[The Last Player, the Masterpiece]
“What did I do to deserve this! Why did things turn out this way?! I just, I just!!”
Just as I was about to leave the cathedral, one of the collapsed puppets suddenly started to move and began to cry out.
Its flesh-stuffing is continuously spilling out from the upper half of the puppet’s face, making its crying expression quite a grotesque sight. Joseph, who is likely inside the puppet, is grieving.
I’ve got no clue about what he’s gone through in the short time he was away nor about why he came back nor about what he’s grieving for.
In fact, I’m more surprised by the fact that one of the collapsed puppets is still intact.
Joseph probably left it behind to monitor our movements after he escaped… but well, now that doesn’t matter.
The important thing is that the enemy who had escaped has returned.
The experience points that slipped through my hand have returned. This good fortune must be the result of my daily good deeds.
“Ethel, give me and Ayako ‘Consecration’ and ‘Blessing’.”
“O-okay, got it. But is it safe for her to step up and fight? She may get taken control by him.”
“She could keep on fighting for some time back in front of the great library, proving that she won’t lose control instantly. She should be fine as long as she pays attention to not get in direct contact with him.”
“!”
“Look, Ayako is okay with it too. In fact, she’s too eager to kill him.”
Even if in the worst-case scenario Ayako got controlled, I’d do my best to convert her into experience points, so it’d be fine.
And if she showed any sign of being taken control, I’d do everything in my power to get Ethel away from the battle. That way, I’d be able to fight with my all. So no problem.
In the first place, Ayako, who is full of killing intent, won’t fall into Joseph’s demonic hands so easily!
You should believe in people’s dark sides more, Ethel!
“Giving a ‘Blessing’ to someone with such an overflowing killing intent sounds kind of wrong to me, but… okay.” Ethel casts her Sacred Magic as she makes a sour face.
The spell that grants the holy element to a weapon and increases its attack power, ‘Consecration’.
The spell that bestows a character the holy element and improves their physical abilities, ‘Blessing’.
The one and only attack spell accessible to Sacred Magic that’s necessary for the combination move, ‘Holy Light’.
The faint film of light enveloping my body is proof that the two buff spells have been cast and this gives Ayako and me an advantage in both offense and defense against ghosts.
Additionally, a ray of light flies out of Ethel’s hand and fuses with the flame wrapped around my blade, turning it into a golden flame. One ‘Divine Flame Holy Sword’ is ready to serve.
“…It’s your, it’s your fault. You messed everything up. If it wasn’t for you, my bright days would have continued, Sakurai!”
Joseph slowly gets up and glares at me, fleshy fluid still spilling down his face.
He seems to have some kind of intense grudge against me, but he’s committed so many evil deeds, to begin with.
So, even if one or two things in his life have been derailed by someone else, can’t he just accept it as reaping what he sows?
And what’s more, he’s going to turn into my experience points soon… I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to waste his remaining time by pointlessly resenting others.
“I’ll show you, this is my—”
“Shut up, drop dead!”
Listening to his words won’t give me a single experience point, and it’s best to kill him ASAP.
Ignoring Joseph who is trying to declare something, I reactivate the ‘Divine Flame Holy Sword’ and spring at him with the assistance of my flame wings.
Ayako, buffed by Sacred Magic, follows closely behind me. No way Joseph, who is overwhelmingly inferior in close combat, can deal with our two-stage assault.
“—Last resort!”
“Huh?!”
Was I conceited to think that way?
Unexpectedly, Joseph uses nearby puppets (flesh lumps) and several swords lying around to instantly form a trident as tall as him.
Skillfully wielding it, he deflects my sword and sends me flying with a spin of his trident, then he crosses tridents with Ayako who follows after me.
“—?!”
“Haa!”
Surprisingly, after three exchanges of blows, Joseph is the one who comes out on top.
Ayako jumps back involuntarily and immediately takes another step to dodge Joseph’s follow-up attack while alertly retaking her stance.
However, her face is filled with astonishment, and so is mine, surprised at Joseph’s unbelievable expertise in spearmanship.
“—?!”
“What a persistent guy. What did you do this time?”
“I’m inferior in both combat skills and numbers. And there are not enough materials to create a puppet with specs to overturn that.” Joseph spins the disgusting self-made trident that’s made from flesh and swords.
At the same time as he stabs the trident on the ground as if to support his body, the face of the knight he is possessing begins to melt into mush.
“Under those circumstances, I’ve got no choice but to use my very last resort.”
Even though he longer has a mouth, his voice echoes, still. As it does, his head wriggles as if an oil clay that’s being kneaded and reshaped.
The same changes seem to be happening to his neck down, as his armor no longer fits his body, sliding down and rolling to the floor.
As the changes progress and his new shape becomes apparent, Ayako is left at a loss for words and she involuntarily freezes in surprise again.
“――――”
“Are you for real?”
What stands before us now is a human-shaped figure with big cat-like eyes.
It has pale skin that’s morbidly lifeless and black bob-cut hair that’s fading and turning white towards the ends.
It looks exactly the same as Ayako who is next to me. The only difference between them is that it is wearing under armor-use clothes that reveals its body line.
“Which is, to become a being that makes up for my lack of combat skills and can stand up against you.”
Yeah.
It is certainly a being that will make up for Joseph’s lousy combat skills and will be able to break through us.
“A perfect fusion of Ayako and myself. Thisis my last resort!”
Joseph Asanaga fused himself with the other (backup) Asanaga Ayako.
“We are no longer fake family like you and that Ayako! Ayako and I will defeat you with our true parent-child bond!” Joseph proclaims as he deploys countless magic formations behind him, from which chains with anchor-like barbs begin to appear one after another.
Now that he’s obtained combat skills and the magic of Asanaga Ayako, whom he has been leaving in charge of battles, Joseph’s personal combat power skyrockets.
Combined with the immeasurable amount of magical power that Joseph himself possesses; I can’t estimate how high his current combat power is.
“Ha… hahahahahah!”
As if to prove that fact, the magic formations continue to multiply.
They fill up the nave both vertically and horizontally, and if they were all fired at once, we’d definitely take serious injuries.
Being a puppeteer, Joseph’s only weakness is close-range combat. But now that he’s acquired Ayako’s spearmanship, he’s become a formidable opponent with no weakness to exploit.
Additionally, he has a high-processing power, capable of operating over 100 puppets at the same time.
It would be easy for him to control each of the chains with unparalleled accuracy to attack while engaging in melee combat.
Even if he was pushed into a corner, with his enormous amount of magical power, he’d be able to unleash more violence than ever before. If I were to fight him one-on-one, one mistake was all I needed to fall into dire straits, unless a third party intervened.
Most importantly, I have no information about Joseph in this state.
Joseph never got into this state in the original game.
Of course, I know about Ayako, and I remember her attack patterns perfectly.
However, since Joseph knows that ‘the unknown works well against me’, it’s better for me to not think that will do me any help.
“…Well, looks like this is the end.” It’s a checkmate. A complete checkmate.
It’s impossible for all of us to escape.
If I do my best, I may be able to get Ethel to escape, but that bastard is targeting me and Ayako. He’ll never let us leave this place alive.
“Finally, you’ve finally given up! Yes! You’re done, Sakurai! You should die regretting all the things you’ve done to me, all the insults you’ve thrown at me!”
That’s why Ethel, Ayako, I.
The three of us can’t move a single step facing Joseph who is laughing maniacally.
What’s happening in front of us is just that terrifying. It makes us feel as if it’s ‘the end’ as well as amazement at the display of tenacity. That’s why we don’t move.
“As a reward for pushing me this far, I will recycle your lumps of flesh as puppets. Now, it’s time for you all to di—g-gah, gaaah?!”
At that time, something strange happens to Joseph.
His body suddenly freezes and he begins to spasm in place.
Joseph widens his eyes as if he can’t understand what’s going on. Seeing that, I heave a deep sigh of relief as if a heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders, relax my stance, and gesture to Ayako to come along, then we defenselessly walk towards him.
“…………”
“You really are a troublesome opponent. But you missed something important.”
“Wh, im, sible?! Wh, go, on?! Blergh?!”
Actually, before Joseph started spasming, something had happened to the magic formations behind him.
The tip of the numerous chains that appeared from the magic formations all moved toward Joseph as if prompted by a single will.
Joseph didn’t notice the anomaly happening behind him, but we, standing opposite him, saw it clearly.
Ethel and I could immediately guess what was going on thanks to the prior information we’d got, whereas Ayako probably arrived at the answer by intuition in not too long a time.
The daemon born from the grimoire had explained it before:
[It’s sort of like putting two people into one body. If one of them doesn’t accept death and yield control of the body, their personalities and memories will collide and fuse, which later will likely cause the surviving soul to collapse as a result.]
I’m sure Joseph has absolute trust and confidence in the parent-child bond between him and Ayako.
However, that’s one-sided and can’t be farther from the truth—a ‘false bond’.
Not realizing the truth until the very end caused this incident and brought Joseph to his end.
“There’s no way Asanaga Ayako will give way to you. That’s why you lost. Isn’t that right, Ayako?”
“……” Ayako, walking next to me, nodded.
Even if Ayako’s soul originated from Joseph’s, her soul has formed its own identity.
If they were to fuse, there would be a problem if one of them didn’t give way.
Joseph, who fused her soul with his to survive to begin, will certainly not give way… but the same can be said for Ayako.
Probably Joseph justified his action in his mind with something along this line “By becoming one, we can live together and never be separated. Although the self-consciousness is mine, Ayako is, without a doubt, here with me.”
However, from the point of view of Ayako who had been locked in his soul as a backup, her creator (father), whom she hates to the point of wanting to kill him as soon as she wakes up, is trying to prey on her with such ridiculous reasoning. There’s no way she won’t resist.
However, her opponent is Joseph, a demon-kin with a formidable soul. Even if Ayako, who was born from a part of his soul, resisted, she would still end up being absorbed by him.
Then what should she do? The answer she’s come up with is the anomaly happening before our eyes.
“Off, koff, wh, you, gragh?!”
In the time we walk towards Joseph, the chains ejected from the magic formations pierce through his body.
And I’m not talking about just one or two chains here.
Dozens of chains carefully pierce through, entangle, and bound every part of Joseph’s body one after another, making sure he can’t escape.
When we arrive in front of Joseph, he already looks like a broken puppet with chains extended out from all over his body. One of his arms begins to move on its own, making a clenched fist with the thumb up then pointing to his throat and drawing a line over it.
“Well done, really.”
This is the locked Ayako’s feelings and conclusion.
While feeling admiration and a little respect for her, I receive her feelings and hold up my sword.
Golden flames still cover it. This time for sure, it will be the sure-kill blow that will end Joseph.
“Ayako, you can hold the hilt of the sword.”
“…?”
“I’m not giving you the experience points, but I’ll allow you to at least deal the final blow with me.”
“—!”
Joseph is screaming something, but because his whole body is being pierced, what comes out is nothing but groans.
Naturally, Ayako and I ignore him. She put her hand over mine clasping the hilt and, with our bodies pressed against each other, we raise the nodachi.
Then when Joseph’s self-moving arm turns its fist, pointing to the floor with its thumb…
“‘Divine Flame Holy Sword: Immolation’!”
The sword swings and Joseph’s body is sliced into two. Flames burst from the cross sections and completely burn the body.
The body (puppet), at least what remains of it, falls to the ground.
After checking the text displayed in the experience point log, I become sure that this time I killed Joseph.
Ayako also must have sensed Joseph’s death by intuition. She slowly let go of the handle.
“…Phew.”
“How is it Tōru? Is it over?”
“Yeah. I killed him this time, no doubt.”
“I see. That’s good.”
“……Nfufufu, nfuu! Uhyoooo!”
“What are you laughing at out of the blue? Talk about creepy.”
I can’t stop myself from laughing out loud because of the experience points I’ve obtained, causing Ethel to look at me with a cold and disgusted gaze, and in the middle of that Ayako continues to stare blankly at the burnt-out Joseph.
I have no way of figuring out what she’s feeling, and neither am I interested.
“Nfufu… phew. Okay, let’s go back. We’ll have to ask Cordelia-san to take care of the aftermath.”
“You sure are energetic from the start to end. Well, whatever. Hey, snap out of it. We’re leaving.”
“!”
I call out to the two girls and suggest we return.
Now that everything’s over, we should go back to Cordelia-san first.
Be it the cleanup, Ayako, and whatnot, I’ve got a lot of things to dump on her.
Just that, in the middle of the fight, I notified Iris that she could move as she wished and, knowing her, she must have ensured Cordelia-san’s safety before going anywhere, so we’ve gotta find her first.
It’ll be fine if she has moved Cordelia-san to the evacuation place we decided in advance… but we won’t know without asking her.
“First things first, let’s go out.”
Maybe, or rather, I’m sure because of Joseph, the knights outside the barriers are in turmoil, so it’s best if we find an opening and escape in the middle of the confusion.
After all, if we got caught by the knights, we’d be detained as trespassers.
Though if that happened, I’d say that we are adventurers commissioned by the ‘Saintess’ and force our way through by borrowing her power. But if you can avoid the pointless hassle, then why not?
So, I hurriedly push Ethel and Ayako’s backs to leave the cathedral.
When we pass through the door, I stop in place and, just to be sure, check the experience points acquisition log at the edge of my field of vision then look back at the now distant Joseph’s remains.
“A woman’s hatred and obsession sure are scary.”
Muttering with a grin, I leave the place.
–> You have defeated Joseph Asanaga (Asanaga Ayako)! +1,223,675 experience points!
