End Game - Part 1

After riding atop the magical beast for a while, I finally reached the other side of the sea, to what was once known as the cradle of Japanese civilization: the Kyushu region. Now, however, after the attack carried out by the Beast King ten years ago, it had been left completely devastated.

No matter where I looked, all that could be seen in the surroundings were debris and ruins of what had once been prosperous towns and cities. In addition, magical beasts could also be seen; they were varied, a sight that would naturally be impossible. It was something that even surprised me.

After dismounting from my means of transport, I walked without a clear destination, venturing deeper into the territory. I thought the monsters would be a problem, but none of them attacked me. In fact, they did not even bother to look at me. I did not waste that opportunity and advanced as far as I could.

I did not know exactly where to go, but I had a hunch, and eventually, I reached my destination. Fukuoka, capital of the prefecture of the same name, and where it is said the dragon that gave rise to all of this fell almost a hundred years ago. An event so important in the history of humanity that, even today, it continues to cause problems.

I entered the devastated city. The buildings and houses barely seemed to be standing, and nature was already doing its work, reclaiming what had once been hers and covering much of the ruins in green.

Despite the large number of magical beasts, everything seemed calm. I thought I might have been mistaken, but then a distant whistle caught my attention. There he was.

“I’m glad you decided to come,” he said in a relaxed tone.

Without wasting a single second, I pulled my weapon from my inventory, transformed it into its spear form, and pointed it in his direction. I was not going to let him escape. Tonight, everything would end.

The magical beasts in the area began to move, but contrary to what I had imagined, they did not attack me; instead, they merely surrounded the area. They looked like some kind of improvised audience.

Once I confirmed that they would not attack, I lunged at the Beast King with my spear, but he dodged it with a leap to the side. Even so, I did not stop there and continued attacking relentlessly; my idea was to overwhelm him with as many attacks as I could land, but it was not enough.

The Beast King dodged every one of my thrusts as if it were a game. It was frustrating, but I tried to take advantage of it.

In one of my attacks, I predicted the trajectory of his jump and struck, and when it seemed that I would finally land a blow, the Beast King pulled what looked like a dagger from his trench coat and deflected my thrust, then kicked me to put some distance between us.

The impact of his kick was quite strong, but nothing I could not handle.

I wanted to finish this quickly. I did not want to drag it out any longer than necessary, but there was something that deeply bothered me, and I needed answers.

“Why?” I asked. “Why kill her?”

The Beast King looked at me in confusion, as if it was difficult for him to understand my affection for Mom, so I continued speaking.

“It’s thanks to her that we’re still alive, even after disobeying orders. I knew her, I know she was strict, but she was a very warm person… She was the closest thing to a mother we had.”

“That’s precisely the problem… letting us live.”

My opponent, visibly more irritated, lunged at me with his dagger, to which I responded by transforming my weapon into a dagger as well to receive the attack.

“We were brought into this world to serve as mere vessels for others… but we couldn’t even do that!” he roared angrily. “They didn’t do us a favor by freeing us, they only condemned us to a life without purpose!”

The speed of the Beast King’s attacks increased as time went on, and it became harder and harder for me to keep up, occasionally taking some cuts that tore through my trench coat and reached my skin. They were superficial, but they would become serious wounds if I let my guard down.

“I traveled all over the country searching for something to fill my existence, but all I saw was humanity’s two-faced nature! They trampled over one another just to stand out, caring about nothing but themselves!”

At that moment, I managed to create some distance from my opponent with a large leap backward. Then, he continued explaining.

“And I… only felt loneliness and emptiness from my purposeless existence. But then I understood what I was… Not a human, but a magical beast, and as such, I had to wipe out that damned race. That was the purpose I gave myself!”

The fight resumed after that. Now he was not only attacking with his dagger, but occasionally tried to strike me as well, managing to land a blow with his arm when I had dodged one of his slashes. I tried to do the same, but the difference in strength between us was considerable, not to mention that he, being faster, had no trouble repelling or evading my attacks.

“Accept what you are. You’re nothing more than a monster trying to look human. You even stole an actor’s name just to feel normal.”

The more he said about me, the more agitated I became, precisely because I knew it was true. I do not need a filter mask in the mist domes; I can breathe without any problem. I do not use the mana in the environment like the others; I generate my own mana. And my name… it was not even mine, really.

Hearing such a barrage of facts, I remembered how they looked at me and locked me up as a mere laboratory subject when they learned who… what I was. They were the same eyes people had when they looked at a magical beast, something that should not even exist in their eyes.

“Shut up!” I roared, trying to rid myself of those thoughts.

I kept attacking as I accelerated the pace of my thrusts, each one filled with more fury than the last, but I let my guard down. The Beast King took advantage of an opening in my defense and knocked me down, grabbing my head and slamming it hard against the ground.

“Well, it doesn’t matter whether you accept it or not. All I need now is to devour you.”

“W-what?” I asked with great difficulty.

“Did you know that dragons grew stronger by devouring other monsters? That was especially effective with their own kind. It wasn’t common, but it happened.”

Upon hearing that explanation, I was horrified by a possibility that arose in my mind. The Beast King was incredibly strong; now he did not even seem to be using half of his power. But how had he become so strong? I had been training for years, and even so, I could not keep up with him.

If the explanation he gave was correct, and given that we were made from the remains of the dragon that fell, then…

“What… did you do?”

“You already have an idea, don’t you?”

He… devoured the rest of the clones Mom had freed. That revelation left me speechless.

Imagining how the other clones… people in the same situation as me, suffered while being devoured by this lunatic was a true nightmare. I could do nothing against this man.

“And you are the last one,” he said as he approached me, opening his jaw and revealing incredibly sharp teeth.

I thought it was my end. My mind was still in shock after discovering the fate of the other clones; I was not thinking clearly, and when I believed the moment of my death had finally arrived, the Beast King noticed something approaching and jumped, dodging what seemed to be a magical attack that passed over me.

“How annoying…”

By checking the direction from which the attack had come, I could see an army of hunters, from all the guilds, arriving at the battlefield. They all looked ready to fight.

The Beast King, surprised and annoyed in equal measure, ordered his magical beasts to attack, thus beginning a full-scale battle. He wanted to finish me off once and for all, but then—

“Now!”

Kenshi appeared, ramming into the Beast King and sending him flying several meters away. It seemed he had reinforced his attack with mana. He ran after him to continue attacking, and when I was about to stand up to continue, someone grabbed me and dragged me away.

“This way!” they exclaimed urgently.

It was Touka, who took me to an area removed from the chaos of the battlefield and gave me a determined look, one I had never seen on her before.

“Yu… we need to talk.”