episode_0310

Eve, having forsaken dreams, life, and love, had fallen to become the demon’s servant. She embraced dark magic, ascended as the Empire’s Empress, and became the darkness that would destroy this world.

Her mind reflected this. Black tentacles, a black universe, eternal nothingness. Endless darkness, swallowing and extinguishing light, filled her heart.

But deep within that heart, she tightly bound something with black tentacles. I brushed aside all the tentacles blocking my path and reached that something.

The answer was simple.

“…Don’t come near me.”

Eve, curled up on her bed in her old family home, in her childhood bedroom… was unmistakably the Eve I knew.

Her pale blue hair, sapphire eyes, and soft, fair skin. Nothing about her had changed.

Of course, that was just her outward appearance from my perspective. This place where Eve was hiding was the warmest, most comforting place in her memories. The humble, happy farm where young Eve lived.

However, time had not been kind to Eve. No matter how much she longed for the green spring of those days, her body had already blossomed into adulthood.

Even curled up in fear like a child… Eve was the Eve I knew.

This was the only truth hidden deep within her mind. Even though she appeared to have cast everything aside and become darkness, Eve, who had lived for tens of thousands of years, couldn’t give up that easily.

Thud-

I walked towards the bed. Eve frowned and glared at me.

“I told you… not to come.”

“I don’t care. I’m coming.”

“……”

She quickly turned her head and pulled the covers over herself. Now that she’s relaxed, she’s almost cute. I climbed onto the bed and threw back the covers. She was still curled up.

“I’m not a fan of tantrums.”

“…Who’s throwing a tantrum now? I hate you too.”

“Then why—”

I forcibly pulled Eve towards me. I thought it might be because it was a mental world, but her body was much lighter than I expected.

“Why are you crying so sadly?”

“It’s all your fault…!!”

Thwack-

Eve threw her arms around my neck and hugged me, burying her face in my chest and repeatedly punching me. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt at all.

“Why… why don’t you give up on me…? Why did you come looking for someone who tried to kill you… why, why… why won’t you let me disappear—?!”

“Because I love you.”

“Don’t joke around… answer seriously—!! Why… why…!!!”

Eve’s fists lightly thumped my shoulders and neck. The harder I hugged her, the weaker her punches became. I gently stroked her small, trembling back.

A breeze blew. I closed my eyes and became a single small leaf, swaying in the wind.

Floating, floating. I flew somewhere. Beyond the sky, beyond time, beyond this universe. I found myself in a distant place.

A healthy young man, captivated by a girl in a game, who painstakingly made his own ashen life colorful.

“You see, if I ever meet a girl who looks like me… I’ll ask her to go hunting with me.”

“…?”

“Even if she’s blunt, wayward, and so different from me in temperament that we clash more than I expected… I think I’d find that day quite fulfilling.”

I even fantasized about using Thunder Break on troublesome customers while bowing my head. I also secretly threw a party with my part-time co-workers and got scolded for it. Even on the day my entrepreneurial dreams were shattered when my franchise agreement was canceled, when I lifted my head with tears in my eyes, there was the night sky of Akasto.

“Even if I’ve known her for a long time and she doesn’t know my name… I’d find that a little sad, but her determination to not forget then would be quite endearing.”

“……”

“Even if one day she suddenly asks me to go on an adventure with her… I would accept without a second thought.”

It flickers. The image of the adorable girl who made me, me. Just as I desperately yearned for those days that would never return, without realizing, I hugged Eve in my arms even tighter.

“Even if that adventure… becomes our last.”

Eve’s eyes were now dry. She raised her head and stared intently at my face. Her sapphire eyes shook violently.

“…Name.”

“Huh?”

“…What’s your name?”

I gently curved the corners of my mouth upwards.

“My name… is Narita.”

“Na… Na-ri, you…”

Eve had a visibly confused expression. Tens of thousands of years of memories were swirling, making it impossible for her to think straight.

Like an ocean with surging waves, all kinds of emotions poured out of Eve. A shimmering light, the hope that the moment she had longed for had arrived, and the despair that she was destroying that hope with her own hands.

I held her and immersed her in my soul. I helped her temporarily block her overwhelming emotions so she could regain her original composure.

“That’s not important right now. As the Crown Princess of Naifrantz… I must end this war.”

“…Right.”

Eve smiled faintly. There was a trace of anxiety in her smile, but she no longer trembled.

I got up from the bed and pulled Eve’s hand.

“Let’s get out of here first.”

“…No. I can’t leave.”

Eve reached out towards the window. Even though it was clearly an open space, her hand seemed to be stopped by something.

“I… was trapped here. No wonder, I couldn’t tell whether you were asking me to come in or not to come in.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“We can deal with that later. I’ll listen to everything all at once.”

“…Yes.”

Eve’s space was surrounded and trapped in a black universe. Since this is a mental world, I think it would be accurate to say that the demon’s energy sealed her true feelings.

At least confirming Eve’s true feelings was a success. I now had another reason to save her. My strength surged, enough to make me jump out of bed.

The only drawback is that I can’t just take Eve out of here. The power of the demonized Empress Termina is too strong; there’s no way to get her true self out.

But I wasn’t worried. Eve’s heart wasn’t completely dead yet. I can save her. Surely from the outside, creating an opening would allow the Eve inside to momentarily resist.

Eve clenched her fists. Her gaze was resolute.

“Then now…”

The important thing is that I need to return… but the deepest part also had no exit. Moreover, the moment I entered, the black universe and the wall of tentacles closed in tightly, making it difficult to get back out.

But there’s no need for that. Unlike the tentacle maze hindered by magic, this was a realm filled with Eve’s will and aether.

I placed a hand on my chest. The exact spot where I was pierced by the Muryong Sword, just before my spirit completely shattered. A faint trace of aether still remained.

I feel a faint thread. A desperate longing connecting soul to soul. There was only one possible entity on the other side. My physical body in the real world.

I looked back at Eve. It’s time to leave. Eve, seeming to still be reluctant to part, hesitantly reached out her hand.

Thwack-

But I stopped. Then, I smiled softly.

“Be… safe.”

“Yes. I’ll definitely be back, so don’t go anywhere.”

I transformed into a spirit body and ran through the passage of souls.

***

A maid ran through a battlefield where fiery rain fell.

The tide of the battle completely turned. It was undoubtedly the moment when the strongest warriors of each nation clashed in the sky. Black energy surged from the Empress and enveloped Narita causing her to lose consciousness and fall.

Having escaped Narita’s control, the Imperial Army immediately resumed their advance. The Kingdom’s army resisted but without the Princess, stopping the Empress was impossible.

With that, the front lines were breached. The Kingdom’s troops retreated and the Imperial Army advanced even faster. Naifrantz began to be slowly invaded from the outside.

Yuri found a safe place away from the Imperial Army’s path of advance. There was only one reason. Narita was collapsed in her arms.

She wasn’t dead. Her heart was beating and she was breathing. But she was unconscious. Yuri laid Narita down on the wasteland ravaged and left by the Imperial Shadow Soldiers and examined her condition.

“What… what happened…!!”

Yuri flustered. The energy emanating from Narita was only half of what it usually was. It looked as if something had cut her soul in half and stolen it.

If Narita’s soul didn’t return… Yuri had made the decision to kill Eve and then kill herself.

Fortunately, some of the retreating Kingdom’s troops joined her. Lulu and Nix were with them as well. After confirming Narita’s unconsciousness, Nix quickly approached and began the diagnosis. Lulu also calmed the agitated Yuri by tracking magical reactions.

Nix gazed at Narita’s dark eyes as if mesmerized.

“This is…”

Unexplored knowledge filled the depths. Nix’s mouth watered at the prospect of the unknown. But no she couldn’t let herself succumb, she had to have composure now.

“Narita is somewhere else right now, but… Is this Eve’s mental world…? It seems there’s no way she can return on her own…”

Nor was there a way to help her from this side. How can you make a road when you don’t know the destination? Lulu and Nix racked their brains.

Yuri never took her eyes off Narita. She stared so intently that her corneas became bloodshot.

She could feel it. She could feel something faint. Even though a part of her soul had been pulled away, Yuri seemed to know where it was.

She quietly put her ear to Narita’s chest. Only her heart was pounding. That’s all it was, but… no matter how much she thought about it she felt it was here.

Yuri stroked her lower abdomen, drawing out aether. She raised the Muryong Sword in one hand and pointed it at Narita.

“Yuri-yang…?”

“You’re—“

“…I’m sorry, Oni-sama.”

She thrust it directly into Narita’s heart.