CHAPTER 7
THE RETURN OF THE HERO
When that battle cry thundered through the air, every first-tier adventurer in Orario reacted instantly.
The golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman looked up at the sky over the northwestern sector and started to run.
“!”
The Amazonian twins lifted their weapons and took off running without a backward glance.
“It’s here!”
“Let’s go!”
The swift-footed werewolf dropped what he was doing and sped off.
“Sounds like it’s near Finn!”
And then there was Bell.
“—”
His crimson eyes took in the monster.
Destroying, crushing, smashing.
In an instant, the black beast had charged past any adventurers unfortunate enough to be standing in his way.
He stunned Hermes, stole Asfi’s moment to intervene, amazed the goddesses, and trampled onto the stage that the god had prepared, crushing it to pieces.
The townsfolk did not even have time to scream. He plunged forward with such speed that the arrows Braver ordered his troops to fire had no effect, and even the spear he threw himself did no more than mar the beast’s skin. Forward he charged—toward Bell.
The boy was his sole target.
“—?!”
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The minotaur’s majestic jet-black form was covered in blood.
Before this hair-raising apparition, Bell reverted to pure instinct.
He thrust Eina away with all his force, and then, desperate to escape the figure charging toward him and the deadly blow of the Labrys held in its single upraised hand, he crossed his arms and leaped backward.
An explosion of cobblestone fragments flew from the ground where the blade of the minotaur’s ax made contact, releasing an overwhelming shock wave and wind blast.
Bell’s body transformed into an arrow cutting through the air, crashing through the buildings behind him with the force of a river overflowing its banks as he was driven from the plaza.
“Bell?!”
Hestia and Eina screamed in unison as the monstrous bull with two crimson horns propelled the boy through the air.
“What…what happened?!”
Bits of stone rained down on a corner of the dust-filled plaza.
As the scene of destruction came into focus, the shouts of dazed adventurers broke the stillness.
Screams and roars of anger filled the plaza.
In the space of a few seconds, dozens of adventurers had been seriously wounded, and the Little Rookie had been blown away. The violent assault had happened so quickly no one had caught a good look at the enemy, but nevertheless it threw the crowd into an uproar.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“You’re not hurt?”
Ouka and Chigusa were supporting Eina’s back, but all she said in response to their questions was, “Bell…Bell?!” She had been shoved out of harm’s way, but she seemed deaf to their voices as she called Bell’s name again and again in a frenzy. Her Guild uniform covered in dust, she looked out at the panorama of walls with gaping holes in them.
In another corner of the plaza, Welf and Mikoto looked at each other.
“So that was…”
“…The black…minotaur.”
They whispered in horror at the jet-black monster that had disappeared in pursuit of Bell.
Lilly and Haruhime were pale and unmoving, as if they were remembering the terrifying scene. Hestia, too, was struck dumb.
“Asterios…?!” Gros murmured.
Even the Xenos were frozen in place by the unexpected turn of events.
Hidden by the cloud of dust, Gros stared in the same direction as Eina, at the holes where his kinsman and Bell had disappeared.
Finn surveyed the scene from the top of an adjacent building.
“Scouts, pursue the target! But do not act until I arrive! Narfi’s group, after you encircle them, provide support from the rear only, and call Aiz over here!”
“Yes, sir!”
As he fired orders in rapid succession, his troops leaped into action.
Come what may, he would kill the monster here and now. The prum commander had set his mind on it.
It was an unpredictable element. Finn’s intuition told him as much. Even his formidable brain could not predict its actions; it was, so to speak, a genuine Irregular. It was sure to become a threat in the future, and it must be taken down.
Finn was about to take off running when he heard a sound.
Stomp!
A figure appeared before him.
“You…”
He stopped and looked up at it.
“Ooo…owww…!”
As Bell pulled himself up from among the rubble, he moaned at a pain that set his entire body on fire.
Right in front of him was a series of stone walls with holes busted through them. It seemed he had traveled quite far from the plaza. If he hadn’t been wearing dual adamantite armor, he might well have broken his back. He forced his shaky body to stand up in the midst of the moonlit ruins.
Just then he heard a loud crash.
“!”
He looked up in surprise at the sound of rubble being crushed underfoot. Through the half-demolished walls, he glimpsed the black monster that had sent him hurtling into them. Bell gasped at the brawny figure so tall he had to look up to see his head. He wore his full plate armor lightly.
There was no mistaking it. This was the final Xenos he’d heard about. The black minotaur.
Was he an enemy or a friend? Could he talk to him?
Thoughts flew through Bell’s head even as he dripped sweat and reflexively took up a defensive position.
“…?”
Then he noticed the silence.
For something that had unleashed such a terrific roar, the monster was strangely quiet. He had stopped his crashing steps at a slight distance from Bell and was now standing still. As if the wild rampage of a moment earlier had never even occurred, he stared fixedly at Bell.
Bell, too, stood rooted to the ground, forgetting to speak.
“…”
“…”
The moonlight illuminated the boy and the beast.
Standing amid the rubble and ruins with his back to the cloudless night sky, the minotaur looked down on the boy. He was easily more than two meders tall. Bell remained completely still, gazing up at the monster.
Time flowed by tranquilly. The moment of peace was entirely unexpected on the battlefield.
As Bell stared into those eyes that seemed to draw him in, the monster slowly opened his mouth.
“Your name. I want you to tell me your name.”
Bell was taken aback by both the human language and the voice that spoke it, which did not in the least match the appearance of the speaker.
It was a low voice. The quiet tone brought to mind a warrior.
The boy stood in a daze, unable to answer. The monster continued to speak.
“A dream.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve been having the same dream for a long time.”
The minotaur spoke as if he were delivering a soliloquy.
“A dream of fighting a single human.”
“!”
“This human is the strongest and most worthy of opponents. Even as we fight to the death, our blood and flesh flying, we recognize each other as destined rivals.”
Bell stared wide-eyed at the minotaur.
As soon as he heard the word dream, he had recalled his conversation with Lido about the past lives of monsters.
And as the minotaur talked about his own past life, his form reminded Bell of something else.
It was a scene he could never forget.
His first adventure. He had staked his life on that fierce battle. He and the monster had thrown everything they had at each other.
“There is a being who drives me on, in pursuit of a rematch.”
It couldn’t be.
Even as Bell realized the truth, the black minotaur continued.
“I have come here to meet with the being of my dreams.”
He had stated his reason for existence. His deepest feeling, the yearning so powerful it had pushed him to be reborn.
It was not envy toward the human race or longing for the surface that had brought him here but simply the search for his old opponent.
“My name is Asterios.”
It meant lightning.
It expressed his desire for the crimson flash of light that he saw at the end of his dreams.
Even as Bell floundered in disbelief and confusion, at the bottom of his heart, he understood everything.
“Tell me your name,” Asterios implored him again.
“…Bell. Bell Cranell.”
The monster engraved the whispered words into the core of his being. Then he brought the double-edged ax in his single hand to his breastplate.
“Bell, please.”
The boy’s oldest and most worthy of opponents, returned to life, was begging him.
“Fight me again.”
The monster’s will echoed across the moonlit ruins.
Bell knew that he should tell the minotaur to wait, that he was not ready, that he had to return to Gros and the others. But his heart would not let him say those words.
He looked at his feet. He looked up at the massive figure.
The monster’s blood was dripping onto the ground. Countless wounds were etched into his skin, and he was missing one arm. Although he was on the verge of death, he had come this far to fight again.
Bell felt he had to grant his request. No—he felt it would be wrong to run away.
He felt exactly like he had the last time.
He had not fled from that fight, and he should not flee from this one.
“…”
Bell apologized silently to everyone and everything. Then he drew his weapon.
He raised the Divine Knife, holding it backhand, and looked at the black monster.
As Asterios watched the boy prepare to step into battle, his mouth stretched into a broad smile.
And with that joyful and ill-omened smile, he tipped his head toward the night sky and the moon watching over them.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
His roar shook the heavens.
The shot signaling the start of the battle had been fired.
“That sounded really close!”
A Loki Familia scout gasped at the thundering roar.
A number of male and female adventurers were searching for the enemy, their nerves taut. Because the buildings were layered on top of one another so densely, however, they could not see him from the rooftops. They leaped down onto the ground and headed in the direction of the roar.
Their companions who were closer to the holes in the walls had probably already glimpsed the enemy, but the warning bells still hadn’t rung. An elven girl among the party was thinking how strange and threatening that was when—
The wall behind her burst open with a loud crash.
“?!”
Fragments of stone flew everywhere.
A cloud of dust mushroomed from the wall, and an instant later a white-haired boy and a savage black bull burst through it.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
“Yahh!!”
Before the eyes of the stunned Loki Familia members, Bell and Asterios fought in close combat.
Asterios swung the double-edged Labrys, and Bell retreated. Even the wind coming off the weapon might injure him; indeed, several human bystanders were already bloodied from the backdraft, which spoke to the obvious gap between their Status and that of the monster.
Bell abandoned his pride and aimed relentlessly for the monster’s right side, where the Sword Princess had cut off his arm, rather than the left side where he held the Labrys. Asterios smiled at the rabbit’s swift footwork and sharp knife thrusts, easily intercepting every one of them.
“He’s fighting the black minotaur…!”
“Bell Cranell?!”
The ax screamed through the air. Fragments of rock flew from the cobblestone as boots kicked fiercely against it. The fight between boy and monster was a battle of speed against strength. The adventurers watching from the periphery squeezed their hands into tight fists, frustrated to be mere spectators to the show.
Finn had told them not to get involved under any circumstances. But just standing there with pale faces was a disgrace to Loki Familia. How could they sit back and let the very same boy they’d showered with criticism do all the fighting?
Roused to action, they followed their captain’s orders and surrounded Bell and Asterios. They grasped their bows, arrows, spears, and longswords and were just about to attack simultaneously from both close and distant range when the monster let out a howl.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
“Eek!!”
That single terrifying roar pinned them in place.
The howl was incredibly powerful. The monster’s menacing voice aroused a primal terror in the adventurers that stopped them in their tracks. The Level 2 rearguard sank to their knees, while the Level 3 front line stiffened as if they were about to fall over dead.
You’re in my way, the monster seemed to be saying. Asterios had no mercy for those who were unqualified to fight. Gripping the handle of his ax, he swung his clenched fist into the adventurers holding spears and swords, throwing them against the walls of the surrounding houses so hard that blood dripped from their mouths.
The elven archers in the rearguard blanched as Level 3 adventurers went flying through the air. But the black colossus closed in on them next. Tears welled in their eyes as they stood frozen.
“Hey!”
As if to remind the minotaur where his true opponent lay, Bell slashed his knife toward the minotaur from the side.
Asterios smiled and turned away from Loki Familia, returning Bell’s blow with one from the Labrys. The elves gaped at the Little Rookie, who unlike them was not immobilized by terror.
I know that howl.
To Bell, it was uncomfortably familiar.
He had already gotten past this particular wall on his first adventure. He would not be cowed by it for a second time.
He raised his black and crimson knives and rushed the frenzied monster.
“Hey, where’d the gargoyle and those other monsters go?!”
As the distant roars of the minotaur echoed across the plaza and the dust finally began to settle, adventurers shouted to one another. It seemed the winged monsters had taken advantage of the chaos to abruptly disappear.
In an abandoned corner of the plaza, Welf and the other Hestia Familia members were preoccupied with something else.
“What the hell were you doing out there?!” Welf shouted.
He and Mikoto had thrown their veils over Gros and the other Xenos, rendering them invisible and therefore saving them, but Welf’s hair was practically standing on end with anger.
“H-humans…”
“Do you think I’m going to forget that you just about killed me?!” Lilly screamed.
“Sir Welf, Lady Lilly, please calm down!” Mikoto said, forcing herself to do the same.
“Everyone, this is not the time or place…” Haruhime added. All she could do was watch in confusion as the others quarreled.
Hestia stood to the side, quickly assessing the situation.
Why isn’t Loki Familia here in the plaza? Are they trying to get to the minotaur?
Her mind raced as the wind carried to her ears sounds of what could only be Bell’s battle with the black beast.
“Haruhime! You gave Wiene an oculus, right?”
“Yes, ma’am! When we parted, I gave her mine.”
“Excellent,” Hestia said, clenching her hand into a fist.
That meant they’d be able to meet up with the Xenos who had the key. Now was their only chance to get Gros and the other three winged monsters to Knossos.
Hestia screamed into her oculus.
“Bell, keep fighting!”
“What I mean is, just go crazy, okay? Loki Familia members—and everyone else in town—are all focusing their attention on you. I know it may be dangerous. I’m sorry!”
The voice coming through the blue crystal on Bell’s gauntlet did not make him anxious. He was already fully focused on the battle at hand. If his mind wandered for an instant, he would be killed. He would fall prey to the Labrys. In the space of a second, Hestia’s information had faded to monochrome and was stuffed into a corner of his mind.
He’s strong…!
Again and again, the Labrys threatened his life, but still Bell made his way around to his opponent’s right side and aimed his knife above the spot where his missing right arm had been. But the minotaur saw through his plan. His skill and tactics were far sharper than what Bell remembered from their past encounter. A feeling similar to impatience gnawed at him.
As Bell wavered over what to do, the minotaur hungered for strength and nothing else.
Bell pushed away his hesitation, drew close to his opponent’s right side, and once again aimed his two knives at his opponent’s blind spot.
“Kuh!”
“?!”
The monster had used his enormous ax as a shield, and now one leg came crashing down. The ground crumbled beneath his foot, destroying Bell’s stance. The next instant, Asterios brought down the Labrys. Bell dodged, responded with a kick, and leaped backward.
White hairs were torn from Bell’s head, and droplets of his blood joined the spray of sweat.
Every celch of his opponent’s body was a lethal weapon. Any one part could kill Bell. As the boy shivered in horror, the minotaur smiled as if to say Bell had no time for such distractions, then swung his red horns through the air.
“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Bell thrust up his gauntlet to block, but he could not deflect all of the blow’s force.
As the earsplitting screech of metal rent the atmosphere and sparks flew, Bell spun through the air onto the roof of a building. But Asterios pursued him, and no sooner had he landed than the monster kicked the boy’s body.
“Aaaah!”
Bell crossed his arms to guard his body with dual adamantite. The world shook violently as he absorbed the full force of the blow.
He heard the sound of the bone in his forearm cracking, and his eyes rolled back in his head. He flew backward toward the plaza once again.
“Huh? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!”
The human bullet inscribed a gentle arc across the sky as it flew toward the plaza with incredible speed. As Bell’s form approached, the people in the plaza scattered frantically.
He landed headfirst and rolled into a corner of the square, sending up clouds of dust.
“B-Be—?!”
Hestia stared wide-eyed at Bell’s far-too-swift return, but her scream was cut off midway by the shriek of cobblestones crumbling underfoot as Asterios descended from the sky.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!”
The loudest screams yet echoed from the plaza.
The black monster’s reappearance fueled the terror and chaos of the crowd. As the throng of townsfolk stampeded toward Main Street, children could be heard sobbing within the melee.
“Waaaaaaahh!”
The adventurers, on the other hand, shouted as they ran. They were desperate enough to do anything. Perhaps the sight of the crying townsfolk moved even their hardened hearts, for they felt impelled to protect the women and children. They forgot their terror and closed in on Asterios from all directions.
But then the monster bellowed again.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Asterios’s power affected every adventurer uniformly. He brought destruction to all in equal measure, sweeping aside dozens at a time. In the space of a few seconds, countless weapons were crushed to dust, fountains of blood sprayed through the air, and even the strongest of the upper-class adventurers sank to the ground as the monster reduced his attackers’ numbers to a mere handful.
Ouka and Chigusa, who had hung back to protect the townsfolk, stood pale and petrified as they watched the scene unfold. Hestia Familia, who were trying to help Gros and the other Xenos escape, as well as Eina and the other Guild employees, were similarly immobilized by fear.
“—”
So were the children.
Lai, Fina, and Ruu were among the group of orphans who had not yet escaped the plaza. They could not help watching through the gaps in the crowd.
The black monster, its massive one-armed form smeared in blood, was the most ominous and atrocious thing they had ever seen, and the sight of adventurers flying this way and that like leaves in the wind was a scene from their worst nightmares. They did not know if the black forms spinning through the air were weapons or human arms.
This overwhelming monster was completely different from the gargoyle and winged beasts they had been watching just a few minutes earlier.
Oh, aah—
To Lai, it looked like a windstorm of death.
If you touched it, you would die. That was the nature of the thing before his eyes.
He had only heard about floor bosses, never seen one, but he imagined that this was what they were like.
It was only natural that this most horrendous of monsters terrified the children to their very core. It was inevitable that they could move only their eyes and nothing else.
“UOO—”
In the space of an instant, the minotaur trampled the adventurers. Then it turned and looked straight into the children’s eyes.
Lai felt all hope drain from him. Fina and Ruu knew then that fear had no limits. Time slowed to a hellish crawl as their hearts tightened in their chests and their breath caught in their throats.
“Run, everyone!!” Maria screamed. She had been separated from the children and was standing toward the back of the crowd. But the children did not budge. Caught in the monster’s gaze, they could not move so much as a finger. And just like the children, the adventurers in the crowd had lost heart. Not one stepped in between the children and the beast. It took a step toward Lai, Fina, and Ruu as if it was searching for something. But just as the children felt that their hearts would explode from the overwhelming fear—
“—Yahhh!”
A white-haired adventurer burst through the cloud of dust and rushed the black monster.
“!!”
Bell’s sudden appearance shook the children free of their frozen daze. His fluttering white hair drew a pure-white arc as he flew at the monster, red knife in one hand and black in the other.
The minotaur felt a renewed surge of joy at the sight of his rival.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
Lai saw it all. The scene was burned into his memory.
Bell was howling as blood flowed from his head and stained his face red.
He was different from all the other pale and shaking adventurers.
No one else would stand up to the monster, but Bell would.
He was the only one willing to engage the windstorm of death in battle head-on.
“Ah—”
Bell’s expression was completely different from any Lai had seen him make before. He had seen him miserable, smiling bitterly, afraid, and crying. Lai had felt Bell had betrayed him, yet his memories of him were happy. But none of these Bells matched the one before him.
That’s—
Here was the image of a man roaring heroically.
Here was the face of a man throwing himself into an adventure.
That’s—an adventurer.
The boy stared at Bell. His hands and feet shook. His chest grew hot.
Lai didn’t know what this feeling was—like he was about to cry.
He knew just one thing.
Bell Cranell was neither a traitor nor a coward. He was an adventurer.
“……!”
Lai opened his mouth and tried to speak.
There was something he had wanted to say for a long time.
Bell had been drowning in despair, and he wanted to apologize, to tell him something.
But he couldn’t form the words. He felt as if a string were wrapped around his throat, preventing him from speaking.
Fina and Ruu felt the same way. They stood next to him, tears trickling down their cheeks.
Lai willed his mouth to move as tears blurred his vision, too. Just then, he heard a voice.
“Goooooooooooooooo, Little Rookiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!”
The deep voice thundered across the plaza.
“!”
“Get ’immmmmmmm!! Kill the damn monnnnnnnsterrrrrrrrr!”
It was Mord, the rogue adventurer.
He and his companions had stayed a safe distance from the battle, but they were watching with beet-red faces, fists clenched tightly. Mord spit, and then shouted his battle cry at the fighting boy.
Lai turned his head to look at Mord’s, and the string around his neck seemed to fall away. The boy squeezed both hands tight, shut his eyes, and yelled as loud as he could.
“Go get ’im, big brotheeeerrrrrrr!!”
“This is…”
As Hestia gazed around the plaza in a daze, she noticed a change begin to occur.
“Bell! Big brother!”
“Yeah! You go…!”
“Give ’im helllllllllllllllllllllllllll…!”
Mord’s thundering shouts echoed alongside Fina’s and Ruu’s earnest cheers. Ganesha Familia was urgently attempting to evacuate everyone from the plaza, but when the panicked townsfolk heard the shouts, they stopped.
Everyone realized in astonishment what was happening.
A single adventurer was taking on the enormous monster and his horrifying ax, rushing at him with two terribly puny knives. The adventurer evaded the earth-splitting swing of the ax by a hairbreadth, then leaped at the monster with knives flashing.
The townsfolk blanched at the sight. The Guild employees were at a loss for words. The other adventurers clenched their fists.
This was a fight. This was a fierce struggle in which human and monster were threatening each other’s lives.
“Bell…!”
Eina could not stop herself from whispering his name.
Everyone watching realized the same thing.
There was no calculation in this fight and no ambition. It was pure will. Pure thirst for victory.
No one thought now to slander Bell as an “enemy of the people.”
Criticisms steeped in malice and ridicule shaded with despair lost all meaning in the presence of this battle.
This was true mortal combat.
The sight of the adventurer bravely facing down this terrifying monster was worth more than a thousand explanations or excuses. There was not a trace of falsehood in the face of the one roaring at the black beast.
“Go…” a human finally whispered.
“Fight hard!” an animal person yelled.
“Don’t give in!” an elven girl screamed.
They were shouting at the boy locked in battle with the fierce monster in the center of the plaza.
A single word cascaded into a gigantic wave of voices.
“—!!”
As the lethal struggle unfolded in their midst, the pale townsfolk shouted until they were hoarse. The Guild staff turned their lost words into cheers. The adventurers raised their clenched fists to the sky.
All were shouting in support of Bell.
All saw the image of a hero in the boy’s brave fight.
An adventure…
The shouts of the spectators rang in Bell’s ears as he dodged the Labrys, keenly aware that his movements had sped up.
And that his heart had returned to where it began.
I want to have an adventure.
The voices around him sounded distant. Everything but his opponent disappeared from his field of vision.
All traces of hesitation and indecision had vanished from his face.
He forgot the Xenos, and Aiz, and the future. He forgot all the things that had been worrying him and focused solely on the fight at hand. He gave himself heart and soul to the smiling opponent before him.
He was starving, exactly as his opponent was.
Bell realized instinctively that beyond the hunger for victory lay everything connected to his existence. This was a fight to save the Xenos, to reach the same level as his idol, to achieve the future that Wiene dreamed of. In other words, a fight for strength.
Onward, to adventure once again!!
His crimson knife yielded at last to a powerful blow from the Labrys. As the people watching screamed, Ushiwakamaru shattered to pieces.
I’m sorry. Thank you. I’m going on ahead.
Instantly, he shot a Firebolt from his empty hands, and then flew at the tottering minotaur surrounded by a shower of scarlet sparks.
Bell roared.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
The roars of the boy and the thundering shouts of the crowd echoed through the Labyrinth District.
“Hey, what are you doing?!”
“You, Amazon the Slasher!”
“If you move a hair, we will have no mercy.”
Tiona held her double-edged sword at the ready as she stared at the four armed prums before her. She was standing on the edge of the plaza where the battle continued to rage, but she could not move forward.
“Get out of my way!!” Tione shouted.
She, too, was blocked. The first-tier cat-person adventurer Allen Fromel was standing in her way. He parried each slash of her kukri knives with his spear.
“What the hell are you doing?!” she yelled, outraged that someone had obstructed her pursuit of the black minotaur.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” he responded with a chilly stare, then glanced back toward the ongoing fight between the boy and the monster. “Can’t you see the kid’s trying to be a man?” He spit on the ground.
“You’re a fine one to interfere,” Tione spat back.
Meanwhile, a good distance from where Tiona and Tione were stalled near the western edge of the plaza, the werewolf Bete stood on the edge of a roof on the eastern side and clicked his tongue dramatically.
“Tch…”
As he looked down on the white-haired boy, his face and its lightning-bolt tattoo twisted into a grimace.
Aiz stood near him, watching the battle in silence.
“…”
The two young elven boys guarding her and Bete—one with a white sword and the other, a dark elf, with a black sword—stood with their weapons at ease. They, too, were gazing down at the fight.
“…You’ve gone and done it now, haven’t you, Ottar?”
Finn stood nearby, facing the boaz warrior Ottar. He sighed.
“…”
The boaz was silent.
First-tier adventurers from Freya Familia were blocking all Loki Familia leaders from moving. But that was not all. Troops under Captain Ottar’s command had also pinned in place all the other Loki Familia members. That was why none of them had rushed into the plaza when the black minotaur appeared.
“I have only done what my goddess ordered.”
Ottar turned and threw his sword off the edge of the roof, his voice melting into the night air. The huge hunk of silver spun as it cut through the wind, landing point-down in the center of the plaza at the feet of Bell and Asterios.
Both human and monster stared at it. The next instant, Bell leaped toward the weapon, seized the grip, and pulled it from the ground.
The mad bull shuddered with pleasure as the final battle of his dreams came to life.
“Yah!!”
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
Sparks sprayed into the air as the sword clashed with the Labrys. As the battle continued with new fury, the onlooking crowd screamed and shouted even louder.
“Ha-ha-ha…I wonder how Hermes feels now!”
Freya was on the top floor of Babel Tower in the city center. Watching from her perch at the highest point in Orario as the furious fight unfolded, the goddess sighed rapturously.
“Is this the fate laid down by some individual? Or is it simply a miracle? Whatever the answer…I am grateful for it.”
She was grateful for this turn of Fortune’s wheel—for the encounter between the boy and the monster. The beautiful goddess flushed and chewed gently on her bent pointer finger. She had left everything to her children so she could watch this scene.
Lost in admiration, she gazed passionately at the sparkling pure soul locked in combat with the raging bull.
“To think I am able to watch this fight once again!”
“Hey now…What’s going on here?” Hermes muttered.
Asfi reversed her invisibility and appeared behind him on the top of the tower where he stood.
“Lord Hermes…The situation has spun out of control. In all the chaos, the Xenos got away from me.”
Hermes did not respond. He simply stared at the plaza, stupefied.
The stage he had so carefully prepared was completely destroyed. His scheme had turned to dust.
Asfi watched her stunned patron deity silently.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew off his traveling cap. Hermes snarled, roughly pushing back his orange hair.
“Everything is ruined…!”
A single monster had crushed the plan he had labored so diligently over. Drowning in a despair he had never experienced before, the god clenched his teeth and glared at the minotaur with deep hatred.
Yet at the same time, there was joy in his eyes as he looked down on the plaza.
“Oh, damn. I may as well accept it. I’ve lost! How could I possibly have imagined this scenario?”
The plaza echoed with battle cries, roars, cheers, and prayers. The people in the crowd were completely drawn in by this genuine battle between boy and beast, forgetting even their desire to escape. Hostility and despair had been replaced by a whirlwind of excitement.
Even if everything had played out according to Hermes’s plan, it likely wouldn’t have gone this well. The god would not have held the people’s hearts in the palm of his hand like this. Of course not. Even when the boy was in the midst of battle with the gargoyle, he had been suffering and constantly resisting.
All-knowing, all-powerful god though he may be, Hermes could not have conjured such a scene. It was better than a real adventure.
“Is this what you meant? Was this it, Zeus? Did you disappear from Orario because you foresaw this?!”
Behind him, Asfi gasped. Both she and Hermes were completely enraptured by this scene as brilliant as lightning that swept away the darkness.
“Only one who resisted the divine will of a deity could shine like this!”
The world wanted a hero.
It wanted a blade to rip through the darkness of old, a light to overcome long-held desires, a roar full of ugly yet noble life.
It did not want a puppet who danced for the deities but rather the potential to overcome thousands of years of stagnation in the mortal plane.
It wanted a familia myth, a story woven from pure will.
“In the end…is this black beast the polestar that will burn the weaver’s hand and show him the way?”
I’m a complete clown.
Hermes shivered in humiliation at the strange scene that so eclipsed his own divine will.
“The wisdom of the Sage, the strategies of Braver, the schemes of a god…This pure power has smashed them all to pieces.”
Hermes narrowed his eyes as he drank down the last dregs of his own shame.
“Ah, such a beautiful, loving fight to the death…”
His voice was full of respect for this struggle between the boy and the monster—this scene from a heroic tale that had gripped the hearts of the people and would not let them go.
“Oh…!”
As the crowd shouted and trembled, Hestia, too, shivered and pressed her hands to her chest. All she could see in the gaps between the wall of waving people was Bell’s back as he faced down the black monster.
“Lady Hestia!” Lilly shouted.
“…Let’s go! We’ll leave the minotaur to Bell! We can’t get in his way!!” Hestia replied. They had to escort the hidden Xenos to Knossos. Borne up by the surge of battle created by their familia member, the remainder of Hestia Familia was prepared to risk their lives to do what must be done.
Before leaving the plaza behind, Hestia looked one last time toward the center. The sight of a new story being written across Bell’s body burned itself into her memory.
“The mortal plane isn’t half bad.”
Somewhere in the world, someone spoke.
The innumerable stories playing out on that mortal plane belonged to the children, but still, the deities lurked in the background. That was certainly true.
But.
No matter how much the strings were pulled, or the lines whispered from backstage, or the movements rewritten mid-step, there were naughty children who did not listen. They raged across the stage, most of the time making mistakes too terrible to look at and drawing contemptuous laughter. But sometimes, they overturned the preestablished harmony entirely.
They turned stale operas into hitherto unseen dramas.
“It’s always you children who surprise us and surprise the world.”
Somewhere, someone smiled.
The struggle between Bell and Asterios raged on.
There was not a soul in Orario who did not hear the voices rising from the Labyrinth District.
They were cries of neither terror nor sorrow but rather a feverish, limitless excitement.
Even the townsfolk who had shut themselves inside out of fear now timidly opened their high-up windows or ventured onto roofs. They turned toward the eastern part of the city and pointed wordlessly toward the plaza in the Labyrinth District.
The fever spread.
Most of all, it spread among the deities who danced in joy, their shadows stretching over the city. And then—
“They’re moving!!”
Bell had been hurled down at the feet of the screaming townsfolk in the plaza, and now he vaulted off the cobblestones as high into the sky as his Level 3 Status would allow him, hoping to prevent the townsfolk from being drawn into the fight. Of course, Asterios followed.
The sound of two pairs of feet landing on a roof was followed by the thunder of the Labrys making contact, and then the pounding of running feet.
Asterios’s gaze never wavered from Bell as the boy left the Labyrinth District. The two forms ran alongside each other across the rooftops.
Where can we fight—?!
Avenues, alleys, and East Main Street passed below Bell’s gaze. Guild staff and evacuees stood out in the roads staring up at them, their presence limiting his choices. Finally, he caught sight of a large open space up ahead—
“—Come here!”
As if drawn by the voice of the beautiful goddess on the top floor of the huge tower, Bell descended into Central Park, in the heart of the city.
“Huh?”
“The Little Rookie?! And what is that…?!”
The huge crowd of adventurers guarding Babel looked on in astonishment as Bell and Asterios once again plunged into combat.
Their eyes bulged at the sight of the stunning black minotaur, but when they tried to join in the attack, the monster howled as if to say, “Stay away!” The Level 1 and 2 adventurers were rendered completely useless.
“Keep your hands off!”
“Quick! Escape!”
As the crowd in Central Park rapidly thinned, voices urged the few remaining second-tier adventurers to leave as well. The yells came from smiling deities. In obedience to these pleasure-seeking gods and goddesses, the adventurers fled, dragging their companions with them.
“Ganesha?!”
“…Help the unconscious adventurers! Ilta, don’t you get involved! Our priority is evacuating any nearby townsfolk!”
Ganesha Familia members who had been guarding Babel obeyed their patron deity and got to work rescuing people. The red-haired Amazon Ilta expressed some irritation but nevertheless led the other upper-class adventurers in the rescue operation.
The deities were bent on removing any interference they deemed senseless.
The eastern side of Central Park was now the battlefield for the final clash between Bell and Asterios.
“Yaaaaa!!”
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The sword and the ax collided again and again. Again and again, the sound of metal on metal rang through the air.
As if drawn by the music of the battlefield, adventurers and townsfolk throughout the city fixed their eyes on Central Park. They looked down on the fight from familia headquarters overlooking the park, from the roof of the theater towering over the Pleasure Quarter, and from the buildings in the center of the city.
Every time blood spurted from one of the monster’s wounds, the townsfolk trembled. Every time Bell was thrown into the air, the adventurers gripped the railings and leaned forward.
“Kill the monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! Yeah! Right theeeeeeeeeeere!!”
“Shut up, Mord!”
The adventurers had converged again after following Bell and Asterios out of the Labyrinth District and had resumed their shouting and screaming. Eina was among the Guild employees who had followed along despite the risks. With the help of Ouka and Chigusa, she climbed onto the roof of a shop next to the park and was watching Bell.
“How about right here?” Ouka asked.
“Yes, this is great, thank you!”
Even the animal people who had planned to defy the orders of the deities and shoot at the monster, the elves who had lifted their wands and begun to chant, and the adventurers bent on annihilating the minotaur eventually lowered their weapons and simply stared like the residents of the Labyrinth District.
“…Yeah! Get ’im!” they shouted.
As if time were repeating itself, they began yelling angrily, as if to show their adventurers’ spirit.
“Mr. Cranell…” whispered Lyu, who had come running to the park.
“Hey…Am I seeing things?” said Aisha with a smile. She was standing next to Lyu.
Nearby, Daphne and Cassandra trembled violently as they watched the boy face the terrifying creature all alone.
“What in the world is that kid doing…?” Daphne gasped.
“Oh geez…!” Cassandra said.
“Welf’s familia is nothing if not fun,” said Tsubaki, squinting through her good eye.
“Bell…You’ll die if you keep this up!” said Nahza, gripping her silver prosthetic with her left hand.
As cheers thundered through the air, the townsfolk, the deities, and everyone else in the city trained their eyes on the adventurer and the monster.
“?!!”
“UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!”
Bell and Asterios raged against each other, both wringing the last drops of power from their bodies.
Bell’s arms screamed as they wielded the huge sword. But that was all. Although his fissures spiderwebbed across his bones, he felt he could move them endlessly. On and on he swung the sword, transforming the fire of searing pain into power driving his attacks.
He slashed at Asterios, then used the force of the minotaur’s interception to spin around and slash at him again. Again, the Labrys blocked his blow and smashed down Bell’s desperate Firebolt, swinging his ax diagonally a hairbreadth from the boy’s chest.
The ax’s blade grazed his gauntlet, and the oculus buried within it cracked into a thousand shards.
“…Shit!”
Bell’s equipment was falling off piece by piece. The fasteners on his gauntlet were broken, and its surface was covered in scratches. The epaulettes he had used as impromptu shoulder guards fell off from the force of Asterios’s blows. Even the mud beneath the minotaur’s feet became a threat as Bell slipped and slid over it.
Bell’s entire body was stained red.
But the blood was not his.
It was the fresh blood that gushed from Asterios every time he raged. The minotaur was not only missing one arm; he was on the verge of death. His body was inscribed with wounds that easily could have brought him toppling down.
Had that not been the case, Bell would have been killed instantly.
If he had both arms, if he had not been on the edge of death—
Asterios had come to this battle after Aiz and many other adventurers had injured him. This fight came at the end of a long road.
If Bell’s opponent had been in the prime of health, the boy would not have lasted a minute.
He was that strong.
He was ridiculously, fiercely strong.
“U-U-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The Labrys and the black fist that held it swooped in on Bell, who was powerless to deflect it fully.
Behind Asterios, Bell saw Dix. He saw Aiz, the idol whose feet he could not even touch. He saw Wiene, who had once turned to ash and disappeared because he was not able to save her. He saw his own powerless image.
Behind the Labrys, he saw Dix’s spear, and Aiz’s sword, and Wiene’s tears. They woke in him a mad hope that tore at his heart.
I want to be strong.
So I can overcome this worthy opponent—and overcome my own powerless self.
I want to be strong.
So I can beat this worthy opponent—and so I never lose anything again.
Be strong.
Like a hero.
Like a hero who protects the ones he cares about.
Like a hero who struggles on even when reality crushes him and hypocrites mock him.
I.
Want to be…a hero.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
Bell roared.
He thrust himself forward beyond his limits and ran full speed into a world of white.
He dashed with all his might through a white field where everything burned with white heat, toward the black minotaur who waited on the far side.
“?!”
He lunged forward on his left foot with such force it blurred before the eyes of his audience, and at the same time he swung the huge sword.
His opponent could not respond in time to this boundary-shattering speed. The sword crashed into his armor, but still Bell did not stop. He unleashed a storm of blows onto the tough full plate armor.
“U—UOO!!”
As if it had reached the limits of its patience, the Labrys flicked Bell’s sword high into the air.
The spectators screamed, but Bell ignored them and leaped forward at full speed.
The upward kick that exploded into his left cheekbone caught Asterios completely off guard. Not to be outdone by his opponent, Bell had turned his body into a weapon and unleashed his rabbit’s claws on the minotaur. Asterios somehow withstood this kick to his face from a first-class adventurer—but the next moment, the minotaur was plunged into shock.
Still hovering in midair with his left foot extended, Bell thrust out his right arm like the barrel of a gun.
“Firebolt!”
He released six consecutive bolts.
“—O?!”
They were fired from such close range that the adventurers watching gasped. The decisive blow crushed one of the minotaur’s eyes.
The force of his own blast threw Bell back. The instant he hit the ground, he ran toward Asterios at full speed. In his right hand, he grabbed the sword that had come spinning down from above his head, tottered backward a few steps, then lunged at the monster and slashed with all his might.
“GUO?!”
Diagonal downward slash.
“UO?!”
Horizontal mowing strike.
“OOOOO—?!”
Uppercut.
Three flashes of light all told. This time the minotaur’s full plate armor split open, and the enormous body gushed a fountain of blood.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!”
The adventurers and gods screamed as if their chests would explode at the sight of Bell’s full power awakened.
As for Asterios, whose left eye had been obliterated and whose body had suffered a deep wound—he smiled.
A quiet, powerful expression so uncanny it silenced the cheers of the crowd for a moment.
The boy’s will to fight was as fierce as ever. He rushed forward with the huge sword, burning with determination.
Asterios’s feet pounded into the ground, splintering it underfoot.
Bell’s feet carried him forward with blinding speed.
Each could see only the other. Their eyes flashed as they charged toward their final clash.
““?!!””
It was the final match.
The roars of the boy and the beast filled the air. No trace of elegance could be found in their duet—only the battle cries of two beings hungry for victory.
Persistence clashed fiercely against strength.
Even as the ringing hunk of silver warded off the bloody double blade, the minotaur’s powerful leg crashed down to cut Bell’s parry short. The sword and ax were pulled back, only to meet again an instant later in a swirl of flashing light and flying sparks.
The ax grazed Bell’s shoulder, and blood spurted out. The sound of flesh being crushed came from within the armor that had deflected the blow.
Bell’s right hand shot a Firebolt that burned the monster’s body, but mere contact with the inhumanly strong opponent was enough to damage more of Bell’s gear.
Even the Divine Knife and the crimson horns played their part in the epic battle, inscribing purple-blue and crimson arcs of light between the ax and the sword.
This clash of wills and stubborn determination had nothing to do with pride.
Each accepted no compromise from the other, instead urging him on like an image in a mirror.
The adventurers leaned backward to avoid their blows. The townsfolk shuddered. The deities smiled and cheered. Wordless screams flew toward the battle. The crowd standing around the edge of Central Park forgot even to breathe, instead pouring their whole selves into one continuous scream.
The beautiful goddess’s silver eyes glittered feverishly.
The half-elf trembled and turned pale at the sight of the deadly struggle.
All those who had crossed paths with the boy watched with bated breath as the fight approached its final stretch.
And as they watched, the boy and the monster desperately staved off the end of their battle.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
“Ooof!!”
The Labrys struck a powerful blow to the sword raised hastily to ward it off.
Bell’s feet left the ground and he was thrown backward as if he were a mere feather. The moment his back hit the cobblestones, he rolled and saw Asterios in the center of his field of vision.
“—OOO!”
About ten meders separated them.
As if he had been waiting impatiently for this moment, Asterios brought his left hand—and the Labrys in it—crashing onto the cobblestones. With his one arm planted firmly down, the minotaur dipped his head low.
A buzz of anticipation swept through the crowd of watching adventurers. The minotaur seemed to be preparing himself to use his most deadly weapon—his horns.
He charged forward with incomparable power, crushing everything in his way.
Bell stared at the raging bull outlined against the limestone tower. In an instant, he guessed his intent and brought his sword directly in front of his body.
He was about to unleash the Hero’s Attack.
A chime sounded, and white light gathered.
“!!”
The trigger for his skill was the image of an argonaut, his role model.
The argonauts had wanted to become heroes, and they had overcome their checkered fate to do so.
Bell thought about this original heroic tale as he drew back his sword.
“—”
“—”
The image of the crimson horns burned into the boy’s eyes. The converging white sparks of light pierced the monster’s gaze.
Their eyes met. Both brimmed with a will to fight that erased all boundaries. A single second stretched on forever.
Their limbs cried out, their hearts hungered, their warrior’s resolve burned fiercely.
Bell’s red eyes met the monster eyes of Asterios.
And then—
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
They rushed at each other.
Don’t lose!
For the first time, Eina prayed not that the fight would end—but that Bell would win.
The adventurer and the minotaur turned their bodies into powerful bullets that shattered the cobblestones as they shot forward.
The townsfolk, the deities, and the adventurers gasped at the thunderous roars.
In an instant, the mad rush reduced the space between the two forms to nothing.
Bell had been charging for twenty seconds.
He swung his sword down and then up again.
Aiming for his opponent’s red horns, Bell unleashed a ferocious slashing attack of white light.
“?”
One instant.
That was all it took for Bell to realize the destructive crimson light of his opponent was crushing his pure white radiance.
The next instant—
“—Uwaah!”
He had lost.
His Hero’s Attack had been defeated.
A mortal shock resonated through him as his body flew high into the air.
“—”
Complete silence fell over Orario.
Bell’s body rose straight up from where he had collided with Asterios, blood spewing from his mouth.
All eyes followed that form into the air, all faces turned white, and all watched as fragments of the shattered silver blade twinkled with white light in all directions.
“B-Bell—”
Eina pressed her hands to her mouth. She felt as if time had stopped.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
Meanwhile the monster, having crushed the boy’s worst attack, let out a victory roar and circled triumphantly. Then he stopped and reversed direction abruptly enough to crush stone as he headed toward where Bell would fall. He charged forward like a truly wild bull and, the instant the boy hit the ground, set on him again.
“Eeyaaah!”
The outstretched black arm pounded onto Bell, and for a second time he vomited blood. Asterios caught up his body and dashed toward the lofty limestone tower.
“T-take shelter!! Runnnnnn!!”
The handful of Ganesha Familia upper-class adventurers guarding the door to Babel fled as fast as they could in the face of that unrivaled, unstoppable rush.
A moment later, the minotaur crashed through the door and walls of the huge tower.
“??!”
Still gripping Bell under his left arm, Asterios charged with overwhelming force into the grand hall on the first story of Babel. He hurled both Bell and the Labrys against the floor, which resembled an enormous stained-glass flower. The superhuman strength of the blow inflicted equal damage on Bell and the floor, which in the next instant began to cave in.
When Bell fell through the destroyed floor, he tumbled straight into the huge hole waiting in the basement. The hole that led to the Dungeon.
He fell, and fell, and fell.
Spitting blood and wrapped in a peculiar floating sensation, he was pulled to the bottom of the earth along with masses of rubble. The nighttime lights of the surface receded before his blurred vision, and the moment arrived.
Bang!!
“Oof!!”
He crashed to the first floor of the Dungeon with a deafening thud.
An electric shock seemed to run down his back and through the rest of his body. For a few seconds, he lost consciousness.
When he came to, he was tormented by a searing pain that would have killed him instantly had he not leveled up earlier that night. He coughed up a clot of blood stuck in his throat and cracked his eyes open.
He was lying on his back, and far above, he could see the dim night. It must be moonlight shining through the door of Babel Tower. The inside of the tower was completely dark, perhaps because the collapse had snuffed out the magic-stone lamps. Part of the spiral staircase inside the cylindrical hole had been destroyed as well.
Bell lay motionless on a bed of rubble. The collapse must have also damaged this underground floor, because the walls were webbed with fissures, and they glowed with only a weak phosphorescence. They reminded him of a cave illuminated by moonbeams.
As Bell stared into the blackness above his head, his mind moving sluggishly…a black shadow fell over him.
“Bell…”
“…!”
At the sound—not a monster’s roar but a word spoken in human language—Bell summoned the last of his remaining strength and lifted his head. The black minotaur stood quietly beside him like a triumphant victor.
“Now we are even…” Asterios said, gazing down on Bell’s tattered form.
The boy stared back at him.
“Next time,” the minotaur warrior said. He had lost an arm, one of his eyes had been crushed, and his entire body was covered in wounds. He raised the Labrys to his chest.
“Next time—we’ll settle this.”
Asterios smiled broadly and looked up.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
He roared his monster’s victory song…and disappeared.
Bell saw only empty space before him.
The minotaur had vanished into the dark depths of the Dungeon.
“…”
Like a marionette whose strings had been cut, Bell dropped his head back onto the pile of rubble. Silence settled around him, as if the battle had been no more than a fantasy.
Definitely—probably—the repair of the Dungeon will take priority, Bell’s hazy mind told him. No new monsters will be spawned, and the low-level ones like goblins and kobolds will probably hide far back in the recesses in fear of all this noise and shaking. I’m sure I’ll be fine if I just lay here for a while.
He felt as if he were floating in a soft, fluffy dream. The battle with the monster seemed somehow unreal. But the horrible pain tormenting his entire body was very real, and it would not let him escape reality.
“…I lost.”
The whispered words floated up the vertical opening to the surface and rose into the moonlit sky.
Bell looked at the hole in the painting of the sky on the ceiling of the first underground floor.
“I wonder…if all the Xenos…If Gros and the others escaped…”
The oculus in his gauntlet had been crushed and scattered. He had no way of contacting the goddess. But he was sure she and his other familia members had taken care of it. They must have succeeded, by using him and Asterios as decoys.
So there was some meaning in his battle after all.
“…Well then, I’m glad it happened this way.”
Because he had kept on fighting and drawn the whole city into it, Wiene and Lido and the others had been able to return to the Dungeon.
If he had won, Asterios would have died.
If he hadn’t lost, Asterios wouldn’t have been able to return to his brethren in the Dungeon.
It was best this way.
“I’m glad I lost…”
Victory and defeat were secondary.
It was all for the best—
“…That’s a lie.”
Bell mumbled the words to himself.
“…All of that is a lie.”
His quiet voice grew teary. The tip of his nose felt hot, and the scene above his head blurred.
Tears spilled from his eyes.
“I’m not happy I lost…!”
He was disappointed.
He was so upset he wanted to die.
Setting aside the Xenos, his mission, and everything else, he was excruciatingly disheartened.
Bell wanted to beat Asterios. He wanted to beat the old enemy who had appeared before him for another round.
As an adventurer, and as a man, he wanted to beat that worthiest of opponents.
“Sniff, sniff…!”
He tried desperately to hold back his pitiful wails.
But independent of his will, the sobs convulsed from his throat.
He thought of Asterios’s words.
Next time, we’ll settle this.
The game wasn’t over yet.
Bell had been lost since he met the Xenos, and Asterios had given him a reason to fight.
Next time, I’m coming to kill you.
So don’t falter.
Become stronger.
Asterios had given him a reason to grow.
“?ngh…!”
I promise you.
One day, I’ll create a place where we can live together.
To make that happen, from now on, I have to do more—
He’d said all those things. He’d promised.
He’d been right. From now on, he had to do more—he had to be more.
More, much more.
If he was going to keep his promise to Wiene, and if he was going to settle things with Asterios, he had to become much, much stronger.
And so another goal was set.
Bell had found something to aim for other than his idol.
Everything he needed now was connected.
So that I reach the level of my idol.
So that I’m sure no one I care about is ever again killed.
So I win next time.
I will become stronger.
I will become much stronger.
So that I never lament my powerlessness again.
Now, cry in disgrace.
Cry uselessly.
Cry now so you can start running again tomorrow.
“W-w-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…!!”
Bell covered his eyes with his arm and, the wretched sobs began.
“Bell!”
Eina was running.
After the monster had disappeared into Babel with Bell, she had climbed down to Central Park faster than anyone else.
Panting from the exertion she was unaccustomed to and swinging her arms furiously, she rushed toward the limestone tower.
“Please wait, it’s dangerous!” a Ganesha Familia guard shouted.
But she ignored the warning and ran through the ruined door to Babel.
Waiting on the other side was the enormous hole in the floor leading underground. As she realized the extent of the destruction, the blood drained from her face.
He couldn’t have been caught up in this, could he?
She peered into the hole. Far down at the bottom, beneath the entrance to the Dungeon, she glimpsed a white form. As if propelled by some invisible force, she flew to the staircase leading underground. She clattered down flight after flight. For once, she regretted never having received the Falna. If she had, she could have leaped straight down the hole to the boy’s side.
The magic-stone lamps were broken, and Eina stumbled repeatedly in the poor light. But though she faltered, she never stopped.
Finally she arrived at the rubble-filled first underground floor and the spiral staircase leading through the huge hole to the Dungeon. Despite the damage, she managed to make her way down.
“Bell!!…Bell?”
She found him lying on top of the rubble covered in blood but still breathing—and crying.
Huge tears were streaming down below the arm covering his eyes, and his whole body shook with sobs. He was crying disgracefully, pitifully, and with all his heart.
“Bell…”
He was crying.
The boy was crying.
Not the child’s whimpers she had seen many times before but the bitter tears of a man.
Real tears that welled up from the depths of his heart.
Eina’s chest tightened painfully at the sight of this unfamiliar Bell.
She didn’t know what to say, but she wanted to do something, so she quietly walked up to him and knelt on the ground.
She wrapped both her hands around his right hand. He squeezed back so hard it hurt.
Eina realized something had begun to grow in her heart.
A sweet, painful throbbing that she could not turn back from.
Illuminated by the faint, moonbeam-like phosphorescence, Eina stayed there by Bell’s side all the way until help arrived.
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