The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  “So that skill’s gonna reach Monochrome, right?” she asked.

  “...Yes!”

  “Then you just think only about getting the stuff to the damn thing. I’ll eliminate anything that gets in your way.”

  “Thank you!”

  Ray entrusted his defense to Barbaroy and focused entirely on Nemesis’s skill.

  Half-frenzied at this point, Monochrome continued raining down its beams towards the surface.

  It had clearly stopped thinking about the balance between power and energy regeneration, and kept on attacking while breaking its limits.

  The crystalline tentacles it used to fire were now heated and smoking, but Monochrome continued using them regardless.

  Despite that, not one of the beams reached Ray.

  “That ain’t enough!” shouted Barbaroy.

  She was acting as the best tank Ray could possibly hope for in this situation — the beams couldn’t take his life, no matter much effort the UBM put into it.

  Thus came the time.

  “Ray! The preparation is done!” Nemesis declared.

  “Give it hell, Ray!” Barbaroy encouraged.

  “Yeah!” Ray answered.

  As the Shooting Wheel stirred the air at supersonic speeds, Ray brandished it behind him as if preparing to throw a ball into the sky and began speaking a set of words.

  “Payback...”

  It was the Shooting Wheel’s unique skill — the crystallization of Ray and Nemesis’s hopes.

  It was their oath to overcome their weakness and the manifestation of their wish.

  It was the materialization of their desire to prevent tragedies that were outside their scope, and its name was a prayer to let it reach far and wide.

  “...Beyond the Stars!”

  And thus it flew.

  As Ray swung, the five-bladed star was disconnected from its handle and soared high into the sky.

  Being both a shooting star and a windstar, it made you wonder why it was so reminiscent of the legend of Monochrome’s sealing and whether it was a coincidence or not.

  Leaving a trail of black aura behind, Nemesis, the supersonic shooting star, rose towards the dark star up in the sky.

  “Ｋ ｙ Ａ ａ Ａ Ａ ａ ａ Ａ Ａ Ａ ａ ｈ Ａ ａ ａ Ａ ａ Ａ Ａ ａ Ａ ａ Ａ ａ ａ ａ Ａ ａ Ｈ!”

  Upon seeing the shooting star flying at it at speeds several times greater than sound, Monochrome shrieked and began soaring higher.

  It didn’t even consider shooting it down, for the shooting star’s speed was far too immense for its beams.

  The creature flew away at full power — at speeds it had never even tried before — greatly exceeding its previous record.

  Both the chaser and the runner stars rose to the sky with supersonic velocity.

  To those on the surface, the sight would be akin to seeing two shooting stars fly from the earth to the heavens, rather than the other way around.

  But reversed or not, shooting stars all shared the same fate — to flash through the sky, fade, and expire.

  “Ｋ ｙ Ａ ａ Ａ Ａ ａ ａ ａ Ａ Ａ ａ ａ Ａ ａ Ｈ ａ Ａ ａ Ａ Ａ ａ ａ ａ Ａ ｈ!”

  Monochrome flew upward — soared higher and higher.

  It paid no heed to its MP reserves or even considered using any power to convert light into it.

  It focused all of its functions and mechanisms solely on speed to escape the black shooting star behind it.

  They were already far past the limit any living animal could bear, and yet, the chaser showed no intention of stopping.

  The pursuit showed no sign of ending even as Monochrome itself surpassed the greatest height it had ever reached.

  The altitude was now over 35,000 metels. The world beyond was alien even to the creature, and there was no telling how long its cracked frame would last. But even so, it continued flying, for stopping meant certain extinction.

  Escape, it thought. Escape escape escape! “This” will end if it doesn’t escape!

  What it felt right now was perhaps the very same feeling it had been causing all this time.

  Despair — the sole source of its joy.

  No, it wasn’t despairing quite yet, for it still had some hope.

  With that speed, “that” shouldn’t be able to fly too far! “This” has a limit! “That” has to have a limit, too! “This” will not end if “that” reaches its limit first!

  That was its hope, and it wasn’t wrong in the least. The Shooting Wheel’s limit was 65,000 metels — the distance it could fly after converting the accumulated damage.

  The altitude had now exceeded 50,000 metels.

  There were only about ten seconds left until the Shooting Wheel lost all its propulsion power.

  The outcome of this chase would surely be decided here in the thermosphere — the place where shooting stars are said to expire.

  “Such beauty,” murmured Nemesis as she continued the vehement chase.

  As an Arms type, she had a large field of vision, so she could both focus on Monochrome and see the world below.

  She could now look at the planet without the horizon cutting off her vision.

  Her eyes could now see far beyond the single kingdom she and Ray spent their time in. She could see some activity in the neighboring countries and even catch glimpses of the unique sceneries from those far away.

  There was also something gigantic far off in the distant south.

  Nemesis could now see both the extent and vibrance of this world, and she found it nothing but beautiful.

  She hoped to someday get a good, long look at this scenery with Ray at her side.

  “But now... there’s something I must do.”

  She had to destroy the tragedy that had appeared before her Master. Ray had entrusted her with the role, and she wanted to do it, too.

  The Shooting Wheel’s limit was close, but Nemesis still flew, swearing to make it reach.

  “You could have just watched the world from here,” she uttered while looking ahead. The words merely escaped her mouth, but that was probably her final, ultimate sentiment towards Monochrome.

  She forced out the last of her power.

  The end! Monochrome panicked as the shooting star approached. “This” will be ended!

  It had already lost all hope of escaping. With all its core, the centuries-old UBM feared the coming end — the gaze of death.

  Because of this, it began to think things it had never considered before.

  “This” will be ended! If it ends...! If it ends, then...? it thought and paused as an alien idea came to its mind. Wait... What would happen if “this” ended?

  For the first time in its long existence, it thought a question that most minds would come across at their earliest stages.

  It had never considered that back when it was plant-like, and ever since becoming Monochrome, it had done nothing but cause ends, but now...

  Huh? Why doesn’t “this” want to end?

  As a creature that had originally been nothing but a star-like thing hanging in the sky, it shouldn’t have had anything to feel about its own end.

  Before becoming Monochrome, it hadn’t even considered whether it existed or not.

  By witnessing a human conflict, it had learned of despair, learned that made its core stir, deemed it to be joy, and decided to mass-produce despair to please itself.

  Right, if “this” ends, it won’t see more despair. And if it doesn’t see despair, it won’t feel joy.

  It didn’t want to end because it wanted to feel more bliss.

  But then, it suddenly began to question the centuries-old principle of its behavior.

  But then... why did “this” enjoy it?

  It finally realized that, in its first exposure to despair... the one who’d found joy in it wasn’t Monochrome, but some human on the surface.

  The creature’s own joy was just a borrowed imitation, and it had misinterpreted that by thinking that it had gained a desire, despite the
fact that it had absolutely no necessity to derive joy from despair.

  Thus, the belated question made Monochrome slightly slow down its ascent, letting Nemesis catch up to it.

  One of the Shooting Wheel’s five blades bit into the creature’s crystalline body...

  “Farewell, star of the black sky!” she screamed.

  ...and returned triple the damage it had done to Ray and Nemesis.

  The vast amount of damage delivered by Payback Beyond the Stars was too much to bear, even for an Ancient Legendary UBM — especially one that had sacrificed its endurance for other qualities.

  Ah, then... Monochrome began to weave a thought, but it was cut off by its own extinction.

  No one would ever know the conclusion it came to.

  ◇

  That day, there was a dazzling bright light in the sky.

  It was the light stored within Monochrome, now released by its collapse.

  However, it was nothing like the scorching beams it had fired when active — it was only a pure shine, much like the one the creature had emitted before becoming Monochrome.

  In a certain village in Altar, a boy was looking up at the sky alongside his little sister.

  “Wow! It’s so pretty!” she said joyously.

  “Yeah! It’s sparkling!” he agreed.

  Exposed to the unusual light in the sky, the innocent little children felt nothing but jubilation.

  Such exchanges were common among those who saw the light, and there was not a hint of the despair Monochrome had once brought. Those who saw it merely reveled in the joy inspired by the beauty of the sight.

  Perhaps this had been a common spectacle back at the age before Monochrome became a creature of despair.

  The entity that had spent the last few centuries leading a false existence spent its very final moments lighting up the world as it had originally... and then vanished completely.

  Epilogue

  Paladin, Ray Starling

  Upon confirming that Monochrome was gone for good, I passed out instantly.

  I didn’t just get the Fainting status effect, either — I actually became so relaxed that my consciousness turned off.

  I felt like I slept the whole time I was inside that weird space you go to when you’re out cold.

  Also, it might’ve just been my imagination, but I thought I saw a blackish, reddish humanoid silhouette act all sulky, saying, “I finished it and you come here like this...” or something.

  Anyway, upon waking up, I was greeted by several changes, with the first of them being the special reward, which, just like you’d expect, went to me.

  It was called “Black Warcoat, Monochrome,” and it was basically a crystalline, transparent greatcoat.

  Upon seeing it, Nemesis... oh, right.

  Speaking of her... after defeating Monochrome, she, still in her Shooting Wheel form, simply came back down to the surface like it was nothing, merged with the handle I was still holding in my hand while unconscious, and turned back into her human form.

  Now, upon seeing Monochrome’s special reward, she muttered something like, “How unexpected. Knowing you, I assumed it would be black and appear far more sinister,” which I found very rude. Just what made her automatically assume that my gear would be sinister?

  Anyway, the Black Warcoat had a passive skill called “Light Absorption,” and when I equipped the coat and activated it, it instantly went from transparent to black. True to its name, the skill absorbed light, and it seemed to do it so well that the whole coat turned completely dark.

  “I knew it,” said Nemesis.

  That aside, Light Absorption wasn’t the only skill it had.

  I expected the other skill to have something to do with flying or voice, but its name — “Shining Despair” — basically said it all. As expected, its description said that it fired a beam, and I could only assume it was a weaker version of the greatest one fired by the UBM.

  However, it left me wondering about something.

  When the monster fired that beam, I’d heard it say “Shining Disappear,” rather than “Despair,” so I was slightly curious why the pronunciation had changed after it became a special reward. Was it adjusted to me or something?

  Come to think of it, in Infinite Dendrogram, certain English words were used or pronounced differently than in real life. Was there something going on with the translation function?

  Regardless, on to the next change.

  While I was out cold, everyone in Torne had been fully healed.

  Like, even those with severe Scorches all over their bodies, and even those who’d lost limbs were now in perfectly good health — and I was among them.

  Most of the wounds I’d gained in my battle against Monochrome had vanished, and not only that, but the left arm I’d lost before this incident had grown back. The arm worked as smoothly as it did in reality, and it honestly felt like it had never been gone.

  According to Nemesis and B3, the healing had happened while they weren’t looking.

  I’d call this a mystery, but I had a strong guess about who was responsible. After all, the kingdom had only a single person who wielded healing magic powerful enough to cure loss of body parts.

  “So you were here, too... Miss Aberration,” I muttered.

  ◇◇◇

  A certain pair of people

  “Ohhh, dear, am I tired. Weird, considering I didn’t do anything.”

  “Most excellent work, Lady Tsukuyo.”

  The spiritual leader of The Lunar Society, Tsukuyo Fuso, was in an empty part of Torne village, lying down on and rolling around the low grass as though it was the floor in her home.

  Her Mythical junihitoe was now covered in grass stains, but she didn’t seem to care one bit.

  “Hey, I didn’t do anythiiing,” she said. “They just became healed for some reason. Oh dear, what a shame, and I was planning to have Ray join us in exchange for healing his aaaarm. Just what in the woooorld healed them allll?”

  “I fail to see the need to feign ignorance when I was there to see it,” he responded. “And I feel you are overdoing it with the monotone.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Very well, then.”

  Despite being there to witness his mistress walk around the village and heal everyone, Eishiro Tsukikage was the first to give up.

  Anyway, to answer the question of how long The Lunar Society’s top had been in Torne... they’d actually arrived here long before Monochrome had appeared.

  Yesterday, Eishiro had told Tsukuyo that Ray was heading there alongside Shijima’s son-in-law.

  At first, her reaction was just a lukewarm “Really now?” She didn’t seem to care at all.

  But come morning, she said, “I wanna go see the Windstar Fest. Oh, but it’s got nothing to do with Ray,” and then went out to Torne.

  This seemed to be something she’d decided on after a whole evening’s worth of consideration. Perhaps she wanted to see what kind of choice Ray would make when faced with the Shijima family’s problem.

  Tsukuyo was accompanied by Eishiro, and for their means of transport, they invited a member of The Lunar Society — a Master who used a Pure-Dragon-tier skydragon.

  Thanks to that, they arrived at Torne in no time. But right after they did, B3 called Eishiro on his real life mobile — yes, the same call in which she and Ray asked about Shijima’s relationship to The Lunar Society.

  Eishiro had to log out to answer, while the Pure-Dragon’s Master had to look after his creature, so Tsukuyo ended up walking around the stalls all by herself.

  Of course, with her being an infamous, stand-out beauty known to wear a junihitoe, there could’ve been many people noticing her and realizing who she was, but that was countered by the disguise Eishiro had given her before logging out.

  Tsukuyo went on to have a decently good time walking around the stalls, and upon Eishiro’s return, he told her about the situation.

  Then, once Ray logged
in again, they went on to watch him from the shadows — quite literally — and Tsukuyo was somewhat satisfied to see him resolve to tell Farica and Louie about Shijima.

  But then she said, “Oh, dear. We should stop this. Kage, what did you even tell him?” and tried to call out to Ray, but that was exactly when Monochrome appeared.

  Ray instantly took to the sky, and even their Pure-Dragon rider joined him and challenged the UBM.

  Tsukuyo had heaved a sigh, but then, she and Eishiro had begun walking around the attacked places in order to heal the ones who’d been critically hurt.

  “Oh deaaaar, I could make a really good deal with the first princess if she was here, but now I’m working for freeeee,” she whined despite indiscriminately healing all those injured while still hiding in the shadows.

  Thanks to her efforts, not a single tian died.

  And during it all, she watched over Ray’s struggle and didn’t do more than that.

  “Shouldn’t we have been the ones to defeat the UBM?” Eishiro asked.

  Though she’d helped the tians, Tsukuyo had done absolutely nothing to influence Ray’s battle.

  This was despite having the options to assist Ray directly or to defeat Monochrome by themselves and taking the special reward.

  The reason why she didn’t do that was simple.

  “Ehh? But that would’ve been boring.”

  And there was nothing more to it.

  She’d watched Ray the whole time — saw his resolve and the actions he’d taken — but not even once had she considered assisting him. She believed it would’ve sullied the purity of his behavior.

  Tsukuyo wanted to see Ray at his most natural. In a way, she was continuing the observation that had been ruined by Figaro’s intrusion back at their HQ.

  The conclusion? Tsukuyo ended up liking Ray even more than she had after their conversation when she’d kidnapped him. So much so that she’d cast Mercy of the Holy on him, giving up on using it as a card in a deal.

  “Oh deaaaar, Ray’s healed and I didn’t even do anything, so now I’ll have to put off inviting him to CID until the next time he’s almost dyiiiing,” she whined.