Chapter 85 - Hero-dono
"Do you remember, Philia? The day I first rode a horse."
There was no reply.
The High Priest remained silent, watching me out of the corner of her eye.
She wasn't gripping me that tightly, so it wasn't as if she were in too much pain to speak.
Was she afraid, or did she simply have no intention of conversing?
"Back then, you were straddling behind me. You wrapped your arms around my waist and supported my body."
I extended my left hand, using lightning magic to drive away the surrounding griffons.
One that took a direct hit spun like a top as it fell.
Charred feathers scattered, enveloping us.
"Back then, I was head over heels for you. I was just a simple boy, completely captivated by the charm of an older woman."
"...?"
The High Priest frowned.
She looked bewildered, as if wondering what on earth I was saying at a time like this.
"But now, you look younger than me. I don't know what kind of Alchemy that is, but you're a monster that defies the flow of time."
If you tinker with the body, the heart changes too.
The inner self naturally becomes suited to the physical form. I, more than anyone, knew that well.
My vision blurred.
A deep sense of loss welled up at the reality of the woman I once loved having changed so drastically.
"You aren't human anymore. Not on the outside, nor the inside. Why did you go as far as to stop your aging?"
"...Is that something you can say? Someone who has rebuilt almost her entire body with magic, what are you even talking about?"
That's true.
Just as this woman said, I am no longer the former Keisuke Nakamoto.
The arms I grew after being cut off, the legs I fixed after being torn away, the neck I regenerated after being severed.
Surely the man named Keisuke Nakamoto died long ago, and the one here is Hero Keisuke.
A Hero who protects the country must be strong.
I want them to kill even more enemies.
To be sturdy, hardworking, fearless, and incapable of feeling pain.
In short, I am the result of continuously answering the people's wishes to "stop being human."
To put it bluntly, I am not much different from those tetrapods rolling around over there.
Concrete blocks carelessly cast aside to prevent the erosion of the coastline.
A Summoned Hero who continues to silently use his body as a shield to protect humans from the surging waves of monsters.
The only difference is that one is inorganic and the other is organic.
I was never expected to fulfill a human role, nor was I allowed to.
Even so, why was I able to endure it?
It was because I found something precious in this different world.
Elsa was at the forefront of that—and I thought the same for Philia.
Even this woman was included in the things I was supposed to protect.
"The reason I kept fighting even after becoming like this is to maintain a society where you all can live normally and die normally! To protect the lives of people! To protect you, a human, from those monsters! And yet, you went and abandoned your humanity yourself to become a woman who cannot die!"
The priest Philia I once admired is nowhere to be found.
The one here is the cold-blooded, immortal High Priest-sama.
Feeling fed up, I pulled the reins.
The Pegasus obeyed my forceful demand and changed its course toward the ground.
To avoid involving Rio, I made it run in the exact opposite direction of where he was.
From the High Priest's perspective, she had completely lost the initiative.
She surely intended to slaughter Rio along with me, but her plan was being ruined.
"You look frustrated."
The High Priest glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
Looking toward her right hand, she had begun generating Divine Sphere once again.
It was likely to avoid involving herself. She was adjusting the power, keeping it about the size of a soccer ball.
Of course, I am not one to take a direct hit in silence.
I immediately severed my right arm in an attempt to neutralize her.
"...Ah, ku...!"
A suppressed scream leaked out, and the severed arm fell away.
But it was instantly regenerated by Recovery Magic, and a new forearm appeared.
What would I do if I were in the High Priest's position?
Having an opponent who far surpasses you in physical ability take your rear, and being interrupted every time you try to use magic. My remaining MP is unreliable.
There is only one way to break out of this state. To put distance between us.
And then, I have no choice but to aim for a reversal with a massive technique fueled by my remaining mana.
It is easy to predict the actions of a human whose options have been narrowed.
That is why I deliberately loosened the arm that was pinning the High Priest down.
I made it look as if my strength had naturally slipped away while I was merely controlling my posture.
"...!"
The High Priest fell straight into the trap.
"This is goodbye."
She shook off my arm and leapt from the Pegasus.
She likely intended to use the momentum of her fall to put distance between us.
Giant spheres of light had already formed in both her hands.
By firing them at me while I was in the air, she was trying to change the tide.
A long-range attack while falling. Even if she missed, the massive flash would serve as a distraction.
If I could put even more distance between us during that gap, I might even be able to prepare my escape.
It was a stable move, aiming for two advantages with a single action.
But that was exactly what proved fatal.
"...What!?"
I leapt from the Pegasus and attempted to charge toward the High Priest.
From her perspective, it must have looked like I had gone out of my way to fly into her range.
However, the current me is a being that moves under entirely different laws of physics, permitted up to twenty-one actions simultaneously.
Even if Divine Sphere were fired right in front of my eyes—no, precisely because it was right in front of my eyes—
A pure white aurora enveloped us.
A massive torrent of mana swallowed the three of us, incinerating everything.
Me, the High Priest, and another High Priest.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
With a wet, thudding sound, two embers were slammed into the ground.
A moment later, I landed as well.
Just before the High Priest could release her full-power Divine Sphere, I had sliced her in two.
Immediately after, I applied healing and multiplied her.
In the High Priest's perception, it likely felt as if her consciousness had only flickered for a single instant.
But in that interval, another High Priest had been born, poised with a maximum-output spell.
All that remained was to move her while falling into a position where she would face the other High Priest.
Since I am capable of twenty-one actions, I can process these tasks in an instant.
What awaited after the setup was complete was a duel of Divine Spheres between two High Priests.
I had predicted that a fight to the death between the same person would be treated as suicide.
And I had won that gamble.
One of the High Priests was thrown onto the ground, not moving a muscle.
I approached and tried to take her pulse, but it had completely stopped.
Time reversal had not activated. There was no mistake. It was being treated as suicide.
"A... a..."
The other High Priest was barely breathing, though she was charred black.
Both legs had been blown off, her left arm was lost, and the way she crawled along with only her right hand was nothing short of pitiful.
I stole a glance at her face.
I could see that her lower jaw had been blown away, leaving neither teeth nor tongue.
It would be impossible for her to utter words. There was no fear that she would chant Recovery Magic to regenerate her body.
All that remained was an ember waiting for death.
A creature that could only emit wordless groans and crawl like a maggot.
"...U, a, ah..."
I could no longer bear to watch.
But I could not deliver the finishing blow.
If I did such a thing, I would be the one who killed her.
If that happened, time reversal would activate, and everything would be ruined.
I had no choice but to stand a short distance away like this and witness the High Priest's passing.
"...Uuaoo, uuaoo."
The High Priest was making some kind of groaning sound.
Using non-human words, she was desperately trying to weave together meaningful sounds.
Uuaoo.
Uuaoo.
I understood what that meant.
Hero-dono.
Hero-dono.
That was what the High Priest was repeating.
"Uuaoo..."
Her outstretched arm was grasping at empty space.
She was in a wretched state.
Not a single strand of that once-lustrous silver hair remained.
Her exposed scalp emitted a foul stench, and parts of her skull were visible.
Her eyeballs had melted away, and thick, turbid liquid flowed from her eye sockets.
The other parts of her body were much the same. She no longer looked like a woman, nor a human.
Yet, strangely, only her ears retained their original shape.
Come to think of it, I had heard that hearing is the last sense to remain before a person dies.
I wonder if there is some connection to that?
I slowly walked toward the High Priest.
I crouched down and spoke to the dying woman crawling on the ground.
"I am here."
I spoke to her, as if to say, You're looking for me, aren't you?
The mass of flesh that had been the High Priest seemed to wear a smile, if it wasn't just my imagination. It would be difficult if someone asked how she could do that without a jaw, but that is certainly how I felt.
Repeating "uuaoo, uuaoo," the High Priest reached out her arm happily.
Her right hand was charred and smelled of burning, with melted skin clinging to it. I gently took it, to reassure her.
"Come to think of it, I missed hearing your answer. Why did you modify your body? Wanting to stay young forever might be a woman's instinct, but even so, you went too far."
"Ah— eu-aa—."
The High Priest's breathing was gradually becoming shallower. The end was near.
"Even without doing something like that, I'm sure you would have aged beautifully."
"Ua— aa—. U-uoi-tto."
"...Sorry. I don't understand what you're saying."
"Uuaoo, u-uoi-tto."
"...I see. That was, 'Hero-dono, stay with me forever,' wasn't it?"
As if satisfied, the High Priest's right hand slipped from my grasp.
With a weak movement, she slumped to the ground, and her life rapidly ebbed away.
From a person to an object. The High Priest was turning into a corpse.
Ah, it's ending.
It is about to end.
The karma that bound me to this different world, the symbol of my youth—all of it was about to be settled now.
"...Farewell."
The High Priest seemed to nod just once at the very end.
I didn't know what was being affirmed, but in that single moment, I felt as if she had returned to the Philia I had just met.