Good Seeks Its Own Kind, but So Does Evil - Part 3 (finale)

I was grabbed by my neck by a strong iron fist, instantly cutting off the blood to my head.

I was shaking, gasping for air, my feet not touching the ground.

With that force, he could’ve ripped my head off…

“Foolish kid!” Magne bellowed, holding me up like a freshly caught fish.

He caught the cleaver too. A grin spread across his face until his eyes were barely visible.

His wounds were consumed by the dark again, along with the arrow Adiel had fired.

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a huff.

“Hm? What now?” he loosened his grip a little, but I still felt like I was falling apart.

“W-Who are you calling a kid…? I’m your age!”

“Is that supposed to be a reprieve to you?” he held the tip of his cleaver inches from my eyes. “You’re merely playing around, never held a real weapon in your life! But I? I was born for war! To kill the likes of you without a second thought!”

“Let go!” Lupa snarled at him, hoping to subdue him by hitting us with her shield.

But then I saw murderous joy on Magne’s face as he tapped his fingers on the cleaver.

“No, Lupa!”

He swung his weapon brutally, and I almost went deaf when he hit the shield.

Lupa fell back, the shield landing a short distance away, with a long crack in it.

“Shut up, all of you!” he turned to the others, fear in their eyes. “I want to hear his last words!”

“That’s… funny,” I groaned as his attention returned to me. “B-Berro called you… something like that. Not a kid, but… a hot-blooded brat.”

His eyes almost popped out as his shrunken pupils fixed on me, his grip strengthening to the point I almost fainted.

He remembers. All that humiliation.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

“Berro was right… You’re really a hot-headed brat…”

I coughed up blood, just as I saw him get madder than before.

With a jolt, he hurled me into the air like a baseball.

Suspended midair once more, my limbs went numb.

Everything was blurry, and I heard muffled screams and immense laughter before glimpsing a silhouette below me with a huge cleaver.

Then everything went black, and the only thing I felt was immeasurable pain as Magne slashed my stomach.

◆ ◆ ◆

I woke up dizzy, with a terrible shrill in my ears, as if I had just woken from a coma.

My throat was burning, and I felt pain in my chest spreading across my limbs, making them shake involuntarily.

“Don’t move!” I was held down by two pairs of hands, and then some cold liquid went down my throat, the unfamiliar taste making me want to cough so badly.

Focusing, I found that Rumel and Mineruva were kneeling in front of me. We were probably on one of those floating platforms, as I heard Lupa and Adiel fighting below me.

Not a second passed and I started coughing violently, desperate to ask one question.

“Why am I still alive?”

He slashed me! Normally I would’ve died instantly, logged out of the app most likely, yet I was still here.

“We caught you,” Rumel calmed me.

“And healed you with tea,” our goddess said, holding a little flask, now empty. “I’ve magically increased its potency to keep you alive.”

“But he… killed me…”

As the blood flow returned to my arms, I touched my stomach. My clothes were torn, belts ripped out, and there was a huge red tear underneath. But it didn’t hurt, in fact I felt as if that liquid was healing the wound from the inside.

But still, what am I doing here? I have to help the others fight!

Mineruva gently lowered the platform and they helped me off.

“So you live,” Magne caught the movement with glee. “No matter, I’ll kill you as many times as I like!”

He twirled his cleaver, making a deep swooshing sound, raising it above him.

“Brace yourselves!” Mineruva shouted, as Lupa and Adiel ran behind our barrier, weakened and exhausted from the fight.

Just in time, as Magne slammed the dark weapon into the ground. Everything around us shook as the castle’s wall detonated, the floor cracking and sinking down like a crater.

“I didn’t care who was executed!” the man bellowed like a lion, preying on Rumel. “Nor who was robbed by that cloaked thug! Not if there was more people who could finally see my greatness!”

“Your greatness?!” Lupa shouted, clutching her side in pain. “With a false war?!”

His sharp eyes flared from the audacity.

“The Empire must show strength, girl! You should see it too, after what happened in the North! Those barbarian rats are unworthy to be left alive!”

He pointed to the castle.

“The peacenik dogs would never have seen it if they hadn’t been given an ultimatum! But now, thanks to me, we’re ready to take over the North and become the most powerful realm in the world!”

I coughed hard, still hurt, leaning lightly on Rumel’s shoulder.

“You did nothing to achieve this. Silaghi did everything for you. Do you know what’s this called? A shortcut.”

I managed to piss him off even more with that.

He stomped once, and the smoldering darkness picked a whole boulder out of the ground, which he threw at us in one leap.

Mineruva flinched as the boulder burst into the barrier, causing a huge crack before falling to small pebbles in front of us.

“She was the only one who listened!” he roared, face twisted. “When the dogs turned away from my greatness, she acknowledged it! She told me how to get rid of the worthless like those three… and also told me some prigs would try to stop me.”

I could barely make out the things around me, it was so tiring to focus with my newly gained senses. I wasn’t strong enough to fight yet, but there was no time to heal.

This battering ram of a madman was about to come at us, and we had no idea how to stop him.

I could only trust what I had learned so far, and that was very little.

It didn’t matter how fast he was, the point was his weapon. When he held it, he was invincible against anything.

That cleaver was completely different weapon from what we had. It came back to him on its own, not like a boomerang, but as if it had a mind.

And then, almost in the blink of an eye, I finally understood.

Between two steps, as our doom approached, the cleaver began to resonate.

As if I could see waves on the water, it vibrated, quivering amorphously. Just like when I tried to slice it midair.

That cleaver is controlled by Silaghi’s will.

While the Birdman was just a puppet following orders, Magne wasn’t being commanded by anyone, so she must’ve provided him with a weapon that was tied to her own self.

But why? A token of their cooperation? Or like a leash? Think! THINK!

I ran up to Mineruva, grabbed her arm without weakening our defense. She gaped at me in surprise, at my firmness.

“We must separate him from that thing!” I said hoarsely as the others listened too. “It’s hers, she controls it!”

Suddenly it seemed as if a ton of truths had fallen on the poor girl, and time was pressing. She couldn’t even ask questions anymore, seconds from our end.

Yet something similar must’ve been going on in her mind too, for she had made a decision.

“I’ll handle it! Stay here!”

She alone?!

“Wait, you—”

I couldn’t finish.

Mineruva lunged straight ahead, her steps thundering, the magical wall moving with her, straight at Magne.

BANG!

There was a great thud as the wall pushed him back a couple dozen meters.

He landed on his feet, face contorted, but Mineruva couldn’t care less about feelings now. She flew up into the air, out over the battlements, above the crashing waves.

She raised the Soul Index, giving Magne a bait.

“Come forth, Tanukis!”

The jewel glowed, and about twenty enraged giant Tanukis began to fall like a meteor strike as if they had already known who our target was.

“HA! YOU WON’T FOOL ME AGAIN!”

Unbelievably, Magne was only focusing at her in the air, not even caring about us.

Good. Lupa, Adiel and I were ready to fight, while Rumel was waiting for the staff’s cooldown to use it again.

Come on, throw it!

The man tightened his arms and swung the cleaver with sadistic joy, like a whip.

I couldn’t believe it, but the moment had come.

Knowing the Tanukis couldn’t hurt him, he instantly aimed at Mineruva.

If he knocks her out, so goes our distraction and the strongest member of our team.

He took the bait, and with a final deep swing, threw the dark weapon.

It was going at rocket-speed, but not hurling like a regular projectile.

It pursued the target.

Silaghi must’ve targeted Mineruva eagerly, as the cleaver began morphing into something shapeless.

It went through the Tanukis, not even touching them, drawing near Mineruva.

At the last moment, she ducked and flew away, calling back the spirits into the Soul Index.

The guy then opened his grip with crazy eyes and waited for the cleaver to return to him, not even realizing he just made everything easier for us.

“Let’s go help!” I urged our friends as I rushed forward, light footed, precise as I had been taught by Akemi.

With Axis Negative in one hand, I surprised Magne from the side.

“YOU?!”

He didn’t have to do anything beyond being confused, I already knew what to do.

I was weak, but I stabbed where it hurt him the most.

This warmonger will regret everything he said, I’ll make sure of it.

In a single heartbeat, I chopped off the hand he reached up with, so he couldn’t catch the cleaver.

He cried out in pain, the wildest I ever heard.

All I could see was that the place where his hand had been was now glowing red, while the severed part landed farther away.

He tried to seize me again, but I didn’t make that mistake twice, and managed to slice off his other hand too, which was almost at my throat.

It was still moving as it fell to the ground.

Lupa, meanwhile, came up behind him and hit his temple with a well-aimed shield, throwing him off balance.

I was almost back to Rumel when I heard another slash.

The knight-girl was fleeing behind me, her sword missing.

Looking away, I realized where it was.

She stabbed it through Magne’s neck and left it in.

“You… will pay…” he gurgled, wounds glowing red, about to begin another charge, but too late!

Adiel then tightened the bowstring, eyes flashing green as she took aim, then shot one last arrow, right between the man’s eyes.

Normally, like five minutes ago, he would’ve simply ripped it out, but now almost instantly the massive muscular body fell backwards, and Lupa’s sword drove deeper into his throat.

“It works now!” Rumel cheered as the staff began to sparkle with blue light again. “Now for the mightiest, TERAPUS OLUS!”

The arrow began to burn into his head, and there was no escape now.

He remained still, weak, and the darkness was already starting to heal him, slowly growing him a new set of hands, but our attack wasn’t over.

Then came Mineruva’s final trick.

While we were weakening him, she was raising magical walls from the air, on as many sides as possible. There must’ve been about fifteen of them.

As we finished, each wall crashed down to the ground side by side, and like pieces of a puzzle, joined together to form one huge shell that no one could get in or out of.

Best of all? The sentient cleaver was stuck outside!

Silaghi understood this too late, and as soon as the shell was sealed, the smoking mass of darkness stuck to its wall. It thumped and punched to get to Magne.

Mineruva landed between us, nearly collapsing from exhaustion, but she held it all together for this one final move.

Yellow bolts of lightning shook the outside of the shell, agitating and wounding the dark magic.

SCREEECH!

In the midst of powerful, thundering discharges, a twisted horror settled over Magne’s face, for he now knew that in moments it would all be over, and nothing would heal him now.

“HELP ME!” he shouted to the Demon. “DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING!”

The yellow lightning then engulfed and destroyed the dark magic, and the shell exploded, taking Magne with it.

◆ ◆ ◆

We could barely hold steady amid the shockwaves—maybe even the castle’s foundation was weakening.

In the heart of the blinding explosion, a massive cloud of ash covered everything, and in the sudden dimness, I couldn’t see anything.

When everything had settled down, I began looking for the others in the clouds of dust.

“Are you guys all right?!”

“Yes!”

“Did it work?”

One by one came the coughing, but reassuring replies.

The dry dust had just given me a coughing fit, but I let out a relieved sigh, as everyone appeared fine.

We managed to survive, having one less maniacal enemy.

As the bastions and Tessal in the distance became visible again, I peered at the shallow but wide crater ahead.

In the middle, where the magical shell had been, now lay only a motionless figure.

CHIME!

CHIME!

What’s this now…

«Status Log: Entity #23099525, ‘Theo Nero Magne’ has died»

«Status Log: Soul transfer initiated, awaiting System’s protocol»

Wait…

I’ve never seen a Status Log message before, but in retrospect I was glad I haven’t.

According to this, such a notification appears when a character marked as a Favorite has died.

From this point on, this was the top thing that I never wanted to come across unless it was a villain.

Slowly but surely, we brushed ourselves off, recovering from the fight. Though, coping with what happened in the past ten minutes wasn’t easy for me in the least.

The military general of the Tessalian Empire was no more, and not just thanks to what we had done to him.

No, it was also thanks to what he had done to himself, by his own wrong decisions and ill desires.

I felt bad for him, in all honesty, because others must have respected him for what he appeared to be, what he embodied—instead of what he actually was inside.

This guy should never have fallen so far.

Then, as I was pondering, someone approached, making me shudder.

“This isn’t normal, is it?” Mineruva stepped up next to me, a little wobbly, but nothing major. “I mean, this sort of thing in your world.”

“Just the magic. But the bad decisions, fighting, wars, explosions… Earth isn’t different from Leclaire in that sense.”

She rested her head against my shoulder, huffing.

Away from us, Lupa was sizing up the two girls.

“Did he hurt you? Or scare you?”

“A bit, but I’d have clawed his face to shreds if he tried!”

Yeah, that was a Rumel answer.

“My eyes and arms are tired of the constant aiming and firing. I could use a nap.”

“If you two get back, Tara-sama will probably let you go to bed early,” the knight reassured them with a smile.

Looks like things will be fine for a while, plus in the real world it might be about the time Sachi was on her way to Tokyo by train.

Everything was ready for me to log out, but as the stormy sky began to rumble and thunder overhead, I decided it was the safest for them that I stayed a bit longer.

If I left early, who would protect them from Silaghi?

With fingers on the hilt of my sword, I saw what was happening above the Capitol.

I bet we’ve all seen storm clouds in our lives pretty often.

In a normal storm cloud, lightning gives off light, as its name suggests, rather than absorbing every light around it like the ones above us did. The bolts were dark purple, emitting a lightless void. Also, while normal lightning’s probably as hot as a flamethrower, this was bitter cold.

The snaking lightning crashed down directly in front of us, just behind the crater. Upon impact they actually didn’t make much sound, as if it was a vacuum.

As they struck, a vague form began to walk toward us, morphing into a tall shape of a woman, and as she stepped closer, the shadows around her vanished.

At last, I finally met face-to-face with the one behind it all.

Silaghi was dressed in all black, as if her entire personality was embodied in this one color. Her boots thumped on the pebbles, her vest and long black hair blew in the wind, along with a hat that was twice as broad as her head.

Only her eyes glowed, in the same purple as her magic and the lightning that always signaled her presence.

She smiled faintly, and only up close could I see that she held two identical axes engraved with runes.

This woman was the embodiment of lethal elegance.

Taking a glance around, she noted the traces of the explosion and also four of Magne’s soldiers peacefully slumbering.

“So this is what you achieved. Stunning. I had hoped it would take much longer, and that more of you would die in the process.”

Silaghi’s voice was deep just as I heard in the vision, but gentler than expected, which freaked me out.

Adiel and Rumel were ushered back, the three of us defending in case she was thinking of doing something nasty.

“Drop that face. I’m not here to fight, unless you absolutely want to try me.”

I hadn’t even gotten to doubting why she didn’t attack in the very second she saw us, when something felt off about how she was walking.

Her steps were steady. She didn’t take longer ones, boots kept close to the ground. Yet she kept her composure, her pride, measuring us.

Was she thinking what would happen if we attacked?

“You must be in pain too.” I concluded.

She pointed one axe at me.

“You’re clever Michio-kun… I owe this pain to Mineruva.”

First she knows I’m the Creator, and now it’s my real name.

It was probably my Master Profile, as she could read it, which reminded me of something.

It took only a second, but I had to take a look. With her in sight, I opened her profile, hoping to find something useful there.

No such luck anymore.

The panel was empty, and was also glitching, as some parts of it faded in and out.

Why’s there no profile? Is it corrupted like her? Or did she delete the info herself?

I closed it, trying to not stress over it. I didn’t get ahead in the least.

Meanwhile, Mineruva smirked at the Demon, expressing subtle anger.

“Oh, so it hurt? Good! I’d do it anytime for an old friend.”

Silaghi groaned in frustration, instantly annoyed by the familiar face among us.

“That cleaver had a lot of my magic and will in it, you know. You quite literally ripped a part out of me by destroying it.”

“What about Magne?” Lupa asked. “Wasn’t he as important to you as he bragged?”

There came a reserved laugh.

“Don’t think this was about him. Not in the least,” she turned to the figure on the ground. “We had the same ambitions, thus I acknowledged him as an ally and helped him. Nonetheless, he was simply one investment among many.”

Then Silaghi swung one hand lightly, and the axe stabbed straight into Magne’s body, the runes glowing purple.

Magne seemed to shudder a little, making me fear she’d reanimate him. Instead, when she ripped it out, the twitching stopped and the body went limp again.

Silaghi then let out a big groan, as if taking a breath for the first time, as something surged through her.

Another message appeared.

«ERROR, Soul transfer interrupted, ERROR»

No way she just caused that!

“Since you killed him, the investment would’ve been a total loss. But luckily, I can claim his soul in time before the System gets it. At least salvaging a small profit from a loss.”

“His soul?!”

You’re a damn Grim Reaper…

She shouldered one axe like it was a bag of laundry.

“That’s what I came for. But now I’ve exposed what these two pretties can do, so perhaps it’ll serve as a good lesson if you dare cross paths with me again. You’ll lose your soul, no matter what world you come from.”

This had to be a bluff, or else we were in huge trouble.

I knew from the start that I couldn’t die for real as an avatar. Pain was the same, make no mistake, as now I was grateful that I still had legs to stand on, but there was still log-out.

This gal though, a literal Demon, was out here collecting souls, having centuries of years of experience in the process.

The fact that you could actually lose your soul in a virtual world was too much.

But she wasn’t here to fight, nor to collect any souls beyond Magne’s.

She just came to introduce herself properly.

I couldn’t go on without asking.

“Why are you so calm?! I’ve seen no villains or bosses like this! That poor guy there only needed to be provoked and he wouldn’t shut up, but you…”

“Yeah, she’s a lunatic,” Mineruva looked up at me, seeing I couldn’t find the right words.

Silaghi lowered her head a bit, grinning.

“You may not have met a real Demon in your world, Michio-kun, but let me tell you, our kind doesn’t lie. A Demon is the very embodiment of the sad truth that others deny, and I’m no different. I’m not worried, as I always tell the sad truth.”

Raising a hand, dark lightning struck from the stormy clouds above.

The woman smiled, wholeheartedly, and if I hadn’t seen the deviousness in her eyes, and known she was a murderer, I might even have thought she was caring.

“I’m a bearer of facts, despite my comrades died because of liars like Magne. The sad fact that you don’t know yet, is that Leclaire’s System is faulty, like any other system. There are always loopholes and errors.”

Darkness surrounded her again, and her body began to disintegrate, as if a thousand leaves had been blown away by the wind, and her ominous, booming voice returned.

“That’s why I’ll tear it all down, to fix it.”

Why is this wording so familiar…?

System, errors, fixing.

Does Silaghi think she’s some kind of twisted gamedev on her own?

But like, while I fix games, she fixes the world?

In the midst of all the chaos, the last fragments of her face disappeared, leaving nothing behind as we were left alone again.

Soon after, even the storm and wind had passed, revealing the blue, early-afternoon sky with the sunshine I had missed so much.