I forced my way through the gap and shoved my body inside.
It hurt so much my whole body felt twisted out of shape, but I ignored it.
The place I squeezed into was a lush, green space.
"So this is where they are."
As soon as I stepped into the space where Maria and Marina were, I spotted them right away.
"Maria! Marina!"
I called their names and hurried over. Maria turned her head.
"Hehe... you really are like Hii."
"You can’t just disappear. That’s ridiculous!"
"I’m sorry. I... have to disappear together with Marina..."
"There has to be some other way!"
I knew how unreasonable I sounded.
But still, wasn’t there some other way?
I couldn’t accept ending this by sacrificing the two of them like this.
"It’s too late now. To fully reset [Fraxinus]’s administrative authority, it won’t work if only Marina disappears."
"Maria..."
But Maria was right.
Only if they were sacrificed could everyone else be saved.
"...I’m glad Hii came. Thanks to you, I can say goodbye."
"...Yeah. Maybe that’s happiness."
"Marina! Are you okay!?"
Marina, who had been lying there, opened her eyes and sat up.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem to have any serious injuries on the surface.
Relieved, I saw Marina’s gaze shift strangely as she looked at me.
"...Higakieta Hii. This isn’t the time for that, is it? What did you come here for?"
There was no madness left in Marina’s voice.
No, more precisely, the obsession, the madness, all of it was gone.
Seeing that broken, muttering version of her had vanished, it seemed she really was okay now.
Feeling relieved inside, I answered as if asking what kind of question that was.
"What do you think? Obviously, I came to save you."
"Hii, don’t misunderstand. What matters to you probably isn’t us."
Maria said it like she was trying to correct me.
Why? Why would she say that?
"That’s not true at all..."
"Hii, I have a favor to ask. Is that okay?"
"...No."
Maria spoke like someone on the verge of death, like she was leaving behind her final words, and I blurted out a firm refusal before I knew it.
Whatever expression that made on me, Maria smiled.
"No, Hii. Please let me say it to the end."
"......"
When I said nothing, Maria took it as agreement and continued.
"At this rate, [Fraxinus] will crash to the ground. To stop that, the only way is for us to disappear. Hii... would you get rid of Marina? ...Together with me."
At her request that I kill both her and Marina, my clenched fist tightened.
"Hii. Let me ask you one thing."
When I stayed silent, Marina asked me,
"...What is it."
"When you reached out to me, I pushed your hand away."
That had happened.
After the Nameless King died, I had immediately reached out to Marina.
And Marina had slapped my hand away.
"Can you still reach out to me now?"
"...Of course."
As many times as it took, I would reach out to Marina.
I didn’t know if it was because I felt some kind of kinship with her, or just sympathy.
But even so, I would have made the same choice in that situation.
And that was still true now.
"Then do what Maria asked. Kill me and Maria together."
Marina, too, had resolved herself to die and made the same request as Maria.
Was it really true that only their deaths could solve this?
Was there really nothing I could do in this situation?
"Hii. I know how kind you are. I know you don’t want to make a choice where even one person has to be sacrificed. But right now... please have the courage to choose."
Guilt for failing to save them and helplessness at having no choice but to follow their wishes wrapped around me.
Blood dripped from my tightly clenched fist, and my head kept lowering.
"How could I make that kind of choice!!! You want me to abandon you? There’s no way, there’s absolutely no way I could...!"
"Please, Hii. I know how much I cherished the days I spent in this world... in Tengushi. So I want to stop [Fraxinus] from falling. I want to protect the Tengushi I spent time in with you."
"Hii. Do you know? When you first patted my head, it didn’t feel that bad. In fact, I thought maybe this is what having a family feels like. So please, stop [Fraxinus]’s fall. Stop me."
The two of them had already made up their minds, closing their eyes and calmly making their requests.
They were willing to sacrifice themselves to save everyone else.
Now it was time to choose.
To say goodbye to Maria and Marina.
Even if it had only been a short time, I had followed Maria’s feelings with her, and I had seen Marina’s kind side too.
I had even fought Marina head-on, and I had seen her sincerity.
So for the sake of both of them, I lifted my head and looked straight at them.
Then the choices multiplied.
"Th-this is...?"
A single window floated in front of me.
It was a window for obtaining the item ‘[Irregular]’s Soul.’
"Hii...?"
As I stared blankly at the item acquisition window, Maria and Marina looked at me with puzzled eyes.
"There’s still a chance."
With trembling hands, I pressed the button labeled Obtain.
"W-wha...?"
"This is..."
Their spirit vessels turned into particles of light and seeped into me.
The moment I obtained the item, I used [Irregular]’s Soul.
Clang!
A clear sound rang out as the soul shattered.
I could feel spiritual power flowing into my body, and two rings appeared in my hands.
What was really fortunate was that, since both of them were made of a program, their bodies didn’t disappear.
"That is..."
"This happened because I sealed your spiritual power."
After answering Maria’s question briefly, I quickly skimmed the explanation.
As expected, there was a special ability again.
If both rings were equipped at the same time, it allowed interference with machines only.
‘This will work.’
I immediately equipped both rings, closed my eyes, and focused.
My senses expanded, and I felt all kinds of errors.
They were all errors that had appeared in [Fraxinus].
I reached out into the air, grabbed what felt like an error, and tore it out.
Then I ripped it away as is.
Rrrip!
"Impossible... the Realizer in its critical state has stopped operating."
"What!?"
Listening to Maria and Marina, it seemed the error I’d torn out had been fixed.
It had been an action based entirely on gut feeling, but luckily it led to a good result.
‘Keep going like this.’
Now that I felt like I could actually do something, the helplessness faded and confidence slowly started to rise.
How many clumps of errors had I torn out like that?
"...All errors have been resolved."
"Really... the altitude has stabilized."
Miraculously, every error inside [Fraxinus] had been resolved.
"Phew..."
Since I had been concentrating as hard as I could, I wiped away the cold sweat running down my face and sat down.
My hands were trembling a little from the tension finally breaking.
"So, it’s fixed now?"
Still sitting on the floor, I said that, and both of them looked at me in surprise before answering.
"Yes. Completely."
"How did you do that...?"
"I just did it, and it worked."
Marina snorted at that, but how was I supposed to explain something that really just worked when I did it?
"Ahaha, ahahaha. What kind of answer is that...?"
As Marina laughed at my answer, tears began to fall from her eyes, one drop at a time.
Maria was the same.
"Thank you... so much. For saving me... really..."
"Hii. Thank you... for saving us, for stopping [Fraxinus] from falling..."
After saying that, the two of them rushed at me and hugged me tightly where I sat.
"Y-you two!?"
For a moment I was startled by the sudden move, but then I felt a slight tremor in their hands gripping my clothes tightly.
They must have been prepared, but still afraid of dying.
And now that they were alive, the emotional swing was probably that much bigger.
"......"
I quietly patted the heads of the two people who were crying and hugging me.
I was really glad I could save them.
Feeling their warmth, that was what I thought.
--------------------
[Irregular]’s Soul
One of the aberrant souls carrying power
A soul that bears both black and white light carries an unknown trace.
[Irregular] was originally an artificial spirit created by humans
and it is said another being obtained that form and became a perfect match
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[Irregular]’s Ring
Two rings made from [Irregular]’s spiritual power
Each has a different ability
The white ring
Raises magical attack power and additionally boosts beam-type attacks
The black ring
Raises lightning attack power and additionally boosts lightning miracle attack power
If the two rings containing [Irregular]’s power are equipped at the same time
it is said they can interfere with machines
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