Ch.240Chapter 240. The Power of Bonds

-Thump, thump.

I can feel the source of life that shouldn’t exist being transmitted to me as I face her in this moment.

As if teaching me that it’s not just her appearance that has changed.

As if showing me that she, truly a demon, has become a being that I, a human, can understand.

“Really…?”

“I don’t know.”

Merilyn shakes her head at such a hopeful question.

In that pitiful appearance, there was no longer any trace of the dignity befitting a great demon.

“Since this is my first time experiencing this, I find it difficult to explain exactly what state I’m in right now.”

Nevertheless, her face looked incredibly unburdened.

Despite the collapse of what had proven her identity as a demon.

“…Still, my mind feels clearer.”

Because she felt that the emptiness accumulated while traversing the void, and even the lingering attachment and nostalgia for it, had been washed away with the previous collapse.

“With everything that was suppressing me gone, and what I need to shoulder becoming clear, I feel like my thoughts are organizing themselves better.”

Isn’t it truly ironic?

The world is still crumbling, and the one she loves is fighting a life-or-death battle with her former lord.

Yet somehow, a serenity she had never experienced before has settled in her heart.

“…Irie.”

Immersed in that serenity, the demon posed a question to her rival in love, and to her comrade who cared for the same person.

“Why do we try to bear everything alone?”

“What do you…”

It was an unconscious denial.

Giving the correct answer to this question would be tantamount to admitting that everything she had done until now was wrong.

That would be shameful as a human, and might be considered foolish at this moment when even her companion has been put in danger.

“Both you and I… failed when we tried to bear everything alone.”

But the demon who had only now come to understand humans felt not a shred of embarrassment about her realization.

“Summoning the God of Destruction… failing to kill the Demon Lord…”

Just thinking she could handle it herself.

In this cruel world, she had physically realized how arrogant and narrow-minded it was to offer oneself as a sacrifice to fulfill wishes.

“The current outcome is teaching us. Our choices were wrong.”

Her gaze gradually turned upward.

There, she could see their beloved fighting alone against the most terrible calamity in this cruel world.

“And now, the person we love is following in our footsteps.”

He too was trying to fight alone, just like them.

Because he wanted an ideal ending where everyone could live happily.

Even though he might not exist in that place, he was trying to bear everything alone, following in their footsteps.

“The reason he can endure…”

She knew why such a precarious tightrope walk had been possible until now.

Because the woman sitting before her was giving him strength even at this moment.

“It’s surely possible because there’s someone supporting him from behind, isn’t it?”

As if responding to that desperation, the strings of the lute she pulled out began to vibrate, and a clear sound started to echo in the midst of the catastrophe.

-Tiriing~

Clearly audible even as the world was collapsing.

A beautiful performance that moved the emotions of all who heard it.

****

-Kwagagagagagaga!!!

Fragments violently surged upward with the accelerating collapse.

The fragments that had merely been shooting upward were now caught in a vortex that had formed at the center of the island, creating a vast tower.

Cracks formed everywhere, sucking in the surroundings, and the collision of those forces created fierce currents.

Everything around it, whether terrain or angel, was swept away and eventually turned to dust.

And those exposed to this danger included the refugees trying to escape from the disaster.

“Everyone run!! Get away from the vortex!!!”

There was no time to delay in leaving this place.

The sailors who realized this tried to steer the ark away, but fragments that couldn’t withstand the power of the vortex were constantly falling toward where they were.

“A-Activate the defense system now!”

“We’re doing it! But there are too many fragments… Oh no! What is that!?”

An unexpected disaster struck at that moment.

As the sailors’ gazes turned upward at the shadow that suddenly fell, something that had escaped from the vortex began rushing toward them.

It was a mass of flesh.

Fragments of angels finely minced in the vortex had combined with the bodies of the Demon Tribe and were falling like meteors.

-Kiyaoaaa, kyaaaaaaaaaak!

The terrible screams coming from them indicated that they were approaching with will and intention.

No matter how twisted their reason had become as they entangled with each other, the instinct to track life would remain.

“Damn it, run away quickly!”

“It’s no use! Those things are spreading their wings and chasing after us!”

Their gliding speed was faster than the ark’s escape speed.

With added precision, if they remained like this, the ark would be swallowed by the mass of flesh and everyone would perish.

“…I’ll stop it.”

Flan stepped forward in this critical moment and placed her hand on her chest.

As the vast energy gathered in her grasp stimulated her body, blue lightning began to burst violently around her.

It was a situation that anyone could see was not normal.

Sanson, who was watching from the side, quickly approached Flan and shouted urgently.

“Flan, what are you trying to…”

“If I detonate the core inside me, I can generate enough destructive power to blow that away.”

“No, Flan. If you do that, you’ll…!”

“But I have to. To protect everyone, even if I have to sacrifice this body…!”

“Flan!”

Sanson restrained Flan as she was about to fly upward.

What was clearly drawn on his face was an emotion that could be called anger. From his perspective, the action this young girl was taking seemed too foolish and pathetic.

“Trust the people around you. Aren’t we comrades!?”

Yes, wasn’t it possible to come this far because everyone worked together?

In such a situation, to offer oneself as a sacrifice hoping everyone would be safe.

If they overcome the crisis that way, what about the next crisis? Who would have to be sacrificed then?

“Kid, remember when we worked together before?”

“Yeah, well, we have to try.”

The two heroes who had climbed onto the ark’s deck also had skeptical views about Flan’s sacrifice.

One of them jumped off the deck, and in response to his shovel strike, a massive amount of soil rose up against gravity and surged above the ark.

At that moment, the other hero on the deck waved both hands to exert force.

The soil, controlled by that power, gathered together, and soon the compressed earth and rocks formed a huge stake.

-Kwang!!

And that power was ejected forward through the amplified internal pressure from compression.

A strike like a cannon hit the center of the mass of flesh, and cracks began to form from that point.

“Now! Everyone fire!”

-Pupupupupeng!!

The ark’s defense system activated and fired massive bombardments.

The mass of flesh, exposed to the attack and cracked, broke into pieces and fell to the ground, becoming much smaller than before as the distance closed.

Yes, small enough to be handled by individual power.

“Now, Flan!”

The lightning discharged from the girl’s hand struck the mass of flesh at the moment she realized this.

Unable to withstand that power, the mass of flesh shattered on the spot and scattered without reaching the ark.

“We did it! The ark is safe now!!”

“Waaaaaaa!”

The sailors cheered at securing safety.

Garam, who had approached Flan as she stared blankly at the scene in disbelief, patted her shoulder and smiled.

“See, you could do it.”

Despite taking responsibility in her place, he treated it as a matter of course.

For the doll who had always supported humanity with her own hands, it was an experience that felt too different.

That she, who should support humanity, instead borrowed help from them and overcame the crisis by joining forces.

“…Yes, that’s right.”

But from now on, she would have to get used to this.

Because there are limits to what one can do alone, no matter how much it’s for them.

If she truly wants to protect them for a long time, she’ll have to overcome what she cannot handle by supporting each other.

“It’s not over yet, so stay alert! Everyone back to your positions! We need to escape from here now!!”

The members of the ark, having secured safety through such cooperation, began to move in unison.

The ark would soon leave the collapsing island as much as possible and search for a safe place.

If not for the instructions of the person in charge here.

“No, we’ll enter inward once repairs are complete.”

Deputy Sanson.

The representative who had taken command of this ark in place of the commander.

“Inward? What do you mean?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. With everything turning upside down around us…!”

“Because the captain is fighting!!”

His gaze was directed not where everyone wanted to go, but toward the center of the still turbulent island…

Toward the countless fragments shooting up in the sky and the flashes bursting out everywhere.

“Everyone gathered here came together around the captain, and we can’t just leave on our own, right!?”

Even if they couldn’t help him, they had to secure a place for him to return to.

That was a decision that all survivors in this life-or-death situation unanimously agreed with, without exception.

*****

“I’m afraid of losing.”

“I’m afraid too.”

“I’m more scared of losing the people I love than of disappearing myself.”

“I feel the same way.”

“But I suppose fear doesn’t justify our actions. Choosing because of fear means being blinded by it.”

“…”

“…But now I know. I’ve finally realized.”

-Kugugugugugu!

At the center of the collapsing world.

Despite the aftershocks of that power reaching them, there was serenity in their hearts.

The two women, controlling that serenity and quietly catching their breath, began to put strength into what they each held in their hands.

“If we trust each other… and share the burden together, responsibility can become this light.”

Into the crystal ball that illuminates the future,

And into the performance that stirs emotions.

“…Merilyn.”

“Yes, Irie.”

Feeling the accompanying power being transmitted to their companions, the two looked at each other and whispered.

“Let’s overcome this together.”

In this moment facing annihilation.

Hoping that this modest resistance allowed to them would lead to a miracle.

****

“Why on earth?!!!!”

A howl echoing in the midst of battle.

It must surely be because he cannot endure the current situation.

Guessing this while regaining balance, the Demon Lord facing him began to scream as if coughing up blood.

“It’s just one step away. Until I can achieve what I want… just one step left!”

It was resentment, and at the same time, a cry of despair.

Despair that the future he had been pursuing was being hindered by a bug he could have crushed underfoot if he had been at full strength…

Having lived in emptiness for an eternity, the interference with the hope he had finally found must feel painful.

“Why did you suddenly appear and interfere with me! Who do you think you are! Who the hell do you bugs think you are…!!”

“Stop throwing a tantrum like a child.”

Such indignation doesn’t matter to me.

What’s important to me is surviving together with everyone, and the fact that the guy in front of me is an obstacle to that.

“Just because you have some power, you think the world revolves around you… Life is actually like this. Nothing goes as planned, it’s all a mess.”

“Shut up, you bug!! Who are you to lecture me! What do you know about me!!!”

-Kwaaaaa!!

Another surge of power erupts.

The reason it doesn’t seem so frightening is because I can feel the afterimages in my vision and the gentle tones reaching my ears supporting me.

“True, I don’t know you. And you don’t know me at all either.”

I feel that I can stand here because of the support of two people.

I could foresee that such support would sustain me and allow me to move forward again and again, as long as I don’t give up.

“And the whole situation unfolding now teaches us that we don’t need to understand each other.”

So I don’t collapse.

If I don’t collapse, I can fight.

“So… stop making noise and just fight.”

And if I can fight, there’s only one thing to do.

Overcome the fear of the being before me and accept the throbbing created by the power that supports me.

“If you’re stronger than me…”

“If you’re more desperate than me… then just break through this interference and move on. Right?”

Knowing that this is the only way to resist this cruel world.

Just moving forward while engraving this in my heart.