Chapter 123 - After the Battle

— Rudeus Greyrat —

With the surrounding landscape etched with numerous divots and littered with craters from the extraordinary battle that had just concluded, I stared forward at the Dragon God as he looked down at the ground, his expression unreadable aside from the surface level emotions of disappointment and anger.

But I didn't have the focus to care about all that right now.

"Orsted… what do you mean that Leon is dead?" I asked, my throat parched from nervousness. "That… wouldn't happen to Leon. He… he just…"

"He was teleported to another face of the world through the sacred treasure," Orsted replied, his voice despondent. "And that… is not survivable. Not for him."

Pressing his palm to his head, Orsted narrowed his eyes at the spot where the two had just disappeared, but the glare was lacking in its usual fear-inducing intensity.

"Among the sacred treasures, each one can be used to travel to a different face of the world, as well as creating a connection through the edge of the faces, and when used together, they create a path to the void world… where the Man-God rests," he explained.

I… I knew that.

From what Orsted had told me, it was that ability to create a connection through the edge of the faces that brought demons, beastfolk, and all the other races apart from humans to this world.

But still… how would Leon die from that?

"But such a treasure isn't so simple to use… the power to traverse the different worlds is a great power, one that only the dragonfolk are meant to hold… and thus, can only be used by them," he said, narrowing his eyes. "While anyone can travel to different sides when there is a connection crated at the edge, such as when the different races fled here, when using the treasure to instantly teleport to it's designated world, such as they have just done… only the soul of a true dragonfolk can withstand it."

He then looked up to the sky, his usual sharp eyes now dulled and lost of their usual fierceness.

"Both Leon and Laplace are dead, as the strain on their souls would prove to be too much. Laplace is part dragon, so he might be able to survive… but he will be weakened," he muttered before shaking his head. "No… that treasure is linked to the Dragon World… so there is nothing but death and creatures of the void waiting for them, even if they somehow survived."

He was talking as if it was a foregone conclusion… that Leon was…

I couldn't think.

I felt sick.

"Dammit… the Man-God must have seen this and decided to not make any moves… I had thought it was due to the Sacred Beast's protection against fate that rended him inactive, but he must have seen that he didn't have to do anything to have Leon die and things come to an end!" Orsted shouted, slamming his fist against the ground as he gritted his teeth in anger. "And now… the only way to recover that treasure is through connecting the worlds with another sacred treasure… and that will take too much mana… so this loop… is a failure as well…"

Moving my eyes away from the lamenting Orsted, I looked at the spot where he disappeared once again, my hand raising to my mouth as another wave of nausea assaulted me.

After this… what would I do?

Go after Leon?

No… that was impossible. Orsted had just said as much.

Not only would getting to him be a problem, but he was already…

But like this… what would I even do?

No… I knew what came next.

I… I had to go back home… and tell them that…

Fuck… no, please… that… I couldn't…

And Leon…

That brother that was always kind to me… the one that allowed me to grow to the man I was proud to be today… the person I admired and the one that protected me…

I couldn't even think of a reality where he was gone.

Something like that… it was impossible.

"Leon… he… dammit!" Ruijerd shouted, his expression clearly showing his anger and self-hatred. "Even in death… Laplace still finds a way to curse me in the worst of ways…"

The North God, counter to his usual cheerful and nonchalant disposition, was oddly silent as he slowly sheathed his sword.

"Boss… Leon, I mean… he must be what it means to be a true hero," he said, walking over to pick up his extra pair of clothes. "I… will not let that memory fade."

"Indeed… as will I," Perugius said, looking to the sky with a sad frown. "Leon Greyrat… a great human I was proud to call a comrade… just as I promised, I will protect your family from any threats."

Ah… right…

They were talking about him in past tense.

Because Leon… he actually was gone.

I can't believe it, but to look away from the truth would be childish of me, especially when other than Paul, I was the man of the Greyrat family now.

But still… how was I going to tell everyone else?

His wives? His children? Mom? Paul? Aisha and Norn?

No… wanted to throw up just thinking about it.

I looked down at my hand as I slowly closed it into a fist, my thoughts whirling from grief and pain, yet my emotions still subdued.

Loss… right, this is what loss was.

And thinking about it now, it was the first time I had felt such a thing.

Not even the death of my parents in my previous life felt like this.

What a disgusting feeling…

I slowly raised my gaze back to the sky, wincing as the sun shone in my eyes.

Brother… please… give me your strength.

— Leon Anemoi Greyrat —

What?

What happened?

And where… was I?

Struggling against the intense feeling of fatigue, I slowly opened my eyes, being met with the sight of a giant white space before me.

No… giant didn't do it justice.

Instead, it looked… endless.

And while it was mostly white, I could see some small lines of black spread throughout like a spiderweb, akin to the cracks of an old stone.

But… what happened?

And where the hell was this place?

I remember… fighting Laplace… and I stabbed him… and then he did something with his magic before everything went blank.

And now I was here.

Did I… die?

Was that what this place was?

The afterlife?

"That's somewhat close, but isn't exactly true," a voice suddenly called out.

Huh!?

I instantly turned around in surprise as my back straightened, my eyes narrowing in on the young man standing before me.

He had short and choppy black hair, black eyes, and a face with features that were… eerily similar to Shizuka's.

"What? Am I really such a surprising sight?" he asked, his lips quirked up in amusement.

"N-No, it's just… I haven't had someone sneak up on me in quite a while," I replied, still confused and stunned.

Who was this person?

And why wasn't I able to sense him?

"Don't I know it," he said, nodding to himself. "But don't worry, it's not like your skills have dulled. There simply isn't any mana where we are right now."

…Huh?

No… now that I focused on it… he was right.

The mana, both inside and outside my body, was nonexistent.

Was that even possible?

How was I able to live without any mana inside me?

And that wasn't all… even air had mana inside of it, so how could I even breathe then?

Was I even breathing?

Before I could answer any of those questions, I looked back at the unknown man, narrowing my eyes in concentration as I took in his features.

Wow… he really did look like Shizuka.

But more importantly, he… did not feel dangerous.

No, in fact… I felt somewhat of a connection with him… one that I wasn't able to explain.

"I see…" I said, noticing that my voice sounded louder than usual. "But… who are you?"

"Ah… that's quite the question, isn't it?" he said with a difficult smile. "But as for introductions… I am Nanahoshi Kento. Or just Kento. Nice to meet you, Leon."

I raised my eyebrow in confusion.

Kento… that felt familiar.

And that last name…

But more importantly…

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

I had never met this man before, so how…?

"Huh? How do I…? Pff… hahaha!" he said, suddenly breaking into a fit of laughter. "Ah~ Sorry, but that was quite funny. And as for how I know your name… well, how about we have a little talk about that. We don't exactly have much time, anyway."

Don't have time?

Well… I guess I would like to get back home as soon as possible, so I could agree to that.

"Sure… but first, where the hell are we?" I asked, looking around. "There's no mana, just like you said… and I can't see an ending to this space…"

I then looked down, noticing that my body didn't seem to have any of the scrapes I had accumulated with the fight against Laplace, and my clothing was as good as new.

But my sword… it was nowhere to be found.

Odd.

"Right… I'll get to that, don't worry," Kento said, waving his hand as he… sat down?

No… he was sitting down on nothing… how did that work?

"Just try it. This place is pretty cool, after all," he said, answering my unasked question.

"Uh… sure," I said, hesitantly lowering myself before I ended up sitting down on… nothing.

How fucking weird.

"Anyway, as I said, I'm Nanahoshi Kento," he said with a smile as my eyes widened. "And as you might expect… Shizuka is my dear little sister."

Right… I was too confused before to think about it, but that…

Wait.

If he was her sister, then that meant that this guy-

"Yeah, I'm from another world… Earth, to be specific," he said, giving me a smile. "My life before isn't really all that important. I went to school, tried to be a good brother and student, and was aiming to be a doctor before… well, terminal illness is a bitch, especially in a place without healing magic and mana to strengthen the natural immune system. Seriously… with the sanitary standards here, I'm shocked that everyone has such a long lifespan. I'm jealous."

Shrugging his shoulders, he continued.

"Anyway, after succumbing to my illness, I found myself… here," he said, gesturing with his hand to the white space around us. "And as for how we're connected… well, you know how you thought of yourself as a Miko for all that advanced knowledge as a baby? Well… sorry, but that was just me."

I simply sat there, my mind trying to make sense of what he was talking about.

But saying that it was him… I couldn't immediately dismiss such a claim.

As I grew older and experienced more of the world, I began to grow doubts of if I was actually a Miko.

After all, Orsted had never mentioned me being a Miko in my past life, and with Shizuka's talk with me a while back, about how I had changed the course of fate before her and Rudy's existence… something that, according to her theory, only people from another world could do… well, I thought it was weird, but never cared much about it.

I had more important things to worry about, after all, like dealing with Laplace, Asura's problems, and then, most importantly, making my lovely wives and cute children smile.

But now, I had finally gotten an answer.

A very… very… confusing one.

"That… was you? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Hmm… well, to put it simply, I am part of you, but we're also separate," he said before he tilted his head. "Yeah, I don't really know how to explain it… but when I woke up, I was… kind of here? But also in your body… it was kind of like watching a movie, but really immersive, you know? It's quite hard to explain, but I can only guess it was a reincarnation that failed."

A movie… oddly enough, I knew what he was talking about, even though I had never heard of such a thing in my life.

This would be something I would usually think of as my Miko-blessed knowledge… but was he saying that all that knowledge was because of him?

That he gave me while staying here?

"Anyway… to put it aptly, the original Leon that was born from Alice is dead," he said, his words making me look back to him. "But since a baby doesn't really have much conscious to begin with… it's more like the blank slate of the baby was merged with me… mostly my knowledge, but also some of my personality, yet absent of my memories, which in the end, created you! And as you continued living, I could partially feel what you felt, and experience what you experienced, but I remained as an observer in… well, this place."

This… was really confusing.

"It is, right?" he said, causing me to widen my eyes.

"Wait… you can hear my thoughts?" I asked.

"I mean… I've been doing it for the past twenty or so years, so why do you think that would change?" he said, shaking his head. "But as for your previous question, as for what this place is… well, let's just call it your consciousness. Or, if you wanted to get chuuni about it, I suppose you can call this your 'inner mind'!"

He finished his words by standing up and sticking out his arms with a dramatic flair, but I simply stared at him in confusion and a… bit of concern.

This… this guy, was part me?

Or I was part of him?

…Really?

"I can hear your thoughts, you know," he said, scratching his cheeks in embarrassment.

…Right.

Anyway, so this place was my inner mind?

Weird… super weird.

My thoughts were interrupted by a sound similar to shattering glass, and as I looked to the side, I watched as the black cracks spread further through the space.

"Hmm… I guess we're running out of time," Kento said, narrowing his eyes.

"What… is that?" I asked as I stood up. "And why is it happening?"

"I… honestly don't know. But considering the fact that you were brought here for some reason, and how we had just fought Laplace before he did that odd magic thing… it can't be good," Kento said, walking to stand next to me. "But considering this is your mental space, it must be something to do with your mental state, or your soul, well… cracking, like we see."

"Oh… that's… not a very deep analysis," I said with a frown.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? I've just been sitting here and in your body for a while, so I only know as much as you do," he said with a shrug. "But there is one idea I had… although, I can only pray that it works…"

"An idea? What is it?" I asked.

"Well… if this space is cracking from a burden on your soul… then I think the only correct course of action would be to strengthen it, no?" he said, turning to me with a smile. "And as for how to strengthen it… well, why not merge two souls into onw?"

While I had no knowledge of this inner mind stuff, from the way he worded it, it was obvious what he wanted to do.

"So… you want to… merge into me?" I asked.

Kento frowned.

"Please don't word it like that," he said before shaking his head. "And well… yes. Or at least I'll try my best to."

"You… but then, what will happen to you?" I asked in concern.

I wasn't quite sure how to treat Kento here… but, at the very least, if he was part of me… I didn't want to disappear so soon.

"Well… who knows? I'm not quite sure how this will all work, but if I can take a guess, I assume you'll inherit my memories. It'll probably feel pretty shitty to have all my memories out of nowhere, but you should be able to handle it since you're older now," he said, reaching out to pat my shoulder. "Actually… that might be why my reincarnation failed when we were a baby. I remember faintly trying to hold myself back once I realized what was happening as to not take over an innocent soul, so that might be it… but either way, after sharing this body for so long, I think we became close enough to be considered basically the same… and either way, your ego is stronger now, so I shouldn't mentally 'take you over', if that's even possible."

He had said quite a lot of things, but that last bit was quite concerning.

"H-How… do you know?" I asked in worry.

"Well… as I said, I'm not completely sure, but I have been leaking a few things here and there once I realized what was going on," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "You know… like your knowledge of science and your general intelligence. However, I did try to keep out where I learned that stuff so you didn't get an identity crisis. And then, of course, there was the thing with Shizuka… but that was more out of my own shock than actually wanting you to remember her. Although I guess my love for her leaked out into some form of protectiveness… sorry about that."

So that was why I felt so weird around her… but I couldn't find it in myself to be upset, even a bit.

I suppose this was what he meant by the two of us already being partially the same person.

Turning to face me, he then gave me an inexplicable warm smile as he hesitantly reached over to pat my head.

The hell?

"You know… while I say all that… selfishly, I do want to hang around a bit longer as well," he said, gently ruffling my hair. "Being an observer to your, or perhaps I should say 'our' little journey was fun as hell, and I really do wish it could continue."

I couldn't stop myself from feeling a pang of sadness at his tone.

I didn't know this guy… not like how he knew me… but I didn't want him to leave out of nowhere like this.

But more importantly…

"What… are you doing?" I said, looking up as he continued ruffling my hair.

This was an extremely weird feeling…

"Well… while I do feel like we're the same a lot of the time, especially as you got older, whenever I tried to separate the image of myself from you…" he said, growing a bittersweet smile. "Well, I couldn't help but see you as something like a little brother."

Ah… I see.

That feeling of protection and warmth that Norn and Aisha always said I gave off… it must be like what I was feeling right now.

And… it was probably something I had inherited from Kento…

The cracks spread further as a faint rumble echoed across the space, causing both of us to flinch, looking over to stare at the fractures as they continued to expand.

"Ah… I suppose I should stop wasting time then," Kento said, looking back at me with serious, narrowed eyes. "I'll keep it short, and I doubt this is anything you need to hear, but please listen."

I nodded my head, meeting his gaze, causing me to notice that I was only slightly taller than him.

"Leon… protect Shizuka. Even if she has Rudy now, and she's grown up a bit, she's still the same kind, smart, and slightly naive girl, so watch out for my little sister in my stead," he said. "And love your family as well… the family I had grown to love, make sure you get back to them and make them happy."

"Of course," I said, nodding.

That much was something I was going to do even without this little pep-talk.

"Good… Aria's such a cutie after all, and Anna knows how to make us weak. And Eris, Ariel, Sylphy, Roxy… they're all the greatest women in the world," he said, shaking his head as he stared back at me, a few unshed tears gathering in his eyes. "And of course… make sure you kill the Man-God. No matter what. Both for our beloved family's protection, and also to allow Shizuka's time to resume… at least, if her theory about needing to do something she was destined to do is true."

There was a part of me that wanted to tell him not to speak about my wives like that… but then again, would I just be telling off myself?

"Yeah… I promise," I said, reaching out to place my hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "I'll love them, protect them, and make sure nothing bad ever comes to them… and of course, I'll need to kill the Man-God to do that."

Kento widened his eyes for a moment before shaking his head.

"Yeah… yeah, I know you'll do your best," he said, giving me a proud smile. "You're me, after all… or, at least, a little bit…"

The two of us stared at each other for a couple seconds before simultaneously chuckling.

"Right, that wasn't the coolest line to end on, but regardless… I'll see you around, Leon," he said as he then pressed his hand against my chest. "Oh. And I almost forgot. You have four months or so to get out of whatever situation you're in."

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"What do I mean? Well… you've got to get back in time for Eris' big day, right?" he said with a smirk. "So make sure you hurry up."

Oh… right.

"Oh, and one last thing!" he said, snapping his fingers to gain my attention.

"What is it? I'm feeling pretty weird right now," I said, frowning as my vision began to blur, a glow emanating from his hand on my chest.

"Oh, come on, you big baby, it's not that bad," he said, his face then forming a contemplative expression. "It's… about Rudy, your brother…"

"What about him?" I asked.

Was he going to ask me to tell him off for getting with his sister?

"Well… no, never mind," he said, shaking his head. "You might find it in my memories, but either way, knowing you, it probably won't change how you see him."

Huh? What did he mean by that-?

Before I could say anything else, I felt my mind get overloaded with information as my vision completely blanked, and in the next moment… I couldn't feel anything.