I was the first to charge ahead.
Approaching the Marinas, I brought down the short pipe, then twisted my body and swung the long pipe.
Krrk—!
With the sound of the ground being scraped apart, the Marina in my pipe’s path collapsed.
"Kyah!"
"W-What is that!"
After spinning twice like that, I looked back and saw about six collapsed Marinas behind me.
"Tch. If only it were a little longer."
Apparently, since the pipe was shorter than Farron Greatsword, I couldn’t attack over such a wide radius.
As I felt dissatisfied with my attack range and looked around, the spirits using angels were, as expected, taking down far more enemies than I was.
"Hup!"
Tohka, swinging [Sandalphon] alone, cut down multiple enemies at once.
"[Zadkiel]!"
Yoshino was raining down chunks of ice.
"Kuh!"
"You’re still weak, Mana."
"Shut up, [Nightmare]!"
Those two were still bickering, and yet somehow fighting just fine.
"Tch. There are too many of them~. No choice, temporary alliance this time!"
"Tch. I still haven’t forgiven you, [Nightmare]!"
"We can talk about petty stuff later. Here they come!"
That was just a shonen manga scene, wasn’t it?
Were those really the same people who had been arguing a second ago?
There were others fighting too, but the two most outstanding were still the same.
"[Eden]!"
"[Kerubiel]!"
Rinne and Mayuri were the stars of the show.
Rinne had unfolded [Eden] and was bombarding everything with countless beams, while Mayuri, having apparently gained control of [Kerubiel], was firing lasers nonstop.
At this rate, I’m the only one who feels like a side character.
"Well, good is good."
Thanks to them, the Marinas were being wiped out at a rapid pace, so I decided to be grateful for that.
"It’s over!"
...Or was it?
Did those two just clear everything out?
Thanks to their efforts, the Marina clones had all been knocked down before I knew it.
I could only marvel at the two of them and their destructive power.
"That’s seriously amazing."
"Yeah."
I agreed with the commander’s hollow remark as he swung [Kamiel] beside me.
Maybe we really didn’t need anyone except those two.
I was hit with a strange sense of emptiness, but like I said before, good is good.
"Guys! We got them all!"
"Let’s go!"
Snapping back to our senses at Rinne and Mayuri’s voices, we resumed chasing Marina under Maria’s guidance.
*
"Haa... How far have we come?"
"We’re almost there."
"This is going too smoothly..."
Surprisingly, no more of Marina’s clones appeared after that.
We just kept running and running through the endlessly stretched space.
After running for a long while, Maria suddenly stopped.
"It’s here. If we connect at this coordinate... it’ll appear!"
The moment Maria finished speaking, the surroundings changed.
No, to be exact, we were transferred.
The blue-toned space was invaded by red light, and at its center, Marina welcomed us with her eyes closed.
Everyone spotted Marina and went on guard, and she slowly opened her eyes and spoke.
"You came pretty fast. Higakieta Hai. And the fake..."
"Ha. Fake, huh."
The commander snorted at Marina’s words.
After all, Maria wasn’t a fake. She was just Maria.
"Marina. Maria isn’t a fake. She’s just Maria."
"No matter what you say, that doesn’t change the fact that she’s my clone."
At Marina’s words, Itsuka-kun stepped up beside me.
His expression was slightly twisted.
Like someone angry, he waved a hand and shouted, "Don’t talk nonsense! Maria is Maria! Marina is Marina! Either way, they both clearly exist here!"
At his outburst, Marina kept smiling and shrugged.
"Sure, both she and I have selves, and sure, we’ve become established beings. You have a point, Itsuka Shido."
As she said that, Marina turned her gaze toward Maria.
"If we’re talking about existence, I guess I can acknowledge her."
"...You’re acknowledging me?"
"That’s right. So come on, let’s make up."
Marina held out her hand to Maria.
I felt something off about it.
Surely that wasn’t sincere?
She definitely had another purpose.
"Mari—!"
The moment I tried to call Maria’s name, my voice wouldn’t come out, as if something had blocked it.
Not only that, my whole body had frozen solid.
Just like last time, I tried to move my body this way and that, but it still wouldn’t budge.
The others were the same.
In that frozen space, the only ones moving were Maria and Marina.
"I’ll stop doing things like this. If Maria... acknowledges me."
"Then... then, I..."
No.
She can’t take that hand.
That’s definitely a trap.
"Maria! You can’t take that hand!"
My shout never made it out of my mouth.
"Then... here, a handshake."
"Yes..."
Maria smiled and took Marina’s hand.
Damn it...!
"It’s already too late. You’re done for."
The moment Marina and Maria shook hands, something slipped out of Maria’s body and was absorbed into Marina.
"Kyaaaah!?"
Then came Maria’s scream.
Maria cried out and then collapsed with a thud.
Watching that, Marina laughed openly.
"Ah... ahaha, ahahahaha! Are you stupid!? It was so obvious it was suspicious, wasn’t it? You couldn’t even notice something like this? What a shame~"
"What... did you..."
"I just reclaimed the authority that was left. Since the connection was cut, this was the only way I could take it back. With this, the supply of spiritual power won’t be delayed anymore... my true body will be born...!"
With those words, a burst of bright light swallowed Marina’s body.
And when the light faded, Marina’s outfit had changed completely.
It was similar to Maria’s, but the hems of the clothes looked strangely glitched, as if covered in noise, and something like black wires had sprouted from her back.
Her front was barely covered at all, and I wondered what the hell that was, but the overwhelming presence pouring off Marina erased that thought.
Just standing there, she seemed to twist the entire surrounding space.
I’d fought all kinds of monsters, but a presence like this was rare.
The tension it gave me made cold sweat...
...not likely.
If this level of tension made me sweat, I never would’ve cleared Dark Souls.
That place had even worse monsters.
While I was thinking that, Maria slowly reached out toward us.
"N-No... everyone... run..."
Maria said it with effort, but our bodies were still bound, so we couldn’t obey.
"There’s no way to run from this world. You’re all going to disappear here... disappear! Hahaha, hahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha! That’s right, there’s no stopping me anymore. I’ve got everything!"
At Marina’s mad voice, I forced strength into my body and tried to move.
That was the only way to stop her.
Then the restraints binding my body began to loosen.
No, more precisely, my body began to crumble into dust and reconstruct itself.
It felt like the will to move and the body that couldn’t move had collided, causing an error.
Once my body had fully reconstructed, I immediately leaped at Marina and swung my iron pipe.
But, unfortunately, my attack failed when Marina twisted her body slightly to the side and dodged it.
"Tch!"
"H-Hai!?"
"What? How did you break free?"
I brushed past Marina’s question and pointed the iron pipe at her.
"You don’t need to know that. What’s your goal?"
At my words, Marina answered in a voice drunk on omnipotence.
"My goal? I’m going to break it. I’m going to break everything. Because what else is there? I can’t touch reality."
For some reason, when she said she couldn’t touch reality, I felt sadness seep into Marina’s expression.
Maybe that was why that crazed smile felt strangely out of place.
"Can’t touch it?"
When I asked back, Marina shrugged.
"Yeah. That’s right. I’m the same as that girl. I don’t have a body in reality. I’m just a mass of data."
"...You also can only exist in this world?"
"Yeah, maybe that’s why we ended up so similar. Did I want to pity her? Or did I want to make a companion? Huh, why? I don’t know. I don’t even know myself!"
There was a different kind of madness in Marina’s voice now.
Along with that twisted smile, light began gathering in the wire-like tendrils.
It was obviously an attack to anyone who looked at it, so I immediately threw myself in front of Maria.
Pzzt!
Electricity fired from the tendrils and ran along the iron pipe into my body.
"Ghh...!"
The pain of current surging through my whole body, different from heat scorching me, was hard to bear.
But if I fell here, everyone behind me would be in danger, so I gritted my teeth and endured.
"Hieta!"
While I was holding on, I heard a voice from the side.
Before I knew it, Itsuka-kun had also broken free of the restraints and was approaching us with Tohka’s angel, [Sandalphon], in hand.
"Cough...!"
"Hieta, are you okay!?"
"I’m fine, so please take care of the ones who can’t move, Itsuka-kun."
At my request, Itsuka-kun’s expression grew terribly dark.
My body was currently blackened all over.
So it wasn’t strange for him to worry about me.
Still, I was an immortal.
As long as my spirit didn’t run dry, as long as my heart didn’t break, I could rise and fight forever.
"...Got it."
Itsuka-kun knew I was immortal too, so he nodded with difficulty.
The moment I heard his answer, I grabbed the iron pipe and leaped at Marina again.
The current still running through my body flowed into the iron pipe as well.
"This is a fucking lightning sword!"
I swung the lightning-charged iron pipe at Marina.
But it was blocked just as easily, and I immediately jumped back.
"I see. So that’s your power. But isn’t regeneration alone pretty pathetic? There’s no way something like that can match my power!"
At Marina’s smug words, I only laughed.
"Pathetic? Regeneration? Wrong. I’m not regeneration. I’m immortality!"
Saying that, I swung the iron pipe at Marina once more.
No, I tried to swing it.
If fog hadn’t suddenly enveloped me.
"W-What is this!?"
From Marina’s flustered voice, it didn’t seem like she’d caused it.
Then what was this?
The question was answered easily.
Dong— dong— dong—
A bell rang from within the fog.
And with it came an unnaturally fierce current of wind.
With all of that, I knew.
The one who had been forgotten.
The one erased from the records because of his foolishness.
The one who dwelled atop the ancient dragon.
The war god who once hunted dragons, the eldest son of the sun.
The appearance of the nameless king was announced.
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