“As expected of you, Christ. It’s no wonder you killed Teeda.”
Arti said, as a large amount of blood spilled from her, speaking to me with composure.
“Shut up…! Just hurry up and die…!!”
I took out a fresh, damp coat from my Inventory, put it on, and advanced.
My remaining HP was 238.
Looking at the numbers alone, it was still possible to continue. It was too early to give up. I reorganized my magic, intending to save Maria like I did Rustiara.
“There’s still… still not enough. Maria, don’t you think so…?”
“It’s still not enough…!”
Maria stood next to Arti and repeated the same words.
Stumbling, Arti approached Maria and hugged her from behind. Then, they repeated, “Not enough,” “From now on,” piling on the words, repeatedly.
I had a bad feeling and squeezed out my remaining strength to start running.
I had to stop them. I intuitively felt that.
With momentum, I thrust my sword, aiming for Arti’s face behind Maria.
However, there was no resistance. It felt like it was being sucked in as my sword pierced through Arti’s face.
The outline of her face flickered, losing its solidity and turning into flames, looking at me and laughing.
At the same time, Maria’s flamemard swung, and I leaped back.
It was a bizarre sight.
Arti transformed her entire body into flames and was swallowed by the flames Maria was cloaked in.
Eventually, she seeped into Maria’s body and disappeared.
Then, a part of Maria’s flames took the shape of a mouth and spoke to me.
“Now, it’s time. Christ. This is complete assimilation. It’s still the beginning—”
I thought about my next move, and my body stiffened.
The opponent I should attack was gone, and my hand stopped.
I understood that Arti had turned into flames and mixed with Maria’s flames.
This meant I had to extinguish all the flames in this place. Or did I have to enter Maria’s body and kill her along with it? Or was it something else entirely? I couldn’t guess.
As I hesitated and couldn’t move, Maria raised her flamemard and ran towards me, shouting.
“Master, please fall! If you fall, we can start over… We can start over from that time! This time no one else is needed, let’s start over with just the two of us!!”
I could only deflect the flamemard that attacked me repeatedly. I didn’t know how to attack Arti.
At this rate, I would be worn down and lose. Yet, the only countermeasure I had now was to persuade Maria, which I had failed at earlier.
“M-Maria! Hold yourself together! Everything is going according to that monster’s will! There’s no point in fighting me! There’s no do-overs in life!!”
“Even so! Arti-san stayed by my side until the end! For me, who was all alone, she worked hard! Unlike Master, she didn’t exclude me, make me feel alone, or leave me behind!!”
My words of persuasion were met with further rebukes.
The more I talked, the stronger the flames seemed to get.
There was no doubt that Maria’s spirit and heat had a close relationship.
I intensified my Magic “Dimension Winter” and shouted, using my heated mind to carefully choose my words—
“I will never leave you alone again! I won’t leave you behind! I promise! So, please extinguish the flames!!”
“Another lie…! Then why did you save Rustiara-san!? With her around, I can’t keep up. I’ll be left behind. I’ll be alone. Knowing that, why did you save Rustiara-san!?”
“I’ll make Rustiara understand, too. It’s okay. We’re all together. So—”
“Ever since that person! Rustiara-san came, everything went wrong! She’s a coward… It’s unfair to be born with such a dazzling existence. Seeing Master be drawn to her light, how anxious I was! As long as she’s here, when will I be left behind again? When will Master lie again? I can’t feel at ease!!”
With each exchange, Maria’s true feelings were exposed.
“……!”
At the same time, my misunderstanding became clear.
I felt like I was beginning to grasp the root of Maria’s feelings.
I had thought her feelings of love and jealousy were running wild, but that was different.
Something felt off. Maria was angry about “different things” repeatedly—
Right now, Maria and I were shouting at each other, risking our lives.
Because of that, we were finally starting to understand each other.
“…So, I’ll start over. I’ll go back to when gentle, weak, and lost Master was kind to me. Back then, Master clung to me, so I felt very secure. I thought, ‘With this person, I can be by his side, and finally be happy…’ I thought he would never lie to me. Master! Please, go back to the Master you were before that person came…”
Maria wanted to burn and become one with my weakened self.
She said she couldn’t feel at ease otherwise.
If it wasn’t for my weakened self, she would be constantly worried about when I might disappear.
That meant—
—Maria was simply anxious.
I hadn’t told Maria anything.
Her real name, her origin, her objective, nothing…
Because she knew nothing, she was so worried…
No matter how much I assured her, how kind I was, how much I favored her, it was meaningless if I didn’t convey any of the truth. On the contrary, it was counterproductive.
That was the root.
The root of this battle—of the ‘Tenth Ordeal’.
Maria was seeking assurance.
Assurance that I wouldn’t disappear anywhere—
“I could only watch as the one I love drifted away! No matter how much I chased, I couldn’t reach them!! Do you understand how I felt when Rustiara-san took the one I love!?”
Maria loved me.
She loved me so much it could kill me…
That’s why she couldn’t forgive Rustiara, who had assurance. She was afraid of Rustiara, who knew my real name, origin, and objective, and was always by my side. Without assurance, I was constantly worried about being abandoned.
Probably, Maria had been anxious for a long time.
For a very long time, she had been so anxious she felt like she was going crazy.
—I’m starting to understand.
No, I’m being taught.
By Arti, “The one who steals the logic of fire,” in her “Tenth Ordeal.”
“Master is mine… I found him first. Therefore, he is mine alone…!!”
Maria’s flames burned endlessly.
Consuming her entire being, their intensity surpassed my cold.
Eventually, even our sword clashing surpassed me, my sword was powerfully repelled backward. Then, my defenseless torso was pushed away, creating distance—Maria chanted.
“‘Ignite and Cleave Flames’—”
It was a poem of the determination to obtain something at any cost.
For some reason, I understood the meaning of that ‘Incantation’.
Maria’s wish poured into the ‘Incantation’ reached me.
At the same time, I also understood how much Maria had offered as a ‘Price’ to cast the magic.
“‘Convey and Sever Ice’—”
So, I chanted too.
The incantation spilled from my mouth as if I had thought of it myself.
At the same time, I felt a precious memory disappear.
I felt my emotions being manipulated.
However, Maria was the same. I wouldn’t stop.
“‘Illusory Stumble and Follow the Delicate Marrow’—”
“‘Illusory Stumble and Follow the Delicate Marrow’—”
The magic being constructed was likely the Fire Snake magic.
With my current strength, I should be able to do it.
I’ve trained in ice magic, understood it, strengthened it, gambled my life, added incantations, and learned the source of Maria’s flames—now!
“—‘Swallow the Stars’,” Midgards Blaze!!”
“—‘Swallow the Stars’,” Midgards Freeze!!”
Two great serpents were released from our bodies and clashed.
Both were formless serpents.
Heat and cold air.
The opposing great magics collided, trying to cancel each other out.
The balance lasted for a moment.
The Flame Snake won.
The cold air serpent had no chance of winning.
However, the balance had significantly weakened the Flame Snake’s momentum.
I dodged it by jumping to the side just before impact.
The Flame Snake hit the ground and dissipated.
I immediately regained my posture, forcing my screaming body to move, and pressed my attack on Maria.
I thought she must be feeling the same pain, so I couldn’t think of it as pain.
I swore I wouldn’t let Maria use flame magic anymore.
I approached her for close combat.
“—‘Shine, Flame Sword’. This is the complete Flame Sword. —Flame Flamberge!”
As I closed in, a fiery mouth chanted a magic.
It was Arti’s voice.
At the same time, the heat of Maria’s flamemard increased. The flamemard, visibly denser, turned blue, and eventually transformed into a dazzling white flamemard.
My treasure sword and Maria’s flamemard collided.
It was a strange sensation.
It felt too soft to be a collision.
The reason was simple. The tip of my treasure sword, which touched the flamemard, began to melt sluggishly.
“Urgh!! —Magic: Ice Sword!”
[Status]
HP 219/345 MP 0/657
[Status]
HP 208/332 MP 0/657—
Remaining 208 and 332.
I coated my treasure sword with ice to prevent damage.
Using unfamiliar magic, my life was visibly being depleted.
The life that had increased along with my level after surviving the battle with Teeda was being converted into magic like melting ice.
The flamemard and ice sword clashed, scattering sparks of magic.
Magic mist billowed and rose.
I instinctively drew back my sword and swung it again.
However, everything was deflected by Maria’s flamemard.
Clearly, her movements were different from just a moment ago. With Arti’s assimilation, all her abilities had improved. Her strength, speed, technique, and the accuracy of “Keengan” were on a different level.
No matter how much I swung my sword, only sparks flew.
In unison, Maria shouted.
“When I lost my home, when I became a slave! It wasn’t this painful! If it was this painful, jealous, and sad, I wish you had abandoned me from the start!!”
Every time I heard Maria’s inner thoughts, my body grew sluggish.
I understood.
I no longer felt like arguing back.
—It’s my fault.
It’s my fault for offering help with half-hearted resolve.
It’s my fault for continuing to act ambiguously afterward.
It’s my fault for deceiving myself and forcing Maria.
It’s my fault for my overprotective behavior.
“I wish I had no hope! Even if I had died as a slave, I wouldn’t feel this pain now! Being unable to approach but being left behind, being unable to know but being looked away from—it’s driving me mad!!”
It’s my fault for postponing explanations.
It’s my fault for running away even after I knew her romantic feelings.
To top it all off, it’s my fault for leaving Maria alone while making excuses.
It’s my fault for realizing this so late.
Everything was tormenting Maria.
As a result, Maria was being instigated and manipulated by a monster named Arti.
I wanted to punch myself for thinking that rescuing Rustiara unscathed meant everything was going smoothly just a moment ago.
What was “everything is going well”?
What was “—It’s truly for the best”?
As always, nothing was going well.
As I became aware of it, the skill ‘???’ was already crawling close by.
With my current mental state, if I reached out, it would surely activate. It would solve everything by sacrificing things other than the labyrinth. It would provide a simple answer by discarding everything chaotic without hesitation.
It was a sweet temptation.
If it activated, I would surely kill Maria, who threatened my life.
And that would be the end.
Regardless of the outcome, it would be a relief.
I could erase all suffering, sadness, anger, and worry.
But no.
An answer derived by such means could not be right.
So, I thought desperately.
Gathering all the available information with a mind that was far from calm, I decided on the course of action to take.
With my own will.
“—That’s all there is now.”
I uttered my resolve, my throat trembling.
—Now, I have chosen my answer.
And then, without activating the skill ‘???’, without chanting, I constructed magic with my own mana.
My aim was to envelop Maria with cold air, just like in the morning.
Exerting all my strength, I started running.
“—Magic: Midwinter of Overcrowded Dimensions!!”
I desperately held onto my fading consciousness, depleting my life to construct the ultimate magic.
I expanded my domain to envelop Maria, stealing her heat as I swung my sword.
The magic’s cold air hindered Maria’s movements while chilling her.
The enemy’s heat sources numbered over a thousand. Trying to understand them all and distribute mana optimally, my brain circuits burned. My brain, sensing danger, secreted a large amount of drugs. Pain-suppressing substances flowed through every vessel.
I reached the other side of the pain and understood all the heat sources with inhuman processing power.
Clearly, the refinement of the magic was different from the previous battle with the “Seven Knights of Heaven”. Being able to maintain consciousness was due to my status, or perhaps my increased skill level—
Intuitively, I knew it was the quality of the magic.
The mana born from sacrificing my maximum HP was clearly of a different quality.
With my ice magic, I sealed both Maria’s flames and movements.
As a result, I suppressed both Maria’s flames and Arti’s flames, narrowly dodged the flamemard, and placed my ice sword at Maria’s throat.
However, that was all I could do.
Maria moved as if she didn’t care about being decapitated and tried to swing her flamemard again. I used my free hand to grab her wrist, blocking it. Even as my palm burned, I had no intention of letting go.
Thus, Maria and I found ourselves staring into each other’s eyes at point-blank range.
In that pose, I spoke to her slowly.
From my repeated failures, I knew this was my last chance.
“Maria, I won’t give up… I absolutely cannot stop Dungeon Exploration and aiming for the Deepest Part…”
“I don’t want to go… I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go. Because being alone is unbearable now—”
“I don’t want to be alone either… That’s why I decided to go to the Deepest Part…”
I suppressed Maria, who was trying to break free from my grasp with strength and flames, and revealed my true feelings that I had hidden for so long.
At the same time, I let go of the treasure sword at her neck, dropping it to the ground.
“—Eh?”
Maria loosened her grip slightly.
I leaned into Maria, letting my cold air permeate, and evoked the true feelings I had been hiding all along.
Once I said them, I knew my emotional restraint would break.
Just thinking about it would drive me mad.
If I realized it, I wouldn’t be able to stop crying. I would become unable to stay calm. I knew that.
But this was the only way I could think of to save Maria.
It was worth holding back the skill ‘???’ for these past few days. Now, I could express those emotions without pretense. My feelings for my ‘family’ were reigniting. The ‘Price’ offered by the previous skill ‘???’ was only my feelings for Rustiara.
I remembered my ‘family’—my ‘Sister’, and then clearly remembered my objective.
Instantly, I felt dizzy.
Just facing it threatened to drown me in anxiety, and I couldn’t stop feeling nauseous.
However, I would absolutely not activate the skill ‘???’.
With my own will, I spoke.
“If Maria is alone, then I am alone too… Because I am the only one in the world. I am a single anomaly…”
“W-what are you saying—?”
“I am not from this world. I was summoned from a distant, distant world, just a student. That’s why I want to go home. I want to go home… I don’t want to die in this nonsensical place… There’s no family here! Truly, I am alone in the world! I was scared… I was so incredibly scared of dying alone in a place like this…!”
“You’re not from this world…?”
For the first time—I managed to recall the feeling of being lost in this other world—the feeling that the skill ‘???’ had erased—and conveyed it to Maria, looking her directly in the eyes without hiding it.
“To go home, to my precious family!! I want to see my ‘Sister’! It’s not just loneliness, but more than anything, I’m worried sick about her! We were a family of just two people…! Without me, she’s truly alone…! She can’t live without me, yet I’ve been trapped in this world for over a week… I’m suffering being alone in this world too. But! Surely, my Sister is suffering even more, alone in that world!! That’s why I have to return! To do that, I have no choice but to obtain a miracle! I need the miracle at the depths of the labyrinth!!”
“Master… Sister…?”
“Yes, a girl who looks just like Maria. That’s why I was helping Maria, favoring her, and comforting myself by thinking of my Sister… By treating Maria as a substitute for my Sister, keeping her at home, I was maintaining myself… I only helped Maria to distract myself!!”
Maria’s black hair, her appearance, her age, her attitude, her circumstances—they all reminded me of my ‘Sister’ from the past.
I didn’t want to admit it.
I had tried not to think about it.
Just remembering it, just talking about it, distorted my heart. My chest ached as if flesh was being twisted off with pliers.
The person I cared about was far away, unreachable.
Just that made me suffer so much.
I was consumed by anxiety.
—But.
This suffering was something Maria had been enduring.
Unlike me, she had been enduring it all along.
And the one inflicting that suffering was none other than me.
So, even as my limbs, hands, and neck were burned, I apologized to Maria.
She could burn me as much as she wanted.
But in return, I would save Maria. I had to free the girl suffering because of me from the flames of her torment before I could return to my own world.
When I displayed my Status, I could see my life draining away. My cells were dying one by one, and I tasted death from the back of my tongue.
Still, I wouldn’t stop. In the extreme, I couldn’t stop until my HP reached 1.
I further strengthened the infiltration of my cold air.
However, Arti, who refused to acknowledge this, tried to intervene.
“W-wait, Maria… That’s the truth—”
“Arti-san, please be quiet!!”
Maria silenced her.
It seemed she wouldn’t allow anything to obstruct her as she began to speak the truth.
For Maria, this was likely the entrance to the truth she had finally found.
“I’m sorry, Maria… I did terrible things to you. Even though I realized your romantic feelings, I treated you only as a little sister. It was the easiest for me, so I kept running back to that.”
Maria listened to my confession with a serious expression.
Grateful for that, I expressed my resolve truthfully.
“So, I’ve decided. Maria—”
If something didn’t go well, and I wanted it to go well, a price would be necessary.
That price, I had to pay now.
“I’m okay with having my limbs burned here and becoming yours. I don’t mind dying in the end. If you promise me just one thing… just one condition… I’m willing to have my hands and feet torn off right now.”
This was my answer.
I had just decided that my answer and my objective were incompatible.
That wasn’t the case.
“Promise me you’ll go to the Deepest Part of the Labyrinth. Promise me you’ll definitely become my Sister’s help in my stead. With the current you, cooperating with Rustiara and the others, you can do it… I’m sure you can…”
I didn’t need to do it.
As long as there was someone to inherit my will, I was fine with anything.
Now, there was Rustiara, who had regained herself. Her talent was undoubtedly heroic. She had leadership potential. I could trust her, and most importantly, she was an Explorer who didn’t desire miracles.
There were also Radiant-san, Hein-san, and Dia.
If the five of them worked together, they could surely reach the Deepest Part of the Labyrinth. If Maria and the others inherited my will, then such an ending would be fine.
Rustiara’s ‘Contract’ was a condition that Maria could fulfill.
The feelings of the Explorer Christ Eurasia didn’t matter much.
My being in perfect health also didn’t matter.
My return was not essential.
What mattered was only the ‘happiness of my Sister’.
That was the true wish of ‘Aikawa Uzunami’—
“My real name is Aikawa Uzunami. And my Sister is Hidaki. When you go to my world, look for Hidaki… If you help Hidaki, I won’t need anything else…”
It was probably a foolish thought.
If the skill ‘???’ activated, she would absolutely not forgive me.
But desperate people are like that. If, on the brink of death, I had emotions and could genuinely falter, I could make such a choice.
I could gamble on a sliver of hope that was not rational.
Hearing that, Maria repeated my name.
“Kaname… Master’s real name is… Aikawa, Kaname…”
There was no skill ‘???’.
There was no lie of Christ Eurasia.
Maria repeated the answer given by “Aikawa Uzunami,” as if savoring it.
