The moment we walked out of the basement, me and Shelly witnessed the moment Mr. Bell sank into a pool of blood. We didn't need any words from each other. Shelly immediately ran to Belle-san's side and I went towards the other demon.



''Gu........d*mn it!
....


　I couldn't help but complain. Mr. Bell was defeated, and here I am, fighting an opponent who is not very decisive. His opponent is wounded. That much is clear from the wounds on his body. It's probably the proof that Belle had risked her life to fight. That's why I have to take over the fight.


　This demon I'm going to kill it here.


　Earlier, Shelly interfered, but once she became that emotional, it was no longer possible to have a proper battle. It's precisely because I judged it impossible to follow this battle that I angrily kicked Shelly away.


　I'm sure she knows what that means.


　That's how the demon relative to you, but she is completely focused on defense. There is no glimpse of a will to attack. The only thing that exists is the indomitable will to defend oneself. I exploded the Multiple Knives multitasking dagger in a "burst" and also activated the Invisible Blade using both feet as the starting point. With this number of hands, if it were an ordinary demon, the battle should have ended immediately. However, as expected from the victory over Belle-san, she is able to see through all of my attacks and maintain a proper distance. Not too close, not too far, but just the right amount of distance between them, they were receiving my continuous attacks.


　--Lack of a decisive move!　d*mn it, I'm going to have to use it!


　I have an ability that I haven't used yet, but that's partly because I'm tired from the battle with the Ancient Scorpion, the Ancient Scorpion, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep it completely under control.


　And so when I was slightly lost, a demon appeared out of nowhere to catch my sword strike.



''.........Huh. It was in the nick of time, wasn't it? Alfred-san.
Hahhhhhhhhhhhh thank you, Auriel.
By the looks of it, did you do it?
...Oh. I killed Bertina Wright.
'Great!　This is the biggest war effort of all!　Well. Now we just have to go home.


　While catching my attack with a ward or something, the demon called Auriel smiles at me fearlessly.


''Uriah Curtis-san. It's nice to meet you. I am the Holy Twelve Apostles, fourth in the hierarchy. My name is Aurir.
Shut up!
Oh, well, it's rough... though I can see why you can't maintain your normalcy after having your friends killed...


　What's going on?　This warding in front of me. It should not be strong. But it is impossible to break it. I thought it was specialized in physics and tried to activate the area diffusion, but nothing changed.


　I was only left in a daze, screaming in front of this ward.


''Well then, we'll take our leave now.''
...Wait!
Hmm. I'm sure we'll see each other again. Besides, you guys have reclaimed this part of the twilight land. You should be proud of yourselves. Now, if you'll excuse me...


　As they bowed reverently, the two demons disappeared as it was, due to the magic of transference.

　Again.

　I missed it again.

　I don't know what is going on with the magic of the demons. Even with this Twilight Sight, there are things that even this Twilight Sight cannot capture. I am once again aware that this world is much larger than I thought it was.


　And even though we were killed by a special class antimagician, just like before, there is no damage on the other side.


　We are advancing. Indeed, by defeating the Ancient Scorpion, the Ancient Scorpion, the Ancient Scorpion, we may have been able to regain part of this twilight land. Surely, with the success of the operation, the Warding City will spring up. Because after the defeat of the Human Demon War, we were finally able to move forward.

　Yes, that's right. The mission was a success. We were able to defeat the target, and the rest of the demons would soon be finished hunting.


　It was a success. It was a success........but.......


　But it was built on a solid sacrifice.


　It was a success, but there was no pride in it........


".........


　The rain pours down. It gains momentum and in no time at all this body is drenched.


　It's just so pathetic. After all, a number of lives had fallen out of my hands. I couldn't save them. I awakened my ability as a demon, and I reached the rank of Special Class Anti-Magician Zero. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if I wasn't proud of that fact.

　I am strong. And the other special class antagonists are also strong. So I thought that I would be fine, but that was just optimism.


　I am unable to face reality. Indeed, if it was me until now, I wouldn't have been able to overrun the Ancient Scorpion 《Encendent Scorpion》 like that by myself.


　I'm growing, and I'm getting stronger. I'm proud of that.......but no matter how strong I am, there will always be lives that fall out of my hands. I'm not sure I understand that this is a matter of course.



".........


　I look up to the heavens. The world is still ruled by twilight, a red-black, purple-black light.


　How much further have we gone?　Surely that........would only be a small part of the way to reach the blue sky. And yet, we have lost the strongest swordsman in humanity, and we have already lost the other opponents. For all that they have gained, they have lost too much.


　 I'm not going to be able to believe that the noblest and strongest of them all is going to be defeated, but I'm going to catch it in my vision. The figure that has been reduced to a corpse has been caught in my vision.


　And then I see Shelley, who is crying as she snuggles up to the corpse. Seeing her with tears flowing from her left eye and fresh blood flowing from her right eye, my heart is also controlled by a pain that seems to constrict me.


''........''


　I head there in silence. On the way I found an arm that had been severed. As I was deploying the Twilight Sight, I immediately recognized it as Belle's. Then I picked up that arm and proceeded to walk away.


　The sound of the rain no longer makes it difficult to hear the sounds around me. Even so, I tell her clearly. I tell him this reality in all its glory.


I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work. The demons escaped, but we have reclaimed this land...
....
Let's go home. Let's go home.
....
'Mr. Bell is already....dead....Shelly....
Hey Julia.
Yes.
...the doctor was ... strong, wasn't he?
....


　How should I respond?

　Shelly snuggles up to its corpse and then turns her eyes to cling to me.


'He was strong. Mr. Bell was strong.


　It's easy to say those words.

　And I know that Shelly wants those words.

　But it's only comforting. What I need to do now is not to feel sorry for Shelly and share her pain. This is not the time for us to lick the same wounds and then immerse ourselves in wailing while the two of us, just the two of us, are left in this place.


　What is needed now is the will to stand up.


　Tears flow from her left eye, and fresh blood from her right eye, which has been neatly severed vertically, Shelly. Perhaps it is surely human nature to look at her and say a kind word to her. But I can't let her stop here.


　In order not to let Belle-san's death be in vain.


"...Belle-san was weak.
.................
That's why we lost. You know that, don't you?　He lost because he was weaker than that demon. Mr. Bell was weak. He wasn't strong.
That's not true!
There's no denying it. That's what Miss Bell's body in there proves, isn't it?
"...Why, why do you say that?　Julia doesn't like the teacher...?


　Your eyes tell you that you can't believe I would say that. I can't believe you would say that. I wondered why she didn't share my feelings. She said it so eloquently.

　But I firmly deny it. What we need now is not emotion. It is not sadness. It is not wailing. What we need now is the will to look at reality and stand up for ourselves.


"...I loved you. It's not just me. Everyone, everyone loved Belle. But a defeat is a defeat. And that's what happened to me when my left arm was cut off and I ended up dead.
....
'Shelly, you know what I mean.　That demon was stronger than Mr. Bell. It's true that Mr. Bell was a strong demon. But that was in the human race. He wasn't even close to the higher-ranked mages. That's... that's the reality.


　The rain was pouring down on us like an overturned bucket.

　It seemed to express our sadness.

　I don't want to talk about this, either. I don't want to have to face this cruel reality. I don't want to say the beautiful things that Shelly wants me to say.


　I also want to lick the wounds that are deeply engraved in each other's hearts.


　But this is not something that can be allowed. That's what a counter-magician is. We are especially special class anti-magicians. We are not allowed to stand still. We have to keep moving forward, overcoming the deaths of our friends. No matter how much pain we have to go through to do so. The only thing we can do is to keep going....


I understand!　I know!　Sensei, you've lost!　Because I'm weak, I'm weaker than that demon!　That's why we lost!　I know that!　I know I know but hey, Julia I'm not going to be able to... What should I do?


　I don't know anything anymore. I know how she feels. The tears that flow incessantly tell the true story of her emotions.


　And that's why I'm going to tell her about the path we're going to take. I'm going to tell you where we're going.


　I walk over to Shelly and kneel down on my knees and hug her tightly. We're already too wet for each other, but that doesn't matter anymore. I just wanted her to know this warmth.



'....Sherry. Let's move on. Let's continue to walk on, all the way until we are free of this twilight. We can't be allowed to stop. I'm sure Ms. Bell feels the same way. She left us in charge of her and she's gone.

'Yeah...'
We have to... prove... that those words were not a lie... by ourselves... and we have to prove it... by ourselves...
Oh yes of course. We will fight for Ms. Bell, too. I'll bear her death in mind as we move forward....
Yes....yes...yes...!
....


　And so we hugged each other for a while, wailing.

　I'll never forget what happened today........