Chapter 87: Extra Story: Another World 1
Half a year had passed since the witches had been erased from existence for good.
I'd retired from the world and now lived in a log house deep in the forest with Layla. I didn't have much to do, so I spent most of my time lying around. It was what I'd always wanted. I was more than satisfied with my current life, and yet...for some reason, I often felt like I'd left something undone. I couldn't pinpoint what it was, though.
I'd defeated the witch while making sure Eterna survived. I'd also avoided the death of all the other characters that were supposed to die. I'd even gotten rid of the source of the witches' corruption and broken the cycle for good. I'd done a pretty damn good job of bringing a happy ending to this story, if I did say so myself.
Sure, I hadn't done everything perfectly, but I couldn't help that. I'd been given cheat powers and overwhelming talent, but at the end of the day, I was just me.
A smarter transmigrator would surely have found a way to give the people of Fiori a better living environment, improve the political system, and lead this world in a better direction, but I couldn't do all that.
Mass-producing potatoes had helped the hunger issue somewhat, but there were still people who died every winter. The life expectancy was also ridiculously low when compared to modern-day Japan.
Sadly, I was just a regular guy who'd proved time and time again he was far from being a genius.
Take Verner and Eterna, for instance—initially, I'd wanted to set them up together, but I'd ended up messing up their relationship instead. Eterna had failed to develop serious romantic feelings toward Verner, preferring to keep him as her best friend instead, and Verner...well he'd fallen for me, of all people. Speaking of which, I still wasn't sure how that had happened.
That couldn't be what bothered me, though. I mean, it does bother me, but it's more of a current issue than some sort of regret.
What could it be...? The fact that I couldn't figure it out was probably what annoyed me the most. It was like having a fish bone stuck in between your teeth—a small, yet constant irk.
Overthinking it isn't gonna help me, I decided. Sometimes, when you didn't know, you didn't know! No amount of thinking would magically give you an answer. If anything, it was the kind of stuff that suddenly popped into your mind out of nowhere if you left it alone.
Should I abuse my powers as the prophet and peep at people for a change of pace?
My guilty pleasure used to be bullying monsters to let off steam, but now that there wasn't a single monster left in the entirety of Fiori—I'd exterminated them myself—I'd had to find a new hobby. So, yeah, my current obsession was to sit on my rocking chair while taking a peek at people's lives. Privacy? I don't know her.
Now, now! Where shall I look today? Let's start with the academy—that's always a solid choice.
"Huh?" I blurted out.
What I was seeing was...strange, to say the least. The place where the academy used to stand had turned into a wasteland; only ruins remained.
The school was...destroyed? No, that doesn't make any sense. In fact, the building's still standing, I can see it. What the hell is going on? There are...two academies?
It was all so strange. I felt like I was watching a split screen. On one side was the academy I knew. I could even see Eterna and random dude studying together. On the other side, though, was footage of the exact same place, only...different. It was like some sort of battle had taken place right there and destroyed most of the building. There were even a pair of students fighting monsters.
I took a closer look and noticed that one of these students was Verner. He didn't look like the Verner I knew, though. He'd lost his left arm and had an eye patch over his right eye. Besides, he looked much more...violent—bloodthirsty, almost—than the young man I'd gotten to know.
?
???
What the hell is that?!
It was the first time my footage had ever split into two, but even putting that aside, there shouldn't have been any monsters left. How was that happening? What was I watching?
Oh, and for the record, the Verner I knew was in another place altogether. He was standing under some waterfall for...training purposes, I guess? For real, though, what in the world is that boy doing?
All right, I don't get it. How can there be two academies and two Verners?
If Profeta had still been with us, I would've gone to her for advice. Sadly, she wasn't.
Wait... What if...?
Something suddenly came back to me. Profeta had once told me that she'd seen Japan, and more specifically, the timeline inside which the original Ellize appeared in Kuon no Sanka.
Yamoto-san had assumed that two timelines existed—one in which I'd transmigrated into Ellize, and one in which I hadn't. The first one, timeline A, was my starting point. There, Ellize was a piece of shit, and the story of Kuon no Sanka had unfolded in a terrible direction. That was the game I knew.
The second one, timeline B, had me as Ellize. In other words, it was the timeline I currently existed in.
I didn't know how to trigger it—it could be random, for all I knew—but the prophet seemed to have the power to observe different timelines.
Which meant I was currently looking at a different world altogether...probably?
"There's no end to them! Marie, run away!"
"No... I'll stay with you even in death!"
Oh, so that girl's Marie, huh?
It was starting to look more and more like I was indeed peeping at a parallel universe. I continued to observe their fight. Countless monsters continued to launch themselves at the group of students. Before long, they ended up exhausted and surrounded.
I didn't know how they'd found themselves in that situation, but things didn't look good.
Come on! Keep at it, other-world Verner! You can do it! I believe in you! Don't give up! You're not a quitter, are you? Uh-oh! Shimura! Behind you! They're coming from behind too!
Neither my joke nor my warning reached Verner, and he was attacked from behind. The situation was getting dire.
Aaargh! I can't bear to watch! This is so irritating!If I was there, I would've sent those freakin' monsters flying in a matter of seconds!
That was my last thought before my surroundings blurred. Before I could even understand what was happening, I'd ended up next to Verner and Marie on the battlefield.
What the...?!
◇
How'd things end up like this?
Not a day would go by without him asking the same question. As the young man—Verner—gazed at what used to be his school, he couldn't help but feel regret. He was the only man in the world with the powers of the witch.
These powers had once ruined his life. He'd been shunned by his family and driven out of his home. After he'd wandered aimlessly for a while, he'd met a young girl named Eterna.
When he closed his eyes, he could picture her face so vividly—the face of the one person he considered family, the only woman he'd ever loved from the bottom of his heart.
Verner and Eterna had left their poor village to enroll in the magic academy, the school where future knights serving the saint were trained.
Several reasons had motivated Verner to enroll. First of all, he wanted to learn how to kill monsters so that he could protect his and Eterna's village. Second, he hoped to find a way to control the dark powers inside of him. And, finally, third, he wished to become strong enough to protect Eterna.
Eterna hadn't wished to become a knight, but she'd followed him to the academy out of worry. Verner hadn't expected that, but—while he didn't want her to be in harm's way—he was happy that she'd decided to stay by his side.
Their new life at the academy proved more difficult than they'd anticipated. Most of the other students looked down on them for being commoners, and they soon discovered that the saint—or rather, the fake saint, as they'd come to learn later—they'd have to protect was rotten to her core.
No amount of words could describe how horrible Ellize was. She only ever thought of herself, and whenever she disliked someone, she abused her authority to make their life a living hell. She was the kind of monster who could drive people to suicide without batting an eye.
She was also incredibly good at shifting the blame, so she'd play the victim every chance she got, whining and crying to attract empathy.
To make things worse, the fake saint had taken a liking to Verner. As a result, she'd started relentlessly bullying Eterna and his other friends. She'd even sent a group of hoodlums to assault Eterna. Luckily, Verner had gotten to her before it was too late, but whenever he thought about what might have happened if he'd been just a few minutes late, his blood ran cold.
The head of Ellize's guard, Layla, had ended up betraying her. With her and several others' help, they'd eventually managed to take down Ellize and exile her. He'd heard that she'd ended up dying alone in the slums. Sadly, Ellize's harassment had only been the first of many trials. Even with her out of the way, the difficulties continued.
At around the same time Ellize had been banished, Eterna awakened as the real saint. She was given the heavy task of fighting the witch.
Besides that, a teacher brainwashed by the witch had attacked her, a horde of monsters had raided the academy, and a perverted stalker had kidnapped Eterna to push his obsessive ideals onto her. Eterna had also had to deal with her terrible reputation. Ellize had done so many horrible things that the saint was hated by virtually everyone. Poor Eterna was the one who had to pay the price.
Even the nobility—who'd always supported the successive saints—refused to help Eterna. The hatred toward the "saint" had grown so much that no one wanted to associate with her anymore.
In a fit of rage, an angry mob had even attacked Eterna's birth village.
Even so, Verner and Eterna had never stopped fighting. They'd pulled through and overcome all of these obstacles together. After a while, they'd come to realize that no one was as dear to them as the other. They professed their love and got together.
Verner was chosen as the new head of Eterna's guard and allowed to become her closest support. He vowed to protect her no matter what. Unfortunately, Eterna lost her life in the final battle against the witch.
Verner had sworn to protect her. He'd promised her that he wouldn't let her die. And yet, he'd failed to do so. The person he loved the most—the one whose life he valued more than his own, had willingly sacrificed herself to kill the witch. She'd breathed her last in Verner's arms.
In hindsight, Eterna had most likely made up her mind before the fight even started, Verner realized. She'd probably resolved to die when she'd learned that the saint turned into the next witch.
The saddest thing about the whole ordeal was that Eterna's death had only been the prelude of the true tragedy.
When the witch died, her powers and curse would pass onto the saint, and she'd become the next witch. But what happened if the saint died before she could turn into a witch? Did the witch's powers disappear without a proper vessel? That's what Eterna had assumed. She'd thought that, by sacrificing herself, she'd be able to break the cycle. The royals had also believed the same thing.
It had never happened before, thus no one could have guessed that the theory was nothing but wishful thinking.
Having lost its vessel—Eterna—the witch's grudge escaped and materialized.
The grudge of the first witch had passed to the saint who'd defeated her, and she herself passed it forward to the next saint. The cycle had repeated itself again and again until, in the end, the rancor and despair of all the previous witches merged into a warped abomination.
At last, the people of Fiori witnessed the true nature of the calamity that had plagued them for a thousand years.
Verner and all the others finally realized who their real enemy was. However, it was far too late—there was nothing they could do anymore.
The only way to triumph over this monster was to prevent it from emerging. Now that it was there, the world was doomed. There was no one who could stand up to it—no miracle worker to save them all.
Despair itself was at their door. All was truly lost.
Needless to say, Verner fought regardless. He didn't want to let Eterna's death be in vain, so he and his friends made an oath and stood up to the monster. Even those who'd once been his enemies rallied to his cause and joined the struggle. Whenever one of them passed away, the others inherited their will, fighting even harder despite the tears that streamed down their faces.
They had to win. Losing wasn't an option, they told themselves. In the end, everything would be all right, they'd make sure of it.
We can do it. As long as we don't give up, there's still hope! they thought.
And so, the brave warriors mustered their courage, cheered each other on, and faced despair itself.
However...
"MWA HA HA HA!!! HA HA HA HA!!!"
Despair, in the form of the "witch," laughed hysterically as it trampled upon them mercilessly.
Verner and his comrades tried to cut, burn, and shoot the "witch" with spells and arrows. Unfortunately, it was to no avail—the abomination restored its body again and again. No matter what they tried, it continued marching through the land and destroying everything that stood in its path. The academy, countless villages and cities, entire nations—nothing escaped the giant.
No doubt it's out there right now destroying something, somewhere, Verner thought. Unless someone stopped it, the "witch" wouldn't rest until the entire world was in ruins.
Verner and his comrades—everyone he'd come to know—had lost. The saint's guard, with the exception of Verner himself, had long since died. Even Layla, the most powerful knight who'd once stood in Verner's path before she betrayed Ellize, had lost her life. He himself had lost an arm.
The "witch" hadn't stopped its rampage, and the people lived in fear, unable to sleep soundly as they wondered when their turn would come.
Verner looked up at the sky. There, in the place where his school once stood, he reminisced about the old days. They'd been harsh, sure, but he'd been happy then.
His boyish fickleness and naivete had long since left him, and he'd become a proper warrior. His eyes—sharp as those of a bird of prey—shone with a cold gleam, and his body was covered in scars. One of the worst ones, which lay on his right cheek, had been poorly sewn. An unnatural mark remained, disfiguring him. He wore a tattered old cloak, which threatened to fall apart over his battered armor. The edge of his claymore had long since dulled. He'd become much taller and more muscular compared to his school days—he stood at an impressive 190 centimeters tall.
"Verner... Are we going to keep fighting?" Marie—his last standing comrade—asked, clutching Verner's cloak.
She was the one who'd saved Verner from the clutches of death, nursing him back to health after one of his battles against the "witch." When he'd opened his eyes, she'd asked him to flee as far away as possible with her. They'd stop fighting and live together, she'd said.
Her proposal had made Verner happy. To hear that someone still cared about him that much after he'd lost everything had brought tears to his eyes. However, he hadn't been able to bring himself to say yes. The rage that burned red inside his chest wouldn't let him give up.
He knew full well that he'd never defeat the "witch." Just as Marie had suggested, the best he could do now was focus on fleeing to save his life. However, he refused to accept that.
He'd lost his friends, mentors, comrades, and beloved. He couldn't forgive the monster who'd taken them from him, who'd trampled all over them like they were nothing but garbage. No, he wasn't mature and clever enough to forget about them for the sake of survival.
He'd keep fighting. Winning or losing didn't matter anymore in his eyes. He simply couldn't give up the fight—it was all he had left. His thirst for revenge was the only thing that kept him alive.
"Yeah," he answered, his voice low.
It came out like a groan. Marie thought he sounded like a starving beast. She could see the burning inferno behind his eyes. The kindhearted and gentle young man she knew was no longer there.
"Can't we...stop? You know we can't beat that monster..."
After she'd saved Verner from the brink of death, he'd gone on to challenge the "witch" five more times. He would collect information on its location, then estimate its trajectory to find it and fight. Each of their battles had ended in a matter of minutes. The "witch" would send him flying, then continue on its path of destruction, not even bothering to finish him.
Every time, the number of scars on Verner's body increased.
Compared to when he was a student, Verner had dramatically improved. He'd also become much better at using the witch's powers inside of him. However, that was far from enough to even leave a scratch on the "witch."
Marie couldn't bear to watch him go through that anymore.
"You know, I...keep having that dream," Verner said.
"What dream?"
"The one where I still thought everything'd be fine in the end. Everyone's there... Eterna too. But then, everything goes up in flames. I try to reach in to save someone—anyone—but I can't grab 'em. They all turn to ashes in front of me. That's when I wake up. And I swear, each time, I'm filled with rage and hatred—especially at myself for being a good-for-nothing. Then, I just can't sit still." As he spoke, Verner clenched his fists. "I've gotta kill that thing... I've gotta, Marie! Just picturing everyone's faces smiling and laughing... It drives me crazy! I'll kill it! I will! I don't care if it's impossible, I swear I'll do it!"
Marie shivered. She knew that Verner had no way to win, no matter how many times he challenged that monster. But she realized now that he'd keep trying. He'd keep trying until he, too, lost his life.
That sudden realization was hard for her to bear. She cast her eyes down and bit her lip. She heard Verner unsheathe his sword and immediately raised her head.
"Verner?"
"Looks like we've got guests, Marie. That thing's gotta be close," he huffed, glaring at his surroundings.
A few—no, several dozen—monsters came out of the woods. They used to obey Alexia, so now they responded to the abomination's will. Wherever the "witch" went, animals transformed into new monsters. Oftentimes, they turned into archmonsters—powerful beings that had rarely ever appeared in the past. In other words, the presence of a large number of powerful monsters in a single area showed that the "witch" was close.
At any rate, their purpose hadn't changed—they still attacked people.
Verner roared and launched himself at the beasts, claymore in hand. Most of them leaped back, but one unfortunate minotaur was too slow. Verner cleaved it in two, and the pieces hit the ground with a thud.
Verner's blade measured a meter and a half, and—including the handle—it was longer than Verner was tall. A regular soldier wouldn't even have been able to lift the monstrous blade, let alone wield it. Verner effortlessly swung it around at an incredible speed. An ordinary person could only see the blurry afterimage it left in its wake.
Verner followed up with another swing, cutting the monsters who'd yet to land in half.
Marie stood behind him, gathering her mana. After a short while, she raised her staff, and several monsters froze. Verner only had to tap them with his sword to shatter them into pieces.
All of them were almost as strong as archmonsters. Under normal circumstances, an entire squad of knights would have needed to work together to take them down. Yet, Verner and Marie slaughtered them one after the other. Before the world collapsed, they surely would have been celebrated as heroes. The current world, however, was overrun by such monsters—getting rid of a few of them wouldn't change much.
A pterosaur flew at them, breathing fire, while a lion with a human face threw itself at them. At the same time, a stone giant swung its large hammer down on them, and a large hydra slithered closer, baring its poisonous fangs.
Verner and Marie counter-attacked, protecting each other's backs. They killed the monsters one after the other, but replacements continued to swarm them. They were outnumbered.
"There's no end to them... Marie, run away!"
"No... I'll stay with you even in death!"
The "witch" created powerful monsters at a rate previously unheard of. Archmonsters and quasi-archmonsters ran wild everywhere, making Fiori a living hell. There were no safe places anymore. The number of monsters would only rise with time, and before long, not a single human would be left alive.
In the past, humanity had somehow managed to maintain a relatively safe zone in which cities had developed. That was impossible now. No matter where you went, you'd run into hordes of monsters.
"Urgh..." Verner groaned.
A scorpion monster had just spat out a cloud of poisonous gas from afar. Verner could swing his claymore all he wanted, he had no way to counter the toxin. He managed to blow some of it away with the wind he'd created, but it hadn't been enough to get rid of all the gas.
Marie started coughing, and Verner felt his body grow heavier.
"Don't you dare...look down on me!" he screamed.
He bared his teeth and dashed forward, sword in hand. He cut the scorpion open, but his sudden move had separated him from Marie. A bear monster took advantage of her isolation and pounced on her.
Verner managed to stab it to death at the very last second, but a wolf monster leaped at him from behind. He reacted quickly and turned around, but he hadn't been fast enough to block. Sharp fangs dug into his shoulder. Verner retaliated by slamming the wolf into a nearby tree. The monster keened and let go, falling to the ground.
His wound was deep, and he'd been beaten on the right side—the only arm he had left.
The two companions fought as hard as they could, but gradually, they were cornered. They were starting to realize that this would likely be their last battle.
"I won't die here! This ain't oveeeeeeer!!!"
Killing the "witch" was Verner's only path to redemption. He'd already lost everything he wanted to protect, but he was still alive because his role wasn't over. He was still there so he could keep swinging his sword and etch at least a tenth—no, a hundredth—of his comrades' suffering into the "witch."
He couldn't die here. He'd never forgive himself.
He forced his wounded body to move out of sheer determination and cut down foe after foe. There was no end to them, though.
Marie had already fallen to her knees. Her exhaustion was catching up to her, and the poison she'd inhaled had clearly weakened her. Her face was ghastly pale and she looked like she might pass at any given second.
Needless to say, the monsters didn't give her any time to rest. They leaped at her at once. Verner embraced her in a last-ditch effort to shield her with his body.
"Aurea Libertas," a clear voice said.
Verner had never heard that voice before, but for some reason, he felt like he knew it.
At the same time, countless beams of light rained down, annihilating the hordes of monsters. In the face of the divine light of judgment, the might or speed of the monsters did not seem to matter.
After a few moments, silence fell.
"No way... A...miracle?" Verner whispered, his voice shaking.
He'd seen it all happen with his own eyes, but he couldn't quite believe it was real. His brain couldn't comprehend it. Light had suddenly poured down and wiped out the monsters for them... Who would believe such a ridiculous story?
And yet, it had happened. And the person who was responsible for it descended from the sky.
Verner took one look at her and immediately assumed that a goddess had descended.
Each strand of her hair looked like a delicate piece of gold thread. She had smooth, white skin and the most beautiful face Verner had ever seen. She wore a simple white dress that billowed around her as she landed. The golden locks and dress reminded him of the hateful fake saint, Ellize, but the exquisite young lady couldn't be any more different compared to the waste of space he'd known.
She held out her hand, and Verner felt the poison disappear from his body. His wounds also healed.
"Are you all right?" the young woman asked with a smile.
Verner was so taken aback that he stayed mute. Marie was just as shocked. She couldn't believe that such a person existed at all.
They both wondered if they'd died. Was this nothing but a beautiful dream? After all, it made absolutely no sense. How could someone like her, powerful enough to slaughter dozens of monsters in a split second, have remained anonymous? If there was a goddess in Fiori, they would have heard of her. Where had she been hiding up until now? And what had she been doing?
Verner was overthinking things so much that he couldn't tell if this was reality or not anymore.
"A-Are you...a goddess?" Verner blurted out in spite of himself.
The one thing he knew for sure was that the young woman in front of him wasn't the saint. Two saints never existed at the same time, and this generation's saint was Eterna. Even if a new saint had been born after her death, the girl would be a baby. Besides, Verner doubted that the knight could find and protect her in this hell. If she'd been born at all, she was probably dead already.
That said, it made even less sense if she were just a normal human. It was completely impossible. And so, Verner reached the only plausible conclusion: she had to be a goddess who'd descended to save the world. She was clearly much stronger than any human.
The young woman smiled wider and softly said, "No, nothing like that. I'm just...a busybody. I saw you two fighting, and I couldn't bring myself to ignore your struggle."
A busybody? Verner couldn't believe it, but he forced himself to stay quiet.
No matter who she was or what her motivations were, she was their savior. He had no business being rude to her. What he ought to do was thank her for what she'd done.
"I see..." he said. "Well, you have my thanks. Without you, we'd be done for. I'm Verner, that's Marie. We're on a journey to slay the damn 'witch.' What's your name? If you don't mind telling us, anyway."
He bowed deeply to demonstrate his respect.
Even in this hopeless world, there was still someone as powerful as her left. Her presence lit a spark of hope in Verner's heart, and he truly wanted to know her name.
Her eyes wandered awkwardly. She seemed uncomfortable, but after a few seconds, she resigned herself and looked Verner straight in the eyes.
Then, she blurted out something absurd. "My name is Ellize."
At those words, the tension in the air grew palpable.
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