Ha.
The one who let out a hollow laugh was Luman.
His gaze touched the pointed ears.
The man hurriedly yanked his hat back on, looking mortified. Beneath the hood, the lip he was biting turned red.
“Hey, you!”
“Ren!”
Ren marched over to the fallen man, then jabbed a finger at him.
“I said I’d need to look more to know, didn’t I? You’re the one asking questions, so why are you threatening me?”
This son of a—!
Be grateful I’m not cursing at you!
Ren spat the words out, breathing hard.
If his temper had been what it used to be, if this had not been such a desperate situation, if someone had not been protecting him, then knife at his throat or not, he would have slammed straight into the man out of sheer rage.
Ren realized, all over again, that he had changed.
So.
He could not argue with this man just to vent his temper right now.
Ren focused on the masked figures again.
“Ren, can you see something?”
Luman’s voice lowered. It seemed he, too, had remembered that Ren had once heard the spell used to summon the familiar.
Ren only nodded quietly.
There was clearly more light coming from the masks than before.
If the light he had seen at the end of the play had flashed for an instant and vanished, this was different.
He knew it! It was gathering in one place!
The billowing light—the light that felt cold and eerie—was gathering toward......
Their feet.
And where the light flowing beneath their feet was headed was...... the floor beneath the stage where the play had been performed.
The light was not simply gathering.
It seemed to be drawing some kind of shape, some kind of pattern.
“Under the stage....”
It looks like it’s drawing something...... Ren muttered inwardly.
“Under the stage?”
The man sprang to his feet and tried to approach Ren, only for Peruan’s hand to stop him.
“You seem to know something. Why not tell us without the struggle? Seeing as you’re clinging to Ren for an answer, it appears this is something you cannot do on your own. Am I wrong?”
Rumble.
Just as the man was about to open his mouth, the bunker shook violently once.
A strange light settled in Luman’s eyes.
“He’s here.”
“What do you mean, he is here?”
Luman looked down at Ren. Ren was staring at the stage floor with a grave expression.
What should he call it?
Ruuuuumble—!
But there was no particular need to explain.
One word was enough.
“My brother.”
“Your brother?”
Peruan frowned as if he had no idea what that meant.
“Ren’s brother.”
“.......”
Temar. You came.
It sounded as though the roar of a beast was tearing through the air.
Kraaaaaaash—!
“Reinforcements are coming! Hold out just a little longer!”
Quick-witted Seka understood the situation and shouted loudly. Cedric, Kenta, Beta, and the others who had been squeezing out every last bit of strength to stay alive followed him, shouting with hope in their voices.
But the masked figures remained the same.
These were not the actions of people being driven into a corner.
No, perhaps they simply had no selves at all.
Even as Seka cut them down, he could not shake the sense that something was wrong.
“Brother, what’s wrong?! Hah. Hah.”
Cedric, gasping for breath, asked him. But Seka could not explain what he himself did not know.
“Be careful, Cedric.”
“Huh? Hah. Haaah.”
“Don’t leave my side.”
“Okay—!”
Kang! Clang!
All he could do was quietly prepare.
‘Wait.......’
Ren, who had been desperately trying to match the shape of the drawing, blinked.
‘That thing shouldn’t be completed, should it?’
Ren turned his head fast enough to make a whipping sound and grabbed the man’s arm hard.
“What do you know?”
“.......”
“A pattern is being made. This thing can’t be allowed to finish, can it?”
“A pattern?”
“What do you mean, a pattern?”
Ruuuumble—
This time, the sound of destruction made the bunker ring on and on.
Stone dust and fragments kept pattering down as if the whole place might collapse.
Luman’s voice had been buried by the noise, so he asked Ren again. What had he seen?
“So it’s come to this......”
“You know what it is? It’s about to be finished—!”
The orange eyes stared quietly at Ren.
“It is a human sacrifice spell. Once it is complete... it cannot be stopped.”
“A human sacrifice......?! What happens if it’s completed?”
“It will drain the life of everyone here.”
“.......”
“The play... So that was the ultimate purpose of this slave-trading group? Haha.”
Peruan’s eyes sank deep.
His gaze swept across the inside of the hall, as if there were something he had missed, searching every corner. As he looked over the swarm of people, he let out a sigh.
“How do we break it?”
“...Once it is complete, there is no way.”
Kaaang!
“Ren. How far along is it?”
Ren, still looking at the stage, murmured softly.
“Almost...... done. It’ll be complete soon.”
Rumble.
Now that he noticed it, the sound did not seem to be coming only from outside.
The floor.
The floor of the bunker. The tall, wide stage in the very center. From beneath it, a vibration was pushing outward like a wave.
A massive vibration spanning the entire floor, huge enough to make him sick.
Luman’s eyes widened.
“......Ren.”
His breathing quickened.
Was his guess true?
If it was, then he could not guarantee anyone’s life here.
There was an anti-Hero weapon here.
Why would a slave-trading group have an anti-Hero weapon?
By chance? Because they were that resourceful?
Then how was he supposed to understand this human sacrifice?
What if.
What if the way to fully awaken a half-finished anti-Hero weapon—
was the very method being carried out now?
Then for the kingdom, and for Ren as well—
he had to stop it, even at the cost of his life.
“Ren.”
Luman called Ren again. Ren, who had been watching the stage with an anxious face, barely turned his head at the low call.
“Why......”
Why did you keep calling me, he had been about to snap, but the words stopped in his throat.
Those golden eyes held an emotion Ren could not describe.
“Luman, what are you......”
Can I even ask what you’re about to do?
There were too many words in the gaze fixed on him, and Ren could not read a single one.
Luman strode closer and pulled Ren into his arms, just like before.
His embrace was still broad and warm.
Luman’s shoulder shook for a moment. Ren tried to look at his face, but Luman pulled away first.
“Luman......?”
“What are you trying to do, Hero?”
Peruan, who had cut down the masked figures endlessly crawling onto the stage and opened a gap, grabbed Luman’s wrist. He had a bad feeling.
‘Hero.’
At that word, Luman paused for an instant, then turned to Peruan and whispered softly.
“Please take good care of Ren.”
His voice was courteous.
“You sound as if you intend to leave forever.”
After a moment’s thought, Peruan shook his head.
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that. I admit, I would be endlessly grateful to have a rival die, but if you die after driving nails like that into his heart, how am I supposed to pull them all out? Just imagining it makes me sick. Hm. Are you planning to offer your life?”
“If that is the only way to save Ren?”
Luman tilted his head slightly.
“There is no time to delay, is there?”
“Ah.”
Peruan released him without hesitation. His jewel-like eyes shone with interest, respect, and satisfaction.
“Then please do. I will do my best to pull the nails out properly. Ah, will chrysanthemums do? I’ll bring the flowers you like.”
Luman let out an incredulous laugh.
Then he moved ahead again.
Ren could only watch that back as it grew farther away.
Ren knew backs like that.
A back that could not be caught, no matter how hard you reached for it.
A back turned away by a desperate resolve, or stubbornness, or conviction.
A back that would not return no matter how loudly you screamed after it, no matter how much you begged.
‘Luvien.’
Like once before.
He heard the word Luman had muttered under his breath when he had comforted him.
Lante. He must be calling him.
The light of the golden spear that had appeared in his hand began to shrink. Yet, paradoxically, the ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ diminished light shone even more brilliantly. Like a slice of moonlight snapped cleanly away. Drawing in and swallowing all the darkness around it, the spear grew brighter and brighter, and Luman sank deeper and deeper into the dark. Only his platinum-blond hair glinted faintly.
“Ren.”
Peruan came over and took Ren’s hand.
The masked figures’ movements stopped dead.
Ren saw the pattern rising in his vision as it slowly neared completion.
It was a picture drawn in light and blood.
‘This is the last thing.’
Ruuuuumble.
The bunker shook once more.
“Wh-what’s happening?!”
The rumble was powerful enough to make everyone standing sway.
The sound of continuous destruction came from the bunker floor and from outside.
But the disaster beneath their feet would be faster than the people outside arriving.
Ren sensed it.
That was why Luman was going to stop it.
‘Please. Please, old man!’
Ren cried out for the old apothecary and tightened his grip on the necklace.
Was there nothing, nothing at all, he could do?
“Ren, my dear, what are you trying to......”
“Let go!”
“Ren! What are you doing? You’re bleeding!”
“I said let go, Peruan.”
When Ren’s eyes blazed wildly, Peruan had no choice but to step back.
Blood dripped from the thumb where he had torn the flesh open. Ren smeared the blood on the necklace. But nothing happened.
Luman was already close to the stage.
He had reached the center of the light gathering into one place.
In barely thirty seconds, that thing would be complete. What was lurking beneath it?
Luman paused and looked back at Ren.
Ren could not see him, hidden as he was by the deepening darkness, but he knew by instinct.
Their eyes had met.
He could not let him go like this.
Ren bit down on his lip.
Why could it only be saved by one person’s sacrifice?
Why did it have to be that way?
If that was how it was going to be, then they might as well all die together.
Or else divide that death among them.
‘I won’t let him die alone.’
Light began to shine from the object he was gripping hard enough to crush.
It was not light coming from the necklace.
The artifact Lady Gannion had given him—
The artifact was shining.
As if answering Ren’s resolve.
