———In a dark, dark space.
Drifting. Wandering. Being tossed around. Being trampled.
It felt as though his body had been severed at the torso — his four limbs and head separated from the trunk, each floating in a different place, carried along, swayed, toyed with.
What had happened, what had occurred — his memories were terribly vague.
Everything was pitch-black, and he found himself wondering why he'd been thrown into this empty void.
——.
————.
——————.
————————.
Nothing came to mind.
There was no reason for him to be trapped in a place like this, his head and limbs severed, floating in the void.
And if there was no reason to be here, then maybe there was no reason he had to stay in the first place.
—I love you.
Every time that thought crossed his mind, a thin, fragile voice reached his ears, pulling his thoughts back.
Was it hoarse, or simply far away? The voice was hard to hear. But it was a voice so earnest that instinct made him strain his ears, tilt his head toward it, desperate to catch every word.
—I love you. I love you. I love you.
Each time he heard the voice, the thoughts he'd just been having were reset, returning to zero.
Was he supposed to call that a nuisance? Or just accept it as something unavoidable? He couldn't tell which was right.
But as it repeated over and over, a new question emerged — could he somehow close the distance to the voice he was hearing?
—I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
As if cutting through even that thought, the number of fragile, pleading voices multiplied.
But that only had the opposite effect. He wanted to hear those voices. He wanted to go to the person behind them. That was the reason this thought had taken root, striving to go from zero to one.
So —, "Someone... to..."
With his limbs and head severed from his torso, unable to move, there was nothing he could do on his own.
So he wanted to rely on the strength of those around him — anyone who might be able to help, even in a situation like this.
Was there someone? Was there anyone?
Someone who might lend him a hand, even in this hopeless situation?
Was there anyone who had been good to him?
If that someone came with him, surely, the answer would come too.
—So, to reach the voice echoing from afar, he stretched out his hand.
△▼△▼△▼△ "—!"
"Oh? Now that was quite the spirited hit."
A particularly loud, powerful roar resounded, and the tremors traveled through the ground to reach the two people at the inn.
Outside the window, the enormous black shadow thrashed about — slowly eroding the Demon City from its center, absorbing it, chewing it up, and transforming it into something that had never existed in this world.
That was — it surely was — the worst nightmare conceivable, the kind that every living being in this world would recoil from in horror.
The incarnation of the end, something anyone who beheld it would be forced to recall.
And Al understood that the one who knew the terror of that apocalypse more than anyone else — no, knew it in his very soul — was none other than himself.
Abel, Medium, and the others — they had sprung into action to break through the situation.
Far from moving alongside them, here he was, clutching his trembling head and cowering. How could he possibly claim he was helping by following along?
"I... I'm..."
Had he come along only to be painfully reminded of how powerless he was?
If so, then what was he even here for —?
"Good grief. I rushed back here in a hurry, and what do I find? A young man, scared witless and cowering. Well, if Your Excellency were here, that'd be its own problem, but still."
"———"
"Still, the fact that Kafma is fighting that thing tells you all you need to know, doesn't it? Your Excellency ordered him to do it, which means His Excellency has no intention of running. Do you know that?"
Saying this, Orvart lumbered closer and posed his question.
The small old man cracked the bones in his neck and bent down as if peering into Al's face, which was crouched low. Al managed to chew through the contents of that question with a brain numbed by fear.
The absent false emperor, Vincent, had reached some sort of agreement with Abel — "Th-with Lady
"Tanza, you say? That deer girl? Makes it even harder to figure what he's thinking... The thing about His Excellency is, he's always been tight-lipped. At least if he'd left a note about what he planned to do next."
"You —"
"Hmm?"
After hearing Al's words, Orvart made a grim face and stood up. Not wanting to let the strange old man drift away, Al forced his trembling tongue and throat to form words.
What did Orvart, who had returned here, intend to do now?
"You — you're going to fight that thing, aren't you?"
"Now, now, don't be ridiculous."
"What..."
At Orvart's nonchalant response, Al was struck dumb.
Before Al's wide-eyed, stunned gaze, Orvart pointed out the window.
"Well, one look and you'd know, right? That thing is seriously bad news. I already lost my right hand to it once — no way I'm risking something that dangerous again."
"———"
"I only came back because, if by chance His Excellency was here, I'd need to get him out. If he's not here, I need to find where he is and make sure he gets away... Do you know where His Excellency went with the deer girl?"
Asked by the breezy Orvart, Al shook his head right there.
It wasn't a lie — it was the truth. Ever since that black shadow had swallowed Garith and overflowed, Al barely remembered any of the exchanges between Abel and the others that had played out in this inn.
The only things he recalled were: Kafma, upon being ordered, charging outside; Vincent leaving hand in hand with Tanza; Abel abandoning the useless Al; and Medium worrying about him until the very end. That was all.
"Well, that's a real pickle. With that fox girl rallying the townsfolk, everyone's all fired up now, and finding His Excellency alone just got harder... I don't want to stick around too long in this war zone either, you know."
"Wh—what do you mean by that? Don't tell me you're going to run?"
Sensing his train of thought heading toward an unbelievable conclusion, Al's voice cracked.
In the face of Al's stunned gaze, Orvart simply shrugged with a calm "Can't be helped."
"That thing doesn't feel like something you can handle. Life comes first — that's how it goes. My precious things are my own life and my dreams. I've got no reason to stay and fight."
"Th-the emperor is here! The emperor you're supposed to protect..."
"If His Excellency is thinking for himself and acting on his own, that means this is what he considers best. If you think he's counting on my help here, then His Excellency doesn't see me either. That'd be enough to make the 'Wise Emperor' title cry, wouldn't it?"
"Ah..."
"You should run too — I'm not saying anything mean by that. Risking your life here won't get you anything. Living smartly — that's the way to win."
Orvart's philosophy — it was something forged from the brutal, iron-blooded code of Volakian tradition, blended with his own lifetime of survival as a shinobi. Something bloody and unyielding.
It was not something an outsider like Al could change no matter what he said. — No, probably no one but Orvart himself could challenge Orvart's way of thinking.
Your life should never be swayed or warped by another person's will.
And that was precisely why Orvalt Dunkelkern reigned as the greatest shinobi. Having neither precious things nor anyone to dedicate himself to, he had achieved completion by having nothing at all.
The title of general, the position of shinobi chief, the sense of duty to protect the emperor — none of it carried any weight in his heart.
Not freedom. Lawlessness. — The world's greatest "outlaw." That was his true nature.
That conviction could not be moved. Could not be shaken. Not by anyone.
So arguing philosophy with him here would yield nothing.
"———"
Gritting his back teeth hard, harder still, Al lowered the arm he'd held to his ear.
The thunderous roars and rumbling earth, the war cries of the Demon City's residents charging to face the black shadow — they echoed like the staging of this world's very hell, rattling Al's heart.
His heart was about to crack. His mind was about to shatter. His soul was about to dissipate.
But it hadn't. Not yet. And if it hadn't — "...Old man. Let me ask you one thing."
"—? What is it?"
"That mass of black shadow — it has something to do with the siblings, doesn't it?"
Gripping his teeth hard enough to taste blood, Al's voice wove together, concealing its trembling for just a moment.
Reading Al's desperate expression — hidden behind his mask, not clearly visible, but discernible through his eyes and voice — Orvart touched his beard with his left hand, "Yeah, that's right. That shadow — to my eyes, it looked like it came out of the boy."
"———"
"Heard that and made up your mind yet?"
Squeezing his eyes shut, Al chewed on the words Orvart had given him.
He had known this, but beneath that black shadow was
Then, then, Al had to raise his face, prepared for his back teeth to crack.
If Natsuki Subaru was there, then Aldebaran had to go there.
"You said 'live smartly,' didn't you, old man."
"Yeah, that's right. That's what I think."
"But I don't think so. Old man, your way of living isn't smart — it's cowardly. — I don't want to grow up to be a coward."
A heavy thud.
Not from outside, but right beside Al. He had slammed his fist into the floor, and using the pain and momentum, he rose. Propping himself against the wall, he managed — barely — to stand.
His knees trembled, his heart cowered, he hadn't even fought yet but was already mentally battered — and yet — "There's no time to sit around... I can't face my parents like this...!"
Bracing his hands against the wall, Al bared his teeth beneath his mask.
Hearing that death-defying cry — a scream like coughing up blood — Orvart raised his long, bushy eyebrows. With one eye squinted, he watched Al's back as the latter glared and roared at what lay outside the window.
"I admire the spirit, but do you honestly think you've got a shot against that thing?"
"No chance! Nobody could win against that thing! Not if I challenged it ten thousand times! The only one who can beat it... the only one who can beat it is Natsuki Subaru!"
Swinging his arm wide, slamming the window frame, Al turned around.
Locking eyes with the strange old man head-on, Al stepped forward with blazing eyes.
"Old man!"
"Oh, oh, getting fired up now, are we? Just so you know, if you're about to ask for my help, forget it..."
"I don't need it! What I need is for you to get me back. Old piece of trash!"
"———"
"I'll buy you time to run. So give me back my authority!"
Extending his short right hand straight out, Al barked those words at Orvart.
A beast's roar, a lament's wail, and a sense of purpose burning like flame — all mixed together in Al's cry, Orvart caught his breath.
Then, the strange old man slowly shook his head.
"Well, if you're volunteering to be a sacrifice, I won't object. That match was the boy's win from the start, and I've got a promise to uphold."
"The siblings' win?"
"That's right. That boy actually caught me in a game of tag. I have to say, I was impressed."
As he spoke, Orvart approached, swinging his left wrist. Al faced him head-on.
Hearing Orvart's words, beyond the bomb-like pounding of his heartbeat, Al felt a single note of relief and admiration ring out.
While Al had been too terrified even of the sound of wind to move, Subaru had persevered, brought things to a head-on confrontation with Orvart, and ultimately seized victory.
Surely, beyond a mountain of defeats too improbable to happen just once —, "Let me ask just out of curiosity."
A hoarse voice suddenly cut into his racing heart, and Al looked at the man in silence.
Orvart grinned at the unwelcome look in Al's eyes, then gently pressed his outstretched left hand against Al's chest.
And —, "So against an opponent you say you couldn't beat even ten thousand times — how are you planning to take him on?"
"Shut up, you old bastard. — Even a million times, I'll die and come back."
△▼△▼△▼△ "The new Star Reader, who has inherited the fate to prevent the Great Calamity."
The moment those words struck her, Taritta's world shook violently.
The thrashing Great Calamity was shaking the Demon City, and earth-shaking booms echoed without pause. But the illusion that the ground was crumbling beneath her feet was not caused by any of that.
It was because the man before her — Abel, behind his demon mask — had pierced to the very depths of her heart.
"Star... Reader...?"
Leaning close to the unsteady Taritta, gently supporting her, Medium murmured the unfamiliar word to herself as if testing it.
It was a word with no relevance to those who didn't know — and no need to know.
Indeed, if Taritta could have simply gone on living in the forest of her homeland as one of the Shudrak, there would have been no need whatsoever to be involved with any of it.
But —, "I... am..."
"Abel! Seriously, I don't understand any of this! What are you talking about?"
In place of the trembling Taritta, Medium confronted Abel head-on.
Though her body had been made smaller, she hadn't lost her fighting spirit. She puffed out her thin chest and glared straight back at Abel, as if shielding Taritta.
"This 'Star Reader' thing — what is it? How could Taritta become one?"
"—. A Star Reader is someone who bears the role of foreseeing the future through the movements and guidance of the stars. No, rather than a role, it would be more accurate to call it a burden."
"...You're not saying that on purpose to make it harder, are you?"
"I have no such intention."
At Medium's pained, grimacing words, Abel let out a quiet sigh.
Then Abel called out "Taritta" once more, through Medium. Taritta flinched involuntarily, and Abel looked straight at her.
"For starters, there is a close connection between the reason I was driven from the Imperial Capital and the Star Readers. You should know the gist of it, Taritta."
"The... the gist of it..."
"Of course. It was a prophecy of the empire's destruction. You knew that. — That is why you tried to take my life in the Baddheim wilderness."
"—!"
With arms crossed, Abel spoke flatly. Taritta's cheeks went rigid, and she lowered her gaze.
The shock of being called a Star Reader had nearly overshadowed it, but the fact Abel had pointed out just before that was impossible to ignore.
He had said it, clearly. — That Taritta, the huntress of the wilderness.
Wondering if she regretted failing to kill him.
In other words —, "Did you..."
"———"
"Did you... know that I had been targeting you...?"
"Taritta!?"
Lowering her eyes, unable to look Abel in the face, Taritta posed that question.
Hearing Taritta's words, Medium let out a stunned gasp. Of course. Listening to that question, it was clear there was no room left to deny Abel's line of inquiry.
It was an admission of the fact that Taritta had aimed to kill Abel with her bow and arrow.
"The visions of the Star Readers... that fate or whatnot — it is largely shared between Star Readers. So it was predictable that, once I fled the capital, those who knew of my fate would come after me. Furthermore."
"Furthermore?"
"Knowing how the throne works, you could deduce that I would seek refuge with the Shudrak. Nine times out of ten, there would be an assassin among the Shudrak."
"———"
"Of course, the confirmation of the assassin's existence came when you mistook me for someone else and targeted Natsuki Subaru."
Hearing Abel's reasoning, Taritta gripped the hem of her clothing tightly.
It was the truth. There was no way Taritta, living at the empire's edge, could have known what the Volakian emperor looked like. All she knew were the external features — black hair, dark eyes.
Who would have thought that the person bearing those rare features would appear in the forest on that very day?
"Your reaction when you saw me and that other one trapped in the settlement's cage was quite telling. ...You're too honest at heart to serve as anyone's pawn."
"Ah..."
"Then came the conquest of
"———"
"Why did you refuse to follow your fate? I hear that a Star Reader's burden is not something one can resist, even with full knowledge. I find it hard to believe you had the will to resist it."
If Taritta had possessed such a strong will, such self-discipline, she wouldn't have accompanied this journey in the first place.
Abel's assessment was harsh, but correct. Painfully, undeniably correct.
Taritta did not have the strength to throw away her own fate.
If she could have done it, she would have thrown off this burden long, long ago.
If she hadn't known that, without following her fate, the Great Calamity would destroy the empire — "—Enough! I don't understand any of it!"
Taritta, tormented, and Abel, relentless in his questioning.
Caught between the two but shut out from the exchange, Medium exploded. She spread both arms wide, shielding Taritta behind her back, and glared at Abel with her blue eyes.
"I don't know anything about Abel being targeted, or that it was Taritta! For starters, if Taritta had really meant it, Abel would've been done for ages ago! Right?"
"Could you at least try to sugarcoat it?"
"Right? Abel, could you escape from Taritta?"
At Medium's forceful words, Abel's mouth twisted with bitter frustration.
He couldn't deny what she said. But that very question had already been raised by Abel himself, directed at Taritta.
In other words, as Medium had said — if she could have done it, why didn't she?
That was —, "...Because I couldn't find a reason to."
"—. To save the empire from destruction — is there a greater reason you need?"
"I didn't! I didn't know you were the emperor, or the circumstances behind your exile...! Because, being a Star Reader — that's me —"
The anguish she had buried deep in her heart for so long spilled out as her mouth opened.
Anguish she had always hesitated to put into words, and which was now being pressed upon her by none other than Abel.
But before it could fully crystallize into words — "No way!!"
Medium screamed, her eyes flying wide, and Taritta and Abel's gazes snapped upward instinctively.
The next instant, black darkness descended over the building the three stood on — no, that wasn't right. It wasn't merely spreading darkness. It was a massive black arm.
Complete with five fingers, it stretched straight out and swung down from directly above.
As if to crush the three people below — no, as if to snatch them up in that enormous hand.
"Medium! Abel!"
The moment she saw it bearing down, all extraneous thought vanished from Taritta's mind.
The interrogation scene from moments ago was wiped clean. Taritta moved on pure instinct — scooping up Medium, shouldering Abel, and leaping straight backward.
She tried to escape the reach of the black giant arm just like that. — But it wasn't enough.
Caught by the descending fingertips, she was helplessly swept away from this world.
"Not on my watch—!!"
But just before the giant arm reached Taritta and the others, a massive object was hurled between them and the arm with tremendous force.
It was the wall of a castle, tightly bound in green thorns and ripped away.
That enormous wall, spinning with tremendous centrifugal force, formed a canopy over the three and moved to intercept the descending arm.
Of course, it wasn't something that could be stopped so easily.
When the black arm touched the wall, it crumbled apart as easily as pulled sugar, vanishing in the blink of an eye like a leaf devoured by insects.
But —, "Further destruction in my city shall not be permitted—!"
A woman in a kimono dove beneath the crumbling wall. Pricking up the beast ears atop her head, she drove her long leg upward, launching the wall toward the giant arm.
A shockwave tore through, bringing down the building beneath her feet. But the power of the woman's kick was such that a single blow through the wall made the giant arm buckle, and the erosion halted.
Only for an instant.
But that instant was enough.
"Got out!"
Having barely escaped the arm's reach, Taritta exhaled as her heels scraped against the ground.
Freed from that grip, Medium and Abel touched down as well. The three raised their heads and watched as the building they had been standing on moments ago was swallowed by shadow.
"Y-Yorna...!?"
"She's safe. She appears to be pursued even harder than before, though."
Abel tilted his chin in answer to Medium's darting gaze.
Following the directed gaze, what they saw was a kimono-clad woman leaping through the air as the raging shadow pursued her — the same woman who had unleashed that devastating kick. Was that
The power of a transcendent being — befitting one of the Nine Divine Generals.
It was understandable that Abel had wanted someone like her as an ally. A person of her caliber would surely have been able to accept a fate that could alter the course of the world with ease.
Unlike Taritta, who hesitated with that moment before her.
"You saved me again, Taritta."
As if seeing right through Taritta's hesitation, Abel looked down at Taritta, who had dropped to her knees.
For reasons unrelated to her physical exertion, Taritta couldn't catch her breath. But Abel didn't seem to intend to give her body or mind any rest.
"Had you not reached out, I might have lost my life without effort. Yet you saved me anyway — because you know that you cannot fulfill your fate unless you stain your own hands?"
"That's... that's not...!"
"Then why? Your actions lack consistency —"
"Shouldn't you be thanking her for saving you first!"
Once again, Medium rescued Taritta, who was at a loss for words under criticism of her inconsistent actions.
Medium, her beautiful golden hair disheveled, thrust a finger at Abel right in front of him. The gesture was hampered by their height difference, but she refused to back down, refused to stop.
"Both Abel and I would be dead if Taritta hadn't helped! First things first — say thank you. Taritta, thanks!"
"Th-thank you..."
"Good! Now, about what you were saying! Abel, what is it? What do you want from Taritta?"
Medium whirled around to deliver her thanks, then whirled back to face Abel.
Her questioning lagged somewhat behind the exchange between Abel and Taritta, and Abel sighed, clearly unable to keep up with her comprehension.
"That has already been explained to Taritta. There is no need to make you understand."
"If I don't understand, I'll keep butting in until I do! You cool with that!?"
"—. To quell that Great Calamity, I must lose my life. That is the future the Star Readers have foreseen, and the fate that has fallen upon Taritta."
"—? That still doesn't make sense to me. Why would Abel dying make that huge black shadow behave itself? That's weird!"
At Medium's dogged persistence, Taritta bit hard into the inside of her cheek.
True, she could understand the prophecy that fulfilling the fate would save the empire from destruction. But how that would specifically come about — even Taritta didn't know.
However, pointing that out would only make Medium more aware of Abel's coldness — "Something wrong?"
But Taritta's assumption was stayed by the sound of Abel's next words.
Medium bared her teeth, insisting "That's weird!" Abel, standing before her, placed a hand over his mouth and repeated, once more, "Something wrong."
"Taritta."
"Y-yes, what is it?"
"Your fate is to take my life in order to save the empire from destruction. Am I correct?"
"!"
At the renewed question, Taritta hesitated, then nodded.
She had heard it. The fate she knew was necessary, yet had never managed to carry out.
But after confirming that, Abel pressed further with "Then —"
"The destruction you know of — is it that thing?"
"Huh...?"
"I know there was a prophecy of a Great Calamity that would bring about the empire's ruin. But do you have certainty that this is it? Is there no doubt?"
Asked that, Taritta raced through her thoughts for what purpose this served.
That black shadow, gradually spreading from the center of the Demon City, that loathsome, horrifying presence that inspired dread — if not the Great Calamity, what would you call it?
Again and again, she was shown that nightmare's vision.
Night after night, the nightmares that pleaded "do not forget" made Taritta envision the coming moment of destruction again and again. That was, without question, its manifestation — but — "Whether that is the Great Calamity or not..."
"Is not something you can know? Then what about other Star Readers?"
"Other..."
Even hearing that, Taritta could only let her eyes drift.
Abel had said Star Readers were connected, but Taritta was an exception. — No, even "exception" wasn't the right word. Their foundations were different to begin with.
So Taritta had no lead on any other Star Reader.
"Ah..."
But as for a lead on a Star Reader — she had just run into one moments ago.
"———"
That good-natured man who never dropped his breezy attitude, who never even gave his name — that unpleasant figure had been so well-versed in the situation that he called Taritta the "Filth of Shudrak."
He had known of Taritta's sin. Presumably through the connection between Star Readers.
That man, who was himself a Star Reader — what had he said when he saw that Great Calamity?
Yes, he had said — "That's outside my jurisdiction..."
"—. So, a Star Reader said that. I see."
"Abel?"
Hearing Taritta's stunned murmur, Abel nodded and turned away.
Frowning at his manner, Medium circled around to face Abel and peered up at him. Then, her round eyes went wide with shock.
The reason for her surprise became clear from Abel's reaction immediately after.
Abel pressed his palm against his own demon-masked face and, staring at the Great Calamity still raging in the Demon City's center — no, at the pitch-black darkness swallowing everything — "The fall of the empire... and that Great Calamity are separate things?"
Abel murmured, his throat giving a faint click, a short breath escaping.
To Taritta, who couldn't see his expression behind the mask, it sounded like a laugh.
"Then there is no reason to hesitate halfway. — Off the board with you, interlopers."