F

Volume 3, Chapter 3: The Edge of Darkness

Eru ran as if he was piercing through the darkness.

The magical torch I had borrowed from the Rittei maintained its light without so much as flickering even in the wind.

I carefully kept my balance as I rode Eru while holding up the torch in one hand and grabbing on to Eru’s fur with the other. I couldn’t hold the divine sword because both of my hands were busy. I carried it in the sash at my waist instead.

I wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible. I couldn’t let the Reims stall me here. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to bring them back after I’d resurrected them.

“Avoid them!”

Eru ran past the Reims in the temple corridors like a gale, just as I’d asked.

It felt strange. There was a warmth circulating through my body. It was different from normal elation. There was something dignified underneath that feeling. Maybe the Rittei’s oath had taken root in my heart.

Eru, who could see in the dark, found an exit leading out of the temple. He leapt through it without losing momentum.

We cut across the passage, ran across an area that looked like a plaza with a lot of statues, and went through a door along a stone wall.

“Be careful. I can hear the Reims crying.”

There were a lot of Reims hiding in the forest that surrounded the temple. But Eru was faster than usual today. He ran so quickly that even the fastest monsters wouldn’t be able to catch up to him and dodged the Reims that sidled up to us.

There were a few Reims that jumped at us, but Eru jumped over their heads instead.

I was surprised, but I made sure to earnestly support myself so I wouldn’t fall off.

“Eru, you’re amazing!”

We were able to escape the forest without being caught by the Reims because the densely packed trees had acted like our shields.

I began to see buildings, darker than the darkness around us, as we ran single-mindedly across the open land. But Eru was going somewhere else. We then entered another area with a lot of densely packed trees.

“What kind of district is this?”

Eru growled. Was it his way of replying?

“……Eru, I don’t understand what you’re saying…”

We passed through a maze-like hedge, a place with a lot of structures, a region with a lot of trees, and more without pause.

I didn’t have the time to observe my surroundings. I kept my body low so that I wouldn’t get in Eru’s way as he dodged the Reims.

“Please be safe, Louie…”

I’ll be there soon.

***

I looked up when I realized that Eru had slowed down a little.

“Where are we……?”

I saw a massive and tall stone wall before me. It looked like there were buildings on the other side.

The stone wall was built around the buildings it as if to protect them. It was sturdily built and had devices meant for stopping intruders on it. The upper portions were pointed like lances.

It was probably another measure meant to prevent intruders from breaking through.

“Eru, hold up for a bit.”

I noticed that there was a large piece of cloth on the ground when we slipped past a statue so large I had to look up to see it.

I had Eru step back a little and used my torch to light up the ground.

“……A flag?”

I focused my attention on the pattern that had been embroidered toward the center of the flag. There was a profile of a warrior wearing a helmet. Behind him was a sword crossing with a lance. Florid vines decorated the sides.

“Oh, maybe there’s an institution that has to do with knights here?”

I saw that the statue was also modeled after a knight upon a closer look. It was kneeling as if it was swearing an oath to someone.

“Is Louie in there? ……Eru, let’s go!”

But Eru suddenly stopped moving before we could get close to the stone wall. I squinted and was promptly startled.

There were so many writhing shadows. The Reims were closing in on the stone wall.

“If this really is a place that has to do with knights… Then the Reims here will be strong too, right?”

The divine sword had said that Reims had levels.

“I can’t face this many……”

I’d get surrounded before I could even find the entrance.

And I’d be done for if I got trapped with no reinforcements.

Then how are we supposed to get inside——?

“Eru.”

I grasped his fur tighter. My mouth moved before I could actually think up of anything.

“——Carry me there.”

We had no choice but to jump over the tall stone wall.

Eru growled and sprang forward into a run like an arrow and leapt into the air.

He progressed as though he was running in the skies, passing both the stone wall and the Reims.

That’s right, Eru is the sacred beast that Olin, a god of war, gave to me. There was no way he was only able to run on the ground. It wasn’t strange for him to be able to fly, since his original rider was a god.

But then, why hadn’t he flown like this before? If he could stay airborne for long periods of time, then we could’ve escaped Urs before we were surrounded by the Reims.

“Is it because you couldn’t feel Olin’s, your master’s, power?”

I’d received the gods’ powers, but I hadn’t been able to use them properly yet. But maybe my body had started getting used to them and they’d finally gotten to a point where Eru could feel it.

“Or is it because you got used to the atmosphere down here, Eru?”

I didn’t know which one it was. But I felt really sorry for Eru if it was my fault.

The person who had sealed away Eru’s abilities had been me—the me who was always hesitant and didn’t even try to look ahead.

Look, Eru’s running through the skies so freely right now, like he’s finally been freed from his shackles.

“Let’s go, Eru.”

We’ll go to Louie’s side, without ever getting lost, like a falling star——just like the voice that fell into my heart before.

***

Eru landed once after we had crossed over the wall and jumped again without losing his momentum. He was able to stay in the air for a pretty long period of time, but it looked like he couldn’t fly continuously like a bird. It might be possible for him to achieve true flight one day, if I became better at manifesting the powers that Olin and Silvai had given me.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll be able to fly someday.”

I looked down to the ground carefully so that I wouldn’t fall off Eru’s back.

The past me would’ve been too scared to look down from so high up above the buildings at this speed.

I quieted down, thinking in the corner of my mind that I’d started growing pretty bold as of late.

“There are multiple buildings lined up next to each other.”

The buildings behind the thick stone wall looked like they were positioned very specifically when I saw them from above. What immediately stood out to me were two buildings that looked like an upside-down L. There was also a group of buildings built in a wheel shape toward the center.

“……It looks like an orange slice.”

There were five triangular buildings that were constructed in a gentle arc in the outer circumference with an even path that cut through all of them. There was a semi-circular plaza at the center where the buildings pointed to.

“That building over there……”

I pointed the torch to the ground and focused my attention on one of the buildings that composed the wheel.

“How strange, the Reims are gathered around that one building.”

I was about to call out to Eru, but then I suddenly realized.

That Eru was already heading there without me having to ask him.

“But it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to go in through the front entrance.”

The Reims were pushing against the walls as they searched for an entrance and were even trying to scale them.

There were even Reims that were trying to break in by pushing against the windows.

“Let’s land on the roof first?”

First, we’d land on the roof of the L-shaped building and jump again toward our destination with added momentum.

“Can you make it?”

A reassuring growl answered me as I pulled at my bangs.

Eru landed deftly on the building that was surrounded my Reims. There were no Reims up here.

“Alright! You’re so reliable, Eru!”

I cast the torchlight on our surroundings without getting off of Eru’s back.

“I wonder if there’s a door or a stairway that’ll lead us inside?”

I had to depend on the moonlight and the torch. I had Eru walk around as we made a quick check.

“Wait……. I heard something just now.”

I held my breath and listened close. I picked up the coarse sound of something scraping away at a wall.

“Are the Reims trying to climb up the walls?”

We had to hurry and move. I looked around at my surroundings. There was a fence around the perimeter of the roof to prevent people from falling off. There were a bunch of wooden things and wooden crates and the like stacked up in one corner, though I didn’t know what they were for.

I had Eru approached something that looked like an observation deck when I noticed it was there.

“Maybe we can get inside the building from there.”

I checked the perimeter of the observation deck. I found that there was a small door along one of the walls.

It wouldn’t budge even when I grabbed the handle and pushed. I seemed to be bolted from the inside. I thought that we might be able to break in through the window, but it was reinforced by sturdy iron bars.

“It’ll take some time to destroy these. ……I guess I’ll ask Eru to break down the door?”

I heard something snap from behind me just as I finished whispered. It was the sound of the fence breaking apart.

“——The Reims made it up here……!”

Eru wriggled. He apparently wanted me to get off. After I’d quickly climbed down, Eru took a few steps back and lowered his head. Then, he vigorously slammed himself against the door.

The door creaked loudly and I heard the bolt inside breaking apart after Eru had headbutted it two, three times.

“Good job Eru, you’re amazing!”

But is your head okay? He had rammed it against the door as hard as he could, so it must’ve hurt quite a bit.

“Thank you.”

I pat Eru on the forehead and carefully pushed open the door. I heard the pieces of the broken bolt fall to the floor before the door opened. I quickly urged Eru inside and slipped in after him.

“It’s really dusty in here.”

I raised my torch up high and surveyed the deck. There was a desk, a chair, and several barrels. I moved them against the door to keep the Reims out for as long as possible and to make it so that it wouldn’t be easy to open the door.

“The entrance……”

My palms grew sweaty as I began to panic. I wipe my hands on my robes, readjusted my grip on the torch, and ran my gaze across the room. There was no other door. We were as good as trapped rats if there wasn’t a way inside.

“There weren’t any entrances outside either.”

I pressed my fingers against my temple and thought. There had to be a way in. Or else, there wouldn’t have been a way to come out to the rooftop.

“In cases like this…”

I looked down at the floor and nodded. In movies or novels, there was usually a secret trapdoor hidden underneath the carpet.

“I found it!!”

I guess hiding places were always the same regardless of which world you were in. I pulled up the washed-out carpet as dust danced through the air and found a tiny handle in the floorboards. I placed my finger through it and lifted it up.

The boards creaked horribly, probably because the trapdoor hadn’t been opened in a really long time. I brushed away the white dust particles that spread out into my immediate surroundings and looked inside to find simple ladder leading down, as I’d expected.

The trapdoor was square and wasn’t very large.

“I can fit with room to spare……but will you be okay, Eru?”

I’d have Eru go first. His tail was waving in an unusually nervous manner.

“……I’ll push you from behind.”

Eru made a somewhat pitiful sound in response before cramming his body into the trapdoor. ……Your head’s in, but your front paws are stuck, Eru.

“You, you can do it!”

Whoa, I don’t know how to put this, but it looks really tight.

“Oh no, you’re completely stuck.”

Eru let out a heartrending coo, as though he was asking for help.

His tail was flapping around as if to emphasize how desperate he was.

“……This might’ve been a little reckless.”

Yeah, Eru’s kinda big, isn’t he……?

“Sorry, just bear with it!”

I pushed Eru, who was already groaning and struggling in discomfort, from behind.

Oh no, the trapdoor’s digging into Eru’s stomach!

“Just a little more!”

I cheered Eru on as I pushed him with my full body weight while being careful so I didn’t drop the torch.

We somehow made it through the worst part as we struggled and Eru moved down the ladder. It sounded like he had missed a few rungs, though, maybe because had stumbled a bit.

I hurried and slipped in the trapdoor too and closed the entrance from the inside.

I heard something scratching the door to the deck immediately afterward. There Reims were already closing in.

“Are you okay?”

I pat Eru, who was crouching down like he was exhausted, on the face once I’d climbed down the ladder. For whatever reason, Eru responded in a gloomy voice that suggested he had just gone through the toughest thing he’d ever faced until now.

“You’re amazing, Eru, you did so well!”

It was probably for the best that I didn’t mention that he’d lost a huge chunk of fur from his abdomen. And so, I kicked the fur away with my toes so he wouldn’t notice.

It’s okay, your fur will grow back soon…I think!

***

I climbed back on Eru’s back and we proceeded onward.

“It looks like the Reims have already infiltrated the building.”

I heard their characteristic cries echoing out from somewhere. We’d have to be careful not to get found as we moved about.

Eru proceeded carefully while avoiding the places we heard the Reims from as if he’d guessed what I was thinking. Eru was the only one who knew where Louie was.

“Anyway, I wonder why you and Louie were sent here instead?”

One tiny mistake in the process of translocating could invite disaster.

Or, maybe I should’ve been grateful that Louie and Eru had been sent to the same location. We’d have no way of searching for each other if all three of us had been sent to different places.

“It would’ve been better if it was still daytime……I’m worried about Louie.”

After all, Eru had come to me alone after deciding that Louie wasn’t able to.

I was too scared to think about why Eru had come to that determination.

I cleared the bad premonitions from my head and looked forward. The corridor was in a horrible state with a lot of broken things and weapons of all varieties scattered across it. There were even beast and human bones scattered about, if my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

Plus, there were a lot of cracks in the stone floor. We had to be careful we didn’t fall into any holes or get caught by Reims as we proceeded.

“Judging by its height, I think this building is either three or four stories tall.”

We went down one floor and kept heading down until we picked up on a Reim’s presence and heard something.

“Did you hear that just now, Eru? ……Let’s go around the corridor to the other side and find another way down.”

We changed directions and proceeded forward in silence for a short while before Eru suddenly stopped moving.

Eru growled to inform me of the coming danger.

I was taken aback and gripped the hilt of my sword. Just then, something that wasn’t a Reim charged at us. I knew with a glance that it wasn’t a regular beast.

“It’s a monster……!”

Eru swiftly evaded the monster’s charge.

The monster turned around, fixed its stance, and charged at us again without missing a beat. It had the face of a boar. There were six horns growing on its head, like a bull. Eru got ready to flee.

“Wait!”

I can’t run away, this monster’s fast. It’ll keep chasing us forever if we don’t defeat it here.

I drew the divine sword from its sheath and my vision quickly became clear in a different way than the clarity the torch gave me.

“It’s okay, I won’t lose,”

I told myself over and over again in order to calm down my furiously beating heart.

I waited for the monster to draw closer and had Eru jump almost all the way up to the ceiling.

Then, I grabbed my sword as hard as I could and threw it at the monster like a lance. The monster let out a scream so sharp it seemed to pierce through my eardrums. I had Eru approach the monster when we landed back on the floor.

“I finished it!?”

The divine sword, which I had thrown, had burrowed deep inside the monster’s neck. I went up to it and pulled the sword out of the twitching monster. The sensation of rending flesh. I felt both a strong repulsion and terror at the same time.

Eru growled again just as I began to let my guard back down. His mane flared up in warning.

“There’s another one……!”

A new monster had appeared and was closing in on me from behind by the time I readied my sword.

——What will you do; will you call on us, o fragile Master?!

I bit down at my lip when I heard the divine sword’s scorn rise up in my heart.

I won’t call you, since I don’t know if I’ll be able to turn my arm back to normal this time if it turns into a monster again.

I stiffened up. Eru moved on his own accord, possibly because he was getting impatient. He bit the monster by the eyes when it came too close and tore off a chuck of skin.

“Whoa!”

I clung to Eru’s fur in a panic.

The monster cried out in pain and fled at full speed while flinging about drops of blood everywhere. I stopped Eru from chasing after it. I figured it would be okay to leave it be.

It was one thing if we were attacked first, but there was no need to go out of our way to exterminate every monster that we came across.

“Let’s hurry on.”

I only noticed as I forced my hand, stiff from fear, to move and return my sword to its sheath. That I had subconsciously dropped the torch before defeating the first monster.

The torch that I had borrowed from the Rittei had rolled to the other end of the corridor while maintaining its bright light. I picked it up and proceeded deeper into the dark and dangerous corridor. Eventually, I heard the a Reim crying again.

But this time, it wasn’t a cry of delight that sounded almost like a cheer.

It was screaming in pain.

Could it be?

“Is Louie nearby!?”

And just as I inadvertently shouted out loud while drawing up his image in my mind. Eru slowed down and approached one of the rooms lined up along the corridor. The hinge on the door to the room was broken, so it wasn’t closed all the way.

Eru pushed the door open with his head and went to the middle of the room without even being careful about what could be in it. There was a hole in the middle of the floor. Eru stuck his mouth into it.

“What’s the matter, Eru?”

What was he trying to do? I stroked his mane, bewildered, as Eru bit at the stone tile and clawed at his with his front paws.

“Is he below us?”

I climbed down from Eru’s back and swiftly drew the divine sword. I left the torch a little way from us for the meanwhile.

——What are you planning to do, girl?!

The divine sword, apparently having guessed at my intentions, cried out in my heart in alarm.

——Will you use us in such a crude manner?!

I didn’t mean to, but this is an emergency right now!

“Break the stone floor if you don’t wanna snap in half!”

I thrust the tip of the sword into one of the cracks in the floor before it could say anything in protest.

Multiple cracks began to form in the floor audibly just as I began to chicken out from the voices of blame and cursing that rose up in my heart.

“Hyaah!”

Just when I fell back in a hurry and grabbed the torch. The cracks spread all the way to where I was standing, and the stone floor began to crumble apart. I tried to move to somewhere safer, but it was too late.

The feeling of having something sturdy under my feet vanished and my body began to slant heavily to one side.

“I’m falling!”

The surprise hit me before the fear did. My whole body was wrapped in the feeling of being weightless and I plummeted down with the pieces of the broken floor. However, I was suddenly yanked by the abdomen so quickly that I didn’t even have the time to process any pain.

I understood that Eru had grabbed hold of me by the sash at my waist without having to turn around to confirm it.

The pieces of the floor rattled as they fell.

I opened my eyes wide as I watched them. My vision was still clear because I was holding on to the divine sword.

“Louie!”

My shout overlapped with the sound of a Reim screaming in pain while its body fluids dispersed in the air.

Louie was single-mindedly cutting down a Reim.

***

What was I supposed to make of this scene?

Eru landed on the floor and let go of my sash. I staggered a little. My eyes were glued to the scene before me.

“This is……”

A shiver ran through my body.

The sound of rending flesh. That repulsive, raw sound. It echoed relentlessly.

“Louie——”

He cut at the Reim over and over again.

We had to escape from his building as soon as possible. I knew exactly what I had to do in my head, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even be happy to see him safe again.

“This can’t be real…”

There were so many corpses scattered around Louie——not corpses of the Reims, but the remains of human bodies.

Severed limbs had been scattered about. They almost looked like minced meat. Were they real?

“Why…?”

Why are there human limbs scattered around?

I wasn’t afraid because it was all so cruel that it didn’t actually feel real. I probably wouldn’t have even realized they were human remains if my vision wasn’t clear from the torch and the divine sword.

“That’s so strange.”

You couldn’t turn a Reim back human with any normal sword. You shouldn’t be able to kill them. I noticed my mistake just as I thought this. I had selfishly decided that it was possible to kill a Reim with a normal sword if it was killed before its transformation was complete.

“But that’s not the case……!”

I recalled exactly what Silvai had said when he had told me about the Reims. “It is just barely possible to annihilate a revenant with regular sorcery or magic, or if you cut through it with a sword, but that would mean destroying even the soul, the core that makes up a ‘person’.” ——Silvai had never said anything about it being possible to kill a Reim before it was complete.

Did that mean that their human souls would die without ever being able to revive regardless of whether the Reim was complete or not? But, just as Silvai had said, this was only “just barely possible” and it was pretty hard to kill a Reim.

Would the Reims keep getting back up without dying if you didn’t keep cutting it down persistently like this?

“And then only the scattered human remains are left after the ‘Reim’ is annihilated——?”

Louie had hated the idea of getting close to a Reim.

Was it because he knew this would happen?

“Louie?”

My eyes began to tear up because I’d kept them open all this time.

He wouldn’t answer. He wouldn’t look at me!

I looked around the room. ……There was a Reim pinned to the wall. Spears had been pierced through its body like it was an insect specimen.

Then, I turned to the window. The sturdy iron bars had been forcefully bent out of the way and the Reims were trying to cram their stout bodies though it to enter the room.

The Reims didn’t have any consideration for each other or the ability to hold themselves back, so they pushed each other aside as they all tried to climb into the room first. That was the reason why they were unable to break into the room.

Oh, I see, Louie was able to survive because, luckily, the Reims were getting in each other’s way. Even Louie wouldn’t have been able to face them if they’d all rushed him at once.

I finally felt like I understood why Eru had come running to find me even if it meant leaving Louie behind.

The chilling sound of bodily fluids spewing to the floor resounded around me.

Louie had finally finished off a Reim. The melting flesh. The ‘remains of the Reim’ turned into ‘human remains’.

“Lou……”

My heart was quivering. The scene before me was so terrible that no words of consolation could ever make it better. The stench of blood was so strong I was choking on it.

I lost my words upon seeing how Louie looked down at the cut-up Reims with empty eyes. I couldn’t even move because my feet were frozen in place.

I wanted to call his name again, but I couldn’t get my voice out no matter how hard I tried.

Why did this…?

If only they had at least remained as ‘Reim’ remains. But reality was far too cruel for that. It plainly and vividly made you understand that those that you had cut apart and killed were ‘people’.

“Horrible, this is horrible——Fortune.”

Louie let his sword arm drop languidly to his side and stood there like a broken doll. His cheeks and his hair were covered in blood again.

I looked down and covered my eyes for a brief moment with arm as I held on to the divine sword.

Eru growled. He was warning us about something. Reality truly never give us the time to look down or the time to make a wish. It was as if it was saying that our hearts weren’t worth giving the time to reflect over.

I slowly lowered my arm. A Reim that had tumbled into the room tried to jump on Louie, who hadn’t even moved an inch. The sight burned itself into my eyes.

My heart thumped loudly.

“——Behind you!!”

The same words I had spoken in the interworld forest spilled out of my mouth again.

Louie hadn’t been able to see me back then, either. Our fates had been bound together by just my cry of alarm. I remembered how weak I had been back then, when all I could do was to say something.

But now…!

“Louie, watch out!”

I threw the divine sword with all of my strength.

“I can fight……!”

The divine sword glowed white as it sundered the air and pierced through the Reim’s neck as it tried to attack Louie. The sword fell to the floor with a clatter once it had done its duty.

And then, the miraculous resurrection began. Louie looked around the room in a daze until his eyes finally landed on me.

“Louie!”

But just as the spell broke and I was about to run over to him.

A black mass jumped down from the stone floor I had broken……from the hole in the ceiling.

“Huh——what!?”

It was the bloodied monster that I hadn’t finished off before.

***

I shouldn’t have stopped Eru from chasing after the monster before. I should have defeated it then and there.

I realized that I wasn’t holding the divine sword just as I turned to face it.

The monster charged at me with overflowing wrath. I didn’t have time to get the divine sword. Then, Louie moved just as Eru tried to stand in front of me.

“Ah……!?”

Louie’s sword arm was sure. His skill with the sword was probably one the reasons why he alone had survived after the Kingdom of Gallè had fallen. He rent the monster’s abdomen with his first slash. The monster fell over with a spray of blood and stopped moving altogether.

And yet, Louie still kept slashing at the monster as if it were a Reim.

“——Louie.”

I felt my heart sink.

He wasn’t the type of person to keep harassing a corpse so relentlessly.

“That’s enough!”

I ran up to him and grabbed his arm as he tried to continue hacking mechanically at the corpse.

I didn’t even grab him that hard, but he promptly collapsed to his knees as if his strings had been cut. The sword in his hand fell heavily to the floor.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to cut it up anymore.”

I saw the man who had just finished resurrecting stir out of the corner of my eye as I put the torch down on the floor. He didn’t seem to be fully conscious yet.

But Louie’s mental state was much more important than the newly awakened man right now.

“Louie, do you know who I am?”

I whispered after I walked around in front of him and got down on my knees.

He looked back at me with cold eyes devoid of human warmth.

His colorless expressions, so empty that it seemed to suggest that he’d lost his heart, clamped down at my chest.

“……Hibiki——you were safe?”

he asked in a flat and hoarse voice. He continued,

“you’re not an illusion this time?”

“An illusion……?”

I didn’t know what he was talking about at first.

I desperately wracked my brains until I guessed at what he was probably trying to say.

I had vanished right in front of Louie’s eyes when we’d first met. At the time, Louie had thought that I was an illusion created by his desires. But then, I’d appeared before him again.

It was only then that Louie had acknowledged that I was another human being who actually existed.

“But then……we were separated again.”

He was wondering if I was an illusion this time. I asked,

“do I look like an illusion to you? I’m right here, you know?”

I forced myself to smile and touched his cheek. And yet, the warmth still didn’t return to his eyes.

Eru growled quietly and fidgeted. We didn’t have time. We didn’t know when the Reims pushing against each other at the window would start tumbling into the room.

But bringing Louie back to his senses came first, even though I knew that we were in immediate danger.

If I turned my back on him now, his heart would remain broken forever. That’s how I felt.

“Why aren’t you an illusion?”

Louie asked indifferently.

What should I do? What could I say that would reach his heart?

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how to!

Why am I always so useless, always just worrying……!

My irritation and frustration jumbled together and made a mess in my head.

“I’m so sorry, Louie.”

I could only apologize because I couldn’t find the words that would heal his heart no matter how hard I searched for them.

“Are you unhurt?”

“……Yeah.”

He was prioritizing my safety and worrying about me even after his heart had been tattered to pieces.

I suddenly realized something just as I was about to be crushed by the urge to cry.

I carefully scrutinized Louie’s face. He wasn’t looking at me properly. His gaze was ever so slightly off-center.

His eyes were looking at another world just a finger’s width away.

“Look at me?”

“I am.”

I cupped my hands against Louie’s cheeks even as I heard Eru growling at me to hurry from behind.

“Look at me properly.”

Louie looked reluctant and didn’t answer when I asked again.

I see, he wants to write me off as an illusion. That’s why he won’t look me in the eye.

If he did, he wouldn’t be able to find repose, to die. Louie had sworn an oath to me, after all.

“——You swore on your life that you’d protect me.”

He was a kind and serious person. That was why his oath had become heavy shackles, heavier than lead, that continued to bind him. If he properly acknowledged my existence, then he would have to live in this painful reality and get all covered in blood again.

“You want to go insane, don’t you, Louie?”

I felt as though I’d finally found the reason why he thought this.

It was because he still retained his sanity.

“Your heart hasn’t shattered yet.”

He was making this contradictory wish because he so desperately wished it was. His mind was sound even despite the fact that he was exhausted, and he was trapped in a prison of jet-black despair.

But the reason you haven’t called out to the gentle lull of madness is because you’re strong, Louie. It’s proof that, somewhere inside, you still haven’t given up on this world yet——that you don’t want to.

“I’m sorry, Louie, but I can’t give you the peace you wish for.”

I want you to come back to this cruel and painful reality.

“Hey, Louie, you promised me, didn’t you?”

“——”

“You offered me your unchanging fidelity. I was so happy. No one’s ever said someone so amazing to me before. I felt like I’d become a princess or something. Since you’re really a real knight, Louie.”

I peered into Louie’s face as he desperately tried not to listen. Eru was telling me to hurry up by wandering around restlessly and growling behind me.

“As proof of your knighthood, the blood of reason and justice runs though you, you burn a torch of valor, and you offered me your undying will——”

“Hibiki!”

He shouted in an effort to stop listening and quickly bit down at his lip.

“You said you’d protect me. I was able to come all this way because you were there with me, Louie. I can’t survive the night alone because I’m weak.”

Louie’s shoulders began to shake as I kept talking. He was biting down at his lip so hard with a dull and enraged look in his eyes that blood began to trickle down from it

“Are you done with me? You don’t want to be with me anymore?”

All I could do was to jolt his heart with unfair words.

I was a far cry from a wise adult, but I wasn’t an innocent child anymore either.

“I’m scared of being alone. I want you to stay with me.”

“——”

For a moment, Louie glared at me with fierce anger in his eyes. Our eyes met properly just now!

“I came here because I wanted to see you again. Louie, did you not want to see me?”

His gaze was terrifying. His eyes were stern and seemed to be cursing me, and there was no trace of his usual kindness that always seemed to wrap around me.

I deludedly felt like he would cut me into pieces any minute now and wanted to run.

But I was able to find my next words to say thanks to this.

“You have to blame me. You’re really angry, angry enough to hit me, aren’t you? You have to ask me why. After all, Louie, you——you think that I betrayed you.”

I held Louie’s cheeks in place so that he couldn’t turn away.

I heard the Reims scratching at the walls outside. But I couldn’t move, not yet.

“Please stop.”

“I won’t,”

I replied immediately, and he suddenly grabbed my arms in a fit of rage. His grip was so strong I thought my arms would get crushed. I felt like my bones were creaking, and I might have let it show on my face a bit. I continued,

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize!!”

He rejected my apology as though he was trying to beat me down with his refusal. He continued,

“are you telling me to resent you, whom I’m supposed to protect?!”

A great whirlpool of emotion finally rose up from Louie’s eyes. I found myself captivated by his beautiful moon-colored eyes, which were finally cleared of their dullness, despite the situation.

I get it, he must be called the Moon General because of his eye color.

“Why?! Why did you leave me behind? You were the one who told me to stay with you, but then you disappeared!”

“Yeah.”

That’s what you wanted to say, isn’t it? But he’d forcefully sealed away his feelings because he thought it’d hurt me if he said it out loud.

“You swore we’d stay together. Then why did you cast me into the darkness again? You made me kill my comrades!!”

“Your comrades……”

The Reims he had killed were his comrades? ——This facility was used by knights. Considering the Reims’ homing instincts, it was only natural that the overwhelming majority of the Reims here had once been knights like Louie.

“How much more must you make me suffer?!!”

“Louie.”

“I’d rather you just kill me if you’re going to leave me alone!! Don’t make me cling to hope; don’t touch me!”

His words revealed to me why the kingdom of Gallè, which supposedly had a lot of powerful mages and sorcerers, had been so helplessly ruined in such a short amount of time. They would’ve been able to endure it if the Reims at least retained their forms. But all that appeared after cutting them to pieces were human remains.

If those remains belonged to family or friends——you’d descend straight down into madness even if you did it out of self-defense, wouldn’t you? What if Louie turned into a Reim? Would I be able to kill him without hesitation?

“Look at their corpses! They were people whom I spent my days with as if they were family. My irreplaceable friends, my men —look at how mercilessly I……how I murdered them!”

Tears of regret, anger, and agony formed in Louie’s eyes as he furiously cursed at me. He continued,

“the feeling of cutting apart their flesh won’t leave my hands. There’s no way it would, not until the day I die! Not their regrets, their struggling souls, nor their screams!!”

I held back the pain in my chest.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize!”

Louie shook his head so hard his hair became a mess. He was trying to protect me even as he hated me. He really was a kind person. And he hurt anew because of it.

He quietly let go of my arms. I reached out to touch his cheeks again. I wiped away the tears that had spilled over. Each tear that fell from his dried eyes reflected the state of his heart.

“Why did you leave me behind! Are you telling me to wander it again——in this darkness, this purgatory-like darkness, where all I hear are the voices of these damned monsters?!”

I wanted to tell him that wasn’t what happened. But there wasn’t any point in explaining that there had been a defect in the translocation circle right now.

“I won’t leave you behind. I came back for you. I said it before, right? You’re precious to me, so I’ll always come back for you. I won’t ever give up, even if you hate me for it, Louie.”

“Just what do you take me for——”

“You’re my knight.”

“How dare you……!!”

“I’ll always come to find you, even if we’re split apart. That’s why…”

I was suddenly pulled tightly into his arms. I, too, reached out and clung to him. As though we wouldn’t allow any space to exist between us, as though we had been one to begin with. We pressed our chests, our arms, our legs against each other.

It was warm. I could feel the fierce beating of his heart on my skin. It felt like our heartbeats had overlapped.

I leaned my ear in toward his ragged breathing. It pressed down at my heart for some reason.

“Please, I want you to live.”

We had committed the same sins. At Urs, and here in this room—all just to survive.

“Louie, you’re my one moon in the night who rescues me from the darkness. Stay with me, and don’t disappear.”

I suddenly heard a man screaming as I closed my eyes. I looked back up to find that the man who had been resurrected was cowering on the floor near where the divine sword was and was facing the window.

The sound of something heavy, like luggage, falling down echoed through the room.

A single Reim had finally succeeded in climbing through the window.

Eru growled over and over again as if he was saying, “Hurry!”

“Louie, the Reim…!”

He refused to let me go. I tried to call out to him, but then I realized that maybe, just maybe, he was testing me. He might be testing me to see if I would leave him, if I would turn my back on him.

“Eek……, a monster……!!”

The Reim cried in delight and sidled closer. A shiver ran down my back.

Eru growled in a low tone. I felt a great amount of air move from behind me. Eru was going to buy us time to top the Reim that was about to attack us.

Just a little more, Eru, hold on for just a little longer!

“Louie.”

He didn’t reply even after I called out to him. Eru howled. I broke out into a cold sweat at the panic in his voice. I could tell that he was desperately moving to stop the Reim in its tracks while trying to dodge its attacks.

If another Reim came in right now…

“Louie, get some sleep. The night will be over by the time you wake up.”

I looked into his face as tears continued to fall silently form his eyes. His eyes were unfocused, though in a different way from before. His heart was probably at its limit, and he needed rest.

“It’s okay, you can go to sleep. I’ll be right here with you. I’ll definitely be by your side when you wake up. So close your eyes for now,”

I told him softly before planting a small kiss on his forehead. He reached out and touched my lips. He felt my upper and lower lips in turn, as if he was checking to make sure I was breathing, before gently pushing in.

He leaned his head in closer when he touched the tip of my tongue. His soft sigh and his quiet warmth. Both seeped gradually into my skin.

“It’s okay……”

Louie’s body collapsed. I tried to support him in a hurry, but I failed and ended up falling over with him.

“Hey, please…” I called out, flustered, to the man quivering in the corner of the room.

He had draped himself in some piece of cloth he had found lying in the room and was clutching at his head.

“Can you bring that sword over here?”

He wouldn’t move even though I asked.

“I, I can’t, it’ll kill me, I can’t…”

“The sword!!” I shouted as though I was trying to cover over his weak voice.

The man started like he had been shot and quickly grabbed the sword and crawled over to me.

When he had come close enough for the torch to light up his face, I saw that his face was heavily twisted and that there was an endless stream of tears pouring down from his eyes. He was a chubby young man who seemed to have been from a well-off family.

“Keep Louie safe.”

I heard Eru cry out in duress. When I checked in on him, I saw him toying with the Reim by jumping from side to side. But the Reim would catch him eventually. Just the thought of it made a chill run down my back.

“I, I can’t. That’s impossible!”

“Why not?!”

I accidentally yelled back harshly, and I was afraid for a moment that Louie would wake up.

“Hey, let’s just run, we can’t do this.”

The man covered his ears in confusion. His voice was timid and high-pitched.

His entire body was telling me that he was so afraid that he couldn’t help himself.

“It’s okay, I’ll protect you. So you watch over Louie.”

“N, no, I can’t, I just can’t!”

he refused as he screamed while vigorously shaking his head no. He continued,

“can’t you tell just by looking?! I’m weak. I’m Cowess the Coward, Cowess the Fool, who can never ever win at anything……I can’t, I can’t……”

I was bewildered for a moment as I held Louie’s, who was unconscious, head in my arms. Cowess was grasping the silver strands of his hair so hard with both hands it looked like he was trying to crush them as he whispered.

I entertained a strange feeling that didn’t arise from my panic at this tense situation.

There were many different kinds of people living in this world, and each and every one of them had their own pains and worries.

“Hey, Cowess……your name’s Cowess, right?”

I quickly asked as I felt Eru struggling behind me. There were countless Reims outside. I was sure that another Reim would enter the room eventually.

Eru couldn’t take on two Reims by himself. This was true for me as well.

“I’m just like you—I’m such a coward that I hate it.”

I reached out and touched his arm. Cowess jerked like he’d been shocked.

“Raise your head.”

“No, I’ll get killed, I wanna run!”

“Raise your head, Cowess!”

I said forcefully, and Cowess finally looked up with fear written in his every movement.

I showed him my hands before he could close his eyes.

“I’m scared and I wanna run away too. Here, look at how much my hands are shaking.”

My hands were sweaty and shaking furiously. I was so scared. Would I really be able to protect Louie, who was unconscious? I had to help Eru soon. How do we escape from here?

I was so terrified that I wanted to writhe in pain.

“We may be scared, and we may be weak, but there still has to be something we can do.”

“I’m a knight who can’t keep up with the others—I can never do anything!”

“You can. You raised your head, didn’t you? Please, I can’t fight alone. I’m too scared, so I want you to hold up the torch for me. And I want you to watch over Louie.”

“You, you’re going to fight!? That’s absurd!”

“I can fight as long as you’re behind me holding up the torch. Let’s do this together. I’m know we can.”

Cowess looked blankly back at me as tears spilled from his large eyes. I continued,

“let’s seal away our cowardice for now. We can console each other afterward. Let’s scream about how scary this was to our hearts content later.”

Cowess timidly shook his head as his discomposed eyes turned to the window.

I entrusted Louie’s body in his arms before his eyes could be dyed in the color of fear again.

He looked startled as he looked down at Louie face in his lap.

“I’m counting on you. ——Cowess, if you’re a knight, then hold up the torch of valor for me!”

Cowess opened his eyes in surprise when I yelled at him.

I grabbed the divine sword and took off running. I ran just as another Reim tumbled through the window. My vision became clear. I swung the sword diagonally while maintaining my momentum and cut off the Reim’s head as it stood up.

Its resurrection began at a miraculous speed. But I didn’t have the time to watch it through.

I quickly turned around and ran to where Eru was.

Eru dodged the acid-like fluid that the Reim spit out by stooping low. He avoided its sword-like arms, too, and charged into its abdomen. The Reim, which had a bizarrely swollen chest, fell face-up. Eru put his body weight on its abdomen so it couldn’t get back up.

“Eru, get away!”

The Reim was vigorously waving around its arms like it was trying to tear apart Eru’s face. I beat them back down with everything I had. Then, I held the divine sword with both of my hands and severed the Reim’s head as it resisted.

“They, they’re still coming in!”

I heard Cowess’ scream piercingly.

I heard the sound of something falling from where the window was. When I quickly turned toward it, I saw found that Cowess was holding up the torch with one hand and was picking up pieces of the broken ceiling off the floor and hurling them at the Reims that were trying to enter the room with the other.

The noise I’d heard earlier was apparently the sound of the rocks he had thrown hitting the Reims and falling outside.

I took the chance to run to the wall with Eru. There was a Reim that was crucified there. Louie had likely pinned it to the wall by throwing a spear at it before my arrival.

“It won’t budge……!”

The spear was wedged in deep and I couldn’t pull it out with my strength alone.

Unable to stay put and just watch, Eru nimbly jumped up, took the spear in his mouth, and pulled it out in one go. The Reim fell to the floor and I chopped off its head before it could get back up.

“Hey, hey you!”

Cowess called out to me grievously.

There was more than one window. It wasn’t possible to completely stop the Reims from entering just by throwing rocks at them.

Even now, there was a Reim trying to break in from another window.

“There are Reims trying to come in from over there too……!”

Eru took the spear in his mouth and ran to where Cowess was. He looked like he was about to run away for a moment. But then, after letting his gaze swim around the room for a moment, he made up his mind, took the spear from Eru, and threw it like a knife. It hit a Reim dead-on and caused the Reim to fall outside.

His actions bought him the Reims’ ire. They were now trying to break in from the window in a fit of rage, instead of moving somewhat leisurely as they had been until now. I roughly brushed away my bangs as they stuck to my forehead.

The night was still young.

Would we be able to survive it——?

***

I cut down several more Reims after that. I didn’t know exactly how many.

I couldn’t move quickly because I was exhausted. Both of my hands were throbbing painfully. I remained unsteady on my feet no matter how much I tried to encourage myself to keep at it.

“Just, how much longer……?”

My body was audibly telling me that it couldn’t move anymore. But the night would only continue to grow deeper still.

“I have to hold out.”

I couldn’t calm my ragged breathing, and my hands were sweaty and causing my sword to slip. My clothes were sticking to my skin, making it even harder to move.

“If only there were more people who could fight——”

I think that everyone who had been resurrected were all knights. There were even a few who had regained their senses relatively quickly, but, unfortunately, we had no weapons. Cowess had already thrown all the swords and spears that had been in the room in his efforts to keep the Reims from breaking in through the windows. And, no one else could use my divine sword.

I would’ve already become Reim food long ago without Eru’s assistance. I was at my wit’s end.

“It’s impossible to change locations.”

Even I wanted to move everyone to a safe room and hide there, I couldn’t because there were Reims outside the door.

We were completely surrounded.

I couldn’t rest even if I wanted to. More Reims would tumble into the room just as I finished cutting one down. And the more of them I cut down, the harder they raged, and more of them broke in.

“How many was that……?”

I supported myself by clinging to my sword as my consciousness threatened to grow hazy. Eru was crying out warning after warning without pause. Yet another Reim was trying to enter the room.

Even still, I was sure I’d collapse if I didn’t manage to control my breathing first.

——It’s the recoil from using divine power.

The divine sword’s voice, which had been silent up until now, suddenly popped into my head.

“Divine power?”

——Master, you’re still yet weak and your powers are not fully awakened.

Now that I thought about it, I’d gotten extremely tired after I’d healed Louie from the poison too.

“But I can’t let myself pass out right now.”

If I couldn’t run, then I would have to fight.

——What will you do, girl; will you surrender your flesh to us?

My mind went blank at his scorn-filled question.

“Surrender my body to you?”

Are you telling me to agree to having my arm turn into a monster again?

——A monster?! You are powerless because you worship the likes of Olin as a god, you infuriating girl!

“What do you mean……?”

Does the divine sword hate Olin even though it’s a divine sword?

——You’ll be devoured, girl. Not only you, but all of the resurrected humans will be devoured as well at this rate. And thus, this kingdom will perish. Now, herald the coming ruin, o feeble Master!

Multiple voices of mocking laughter echoed throughout my heart.

I looked down at the divine sword in bewilderment.

“Why does ruin make you so happy even though you’re Olin’s sword?”

——Are you stating that we are a mere possession of that fool?!­

The divine sword’s fury spread throughout my heart. It felt like something was beating at my heart from the inside. A terrific volume of hatred and cursing coursed through my body.

I don’t get it; what’s going on? Was there some bad blood between the divine sword and Olin?

“What are you?”

The words fell from my lips in a whisper.

——I am a god, I am the true god!

A voice that somehow felt terribly grieved resounded in my heart amongst the whirlpool of hatred.

“What does that……?”

I closed my mouth before I finished my sentence. I had missed the chance to ask what it had meant by being the true god.

The Reim was right before my eyes.

The brief moment of rest I had managed to take wasn’t enough to clear away my fatigue. I swung and missed multiple times and failed to kill the Reim. Each miss chipped away at my remaining stamina. I was unable to immediately right my posture and found myself completely defenseless. A sudden chill ran down my back as I wondered if this was how I’d finally get killed. If Eru hadn’t been keeping an eye on the situation and body slammed into the Reim to stop it in its tracks, I would’ve found myself in a state where I was pathetically unable to fight back.

“Eru’s probably tired too, but look at the sorry state I’m in.”

My limbs were numb from exhaustion and refused to move properly. I couldn’t even let Eru fall back somewhere safe.

Most of the Reims had varied appearances, but something they all had in common was that they had bladed arms that were shaped like swords or axes. Their memories from back when they were human……they were probably equipped this way because they were knights.

“How many people did I resurrect?”

Ten? Twenty? I let out a deep breath.

My consciousness faded for a second after I killed the last Reim that had entered the room and my legs gave out. Physically, I was at my limit. Anyone could see that I was staggering.

There were still an endless number of Reims outside the window.

“Sh*t!”

One of the first people I’d resurrected called out in vexation. He continued,

“hey, you lot, lend me a hand!”

I felt the men moving from behind me. I turned around while breathing raggedly in a fit of coughing. There shouldn’t have been any more weapons left.

The resurrected knights pulled off anything that could be used as a weapon, like picture frames, pedestals that probably once housed swords or something, and shelf boards off the walls and ran toward the windows.

Stay away from the windows! Or so I wanted to tell them, but I couldn’t get the words out because I couldn’t stop coughing.

They used the things they had taken from the walls to push out the Reims that were peering in through the windows.

“I’m sorry, but all we can do is buy some time. And even then, we can’t buy much of it,”

one of the knights knelt down beside me said regretfully with a stiff face. He was a young man with short hair who had a steady air about him, but still had a hint of kindness in his face.

Were the knights trying to buy some time to let me rest?

“Th, thank you……”

They were trying to be considerate for me, a suspicious person who had appeared out of nowhere. I was frustrated at myself for not being able to stand back up. Why were my hands so weak?

“That sword —would it be possible for one of us to use it?”

I shook my head no as I gasped. He had probably asked because this sword clearly wasn’t normal. Its blade was translucent like a red crystal. I’m sure it was quite unusual.

“Once I…rest…a bit…I’ll…”

I’ll fight. He looked like he had swallowed a clump of something bitter when I smiled at him. I continued,

“I won’t…let you guys die.”

Eru, who had come up to me, licked my cheek in an effort to cheer me on and pressed his nose gently down on top of my head. He was acting like a mother who was trying to protect her child. Oh, Eru, your fur’s a mess because you’ve been moving around so much. I’m sure you’re really tired. You’re hurt, too.

And yet, I can’t even stand up!

“Move……!!”

I gripped the divine sword’s hilt tight and roughly wiped away the sweat from my forehead with my arm. The ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop. I looked around the room. Morning was far away. So far that it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t reach it even if I stretched out my hands.

Divine sword, I called out in my heart.

I’ll resolve myself.

The fact that Louie was unconscious was probably my only saving grace.

I’ll surrender myself to you. So please, protect everyone until dawn comes.

——Your arm alone won’t be enough. Will you give us your entire being?

The divine sword’s indifferent and firm voice spread throughout my heart.

I understood. If my entire body transformed, I might even become more fierce-looking than the Reims.

But I wasn’t strong enough to chase away the Reims with my own power, and I wouldn’t be able to survive the night.

——Do you willingly choose to become a so-called “monster”?

It’s fine, so hurry!

I had to get up and moving before the Reims attacked again.

The divine sword was strong. That’s why you can protect everyone, right?

——Are we strong, or are we weak?

You’re strong. Though you’re a bit mean.

——Are we a demon? A wretched fragment of evil?

Why was it asking me this? It was baffling to me.

But it wasn’t, right? To be completely honest, that monstrous arm was really creepy and hard to swallow, but the divine sword had told me about Eru coming to me even if it had quipped at me sarcastically the entire time.

“No, you’re not evil,”

I said in a hoarse voice. Some of the men around me looked surprised by my sudden words and their eyes swam around the room in unrest. No one else knew that I was actually talking to the divine sword, so they probably thought that I had said something dangerous in the midst of chaos and confusion.

——Do you acknowledge us?

Yeah, I answered. Just what was it trying to ask?

Sorry, but I don’t have the time to talk to you at leisure. The knights were fighting an uphill battle trying to stop the Reims from pushing in through the window by any means possible. Though I’m sure that they couldn’t even move properly because they had only just been resurrected not too long ago.

“Please, divine sword. Use my body,”

I implored hurriedly, but the divine sword didn’t answer, perhaps because it was deep in thought.

“Divine swo——”

Suddenly, I heard multiple heavy things, like the dull sound of heavy luggage, falling to the floor in succession.

Everyone held their breath. I, too, forgot about the fatigue that wracked my entire being for a moment as I stared absentmindedly.

“Oh,” I heard someone say listlessly. Cowess, who was watching over Louie and was holding the torch had frozen up with a blank look on his face.

I had forgotten about something important.

“The hole in the ceiling.”

The monstrosities were writhing about on the floor in a ball like they were intertwined together before my eyes. The Reims had fallen in through the hole in the ceiling that I’d had the divine sword open up with brute force in order to get into the room.

“——No way.”

There was no way. Maybe it could have been possible if there were only one or two, but it was impossible for me to take on any more than that.

I understood in my head that the situation had suddenly turned for the worse, but I couldn’t react immediately because my disbelief outweighed my despair. I stared at the Reims half absentmindedly.

The Reims were trying to shake each other off and collect themselves.

It looked like they were unable to attack us for the time being because they were being hindered by their struggle against each other.

But it was only a matter of time.

No matter how much I wracked my brains, there was no way that I, huddled up in my exhaustion, could ever possibly win. I was sure that the knights were out of options too.

Divine sword, hurry!

——What am I?

What are you talking about? Please, hurry up and awaken!

——Answer me: what manner of being am I?!

My eyes met with one of the writhing Reims’. I tried to get up in a panic, but was only astonished again as I found that my legs had completely given out.

“A god,”

I proclaimed as I stared at the Reims crying out in irritation because they couldn’t untangle themselves quickly enough.

“You’re a god. You’re my god.”

I embraced the divine sword and put my forehead down to the hilt.

And, “divine sword”. The words never referred to a sword possessed by a god, but rather, it meant that the sword itself was a god, right?

“You have a sharp tongue, and you’re kinda creepy when you transform. But you’re a strong god who can even cut through despair.”

——Master. Your blood.

“……Huh?”

Blood?

——Your flesh is far too fragile, Master. We cannot eat your meager and unappetizing flesh. You cannot support us with your divine powers not fully awakened.

What do you……hey, what do you mean “meager”!?

You’re being casually mean even though this is an emergency!

——Pour your blood onto us. Insufficient though it may be, it will be enough to create a barrier for one night.

“Huh, what?”

I looked between the Reims, who were still trying to get up, and the divine sword in turns.

——Hurry, foolish Master!

“Blood—what!?”

The knights, who had been staring at the Reims blankly up until now, turned their gazes to me as I cried up in a hysteria that was unbefitting of the situation. Perhaps I could say that they were finally distracted from the Reims?

“H, how? Do I use my teeth again!?”

I didn’t have a knife or anything sharp. And one drop probably wasn’t going to be enough.

I thought that I could just cut myself with the divine sword, but it couldn’t hurt people.

“Eru, bite me.”

Eru, who was on guard and had dug his claws into the floor so that he was prepared to jump out at any time, let the fur all over his body billow up and perked up his ears. He looked really surprised.

“I need my blood to make a barrier.”

Eru took a step back in bewilderment as he watched me roll up my sleep and put out my arm toward him.

“Hurry, Eru.”

The Reims were almost done untangling themselves.

I could only turn to Eru. I was sure he wouldn’t bite me hard enough that I would bleed to death.

“Bite me!”

My words overlapped with the Reims’ joyous cheers.

Eru bit down heartily at my outstretched arm with his hair bristling.

A pain so severe it made me nauseous spread throughout my arm the moment I felt something hot. I knew that Eru’s sharp fangs had rent through my skin and bit into the flesh underneath. I broke out in goosebumps. I felt like my breathing would stop, too!

“What are you……!?”

Cowess looked shocked as he reached out for me.

Eru quickly pulled away. The knights, who had been paralyzed in mute amazement, abruptly turned to the Reims that had begun their charge. I pressed the divine sword’s blade down against the blood that was pouring out of my arm.

——Sea of Trees.

The divine sword’s voice reverberated through my heart without a moment’s delay.

Suddenly, the divine sword’s form dissolved. It transformed into something like vines and extended to circle around the knights and me. Then, it formed red strings in the air before the Reims could jump out at us. No, it felt more like red cracks had formed in the air itself, rather than to say that strings had formed there.

Or like the branches of trees that covered the sky.

“What!?”

The knights cried out in shock as they stared at the membrane of the barrier called the Sea of Trees.

The Sea of Trees incorporated one of the walls and stretched out its branches up above our heads. I wanted to say it was like an extra-large version of an igloo I’d made as a child. Though I feel like the divine sword would get mad and say that I was being rude if I did.

“Divine sword, can you maintain the barrier until dawn?”

I asked as my consciousness began to fade. I didn’t get a clear response, but I could kind of feel the Sea of Trees’ red branches waving. It looked like it’d be okay.

I heard a feeble coo. Eru had huddled up his large body, saw down next to me, and was licking my bloody arm. He looked a little depressed.

“I’m okay, it doesn’t hurt.”

I suddenly grew drowsy. My head felt so heavy and I knew I couldn’t keep awake for much longer.

I nudged closer to Eru, who had sullenly curled up with his belly on the floor. I was so sleepy I could barely move my body. I hadn’t been merely being considerate of Eru’s feelings earlier —I really couldn’t feel any pain.

“Treat her arm!”

I heard someone cry out in alarm from what seemed like another room.

Oh right, I have to tell them before I go to sleep or else the knights will be troubled.

“The Sea of Trees…will last…until morning. So don’t……step out…okay……?”

Keep yourself together! I heard someone say from the other side of the darkness.

I heard a few other voices too, but they all registered to me as noise and eventually vanished into the darkness like the sound of lapping waves.