My head is being shaken violently, tossed around in every direction.
I realize that someone is carrying me with an arm around my waist, running for all they're worth.
This isn't the first time I've been transported like this.
It's not that I'm used to being handled like an object, but being hauled around like this by an inconsiderate partner was hardly uncommon.
"Would you cut it out already, Elsa..."
No matter how many times I tell her, she never listens. I'm always at a loss for how to describe her.
Partner, companion — words that imply a level of trust I don't really have with her. Sister, mother — too intimate for what we are. Not quite friends, but not distant enough to be mere acquaintances.
So I'm always stuck. What do you call her?
— What did she think of me, exactly?
"Stop shaking me already..."
Saying it wouldn't fix anything, but giving up without a word would make her think I'd resigned myself to it, so I complained despite knowing it wouldn't reach her — no, I tried to complain.
Before I could, something hot surged from the back of my throat, spilling over my words like a second coat of paint. I thought I'd thrown up what I'd eaten, but that wasn't it.
It was blood — bright red blood pouring from deep inside my body.
"Damn it! The blood won't stop! Beako! What do I do?!"
"Just — get it all out! She'll suffocate if it backs up!"
The voices of a man and woman shouting at each other ring in my ears. Then my body is tilted to the side. I cough, and still the blood keeps flowing from my throat, from my lips.
Something is pressed to my mouth, and the ceaseless blood is sucked away. My airway barely clears, and air flows into lungs and a brain that had been on the verge of suffocating.
"— Ptooey! Alright, breathing's back! Healing magic, please!"
"I'm aware! But we can't just focus on that one thing!"
"I know that too! ...Letting Meili chase too deep was my mistake. I'll pay for that."
Voices arguing somewhere above me, but now that I can breathe, my body feels unbearably heavy.
No — my body was probably always heavy. Only now that the most critical pain has shifted has my awareness spread to everything else, revealing the full extent of the damage.
Limbs — won't move. Head — spinning. The blood I coughed up must be close to three cups' worth. My whole body burns with fever, but the worst heat is in my back.
My back — something large and wrong has been inflicted across the entirety of it.
That's why I can't move properly, and why I'm coughing up blood.
The moments before, the two people arguing, how everything went wrong — I can't quite recall.
Just, faintly, in a world where everything is hazy, something catches my attention.
That is— "...promise..."
It feels like I exchanged those words with someone — just that feeling, and nothing more— △▼△▼△▼△ — The instant the Crimson Scorpion's color changed, the light that erupted was the largest yet.
The swelling white radiance scattered in every direction, and the multiple Starved Horse Kings targeting its crimson shell were reduced to splinters. The shockwave spread outward, cracking the sand sea open.
Of course, Subaru and
Leaning forward in her effort to command the Mabeasts, she had taken the Crimson Scorpion's counterattack full force.
The small mercy was that she'd dodged the direct hit of the tail stinger — the true nature of that light. If even a grazing blow from that stinger had connected, the girl's small body would have evaporated in an instant.
That hadn't happened. But the stinger, deflected, had shattered the sand sea, and the shockwave generated in the process hit her dead-on. That alone was enough to put her in mortal danger.
"Meili!!"
When Subaru and Beatrice rushed to her crumpled form in the sand and lifted her up, the sight was horrifying. She'd instinctively curled up, so most of the shockwave damage was concentrated on her back.
Her black cloak had been blown away, and beneath her torn clothes, shredded skin was visible. Severe lacerations and burns — Subaru felt the world go dark for an instant.
But— "Am I an idiot?! What's the whole point of me?!"
Punching himself back from the brink of passing out, Subaru called upon the power within him.
The perpetually active "Cor Leonis" — the ability to bear the burdens of his companions — he used it to absorb the near-fatal damage Meili had sustained.
Of course, taking it all in one go and collapsing himself would accomplish nothing. What he needed was a distribution that kept Meili alive without Subaru himself losing consciousness— "I can do this. I can do this. — I'm
Before, he might have panicked here, fallen apart, made a wretched fool of himself.
But having walked the path that "Natsuki Subaru" had walked, he re-examined himself. His role, of course — and the things only he could do.
So— "—
Probing for the responses of his companions inside the tower, seeking the optimal solution from each of their situations.
The cut-off response from Emilia was troubling, and Julius's battle against Reid weighed on his mind. Echidna and Patrasche's positions were concerning, but trust held him back.
Instead, Subaru's awareness focused on
"— Guh."
Instantly, the agony Meili was enduring flowed into him, and Subaru groaned at the pain of being burned from the inside out.
Honestly, just shouldering Ram's burden alone was already enormously draining. On top of that, taking on Meili's near-fatal injuries was nothing short of suicidal.
"This is bad...!"
Bold as his words had been, it was impossible to shoulder both at full capacity.
That meant prioritizing the life-threatening case — Meili — and reducing the amount of burden flowing from Ram into himself.
Surely that alone would tell the perceptive Ram everything she needed to know.
"She's gonna chew me out later for sure..."
"Ha! Spouting all that bravado, and now look at you. In the end, you're just Barusu."
He could imagine that painfully real response so vividly that Subaru gritted his teeth against the taste of blood.
"Cor Leonis" was supposed to function as a burden-sharing ability, but actually tasting blood meant a kind of feedback was occurring in his own body.
The influence of conviction on the physical form is extraordinary.
He'd heard of cases where a person who believed a hot iron was being pressed against them actually developed burns.
In other words, by absorbing the damage from Meili's severe injuries to her back and internal organs, the same response was being generated in Subaru's body.
If he wasn't careful, two corpses with the same cause of death could end up here.
"That would be... a bit of a problem, so—!"
Spitting out the blood pooling in his mouth, Subaru stood up with Meili slung over his shoulder. He dodged backward from the Starved Horse King's flaming spear, Beatrice provided cover with her purple arrows, and they created distance.
The Starved Horse King that had just attacked them was one that had been giving them rides moments ago.
The moment things went south, the shrewd Mabeast had supposedly turned traitor — no. It was simply that Meili's divine blessing had expired, and the creature had reverted to its default hostility.
Without Meili's instructions, the Mabeasts were humanity's natural enemies.
And there were now countless such beasts in this sand sea.
"Geho—"
"Meili!"
As Subaru ran while keeping distance from the Mabeasts, Meili coughed up blood in his arms. Coughing, spitting blood, her suffering expression only stoked his desperation.
Stay calm — he couldn't even secure the time for treatment. At this rate— "Damn it! The blood won't stop! Beako! What do I do?!"
"Just — get it all out! She'll suffocate if it backs up!"
Matching their differing strides with sheer determination, Beatrice used what little mana she had left to keep the surrounding Mabeasts at bay. In the meantime, Subaru jostled Meili's body, trying to get her to cough the blood out of her throat.
But Meili's complexion didn't change, and the bleeding wouldn't stop. Left with no choice, Subaru pressed an improvised straw made from his fist against the girl's mouth and sucked the blood through it.
"Geho— geho—"
"— Ptooey! Alright, breathing's back! Healing magic, please!"
"I'm aware! But we can't just focus on that one thing!"
"I know that too! ...Letting Meili chase too deep was my mistake. I'll pay for that."
Strictly speaking, Subaru was already paying the price of his failure.
But interest was accumulating at a terrifying rate, and even while reducing his lending to Ram, Subaru was already gasping for breath.
How much longer could he hold out like this— "No, this is where I make my stand. If I can't hold here, I'm no man—"
"Hya! Is that so?!"
"Gah?!"
Gritting his teeth, feeling the authority's effect throughout his body, Subaru ran with Meili in his arms. Suddenly, Beatrice leapt onto his head.
Unexpectedly ending up with her perched on his shoulders, Subaru was startled. Naturally, Beatrice weighed about as much as a puff of candy floss, so it didn't hinder their escape — but— "Beako—"
"Subaru, you need to stop shouldering everything alone! Betty and Subaru are partners, and Meili is one of our comrades, too. The promise to help — Subaru wasn't the only one who made it."
"————"
Cupping Subaru's entire head in her hands, Beatrice spoke in a quiet, earnest voice.
Through Subaru, who had fallen silent at her words, she began treating Meili's wounds with her gentle healing magic. — The sensation of warm light seeping into Meili, healing her, reached Subaru through her as well.
That warmth — it was proof of how much Beatrice cared for all of them.
"————!"
"————"
Behind them, the infighting among the Mabeasts continued.
Fortunately, even with Meili's blessing expired, the Crimson Scorpion and the Starved Horse Kings hadn't immediately signed a peace treaty. The same went for the other Mabeasts.
The Crimson Scorpion's sweeping great mandibles and tail stinger cut down half the beasts closing in on Subaru's group.
Naturally, the other half was still coming, so there was no time to be leisurely.
"The options are—"
Actually, there were some.
Heeding Beatrice's words, drawing on her desire to cherish Meili — he couldn't break them out of this situation entirely, but there was certainly a way to change it.
Whether it was feasible would require trial, and the model for this method was, for Subaru, the worst possible opponent, which gave him pause.
But— "Subaru! If the reason you're hesitating is for Betty's sake, you don't need it! If it's for anyone other than Betty, we'll apologize together later!"
"————"
"I want to share the suffering and share the joy... Don't shut Betty out! That's the condition of Betty and Subaru's contract!"
Reading something in Subaru's profile as he bore his burdens, Beatrice screamed with fury.
Being right behind his head, Subaru couldn't see Beatrice's face. But that even her angry expression was adorable — that was his partner, and he was proud of it.
So, drawing courage from his partner's words, Subaru stopped holding back.
There was no time to hesitate.
There was no need to hesitate — his partner had told him not to, and that settled it.
Therefore— "I love you, Beako."
"Betty loves you more."
Exchanging their feelings, Subaru looked down at the dying Meili in his arms.
And steeling his heart to never let this life slip away— "— Cor Leonis, Second Shift."
Giving a new name to the "Lion's Heart" he'd christened himself, he definitively shifted gears within.
By doing so, he expanded the authority he'd imposed on himself as the "Small King" — the way of a lonely king who stands bearing everyone's hopes. That, too, he had been castigated for.
And yet, he could not become the shameless "greed" that shoved his own burdens onto someone else.
What Subaru desired at the end of this authority was — to share the load with companions who wished to stand with him.
In other words— "Second Shift — burden distribution."
The burdens that Subaru alone had to endure with his entire body. He would distribute them among those willing to share.
In this case, for now— "— Subaru."
"Yeah."
"This... is insanely painful, you know?!"
"Yeah, it's insanely painful!!"
The second stage of "Cor Leonis" activated, and the strain on Subaru was distributed.
Not quite half. More like a quarter, but even so, Subaru's burden lightened considerably — and in exchange, Beatrice's face went pale as she shouldered her share.
Subaru shouted right back at Beatrice, who had yelled to mask her pain.
It hurt. It was agony. He couldn't take it.
Shouldering everyone's burdens and being king — to hell with that. — And yet, it was precisely because there were people who wanted to support the "Small King" that couldn't stand alone that he was able to remain standing.
"By the way, this pain — I wonder if I could share it with you too..."
"————"
"Can't, huh. Too bad."
Sharing the burden, having Beatrice treat Meili from her perch on his shoulders, Subaru turned his consciousness toward the Crimson Scorpion.
Its true form was
But unfortunately, it seemed he couldn't transfer the burden he and Beatrice were feeling to the Crimson Scorpion. — Because she lacked the will to accept it.
The only ones who could support the "Small King" were those who wanted to.
A power that was easy to understand and inflexible. And precisely because of that, he could avoid becoming arrogant.
Because it allowed him to never forget that others were supporting him.
"Beako! Do two different things with your head and body!"
"— That's a hell of a request, you know!!"
He asked her to continue treating Meili with her body while using her head to help brainstorm the next move. Because the glowing tail of the Crimson Scorpion was now aimed at them— "— E·M·M!!"
The first trump card — an absolutely invincible magic — was unleashed, and the shockwave swallowed all three of them.
△▼△▼△▼△ — What happened beneath the clouds did not reach Emilia above them.
But, like her comrades fighting for their lives, Emilia had battled through a fierce struggle of her own, and had finally arrived at that place.
"————"
The uppermost level of the
It was there, reached at the cost of numerous ice soldiers' sacrifices, that Emilia saw, at the base of the central pillar — a black monolith.
The monolith itself appeared identical to the ones encountered during the "trials" on the third floor.
What was different was that it wasn't floating, and its supposedly flat surface bore a striking feature.
That is— "— Someone's... handprints?"
Emilia's violet eyes went wide. What filled her vision was a series of handprints pressed into the surface of the monolith — six in total, belonging to different men and women.
From the size of the palms and thickness of the fingers, it was clear each belonged to a different person.
But to go to the trouble of leaving handprints arranged like this meant those individuals had been close, and were certainly connected to this watchtower— "...Could they be Shaula's master? Or Reid?"
When she thought of people connected to the tower, that was about all she could come up with.
So of the six handprints, Emilia could only identify two.
"—? Wait, this is..."
Thinking that far, Emilia noticed something off about one of the prints.
It was the one pressed right at the edge of the six — beside it was a print of roughly the same size, but the two at the end were clearly smaller.
Presumably because those two belonged to a woman.
And the one that caught Emilia's attention was one of those two— "This handprint... is mine...?"
Emilia frowned and looked down at her own right hand, murmuring.
That should have been absurd, but something told her otherwise. One of the handprints on that monolith — it felt like it was hers.
"————"
Holding her breath, Emilia faced the monolith. Then, to dispel her doubt, she reached out her right hand toward the print— *'— You who have reached the tower's summit. The supplicant of omnipotence who treads the first floor—'* "—!!"
Just before touching the monolith, a stern voice descending from above made Emilia whirl around.
Wings beating, descending to the uppermost level, was Volcanica — the same dragon who had been violently thrashing moments earlier after one of Emilia's ice soldiers had touched the white scales on his throat.
*'————'* With the monolith at her back, Emilia once again faced the "Divine Dragon."
Climbing the pillar battle had been brutal enough, but if this was going to be a continuation of the last encounter, the fight would be even more grueling. The uppermost level was spacious, but narrower than the first floor, making maneuvering difficult.
"And if the monolith gets destroyed, that would be super bad..."
She didn't know how durable the monolith was.
When encountering it on the third floor, she'd been stopped by Julius and Ram before she could test it with a strike, so its strength remained unknown.
But no matter how sturdy it was, she couldn't imagine it surviving a full-force blow from the "Divine Dragon."
"If you hit it, you'd definitely break it. So—!"
Refusing to let that happen, Emilia summoned seven ice soldiers around her once more.
They'd been smashed to pieces getting to the uppermost level, but like Emilia, their expressions were brimming with fighting spirit.
As they readied their ice weapons, Emilia gripped her twin ice swords.
Then, as one with the seven soldiers, she charged at Volcanica.
"Let's go, everyone! Volcanica's weak spot is the white part of his neck!"
Given the extreme reaction he'd shown, those white scales had to be his vulnerability.
She didn't want to actually wound them, but if even touching them would buy enough time for someone to reach them so Emilia could examine the monolith— "—Eh?"
The next instant, Emilia let out a gasp as her entire field of vision inverted top to bottom.
"————"
What had happened was too sudden to process.
She'd felt something brush lightly against her foot as she stepped forward — so subtle that she only noticed it after being flipped over.
And at the same time— "Ah."
All around the inverted Emilia, seven ice soldiers shattered simultaneously.
Every single one had its head neatly broken off, transforming them helplessly into motes of mana. Feeling this on her skin, Emilia realized with a shudder.
That had been Volcanica's tail.
His tail had swept Emilia's feet at high speed, and in the same swing, cracked open every ice soldier's head.
The fact that it was accomplished in a single high-speed swing made her throat go cold.
A casual afterthought compared to the first surprise attack she'd barely blocked.
If Subaru's whip was a one, Volcanica's tail strike was a thousand or ten thousand — that was the magnitude of difference.
Before such overwhelming force, even Emilia would have been mercilessly defeated.
So, there was one question.
"...Why were you gentle with me...?"
A sweep to Emilia's feet. A precise strike to the ice soldiers' heads.
What was the difference? It was hard to believe he'd taken out his frustration over her touching the white scales, but— Thinking that far, Emilia suddenly remembered she was still inverted in midair.
"Oh no—"
Just before her head would have slammed into the floor— A soft impact struck from the side, catching Emilia's inverted legs.
"Wah— whoa...!"
Spinning her around in a half rotation from her inverted position, Emilia landed unsteadily.
And as she looked up, relieved at the near-miss— *'...What are you doing?'* Saying this, the "Divine Dragon" thrust its face directly before Emilia's eyes.
"Um...?"
It was, literally, nose to nose.
If Emilia leaned forward even slightly, her face would press against his skin — hard and craggy as rock — and his snout.
Having the dragon's face at that distance was startling enough on its own.
But what confused Emilia even more was— "You're talking differently from before! Not repeating yourself like a broken record!"
*'————'* "Did you come back to your senses? If so, there's so much I want to talk about! About the 'trials,' about changing the rules of this watchtower, I have so many things to discuss..."
Catching a glimmer of hope in Volcanica's behavior, Emilia fired off her words in rapid succession.
If the "Divine Dragon" she'd thought had gone senile had recovered, she could have a proper conversation about the "trials." That way, there'd be no need to resort to violent measures.
"Please, I'm begging you! Let's talk properly..."
*'Bounding about so recklessly, what if you were to fall? If anything were to happen, it would be I who would be reprimanded. ...Everyone defers to you, after all.'* "Volcanica...?"
Volcanica spoke again to Emilia, who was desperately trying to reach him while worrying about everyone inside the tower.
But his words didn't seem to be a response to what she'd said, deepening her confusion.
However, in Volcanica's golden eyes as he looked at Emilia, a gentle light now rested.
It was different from the vague, faraway look from moments before — it held the gleam of genuine emotion.
He gazed at Emilia with a gentle, tender expression, as though doting on her— *'Where did
Still gazing at Emilia with those kind eyes, Volcanica continued speaking.
With a distant look in his eyes, the dragon named Flugel, Reid, Shaula, and one more person— She couldn't identify who that last one was without hearing the family name, but the sound of it was familiar to Emilia. Farsell — if her memory was correct.
"Farsell? Farsell Lugnica? The king from four hundred years ago?"
That was a name that appeared repeatedly in the documents she'd studied for the Royal Selection.
Farsell Lugnica — the thirty-fifth king of the
And the one who had formed the Covenant with the "Divine Dragon" Volcanica himself, etching the first step in the long prosperity of the Kingdom of Lugunica — the "Last Lion King."
"————"
Glancing back, Emilia's eyes shifted to the monolith behind her.
Six handprints — if Volcanica's words were connected, three of them belonged to Flugel, Reid, and Farsell. The remaining three were unknown, but one of them, though unconfirmed, might match Emilia's own.
The other two were probably one man and one woman.
"Then... the woman's handprint is Shaula's...?"
That was the most likely possibility.
The identity of the last male's handprint was unknown, but for now, that seemed like a reasonable conclusion. As always, the biggest issue at hand was the fact that there was a handprint belonging to a version of herself she didn't remember— "Could it be... I've forgotten something else, beyond the Forest Mother and the others!?"
Once she started suspecting, Emilia remembered a history of sealing away her own memories.
Even without that, the existence of the Archbishop of Gluttony meant that memories and names could be scrambled beyond recognition.
Perhaps Emilia had come here casually in the past, left her handprint, and simply... forgotten about it.
"...No, that can't be right. If
*'— What's wrong? Troubled about something?'* "Oh, um, I'm fine. Thank you for worrying. I appreciate it, but..."
In the end, Emilia was troubled by how uncertain her conversation with Volcanica felt.
It was far better than being smacked around by his tail or forelegs without explanation, but her situation regarding the "trials" remained at a dead end.
Wondering what to do, Emilia pondered— *'If something ails you, speak of it. I shall remove your worry —
"————"
Being called Satella — that wasn't the first time.
Silver hair, violet eyes, and a half-elf — with those characteristics, most people in this world would associate Emilia with the same being.
The only difference was what they chose to call her.
Some called her Satella. Some called her the worst catastrophe. Some called her the "
So it wasn't strange for someone to address Emilia that way.
But it was strange for Volcanica, of all beings, to call her Satella with such fondness.
After all, Volcanica, Reid, Shaula, and Flugel — the four of them had been the ones to seal away Satella, known as the "Witch of Envy."
So why would he speak of her — to her — with such warmth?
"Why are you speaking so kindly to the 'Witch of Envy'?"
A naive question — perhaps too careless a phrasing for the word "innocent."
For Emilia in this moment not to have noticed the impact of those words was cruel, but at least, objectively looking at the situation, it was this single question that set everything in motion.
Or perhaps "Satella," or "Witch," would have sufficed.
Some called her Satella, some called her the worst catastrophe, some called her "Witch."
And Emilia had said "Witch of Envy."
That was— *'— The "Witch of Envy."'* — What caused the change in Volcanica's distant gaze.
The golden irises of the Divine Dragon's eyes underwent a dramatic shift.
His head, still positioned nose-to-nose with Emilia, hadn't moved — which meant she caught the full force of that change up close, and every hair on her body stood on end.
Her instincts screamed: this is not a good change.
Raised in the forest, Emilia had the experience of growing up in the wild. She'd seen animals and Mabeasts undergo sudden transformations many times.
Following that instinct, Emilia threw herself backward.
It was the right call.
"—!!"
In that instant, the air before Emilia's eyes exploded.
Not figuratively — literally. Space compressed, bulged, and detonated.
The phenomenon, its principle unknown, felt as though space itself had been twisted and wrung. Anyone caught at that epicenter would have been crushed regardless of their defenses.
And it had occurred precisely where Emilia's head had been a moment ago.
If she'd been a fraction of a second slower in lowering her head, Emilia would be dead.
Between the tail strike and this spatial distortion, since climbing the tower, Emilia had faced death more times than she could count.
This might have been the closest she'd ever come.
"But the fact that everything's worked out so far... maybe I'm super lucky."
If luck had been on her side keeping her alive, then Emilia was grateful for the fortune that let her still draw breath. She chose to interpret her situation that way.
She had to — otherwise, the next shift might break her.
Because— *'— Satella.'* Volcanica, spreading his wings once more, was directing unmistakable hostility her way.
Seeing this, Emilia swallowed the urge to stamp her feet in frustration. She'd thought Volcanica had finally returned to his senses, but he'd regressed.
Worse, compared to when he'd been half-asleep, he now seemed more focused — yet still unhinged.
"— Icicle Line."
Therefore, Emilia too dropped all restraint, unleashing her mana with an unyielding resolve.
The atmosphere cracked with cold, and slowly, white mist began to drift. Even here, in the uppermost level of a tower positioned above the clouds, she would freeze the world white.
With a sound, slowly taking shape were ice weapons — pulling a spear from the ones driven into the floor, Emilia spun it around and pointed it forward.
She prepared herself anew for a battle with Volcanica.
However, if that single foot sweep had been Volcanica's playful effort, she wasn't sure she could handle what came next.
The difference in strength from when he'd been senile was astronomical — no, he still seemed somewhat unhinged, but— "But..."
Emilia stared straight into those golden eyes, unwilling to dismiss Volcanica's demeanor as mere senility.
Because his eyes were filled with sorrow — deep, aching grief.
*'Satella, yes, Satella. You who have become the "Witch of Envy" — we should have stopped you.'* "...You were close?"
*'If only I had not hesitated that day. If only I had not hesitated, no one would have—'* There was no answer to her question.
But Volcanica's trembling voice was, in itself, an answer.
The regretful dragon drew a deep breath, preparing to unleash once more the breath that would burn the world white.
Before that, Emilia had to step forward and strike those white scales. If she couldn't do that, neither she nor anyone else would be saved.
"— Subaru, Beatrice, Ram, Rem, Meili, Patrasche, Echidna, Julius, Anastasia."
She thought of everyone in this tower, enduring terrible hardship.
Everyone she needed to save, everyone who had raised their heads for the same purpose.
And from the depths of Emilia's chest, an unknown power surged forth.
*'— The "Witch of Envy," Satella!!'* "No — I'm not. I am Emilia, the 'Witch of Glaciation' from Elior Great Forest!"
To the "Divine Dragon," who apparently mistook her for someone who looked like her, Emilia channeled the surging power through her entire body and answered with a loud, clear voice.
The enemy was the "Divine Dragon" — so what? — Emilia had everyone behind her.
So— "At the very least, remember my name!"
— The final act surrounding the Pleiades Watchtower, both above and below the clouds, erupted in simultaneous bursts of light.