diskusbooks Chapter 165 Beast Arc: "The Coming End"
Chapter 165 Beast Arc: "The Coming End"
Above the floating city of Tengu on the scorched earth, a warship sat in nano camouflage, its interior solemn and quiet.
Tick-tock~ Tick-tock~ Tick-tock...
Outside the door of a conference room, all the crew members of the Ratatosk "Fraxinus," along with Shido and the spirit standing solemnly outside the door.
"Shido, it's been over ten minutes, is Kotori's meeting with those guys still not over...?"
"Uh, Tohka should be here soon, right..."
Tohka gripped Shido's wrist tightly, still recovering from the battle an hour earlier.
The remaining elves also lowered their heads and trembled continuously.
Yoshino, head bowed, seemed lost in thought...
Recalling the battle just now, the Gemini, stripped of their original arrogance...
'Click~'
With the mechanical sound of the automatic door opening, the red-haired twin-tailed girl and Reine walked out with somber expressions.
Upon seeing this, Kannazuki immediately walked up to Koto and asked in an unexpectedly serious and earnest tone:
"So, Commander... what did the high-ranking officials at the round table say?"
"........."
The blackened surface of the koto remained silent, offering no reply. It simply pushed aside the divine object blocking its path and walked to Shido, whose face was filled with worry.
She still didn't glance at him, hesitatingly staring at Shido, who looked puzzled, and Tohka, who was taking the opportunity to hold her brother's hand.
"Kotori?"
"Um……"
After a moment's thought, Kotori silently turned her head and gestured for Reine to hand over the recording device from that meeting to Kannazuki.
"Kannazuki, take this and the crew to the operations room. The entire meeting is being held here... And Shido, you and the other spirits come with me. If the spirits or you are afraid of what happened recently."
"...Never mind."
Shido felt a sense of unease as he looked at Kotori's serious expression, but he still nodded firmly.
"Kotori, everyone and I will go with you. No matter what happens, we will face it together."
The spirits also raised their heads, looking at Shido's slightly firm speech, a glint of light flashing in their eyes, and followed closely behind Shido.
Kotori led everyone to a quiet room.
Meanwhile, Yuzuru and Kaguya behind them were having a secret conversation.
"Tell me, Yagyu, given the terror of the monster you just encountered, can we really defeat it?"
"No... I'll definitely die..."
"What if... these people want us to defeat that monster for them? Is it really worth it for us to follow them... knowing we'll die, is it still necessary for us to stay here?"
Yuzuru lowered her head and confided in Yagyuuya. It was fear, absolute fear... the fear of a life-or-death instinct. If it were the more passionate Yagyuuya, she probably wouldn't have thought that way.
But Yuzuru herself was different. She wanted Kaguya to live and didn't want to die herself. Although she was grateful to Shido for letting them both live, she didn't want to lead them to an ordinary life...
"I'm sorry, Yuzuru, I can't betray the people who saved us and run away... Even though I'm trembling all over right now, trembling from that instinctive fear..."
After hearing what Yagyuuya said, Yuzuru remained silent for a moment.
"I understand. Well, I'll let you be willful this once, but promise me, Yagyu, you absolutely cannot die before me!"
"Hehe, I'll return that sentence to you verbatim."
The two then followed closely behind into the conference room.
Meanwhile, on the moon, in a completely different atmosphere...
In the oxygen-free space, on the tranquil and peaceful surface of the moon, Ming stood quietly gazing at the distant Earth's surface.
In stark contrast to his leisurely state at this moment, Ming's thoughts are now focused on the photograph he holds under the cherry blossoms.
"Because of my current state, even my memories are becoming somewhat blurred... I really don't know how much longer this body, controlled by tens of thousands of souls, can exist..."
Ming covered his face as he spoke, explaining that from the start of the battle until now, every step he took required him to kill the remnants of evil spirits within his body that were trying to corrupt his soul.
Personality, consciousness, hobbies, and everything else are being influenced.
Honestly, I messed up Shido's entry time because I wanted to finish quickly. How ridiculous of me! I even had to deliberately send myself back to the moon to keep them alive when I made my move. How boring.
Although he thought it was a joke, Ming didn't feel like laughing at all.
Or perhaps, things like getting Shido to meet him alone and making him harbor murderous intent towards him were more important to him.
"That's right!"
Perhaps it was the actions of that pink-haired friend whom even Shido had forgotten that sparked a plan in his mind that, while subject to change, was indeed the most perfect solution.
Immediately, countless sheets of white paper poured out of his body like a gushing flood, quickly began to construct, and slowly transformed into four angels with inhuman appearances similar to Ming's.
— Raziel (the second point mass)
—Zandekiel (the fourth mass)
—Michael (the sixth point mass)
—Gabriel (the ninth mass)
"I entrust you, my guardian angels, with the mission to destroy human civilization at 6 a.m. the next morning."
The spiritual energy channels are connected by the Demon King as a medium, and the monsters move around in them like puppets on strings, stopping and flying in their respective directions.
The photo was still in Ming's hands. Ming missed the girl he relied on, and his body felt almost endless fatigue.
“Sabi and…”
If this body had tears, they would probably have fallen onto the photograph.
But Ming quickly rallied, sensing the Fifth Demon King lingering beside him. A slight smile played on his lips, as if he were speaking to someone, and he said:
"And you too, so it seems that besides that woman, you're also trying to scheme against me. But who isn't..."
...The perspective returns to the conference room in Ratatosk.
In the unusually solemn and serious meeting room, the spirits and Shido sat around a round table. Tea was placed on the table to ease the atmosphere, while a report was displayed in front of them.
"Everyone, have you finished watching?"
Kotori spoke calmly, but the atmosphere in the conference room was incredibly quiet, with no one responding.
"........."
"Yes, we should indeed remain silent. This is how a normal person should behave when faced with the evil deeds committed by a monster whose personality is twisted and whose intentions are unknown."
"1 million? 1 million! How is that possible!"
Shido shouted in astonishment, finding it hard to imagine what kind of malice could lead to the slaughter of hundreds of millions of people in just one day and one night.
Malice, like pure malice, sent shivers down one's spine, forcing one to bite their lip. At that moment, Shido perhaps understood what a truly evil spirit was.
"Yes, Shido, pure malice, pure whims, without even a reason, trampled on humanity... There is no such tragedy, this is the whole truth of that monster."
Shido's eyes trembled rapidly as a strong sense of nausea swept over him like a surging wave, instantly engulfing his entire body.
His stomach began to churn, and then he couldn't control himself and started dry heaving violently on the table.
"Shido!"
"Shido-nii...are you alright?"
"Oh dear, it seems this young man's tolerance for stress isn't very high."
Tohka quickly stepped forward to help him up, and Yoshino also followed suit to show her concern.
“That’s right, Shido, do you still think that hopeless monster is a good person? Even if we believe that spirits could possibly have evolved from humans, the Flame Beast is definitely not a good person.”
Shido paused for a moment, then raised his head, his eyes filled with pain and struggle, but his gaze became noticeably unfocused.
"It's alright, Shido's kindness isn't your fault. Let me talk about something else. After the Beast disappeared that time, it most likely returned to the Spirit World, and we were able to escape with our lives because of it."
"So, Kotori, what you mean is..."
"That's right. From what I understand, the time it takes for an elf to return to the spirit world and reappear in the physical world shouldn't be too long. Ideally, it should be five or six days, or even a month. But the worst-case scenario is..."
"I'll answer immediately. Tomorrow, I think."
"Yes, a vote has been taken at the meeting, requiring us to fight with all our might to defeat the Beast, because most of the human magicians have been slaughtered by Him, and all magical weapons are ineffective against him."
Kotori's face darkened, and she looked at Shido with growing hesitation, biting her lip and not continuing.
But Shido, who had barely recovered, could see something in Kotori's eyes. After hastily taking a sip of tea from the table, he asked with some concern:
"Kotori, you don't mean that!"
"Yes, they want to use all the forces available to Ratatosk to destroy Him, but..."
"But what?"
Shido asked anxiously.
Kotori took a deep breath
"But we are not capable of defeating the Beast at our current level."
"I can help!"
"No, Shido, you're too weak. You'll only drag us down with you!"
Shido's eyes were filled with resentment after hearing Kotori's words.
"I can't just stand by and watch everyone take risks; I have to do something too!"
Tohka held Shido's hand tightly. "Shido, I'll work with you to figure something out."
Kotori looked into her brother's resolute eyes, and although she was somewhat moved, he was indeed too weak, and she didn't want Shido to die for him, so she said:
“I understand better than anyone else, I understand my brother’s feelings, but unfortunately, from a rational point of view, your presence here will only increase our weaknesses.”
Just as Shido was about to retort, his head suddenly began to feel dizzy.
What's going on? Suddenly... I'm so sleepy.
When Shido realized what this feeling was, his body had already become weak. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't even make a sound.
Because Kotori had arranged for Reine to put an excessive amount of sleeping pills in his tea as soon as she returned.
"I'm sorry, brother."
Kotori spoke softly across the seat, her eyes filled with helplessness and determination.
"Shido! Kotori, what have you done?!"
"It's alright, Tohka. You should understand that Shido didn't send me into the battle, right..."
This was the last sound Shido heard before he fainted, after which his consciousness completely disappeared into a hazy darkness.