Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Volume 5.
EPILOGUE.
Yuka Sonobe barged into the palace’s mess hall. She seemed rather irritated. She glared into the soldier’s quarters, her slanted eyes giving her a demonic appearance. The off-duty units winced as her gaze passed over them.
“Not here either, huh? Jeez… Why do they always vanish at the most important times?” She scratched her chestnut-colored hair, her frustration plain for all to see. The soldiers jumped a little as she stomped back out.
“They’re not in the training grounds, not in the barracks, not in the mess hall… Did they go to the town?” Yuka marched off to the castle’s main gate as she muttered to herself. Her loud footsteps echoed across the hallway.
“Yukacchi!” Nana Miyazaki dashed up to her.
“I couldn’t find them. You?”
“No one in the mess hall. I just checked with Tamai-kun and Taeko, they didn’t find them either. They’re off checking other rooms right now… but I don’t think they’re in the palace.”
“Makes sense. I just talked to Aikawa-kun, and he hasn’t seen them either. Sheesh, where are they loitering around? This is important. And they call themselves Ai-chansensei’s bodyguards!” Nana cradled her head in her hands and screamed.
The two of them, or rather the entirety of the Ai-chansensei escort squad, were searching for David and his knights.
Aiko hadn’t shown up for three days straight. According to the pope, she’d headed up to the main cathedral in order to get Hajime’s heretic announcement rescinded. He’d claimed she’d have to stay there for a while, and that they wouldn’t see her for a few days.
However, according to Shizuku, Aiko had something important she’d wanted to tell them the night of her disappearance. So naturally, they were suspicious. They’d asked to be allowed into the main cathedral as well, but Ishtar had told them friends of heretics wouldn’t be allowed, so they’d been cooling their heels for the past few days.
Still, after three days of no contact, the students had gotten fed up. The elevator to the cathedral remained dormant, and none of the priests were giving the students straightforward answers. Tired of waiting, Yuka had tried to seek out David and the others and demand an explanation.
However, though he and his knights had been around yesterday, they were nowhere to be found today. Yuka couldn’t find any trace of them no matter where she searched. The only plausible explanation was that they’d gone into town, but she found it hard to believe they’d go fool around in the city with Aiko missing.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” She ground her teeth and looked around warily. It was as if some kind of formless evil was creeping up on her and taking her friends one by one.
Just as the fear was starting to take over, someone called out to her.
“Yuka? Nana?” It was Shizuku. She glanced about the hall, as if she were searching for someone.
“I wanted to ask if you’ve seen David and the others… though judging by your expressions that’s a no.”
“Yeah. Looks like you didn’t find the captain either.”
Shizuku looked down sadly. It hadn’t been just Aiko who’d vanished that night. Captain Meld and Princess Liliana had as well. Even Shizuku’s maid, Nia, was nowhere to be found. A number of the other servants and knights had gone missing too, all friends of the students.
“Hey Yukacchi, Shizukucchi… Are we going to be alright?” “…..”
Nana looked scared. Unfortunately, neither Yuka or Shizuku could reassure her.
They didn’t know what was happening either, and that vague unease had them on edge.
If only he was here… If only that guy was here… Yuka and Shizuku’s thoughts turned to the same direction. They looked out at the western sky, a single man on their minds. He was ruthless, not always the nicest person to be around, and unbelievably blunt, but he was also the one person they knew they could trust.
A number of figures stood in a wide, dimly-lit room. They look liked wraiths due to the darkness of their surroundings. They were all completely still, with not even one so much as twitching.
Further inside the room, a short distance away from the others, stood two other figures. Unlike the rest, these two seemed human. Not sane, perhaps, but at least human.
There was a crazed look in their eyes.
“The preparations are finally complete. I’m getting excited. The moment I’ve been waiting for is almost here. I’m truly glad I was called to this world! I know now that this is what happiness truly is!” Loud laughter rang out through the room. Though the voice spoke of happiness, its tone dripped with malice. The speaker was clearly mad.
The figure standing next to the person who spoke stared on with cold eyes. It was obvious they didn’t see the other as their comrade, but like the other figure, they too were grinning cruelly.
Around the same time, something was happening in the kingdom on the southern tip of the continent.
A massive army of monsters stood lined up in formation. There were easily ten thousand strong. Waves of power rolled off of them. Each of the gathered monsters was as strong as the ones lying at the bottom of the Great Orcus Labyrinth. They were a force that could trample anything that got in their way.
Surprisingly, there were a few people mounted on horses among them. It was clear this gathering was no unorganized mob.
A single, massive monster descended from the heavens and landed in front of them. Its gleaming white scales looked majestic in the sunlight. There was a humanoid figure riding on its back. His red hair fluttered in the wind, and the men down below cheered on his arrival.
“The demon king has received a divine revelation! He has given our armies a single command… Destroy the heretics.” Though the man’s voice sounded dignified, there was a tinge of insanity to it as well.
The army burst into cheers once more.
“It is time we show them the strength of our faith. Let’s teach those fools strutting about the Northern Continent who the true rulers of this land are!” The monsters stamped the ground so hard the earth shook.
Interestingly, the figures hidden in the dim room spoke the same time the demon riding the white dragon did.
“Now then, let us begin. In order to achieve happiness, we must carve our own story into the annals of history! Let me hear your war cries! It’s time we fight, for the sake of our lord!”
Eight thousand meters above sea level, a giant steel spire rose up from the Divine Mountain’s peak. A weak groan echoed in one of the tower’s prison cells. Blood dripped from Aiko Hatayama’s fingers and she stared at the ground, her brow furrowed in concentration.
She had drawn a magic circle with her own blood, and tried chanting dozens of different spells, but no matter how hard she tried, no matter which spell she chose, her flow of mana was interrupted by the shackles on her wrists.
She slumped her shoulders and looked down at her hands. There were dozens of small cuts on them, one for each attempt.
“How many times do I have to tell you it’s futile before you get it?”
“Ah…” Aiko shivered as she heard a mechanical voice next to her. She looked up and saw a nun wearing a hood low over her eyes. The nun was carrying a tray of food.
Aiko noticed the nun had left the door open behind her when she’d entered, and made a mad dash for freedom.
“I believe I already told you it was futile.”
“Agh!”
The nun punched Aiko in the stomach as she tried to escape. The attack had come so fast Aiko hadn’t even been able to see it. She gasped in pain and crashed into the wall behind her.
“L-Let me out of here. What do you plan on doing to my students?” The nun didn’t react to Aiko’s words. She placed the tray of food in the room, her movements robotic, and walked out of the room.
“Wait! Please wait! At least tell me whether or not my students are safe!” The nun slowly closed the door, her expression unchanged. Just before she shut it completely, she stopped.
“This is all the will of my lord. There is nothing you, who have been removed from the game board, need to know.” With an air of finality, the nun shut the door.
Aiko struggled to her knees and cursed her own powerlessness. Something terrible could happen to her students, and she wouldn’t know it. Even though she was their teacher, there was nothing she could do to help.
Her thoughts turned to the boy who’d overturned one hopeless situation after another back in Ur. She looked up at the moon through the small skylight covered with bars, and murmured his name.
“Nagumo-kun…”
The nun heard Aiko’s whisper as she walked away. She walked out to a nearby terrace and looked down at the ground below.
“Come if you dare, you anomaly. It will mean your end if you do.”
The monster of the abyss continued onward to a place of betrayals, madness, and divinity.
It was as if he was guided by fate itself.
Diamond. diamond. diamond.
