[342] The Protagonist of One's Life (2)
Talent, my foot — it was an excuse from the start.
Their heads had been filled with magic from day one, leaving no room for things like success or honor.
They wanted to win. They didn't want to lose in competition. And in the end, they wanted to be the greatest mage.
Dante's eyes lit up when he saw the Inferno. It was a powerful spell he hadn't seen even on the graduation exam.
'He lowered entropy using his self-image memory. With a crimson face it'd be close to zero percent. That'll hit.'
"Dante, Dante."
Liria, kneeling, called to Dante behind her with a trembling voice.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
"Can we really… do this? Can we succeed?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
Liria looked up at Dante. Her tearful face showed how torn she was.
"You always make only sure choices! So tell me! If you tell me, I'll feel better."
Dante understood her. A mage's cold rationality in battle mattered as much as a swordsman's conviction. Fear doesn't come from danger so much as from uncertainty. When you can analyze the situation objectively, your allies can muster the courage to fight.
"I'm not optimistic. But I'm not pessimistic either."
It was literally both sides of a coin. And that, exactly, was the minimum probability a mage needed to attempt something.
"Chance Shirone will push through: fifty percent. Chance my defensive circle holds: fifty percent. Chance Amy's spell hits the enemy: fifty percent. Add those three and you can see the situation."
Liria, who had been murmuring Dante's words, suddenly snapped her eyes open like she'd understood something.
"T-then, one hundred and fifty percent?"
Dante gave a bitter smile.
"…You shouldn't be a mage."
Remaining distance, 220 meters.
Shirone fired the Photon Cannon as if in a trance. The flashes skimming past the backs of his hands were blinding. The mana-amplifying orbs set in his palms glowed red-hot.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
The Thousand-Hand Guanyin's waist bent and it was driven toward the ground.
Remaining distance, 200 meters.
Jokre's legs trembled as he watched the immense Thousand-Hand Guanyin that looked on the verge of collapse.
'Is that Shirone…?'
The man who had overwhelmed Dante — the kingdom's top defender — with sheer firepower.
He had told himself they were only students to avoid falling into despair.
But the Photon Cannon he saw with his own eyes had a force few professionals could wield.
They might not surpass pros in every way, but in at least one respect they'd already reached pro level.
The students of the five great houses were that kind of people.
Remaining distance, 170 meters.
"It's inside! I'm making the second barrier!"
Dante trapped the Thousand-Hand Guanyin inside a cube-shaped mansion. He had concentrated the information only on the interior faces of the circle, so attacks from outside wouldn't apply. Trapped in the narrow walls, the Thousand-Hand Guanyin thrashed violently.
"Kruuuugh!"
Dante's face contorted. He was dragging the mansion down while holding the Guanyin, but the resistance was stronger than he'd expected. Especially the power of the fireballs spreading in every direction could destroy a defense circle set for maximum durability within thirty seconds.
Remaining distance, 120 meters.
Dante shouted, veins bulging.
"Amy! Now!"
"Got it!"
Amy leaped up and swung both hands; the giant Inferno left its caster and flew outward. The slow-moving fireball crossed the sky and struck the Thousand-Hand Guanyin with no error, following the coordinates of the self-image memory.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
As the Guanyin's body burned, Dante felt some of the pressure ease. Fire magic had the advantage over the Photon Cannon in that it delivered continuous punishment.
Remaining distance, 40 meters.
Liria shook her head and cried out.
"It's still not enough! We can't trap it in the Okwang Bakyojin like this!"
The blazing Thousand-Hand Guanyin clawed at the circle inside the mansion and screamed. At last, the defensive circle reached its durability limit and shattered like glass.
Liria's face fell into despair.
"It's over. The demigod's going to come out into the world."
"No, it's not over."
Liria looked up. Shirone was high above, looking down at the Thousand-Hand Guanyin, gathering radiance in both hands. As the light in his palms swelled, it was like another sun had risen in the sky.
"Yyaaaaaa!"
Shirone fired the Photon Cannon with everything he had. A one-meter-diameter brilliance slammed into the Guanyin's flank.
Remaining distance, 30 meters.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
The Guanyin flailed desperately. But a mass no Law could withstand kept pressing in.
Remaining distance, 20 meters.
"Now! Begin!"
Liria clasped her hands and prayed.
May evil perish. May there be a world where everyone can live happily. If it meant a paradise of goodness with no hunger, murder, or adultery, she didn't care if her body were torn to a thousand pieces. Even if she earned a demon's hatred and fell into hell to suffer forever, she would smile. She would become fertilizer for the world. If everyone could come to embrace the will of goodness, she would gladly crawl into the filthiest place.
She wept like a waterfall. Her will, surpassing human limits, drew on the totem power lodged in the old shrine ruins. As the golden magic circle faded, a Bakyojin ten meters in diameter took form.
"In the name of Liria, I command! Evil, sleep here!"
Liria's eyes flamed gold. Her streaming tears evaporated in an instant, and a pillar of light shaped by the Law pierced the heavens.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
Pushed by the Photon Cannon's glare, the Thousand-Hand Guanyin screamed and flailed dozens of hands.
Remaining distance, 10 meters.
"Uaaaaaaa!"
Shirone felt the Photon Cannon's output falter. But by transcending his mind he drew its power back up and the flash amplified, completely covering the Guanyin.
Remaining distance.
0 meters.
As the Thousand-Hand Guanyin entered the Bakyojin's domain, Liria focused every ounce of her will.
"Kiyaaaaaa!"
The Akeanis shrine's most powerful golden art.
Okwang Bakyojin.
Two arms of light twisted together like braided rings, seized the Thousand-Hand Guanyin and pulled it to the ground.
"Kraaah! Kraa! Kraaaargh!"
The Guanyin resisted desperately. A space filled with the will of goodness left no room for the Law of evil. That it still struggled was clear proof it was a demigod.
'But this is the end! Just a little more…!'
Just as Liria thought it was finished, footsteps sounded. Vivian passed her and started running into the Okwang Bakyojin.
"Ice Queen!"
Dante's face twisted.
"That idiot!"
Liria cried out in shock.
"Don't go near it! You'll be pulled in!"
The Bakyojin was different from a golden magic circle.
Because it concentrated the will of goodness in a narrow domain, anyone even slightly skewed toward evil would inevitably be dragged into the abyss.
Vivian heard Liria clearly. Still, she didn't stop.
"This is the end. This is the final act of my play."
Her life had been one no one noticed. But the Ice Queen had given her hope that she could be the protagonist. Even if the Ice Queen's true nature was monstrous, even if her kindness came from ignorance, that single thing had been Vivian's only spotlight.
Tears rolled down Vivian's cheeks and disappeared.
What would happen if she entered the Bakyojin? Perhaps only the silence of a play's end would follow forever.
But she wasn't afraid. She would meet the Ice Queen. She would take her hand and bow to the audience. She would shout to the world her thanks for watching a splendid performance.
"Yyaaaaaa!"
When tears filled her eyes and she could see nothing, Vivian sprang forward and dove into the Okwang Bakyojin.
"Vivian! Come back!"
Jokre sobbed and cried out.
She was a sensitive child; perhaps her mind had broken under the weight of a crisis she couldn't bear.
But things couldn't end like this.
It was all his fault.
If he hadn't drunkenly entered the Ice Queen's true nature, or if he hadn't been so hung up on Amy, she might never have made such an extreme choice.
"Viviaaaaan!"
Jokre's scream couldn't catch Vivian. It was Amy who grabbed her. Amy launched herself, wrapped Vivian in an embrace, and by the narrowest margin avoided being pulled into the Bakyojin. At the same moment, the Thousand-Hand Guanyin plunged as if being buried in the Okwang Bakyojin. The ominous sound of hundreds of claws scraping the earth echoed.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
The force that gouged the ground made those watching shudder. But even that dreadful power could not overcome the principle of the Okwang Bakyojin.
It was the mysterious, profound power of the Law.
The Thousand-Hand Guanyin sank into the abyss of the Law, leaving only thousands of claw marks.
Vivian, who had been watching in tears, turned to Amy and shouted.
"Let go! I said let go! I'm going in too!"
"Are you insane? You'll die if you go in there!"
"When did you ever care about me? Do you know how I feel? You who've lived like the protagonist your whole life — do you know my miserable heart?"
"So you're going to die because you're miserable?"
"No, I'll torment you to the end! I'll make sure you never succeed! Right now, I'm the protagonist!"
"Don't be ridiculous, you idiot! What protagonist gives up their life so easily?"
Amy's voice cut into Vivian's ears.
"Everyone finds it hard to fight! Still, being the protagonist means fighting to the end! If you give up, if you give up—"
She choked on her words and dropped her head. Amy, too, had wanted more than anyone to be the protagonist.
"From that moment you become nothing."
The feeling of being bounced out of the world's spotlight.
When everyone only looked to the successful candidates, Amy had been alone, crying in her room.
No one had looked at her.
But now she felt she understood.
You still had to fight.
Even if what awaited you was a bad ending, someone who doesn't fight to the end doesn't deserve the lead.
Vivian, not knowing why Amy had suddenly grown so fierce, wore a dazed look and parted her lips to speak.
"I—"
The ground began to tremble. Vivian looked up, and everyone turned their gaze to the Okwang Bakyojin.
The moment Shirone landed, he shouted.
"It's not over yet!"
Dozens of hands rose from the Okwang Bakyojin. Those that had risen vertically bent at once and shoved the ground, and the Thousand-Hand Guanyin's face reemerged.
"I am! The ruler of the world!"
Shirone's group went pale. They hadn't fully neutralized the Bakyojin's power, and who knew what time might bring.
"Did we catch a Law-wielder? Lucky."
Shirone turned, surprised.
A woman stood there with wavy blonde hair, dark skin, and a body-hugging suit.
It was Ahoya Gangnan, Secretary of the Magic Association.
"Who are you?"
Gangnan slipped off her high heels as she stepped toward the Thousand-Hand Guanyin. Passing Shirone's group, she said,
"Stand back. You could get hurt."
Liria shouted.
"Wait! Don't go in recklessly! If you can't handle the Law, you'll be drawn into the Bakyojin!"
Gangnan showed no hesitation and pushed her body into the Okwang Bakyojin. She didn't know whether she leaned toward good or evil. But the conviction she had lived with since birth as a Rammuai was not weak enough to be shaken by the Law.
"Kyaaaaaa! Kyaaaaaaa!"
The Thousand-Hand Guanyin scraped the floor again and again like someone drowning, rising and falling in succession.