Don Quixote's Reverie (8)
<Good to meet you, child.>
<I wanted to see you.>
A gloomy resonance.
A hideous, noise-laced sound scraped past my ear.
It was an answer that confirmed my deduction.
'Delkirn... no way. Is this real?'
A certain scene flashed through my mind.
The last School Trip.
The materials I had found there, the few pages I had read, came back to me.
[Delkirn.]
[A name organized by sages of the previous generation, an abbreviated term for the Evil God 'Delkirnos.']
[However, to erase the horror of that name, all mentions of it were forbidden in the present age.]
Kaggeugeuk, teong-!
I breathlessly deflected the gavel rushing at me.
Across from me stood the haze, grinning grotesquely.
"Kgh...!"
It was hard to keep up with its speed.
If not for the crown's invincibility effect, several parts of my body would have been crushed in by now.
I let out a short breath and swung my pitch-black scythe at the Grand Justice.
"Activate. Thorn."
Shwaaak-!
Thorns stretched out in every direction.
But that much firepower could not even scratch the Grand Justice.
The haze laughed as if I were being ridiculous, then charged in and swung the gavel back at me.
"Activate. Scythe."
Teoeong, kwaang-!
Of course, I was no easier to scratch.
I met the bastard's strike head-on.
Our exchange continued like a taut tug-of-war.
Only three minutes had passed since we clashed, yet the courtroom was already collapsing into a mess.
'What the hell is going on...!'
A thing called an Evil God had suddenly appeared.
On top of that, it was attacking us.
What was the reason?
Why?
Was it connected to the messages that kept appearing in my status window?
Countless questions rolled through my head, swelling bigger and bigger like white snowballs.
'Damn it.'
Before I knew it, my head was packed with stray thoughts.
My steps began to tangle.
'Get a grip.'
I opened my eyes wide.
I could chew over the problem later.
What mattered right now was surviving this mess.
'Think.'
I cooled my overheated thoughts.
Accept the situation, then think about what came next.
Do not panic.
Impatience would only trip me up in the end.
Before long, reason and logic were locking into place inside my head.
'Should we run out of the courtroom?'
No, that would be useless.
A death sentence had already been handed down to me.
'Once judgment is passed, the judge keeps pursuing the condemned until the sentence is carried out...'
Evacuating to another floor would be meaningless.
I had to settle this here and now, while the crown's effect was still active.
Once the invincibility effect wore off, I had no confidence in handling that absurd executioner.
'I've figured out the pattern to some extent.'
The bastard followed the judge format exactly.
I could tell by looking back at its actions.
'There are restrictions.'
After the possession, it continued the trial that had already been in progress.
It had been unable to move, as if bound the whole time, and only after the guilty verdict appeared could it rise from the bench.
Even its attacks against me did not use fists or any other weapon. They were all centered entirely around the gavel.
Its attack patterns also oddly resembled the original.
'The Grand Justice's principles.'
It seemed unable to stray far from the fixed framework.
The bastard had only possessed the judge. It could not draw in some great external power.
It was in a state like a remote-controlled robot.
'Then, another deduction.'
There was a high chance the bastard existed here through the judge as a medium.
Meaning it could not appear without lodging itself in a high-ranking lingering thought.
In other words, if we destroyed that body, the bastard would be driven out too.
I gripped the scythe I had unfolded into thorns and clashed head-on with the Grand Justice's gavel.
Kwaaaang-!
'I have to break the Grand Justice.'
The problem was that I did not have the firepower for it.
The opponent was a powerful enemy on the level of 0.7 Javert.
Ordinary attacks could not even scratch it.
Predation also happened to be uncharged, so the only usable card I had left was the crown.
'I'll leave it to Ranne.'
For focused firepower, she was the best among the party.
Even across the entire year, she had enough power to be counted among the top ten.
'This is going to be close.'
I did think it might be a little lacking.
But in the end, it was something we had to pull off.
I would trust Ranne.
I steadied my breathing and shouted.
"Miss Ranne! Prepare yourself!"
Ranne needed time to heat her starlight to maximum output.
At least ten minutes.
Even that depended on her condition, so it might take longer.
Hoping the timing would line up, I had no choice but to pin down the Grand Justice.
'Can I do it?'
No.
I would do it.
Kuuuuung-!
Repeated booms echoed through the ruined courtroom.
When I subtly guided its attacks, the judge's face turned toward the blond girl.
<Hooh, it seems you are placing your hopes on that child.>
<I hope you did not think I would obediently stand by and watch?>
Taak-!
The gavel changed course and rushed straight toward Ranne.
I twisted my path along with it and blocked the way.
"Where do you think you are going?"
Kwaaaang-!
I took the weight of the gavel with my bare hands.
My arm was flung away, but no damage came in.
I steadied my body before it could be blown back, then stood in front of Ranne again as if guarding her.
"Kindly get beaten to death."
<How insolent.>
Kwaang, kuung-!
After that, afterimages burst out again and again.
Like that, the scythe and gavel collided with enough force to bring down the courtroom.
***
Meanwhile, Ranne was dazed.
Her violet eyes blinked tensely.
"......"
The girl found it hard to breathe.
An absurd presence was raging inside the courtroom.
'What is this...?'
It had been a trial that should have ended smoothly.
But the judge suddenly changed and began radiating oppressive murderous intent.
It was a force she had never once experienced in her life.
An ill omen that felt like it was scraping at her brain, and an instinctive sense of death, rang warning bells.
Ranne usually possessed strong mental fortitude, but even she found the current atmosphere hard to withstand.
"Haa, haa..."
Her breathing grew rough on its own.
Her pupils trembled.
'What is that...?'
Could something like that really be allowed to exist right in front of her?
On top of that, it had even spoken to them.
It was trying to kill them.
Why? Why had things turned out like this?
The flow of the trial had clearly been good, and both of them had been right on the verge of receiving innocent verdicts...
"Miss Ranne!"
The girl had briefly fallen into panic.
The one who woke that blond girl was none other than the boy's shout.
"I will pin it down! In that opening, hurry and prepare your maximum firepower...!"
"Sir Vik, Sir Viktor!"
He brushed past her and left that short request behind.
Before her eyes, the boy and the pitch-black Grand Justice were clashing again and again.
Kwaang! Teoeong-!
Scythe and gavel tangled together, and heavy vibrations reached Ranne as well.
The blond girl reflexively gripped her spear.
But even when she grabbed the shaft, the questions did not leave her.
A shimmer of light wavered from the blade she held, while only scraps of stars crackled and burned.
'Can I...'
Can I do this?
Is it all right to leave something like that to Sir Viktor?
Shouldn't I join in and help right away instead of preparing a separate attack?
'No.'
It was the girl's unique compulsion.
The compulsion that she had to shoulder everything herself.
The compulsion that if she did not step forward, everything would go wrong.
'Sir Viktor asked me to leave it to him.'
But she could not focus.
That compulsion shot off and piled up into hundreds of strands of anxiety.
'Get a grip.'
Could she prepare the attack in time?
What if Sir Viktor was suppressed along the way?
If the enemy did not fall even after she used maximum firepower, was there a backup plan?
It seemed the judge was aiming for her now, so would it interfere and make her fail?
'Be quiet.'
Words instantly scattered through her mind.
Her compulsion gnawed away at the girl's confidence.
Maybe because of that, the starlight did not gather properly on the girl's spear.
As her heart surged in turmoil, a certain scene suddenly came back to her.
-Miss Ranne, your problem is that you always try to carry too much.
The boy's voice.
The boy who had gently stroked her head.
-You are doing well.
-Miss Ranne, you are doing more than enough.
Words that had come from a night sky full of stars.
The things she had kept in her chest suddenly swelled and soaked the edges.
For an instant, her thoughts stopped.
On top of that empty moment, memories melted in like spreading paint.
The brightness of her swarming anxiety sank, and her heartbeat was gradually dyed in the boy's color.
-It would be all right for you to learn how to rely on others a little more.
The boy had said that.
Slowly, her stray thoughts faded.
-I believe in Miss Ranne's choice.
-Please believe in us too, Miss Ranne.
Her breathing settled.
Her vision was still a chaotic blur.
The judge was trying to head toward the girl, and the boy was blocking it with everything he had.
Dull ruptures rang out again and again, as if shaking her eardrums.
Kwaaaang-!
'I had to trust him.'
Ranne closed her eyes.
Even now, not a single speck of dust had fallen on her.
It was thanks to Viktor desperately blocking the judge.
If the boy was holding on so fiercely, it was because he believed in Ranne's finishing blow.
'Trust him.'
The person who trusted her.
So she had to trust him too, and leave her back to him.
'Breathe.'
If she wavered here, it would be a betrayal of them both.
There was no room for distracting thoughts.
Sir Viktor was strong.
Unlike her weak self, he could stand equal against the Grand Justice.
If her distrust in herself grew stronger, she would trust the person in front of her instead of herself.
'Grip it.'
Rely.
Trust.
A hero could not exist alone.
If one did not know how to lean on others, one could never become a hero.
"Huuu..."
Kkudeuk, kkudeudeuk-.
Before she knew it, starlight was gathering over the spear shaft.
The light surpassed the limit of compression and mixed together with a strange grinding sound.
'I would do my part.'
Hwaaaak-!
A flash bright enough to fill the vast courtroom and more.
A star was held at the spear tip, and radiance stormed around the foot the girl had planted.
'It's all right.'
I would do it.
I would produce a result equal to how much I believed, and how much I was believed in.
Her violet eyes flashed with an ecstatic color.
"......Sir Viktor."
A calm signal murmured from her lips.
The boy did not miss it and sharply twisted his body.
"Now!"
The judge entered the girl's range.
Ranne gripped the starlight tight and fired it toward the pitch-black haze.
-Kijano Style Annihilation Spear Arts, Sixteenth Form-
'Another World'
A single line of light.
The line cut straight across the pitch-black background.
Even if it was the lingering thought of a sage, a direct hit would have enough power to crush one arm.
<This is dangerous.>
The haze murmured in that brief instant.
It moved as if teleporting.
It instantly slipped out of the trajectory of the spear strike.
<It is admirable that you prepared that much power, child.>
<But if I simply do not let it hit, that is all there is to it, no?>
Chwaaaak-!
The attack grazed past the Grand Justice by a hair and continued on.
Afterward, the haze's mouth split into a mocking grin at the girl.
Their only chance had gone beautifully to waste.
But the thing possessing the judge did not know.
"Activate. Shield."
From the start, Ranne's spear had not been aimed at the judge.
Kwaaaang-!
A murmur rang out a few steps behind the Grand Justice.
Right after, a blue screen floated in front of Viktor's eyes.
Ding-!
[Exclusive weapon 'Black Mist' Skill 2 has been activated.]
[Skill Name: Predation]
-Stores the damage applied to the user exactly as is.
-Even if an attack is successfully defended against, the applied damage can be stored.
Self-Double Counting.
A lightly mixed bug.
Ranne's spear strike was stored as quadruple damage.
At the same time, the title setting I had quietly swapped in activated.
Ding-!
[Executioner]
-Category: Title
-Grade: A
-Description: You have indiscriminately murdered the Queens of Nightmare. Courage toward the unknown dwells within you. When this title is equipped, damage dealt against Ghost-type enemies and critical hit rate are each judged as 500%.
The boy's shield had already changed into a scythe.
Its sharply raised tip tapped against the Grand Justice's abdomen as if touching it.
Viktor mocked it in the same way.
"Try taking this."
<......Oh dear.>
Starlight inflated by a whole twenty times.
The next instant, the boy's lips moved.
"Release."
-----!!!
A pure-white flash exploded from the scythe.
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