“…Who’re you?”
In Colio’s eyes were reflected Ruruta, who already seemed as if he was dead, and about ten people surrounding him. The girl standing at the center spoke.
“Who are you to tell us to stop tormenting him?”
Both the girl and the men standing next to her were warriors who have mastered Magic. They would be able to kill Colio in less than a second.
“I’m Colio Tonies. I am no one, a normal person.”
Having introduced himself, the warriors questioned him.
“What have you come here for?”
“To save him! I’ve come to save Ruruta!”
Colio didn’t think about what would happen by saving him. Yet he couldn’t help but want to do so. Colio couldn’t save the world. Yet he didn’t want to forsake someone that he might be able to save.
Colio already forgot that Ruruta had wanted to kill him and that he was the perpetrator of the world’s destruction. For him Ruruta was merely a collapsed, wounded, normal boy.
He could understand him. He could feel Ruruta’s pain as if it was his own. He could understand the pain of being unable to make one’s beloved happy. Therefore he couldn’t help but save him.
The warriors surrounding Ruruta looked at Colio as if he was mere trash on the side of the road. Ruruta stayed collapsed, not moving a muscle.
“Stop tormenting Ruruta any further. What good will that do?”
Colio said to them. One of the warriors then asked the girl at the center.
“What do we do Miena?”
“Drive him out.”
The girl called Miena ordered. One of the warriors released a shockwave from his hand and attacked Colio’s feet. He didn’t flinch. Rather he charged towards the warriors. And he tried grabbing the man who shot the shockwave.
“What’re you doing you brat!”
“Move! I’m going to save Ruruta!”
“You’re in the way!”
The warrior made Colio roll on the ground with a swing of his arm. He stood up while spitting the sand that got in his mouth, and once again grabbed that man.
“I’m telling you to stop!”
The next moment sharp pain ran through Colio’s stomach. Miena drove a kick into him. Colio once again rolled on the ground, writhing in pain and holding his abdomen.
“Saving Ruruta? Are you insane, brat?”
Miena asserted ruthlessly. While spewing vomit, Colio glared at her.
Anger welled up inside his chest. But even if he was angry he couldn’t do anything. Colio was far too powerless. He could do nothing but shout.
“You’re in my way, move. I’ll save Ruruta!”
Miena talked as if spitting.
“Why would you save that man? Everything is his fault. Are you saying it’s not true?”
Colio didn’t know what to say. What Miena said was the absolute truth.
“You’re right. But, he couldn’t… Ruruta couldn’t do anything else! What else could he have done?!”
Miena’s face distorted unpleasantly.
“Ruruta was cornered, and cornered, and finally became so. If someone had reached out to him before it wouldn’t have turned out like this.”
“So what?”
“No one saved Ruruta. He was suffering all by himself and never heard any gentle words. What were you doing, you were the ones who left Ruruta all alone!”
Reply came in the form of Miena’s fist. Colio’s teeth broke and scattered in the desert. She grabbed Colio by the collar, raised him then slammed him into the sand.
She kicked his back as he attempted standing up.
“Stop that Miena, he’ll die.”
One of the warriors grabbed Miena’s shoulder.
“I’ll kill him. There’s still time to torment and kill that brat.”
No one stopped Miena asserting this. Even while being trampled, Colio desperately moved his mouth.
“What’s… wrong?”
Colio stood up. As he stood up he was beaten, thrown and rolled.
“What’s wrong about it, when you love someone, wanting to make them happy, what’s wrong about that!”
“It’s obviously wrong!”
Miena shouted, grabbed Colio’s hair and lifted him up.
“How many lost their lives because of that? How became unhappy? Try telling me! What’s supposed to be right about him!”
She once again hurled him, sending him flying. What Miena said was right. Ruruta was in the wrong. And yet still Colio wanted to save him.
No more words came out. But Colio replied in his heart.
Ruruta was a fool. The worst man. He had repeatedly made sins and mistakes. However, only his feelings consisting of falling in love with a person and wishing to make them happy were not wrong.
No matter how wrong Ruruta was, his love was not a mistake.
Miena knocked off Colio three times. His knees trembled and he lost his sense of balance. Unable to even stand anymore, he glared at Miena. That action perhaps rubbing them the wrong way, several feet trampled on him.
“He’s already dying.”
One warrior said. Probably so, thought Colio. However, before dying he wanted to save Ruruta. He couldn’t bear dying without doing anything and without saving anyone.
“That’s enough, kill him.”
Miena said. Colio burned with anger. He wanted to save a wounded, desperate boy. He hated them for not allowing him to even think that.
“…You’re in… my… way…”
Colio’s hand grasped sand. He clenched his powerless fist. At that moment, he could feel a strange power welling up inside him.
“You’re in my way, move!”
Colio raised his face and glared at Miena and the rest. A strange light was emitted from his body. Just by emitting that faint light for a split second, the welling power vanished.
However, Miena and the rest ceased their attacks. They stepped back as if flinching.
“…Go away.”
He hadn’t the leisure to ponder the identity of the light from before or think about why Miena and the rest flinched. He stood up and threw words at them.
“I’m telling you to go away. Have you not heard me!”
The warriors flinched at the sound of the supposedly powerless Colio. Even Miena stood in place unable to do anything.
“M-Miena…”
A warrior said.
“Let’s go help Hamyuts. We’ve had enough of a revenge.”
“W…what?!”
Miena said. Yet even she couldn’t raise a hand on Colio. He had no idea what was going on.
“L-let’s go!”
At Miena’s voice, the warriors turned their bodies and headed for Nieniu’s direction. The exhausted Colio once again collapsed on the sand. At that time, a voice reached the depths of his ears.
‘…It’s useless with you.’
This wasn’t Shiron’s voice. He had the feeling he heard it before but couldn’t recall it.
‘You can’t… succeed it. Since you’re already dead…’
With just this, the voice in his ear disappeared. What was that just now? He thought but had no idea. Colio crawled toward Ruruta.
“Are you still alive, Ruruta?”
Colio desperately roused his body. And he hit the shoulders of the collapsed Ruruta.
“…Why did you save me.”
Ruruta said, his breath faint.
“Why did you save me. Kill me, I don’t want to live anymore.”
Colio couldn’t say anything. He understood Ruruta’s pain.
“Nieniu won’t become happy! If so then I don’t want to live any longer. So kill me!”
What can I say? What can I do? Someone please tell me. How can I console this boy who’s lost the only person he loves?
He could do only one thing. He could do only one thing for this person who’s lost everything.
Colio hugged Ruruta. Wordlessly but powerfully.
“Coli…o?”
What face was Ruruta making? What was he thinking? Since his face was on Colio’s shoulder, he couldn’t tell his expression.
A long silence descended on the Imaginary Entrails’ desert.
“Don’t give up, Ruruta.”
Colio said.
“Make Nieniu happy. You’re the only one who can make her happy.
She’s a good person, right? She should be happy, right? So Ruruta. Don’t give up.”
“…”
Ruruta made no reply. While in his embrace Ruruta made no move and stayed silent.
“Don’t say you shouldn’t have been born. Don’t think your life was meaningless. Being alive has its own meaning. Loving someone has its own meaning.”
“…y.”
Ruruta faintly opened his mouth.
“Why… did you… save me?”
Colio then answered.
“I was able to meet Shiron in this world you’ve protected. I met her thanks to you. I can forgive everything because of that.
Therefore, this time it was my turn to save you.”
“…Save… me?”
Ruruta’s hands moved. They grabbed Colio’s arm.
“Save… save…”
And Ruruta silently began crying.
“Save…”
He couldn’t form any further words.
Ruruta cried. The great hero who saved the world, the demon lord who destroyed the world, was crying.
Thinking back, Ruruta never cried starting from the Paradise Era. Even while fearing the Beasts of the Final Chapter and no matter how much his body hurt during his hellish training. Not even when he had lost his beloved Nieniu did Ruruta cry.
“I understand you, Ruruta. You can cry.”
Colio hugged the crying Ruruta powerfully.
“You haven’t ever been able to cry. Although you wanted to you couldn’t!”
Ruruta was alone. Since he was the peerless great hero, never mind crying, there wasn’t anyone who would save him. Since he was the fearful demon lord hated by everyone, never mind crying, there wasn’t anyone who would save him.
Tears were the soul’s call for help. Even a baby wouldn’t shed tears when there was no one nearby. People couldn’t cry if there was absolutely no one to save them.
However, Colio said that he would save Ruruta. Apart from Nieniu, such a person didn’t exist in the entire world.
There was someone to save him. Ruruta was allowed to cry for the first time.
The tears that didn’t flow even in his despair, even in his fear, even during his hellish days. The tears that didn’t flow no matter how sad he was and how much he suffered. The tears he had accumulated ever since the day Nieniu died, for 1927 years.
They were released by Colio’s words.
“….Uu.”
Colio groaned. The ribs broken by Miena ached. But I can’t let go, he thought. I will make Ruruta cry after he was finally allowed to cry, he thought.
“Colio… what should I do?”
“Ruruta…”
“I was unable to make Nieniu happy, so what should I do? I’ve lost anything and everything, so what should I do?”
Colio answered unhesitatingly.
“Live.”
He spoke while wiping away Ruruta’s tears with his fist.
“Live and struggle. Keep struggling to make Nieniu happy.”
Colio has perhaps spoken the cruelest of words. Keeping one’s hope in a world whose destruction had already been decided was nothing but suffering.
“Even now you love her, right? You want to make her happy. Then nothing was lost.”
At that moment, Colio’s body began crumbling down. The attacks of Miena and the rest reached his very life. He preserved his life until now just by the single wish of wanting to save Ruruta.
“…Colio, I can no longer do…”
“Believe. You can definitely make Nieniu happy. Since it’s you you can do it. Even if you don’t believe it, I will.”
The arm embracing Ruruta was changing to sand.
“Don’t break yet…”
He still hasn’t told him everything. Please let me speak until the end, thought Colio. Yet his body coldly continued its destruction.
“Since I’m… supporting you…”
The words he couldn’t fully transmit vanished in the wind. Colio’s body turned to a small heap of sand. Colio Tonies reached his second death. Since Ruruta’s arms lost what they held onto, he fell on the sand.
“Colio…”
Ruruta grasped the sand that was once Colio.
“Coliooo!!!”
And he raised a loud cry.
“…It will end very soon, Hamyuts-san.”
Hamyuts fell to her knees on the sand. She heard Nieniu’s words coming from afar. Blood scattered from her entire body. Moving while crawling on her knees, Hamyuts wielded her sling.
It happened mere minutes ago. The attack of a Lancer caught Hamyuts as she landed and severed her Achilles tendon. It escalated in no time from there. If she couldn’t run she couldn’t escape. If she couldn’t escape she would be surrounded. Next she would only be crushed and could only wait for death.
Even the reinforcements of Miena and the rest were defeated and gone. Only Hamyuts alone remained.
“…Hamyuts-san. Is it not sad? But that is fine. It is not like the world is ending. The rotten world will be destroyed and then reborn anew.”
She rolled on the sand, evading a Jail King Snake’s acid. She didn’t even have the energy to respond.
“…The reborn world will be a paradise with neither suffering nor sadness. It is a wonderful thing. So Hamyuts-san, please die without any sadness.”
The desire to be killed filled Hamyuts’s chest. Yield yourself, her soul asked of her. Yet even now Hamyuts’s heart couldn’t abandon its will to resist.
“…Good-bye.”
But just as a Blade-Haired Lion’s fangs leapt ahead as if to break that last will…
“Nieniu!”
A shout rumbled inside the Imaginary Entrails. A single arm extended from behind Hamyuts and gouged out the eyeballs of the Blade-Haired Lion.
The Beasts of the Final Chapter ceased their movements. Even Hamyuts stopped swinging her sling and turned around.
“No way.”
The one standing there was a bloody Ruruta Coozancoona. Hamyuts strained her eyes, convinced she had seen wrong.
In his hand he held a knife. It was a commonplace, ordinary knife. But Hamyuts recalled - this knife had belonged to Colio.
He was supposed to have been exhausted. He shouldn’t even be standing. Yet Ruruta stepped ahead as if covering for Hamyuts.
“…What are you trying to do?”
Nieniu said.
“I’m going to stop the destruction of the world.”
Hamyuts had no idea what was happening. The man who until a while ago was trying to end the world was now protecting her.
“…Why?”
“Even if the world is destroyed you will not become happy.”
Leaving Hamyuts where she was, Ruruta advanced. Clenching the knife, he kept walking ahead. He went toward the distant Nieniu.
“…Ruruta, why can you not understand? The world must be destroyed. This world filled with suffering has to end. After it is destroyed a new paradise will be born.”
“But that will not make you happy.
Isn’t it so, Nieniu? Even if you destroy it you won’t become happy, right?”
“…Ruruta?”
He felt slight anger at Nieniu’s words.
“And so I will stop the destruction of the world. All in order to make you happy.”
“What happened to you, Ruruta?”
Hamyuts’s mutter didn’t reach him.
“…What are you saying when not long ago you were telling me to destroy the world?”
“I was wrong.”
“…I have told you countless times that the world must be destroyed, so why do you not understand?”
“It has nothing to do with paradise or hell. I don’t care how the world is. Your happiness is everything to me.”
“…Ruruta. Only you I…”
The Beasts of the Final Chapter moved. Ruruta started running.
“…I will never forgive!”
Nieniu’s angry roar reverberated throughout the Imaginary Entrails. Ignoring Hamyuts, the Beasts flooded at Ruruta.
Ruruta went ahead with a single knife in hand against the swarming enemies. He deflected the spear of a Cavalryman with it and rolled to dodge the acid of a Jail King Snake.
How slow and powerless, thought Hamyuts looking from behind. He had no chances of winning. There was no hope whatsoever.
And yet Ruruta was fighting. In his hand was a fragment of the courage Colio left behind. In his chest were his feelings toward Nieniu. Ruruta was fighting only using these.
“…I will never forgive you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!”
The girl he loved was raging. She was shouting her intent to kill Ruruta. Yet he kept advancing.
“Ruruta, you…”
Hamyuts muttered.
The Beasts of the Final Chapter surrounded Ruruta. Ripping the legs of a Cavalryman and the nose of an Elephant Soldier to shreds with a knife, he broke through the siege. And he advanced toward Nieniu.
Looking at his back, Hamyuts recalled - he was once the hero who saved the world.
Outside the Imaginary Entrails, a figure stood on top of the beer hall’s roof at Past God Bantorra Island.
“…Hu…hahaha, huhahahahaha!”
Lascall stifled his voice and started laughing. And then, as if saying he could hold back no longer, he raised his voice. How many thousands of years was it since he last laughed like this? The last time was probably the day Ruruta had Eaten Nieniu. It was the laughter of joy at having witnessed something completely impossible.
“Oh my, oh my, I am already completely speechless. How much will you entertain me? This Lascall has already said he was satisfied!”
He gasped for air, twisted his body, bent back and laughed. He kept laughing at this man who stood against the destruction of the world with a single knife in hand.
Lascall couldn’t understand. How could he stand up and how was he able to fight? Judging it from the perception of Lascall who could overlook the entire world, his chances for victory were zero. Even Ruruta surely understood that.
Was he sane? If he was, then what was sanity anyway?
Lascall didn’t understand, and what he couldn’t understand was enjoyable. There was still something he couldn’t understand in this world supposedly finished. There was still a sequel to the story.
“…You are wonderful, Rurutsama. Meeting you truly was a miracle.
If you insist this finished tale needs to keep going it is wonderful.”
Lascall’s body vanished from the roof. The next instant he appeared inside Bantorra Library that was swarming with Beasts.
“Bestowing stories a continuation is Lascall Othello’s duty. And it is also his pleasure.”
While saying so, Lascall walked inside the Library.
Yet even Lascall had no way of providing a breakthrough. In the first place all the Stone Blade could do was excavate and carry Books as well as convey them to people. He no longer had anyone in the world to convey anything to. And no one would be producing Books.
In the first place he was only a being that watched over stories. He didn’t have any combat capabilities.
“Yes, I can only do but one thing. Merely granting a continuation to stories that have already ended.”
Librarian trainees were collapsed in the courtyard, streets and inside buildings. The Armed Librarians were inside the Sixth Sealed Labyrinth. Inside the Fifth Sealed Labyrinth were Yukizona, Yuri and Mattalast. Near Hamyuts’s corpse Enlike and Bonbo were collapsed.
Lascall could give any of their supposedly finished stories a continuation. He would merely be able to drive away the Power of Tearless Ending and make them wake up.
However, this wasn’t Lascall’s original function.
Could he do it? He probably could. Although worn-out and withered, he was one of Past Overseer Bantorra’s Librarian Angels. He had that much power. But what would happen to Lascall afterward? He had a vague guess: Lascall Othello would be gone.
Lascall had already realized that his functions were deteriorating. Even he underwent aging during these 2000 years. Also, he knew fully well what would happen if he used something not part of his original functions.
“I have gotten my priorities backwards. Although I want to see the stories you will bring forth it will not happen were I to be gone.”
However, Lascall surveyed the Armed Librarians and searched for someone to wake up. Although he knew he would break, he didn’t stop.
He would probably only be able to revive one person. He had to choose carefully.
And it was possible that even after waking someone up they wouldn’t move. Or it was possible that he would be able to see Ruruta’s story continuing. Whatever came after an impossible possibility was far too alluring.
But who should he choose? Who would be able to shake up the world?
Mattalast? It would be impossible for him to stand up to Nieniu. How about Yukizona? Yet his Decay Wave would not be able to land even a single wound on her. Even Enlike wouldn’t be able to do anything. Bonbo, Kyasariro, Marfa, Luik… they were all out of the question.
If there was someone there was only one option. None other than that person. Lascall sat next to an Armed Librarian and put his Stone Blade on their chest.
He exercised the power he hadn’t used for 2000 years. He invaded that Armed Librarian’s heart, and destroyed the Power of Tearless Ending binding their mind.
“So it is impossible…”
Muttering this didn’t mean that he failed on waking them up; it meant that it would not end well for Lascall himself. Small cracks ran through the Stone Blade held in his left hand.
“Huhuhu, that is also not bad. No, on the contrary, that is the most impossible ending of all.”
Looking up toward the heavens, he kept his monologue.
“I cannot believe it, Rurutsama. You have moved me.”
His voice started shaking. Lascall was losing the power to manipulate his body.
“Who would have… thought that I would… throw away my life for Rurutsama… it is impossible, more than anything… Huhuhu, that is, that truly is…”
His controlled body let go of the stone blade. It fell on the floor and shattered like glass.
“The most impossible ending… how wonderful, b…”
As Lascall Othello vanished, the Sixth Sealed Archive once again became silent. Several dozens of seconds later, a delicate woman’s voice was heard. Her body slightly writhing, clothes rubbing against the floor could be heard. After a few more seconds, she stood as if springing up.
She was the one chosen by Lascall Othello as the one and only possibility. The last hope of saving the world. Although only a Third-Grade Armed Librarian, she was the best user of Thought Sharing in the world.
Mirepoc Finedell rose.