6
The moment he burst onto the balcony, he was stunned by how different it looked, but at the same time, he understood just how intense the fighting here must have been.
“ ”
There were dozens of monster corpses, and the balcony was awash in blood.
The reason this vantage point above the sea of sand was stained with blood was because the stampede had not stopped its quixotic charge against the tower. If left alone, they would pour inside, heightening the chaos.
And the one who had done the most to prevent that terrible possibility was…
“Shaula!”
“Master…?”
When Shaula heard his voice, she spun around with wide open eyes—eyes that had split apart, three on each side, for a total of six compound eyes.
It was a transformation Subaru had seen once before. It meant one of the rules of the tower had been broken, and she was switching over to perform her role as guardian of the tower.
As a result, she was turning into a giant scorpion against her will and would soon move to eliminate those challenging the tower—in other words Subaru and his friends. Before that…
“Master, give…give me the order…!”
“ ”
“Someone broke the rules. At this rate, I’ll…! Before that…if you don’t…I’ll…Master…!”
Shaula clawed at her body as she pleaded with Subaru. She had somehow lost the ability to kill herself. What she was asking for was the final push she needed to do it: an order from Subaru.
Subaru looked into her compound eyes and nodded vigorously.
“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t know what I did to make you call me ‘Master.’”
“Ngh!”
Despair filled Shaula’s compound eyes.
Rejected by the person she had waited four hundred long years for, and her final plea kicked aside, Shaula cowered like a child.
Watching her through that, Subaru inhaled and exhaled.
“But we can save whether you get to call me that for a later date.”
“Huh…?”
“I’m not going to tell you to kill yourself. I’m not going to leave you crying there. And this isn’t how I’m going to end your four-hundred-year wait.”
When he gathered up all the memories he’d lost, Subaru realized something.
The people in this world were all too patient. No one should wait faithfully for four hundred years. Someone had to grab them by the scruff of their necks and drag them out.
“And I’ll do it, too! I’m not gonna be someone else’s puppet!” Subaru raised his fist. “Bring it on, fate!”
“ ”
Shaula was speechless. Inside her, something exploded, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold it back any longer.
But in that instant, what was most important for her wasn’t the tower’s rules or the impulses swelling up inside her.
“Master… I love you…”
It was the irrepressible love she felt for the person she had waited four hundred years to meet again.
After she said that, her transformation began in earnest.
Her pale, slender hands swelled into pincers, her voluptuous body burst, and then, like a tape rewinding, the flesh and blood returned, forming a new body. A black shell came into being, and red compound eyes glared out at the world. Multiple legs thrust into the ground as the tower’s manager became complete…
“ Sssssss.”
There was a screech from the scorpion, warning of death to all who infringed on the tower’s rules.
Her eyes gleamed monstrously, and her tail’s stinger flashed white, pointed at the black-haired boy she had been so devoted to…
“—Hiiyah!!!”
A heavy kick right in the side sent the scorpion flying. The force was so great, it plowed into various monsters on the balcony before flying over the edge and down into the sea of sand.
“Murak!”
To top it off, mana with imbued directionality warped the natural laws of the world, stealing the mass of the several-hundred-pound giant scorpion, leaving it to blow in the breeze like a leaf.
Murak was a type of shadow magic that manipulated the mass of its target. Having lost its natural weight, thanks to that, the scorpion fell without any means of coming back. As a final bit of resistance, it turned its stinger on the balcony, taking aim at them, but…
“Winged molesies, go!”
The girl’s high-pitched order summoned several winged monsters that immediately barreled down on the scorpion.
Grotesque mole-like monsters with bird wings and most of their heads transformed into horns, they charged into the scorpion’s shell one after the other, sending the newly lightweight scorpion down to the ground all at once from the impact.
Falling several hundred yards—that obviously wouldn’t be enough to defeat it, but it was enough to buy some time. And using that time:
“Meili! Echidna!” Subaru shouted as he ran over.
“Natsuki! You’re up…no?” Looking up, Echidna furrowed her brow. “Did you manage to get your memory back?”
“You’re quick on the uptake! But how could you tell?”
“It’s easy enough with Beatrice there next to you, looking so proud.”
Echidna jerked her chin toward Beatrice, who was looking smug while holding his hand.
True, it’s definitely easy to tell something good happened from that smug look. It really is lovely.
“And that girl I can’t recall who kicked Shaula off is…”
“You can thank Gluttony’s authority. The same thing happened to Julius… Forgotten by everyone else, but she remembers herself. Her name is Emilia. My tough and cute princess.”
“Thanks for the quick update. You mind if I ask what the plan is now?”
“Yeah, I just so happen to have an answer to that question.”
While Subaru nodded deeply, Emilia hurried to help Meili deal with the demon beasts. While they were buying time, he prioritized sharing his plan with his wise comrade.
“Echidna, your role is inside. Go meet up with Julius, fighting on the second floor! I already talked with Emilia about what to do after that!”
“………” Echidna thought for just a moment. “I don’t mind going with her, but what about the rest of you?”
“Betty’s and Subaru’s roles are already set,” Beatrice immediately responded. Glancing over at Subaru, she squeezed his hand. “We will face that giant scorpion here. We have to hold back enough not to exterminate it, though. This is going to be a pain.”
“She talks a big game, don’t she? That’s my Beako.”
“Eh-heh-bleh.”
Spurring herself and her contractor on with that bold declaration, Beatrice stuck out her tongue.
Eyes widening at their exchange, Echidna sighed and shifted gears. That pragmatic, adaptive ability was just what he would expect from Anastasia’s partner.
“No point doubting your plan now. I guess I’ll go with it.”
“I’m honored. It’s such a shame you had to have the name ‘Echidna.’”
“I’ve already accepted your wholehearted grudge against my maker. Any messages for Julius?”
After a bit of banter, Echidna started to turn, but not before asking one final question.
Julius was at this moment fighting on the upper floor. When he thought about it, Subaru realized that Julius was the last comrade he had not met up with and explained that his memory was back, but…
“No, nothing special.”
There was nothing that Subaru needed to say to Julius, who was fighting Reid.
Julius was already in the place he wanted him to be. He could tell from Cor Leonis.
“—The me a little before this and the me before that already said everything that needed saying. There’s nothing more to add. He’s Julius Juukulius.”
There was a steadfast fate in this world, and there was no avoiding a decisive clash between Julius and Reid. But something being unavoidable didn’t make it insurmountable. If it was fate that Reid would stand in Julius’s way, then there was just one answer.
Julius Juukulius would be the one to cut down Reid Astrea.
“…Got it. I’ll tell him just the way you said it.”
“Ah, there is one thing, actually. Tell him people are fighting all around the tower, so finish up quick and come help the others.”
With a wave, Subaru got a little laugh out of Echidna as she started moving. Seeing her off, Subaru looked to Emilia, who slashed two demon beasts with an ice sword.
“Emilia-tan! Just like we planned! I’m counting on you!”
“Leave it to me! Don’t die, Subaru!”
“Aye-aye!”
Subaru raised his fist with a bit more actual feeling than usual at her natural warning.
He didn’t want to die. That fundamental principle was unchanged, but there was even more meaning in it, too. Dying and returning in this situation would be unimaginably dangerous.
If the restart point was unchanged, then he would go back to before he had peeled Louis out of himself. It was impossible to guess what sort of problems might happen then. Would the Louis inside him be gone, or not? The corridors of memory was sort of a lawless gray zone, but how would it interact with Return by Death? There was no obvious answer.
In other words…
“Let’s settle it this time!”
On his cue, Emilia followed Echidna off the balcony.
Them to their battlefield, and us to ours.
“So? That was a bunch of gibberish instead of an explanation. Do you plan on giving me a real one eventually or what?”
Meili had restrained herself and not interrupted, but she ran over as Emilia and Echidna left. Subaru flashed her a thumbs-up.
“Sorry, but roll with me, Meili. You, me, and Beako are going to take care of two corners. The demon beast stampede and the giant scorpion!”
“That isn’t an explanation at all!”
“—It’s coming!”
Meili’s hair swayed, and she pouted, but there was no time to give her a more detailed explanation. The next moment, as if responding to Beatrice’s voice, something massive leaped onto the balcony from the tower’s wall.
A creature sporting a black shell, lethal pincers, and red compound eyes…
“A four-hundred-year shut-in.”
His breath rising a bit, Subaru lifted Beatrice in his arms, and, standing next to Meili, he faced off with the giant scorpion.
“It’s a battle of the shut-ins. In that corner is a person with four hundred years’ experience, and in our corner are two people with four hundred and one years’ experience.”
“Don’t you mean three people with four hundred and two years’ experience?”
“In other words, we’re the winners.”
“Beyond the word winner, I have to wonder what you are talking about!”
Beatrice roared at the two of them from within Subaru’s arms. Slightly more relaxed after that bit of banter, Subaru stared at the scorpion and exhaled.
With this, all the matchups are perfect. All that’s left is…
“I’m begging you here, Emilia-tan. You’re the key to everything.”
The battle of the four corners enveloping the entire Pleiades Watchtower was beginning in earnest.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login