The realm of slaughter that had engulfed Gumana Ravine had dissipated at last, and Atrazek the Particle Storm had been defeated.
The mortally wounded calamity sank into the ground, likely never to return to the surface. Most wurms did so when they died.
"Well, shit! Dammit! I was so close!" "M-Mama."
Everything as far as their eyes could see had been ravaged by the particles, the fresh scene surrounding them showing numerous giant holes bored into the ground.
Standing before Atrazek's scattered viscera, Kiyazuna the Axle stamped her foot on the ground.
"That damn bow-wielding bastard…! If it wasn't for that nonsense, the two of us woulda had 'em both for sure! Stealing our prey right from under our noses… I'm gonna find them and kill 'em dead…!"
Lingering in the remnants of the fierce battle were the self-proclaimed demon king Kiyazuna the Axle and her ultimate masterpiece Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge.
"That goes for you, too, Toroa. I'm gonna take you out right here, right now."
"Forget it."
In the aftermath stood one other.
The unkillable Grim Reaper, loaded up all over his body with enchanted swords—Toroa the Awful.
"I'm done here. I recovered the Blasting Blade. I won."
"Big talk from a bastard ready to kick the bucket. Or maybe you think you can take those knives of yours with ya to the afterlife?"
"You're talking some nonsense of your own. Didn't you know?"
Saying his body was covered in wounds was a tepid description at best after being caught up in the impact of the Horizon's Roar's arrow and experiencing the horrible ADS attack from Mestelexil. Nevertheless, he stood
strong, without letting go of a single enchanted sword throughout the battle. "I'm immortal. I crawled back up from hell. I'm Toroa the Awful."
While taking on both Mestelexil and Kiyazuna at once, he had stolen the Blasting Blade. Jumping into the maelstrom from the Horizon's Roar's raining arrows, he put his own body on the line to challenge the Particle Storm. Amid a fierce battle that could have ended any one of their lives, Toroa the Awful fought through it all under the absolute harshest conditions.
All for a mere enchanted sword. He knew better than anyone else that it didn't really have any value worth risking one's life over.
That was all the more reason why he couldn't let any oblivious somebody be swayed and pulled along by something so worthless. People couldn't be allowed to use enchanted swords.
Toroa was the only one who was supposed to keep fighting over such trifling enchanted swords.
"…Let me ask you before I send you back to hell, Toroa the Awful." The elder woman's face wrinkled with displeasure.
"Why'd you keep your promise?" "Good question. Who knows?"
He wanted to believe he could fight as much as necessary for the sake of an enchanted sword. Their fight might have been so he could prove it to himself—that he could cast himself aside and truly become Toroa the Awful.
It was clear his thinking had been correct in one aspect, and wrong in another.
Just how far could he fight for the sake of a single enchanted sword? He could still go on fighting. However—
"Toroa! Th-thank, you!" "…Why're are you thanking me?"
"You…killed me! B-but, I know! Toroa d-did not, kill, M-Mama! Ha-ha- ha-ha-ha-ha! You are a good guy! Toroa!"
"You're wrong. With the Particle Storm on our tails, I couldn't let Kiyazuna die."
When they were fighting in the Chariot Golem cargo bed, Toroa could have killed Kiyazuna in any number of ways. Mestelexil realized it, too. Even during the moments he had been unable to move.
"…Then, what is it then? Those artillery attacks… The asshole behind 'em working with you, then?"
"Don't be stupid. You know that couldn't possibly be true."
"Tch!"
"…In the middle of the battle, there was someone watching us."
Even Toroa could sense the eyes, after closing in this far from their starting battle area. Mestelexil should have been similarly able to pick on the spotter watching them.
"I-I-I know, what you mean! I could, um…see the waves? Going back and forth!"
"Whaddaya mean, if you picked up something on radar, tell me sooner! If some idiot really was spotting for that series of attacks… Aureatia bastards, huh? Whatever the case, just gotta ask 'em about it! You know what you gotta do first, right, Mestelexil?"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I-I… I will, win! Toroa!" Mestelexil laughed, striking with his fist.
Toroa stepped forward firmly and drew an enchanted sword. Kiyazuna, still looking as annoyed as ever, fixed her barrel on him. "Then—"
"Hey, someone!" "..."
Right as they were going to restart the fight, there was a shout. "Someone, someone, come here! Please! K-Kuuro, he's, he's dying!"
The speaker, flying down from the sky, looked like a small songbird, but still different.
Flying in between the three-person standoff was a small homunculus girl with wings for arms.
"A bird! A small, bird is, here! Mama!"
"Don't touch it, Mestelexil. A harpy… Nah, homunculus, huh. Did someone make you look like a harpy on purpose? Must've been a demon king with some bizarre tastes."
"Wait."
Toroa sheathed his sword and walked toward the young girl. Kiyazuna lowered her gun with an annoyed click of her tongue—
—Mestelexil was dashing toward the homunculus, too.
After he lowered his sword and spoiled her fun, the thought of killing him now irritated her.
"Wh-what is wrong! What is, a 'Kuuro'? If Kuuro, dies then would, that
be, bad?"
"Up ahead, th-there's an Aureatia encampment! Carry Kuuro there, please…! To try and help everyone, he… Help him! Please, save him…"
The homunculus's words didn't help make things clearer at all, but Toroa still picked up on something.
"The spotter." "Hah?"
"The spotter I saw, he's probably the one injured, right?"
He looked toward the clifftop where the young girl flew down from. Appearing to have slid down from some higher spot, Kuuro the Cautious lay in an area where their eyes could find him. The endless stream of blood looked to be coming from his gut. The wound seemed likely to prove fatal.
"What of it? Just leave 'im to die. Got nothing to do with us."
"…The bombing that killed the Particle Storm, that was his doing, right? You wanted to know who was behind those artillery attacks, didn't you? I think there's value in letting him live."
Toroa thought there had been others besides themselves fighting in their battle.
In the middle of that storm, countless schemes and motives had all swirled together.
Toroa fought for the sake of an enchanted sword. Mestelexil had fought for his mother.
In that case, what had been this spotter's reason for fighting?
"He fought to protect populated areas, exposing himself to the calamity to do it. He has a right to be saved."
"Wooow…! That is amazing! How very, valiant!" "Haaaah?! Like I give a damn!"
"Don't get mad! Please, don't be mad… Um, so. Kuuro, he's really important. H-he's the most important person of all to me. So please…save him…"
Tears streamed down from the small homunculus's eyes. Her winged arms were unable to carry Kuuro.
"I'll carry him there on my back." Toroa replied.
He had carried them all on his back. He wouldn't let anyone steal them.
Things that shouldn't be, where they should be.
If there was a fight he could end without stealing anything, then that's how he wanted to finish it.
"How far ahead is the Aureatia camp?"
"I'll show you! I-I'll… lead you there. The checkpoint place… I remember where it is."
"It'll be night by then."
Kiyazuna insisted. The closest rest station to their position was over ten kilometers away.
"Gonna bleed to death either way."
"…No. I've got an idea. A clever one, too, I'd say."
The Grim Reaper said while walking over to where Kuuro lay. "We can just use your vehicle there, Kiyazuna."
"Whaaat?!"
Using the Chariot Golem to, of all things, save someone. To the sinister self-proclaimed demon king, Kiyazuna the Axle, it was an unbelievable proposition.
"Like hell I'm going along with a shitty plan like that! I'll beat you to a pulp!"
"I get it. I won't ask you to do it for free."
Toroa stopped walking, and stuck one of his enchanted swords in the ground—
The same man who hadn't let go of a single one of his swords in the heat of battle, bearing their excessive weight until the end.
"I'll give you the Blasting Blade in exchange." "…You…"
He spoke like it was all a matter of course.
Toroa had walked the line of life and death, shaving years off his life, all for the sake of this one sword. There had been no other reward, all just because he was Toroa the Awful.
"You really…"
Kiyazuna tried to continue her thought, but she was unable.
Somewhere within the enemy in front of her, he held something he could never give up. She understood that, too. His fight was about pride. Much like Kiyazuna's own pride, that wouldn't yield before anyone.
"M-Mama…"
"Mestelexil. Kiyazuna the Axle doesn't bend the knee to anyone."
Freedom completely unobstructed by any threat. That was the wish of Kiyazuna the Axle.
Despite this, the reason she had fought to hold fast to her pride was in order to always be her proud self.
Still, she fought to hold fast to her pride precisely so she could continue to remain her prideful self.
"…I'll give you the Chariot Golem. Get in already."
After seeing Toroa the Awful's group off, Kiyazuna returned once again to the same location.
The blade, its shadow growing long over the wasteland, was known as Charijisuya the Blasting Blade.
"All right, there you go, Mestelexil. The enchanting blasting sword's yours."
"Okay."
The innocent iron colossus took steps forward…and then stopped. "H-Hey, um, Mama?"
"What is it?"
"I-is it okay, if I leave this, here?!"
"…What d'ya mean, leave it? You were so fond of it, weren't you?
Why?"
Kiyazuna, wide-eyed, followed his question with one of her own. Among all the riches she plundered, it was the item that Mestelexil was the fondest of, showing it off and brandishing it about the Chariot Golem's cargo bay.
She didn't expect Mestelexil to ask such a question himself. "Because I haven't, beaten Toroa."
To the winner go the spoils.
"I-If I can, win, then I can, have whatever I want, right?! Then, I want… I want it after, I've beaten, Toroa. I want, to fight him, again! C-can I?!"
"So that's it, then…"
Kiyazuna was at a loss for words as she looked at her own child.
"I get it. Hee…hee-hee-hee! You finally got a desire of your own! Found someone out there you wanna beat and smash to bits, huh, Mestelexil?!"
She laughed. The demon king was truly delighted.
Her own child's growth, a will of his very own, made her happy.
"Sure, Mestelexil! Just an enchanted sword, anyway, right… While I definitely wasn't gonna hand it over quietly, getting it handed back to me for nothing is even worse! Really look cool now, eh, Mestelexil?! That's my boy!"
"Ha-ha, ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" "Hee, hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
The mother and child both laughed in front of the enchanted sword, casting shadows in the evening sun.
The two, at long last, began their travels anew.
Their destination was Aureatia. The next opponent they needed to kill was there. The slayer of the Dungeon Golem, Soujirou the Willow-Sword.
Mestelexil's singular eye illuminated the pitch-black road, with Kiyazuna sitting on his shoulder.
"B-But, are you, sure? Mama really, cared about that, sword too, right?! I- it's an amazing, sword! R-really, s-strong!"
"Huh? Don't be silly. What sort of idiot would get so worked up over something like that. See, the reason I didn't want to hand it over? Had nothing to do with it being an enchanted sword…"
She too had acted through the farcical struggle over the enchanted sword, all for the sake of the one thing she would never surrender.
She tried to have everything go her way with Toroa the Awful, the monster of scary stories everywhere, killer of all those who laid their hands on an enchanted sword. Simply thinking about it brought a smile to her face.
"It was because it was my kid's new favorite toy!"
An iron vehicle raced through the ravine, the sun slowly sinking overhead.
The wheeled carriage, set under Kiyazuna's direction to keep going automatically until reaching the Aureatia encampment, was the Chariot Golem, filled with the self-proclaimed demon king's latest technologies.
A monster out of a horror story sat in the cargo bay, shouldering a cluster
of enchanted swords on his back.
It was Toroa the Awful. Rather, it might have actually been the god of death here to watch over his grave.
Kuuro lay in the driver's seat, watching Cuneigh shedding tears beside him.
"…Cuneigh. Why…are you…"
"I'll save you! You're important, Kuuro! I'm always telling you! Over and over again! Even if you don't believe me, even if you hate me, I-I'll, I'll still save you!"
There wasn't the slightest reason behind both her trust and her affection. Though Kuuro never intended to be frugal with her reward, cheap glass beads and common everyday fruits were the things that made her happy.
Kuuro the Cautious had lived without trusting in anything groundless and unfounded.
"…Why…?"
"It's okay. I'm here." "…Why…me…?" "What do you mean?"
The tiny young girl wore a pained, heart-wrenching expression. "Is a homunculus not allowed to love someone?"
He couldn't believe it.
If he had been able to laugh, he would've wanted to.
It was such a worthless, trite—and unreasonable explanation. "…You, never got…"
"None of it. The rewards you always talked about—I didn't need any of it."
The young girl finished the dying Kuuro's words.
It was as if she knew him better than he knew himself. "I didn't start loving you because you gave me things."
That's right. It was just as she said. Love, apparently, wasn't like that.
She always seemed to be enjoying herself. Living with no desire for gifts,
and without stealing anything from anyone else. "Hey. After this, I… What I wanted after—"
He understood she was calling back to the talk of her reward they left
unfinished. Her soft wings caressed Kuuro's cheek. You're way too serious, Kuuro. I want you to… "I wanted you to smile more."
The same sort of trifling something it always was. "I did smile."
I was able to smile thanks to you.
He looked at Cuneigh.
Seeing her face, on the verge of tears, he thought it was beautiful.
With Kuuro's clairvoyance, he could see her eyes better than anyone else's.
He wanted to apologize. He wanted to thank her.
Or maybe, some other kind of…
There were voices.
Voices like shadows whispering to each other in the dark. "We've recovered the Blasting Blade. What should we do?"
"Hand it over to the Old Kingdoms' loyalists in Togie City. Say that the spotters who disposed of Kuuro the Cautious were with the Old Kingdoms' loyalists. The enchanted sword recovered from the site, from Aureatia's perspective, will serve as irrefutable proof."
"Ah-hyah-hyah-hyah! Still, I didn't expect the Horizon's Roar to make an appearance! I was so surprised, why, I thought my jaw was going to fall right off!"
"If they were forced to ambush it in an urban area, we wouldn't have been able to incinerate the leftover remains, either. Our lady has a keen eye."
"Th-this means… Aureatia r-really is formidable, isn't she? So the Particle Storm isn't enough to do it either… W-we need to draw out Alus the Star Runner at the very least."
"I see, I see. Let's assume that a simple individual threat isn't enough to bring Aureatia down. Learning that alone made this plenty fruitful, wouldn't you say?"
"Based on the information from this event, if Aureatia's to fall, we'll need
to send in someone like Lucunoca the Winter as well."
"You're joking. Sending out the Yamaga Barrens took a hefty toll on our lady's body. We can't let her push herself too hard."
"So then it's the royal games, after all?" "Yeah. The royal games."
Atrazek the Particle Storm awoke from a deep coma.
None of the figures he had been conversing with up until that moment were anywhere to be seen.
He was in a forest of dense green that seemed to block out the light of the sun.
"…Hnngh. Why, it cannot be."
His torso was nearly torn in half. A fatal wound, a direct hit from the Horizon's Roar's arrow.
The ancient wurm, bringer of meaningless death, bearer of unjust calamity, had suffered an unjust disaster from the heavens, both its reason and true form unknown, and now faced his own death.
"Everything…is particles. It should all be particles. This should be impossible. L-losing to mere particles…"
He was unable to move his body an inch; his head toppled over sideways.
From the scattered spray of water, he could tell he was at a lake in the middle of the forest.
He was only able to wait for his death. Pure drops of dew dripped from the leaves of the trees right before his eyes.
"You. Hng, nnggh…"
The lake shore. Amid the sunlight streaming down through the brilliant green trees stood a young girl.
"You need not remember."
Gripping her black skirt in both her hands, she seemed to dance as she approached him.
Her bare legs, pretty and pale, made the shallow water's surface radiant. "You were able to make it all the way here in the end, just like I asked,
Master Atrazek."
"How. How do you…know my name?"
Everyone called him the Particle Storm. He was treated as a deadly weather phenomenon, void of any personality or character.
His name should not have been known to anyone. The young girl laced her fingers and smiled. "Because you yourself told it to me."
She was right. This wasn't the first time he had met her.
He should have known that. He was supposed to be following her orders, yet there were memories he was forbidden from remembering.
"…I'm very glad you were able to return here safely, Master Atrazek. After all, if you had lost to the Horizon's Roar near Aureatia, they would have been able to examine your remains."
The person who was watching Kuuro the Cautious had waited for the attack on Atrazek to succeed and attacked him.
The moment the Horizon's Roar began to attack, the Particle Storm couldn't be allowed to advance any further.
As well as because…the investigation into the fighting strength and skill of the land's strongest shura, gathered together in the one moment and fighting against each other, was over.
"Aureatia. I n-need… I must go there—"
"No. There's no need for you to go there anymore."
The Gray-Haired Child had sold the anticipated path of the Particle Storm as a weather forecast to both powers.
The Old Kingdoms' loyalists, based off that information, began to prepare for an attack on Aureatia.
Aureatia used Mele the Horizon's Roar to put their large-scale counterattack strategy into action.
Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge and Toroa the Awful clashed at a single point in the Gumana Ravine.
There was a fundamental premise to all of their movements— Why was the Particle Storm heading toward Aureatia? "There's no need for you to head anywhere."
The god of the Yamaga Barrens had desperately run away from that terrifying realm of slaughter. While tormented by Mestelexil's microwave weapon, while his body was pierced by the Horizon's Roar's long-range arrows—at that very moment, he displayed strength that seemed beyond his limits, as though obeying commands that surpassed his own instincts.
"Horizon's Roar killed the Particle Storm. There's no one who would deny that. No one will go searching for you. Not even for your corpse."
There was someone, completely unknown to anyone else across the land, who controlled everything from the shadows, their conspiracies extending far and wide.
"Then, everything will remain a secret. Time for you to sleep."
The young girl quietly lingered in front of his eyes. Her lithe fingers caressed the top of Atrazek's jaw.
She was smiling, like a beautiful white flower. Pain oozed from the mouth of his wound.
Sand.
The small amount of Yamaga Barrens sand that clung to him was scraping away at Atrazek's scales and flesh.
"Auuugh. Impossible. Who are you? Wh-what are you—"
It was a fair question. The power to scrape away at his body with even the most infinitesimal amount of sand belonged to none other than the Particle Storm.
There was no one who could wield the sand of the Yamaga Barrens like this. There shouldn't have been anyone else—anyone else besides himself.
"Nggaaaaaaah! H-Help, s-save me! I'm, I'm disintegrating!" It was terrifying.
He was being whittled away by his own Particle Storm. He couldn't kill this powerless young girl. Nor would he ever be able to.
"Miss Ani…the girl who was sacrificed, you turned her into particles and ate her, didn't you?"
It was the name of a human girl, one whom he had killed without a second thought, as if her life mattered less than a speck of dust.
"That was the source of infection."
…His blood. His entrails.
Death endlessly poured out from the cross-section of his severed body. The lake began to turn red. No part of his body would be left behind. There would be no trace left behind of Atrazek's existence.
"H-help me. Forgive me."
Atrazek was truly scared. Scared of a monster that far exceeded the Particle Storm himself.
Scared of the impossible vampire's existence, who had turned a god like him into a servile puppet.
"No. Please, show me even more. After all, I promised everyone in the village…"
Linaris the Obsidian began to leave. She turned her back to the dying wurm.
She wasn't the one facing their demise. "…that I would show them 'fun stuff,' too."