Chapter 159: Something to Hold (2)

Falling arms, rotten skin, dismembered legs, and flesh-eating maggots…It felt as if we were inside of a horror movie. Marionelda continued to laugh viciously.

「Gyahahahahah! Hero! Your senses will no longer differ from reality! You will taste the destruction of your soul with the pain of hell, where your limbs break apart and your internal organs rot!」

「Se…Seiya!! 」

The moment I screamed, one of Seiya’s eyes fell off.

「Whoa!? His eyes are falling off! 」

Celseus screamed as well, but Seiya continued to walk toward Marionelda as if nothing happened.

「…This is just a hallucination.」

「Bu…But, Seiya! Your eyes! 」

「Actually, my eyes haven’t fallen. 」

While talking, Seiya’s nose rot and fell.

「Your face became flat without a nose!!」

「My face isn’t flat.」

When he said those words, the other eyeball fell and rolled on the ground.

「Hey, every part of your face is falling!!」

「I can see even if my eyes are gone. And I can walk even if I lose my legs. This is a great proof that we are experiencing hallucinations.」

Seiya continued to walk. When Seiya’s body bathed with the aura of light, I noticed that Marionelda’s body was smoldering. Her facial expression hardened.

「Why…Just why! You should be losing your mind because of extreme pain! How can you endure it!」

「…So that’s your true ability, huh. What a dumb power.」

Before long, Seiya stood right next to the evil goddess. Marionelda’s face was covered with horror, as she encountered a “monster” whom she had never met before. No…Actually, Seiya really looked like a monster with that horrendous appearance! Either way, she clearly underestimated this hero’s conviction and stubbornness! There was no way that Seiya would believe in illusions or hallucinations!

However, I noticed an irregularity. Red blood flowed from Seiya’s lips and dripped to his chin!

…That wasn’t an hallucination, or was it!? Seiya…Maybe he was hurt, but kept pushing forward!?

「Se…Seiya!! 」

「I’m fine. It’s no big deal. Besides…」

Marionelda obviously inflicted some damage on Seiya. However, he didn’t seem to care about his injury and glanced at Mash, who held his neck with a strong grip.

「Some have experienced a far more agonizing pain that lasted for a whole decade.」

After exhaling deeply, Seiya diffused the dazzling aura from his body! Although Seiya hardly expressed his emotions, it looked apparent to me that the terrifying aura of light embodied Seiya’s rage.

「Ohhh! Our bodies are healing!」

Under the intense light, the decayed bodies of Seiya, Celseus and myself, returned to normality! On the other hand…

「Ugh…Ah…! 」

The small smoldering transformed into big flames and engulfed Marionelda’s entire body! The flames reached a critical point! Eventually, the Elle’s scorched body collapsed, and a huge black shadow monster appeared from the inside!

…That shadow monster was the real body of the evil goddess Marionelda!!

「No way, I can’t believe there is someone who could withstand my power…!」

The shadow monster floated above the sky, but gradually faded away into the space.

「Se…Seiya!! Is she trying to run away!?」

「There’s no problem. I’ve already captured her.」

「Capture, you say…Ahh!! 」

The aura of light radiated from Seiya’s body and spread like a mist towards the sky. The mist gathered around Marionelda and instantly became a huge photosphere*. This power restrained Marionelda inside the photosphere.

「“Cage to Purge”. Furthermore…」

A laser-like beam fired from the tip of Seiya’s hand towards the sky. The laser dispersed into several rays like Fenrir Shot, and some pierced into the photosphere.

「Aghhhhhhhhh! 」

Marionelda screamed wild! The laser rays didn’t dissipate and reflected like a mirror inside the photosphere! Because of this fact, Marionelda’s body got skewered many times by the bouncing laser!

「“Lasting Ray”. Although the power itself is insignificant, it becomes useful when used with the Cage to Purge.」

Marionelda’s shadow body was full of holes. Nevertheless, Seiya kept firing the Lasting Ray from his arm. Most of the laser rays missed the target due to the difficulty in managing their trajectory. But, when the remaining rays entered the Cage to Purge, they repeated the endless combination of the previous rays…Every single laser pierced through Marionelda’s body. Shortly after, Marionelda’s body vanished with screams of death after the continuous rays bounced back thousands of times.

「He…He did it!! 」

「Unbelievable!! The last boss was an evil goddess, right!? And yet, he defeated the enemy with overwhelming strength!!」

Celseus and I were extremely delighted, and…

「…Evil goddess. Break and disappear. 」

When Seiya clenched his fist, the Cage to Purge compressed. The photosphere exploded with a dazzling glow. After the explosion, I noticed there was no dust above our heads and only blue sky. Celseus looked confused and said.

「He…Hey, Lista. What’s the point of that explosion?」

「Actually, Seiya had already wiped out Marionelda before he said, “break and disappear”… A…Anyway, it’s a complete victory!」

However, Seiya didn’t relax his complexion. Beyond Seiya’s line of sight… Mash was standing. Despite being mortally wounded, he managed to support his body with his trembling legs. Then, he grabbed the Egzation with his last remaining strength, and his aura emitted a last spark. Seiya saw this scene and prepared for battle.

「Wha…What on earth is happening? Seiya defeated the evil goddess, didn’t he? Wasn’t she manipulating Mash in the first place? Then, why is Seiya prepared to fight him?」

「Even so…Mash is still one of the causes that distorts this world…」

Mash smiled and threw the Egzation toward Seiya.

「Use it. The sword is originally yours to wield.」

Seiya silently grabbed the Egzation that stuck in the ground. Mash laughed while standing over a pool of blood. He was bleeding massively from his neck.

「“I came from a different world. This world is an illusion.” Uh, uh, uh…I feel like your ridiculous story is actually true…」

Upon saying those words, Mash extended his arms wide as he looked up to the heavens.

「Take me back. To my old true self. Please erase this horrible decade.」

Seiya silently nodded at Mash’s words. On this moment, Seiya disappeared from my sight.

…All it took was an instant. I didn’t even hear the sound of a sword slashing. Mash’s neck was cut off from his torso at an insane speed that even pain couldn’t follow it. Celseus turned his eyes away from Mash’s head that fell to the ground.

「Ugh…That’s too cruel. There’s no salvation for his soul…」

「No, you’re wrong.」

In the last moment, I certainly heard Mash’s voice. In fact, the voice of his soul.

…He said, 『Thank you, Master 』…

Thanks to my tears, everything around me, including Seiya holding the Egzation, looked distorted. No, actually, it was the world getting distorted. My feet were wobbling, and the world was shaking, just like the time when Merseys destroyed the Gods’ realm.

…Before long, I couldn’t see Mash’s body anywhere. On the contrary, the ghastly battlefield had turned into a pure white snowfield. When I looked back, the Igle town, as well as the townspeople, had disappeared. Only snow powder gently fell from the sky and accumulated in the vast land of the cold Alfreis continent.

—

「Mash! Miss Rosalie is calling us! Wake up! 」

「Hmm…Yeah… 」

「Hurry, Hurry, Hurryyyyy…! 」

Elle violently shook a sleeping Mash that took a short nap under a big tree.

…Seiya, Celseus and I, were coming to the Rosgard Empire. We wanted to confirm whether the world had really returned to normal. Since the distortion corrupting the world disappeared, I was able to summon my portal to Rosgard like I used to do before. Under Seiya’s instructions, we made ourselves transparent and we sneaked into the castle. Then, we found Elle and Mash chilling in the vast garden.

「Stop it, Elle! I’m already awake! 」

Mash was angry with Elle for shaking his body consecutively. Seiya whispered to us whilst watching these two.

「It seems that they are doing great. 」

「…What? Seiya. Are you smiling as you watch them? 」

However, after some silence, I realized that Seiya was back to his usual self. I felt that he turned around to go back.

「Don’t you want to meet them? 」

「They think I died in the previous battle with the Demon King. It will be a hassle to meet them and have to explain everything.」

「C’mon. I’m sure that they will be delighted to see you.」

「I still have a job to do. I have other priorities now.」

Then, Seiya glanced at his waist. He carried the sheath with Egzation. I wondered why.

…Why…Why did Geabrande return to its original state, but the holy sword Egzation still existed…?

When Seiya was about to leave, Elle shouted in surprise.

「Ahh? What’s wrong, Mash? 」

「I don’t know…Suddenly, my eyes got teary. How strange. 」

「Did you have a sad dream? 」

「Ah. I think so, yes. 」

「You see. I had a dream this morning too. I don’t remember it clearly, but it was a very painful, scary and sad dream. But…」

Elle smiled softly afterwards.

「Someone saved me at the end of the dream!」

Unexpectedly, I heard a voice from the direction of the castle, who said 「Hey. 」. The blue-haired Rosalie walked up to them.

「Mash. So you were in a place like this. The statue is finally complete. 」

「Ah…You mean my Master’s statue! It took a long time to complete it! 」

「Miss Rosalie worked hard during the supervision of the project! 」

Apparently, they were building a statue for Seiya who saved the world and the Empire. Mash and Elle were happy, but Rosalie looked a bit tense.

「That statue…I want to destroy it…」

「Miss Rosalie!? 」

「But, why!? Rosalie, you were the one who took the initiative to make that statue, isn’t that right!?」

「Ah, yes…But, I feel strange. I wanted to build that statue because I was truly grateful at him for saving the world. Somehow, recently, I got irritated again when I remembered him…」

…Was…Was that the influence of the twisted world!? Did she feel somewhere in her soul that Seiya sacrificed her with Infect Lover!?

Seiya took a deep breath.

「I have to apologize to Rosalie someday. I’ll do it when all the twisted worlds come back to normal.」

「You…You’re right…. 」

Celseus and I followed Seiya, who begun to walk rapidly. On this very moment, I remembered that Seiya suddenly grabbed my breasts in the world of deep consciousness. Wait a second! Seiya apologized to Mash and Elle, and he wanted to apologize to Rosalie one day! But, he didn’t include me in that list!

「Hey, Seiya!! You have to apologize to me too!! Back then, you grabbed my breasts and…」

「…There are still many mysteries surrounding the twisted worlds. I have to clear them up.」

「Don’t ignore me, hey!! 」

However, I noticed that this unbelievable hero wasn’t paying attention to me anymore, but, instead, he looked forward with sharp eyes.

「Lista. Let’s go back to the Underworld. I want to meet Hades to find out the truth.」

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*The photosphere is the lowest layer of the solar atmosphere. It is essentially the solar “surface” that we see when we look at the Sun in “white” (i.e. regular or visible) light.

Vol.3 COMPLETE! Thank you for reading!!!

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