52 - Chapter 48: Longing Brought by Childhood, Dreams Caught Up by Longing
Two chapters left until the end of Part One.
At the shout of the idiot (Geoglyph), the idiot (Marianne) gave a small chuckle, as expected.
She remembered fifteen years ago. It was when the god Refill had proposed the idea of reincarnation.
The Three Idiots, who were in the state of floating spirits, did not know each other's faces or names, but they quickly understood that their wavelengths matched strangely well. That was why Marianne had suggested they speak openly with one another.
"Hey. Reincarnating is all well and good, but how do you two want to live?"
"Huh? How do I want to live? Well, obviously... a beast harem?"
"How is that any different from a zoo? I want to build a flying battleship..."
"Not that. Uh... ah, geez, I guess it can't be helped. I was actually pretty depressed. Back on Earth, in my previous life."
"Well, I was too."
"I suppose I was as well..."
"So, how do you want to live next? From now on?"
To the two who were thinking... no, hesitating, she, who was still he at the time, revealed her own thoughts.
"I want to be a girl."
"What? A girl?"
"Yeah. Because this time, I don't want it to end with just longing."
"Ah... I'd like to try having a romance that actually pays off for once."
"I... let's see, just a little bit is fine. This time, I want to help people with my own strength. If I leave it to someone else or a system, things will surely get twisted somewhere."
The true feelings they shared as a trio, which they had likely kept locked inside even in their previous lives.
Common sense, which changes so easily with the slight passage of time, had wounded them, beaten them down, and eventually robbed them of their smiles. Therefore, to protect it, they had kept the softest part of their hearts hidden for so long.
Because they had laid that bare, the three understood each other, and yet, they still chose to walk side by side.
And now.
Her magic power was already completely drained. Even moving was a chore. But even so, she could still make a sound. So, she decided to help. The idiot (soft-hearted person) who had tried to change the world and help the people in his previous life. The idiot (politician) who had struggled desperately, but could not win against the violence of numbers (democracy). And yet, the idiot (Demon King) who had not lost the desire to help someone.
She would deliver an unreasonable kick to a reality that rots the heart by caring only about correctness.
This time, in order to live while laughing loudly... Marianne took a deep breath.
"Lilitia! Now is the time to show them your power! Heal the entire Triad army!"
"S-Sister!? That's completely reckless!?"
Lilitia, who had finished treating Radglyph and Ludglyph, involuntarily screamed at Marianne's unreasonable demand. No matter how much of a Saint she was, healing the entire Triad army... even if their numbers had decreased in the battles so far, healing over twenty thousand soldiers was utterly impossible.
Yes, normally.
"We have Geo's magic! This trump card is magic that lets you become the self you desire! For this moment alone, you can become a user of recovery magic that not even any Saint could reach!!"
Marianne knew.
This magic, which an SF otaku had analyzed, researched, and arrived at. This, named Broken Reality, was essentially a magic of revenge. The sensibilities that, as one grows older, are dismissed as childhood by those around them and are forced to be discarded in order to harmonize with society. Imagination and delusions... no, magic that lets fantasies erode reality.
The rebellion of childhood forced to become an adult.
Magic for forcing through the impossible, the reckless, and the foolhardy, through sheer stubbornness.
Therefore, she judged that for this moment alone, Lilitia, the Saint, could handle miracles that approached those of a god.
●
"B-But...!"
However, Lilitia, who could not possibly know the essence of the magic Geoglyph had deployed, naturally hesitated. Healing an army of twenty thousand was likely something not even the legendary first Saint had achieved.
But.
"Or do you not wish to stand by my side? I have no intention of keeping a woman who can achieve nothing on her own by my side, you know?"
"...! I understand!!"
The woman named Lilitia Herbert had no interest in such precedents.
No, she had originally had no interest even in the position of a Saint. The way she acquired recovery arts was simply that there was a Refill Church near her family home, and while helping the nuns there, she learned them by imitation as a sort of hobby. Her talent was discovered, and she was put up for adoption for political reasons. Even as she was certified as a Saint and the number of people around her increased, she remained downcast. Because everyone looked at Lilitia as a Saint, and she could not just be a girl.
But.
(Only Sister looked at me as just Lilitia...)
After meeting Marianne, Lilitia felt that for the first time, she could return to the Lilitia she was before becoming a Saint.
(Becoming companions with such strange people was unexpectedly comfortable...)
After rolling into the Serious Breakers and spending noisy days, the world began to look colorful.
(That's why now is good. I want it to stay as it is. Because I want to feel this comfort for a little longer...)
If it is necessary for that...
(I'll surpass even a legend!!)
Drawing the mace from her back and raising it to the heavens, Lilitia shouted toward the Triad army.
"Hey! You soldiers! I'm going to heal you now!! I'll cure every single one of you completely, so if any of you slack off, you'll answer to me!?"
According to the Bible in the Refill Church, the first Saint appeared from nowhere.
It is written that she captivated people with her long flowing black hair and eyes that held the blackness of the night sky and the brilliance of stars, and that she had a compassionate personality that hated conflict. She did not concern herself much with wars between nations, but when her own country was embroiled in the era of great chaos called the Hero War, she was forced to participate.
People felt awe for the Saint who, carrying a divine artifact and leading a single battalion, charged into the central government of the enemy nation while healing the wounded of her own army. It is recorded in the Bible that she healed 5,000 people at once at that time. This is the largest official record among all successive Saints and is a feat that has yet to be surpassed.
"Unravel the connected all-things, and now, go beyond the laws."
What she chanted was the largest formula of recovery arts, which only a handful of users among all successive Saints had ever used.
"Not praying to miracles, not clinging to miracles, but in order to bring about a miracle."
As long as they were not dead, or as long as the soul remained in the body, it was the miracle of the goddess that allowed complete regeneration from even a single strand of hair, or a single fragment of a fingernail.
"Beyond the path shown by the goddess!"
The super-expanded version of that.
"Resurrection!"
The mace she slammed down created a crack in the earth, and following that, lines of magic power like nerves raced across the Harvester Plains.
On that day, the world observed a feat that not a single Saint in history had ever achieved.
●
Even the Triad army, who had become accustomed to unbelievable absurdities and unimaginable irregularities up to this point, were understandably bewildered.
The third son of the lord's family used some great magic. His companion exercised a recovery art from legend. Lines of magic power ran across the Harvester Plains, and the wounded who touched them were instantly fully recovered. Not to mention those half-dead, but even those who would have breathed their last in a few seconds, and those who had just breathed their last.
It was truly a myth-like miracle.
However, the Triad army was already looking ahead. With their joy being brief, they thought about what came next. Namely, what they should do against that monster. The option of fleeing was already gone. Even if they left such a thing alone, if it caught up to them, they would end up dead, and if it invaded further, it would involve their families.
Then what should they do? How could they defeat that thing? What could they, who were mere soldiers, achieve?
Hearing Geoglyph's words and receiving the miracle upon their bodies, the Triad army was still bewildered... among them, there was one person who had their own thoughts.
"The self... I desire..."
A large man rose up, and looking down at his right arm, which had regained sensation, he muttered softly.
During the previous battle with the Forbidden Witch, although he had somehow survived, he had lost his right arm, his left leg was chipped, and because of the amount of blood loss, his consciousness had been hazy. And in his sinking consciousness, he had heard Geoglyph's words, and before he knew it, his limbs had been restored, and now his consciousness was clear.
(That's right, I... I've always wanted to change...)
Originally the second son of a knighted baron. Perhaps because he was loved by his family and raised to be as selfish as he pleased, his body grew large horizontally, and since he had a fair amount of strength, he often ran wild.
In the midst of that, he heard about the gang. Longing for them, who were like heroes from a story, he knocked on their door, but was rejected. Still, because he desperately wanted to become like them, he went to negotiate directly with his knight father... and was instead lectured.
"No! Those who are not prepared to be covered in mud and be reborn, those lukewarm people who are satisfied with the present, have no qualification to enter the unit! And can I trust a human who cannot take pride in a single piece of mud or a single wound they've incurred!!"
He was shocked by the lecture from that eight-year-old. To the point where he involuntarily bent his knees to a child younger than himself.
In the end, he could not enter the gang, but shortly thereafter, because his family was knighted, he was able to enter the Second Knight Order. From then on, the man continued to train himself alone. Even with training, his flabby body did not tighten much, but it became very thick, and he stopped being shaken by minor attacks, earning him the nickname Iron Wall Fatty.
Even for him, this war had been terrible enough to put him out of action.
Monsters were still fine. Whether they were strong or weak, he could still imagine fighting and winning. But against that Forbidden Witch, he was allowed to do nothing. Before he knew it, a wind of death flew by, and his right arm was sliced off. Pushing through his injuries, he charged, aiming for the gap in the opponent's magic replenishment, but that too was not in time, and his left leg was blown away, and he fell behind.
He knew. He was not the vessel of a hero. Therefore, it was normal to be mowed down like a weed by hero-class opponents.
But.
(Not yet... it's not over yet...)
Strength gathered in his arm. He noticed the spear in his left hand, which he had been gripping even while unconscious. The dull brilliance illuminated by the sunlight seemed to respond, as if saying let's go together.
(Thank you. For always being by my side. From now on, together with you...)
He gripped his beloved spear in his left hand once more.
He couldn't enter the gang, but following the style of those he once longed for, he had given his beloved spear a name and carved it into the hilt.
Therefore, he shouted... the name of her (beloved spear).
"Sha... rleen!!"
Immediately after, the beloved spear, Sharleen, shone brilliantly.
●
And the Triad army saw amidst their bewilderment.
Along with a voice shouting someone's name from the rear of their own army, a pillar of light rose, and a rounded figure leaped to the front line as if rolling. Recognizing that figure sprinting across the plains, someone noticed.
"That... isn't that the Second Knight Order's Iron Wall Fatty!?"
"But that... what is that on his back...!? I mean, who is it!?"
Carrying a great spear shining in silver, on the back of the rounded soldier running straight toward the giant beast, there was a girl with wings. She looked like a girl of the Angel race, but she seemed to be growing out of the spear in his hand. She wore a celestial robe and, with a compassionate smile, hugged the rounded soldier from behind.
Then, spreading her white wings, the rounded soldier accelerated further. The giant beast regained its posture. Fixing the approaching threat with its dragon eyes, it used the inertia of twisting its body to swing its tail down as if to smash it.
"Hey, is that guy intending to die...!"
The Triad army feared for the soldier charging toward the giant beast like a suicide weapon, but Geoglyph, seeing this, laughed loudly and denied it.
"He won't die! He found it! The self he wanted to become! He desired it! The strongest version of himself! Then shout! And your fantasy (dream) that you hold high will erode (destroy) that absurdity (reality)!!"
Therefore, Iron Wall Fatty shouted while swinging his spear.
In order to catch up to those (the gang) he once longed for, even if he could never become like them (lotus flowers), he still wanted to stand side by side with those (heroes).
"In-fight until I collapse!!"
Immediately after, the nameless (not even a mob in the Lotus Gang) hero who shone in gold sliced through the giant beast's tail, which was descending from above, with his great spear.
●
A scream echoed across the Harvester Plains.
The final weapon, nicknamed the Beast of the Apocalypse, howled, unable to bear the pain. Writhing in an intense pain it likely experienced for the first time in its life, scattering blood, magic power, and miasma, but gradually, the sliced-off tail was also regenerating.
The Lotus Gang laughed loudly at the fact that this was achieved by a mere foot soldier.
"Truly, the young master always surprises us."
"His companions were quite something, but the young master is also strange. What is this nonsense?"
"Indeed, indeed. It's as if he's mocking our hardships. No, truly, it's exhilarating."
"But is that it? If we shout the name of our beloved spears now, will a beautiful girl ghost appear behind us like him...?"
Amidst this, at the question one person suddenly muttered, all the gang members simultaneously looked down at their own spears.
"Big breasts, a blonde beauty with big breasts would be good..."
"You know, right? You'll surely get a loli. Since it's a great spear, it'll surely be a maternal loli...!!"
"Snaggle-tooth girl! Snaggle-tooth girl! Snaggle-tooth girl!!"
"Hair-over-eyes, hair-over-eyes, hair-over-eyes, hair-over-eyes, hair-over-eyes, hair-over-eyes..."
"Forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead..."
"A refined one is obviously the best!"
"You shameless lot! Do you not understand the appeal of a mature woman with a muscle fetish!!"
"Give me a tanned gal...!!"
As his subordinates began exposing their fetishes and fighting for dominance one after another, Friedrich clicked his tongue.
"Honestly, I almost forget that this is a battlefield."
"That said, what we have to do doesn't change, Vice-Captain Friedrich."
"That's right. We've always been like this. We're idiots from the start. We don't understand difficult things. That's all we can do, and that's all we need to know. If we think too much, we grow dull. If we worry uselessly, we stop. If we force ourselves to look too far ahead, our hearts break. So, we just need to concentrate on what's in front of us. Results are, after all, nothing more than our footprints."
Friedrich nodded at his subordinate's question, raised his spear, and stepped to the front row. Seeing this, the subordinates followed.
"In the end..."
It didn't matter what the enemy was. As always... just straight, foolishly, if they could bloom in full, that was enough.
"In-fight until I collapse!!"
The Lotus Gang, whose wounds were healed, stamina restored, and magic power replenished as a bonus, overlapped their voices again, played their trump card, and shone in gold. This time, each of them had the beauty or beautiful girl they desired floating behind them.
●
"Aren't you going?"
"You know, Father. I'm the captain of that unit, right? Me. If my fiancée (Satera) happens to find out, I feel like I'll be killed."
Radglyph asked Ludglyph, who was watching the Lotus Gang begin their charge toward the giant beast writhing in pain, and the entire army beginning to run following them, but the man himself shrugged and played dumb.
Among the gang, there were those with wives, but the beautiful girls and women who appeared behind them bore no resemblance to their wives. Ludglyph wondered if it would be okay if it were found out, and turned the question to his brother.
"Well, I'd love to go, but the second son has things he wants to do too. Right? Big Brother."
"That's true. I... no, we had longings too, Father."
As if answering his father, who wondered what longings, Midglyph raised his right hand and murmured.
"Call forth the echoing sky and the wind of clinging hot sands."
The hero tales of his father that he had been told when he was still a child sixteen years ago. For now, he was told he could reach them.
"O shimmering heat haze, now reveal yourself as the scorching heat of despair."
Therefore, following his brother's lead, Ludglyph also continued to chant.
"O red brilliance, become a sword that pierces through despair, hardship, and even calamity."
And Radglyph, who gave a wry smile at the gaze directed at his sons, murmured the final phrase...
"Dainsleif!"
The ancestral magic of the father and three sons pierced the body of the giant beast.
●
Several giant swords of flame stabbed into the giant beast as if pinning it to the plains. Toward the giant beast twisting and writhing, the Triad army, led by the gang, began to carry out a charge. Temporarily, each individual obtained power like the heroes of stories, and that certainly became an effective blow against the giant beast.
But.
"As I thought, it's impossible."
While watching everyone's state with satisfaction, Geoglyph let those words slip.
Certainly, their attacks were effective against Delgamiride. However, Delgamiride's regeneration ability was higher than that. Even the tail, which should have been the greatest blow so far, had completely regenerated in a matter of minutes.
Using both arms and legs, biting, the tail, and breathing single-shot blasts, it scattered the Triad army. Due to the influence of Broken Reality, its defense and recovery power had risen abnormally, and furthermore, if that didn't keep up, Lilitia was recovering them with the first restoration formula, so there were no deaths. However, they were not able to push through, and at this rate, it would be a war of attrition.
There were parts that couldn't be helped. This zeroth magic formula (Progenitor Magic) called Broken Reality becomes the extreme of the concept that magic is a product of imagery. To be more precise.
"This can't show its true value unless you're a setting-obsessed person..."
Unless one can build and refine detailed settings for their own imagination, they cannot reach the truth. With a vague, child-like concept such as this is strong or that is strong, even if there is output itself, the exit for outputting it becomes narrow, and it cannot be brought over as is.
On the other hand, their... no, the imagination of the people of this world is clumsy.
They have human desires such as I want to do this or I want to do that, but the knowledge and wisdom to fulfill them vary, and parts that cannot be filled emerge.
It was natural, if anything.
The efficiency of training imagination changes greatly depending on whether one had the opportunity to touch cultural existences.
For example, the act of reading a book allows one to learn the experience and knowledge of the author who wrote it exactly as it is. This is because, although a writer may supplement some parts with imagination, it is difficult to write well about things they have not experienced. Even if they could, it would lack persuasiveness and become clumsy writing.
Especially in this world, it was a time when movable type printing had just begun to appear centered around the Romanette Great Merchant Guild, and books were still very expensive. Therefore, such cultural existences rarely reached the hands of those who were soldiers, making it difficult to train their imagination.
Of course, there were other cultural existences such as watching plays or the songs of bards, and due to that influence, they were somehow able to shape it and receive the benefits of Broken Reality.
But it was still not enough to use it at full power.
It was a fundamentally contradictory magic. What was required was an imagination like childhood, yet to handle it, theoretical thinking like an adult was necessary.
Therefore, it was quite difficult to fully receive the benefits of this magic... yes, for the people of this world.
"Well then, shall we do it?"
Saying so, he took out iron ingots from his storage magic and piled them up like a mountain. He had been collecting them as test materials for a dream he intended to fulfill someday, and now would be a peerless opportunity.
"This is how Broken Reality is used."
Therefore, finally, he (the Demon King) also desired.
An SF otaku (setting-obsessed person) who, in another world, had not only touched a culture (subculture) specialized in imagination but had been immersed in it from toe to top of head.
An still incomplete final weapon.
Even so, the romance of a man who swore he would fulfill it someday.
He would now manifest the strongest and greatest trump card that it operates.
"Ontology... Zero Salvator."
A mountain of iron exceeding 1,000 tons began to move with a will.
Next update is next Wednesday.