……It is the purest and most immaculate magic.
The simplest, yet touching the very root.
A Truth (眞理) that operates the formula engraved into the body of the Iron Man, with my heart as the sacrifice, this lighthouse as the catalyst, and, moreover, the most complete “Sophien’s mana” on the continent.
———That is my 「Telekinesis」.
“…….”
At the scene of that miracle, I look at Sophien. She, too, is looking at me. With resolute eyes, without the slightest wavering.
“……Your Majesty.”
I call to her. Because her final words, those words that she hoped I would be happy, somehow make me uneasy.
“…….”
But Sophien gives no answer. Rather, as if to stop me from speaking, she floods the sword blade she grips with mana.
Swaaaaa…….
Sophien’s flawless mana races through my entire body and completes the spell.
It manifests a beautiful miracle.
—————!
A resonance originates from within the Iron Man’s frame. In that instant, the world is dyed in darkness.
No—my eyes and ears are losing their function.
…….
A void (虛無), as though the whole world were drifting away from me, as though I were swimming through a distant universe.
Upon that darkness, a very faint tone seeps in.
……Deculein. And, Kim Ujin.
Sophien’s voice, calling my name, rises like a haze.
……There is still but one thing I am curious about.
The sensation of her hand caressing my cheek is faint.
At this moment, am I still alive, or am I dead?
If I am alive, am I standing, or am I sitting in an unsightly heap?
……What is the meaning of your name?
The meaning of my name.
His Majesty the Emperor asks that.
There is no grand meaning to it, but if she asks, it is only proper that I answer.
……The house u (宇) and the true jin (眞).
I am Kim Ujin.
At that, she murmurs softly. As if satisfied, she nods.
……Yes. Truly right words, and truly warm words.
What is right, and what is warm?
Before I can ask, Sophien speaks first.
……You have indeed become my true home.
A voice mixed with laughter.
I, too, smile.
Because her heart seems at ease, because I am truly satisfied.
……Then rest comfortably now.
Her words telling me to rest seem to embrace me gently and warmly.
They seem to become an indulgence for me, who had known no rest.
As if saying that truly, I may rest a little.
Until this final end is completed, in comfort…….
…….
Silence settled quietly.
Sophien gazes down at Deculein, who lies at peace.
“This is the first time I have seen it.”
Truly, it is the first time.
“The sight of you being this comfortable.”
With his clothes disheveled, his hair unarranged, lying prettily there, truly lovable…….
“Deculein.”
Sophien laughed softly.
“Thanks to you, I have learned so very much.”
Shrrrrk—
She pulled out the sword that had pierced his heart. Yet the Iron Man’s body held back even the bleeding.
Deculein had refused, to the very end, even the filth of staining himself with his own blood.
“…….”
After gazing at that neat figure, Sophien wordlessly sheathed her sword. She rose and looked out the lighthouse window.
……Drip.
……Drip.
Rain falling upon the land of annihilation.
Within it, a doll stands.
His face is turned this way, as though he is looking at her.
His blatant gaze, the emotions fervently wavering within it, are enough to let her guess his identity.
“……Are you Quay?”
Sophien asked softly.
He nodded slightly. His lips moved.
—I am waiting for you here.
Crackle— Mana flared in Sophien’s heart.
It was anger, and sorrow, and perhaps relief.
“My end…….”
Sophien stopped speaking for a moment, looked at Deculein one last time, and after taking all of his lovely entirety into her eyes.
She turned her gaze back to Quay.
She murmured, filled with killing intent.
“……is there.”
She took one step forward.
* * *
……After Sophien left, the top floor of the lighthouse where Deculein was falling asleep.
In that place, silent without a single sound,
Rustle—
Suddenly, a presence stirred.
Rustle—
At first it only rustled, but then, all at once, it evolved into thump, thump, thump—footsteps.
“Pwah!”
Between the eternally frozen passageway, someone reveals herself. Exhaling hot breath, she whips her gaze around her surroundings.
That noisy woman with short black hair is Yeriel.
Deculein’s younger sister.
“……Brother!”
She soon seems to discover Deculein, and, startled, runs to him.
She looks at him with bewildered eyes—at him, whose heart has a hole through it, and yet who has not bled at all.
“What is this…….”
Creeeak—
At that moment, the sound of a door opening from somewhere. Yeriel starts and turns toward the direction from which the sound came. She preheats her mana.
“……Huh?”
But the person who appears there, clicking her heels, is not an enemy.
Rather, she could be called an ally, but she is not someone who should be able to be here.
“Sylvia?”
Sylvia.
Yeriel asked, frowning.
“Weren’t you imprisoned?”
“……I am imprisoned. This is a doll.”
It was Sylvia’s polite answer. She looked at Deculein, who lay at ease.
“Professor…….”
“He’s still alive.”
Yeriel said in an agitated tone.
At that, Sylvia quietly raised her hand. She pointed somewhere. It was toward the door Yeriel had crossed through.
“……?”
Yeriel tilted her head, then soon understood what it meant.
Craaaaaack———!
Beyond the door she had just crossed, Yuli’s cold was spreading.
Sylvia asked.
“How did you pass through?”
“Huh? Uh…… I just could.”
Yeriel shook her head with a look that said she herself did not know. Sylvia’s brow trembled slightly.
“…….”
She fell into thought for a moment.
As if finding it a little strange, she looked back and forth between Yuli’s passage and Yeriel.
“……I see.”
Soon, she smiled faintly and approached Deculein again. She knelt beside him.
“Professor. You are listening, aren’t you?”
Deculein, of course, gives no answer to the question of whether he is listening, but Yeriel, for now, sits beside Sylvia as well.
“Professor, you must keep your promise.”
Sylvia spoke of a promise.
Yeriel, of course, does not know what promise. Right now, Yeriel feels as though her heart is burning away.
Sylvia slowly continued.
“You said it to Yuli. That you would not die before Yuli did. So…….”
Sylvia looked back at Yeriel.
“I ask this of you.”
Craaaaaack———
Even in the meantime, Yuli’s cold is slowly approaching. Freezing this space, this time.
“Miss Yeriel, please stay with the Professor.”
“…….”
Craaaaack…….
Sylvia’s hair freezes in the spreading cold.
But Yeriel remains fine even then, and does not feel even the slightest chill.
“Please take the Professor to the center of this cold…… and freeze him.”
Sylvia, already half frozen, smiled with the half of her face that had not yet frozen and asked politely.
“So that the Professor can keep his promise…… Miss Yeriel, please help him.”
* * *
……Drip.
……Drip.
Standing in the falling rain, Quay is looking up at the sky.
Gazing at the droplets striking his retinas, at the rainwater wetting his face and shaking his shoulders, he is seeking some “answer.”
……Drip.
……Drip.
“It’s raining.”
Quay said.
Step—
The sound of footsteps settled beside him.
“Just as Deculein said…… will God truly come to me?”
Murmuring so, Quay slowly lowers his eyes.
He looks at “her,” standing beyond the horizon.
“……Sophien.”
Sophien.
A woman whose long red hair blazes like flame.
The rainwater cannot even dare touch the mana she emits before it evaporates, and the sword hanging at her side contains a dense killing intent.
“Sophien. Have you ever seen the Divine Age?”
Quay said to her.
“I have experienced it in dreams.”
Sophien answered.
Pale memories, the scenery of an unidentified temple reflected in dreams she had once had. A place of revelation and worship where the language of god was recorded.
“Yes. That’s right.”
Quay smiled.
“I deliberately showed it to you. You—your body—was originally mine.”
……Drip.
……Drip.
In the still-falling rain, the two stand in opposition.
Quay is drenched and flowing with the rain, while Sophien stands burning it away.
“Sophien. You are my creation.”
At Quay’s words, Sophien nods.
To him, who dares call the Emperor a creation, she accepts it without the slightest agitation, without denial.
“I know.”
“……Yes. I suppose that is the life of a creation.”
Quay gave a faint laugh. Water droplets ran down the corners of his twisted mouth.
“They try to kill the being who created them. Insolent, and ungrateful.”
Quay’s lips pressed tightly together.
“Just like the humans clinging to this continent now.”
“…….”
Sophien quietly looks at Quay.
“The believers of the Divine Age, too, forgot that grace and killed god. They killed the god who created them, committing an unforgivable sin, an indelible sin.”
At that instant, the Emperor’s mana subsides.
The red mana that had been burning the rain sinks away, and moisture seeps into Sophien’s body.
“Sophien. Right now, you too are trying to kill me, just like them.”
“…….”
……Drip.
……Drip.
In the rain, Sophien slowly smiles. A fine arc is drawn upon her face.
“No. God died of his own will.”
“…….”
She conveys to Quay once more the revelation she had once interpreted together with Deculein.
“For the freedom of humanity.”
Quay quietly shook his head.
“That interpretation is wrong. You humans are always so self—”
“No.”
Sophien cut him off. Taking one step forward, she let her sword hang down.
“……You do not know.”
Drip— drip—
The rainwater running down her sword blade gathers on the ground.
“When one comes to care for someone too much.”
Drip, drip.
The rain gradually grows heavier, and the celestial body has already become larger than the moon.
The satellite that will destroy this continent.
In the midst of it all, Sophien spoke.
“When one comes to love someone too much.”
She declared it in the Emperor’s tone.
Thinking of the man who now filled her heart.
“One may even die for him.”
Whoooooo…….
The wind blows. Within it, mana is mixed.
Deculein’s magic—in other words, 「Telekinesis」.
“Even one’s own death.”
Before the celestial body destroys this continent, Deculein’s 「Telekinesis」 will preserve the humans, the animals, and all lives upon this continent.
“One can willingly accept it.”
Having said so, Sophien looked at Quay.
“If even a mere imperfect human can do that.”
For some reason, she feels relieved.
No matter that he is the final enemy, the experience of confessing all of her heart and pouring out all these emotions to another is a very precious thing.
“Then a perfect god, naturally. Since he would love his creations dearly.”
However, Quay seems a little different.
Right now, his face is as fierce as an evil spirit’s. Malice dwells in him, as though he wants to tear Sophien’s mouth apart at any moment.
“To die for his creations would have been more than enough…… no, so much that it overflowed.”
Quay’s mana rises viciously. So violently that the doll’s body begins to crumble away—shhhh.
Sophien gazes at him calmly and grips her sword.
“It must have been an exceedingly easy decision.”
“Shut that mouth.”
Quay muttered. His expression twisted more than ever, and his teeth ground as if they might fall out. Violent rage surged from his heart.
……The reason was simple.
“No. I cannot shut my mouth.”
Because Sophien’s realization, this absurd-sounding insight, seemed as though it might truly be the truth.
Because Sophien was the body and soul he had sent down.
Because she resembled him more than anyone else…….
“You would know, since you created me.”
……Because she was a creation he had made himself.
“You would know, since you created me.”
Sophien smiled brightly.
Kwaaaaaaa———!
At that instant, the air current distorts in the firmament. Sparks of mana flash like lightning.
The agitation of the celestial body.
“……Now. I am the Emperor of the continent.”
Thus, Sophien leaned her posture forward while gripping her sword.
Like a rhinoceros about to advance, like a warhorse about to break through.
Crouching her body into a wedge, toward the enemy beyond.
Toward Quay, who had created her…….
“For the one I love, I shall personally kill you.”
She thrust forth her red mana.