Chapter 15 - To Face Regret

(1st Saga - Greater Magius, The Balance | Synoria Outlook Defense Arc)

I was back here again. That same black plane surrounding me on all sides with no light to illuminate the darkness.

I looked down at my hands.

In this abyss, my body was still present despite movement in such an environment being completely pointless.

I braced myself as I looked ahead once more.

There it was, appearing out of thin air before me: the face of my mother.

In an almost spectral light, nothing but her head hovered within my vision, her features terrifyingly accurate to the ones in my memories.

Every few seconds, her image seemed to flicker, alternating between her own and my father’s.

Then, a voice spoke out from beyond the void, entering not through my ears but echoing within my head. It wasn’t one that belonged to anyone in my family, or anyone I knew for that matter.

“Enlighten me… do you have any regrets?”

A blinding flash pierced through the darkness and my heart.

I jolted awake, clutching the blanket above me close to my chest.

“You doing okay..?”

Yukiko was sitting up in her bed, watching me with worry in her eyes.

“Yeah… It was just that dream again.”

“Again? That’s the third day in a row now…”

“I’ll be fine–”

“But isn’t it weird to see the exact same dream multiple days in a row? I’d be more willing to overlook it if it was just a one time nightmare, but at this point, it’s become more like a foreboding omen than anything else–”

“I’ll manage. There’s only one day left until the end of these waves, and our main task at hand right now should be to ensure the town’s safety. I promise we’ll get this sorted out afterwards, okay?”

I attempted a genuine smile which I could only assume ended up looking not too convincing.

Regardless of whether or not she agreed, she forced herself to play along.

“Seika’s probably waiting outside our door again, so let’s get ready.”

Maintaining her silence for a moment, Yukiko finally replied, “...Alright, but after this is all over, we’re taking you to get all that stuff going on with you checked out no matter what.”

“If that’s what you say–”

[ Time remaining until final wave: 0:01:59:02

- Average expected threat: Rank 9 ]

I couldn’t let anyone down– not again, and not after coming this far.

***

[ Time remaining until final wave: 0:00:02:59 ]

The sun had barely begun peeking over the horizon when rows of troops gathered at each of Synoria Outlook’s four gates. 

Our plan was simple: divide and conquer, then unite to defeat the ‘boss’ of the wave once it revealed itself at one of the gates.

Since the countdown had first appeared, the wave’s average expected threat had risen from rank 8 to rank 9, placing it relatively on the same level as the King of Wyverns.

Yet, this time would be different. I had grown far stronger than I was back then, and on top of that, I had allies whose individual strengths I still couldn’t fully comprehend.

Facing the south alongside me was a group of nearly 50, among which were several of the volunteers that aided me in my first fight on this end of town.

To the north was Yukiko’s post, which also was backed by a force roughly numbering the same..

Meanwhile, to the East and West were Seika and Setsuya respectively, both of whom chose to stand alone and dedicate the entirety of Synoria Outlook’s fighters to Yukiko and myself.

[ The final wave is now beginning ]

I squinted my eyes towards the horizon as the foghorn echoed once more, the glare of the sunrise bouncing off the dirt road that stretched into the distance.

Perhaps only ten seconds had passed, but the silent tension made it feel as if minutes had already gone by.

At last, I caught sight of something moving.

Its shape wasn’t quite humanoid nor beastly. A chimera, perhaps? But, no, it couldn’t be, since chimeras were typically designed to combine the strengths of multiple creatures. This, on the other hand, seemed to lack both purpose and sense– a writhing mass of corrupted flesh, arms, legs, and other body parts.

We held our ground, none of us budging even an inch as the creature trudged towards us.

Thunk! The almost hollow echo of something being lodged into a hard surface sounded from beside me.

There was the sputtering of someone choking, then the sound of a body limply falling and striking the ground.

I hesitantly turned to glimpse the horror of an arrow-like rod embedded in the forehead of the man who moments ago stood next to me.

That instantaneous death sent my mind into shock.

I was the first to notice how this man had fallen, and as soon as that same sight registered in the minds of the others, panic began to set in.

I could only issue a single command amidst this chaos.

“Everyone, fall back!”

Many of them had already begun to run before hearing my order, all seemingly forgetting about the friend who once stood beside them as they fled for their lives.

Right… I couldn’t let my guard down. Regardless of appearance, that thing that now approached me alone was strong enough to be considered a rank 9 threat.

I turned and knelt by the body of our lost ally. I didn’t even know his name, nor did I have time to honor his loss.

As gently as I could, I lifted his body and set it to the side of the road. At least there, I thought, he wouldn’t be defiled in the combat to come.

The entire time, my back had been turned towards the enemy, yet, for whatever reason, I knew it wouldn’t attack me just yet.

After all, it had quickly become clear that it was after none other than myself.

Those same words from before resounded in my head, this time coming directly from the amalgamation.

“Tell me… let me hear of your regrets.”

With a disordered flailing motion, it broke into a ‘sprint,’ if that even was a word that one could use to describe such a movement.

50 yards. 40. 30… I’d soon have to face it head on.

“Kaito! Don’t engage! We’ll take care of this one.”

Seika’s voice snapped me out of my daze and back to my senses.

The blindingly bright auras of her’s and Setsuya’s raced past the corners of my vision. Had they already cleared the threats on their ends? Or was there only one corrupted to fight in this wave to begin with?

I didn’t get the chance to ask, for they had already far passed me and begun their attack.

Verse 2: Fleeting words of parting rime

Absolute Armament: Afterburner

I had never seen their auras flare with such intensity.

Setsuya layered his katana over with such sharpened mana that it shone with a pure white light as if it became mana itself.

Meanwhile, I could sense a rushing force of aether behind the blaring image of Seika’s aura, the constant movement of which forced all energy around her to stay tightly packed like a spiraling storm.

They both had to have at least been using an aura at stage 2.

Before their attacks even made contact, I had already acknowledged that this beast was still far beyond anything my growth was capable of rivaling. In all honesty, it was wishful thinking to believe a week’s work could elevate me to the level of a rank 9 threat.

Now, the best I could do was watch from beyond the fray and hope for the best outcome.

Suddenly, two arms tore through the outer skin of the creature to respond to the two attacks. These arms weren’t of the same type as the shoddy misshapen limbs that dangled from its exterior– No, they were visibly made of such densely compacted corrupted energy that they had formed crystalline fibers, mimicking the flesh of biological creatures.

Setsuya’s blade bisected the arm that faced him like a knife through butter while Seika’s fist obliterated the arm that faced her like a cannonball.

The air and earth around them seemed to quake as vibrations of their strength reverberated across the battlefield.

Simultaneously, the hideous ‘outer layer’ of the creature had been blown cleanly off– or rather, completely decimated.

Beneath that exterior was a humanoid corrupted who resembled a foe I had at one point grown familiar with. His face and build had changed, yet those striking wings and thorned halo remained distinctly the same as they unfolded from the center of his being.

Unphased by the destruction of his body, he instantly regenerated his arms, strings of corrupted energy intertwining like winding vines. His eyes didn’t once meet those of Seika nor Setsuya just before him.

“Seraphim–?”

“But we were told you had been slain–”

He stepped past the two seemingly frozen in shock without even an acknowledgement of their presence, now shedding the husk of that mutilated overgrown body.

His previously featureless face began to ripple, shifting to take on the form of the most humanoid countenance I had ever seen on a corrupted.

Its features were frail and slender, like those of an experienced yet worn out man, whittled down by decades of life. The air of his expression alone contradicted what I believed I once knew about him from our previous encounter.

What happened to that flamboyant confidence? Those narcissistic proclamations?

My instincts told me that this couldn’t possibly be the same being from before, yet my senses didn’t lie. The signals, traces, composition, and form of the corrupted energy were the same, only amplified to a much greater scale than before. 

Even without activating the heightened mana awareness Phasma had taught me, I could still see the intensity of Seraphim’s corrupted energy overflowing the edges of his body.

Slowly, he raised one arm, one finger pointed directly towards me, before speaking.

His voice had changed as well. It sounded exhausted, empty, yet all the while, incomprehensibly powerful.

I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that this Seraphim had now surpassed the strength demonstrated by Koharu.

“Hand over the anomaly… and your people walk away unscathed.”