"Tio-san, isn't your time about to run out?" Shea asked via telepathy. She was currently
nestled inside one of the scales on Tio's neck. She'd been transferred there the same
way Tio had transferred all of the equipment she'd been wearing when she
transformed.
"Yes, I can't maintain this form much longer. Let us clear up the remaining enemies as
quickly as possible!" Tio replied. She had, at most, ten more seconds before her
transformation ran out.
The monster army had been reduced to a hundredth of its size, and there were barely
even ten thousand of them left. Tio could wipe them out with ease. As she whipped up
more fire tornadoes and flaming thunderstorms, she let out a triumphant roar and
began gathering as much mana as she could around her. That roar also stopped the
monsters that were trying to flee in their tracks, and they looked up at the massive
black circle Tio had created above her. That circle shrank down to a tiny point, and Tio
created yet another circle, which she again shrank down. She repeated that process
multiple times, and the air around her began to rumble.
She paused for a moment as she finished charging, then unleashed a spherical burst
of breath so powerful it obliterated all sound. Her night-black mana covered every
inch of the floating island dimension, destroying anything and everything in sight. No
monster was able to escape Tio's wrath, nor could they do anything to defend against
it. Every living creature within range was immediately and utterly annihilated.
Eventually, the wave of destruction came to an end.
"Ngh, I… I'm at my limit," Tio groaned, and the storm of fire and lightning that had
covered the sky suddenly vanished. The fire tornadoes also petered out, as did the
flames that had been burning through all the monsters on the islands.
There was a burst of black mana from Tio's body, and her dragon form dispersed,
spitting both her and Shea out into the sky. Naturally, as a result, the two of them
started falling.
"T-Tio-san! We're still in the air!"
"Oh, curses. I don't have the strength left to stop our descent. Shea, help me out."
"Are you kidding me?! I don't have any strength left either!"
It would have been better if Tio had landed before canceling her transformation, but
she really had been at her absolute limit. She couldn't have held out longer even if
she'd tried.
"Heh, fret not. We can simply have one of my dragon familiars pick us up."
"Oh yeah; I forgot about them!"
"Come, my black dragons. Rescue ussssss."
Unfortunately, Tio's dragons didn't respond. She'd ordered them to evacuate far away
from the battlefield when she'd transformed to make sure they didn't get caught up in
her attack, which was also why Freid had thought they'd run away after she'd been hit
by Uranos's breath.
Shea and Tio exchanged glances. Upon realizing that the black dragons were too far
away to save them, both of them went pale, their expressions stiff.
"Nooooooooo! We finally won! I don't wanna die like thiiiiiiiiis!" Shea wailed.
"The Skyboards! Shea, get out your Skyboard!"
"I don't have the strength to even grab it!"
"Neither do I! But what if you summon it right below us so we land on it?!"
"Guess that's our only choice!"
Sure, both Tio and Shea were too exhausted to move, but Tio was fully drained of
mana, while Shea still had a little bit left. It wasn't enough to grab Tio and Aerodynamic
safely to the ground, but it was enough to summon and activate a Skyboard.
However, it was a difficult feat to properly summon it at the right spot when they were
falling at such speed, with the wind buffeting them this way and that. Shea desperately
called her Skyboard, but because it was unaffected by air resistance, it slipped past
them like a floating leaf.
"Ah…" both of them mumbled at the same time.
"Hajime-saaan, Yue-saaaaaan, I love you twoooooo!"
"This isn't the time to be saying your farewells! Don't worry; I'm sure we're strong
enough to survive the fall!"
Just then, Shea and Tio heard a high-pitched squeak.
"Kyuu!"
A furry white figure streaked toward the two of them, grabbed them both by the arms,
and suspended them in the air with a jolt. While the two of them felt their arms nearly
be ripped out of their sockets, their fall was mercifully stopped a scant five meters
from the ground. The furry white rabbit had saved their lives.
"Inaba?! You're Inaba, aren't you?!" Shea exclaimed.
"Did you say Inaba?! Why is he here?!" Tio shouted.
"Kyuu!"
Inaba had apparently grabbed on to Shea's and Tio's arms with his long bunny ears
and then used Aerodynamic to halt their descent. However, their body weight had
nearly ripped Inaba's ears off, so he was trembling in pain as he held them, tears
welling up in his eyes. Nevertheless, he had most definitely saved them. Inaba kicked
off against the air and gradually lowered Shea and Tio to the ground.
"Th-Thank you. We owe you our lives, Inaba," Tio said gratefully.
"Thanks a lot, Inaba. But wait, what are you doing here?"
"Kyuu, kyuu! Kyu?"
Inaba shook his head as if to say, "Don't worry about it" to Tio, then started caressing
his stretched-out ears. In response to Shea's question, he simply nodded into the
distance, and Shea turned to see Shizuku and the others heading over on their
Skyboards. They closed the distance pretty quickly, then alighted on the ground next
to Shea and Tio.
"Are you two…? No, you don't look very okay."
"Looks like you had a pretty tough fight."
"Ha ha… It felt like I was watching the battle of the ages. Thank god Shizuku and the
others brought me back so I could see this."
"I was worried when Inaba-san suddenly ran off, but… you guys can't move, can you?
Hang on a second; I'll heal you up."
Suzu cast healing magic on the two of them, while Shizuku pulled out some potions
for them to drink. Shea rested on Shizuku's lap, while Tio rested on Suzu's. Meanwhile,
Ryutarou and Kouki looked around at the crumbling islands in awe.
Smiling, Shea replied, "I'm glad you guys made it out okay. Seems like that idiot over
there's finally reflected on his actions too, huh? That's great."
"More or less," Shizuku said with a somewhat bitter smile, prompting Kouki to avert
his gaze awkwardly.
"But where is the other…? No, forget it. I'm sure you did your best," Tio said, gently
stroking Suzu's cheek.
Regardless of how things had turned out, and regardless of whether or not Suzu
herself had accepted the outcome, Tio knew for a fact that she must have done her
absolute best. And because Tio knew that, she knew it wasn't words of comfort that
Suzu was looking for, as that would only be insulting her resolve, hence why she chose
to praise her instead.
Tears welled up in Suzu's eyes, but she quickly blinked them away and smiled
wordlessly at Tio. It was a very mature, very stunning smile.
Shizuku smiled as she watched Tio and Suzu talk, then said, "But I have to say, that was
quite a shock. After we jumped through the portal that led us here, we thought we'd
accidentally warped into the end of the world."
"I couldn't believe my eyes. It was like we'd been sent straight to hell."
"That sleek black dragon was you, right, Tio-san?"
"It was. I had originally planned on unveiling that form after we'd reached Master to
help him fight Ehit, but… I suppose it was worth using it here if it meant getting rid of
the Sanctuary's entire supply of monsters."
It was at that point that Shizuku and the others realized the level of the battlefield
they'd been fighting on was completely different from what Tio and Shea had been
facing, and an awed look dawned on their faces.
"Anyway, I'm impressed you guys got here so fast. You didn't even have the compass to
guide you," Shea said, sitting up now that she could move a little.
Most of the zones Shea and the others had passed through had been veritable mazes.
While they had killed all of the obstacles that had inhabited those zones, it should have
still taken Shizuku and the others longer to catch up.
Shea gave Shizuku a questioning look, then replied in a confused voice, saying, "There
wasn't really much room to get lost. Since the clock tower you guys went through got
destroyed, we lost some time finding another ruin with a portal to pass through, but
once we did, it took us straight here."
"Hmm. Did you get lucky, or did the composition of dimensions change after we passed
through them? Well, either way, this is good for us! If you hadn't gotten here as fast as
you did, we might have ended up splatting on the ground!"
"That's really not the kind of thing you should be laughing about, Tio-san…" Suzu
mumbled in an exasperated voice. Laughing, Tio got to her feet as well.
"Anyway… where's Hajime?" Shizuku asked. It was clear that had been the foremost
question on her mind since she'd arrived, but she'd held back because Tio and Shea
had needed immediate attention.
Suzu and the others' expressions stiffened. Seeing as Shea and Tio had survived,
Shizuku doubted Hajime had been killed, but—
"Oh, whoops. We probably should have mentioned that first, huh?"
"Indeed. We're sorry for worrying you."
Shea and Tio gave a brief summary of what had happened before Shizuku and the
others had arrived.
"I see… We should hurry and catch up to him, then," Shizuku said determinedly, and
the others nodded. But just then, there was a loud rumbling noise, and the entire
dimension began to shake.
Shea and the others glanced around, instantly wary. They could see cracks forming in
the sky, and it looked like the entire dimension was starting to fall apart. Furthermore,
the islands that had been damaged in the fight were unable to withstand the
dimensional earthquake and started crumbling.
Shea and the others hurriedly took out their Skyboards and rose into the air.
Looking down, Suzu exclaimed, "I-Is that… the ground?!"
The sea of clouds had finally parted, and as it dissipated, the area below it finally
became visible. However, the sky below was distorted, as if everyone was looking at it
through a fish-eye lens. And far below that distorted space was a familiar sight. Suzu
and the others could see a fortress sitting in the middle of a flat plain… with thousands
upon thousands of people fighting against an army of apostles. But then, the distortion
suddenly vanished, and other distortions appeared elsewhere in the sky in multiple
places. They showed the dimensions Shea and the others had passed through, as well
as other areas they didn't recognize.
The ominous rumbling grew stronger, and the distortions that connected to other
dimensions started appearing and disappearing more quickly and more frequently
than ever.
"I bet this is Hajime-san's doing. He must have started fighting Ehit!"
"Indeed. This Sanctuary is a creation of Ehit's, so it stands to reason that he has the
most influence over this space. If it has become this unstable, then it's quite likely that
Ehit is being driven into a corner."
Of course, Tio had no proof to back up her conjecture. This dimension might have been
simply dissolving because Ehit had begun enacting the final stage of his plan to destroy
this world. However, no one thought that was the case for even a moment. Everyone
smiled, certain that Shea and Tio were right.
"We better hurry, then, or we'll miss the whole fight," Shizuku replied.
"Yeah! Let's get out of here and meet up with Nagumo-kun!" Suzu said with a nod, and
everyone started heading toward the obelisk. The island it had been on had crumbled
away, so now it was simply a pure-white pillar floating in the air.
Shea was still a little woozy, so she needed to lean on Shizuku's shoulder and ride on
her Skyboard, but she nevertheless reached out to touch the obelisk without
hesitation.
"Hm?"
However, nothing happened when Shea touched the obelisk. When Hajime had last
checked his compass, it had definitely been pointing to this obelisk, and the portals
that Shea and the others had gone through on their way here hadn't required any
special activation rules.
Puzzled, Shea touched the obelisk again. Shizuku, Suzu, Tio, Ryutarou, and Kouki all
tried as well, but again nothing happened.
"Why?!" Shea shouted, slapping the obelisk over and over.
"It may have something to do with why this dimension has become so unstable. There
are more obelisks on the other islands. Let us see if any of them still work," Tio said,
though she had a bad feeling that they might be trapped here. Still, they all split up to
try the other obelisks in the distance.
Unfortunately, none of them activated. And to make matters worse, the cracks in the
sky were getting so big that they were breaking apart pieces of the sky… and there was
nothing but darkness beyond those shattered segments. If you stared at them long
enough, they looked like nothing more than black walls, but as a test, Shizuku tried
throwing a pebble at one of them.
"Looks like anything that goes in disintegrates," Shizuku said. The stone had turned to
dust and vanished as soon as it had hit the blackness.
"This doesn't look too good…"
"I doubt we're somehow special and won't get obliterated if we try to enter…"
"What about the obelisk we used to get in here?" Suzu suggested, and everyone
hurriedly headed back there.
Right now, they were more worried about their immediate survival than catching up
to Hajime. Even if backtracking lost them time, escaping this dimension was their top
priority.
While they hurried back to their starting obelisk, the dimension's destruction started
accelerating. It was like a cage slowly constricting around them. Floating islands were
swallowed up and destroyed one after the other. The group had to take several detours
when the space right in front of them cracked and shattered, exposing only blackness,
but eventually, they made it to the obelisk that led back to the abandoned ruins. But
unfortunately, that one didn't activate either.
"Oh no… we can't even go back…" Kouki said in a voice tinged with despair. A distortion
near the obelisk showed Shea and the others the abandoned ruins they'd come from.
It seemed that dimension was also falling apart. It wasn't just here, then. No, the
entirety of the Sanctuary was crumbling.
"Is this… as far as we go?" Kouki asked, resigning himself to his grim fate. No one could
bring themselves to contradict him.
There was no way out and nothing any of them could do. Shizuku, Suzu, and Ryutarou
gritted their teeth in frustration.
"There's still hope," Shea said, and the four childhood friends suddenly looked up.
Shea was looking up at the crumbling sky, her gaze resolute.
"That there is. Master may end up defeating Ehit before this place collapses and come
back with Yue to rescue us."
Tio was also looking up at the sky, her faith in Hajime and Yue unwavering.
"Yep. Besides, it's not like we're totally out of options. If things get really bad, we can
just dive into one of the distortions that are connected to Tortus."
"Hah, now that's a plan," Ryutarou said. "If we're gonna die anyway, might as well give
it a shot."
"Yes, but let's make that our last resort. Also, I'm not sure if it'll help, but I'll try putting
a barrier around us when we jump through."
"Yeah, that's a good idea. You're right; we can't just give up. I'll help strengthen your
barrier."
No matter how hopeless the situation appeared, they would continue to struggle until
the very end. That had always been Hajime's way, and it was the most important lesson
Shizuku and the others had learned since being summoned to Tortus.
The group was easily able to find a distortion that was connected to Tortus, and
probably because of the accelerated collapse of the dimension, the distortion wasn't
disappearing, so they could just wait there.
Just as they prepared themselves to jump through, someone came to get them, though
it wasn't the person they'd expected.
"Hm? Is something flying this way?!"
Indeed, something seemed to be coming up to them from the ground. The moment Tio
and the others realized that, there was a burst of light, prompting everyone to cover
their eyes. As they grew more accustomed to the light, the group looked down to see
a single arrow pushing its way through the distortion in space.
"W-Wait, isn't that—?"
Shea recognized that arrow… and there was only one person who possessed the rest
of those concept-magic-imbued arrows that were inferior copies of an artifact that had
long been lost.
The arrow bored a hole in the distortion, and a tiny robe-clad golem with a smileyface mask popped into the crumbling dimension Shea and the others were in. She put
her right hand on her hip, lifted one foot into the air, made a peace sign with her left
hand, and winked. Shea would have recognized that super annoying pose anywhere.
"Yahoo! How're you guys doing? Everyone's favorite beautiful genius mage, Miledi
Reisen, is here!"
The last living Liberator, Miledi Reisen, had arrived.