Even So, Surely

Even So, Surely

The blue-white horse flattened its ears and bared its teeth. Its flame-like, unstable outline flickered especially violently.

Immediately afterward, it kicked off the ground with its three legs and charged at tremendous speed.

Tatsumin-san's shield caught the spear, carrying all that acceleration. A thunderous roar rang out, and a small crater formed beneath her feet.

But she did not waver. There was no doubt that the lance charge's destructive power had diminished.

In the meantime, I moved to Furcas's left. I raised the sword gripped in both hands, but his horse violently reared up on both front legs.

It moved without the slightest hesitation despite having only one hind leg. I stepped half a pace back to evade the hoof descending like a warhammer.

As fragments of shattered ground struck my body and made me flinch for an instant, the spear swept mercilessly sideways.

I somehow caught it with my sword, but was blown away. By the time I landed several meters away, Furcas and his horse had already started running.

The demon god withdrew from us and gathered mana in his left arm. The moment I saw it, I ran at full speed toward my staff.

Hundreds of blazing projectiles were released without an incantation. I cut through and dodged the machine-gun-like barrage, then outran it with sheer leg strength.

Then, while running, I grabbed my staff.

In the corner of my vision, Furcas had already set his beloved horse running again. Was he planning to keep up his hit-and-run tactics?

Even with one fewer leg, the difference in mobility was enormous.

But even so...!

"If only I can close the distance...!"

I took aim using the Demon Eye's precognition and squeezed the trigger.

'Scroll: Psychokinesis'

An invisible arm extended from the tip of the staff. It grabbed the shoulder of the speeding demon god.

Furcas seemed to notice it through his sense of touch and immediately tried to sweep the arm away with his spear. But before he could, I pulled myself toward him with all my strength.

My feet left the ground, and I flew toward the monster at high speed. In midair, I spun sideways, adding centrifugal force, and swung the one-handed half-sword through the horse's neck.

The blade parted the blue-white fur, tore through the skin, and cut into the flesh.

But it was shallow. Its neck was too thick, and it was hard as if made from a bundle of wires.

'Hihihihiii!!'

Even so, I had closed the distance.

I landed right in front of the horse and scraped the ground with my feet. As its movement slowed from the slash, I raised my sword, but Furcas's spear thrust out first.

I caught the downward strike by pressing my staff against the flat of my sword. The weight made every bone in my body creak, and the ground shattered, swallowing my feet nearly to the knees.

"!"

While I was dazed by the pain and impact, the spear was pulled back, then thrust at my torso without pause.

I somehow deflected it with my sword, but the following horizontal sweep aimed for my neck. I instinctively tilted the blade diagonally to let the impact slide off.

Perhaps he'd regained his composure during the exchange, because the horse started running again. But I wouldn't let them escape.

Though I staggered from the impact I hadn't fully deflected, I spin-cocked the weapon to load the next scroll. This time, I grabbed the horse's tail with a psychokinetic arm.

I pulled with all my might and landed behind the saddle. I swung my sword sideways at Furcas's neck, but a leather gauntlet caught my wrist.

He immediately drove an elbow at me. I canceled it out with a kick, then swung my left elbow down onto the demon god's neck in return.

'■■……!'

"Hah!"

As I drew my right hand back as though winding up, I spun the hilt, shifted to a reverse grip, and aimed at his neck again.

But at that moment, the horse reared up on its front legs. As I lost my balance, the butt of the spear shot toward me.

Even with precognition, I couldn't evade it in time. I jumped backward, but the blow struck me directly and sank into my stomach.

"Gah...!"

My body folded into a sharp angle, and I was thrown from the horse. As I somehow protected my head with my arm and rolled, my spinning view showed Furcas pointing his left arm at me.

He seemed extremely wary of me. But the old knight had forgotten an opponent he must not overlook.

"Gaa..."

With a halfhearted battle cry.

"Oooh!"

The edge of a shield slammed into the flank of the horse Furcas rode.

Even at this distance, I heard flesh being crushed and bones breaking. Jet-black blood poured from the horse's mouth, and its huge body was sent flying.

But it did not fall. Though blood flowed from the wound on its remaining hind leg, the blue-white horse planted its remaining feet firmly.

Then Furcas's spear thrust toward Tatsumin-san, who was closing in to follow up.

Almost at the same time she caught it with her shield, I fired a spell from the spin-cock. I grabbed the demon god by the chest with an invisible arm.

The eye sockets glowing red turned toward me. By then, I had already closed the distance.

"Oooh!"

'!'

I thrust the sword held in reverse grip into the monster. The point aimed at its heart pierced the left forearm it had thrust in between.

The blade struck bone and veered off, cutting Furcas's collarbone. Before he could swing that arm and hurl me away, I released the hilt.

I adjusted my posture in midair and landed on the soles of my feet. Meanwhile, I reconstructed the one-handed half-sword inside its sheath and drew it with my right hand.

The sword that had been stuck in him vanished, and blood gushed spectacularly from the monster's left arm.

'■■■……!'

Furcas bit the reins between his teeth and turned, driving Tatsumin-san away with the spear in his right hand. Then he charged at me again.

I leaped far to the side to evade and spin-cocked the weapon. I aimed my staff at the demon god's back, but the horse sprang lightly into the air.

Its jumping power was unimaginable for a body that must have weighed over a ton. Its hooves landed on the roller-coaster rails, and it raced along them.

"What the...?"

In the blink of an eye, it raced up the slope, and Furcas used the momentum to leap high into the sky.

Then the demon god shifted the spear in his right hand to a reverse grip and twisted his body sharply.

The Demon Eye showed me the future three seconds ahead.

A world dyed red.

Enormous mana gathered around the spearhead in an instant, cloaking it in radiance like the sun.

"Defensive positions!"

Shouting only that, I extended a psychokinetic arm to the rails.

The monster threw its spear just as my feet left the ground.

Accompanied by a sonic boom, the spear struck the earth.

The mana packed inside the spearhead exploded, and in an instant my vision was enveloped in flames and smoke.

"Guh...!"

The blast threw me away, and unable to break my fall, I struck my back against something.

Before I could identify from the sound that it was a metal pillar, I fell onto something hard.

"Gah, ugh...!"

Perhaps my face guard had shattered from the impact, because fragments fell through the gaps in the rails.

That's right, rails. Apparently I'd fallen onto the roller-coaster rails.

The pain returned as if it had just remembered me. My wounds should have healed, but the agonizing pain from broken bones and burns pierced my brain.

I somehow stood and tightened my grip on the weapons in both hands. Just as I looked toward the plaza still wreathed in black smoke, an impact struck beneath my feet, accompanied by the sound of metal hitting metal.

When I looked up, a three-legged horse stood on the slope of the rails. The old knight demon god astride it was pointing his skull-like face at me.

A spear reconstructed itself in the monster's right hand. Could it, too, produce as many weapons as it wanted so long as it had mana?

But the amount of mana inside him had clearly decreased. Apparently, the previous attack couldn't be fired repeatedly.

With a scene like a missile strike at the edge of my vision, I spun my staff and took up a stance. Furcas also readied his spear.

Along with the horse's neigh, the demon god charged.

In response, I threw myself into the air as if falling sideways and evaded. Just after Furcas raced past, I extended an invisible arm toward the spot where I had been and pulled myself up forcefully.

Spinning sideways, I attacked from behind the demon god. But perhaps he had read me; Furcas's spear was thrust backward first.

As he swung it sideways, his fingers loosened for just an instant. The spear's range extended, and its tip came level with my neck.

I changed the slash I was about to release into a counter, twisting my body and knocking the hilt upward with the blade.

Immediately afterward, the horse running along the rails smashed them with both front legs and kicked up its hind legs.

I somehow caught the hoof with my left gauntlet, but the force blasted me away and I collided back-first with the sloping rails.

Feeling the air forced from my lungs, I caught sight through my swaying vision of Furcas and his horse skillfully turning around. Before I could think, I leaped down to the diagonally lower rail.

Immediately after landing on the soles of my feet, I ran to evade the future the Demon Eye had shown me. Behind me came the shrill sound of metal splitting.

I saw a phantom of the spear thrust from behind and turned while swinging my sword to deflect it. But I couldn't completely evade the horse's body slam and was sent flying.

"Gah!?"

Blown away by the impact, I tumbled through the air. During it, my staff slipped from my left hand. Belatedly, I understood that my arm had broken.

Aware of tears gathering at the corners of my eyes from the pain, I regenerated my left hand and grabbed the rail before falling to the ground.

The spear thrust mercilessly at me while I hung there. I evaded it by throwing myself upward with one hand.

I kicked the spear shaft to change direction and, as I passed, swung my sword at Furcas's face.

But the demon god turned his neck and caught the blade on a goat horn. A hard clang rang out and sparks flew, while the horse's hind leg once again took aim at me in midair.

As if I'd let it hit me twice, I kicked first. Sole and hoof collided, making a sound like giant iron masses smashing together, and knocked each other away.

A sharp pain shot through my right foot. I gritted my teeth and endured it, landing on the rails.

As I ran off on my instantly regenerated leg, Furcas also ran along the lower rails.

Perhaps this was the amusement park's centerpiece, but the roller-coaster rails were absurdly long. But since they were one continuous track, they had to connect somewhere.

Furcas, who had overtaken me, approached from directly ahead, his hooves clattering.

"Tch...!"

I stopped and readied my sword.

This was bad. Somehow I had to deflect his charge...!

"Gaaah..."

"!"

Hearing a voice behind me, I leaped straight upward without a second thought.

I had fled into the air with nowhere to escape, and for an instant the demon god's face and spearhead pursued me. But they soon turned back to face forward.

Naturally. After all, right before him was—

"Ooooooooooh!"

'Ice Breath'

A bristling wall of ice spears had been created.

Makeshift spears sprouted from the rails, their sharp points all aimed at Furcas and his horse.

To avoid being impaled by the momentum of his own charge, the demon god pulled the reins he held in his mouth and made his beloved horse leap.

But I had leaped first, and at that very moment I was reversing my body and planting my feet against the underside of the upper rail.

"Hng...!"

I jumped downward. I unleashed a slash weighted with gravity at Furcas.

'■■!'

His defense with the spear did not make it in time. The diagonal shoulder slash caught the demon god.

Just as the thick blade tore through flesh as far as the heart, it broke halfway. Carried by my momentum, I fell to the ground and landed rolling.

Ignoring another landing sound that rang out some distance away, I discarded the broken sword and ran.

I had undoubtedly dealt a fatal wound. Even so, surely he wouldn't stop.

I picked up my dropped staff and pushed the lever forward. But I already knew it was out of ammo.

I loaded a single scroll into the open, empty chamber. Then I turned toward the sound of hooves racing over the ground.

'■■■■■■■■■──────!!'

Furcas charged with the reins released and his spear raised overhead. The demon god and his horse roared as one, and there was no hesitation in their charge.

I faced it head-on and readied my staff.

There was no need to evade. Because—

"Gaaaaaoooooooo!"

She came dropping down in front of me, shield ready.

Collision. The air shook violently, and the ground around us shattered.

Even so, everything behind the steel shield remained unharmed. At most, our eardrums nearly ruptured.

Keeping calm, I activated the scroll at the bottom of my staff.

"Run in hell."

I squeezed the trigger.

Five beams of light shot out. They struck the old cavalryman whose charge had been halted and tore through him.

The demon god's arms were blown off, half his head was gouged away, and holes were opened through his chest and abdomen.

Furcas nearly fell from the saddle for an instant, but clamped the saddle firmly between both legs.

'Hihihihiii──────nn!'

With a shrill cry, the blue-white horse raced past at our side.

There was no need to turn around. I could tell from the flow of mana alone.

The only knight among Solomon's seventy-two pillars had met his end without ever dismounting.

"......Haaah."

In that instant, strength left my entire body.

Unable to stand, I sat down on the ground. The pavement seemed to have been blasted away entirely, so I sat on the bare dirt.

With a clatter, Tatsumin-san also dropped to one knee.

Apparently, both of us were on the verge of running out of mana. I should still have had plenty of physical stamina, but a severe headache and dizziness made my consciousness hazy.

No matter how little mana scrolls consumed, it wasn't zero. Reconstructing 'Spirit Armament' as well had apparently consumed more mana than I'd expected.

"......Are you alive, Tatsumin-san?"

"Thanks to you... gao."

After answering, she partially dismissed only her helmet.

Sweat-soaked Tatsumi—Ryugu-san—looked around with eyes hidden behind her bangs.

"But..."

"...Even so."

I knew what she had begun to say as her eyes moistened for an instant.

But.

"Please stay alive. Please don't die yet."

"......"

"If you were gone... surely everyone would be sad."

After several seconds of silence.

Ryugu-san put her helmet back on.

"Couldn't you say something like, 'I'll stay by your side,' gao? That's why you're not popular, gao-yo."

"I can't say that. I don't think I'm that self-important... And more importantly—"

I turned my gaze toward the mana surging elsewhere.

"Woooooooooooooooo!"

A Lesser Demon whose torso had been severed was falling from the stationary Ferris wheel.

At its top, the self-proclaimed noble of the demon world was roaring with his great scythe raised.

"Everyone really did their best: me, Riko-senpai, Rosso-san, and Miyu-san."

"That's right, gao-nee."

"So, well—"

To be safe, I loaded a new magazine into my staff while smiling.

"When this amusement park reopens, treat us all like VIPs, okay?"

"......Heh."

Even through her helmet, I could tell she wore the look of a pigeon hit by a pea shooter. It was absolutely hilarious.

The memories Tatsumin-san cherished had indeed been destroyed. We had also destroyed parts of the park during the battle.

Even so, surely.

I believed she'd reopen the amusement park, filled with memories of her family and the memories still to come.

Well, I had absolutely no basis for believing that.

I heard a sigh through the gap in Tatsumin-san's helmet.

"......I can't tell whether you're a cheeseball or a gloomy guy, gao-nee."

"Can you really insult someone at a moment like this?"

That actually hurts, you know? Isn't that harsh?

"But I do know that only someone truly strange could fall for you, gao."

"I see. You're picking a fight, aren't you? Is that it? I'll bawl my eyes out, you bastard. I'll spread the terrible rumor that a mascot made someone cry...!"

"You've ruined the mood, gao. Also, I'm not a guy, gao. I'm a girl, gao."

"A girl...? Tatsumin-san, you're an adult, aren't you?"

"Are you picking a fight with all the girls in the world right now, gao-nee?"

As we carried on with that foolish conversation...

Along with the sound of a motor, the gray giant came running toward us. A self-proclaimed gal waved with a beaming smile from its palm.

Seeing that, I relaxed my shoulders.

Though thick clouds still covered most of the sky—

Sunlight shone down on the earth through a break in them.