining rock.

“Is that the relic?!”

Jin Mogis had used a relic. One that had sapped dozens of volunteer soldiers of their strength, only to add it to Jin Mogis’s own, no doubt.

“I can only use it once more!”

What did he mean by that? That it wasn’t unlimited? That relic had a usage limit. Also, its effects weren’t permanent. They were on a timer. It must have had a limited range too. That was why it hadn’t drained Team Renji.

But it had one use left.

Meaning, Jin Mogis could do the same thing again.

If that man used his relic again, this time all the survivors would be sapped of their strength. Adachi hadn’t experienced it himself, so he couldn’t say for certain, but it had managed to knock down many experienced volunteer soldiers, so it was unlikely that any of them could resist it. Jin Mogis would then have superhuman strength, even if there was a time limit on it.

With his first usage, the man had gotten out of Riverside Iron Fortress. What would he do with the second? Adachi’s prediction was that he’d use it to ditch the survivors and flee. Probably try to get as far as he could while the effect lasted.

Jin Mogis had never seen the volunteer soldiers as allies or comrades to begin with. They barely even rated as disposable pawns. The man had always been willing to sacrifice them if it came down to it. If that relic had a usage limit, then he would probably avoid using it if at all possible, but would still use it if forced. The man had needed sacrifices. And those sacrifices were the volunteer soldiers of Riverside Iron Fortress.

“Renji!”

They had to kill him. That man needed to die immediately. If they didn’t snuff him out before he could use the relic, then the survivors would be wiped out for sure this time.

Once they killed him, what then? That didn’t matter. Well, no, it did, but Renji—or someone else, it didn’t have to be Renji—needed to kill Jin Mogis first.

Renji understood what Adachi was getting at even without a full explanation, and he wasn’t the only one. Ron and a number of the other volunteer soldiers sprang into the darkness after the maniacally laughing Jin Mogis.

“Whoa!”

There was a light. A different one. Not the pale blue light of the relic, but one that was closer to white. The light grew, and now Adachi was able to see Jin Mogis. The light was in the middle of his chest. Was it a blade? Something like a sword? A sword of light, piercing through Jin Mogis.

“Gworgh! Hurgh...”

Jin Mogis coughed up a gout of blood. The red-haired man attempted to raise his trembling left hand. The ring sat on his index finger, harboring a pale blue light with a petal-like pattern floating in it.

“Nosta...rem...”

Jin Mogis was no doubt trying to say the incantation. It was probably the key phrase to trigger that relic. But he couldn’t do it. The blade sticking out of his body wouldn’t let him speak. His feet rose from the ground as the sword of light lifted him up high, leaving him suspended like a hanged man.

The sword of light wasn’t an independent entity. Clearly, it hadn’t impaled Jin Mogis and lifted him aloft on its own. It had a wielder. There was someone over there, behind Jin Mogis, who was responsible. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but whoever it was carried a shield giving off a dim glow in addition to the sword of light. The figure looked human. It wasn’t a giant, at least. They weren’t particularly large or small. A solitary swordsman, seemingly clad in the darkness of night.

“San...gui...” Jin Mogis tried to finish the key phrase between coughs of blood.

The night-clad one began to rise into the air with Jin Mogis still impaled on their sword of light. The figure was riding on darkness, on some sort of black thing. Like a dark knight on a black horse. Was it all one single being? Or was there a separate creature pushing the figure upward?

The night-clad one swung the sword of light diagonally to their rear, throwing Jin Mogis off it. There was no sound as the man impacted the ground, because it wasn’t the ground that broke his fall. It was the black things.

“Oagh, argh!” Jin Mogis’s death cry was short-lived.

The night-clad one approached the volunteer soldiers silently. As did the black things that had swallowed up Jin Mogis. Were they going to attack? The survivors had no relics. Would they still not be spared?

“The seventh—”

As soon as Adachi opened his mouth, he realized that this plan had been stuck in some corner of his head the whole time. It would be impossible to fight their way through the night-clad one’s forces to freedom. No matter how lucky they got, none of them would get out alive.

The seventh tower. One of Riverside Iron Fortress’s fourteen towers, the seventh, had an escape route that led outside the fortress. Britney and the Wild Angels had been defending the seventh tower, but had been forced to retreat. What was it like there now? He didn’t know. He couldn’t say he had much hope for it, but they faced certain doom if they kept trying to push forward here. The same went for if they tried to hold their ground. That meant they had to gamble on the escape route out of the fortress.

“Everyone, turn back to the seventh tower! Hurry!” Adachi screamed. Some of the survivors turned instantly. It’s time, thought Adachi. During this battle, he hadn’t wasted his magic. He’d been conserving his power. This was the moment to use it. Sure, he couldn’t harm the enemy with magic. But he could smash buildings and other things to block their pursuit. Adachi could stay behind and start wreaking mass destruction in order to buy a few minutes for the rest of the party to flee. If he felt that was what was best for Renji—and for Team Renji—he wouldn’t hesitate.

For starters, he’d blow up the main gate once the survivors had all pulled back into the fortress, crushing the night-clad one in the rubble, if possible.

“What are you doing, Adachi?!” Renji shouted at him.

Renji’s silver hair was so pretty. So were his pale eyes.

Once, Adachi had asked, So, that’s your natural color?

Seems like it, Renji had replied.

Thinking back, they’d had almost no deep conversations that really touched on who they were as people. Maybe not even one. Neither Renji nor Adachi accepted others easily, and they never actively tried to get closer to anyone either. As Sassa had pointed out, Adachi had fond feelings for Renji—impulses and desires he felt he had no choice but to hide.

What about Renji? Did he feel anything like that?

Adachi wished he knew.

He’d been by Renji’s side for so long. He should have asked, even if he’d had to force himself to. There was no way Renji had feelings for him. He couldn’t possibly love him back. But even if it made Renji hate him, he should have tried to learn more. He wished he had.

“Okay, let’s go!”

With a nod to Renji, Adachi headed for the main gate.

“O Light, O Lumiaris, bestow the light of protection on my blade!”

The reason he’d stopped was because someone had jumped out from within the group of survivors.

Were they going to attack the night-clad one?

Who was it?

Britney?

“Saber!”

Britney’s sword was wreathed in blinding light. Saber. That was a paladin’s light magic.

The night-clad one was riding atop a four-legged black thing. Adachi had thought it was like a horse at first, but it lacked a neck or head. Regardless, that mount was still giving the night-clad one a height advantage over Britney. It wouldn’t be easy to land a blow on them.

“I was getting bored, only having these creepy things to fight!”

The way Britney moved wasn’t that quick, but it was flexible and strangely fluid. The night-clad one swung down at Britney with the sword of light, but couldn’t hit him. It was a close shave, though. Britney had likely side-stepped the incoming slash with the bare minimum of movement, then quickly clambered up the back end of the headless horse to where their enemy was situated. Britney had gotten behind them now.

“Play with me, would you?!”

Britney held his sword in both hands as he slammed it right into the night-clad one’s neck. Yet the enemy only quivered a little, then twisted around to bash Britney with their dimly glowing shield. Britney had to nimbly jump out of the way to avoid it, doing a spin in midair. The enemy must have been watching to see where he’d land, because they immediately turned their horse to charge toward him.

“Sacrifice!”

That was a paladin. Not Britney, though. Another paladin rushed in, his shield shining brightly, and stopped the headless black horse in its tracks. He even managed to push it back a little.

“I’m getting in on this too, Bri-chan!”

“Tokimuneeee?!”

That voice was Kikkawa. Of the Tokkis. It was Tokimune who’d backed up Britney.

“You know what you’re getting into, right?! Silly boy!”

Having landed safely with some help from Tokimune, Britney began drawing some sort of figure with the tip of the sword that he’d cast Saber on and chanting a spell. It was the hexagram that symbolized Lumiaris.

“O light, O Lumiaris! Grant us determination!”

Adachi had tried to learn the names of every spell he could find, even the light magic ones that only priests and paladins could use. But this one was new to him.

“Altera!” Britney and Tokimune shouted in unison. But it wasn’t just their voices that came together. Their swords collided. When they did, a shimmering red light started to emanate from the two paladins. Normally, the blessings of Lumiaris didn’t have any particular color. They were pure white. Not this one, though.

The guiding light, Altera.

There was something different about it.

“Retreaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!” someone roared at an unbelievable volume. Adachi’s ears hurt. For a moment, he even questioned the sense of whoever had shouted like that all of a sudden.

“But—!” Kikkawa started to protest, but Tada grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and sprinted for the main gate. Had that shout come from Tada? Anna of the Tokkis and their mage Mimori followed him. There ought to have been a creepy guy with a ponytail with them too, but he was nowhere to be seen.

It was Adachi who had directed everyone to get to the seventh tower as quickly as possible. Still, he had to question the way the Tokkis ran without looking back. Were they leaving Tokimune behind? Was Altera that kind of magic, then?

Blood Spell, which Adachi had learned on the Red Continent, used his own blood as a catalyst. Obviously, if he overused it, he’d get anemic, and in the worst-case scenario could even die of blood loss.

There was some incredible magic out there. Secret arts only taught to a select few, which shortened the caster’s life span or used it up entirely in exchange for astonishing power.

Adachi was aware of another one, Crime, which instantly healed all of the paladin’s own wounds in exchange for completely losing the blessings of Lumiaris. Maybe Altera was a spell along the same lines.

Britney and Tokimune were probably about to pay a great price. They’d cast Altera. There was no taking that back. Tada understood that, and that was why he’d headed for the seventh tower without hesitation, right? If so, here’s what Adachi had to think: Britney and Tokimune were laying their lives on the line to hold back the night-clad one and the countless other hostiles. They were casting their own lives away in order to save as many people as possible.

It seems this wasn’t the right moment after all, Adachi thought as he ran. He’d been prepared to do it, but Britney and Tokimune had beaten him to the punch. That meant it wasn’t Adachi’s time yet.

“I love every last one of you!”

Though Britney’s voice tugged at him from behind, Adachi didn’t look back. He needed to make it to the seventh tower no matter what. Needed to get Renji, Ron, and Chibi there. For the sake of Team Renji, he needed to make sure as many people escaped the fortress as possible. What could he do to ensure that? Adachi pumped his legs as he thought about it. Renji’s back was in front of him. Ron’s too. And Chibi was running alongside him. He didn’t feel an ounce of fear. He wasn’t afraid of what he’d lost, or what he might lose in the future. Ridiculous as it might seem, in this moment, Adachi felt satisfied.