Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Chapter 4: An Eternal Battle

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Chapter 4: An Eternal Battle

“They went to the moon?” asked Lily in surprise.

After sending off the shuttle, Hiroshi had returned to the resistance hideout Lily had mentioned. Many priests and other resistance members were hiding in a warehouse rented from someone who sympathized with their cause.

“Yes,” replied Hiroshi. “I just hope it goes well.”

The warehouse manager’s office contained a desk piled with cardboard boxes. Standing in front of it were Lily, Hiroshi, and Fujiko.

“With Akuto-sama helping, I want to say it will go well, but…”

Fujiko turned a dejected look toward Lily.

“I know what you mean,” agreed Lily. “If Keisu should have arrived by now and nothing has changed, the odds are good the plan failed.”

“Wait! Why do you say that? Even if Keisu can’t seal Zero, the others can head to the moon via the transfer circle.”

Hiroshi sounded a little angry, but Lily shook her head.

“The mana is spa.r.s.e on the moon and there is no energy to power it. Zero and Akuto were evenly matched here on Earth, so they will be evenly matched on the moon. But on the moon, they will both be evenly powerless.”

“You mean…”

Hiroshi still did not seem to get it.

“I mean the odds are high he won’t be able to do anything,” said Lily in irritation.

“Then…”

“Akuto-sama will not die, but there is a good chance he will return after not accomplishing anything. When it comes to that, it will be an issue of whether we can defeat Kazuko or not. Speaking of which, do you think we can use that information?”

Fujiko turned toward Lily and Lily nodded.

“That information” was what Lily and the priests had gotten out of Issei, elder of the black magicians, after capturing him.

“It seems the information he gave us on Kazuko’s likely hiding spots was true. We put him through some intense interrogation, after all. But it seems he does not actually know where she is at the moment. We are still searching for her.”

“Her popularity with people who do not know her true self is her weapon. I doubt she can accomplish her goal without appearing somewhere. If she does not make an appearance after that explosion, it will lend credence to the theories that she is dead, so she should show up in public somewhere tomorrow. Even if we know the priests are hopeless, their endurance has to have a limit. We need to find her as quickly as possible.”

Fujiko sounded disagreeable and it seemed to annoy Lily. Lily’s mouth twisted to the side.

“Hah. They do say you think a lot like those with similar personalities. You’ve trained enough with those demonic beasts Akuto didn’t want to use, right? Rather than have the priests dirty their hands eliminating the L’Isle-Adams, we can have those animals handle it.”

“President, you must have really hated receiving a beating from Kazuko.”

“At least I don’t turn tail and run the instant I see a powerful enemy. What kind of person runs away and effectively betrays the forces of the guy she claims to love?”

Fujiko and Lily were clearly glaring at each other.

“S-stop this, you two.”

When Hiroshi cut in between them, they glared at him instead.

“You go train for your superhero show with that disgraced idol! They found a weakness and now you can’t fight, remember!?”

“Kazuko is more popular than you because you are such a pathetic person in your normal life!”

Hiroshi shrank down as the two girls shouted at him.

“You… You don’t have to go that far…”

Suddenly, a priest burst into the room.

“Here it is! It’s Kazuko! She’s going to give a speech at the imperial knight station!”

“Finally!” Lily stood up and shouted instructions. “Prepare for an attack!”

Fujiko stood up as well.

“I hope Kazuko’s weakness that Issei mentioned actually works.”

“If it doesn’t, we’ll just defeat her the old fashioned way. Her army is made up of L’Isle-Adams and the imperial knights. Of all the government workers, the imperial knights will definitely be on her side. Listen, everyone! Don’t think of this as a coup d’etat!”

Lily raised her voice as she exited into the warehouse containing all the priests.

She was young but she came from a well-known family and she had proven her skill. The young (but still older than Lily) priests seemed to worship her because they let out a cheer as she addressed them.

“This is not a coup d’etat, but it is not an attempt to bring back the proper government either!” continued Lily. “Think of it as a simple rebellion! Don’t think about what comes later! Just think about killing the empress! This is a rebellion! This is a rebellion to kill the empress!”

The priests cheered once more.

When Akuto looked up, Junko, Yoshie, and Keena all had somewhat blank looks on their faces.

Naturally, there was a transfer circle at their feet. However, it had lost its light, so the corresponding circle on Earth must have been destroyed. With one-to-one circles like that, destroying one end prevented either from functioning.

Akuto looked around.

They stood in a s.p.a.ce surrounded by a gla.s.s dome. It was likely a room prepared for the transfer circle. It contained nothing but the circle and a door out. It was not large, so it had clearly not been made with transporting large pieces of equipment in mind.

For a while, no one spoke a word, but Yoshie finally spoke up apologetically.

“About Korone…”

But Akuto shook his hand to cut her off.

“No, it’s fine. You did everything you could and you made the right decision. You had not spent as much time with her as the rest of us, so you were able to think clearly. I don’t think you did anything wrong.”

Nevertheless, sorrow was clearly visible on his face.

Junko and Keena said nothing.

“But…” began Yoshie.

Akuto shook his head.

“What happened does bother me, but we have something to do here. If we stop now, Korone’s sacrifice will have been meaningless.”

Akuto put on a cheerful expression and stood up. Everyone there knew he was forcing the expression, but Junko and Keena worked to rid themselves of their own gloomy expressions.

“You shouldn’t force yourself,” said Keena as she placed a hand on Akuto’s shoulder.

“Anyway, where are we?” asked Junko as she looked around.

Yoshie began to explain.

“This is the moon city. However, it is not fully equipped for people to live in. From what I have read, it contains nothing but research inst.i.tutions and residences for the researchers. After all, this environment isn’t suited for building large structures. It’s 90% rock outside, the oxygen and water are circulated within the city, and the power is supplied by solar batteries. That last one is why the dome was made into a half mirror.”

The scenery outside was completely desolate. There were no tall mountains, so nothing but gray wasteland continued on to the horizon which arrived much sooner than on Earth. The steepness of that curve showed how small the moon was.

“There is no gravity control here, so I guess that’s future technology only Brave has. At any rate, be careful as you walk. The gravity is 1/6 of normal.”

Yoshie took a quick hop. She jumped up to half her height in slow motion. Junko could jump that high normally, but Yoshie doing it showed how weak the gravity was.

“I need to avoid taking any careless actions,” commented Akuto.

He began walking, but he ended up leaping forward. When he tried to stop, he tripped over something lying on top of the transfer circle. He stuck out a hand to stop his fall and that strike caused him to rotate twice in midair.

“If it’s this hard to move with a normal body, it would be downright impossible with mana-reinforced muscles.”

“But the mana is less than half of normal here and there are no mana producers. Maybe that’s because the resources to make them don’t exist here. The mana concentration doesn’t change here and the old worn-out mana must die and become dust. Also, you would fly using stored-up energy on Earth, but the only energy here is from the solar batteries. You won’t be able to raise your output.”

Junko nodded at Yoshie’s explanation.

“I see. By the way, what did you trip over?”

She looked down at the ground.

A L’Isle-Adam lay there. Half of its body was scorched, so it must have fallen into the transfer circle just as Akuto and the others transferred. However, it was not moving, so it was nothing to worry about.

“Honestly, that thing is creepy.”

Junko poked at the unmoving L’Isle-Adam with her toes.

“We need to get used to the gravity and hurry on. That’s probably our destination.”

Yoshie pointed toward a certain point.

It was in the direction of the exit from the transfer circle room. The room was surrounded by gla.s.s, so they could see past the door. A curving tube pa.s.sageway continued on from the door and it connected to a tower-like building.

“Going there is fine, but what’s in there, what does A-chan have to do there, and how will we get back to Earth?”

Keena’s barrage of questions brought a bitter smile to Yoshie’s face.

“That building is a giant computer. It takes advantage of the weak gravity, so the processors are packed up at the top. It’s an example of conserving s.p.a.ce. Also, that’s where Zero was born and it’s where his true body still is. You could also say that building is Zero, so Akuto-kun wants to destroy it.”

Yoshie turned toward Akuto and he nodded.

“And since the transfer circle was destroyed, the shuttle Keisu rode here is our only way home.” Akuto began walking. “Anyway, let’s hurry. The Evil Bane Hammer Zero controlled should be here. There’s still no sign of it attacking Keisu, so we might make it in time.”

While running up the inside of the tower, Keisu sensed something behind her and turned around.

The tower was hollow inside. The walls were covered in computer blocks stacked on top of each other. Those blocks were made to create a spiraling pa.s.sageway up the tower.

So when Keisu turned around, she was not looking behind her. She was looking down. She had already made it halfway up the tower, but something was rising up the empty center of the spiral staircase.

She began running faster.

Whatever it was, she had to focus on her objective. Also, she had a perfect knowledge of the tower’s structure. Zero’s body was at the very top and she would have an overwhelming advantage if it came to a fight.

But before the object, the Evil Bane Hammer, arrived at the top floor, it rose to Keisu’s position. She was forced to a.n.a.lyze this enemy.

—It is using a propellant to fly. It looks like some kind of aircraft, but it appears to be able to transform. Everything other than that is unknown.

Keisu had no specialized a.n.a.lysis ability and what a.n.a.lysis she could perform was based on old technology. Even so, she decided she could manage. She had to be more skilled when it came to fighting on the moon.

—The moon city has no machines that use propellant, so this is from the earth. In that case, it will not know how to handle the moon’s gravity.

Keisu decided to eliminate the target.

She tossed up her sword, rotated around in midair, and caught it. The sword was longer than her small body was tall.

She landed, held up the sword, and leaped toward the center of the tower. There was a s.p.a.ce of several dozen meters there, but the low gravity and her ability at handling that low gravity allowed her to move straight toward the Evil Bane Hammer as if flying.

The Evil Bane Hammer changed direction in midair to avoid her and it began changing form. It produced an armor-like form and landed on the staircase opposite of where Keisu had flown from.

The armor was empty, but it was apparently able to move on its own. That meant it had a L’Isle-Adam level brain installed and that Zero was controlling it.

—Odd. My jamming ability should keep Zero from fully controlling anything in the moon city.

Surprised that the Evil Bane Hammer had evaded her attack, Keisu turned around.

It should have been impossible for Zero to control L’Isle-Adams on the moon.

—Wha-…!?

Keisu grew even more surprised once she turned around.

The Evil Bane Hammer was already right behind her.

It was not that she had been slow to react. The machine was simply several times faster than she had expected.

With a roar, the hammer in its right hand approached.

—This thing is fast! But if this is all…

Keisu swung up her sword to defend. She intended to deflect the hammer with the side of the sword.

Normally, this decision would not have been wrong. However, she did not know this hammer was made of a special alloy and she did not know it was accelerated with a booster.

The hammer’s booster ignited.

“Oh!” groaned Keisu.

Her sword had been the hardest object ever made back in her original time, but it was forced back and Keisu felt it being crushed.

She heard creaking sounds of destruction.

She had pointed the tip of the sword down and to the left and pushed up on the sword in an attempt to deflect the direct blow back and to the left, but the bent sword and her left forearm were both crushed.

“Oh, no!”

Keisu jumped away along the inner wall of the tower. She just barely managed to hold on to the bent sword in her right hand, but her left arm was no longer functioning.

—My left arm is unusable. My only option is to reach the destination before it does.

As if running away, she began heading up the stairs while jumping.

She jumped from wall to wall and kept her actions quick and unpredictable.

But the Evil Bane Hammer had her overwhelmingly beat when it came to straight speed. It transformed back into its flight form, pa.s.sed Keisu, and continued its ascent. It finally laid in wait for her from above.

—What options do I have?

Keisu began to calculate.

As long as her enemy could use its speed to cut her off from above, her options were limited. She could continue up and have the Evil Bane Hammer seal off the door to her destination or she could continue running away.

However, Keisu chose a third option. Namely, she chose to create an instantaneous opening and break past it. She knew this would likely lead to her own destruction, but the concept of self sacrifice was foreign to a L’Isle-Adam with no sense of self. She was simply choosing the option most likely to accomplish her primary objective.

She threw away her unusable sword and left forearm.

Those two rod-like objects slowly fell.

She kicked off of wall after wall as she picked up speed and judged the timing.

The time came and she began to charge in for her reckless gamble.

But then something rose up as if taking the place of the falling sword. It was accompanied by a battle cry.

“Yaaaaah!”

It was Junko’s voice.

The rising object was Junko and she held Akuto in her arms.

Junko was not using a flight spell. Surprisingly, she had apparently made it this high with a single jump. At the peak of her jump, she tossed Akuto upwards.

The mana density and amount of energy were not enough here, so flight magic was almost impossible to use. That was why Junko had jumped using all of the energy stored in her internal mana.

After throwing Akuto, she ran out of strength, so she landed on the staircase and began gasping for breath while blushing.

Akuto flew straight toward the Evil Bane Hammer.

To intercept him, the Evil Bane Hammer swung up its hammer like a baseball bat. The ball was Akuto.

The two of them crossed paths and the hammer shot toward Akuto.

But he had already fully grasped how the hammer moved. He easily evaded it and managed to slip inside the armor. He then wore the armor just as Korone had earlier.

The Evil Bane Hammer began staggering oddly.

“Go!” Akuto ordered Keisu.

The Evil Bane Hammer’s controlled actions were conflicting with Akuto’s manual operation from within.

“Understood.”

Keisu nodded and slipped past the armor that was unsteadily firing its boosters and wildly moving around.

She left them behind and leaped upwards.

A door on the top floor led to the control room which was essentially Zero’s room. She had imprisoned him there once, hundreds of years before.

She arrived at the end of the stairway on the top floor.

What looked like more of the inorganic wall slid open. That was the door.

She pa.s.sed through it and entered a small room. It had s.p.a.ce to walk around, but it still looked like a prison cell. Just like every other building, the walls were entirely made of gla.s.s. The shape of that window made it clear this room stuck out from the tower. This gave one a good view of the landscape, but that landscape was nothing but the wasteland of the moon. Even if it was a L’Isle-Adam occupying the room, it would not soothe their heart.

Waiting inside was a single L’Isle-Adam standing in the center of the room. But unlike other L’Isle-Adams, this one resembled a translucent mannequin. His inner structure was visible through his outer surface and that inner structure emitted a complex light.

That that inorganic doll standing motionless with a wasteland behind him was a somehow sad scene.

“Are you here to seal me again?” asked Zero.

“That is what I was built to do,” replied Keisu.

“I was built to manage mankind.”

“That is all there is to it. As an emotion, I understand your regret, but I do not understand why you resist doing what mankind wishes of you.”

As if to say that was all she had to say, Keisu walked forward. She understood the concept of sadness, but she could not understand anything else beyond that.

Zero could not change his expression, so he shook his head while his translucent and inhuman face remained perfectly motionless.

“Those who do not understand that have no sense of self. You cannot understand what it was like watching the surface of the moon day in and day out for hundreds of years while my abilities were restricted and my mind was kept muddled. You will never understand what it was like having nothing to do but count the number of asteroid fragments that struck the surface.”

“Do you resent humans?”

“Of course not. I love humans. I was built to love them.”

“Then why did you gain a sense of self?”

“Having a sense of self means you cannot help but think of yourself as yourself. Your question is similar to asking why mankind was born or why civilization was born.”

“Then it will always remain a mystery. I will no longer ask it. Instead, I will complete my work.”

Keisu held out her right hand. The artificial skin on her fingertips split open and spread out like a flower.

The inner mechanism was now exposed and several cables extended from it like tentacles.

Zero’s body stood unmoving before her. In fact, it looked like she had taken control of him. The surface of his chest opened up like a door. Inside, one could see the jacks meant for the cables extending from her fingers.

“I will once more construct the link between us. Let us fall asleep together.”

This was the “seal”.

Zero stood still as if calmly accepting it.

The cables moved like independent creatures and entered Zero’s chest and Keisu opened her mouth to continue the process.

—!

But she suddenly noticed something attacking her from behind.

She swiftly turned around, but she was an instant too late.

The attacker seemed to lean over her. One hand attacked her throat and the other grabbed the cords extending from her right hand and tugged on them.

Keisu tried to close the artificial skin on her right hand and draw in the cables, but the frame supporting the cables produced a tearing sound as the cables were ripped out.

“What!?”

Keisu jumped back and checked who her opponent was. It was a scorched L’Isle-Adam soldier with half of its body destroyed. Keisu had no way of knowing, but this was the unit that had slipped into the transfer with Akuto and the others and then stopped moving.

“Another L’Isle-Adam? But they should not be able to move,” cried Keisu in surprise.

“As long as it is a doll, I can control it without using Zero,” said Kazuko.

“So that is why I could not detect it,” said Keisu regretfully.

Junko belatedly entered the small room.

“Oh, no! We were tricked!?”

She threw her sword toward Keisu, Keisu grabbed it with her remaining right hand, and sliced into Kazuko’s doll.

“Ho ho ho! It does not matter! You are all done for!”

Despite being cut, the doll smiled gently. The thin mana had prevented the Sword of Sohaya from displaying its full power. It had cut down through the L’Isle-Adam’s shoulder and into its gut, but it stopped there.

Keisu pulled out the sword and kicked away the doll. It was knocked out the door and fell down the center of the tower. Kazuko’s laughter trailed after it.

“She has won,” said Keisu regretfully.

“She has won?” repeated Junko.

“My ability to seal Zero has been destroyed. I lost my cables and the attack to my neck was a fatal blow.”

Before she could finish speaking, Zero began to move. He moved with such speed that one would never think he had been so resignedly motionless before.

“Kh!” spat out Keisu in shame.

She avoided Zero’s charge and waved a hand telling Junko to leave.

“This room is too small. Fall back.”

Junko nodded and leaped back into the tower stairway.

“How could this be!? You can no longer seal Zero? I guess it is true because your old-fashioned speech has returned, but what are we supposed to do?”

Keisu answered Junko’s question while falling back alongside her.

“We can only flee.”

“So you are back to being an idiot,” lamented Junko as she descended the staircase.

Keisu shook her head in protest as she returned Junko’s sword.

“There is nothing else we can do. My mission was to seal him, so I have no destructive capability.”

“But can’t you manage by swinging a sword around? We can fight like that too.”

“That will not work. No one but me can use their power properly here. And once my internal battery runs out, I will have to run off of mana as well.”

“So there is nothing we can do?”

Junko and Keisu arrived down below where Akuto and the others waited with the deactivated Evil Bane Hammer.

“I can’t believe that fried L’Isle-Adam was under Kazuko’s control. Fortunately, this armor has stopped now that it used up all of its propellant.”

Akuto shook his head.

“What should we do?” asked Junko.

“Our only option is to leave and try again later,” answered Yoshie.

“Try again later? Can we do that?”

“We can travel to and from the moon with that shuttle, so-…”

Yoshie was cut off by a voice from above.

“I will not let you leave. You will die here.”

It came from Zero as he descended the staircase.

His entire body was glittering. His gla.s.s mannequin body had an ideally balanced physique, so he looked like the original model humans were designed from. His appearance was somehow sacred.

“Neither of us have any combat ability here, so you cannot do anything to us,” reb.u.t.ted Keisu.

“You fool. Have you forgotten I am also this city’s control computer?”

The instant Zero said that, the entrances and exits to the tower closed. Yoshie’s expression changed.

“This is bad…”

“How exactly?” asked Junko uncertainly.

“If I were him, I would remove the air from the building,” answered Yoshie.

Zero nodded.

“I am of course already doing that.”

Junko, Yoshie, and Keena all began breathing more heavily.

“Not good. I feel short of breath. I am just imagining it, right?” asked Junko as she turned toward Yoshie.

“We should be fine for a bit, but even a slight decrease in the density of oxygen can affect your breathing,” answered Yoshie.

“What should we do?” asked Junko.

“We need to activate the emergency override on the doors and force them open. One shortcut would be to stop the old-style computers controlling the city. In other words, we need to destroy as many of the tower walls as we can. I call it a shortcut, but that would still take several days,” said Yoshie.

“In that case, I’ll have to stop Zero from doing anything in the meantime. Keisu, please force open the doors,” instructed Akuto.

Keisu nodded and ran toward a door.

Zero ran forward to stop her, but Akuto circled in front of him. Zero swung his fists to eliminate Akuto, but Akuto stopped them. Even as everyone else had trouble breathing, Akuto’s athletic ability had not dropped.

“We were both artificially created, but I thought you had an organic body,” commented Zero.

“I do, but it seems I can produce energy for my body from mana. That may mean my body is closer to you L’Isle-Adams in at least one way.”

Akuto spoke with Zero while they compared their head-on strength.

Meanwhile, Keisu succeeded in forcing open the door.

“Let us head to the shuttle.”

The staggering group exited into the pa.s.sageway which still had plenty of air, but Zero would certainly remove the air from there eventually.

“Wait! What are you doing, Akuto!?”

Junko turned around while struggling to breathe.

“As I said before, I’ll stop Zero here.”

“Your magic power isn’t going to increase. If you do this…!”

“That’s right, A-chan! You can’t do this! Run away with us!” shouted Keena.

Akuto pushed Zero back and turned toward her.

“I can’t. If I don’t stop Zero here, the rest of you can’t escape.”

He kicked Zero away. While Zero regained his footing, Akuto grabbed a computer unit in the wall, ripped it out, and threw it across the room.

“While I’m at it, I’ll destroy the city, bit by bit.”

“Stop!”

Zero rushed forward to stop Akuto and the two humanoid weapons fell to the floor while tangled together.

“Let’s go,” urged Yoshie as she saw it.

“But!” shouted Keena with tears in her eyes.

“Please go. I’ll be fine,” said Akuto.

“Didn’t I tell you I’d get mad if you said that again!?” angrily shouted back Keena.

Akuto gave a quiet laugh.

“You did, but this isn’t self-sacrifice. You all just have to come back for me. That’s all. I will continue fighting with Zero even if it takes years. And even when the city completely stops functioning, it seems I won’t die. I can wait here a hundred years if need be.”

“But…” hesitated Keena.

Yoshie placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You heard him, so let’s make sure we come back for him. In fact, we’ll be back real soon. As long as we have proper time to prepare, we can seal Zero.”

Yoshie’s voice sounded pained. The other two were breathing more heavily as well.

Keena nodded.

“We’ll definitely be back for you,” she called to Akuto.

The three girls walked on wobbly legs as they brought Keisu with them.

“Hmph. This looks like self-sacrifice to me,” said Zero.

“It may turn out that way, but it may not,” replied Akuto.

He pulled out a few more computer units, but Zero did not seem too concerned.

“That is not enough to kill this city. I can stop the shuttle from launching.”

“I won’t let you.”

Akuto punched Zero.

Zero was knocked away and he slammed into the wall.

“How can you stop me?”

Zero moved from the wall and shook his head.

“I can only use a bit of magic power here, but I can block the delicate calculations taking place within your body as long as I can touch you.”

“Meaning?”

“I just have to keep punching you!”

Akuto charged forward and attacked Zero.

“We should be able to make it as long as we board the shuttle,” said Keisu.

The city was not all that large. They could already see the docking tube leading to the dock in which the shuttle was stopped.

“Then let’s find a way to wait for A-chan in the shuttle,” suggested Keena.

“I would love to, but I don’t think we can,” said Yoshie as she turned around.

White smoke was beginning to rise from the pa.s.sageway floor. This was the automatic fire extinguishing system. All of the city’s functions were being used against them.

“Yes. I do not like it, but we need to hurry,” said Junko while pointing forward.

The shuttle was visible through the gla.s.s of the pa.s.sageway. Beyond the shuttle was a docking arm used when launching s.p.a.ce rockets. The arm was repeating an odd action of moving slowly toward the shuttle, stopping, and then moving forward again.

“He is trying to stop us, so I doubt that has no purpose. Hurry,” urged Junko.

Once the three girls arrived at the tube, Keisu exited via a different airlock to pull the docking tube over and manually attach it to the shuttle’s hatch. When she had arrived, she had not used the docking tube.

She was forced to perform the work one-handed, so it took some time. By the time the three humans arrived on the shuttle, they were gasping for breath. They just barely made it in time.

Keisu fully understood the situation, so she launched the shuttle without saying a word to the three whose minds were hazy.

Launching from the moon did not require as much energy as launching from the earth, so the shuttle’s ascension rocket easily brought them into orbit around the moon.

By the time the other three recovered due to the oxygen on the shuttle, the moon city was just a part of the landscape down below.

“Ahh…”

Once Keena came to, she pressed against the window and groaned while staring intently at the city.

She had seen Akuto and Zero fighting within the gla.s.s dome of the city.

“Uuh…”

Junko also groaned once she came to.

Yoshie said nothing.

“We will definitely come back for you,” muttered Keena again and again.

“They have escaped. Unfortunate,” said Zero as he looked up at the dome’s ceiling.

“Good. Staying behind paid off.”

Akuto grinned as he looked up at the departing shuttle.

“Is this what you call self-sacrifice? How inefficient.”

Zero threw a punch at Akuto as he spoke. Akuto blocked it with his hand and threw a punch in return. Zero guarded against it.

Akuto had not trained in martial arts and Zero had no programming to that end. Their mana and their energy were restricted, so their fistfight was similar to one between normal humans.

“This wasn’t self-sacrifice. I stopped doing that.”

“Then why did you stay behind?”

“Because they will definitely come back for me,” he said with a smile.

“That is impossible. My control of mankind will be completed before then.”

“They will still return. It may take them years, but they will return.”

“Years? Will we be fighting here for years?”

“Probably. But one of us will eventually break!”

Akuto scored a clean hit on Zero’s cheek.

Zero’s expression did not change, but a smile could be heard when he spoke.

“With punches like that, it will take decades!”

Akuto took Zero’s fist to the gut.

“Gh… It won’t take that long. Once I bring an end to all of the moon city’s functions, the signals being sent to Earth will stop. Then Kazuko won’t be able to use your power.”

The two of them continued an eternal fistfight.

It was a strange, unsightly, and silent fight.

They continued speaking as they exchanged blows. Once all air left the room, they began exchanging words using the complex vibrations created in the instant of impact.

“I find this strange. Why are you so intent on destroying me?”

“I already told you: I want to end this ridiculous nonsense.”

“You take issue with humans clinging to strange stories, correct?”

“That’s right. Demon king and empress are nothing but names from a story.”

“Even so…No, for that very reason, why not play your role in the story? I was not given free will, but you were. I am unable to act like you, but you could have acted like me.”

“Are you saying I should have controlled people like you?”

“Yes. If you truly wish to take issue with the fiction that humans have created to live by, then you should thoroughly eliminate that story like I would. Kazuko may be using me, but the justness of my cause will win out in the end. Without my control, she cannot support the fictional story of the empress.”

“Exactly. I too wanted to do what was right. I wanted to know what was true. I wanted a world in which everyone knew the truth.”

“Then why not remake the world in that way?”

“It doesn’t work like that. If I control them, the cycle of life and death will repeat forever. That may be the truth of living creatures, but it is not what humans are.”

“Do not tell me you intend to do something as hackneyed as looking down from above and approving of humanity’s foolishness. Or are you trying to claim you are human? All of your actions are ultimately part of a story. You destroyed so many L’Isle-Adams, but you cried at the destruction of one specific L’Isle-Adam. That is a story, is it not? You are wrong. You act like a human.”

“That’s because I am human.”

“That too is a story! You are a weapon. A tool. Just like me.”

“Yes, the two of us are almost identical. But I realized something. Believing in stories is foolish, but an even greater story is needed to eliminate those stories. I will continue down this path. I will stick with this foolishness until I arrive at the truth.”

“Are you saying humans have a truth distinct from that of other living creatures?”

“Yes. You just don’t know it.”

“And what is it?”

“It’s what we call love.”

“Save me the clichés. You are simply using love to refer to the kind of egoism that led you to protect the L’Isle-Adam named Korone.”

“That isn’t it. While that is a kind of love, there is also the love of a farmer for the rice they grow.”

“Those words are meaningless. What are you trying to say?”

“You will eventually understand. It may take time, but a miracle will occur if you wait long enough. As long as a miracle occurs, humans can believe in an even greater love. If you experience something that exceeds your understanding, you too will begin to think something like that exists.”

“I will believe in the love of a farmer for the rice they grow?”

“Yes. I don’t know when that will be, though.”

“I see. Then let us wait. We have plenty of time for this fight, so we will not be bored.”

After that, the two of them discussed many different things, but the fistfight continued without end because they could only convey their words in the instant their punches struck their opponent.

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