Chapter 1070 - The Azure and the Green
"This is..."
Sora and I both whispered at the same time.
Cracks ran through the world, across our entire vision, until it finally shattered and broke. That spectacle was etched deeply into our memories because the two of us were the most recent to see it.
Even without a special gift for [Memory], the sense of déjà vu was unmistakable. It immediately brought back memories of that day's universe.
"...A nostalgic sight."
"It's been four years already. I remember that."
The two who had passed even more time since then also arrived at the realization. Despite being in different factions, it was the final performance common to the tutorial area, the [Trial Spheres of Partition].
It was the first finale that had signaled a beginning by announcing an end.
And thus...
"...And?"
The space had shattered and split along with the Four Pillar stage. From its depths emerged a background of white light, just like what we'd seen beyond the starry sky back then. It was bright enough to blind us after being in the dark for so many hours...
And yet, strangely, the light didn't burn our eyes. It filled the space gently, like a cocoon, forming a new world. If this was a reproduction of the past, then the light of teleportation would be next.
Just as it had sent us to the new world of the [Garden of Divine Creation] and given us a new adventure, the familiar blue light would come for us.
We waited for several seconds, ten seconds, dozens of seconds. But there was no sign of it coming.
Having witnessed the 'fruits of our great deed,' and with our understanding still failing to catch up, I looked at the knight. He caught my gaze and smiled thinly.
"Do not be in such a hurry."
As if to tease my impatience, Kendy-dono spoke while looking toward the distance... where the original starry sky had shattered.
"After all, savoring the afterglow is not a privilege reserved only for humans."
And then, as if welcoming it... the moment he looked up and offered his blessing.
...
I felt like I heard four voices from somewhere far away. In that moment.
"Bwah?!"
"Tch, what?"
Nia let out a sudden cry (a scream?) in my arms. I immediately checked on her, and the others turned their gazes toward her as well.
But that leisure was sealed by the thing that had come across the silence.
...
To be precise, those things.
Heaven and earth, silence and a deafening roar, brilliance and darkness, majesty and chaos... the colors of 'Green' and 'Black.'
First, the heaven caught our eyes.
Between the white light and the torn starry sky, a brilliant 'Green' crystalline body appeared. It was a shape and a light I recognized... something I had once seen inside a laptop.
"...It's the Green Connect's..."
"Jehat-Gria..."
It was at the very edge of the distant void, so there was no way to measure its true size. However, through our vision and the overwhelming presence that reached us even from that distance, we knew it.
No one argued with what Sora and I had whispered. Just as we had connected what we felt from the 'White' we once met, Ashe must have remembered the 'White' and 'Red' she'd seen, and Tora-kichi must have remembered the 'Red' he'd faced on his own stage. We all reached the same certain conclusion.
That was the real thing. It was the true identity of the 'Green' that had been hidden in fantasy, the same as the true 'White' dragon Ashe and I had once met.
Next, the earth, which made us want to avert our eyes.
Below the shattered stage floor. The black of the abyss that had filled the bottom of the world mixed with the white light... and from it, a 'Black' stain seeped out as if to devour the gentle light. The chaos that had welled up as if it were infinite seemed determined to stain every empty space in the world black. It continued to increase in volume while releasing countless intertwined 'screams.'
They were voices that held no emotion whatsoever.
It was a terrifying異様 that made you want to scream 'Why?' yourself. Despite being a scream that sounded like a human's throat should have been torn apart, there was not a single thought or feeling within the tone. That 'voice' was being scattered throughout the depths of hell from the 'Sea' of absolute black.
A single sphere rose like a bubble.
"..."
I could hear someone's silence, the sound of someone catching their breath. In that instant, the 'voice' that had been making every person with emotions tremble stopped entirely.
The 'Sea' that had been swirling and squirming lost its movement and became still. The pitch-black sphere continued to rise slowly.
In short, it was coming toward us. We watched as the sphere grew larger and larger in our vision... and then, from behind us.
...
A voiceless voice. Despite not being a sound, it was something we could believe was a true 'voice' compared to that other 'voice.' It was accompanied by a gentle 'Green' light. It wrapped around us, we who were so tiny in the face of this massive scale.
And then...
"...H...elp... 'Help.'"
The blue-haired girl was the first to speak.
No, in this moment, she wasn't just the blue-haired girl.
"Huh, eh, Ni..."
I looked at her in my arms. Her eyes were glowing not blue, but jade.
"'Help me, help us, together, save us.'"
She was the Magic Craft master of the Western Faction, Vestol, acting as a vessel for someone's words. Her jade eyes glowed as she looked straight at me.
"'It's okay.' ...Yeah, I understand. It's okay."
She called my name.
"Haru-kun."
"Ah, yeah?"
"That 'Black' thing is the enemy. It's an enemy that's almost impossible to beat... but let's take it down, together."
With her jade eyes shining, she said those words, looking truly angry at something for the first time.