3
When she first became conscious, Echidna experienced a premonition.
The goal of an unnatural being like her was exhausted the moment she came into being.
Put another way, the point of her very creation was simply to exist, and it had already been fulfilled. And so she was abandoned, left to drift aimlessly in the world, forced to endure centuries of emptiness.
And in the course of those many years spent on a meaninglessly long life, she met her.
The vivid way that girl lived gave her frozen life a newfound detail and intensity. She wanted to see what would become of that girl who spouted such bold things despite her small body, and to see if there was anything she couldn’t be.
At some point, her curiosity and interest became irrelevant…
“I don’t want to lose you or the people you care about so much.”
The passage of time was both a kindness and a cruelty.
Time healed wounds, but it also wore down emotions.
Having lived for such a very long time, for the first time she thought—
I don’t want this time to pass.
The knight cloaked in a rainbow leaped straight into the white light.
While Julius unleashed his ultimate technique, Reid’s reaction was terribly simple.
He brought down the sword that he had raised high. This was the single most repeated motion in this world—and it split the world diagonally, erasing everything in the light’s path.
It wasn’t some grand magic or special technique. With a simple slash of his sword, the world was seared by light. It made absolutely no sense. Was Reid Astrea just that monstrous, or were all Sword Saints like that?
What was clear was…
“Julius.”
She wanted to do all she could so that the aurora wouldn’t be overwhelmed by that white light.
However, there was nothing she could do. If there was anyone who could do something for Julius Juukulius, it had to be…
Touching her breast, she focused on the being sleeping inside her. The original owner of this body. The reason Echidna had come out to this tower in the desert: to find why she remained in such a deep slumber.
—But that was a lie.
Echidna already knew why she wasn’t waking up.
The girl who boasted of her own greed, who talked boldly about wanting to possess absolutely everything. Once she had gotten her hands on something, she was loath to let it go. She hated the idea of losing anything. So of course, there was only one explanation.
“When you gave control to me, you slipped into your own Odo and entered a state where the outside world can’t affect you. In a way, your Odo is a self-contained world.”
And she had closed herself off in that place.
The reason was obvious. If she came outside, she might be affected. Out here, she was vulnerable to the influence of the Archbishop of Gluttony’s fearsome authority.
That might force her to forget things she wanted to remember. It could force her to let go of things she wanted to hold on to.
Anastasia Hoshin could forget Julius Juukulius.
—After watching him act so desperately as a nameless knight, then seeing his good and bad sides, she was sure. Even if Anastasia forgot, she could tell her.
“Ahh, right.”
She thought she was simply an artificial spirit who had fulfilled her reason for being the moment she was born. Surprisingly, it had not ended there.
A bridge between a precious girl and a precious knight. What could be more important? It was laughable to think she had been born for this, but it was a terribly weighty role.
So…
“Not seeing your knight’s coolest moment? As stingy as you are, there’s no way you would miss something like that, right?”
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