Chapter: 173. “I will definitely bring her back”
In the repeated backtracks, although he knew this thought might be a bit rude, Kanade truly felt a sense of playing a game.
At the cost of his own life, starting over again and again after facing failure, until he found patterns and gained enough experience to cope.
If the current predicament were indeed compared to a game, it was clear that they had entered the second stage—
The colorful blades transformed the life force within Kanade into magic power, and the sudden surge of this magic power allowed Kanade’s speed to create an explosion in the air. The blades, swung down, cut through the icy barriers in front of him once again, causing the transparent ice blocks to quickly shatter into countless ice crystals during their descent.
The magic power left behind by the ice crystals was absorbed by the colorful aurora, replenishing Kanade’s life force.
This was the combat skill Kanade had mastered through repeated cycles, compensating for his lack of strength, slowly forcing the opponent to the second stage, which he had barely survived from being instantaneously killed by the ice at the beginning.
However, this was also Kanade’s own perceived “second phase.”
If “preventing Nagi from killing everyone in this small park” was the first phase, then the so-called “second phase” was—
“How troublesome~”
Nagi lightly leaped backward, creating distance from the group. Her body, surrounded by countless azure frost, hovered like an angel in the air. Meanwhile, Kanade, standing on the ground, tightly gripped the Blade of Life in his right hand, while his left hand condensed the pitch-black flames into claw-like blades, crossing the two to slash downward.
The land’s power that had yet to surge from the ground was directly transformed into remnants of magic power beneath the blades of life and black flames. However, the collision of magic power still unleashed a strong shockwave that knocked surrounding individuals away, some temporarily losing consciousness.
Seeing this, Nagi did not attack again; instead, she seemed to have lost interest in the situation and turned away.
Her slender figure streaked past like a shooting star, leaving a dazzling trail in the sky.
After going through nearly dozens of cycles, Kanade finally endured through the confrontation with “The End” in the park.
But what lay before him next was the escaping Nagi.
“The End—I’ll definitely not let you escape this time!!!” A roar came from Kanade’s side.
There stood Adam, the only one who hadn’t lost mobility during the shockwave of magic power.
Although Kanade had tried to backtrack multiple times to incapacitate Adam as well, he had never succeeded.
It seemed that whenever he attempted to attack Adam while confronting Nagi, it would provoke a fiercer attack from the latter, and that kind of assault was beyond his current ability to defend against, making it impossible for him to protect Mana, Renji, and the others.
So Kanade had no choice but to give up, allowing Nagi to escape, letting him worry less about Mana’s and the others’ safety.
For this reason, Kanade could only watch as Adam struck the ground with one hand, the contact causing a violent shockwave akin to a bomb explosion.
Adam’s tall and strong body shot towards the direction Nagi had fled.
As the “game progress” reached this point, Kanade felt as if it was a mid-game break, everything was just right; all the other special-tier SEMA ability users were rendered immobile, and there was no need to worry about them attacking Mana and Renji. Although Mana was also affected, she hadn’t lost her combat power and could still lead Renji to safety—
As if by a fateful coincidence.
It felt as if someone had intricately designed it.
Kanade vaguely perceived a sort of subtle incongruity wrapping around his heart, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t grasp where this feeling of incongruity originated until—
“Mana, I leave Renji to you.” Kanade said gravely to Mana beside him.
After saying that, he intended to chase after Nagi.
But before he could do so, Mana had already reached out and firmly grabbed Kanade’s clothing.
“Tsukimi-kun, this power of yours is…” Mana exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.
To Kanade, this power was the growth he had comprehended through repeated cycles, but in Mana’s eyes, he seemed to have instantaneously transformed into another person, which is why she was so surprised.
However, unexpectedly, Mana did not ask Kanade for an explanation but showed an accepting expression.
“This isn’t the time for explanations, right?”
“Ah… Nagi… has been…” A flash of anger crossed Kanade’s eyes.
But Mana interrupted him.
“No, that’s not it, Nagi-chan…” Mana refuted Kanade’s statement.
Her reaction puzzled Kanade.
Under Kanade’s gaze, Mana hesitated for a moment and then said:
“I have an impression of how Nagi-chan looked just now…”
“What?”
“It seems I felt that feeling in someone else before—” Mana lifted her head, her crimson eyes meeting Kanade’s golden irises.
“When we were at the Ark Academy, on the night of the attack — I felt the same feeling Nagi-chan has now in Nanjo Akane… that is, it is not The End… but more like—”
“—the Elemental Sovereign… the real protagonist…” Kanade picked up Mana’s words.
In that instant, it seemed like some clues connected in his mind.
In the first world line, Nagi was ultimately discovered by the special-tier SEMA as the true protagonist, who was regarded as the savior.
And the previous savior was— the Elemental Sovereign… No, that’s not right, but the Elemental Sovereign should have been dead by now… having died to save this world—
Just as Kanade felt he might have found a key answer, a “natural” thought reversed his line of thinking and subsequently denied it.
Meanwhile, Mana was also busy; she recounted the confrontation with Nanjo Akane that night at Ark Academy, and shared information that Yako had once told her—
The Elemental Sovereign is not dead.
The Elemental Sovereign is a girl.
……
……
All the statements that were once deemed absurd seemed to be validated now.
Kanade wasn’t hearing this for the first time; after the Ark Academy incident, he had learned this information from Kurokawa, but previously he had treated it as a mere excuse Nanjo Akane was using to manipulate Ark Academy.
But now, it seemed that an unseen connection linked these critical clues together.
Kanade felt that the unsettling feeling in his heart was finally revealed.
A constraint of that “existence is reasonable” was quickly fading.
Kanade recalled that he had once experienced a similar feeling during the time Nagi lost her memory—
“Kanade-kun.” Mana changed how she addressed him, pulling Kanade’s thoughts back to reality.
Mana tried to struggle to get up from the ground: “I’ll go with you—”
But she had not yet stood straight before feeling her legs weaken, nearly stumbling and falling.
Kanade quickly caught Mana.
“No, Mana, you focus on getting Renji to a safe place.” Kanade gently shook his head at Mana, speaking in a soft but firm tone:
“Leave Nagi… to me.”
At that moment, Mana realized that, given her current condition, she would only become a hindrance to Kanade.
“Kanade-kun… please…” Mana gripped the hem of Kanade’s clothing tightly, “You must bring Nagi-chan back—”
“Mm, leave it to me, I will definitely bring her back—”
—————–
Above the city of Kawano.
Nagi successfully guided Kanade through one backtrack after another, molding the situation into her ideal form.
She only allowed Adam, the individual corrupted by The End, to retain his mobility, then through her escape, drew him away from Mana and Renji.
As for the fragments of The End on Adam, Nagi had already devised a plan for how to deal with them—
