Groggy (3)
Marin glanced back at Beterus, then, face stunned, looked at Shirone again.
She had eaten on battlefields enough times to know of countless mythic events.
If that boy was Yahweh...
One of those myths told of a lone swordsman who cut down demons and purified Kashan.
"The Knight of Maha."
Rian's calm posture—studying the weather rather than tensing even though demons had closed to within striking distance—caught her eye.
"What the hell are these guys doing here?"
Weren't they unmistakably a rabble of survivors?
By ordinary logic, whether it was the temple's forces or a foreign army, people would be fawning and carrying him on their shoulders.
Thirty demons formed a loose circle, and Shirone pointed at one of them.
"Come over here."
"Me? M-me?"
Denying reality, the demon looked around, but none of the others met his gaze.
The terrifying thing about the purification was that its particles of light fundamentally erased a demon's information.
The surviving demons already realized that, and the Shirone before them looked like a Buddha.
"I want to ask you something."
A demon approached the spot Shirone had indicated and crouched.
"How can one summon Siok?"
"Siok?"
Though demons were residents of the otherworld, almost none had even heard of Siok.
When Shirone fixed him with a stare, the demon flinched, shrugged his shoulders, and waved his hands.
"I really don't know! I've never heard of it!"
Shirone had expected as much.
"There's nothing to fear. I'm not Yahweh or Buddha. I'm just an ordinary human."
A strange expression filled the demon's eyes.
"Not Yahweh or Buddha?"
If that were true, they had no further reason to fear Shirone.
"R-really?"
"Yeah."
The demon glanced back at his comrades and shrugged, then reached out a finger toward Shirone.
"A-aren't you angry?"
Like handling an explosive, he poked Shirone's cheek carefully, but the downpour of light did not come.
"I told you. I'm just an ordinary human."
The demon, stunned and lost in thought, let the corners of his mouth split into a strange smile.
"Kukuku, so that's it!"
The murderous intent rising from that demon fused with the lethal intent of the others and flared like a blaze.
"Ugh!"
Beterus and Marin scrambled into defensive stances, but if they acted it would be impossible to stop them all.
"What are you doing?"
Marin shouted at Rian, who still watched.
"Hurry and stop them!"
Even if he weren't at Yahweh's level, Shirone wasn't someone thirty demons could fell.
But Rian's inaction had a deeper meaning.
"Boys! Now's our chance!"
The demons, bearing sharp fangs, stamped toward Shirone.
"Despicable Yahweh—no, human! We'll flay every scrap of your flesh!"
Just as the demon Shirone had called rose arrogantly and bared his claws, Shirone spoke.
"And now."
Light radiated from Shirone and rose like a heat shimmer.
"He's Yahweh again."
It was Yahweh's light.
The demons were dumbfounded as the shimmering pillar climbed ten meters high.
"You bastard."
Rian snorted a laugh at Shirone being cursed by the demons.
"Attainment isn't something you lose." It's a particular state of mind that can be reached anytime by flipping one's heart.
Of course, flipping that heart is the hardest thing for some, but mages were experts at handling the mind.
"Come here."
Shirone, wrapped in light, gestured, and the demons' legs trembled.
They couldn't refuse; the one who had raised his claws sat down obediently.
Shirone reached toward the red, vicious face; the demon squeezed his eyes shut.
"I'm sorry."
At first the demon's ears didn't believe him.
When he opened his eyes to the gentle hand stroking his cheek, Shirone's gaze was full of sorrow.
"I didn't try to understand. I judged only by the results without looking for the cause."
As if Beterus had once judged Shirone.
"The reason you were born lies with humans. You were born from evil, so you have cause for grievance."
The demon shivered.
"What are you doing? Saying things like that won't help."
"Repent. Let's save the world together."
The demon bowed his head.
"...Thank you for saying that, but—"
As he rose slowly, a murderous aura unlike before radiated from his body.
"We cannot. Just as we cannot live without eating, for us demons this is natural."
Shirone's eyelids drooped halfway.
"This is your last chance."
"Yahweh, destroy us. If you can suffer for it—"
The demons lunged at once.
"For us, it will be the greatest delight!"
As the thirty demons attacked Shirone, an explosion of light so bright it seared the eyes erupted.
The shimmering curtain of light battered eardrums hundreds of times per second, and the demons were pulverized without a trace.
"My god..."
Marin couldn't even grasp what had happened, and neither could Beterus.
"Is this... magic?"
No mage on the battlefield had reduced demons to dust in such a short time.
Survivors who had scoffed at Shirone slipped back, but Shirone himself was lost in thought.
"My pain is the demons' pleasure."
He had reached a certain level of understanding, but true universal love still seemed far off.
"Let's go, Rian."
Shirone pushed off and stood; Rian followed without complaint.
"Please wait!"
Beterus rushed over and dropped to his knees.
"Take me with you! I beg you!"
Marin hurried to join in.
"M-me too! I beg to follow the great swordsman!"
Shirone didn't want to take them.
He felt he couldn't accept anyone until he apologized to the Ozent family.
Rian said, "If you follow us, what about the other survivors? Isn't that your responsibility?"
"W-well..."
"Forget what happened today. It has nothing to do with what you did. We'll go our own way."
Beterus bit his lip.
Damn it... this chance... Rian said it didn't matter, but Beterus couldn't forgive himself for having slighted Shirone.
I should have noticed from the start. If I'd done right, he would have surely taken me...
Rian turned to Shirone.
"It's raining. Are you sure? Shall we take horses instead?"
"No. This will do."
Shirone lightly threw , activated his material ability, and metal began to coalesce.
With a thunderous thud, a massive quadrupedal beast landed.
"Let's ride the Salsu."
Rian nodded and mounted the Salsu; Shirone followed slowly behind.
The survivors' stunned gazes were fixed plainly on the back of Shirone's head.
Shirone paused and looked up.
"Rian."
Rian understood what he wanted to say.
"Do as you wish."
Shirone, weighed down by the responsibility of having killed Gai, didn't want to take on anything more for a while.
"But... I can't do what's wrong."
"Everyone, follow me. I'll take you as far as the nearest city."
The survivors looked bewildered.
"You'll take us?"
Shirone smiled—he wasn't one to second-guess a decision already made.
"Yes. It's dangerous here. Let's go somewhere safe."
He told Beterus as well.
"Pack only essentials and food. We'll depart in ten minutes."
"Why..."
Beterus asked in puzzlement.
"Why do you care? You couldn't even recognize a great mage and instead scorned us."
"You're not really asking that because you didn't know."
Shirone rested his hand on the Salsu's flank.
"This is the right thing to do."
He didn't bother explaining the petty details; any human could understand.
"But no one lives that way."
Perhaps that was true.
"Yes."
Shirone amplified his material power, and the Salsu's bulk began to swell to an enormous size.
He looked back at Beterus and gave a sad little smile.
"So hard, isn't it." The Yahweh state.
They understood less than a hundredth of it, but they seemed to grasp what Shirone had taken upon himself.
"I'll prepare as fast as I can."
Beterus went off to pack food, and Marin hurried to organize the survivors.
"Shirone."
Rian looked down at Shirone with affection.
"You think I'm great, but I don't have the guts to live like you."
That was why he'd become Shirone's sword.
"It's strange. You do the right thing, and yet everyone doubts you."
Shirone wasn't wrong.
"Hurry. Move."
One hundred survivors, having finished preparations in perfect order, boarded the Salsu.
A normal beast might have broken its leg bones, but the metal-bodied Salsu didn't flinch.
As it thundered forward and the ground shook, even the mage Beterus went pale.
"It's so big you might get motion sickness. I'll still increase the speed."
When accelerated the Salsu, its legs began moving as if at a gallop.
"Waaaaaa!"
People's screams echoed through the desolate city.
The temple command sounded the alarm.
"Report! Three million demon troops are advancing from the southeast of the Kettler Mountains!"
"Report! The Altras region has been occupied. Casualties total 400,000!"
Iruki's expression darkened at the flood of bad news pouring in from all sides.
"Damn."
They had already received urgent intelligence that the Gustav Empire had vanished from the map.
"So thoroughly wiped out."
Whether Shirone intended it or not, it was total annihilation—complete obliteration that didn't even require turning the main force back.
They could absorb the remaining demons and wait, but Habitz's military Balkan wouldn't grant them the time.
"Report! Port city Tostra has fallen. Casualties total one million!"
When that came in, Iruki slammed his fist down hard on the desk.
"Waaaah! Waaaah!"
Whether it was four hundred thousand or one million, saying numbers was the easiest thing to do.
"Bastards!"
To recount the lives behind those numbers would take a lifetime.
"What can we do? There's no way to stop them."
Iruki scanned the map.
The hellish armies converged on Tormia from all directions, and time was running out.
"There is a way..."
But if Iruki made that technique practical, humans wouldn't be safe either.
"Pandora's box."
Another report arrived. Two hundred thousand dead.
"Sorry, Shirone."
At humanity's last point, Iruki suddenly remembered his days at the Alpheas School of Magic.
"I'll go to Tormia." The commanders looked to Iruki.
"Now? Shouldn't a military officer go instead?"
"If we delay, we'll lose the only chance. I'll be back shortly. Form a retinue."
Iruki, heading for the door, turned once more.
"Oh, and call Nade. Tell him I'll explain the reasons in person."