The Sage of Spirits I

“Zero, what are you doing here?”

He looks better than he had when we reached the Demon King’s Castle. As if that fight had never even happened. As if we had never lost. I had thought it was the demons, but it must’ve been him. Zero must have been the one to tell the soldiers I had died. He decided I had died. Though it’s not something I can hold against him. In that situation I would have thought the same thing. And I should be dead anyway. But I still don’t know what to make of this meeting. I can’t understand why he would stop here for so long.

“I was waiting for you, Dust.”

He smiles at me, nothing about him having changed. His pale hair is well maintained, his pale skin is unblemished, his frail body is hidden inside layers and layers of fine robes and regalia. He still blocks out the sun with his parasol, and he still looks at me with one piercing blue eye, the other covered by a thin black cloth hanging in front of it.

“I told you to run.”

“And I did. I ran all the way here.”

“You could have gotten back to the capital by now.”

“Can’t a man rest, Dust? That’s your problem, you know. Always working is bad for you.”

“Why were you waiting for me, Zero? I was a dead man.”

“I believed in you.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“I couldn’t bring myself to go home without you.”

“I said not to lie!”

“I wouldn’t have been able to face Alice if I couldn’t bring your body back to her.”

And he still wants to scold me for always working myself so hard. He’s just as bad. He’s worse than me. Even after that loss, even after fighting an enemy even Ascalade couldn’t defeat, he was still working for the sake of others. He would have gone back to the Demon King’s Castle on his own. He would have stolen my body back. He really would have done it if I hadn’t shown up here. He would have thrown himself back in there. He would have killed himself there. And for what?

“Just abandon us! Aren’t you supposed to be smart!”

“Shut up, you moron! Don’t tell me what to do when you’re that stupid!”

“I never asked you to take care of my body! I never asked you to take care of Alice! Stop butting in where you aren’t wanted!”

“I told you to shut up! I do whatever I want!”

“I told you to run away! You were supposed to go back home!”

“And you were supposed to be dead, but here we are! Quit whining!”

“I’m not whining!”

“You’re still alive, so just shut up for a second!” I really do stop. I just had a feeling that I really should stop. “If you’re still alive then nothing is over. The hero is still here. The holy sword is still here. So we still have plenty of options. Let’s make a plan.”

“I already have a plan.”

“No you don’t. I’m not letting you do whatever it is you want to do. Now then, let’s talk about the Demon King.”

“He was just stronger than us. I don’t know what else you want to talk about.”

“Sure, he was stronger than us, but I feel like there’s more to it than that. Even before he started fighting us, he seemed sure we couldn’t win. Even though you have Ascalade.”

“We just weren’t enough. Even with Ascalade.”

“We really weren’t. But there’s more to it. There’s still the question of why we weren’t enough. Have you heard of soul splitting?”

“Maybe? You might have mentioned it once.”

“Well, it seems you don’t know what it is. Simply put, soul splitting is a forbidden technique that one can use to increase their strength, if they’re smart about it. In essence, when people fight, or use magic, or whatever, our souls get stronger, just like with muscles. This is why you’re so much stronger than a normal person even though you’re built like any other soldier might be. Soul splitting greatly speeds up this process. A person splits their soul into parts and places those parts into bodies they prepared. Then they create a magical link with those bodies and set them loose. The links constantly transmit power back to the original body, equal to the amount of power in the split body. Some people have tried to use this just for fighting, since it doubles the amount of power you split off, one in the body and one in you. However, its true value is in strengthening yourself. You send out the split bodies and have them gain strength, meaning you gain strength at the rate of however many bodies you make.”

“So you think the Demon King is using that technique and that’s why we weren’t strong enough? But how is that supposed to help us?”

“There’s a risk to soul splitting, though not the one that made it forbidden. When you kill those split bodies, usually the soul will just return to the original through the link. However, if you sever the link at the same time, then the soul can’t return. The original permanently loses whatever power that soul had accrued. Ah, you don’t need to worry about severing the link, either. If I’m right, then Ascalade turning demons into shadows is enough to sever the link.”

“So you’re saying that we need to kill these split bodies ourselves? What do you think they are?”

“Ah, well… My current theory is that every demon under the Demon King’s control is a split body. That’s why they’ll all disappear if we kill the Demon King, and why they slowly reappear over time until his revival. But in terms of what we should be doing, I think it’s the Seven Princes of Evil we should go after. Based on the one that we fought, I think you’ll become stronger than the Demon King if we take the rest out.”

“And how long will that take?”

“I don’t know.”

“I can’t waste our time with an uncertain plan, Zero.”

“It’s not uncertain. I’m the one saying it, after all.”

“Zero, let’s fight.”

“That’s no fair, Dust. But come at me. If I have to win then I’ll win.”