"—"
A thin scream tore through the air as a small body tumbled end over end, again and again.
The girl bounced off the ground slowly, yet still carried enough momentum to keep tumbling until she hit the edge of the street. She smashed into the exposed skeleton of a tent torn bare, and collapsed materials clattered down in a high-pitched crash, pinning her beneath them.
Subaru could only stare, voiceless and stunned.
He couldn't claim he didn't know what happened—it was over in an instant.
It was true that there hadn't been time to reach out in that instant, but every detail of what occurred was captured clearly by those dark eyes.
His mind went blank, and he'd charged blindly into a dangerous street without a shred of thought.
And, just as he'd feared, the enemy found him and he nearly met his end—and to save Subaru, both Al and Medium had been injured, and then— "…Louis."
Louis's body, spread wide with both arms to shield Subaru and planted right in front of him, bounced back like a rubber ball.
The one who'd done it was a sheep-boy with white hair and short horns. With arms no thicker than Subaru's own, the boy had flung him nearly ten meters into the air as though he weighed nothing.
That boy's arm swing. The full force of it hitting Louis squarely, sending her flying. He'd seen blood scatter through the air—he couldn't possibly believe she was unhurt.
"Sorry."
Subaru's eyes followed Louis, pinned beneath the wreckage of the tent. A small apology rang against his eardrums, and at the edge of his swaying vision, the boy was raising his arm once more.
Dodge? There was no way he could manage something so nimble.
Besides, Subaru himself was in no state to move properly—his limbs were tingling from the fall, leaving him barely functional.
So even though Louis had thrown herself in to protect him, that too had been wasted— "—Subaru-kun!"
"Oh—"
"Get up!"
A shadow rocketed in and drove a slender foot into the boy's shoulder.
The startled boy stumbled back, and in his place Medium rushed in, golden hair streaming. Her face flushed red, she shouted at Subaru to get up.
At Subaru, who lay sprawled on the ground, too shaken to even shiver.
"Louis is all yours!"
And yet, without a single word of encouragement or comfort, Medium said that to Subaru and took off running.
Gripping the one sword she'd brought in both hands, she moved in a clumsy imitation of dance—nothing like her earlier elegance—but she was fighting with everything she had, trying to drive the boy back.
The boy, for his part, looked stiff-faced, as if startled less by her strength and more by her raw fighting spirit.
"Grrr…!"
While Medium fought on, Subaru used his trembling limbs to haul himself upright. Then he ran toward the collapsed tent where Louis lay.
He pulled the fallen frame pieces aside one by one and dug Louis out from under the rubble.
"Louis, Louis! A-Are you alive?! Hey, Louis!"
Calling out desperately, Subaru felt the familiar heat welling up from behind his eyes again.
That troublesome heat had been lurking deep in his skull since earlier, waiting for exactly this moment to surge forth. He ignored it—hurried, hurried, cleared away the debris— And then— "…Unh…"
"Louis!"
A weak groan. Subaru spotted Louis's form, dirtied with dust and grime.
She had been wedged into a gap created by a fallen support pillar beneath the collapsed tent, barely avoiding being crushed.
He felt a moment of relief. But right after the relief came a massive problem.
"I can't… move this…"
The fallen pillar was as thick as Subaru's torso, and it wouldn't budge no matter how he pushed or pulled. He tried to think of leverage, but there was nothing heavy enough to use as a counterweight.
While he searched for some way to pull Louis free, he noticed something else.
—Slowly, steadily, Louis's white clothes were being stained not with dust, but with red.
"…Ah."
Subaru went rigid. His limbs went cold and his thoughts froze.
This was what it meant for the blood to drain from one's face. He wasn't the one bleeding, yet he could feel it leaving him—he didn't know where it had gone. Shouldn't some other part of his body have grown warm with the blood he'd lost?
All he could hear was his own heartbeat, so loud it might burst.
"Ah… unh…"
Even now, a faint groan escaped her as the red stain on Louis's clothes continued to spread.
His numbed limbs wouldn't move. He couldn't even manage the effort of trying to shift the rubble—he couldn't even pretend to try just to put her mind at ease.
"Louis, Louis…"
Her name spilled from his trembling lips, over and over.
Even that was broken—his voice cracked and he couldn't form the words properly. His tongue had gone numb—no, his heart was recoiling violently from the mere act of calling her name.
Come to think of it, Subaru had always kept it to an absolute minimum when it came to calling Louis's name.
Ever since they'd been flung from that great tower together with
Yet not once had Louis done anything menacing or harmful to Subaru.
He was afraid of being hated by Rem. Afraid of being feared by those around him.
Terrified of those things, Subaru had refused to connect with Louis while putting off the one decision that actually mattered—what to ultimately do with her.
Why had he been so afraid of Louis?
His numbed brain, his cold limbs, his parching tongue, his heart about to explode—none of them would tell him.
What Louis had done to him—he couldn't quite remember.
It was as if a fog had settled over his memories, and at this very moment, he couldn't open that drawer of recollection.
But there was one thing that was clear, without even needing to open that drawer.
Louis had tried to shield Subaru, and she was bleeding for it.
—That was a fact he could neither forget nor look away from.
"Don't… die…"
"————"
"Don't die, Louis! Don't you die, don't you dare…! You can't…!"
Shrinking his small body into the gap between the debris, Subaru knelt beside Louis.
Rather than pulling her free, all he could do was raise useless words. He took Louis's hand, gripped it tightly with both of his, and spoke with desperate, prayerful urgency.
"Don't die…!"
He'd forgotten to search for what he could do to prevent her death—instead, he was making a selfish, reckless plea.
To Subaru's trembling voice, Louis's eyelids fluttered open, just barely, and then— "—Uh, un…"
A faint sound slipped out, and a flicker of strength returned to the girl's eyes.
△▼△▼△▼△ "Grraaah—!!"
Medium swung one half of the twin swords gripped in both hands, taking the fight to the boy in front of her.
The sheep-boy kept his jaw clenched, but he blocked Medium's attack with a raised arm as though it were nothing. —Literally: he caught the blade with his bare arm and knocked it aside.
"Gahhh, he's so hard! Can't cut him at all! That's cheating!"
Medium had been throwing everything into her attacks for a while now, but every strike was stopped short by the boy's impossibly sturdy body.
His skin, his hair, his fingers, his head—every single part of him was rock-hard, leaving her completely out of options.
And beyond the fact that her attacks weren't landing— "—!"
"Close one!!"
The boy's wildly swung arm grazed Medium and slammed into the ground with such force that the earth trembled, leaving a hole bigger than his fist.
The sheer power behind the boy's attacks made her head spin. The only reason Medium could avoid being hit squarely was that the boy was wide open with every swing.
"He's super tough and strong, but he fights like he has no technique!"
He was like a massive baby who'd just been born with a huge body, Medium thought.
She'd never actually seen a huge baby who'd just been born, so she was only running with her impression, but it felt like a perfect description.
Right now, she was managing just fine dealing with that baby on her own—but— "If I don't hurry, the others are gonna show up, aren't they…?"
Licking the dust off her lips, Medium burned with impatience.
She'd happened to burst onto a street with fewer pursuers, but if she kept fighting like this, they'd notice soon enough and the boy's allies would converge.
If someone bigger than the boy, or someone with actual technique showed up, she might not be able to keep up.
At least if she weren't alone, there'd be other options.
"Al-kun! Al-kun!"
Ducking and hopping through the boy's wide swings, Medium called out.
At the edge of her vision, the one she was desperately calling to wasn't the masked boy crouching on the ground—it was Al. He had a child in one arm, and handling his weapon was even harder for him than it was for Medium, but his ability to respond in a crisis surpassed hers. She wanted to lean on that.
"————"
But he didn't answer her plea.
It wasn't that he'd hit his head and passed out when he was sent flying. Al was awake, and he'd even tried to help earlier.
But now, he'd suddenly stopped where he was and dropped to his knees.
Crouching there, Al stared down at his own right hand through his mask— "…Why?"
—whispering, as if seized with dread.
As though he'd let go of something he'd been gripping, or dropped it.
"Al-kun…!"
With Al unable to stand, a seed of weakness took root in Medium's chest.
In that instant, the hand gripping the sword went limp, and Medium bit down hard on her back teeth.
—She'd always been like this.
Whenever Medium's spirits flagged, her body followed. That was why she always tried to stay positive, keep her voice loud, and hold her back straight.
When her mood was bright and strong, Medium could give it her all. Her brother Flop had always called out "Hang in there!" and pushed her forward.
But Flop wasn't here. Nobody was here to tell her to hang in there.
Everyone was caught up in their own problems, and Medium had shrunk down too—and so she could only hold one sword, and she was about to lose to a little boy— "—Found you!!"
"Oh—"
That voice, amplifying Medium's faltering spirit, echoed down the street.
Ducking the boy's sweeping arm and trading positions, Medium's eyes went wide. From the opposite end of the street, enemy reinforcements appeared—a man with a flame blazing in one eye.
They charged at full speed, heading straight for Al's back. Medium wanted to rush over, but the boy was in her way—she had to dodge him first.
—There wasn't time. She was going to die. Al, Subaru, Louis—everyone.
Everyone was going to die.
As she nearly dropped the sword in her grip, Medium desperately called for her brother in her head.
If only his voice were here again, like always—his encouragement, his cheering.
But the new arrivals closing in on Al were far faster than any phantom support.
Al's small body was about to be torn apart by a pair of hands reaching from behind— "—Still not moving, you fool?"
Before those sharp claws could reach Al's back, a foot shot in from the side and kicked the attacker's shoulder, sending him flying. Al's body toppled sideways, narrowly escaping the strike that would have ripped his back open.
And the one who had launched that violent rescue was a man wearing a demon mask over his face.
"Abel-kun?"
Dumbfounded, the name fell from her open mouth. Abel's gaze flicked toward her.
Even through the mask, she felt their eyes meet, and a ripple of heat ran through Medium's shoulders. Abel—who had been leaving the boy to Medium and the others—had stepped onto the battlefield himself.
He was probably going to scold them. Say they shouldn't have been watching.
She hated being scolded.
Growing up, she'd been scolded and hit often. Medium was small but always hungry, which made it worse. Hit, scolded, over and over.
So the thought of being scolded made her whole body shrink— "Medium."
Hearing her name, Medium flinched, dreading what would come next.
But Abel ignored her fear entirely and continued.
And what he said was— "—Well done."
"————"
Brusque as ever, his voice rattled her eardrums. Medium's eyes flew open, and she clenched her teeth hard—biting down, twisting her cheeks, making her golden hair bounce.
"Yeah! I'll keep going—!!"
As if summoned by that power surging through her, Medium drove her fist into the boy's face.
The boy reeled back in surprise. She pressed the attack—sweeping upward from below with the flat of the blade to bash his chin, driving a kick into his exposed torso, stomping on his overextended knee, slamming a roundhouse kick into his neck.
Fueled by a sudden, ferocious burst of energy, Medium left the boy fighting purely on the defensive.
Thinking it felt like picking on someone weaker, Medium raised her fist and hammered him again and again and again. As she struck, a voice echoed in her memory.
—See? Hitting 'em back twice as hard as they hit you feels great, doesn't it!
Those were the words of the benefactor who'd rescued Medium and Flop from their terrible circumstances.
The one who'd taught them how to fight and how to live—remembering those words, Medium smiled.
And smiling, she thought, "Hitting people this much doesn't really feel that great~!"
"Grraaah!"
Even as she thought it, she poured everything into a lateral swing that cracked against the boy's head, sending his small body flying.
A blow that would've split an ordinary person's head clean off was nothing more than a bruise to the sturdy boy. Still, she'd managed to take down at least one, and with Al and Abel backing her up— "You little pest…!"
"Ngh! Crap!"
Too focused on the boy, she'd let her guard down against the one approaching from behind.
A hand seized the bunched hair at the back of her head, and Medium's body was lifted clean off the ground. Her feet dangled, and she couldn't react in time.
"Ow! Ahh—seriously?!"
Her legs kicked uselessly, tears stinging her eyes from the pain of her hair being yanked. She craned her neck to look behind her and saw that the one holding her up was a large rhino-man, even bigger than Medium before she'd shrunk.
His skin and muscle, even thicker than the boy's, shrugged off her kicks without a flinch.
"Sorry! I can't get away!"
Struggling, Medium tilted her head and shouted with everything she had.
She looked around: Al, knocked to the ground, was still sprawled on the street. And Abel, the one who'd sent him flying, was now surrounded by the reinforcements that had poured in and backed against a wall.
She knew it was unreasonable to ask Abel to take on everyone—the frail-looking Abel.
So— "Abel-kun! Take Al and run!"
Create some opening—any opening—and escape.
To Medium's desperate cry, the men surrounding Abel shifted to block his retreat. Then one of them—a middle-aged bull-man—stepped forward and pressed close.
"Sorry, but we can't let you escape. You lot are going down right here—"
"—You're a bull-man. The one before was a sheepman."
"Huh?"
"The ones who surrounded our inn were all horned, too. With all these conditions lined up, anyone could figure it out. We're being targeted by the horned races."
Encircled and cornered, Abel's voice held not a trace of fear. If anything, he carried himself as though he were the one doing the surrounding—arrogant and imperious—and the men facing him grew unsettled by his words.
—No, they were unsettled not just by his brazenness, but by the content of what he'd said.
"Horned…?" Medium muttered, glancing around and locking eyes with the rhino-man still gripping her hair.
The large rhino-man's attention was focused on Abel's words. And atop his broad nose, Medium could see a single thick horn.
Now that it was pointed out, she remembered—the sheep-boy from earlier, all the people Tallitta had drawn back at the inn—they'd all had horns.
"But so what?!"
"Fool. —That is the root cause of this entire situation."
"Huh?"
Medium wondered if Abel had heard her shout. His reply came through.
But from Medium's vantage point, she couldn't see him—and even if someone explained the reason to her, she wouldn't understand a thing. She wanted him to explain clearly, or at least keep talking whether she understood or not. Otherwise, at this rate— "—Try it, then."
"Huh?"
That wasn't a response to Medium's inner scream.
The words, spoken calmly and heavily, were directed by Abel at the men surrounding him—the bull-man standing at their fore.
The bull-man's eyes widened and he stared hard at Abel. To that reaction, Abel doubled down.
"Try it. See if you can kill me."
"…Break that scraggy neck of yours? What's hard about that?"
The man's left eye flared red as he ground his foot into the earth.
Yorna's Soul Marriage Technique was in effect, but even without it, the man's thick arms could snap Abel's neck like a twig.
And the resolve to kill—the one needed to do it—was already in place.
Yet Abel stood there, arms crossed, his black eyes piercing the man through the demon mask— "Whether it is easy or not—that answer lies beyond action itself. So, try it. If you have the caliber, the flames will honor you. But—"
"B-But—?"
"If you lack the caliber, the flames will incinerate your very soul. —Now, what will you do?"
"————"
Arms still crossed, Abel's words left the bull-man silent.
The man was overawed by this slender figure standing so composed before him. Of course, in a straight fight, the man would win without question. But what was with this nonchalant attitude?
Could it be that the answer lay within those grandiose words he'd just delivered?
"Try it. —See if you can surpass the flames of judgment."
"Grr… grrrrgh…!"
The overwhelmed man groaned through a thick, trembling throat. Sweat poured from every pore as he tensed his entire body, and his companions couldn't so much as speak to him.
The moment he'd looked into Abel's eyes, everyone else had been ejected from the stage.
The right to respond to Abel's words belonged to no one but the man standing before him.
And then—the sound of grinding teeth, grinding, grinding, grinding— "Grrraaaooh—!!"
The grinding teeth cracked, and driven by the pain, the man swung both arms upward.
Not to snap his neck—to crush Abel's body and life in a single blow. With arms thick as logs, one strike from this man would reduce Abel's slender frame to pulp.
Medium twisted desperately, trying to free herself, but the grip didn't budge.
Al remained collapsed, his awareness not even turned toward Abel's crisis.
And Subaru and Louis— "—Huh?"
Louis, buried under the collapsed tent. Subaru, who had rushed to her side. He could be seen crawling into the rubble, clasping Louis's hand.
And there, Louis—still pinned beneath the debris—moved faintly, and then— —In the next instant, the two of them vanished from beneath the tent.
"Guh!"
In that same instant, Louis appeared before the bull-man who had both arms raised—and drove his chin straight up from below.
△▼△▼△▼△ Subaru had no idea what had happened.
He'd clung to Louis, who was pinned beneath the collapsed tent and slowly bleeding out. And he'd thrown at her his own selfish, useless words—don't die, don't die—words that offered neither comfort nor aid.
And the moment he thought Louis had stirred in response to those words— Subaru's vision flipped in an instant, and the world turned upside down.
"Guh… eh…"
It wasn't some matter of extreme speed or stopped time or anything like that.
In truth, Subaru had moved to a different location in what felt like the blink of an eye.
And specifically— "You…"
Abel, who had been standing with his arms crossed, leaning casually against the wall, slightly caught his breath at Subaru's sudden appearance.
Standing there in the midst of the men surrounding him, Subaru nearly collapsed at the waist from sheer confusion and bewilderment.
The tears that had been building up moments ago—from worrying about Louis—receded, leaving his throat tight.
And Louis, who might have been knocked senseless by the sudden spatial shift— "Aaah, uunh!"
"Guah!?"
Louis spun midair and ricocheted between the men like a pinball, striking each of them in a vital point—the neck, the torso, the knee—driving them back.
Goggling at her speed and power, the men staggered back in unison.
While shock and pain rippled through them, Louis was already moving to her next action.
"Uaun!"
Louis slipped through the gaps in their formation and escaped outside their encirclement. She pressed all four limbs to the ground like an animal, then grabbed the surface with both hands and peeled it up.
It was as though she were forcibly ripping a carpet off a floor—of course, there was no carpet laid on a city street. But the ground shifted as if there were.
As a result, every last man lost his balance and toppled to the ground.
"What!? What is this kid…!"
"Uaun! Uaun!"
"Son of a—!"
Among those who fell, a young deer-man barely kept his footing and clicked his tongue, lunging to grab Louis. Louis hurled the thin sheet of ground she'd just peeled up at him. He swatted it away with his arm—and the moment he did, the limp surface snapped back into shape.
In other words, it had returned as a solid wall of earth with its full mass and weight.
"Bwah!?!"
He slammed headfirst into the earth wall, the counter-impact sending him reeling backward.
Following up, Louis burst through the crumbling earth wall, and the sole of her foot caught the young deer-man square in the face. Blood sprayed from his nose as he finally flipped over backward.
"You little—!"
"Uaun!"
The fallen deer-man was climbed over as the others who'd managed to stand closed in on Louis. But the instant their fingers were about to reach her, she vanished again like a phantom.
In the next breath, she appeared on the wall two meters above—just as she'd done with the ground, she peeled the wall's surface off with both hands and let it snap back.
The detached surface, carrying its full mass and hardness, rained down on the men's heads.
"Gwaaaah—!!"
Screams and roars echoed through the street as powerful men—one after another—were dismantled by Louis alone.
Subaru, still collapsed where he stood, could only watch in blank disbelief.
"Lo-Louis, that's…"
He raised a trembling arm, horrified by the nightmarish scene unfolding before him.
A nightmare—yes, this was a nightmare. This was undeniably the nightmare Subaru had been afraid of.
Peeling earth and walls at will, teleporting short distances in the blink of an eye, displaying the combat prowess of a master martial artist, and mowing down men one after another— It was obvious that this wasn't some innate, transcendent power born in a young girl—no, Subaru knew the very source of that power.
That was, that was—something that should not exist, a ■■ that had to disappear— "I'd sensed she was no ordinary girl, but now it all clicks."
"…Huh?"
Slumped on the ground, unable to do anything but stare blankly at the situation, Subaru heard Abel murmur beside him.
Gazing at the same scene, Abel spoke those words—but Subaru couldn't fathom his true meaning. His eyes wavered. Keeping Subaru in the corner of his vision, Abel pointed forward, indicating Louis as she single-handedly demolished the pursuers— "Is this why you were dragging that girl around?"
"N-No—"
Subaru reflexively bit back: that wasn't it.
But if that wasn't it, then why had he been keeping Louis by his side? He had no answer. As always before, and as now.
"Stop it! I don't care what happens to this girl—guh!?"
"Uaun!"
Seeing his companions crumbling, a rhino-man tried to intervene and reached for Medium—using her as a hostage.
But before he could even finish his threat, Louis's strike reached him.
She warped across several meters and slammed both palms against the sides of his head in a devastating clap. Ears struck flat by her palms, the man's eyes rolled white and he crashed to the ground like a falling tree.
"Wha—…Lo-Louis-chan?"
"Ah, uunh."
Freed in an instant, Medium dropped to the ground as Louis tackled her head-on. Medium stroked Louis's dazed head and looked around in bewilderment.
In Medium's field of vision, everyone gathered in the street was sprawled on the ground.
Louis had single-handedly taken down over ten enemies.
"You and that clown aren't showing your true colors yet. No matter."
"I-I don't understand any of this… What are you?!"
"Keep your voice down. You'll draw the rest of them. Go pick up the clown."
Chin tilted upward, Abel issued orders without so much as a hint of emotion about having just escaped a crisis.
Where he indicated, Al was still crouching on the ground, unmoving. Had he been seriously wounded while Subaru wasn't looking? Subaru rushed over in a panic.
"Al! Hey, are you okay? Where are you hurt—"
"…I ain't okay."
"—! You're hurt?! Where? Let me treat it right—"
"That ain't it!"
"—"
Rushing to his side and shaking his shoulder, Subaru was met with Al's furious shout. Head bowed, Al raised his trembling hand and clenched it into a fist— "—I'm useless."
"…N-No, you're not."
"I'm useless, I tell ya. The way I am now, I'm gonna die."
"—? What do you mean by—"
As Subaru's voice trembled with the question, a sharp voice cut in from behind.
"Abel-kun! You can't do anything cruel!"
"Quiet. There's something I need to hear."
"But still…"
Medium's emotional cry and Abel's calm reply. When Subaru turned, the two of them were heading toward the end of the street—to the sheep-boy lying there. The same boy who, when they'd first arrived on this street, had launched Subaru skyward with all his might.
The boy had raised himself upright, and his face held unmistakable fear.
Subaru understood. The boy hadn't shrunk—he was a full-sized child. And the adults who'd overwhelmed him had just been demolished, by no fewer than three of their number, including a man wearing a demon mask now looking down at him. He had every reason to be terrified.
But Abel would show no mercy to such a terrified boy.
Brushing aside Medium's hand as she tried to intervene, Abel crouched in front of the sheep-boy. As the distance between their faces closed, the flames burning in the frightened boy's eyes dimmed with the effort of containing his fear.
And Abel, ignoring the boy's terror entirely, posed a question.
It was brief and unmistakable— "The mastermind behind all this—the horned girl who called herself