—The reason Ferris cooperated with 『Aldebusters』 was, of course, none other than for the sake of his liege, Crusch Karsten.
Originally, Ferris had visited the royal capital with Wilhelm to directly petition the royal castle so they could join the expedition traveling the opened road to the Pleiades Watchtower. In the midst of that came the assault on the capital by Aldebaran’s crew—the Sin Archbishop of 『Gluttony』 was broken out of prison, and a fierce battle with the 『Sword Demon』 and the 『Divine Dragon』 unfolded.
—There are things I wish to bring to your attention, and things I would like your cooperation with.
It was Otto, the Emilia Camp’s internal affairs officer, who revealed the situation to Ferris and the others and requested their cooperation. Hearing from him about Al—Aldebaran’s outrages and Reinhard’s entry into the fray, Ferris—unlike the forward-leaning Wilhelm—was not all that eager to offer full cooperation. Naturally, as a member of the Royal Guard in peacetime, he felt anger toward those who disrupt the kingdom’s peace. But in simple combat strength he was weak, and even his one supposed strong suit, healing, could not be put to use to save his most important liege—so what could someone like him possibly do?
In fact, when Wilhelm was defeated by the 『Divine Dragon』 in the battle that followed and left gravely wounded and unconscious, Ferris’s feelings only grew stronger. But then, even Ferris found himself facing a situation that left no room for hanging his head.
“It has been a while, Felix.”
Facing the maid—Rem—who bowed with a curtsy, memories of speaking with her and fighting alongside her resurfaced within Ferris, and he learned that the Authority of 『Gluttony』 could be stripped away. In other words, she was living proof that one of the two curses borne by Crusch—『Memory』 and 『Dragon’s Blood』—could be undone.
…Then I’ve got no choice, nya.
There was also the fact that Wilhelm—the one who stayed by the suffering Crusch and kept encouraging the downcast Ferris—had been taken out. He would answer the request, lend his strength to 『Aldebusters』, and stop Aldebaran’s crew, who were trying to accomplish something even if it meant turning the world into their enemy. For that, he decided he would do anything. That said—
—I never imagined I’d be the trump card.
Buffeted by tremendous plumes of smoke and gale-force winds, pelted by falling raindrops, Ferris covered his mouth with his hand against the dust and reflected on the utterly unexpected role assigned to him. Using the power called 『Compression』—Petra’s ability to instantly move targets or even bring a discussion to a close—they repeatedly used it to ferry the wounded to Ferris, treat them, and send them back to the battlefield, a downright cheat of a tactic with which 『Aldebusters』 clung to their formidable foes. Even that job alone was quite a heavy responsibility, but he had never imagined he would be entrusted with the clincher against the outrageously powerful Aldebaran.
—Cast upon Aldebaran a healing spell that remains constantly active. That fail-no role, as the trump card against Aldebaran, was entrusted to Ferris.
Ultimately, even now Ferris’s understanding hasn’t fully caught up. Putting together what Petra and Old Man Rom said, he interprets it as: when Aldebaran judges that he has “suffered a fatal wound,” time rewinds to before he received that wound. By abusing that, Aldebaran has continued to weather crises and even drove back Reinhard. Honestly, it made him want to cock his head and wonder what everyone was so seriously deliberating. If that were true, he’d be too invincible—no one could beat him. All the more so because the way to defeat such an unbeatable power is, of all things, Ferris’s healing magic.
It felt far too much like a gamble. It could turn out to be nothing but a foolish act that fully restores an enemy they had all worked so hard to corner. Even so, if—by some miracle—Ferris could become the deciding factor in this fight.
“Do not lament, Ferris. Thy heart is noble. Take pride in thy gift… it is the gentlest power in this world.”
—Your Highness.
There was once someone who praised Ferris’s power that way and took pride in it. Then and now, Ferris’s power still falls short of the title of 『Blue』. Even so, he wants to believe there was meaning in not deeming it a curse and continuing to hone it. And for that—
—Roy!! If you’re there, come! Eat me… eat my 『name』!!
From beyond the unseen dust, amid the roaring, thunderous wind and the earth’s screams, a voice was heard. Ferris’s healing magic had apparently worked as a trump card; the sight of a badly shaken Aldebaran and this desperate shout proved it. But the opponent had not given up yet. Ferris, too, drew his slender knees up and thought.
“What else can I do for the people who are precious to me?”
△▼△▼△▼△
「Rigel.――Natsuki Rigel!!」
Raising his voice into the thickly billowing cloud of dust, Aldebaran strained his eyes. The rain, the howling gale, and the rumbling earth were so loud he could hardly make out any sound around him. With neither sight nor hearing to rely on, he still shouted as if to tear his throat apart. The accursed healing power laid upon him instantly mended that throat, raw from screaming to the point of coughing blood. Partaking of that ironic boon, he kept bellowing with all his might.
「Roy! Roooy!! Find me! It's Rigel! Natsuki! Rigel!!」
Each time he spoke it, he tasted a pain as if an invisible file were shaving his soul, and Aldebaran shouted that name over and over—shouted, shouted without end. Natsuki Rigel――the true name of Aldebaran before he called himself 『Following Star』.
「――ッ」
It doesn't feel real. Only vexation clings to the corner of his mind. To Aldebaran, the name Aldebaran, which the 『Witch』 called him by time and again, sits far more naturally in his ears than the name he got from parents who never once addressed him by it directly. Even that name turned into a wound from the moment the 『Witch』 became the 『Witch of Greed』. He no longer even knows who he was 『originally』.――But self-recognition doesn't matter. What matters is how Od Lagna records this pitiful life. Therefore――,
「――I am Natsuki Rigel」
That name he can feel nothing but resentment at declaring—Aldebaran accepts it as himself. Even if he rejects it, loathes it, hates it, you can't choose your life or your parents.
「――――」
Still continuing to shout, Aldebaran frantically searches for Roy within the plume. Buffeted by the earlier destructive gale, those on the battlefield had been blown away across the board. Aldebaran had been sent rolling plenty himself, and the 『Witch of Melancholy』, Ferris, and Roy were likely no exception. As things stand, there shouldn't be anyone else here who can move. But we're dealing with an opponent who kept the trump card Ferris in reserve until the very last moment. It wouldn't be surprising if they still had a face-down card.――Now that Aldebaran's 『Domain』 has been sealed, that could be the clincher.
「Dammit……!」
At least, he thought he could stick someone with the 『Domain』 and get just Ferris out of it, but no go. The sense that he was about to free the bug he'd almost seized has grown distant again after being repelled by the 『Witch of Melancholy』. Even aside from that, the target selection is highly random. If it hit the 『Witch of Melancholy』 again, it would be unbearable. On top of that, Ferris's healing magic—which is continuously restoring Aldebaran—functions by procuring the mana required for activation from Aldebaran himself. And because right now it's connected to 『Aldebaran』, it's practically inexhaustible.
「If I can't rely on the 『Domain』……!」
Then I'll just use up the mana that's become my fetters and blast the obstacles away with grand magic. The idea surfaces, and Aldebaran sketches several formulae in his head. All of them were things he'd learned from the 『Witch』, knowledge that had been put on ice because he couldn't cover the resources needed to invoke them, but now that he's linked to 『Aldebaran』, he can use them. As with the time with Reinhard, he'd make full use of them to force a breakthrough without the 『Domain』――
「Urgh……っ」
――The instant he thought that, a rising tide of nausea sealed Aldebaran's mouth.
Reeled by violent vertigo and ringing in his ears, Aldebaran went 「Huh?」 and nearly dropped to a knee. Thinking someone had attacked him, he hastily glanced around, but no one was there.――And then he realizes. That what had just dazed him was an extraordinary pressure.
The pressure of not being allowed to fail in his choice was crushing Aldebaran's heart and guts.
「……No way」
Staring down at his own trembling right hand, Aldebaran was struck dumb. In this crucible, on the brink of whether everything he'd done would be reduced to meaninglessness, with his body in top condition thanks to that detestable healing magic, in a situation demanding the fastest, best judgment, the idea that he'd gotten scared and his brain had stopped working properly—it was a bad joke. But reality is no joke. Nightmarish as it is, it's the truth.
――Because Aldebaran has never chosen anything decisive without his Authority.
Before this battle began—in the Vollachia Empire, in the Royal Selection, on Gladiator Island, and even in the days with the 『Witch』 before that—Aldebaran's choices were always the optimal answers safeguarded by his Authority. No matter what failure he made, he would redo it, pick another option, and wipe the failure away. Living by piling that up was Aldebaran's way. And now, that doesn't work.
「――――」
He has no idea what scale of wind to raise to blow away the plume without causing casualties. The heat to evaporate the rainfall, the shock to cancel out the rumbling earth—even which foot, right or left, to set forward into this smoke to get the best outcome—everything is an unknown.
What cannot be verified is terrifying. Walking a path with no guarantee of being right is the same as groping through the dark. Such a path, with no certainty of reward, is one Aldebaran cannot take—because Aldebaran without his Authority to rely on is nothing but a helpless blockhead.
That blockhead couldn't save the two 'Witches' or the woman he loved.
"—!"
Once he starts thinking, only bad ideas flit through his head. Is the plan to make Roy eat his own 'name' really the best move? Isn't there some other play he can make? Would it be better to use the cursed seal as a shield to let Roy rampage and exploit the opening? To discover some groundbreaking way of dying that threads the gaps of complete healing? Or maybe it would have been better to slip away under cover of the dust cloud? Et cetera, et cetera—the only thing racing is his emotions—.
『—There, see? Again』
"————"
Those agitated emotions come to a stop as if doused in cold water. His doubts and fear, the flood of negative feelings that burst out when his Authority was sealed—dragged along by them, the greatest regret he had sunk to the bottom begins to heat up. Feeling a heat so extreme you'd get burned by a touch, as if just being near sears the skin, and yet at the same time as though every last drop of his blood were freezing over, Aldebaran lets out a breath.
『Again, my—』
"...Stop it."
『My—』
"Stoooop—!!"
With his ears covered and eyes averted, he had been managing not to look straight at what he'd crammed down into the depths of his heart—but now, forced to face it, Aldebaran lets out a scream. He rejects the voice he hears, rejects the smile he sees, rejects the heat that presses in, baring his teeth—at that instant, in the eyes he'd forced open, a faint afterimage flickered beyond the smoke plume.
For a split second, a figure blurred in the dust cloud—but there was no mistake. It was Roy. It was Gluttony. From this swelling regret—no, from the worst situation now surrounding Aldebaran—the only ray of light that could pull him out of it, he saw it. In that instant, he broke into a run.
"—Roy! I'm right here! Me—! Eat my 'name'!!"
The hesitation that had tripped his first step, the cowardice groping for a way to die, the weakness trying to flee to another plan, the laziness that doubted his own choice—all of it was shattered by the shock of his foot kicking off the ground in that moment. In that instant, Aldebaran chose to escape from the most terrifying thing by becoming single‑mindedly intent on seizing the option that had flown into his reach.
—Up to now, by relying on the power of his Authority, Aldebaran had kept averting his eyes from the once‑in‑a‑lifetime chance to 'choose.' Therefore, he did not know.
When you 'choose' one thing, a choice made under the lash of a desperate urge to escape the situation will never carve open that thing's fate in a positive way. And that—
"—Al-sama"
—was proven by the act of Yae Tenzen, who should have been an ally, as she caught Aldebaran's body head‑on, stopping him from flinging himself, in cowardly flight, at the silhouette he had glimpsed beyond the smoke.
△▼△▼△▼△
—When she lost her battle with Rem, Yae's 'next' battle had already begun.
Blown away and tumbling down the slope of an iceberg formed atop a frozen great river, she abandoned even the basic hemostasis she should have been able to perform and threw herself into playing, with all her might, the part of a mortally wounded loser. The purpose of that was—
"—I don't intend to take your life. That person would grieve."
When the oni girl who said that cast a healing spell, Yae won her first bet. To be honest, remembering how merciless she had been mid‑fight, Yae couldn't help thinking, 'Who are you to say you don't intend to take a life?'—but having actually been spared, she had no grounds to complain. More than anything, voicing complaints would only make this hard‑won chance go up in smoke.
Unfortunately, from here there was simply no world in which Yae turned the tables on Rem. Unless she could unravel the trick by which Rem nullified Yae's flash in their final exchange, even a successful surprise attack might not be enough to finish Rem off. That too would be nothing but squandering a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity.
Therefore, Yae's aim lay elsewhere—The Last Service, into which she would pour what little remained of her all.
Even Rem, as expected, wary of a counterattack, kept her healing magic to the bare minimum—only sealing up the bleeding wounds enough to halt the countdown to death. On top of that, the unresisting Yae's hands and feet were bound in chains, a thoroughness meant to keep her from serving any role beyond hostage or prisoner. And yet, even so, one has to say her understanding of shinobi was naive.
Short of instant death, a shinobi keeps working even if their head goes flying. Dislocating every joint to slip the chains, igniting her dantian to set aside even mortal wounds.
By doing so, even Yae—who had failed to fulfill any of the roles entrusted to her—could surely, at the very, very end, do something for Al. That is what she thought. And then—
"————"
—The once‑in‑a‑lifetime chance Yae had aimed for came around far sooner than she had imagined.
A tremendous shock swallowed Agzadd Valley and the land all around with brutal force; as the aftershocks of the cataclysm came crashing in as gales, floods, and earthquakes, Yae moved. Slipping free of Rem, who had tried to shield her from the impact, she pulled away from the valley and scaled up to the clifftop—and there, Yae was made to feel keenly the inadequacy of Al’s accomplices, herself included.
With dust that seemed to cover the entire long ravine filling her vision, Al hadn’t merely failed to reach the Grand Mogolade Geyser—he’d been stopped by the enemy almost as soon as he climbed up. It was a misfortune that should have been avoided if only Yae, if only Aldebaran, if only Roy Alphard, if only Heinkel—if only the accomplices Al had gathered—had fulfilled their roles. Which is precisely why—
"――――"
Even with her vision jumbled by billowing dust, her hearing by the rumble of the earth, and her sense of smell by the howling wind, Yae integrated the scant scraps of information her five senses could glean and unerringly picked out the target she needed to find. Likely, no one could make fuller use of this situation than a Shinobi. For the first time she felt grateful for having been abducted to the Shinobi village, and Yae dashed toward her quarry with brisk resolve. This time, no matter what, to be of use to him—
"――Roy! I’m right here! Me! Eat me—eat my 'name'!!"
—She had thought she had to be of use to Al, and yet.
"――Al-sama"
Bursting through the billowing dust, she caught the man who had leapt out, holding his body head-on. Feeling with her skin the heat of that body, its weight, the pulse of life, Yae was sincerely bewildered by what she had done.
"—Y—ae?"
Brought to an abrupt halt and pitched forward, Al glanced at Yae’s profile right beside him and muttered in a tone as if beholding the unbelievable. The tremor in his voice held astonishment and confusion—yet Yae felt the same. No—thinking of the resolve she’d had just a moment before, one could say Yae was more confused than Al.
"I…"
She grasped the gist of the situation Al was in. Driven into a corner by some means and trying to find a way through this turmoil. What he had to make use of was Gluttony, and rushing to the Sin Archbishop lurking in the dust—that was, to let Al accomplish his aim, the best and indeed The Last Service Yae could render.
Knowing that, Yae still blocked Al’s path. She threw her whole body into him to hold him back. Why? she asked her shocked self. Yae was terrified of Al, and so she wanted him to die; she was trying to make him fulfill his aim in order to see him dead. But the Al who had been driven this far—perhaps Yae could kill him with her own hands. Is that it? Is that why I stopped Al, to make him pay back the terror he made me taste?
"I…"
'—It is love.'
As that question arose, the image of Rem, who had declared it without hesitation, flashed through her mind, and Yae held her breath. No, absolutely not. Though both were maids intent on helping their master achieve his goal, the fundamental motives of Yae and Rem were utterly different. She could not take that as a guide.
Yet remembering the ogre who, for the sake of a ludicrously great feeling, carried her resolve through, Yae suddenly noticed a certain feeling within herself.
"I—"
Yae had wanted Al to die—because the monster called Al terrified her beyond bearing. But—
"—It seems I can’t bear to forget you, Al-sama."
—That is to say, I do not wish to lose you for eternity.
△▼△▼△▼△
"――――"
Held in her arms and hearing her give her reason, Aldebaran is left with a void. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand. There are too many things he doesn’t understand. Aldebaran’s 'Domain' had broken Yae’s heart, and she should have become an absolute collaborator on the condition of his death. That selfish trust in Yae betrayed him at this ultimate moment.
Had she been waiting, poised, for the very best moment to betray him? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know. He had stopped his feet, and Aldebaran is overtaken—by the voice he most wanted to flee from, the one he thought he had blocked out with his ears, averted his eyes from, and shoved down into the depths of his heart.
'—Behold: once again, it is my victory.'
"…Priscilla"
In a moment when he should have been striving to seize even the slightest chance at hand, what slipped from Aldebaran’s lips was neither 'Gluttony,' nor the name of the woman who had stopped him, nor even his own name. In a moment to act, a moment to do what must be done—though it is only by letting regrets pile up like ash over everything he failed to accomplish that he has come to this now—Aldebaran once more longs for a mountain of ash.
"What…?"
You said it was a win, Priscilla. You died. You died, didn’t you. Dying means you lost. Dying means you can no longer see your wish fulfilled. The only ones in this world who can die and have it not be the end are me and Subaru Natsuki. So that didn’t apply to you. And yet, just what was supposed to be a win? You were the woman least suited to sour grapes in this whole world, and at the very end did you whine like a sore loser?
Why did you smile at the end, Priscilla.
“The stars—”
“—huh?”
“It was the stars’ fault, Lord Al…!”
As Aldebaran’s mind was occupied with a question that had no answer, Yae looked up at him from against his chest. The tightness in her voice and the content of her words made Aldebaran catch his breath. “It’s the stars’ fault”—Aldebaran had said that time and again, and Yae had heard him say it. So was this payback? Now that she had held Aldebaran back, was she throwing that line back at him—no. Yae’s crimson eyes pleaded that it wasn’t that.
In those eyes burned a sincere light, the same light once seen in the “Witch,” and they were saying it: It isn’t Aldebaran’s fault.
「—That… that can’t be.」
A surge of fury welled up—Like hell it isn’t. Everything about the situation up to now, all that had happened, the merits and demerits of how things came to this—those all lay with Aldebaran, and with Subaru Natsuki; there was no way it wasn’t their fault. And then—
「—Al!!」
A silver-bell voice, undeterred even by the dust, sliced through his instant of boiling rage.
△▼△▼△▼△
Leaping to her feet and hastily bounding up the ravine, Emilia was stunned by what she saw.
「I thought it was a suuuper big tremor, and……」
Dust filled her vision, and the roar of the wind would not cease. On top of that, the shaking of the earth wasn’t settling down—it kept growing—and while she’d been unconscious, things had gotten dire. But she wouldn’t get discouraged. She wouldn’t mope. Emilia had no time to be down.
「I need to get to Al, quick……」
She had been entrusted by her companions with the role of stopping Al because everyone believed Emilia and Rem were the best suited for it. And the reason Rem had sent her off to chase after the flying Al was because Rem was counting on Emilia. Bearing all of that, having steeled herself to save Subaru and Beatrice, there was no way she could let Al slip away—
「――There! Al and… huh!? That girl!?」
Plunging into the dust with determination, Emilia spotted Al beyond the haze—and Yae, clinging to him—and was taken aback yet again. Rem should have been the one holding Yae back. The fact that Yae was here made her worry about Rem—Ferris had cast a powerful healing spell, calling it a charm, but even so, Emilia couldn’t help but fret over her safety.
「Right away――」
It was the instant she kicked off the ground hard, ready to catch up and demand answers. —In Emilia’s field of vision, from beyond the embracing Al and Yae, a great change came, shoving the dust aside. It was the true form of the constant trembling under her soles, the ceaseless scream of the earth. What came surging in, rattling the ground fiercely, was a tremendous volume of flash flood.
Seeing how it was about to mercilessly sweep away the battlefield—everything—Emilia didn’t think; she simply pumped her legs faster,
「—Al!!」
He started and lifted his face at her call; his eyes deep within his helm met her gaze, and Emilia vaulted over the heads of the embracing pair to face the onrushing flash flood head-on. And—
「――Icicle Line！」
△▼△▼△▼△
「――――」
The air let out a shrill scream, and a freezing of unbelievable scale was wrought upon the floodwaters. What was surging in was a deluge at a mythic level, as if someone had upended a giant lake like a bucket. A beautiful silver-haired girl, her hair streaming, rapidly froze the torrent pouring in, one section after another, raising a glacier.
「Yaaah――!!」
Yet it was a losing game of cat-and-mouse between ice and flood. The cold Emilia produced would freeze part of the waters, only for the next wave to come rolling over the frozen stretch, and she would freeze that in turn. The repetition built an umbrella of ice created by the freezing, and over it the water flowed on and on, spreading into a vast glacier.
「Uyaaah――!!」
With Emilia—the source of the cold—as its center, the umbrella of ice expanded in a circle and along the flow of the waters, extended over Aldebaran’s head, and then eventually passed on beyond. The larger its scale grew, the heavier it became; the umbrella cracked, and it was only a matter of time before that colossal weight came crashing down—
「――――」
For an instant, Emilia, who glanced this way, and Aldebaran met each other’s eyes. Whatever she thought of that, Emilia pressed her lips into a tight line—
"Uryaaaa—!!"
The canopy of ice that had been groaning and cracking was reinforced, and the construction of the great glacier that should have been on the verge of collapse continued still. As if to hold up the sagging canopy, ice pillars sprouted one after another from the earth to serve as supports—an ingenious improvisation; however, Aldebaran’s attention was elsewhere.
Calling herself Witch of Glaciation, Emilia in fact displayed power befitting that title. But if, at this very moment, the reason Emilia manifested strength beyond her limits lay in that earlier exchange of glances… If, just as with the boulder trap sprung in the ravine and when she shielded Aldebaran, this time too Emilia drew on her power to protect Aldebaran—
Thinking that, he realizes it only now. —Emilia had been properly looking at Aldebaran, and had been trying to talk to him.
"I—"
A hoarse voice slipped from his throat, and nothing more would come. Only, he felt there had been a huge, huge, irretrievable misstep. —Even from before his authority was sealed, something that could no longer be redone, could never be taken back—such a misstep.
"—Behold, once again it is my victory."
What was it that was a victory? In the end, I still don’t know. But you, Priscilla—saying that and laughing in triumph—you really—
"—That’s far enough."
—In that instant, an unreasonable iron hammer that swept everything away turned into light and pierced the battlefield.
Originally, Ferris had visited the royal capital with Wilhelm to directly petition the royal castle so they could join the expedition traveling the opened road to the Pleiades Watchtower. In the midst of that came the assault on the capital by Aldebaran’s crew—the Sin Archbishop of 『Gluttony』 was broken out of prison, and a fierce battle with the 『Sword Demon』 and the 『Divine Dragon』 unfolded.
—There are things I wish to bring to your attention, and things I would like your cooperation with.
It was Otto, the Emilia Camp’s internal affairs officer, who revealed the situation to Ferris and the others and requested their cooperation. Hearing from him about Al—Aldebaran’s outrages and Reinhard’s entry into the fray, Ferris—unlike the forward-leaning Wilhelm—was not all that eager to offer full cooperation. Naturally, as a member of the Royal Guard in peacetime, he felt anger toward those who disrupt the kingdom’s peace. But in simple combat strength he was weak, and even his one supposed strong suit, healing, could not be put to use to save his most important liege—so what could someone like him possibly do?
In fact, when Wilhelm was defeated by the 『Divine Dragon』 in the battle that followed and left gravely wounded and unconscious, Ferris’s feelings only grew stronger. But then, even Ferris found himself facing a situation that left no room for hanging his head.
“It has been a while, Felix.”
Facing the maid—Rem—who bowed with a curtsy, memories of speaking with her and fighting alongside her resurfaced within Ferris, and he learned that the Authority of 『Gluttony』 could be stripped away. In other words, she was living proof that one of the two curses borne by Crusch—『Memory』 and 『Dragon’s Blood』—could be undone.
…Then I’ve got no choice, nya.
There was also the fact that Wilhelm—the one who stayed by the suffering Crusch and kept encouraging the downcast Ferris—had been taken out. He would answer the request, lend his strength to 『Aldebusters』, and stop Aldebaran’s crew, who were trying to accomplish something even if it meant turning the world into their enemy. For that, he decided he would do anything. That said—
—I never imagined I’d be the trump card.
Buffeted by tremendous plumes of smoke and gale-force winds, pelted by falling raindrops, Ferris covered his mouth with his hand against the dust and reflected on the utterly unexpected role assigned to him. Using the power called 『Compression』—Petra’s ability to instantly move targets or even bring a discussion to a close—they repeatedly used it to ferry the wounded to Ferris, treat them, and send them back to the battlefield, a downright cheat of a tactic with which 『Aldebusters』 clung to their formidable foes. Even that job alone was quite a heavy responsibility, but he had never imagined he would be entrusted with the clincher against the outrageously powerful Aldebaran.
—Cast upon Aldebaran a healing spell that remains constantly active. That fail-no role, as the trump card against Aldebaran, was entrusted to Ferris.
Ultimately, even now Ferris’s understanding hasn’t fully caught up. Putting together what Petra and Old Man Rom said, he interprets it as: when Aldebaran judges that he has “suffered a fatal wound,” time rewinds to before he received that wound. By abusing that, Aldebaran has continued to weather crises and even drove back Reinhard. Honestly, it made him want to cock his head and wonder what everyone was so seriously deliberating. If that were true, he’d be too invincible—no one could beat him. All the more so because the way to defeat such an unbeatable power is, of all things, Ferris’s healing magic.
It felt far too much like a gamble. It could turn out to be nothing but a foolish act that fully restores an enemy they had all worked so hard to corner. Even so, if—by some miracle—Ferris could become the deciding factor in this fight.
“Do not lament, Ferris. Thy heart is noble. Take pride in thy gift… it is the gentlest power in this world.”
—Your Highness.
There was once someone who praised Ferris’s power that way and took pride in it. Then and now, Ferris’s power still falls short of the title of 『Blue』. Even so, he wants to believe there was meaning in not deeming it a curse and continuing to hone it. And for that—
—Roy!! If you’re there, come! Eat me… eat my 『name』!!
From beyond the unseen dust, amid the roaring, thunderous wind and the earth’s screams, a voice was heard. Ferris’s healing magic had apparently worked as a trump card; the sight of a badly shaken Aldebaran and this desperate shout proved it. But the opponent had not given up yet. Ferris, too, drew his slender knees up and thought.
“What else can I do for the people who are precious to me?”
△▼△▼△▼△
「Rigel.――Natsuki Rigel!!」
Raising his voice into the thickly billowing cloud of dust, Aldebaran strained his eyes. The rain, the howling gale, and the rumbling earth were so loud he could hardly make out any sound around him. With neither sight nor hearing to rely on, he still shouted as if to tear his throat apart. The accursed healing power laid upon him instantly mended that throat, raw from screaming to the point of coughing blood. Partaking of that ironic boon, he kept bellowing with all his might.
「Roy! Roooy!! Find me! It's Rigel! Natsuki! Rigel!!」
Each time he spoke it, he tasted a pain as if an invisible file were shaving his soul, and Aldebaran shouted that name over and over—shouted, shouted without end. Natsuki Rigel――the true name of Aldebaran before he called himself 『Following Star』.
「――ッ」
It doesn't feel real. Only vexation clings to the corner of his mind. To Aldebaran, the name Aldebaran, which the 『Witch』 called him by time and again, sits far more naturally in his ears than the name he got from parents who never once addressed him by it directly. Even that name turned into a wound from the moment the 『Witch』 became the 『Witch of Greed』. He no longer even knows who he was 『originally』.――But self-recognition doesn't matter. What matters is how Od Lagna records this pitiful life. Therefore――,
「――I am Natsuki Rigel」
That name he can feel nothing but resentment at declaring—Aldebaran accepts it as himself. Even if he rejects it, loathes it, hates it, you can't choose your life or your parents.
「――――」
Still continuing to shout, Aldebaran frantically searches for Roy within the plume. Buffeted by the earlier destructive gale, those on the battlefield had been blown away across the board. Aldebaran had been sent rolling plenty himself, and the 『Witch of Melancholy』, Ferris, and Roy were likely no exception. As things stand, there shouldn't be anyone else here who can move. But we're dealing with an opponent who kept the trump card Ferris in reserve until the very last moment. It wouldn't be surprising if they still had a face-down card.――Now that Aldebaran's 『Domain』 has been sealed, that could be the clincher.
「Dammit……!」
At least, he thought he could stick someone with the 『Domain』 and get just Ferris out of it, but no go. The sense that he was about to free the bug he'd almost seized has grown distant again after being repelled by the 『Witch of Melancholy』. Even aside from that, the target selection is highly random. If it hit the 『Witch of Melancholy』 again, it would be unbearable. On top of that, Ferris's healing magic—which is continuously restoring Aldebaran—functions by procuring the mana required for activation from Aldebaran himself. And because right now it's connected to 『Aldebaran』, it's practically inexhaustible.
「If I can't rely on the 『Domain』……!」
Then I'll just use up the mana that's become my fetters and blast the obstacles away with grand magic. The idea surfaces, and Aldebaran sketches several formulae in his head. All of them were things he'd learned from the 『Witch』, knowledge that had been put on ice because he couldn't cover the resources needed to invoke them, but now that he's linked to 『Aldebaran』, he can use them. As with the time with Reinhard, he'd make full use of them to force a breakthrough without the 『Domain』――
「Urgh……っ」
――The instant he thought that, a rising tide of nausea sealed Aldebaran's mouth.
Reeled by violent vertigo and ringing in his ears, Aldebaran went 「Huh?」 and nearly dropped to a knee. Thinking someone had attacked him, he hastily glanced around, but no one was there.――And then he realizes. That what had just dazed him was an extraordinary pressure.
The pressure of not being allowed to fail in his choice was crushing Aldebaran's heart and guts.
「……No way」
Staring down at his own trembling right hand, Aldebaran was struck dumb. In this crucible, on the brink of whether everything he'd done would be reduced to meaninglessness, with his body in top condition thanks to that detestable healing magic, in a situation demanding the fastest, best judgment, the idea that he'd gotten scared and his brain had stopped working properly—it was a bad joke. But reality is no joke. Nightmarish as it is, it's the truth.
――Because Aldebaran has never chosen anything decisive without his Authority.
Before this battle began—in the Vollachia Empire, in the Royal Selection, on Gladiator Island, and even in the days with the 『Witch』 before that—Aldebaran's choices were always the optimal answers safeguarded by his Authority. No matter what failure he made, he would redo it, pick another option, and wipe the failure away. Living by piling that up was Aldebaran's way. And now, that doesn't work.
「――――」
He has no idea what scale of wind to raise to blow away the plume without causing casualties. The heat to evaporate the rainfall, the shock to cancel out the rumbling earth—even which foot, right or left, to set forward into this smoke to get the best outcome—everything is an unknown.
What cannot be verified is terrifying. Walking a path with no guarantee of being right is the same as groping through the dark. Such a path, with no certainty of reward, is one Aldebaran cannot take—because Aldebaran without his Authority to rely on is nothing but a helpless blockhead.
That blockhead couldn't save the two 'Witches' or the woman he loved.
"—!"
Once he starts thinking, only bad ideas flit through his head. Is the plan to make Roy eat his own 'name' really the best move? Isn't there some other play he can make? Would it be better to use the cursed seal as a shield to let Roy rampage and exploit the opening? To discover some groundbreaking way of dying that threads the gaps of complete healing? Or maybe it would have been better to slip away under cover of the dust cloud? Et cetera, et cetera—the only thing racing is his emotions—.
『—There, see? Again』
"————"
Those agitated emotions come to a stop as if doused in cold water. His doubts and fear, the flood of negative feelings that burst out when his Authority was sealed—dragged along by them, the greatest regret he had sunk to the bottom begins to heat up. Feeling a heat so extreme you'd get burned by a touch, as if just being near sears the skin, and yet at the same time as though every last drop of his blood were freezing over, Aldebaran lets out a breath.
『Again, my—』
"...Stop it."
『My—』
"Stoooop—!!"
With his ears covered and eyes averted, he had been managing not to look straight at what he'd crammed down into the depths of his heart—but now, forced to face it, Aldebaran lets out a scream. He rejects the voice he hears, rejects the smile he sees, rejects the heat that presses in, baring his teeth—at that instant, in the eyes he'd forced open, a faint afterimage flickered beyond the smoke plume.
For a split second, a figure blurred in the dust cloud—but there was no mistake. It was Roy. It was Gluttony. From this swelling regret—no, from the worst situation now surrounding Aldebaran—the only ray of light that could pull him out of it, he saw it. In that instant, he broke into a run.
"—Roy! I'm right here! Me—! Eat my 'name'!!"
The hesitation that had tripped his first step, the cowardice groping for a way to die, the weakness trying to flee to another plan, the laziness that doubted his own choice—all of it was shattered by the shock of his foot kicking off the ground in that moment. In that instant, Aldebaran chose to escape from the most terrifying thing by becoming single‑mindedly intent on seizing the option that had flown into his reach.
—Up to now, by relying on the power of his Authority, Aldebaran had kept averting his eyes from the once‑in‑a‑lifetime chance to 'choose.' Therefore, he did not know.
When you 'choose' one thing, a choice made under the lash of a desperate urge to escape the situation will never carve open that thing's fate in a positive way. And that—
"—Al-sama"
—was proven by the act of Yae Tenzen, who should have been an ally, as she caught Aldebaran's body head‑on, stopping him from flinging himself, in cowardly flight, at the silhouette he had glimpsed beyond the smoke.
△▼△▼△▼△
—When she lost her battle with Rem, Yae's 'next' battle had already begun.
Blown away and tumbling down the slope of an iceberg formed atop a frozen great river, she abandoned even the basic hemostasis she should have been able to perform and threw herself into playing, with all her might, the part of a mortally wounded loser. The purpose of that was—
"—I don't intend to take your life. That person would grieve."
When the oni girl who said that cast a healing spell, Yae won her first bet. To be honest, remembering how merciless she had been mid‑fight, Yae couldn't help thinking, 'Who are you to say you don't intend to take a life?'—but having actually been spared, she had no grounds to complain. More than anything, voicing complaints would only make this hard‑won chance go up in smoke.
Unfortunately, from here there was simply no world in which Yae turned the tables on Rem. Unless she could unravel the trick by which Rem nullified Yae's flash in their final exchange, even a successful surprise attack might not be enough to finish Rem off. That too would be nothing but squandering a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity.
Therefore, Yae's aim lay elsewhere—The Last Service, into which she would pour what little remained of her all.
Even Rem, as expected, wary of a counterattack, kept her healing magic to the bare minimum—only sealing up the bleeding wounds enough to halt the countdown to death. On top of that, the unresisting Yae's hands and feet were bound in chains, a thoroughness meant to keep her from serving any role beyond hostage or prisoner. And yet, even so, one has to say her understanding of shinobi was naive.
Short of instant death, a shinobi keeps working even if their head goes flying. Dislocating every joint to slip the chains, igniting her dantian to set aside even mortal wounds.
By doing so, even Yae—who had failed to fulfill any of the roles entrusted to her—could surely, at the very, very end, do something for Al. That is what she thought. And then—
"————"
—The once‑in‑a‑lifetime chance Yae had aimed for came around far sooner than she had imagined.
A tremendous shock swallowed Agzadd Valley and the land all around with brutal force; as the aftershocks of the cataclysm came crashing in as gales, floods, and earthquakes, Yae moved. Slipping free of Rem, who had tried to shield her from the impact, she pulled away from the valley and scaled up to the clifftop—and there, Yae was made to feel keenly the inadequacy of Al’s accomplices, herself included.
With dust that seemed to cover the entire long ravine filling her vision, Al hadn’t merely failed to reach the Grand Mogolade Geyser—he’d been stopped by the enemy almost as soon as he climbed up. It was a misfortune that should have been avoided if only Yae, if only Aldebaran, if only Roy Alphard, if only Heinkel—if only the accomplices Al had gathered—had fulfilled their roles. Which is precisely why—
"――――"
Even with her vision jumbled by billowing dust, her hearing by the rumble of the earth, and her sense of smell by the howling wind, Yae integrated the scant scraps of information her five senses could glean and unerringly picked out the target she needed to find. Likely, no one could make fuller use of this situation than a Shinobi. For the first time she felt grateful for having been abducted to the Shinobi village, and Yae dashed toward her quarry with brisk resolve. This time, no matter what, to be of use to him—
"――Roy! I’m right here! Me! Eat me—eat my 'name'!!"
—She had thought she had to be of use to Al, and yet.
"――Al-sama"
Bursting through the billowing dust, she caught the man who had leapt out, holding his body head-on. Feeling with her skin the heat of that body, its weight, the pulse of life, Yae was sincerely bewildered by what she had done.
"—Y—ae?"
Brought to an abrupt halt and pitched forward, Al glanced at Yae’s profile right beside him and muttered in a tone as if beholding the unbelievable. The tremor in his voice held astonishment and confusion—yet Yae felt the same. No—thinking of the resolve she’d had just a moment before, one could say Yae was more confused than Al.
"I…"
She grasped the gist of the situation Al was in. Driven into a corner by some means and trying to find a way through this turmoil. What he had to make use of was Gluttony, and rushing to the Sin Archbishop lurking in the dust—that was, to let Al accomplish his aim, the best and indeed The Last Service Yae could render.
Knowing that, Yae still blocked Al’s path. She threw her whole body into him to hold him back. Why? she asked her shocked self. Yae was terrified of Al, and so she wanted him to die; she was trying to make him fulfill his aim in order to see him dead. But the Al who had been driven this far—perhaps Yae could kill him with her own hands. Is that it? Is that why I stopped Al, to make him pay back the terror he made me taste?
"I…"
'—It is love.'
As that question arose, the image of Rem, who had declared it without hesitation, flashed through her mind, and Yae held her breath. No, absolutely not. Though both were maids intent on helping their master achieve his goal, the fundamental motives of Yae and Rem were utterly different. She could not take that as a guide.
Yet remembering the ogre who, for the sake of a ludicrously great feeling, carried her resolve through, Yae suddenly noticed a certain feeling within herself.
"I—"
Yae had wanted Al to die—because the monster called Al terrified her beyond bearing. But—
"—It seems I can’t bear to forget you, Al-sama."
—That is to say, I do not wish to lose you for eternity.
△▼△▼△▼△
"――――"
Held in her arms and hearing her give her reason, Aldebaran is left with a void. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand. There are too many things he doesn’t understand. Aldebaran’s 'Domain' had broken Yae’s heart, and she should have become an absolute collaborator on the condition of his death. That selfish trust in Yae betrayed him at this ultimate moment.
Had she been waiting, poised, for the very best moment to betray him? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know. He had stopped his feet, and Aldebaran is overtaken—by the voice he most wanted to flee from, the one he thought he had blocked out with his ears, averted his eyes from, and shoved down into the depths of his heart.
'—Behold: once again, it is my victory.'
"…Priscilla"
In a moment when he should have been striving to seize even the slightest chance at hand, what slipped from Aldebaran’s lips was neither 'Gluttony,' nor the name of the woman who had stopped him, nor even his own name. In a moment to act, a moment to do what must be done—though it is only by letting regrets pile up like ash over everything he failed to accomplish that he has come to this now—Aldebaran once more longs for a mountain of ash.
"What…?"
You said it was a win, Priscilla. You died. You died, didn’t you. Dying means you lost. Dying means you can no longer see your wish fulfilled. The only ones in this world who can die and have it not be the end are me and Subaru Natsuki. So that didn’t apply to you. And yet, just what was supposed to be a win? You were the woman least suited to sour grapes in this whole world, and at the very end did you whine like a sore loser?
Why did you smile at the end, Priscilla.
“The stars—”
“—huh?”
“It was the stars’ fault, Lord Al…!”
As Aldebaran’s mind was occupied with a question that had no answer, Yae looked up at him from against his chest. The tightness in her voice and the content of her words made Aldebaran catch his breath. “It’s the stars’ fault”—Aldebaran had said that time and again, and Yae had heard him say it. So was this payback? Now that she had held Aldebaran back, was she throwing that line back at him—no. Yae’s crimson eyes pleaded that it wasn’t that.
In those eyes burned a sincere light, the same light once seen in the “Witch,” and they were saying it: It isn’t Aldebaran’s fault.
「—That… that can’t be.」
A surge of fury welled up—Like hell it isn’t. Everything about the situation up to now, all that had happened, the merits and demerits of how things came to this—those all lay with Aldebaran, and with Subaru Natsuki; there was no way it wasn’t their fault. And then—
「—Al!!」
A silver-bell voice, undeterred even by the dust, sliced through his instant of boiling rage.
△▼△▼△▼△
Leaping to her feet and hastily bounding up the ravine, Emilia was stunned by what she saw.
「I thought it was a suuuper big tremor, and……」
Dust filled her vision, and the roar of the wind would not cease. On top of that, the shaking of the earth wasn’t settling down—it kept growing—and while she’d been unconscious, things had gotten dire. But she wouldn’t get discouraged. She wouldn’t mope. Emilia had no time to be down.
「I need to get to Al, quick……」
She had been entrusted by her companions with the role of stopping Al because everyone believed Emilia and Rem were the best suited for it. And the reason Rem had sent her off to chase after the flying Al was because Rem was counting on Emilia. Bearing all of that, having steeled herself to save Subaru and Beatrice, there was no way she could let Al slip away—
「――There! Al and… huh!? That girl!?」
Plunging into the dust with determination, Emilia spotted Al beyond the haze—and Yae, clinging to him—and was taken aback yet again. Rem should have been the one holding Yae back. The fact that Yae was here made her worry about Rem—Ferris had cast a powerful healing spell, calling it a charm, but even so, Emilia couldn’t help but fret over her safety.
「Right away――」
It was the instant she kicked off the ground hard, ready to catch up and demand answers. —In Emilia’s field of vision, from beyond the embracing Al and Yae, a great change came, shoving the dust aside. It was the true form of the constant trembling under her soles, the ceaseless scream of the earth. What came surging in, rattling the ground fiercely, was a tremendous volume of flash flood.
Seeing how it was about to mercilessly sweep away the battlefield—everything—Emilia didn’t think; she simply pumped her legs faster,
「—Al!!」
He started and lifted his face at her call; his eyes deep within his helm met her gaze, and Emilia vaulted over the heads of the embracing pair to face the onrushing flash flood head-on. And—
「――Icicle Line！」
△▼△▼△▼△
「――――」
The air let out a shrill scream, and a freezing of unbelievable scale was wrought upon the floodwaters. What was surging in was a deluge at a mythic level, as if someone had upended a giant lake like a bucket. A beautiful silver-haired girl, her hair streaming, rapidly froze the torrent pouring in, one section after another, raising a glacier.
「Yaaah――!!」
Yet it was a losing game of cat-and-mouse between ice and flood. The cold Emilia produced would freeze part of the waters, only for the next wave to come rolling over the frozen stretch, and she would freeze that in turn. The repetition built an umbrella of ice created by the freezing, and over it the water flowed on and on, spreading into a vast glacier.
「Uyaaah――!!」
With Emilia—the source of the cold—as its center, the umbrella of ice expanded in a circle and along the flow of the waters, extended over Aldebaran’s head, and then eventually passed on beyond. The larger its scale grew, the heavier it became; the umbrella cracked, and it was only a matter of time before that colossal weight came crashing down—
「――――」
For an instant, Emilia, who glanced this way, and Aldebaran met each other’s eyes. Whatever she thought of that, Emilia pressed her lips into a tight line—
"Uryaaaa—!!"
The canopy of ice that had been groaning and cracking was reinforced, and the construction of the great glacier that should have been on the verge of collapse continued still. As if to hold up the sagging canopy, ice pillars sprouted one after another from the earth to serve as supports—an ingenious improvisation; however, Aldebaran’s attention was elsewhere.
Calling herself Witch of Glaciation, Emilia in fact displayed power befitting that title. But if, at this very moment, the reason Emilia manifested strength beyond her limits lay in that earlier exchange of glances… If, just as with the boulder trap sprung in the ravine and when she shielded Aldebaran, this time too Emilia drew on her power to protect Aldebaran—
Thinking that, he realizes it only now. —Emilia had been properly looking at Aldebaran, and had been trying to talk to him.
"I—"
A hoarse voice slipped from his throat, and nothing more would come. Only, he felt there had been a huge, huge, irretrievable misstep. —Even from before his authority was sealed, something that could no longer be redone, could never be taken back—such a misstep.
"—Behold, once again it is my victory."
What was it that was a victory? In the end, I still don’t know. But you, Priscilla—saying that and laughing in triumph—you really—
"—That’s far enough."
—In that instant, an unreasonable iron hammer that swept everything away turned into light and pierced the battlefield.
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