"She's gone."
Looking at the chaos before him, Naoki let out a sigh of relief, his legs giving way as he slumped to the ground.
This sudden change startled Ayaka: "Naoki, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, just a bit tired… Fighting my other self, relying only on my current strength, is still a bit tough."
Though their power was roughly equal, if the fight dragged on, Naoki's chances of winning would be slightly lower. After all, he didn't have Tokyo's entire Mana supply to squander. In a prolonged battle, he'd be at a disadvantage. Plus, the Holy Sword's healing had its limits. A fatal wound would mean total defeat.
Of course, if it came to a drawn-out fight, Naoki wouldn't be afraid. At worst, he'd go all out, and who lived or died would be hard to predict.
[Value your life, you vixen. If you die here, I don't know about others, but your sister would be devastated, right?]
(True, I wasn't thinking straight.)
[Your life isn't just yours anymore. That resolve you showed facing me five years ago—don't ever show it again.]
(Are you… worried about me?)
[Don't make me gag. I'd love for you to die. I'm just stating facts rationally.]
After saying that, Manaka retreated to her dark chamber.
With a wry smile, Naoki looked at Ayaka: "Compared to me, how are you holding up, Ayaka?"
"Huh? Me?"
"Meeting your sister again, who you thought died eight years ago—though I don't think it was a heartwarming sibling reunion… reuniting with family should feel good, right?"
Indeed, as Naoki said, meeting her supposedly deceased sister filled Ayaka with joy beyond the initial shock. Sadly, before she could express that happiness, the barrage of explosive revelations that followed erased those feelings.
Her sister wanted to create a world without Magecraft for her.
Because Magecraft always brought tragedy, and every Magus's life was inherently tragic. No matter how smoothly life went, a Magus would face some tragedy, big or small.
Thus, to spare her sister that fate, Manaka sought to create a new world.
"Your sister really loves you." Naoki sighed. "But it's a heavy, irrational love. Should I say, as expected of Sajyou Manaka? No matter who she is, her way of expressing love is the same."
"What do you mean by that?"
Naoki clutched his chest: "Exactly what I said. I told you I knew your sister, but not the one from this world—Sajyou Manaka from a parallel world."
"She once tried to do something similar to what your sister's doing."
Through the summoning of a Beast to destroy fixed quantum records and disrupt the foundation of human history, reconstructing Britannia to fulfill Arthur's wish [to save Britannia]—that was what Manaka once attempted.
Compared to her counterpart in this world, she was even more extreme.
"So, what are you going to do?" Naoki asked. "If I plan to stop her, I might win in the end, but I don't want to see the process."
"The death of all humanity…?"
It was an outrageous statement, so extreme that Ayaka couldn't feel its reality. Yet it was true. To create a new world, the existing one had to be destroyed.
From a Magus's perspective, this was fine. To achieve a goal, any cost was acceptable—that was the Magus way.
Ayaka understood, but she couldn't accept it. More than a Magus, she was an ordinary person.
If anything, she was closer to a Magician. How could she not be? She lost her entire family as a child and lived among ordinary people for eight years. One's mindset is shaped by their environment. Growing up with ordinary people, Ayaka didn't believe annihilating humanity for personal gain was right.
Even if, in the end, no one truly died.
"Naoki, can you tell me?" Ayaka asked. "My sister said the world without Magecraft I imagined was fake, and my knowledge is too shallow. In your view, do you think a world without Magecraft… would be happy?"
"No different."
Naoki answered immediately—naturally, since until five years ago, he'd lived in such a world.
"Without Magecraft, the world wouldn't change much. People would still go about their lives, and the world would stay as it is. At most, Magus would be ruined, but honestly, even without Magus, the planet would keep turning just fine."
It's not like the world would end without Magus.
"In my opinion, no Magecraft means you could sleep in longer each day and not have to go out at night, so you could rest earlier. That's about the extent of the change."
"So… pretty much what I imagined?"
"Yeah—oh, one more thing. You'd need to find a job, since without Magecraft, you couldn't earn money with it. That's actually kind of serious."
"Tch… true."
Smiling, Naoki asked again: "So, what are you going to do?"
What to do?
Taking a deep breath, Ayaka answered earnestly: "I… want to stop my sister. She doesn't need to do this. If my life won't change because of it, then she'd be wasting so much effort, even sacrificing seven billion people… I don't want her to sacrifice this much for me."
"If she truly wants me to be happy, she just needs to come back."
"Come back to me and live with me—that's the happiest state for me."
After saying this, Ayaka looked at Naoki and extended her hand: "Can you help me, Naoki? I need your strength. To stop my sister, I can't do it alone. I have no power, I can't do anything. So, to stop her, I can only ask for your help."
"Can I ask you, Naoki? Please lend me your strength."
Though not the same world, nor the same people, a similar situation unfolded between two similar individuals.
Grasping Ayaka's hand, Naoki stood.
"Of course. Leave it to me, [Ayaka (Master)]."