Chapter 5: Fighting Seriously for Once
“?Cross Blizzard?!” Diablo unleashed his spell.
It was a level 110 water and air elemental spell. It formed two tornados that froze anything they touched, then shattering them with raging winds. The Gelmed Empire’s soldiers screamed as they ran for safety.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
They were equipped with magimatic gear, but they couldn’t tank spells of this level. Some of the soldiers couldn’t escape in time, becoming statues of ice and breaking into pieces.
“Ugh...”
Diablo’s heart creaked. The Gelmed soldiers were the enemy. They killed many of Lyferia’s and the church’s soldiers, and even some civilians. Diablo didn’t have the leisure of caring for the lives of his foes right now.
But the Magimatic Sols moved even with the Cross Blizzard’s effects.
“Fall back! All ordinary soldiers, fall back!” the red unit cried out.
“Whoaa...” the white unit said in amazement. “Everything looks white!”
The pilots didn’t seem awfully burdened by the spell.
“Did my unit’s eyes freeze over?! I can’t see anything! Rikka, are you all right?! Rikka!”
“Erina, calm down. Just use your unit’s heat rays.”
“Ah... Right you are.”
The Magimatic Sols’ heads had frozen over, but soon returned to normal. Their armor was slightly cracked. Diablo’s spells were affecting them, but it was only chipping away at them. They then launched their counterattacks.
“Fall! Fall! I am ordering you to fall!”
“You’re not hitting him...”
“You shoot him too, Rikka!”
“But my rig’s a melee-combat type...”
Viatanos of the White was holding a shield, which apparently counted as its weapon. Diablo fought from a distance, so the enemy’s only way of hitting him was Burix of the Red’s magimatic bow. Its shots were accurate, but predictable. The Magimatic Sol’s specs were absurd, but its pilot’s skills were mediocre.
Thanks to that, Diablo could hold an even fight despite the odds being against him.
This is bad.
Since the Empire was based off of Girls’ Arms, Diablo doubted there were only two Magimatic Sols. There were probably others deployed on other battlefields. Diablo’s limit-broken gear was only barely putting a dent in the enemy, and Lyferia’s ordinary soldiers were being stomped out like bugs. He didn’t have the time to dawdle here.
“Shit... But still...” Diablo clenched his teeth.
“Why can’t I hit him?!” The two Magimatic Sols seemed to be quarreling. “Is my magimatic bow broken or something?!”
“Maybe you’re just a bad shot, Erina.”
“Excuse you?! I’ll remember what you just said, Rikka!”
“Aaaah...”
Diablo fell into bitter silence. The combat plan he had worked out in his head fizzled out.
They were kids. The Magimatic Sols were powerful, and they had likely killed many soldiers with them, so he couldn’t claim they were innocent children.
But still, I don’t want to have to kill them...
This may be a war, but he couldn’t just kill his enemies the same way he would slay a monster...
†
“Die.” Alicia threw a magic stone.
The stone fell at the Gelmed soldiers’ feet and... exploded!
In terms of effect, it was equivalent to a ?Flare Burst? spell, packing enough power to blow away a large Fallen. The Gelmed soldiers were equipped with magimatic shields, but the blast easily penetrated their magical defenses. The soldiers were blown apart, becoming chunks of meat.
“...A-Amazing...” Rem said, her eyes wide with shock.
Alicia removed a few more stones from a pouch on her waist.
“Should I try a water element one next?”
“Fall back! Retreat, retreat!” The Gelmed soldiers began fleeing.
“My... What a shame.”
The thousand-or-so soldiers who were pushing into the connecting bridge fell back to the twelfth district. The defending church soldiers started to cheer.
“That was great, Alicia!” Rem praised her.
“Thank you kindly, Miss Rem.”
“...What are those things?”
“Fundamentally, they’re not much different from magi gun bullets. They have high-level magic sealed in them, all it takes is a bit of magical energy to unleash it.”
“These stones can do that?! Then we can use these to beat the Empire’s army! Forget that — with these, even a common citizen can beat the Fallen, or even the Demon Lord!”
“Assuming one can gather enough of them.”
“...Would that be difficult?”
“They were only developed because the Cristela family requested that the capital’s Mage’s Guild research them... But there are still some problems.”
“...Like what?”
“These magic stones...” Alicia smiled bitterly. “They’re worth more than a lump of gold of the same weight.”
“Huh?!” Rem flinched, eyeing these magic stones that were certainly larger than a hen’s egg.
One of these was likely worth more than all the money Rem earned adventuring last year.
“Creating them consumes a great deal of precious metals.” Alicia shrugged.
And so, they cost an absurd fortune to produce. And it wasn’t something one could simply order with money — precious metals weren’t exactly easy to find.
“...Don’t tell me... you only have a few left?” Rem asked anxiously.
“I should very much hope the Empire gives up soon.”
But things were sadly not quite that simple. The connecting bridge wavered under the clamoring of heavy, approaching footsteps. A figure rose from behind a building — the hulking figure of a massive suit of armor. It was a purple-colored Magimatic Sol, named Violanos.
“People of Lyferia! You’ll find that I’m not as kind as Aira!”
Its pilot was Corporal Migurtha, and it was carrying a massive rifle. Its shape was more angular compared to the ones used by Lyferia’s army. Its muzzle was fixed their way. Filled with a sense of dread, Rem quickly called for her summons.
“Come forth, ?Iron Golem? and ?Iron Gorilla?!”
Two massive forms appeared before them, and at the same time, Violanos fired its magimatic rifle in a rapid-fire burst. The bullets moved faster than the speed of sound, impacting the summons and distorting their forms. Becoming riddled with holes in an instant, they crumbled back into black crystals which returned to Rem’s hands.
“No!”
They couldn’t even serve as shields, and could barely buy Rem and Alicia the time to hide between buildings. Still, Rem was thankful for the summon beasts. If she hadn’t used them, Rem and Alicia would have been blown to bits.
The church soldiers seemed to have suffered considerable losses, however. Moans and cries for help could be heard in every direction.
†
“Kuh...” Rem clenched her teeth.
The purple Magimatic Sol only attacked them once! Only once, and that alone left the formation that was defending the connecting bridge completely in tatters. Peering at the enemy from the shadow of a building, Rem noticed something droop into her field of vision.
A lock of orange hair... her wig.
She was still dressed as a man, come to think of it. The shockwaves of this attack must have knocked a hairpin off. She’d kept to this outfit since her usual one wasn’t fitting in the Inner Sanctum, but... this wasn’t the Inner Sanctum, and this wasn’t peacetime, either.
“...Enough already.”
Rem tore off the orange-colored wig, which was the color of a typical Pantherian’s hair, and spread out her natural long, black hair. She then tore off her tight jacket and returned to her usual, mobile outfit.
“I think you look better this way, Miss Rem.” Alicia cracked a smile as she looked at her from the side.
“...I feel the same way. Though I didn’t much like the way I looked up until recently.”
“A change of heart?”
“...There’s someone who acknowledges me now,” Rem said, dropping her gaze to her ring finger.
The wedding ring sparkled, as if to meet her gaze.
“I think that’s lovely.” Alicia nodded.
“...We haven’t done anything a married couple usually does, though.”
“Yes, that man is simply like that, it seems.”
“...And that’s why I can’t afford to die here.”
“Indeed.”
They turned their attention back to the battle at hand. The church soldiers launched sporadic attacks, but... in line with the intelligence they received, conventional weapons couldn’t affect Magimatic Sols.
The purple Magimatic Sol, Violanos, stepped onto the connecting bridge.
“Stop hiding and come on out! I’ll pump you full of holes!”
She fired again in their direction, and if it weren’t for the stone walls they hid behind, she’d likely have shot them through. The buildings jolted as the blasting sounds of her shots rocked the air. Her barrage was horrifying.
“...I’ll draw in her attacks.”
“Miss Rem?!”
“...Your magic stones might deal some damage.”
They were as powerful as Diablo’s spells. If the stones had no effect, then they really were out of options. Alicia thought the same thing and didn’t deny it.
“But you can throw these stones just the same as I can, Miss Rem. I’ll leave them all to you, so let me handle the role of bait.”
“...Me playing bait doesn’t mean I intend to die. I’m different now from how I was before. Stronger than when Diablo always had to protect me.”
“I... see.”
“...But I can’t keep it up for very long, so please.”
“Understood. Leave it to me, Miss Rem!”
“I’m off!”
Rem jumped out from their hiding place.
“Come forth, ?Asulau?!” she called out and threw a crystal.
A massive bull with three horns appeared from thin air and fiercely charged the enemy.
“You think this can stop me? What a bad joke.”
“You too, ?Rockpup? and ?Dragonfly?!”
“Small fry! Irritating small fry!”
Violanos fired its rifle again, and the summon beasts were finished within moments. No good after all. She was confident she had matured as a sorcerer, but the beasts she had contracted were of low level.
And so, Rem used the Glow.
Everything accelerated.
Slow, too slow! I ran faster back then! I may have used the Demon Lord’s Fang when I fought Gewalt, but that was still my power! I should be able to use it again!
“Concentrate, Rem. Push away all unnecessary thoughts and face your own body.”
A memory of her late father’s voice surfaced in her mind. And the next moment...
She could see a bullet rushing toward her. If it hit her, she’d die. Rem instinctively weaved the Glow in her fingertips and pressed them against the bullet from the side, pushing away its destructive damage.
Her fingers creaked with a crunching sound. Her skin tore, and then... ping! A metallic sound rang out and the bullet deviated from Rem.
“What?!” Migurtha’s eyes widened with shock. “That should have been a perfect hit!”
Rem swiftly ran for cover behind another building. Her heart was beating wildly like a drum.
Did I just... instinctively do something really amazing?!
She didn’t feel like she could pull it off again. She was only lucky this time, and she’d eventually need to turn this coincidence into actual skill, but right now she was critically lacking in training. She could tell that much.
“Fighting... like this, based on just talent, doesn’t suit me,” she muttered in a shaking voice. “I’ll leave that to Shera.”
The building she was hiding behind was being peppered by Violanos’ shots. Rem would need to stall the enemy a bit longer for Alicia to throw her magic stones. But just as Rem started thinking about what to do next, the situation suddenly changed.
†
Clouds gathered in the sky. The sunlight was blotted out and the area around them turned dark.
“What..?”
The black clouds swirling in the sky contorted, forming the outlines of an old man’s face. His eyes’ fundi were sunken in, and his wrinkled skin was covered in cracks. The man parted his lips, revealing a mouth lacking a few teeth, and spoke in a hoarse voice. “It is her! There can be no mistaking it! The Girl of the Vessel is before my eyes! Guh, aah, gah!”
The old man began coughing up blood and the image in the sky contorted and changed again, taking on the shape of...
“...Huh? Isn’t that me?”
It was an image of Rem that appeared as if it was looking down on her. She felt an alarming intent directed on her from the Gelmed army, as if a thousand gazes fixed on her at once. Heavy footsteps were approaching her.
Peeking out from behind the building, Rem saw ?Violanos of the Purple? cross the connecting bridge composedly.
“Oh, so it was you... It was you! Do you have any idea how many people were taken away because of you... Because you were here...!?” Migurtha raised her voice in a cry that seemed to bellow up from the depths of the earth.
What is she talking about...?
Rem couldn’t understand, and honestly, couldn’t care less about Migurtha’s circumstances. The only thing she understood was that right now, she had just become the Gelmed Empire’s target. Her heart was filled with terror, but it did make her perfect for diverting the enemy’s attention.
To her surprise, Violanos cast away its rifle. Was it out of bullets? No... Rem recalled what the old man said earlier.
Is she trying to take me alive?
Capturing her alive was much harder than killing her. In that regard, the situation was in Rem’s favor.
Or so she thought, but the sounds of the fighting grew that much louder around her. The Empire soldiers, who had kept their distance until now, were rushing around her.
“Go, go, go! That’s her! Capture the Girl of the Vessel!”
The church soldiers rose up with weapons in hand.
“Don’t let them get any closer! Fight back!”
Rem could tell — all the Gelmed soldiers here were after her. A shiver ran down her spine. Violanos kicked the ground with a thud, rushing toward her rapidly. Rem was surprised at its agility; it broke through the church soldiers’ line of defense, rushing to where Rem was hiding. Within a moment, the Magimatic Sol stood before her eyes.
“You are never getting away!”
“Kuh...?!”
Rem had no reason to stick around and be caught by the armored hand. She broke into a run.
“I said you’re not getting away!”
But as Violanos was about to take off after her, a flashy explosion rocked Violanos’ back. Its purple armor crumbled.
“Kyaaaaaaaah?!”
In contrast to her menacing voice from earlier, this scream was almost adorable. Violanos staggered, leaning against a wall to stay on its feet... But then some more magic stones were tossed at her. This time the ground bulged up, sending the Magimatic Sol flying into the air like a child’s toy.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!”
It was Alicia. She had thrown the magic stones while hiding behind one of the buildings.
“Miss Rem, you must run!”
“...Yes!” Rem replied after a moment’s hesitation.
The situation had changed. Their objective — defeat the Magimatic Sol and defend the bridge — hadn’t changed, but right now, Rem was the target of every single soldier in the Gelmed Empire.
I have to focus on surviving!
Up in the sky, the image of Rem running through the city was reflected in the clouds. She was being watched, and it meant that she couldn’t simply hide or escape the capital in secret.
What do I do?!
She could hear heavy footsteps rumble ahead of her. Had Violanos cut her off? No. A white Magimatic Sol carrying a shield appeared, knocking down the wayside trees as it rushed toward her.
“There she is! Found her!” the pilot exclaimed with a childish voice.
†
Diablo looked up into the sky, where an old man’s face appeared and started shouting something. He didn’t care much about that. But when he saw what appeared in the sky next...
“Rem?!”
The two Magimatic Sols he was up against stirred.
“Rikka, go after the Girl of the Vessel! I can handle this spot alone!”
“All right! Be careful, Erina!”
Viatanos of the White took off into the city. Jumping over the walls was child’s play for a Magimatic Sol. Diablo tried using his magic to stop it, but the magimatic bow fired a barrage to disturb his chanting.
“I will be your opponent!”
“Do not get in my way!”
“I should take those words and throw them right back at you!”
The rumbling of a massive explosion reached Diablo’s ears. It seemed to have come from the direction of the connecting bridge to the twelfth district. A pillar of flames rose from there. Diablo didn’t have any information about what was going on, but whoever was fighting there must have been extraordinary. Diablo noticed a flash of red hair from the image of Rem in the sky.
Alicia?!
Diablo doubted she could help in any way against a Magimatic Sol. Meanwhile, Rem was running away, only to soon be discovered by Viatanos of the White. From the Gelmed Empire’s perspective, everything was going as planned. Burix of the Red opposed Diablo, but didn’t attempt any risky attacks. Erina knew that regardless of whether she defeated Diablo, the Girl of the Vessel would be captured sooner or later, and they’d be able to break into the church from another direction at some point, too.
Diablo lowered his staff silently.
“My, throwing in the towel? Did you realize that there’s no winning against the Empire?” Erina asked in a sympathetic tone.
She didn’t take advantage of this moment to attack, either. These pilots, they... they weren’t bad people.
—But he still had to kill them.
“I’ve been... wrong.”
Somewhere in his heart, he’d always been running away from battle. He didn’t want to fight the races. There was nothing he wanted less than war. He figured that after a bit of fighting, it would just end on its own.
He feared becoming a murderer.
He could only enjoy playing the part of a diabolical, heinous villain in the game, because that was all it was. A game. No one really died there.
I never really wanted to become an actual villain...! But because of my naivete, Rem is...!
The white Magimatic Sol was drawing in on her.
Diablo didn’t want to kill. Breaking that ethical taboo pained his conscience.
He was scared.
He wanted to always be a good, upstanding person, but staying that way meant he couldn’t protect the person that mattered to him!
Diablo clenched his fingers hard around the staff. He reached into his pouch and took out three potion tubes, downing them immediately. An MP potion, an HP potion, and a buffing potion! Diablo felt his blood seethe. Behind the elation of his battle lust, his thoughts were as cold as ice, and everything disappeared besides the battle before his eyes.
“You still intend to fight?” Erina asked suspiciously, noticing the change in Diablo’s behavior. “I’ll have you know that you will never beat me!”
“This happened before.”
“What?”
“Whenever I saw a couple... making out before my eyes... Everything stopped mattering. All the pointless thoughts disappeared, and I could focus on fighting and nothing else.”
“Th-That sounds like envy.”
“Maybe? But this, right now... This is different. I’m different. I’ve been wrong this whole time.”
“...Y-You...”
Diablo held up his staff.
“I... of my own will... for my own sake, I will kill. I will kill you, and with maximum efficiency!”
“That’s obvious! This is a battlefield, after all!” Erina fired a bullet at him.
Diablo evaded and unleashed a spell.
“?Lightning Arrow?!”
Several bullets of shining light left his staff. It wasn’t a spell with much firepower behind it, and even if it did hit the Magimatic Sol, all it would do was scorch the armor. But instead, it hit the Gelmed Empire’s standard soldiers. Even with magimatic gear, they couldn’t block Diablo’s attacks.
Numerous screams pierced the air, and Burix of the Red raised its voice in shock.
“Everyone, what’s...? What is the meaning of this, sorcerer...?!”
Her attention switched to the soldiers for a moment. And that was all Diablo needed. He used the rushing martial art ?Sword Smite ??, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye.
“Whenever you fire a stray shot, you look away for a moment. Since you’re safe behind your thick armor, your grasp on the basics is faulty!”
“What?!”
Burix used its magimatic bow like a sword, swiping horizontally at Diablo. But before it could connect, Diablo touched the head of the Magimatic Sol.
“?Light?!”
“Hiyaaa?! What?! What is this?!”
It was nothing but an illumination spell that produced a source of light, but he cast it directly into the Magimatic Sol’s eyes — into the lenses of the robot’s cameras, filling its field of vision with white.
He wasn’t fighting it this long for no reason. He was studying the Magimatic Sol’s structure and limits.
“You can’t fight if you can’t see the enemy.”
“I can still fight!”
The crimson Magimatic Sol opened its chest piece. The one riding inside was a child that looked strikingly similar to the character that piloted it in Girls’ Arms. A determined, dignified girl, who’d sometimes turn teary-eyed whenever she made a clumsy mistake:
Erina Reufelia.
She was mostly naked, and buried within a mass of writhing, disgusting tentacles. Facing her directly made him waver, but Diablo suppressed all his doubts.
“You’re a fool to expose yourself to me! Flare Burst!”
“Kuuuu!”
If the spell were to hit the open parts of the armor, its power wouldn’t be mitigated by the Magimatic Sol’s high magic defense. She shielded herself by holding up the unit’s right arm, since her left was equipped with the magimatic bow.
Diablo had read her perfectly, down to the way she blocked the attack. A pang of pain crossed Diablo’s heart, but... he couldn’t afford to be stalled here any longer.
“It’s over.”
“Huh?” Erina said with a suspicious expression, apparently not understanding what he meant.
The hand she had shielded herself with — the Magimatic Sol’s right hand, was lighting up with magical energy.
“...It can’t be.”
When Diablo touched her, he’d cast a Light spell at the unit’s eyes. And immediately after, he cast another spell. The unit’s right hand was held up before the opened chestpiece. And from within it, the spell he had set was triggered — aiming at the pilot.
“It’s a ?Burst Mine?. It explodes on contact... Or after a set period of time.”
Magical flames impacted Burix of the Red from the inside.
“No...!”
Her final words were cut off by the sound of the explosion. Tentacles scattered into the air, and the bulky Magimatic Sol spurted flames from the gaps of its thick armor, before collapsing powerlessly.
The soldiers on both sides of the conflict shuddered. Diablo felt his breath clog in his throat as he gazed into the cockpit of the still Magimatic Sol.
But he couldn’t stay put. He turned around and sprinted toward the city.
Please be safe, Rem...!
†
Rem was cornered against a wall. Viatanos of the White wasn’t simply sturdy, but also moved with a speed one would never imagine from its size. It swung its massive hands over Rem’s head.
Rem dodged, but to her surprise, the Magimatic Sol had foreseen where she’d evade to. The hand changed its trajectory in the last second.
“Gaaaaah?!”
An impact ran through Rem’s left leg, followed by a burning sensation. Her leg felt like it was on fire — heat. Seething, agonizing heat. This heat became pain.
Viatanos’ hand had crushed Rem’s left leg, reducing it to a lump of flesh without a trace of its original shape.
“Aaah... Aaaaaaaah...”
Now wasn’t the time to cry, but Rem couldn’t hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.
“Alright, I got her!” cheered the voice of Viatanos of the White — Rikka’s voice.
Her tone was innocent, as if she were a child who had just caught a bug.
“Uugh, aaah, aaaaaah...!” Rem screamed.
The remains of her left leg seared as if it had just been dipped in fire. The pain was so intense she couldn’t even breathe properly, but she still had to run. Rem crawled away, using both arms and her remaining right leg to push her body forward.
“Huh? Guess I should break her other leg, too... There!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!”
Her body felt like it had been sewn to the ground. Unable to move, both of her legs now wailed in agony. She felt like a piece of wood tossed into a campfire. The rest of her body began growing cold in spite of this sensation — her temperature was dropping due to the volume of blood she was losing. The chill was so intense that Rem’s teeth started chattering, her hands shivering. Her body refused to budge, but she couldn’t stop twitching. And as Rem lay still, Viatanos looked down on her.
“Aaah, aaah... Aira, do you read? I’ve caught the Girl of the Vessel. Can you call someone to carry her away? I’m not good with carrying people.”
Another Magimatic Sol in purple armor soon approached them. Violanos... Its left arm was missing, but that was all.
“Did you catch her, Rikka?!”
“Yes! I really worked hard for it, too! Wait, Migurtha, are you alright?!”
“I’m fine.”
“Whoooooa... I can’t believe a Magimatic Sol had its arm blown off like that... Who did this to you?”
“Must have been some kind of sorcerer... I don’t really know, but I knocked her away. I haven’t checked if she actually died, though.”
“Weird.”
“She was surrounded by soldiers, so I left her to them.”
“I see!”
“Forget that, we have to be cautious. Since our soldiers are gathering here, the kingdom’s soldiers are also starting to close in on this place.”
“Okay!”
Rikka looked up at the sky. Even now, the Girl of the Vessel was being reflected there by some unknown means. And so was the image of Rikka — or rather, Viatanos of the White — looking up. It was a gruesome sight.
The image didn’t transmit any sound, but any kingdom soldier... No, maybe even some of the Empire’s soldiers might feel inclined to come to the girl’s rescue at the sight of this.
Rikka sighed.
“I mean, it’s our mission, but... Mm?”
She turned her gaze to where something caught her attention. Someone was approaching from atop one of the buildings — a man clad in black and wielding a staff, a Demon with horns growing out of his head.
“...Isn’t that the sorcerer Erina was taking care of...?! Wait, what happened to Erina?!”
“What’s wrong?!” Migurtha asked her urgently.
“No way! Erina can’t be... It can’t be!”
Rikka glared at the black sorcerer. He was holding a massive black bow and arrow.
†
Diablo began chanting his second multiplex spell.
“Void that swallows all of creation, come to me... ?Black Hole Arrow?!”
Skipping all introductions, he fired such a powerful spell at them right off the bat. It was admittedly not very Demon Lord-ly of him. If he had to fight, he should fight them head on with dignity, but right now, he cast aside those particularities. He didn’t care how lame it would make him look. There were two Magimatic Sols. If he took the time to introduce himself, one of them might carry Rem off while he was fighting the other. They wouldn’t just leave her there like a prize for the winner to take.
This was a battlefield, and it was only natural the enemy would act the way they did. If he were to rest on his laurels and lose Rem over that, he would never be able to forgive himself!
“Arrow of the void, pierce through and wedge between the boundary of heaven and earth! ?Gravity Abyss?!”
The arrowhead shined with a black glow as it soared toward the Magimatic Sol. The air positively shivered at this crystallization of two massive spells.
“What...?!”
The Magimatic Sol was quick, but it couldn’t evade the arrow. Its frame was simply too large. The enemy held up their massive shield, blocking the attack, but the spell triggered nonetheless, creating a black hole that began dragging the shield into it.
The stalwart armor that had withstood multiple spells from Diablo was now squashed far too easily.
“Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaah! What?! What is this?!”
A hole the diameter of a baseball began dragging everything around it into its confines. Realizing something was wrong, Migurtha raised her voice roughly.
“What’s wrong, Rikka?!”
“I don’t know! M-My shield... it’s being crushed...!”
“Hurry, you must purge it!”
This world isn’t inside a game. Being dragged into a Gravity Abyss spell meant certain death. There were no resets. There was no game over screen, after which one could switch off the computer, go take a piss, hit the sack, and try again the next day. Death meant death. As simple as that. And in this kind of world...
“I will... use magic against other people. I will kill my enemies, and save Rem...! ?Lightning Meteor?!”
Lightning struck down from above, holding the newly arrived purple Magimatic Sol in check.
“Kuh... Another sorcerer?!” The purple Magimatic Sol jumped away.
Using this chance, Diablo sprinted forward. He ran and ran, reaching Rem’s side.
“Rem!” He kneeled beside her.
Her eyes, moist with tears, opened wide. He could see her mouth his name, but no voice escaped her throat. He wanted to use a potion right now, but he didn’t have the time for it. Violanos of the Purple was rushing toward him.
“We can’t let you have her! No matter what!”
“My thoughts exactly. No matter what, I won’t let you take her away. ?Prism Wall?!”
A rainbow-colored wall spread out before him. It was a magical barrier containing the power of the four great elements — water, earth, air, and fire — as well as light and darkness. It took a moment for it to form, but it would stay up, no matter what, for ten or so seconds after forming. Even if a Magimatic Sol were to ram it at full force, the Prism Wall would take it.
“What in the world is this?!”
While the enemy was bewildered, Diablo picked Rem up.
“Let’s go.”
Rem simply nodded back wearily. Her legs were terribly crushed, filling Diablo with guilt at being late.
I should have been more decisive.
He used flight magic to quickly soar away. Meanwhile, the Gravity Abyss reached the point where its effect was strongest.
“Migurtha! Migurtha! Help! Please, save me!”
“Huh, this can’t be... Rikka... You...?!”
Viatanos of the White’s left half was already consumed by the black hole, the pilot half-crushed. Despite its small size, its gravity well was sucking everything in. No matter how thick and sturdy the Magimatic Sol’s armor could have been, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Its shell bent out of shape, crumbled into pieces, and vanished into the well.
“Aaah, aaaaaaaaah.... Nooo! It’s crushing me! It’s tearing me apart! Save meeee! Migurtha, Migurthaaaa! Airaaaaaaaa! Somebody, save meeeeeeeee!”
“Discard your unit, Rikka!”
“It won’t budge! It won’t open, it won’t... Aaaaaaaah... Mommy, big sister... Save me... Somebody, please save meeeeeeeeeeee!”
And with her final scream, the white Magimatic Sol disappeared into the gravity well. It happened roughly at the same time the Prism Wall’s effect died down. Violanos rushed over to where Rikka had been, finding there was no one and nothing left, and froze in place.
“Fall back, Migurtha...” Aira’s voice reached her ears, mixed in with static noise. “We’ve conquered the castle. The operation is complete.”
“...What are you saying? Rikka is... She’s gone...”
“We’ve lost contact with Erina, too.”
“No... But the two of them... They were so lively this morning, I...”
“I know.”
“I’ll kill him... That sorcerer, I’ll kill him...!”
“You will. But you need to get your unit fixed first, Migurtha.”
“Why?! The Girl of the Vessel was right there...!”
“This isn’t an opponent you can fight without a weapon! Do you want me to lose you, too?!”
“Ugh...”
“Come back, Migurtha.”
“Kh... Uuu... Aaah... Aira.... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
†
Diablo laid Rem down on the ground.
“You’re alive, right?”
Rem said nothing. Even parting her lips was too much right now. She looked at him with hollow eyes and barely managed to jerk a nod. Both her legs were completely crushed. Diablo etched that image into his heart, never to forget it for as long as he lived. This was the moment his own naivete had nearly cost Rem her life.
Diablo took out a high-rarity HP recovery potion and propped Rem up, tipping its contents into her mouth. And then, like a film being rewound, her crushed legs rapidly regained their original shape.
At some point, the projection in the sky disappeared. Whatever was keeping an eye on Rem had left. Was it some kind of drone? Diablo would need to think of a countermeasure. Meanwhile, Rem coughed a few times, and then spoke, her voice still weakened.
“...Thank you, Diablo.”
“No, I was late. Forgive me.”
“...No, I was overconfident because of last time. I was stupid. As dumb as a bag of hammers.”
“So was I.”
“...As dumb as a bag of hammers?”
“Y-Yes.”
But the reality was nothing as cute as that. Diablo knew he could never forget this moment.
I’ve taken other people’s lives, for my own sake.
They were enemies, true, but they were opponents he could talk to. They cared for their comrades and fought for the sake of others. Diablo’s heart creaked. He clenched his shaking fist, only to feel a small hand rest over it. Rem’s hand.
“...I’m sorry. You did this because of me.”
“Don’t be stupid. They were the Empire’s people. They came to invade us.”
“...If you’re feeling guilty over this, let me carry half that weight. After all, you and I are...”
“Rem...”
She closed her eyes.
And for some odd reason, Diablo didn’t feel any bashfulness or doubts. The desire to confirm that he’d really saved her, as well as the fear that he might never touch her again tomorrow, brushed all those anxieties aside.
Diablo leaned his face in, and the two locked lips.
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