Arc 9, Part 47: "Voice"

—When he first opened his eyes, he had no idea who he was.

『————』

He didn't know where he was, what time it was, who he was, or what was happening. Everything was a blank. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't move his hands or feet. His feet weren't touching the ground. He couldn't even breathe properly; he was trapped in a state of overwhelming helplessness—and yet, he felt a "Voice."

『————』

Though his sight, smell, touch, taste, and above all, his hearing were sealed, there was a "Voice." Subjected to a barrage of countless, infinite "Voices" without any means of defense, he was like a powerless infant cast into a cradle of hell.

『————』

A storm of "Voices," pelted at him randomly and chaotically. Like an infant left defenseless in the rain, he was on the verge of drowning in the "Voices." He thought he might as well just let himself drown—

『—Young Master! Young Master, are you safe?! I’ll save you right now!』

—. ———. He heard a loud "Voice." Among the myriad, infinite "Voices," he heard one clearly directed at him. He couldn't do anything. Yet, he knew. It was a powerful "Voice" aimed specifically at him. And so—

『—Otto-anii, grit your teeth.』

He heard that "Voice," felt a sensation of floating, and then a tremendously violent sound—a sound other than a "Voice" vibrated his eardrums. As his tightly closed eyes regained the ability to accept light, he finally came face-to-face with the "Voice" directed at him and the owners of those "Voices."

"『I’m really sorry I’m late. It’s all ‘cause this Great Self is too weak.』"

"『What are you saying, Garf-san! If you and the others hadn't come, the Young Master would still be hanging there... Oh, Young Master, Young Master! Can you recognize me?!』"

Standing there were a blonde youth and a massive ground dragon with pale blue dragon scales. The "Voice" he felt and the voice he heard overlapped, but there was no mistake. The ground dragon nuzzled him as he sat on the ground, and the boy gripped his shoulders firmly.

"『Ya don’t understand anythin’ right now, do ya? But it’s okay. We’re gonna get it all back. Whatever I can’t do alone, I’ll have everyone lend a hand...!』"

"————"

"『So, Otto-anii, you just stay here and...』"

He likely wanted to tell him to rest. Apparently, the boy in front of him knew that he was "empty" and was trying to do something about it. He probably even knew the reason why he was empty. He wanted to know; he wanted to ask. That impulse was certainly there. However—

"『—Is there... anything I can do?』"

He didn't know if the "Voice" that leaked from his mouth had formed proper words. However, seeing the boy and the ground dragon widen their eyes, he felt his intent had been conveyed. To be honest, he understood nothing. But there was one thing he could say. He was grateful to have been rescued from that cradle of hell. Above all—

"『—When people come for me with such earnest voices, I can't help but want to respond.』"

"『Ah, well...』"

At his words, the boy and the ground dragon, who had been wide-eyed, synchronized their breath and "Voices" to speak.

"『—That’s just like the Young Master.』" "『That’s just like you, Otto-anii.』"

At those "Voices," he let out a laugh, thinking of the self he was before he became empty. —If there was someone who had done this to him, he would show them he wasn't finished yet.

"—Teiyaaa!!"

A high, silver-bell voice rang out as a kick of power contrasting its light tone was delivered. Rem watched the decisive result of that strike while gripping the handle of her morning star.

It was the result of using ice footholds created by magic for positioning and distraction, drawing the opponent's attention upward, and devoting herself to supporting Emilia. Of course, if she could have ended the fight with the iron ball of affection that Subaru had kept polished for her, she would have, but she couldn't be too greedy. Even in the Empire, Subaru had taken things step-by-step with Rem. If Subaru had been impatient and forced himself upon her—

"At that time, I might have broken not just his fingers, but his arms and legs too."

Now that her memories had returned, the mere thought of acting so violently toward Subaru made her feel faint, but she knew the Rem of that time was capable of it. That was why procedures and stages were important in everything. It was the same as cooking. Despite being reasonably good at cooking, Rem had a bad habit of skipping steps in other matters. And speaking of bad habits, there was one more—

"—Don't jump to conclusions!"

To be certain of victory too early and relax one's guard was a failure of imagination. It was Priscilla who had taught the memory-less Rem how to steady her heart, preaching that the cessation of thought was an evil. —Even if she was gone, her teachings lived on. As long as those teachings kept Rem alive, they would endure forever. Therefore—

"—Wait, no way!?"

Even when Emilia let out a cry of shock, Rem's thoughts did not stop. Below them, Emilia had kicked from Al's blind spot directly beneath him. Her strike, bolstered by ice boots, should have struck Al with enough force to shatter his spine. However, Al had blocked it—by encasing them in a box of rock.

"Is that what Master Rom was talking about—"

Rem judged it to be the effect of "Time Retrospection." As a snap judgment for defense, covering his entire body was too perfect. Using magic requires an image of the result and the construction of a formula. If either is missing, the magic fails, and the more complex the task, the longer the image takes to form. Al's defense was too perfectly visualized for a surprise attack from a blind spot.

"————"

Though she understood the principle in her head, Rem bit the inside of her cheek at the sight of that "cheat" technique again. Originally, it had been proven that Al's Authority could evade even Reinhard. If they continued to attack like this, a negative thought crept in that he might parry everything—

"—Rem!!"

That downward spiral of thought was shattered by Emilia's call. Across the rock box that had appeared in mid-air, Rem and Emilia's gazes locked. Unlike Rem, who had been momentarily daunted by the threat of the Authority, the light in Emilia's amethyst eyes was strong. That gave her courage.

"————"

Strength returned to her eyes, and the activation of her horn through her Demon Form surged vitality through Rem's entire body. They continued to plummet through the sky. Thirty seconds had already passed since the battle began—she could measure this accurately because of the long marks carved into the massive rock wall far behind them. The Agzad Valley, a massive rift in the earth located in the Kararagi City-States, had a height difference of 5,000 meters from the surface to the deepest part of the canyon, and the fall time was approximately 100 seconds. The marks previously carved into the rock wall were at ten-second intervals, and they had just passed the third one—seventy seconds left until the bottom.

"Not yet—!!" "—We're just getting started!!"

Emilia and Rem's voices overlapped. With the courage she received and the power welling up within her, they resumed the attack. Rem leaned back deeply, and Emilia twisted her body to manifest ice hammers in both hands. In an instant, the morning star was launched with the force of a cannonball, and the ice hammers, wrapped in a violent gale, were released simultaneously. They struck and shattered the rock box containing Al and the others—amidst the rock fragments flying with a roar, the enemies split into upper and lower positions and lunged at Rem and Emilia. Al headed toward Emilia, and toward Rem came the red-haired shinobi—

"—No, you are..."

"Yes, I'm Al-sama's all-purpose useful maid, Yae-chan."

"That is Rem's title for Subaru-kun!"

Objecting to the introduction of the red-haired maid—no, the woman who called herself Yae—Rem pulled back the iron ball with her right hand while slamming her powerful left arm toward the flying Yae. However, Yae performed an unnatural braking maneuver in mid-air and evaded it. Looking closely, she was connected to Al by threads she had thrown behind her. Using the exquisite tension and slack of the threads to control her movement, a glint thrown from her other hand aimed for Rem's neck.

"—Huma."

Feeling the approaching threat on her skin, Rem used a spinal reflex to create an ice collar to guard her vitals. The moment the thread caught the collar, she avoided having her head pulled off. Having saved her life with a split-second judgment, Rem aimed for Yae's back with the iron ball she had pulled back, causing Yae to raise an eyebrow slightly. However, Yae dodged the incoming iron ball from behind with the precision of someone who had eyes in the back of her head. She stuck her tongue out at Rem's surprise as the iron ball returned to her hand.

"It's reflected in your eyes, you know?"

Rem almost flared up at the provocation, but she felt the rebuke of the "Katyusha in her heart." She nodded back to the imaginary Katyusha who was shouting like a cat, "Stupid, stupid! That's exactly what she wants!", and acknowledged the enemy's skill in using the reflection in her opponent's eyes.

"In that case, please take a very close look!"

Saying so, she encased the returned morning star's iron ball in ice, then more ice, and more ice, doubling its mass again and again until she swung it down as a ten-meter-class block of ice.

"Maybe my provocation worked a bit too well!?"

As the ice block approached, killing the wind with a roar, Yae's voice cracked as she violently swung both hands, slicing, slicing, and slicing the "Morning Ice-Star," dividing and neutralizing its mass. Finally, when only the bare iron ball remained, stripped of its ice, she caught it in front of her chest using a web of threads to disperse the impact, and was bounced forcefully downward. In the direction she was falling—

"This time! Unlike the Royal Capital! I won't! Let you! Escape!"

"Normally! If I! Did that! It would be! My victory! And I'd be gone!"

Emilia and Al were clashing, hurling both words and weapons at each other. Around them floated weapons made of ice and stone respectively, which they swung and traded blows with, regardless of who had created them.

"Ya! Terya! Ei! Uya! Torya! Teiteiteiteiteitei!"

Contrary to her cute shouts, Emilia's offensive was relentless and left no room to breathe. However, Al also struck back at the raining swords, spears, and axes with his own axes, spears, and swords, continuing to hold his ground. Against Emilia, who attacked with acrobatic body movements, Al met her weapons at the shortest distance possible to block them. This, too, was likely the result of "Time Retrospection." He would be hit once, return to before he was hit, and place a weapon where the strike landed. —A repetition of that.

"—Al-sama!"

Yae, who had been knocked down by Rem, caught up to the back-and-forth struggle. Rem realized she had accidentally allowed a two-on-one situation to form. She tried to use a foothold to accelerate her own descent—no,

"Emilia-sama!"

In a split-second decision, instead of catching up herself, Rem altered the angle of the iron ball she had swung down. The iron ball, which was falling at the same speed as Yae (who had dispersed the impact), flew toward the endangered Emilia as if possessed by the spirit of the polished Subaru. She let Emilia grab the chain before Al and Yae's simultaneous attack could reach her.

"U-yaaaa!!"

Using a foothold she had created just before, not to kick off but to brace herself, she performed a "power-lift" on Emilia, who was holding the chain—pulling Emilia up to split the gap between the merging Al and Yae. The two pairs were now separated into upper and lower groups.

"Thank you! She's super-duper tough!"

"You're welcome! I feel the same way!"

Taking Emilia's hand as she rose to the same level, Rem marveled at the enemy's combat strength. Originally, Rem and the others were only supposed to handle Al, but the addition of Yae was too troublesome. Not only did she force them to split their strength, but her own skill was extraordinary. Furthermore, her strength when paired with Al wasn't just addition; it was multiplication.

"Yes, just like me and that person..."

"Eh? Did you just talk about Subaru?"

"My apologies, let's save that for after this is over!"

Responding to the wide-eyed Emilia, Rem passed another mark on the rock wall—confirming they would reach the bottom in sixty seconds, she gritted her teeth. Her previous idea was correct. Yae was tough, and even tougher with Al. To do something about that—

"I'm splitting them. Emilia-sama!"

"Right! Together!"

While holding hands, Emilia pointed her free hand and Rem pointed the hand holding her weapon toward the two below.

"Al—" "—Huma!!"

Two types of Huma were mixed, and with the sound of the atmosphere creaking, ice manifested in mid-air—of course, simply throwing projectiles would just be a repetition of their previous failures. To prevent that, she didn't focus on how the ice appeared, but where.

"—Tch." "Dammit."

Blocked by the spreading ice, the click of a tongue inside the helmet couldn't be heard. But based on the result alone, she was certain he had. The block of ice created by Rem and Emilia—a thin, flat ice plate—was sandwiched between Al and Yae, who had been in an upper-lower positioning, blocking their reunion. The ice plate maintained its strength while expanding to its limit, forming a disk thirty meters in diameter. It was nearly impossible to dive around it to regroup while falling, and because it was made flat, it couldn't be easily cut by threads.

"Al-sa—"

"—Yae, hold them off for a while."

Facing each other across the ice plate, Al below ordered Yae on top of the ice. Seeing this, Rem understood exactly what kind of state of mind Yae had reached. Just as Rem was fighting this battle for Subaru, Yae was the same—

"When someone important expects something of you, it really gets you motivated."

"That's not it."

Yae responded curtly to Rem's understanding. She tucked her knees and spun around, becoming barefoot. Because of its massive size, the ice plate caught extreme wind resistance, causing its falling speed to drop drastically. Yae landed on the ice, and Rem and Emilia landed as well, sandwiching her from the front and back. The barefoot Yae had ten rings on her white toes as well—

"—Once again, magic is such a pain~. I'm grateful for the teachings of the old man back in my village."

"Thank you for the praise. My instructor was a magnificent person."

"Me too. I was taught, 'Lia, just do it freely.'"

"That's the same as my education policy in the village, so Emilia-sama must be the genius type too."

Yae shrugged with a wry smile, looking back and forth between Rem and Emilia who flanked her. Then, she prefaced with, "By the way,"

"The moment I'm here, your plan has failed... Lord Vol will be arriving soon anyway, so why don't we skip the useless back-and-forth and just surrender?"

"No, that's no good. It was a 'big-surprise' that you were here too, but..."

"Rem and the others aren't playing around either. Besides, if you're counting on the 'Divine Dragon,' he won't be coming. —Because our Master is keeping him company."

"...Your opponent is the 'Divine Dragon,' you know? Aren't you expecting a bit too much?"

"Then, do you not have expectations for Al?"

Emilia's question seemed to pierce straight through the tilting Yae. Yae caught her breath with a "mu," and as she exhaled, she wiggled her white fingers and toes, taking a stance. Rem pulled the iron ball close, and Emilia gripped beautiful twin ice swords in both hands. Glancing below the ice plate, the distance between them and Al, who was falling without wind resistance, was widening rapidly. And since Al had told Yae to buy time—

"Emilia-sama, Al-san is..."

"Yeah, I know. We have to hurry, super-fast."

Rem felt a sense of misplaced wonder at the communication that required only a few words. She had never imagined she would be so in sync with Emilia. —That was her thought. Ignoring Rem's inner thoughts, the three on the ice quietly heightened their battle spirit—

"—'Benizakura' Yae Tenzen."

"—'The Witch of Glaciation' Emilia." "—'The Hero's Attendant' Rem."

Having finished their introductions, Rem and Emilia kicked off the ice simultaneously and lunged at Yae. Twenty strands of thread were released from the hands of the crouching Yae as if they were dancing. While striking them down with her chain and magic, Rem challenged the "Benizakura" standing in her way to reach Al beneath the ice.

"Yaaaaa!!"

Rem, shouting as she charged, wasn't just acting tough or putting on a front; she believed. She believed that Ram and the others would handle the "Gluttonies," and that Roswaal and the others would firmly fulfill their roles against the greatest threat, the "Divine Dragon."

For that purpose, she would defeat Yae here and now and reach Al. They passed another mark. Fifty seconds left until the bottom of the Agzad Valley—

—Al watched that beautiful and violent clash on the ice as he fell beneath it.

"I don't think you'll lose, but... don't forget, Orta. There's something I need you to do."

The voice whispered only inside his mouth never reached the top of the ice.

—Aldebaran, who betrayed the Sun, and his accomplices.

The battles against the evil retainers who could trigger the collapse of the world—both the battle against "Gluttony" in the mountains and the battle against Aldebaran in the Agzad Valley—had moved to the next stage. Naturally, the same applied to the third battle, which was expected to be the most grueling.

By the Authority of the "Witch of Melancholy" newly born into this world, the battlefield had been moved to a rocky region where there was no need to worry about collateral damage. There, the usurper who controlled the mighty dragon shell of the "Divine Dragon" Volcanica—known as the guardian of the Kingdom—faced off against the legitimate Dragon Person. In a battle between two entities hiding such immense power, the rocky wilderness, which originally had nothing but stone and sand, grew increasingly desolate, driving away any sign of life. It was truly the devastation expected of a battle with the "Divine Dragon." However—

"—u"

His vision blurred, his consciousness grew hazy, and the ringing in his ears went past being loud to becoming silent. He couldn't tell if his limp limbs were still properly connected to his torso. Every time he took a shallow breath, a pain like a lightning strike ran from the top of his head to his toes—likely proof that broken bones were damaging his insides. Thinking that far, he realized he was lying face down on the hard, rocky ground.

"—!"

Once he understood one thing about his condition, other things became clear. The violent shaking of the earth, the sensation of the sky exploding, and the slight change in the scent of the air were evidence of a drastic environmental shift. Not much time had passed since he fell to the ground. A minute? Thirty seconds?

"Five seconds, Master. Reporting."

The answer to his internal question was delivered accurately, but he lacked the strength to even move his lips into a wry smile. The other party didn't expect an answer—no, they likely weren't in a position to expect one. The shaking of the earth, the explosions in the sky, the upheaval of the atmosphere—the source of it all was the opponent and the one facing them. The battle between the "Dragon" and the Dragon Person was violently reshaping the world like a natural disaster. —And he lay beside that battle, not half-dead, but in a state of roughly ninety percent death and ten percent life.

"————"

He could no longer even hear voices properly. —The life of Roswaal L. Mathers was like a flickering candle in the wind.