Finding Monia wasn’t all that difficult.
After all, I had a cooperative demon called Mephistopheles with me.
They say demons can roughly sense each other’s locations. In the case of someone like Tillis, she doesn’t even need a demon’s help. She can distinguish them with her own eyes.
Anyway, with that, I managed to track Monia down. Looking at her filthy, wretched appearance, I let out a sigh. She looked so pitiful that I couldn’t even sarcastically tell her she looked terrible.
“…Don’t come any closer.”
“Good, the fact that you’re saying that means you’re ready to talk. Honestly, I was wondering what I’d do if you rushed at me again like last time.”
Whatever else, conversation had to come first.
If she tried to pull some trick on me with Shax again, I wouldn’t have a way to resist.
Of course, it wasn’t as though I had come without countermeasures.
First of all, I didn’t come alone. And using the last incident as an excuse, I brought Emily’s combat support along.
The reason I specifically chose Emily was because the enemy demon’s power dealt with illusions. If Emily operated machinery remotely, there was no need to worry about it being affected.
As for her combat ability…. well, she had already proven that when she shredded my arm the last time.
“Just disappear from my sight!”
“Still as hostile as ever. That murderous glare of yours hasn’t changed either.”
Even now, I still didn’t quite understand why she hated me so much.
Passing your pain and sorrow onto someone else. Well, that’s not something I can’t understand. It’s just hard to accept.
But Monia’s hostility had already gone far beyond that.
This wasn’t just blaming me for her misfortune. She was looking at me as if I were her mortal enemy.
“She’s being controlled by Shax. Judging from the way she looks, it seems he’s amplifying her emotions to drive her into a frenzy.”
“You know, lately I’ve been thinking. Whether you’re praised or cursed, you always manage to be late to the party.”
If you had such crucial information, you should’ve explained it the first time we ran into each other.
Why the hell did you keep your mouth shut until things got this bad?
Still, I had come here thinking Monia might be able to understand the situation and talk it out. But if she was being controlled, then there was no point.
“So, to sum it up at first I thought she was a hopeless lunatic, but turns out she’s just a lunatic with a bit of room for leniency.”
Whether she was being controlled or not, she’d already done what she did to me, so it was hard to look at her kindly.
“But is that even possible for a demon? If they could directly control their contractor’s will, then what the hell have the other demons been doing all this time?”
So far, I’d seen four demons:
First, Mephistopheles.
Then Mastema, who belonged to Tillis.
Next, Maxwell’s demon, who contracted with Coran Lekias.
And finally, Hela who had a contract with Loki.
Now, with Shax added into the mix, that made five.
Maybe demons weren’t all that rare after all.
Anyway, here’s the point:
All of those demons respected their contractor’s will.
At the very least, none of the others had ever seemed like they’d lost their reason the way Monia did now.
“That’s because Shax is fundamentally different from us.”
“Keep it short.”
“That one is a true demon of the 72.”
…Well, I hadn’t known it, but it looked like Monia had signed a contract with quite the heavyweight.
“Unlike us, who collect souls in order to become whole, the demons of the 72 have a different purpose. They exist only to revel in human ruin.”
“Why?”
“Think of us as leaky vessels. Naturally, we want to plug the holes.”
I’d noticed before, but this guy really had a knack for explaining things.
With the perfect kind of example that just popped into your head, he made it easy to imagine.
If I were looking at a vessel that kept leaking, I’d probably think first about patching the holes somehow whether with tape or whatever else.
Of course, rationally speaking, replacing the vessel would be the smarter choice. But in a rush, people rarely think that far.
“So then, Johan…do you think a demon of the 72 could ever be called a leaky vessel?”
Mephistopheles’ vessel theory.
Through his words, I understood perfectly.
The demons of the 72 were born from the Demon King’s very soul.
In other words, at best, each one was just a seventy-second fraction.
At that level, they weren’t leaky vessels at all. They were shards.
A vessel so shattered that you couldn’t even think about piecing it back together.
“That’s why, Johan Damus, you need to be far more cautious.”
“…Huh?”
“As fragments, they don’t patch their own holes. Instead, they burrow into the holes of other souls.”
Even with Mephistopheles’ so-called brilliant lecture, I didn’t get it at first.
But after thinking it over carefully, I finally understood what he meant.
Shax had made a contract with Monia.
If a demon whose purpose wasn’t to mend its own emptiness still placed part of Monia’s soul on the scales… then the reason was clear.
“They’re not about stealing something and claiming it as their own. They dig in and turn it into themselves.”
Shax deliberately damaged Monia’s soul, creating a gap where he could forcibly wedge his eternity inside.
Now I understood why he manipulated emotions and led people to ruin.
It was all about utterly destroying a person’s mind in order to seize control.
“…Monia, calm down. Just calm yourself and hold onto your mind.”
What a mess.
After only ever dealing with dim-witted demons like Mephistopheles, running into something that actually felt like a real demon was suffocating.
A parasite that infests a human body to steal it for itself… just imagining it was horrifying.
“So what do we do?”
“If you form a contract with me…”
“You useless bastard! Is that seriously the only answer you’ve got?”
“You listened so well up until now, and suddenly you’re cruel. But… this time, I can’t deny it. That truly is the only method you have.”
For someone as prideful as him to admit that….it really meant there was no other way.
“So, what do you think?”
I decided to ask the person directly involved.
Just as I could hear Shax’s voice, Monia must have also been attending Professor Mephistopheles’s master lectures alongside me.
“Johan Damus…”
Monia ground her teeth and glared at me. I knew she was being controlled by a demon, but her eyes were far too murderous!
She wasn’t about to pretend to go insane and hurl a spear at me, was she?
“Kill me.”
But contrary to the way she looked like she might kill me any second, Monia spat out those words instead.
“You said there’s no way out anyway. Then it’s better to just die.”
“Your resolve is impressive.”
Honestly, I couldn’t care less what happened to Monia.
How could I look favorably on someone who shows me nothing but hostility from the start?
That said, her request wasn’t something I could grant.
“Besides, we’re not exactly in the kind of relationship where I’d grant you that kind of request, are we?”
If I honored Monia’s plea and ended her life here, it would become a mark that followed me for the rest of my days.
Killing someone as an enemy and killing someone because they asked you to….it feels different.
The former is because I’d die otherwise, but the latter… it’s not like that.
Well… chances are it would end up the same in the end, but even so, I don’t want to decide another person’s life on my own.
It’s a heavy, unpleasant burden.
That’s the first reason.
“And if I went along with that request, I could never face Luda again. Neither of us could.”
It would be repaying kindness with betrayal.
That’s the second reason.
“So I’ll refuse.”
“…….”
“But instead, I’ll make you another offer. For now, I have no way to save you.”
Since it was Mephistopheles who said it, we can probably take it as official.
Still, isn’t there someone out there who might be able to resolve this?
“So even if your body gets taken, hold out until the very end.”
It might take a roundabout path, but as long as Monia can endure until then, you could say there’s still some hope.
Subdue Monia. Buy time until we find a method.
Of course, I can’t do it alone.
“Only until we figure something out.”
With those words, I cast the spells [Radiance] and [Kaleidoscope].
Light and refraction. The very foundation of illusion magic.
A laser show blasting into the sky like broad daylight.
I remembered the time I used this spell to give Melana a nice smack on the back of the head.
Back then, it served as a signal flare to call Ariel.
This time, the purpose was no different.
Only, the ones I called were…
“Are you done talking?”
“Did you make up?”
“Come on, just look at the mood. Obviously not.”
“Ugh, that’s Johan for you.”
It was every student of Class 2-D except for Yuna.
***
Before setting out to find Monia, there was something I had to do.
“This will turn into an all-out battle.”
“I know.”
“This is a mess of your own making.”
“I said I know.”
“So what are you going to do?”
I half-listened to Oracle’s nagging, letting it go in one ear and out the other, while I thought things over.
“Well, we’ll just have to figure something out.”
Now that Tillis had discovered the existence of the last demon, it was certain she’d attempt a large-scale act of terror.
“I’d love to just dump everything on Lobelia like usual, but…”
“Puhihihi, I’m counting on you, Johan.”
My fiancée was asking for the Judge’s head. How on earth did this girl end up like this?
There was a time when just holding my hand was enough to make her happy.
Even just a few days ago, one kiss was enough to make her act like she’d won the whole world.
But suddenly, the value of what she wished for had skyrocketed.
Why not wish for a wedding ring instead? What’s with asking for the Judge’s head…?
Well, what can I do. I’ll have to go along with it.
Besides, if we stay idle, we’ll end up holding hands and perishing together.
Tillis’s ultimate goal was quite different from what I had imagined, so I couldn’t just overlook it anymore.
I had thought her aim was to swallow evil with greater evil to bring about world peace.
But Tillis said that was only part of the process.
“The Black Sun, huh…”
To bury all things in shadow, creating a world without pain or sorrow.
That was destruction, pure and simple.
It was so cleanly twisted that I didn’t even feel like trying to reason with her.
Preparing for it… will be rough.
For starters, Lobelia’s party and the Imperial Knights alone won’t be nearly enough to contain it.
Of course, things would be different if we could gather all the knight orders scattered across the empire… but the Imperial Knights are always short on manpower, so there’s no helping it.
That said, gathering a bunch of second-rate mercenaries isn’t an option either.
The demons of Lemegeton. Each one of them is a monster capable of taking on a hundred men.
With monsters like that swarming in, throwing together a group of mediocre mercenaries would only lead to a massacre.
Most mercenaries weren’t even as skilled as I am.
Still, there was a group that was closer than I expected.
They’re strong enough to take on a hundred enemies, have good personalities, and would help without asking for much in return.
“Can we talk for a second?”
“Hmm? What’s up, Johan?”
“Well, it’s just that…”
They’re talents on the verge of completion, with a brilliant future ahead of them as soon as they graduate.
Upperclassmen of the Cradle. Each one with power at least on par with a knight.
“I was hoping you could help me out.”
Honestly, if I just asked sincerely, they’d probably agree.
After all, fighting a terrorist group is exactly the kind of thing they’ve been itching to do.
Their hands must’ve been restless all this time. If it’s Lemegeton which was practically the enemy of their friends, they’d probably jump in even without being asked.
But still, dragging them back to the battlefield for my own goals, just when they’ve finally started to regain some peace…
That’s why I needed to make my own resolve first.
“Sasha, Bayron, Mata.”
I didn’t know the names of my classmates. Even when I asked, they wouldn’t tell me.
That was the result of the relationships I had built over the past year.
Monia once said it made her sick to see someone as weak as me survive.
Looking back now, I realize she wasn’t talking about physical strength.
I was weak.
I was afraid of getting close to others and afraid of the sense of loss I’d feel if I ever lost them. So I kept my distance.
I was weak physically and even weaker emotionally.
The others must have known that about me.
That’s why they never told me their names.
They were still standing on the battlefield, while I remained outside of it.
They were people who lived with the constant readiness to die at any moment.
They knew I feared the pain of loss, and so they kept their distance.
They thought I might get hurt if I got too close.
On the other hand, I had ways to find out.
Even if they didn’t tell me, there were more than enough ways for me to learn their names if I wanted to.
But I never did.
I never even tried to close the distance between us. I always stood one step back, simply observing everything from afar.
That’s what we’ve been like up to now.
But it’s time for things to change.
As the first step, I spoke their names, one by one.
I decided to be the one to take the first step forward.
Then, they responded with unusually serious expressions.
“Of course. If it’s something we can help with, we’ll do anything.”
There’s a chance that this mission could result in casualties.
Lemegeton is a formidable enemy, and the Judge Tillis is a monster.
If luck isn’t on our side, half of us or worse, all of us could be wiped out.
But something was different this time.
“That’s what friends are for, right?”
The difference was… I now remember all of their names.
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