The Coming Disaster (2)
Parkma let out an evil chuckle as he watched Berik charge.
"Heh—so?"
How terrible a tragedy it was for them to "know" the enemy still breathed.
"Delightful."
And that very tragedy was the greatest pleasure a demon could take from a human.
"You'll regret this." The moment the great axe sliced through the air, Berik's body accelerated like the wind.
"Haste!"
He slipped swiftly around Parkma and thrust both hands crackling with blue electricity forward.
"Electric Shock!"
A jolt of pain contorted Parkma's face.
"This brat…!"
Its power wasn't overwhelming, but the surprise pain made him even angrier.
"Kuaaaah!"
Berik, seeing Parkma's eyes roll back, planted a small blizzard underfoot and shouted.
"Go—now!"
Even as the veil of cold swallowed them, Amy couldn't bring herself to move.
'Berik…'
'Armies don't tolerate individuality.'
Commanders didn't want one powerful mage. They wanted the maximum firepower a unit could produce.
'Right…'
Magic was standardized, soldiers' quirks ignored. But before he joined the Valkyries, Berik's nickname had been—
'A jack-of-all-trades.'
"Amy!"
Berik's voice cut through the freezing fog.
"Go!"
At the same moment, a streak of lightning plunged from a dark cloud hanging in midair.
KRA-KOOOOM!
The thunder snapped Amy out of her daze; she turned and teleported.
'I won't let Berik's sacrifice be wasted.'
Self-justification.
'I'll survive.' Her mind filled with every prize survival could bring.
Even simply being able to breathe.
'Shirone.'
Tears fell.
'I miss you.'
Once she'd believed life was beautiful—that if she tried hard enough she could paint her whole life like a field of flowers.
"What is this…?"
She had even thought that once.
"What the hell is this!"
Now life felt unbearably heavy; she wished it had never existed.
"I'm sick of it!"
She'd grown nauseous with her own clinging to life.
She stopped her teleport, turned, and headed back to where Berik lay.
Any life she might have shared with Shirone would one day be swallowed by death.
'Sorry, Shirone. I want to take responsibility.'
When Amy reached the battlefield she saw Berik—still alive.
"Oh? You're back already?"
Parkma grinned and held up Berik's half-dead face, cutting a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.
"You—you bastard—"
Anger flared in Amy's eyes.
"I was keeping him entertained, waiting for you to come back. I was going to torture him until then."
Parkma gripped Berik's shoulder.
"Uaaah!"
A bone-crunching sound echoed.
"Puhahaha! See? No matter how cool you try to be, you're just human."
Parkma squeezed harder.
"Say you regret it. Then I'll let you live. Beg me to kill that girl."
When Berik fell silent, Parkma seized his ankle and wrenched the leg off.
"Uaaaah!"
"Say it. I'll spare you—see? You came back anyway. Hand that woman over and it won't hurt so much."
Amy's head swam.
"You—"
Rationality vanished and her body started moving toward Parkma on its own. Then—
"Tch, how embarrassing."
Berik spoke in a hoarse whisper.
"Amy."
"Oh, good, good. Say it. Beg for your life."
Parkma crowed, reaching out, and Berik let a faint smile form as he spoke.
"How's this—doesn't seem like much, does it?"
To die.
His face went pale; a flash swallowed him and a powerful detonation followed.
PAAARRR!
'Self-destruct spell.'
Berik could have died easily.
'But for me… he must have calculated Amy's chance of returning and left this as his last gambit.'
'Thank you.'
He had been a fine mage.
"Damn, humans really have rotten luck."
Hot smoke rose from Parkma's burned body as the blast threw him back.
"Rotten luck, huh?"
Amy was no longer angry.
"Don't be ridiculous. For a mage, even death is part of the equation. And with this—"
Flames leapt up from Amy's body.
"Your chance of survival is gone."
Even seeing a fiery giant over ten meters tall didn't stop Parkma from sneering.
"Oh, how frightening. But what can you do? I know your skill—this won't be enough…"
The Ifrit doubled in size.
She focused, and then focused again, amplifying her mental strength.
She kept backing up her memories over and over, forcing her consciousness into a void. With each thrust of her will—on the tenth penetration—even the last shred of sanity slipped away.
'That's right, Berik.'
At the edge of life she smiled.
'It's nothing.'
The moment her concentration touched death, the Ifrit shot skyward like a spear and shattered into a rain of fiery fragments.
"What—what is that?"
Parkma, who had been wary, looked back at the returning darkness and smirked.
"Heh heh, there you go. That's the limit of a human."
His realization came too late—just as Amy moved.
"Hmm?"
Flames sprang from the hand clutching the haft of the great axe as if igniting spontaneously.
"Grrrrr!"
Fire raced across Parkma's body in an instant; the axe itself began to melt and drip.
"You, you—!"
Heat swelled around Amy; her clothes and hair seared away.
The blaze spread.
Seeing the whole landscape burning, Parkma stomped the ground.
"I'll kill you!"
His shout was desperate, but his body melted with the axe before he could strike.
"Kruaaaaa!"
Convection rose with the temperature; as oxygen thickened the flames grew larger.
KUUUUUU!
A giant vortex of fire a hundred meters across ripped through the clouds and shot into the sky.
"Commander! Look!"
The column of flame was visible even ten kilometers away; the plateau battle paused.
Garcia bit his lip.
'Amy.'
He couldn't be certain, but as her mentor he knew better than anyone the sign of red cheeks—he judged the possibility.
"Send troops at once!"
Flying demons were already heading for the pillar of fire.
'We have to at least recover a body.'
He thought the chance of survival was almost nil.
The demons were faster than humans, but no one could approach while the pillar burned.
"You go first!"
"Are you insane? Get a hundred meters closer and your wings will catch fire! Wait!"
Even for otherworldly beings used to heat, this power felt like punishment.
"It's weakening!"
As quickly as it had flared, the blaze began to die down, and the demons moved closer.
The scorched earth had cooled into a rippling, wave-like crust. Amy lay collapsed on it.
"There—deal with it, quickly!"
Her naked body was mottled with burns; her hair was charred short.
"She's already dead, right?"
"Don't know! The commander said go check and make sure she's dead. For now, stab first with the spears."
Just as the demons around Amy planted their spears vertically, a voice rang out.
"Stop."
Those who turned saw shock in his voice.
"Th-The Buddha…?"
On a rise of molten rock, Nane looked down on Amy together with Shura.
"Is that the woman?"
The demons' shoulders trembled.
"Why is the Buddha here?"
Nane had been scanning the battlefield to break the last barrier of enlightenment and had run here when he saw the column of fire.
"The Buddha is everywhere."
Nane held out his hand to the demons.
"Would you strike down a woman who burned away her will to live? Such cruelty would be too harsh. Show mercy and I will not destroy you."
The demons exchanged uncertain looks.
'What do we do?'
They feared the Buddha, but failing the mission would mean the commander's blade.
They steeled themselves and decided.
"Don't be cowards. The Buddha's gone. That's just an empty shell pretending to be him."
Nane smiled.
"Of course it is."
"Kill!"
Half the demons beat their wings and charged; Nane raised a finger and spoke.
"Sermon—Pa."
Dozens of crimson swords fanned out like a folding screen behind him and pierced the charging demons.
"Kraah!"
Not a single one missed.
Because Amy had been between them and Nane, one demon who'd avoided instant death bled and croaked, bewildered.
"H-How…?"
Nane descended the slope and walked forward.
"Sometimes one becomes the Buddha." Such is the nature of mastery.
The demon shut its eyes in resentment. Shura rushed to Amy and checked her condition.
"She's barely breathing. But worse than the burns is her mind. There's little left."
Nane nodded.
"Fire is a will to self-annihilation. Opening the flame realm means she was desperate enough to burn everything away."
From afar came the Valkyrie soldiers' voices.
"Hurry! Faster, carry her—"
Shura glanced at Nane.
"What will you do? Should we hand her over to the humans as is?"
"Can they bring her back?"
"No. They might treat the burns, but her mind is beyond repair. It would be better to let them at least recover the corpse…"
"I can do it."
One who had reached the Buddha's state could restore Amy's shattered mind.
Shura hesitated.
"But this woman—"
"Yes."
She was the one Shirone—the symbol of universal love—cherished most in his heart.
"She's an enemy, of course. Even if she wakes, she probably won't be friendly to us."
"Before death, all humans are equal." Nane put both hands out and Amy's body rose gently, flying to him.
"Was the last thing she thought as she burned everything the greater good, or a person? I would like to know."
Shura was curious too.
"Captain! Over there!"
The mages' squad could be seen teleporting rapidly toward them.
"Let's stop wandering."
When Nane turned, Shura waved his hand and cast Gestalt magic.
Their forms vanished, and in under ten seconds the unit arrived.
"It's not here? I could have sworn someone was here…"
The first scout felt as if haunted.
"Maybe we were mistaken? Still, the distortion of the ground is massive. What sort of fire could do this?"
"But the demons are dead. Then who killed them?"
"Think about that later. For now, search. Spread out and sweep the area!"
"Yes!"
While the mages searched for about ten minutes, a thunder of spatial movement sounded from the horizon.
"Damn! Is it over there?"
"Commander! Demons incoming!"
In the end, the Valkyrie unit returned to base without recovering Amy's body.