by Fujino Omori
Blood shot out of the man’s mouth. Ouka’s body hit Bell’s with bone-shattering force. The shock of the impact traveled through the shield, through Ouka, and straight into him. The two of them were launched into the air, their eyes open to the brink.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
More splatters of blood. A broken Familia emblem.
Their bodies spun through the air as the Goliath roared triumphantly behind them.
“Bell—”
A shocked Hestia watched the scene unfold from the supply base.
She immediately came out from behind the protective barrier and rushed down the hill.
“Mr. Bell—”
Lilly watched his limp body fly through the air, the weapon she was too late to give him still in her backpack. She immediately changed course and rushed toward the battlefield.
“Bell…”
Welf’s voice shook as the name of his friend came out of his mouth.
The sounds of battle around him seemed distant as a certain set of words popped into his head.
“Stop compromising allies for your pride.”
The words of a certain goddess cut into his mind like a sharp thorn through skin. They pierced his very soul.
Remorse and guilt flooded through him as his face morphed into something like that of a scolded child. He stood in place for only a moment before turning around to face the forest behind him.
“Damn it all!!”
Throwing his broadsword into the dirt, Welf took off into the eastern forest as fast as he could go.
“Ouka…!”
“Captain Ouka!”
Chigusa, her cheeks glistening with tears, and a mournful Mikoto arrived at the spot where their leader had slid to a stop. They embraced his broken and bloodied body. Ouka’s eyelids hung loosely over his closed eyes as the two girls worked together to move him out of danger.
“No—?!”
At the same time, Lyu rushed to Bell’s side and quickly scooped him into her arms. She carried him to a safe place like a merciful wind guiding a boat out of a storm.
“Mr. Cranell, Mr. Cranell! Answer me!”
Lyu set him down on the grass between the remains of the Central Tree and the supply base on the southern side of the eighteenth floor. The boy didn’t respond as he lay silently on his back.
“Why now of all times…!”
The elf threw her hood back as she rummaged through the item pouch attached to her waist. Her eyes filled with regret.
There were no high potions left. To say the boy was critically injured would be an understatement. A normal potion would have almost no effect. Most of Bell’s light armor, including his breastplate, was shattered. His inner shirt and skin were torn to shreds by the shards of the beast’s fangs still sticking out of his body. A quick glance was all that Lyu needed to tell that his ribs were broken in several places.
Her eyes quivered as she looked at all of the boy’s wounds, each leaking fresh blood.
“Bell!”
“Goddess Hestia…”
Hestia was the first to arrive on the scene because the supply base was so close.
The color drained from the goddess’s face the moment she saw Bell’s horrific condition, and she plunged her hand into her own item pouch. But just like Lyu, the pupils of her eyes shrank when she realized she didn’t have any high potions, either. She had used her entire stock while assisting adventurers injured during the battle.
“Hood—no, elf-lady. How is he?!”
“Breathing, but his wounds are deep. I fear the bones in his arms and legs might also be…”
Hestia and Lyu kneeled on either side of the boy, who had taken a direct hit from a Level 5 howl.
The sounds of combat still sounded off in the distance, but a voice cut through the din.
“Lyon, get back here at once!”
It was Asfi’s scream. She was engaging the Goliath alone. Her eyes shot open as the beast prepared to fire another howl. She wrapped herself in her white cloak just before impact.
The shock-absorbent fabric of her own design withstood the blast, but the young woman’s thin body went flying.
“…Elf-lady, please go. Buy us as much time as you can.”
Hestia’s expression stiffened as Lyu watched Asfi climb back to her feet.
“Bell will wake up. And once he does, he will kill that monster.”
“But, Goddess Hestia…”
“You saw, didn’t you?! Bell can do it. Bell can finish that thing!”
Lyu was captivated by the absoluteness in Hestia’s eyes. “Understood,” she said with a curt nod.
Regaining her composure, the side of the elf’s face disappeared behind her hood as she raced back to the battlefield.
“…Open your eyes, Bell!”
With Lyu gone, Hestia was alone with him. She held the boy’s right hand and called out to him.
Bell’s eyes were hidden behind his white bangs, his mouth partially open. But he didn’t move.
“You can hear them, can’t you?! Everyone’s fighting against that scary monster!”
Lyu’s and Asfi’s shrill voices, the yells of other adventurers, the roars of the monsters, the Goliath’s howls—the noises came at them from every angle.
Hestia squeezed both of her hands around Bell’s limp fingers. A tragic chorus of weapon clashes and courageous battle cries filled the air.
“You can do it; you’re the only one who can! You’re the only one who can save them, Bell…!”
Her beloved family member was badly injured, yet she urged him to battle as her eyes welled up with tears.
Her voice became more and more desperate as she begged to see his ruby-red eyes open once again.
She took in a deep breath and yelled from the bottom of her lungs with all the power she could muster:
“Get up, Bell!!”
Her voice reached him.
The voice of the goddess whom he loved and respected more than anyone else reached Bell’s consciousness in the deepest, darkest corner of his mind. He couldn’t feel his body, and yet there was a powerful warmth surrounding a right hand that didn’t exist.
Bell could feel his “teeth” grinding in response to the goddess’s repeated, tearful cries. They carved their way through the darkness, drawing him out.
His soul ignited. Hestia’s flame, one more time.
His body came back into existence, twitching. He could see the light at the end of the darkness. All that was left was to stand.
Out of the darkness, to the other side of the light. To the place where the goddess’s voice was calling him.
His body still would not move on command, so Bell focused on the warmth enveloping his right hand. Despite his best efforts, it would not move or even quiver in the direction of the light.
Dammit! the boy screamed at his body, fully knowing that it was at its physical limit—and then.
“If…if you have what it takes to be called a hero—”
“”
Another voice cut through the darkness.
“Hermes?!”
A twinge of surprise in the goddess’s voice appeared along with the voice of another god.
Bell knew that voice, those words, that echo—he remembered them.
“It’s not someone able to draw a sword, or someone willing to raise a shield, or someone who heals others.”
It was a voice he’d heard long ago.
Back when he was very young. Words that shaped who he would become.
Words from a divine messenger, a voice from his past—his grandfather’s.
“Only someone who’s willing to risk it all can be called a hero.”
The voice of the god became his grandfather’s.
“Protect your allies. Rescue the ladies. Put yourself on the line.”
A new light rose through the darkness, taking the form of his grandfather, the past.
“It’s okay to break, to lose heart, to cry out in pain. The one to claim
victory in the end always emerges from the defeated.”
He remembered. He remembered it all.
He remembered the words that those smiling lips said next.
“Follow through on your dream, shout it out for everyone to hear. The one who does—”
Yes, that’s the one who—
“—the one who does becomes a glorious hero.”
“!!”
He awakened.
“Bell…”
Hestia could barely speak as the boy sat up on his own.
The god standing over the boy’s injured body, watching over him, was Hermes.
The image of Bell’s trembling body was reflected in the deity’s orange gaze as the boy climbed to his feet.
Rise, fight, go to a sword so as not to disgrace his memory.
But most of all, to save the people who meant the most to him.
To go to the limits—beyond the limits, to put everything on the line.
“Mr. Bell!”
Lilly’s small figure appeared behind them. She used every muscle in her tiny frame to take a large weapon out of her backpack and throw it in his direction.
The large black sword carved arcs through the air as it whisked toward them. Bell’s arm sprang to life as he snatched the weapon out of the air with one hand.
Gripping the blade’s thick hilt with both hands, he swung the blade forward as he set his feet into a powerful stance.
His ruby-red eyes flicked forward and focused on the form of the terrifying giant off in the distance.
Let the aspirations burn.
Let the dreams roar.
If there was one advantage that Bell Cranell had over anyone else, it would be this one irreplaceable memory from his youth—that’s because it was all he had.
“!”
He started to charge Argonaut. At the same time, the characters engraved into his back began to glow red.
Limit Release.
A temporary state in which surrounding conditions combined with emotion to overload the Falna contained within a deity’s Blessing. Skill power increased exponentially during a Limit Release.
A stone that would send ripples through a battlefield; a sword aimed for the giant’s throat.
White sparkles swirled around Bell’s body as he charged for the attack before they climbed high into the air.
Ping, ping, ping, the sound of chimes. Gong, gong—they turned into the sound of church bells.
In a clearing on the edge of the forest, southeast of where the battle against the rampaging Goliath was taking place…
Mord’s group of adventurers had peeled away from the main forces. They were on the brink of losing their will to fight.
“I can’t take this anymore! We can’t win!”
“We gotta get out of here! Maybe if we found a hiding place in the forest…!”
A violent beast that no one could stop was on the loose. No matter how many monsters they slew, another one appeared to take its place.
The situation was hopeless, just as dark as the false night that covered the floor. One person after another raised their voices in despair and threatened to leave on their own.
“No turning tail, ya cowards!!”
It was Mord who stopped them.
“The hell are you saying, Mord?! We don’t stand a chance against that monstrosity! What’s the point in staying?!”
“We fight! Are ya seriously considering running away when all those guys and ladies need our help?!”
Mord yelled as loud as he could and pointed toward Lyu and Asfi’s desperate struggle to keep the Goliath contained. The others just looked at him, unable to understand why he was so passionate.
“So yer just goin’ to bow out, not doing jack shit?! How the fuck are ya okay with that?!”
Mord’s passion had turned to anger, his eyes alight with a flame burning within him.
He broke off eye contact with those closest to him and looked around. The adventurers strong enough to form a wall were badly injured. The magic users were holding their own arms in pain. The man unleashed a verbal torrent upon them as they looked back at him with stunned eyes.
“Hey, all ya filthy elves, are y’all just talk?! And you archaic dwarves there—those muscles just for show?!”
Wave after wave of insults came out of his mouth. He waved his sword around, taking even more shots at their pride before the adventurers started to climb to their feet. All of the commotion caught the attention of the mad beetle, and it charged. Mord quickly dispatched it before continuing his tirade yet again—then the sound of a bell echoed through the air.
“”
The unmistakable clang of church bells rang down from far above their heads.
Time stood still for all of them. There wasn’t a single adventurer whose eyes remained small as the grand echoes filled their ears and reached their hearts.
The group looked to the south only to see a single adventurer, a boy holding an absolutely massive black sword and illuminated by swirling white lights. The boy’s white hair reflected in their eyes.
No words were necessary.
His light cut through the darkness, lifting their spirits with hope.
“—Let’s goooooooooooooooo!! All of you bastardssssssssssssssssss!! Cut them down, CUT THEM DOWNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!”
Every single adventurer charged forward at Mord’s command.
The Goliath had realized the threat and summoned more monsters to its cause. However, Mord wasn’t going to let the monsters reach Bell, even at the cost of his own life. Ranks of adventurers and monsters collided.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The Goliath charged forward at the sound of the bells spreading across the floor.
Its roar was a much higher pitch than before, summoning all monsters still alive in an instant. Its red glare now a few shades lighter, the beast set its sights solely on the boy standing in the southern plain.
“The Goliath…!”
“Has it recognized Mr. Cranell as its enemy?”
The area around the boy had become a widespread brawl between Mord’s adventurers and the surviving monsters. The giant was heading right for it. Asfi watched in shock as the Goliath completely ignored her and Lyu’s attacks. Meanwhile, the elf was in hot pursuit, doing her best to avoid the small quakes the monster was making as it ran. Her eyes locked onto her target.
“We protect. The Goliath will not touch him!”
Lyu yelled out to her companion with no waver in her voice.
The Goliath paid her no attention as it quickly galloped along on its short, stubby legs. Fighting her way through the blasts of wind whenever its feet hit the ground, Lyu lined herself up beside it and hit one of its knees with all of her strength.
The beast quickly lost its balance—a low center of gravity and high speed were not a good combination. The wide-eyed Goliath fell forward and hit the great plain with a thunderous bang.
The ground cracked on impact, sending a thick cloud of dirt into the air. The Goliath’s face morphed into an expression of disbelief as all of its limbs were on the ground for the first time.
“Did that actually happen…?!”
Shaking off a sense of awe at what she’d just seen, Asfi moved in to start her own attack. The floor boss was trying to raise itself off the ground. However, the two women showed their opponent no mercy.
“GUH—OOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOOOO?!”
Face, hands, shoulders, thighs, and back—Lyu’s wooden sword and Asfi’s daggers struck every possible target with blinding speed. The Goliath’s rage increased as it roared out in pain. Forgetting its original target for the moment, the Goliath swung all of its limbs around as if trying to swat the world’s strongest mosquitoes out of the sky. It even used howls in an attempt to keep them at bay.
Seeing the giant thrash around in desperation, Lyu started to cast a spell.
“—Distant sky above the forest. Limitless stars set into an eternal night.”
She continued her assault on the Goliath as the spell came from her lips. A bewildered Asfi watched as the elf continued to attack the beast even faster than she could while focusing on her Magic.
“Listen to my feeble voice and grant the protection of starlight. Bestow the light of mercy upon those who have abandoned you.”
Simultaneous high-speed combat and Magic: “Concurrent Casting.”
It would not be an overstatement to say that magic required a tremendous amount of concentration and verbal enunciation to trigger. High output—a magic’s power was rated by the length of the spell. The longer the spell, the more powerful the magic. Therefore, all magic users needed to stand in one place and focus all of their attention into reciting their spell.
However, Lyu was reciting a spell and attacking at the same time. The slightest slip of the tongue could result in Ignis Fatuus, and yet here she was attacking, moving, dodging, and casting at a blistering pace. Even to a top-class adventurer such as Asfi, it was extremely impressive.
The amount of mental stamina and courage required to pull this off was enormous, not to mention knowledge of close-quarters combat and rhetorical expertise.
Executing a combat style that even the Kenki wouldn’t dare attempt, Lyu kept up a strong physical assault while continuing to cast her magic.
“Synchronized battle and casting…!”
—Mikoto noticed what Lyu was doing and was just as fascinated as Asfi.
She had left the care of the critically injured Ouka to Chigusa and returned to the battlefield, only to be baffled by what she saw. The way that the elf dodged the Goliath’s massive fists thrashing about while still attacking with unrelenting force was nothing short of gale winds in a hurricane. At the same time, the beauty and grace of her lithe form shook Mikoto to her very core.
“What power…!”
Mikoto could see that the elvish warrior was far beyond her own strength. At first it made her realize her own weakness, but then showed her a level of power that she could attain. At last, she swore that one day she would reach the same plateau and stand next to the elf as equals.