Chapter 640 — Arc 9, Chapter 52 – “Aldebaran Ⅰ”

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Witch: [――There is nobody who can defeat you, you whom I created.]

Aldebaran recalled the Witch imparting those words upon him as if it were yesterday.

In real time, it would have been close to twenty years ago, but in terms of perceived time, it was a completely different order of magnitude.

Even if he remembered the number of attempts he had needed for individual deadlocks, he had not memorized the total number of attempts he had taken across everything; not to mention, the amount of time that had passed throughout all of that would have been so outrageous that he did not want to even think about it. Only, it was an absolute truth that he was expending far more time than a single lifetime would usually allow.

Be that as it may, even after going through all that time, it would be incorrect to assume that Aldebaran had reached the same mental state as the elves who lived for hundreds of years in perennial youth.

If the human mind was something that started out as immature before eventually maturing enough to reach a state of aged wisdom, that was because the passage of time would allow one to experience both the sweet and the sour, granting the mind ample room to grow.

But, all the time Aldebaran spent outside the passage of actual time was, so to speak, a series of stagnant moments used to break through whatever difficulty was laid before his eyes. In practice, those would range from a few seconds to a few minutes at most, and just by repeating those small intervals countless times, a human could not hope to grow.

Ergo, Aldebaran believed that the accumulation of time repeated by his Authority was time spent in futility, something that only ever served to abrade his heart, and never to foster its growth.

Even if it was time spent in such futility, when it got to the point of repeating several hundreds, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of times, the brain would automatically begin filtering memories, attempting to rob Aldebaran of his genuine recollections.

Nevertheless, there certainly existed memories that did not fade; recollections that, rather than his brain, seemed to be etched into his very soul, and the aforementioned words were undoubtedly among them.

But then again, if in addition to already lacking memories of all the time he had lived, Aldebaran were to also say that he did not even wish to remember all of it, he could picture that Witch, the very incarnation of a curiosity who eagerly wanted to know everything, quietly muttering to herself “I see, what a shame”.

Although she boasted that she could not understand emotions, the Witch was an expert at putting on an act to bend others to her will. And despite knowing that, Aldebaran could not defy the Witch’s words or attitude.

That was the manner in which he had been disciplined, in which he had been reshaped―― were he to phrase it in such a way, it might have been a fair matchup against the inhumanity of the shinobi village that he had happened to hear bits and pieces about from Yae.

In this case, it was tossup between whether it was the shinobi village, treated as equal to the Witch, who were the crazy ones, or if it was actually the Witch, single-handedly contending against the entire history of the shinobi village, who was truly insane.

――Either way, the current Aldebaran was a product of the Witch’s creation.

Witch: [Even if you say that, you do have the right to live your own life. That alone is a domain that even a creator must not one-sidedly intrude upon. Hence, supposing you sincerely believe that you cannot follow me from the bottom of your heart, you may withdraw from the plan at any time. That is your freedom.]

On occasion, the Witch would say such things as though to question Aldebaran’s resolve.

It was an unusual concern for a Witch to bear. Fundamentally, once she had secured the other party’s consent, the Witch’s usual strategy was to always maneuver in such a way that the promises she had coerced could not be taken back.

In fact, among the lessons and assignments that the Witch had levied upon Aldebaran, there had been plenty with contents nightmarish enough to have made him hesitate had he not agreed to not giving up in advance. Whenever the Witch made him do such things, she would never ask him if he wished to stop once she had gotten him to agree.

And yet, when it came to the root of it all, his initial, and most foundational resolve, she would often press him about it.

Aldebaran interpreted that as potentially being Witch’s own way of expressing her sense of guilt or inner turmoil, but was that really so?

The Witch proclaimed herself as unable to comprehend emotion, however, there was no way that she did not know the likes of rage, joy, and sorrow. If she was capable of expressing those sorts of human emotions, then would it not also be possible for her to harbor a sense of guilt or apprehension toward the future?

At the very least, throughout the time Aldebaran had spent with the Witch, even if there were times when he had thought her a Witch incapable of comprehending the human heart, he had never once thought her a Witch bereft of a human heart.

In the interval between “not having” and “not understanding”, there lay a completely different landscape.

Could it be that this simply manifested in the form of the Witch’s questions? If that were the case, then for each time she had voiced that question, had the Witch perhaps felt lost?

Lamenting the harsh path that she would eventually have Aldebaran walk, and desiring to respect Aldebaran’s own will, letting him choose his own life; had such a turmoil existed within her?

Maybe, just maybe, on the one in a million chance, on the one in a billion chance that the Witch did have such feelings―― ironically enough, that became the exact reason why Aldebaran would not go back on his resolve.

Therefore――,

Witch: [――I see.]

Hearing the same answer Aldebaran always gave, the Witch’s reaction had also been the same as ever.

Perhaps he was being played.

Perhaps from the very moment Aldebaran had been created until that day, the Witch had been pouring ample amounts of time into brainwashing him. Perhaps the Witch harbored none of the feelings of guilt or hesitation that Aldebaran had anticipated.

Perhaps, she truly was such a wicked Witch.

But, even if he were to pose that question directly to her, the Witch, putting on that beautiful smile of white and black,

Witch: [Naturally. ――I am a wicked magician, after all.]

In such a manner, voicing answers that gave no clue as to their sincerity or deception, she toyed with Aldebaran.

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Basking in the roaring winds, Aldebaran glided through the air at furious speeds.

He thought the sight of him spreading wings of stone on his back, catching the wind as he soared, would have looked terribly ridiculous, but he had no need to concern himself with appearances.

As Yae held back their opponents, he would need to gain as much distance as possible, as well as eliminate the difference in elevation.

Aldebaran: [Though, I can’t imagine that they were targeting my Territory.]

Even as those words spilled from Aldebaran, he concentrated the majority of his attention on the formulation and operation of the stone wings on his back.

The construction of the stone wings demanded an extremely delicate balance, with the size and hardness also requiring very fine adjustment. If they were too big, they would be tossed around too much by the wind, but if they were too small, the objective could not even be realized in the first place. Hardness and density were also tied to weight, so tuning them too much or too little would inevitably lead to a crash.

Aldebaran: [Gotta hand it to Icarus for getting it right on his first try…!]

Speaking of taking to the skies with man-made wings, the one who came to mind was Icarus, the great predecessor who had fashioned wings of wax; setting aside the fate he met, the fact that his wings had not only been able to glide, but had been able to flap and carry him up close to the sun quite honestly filled Aldebaran with wonder.

Just how many times had Aldebaran crashed on account of poorly constructed wings? ――That would have been exactly what the opponent wanted, so after tackling the problem again countless times, he had finally managed to fashion his current wings of stone.

Even that was an intense feat that could not have been realized without utmost concentration and scrupulous caution, but――,

Aldebaran: [I couldn’t afford to continue falling like that.]

That reality and his impatience: they were the greatest reasons behind Aldebaran’s ability to level up his Level 1 stone wings with great haste, getting them to a level capable of flight for the time being―― although Aldebaran had confidence in himself as the user of an invincible Authority, it was not as though his Territory had no shortcomings whatsoever.

The enemy’s ambush on this occasion was something that had inadvertently struck two of those weaknesses simultaneously. Strictly speaking, it could perhaps be better described as an attack on the same weak point from two different angles.

For Aldebaran’s Authority, “Territory”, there existed a valid range of effectiveness.

The teleport brought about as a result of the ambush had thrown Aldebaran outside of the established area of his Territory. On top of that, factoring in that the destination of the teleport was a free fall from an extremely high elevation, it served as an attack against Aldebaran that would cause the destruction of the second Territory.

As a result, amidst his descent at furious speeds, Aldebaran had made sure to commit suicide before he fell outside the bounds of his Territory, restarting from the middle of the fall many times over. Amidst those repetitions, he deemed that it would be impossible to break out of this high altitude situation as he fell with his freedom of movement so severely restricted; after testing a variety of different plans, he arrived at attempting to escape on stone wings.

At the very least, this slowed his descending change in elevation, allowing him to maintain his Territory with relative ease. And just as Aldebaran had finished untying that troublesome knot――,

???: [――Al!!]

Indeed, sharply calling out to Aldebaran as he exerted all his efforts to maintain balance, was the voice of a silver bell.

Turning his head to glance back, from a considerably lower altitude than Aldebaran, he could clearly see the figure of an angel―― no, of Emilia, flying in the same direction as he.

Bearing wings forged of ice upon her slender back, she was rapidly closing the distance; despite using the same method as Aldebaran, hers established an overwhelming lead in terms of its striking visual appeal.

Aldebaran: [Unbelievable.]

He hoped it would be clear that there was no helping the dumbfounded, nearly admiring groan that had escaped him.

The amount of hardship Aldebaran had endured to complete these stone wings, unshapely as they were, had already been described. Precisely because he had gone through all that effort, he felt respect towards Icarus and his wax wings.

But, just like the Icarus of myth, Emilia’s senses had succeeded in crafting artificial wings on her first try, achieving the same result as Aldebaran despite his innumerable failures; rather than feeling respect towards that, he merely felt the definitive gap between them, furthering his sense of defeat.

Aldebaran: [Even if the idea that I’m just being a bumbling idiot who crashed over six hundred times is slightly better than the idea that the lil’ miss is a genius, it’s not any solace whatsoever.]

The strength of Aldebaran’s Territory lay within its war of endurance, allowing him to persist over the course of an unlimited number of attempts until even the slightest chance of victory arrived. His greatest advantage was his ability to continue playing the cards in his hand until his opponent blundered, giving rise to a situation in which Aldebaran could gain the upper hand.

However, while this also applied to his battle against Reinhard, there existed rare individuals in this world capable of consistently arriving at the correct answers. Those right answers would vary from person to person based on their individual abilities and their objectives for victory, but what they had in common was that unlike Aldebaran, they were all loved by fate.

――Aldebaran was hated by fate itself.

It was no longer clear whether Aldebaran had come to despise fate first, or if fate had been the one to initially hate Aldebaran, but that alone was an unshakable truth. Regardless of whether he was loved or abhorred by other things, fate was Aldebaran’s absolute enemy.

Therefore, he had no choice but to slay it. ――Even if it meant making an enemy of the world, he would slay fate, no matter what.

But since it did not wish to be killed, fate had been sending its own favored pawns after him one after another in the form of assassins. Here and now, it had selected Emilia and Rem to act as its implements.

Aldebaran: [――. Just my luck.]

Just who had it been to suggest that Rem should be chosen as the first surprise attacker?

Regardless of who had proposed it, she was by far the most suitable candidate in terms of creating a momentary void within Aldebaran’s mind. When she had been a victim to the Authority of Gluttony, Aldebaran had failed to notice the abnormality of her existence as a result of that influence, unwittingly forming a proper relationship with her.

Hence, after the death of Priscilla, the moment he had been hit by that flash grenade of memories and discovered that Rem had been released from the yoke of Gluttony, his mind had been consumed by a much greater void than the others.

――After all, he had come across a being who should not have been present here, one who by all means should have been dead.

Aldebaran: [――――]

As for how that outcome had been achieved, there was no room for debate.

Doubtlessly, he had pulled it off. In his struggle against fate, Natsuki Subaru had managed to conquer it. The power to do so dwelled within Natsuki Subaru. Rem’s very existence was proof of that.

But, regardless, despite all that―― he did not save Priscilla Barielle.

Aldebaran: [――If that’s how you’re gonna play it, I’m not showing any mercy either.]

The tears he had shed, the fists that had punished him, the consideration he had attempted to offer; meaningless, all of it.

After all, that which Aldebaran desired was neither tears, nor wounds, nor consolation. It was simply the life, of a single person.

Aldebaran: [――Hk.]

Within his helmet, clenching his teeth to the point that he could taste blood, Aldebaran looked to his rear. As he simultaneously modified the angle and thickness of his wings, all the while keeping the drop in speed and maneuverability to a minimum, in mid-air he crossed gazes with Emilia amidst her pursuit of him.

The beautiful wings of ice truly suited Emilia, but no matter how cute of an angel she was, she could not flap those artificial wings to gain speed or elevation. She had gained her initial velocity from the recoil of Rem bashing the ice discus, but after that, there would have been no other method for her to gain on him――,

Emilia: [Yah! Tah! Tei!]

Similar to whenever she would launch an attack, Emilia raised those lackluster battlecries, and with each shout, her altitude and speed would increase by a step, and then another step higher. The methodology was plain and clear―― using her magic to create an icicle as a foothold in the air, she kicked off of it in order to gain acceleration and vigor.

After a moment of stillness, the created icicle was kicked down towards the ground by the strength of Emilia’s legs; however, it immediately dispersed into Mana and returned to the atmosphere before being born anew as yet another foothold. Once again, she kicked off from it to boost her momentum. By repeating this process, she had been able to relentlessly close the distance on Aldebaran.

Aldebaran: [That’s fucking ridiculous…!]

Having an extraordinary sense for magic, it was a brute-force solution made possible by her ability to get the most out of a vast supply of Mana.

Thanks to the path which linked him to “Aldebaran”, Aldebaran could draw from the power of the external Mana tank known as the Divine Dragon, but even if he was asked to perform the same feat as Emilia, he simply would not be able to do it.

It was not a question of Mana capacity; there was just far too great of a gulf in their sensibilities and physical abilities. ――Even if he could bridge the gap in sensibilities through a limitless number of attempts, the gap in their physical abilities could not be spanned.

The canyon stretched on for a great, long distance, and the cliff faces which flanked both sides of the two aviators stretched just as far. So long as they both continued in the same direction, Emilia’s pursuit would never cease.

As Aldebaran grasped that reality, Emilia kicked off a newly created icicle, and while there still existed some distance between them, her elevation finally matched his. Then, while keeping the balance of her ice wings――,

Emilia: [――Al! I’m begging you, let’s talk this out! I’ll properly listen to what you have to say!]

Aldebaran: [That’s rich coming from you. Weren’t you all “ask questions later”, coming at me and trying to freeze me with no mercy. If I had continued to fall all the way to the bottom like that, you were planning on freezing me along with the entire river, weren’t you?]

Emilia: [But! That plan already failed!]

Aldebaran: [You should be careful about being too upfront, Royal Candidate!]

The route of looking on passively and descending to the bottom was a surefire pattern of completely falling right into the opponent’s trap.

In order to escape that, he had gone all or nothing on choosing a path that veered away from the ice disk’s falling trajectory; even if he had failed to lose both of them at once, should he perhaps count the fact that he had managed to split up Emilia and Rem as a win?

The answer to that――,

Aldebaran: [It’s time to find out. ――My attitude from the Royal Capital still hasn’t changed!]

Deciding to take measures to shake free from Emilia’s pursuit, Aldebaran raised his hand aloft and created stones mid-air, assailing her with a barrage of such projectiles.

Unexpectedly, that scene unfolded as if something right out of a shooting game had been brought into real life, and greeted by that barrage of stones, Emilia, with a flash of her wings,

Emilia: [I’ll say it as many times as it takes. I don’t want to cry believing that there was nothing that could have been done about someone’s passing anymore!!]

Proclaiming so in a loud voice, Emilia plunged into the barrage, and the shrieks of the shattering and the freezing atmosphere, resounded across the Agzadd Canyon as a shrill melody.

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――The reason for his existence as the Following Star was not something that Aldebaran had ever worried about too much.

After all, it seemed that at least once during adolescence, just about everyone would wonder why they had been born, wonder where life came from and where it faded off to, and experience something like a rebellious spirit against their parents for no reason, but for Aldebaran, these were all notions that felt quite alien to him.

In Aldebaran’s case, it was a bit difficult to establish exactly who the parent he ought to rebel against would be, and due to the nature of his Authority, he never truly got the sense of his life fading off whenever it was lost. When it came to the purpose of his birth, he had been provided with a precise answer, and as for why he had been born, he supposed that, perhaps, the answer was “love”.

And so, Aldebaran had never grappled with the notions that ought to have been entertained during one’s adolescence.

Neither did he consider that as some failure on his part, nor as something that he had missed out on.

In society, it seemed like there was the idea that people should challenge themselves with hardship while young, but experiences that would just end up becoming an embarrassing dark past upon entering adulthood held no actual value. It was fine to miss out on experiences that were not worth going through. ――Just as how it was fine for death to be something that everyone only experienced once at the very end of their life.

Witch: [I see, so you have no desire for any of the emotions or impulses typical of adolescence. That is a bit of a shame. I had even been considering various ways in which I might deal with your rebellious phase depending on how it might have manifested.]

That was the lamentation of the Witch, and though he did not consider her to be lacking a heart, she often made such heartless comments toward Aldebaran, who had seen a quick upbringing without causing much trouble.

For Aldebaran, the Witch was the person with whom he had spent the most time with since his birth, but she had a bad habit of wanting to bear witness to every single choice and emotion of humans, every last possibility.

Furthermore, in the majority of cases, the inability to hold back such desires was in the nature of a Witch.

Aldebaran had been acquainted with Witches other than her, yet, while it was to varying degrees, the fact that not a single one of them could defy that nature struck him as horribly blasphemous.

Hence, the Witch’s attitude, awaiting Aldebaran’s adolescence with an air of dissatisfaction, was something brought about by a nature that could not be defied, and when he thought about it like that, he could see that there was no helping it. Nevertheless, he saw no point in pretending to go through adolescence just to make the Witch happy. ――In a sense, that almost felt like the very rebellious spirit indicative of adolescent emotions.

Witch: [As expected, maybe it is too convenient for me, someone who is not even a parent, to attempt superficially initiating such parental experiences…? If that one created Beatrice, were they perhaps able to experience it?]

As the Witch began to pose such questions to herself, Aldebaran was certain that this sense of loneliness he felt was completely unrelated to adolescence, and instead was something else entirely. Only, it was difficult to seek a concrete answer as to why he felt that way, and their relationship was a bit too complex for him to ask.

And so, just how the Witch had established, the relationship between Aldebaran and herself was――,

Aldebaran: [――Teacher.]

And, when he called out to her, the Witch in the midst of enjoying a stroll through the labyrinth of her own thoughts lifted her face.

Whenever Aldebaran found himself reflected in those black irises, seeing her hair of pure white cascading down her shoulders as she tilted her head in a “What is it?”, he could not help but think about what an unfair Witch she was.

Even though she was always immersed in her own affairs, staying true to her desires without ever so much as trying to show consideration to the hearts of others, whenever Aldebaran called out to her, she would meet his eyes without fail.

The fact that he had never felt any sort of adolescent rebellious spirit against that Witch was but a matter of course.

To begin with, the incentive to do so was shallow, and both his body and mind had long yielded to the futility of defying the Witch. Purporting it as performance testing to help him master the use of his Authority, the Witch had subjected Aldebaran to Death over a million times, and had already concluded her assessment of him.

But then again, no matter how much he brought that up, the Witch in question gave no meaningful reply, only responding “I do not recall even a single one of those times, so even if you tell me to feel some responsibility, I am at a bit of a loss”.

Regardless, he could understand why the Witch would go to such lengths.

After all, at present, the only Witch who still remained alive, not counting the one before his eyes, was the individual who either directly or indirectly caused the deaths of all the other Witches. The point of contact Aldebaran had shared with those Witches was not something that had taken place during their time amongst the living.

He could not meet with them anywhere outside of the finite space that had been prepared by the Witch. By the time he had gotten the chance to meet them there, they were already long dead, their existences naught but gathered souls.

Thus, as for the one who had done that to them; under the Witch’s instruction, Aldebaran would need to――,

Witch: [――You must kill her no matter what.]

That was the reason for existence that Aldebaran, the Following Star, had been granted before even experiencing adolescence, the benchmark of his life that he would need to fulfill even if it meant dying a million times.

In order to make Aldebaran this way, the Witch had been reproached by the other Witches, having severed ties even with her companions, so her resolve would have needed to be absolute.

Witch: [――There is nobody who can defeat you, you whom I created.]

Her act of speaking those words to him was something Aldebaran took pride in, and it served as the very foundation of his being.

In all honesty, he thought the Witch had a horrible personality, and he had many reservations about her teaching methods and her way of giving instruction, but even so, he had no doubt that he would be able to live up to the Witch’s expectations.

He had believed that he would be able to do it.

Back in those days, when Aldebaran still had his left arm, he had still been able to believe so. After all, even if he knew Death, he had not yet known true defeat.

He had never experienced adolescence, but―― unmistakably, that was the foolish dark past of his that could never be erased.

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Aldebaran: [Tch――!]

As Emilia plunged head-first into the incessant barrage of stones, Aldebaran stifled all the hesitation within his heart, mustering up his full, unrestrained firepower.

As was also the case for their clash in the Royal Capital, Aldebaran had an instinctive weakness when it came to Emilia.

At this point, it was clear that this was an example of a weakness inherent to all life, and due to that, he had been unable to bring himself to take the sort of drastic measures he might have otherwise taken had it been a different opponent, even in the Royal Capital.

Back then, he had borrowed the strength of “Aldebaran” to hurl down a colossal boulder, preventing Emilia’s pursuit of him by occupying her with the protection of the Royal Capital; but here, there was nobody else he could drag into the fray.

In that sense, the decision to drop him in the middle of a massive canyon showed that she had clearly reflected on their previous encounter.

Aldebaran: [Though, you’re not exactly giving me enough leeway to appreciate your growth right now!]

Unfortunately, Aldebaran’s heart was not currently relaxed enough to rejoice in the growth of himself or his enemies. For a moment, he felt reluctant to define Emilia as an enemy, but he forcefully shut his eyes to that.

That resolve was something he had settled a long time ago, long before he had even met Priscilla.

Even if, strictly speaking, the target of Aldebaran’s resolve was not the Emilia before his eyes――,

Aldebaran: [Even if it’s recycled resolve, it’ll still be about as useful as papier-mâché.]

Holding aloft that resolve despite fully knowing it was but papier-mâché, he moved to sever Emilia’s pursuit.

Diving straight into the storm of rocks the size of fists, Emilia’s ice wings boldly shimmered.

The attack had been intended to delay her movements, even if only slightly, by forcing her to evade or to take a defensive stance, but just as his unpleasant hunch had suspected, Emilia adopted the straightforward approach by taking the shortest path―― icy wings adorning back, icicles for footholds, and now, firing stakes of ice to counter the barrage, fending off any that made it through that interception by parrying with the twin swords of ice in her grasp.

The Witch had taught him that the simultaneous activation of magic was difficult, even for a proficient magician.

Even if it was magic of the same attribute, the talent it required was akin to an unreasonable task such as taking a pen in each hand, and trying to write an essay with the right hand while attempting to draw an illustration with the left. When it came to different attributes, it seemed to require the drastic measure of adding an extra brain for each additional attribute, and Aldebaran had even seen the Witch wielding five of the attributes at once. Honestly, it was to the point that he had seriously questioned whether the Witch’s smaller-than-average head could truly house five small brains.

Even setting aside that extraordinary digression, and even if they were all under the same attribute of fire, with the wings, icicles, ice stakes, and twin swords, the simultaneous activation of four varieties of magic was a sufficient feat in its own right.

And adding on to that, in order to implement her absurd manner of chase, she had to put on a display of athleticism greater than that of an Olympic athlete, giving him the feeling that he had already exhausted his daily quota of surprise points.

Aldebaran: [That’s why, I’ve gotta meet her with minimal discomposure!]

Emilia had opted to overcome the storm of rocks and stones solely through courage and brute strength. But, setting that courage aside, what would she do if faced with a threat that could not be surmounted by physical might?

Emilia: [――――]

Emilia was determined to close the distance, but in the face of the next threat, her cheeks tensed.

Unfolding before her all at once, providing her no path of escape, were objects even tinier than the stone projectiles, an encirclement of gravel whose potential damage could be easily overlooked. Similar to leaping into a torrential rain, so long as she did not possess the absurd ability to dodge the rain while mid-air, it would be impossible for there to be zero hits.

Of course, it was not as though the only objective of that deployed sand was to obstruct her vision, rather――,

Emilia: [――Hk, it’s heavy!?]

Upon attempting to wipe off the sand that clung to her, Emilia raised a voice of astonishment as she flailed her arms about.

The grains of sand that had made contact with her arms, legs, and white clothes began to consolidate with the surrounding grains of sand, obstructing her movements through their heft and hardness. It was a debuff attack he had also launched against Reinhard at the sand sea―― Reinhard had torn free from it by breaking the sound barrier, but not even Emilia would be able to replicate that method.

Moreover――,

Emilia: [My wings――]

The gravel’s primary aim had been to hinder the wings of ice that sustained Emilia’s flight.

Having plunged into the sandstorm, the grit had eroded her frozen wings, stripping them of their intrinsic ability to catch the wind. Then, Emilia’s balance crumbled, and she immediately started to plummet headlong towards the ground―― to prevent that from happening, Emilia promptly discarded her impaired wings, and by returning from being an angel to simply being an angel-like girl, she evaded the hardship.

Aldebaran: [――Purged!]

But, that was precisely what Aldebaran had aimed to accomplish.

Even though she cast away her ice wings, it was possible for Emilia to deploy another pair of wings right away, allowing her to restart without losing any of her previous momentum or altitude. However, when it came to her physical abilities, no matter how unorthodox they might be, they would not allow her to catch up to an impromptu hang glider exceeding a hundred kilometers per hour.

Henceforth, in order to prevent Emilia from deploying another pair of wings, Aldebaran doubled down.

Jutting out of the cliff face accompanied by a rumbling roar, a colossal arm of stone attempted to snatch Emilia out of the canyon’s sky. If that could hamper her momentum, then even if Emilia succeeded in forming another set of wings, she would lose the ability to catch up to Aldebaran’s unceasing speed.

Not to mention, the colossal arms obstructing Emilia did not end at just one or two. ――Utilizing the raw materials of the cliff faces, the rocky arms protruding out totaled a count of several hundreds.

Aldebaran: [Respect to Thousand-Armed Kannon… or rather, it feels more like the backstage of a haunted house.] [1]

As a staple of haunted houses, a bunch of hands would suddenly pop out all at once from behind sliding paper doors; it had a similar impression to that. However, unlike the empty threat that those frights posed, these colossal arms were serious in their attempt to seize Emilia.

If even one could just grab her by the leg, this chase sequence would be completely finished, and this do-or-die situation would conclude with Aldebaran’s successful escape――,

Aldebaran: [Think you can―― Emilia: [――I’ll do my best!!]]

Get past this; as he had attempted to finish those words, they were drowned out by her high spirits.

He had not intended for it to be something that she could do anything about simply by doing her best, but Emilia’s ability to do her best and somehow wind up pushing through was one of the most fearsome aspects about her.

Having lost her wings, Emilia put that fearsomeness on full display―― swinging a glacial sword in her grasp, she hewed the fingers off of the first giant arm to approach her, and having neutralized it, she used it as a platform to perform her next leap.

Her momentum had yet to perish. Her elevation, too, was recovering significantly.

However, even if the behemoth arms did not quite reach the count of a thousand, there still numbered over a hundred awaiting her――,

Emilia: [――Soldiers, lend me your strength!]

Following Emilia’s call, the ice soldiers with their repugnant appearance made their entrance once more.

The soldiers of ice, who ought to have been shattered to naught during the fall of the ice discus, admirably stood up against the giant earthen arms swarming Emilia; some used their entire bodies to stop them, some delivered punches to knock them off course, and some were crushed while striking a pose after being overpowered; they performed a diverse array of contributions.

What irritated Aldebaran above all else, was the individual who had taken Emilia by the hand, guiding her away from the evil clutches of the colossal arms, and flinging her forward to aid her in her advance.

The Natsuki Subarus of ice, seven in total, would shatter whenever their duty was fulfilled, only to be born anew to serve Emilia; repeating a cycle of destruction and rebirth, they never exceeded a maximum of seven at once, and protecting Emilia from the hundreds of evil stone hands closing in, they continued to assist her.

――Magic was something that gave form to feelings and desires; the Witch had said as much.

He had thought that it had been a surprisingly romantic sentiment for that Witch to have said, but considering how wind could take the form of a blade if one wished to slice up their opponent, and how flames akin to a crimson lotus could be birthed to scorch everything in a rage, there was likely no room for debate that it was but a manifestation of feelings and desires.

In that case, at this moment, the sight of Natsuki Subaru-shaped ice soldiers aiding Emilia before Aldebaran’s eyes, just what sort of desire could it possibly be the manifestation of?

It made his stomach churn. That was not in the figurative sense, but rather, with the unmistakable, true meaning.

As those negative emotions boiled within him, Aldebaran linked together the next attack.

That was――,

Aldebaran: [――Sorry for rehashing the same punchline, but it’s the return of my trump card.]

Upon speaking those words, in the air above Aldebaran, Emilia, and the ice soldiers―― filling the breadth of the Agzadd Canyon to its fullest, an enormous, mighty boulder began to hurtle straight down.

An inescapable crushing force by a tremendous mass―― it was the second coming of the trap he had set back in the Royal Capital.

△▼△▼△▼△

What had been desired―― nay, what had been required, was but a singular victory in his life.

It would be no exaggeration to say Aldebaran’s life existed solely for the sake of that victory.

Since the very moment of his creation, every gift bestowed upon Aldebaran, every lesson poured into his vessel, every blessing graced upon him: all had been ordained for the sake of guiding him toward that victory, to ensure that he would rise, claim it for his own, and stand exalted in triumph.

The weight and significance of it all were things Aldebaran had fully understood―― or, so he had thought.

However, when the hour came for his conviction to be tested, that tempered resolve, those carefully wrought plans, his very soul, refined to perfection as it ought to have been; all of it was rendered meaningless.

Witch: [――There is nobody who can defeat you, you whom I created.]

Those words, bestowed upon him by the Witch, had been the benchmark of Aldebaran’s life.

So long as he heeded those words, no obstacle placed before him could ever hope to halt his advance. And so, the thought that he might one day lose faith in the Witch―― he would never utter it aloud, nor ever wish her to hear it, but that notion had always seemed utterly impossible to him.

Thus, in accordance with the Witch’s words, he had convinced himself that he would never be defeated by anyone.

――The day that faith was shattered, in a sense, was the day Aldebaran had truly died.

“Death”; that was something he had experienced so many times that even keeping a count seemed a fool’s errand.

And though he had always considered keeping count to be a fool’s errand, he did so anyway, simply because he had been told to. Yet even as he kept track of the actual number, the absurdity of it all never faded in the slightest.

Even so, he believed that on that day, at that moment, he had tasted Death in its truest form.

Having gone so far as to build up Aldebaran for the sake of her dearest wish, the Witch had prepared for him the sole battle in his lifetime that he absolutely could not afford to lose.

And yet――,

Witch: [――At the juncture where you could not afford to lose, you were defeated.]

A familiar plain of lush, verdant grass, and the form of the Witch, sat by the white table of the tea party, enjoying the aroma of tea; upon seeing her, Aldebaran was immediately stricken with despair, crushed by the depth of his own sin.

Employing only black and white, the highest pinnacle of beauty that could be achieved was the Witch. And now, the fact that there existed not a single wound upon that odiously attractive figure of hers, was proof that this was indeed a world of dreams.

After all, when Aldebaran had failed to win the battle he had needed to win no matter what, the Witch had sacrificed all four of her limbs to shield him, leaving her a wretched figure able to do nothing but await death.

As he had stared at her in shock, Aldebaran had found himself vaguely thinking the painfully obvious: even the Witch had red blood coursing through her veins.

The heat, the odor, the feel; that blood could not have possibly been a lie.

In that case, this world, where all of that had been lost, where make-believe had painted over the reality that should have been, was naught more than a blatant bundle of lies.

Witch: [“Make-believe”; I am rather unfond of that expression. While, strictly speaking, it is not the same word, I cannot help but be reminded of an unpleasant individual.] [2]

Whether that was the Witch’s own way of joking, or if she had just wished to express how she felt regardless of whether it was an appropriate time to say it, Aldebaran had been unable to grasp the Witch’s true feelings, even at the very end.

Only, he was convinced she hated him. Or perhaps in despair, he thought she might have completely forsaken him.

However――,

Witch: [Your arm, it seems unlikely that there is any way for you to get it back.]

The Witch’s gaze fell upon Aldebaran’s left arm, taken by shadow from the shoulder down.

There was no pain. That only served as more proof that this place was the Witch’s Castle of Dreams―― were he to return to reality, his brain would likely be scorched by unimaginable pain. And, that was something that could no longer be overturned by means of Death, a true injury that would never fade.

Witch: [Robbed of your arm, you lost the battle you could not afford to lose. It appears as though my plan has ended in failure. I can just picture my friends saying all sorts of things. ――Ultimately, it shall be left up to those who seek to carry on Flugel’s will. How frustrating.]

The thought that his defeat would take everything from the Witch, was unbearably painful.

Without seeking anyone else’s understanding, she had parted ways with her fellow Witches and the companions who had journeyed alongside her, all so she could attempt to fulfill her wish; but, Aldebaran had ruined all of that.

The cruelest part of it all was that, even though he understood that much, the passion and determination he had carried before his defeat would not return to Aldebaran’s hollow soul.

Having lost a battle he could not afford to lose, Aldebaran’s heart had been shattered.

The sole battle in his lifetime where defeat was not permitted, had ground Aldebaran’s heart to tiny little pieces.

That was, by witnessing the inevitable death of the person closest to him in this world, the Witch, Aldebaran would likely suffer a wound beyond recovery in the truest sense.

Witch: [――There is nobody who can defeat you, you whom I created.]

Hence, Aldebaran did not understand the meaning of those words, spoken to him once more.

Witch: [Now that it has come to this, we need not concern ourselves with appearances any longer. Let us change the victory conditions. We shall leave them to deal with her… meanwhile, we shall focus on preventing secondary damages.]

The Witch was both wise and selfish.

Disregarding Aldebaran, who was still left at a loss, his mind unable to think straight due to his immense feelings of guilt, she came to a conclusion all on her own, leaving no room for objection as she forced the conversation along.

The altered conditions for victory, the newly presented objective of preventing secondary damages―― regardless, he did not even believe that was something he could accomplish. After all, Aldebaran had already failed.

He had failed, and yet――,

Witch: [――There is nobody who can defeat you, you whom I created.]

Aldebaran could not fathom what had caused the Witch to say that.

Without saying much to Aldebaran, still stunned as he stood fixed in place, the Witch rose and began slowly walking towards him, before coming to stand face to face with him.

The Witch’s face, the one he had gazed upon more than any other in his lifetime―― on it, there emerged an expression he had never before witnessed.

Witch: [――Your stars were bad.]

It was not Aldebaran’s fault; he could tell that was the meaning underpinning those words.

Before he could come to terms with the emotions welling up inside of him, the Castle of Dreams abruptly came to an end.

Akin to tearing up the very paper stage of kamishibai, it was a terribly violent manner of conclusion; that which awaited him on the other side was a grim reality. That instant, his brain was dominated by pain and feelings of loss, fresh blood and the din in the air undermining his comprehension. Heaven and earth had been stained with a black so somber that there no longer existed any semblance of time, and Aldebaran’s wails were drowned out by the screeches of the world crumbling, unable to even reach his own ears.

Merely, in a world where just about everything had fallen apart, despite being in the midst of a cacophony so loud he could not even hear his own voice, he somehow managed to properly hear that blurred, frail, gasping sound.

A voice he wished not to let slip, the Witch’s final incantation――,

Witch: [――Ol Shamak.]

×　　×　　×

The next time Aldebaran’s consciousness returned, was after everything had ended―― or rather, when that which had ended began anew, and that new beginning came to a new end, before beginning and ending all over again. It seemed like after that had repeated many times, over, and over, and over again, the world had been left without any traces of the Witch.

Whether it was due to a difference in preconditions, or simply because it had been performed by the tremendous power of the Witch, the shock he felt at how the spell’s efficacy differed from when he himself had wielded it lasted for only a moment――,

???: [――Hey you, where’d you come from? Who are you?]

That question, was delivered by the voice of a person completely unknown to him.

The man, dressed in attire that was every bit as shabby as Aldebaran’s disheveled appearance, stared at Aldebaran with trepidation and caution tinging his eyes.

The words, he could understand. His experience with human interaction was scarce, but in a sense, that was not a problem either.

What mattered was figuring out where he was, and when.

???: [Ginunhive… it’s the Gladiator Island. Witch? That’s the thing from like hundreds of years ago, right?]

The man seemed puzzled, as if he had been asked something strange, and receiving his words, Aldebaran let out an exhale. Gazing over that, the man’s expression shifted from puzzled to startled.

After all, as his exhale morphed into sobbing, Aldebaran crumbled to the ground, a flood of tears streaming down his face.

Witch: [――There is nobody who can defeat you, you whom I created.]

The words of the Witch whom he had left hundreds of years behind in the past, still clung to his soul, refusing to let go.

For the sin of having turned that person into a liar, Aldebaran had wished to die.

But die he could not.

Translation Notes:

[1] Kannon is the Japanese name of the Avalokiteśvara, a figure in Buddhism associated with great compassion, who in some depictions possesses a thousand arms.

[2] – The Witch refers to the term “Make-believe” reminding her of an unpleasant individual. The best guess that can be made here is that of Pandora or the Saintess, as the Japanese term 虚構 used here as make-believe, is fairly close to 虚飾, the term used for the Sin of Vanagloria