"You called for me, Emile? I'm here to save you."
She suddenly appeared, saying those words. As tightly guarded as the yohma
base was, it almost seemed unfair how little that affected her. This, of course,
was Velgrynd, and considering how she'd even managed to half-destroy
Ramiris's labyrinth in the past, the yohma's Barriers may as well have not The yohma couldn't be blamed for their stunned silence. Even the normally
calm and collected Masahiko Amari hadn't expected something like this. He was
sure Velgrynd had a hand in this world's history, but he hadn't expected to
encounter her like this, before he could even do anything about it.
"Velgrynd… Why are you here?"
"You know my name, I see."
"Of course. Didn't you work together with our lord Feldway to help Emperor
Ludora with his conquests?!"
"Ahhh, I guess if we're connected by key worlds, we can sync up our timelines
like that, huh?"
"What?"
"Forget it. If you don't mind, I've got some errands I'd like to take care of right
away…"
Masahiko Amari was thrown into disorder…but the coolheaded part of him
kept thinking. If they had picked up on Velgrynd's presence sooner, they could
have at least taken some measures against her. But the threat had never even
occurred to them.
This is a huge failure. But why? Someone on her level shouldn't be able to
cross dimensions at all. We're expending every effort to enlarge the Underworld
Gate we have, but we still haven't managed to call in Sir Cornu…
Velgrynd was an existence on the same level as Cornu, perhaps even higher.
Her magicule count was too colossal for Amari to even fathom. But how had she
come over to this world? He had no idea. Nor did he know what her objectives
were. If at all possible, he wanted to avoid hostilities right now. But:
"Errands?"
"Oh, just a simple request. Give up on invading this world and retreat to your
own, all right? Do it, and I'll let this whole thing pass."
Velgrynd delivered her ultimatum with a smile, but there was anger
sandwiched between the words. These beings were trying to hurt the people
she loved, and she hated them. Amari could tell. This is awful. She's already pegged us as the enemy. But I don't understand.
Wasn't she allied with Lord Feldway? …Wait. Synchronizing timelines?!
His astonishing brain worked at astonishing speeds, figuring out the truth
lurking within what Velgrynd had told him.
Oh… She came here from another timeline. I don't think she knows our
situation, but she didn't seem surprised by my talk of Lord Feldway and Emperor
Ludora. It seems fair to assume she is aware of all events up to the present
moment. And judging by how Sir Cornu hasn't changed his orders, something or
other must have happened at a future point in time. It's likely that…
It was likely, Amari concluded, that she had jumped into this world's past
from her "key world." It was laudable how sharp his brain was—but sadly, he
wouldn't have time to reap the benefits.
"I'm not here to negotiate, all right? You annoy me."
She wasn't even trying to be approachable. Amari needed to make a choice
fast.
Velgrynd, meanwhile, was perfectly calm as she brought a hand up to Emile,
whom she had pulled over toward her at some point. Her aim was clear at a
glance—she was trying to separate Emil from the yohma that was a step away
from full assimilation. The yohma resisted with everything it had, but it was
likely just a matter of time. And if that was how it was, Amari thought, best to
use that time as effectively as possible.
"We're aiming for a world where yohma and humanity live hand in hand, you
know. It's a pity you don't understand that."
"No, because intelligent creatures aren't about to understand each other's
one-sided desires anytime soon."
"Heh. No doubt. But I'm afraid we can't give up."
"That's your answer?"
"It certainly is!"
Velgrynd smiled. "Silly boys. All right… Have at it, people!"
The final battle was about to begin. The yohma's eyes opened wide at the people who'd suddenly appeared. The
same was true for the other side as well. The most powerful human warriors in
this world were even more puzzled by this than the yohma.
"You were called here."
"Huh?"
"You have to go, all right? Go and save that guy."
And after that short conversation, Velgrynd suddenly disappeared. They had
been in a daze to start with, and now they had been summoned to this
unfamiliar place—in the middle of all this, no less. None of them even realized
they had been carried across physical space. They hadn't gone through any
transport gate; they had simply blipped into this new location without warning.
It was, in essence, teleportation, carried out on ten or so people at once—a
truly astounding, supernatural feat. The work of divinity, something Gensei and
the other warriors representing the human race here could never have
comprehended. Being told "Have at it, people!" wasn't much in the way of
guidance.
In difficult times like these, it was important to figure out what you were
capable of doing before anything else. When taking an exam, the rule of thumb
is to save problems you don't understand for later and focus on the questions
you have an easy answer to first. This strategy can be applied to jobs as well; if
you begin a task by tackling the things you know how to handle first, the rest
often falls into place by itself.
Here, the group was lucky that some of them knew each other. Having
discovered the familiar faces among themselves, they began to negotiate.
Gensei's eyes immediately went toward Masahiko Amari, his student and
trustworthy friend.
"Masahiko, you're not the sort of weak man who'd lose to the yohma. His
Majesty is sorely grieving your absence. Pull yourself together and come back."
Wanting to gauge the response, he began with these words, his hand on the
hilt of his sword so he could pull it out at any time. Minamoto, lined up beside Gensei as usual, followed his cue.
"You can't lose to this, Amari! Please don't lose your own mind!"
Like Gensei, he was appealing to Amari's reason. They were betting that his
true self would return, that he could overcome the yohma…but the result was
surprisingly instantaneous on Amari's end. After all, he still hadn't fully decided
whether he was human or yohma yet.
"I…"
Before he could continue, Amari found himself at a crossroads. Even for him,
this was far too unexpected a development.
The main issue here was the presence of Velgrynd. He hadn't dismissed her
ultimatum because he thought he could beat her. Quite the opposite—defeat
was inevitable now, so he had called off negotiations in order to rile up his
allies. Frankly, Velgrynd was on another dimension. There was no debate as to
whether they could win or not; the moment they antagonized her, they were
sunk.
So what to do, then? Evacuating from this site seemed to be the best plan.
They could have accepted her offer, but that had been shot down. If they said
yes to her, the operation would end with nothing in their strategy having been
achieved. The blame would all go to Amari and Pulcinella, and Amari wasn't
meek enough to accept those consequences. In fact, the yohma's defeat felt
oddly refreshing to him.
All in all, the human side of Amari was winning out—which is why Gensei's
pleading hit home. His human heart was telling him to travel over to them. His
intelligence as a yohma was shouting about how it refused to accept defeat. His
sensibility as a human told him there was no point trying to escape. His instincts
as a yohma were scared witless at the threat of Velgrynd. And as all this
information fought each other in his mind, Amari felt sorely pained.
Yes… The yohma's greatest weakness is the thinness of their sense of self. If
they were at least granted names, that would establish a firm sentience in all of
them. But then again, that's exactly why I overcame this yohma. Yes… I am
Masahiko Amari. I could never be a yohma— But he was suffering—suffering in a way only a human being would. Seeing
that, Gensei and Minamoto thought they were on the right track.
"You have to remember, Masahiko! Remember who you swore you loyalty to!
Who do you polish your sword skills for? There needs to be a concrete meaning
behind your strength, or else it turns into simple violence. You didn't forget that
teaching, did you?!"
Amari remembered. His loyalty was to His Majesty the Emperor, and his
sword must only be swung to protect the weak.
"Kondo fought gallantly to the end, Amari, before breathing his last. We
looked up to both of you so much—you shone like the sun to us. But now…I
guess Kondo died because of the yohma! Don't tell me you actually want to join
hands with them?!"
He couldn't be fully sure it had been the yohma's fault, but it wasn't a blatant
lie, clearly, so he went with it. Amari believed it too—and in his heart, he blazed
with the thought that it could never be forgiven. There was the sound of
something snapping in his mind, and then Amari stopped thinking and turned
his ear toward the pleas of his own heart.
Xienhua, meanwhile, was being addressed by the yohma.
"It's been a long time. I suppose it's fate that brought us together here. No
need for any words between us. Let's do it."
With a dauntless smile, Li Jinlong raised his fists. He was a muscular man,
making it hard to believe he was in his fifties. If anything, being merged with a
yohma had let him regain some of his youthful vigor. He was more ferociously
obsessed with Xienhua than ever.
"You never give up, do you? How many times do I have to beat you down
before you admit defeat?"
"I'll never admit it. Not unless you kill me. I know you were stronger than me,
but that's in the past now. I'm going to keep up the challenge until I win."
Li was intent on taking her position as inheritor of the Dragon Fist. He had
never fully abandoned that ambition, even as a yohma. "Your tenacity, at least, is second to none."
"Ha. The winners write the history books…no matter how they win."
Then Li went on a charge, closing the distance between them with his body
bent over as if sliding across the floor. His right fist, held in front of him, was like
a missile. The energy from every part of his lower body, down to his toes, joined
the force propelling his hips, focusing everything into his well-honed fist.
Combined with his yohma power, the resulting force could have blown a normal
person to pieces.
If Xienhua had taken this blow cleanly, even she would have been down for
the count. But instead, like a flitting leaf, she danced her way around the strike,
parrying it. And that wasn't all. Her delicate hands became balls of electricity,
her left one stopping Li's advancing fist cold. Grabbing it to take advantage of its
force, she spun away while holding her front leg out, ending up behind Li's back.
With a forceful push, she threw him to the floor, then used her free right fist for
a smashing blow right at the root of his neck, near the back of his head.
It was a captivating, vibrant move. Li had his fist out, in the middle of a light-
speed strike, and he could do nothing but let this happen to him. The pain shot
across his body—and with this unguarded blow on a pressure point, not even Li
could escape unscathed. But he was still a yohma general. The blow had
Xienhua's accumulated battle force inside it; any normal yohma would have
instantly been annihilated—but he still managed to stand up.
"Phew… That hurt," said Li. "It would've killed any of my men."
"You always were tough like that, weren't you?" asked Xienhua.
"Of course. It'd be no fun for you, either, if it ended in one shot. Now we can
do it. For real."
With a vicious laugh, Li sneered at Xienhua.
Xienhua clicked her tongue. "We can 'do it'? You freak."
"Huh? No! I didn't mean it like that—"
Li could be oddly pure of heart like that, but Xienhua went back on the attack,
not caring at all. On the undercard of this day of fighting was Billy of the US Secret Service
against David Reagan, the Azerian supreme southern fleet commander.
"Sir, you are under suspicion of treason against the United States of Azeria. I
suggest you consider how you're going to defend yourself in a court of law."
"Not too likely, son. I'm no longer even human. Your courts can't touch me."
"In that case, I am going to bring you into custody. If you resist, I inform you
that I have permission to shoot to kill."
"Don't make me laugh. I've gone beyond all of mankind's limits. That toy
would never work on me!"
David smiled from ear to ear as he boasted. Billy responded by pulling the
trigger without a moment's hesitation. It's basic battle tactics, after all, to strike
at your enemy while their guard is down.
The bullet Billy fired was a special one that contained all his fighting force. He
could make one in a day, and it took a week to build up the necessary spiritual
force to craft another, so he had only seven of these bullets total. The Smith &
Wesson Model 27 could hold six bullets, and every chamber was loaded with
these sure-kill specials. Most of all, though, Velgrynd had just finished
reworking this revolver into a God-class weapon, greatly enhancing the lethality
of each shot. It was more than enough force to penetrate David's protective
barriers.
"Gahhh!"
Much to the commander's shock, the first shot went straight through his
heart. Velgrynd was one matter, but he'd assumed that nobody else here was a
threat—a major blunder.
No… What's going on?!
He could no longer hide his apprehension. Becoming a yohma had freed him,
he thought, from the fear of death. No one can escape illness or pain in their
lives, but now that he had "evolved," David was exempt from all of that. But
Billy's gun clearly had the power to hurt him—and realizing that filled David
with terror. The weakness inside the human heart had been masked by his new
yohma will—but what the yohma who possessed him didn't realize was that David had been a weakhearted man all along. That had made possessing him
trivial, but now it was becoming a severe liability.
David shot a look to his side. There he saw Li Jinlong struggling against
Xienhua. It nearly made him lose his mind. How could something so ridiculous
be happening?
"Are you seeing things differently yet, sir?"
Billy couldn't help but rile him a little. This was no fight he could normally
have won. In situations like this, he knew that if you catch the opponent by
surprise, unnerve him, and make him think you have the upper hand, that
opens up chances to score the win. He had six bullets left, although one needed
loading into the empty chamber first and he knew David wasn't likely to let that
happen. He had to take the commander down with the remaining five bullets,
or else his defeat was set in stone.
The thought made him hesitate to unload his entire bullet stock on David at
once. Now both sides had the same thought—I need to make the right moves
here, or else I'll be the loser. Thus an unexpected stalemate began to unfold.
At least one other matchup, however, was much more uneven. Take, for
example, the yohma Delia against a team of six warriors. She didn't like it much.
"Hey! Why am I the only one facing six guys at once?!"
She was so frustrated, she said that out loud rather than keep it to herself.
"Well, it still won't be enough! Get out of here! Go help someone who
actually needs it!"
"No! We came here to save you!"
Bright, leader of the Seven Sacred Treasures, ignored Delia's pleas.
"Then put that sword away!" Delia shouted—just as she deflected a slash
from Bright.
An arrow flew through the air, aiming for this opening.
"Look out! You're as tricky as always, huh? What would you have done if that
had hit me?!" Delia dodged it only because her danger-detection skills had seen dramatic
improvements. She was complaining to the archer who'd fired at her, but the
young man responsible acted like he couldn't care less.
"Sorry, Delia, but could you just let us catch you? Because you're lookin'
pretty scary to us right now. We're staking our lives on this, too, you know."
A woman with a whip was keeping Delia precisely pinned down, as gloomy as
she sounded about it. The archer, responding in kind, stepped up his attack.
"If you're trying to help me," groaned Delia, "you could at least act like you
want to talk this out!" But she was forced to dodge their unrelenting barrage as
she spoke. It was six against one, and normally the attackers would have
enjoyed the upper hand, but Delia actually had the edge here. If she'd wanted
to, in fact, she could have laid waste to these six warriors—which would have
been a grisly scene.
It didn't happen, though, because she didn't want that. Delia, too, was
starting to reawaken to her human self. The yohma's plan had been airtight, but
once they started stealing the names of humans, things quickly went haywire.
Even if the extraordinary outlier called Velgrynd hadn't stepped onto the scene,
it probably would've fallen apart elsewhere soon. Anyone with the right
perspective would've seen it clearly enough.
The strategic conference room in the yohma base was in a state of chaos, its
occupants doing their best to fight off the intruders. The only ones retaining any
sort of composure were Velgrynd, who was attending to Emile's treatment, and
Pulcinella the Mad Priest, who opted to just watch the proceedings with arms
crossed.
Pulcinella had been lauded as a great, holy man, but at his core, he
exemplified evil and was cunning enough to hide it from everyone. Even now,
he was accurately gauging events as they unfolded, working out what his best
next move was—pure human greed in action.
His yohma conscience had been consumed by his human side long ago, but
that didn't mean his assimilation was complete. He'd made absorbing and
acquiring power his first priority; the knowledge his possessing yohma had was put off for later. As long as he got his power, he thought, nothing else really
mattered. The knowledge was seeping into his brain anyway, but he couldn't be
bothered to try studying it in depth. There were millions and millions of years of
memories involved, and even with Hasten Thought, it took a vast amount of
time. Besides, if he absorbed a bunch of unnecessary data, it might end up
interfering with his own consciousness.
Those were the concerns behind Pulcinella's approach to possession, but it
would prove to backfire on him. Why? Because thanks to his lack of study, he
had no idea who Velgrynd was at all. And that hole in his knowledge drove him
to make a lethal mistake. Instead of working out how to deal with Velgrynd, he
put his own greed first.
I imagine Masahiko Amari is cunning enough of a man. He must have realized
by now that if someone destroys the Underworld Gate, they can become king of
this planet. I pretended not to notice, but it's the only right answer. I know he
trusts me. Let's use these invaders to gain the upper hand for myself!
Pulcinella's plan was to take advantage of this chaos to break down the
Underworld Gate and kill Amari. That, he thought, would qualify him as king of
the world, and he thought this fighting was an excellent chance for him. The
yohma that possessed him had constantly fought on the front lines as one of
Cornu's commanders, so it possessed the extra skill Life Drain. Unlike Luminus's
Energy Drain and Yuuki's Lifestealer, this skill let him capture and use the
energy from dead enemies. The amount he could capture was limited to under
10 percent of his own magicule count, and the skill couldn't be invoked in
battle, so it wasn't all that convenient. Still, it guaranteed that the more he
fought, the stronger he got—a nice side effect.
Pulcinella's greed, however, had enhanced this skill by biblical proportions.
The result was the brand-new unique skill Fulfiller. If an enemy had been
weakened to the point of unconsciousness, he could continually drain it of
power until his own body was sufficiently fed. This, again, was hard to invoke
during battle, but in a large, confused combat situation like this, it could come
in very handy. This conference room, after all, was packed with powerful
fighters.
Heh-heh-heh… Play my cards right, and I could gain double the force. Amari wouldn't even be a challenge to me then. He'll be my assistant from now on, not
Cornu's!
Nothing but his own desires weighed in Pulcinella's mind. Even Cornu meant
little to him. So he kept waiting and watching, working out who to strike at.
Xienhua still held a clear advantage over Li, but their battle was closer than he'd
assumed at first. They were exhausting each other, but there was still no clear
victor.
I could take power from the weak, but then the stronger ones would get
suspicious of me. Going for Xienhua instead would be perfect!
She had been in his sights from the very start. He had been gunning for her
since before he'd gone to the Chinese Fiefdoms, and now it was all going how
he'd planned. He smiled—then, waiting for the moment when Xienhua and Li
were locked together, he struck.
There were smiles on the faces of Xienhua and Li Jinlong as they exchanged
blows.
"I'm so happy, Xienhua. I'm getting to fight someone I could never hold a
candle to before!"
Their matches would end with a single blow before, but now Li could hold his
own against her. It elated him. He'd always looked up to Xienhua; the fighting
ring always loved her, elevating her in ways that couldn't merely be attributable
to genius. Still, the experience gave Li mixed feelings. He felt he would have
inherited the Dragon Fist style if Xienhua wasn't around—but when he first saw
the young Xienhua's talents, he was filled with a desire to see just how far this
little girl would go. Perhaps that was the moment when he'd first accepted
defeat.
"Ha! It doesn't mean anything if you borrow someone else's force instead of
building your own."
"Like you know how it works. As long as I can surpass you, that's all that
matters."
"Oh, I do know. I'm not fighting with just my own power, either." "What?"
"Only the inheritor of the style knows this, but it's no secret or anything, so I'll
tell you. The hun-po I have inherited contains all the knowledge and experience
of past generations of my style's masters. I have taken all of it on, so I'm
naturally going to be more powerful than the one I succeeded. The dream of
our founder, after all, was to be strongest in the world. An impossible dream,
but he kept chasing after it—and that's why he created this unbroken 'chain' for
his successors."
The story sounded familiar to Li. He recalled rumors about how the successor
was always stronger than their teacher. Now he knew why. But even more
surprisingly, Xienhua's power really wasn't just her own, but something
supported by untold generations of martial arts giants before her.
"So you're using the power of others too…?"
"That's right. That's why I can't lose to you."
Human beings are capable of forging new paths with the accumulated
knowledge of those who came before them. The ideals of Dragon Fist worked
the same way. Much like how a building will tilt without a solid foundation, one
must constantly strive to improve their own core so they can make the most of
other people's power.
"Are you saying I didn't train enough?"
"Yes. If you can't use the power you were gifted with, it'll all go to waste."
"Nngh!"
It was humiliating, but Li realized it was the truth. In power alone, he
outclassed her, and yet here he was on the ropes. There was no making excuses
for that.
He could feel his high spirits deflating, but even so, this was fun for him. He
had no advantage at all in this battle, but he had a vague idea that victory was
within his grasp. This exchange of lethal blows, something neither side would
emerge from quite the same as before, made Li's blood soar. His yohma side
was trying to hold him back, but he had no interest in listening. More… More! I'll be stronger…and stronger…and I will win!!
Any remaining inferiority complex toward Xienhua was gone now, as his lust
for victory rose within him. His yohma side lent him more power in response—a
sign that the full assimilation was almost complete. The desires of both human
and yohma merged, and Li would make them his own, eliminating the borders
in his mind. That, he was sure, would make it possible to beat Xienhua.
Then, at that moment, Pulcinella was suddenly standing in front of Xienhua,
who was still grappling with Li.
"Nnngh!!"
His hand, straight as an arrow, plunged into her back. It all happened in a
single instant.
"Kah!"
Bright-red blood sprayed from her mouth as she fell to the floor. She had
trained her body to its limits, dipping her toes into the realm of Enlightened
half-spiritual life-forms, and that kept her from being killed instantly. But now
Pulcinella literally had her by the heart, scooping it out of her chest. Death
would come shortly, and Pulcinella couldn't have been more excited about it.
Greedily devouring Xienhua's heart, he invoked his unique skill.
"So delicious… Now my powers will reach greater heights than ever!"
He was right. Power surged through his body. And nobody was angrier about
it than Li Jinlong, his servant. The human part of Li was screaming, wholly
ignoring the power hierarchy between him and the yohma inside.
"You! Not only do you interrupt our duel… What have you done to the
woman I looked up to?! The strongest are only that way because they beat
people fair and square!!"
He launched a kick Pulcinella's way. It didn't work. It was a killer right
roundhouse, but Pulcinella simply lifted his right arm to stop it.
"Puny wimp! I have no need for people who defy me. I will feed upon you as
well!"
He hadn't fully drained Xienhua of her power yet, so consuming Li as well wouldn't earn him more than a few extra drops. But, with a sadistic smile, he
destroyed Li's leg.
"Gaaahhh!!"
Yohma had no pain receptors, but the human element of Li's conscious was
strong enough that he felt phantom pain from the now-severed limb. Pulcinella
simply laughed.
"How ridiculous! You failed to master your yohma powers. You don't even
understand what it means to surpass mankind, you fool!"
If he had better understood the characteristics of a yohma, he would have
made more thorough use of that power. Then he might've had a chance of
beating Xienhua. It made Pulcinella laugh, but he was also considering how to
educate his own clergy members on this subject. If they stayed firmly yohma for
him, all was well, but if the human side started taking root again, that was
trouble. Such a trend had its good and bad sides—it'd make his staff more
accommodating to his needs, but it also opened up the chance of a betrayal
down the line. Yohma had strict castes in place, but with enough greed and
desire, they could put their own selves first at this rate. Pulcinella himself was a
great example of that, so he knew it to be firmly true.
So would it be a good idea to use Li Jinlong as an example of how not to
strengthen themselves…?
If so, though, it'd make any betrayal even worse. Best to keep things as they
are until I have a system in place which tolerates none of that business at all.
By this point, Pulcinella was already acting like he was king. But he didn't have
too many of his top officials left. He planned to do away with Li himself, and
Velgrynd had taken command over Emile. That just left Delia, David Reagan,
and the now-questionable Masahiko Amari. He had to watch out for Amari, but
a little demonstration of how much more powerful he was, and Amari was
bound to fall in line and become his right-hand man.
He's no fool, after all. Once he realizes he can't win, I'm sure he'll lend us a
hand. The question then becomes this Velgrynd woman. Maybe I can test my
skills a little and make her a sacrifice— Pulcinella was painting a fairly rosy picture for his own future—as unlikely as
it was to come true. But he banished the happy fantasy in an instant and raised
his fist to land the final blow on Li. An evil aura surrounded it as it came whirling
down toward Li's head—
"Move."
The moment he heard that word, an unimaginably intense pain racked
Pulcinella's body. It made him roll around on the floor, but Li wasn't laughing.
"I can't have you die here, Xienhua. That would spell the end of Long's
dream."
Velgrynd, as always, was putting her own priorities ahead of everyone else's.
It was the most incredibly absurd thing to tell someone who was on death's
door. Xienhua saw fit to protest a little.
"B-but…I…"
"Regeneration! And also some Healing, too. How's that?"
The magic, capable as it was of fixing entire parts of the body, regenerated
her heart and even replenished her stamina. It was drastic, but that's what
Velgrynd gave her. Velgrynd had gained a mastery of holy magic during her
travels, and while she didn't need it for herself, it had proven handy for all the
assorted reincarnations of Ludora she had come to know. It'd occasionally
made her the object of unironic worship, not that she cared. She might have
been performing divine work with this magic, but it was of no concern to her.
"Um… I'm healed. I don't hurt at all. I feel fine."
Some people, like Hinata, have a natural resistance to magic. Her kind existed
in this world as well, but a "divine miracle" that worked with a person's spiritual
particles had no problem taking effect.
"I'm sure you do. I thought that the divine miracle Resurrection would be
going too far, yes. But good."
"Yes…"
There's an even greater magic than this? Xienhua thought.
Her body was back to normal now, but that didn't solve the problem at hand. Pulcinella had been hit with a jolt from Xienhua's hun-po, the combination of
her spiritual and animal souls. It still contained the knowledge and experience
passed down across generations of Dragon Fist masters, but it had lost the
majority of its force. Unless that was addressed, Xienhua would be in a
permanently weakened state. That'd normally have been a huge issue—but
Velgrynd was there.
"I'll lend you some of my power. It's dragon force, so it should be a good
substitute."
More than a substitute. It made Xienhua stronger than ever before—by
human standards. It was little more than a rounding error in Velgrynd's mind,
though, so without any more hesitation, she placed her dragon aura around
Xienhua. The force stabilized Xienhua's power, strengthening her entire body. It
didn't bring her to Saint level all by itself, but now Xienhua was fully awakened
into an Enlightened state.
"This—this must be the divine power that Longhuang gave only to our
founder…!"
Li, left reeling at all of this, sounded oddly happy about the turn of events. His
expression was exactly as it had been back in his human days.
"Heh-heh-heh… That's how I like to see that kid. It's hard to aspire to be
someone unless they're high up in the sky."
Once again, he considered himself Xienhua's greatest rival. Even from his
perspective as a yohma general, she looked so much more powerful to him.
And while Xienhua was too elated to notice, becoming Enlightened had just
greatly extended her natural life span. She would eventually become the
"Dragon Fist Master," one of the world's guardians, after reaching a height that
not even Long himself could dream of—but that's another story.
Pulcinella, whom Velgrynd had so rudely thrown out of her way, couldn't
understand what had happened to him. It might not have been up to the
standard of Cornu of the Three Mystic Leaders, but he was sure the power he'd
just gained was absolute. Instead, here he was experiencing the most
unbearable of pain. What…? What's going on?! Why am I feeling pain like some human being?!
The reason was simple—Velgrynd's dark-red "cardinal aura" could burn
anyone who touched it to ashes. She had been going as easy as possible with
him, since she had no intention of killing back there…plus, she assumed, having
a brush like that would hopefully teach him to avoid any more foolishness. But
he was more drunk on the idea of himself as king than she'd thought. He'd
failed to see reality, and now he was stepping into territory he never should've
found himself in.
"A surprise attack? How clever of you."
Those were the words of a tried-and-true minion, one who failed to realize
just how yawning the gap in ability between them was. Not even Velgrynd could
have imagined anyone addressing her like that. So, not giving him any more
thought, she turned toward her next concern.
Billy and David were still facing each other. Velgrynd, sneaking up behind the
latter, slapped her hand down on his head—a cardinal-aura-infused blow that
instantly vaporized the yohma inside. It was an astonishing show of force, but
that was par for the course for her.
As she did this, Pulcinella stepped up. Realizing he was in trouble, he barked
out an order to Delia.
"Give me your spear!"
"Huh?"
"You can't access its full power anyway! It'd be far happier with me than in
the hands of some worthless coward like you!"
As faulty as that logic was, it didn't stop Pulcinella from snatching the spear
away. He could promptly feel its power. It made him laugh. Now, for certain, he
could end the day victorious.
Delia was thrown to the ground. Her former teammates ran up to her.
"You all right?" Bright asked, speaking for the entire team. Delia, hearing this,
let a tear fall down her cheek.
"Don't be stupid. I'm not human. I'm a yohma who invaded this world—" "But you're crying. Those tears are all the evidence we need to know you're
still human."
"Bright…"
"Besides, you still have all your memories, yes?"
"Just chase that yohma out of there!"
"Come on. You're too brazen a woman to let a yohma beat you."
There, at that moment, Delia could clearly hear something shattering in her
heart.
"Hold on, Katarina, you better apologize before you keep that cheerleader act
up! What do you mean, I'm brazen?"
"Oh, I'll stand by that," a tearful Katarina replied as she held Delia. "You're
too brazen to go down this easy. That much I believe."
The rest of the Seven Sacred Treasures joined her. There was no need for any
more words. Seeing her friends shout for joy, one after the other, Delia smiled
from the bottom of her heart.
Pulcinella, watching this, just sniffed at them.
"Lord. This is why humans are so worthless…"
David, too, had regained his sanity thanks to Velgrynd. Delia was the last
person still faithful to Pulcinella, but apparently her human consciousness had
won out in the end. Even worse, by the looks of things, Amari couldn't be
trusted to do much better, either. His human side seemed to have the upper
hand now, and Pulcinella doubted Amari'd be fighting alongside him.
Nonetheless, he didn't see any problems. He was still powerful, and he had
just gained one of the world's most powerful weapons.
This spear… It truly is a God-class menace! It's not even trying to recognize me
as its master, but it's still strong enough for me. I can easily use this to take care
of this annoying Velgrynd woman.
He was endlessly optimistic, if nothing else. But it was simply hopeless, how
little he knew his place. Even in his mind, however, there were alarm bells ringing. Now he was poring over the knowledge that the vanished yohma had
given him, searching for something related to Velgrynd. If he could examine it
closely enough…
"I suppose I can only rely on myself now. Very well. I will simply take care of
you personally!"
"I'm sorry, are you referring to me?"
"You truly are a foolish woman! Who else would I be ref—? Hrrgnngh…?!"
He'd openly demonstrated his intent to kill. That was ill-advised. Velgrynd had
let him go this long because she just wasn't interested in him, but now she
recognized him as an enemy.
Despite it all, Velgrynd had still tried not to kill him with the shot she'd just
landed, knowing there was a chance he could come back from his yohma self.
The problem with Pulcinella was that he had done little more than take over the
will of his yohma; the core of it was still there. The blow she'd just given
Pulcinella had shattered that core for good.
"Well," she said, beaming, "that's the end of my job. It looks like that man
over there won against the yohma himself, so that means nobody's possessed
any longer."
Before all of this began, there had been six mystic leaders in this conference
hall. David and Emile had had their yohma powers plucked out by Velgrynd,
making them regular human beings again. Amari, Li, and Delia had overcome
their yohma without external aid; their mystic powers were still there, but that
wasn't any problem in Velgrynd's eyes. Finally, Pulcinella had just had his
yohma core destroyed, which likely meant those powers were gone—but
something wasn't quite right with him.
"Heh-heh-heh… Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Now the hateful seal
that was blocking my powers has been removed!"
He had fully taken in his yohma powers now. They were starting to externally
transform him. His skin turned a shade of light blue, his eyes glowing red, and
unlike the other low-level mystics, he was even growing wings like an angel. The
gear his yohma possessed had transformed into the holy robes he wore; this garment was untold numbers of years old, making it among the best the Legend
class could offer.
The spear he took from Delia had transformed as well—into a khakkhara, a
staff crowned by a set of metal rings. The weapon had accepted Pulcinella as its
owner, and while he lacked the magicules to fully unleash its powers, he felt like
his magical energy had been doubled.
Now Pulcinella felt like he was at the very peak of his life. But his foolish
arrogance had grown with his strength. Now he truly felt like nobody could stop
him.
It almost offended Velgrynd. Is he really that much of an idiot? she thought—
but she decided to let him be. Being an absolute font of strength, she saw no
need to panic.
Pulcinella, not realizing this, began to laugh loudly. "This feels so comfortable.
With this power, perhaps I could best Lord Cornu himself…"
That was how omnipotent he felt at the moment. His powers had, in fact,
risen to the level of an awakened demon lord, and he felt like he had surpassed
all limits placed on him before now. But he was measuring these achievements
using a very tiny yardstick indeed.
"Forget it. He's at least ten times more powerful. It wouldn't even be close."
He was making such a stupid mistake, Velgrynd couldn't help but interject.
Pulcinella, the target of this derision, was enraged. "Well," he said. "A sad
thing some fools here don't understand how the world works."
Speak for yourself, thought everyone else in the room.
It was at this point that Velgrynd realized Pulcinella was talking about her. She
didn't understand why, though. His attitude seemed to indicate he thought he
could beat her, but she couldn't guess what basis he had for that. She had
known the yohma for a long while, so she couldn't believe that someone among
them wouldn't be aware of who she was. Maybe it'd have been understandable
among the lowest-level mystics, but a high-end one—a former angel connected
to the Three Mystic Leaders, no less—should have been quivering with fear at
the mere mention of her name. Against the strongest of True Dragons, that was simply a natural response.
But Pulcinella's reaction was just too unnatural. It gave Velgrynd pause. She
wondered if she was making some sort of mistake.
"You know, I've been curious—you're being awfully rude. When you said
'fool' just now, you weren't referring to me, were you?"
After her long journey, Velgrynd had grown surprisingly patient. She would
describe herself as a graceful, piteous woman…and even if that wasn't quite
true, she had certainly cultivated a gentler side of herself compared to before.
That was why she asked that question instead of flying into a rage—but
Pulcinella took this as a cue to get carried away.
"You don't realize? You may have some strength, but you really need to stop
being so full of yourself. Because outside of this world, there is an even greater
world—"
Wow. He really doesn't know.
Now it dawned on Velgrynd. Pulcinella had overcome his yohma self and was
moving of his own free will. At the same time, she pitied him. Masahiko Amari
had been taken over, but had used the experience to gain as much yohma
knowledge as possible. This man, on the other hand, sought nothing but power.
And that's why he's grown this arrogant. He doesn't even know the most
essential of facts.
Realizing that made her more exasperated than angry. She turned toward
Gensei and the others, ignoring Pulcinella as he pressed on with his little
speech.
"What do you think is best to do with this man? I broke his yohma core, but
his power's still intact. At this rate, not even I can fully handle this."
By "handle this," she meant taking his powers away from him. But Pulcinella
took it the wrong way.
"Heh-heh-heh! Of course you can't! It's a little bit too late to get cold feet,
isn't it?!"
He took those words to mean that Velgrynd couldn't defeat him. No matter what he faced, he always saw things breaking his way.
"If you admit your defeat, I will make you my underling out of respect for your
goodwill. You will soon appreciate my mercy when I appoint you to—
Brrnnhh?!"
"Silence."
Another slap from Velgrynd. Pulcinella was helpless to react…and only then
did he realize something wasn't going to plan. Am I making a great mistake?! he
thought, hurriedly attempting to search through his memories. But he wouldn't
find anything at all. When Velgrynd had destroyed his yohma core a moment
ago, all the memory data that came with it had disappeared.
No… No, no!
Pulcinella felt overcome by a sense of dread for reasons he couldn't define.
Leaving him be, Velgrynd turned toward Gensei again.
"If I let this man live, I'm sure it'd present problems for all of you. I think it's
better to kill him, but what do you think?"
Whether Pulcinella lived or not was of little importance to her. But no matter
what she chose, she couldn't just leave him like this. Things would be fine as
long as Oharu was alive and Velgrynd was around to protect him—but after
that, there was no telling. Upon Oharu's death, Velgrynd would zoom right off
to the next soul fragment of Ludora's, no longer caring what happened on this
world…and after that, no one would be able to stop Pulcinella. But Velgrynd
also knew that reincarnations of Ludora came back to this world on a cyclical
basis, passed down through a family bloodline. Letting Pulcinella do whatever
he wanted with this planet wasn't in her best interests, either.
Neither Gensei nor anyone else could stop him. That much was clear. And
that's why dispatching him right here and right now was the quickest path for
everyone.
"You're right, yes, but…"
There was nobody here from Greater Rossiam. Killing one of that empire's
greatest heroes was bound to leave a bad taste in the mouth. Everyone here
knew it was the right call, but nobody was too enthusiastic about it. Velgrynd knew that, and that's why she wanted more opinions. In other words, she
wasn't keeping Pulcinella alive out of kindness—it was because she concluded
that killing him right now could cause Oharu untold trouble later.
So she left the decision to the others. It wouldn't be an easy one; they were
all from other nations. If they talked it over and decided to let Pulcinella off the
hook, Velgrynd was prepared to accept that. Amari certainly knew what she
was doing here, as did everyone else. That knowledge emboldened them to
speak freely.
"We have no other choice but to execute him," Amari said. "We can just tell
everyone that I did it while possessed by my yohma. If Greater Rossiam
demands I be put in their custody, you can go ahead and offer me."
"No… I agree that we need to finish him off," a cautious Gensei replied, "but
there's no need for you to sacrifice yourself. We can give them the whole story
and try to win them over."
"He's right," David said. "I mean, if reasoning with them won't make them
understand, we can just apply the right kind of pressure instead. We in Azeria
would be glad to help."
"I think your words could be misconstrued, Commander, but I do agree that
execution is the right choice."
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and stuff. That's what my grandfather
always said. I think Pulcinella has nobody but himself to blame for this."
Between Billy's and Emile's responses, the decision was unanimous among
the Azerians. Laurent Hayes, Emile's grandfather, had only relied on Velgrynd's
assistance for the most insipid of things. The recollection made her smile a bit.
The reaction from the Chinese Fiefdoms, meanwhile, was along the lines of
tacit approval. They had been invaded by Greater Rossiam; there was little love
lost between them, and so they politely refrained from commenting in depth.
The Arcians, on the other hand, were thirsty for blood.
"We can make up any kind of story we want afterward. Let's kill him."
"Yeah. That bastard pushed Delia down, stole her weapon… I wish I could tear him apart with my own hands."
"I can't say I blame you. I have no reason to be against it, no."
"Same."
"…"
Given how one of their own had been hurt, they certainly weren't holding
back their emotions.
Hearing all this, Pulcinella realized just how dire the situation was.
At this rate, this woman Velgrynd may just kill me. Before she can—
He tried to find a way out, secretly concentrating his full mind and body on
this one goal. Then, noticing Velgrynd had her back turned, he attempted a
surprise attack. Any pride he had as a man of the cloth was gone; the laws of
chivalry didn't matter on the brink of death.
"You're going to die! Behold the might of my full-bore strike!"
This was the Divine Dispelling Light of Destruction, a secret, forbidden
Spiritualist skill that used divine blessings to destroy evil and its servants. His
yohma power was added to this, creating a flow of energy more massive than
anything this world had ever measured.
The shock waves alone caused tremendous damage. The earth shook; the
very air seemed to grate against itself. The base that had been remade into the
yohma headquarters began to collapse, unable to take the strain. It was
impervious to airstrikes and could even serve as a nuclear fallout shelter, but
not even that was enough. The empty space between Pulcinella and Velgrynd
was buried in less than a second—such was the instantaneous effect of the
damage, something clear to anyone that could see it.
I won! No life-form exists that could withstand this force. And now I am the
ruler of this world— Huh?
As Pulcinella attempted to gloat over his victory, he saw it—the energy force,
now shaped like a spear, cleanly inserted into Velgrynd's unguarded back. But
she wasn't hurt. It hadn't worked. It couldn't have. He was fighting Velgrynd,
after all. A quantity of energy large enough to destroy this entire continent had been neutralized and dissipated in a single instant.
"Can you wait quietly until we reach a conclusion, please?" she said, as if
nothing had happened. And then Pulcinella knew. He could never defeat
Velgrynd. If he had given up at that juncture, perhaps things would have wound
up differently. But there was no point theorizing about that. Because Pulcinella,
never knowing when to quit, was about to tap into something he never should
have.
"Well, what can I say? I never realized there was someone I couldn't defeat
on this world. A grave miscalculation…but you still can't touch me."
"Why is that?"
"Because I am a very careful man. I always pretended to be a good man so no
one would bear a grudge against me. I only stopped because I thought victory
was assured. I never imagined there was anyone like you…but victory is still
mine. I've already taken the necessary measures."
"Can you quit stalling, please? Just give me the summary."
"Heh-heh-heh… Why the hurry? But all right—I'll tell you. The nations of
Azeria, Greater Rossiam, and Arcia have all been hard at work developing a new
kind of bomb. They all work on the same principle, although each nation's
working on a different design—but what matters is the force of this weapon."
"And you're going to use this bomb to kill me?"
"No, nothing like that. I believe I can withstand the blast, and if I could, I'm
sure that you can."
"Oh? So why are you bringing this up?"
"Don't rush me. I can certainly understand your anxieties, but…"
Pulcinella was now teasing Velgrynd, greatly irritating her. She knew that was
on purpose, but she played along. Pulcinella was the kind of coward who'd
attempt a sneak attack while they debated whether to kill him or not. Taking
him out right now was clearly the correct option, but she decided to hear him
out anyway. The reason for that was simple—it was to keep any future trouble out of her
life. If he was going to lay his scheme bare for her right now, it was only polite
that she listen to the whole thing. That, and she was sure things would be fine
no matter what kind of trick he had up his sleeve.
It was thus with a placid mind that Velgrynd kept listening…but the next thing
he had to say took the smile off her face.
"But here is my plan! I am going to steal these bombs and set them off above
the capitals of each nation. I already have my people in place for it. It's too late
to do anything now!"
It was a literal bombshell announcement.
"Are you crazy?! If you do that, it'd claim so many innocent lives!"
"You have to be kidding me! If you take out the leadership of all the nations,
it'd destroy all sense of order!"
"The yohma's basic plan was to raise the human race to serve as their bodies,
not destroy them! What are you even thinking?!"
Pulcinella's lips twisted into a smile at all the shouting.
"Ahhh, how lovely to hear. Yes, I suppose I can't blame you for panicking. It
deeply pains me as well. Much as you said, Mr. Amari, it is best to help
humanity grow and thrive—but the fact is, there are far more people than there
are yohma. Being possessed by one should be all it takes to help you survive
this era of war. None of it will affect us at all—and we'll just collect the
survivors and raise them instead!"
The plan had been delayed quite a bit, Pulcinella admitted. But, as he
boasted, there was still nothing to stop it. The logic was highly questionable,
but he wasn't terribly off the mark, either.
It made Amari grow quiet. Gensei looked just as pale as he turned toward
Velgrynd. Pulcinella had done all that talking in an attempt to stall for time, no
doubt. The plan was ticking right along, even as they spoke.
Now, there was nothing Gensei or anyone else could do. The only possibility
left to them involved relying on Velgrynd's teleportation. There would be a lot of casualties, no doubt, but they needed to be sure each nation's top
government officials were brought to safety. They were all evacuated to the
Conquering Empire of Japan at the moment, fortunately, so Gensei assumed
Velgrynd could guarantee their escape.
That's why he gave her a look—but he instantly regretted it. What he saw
there was an angry goddess. Pulcinella's scheme had brought her wrath to the
forefront.
"It pains me as much as it does you to see innocent people die," Pulcinella
continued, failing to read the room. "If I could, I'd try to avoid that as much as
possible. But what do you think? Why don't you let me go for now? If we agree
not to interfere with each other, I'll gladly give you Japan—no, half the globe,
even!"
Given the threat of those bombs, he thought he had ample material to
negotiate with. But that was just wishful thinking.
"Lowlife. I didn't mind how you targeted me, no matter how low you stooped,
but I will not let you do anything that gets my man involved. You will never
return to the cycle of life again. I will crush your soul and grant you eternal
suffering."
Velgrynd was, at the core, a vengeful woman. She was strong, and that gave
her an "above it all" attitude in most situations—but flip the switch, and she'd
fly into a rage.
"W-wait! I told you, I have no interest in— Wait! Listen to me! My people are
going to set off the bombs unless I order them to stop! I have them on standby
right now above the capitals of all five nations. Please, let's all just take a deep
breath and—"
"Will you shut up already? I took care of that long ago."
"Eh?"
Pulcinella couldn't parse this. Neither could anyone else in the room. What
she meant was a total mystery. It didn't exactly seem like a bluff. It had the ring
of truth to it, but how could she have protected five different countries while
remaining in this conference hall? That, of course, was because Velgrynd had Parallel Existence, a skill that made
such a feat completely possible.
She would never leave Oharu's side for any reason, which kept the
Conquering Empire safe. She could also travel instantly to any point she had
visited before, and she had been to Azeria, Arcia, Rossiam, and the Chinese
Fiefdoms. That eliminated any potential problems. All she'd had to do was send
out some Parallel Existences, bring them to each nation, find the yohma hiding
in them, and blow them away with their bombs.
And the task was already done.
"No… That's impossible. That's completely impossible—!"
Pulcinella frantically tried reaching out to his agents. The result was silence—
and indeed, they had been silenced well before now. Faced with this reality, his
face twisted in terror. Now, in a very literal way, he understood just how
boundlessly dangerous the beautiful woman before him was.
"Please—please forgive me…"
"Nuh-uh."
It's said there is nothing scarier than the smile of an angry woman—and
everyone there now knew this to be the truth.
"No, noooooooooo—!"
"Cardinal Acceleration!"
Behind the fleeing Pulcinella, there was a flash like a supernova. Enveloped by
searing rays of heat, Pulcinella's soul was crushed to nothing.
And that wasn't the only damage. Velgrynd had intended to keep it as small-
scale as possible, but it'd had enough force to wipe out a good third of this
continent. The survivors could only stare blankly. The goddess before them
seemed so beautiful, and so fearsome.
By the way, Velgrynd's Cardinal Acceleration wound up causing damage in
areas quite removed from this world as well. The shock waves from it, riding in
via Dimensional Combo, went across time-space boundaries to even reach
Cornu of the Three Mystic Leaders, the yohma boss that had possessed Pulcinella.
Trying to open, then enlarge the Underworld Gate on this world had come
back to haunt him…and thanks to that, Cornu lost his entire army and sustained
injuries so grievous that they would take several decades to recover from. The
fallout was nothing short of shocking, but that was none of Velgrynd's concern.
"Well, I suppose goddesses have always been like that. Clearly, much of the
fault belongs to the humans that angered her."
These were the first impressions offered by Oharu after being briefed on
everything that had taken place.
"I'm sorry. I thought I was turning it down pretty low, but, um, I guess I pack a
lot more of a punch than I thought?"
Trying to say that in a cutesy voice wasn't going to help matters. But Oharu
didn't call her out on it, and if he wouldn't, no one else was about to. Velgrynd
had done it, and there was nothing left but to forgive her.
Fortunately, although "devastating" didn't even begin to describe the
damage, Pulcinella was the only one who had died. However, the area between
the Azerian naval base the yohma had used as their headquarters and the
hidden cove they'd used as a military port was completely obliterated.
The shock waves shook the ocean, leading to large-scale natural disasters, but
Velgrynd quelled them before anything serious occurred. The steam from the
evaporated seawater created storms, but she used climate control to make
them go away. The wrecked cove turned into a small mountain of pure magma,
but that was already taken care of. Some forested land and the like was lost,
but aiming some High Healing at the land—a move that made no sense to
observers—let Velgrynd create entirely new environments before the day was
through.
So while the geography of the world had been irrevocably changed, the actual
impact was pretty low. That was the ultimate conclusion people reached, and
that marked the end of the yohma's invasion—all solved with the help of one Velgrynd never intervened in human history again. Oharu didn't want her to.
Her power was transcendent, and in a world without serious magic like this,
things would just turn into a farce whenever she showed up. Therefore, she left
matters to him. He might make mistakes sometimes, but as he warned her,
those experiences would help humanity in time.
So the goddess stayed by Oharu's side, calmly watching over the workings of
man. In time, the end came. Oharu's life had run out.
Velgrynd was there, along with Oharu's family and close advisers, as well as
anyone else who had been involved with the emperor and his consort. The
sleeping Oharu awoke to find himself surrounded by them.
"I am happy. I have been blessed with the honor of being loved by a goddess,
and I have…enjoyed the peace that brought me. I worry for those I leave
behind…but I refuse to allow you to fight for my sake. You must always strive…
for a peaceful resolution. There is nothing good about conflict…"
Those were Oharu's last words.
Conflict was something he was willing to stomach if it were for his own sake.
But if it was for the sake of his loved ones, it quickly became unavoidable. It
would cost not just him, but his loved ones their honor. He could perhaps rile
them into action to dispel their fears—but doing that on a national or religious
level could never be tolerated. Saying you were fighting for the sake of
someone besides yourself sounded nice, but all that did was shunt
responsibility onto the other party. Oharu was trying to say that each one of
them, individually, had to bear responsibility for what they did.
After experiencing an era wracked by vast sea changes, Oharu held a dream
that he could pursue a world without conflict. He didn't know how to make it
come true, but he constantly thought over potential solutions. He had a
responsibility, and he was sticking to it. He never stopped trying to understand
the other side's perspective, and he used that understanding to reach common
ground through talking.
With those two pieces of advice, Oharu breathed his last. His expression was a
picture of serenity; his death was no doubt a painless one.
"You worked so hard. I'm very proud of you." Velgrynd reached out to caress the late Oharu's face. Then his body began to
glow. The light compressed itself into a small, crystalline form, the shining soul
fragment. Velgrynd held it tightly against her chest, then shed a tear filled with
equal parts love and heartrending pain.
Now that Oharu, the reincarnation of Ludora, had passed on, Velgrynd had no
further reason to stay.
"I'm off. Good luck to you all."
She thought about adding "I doubt I'll see any of you again," but decided
against it. The thought, she was sure, would come across.
"I only wish I could continue to chase after you, Lady Longhuang."
"Well, you can't."
"Maybe not. But I'd prefer to hold on to hope instead of giving up here."
"Yeah… I suppose I've visited this planet several times over the years, after all.
There's no such thing as an absolute. Keep up the good work, okay?"
"Yes!"
Xienhua looked energized. Several onlookers had the same dream. They were
charmed—they couldn't not be charmed by the divinity of the living goddess
before them—and they held hope in their hearts that someday, they would run
into Velgrynd the way Xienhua had.
"May we meet again, someday."
Masahiko Amari's parting words represented the thoughts of everybody on
hand.
Velgrynd flashed a soft smile. There was no telling what was on her mind, but
the smile immediately captivated everyone who saw it.
"Yes," she said, enjoying the moment. "Someday." And then she flew off.
Several decades passed after Velgrynd's departure. Humanity was at peace
once again. Some nations had nursed aspirations of domination, but the whole
yohma affair had nipped all that in the bud. The lesson would doubtlessly be retained for at least a few generations to come, and no major wars were likely
to erupt before then.
George Hayes returned to his role as president of Azeria, serving out his term
and then retiring to support his son. Emile wound up establishing an
entertainment agency, hoping to make this world struggling under war and
famine just a little bit brighter. For Emile, whose genes had come from one of
the world's genius-level swindlers, it was work he was born for—and he really
did make the world brighter, bit by bit.
And Masahiko Amari supported him the whole way.
Amari left the army soon after the peace treaties were signed. He'd asked for
permission to resign in order to take on responsibility for the whole war, and
Oharu (who had still been alive back then) had granted it. He had been freed
from his responsibilities in the Conquering Empire, except for a certain secret
mission Oharu gave him. Soon, he was working with Emile, helping him out with
financial support and using his bottomless personal connections to help the
agency grow into one of the big names of the industry in just a few years.
Rumors went around that the agency used all manner of underhanded tactics
to achieve its success. Amari had several mafia outfits working under him,
forcing him to stay out of the public eye for much of his life. But he and Emile
remained close, with Emile calling on him for help whenever a problem
occurred.
In time, the agency Emile founded grew to the point where it was one of the
largest, most well-known companies in Azeria and across the world. And there
was actually a very fascinating rumor about the company.
...…
...
…
One of the biggest stars in Emile's stable was a beauty by the name of
Longhua. She was active in show business for several years before retiring, only
to stage a comeback after a few more years had passed. This was, of course,
another person taking on Longhua's stage name, but nobody knew exactly who she was in real life—and this became a pretty famous story in the
entertainment industry.
However, one rumor had it that Longhua's real name was Xienhua—and,
weirdly enough, that every other performer who performed as Longhua also
had that same real name. It was like something out of a fairy tale. There was no
way all of them could be the same person, but seeing her perform, one couldn't
help but wonder…and so the fan theories continued.
...…
...
…
These rumors were little more than tabloid fodder, but it went without saying
that every Longhua really was the same person.
Thanks to having taken in Velgrynd's aura, Xienhua had gained de facto
eternal youth. That made it hard for her to keep participating in human society
without raising eyebrows, so she relied on Amari for help. And it wasn't just
her, either. Those who had overcome the yohma possession by themselves, like
Li Jinlong and Delia, had absorbed their yohma powers and reached the
Enlightened level.
They were far from alone. Out of the rank-and-file soldiers and officers who'd
found themselves involuntarily possessed, the great majority had been released
from their yohma prisons by Velgrynd. But some of them became Enlightened
as well, and all of them were being managed by Amari. Gensei Araki and Saburo
Minamoto were their mentors, teaching them the evil-dispelling Oboro
Shinmei-ryu sword style.
The fighters of the future were being raised there, and in time, they would
form an international anti-yohma organization. And until the promised day
came, their fight would never be over.