Time was too tight.
By the time I realized the situation had escalated and started thinking about a solution, Yuna and the Oracle were already gone.
I tried contacting Cattleya to call in Dietrich and the others I knew, but that didn’t work out either.
In the end, the only thing I could do was ask the other students for help.
Even they left one by one, until only Monia and I were left like this.
“What now…”
I’ll be honest.
Even if Yuna or someone else were here, I doubt there’d be an answer.
It’s already hard enough just to hold back Tillis, let alone with Molech there too.
Considering how much harder it is to fight while protecting someone, this is practically game over.
Where did it all go wrong? If I trace it far enough back, was it when I set the trap to catch Loki?
Or was it last year, when I treated Monia and the others like dogs?
“……”
I glanced down at Monia who was staggering in my arms.
Sinful thoughts kept surfacing.
If I kill Monia here, Tillis won’t kill me.
Just sacrificing her would be enough to calm down this ridiculous situation.
Honestly, I don’t have any obligation to risk my life for Monia.
If anything, I’ve only held on this long because I’ve come too far to quit.
These petty thoughts filled my head. I felt so small and pathetic I could hardly stand it.
“I said if you come any closer, I’ll cut Monia’s throat.”
“Go ahead.”
And while it might have worked on Molech, threats like that never worked on Tillis. She kept closing the distance step by step, as if the weapon in my hand meant nothing at all.
At that moment, I was able to shake off the thoughts that had been filling my head.
I couldn’t kill her. If I even tightened my arm, Tillis would move. I wouldn’t even be able to react, and Monia would be snatched away from me with ease.
“You’re kind.”
Tillis closed the distance with a gentle smile, as if she could see straight through my thoughts.
Yeah. I couldn’t kill Monia anyway. There were only a few things I could actually do here.
I suppose I should be thankful just to have a choice at all… but I didn’t like either option.
“Say the word! At this rate, everyone will die! We’re all going to die, Johan!”
Right then, Mephistopheles was chattering noisily inside my head.
If I made a contract with him, I might be able to escape the immediate danger. But my life’s destruction would be guaranteed.
If that was the case, then there was another way.
“…Alice.”
I could reverse my ability.
I could summon back the power I had spent all this time using to decipher Alice’s magic.
If I did that, I would lose any chance of ever discovering what Alice’s legacy really was, but at least it might give me a way to break through this situation.
The problem with that choice was that even then, I couldn’t be sure it would work.
And the other problem was that I was making such a choice for someone like Monia.
I lowered my sword.
“Oh my, are you giving up? That’s a good decision.”
I glanced up at the sky for a moment, but all I saw before my eyes was a ghastly scene of hell, dyed crimson.
There was no time to be sentimental.
All right then. There was a third option.
This option was even more uncertain than the two I had thought of before.
“Shax.”
It was about pulling a third party into this situation.
“If you don’t want to end up stuffed into some fake 72nd-rank list, you’d better cooperate quietly right now.”
I tried to persuade the demon hiding inside Monia’s body Shax who had been holding his breath all this time.
This choice was truly uncertain.
As he was now, borrowing Monia’s body, Shax was weak enough to get beaten up one-sidedly by students.
Still, it was better than nothing.
If we focused our attack on Molech, maybe we could open up a path to escape.
And there was one more difference from before.
“Monia, you help too!”
Monia could also use the power together with Shax.
If, instead of Shax arbitrarily taking over Monia’s body, he lent her his strength to use it herself, it would be far more efficient than before.
“I suppose there’s no choice. A temporary alliance!”
Shax blurted out a line that wasn’t exactly wrong, but still embarrassing to hear.
Monia nodded as well.
True to someone who had survived a year in the Cradle, she grasped the situation quickly.
“We break through where Molech is! Attack together!”
At my shout, we both charged straight at Molech.
“Oh dear, how unfortunate.”
Watching our movements, Tillis smiled brightly and instantly closed the distance.
Even when I had been holding a blade to Monia’s neck, Tillis had stayed confident. Someone like her could probably suppress a sudden move like this in mere seconds.
Normally, it wouldn’t have been strange if Monia’s head had been cut off the instant I shouted.
But Shax’s power was a form of nervous system manipulation in the confusion category.
“Hmm…”
Even if it couldn’t have a major effect on Tillis, it could at least throw her off a little.
At best, it might only make the tip of her sword waver slightly. But because she bore the penalty of not being allowed to kill Monia, even Tillis wouldn’t be able to swing her sword easily.
All that remained was to break through Molech.
“Haah!”
I swung the sword imbued with perfect aura with everything I had.
I didn’t think about what came after. If I failed, I’d die anyway.
Clang!!
Molech raised both arms to block the strike I had swung. When the sword, wrapped in aura, struck bare flesh, it rang like metal.
“Hmm.”
Still, it wasn’t as if he felt no impact at all. Molech’s expression tightened slightly.
I hadn’t expected to be able to wound him anyway.
But I still had Monia on my side.
“Haah!”
Even with her exhausted body, Monia drove her spear forward with everything she had.
Because Molech had moved his arms to block my previous attack, he had no choice but to evade the second one.
A path opened.
“Good! Nice work!”
We passed by Molech like that.
I didn’t look back, but I could tell Tillis’s hand was just about to grab the back of my neck.
Advanced illusion magic.
[Sensory Disruption]
It was the greatest variable I could muster.
Tillis, who had quickly adapted to Shax’s authority, had his senses thrown off once again.
“Holy shit! Was I about to die?!”
The lingering chill on the back of my neck told me just how close I’d come to death.
“Ghk!”
I immediately scattered the mechanical devices I’d received from Emily.
Most of them were bombs. Given the nature of my ability, that’s what I’d asked for.
Flashbangs, smoke grenades, and all sorts of explosives went off in unison.
“Haa……”
In that moment, I twisted my body.
I ran with everything I had.
That’s the impression I gave. But like this, neither Monia nor I would be able to keep running for more than a minute.
All I could do was seize this brief window of opportunity.
A sword swung through the smoke and explosions that had clouded our vision.
“Gah!”
Thwack!
This is a world where even the final boss can die if they let their guard down.
Amazingly, my sword slashed clean across Molech’s neck.
Of course, with my current skill, I couldn’t completely cut through his tough neck.
But cutting through the uvula…that much I could manage. And even that could count as a critical wound.
I didn’t hold anything back. I poured everything into that one moment.
“Mr. Johan, you always find the most incredible ways to turn things around.”
A sudden gust of wind swept in, blowing away all the smoke I’d carefully set up.
With a single flap of Mastema’s wings, the stage I’d painstakingly built was gone.
I’d taken down Molech, but now, nothing stood between Tillis and me.
“So, what will you do now?”
Tillis sneered.
I had poured out everything just to take down Molech.
But with Tillis still standing, it was fair to say that not much had really changed.
Still… has nothing really changed?
“How about this?”
Without hesitation, I swung my sword at Tillis.
Honestly, I didn’t expect the attack to land.
Clang!
Sure enough, my second strike was effortlessly blocked by Tillis’s sword.
“What about it?”
“What do you think it was?”
But I’d achieved my goal.
The judge who could’ve taken my head off at any moment had stopped.
I had overcome an overwhelming gap in skill and cut down Molech.
She had no choice but to find that interesting.
Even a careless comment from me would’ve sparked her curiosity.
“I bought us 30 seconds.”
Stalling for time.
The very best I could manage.
You could call it just 30 seconds, but that’s enough time to change fate.
Boooooooom!!
That sliver of time I earned had been enough to bring in a game changer.
“Ugh, my back’s killing me.”
The Emperor’s right hand.
The Black Knight, Lanius.
“Didn’t think I’d see you again like this, kid. I guess fate really does work in strange ways.”
The perpetrator who burned down the World Tree had just crashed into the scene.
Honestly, I’d been hoping for someone like Lobelia, but a figure far beyond my expectations showed up, and I was caught off guard.
Still, thinking of it as my efforts finally paying off, it’s not so bad.
In fact, since he’s strong enough to fight Tillis on equal footing, you could say things just got a whole lot better.
“If I’d known things would get this annoying, I should’ve just killed you back then.”
Then what kind of expression would Tillis be making now, standing face-to-face with someone who was practically her mortal enemy?
I studied Tillis’s face.
If she was consumed by rage, it would make escaping much easier.
“Hmm.”
But Tillis only gave a slightly awkward smile, as if the situation was mildly troublesome.
That reaction was all the more chilling.
“I thought the Emperor would show up himself.”
“His Majesty can’t afford to build up any more fame because of the succession process.”
“I see.”
“So be satisfied with me.”
Tillis was composed.
She calmly addressed her questions without giving in to anger.
And even during all that, she never took her eyes off Monia.
Unshakable resolve toward her objective.
This won’t be easy.
“Well, enough chit-chat.”
The Black Knight Lanius began to exude a menacing aura from behind his helmet, as if neither I nor Monia even existed.
“By order of His Majesty the Emperor, I will now carry out the purge of Lemegeton.”
Gone was the light tone from before. Lanius now spoke in a flat, official voice, separating business from everything else.
“Die.”
***
The moment the two clashed—
I immediately grabbed Monia and ran without looking back.
“Monia! If you don’t wanna die, run!”
“What? Uh—okay!”
I’d been in a situation like this before. In fact, not too long ago.
When Faust and Tillis clashed, Cattleya and I couldn’t even get close to the area.
It would be the same this time.
In any case, the worst was over. We couldn’t head straight back to the Cradle, but being chased by Tillis was worse than…
“Gah?!”
At that moment, someone grabbed the back of my neck. A brutal grip. It felt like my neck might snap at any second.
“Did you really think I was dead?”
With a low growl, I knew exactly who had lifted me off the ground by my neck.
“Molech…!”
So slashing his throat wasn’t enough? I’d warned myself that even final bosses could drop dead if caught off guard, and yet I’d let my guard down.
Thinking I could kill a warped monster like him with just a single slash….what a fatal miscalculation.
“A shame, Johan Damus.”
“Y-You…!”
The moment Molech finished speaking, the ground rushed up to meet me.
Crash!
A deafening impact, and my vision was swallowed in darkness.
***
Right after Molech caught me off guard and slammed me headfirst into the ground—
My blacked-out consciousness awoke before long, under a sky full of stars.
“What the… at a time like this?”
The place I always arrived at whenever my magical abilities advanced to the next stage.
Last time I came here, I’d managed to grasp the thread of an advanced spell.
So this time, could it be a supreme spell? A dramatic awakening at a critical moment?
Is this finally that day for me, too?
Rustle. Rustle.
At that moment, my fragmented consciousness began to approach me.
My childhood self, guiding that small body, walked closer.
Without thinking, I held out my hand.
“Huh…?”
But my childhood self didn’t hand me the gathered stars.
Looking closely, there were far fewer stars in his hands than usual.
A strange sense of unease crept in.
“You…”
The boy, with a vacant expression, looked up at me.
“You… who are you, really?”
That face felt far too unfamiliar to be mine.
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