Chapter 450

The window glass turns white and crumbles away. The barrage of mana is to blame. Elias’s fingertips, which had been curled around the bowstring, spread open. A blue-glowing arrow tears through the air and pierces the heart of one of the Rampagers.

[Aaaaargh!]

A low, harsh scream tears through the mud. Elias quietly nocks another arrow.

“Direct hit.”

“…….”

“I’ve never been happy about something like this before.”

I looked at his face without saying a word.

“No. I never wanted to be happy about it.”

Silence settles between us. Without another word, Elias nocks another arrow and draws the bowstring.

Boom!

Another scream. Another body falls. I wrapped mana around the pillar beside the window and flew toward it, landing hard on the desk. Before Elias could nock his next arrow, I flicked my hand and helped him steady himself. Walking was out of the question, but I could still fly—as long as my mana flow did not break midway.

I leaped once more and sat diagonally on the windowsill, throwing the window wide open. The vitriol rushing toward us melted against the divine power I had scattered through the air. Elias drew the string again and released. Again. After dropping two more Rampagers, he finally looked toward me. As before, I rested the staff on my shoulder. Holding the shaft with both hands from a distance, I opened my mouth.

— He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

BOOOOOOM—!!

Countless masses of divine power rain down upon the mud-covered figures scattered across the gymnasium track. Screams erupt all around us. I inhaled the charged air and drew out even more divine power.

“Eli.”

“Yeah?”

“I haven’t told you this before, but… I’ve been to a world made of nothing but mana.”

“What?”

Fsssh—

Elias’s arrow whistles past the side of a Rampager’s head. He snaps back to himself, adjusts his grip on the bow, and draws the string again. There is no time to lower my staff just to talk. Elias is probably already running several spells through his head at once, accounting for the bowstring’s elasticity and the different hardnesses of the bow, shaft, and arrowhead, so carrying on a conversation cannot be easy for him. Even so, I had to tell him now.

“It’s possible through astral projection. But—”

“We didn’t astral-project.”

“Exactly. That’s what I’m getting at. We didn’t come here as souls. We got here with our bodies intact, together with those Rampagers. If this really is the astral plane…”

Boom!— Thud!

One of the ones who had managed to remain standing despite the divine power finally collapses. Elias’s arrowhead pierces their heart, then releases the mana it had compressed throughout their body. The mud that had once been a human body bursts apart.

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away. Then I tilted the staff I had been resting against my shoulder downward before thrusting it back up as I spoke.

— But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief!

Whooosh—

Divine power poured over the entire schoolyard like a waterfall. For a moment, the light was so bright I could barely keep my eyes open, and then everything in front of me went black.

I smelled blood.

Even after the darkness in my vision faded, I still could not see properly through the divine power splashing and flowing over my entire body. Even so, I could tell Elias had turned his head. I wiped my nose and mouth with the left hand that had been gripping my staff and spoke slowly, leaving a clear pause between each word.

“Look ahead.”

I hoped I had said it properly. My hand refused to move the way I wanted and jabbed aimlessly at my cheek and eye instead. I had finally wiped them clean, only for it to be useless. My vision went black again.

Even so, the flow of mana remained perfectly clear to me.

Elias’s breathing quickened. Holding his breath, he took aim at the hearts of the Rampagers charging from the street toward the gymnasium. The Rampagers gathered on the track screamed as my divine power swept over them. Their bodies of mud melted away.

I continued reciting the spell while struggling to suppress the vitriol they kept sending in every direction.

— You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

[Graaaaaagh! Aaaah….]

Just as Elias had said, I could hear those choking, rasping sounds. They were running out of breath. Sounds of life came from people whose lungs I could no longer even tell were still there.

Disgust consumed me from head to toe. People who wanted to live well killed innocent people to achieve it. The fact that every one of them had once been a prisoner did not mean they deserved to die like this, turned into mud.

I still could not believe that all this tragedy had begun with nothing more than human desires. Petty wishes and flimsy beliefs were tearing an entire age apart.

Just as they always had.

What good was shouting that we were all children of the light—in a world where the children of the light had to kill other children of the light?

My anguish always turned into disgust only after it reached the stark realization that human nature was astonishingly unchanged, whether in the 21st century A.D. or here. The reason I always ended up feeling such overwhelming helplessness was that the root of all this did not belong exclusively to this world. Humanity had adapted to its circumstances, dressing the same old violence in different appearances and giving it plausible names before carrying it out. Even when mana arrived in the world and people babbled with open mouths that this was the grace of God, humanity remained the same. Grace, my ass. Whether I was living in the age of neoliberalism or the age of magic, humans were always—

Bang—!

[AAAAAAGH! Help me—!]

H, i, l, f, e—the voice of someone whose vocal cords were still intact broke apart into fragments. That voice dragged my consciousness back to the present. I grimaced.

I could not understand why I had to destroy their world here and now. Whose fault was it? Whose greed had brought this about? But tracing it all the way back to the source of every evil was pointless right now. I had to deal with what was in front of me.

I heard someone running up the stairs. More than one set of hands pounded against the iron door. I spun around, slammed my staff into the floor, and recited the spell.

BOOOOM—!

— Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

There was gloom for those who were in distress before—right now, at this very moment. Pure white divine power surged beneath the iron door.

At that moment, Elias grabbed me by the shoulder.

“Luka.”

He hoisted me into his arms, stepped on a desk, and leaped toward the window on the opposite side.

Crash—bang!

The lab tables rattled violently.

Elias spoke through ragged breaths.

“That’s enough. There are more and more of them.”

More and more. I thought so too. Elias flung both sides of the window open and planted one foot on the sill. Then he pushed off and leaped.

Bang—!

“…!”

The wind outside swept over us. I opened my mouth and looked down. Shrubs and paving stones flashed past beneath us. Even the streetlamps. He was running across the rooftops. At the edge of the building, he lowered his body and jumped toward the next one.

Thud—

I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut. Elias, apparently accustomed to doing things like this—at least, that was what I had read before coming here—was completely unfazed.

“Do you realize we’re getting closer and closer to central Munich?”

“I know, but—ugh… More importantly, this sort of thing…”

For some reason, Elias said nothing. His grip tightened. Then, in a voice so obviously theatrical that anyone could tell he was putting it on, he muttered, “As someone who only graduated elementary school not long ago, I gotta at least do this much.”

“…….”

“I think there’s someone over there absorbing our mana.”

Elias jerked his head toward the rear.

“And they just keep increasing. Looks like everyone who was trapped under the building and barely clinging to life is going on a rampage. I wanted to go back and see if there were any survivors, but…”

“Impossible.”

“I know. Then, what exactly do you mean by ‘astral’—?”

Elias rolled his pronunciation heavily as if speaking American English. I understood. I didn’t know well either. Concepts like this were new to me, too. The astral plane, a world of pure mana, World B, whatever else there was… Everything I knew about them came from what Maria and Richthofen had told me. While I was choosing my words, Elias frowned and continued.

“No. Don’t say anything. Not a word. I’m just talking to myself from here on. So, are you saying the astral realm is the same thing as the world made only of mana? Is there some rule that says we have to enter it as souls?”

― “Otherwise, it’s impossible.”

“…If you’re going to use divine power anyway, there’s no point in not talking. Anyway, I get it.”

If we had brought our physical bodies here intact, then the place we were standing had to be part of the physical world. In other words, if this theory was true, we had somehow fallen into a world where we could see ghosts with our physical bodies. If there had been a way to travel here with a physical body, Maria Österreich-Este would have done so. Of course, he had wanted to appear like a ghost to the members of l’Éclat Littéraire, but there was no way he had never experienced setting foot there in his physical body.

Elias reached his own conclusion.

“First, even if this is the world of pure mana, maybe it isn’t that astral plane or whatever. You used the two terms as if they meant the same thing, but let’s shift our paradigm and assume they’re different. Second, maybe we got hit on the head by the rubble, went out of body, and ended up here. Or third, maybe these crazy bastards made it possible to enter the astral plane with our physical bodies because they wanted to use it like some kind of sewer.”

The second possibility was out. If we’d come here in a soul state, we should have been able to pass through solid objects, and I should have been able to walk. More importantly…

I looked up at his last suggestion. Elias kept running as he spoke.

“So, in the end, the important thing is still that we have no way out.”

“…….”

There was one. I could get out by turning back time. If I went back to before any of this happened. But…

I had so few points left that using one was already a serious concern. And if I did turn back time, it would make more sense to go all the way back to before Heike collapsed. Using points twice would be foolish when I could do it all in one go. That meant living through all that time again from the beginning. Maybe it would be greedy to refuse to throw away all the time I’d accumulated until now. But giving up what I wanted was something I’d always done.

More importantly, that wasn’t why I refused to turn back time. There was a problem I’d always considered, but after what happened in Brandenburg, it had become painfully real—what guarantee was there that turning back time wouldn’t simply lead us back to this exact situation all over again?

Would it be enough to simply avoid coming to Munich? If we hadn’t come to Munich, we wouldn’t have been dragged into this unknown world by the collapsing prison. But as long as we’re trying to save Heike, as long as the person who did this to Heike is the thief who stole the relics, and as long as the French Imperial Family doesn’t want anyone to discover that they were the ones who stole the parure, this situation will happen again in some other form. Everyone in the prison went on a rampage because it was meant to stop us from searching for the relic. Any new problem would simply branch off in another direction we couldn’t foresee. And then I’d have to turn back time again. And again, and again.

Maybe the more than a month I spent in Brandenburg left a scar on me. Maybe that’s why I’ve become so cautious.

‘But what if I really use up all my points?’

From that moment on, we would have no more chances. True death would be waiting for us. So, until the very end, until I could justify spending Leo’s life to keep us going, until the very last moment, I had to keep looking for a way to defeat them here.

“Luka.”

I shifted my gaze toward him. Elias was looking down at me with a smile. I could tell how worn-out he was.

“Sleepy?”

“I’m fine. Thanks to you running around on rooftops.”

“Ahahaha! Then it was worth it.”

Elias laughed so hard his throat showed, then smiled as he landed on the ground. There was no building ahead of us. He continued running toward central Munich. As he ran, I swallowed the blood rising in my throat. Now that I could see him properly, the skin on Elias’s hands had been scraped raw and turned red. He must have been hit by vitriol.

“You know what, Luka?”

“What?”

“You’ve used way too much divine power today. You’ve been pouring it out nonstop since the prison.”

“So have you.”

“Yeah, me too. That’s why…”

As Elias ran, I smashed through the door of a building I’d spotted. It was a museum of magic. I could only hope at least a few of them would make it inside. After the sound of the door collapsing, Elias whispered, “What do we do now?”

People kept going on a rampage, and we had no way back. The one thing we had going for us was that if we could recover our strength, we might be able to deal with dozens, even hundreds, of them. But the desperate part was that buying enough time to recover our strength would be anything but easy.

Yes, we were running out of time.

I opened the Dawn window and checked how much time remained until my death. Then I closed it and quietly called out to Elias.

“Eli. I need time.”

We were back in Marienplatz, the same place where Leo, Elias, and I had come before. I looked at Elias as he waited for me to continue.

“About twenty minutes. No—if things go well, maybe I can cut that down a little.”

“So I need to buy us twenty minutes.”

“Yeah.”

Just then, a shambling shape made of mud appeared at the far end of the street. Elias hurriedly ducked behind a building and muttered, “Alright. But first, I think we need to avoid those things spread all over central Munich.”

I knew why he was keeping his head down. If we recklessly used magic now, the Rampagers would swarm toward us. Elias turned to me and asked, “But putting that aside, you do have a plan, right?”

“I don’t know whether it’ll work, but I do.”

“Well, that’s reassuring. I knew I could count on you.”

I couldn’t smile. Reassuring? I couldn’t even walk on my own right now. My injury was limiting his freedom of movement. I thought I was pretty good at keeping my expression under control, but Elias stared straight at me and scolded me.

“Don’t start thinking weird things.”

“What are you talking about?”

He ignored my attempt to play dumb and looked away as he continued.

“I can keep carrying you and running. Besides, we can’t fight at close range anymore. You can just keep casting from my arms and knock them down for me.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I waved a hand dismissively. Elias cautiously leaned his head out from beside the building to check the street. Fortunately, it seemed the Rampager had passed, so he carefully started moving.

‘Wait.’

I grabbed Elias by the collar. There was someone behind us—in other words, at the end of the alley.

Boom—!

“…!”

I instinctively squinted. Pale-blue mana crackled through the air. It wasn’t mine. And it wasn’t Elias’s, either. A chill crept slowly down my spine. If this wasn’t vitriol but someone’s mana, then why was it here?

‘Don’t tell me…’

Elias, who had lowered his body and gone on alert, slowly widened his eyes.

“Leo?”

“…Here…”

Someone came staggering toward us, leaning on a staff. I stared at him in shock. His parched lips opened once more.

“Found you.”

Leo approached limping, blood smeared across his face and arms. Elias, visibly shaken, took a step back.

“You…”

“There was a Rampager over there.”

Leo pointed toward the passage leading to another alley, speaking in a tired voice.

“I saw a Rampager over there. We should watch our backs.”

He gave us a faint smile as he finished speaking. The corners of his mouth slowly drooped. He looked as though he had no strength left to feel happy about anything. Even his hair, which he usually kept neatly swept back, had fallen loose. I asked him, “What about Lord Rothenhahn?”

“…….”

Leo didn’t answer. His eyes were dull and sunken. He walked past us toward the main road and gestured for us to follow.

“Let’s find somewhere to hide. You two have probably figured it out already, but we can’t keep going like this.”

“Leo. Where were you?”

Elias shouted the question as he hurried after him. Leo answered in a dry voice.

“Right in front of the rubble. I got out before it collapsed, but I was hit by the debris and knocked unconscious for a while.”

“You passed out? Tell me more.”

“I got outside the prison before the Rampagers came to their senses. I tried to find you two, but…”

“You didn’t know where we were.”

At Elias’s words, Leo nodded. After a long silence, he looked at me and said briefly, “You’re badly hurt. Is it your leg?”

Obviously. I had nothing to say to that, so I asked something else instead.

“So where are you planning to go?”

“…….”

“I know you know Munich well, but there isn’t exactly anywhere suitable for holding them off. Got any good ideas?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a particularly good one. Our best option is to hide and keep our distance.”

He answered with a small cough.

Hide and keep our distance. Just as Elias and I had been doing until now? Perhaps realizing there was no hope to be found in that idea either, Elias let out a long, deflated breath. Despite his exhaustion, Leo continued walking with clear purpose.

“I did think about using the Isar to isolate the Rampagers… but even if we lure them there, keeping them contained would be difficult. We could easily end up being the ones trapped.”

“That’s true. But with the three of us, isn’t it worth taking the risk?”

“Sounds like you.”

I tightened my grip on Elias’s shoulder. He looked down at me.

— “Eli. Get ready.”

Elias narrowed his brow slightly and raised his head. Then he spoke toward the back of Leo’s head.

“Okay, Leo. Let’s try the Isar. You scout the north of Munich. We’ll head east.”

“…….”

“Then we’ll meet at the river.”

“I told you, we might end up trapped there.”

“We’ll figure that out when we get there. The river’s practically right in front of us anyway, you exasperating little model student.”

The moment he heard that, Leo turned around irritably. He narrowed his eyes, his face worn down by exhaustion.

“Do you really want to go through with this?”

“We should at least try.”

Leo let out a long sigh. His voice was slightly hoarse as he answered with resignation.

“Fine… Who am I to stop you? Meet me at Museumsinsel on the Isar in thirty minutes. I’ll drive them that way.”

“Look at you, actually being reasonable for once.”

Leo gave a faint smile before turning away again. Elias took a step back, then another. I cast a soundproofing spell and whispered, “Feels like déjà vu.”

“Haha… yeah. More importantly, what are we going to do? If we run, they’ll chase us. And if we don’t…”

BOOOOM―!

There was no need to think about it any further. Azure mana exploded in front of us. An attack struck the staff I held in both hands.

“Damn it.”

Elias had anticipated this, but experiencing it firsthand was apparently enough to make him mutter a curse with a thoroughly fed-up look.

Right. That was a high-risk Rampager. More precisely, they weren’t a Rampager at all. They were the ideal specimen Pleroma was looking for: someone who had been exposed to the rampage drug, gained only vitriol from it, and yet did not actually go on a rampage. Just like Emanuel Wittelsbach.

‘Looks like this one has a Special Ability that lets him transform, too, like our schoolmate.’

Whether it was an illusion or something else. There was no way that was Leo. Elias had recognized immediately that he wasn’t Leo, after all.

But there was a bigger problem. The fact that this person remained so composed even after being contaminated with vitriol meant that they must have been an exceptionally skilled mage. That was the real problem. They possessed vitriol that could produce greater force than ordinary mana, yet retained their sanity completely and had enough skill to have served as an Royal Mage. At least, that was my assumption.

Elias adjusted his grip on me and started running in the opposite direction. I pushed myself upright over his shoulder and aimed my staff at the enemy.

― Your name, LORD, endures forever!

CLANG―! SKRRAAACK―!

I could hardly believe my eyes. Mana like a blade, mana Leo could never have produced, twisted through the divine power and came rushing toward us. I knocked the incoming mana aside with the ornament at the end of my staff and shouted again.

― Your renown, LORD, through all generations!

The divine power split into several streams and surged toward him. I heard the sound of something being blasted far into the distance. The deafening noise left my ears ringing. My senses were no longer functioning properly.

Elias panted as he spoke.

“You’re slowing down, Luka.”

“I’d love not to be. Sorry. I can’t help it.”

“I’m not blaming you. Don’t push yourself.”

Elias suddenly turned his head and muttered, “If we just keep going down like this…”

“We’ll run into more Rampagers, so we need to get as far away from them as we can.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

Thud—

Elias suddenly veered left and kicked off the pavement. I flicked my staff. Something like glass painted in white light appeared in front of the charging enemy. I changed the staff into a wand and swung it hard across the diagonal.

BOOM—!!

“Urgh…!”

The figure, blocking the barrier fragments, continued to speak in Leo’s voice until the very end. Maybe it was only us who felt that way. Either way, the distance between us had widened. I felt blood trickling into my mouth and forced my eyes to stay focused.

— The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment.

Whoosh— BOOM—!

— He stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

The vitriol flying toward me and Elias from above vanished. Our enemy did not back down. With more vitriol continuing to rain toward us, I gathered divine power into my wand and aimed it forward.

— He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind; He makes winds his messengers!

“Wait…!”

At Elias’s shrill cry, I turned my head and my eyes widened. My body tilted.

BANG—!

My head rang. The stars embedded in the night sky trembled in my vision. Blood ran from where my head struck the ground. An instinctive thought struck me—this is my limit.

‘No.’

This couldn’t be it. Who decided I’d reached my limit? I twisted my body around and braced myself against the ground with my elbow. Vitriol was wrapped around Elias’s leg where he had fallen.

“Eli!”

I threw my staff to him. He changed it into a sword, cut through the vitriol, and barely managed to get back on his feet. Damn it. We were trapped. Behind us stood the Pleroma wearing Leo’s form. Ahead was a Rampager who had lost all reason. And the biggest problem of all was my leg. Elias would live if not for me.

I shouted with everything I had.

“Run. Now!”

Elias charged at the Rampager before him with his sword drawn. The strength drained from me. Of course he wasn’t going to listen. A strange scream came first.

“GRAAAAAAAH—!”

Stab— CRASH—!

Elias cut through one vital point after another, where the vitriol channels should have been, before driving his sword straight into the heart. The place where the ribs should have been had turned into vitriol, and when Elias slashed diagonally downward, the empty space inside was exposed completely. The Rampager crumpled to the ground. It was a speed I’d never seen from Elias before. And Elias himself was nothing like usual. He had lost his reason right now.

I shouted until the veins in my neck stood out.

“Elias!”

“We’re going together. You really think I’m going to let you die alone?”

Elias shook the vitriol off his sword and stepped in front of me. Vitriol came flying at us from the figure wearing Leo’s face in the distance. He brought his staff down hard. I slammed my fist into the ground, and a white barrier rippled into place, blocking the vitriol. The moment it touched the barrier, the barrier melted and swallowed it whole. Elias changed his sword back into a staff as well.

— Lord.

His movements were slow. It felt as though time itself had stretched out. If by “going together” he meant going to the afterlife together, then that could happen right now. I shouted again with all the strength I had.

“Think straight!”

“I am thinking straight.”

His answer was calm. Elias spun the staff once through the air. Deep-blue mana crackled from its tip. He shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I’ve never stopped thinking clearly for even a moment! Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you!”

Mana cold as the waves of the deep sea cut through the air.

Not a single moment. Those words carried countless meanings. More than I could ever dare imagine. I clenched my teeth.

― …The LORD is my light and my salvation.

I couldn’t use a nullification spell. It would nullify Elias’s mana as well. Even if I took that risk, I couldn’t exploit the opening it created in my current condition. So I had to overpower him with sheer force. White divine power burst from the ground beneath my hand like flames.

― Whom shall I fear?

Boom—! Clang—!

― The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?

The vitriol covering the ground vanished in an instant. Elias overlaid his own mana over the attack being hurled at him, changed his staff into a sword, and lunged at the figure. The clash of blades rang out. I poured divine power into the hand pressed against the ground and dug my fingers into the earth.

‘…Ah.’

Divine power was surely bursting forth, but my vision was steadily turning black. Time moved far too slowly. I was cold. Even in April, the night was cold. My body temperature was gradually dropping.

I recited every spell I knew.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for…

I didn’t know how much time had passed. It felt like an eternity. I kept pouring divine power into them without stopping, if only so Elias could fight them with mana alone instead of vitriol. So that, even if only a little…

“Ugh…!”

Elias’s voice jolted me awake. My attempt to rise was in vain; my head dropped back to the ground. Blood—almost certainly the blood I had been losing—pooled beneath one side of my face. My mind and body were no longer moving as one.

‘No.’

“AAAAAGH! Ah, aaargh…!”

‘No…!’

My body wouldn’t obey me. My vision turned green, then black. When I forced my eyes open, blood washed over my eyeballs. There was no strength left in my arms or legs. I had almost nothing left. Even so, I had no choice. I needed to reinforce my core.

I slammed my hand against the ground.

— Therefore I tell you…

Beep—…

…whatever you ask…

“…….”

I could no longer even hear my own breathing. The world had gone silent.

I admit it now.

It was time to use Retry. I had endured this to the very end. Someone kicked me, then hauled me up by the collar. I saw Leo’s face. In the flickering remnants of my consciousness, the Retry window glimmered.

“…!”

For a moment, sensation returned to my right leg. Then came excruciating pain. I screamed without making a sound. A mage was stomping on my leg. No—the vitriol was seeping into it.

“…Sir Ernst is—”

A groan escaped me, though I couldn’t even tell whether I was the one making it. My skin was burning. Vitriol seeped between my veins, scorching them from within. The vitriol clinging to my leg crawled upward toward my knee. I curled in on myself and gasped for breath, but the pain was too much to endure.

The mage wearing Leo’s face brushed his hair back and smiled as though relieved.

CRASH!

My body jerked, my neck twisting painfully. A hand stained with vitriol pressed down on my heart. The mana remaining in me was being sucked into him. The pain spread from my heart through my entire body. No. That’s not right. This was—

— If you remain in me…

My mouth moved before my consciousness could.

and my words remain in you…

BOOOOM—!! THUD!

I kicked them and slammed them into the ground. Or at least, I think I did. When I came to, they were beneath me. I strangled them.

Snap.

Something broke. What it was, I didn’t know. I didn’t need to know.

The mana flowing into my hand was sweeter than anything I had ever tasted. The choking, rasping sound beneath my palm. The vitriol pouring over me. All of it.

— Peace I leave with you.

My hand felt lighter than it ever had as it reached their core. Something was being drawn into me like a magnet. I gathered strength from my shoulder and drove my hand down into their heart.

— My peace I give you!

“…….”

I thought I heard a scream. My hand was turning black. Was it an illusion? Yes. It didn’t matter. I threw off the corpse clutching my arm and rushed toward Elias, who lay motionless on the ground.

‘Not yet.’

It wasn’t too late. He was still breathing. Elias’s eyes, his face buried against the blood-soaked ground, slowly shifted toward me. The corners of his mouth seemed to lift faintly when he saw that I was still alive. No. That wasn’t the only reason. I knew why he was smiling.

I pulled him into my arms. My right leg, covered in vitriol, moved as though it were still my own flesh. In the distance, Rampagers were charging toward us. Not one or two of them. It didn’t matter.

We were still in Marienplatz. I ran toward St. Peter’s Church, the place Elias had once told me about. Your legs ache, but the view of Munich is stunning. His words, spoken when we were sprawled across the square, replayed in my head. The observation deck. I had to find it.

I shoved open the church doors as though I meant to break them down and ran inside, lengthening my stride with every step. Every time my right foot struck the tiles, it felt as though thorns were stabbing into my leg.

A statue of Saint Peter looked down at me. The Romanesque ceiling, far above my head, wavered in my vision. I looked around before the crucifix. Where was the way up?

The howls of the Rampagers echoed from somewhere in the distance. I ran in search of the stairs and opened my mouth.

“You know what you said earlier about going up the bell tower?”

“…Mm.”

A weak, pained sound came from him, barely enough to count as an answer. I pulled him closer against my chest and ran faster. The blood pouring endlessly from his body soaked my upper half.

“You wanted to rest, didn’t you?”

“…….”

There was no other way to put it. It wasn’t that he wanted to die. It wasn’t that he wanted to live. It wasn’t even that he wanted to be happy. None of those words fit.

I climbed hundreds of stairs. Only when I reached the observation deck did my strength finally give out, and I collapsed. I barely managed to get back up and lay Elias’s head across my lap. Dark red blood dripped from my chin onto his face.

“What were you trying to do at the end?”

Elias was falling asleep. I ran my fingers along his jaw, then pressed a trembling hand against the place where his pulse beat. He tried to open his eyes and lifted the corners of his mouth.

“…I should sing a song.”

His voice was slow. He closed his eyes with the expression of someone dreaming, then slowly opened them again. He looked like he was smiling. Perhaps it wasn’t my imagination. I gripped his shoulder more firmly, desperate to keep him awake, and asked, “What song?”

“Percy Shelley.”

His eyes remained closed as his lips barely moved. A tiny voice reached me, soft as the breath of a ghost.

“Prometheus Unbound.”

“That’s not a song.”

“Hahaha…”

I wanted to ask him who gave him permission to laugh like that. He knew he was about to die, yet he was laughing. This wasn’t right. I smiled along with him and asked, “Elias.”

“…….”

“Elias, are you comfortable?”

Of course.

Of course you are. Your resolve, your determination to change the world—they were born from a lifetime of suffering. Could the weight of an entire world really be placed on one person’s shoulders? If it could, then this was where it led. The burden that had never once left his shoulders since childhood had forged his convictions, and it had also made him long for rest.

The martyr of salvation, forever unforgiven, does not beg for mercy even after being chained to a stone pillar. The fire inside him will burn forever, just as it did when he gave fire to mankind. But beneath that flame, black ashes will forever drift from what has already burned away.

“Elias.”

“…….”

Every time he spoke, dark red liquid spilled uncontrollably from his mouth. The world kept flickering into darkness. My blood ran down Elias’s face. Even the mana I had absorbed from the mage was running dry.

Munich truly was beautiful. Moonlight shone down upon us. The Rampagers had entered the cathedral, and I could hear them from this high up on the observation deck. As long as we were still breathing, I had to wake Elias one last time before I turned back time.

He said he wanted to use his life for the next era. If that was so, he couldn’t die here. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“I can’t ask you to live for me, Eli.”

“…….”

“Because I know.”

Blood dripped from his eyes. He slept with a look of peace more complete than ever before. I felt his pulse slowing and moved my lips.

“I know you might still want peace, even if this is the only way to reach it…”

That was my selfishness. My own desire. Asking him to live for my sake. Those were words only someone who had never been worn down to the bone by exhaustion could say. It was no different from dragging him deeper into his own screams and holding him down.

Pain seeped into despair.

Because I loved him, I couldn’t ask him to keep living. This was how I loved the people I cared about. I understood that now. Once again, I had learned it through him.

I couldn’t pile more pain onto someone already drowning in it. Because he was the same. Because I knew what he must be feeling.

The ultimate act of defiance was survival. Elias knew that better than anyone. He knew that he had to endure his own suffering. He was capable of doing so. That was why he had no intention of taking his own life. Not even a little.

He would resist life with everything he had, struggle against it, burn himself to the very end, and then fade away. And he would accept that willingly.

That was what he wanted. Just as he had wanted to burn himself away for the sake of changing the times, just as he was giving everything he had for the sake of living now.

Now it was my turn to do everything I could.

“Eli.”

To keep living as myself, to keep from forgetting what it meant to be human, I finally said the words I had never wanted to let leave my mouth. I had to. Now.

“I need your blood.”