221

Chapter 221 — The World Is (6)

「W-Why, why, why would you……?! They aren’t your responsibility! Don’t fall for that bastard’s words!」

…Yeah. That’s how you should react!!

* * *

BANG!

“Aaaagh!! What are we supposed to do now?!”

“What do you mean, what? We have to hold out like this—”

BANG! Another tremendous impact thundered through the building, making the entire structure shudder.

Crrrack. Along with the tremor beneath their feet, powder sifted down from the cracked walls and ceiling.

There was no choice but to endure. Meister had been about to say exactly that, but their mouth snapped shut as though glued closed.

“…Is the building going to collapse before that happens?”

“Don’t fucking say that!! I refuse to get buried alone with you!?”

“You think I want to get buried with an idiot like you!? Under normal circumstances, someone like you wouldn’t even be allowed to come pay respects at my grave!!”

The two screamed at each other as if they were about to grab one another by the hair, then gritted their teeth as the griffin slammed into the building yet again.

If they didn’t want people mistakenly thinking they were close enough to share a grave, there was only one option left.

“…No helping it! We’ll just have to kill that thing before we go!”

“Fine, but with what weapon!?”

“Ha! Don’t underestimate a Meister’s workshop!”

Meister’s hands moved toward the crafting tools.

They were tools normally used to cut metal, or to melt or freeze things.

Bang, bang!

“We’re all going to die at this rate!!”

“Shut up!!”

Clatter, clatter. Meister hurriedly tightened the fasteners and attached a makeshift handle, piecing something together.

Tap, tap. After striking it a few times, flames burst from the front with a sigh.

“Good. Have a taste of fire!”

FWOOSH!

Meister unleashed it straight at the griffin.

Heat poured over the beak and crest that had pushed inside the building.

Screeeech.

“Did it work?”

The griffin’s head withdrew from the building for a moment.

And then—

KABOOM!

“Aaaagh! You just made it even angrier!!”

“Damn it, I threw this together too fast, so the output—!”

As if telling them not to dream of it, the griffin rammed its body into the building.

Even if it no longer tried to force its head inside, it was now trying to bring down the entire structure they were in.

Meister was at a loss.

“Damn it, isn’t there really anything among your oh-so-amazing inventions that can help us right now!?”

“You haven’t done a damn thing, so what are you— Ah!”

At Deathbringer’s words, Meister’s eyes suddenly lit up.

What had caught their attention was the Mana battery.

“Aaagh! Why are you spacing out again!? If you don’t want your skull cracked open, at least cover your head!!”

“Just shut that yapping mouth for a second!”

Deathbringer yelped and wrapped himself around Meister.

Rattle, clatter. Pieces breaking loose from the ceiling showered down over their heads.

If Deathbringer hadn’t shielded Meister, a falling fragment of stone would have smashed into the crown of their head.

“If that works… But then…….”

However, Meister had never exactly cultivated the sort of personality that expressed gratitude for every little thing.

Instead of thanking Deathbringer, they muttered to themself while their thoughts raced.

Wouldn’t getting them both out of here alive count as thanks?

There was, admittedly, a little of that sentiment involved.

It was a splendid decision made without bothering to ask the opinion of the person who was actually owed the thanks.

SKREEEEE!!

“Damn it!”

Meanwhile, Deathbringer, who had been protecting Meister from the falling rubble, cursed through clenched teeth and whipped his head around.

The griffin, which had been ramming its massive body into the building, had shoved its head inside once more.

The problem was that the griffin’s body slams had finally brought down part of the wall.

Worse, as though determined to punch a hole through the crumbling section, it kept crashing into it!

“Hey! What are we supposed to do about this?!”

If they let it continue like that, either the entire building would collapse or that wall would fall and the griffin would get inside.

Neither ending held anything good for them.

Deathbringer knew that, so he grabbed the flamethrower again.

He knew its output was insufficient, but desperate times called for using your gums when you had no teeth.

“Answer me, you crazy fucking mage bastard—!!!”

With a sound like a crow screeching, Meister shot to their feet.

“Here, like this! And here, like this! Got it?!”

“Yeah. Got it, you bastard!”

“Then hold it exactly like that!”

“What the fuck!?”

“I’m going to blow that damn birdbrain away, so buy me some time until then!”

“Then say that from the fucking start! Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you can skip half the damn explanation, asshole!”

Still, apparently a new way out of the situation had presented itself.

At Meister’s declaration that they would blow the birdbrain away, Deathbringer found at least a sliver of hope.

KABOOM!

…Though whether the damn egghead would blow the birdbrain away first, or whether the birdbrain would break through the wall and stuff both of them into its mouth first, remained uncertain.

“Eat shit, you demon bastard!”

They were already in the same boat, unwillingly or otherwise.

With the danger of sinking right in front of them, even if he didn’t trust Meister, he had no choice but to cooperate if he wanted to live.

Deathbringer, who had no intention of dying on the same day and at the same hour as Meister, sprayed fire exactly as instructed.

SKREEEEECH!!

The griffin, which had been poking its head and forelegs through the hole like a cat trying to catch a mouse, shrieked.

Deathbringer had deliberately aimed the flames at the softer-looking flesh, and the reaction was even stronger.

KABOOM! BANG!

Yet even with its feathers singed and its tender flesh scorched, the griffin showed no intention of giving up.

If anything, it attacked even more violently.

When its eyeball nearly got cooked, irritation seemed to turn into outright vicious fury.

Its long, yellow toes, reminiscent of a hawk’s talons, spread wide as their black claws gleamed sharply.

Bang, bang!

In the meantime, the wall, already cracked and punctured in several places, broke apart even further beneath the beast’s frenzy, doubling the size of the opening.

If Meister hadn’t embedded iron reinforcement inside the walls to improve the workshop’s security, the impact would have broken through long ago.

Puhwaah, kak, kak.

“What the hell!? Why did it stop!?”

Something went wrong with the heap of scrap metal that had been spewing flames.

Deathbringer smacked its outer casing several times, but that only helped momentarily.

After coughing out a few more bursts of flame, it went limp as though declaring that it had completed its duty.

“Aaaaaagh!!”

Deathbringer screamed as his weapon died.

Bang, bang!

By contrast, the griffin grew even more aggressive.

Once the heat that had been blasting from inside disappeared, it began working at the hole with even greater persistence.

SWISH!

“F-Fuck, fine! Let’s see which one of us dies first, you birdbrained bastard!!”

Deathbringer narrowly dodged the griffin’s claws and snatched up the Corruption Sword, ready to fight to the death.

“Even if I die, I’m tearing out your fucking throat first!!”

Perhaps his sheer viciousness had some effect, because the griffin retreated.

Scrape.

Or perhaps it was because the claws it had swung had collided with the Corruption Sword and been injured.

Wary of the sharp wound on its foreleg, the griffin kicked the wall with its hind legs.

“Damn Master Craftsman! Are you still not done!?”

“Almost!”

While Deathbringer used everything at his disposal to keep the entrance completely blocked, Meister had not exactly been sitting idle.

Click, click.

They were gathering every piece of scrap metal and every device in the workshop to construct a single apparatus.

“What the hell is that!?”

“A one-use item worth six hundred and ten million gal at market price.”

If the purchase prices of all the equipment used in this thing were added together, it would probably come to around six hundred and ten million.

And if it worked according to Meister’s theory, the griffin’s head would be blown away—

along with the heap of equipment, which would probably melt down as well.

“Fuck, that’s disgustingly expensive…….”

“Still cheaper than my life.”

But equipment like this was utterly trivial compared to everything Meister would accomplish in the future.

Without a trace of hesitation, Meister used the collection they had spent more than ten years painstakingly building.

They stripped outer casings to salvage parts, used other casings as braces, and in any case created something tremendous.

Clang.

“Good. Done.”

“It’s done?”

“When I give the signal, flatten yourself. It’s the same thing we fired from the city wall earlier.”

“Fuck, didn’t you say making that thing cost thirty million gal?”

“And it took a full year of labor on top of that. We’d be eaten a thousand times over before that year passed. Want to wait?”

“No.”

Most people in the world didn’t realize it, but being able to substitute money for time was a kind of blessing.

After all, ordinarily, nothing was more precious than time.

“Good. You thickheaded birdbrain with no mother or father. You made me melt equipment that’s like my own children, so I’ll melt your damn neck in return.”

Saying that, Meister inserted the Mana battery into the final circuit.

The Mana battery, which Meister had been vigorously shaking for some time, was now glowing brilliantly.

KABOOM!

“So open that fucking mouth! I’ll fire enough light past your uvula to last you a lifetime!”

At that exact moment, the wall gave way, and the griffin finally thrust its head right in front of them.

“Die.”

The instant Meister pulled the trigger, a tremendous surge of Mana pierced straight through the inside of the griffin’s mouth.

A beam of light that melted everything in its path shot from the earth toward the sky.

. . .

Thud, thud, thud!

“Ha. It worked.”

“Fuck. Finally?”

One side of the wall had collapsed under the griffin’s assault, and when the beam erupted, the impact had shaken the ground once more.

The weakened building finally lost its ceiling.

Deathbringer and Meister, who had been flattened beneath the collapsing roof, barely managed to crawl out from the debris.

“Phew. Next workshop, I swear I’m designing the foundation myself.”

“Please do. So this never happens again.”

They were genuinely fortunate that the entire structure hadn’t caved in and that only the ceiling had peeled away and fallen.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to crawl out like this.

“Damn it.”

Still, that only made it fortunate by comparison.

It was hardly what anyone would call good luck.

Meister grimaced as they looked around the workshop, which had been reduced to even more of a wreck by the fallen ceiling.

It was doubtful whether anything would remain even after the damage was dealt with.

“Whoa…….”

Deathbringer, on the other hand, was impressed by something else.

The moment he pushed aside the rubble and emerged, he was greeted by the griffin’s corpse—with a massive hole blasted straight through it.

“That’s one clean hole…….”

It looked almost as though someone had pressed a circular cutter into bread dough.

The head had completely evaporated, and even the remaining torso bore a perfectly round mark.

And it wasn’t only the griffin’s corpse.

The buildings were the same.

The light had been too bright for them to observe it directly, but a gouged path had been carved along the exact trajectory of the beam.

Not only through Meister’s workshop, but through the building across from it, and the one beyond that, too!

“…Wouldn’t something like this work on a Great Demon as well?”

“Don’t know. We never tested whether this one’s stronger than the shot from the city wall, and we never properly measured that one’s output in the first place.”

How could they measure its power when every single shot burned through money like kindling?

Still, this one probably was stronger than what they had fired from the city wall.

The Mana in the battery hadn’t seemed sufficient, so Meister had shoved in seven outrageously precious Mana amplification devices—

all together, they had to be worth at least three hundred million gal.

“…They survived?”

“What, fuck?!”

“Not the griffin. These.”

“Fuck, you scared the shit out of me!”

While Deathbringer, who had been about to prod the griffin, stumbled backward in surprise, Meister fished something out from amid the bubbling molten metal.

Most of the apparatus had melted in exchange for firing the Mana cannon, but some pieces were still salvageable.

“Five… At this rate, that’s actually pretty…….”

Of the Mana amplification devices, three looked close to giving out, while two were in reasonably decent condition.

The other two had melted completely.

Still, wasn’t this practically a luxury?

Meister had been prepared for all seven to melt.

“And this is fine… this too…….”

Squatting miserably and rummaging through the heap of metal a little more revealed that, surprisingly, most of the major components were still intact.

Their condition was… very bad, admittedly.

But technically, they could still be used immediately.

“Maybe, if everything goes right, we can fire one more shot.”

Of course, that was very much an if everything goes right.

Whether it could actually fire was another question.

Magic engineering was the sort of field where a formula that flew beautifully on paper could enter practical use and end up taking off while spinning its own neck around backward.

“…Are you serious?”

“I’m not certain. Too much of the equipment is in a condition where it wouldn’t be strange for the circuits to melt the moment we try.”

Rather than wager their lives on that uncertainty, it would be better to give up and spare themselves the stress.

Besides, they couldn’t exactly lug all of this around while trying to rejoin the city forces.

Meister took only the purification device they had originally come for and a weapon for emergencies—a fire poker—then prepared to leave.

“What are you doing? If you plan on living there—”

“Then can’t you make that thing and give it to me?”

“What?”

“You said it might be able to fire one more time.”

“I distinctly said I wasn’t sure, didn’t I? And even setting that aside, why should I give it to you?”

Even nearly ruined products could be repaired and used again if enough time was invested.

Did he have any idea how much they were worth?

Meister was about to say exactly that—

then abruptly closed their mouth.

“I’m going to hit the demon with it.”

…That was a slightly bewildering statement.

Even if they went back to the city wall, they already knew this weapon wouldn’t work against that monster—

Wait.

No way.

“…You’re saying you’re going to where that giant of fire is?”

“Yeah.”

Deathbringer began gathering the equipment Meister had left behind.

Setting aside the rough handling that looked liable to break everything, the sheer absurdity of it was astonishing.

“You’re going somewhere you’re going to die? Are you insane?”

“If anyone dies, it’ll be me, not you. I’m going alone, so just make the thing for me.”

“Crazy bastard…….”

Had this idiot forgotten that all the labor and materials needed to build it would come from Meister?

Granted, he was saying he would personally shoulder every risk involved in carrying it all the way to the demon once it was finished, but……

“Why the hell are you even going there?”

“That prude—no, the Hero went there, didn’t she?”

Watching him fumble around was frustrating enough that Meister didn’t want to let him touch anything.

Meister went back inside the building and snatched the components out of Deathbringer’s hands.

Apparently realizing it was better to leave them to someone who knew what they were doing, Deathbringer surrendered them without resistance.

“I trust Lady Fighter to get herself out if things get really dangerous, since she’s quick on her feet… but Lady Hero doesn’t even have that going for her.”

Despite being covered in plate armor, the Inquisitor could occasionally be surprisingly agile—

but only by ordinary standards.

When the Demon Knight or Berserk became the point of comparison, the Inquisitor was slow in the end.

“Besides… I don’t know why, but if demons came after us, doesn’t that mean they’ve spread through the city in the end? If that’s the case, it’s better for the Hero to finish things over there quickly and join the city forces instead of being tied down there.”

Furthermore, the Inquisitor possessed the ability to protect large numbers of people with a barrier covering every direction.

He wasn’t trying to say Berserk is less worth helping than the Inquisitor, but realistically speaking, the Inquisitor could help more people right now.

“So hurry up and make it. I’ll put one shot into the Great Demon’s head and bring the Hero back.”

Despising himself for being weak enough that he ultimately had to decide whom to prioritize and whom he could help, Deathbringer finished speaking.

Meister’s eyes darkened.

“Lunatic.”

“Fuck, you’re one to talk.”

“You think you’ll actually be able to fire this just because I build it for you?”

“You can teach me!”

“What are you going to do about how likely it is to break on the way there? Don’t tell me you expect me to teach you how to repair every last failure mode too?”

“Then what the hell am I supposed to do……?”

“Rather than cram all that into your stupid head, I’d be better off firing it myself.”

Meister thought about it rationally.

This was insane.

“And if you really want to help, you should be doing something more efficient, you idiot! Open that safe in there! We’re blowing the waterways and flooding that entire district!”

It really was insane.

* * *

Something seemed to have been misunderstood.

It wasn’t as one of the voices had said. I didn’t feel responsible for them.

I certainly wasn’t stepping forward because I thought I had to take responsibility.

Of course.

The fact that I was strong and the idea that I had to save them were entirely separate matters.

「Then why……?!」

So if I absolutely had to classify this, it was probably something like basic decency.

Or goodwill. Kindness.

My own morality, which told me this was the right thing to do and made it impossible for me to simply turn my back on them.

「That’s…….」

Ha. Look at me, acting like some saint.

Well, maybe that was a good thing right now.

「But……!」

Ah, that didn’t mean I had nothing to say to you guys.

I was definitely relieved to hear there was some way for me to go home… but that didn’t mean I had any reason to let you off after putting me through all this shit.

「……!」

Just you wait.

Once the immediate crisis is over, I’m going to make you spill everything you’ve been hiding—who you are, why I ended up here, all of it.

So you’d better not think about hiding anything anymore.

Ha. Whatever.

「You… Why are you……?」

I pushed aside the sneering voice and left the tearful one there as I smiled faintly.

I know.

I know it’s stupid.

But if home is somewhere I can eventually return to anyway, then even if it means struggling for a while longer, isn’t it right to keep going and save people?

That’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?

There are so many people I can save if I just push myself a little harder.

「Hngh…….」

At my awkwardly muttered words, tears fell onto my cheek in heavy drops.

It was surprisingly comforting.

I didn’t know why you’d kept silent all this time, but still—

you really were someone who could cry for me.

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「We should never have brought you here… You, you……」

There was someone here to voice the grief I couldn’t bring myself to let out.

And that…

was deeply comforting.