Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

From the look on Morlock’s face, it was clear he had instantly lost all confidence.

He was trembling and sweating.

However, those standard changes went farther than normal.

Sweat poured down his face without end and that sweat was scattered about by his intense trembling.

The sight that had so badly scared such a skilled spy was Akuto. The boy’s expression was truly demonic. The usual attractiveness of his face made it all the more frightening now that it was twisted with pure and undiluted intent to kill.

“I was trying to find a good enough reason to kill you…and now I’ve found it.”

As Akuto spoke, all mana vanished from the surrounding area. Even if it was in small quant.i.ties, mana existed in all parts of the atmosphere, so its disappearance meant Akuto had instantly gathered it all in his hand.

“Impossible!” shouted Morlock without thinking.

Even the most powerful magic users were unable to accomplish anything like that. Moving the energy that allowed mana to function was one thing, but moving the mana itself required the mental power to grasp the locations of each and every particle.

Akuto moved his finger ever so slightly.

That was enough to pin Morlock in the air and pull him forward as if by magnetism.

“Please don’t kill me!”

“Don’t kill him!”

Two voices overlapped.

One belonged to Morlock and the other to Keena.

“Don’t kill. An excellent sentiment. And I would prefer to not have to kill.”

Keena’s expression relaxed in relief.

But those words sounded crueler than a death sentence to Morlock who had experienced many brutal battles in the past. After all, not a single bit of the cruelty had left Akuto’s face.

“P-please stop! Please forgive me!”

Morlock pleaded until he was hoa.r.s.e, but Akuto rejected his pleas with a wave of his right hand.

“If you’re going to beg for forgiveness, don’t attack others in the first place!”

The man’s body began to shrink. He specialized in doing just that, but he was not causing it this time.

“P-please stop!”

When Morlock shrank, his body did not actually reduce in size. He would send most of his body into a virtual alternate dimension and reform his body with mana. However, Akuto was using that against him.

“Gyaaaaah!”

His scream trailed on and on as his body grew smaller and smaller.

Akuto sealed Morlock in the virtual alternate dimension and set his size at no bigger than a few dozen mana particles.

The minimized Morlock looked like he had been drawn by filling in squares of graph paper and he could not even speak.

“Eeeeee!” shrieked Morlock in the virtual alternate dimension.

However, that shout did not reach the real world.

All he could see in reality was a microscopic colorless world. Dust floated like asteroids and wind blew him around with greater speed than a storm and greater thickness than seawater. At this rate, he would be unable to speak with anyone as he lived in this lonely world for as long as mana existed.

Soon thereafter, he was swept away by the wind and disappeared to some unknown place.

“A-chan… What…what did you do?” asked Keena worriedly.

“I sealed him in a virtual alternate dimension and made his body microscopic.”

Akuto’s tone was calm, but his words contained great heat. His anger had yet to cool.

“A…-chan…”

Keena shuddered and a mixture of fear and sorrow filled her voice.

“Y-you can’t do that…”

“I didn’t kill him. I did as you said,” he explained coolly.

“No… That wasn’t what I said to do. Surely you understand! You wouldn’t normally do that kind of mean thing to me!”

Keena was crying and confusion filled Akuto’s eyes.

“But he’s working with the person who killed Junko!”

His voice was so rough that Keena could not say anything.

A heavy silence followed, but Korone suddenly interrupted.

“I will not argue against vengeance, but do you truly understand the situation?”

As a L’Isle-Adam, Korone was calm and she was right about Akuto not being the same. It was also possible he did not fully understand the situation.

“The situation? What’s there to understand? The person who caused all this is over there!”

He pointed toward The One’s flying ship.

Akuto understood that a member of CIMO 8 and the representative of the Republic were onboard and he could guess that Marine had used the Formless Power. However, the conclusion he reached was far from normal.

He would attack that ship and defeat the two of them.

That was the one and only conclusion in his mind.

He was being motivated by nothing but anger.

“Ohhhhh!” he roared.

He kicked off the ground and that was enough to whip up the wind.

Keena and Korone covered their faces.

“Don’t!”

By the time Keena shouted, Akuto was already far into the sky. She could see him flying directly toward the ship while enveloped in a shockwave.

“Empress, please seal the demon king’s power,” astutely instructed Korone.

“Right,” agreed Keena.

She had forgotten, but the empress had the ability to seal the demon king’s – and therefore Akuto’s – power. She had been using that ability to release his powers when necessary, but now she felt it was more necessary to seal them.

“As empress, I seal the demon king’s-…”

She started her proclamation, but trailed off and looked at her hands in confusion.

“What is it?” asked Korone.

“H-huh? I-I can’t do it.”

She shook her head as if it would bring back the sensation she had felt previously.

“You can’t do it?” repeated Korone.

“Eh? Not now! This is the one time I actually need it! C’mon! C’mon!”

She waved her hands around a few times, but nothing happened.

“You can’t use the imperial power?” muttered Korone.

She was not simply restating the problem. She was thinking about what the source of that imperial power was.

—The Formless Power.

That was supposedly a power of the mind that existed independent of mana and it was apparently the collective consciousness of some sort of life form.

Keena’s inability to use it meant she could not access the Formless Power, but there was no way of knowing if it was due to an internal factor or an external factor.

“Why? I want to stop A-chan! I need to stop him just this once!”

Keena’s shouts vanished futilely into the sky as Akuto approached the flying ship. Physical bullets and energy bullets poured down on him, but he completely ignored them.

A small pillar of smoke rose from one side of the disk-shaped ship and he easily broke through its armor.

Marine was horrified by what he himself had done.

He had chosen to use the Formless Power, but he had never expected this result.

He had used the power to stop the nuclear weapon, but a portion of the imperial coast had utterly vanished.

“The Formless Power reacts well to a collective consciousness,” explained The One. “The people of the Republic greatly wished for this.”

He looked like a speaking dog, but he claimed to be a thought ent.i.ty using the dog as its host. At the moment, that alien seemed just like a demon. He had predicted this result and yet had Marine use the Formless Power.

“You tricked me!” shouted Marine.

But The One only laughed.

“Ha ha ha! If you give power to a living being, it will always lead to the same result.”

“If you claim this wasn’t a trick, what do you call it!?”

In that instant, Marine gave up on negotiating with The One.

He accelerated forward to punch the dog in the face.

But…

—Why!?

His body would not budge. He could not move forward or even raise his fist. He felt as if he were caught in a sea of thick mud.

“Ha ha!” laughed The One. “This is much like hypnotism! When I saved you, I made sure you can do anything but attack me. It’s important to be careful when facing someone as powerful as you.”

“You gave me an implant!?”

It was impossible to control someone’s mind with normal magic, but there was a single exception: implanting a device inside their body where their mana control was strongest.

“You catch on quickly. I won’t completely take your will from you, though. After all, I need you to use the Formless Power.”

“Kh,” groaned Marine. “You’re going to have me use it again!? But this has already made a world war unavoidable!”

“It is true I succeeded in causing a world war, but my goal lies even further than that.”

The One smiled.

“There’s more?”

Marine’s face twisted in further fear. He had never considered this dog was plotting more than just a world war.

“That’s right. I will destroy the world in an unexpected fashion,” said The One coldly. “To do that, I must have you continue to use the Formless Power. I need your subjects to do more work for me.”

Suddenly an alarm sounded and the side of the ship was destroyed.

Both of their expressions changed to confusion.

After boarding the ship with overwhelming power, Akuto appeared from beyond the broken pieces and smoke.

This normally unthinkable sight left both The One and Marine speechless. Abnormal was the only word to describe this boy who had approached almost before the alarm could sound, broke cleanly through several dozen walls, and then casually walked inside.

“Don’t bother trying to justify your actions,” said Akuto.

His voice was so low it was almost a growl.

Marine felt his blood run cold yet also felt as if he were fascinated by the boy. The fear was so great that it transformed into a sort of attraction.

The same went for The One.

“I see you’ve come to deliver death, cursed one!”

The One’s shout held fear and some amount of praise, but his actions were those of someone driven solely by fear. With the Jewel Branch of Hourai in his mouth, he quickly jumped onto the seat shaped like a dog bed.

“I am not senile enough to face you head on!”

The entire c.o.c.kpit was closed off by a shutter and a change in air pressure could be heard on the other side. The c.o.c.kpit had likely been ejected from the flying ship.

Normally, Akuto would likely have pursued The One and broken through the shutter, but he was far from sensible at the moment.

His actions had no advance warning.

“You killed Junko!”

He mindlessly charged toward Marine and launched an attack.

Marine moved his hands to deflect the attack, but the surging pressure was too great.

He immediately used the Formless Power.

The light of compressed mana and a different blinding light burst between the two of them.

“Kh!”

“Gh!”

They both groaned and put some distance between each other.

Heat seemed to hang in the air between the two of them.

“That power!” Akuto raised his voice. “Is that the power you used to kill Junko!?”

“This…power…”

Marine looked at his hands in confusion. He had indeed used a power different from his own to fight and that power was the one which the Republic’s people had used to burn away a portion of land.

It was the Formless Power.

That mysterious power was activated by a human will and brought about incredible destruction.

Also, it was a forbidden power that The One had urged him to use.

He had indeed felt his own will activate that power and he understood it had been his fear of Akuto and his sense of self-preservation that had led him to do so.

“Was it that malice you used to kill her!?” roared Akuto.

He obtained a tremendous burst of power that surged out as physical pressure.

A sphere of mana burst out from Akuto.

“Gwoh!”

Marine used the Formless Power once more because his body would have been torn apart by the shockwave otherwise.

As proof, the flying ship exploded from the inside.

Marine did not want to think about how great a force it would have taken to accomplish that. A flying battleship like that had armor almost as thick as a tank, but it had burst like a balloon.

However, he did not want to think about how much power he himself had used either. The Formless Power had easily shielded him from so much power.

Pieces of the ship scattered around them and fell.

Only the two of them remained intact at the center of the explosion.

Marine’s feelings concerning the Formless Power were complex.

That Formless Power had rivaled Akuto’s mana, so Marine had the power to fight the boy. He would have died without it, but he doubted such a great power would come without a price and he recalled what The One had said.

“Stop! We should not be fighting!”

However, his shouted protest did not stop Akuto.

“Ohhh!” the boy roared and charged forward.

Marine remained calm and could easily evade even if he could not compete in power.

Even so, he chose to receive the attack.

“Nh!”

The two of them clashed head-on and their colliding powers created an explosive noise.

The impacts distorted their faces.

However, Akuto maintained his momentum and continued launching his fists forward.

“Ohhhhhh!”

Countless fists rained down on Marine, but the man received them all head-on.

And he did so with his own mana rather than the Formless Power.

“Gah!” he groaned.

He guarded with a mana-fortified arm, but Akuto poured all his strength into that arm.

In no time, tremendous damage acc.u.mulated in the arm.

“So this is your anger and your grudge,” groaned Marine.

He was vaguely aware that he was using this to punish himself. The Formless Power was indeed something humans should not toy with.

Marine’s att.i.tude caused Akuto to stop his barrage of fists for an instant.

“What are you doing?” asked Akuto.

“A proper man only loses his cool when a relative or lover is killed, so I a.s.sumed that was the case for you now. But you also appeared to be the kind of man who can bear the weight of a nation, so I felt it was my duty to be punched by you until you calm down and we can talk as equals.”

Akuto replied by letting out a quiet breath, but his anger was far from gone.

He raised his fist and shouted out.

“In that case, take it without guarding! I’ll end it in a single blow!”

He was being unreasonable, but the demon king’s words were persuasive.

Marine lowered his guarding arm without thinking.

“Kh!”

He was prepared. If this would be the final blow, that was for the best. This was his punishment for being deceived.

However, the expected impact never arrived.

“Don’t!”

A high-pitched voice slipped between the two of them.

Akuto’s fist stopped and Marine’s body stiffened.

This had been entirely unpredictable, so the two of them had easily been caught off guard.

Nonimora slipped between them and kissed Akuto.

“Wha-…?”

The softness of her lips robbed Akuto of all strength and the flames of hatred vanished from his eyes.

Marine was utterly dumbfounded.

Nonimora then rotated around in midair and stole Marine’s lips as well. She acted with magnificent speed.

“Don’t get so worked up, boys.”

After moving from Marine’s lips, she pointed at both of them.

“Muchu-muchu is the best way to stop a fight.”

Akuto and Marine were completely taken aback, but Marine recovered more quickly. He was likely more accustomed to women than Akuto.

“Please understand,” he said. “I want to talk.”

Akuto had lost his chance to attack, so he stared silently back.

“You need to calm down,” said Nonimora. “When the Formless Power is activated by an evil heart, it becomes an evil power. What matters is whose evil heart that is.”

Marine’s expression changed.

“That is the same as I had heard. I understand your anger, but my people are the true target of your anger. That is also why I must apologize.”

His expression was one of partial despair.

“Your people are the target of my anger?”

Akuto was beginning to calm down and his naturally sharp intuition was returning, so he understood what that likely meant.

“Are you saying it was the hatred in people’s hearts that burnt away that land?” he asked.

“Most likely,” affirmed Marine quietly.

Akuto understood the meaning behind the man’s expression.

“Kh.”

He clenched his teeth in anger that had no outlet.

“The Formless Power acts based on everyone’s wills,” declared Nonimora. “But you freed it, so some responsibility lies with you.”

Marine nodded.

“I trusted my people. Think of that as foolish if you wish. I believe I have done something inexcusable, but I did save the land from a nuclear weapon. I want you to understand that it was a good power as well.”

Akuto shook his head.

“How am I supposed to accept that? And if so, what are we supposed to do?”

“We can only hope that the good power surpa.s.ses the evil.”

Marine’s voice made it clear he did not believe it himself.

“A-chan…”

Keena had watched the entire series of events from the ground.

That of course included Nonimora kissing Akuto.

She understood it had been unavoidable given the situation, but it still made her chest ache.

If someone was going to kiss him to calm him down, she had wanted it to be her. Having someone else steal that role had been more of a shock than she had thought it would be.

“Shall we let that native have it later?” asked Korone who stood next to Keena.

She was likely being considerate in her own way, but Keena could not smile.

“We can’t do that.”

“I see. Unfortunate.”

“It is not unfortunate.”

Keena sighed and the other three descended from the sky.

A gloomy atmosphere filled the air.

Akuto and Marine’s mouths were shut tight and Nonimora’s expression was grim.

“A-chan.”

Keena called out to him, but he only gave a quick nod.

“Will you be pursuing The One?” asked Korone.

“We have no other choice,” replied Akuto. “He stole the Jewel Branch of Hourai and we can’t even seal away the Formless Power without it.”

He glanced over at Marine.

The man did not actually nod, but he agreed with Akuto.

“I think that would be best. We must seal that power as soon as possible.”

“Even though it has made you so powerful?”

Akuto turned a suspicious eye toward him because he could rival Akuto in a fight when using the Formless Power, but he once more agreed with Akuto.

“It should be sealed away. I still hope that my people can use it as a power of good, but The One said he will destroy the world in an unexpected fashion and that he must have me continue to use the Formless Power to do so.”

The look on Marine’s face was sincere. Akuto’s expression did not relax, but he verbally agreed.

“Then let’s pursue him and seal away the Formless Power once we retrieve the Jewel Branch of Hourai.”

“I will help you, but there is a problem.” Marine sounded apologetic. “I have an implant that prevents me from attacking him.”

“An implant?”

Akuto did not know much about that, so Korone explained it for him.

“A small machine is inserted in their body to brainwash them using close range control of their mana. It is a troublesome method.”

She pulled an X-ray device from her bag and held it up to Marine.

“Give me a moment.”

The monitor of the speed gun shaped device displayed the inside of his stomach. A small capsule-like silhouette was visible deep inside.

“I could easily remove the implant with my surgical tools, but there would be some mental danger,” she explained.

Most implants had traps in place in case of external contact. The type that actually exploded was a problem, but the ones that applied mind-influencing magic were even more dangerous.

“I can handle an implant,” suddenly said Nonimora.

“What do you mean?” asked Korone.

The girl nodded confidently.

“We have long taught about implants and how to remove them.”

“Come to think of it, your village has preserved some lost techniques.”

“You don’t do this anymore? If you remove the trap while having hem-hem, it can’t affect the mind as much.”

She puffed her chest out proudly.

“That truly is a mystery of life,” said Korone in understanding.

“I’ll do it! Come over here, good looking!”

Nonimora beckoned Marine over.

She was oddly nonchalant about it, but Akuto and the others knew what hem-hem meant in that village.

“Are you serious?” asked Akuto.

“Don’t be rude. Of course I’m serious,” said Nonimora with a serious expression. “But you shouldn’t show it off to too many people outside of a festival, so we’ll go to that thicket over there.”

“Eh? Wait…”

Akuto and Marine both spoke up in confusion, but Korone and Nonimora grabbed Marine from either side and took him toward the thicket.

“Well, if you can remove the implant, I will do what you say.”

Marine still sounded confused, but he stepped past the thicket.

Akuto and Keena were unsure what to do after being left alone.

Everyone was being perfectly serious, but the situation seemed too ridiculous.

Both of them were exhausted, so they sat down.

Voices could be heard beyond the thicket.

“When should I remove the implant?”

“Perform the surgery when his mind is focused on the hem-hem.”

Marine seemed to still not know what hem-hem was.

“Hem-hem?”

“You don’t know about it? Well, it doesn’t matter. Just stay still.”

Finally, Marine shouted in surprise.

“Wh-what are you doing!?”

“Don’t move. We’re having hem-hem, so I’m taking off my clothes.”

“Taking off your clothes? But why?”

“Because we’re having hem-hem. Weren’t you listening?”

“What? Is that any reason to start taking off my pants?”

“Could you be a little more cooperative? Hem-hem is a two-person job.”

Nonimora sounded completely nonchalant, but then Marine shouted out in shock.

“Wait! Don’t tell me hem-hem is what I think it is!”

“Hem-hem is hem-hem. Just stay still. We’ll get rid of that implant.”

“But I don’t see the connection between this and the implant.”

“I already explained it. You need to focus your mind.”

It was unclear whether that convinced him or not, but Marine stopped shouting.

“But I am a prince.”

“That doesn’t matter. With men, other people can’t tell if you’ve done it or not.”

“But what about you?”

“I’m perfectly healthy. I don’t have any diseases. Or are you saying you do?”

“No, but…”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. And this is a safe day, so I won’t get pon-pon. Now then…huh? It isn’t very baki-baki.”

“W-well, given the situation…”

“Let go! That’s rude to the girl. I’ll make sure you’re nice and ready, so be thankful!”

“Hyah…ah…”

From there, quiet rustling sounds and m.u.f.fled whispering could be heard.

“When exactly should I remove the implant?”

“He’ll have to tell you. Do it at the climax.”

“At the climax?”

“When he goes glop-glop.”

While Akuto sat and listened to those voices, a bitter smile covered his face. The entire atmosphere had changed.

“What is even going on anymore?” he muttered.

This may have been a special trait of Nonimora’s and she had definitely saved him. If she had not interfered, he would likely have killed Marine.

“Hey, A-chan.”

He heard a voice from the side and found Keena leaning up against him.

“What is it?”

“You know…”

She fidgeted and twisted around.

Seductive breathing and rhythmical rustling of clothing could be heard from the thicket. Hearing it was unavoidable as they sat silently.

“No, I don’t know. So…um…”

He trailed off and Keena began to move. She wrapped her arms around him, raised her head, and peered into his eyes.

“A-chan…”

She pursed her lips.

He knew what that meant. This was related to what Nonimora had done, but he had also known for a long time what Keena wanted.

However…

Keena’s body had always given him a sense of peace, but now it felt horribly heavy. It was partially due to feeling guilty about betraying her wishes during the incident with Morlock, but it was also because he had lost Junko, someone else he loved.

Keena closed her eyes.

The sweet voices from the thicket were impossible to ignore.

Keena seemed to have been influenced by the situation and she had a desiring look on her face, but he felt some opposition to that expression.

“No.”

He was not sure what exactly he was saying “no” to, but he spoke anyways.

Keena looked sad and opened her eyes.

“Sorry. But…well…”

He shook his head.

Suddenly, a bursting sound came from within Keena as if a bubble had been blown by a slight wind.

He looked toward her in surprise and found a strange look in her eyes.

“Great sadness is likely coming. Your mistake is one you have been making for a long time.”

He recognized that calm voice.

It was the being that had referred to herself as the Law of Ident.i.ty.

“Keena?”

“The girl you refer to by that name is me yet not me,” she replied. “Especially now.”

“Why did you appear now?” he asked.

The Law of Ident.i.ty sounded sad as she answered.

“Because her heart could not bear it any longer. That answer is likely the closest to the truth.”

“But I…”

He tried to rebut her without thinking, but she continued before he could.

“This is your mistake. Up until now and also at this very moment, you have continued to make a very small mistake. You entrusted your thoughts to me and did not oppose the flow of events even as you opposed the expectations of the people. This is the result. I pray that you do not make this mistake next time.”

She did not blame him or rebuke him. She merely spoke the truth.

He did not understand what she meant. Or rather, he did not want to understand. It was a tad abrupt, but she was certainly speaking about his own sin.

This Law of Ident.i.ty had saved him a few times in the past: both when Yamato Bouichirou had been performing his ritual with her and when he had remained on the moon with Zero. However, she had now made a sudden appearance and started questioning him.

“My mistake? I don’t think I’ve let myself be swept away by events and I thought you were something like a savior.”

“That is your mistake. You have rejected the fict.i.tious story, but if it is fict.i.tious it also means the story of me being a savior is fict.i.tious. I am nothing more than me. Unless you can reject all stories to the point of contradicting causality, it is all a mistake,” said the Law of Ident.i.ty coolly.

“What?”

He vaguely understood what she meant, but if that was the case…

“What am I supposed to do? Please tell me.”

“No one knows that, but the past can teach us what our mistakes were. That is all there is to it. It is said in the world of man that with great power comes great responsibility, but the truth is that great power allows an individual to grant their desires. However, this always leads to an effect.”

“You’re talking about causality. Are you trying to say you alone are G.o.d?”

“No. I am the beginning of one’s sense of self. I am the starting point. I have existed since the dawn of time, so I have seen many mistakes. But not even I know what is right. What is right is defined by the desires of whoever has power.”

No hope could be found in that answer.

“Are you saying it’s my fault that I’ve lost so much?”

“Yes. But even so, you must continue as you have before.”

“You can’t mean that!”

Akuto was dumbfounded and he realized she had nothing more to say to him.

The look in Keena’s eyes returned to normal and the usual Keena was back.

When an embarra.s.sed Marine and an oddly refreshed Nonimora returned, Keena was sadly staring at Akuto.