After she finally stopped laughing, she dropped down with a deep sigh.
She then looked at me with a bitter smile before opening her mouth.
"Hey Reiza...
Long time no see."
She said that in a tone that made it seem like we are old friends.
But... I was pretty sure I never met her before.
Even after racking my brains for a while in silence, I just couldn't remember anyone like her.
And in those moments of silence, I noticed an oddity...
Weren't we on a battlefield just a second ago?
Where did all of the troops go?
"Ah...
Well since we are safe now, I guess I should give you an explanation.
Both you...
And the two behind you."
I peeked behind me and confirmed what I had already sensed.
Dan, the hero, got up and stood behind me while looking all nervous.
Miranda, the demon lord, on the other hand... she stood quite a bit further than us and was clenching her teeth in frustration.
"Oh, right..."
'She' seemed to have realized something upon seeing the demon lord.
Her hand made a beckoning gesture at her and a moment later, I felt a strange fluctuation in the surrounding mana.
Miranda's body was lifted off of the ground and flew straight at her.
Missing her by a hair's width, the demon lord hit the ground once again.
In that moment, I finally noticed what happened.
'She' held something black in her hand before crushing it.
And even though I saw it for just a brief moment, I recognized what it was.
It was the same thing as the 'parasite' En pulled out of me.
"There.
That should do it."
Things were happening so fast, I couldn't even utter a single word.
Was the demon lord also under evil root's influence?
Or was that thing something else after all?
"Nooow then...
Explanations, explanations...
Err...
Where do I even start?"
She scratched her head as she thought about things.
Meanwhile, the demon lord finally lifted her face off of the ground and looked at the rest of us.
Instead of an expression twisted in anger and hatred, it was more like confusion.
"Right!
Introductions.
Ahem..."
She cleared her throat before continuing.
"Hello everyone, my current name is Ema.
But...
I guess Reiza knows me better as 'Will'."
...
What?
With her sudden introduction, I became even more confused than before.
The only Will I know is long dead.
He sacrificed himself when our village was attacked by humans.
I confirmed this when I couldn't find him in the database.
And even if I were to believe he is still alive...
When I look at the girl in front of me, she doesn't match with him at all.
The appearance, the personality... the gender.
What is she talking about?
"Well I figured you would be confused...
Well, how do I say this...
Do you know about reincarnation?"
That thing when someone comes back to life after dying?
I read about it in the Gundar's temple.
A lot of stories of that type were there.
But they were all fiction, right...?
Or is she saying...
I nod to her question.
"Well, that happened to me!
Like, a lot.
To be exact, five times now."
Five times...?
Hmm...
If I think about it, Will always behaved a little odd.
And his mastery of magic was way above what he could have achieved in that young age.
But it's still hard to believe this girl is Will.
"Only recently I have finally found out why it was happening.
It's because I became a god-in-the-making... or something like that."
A... what?
"But... never mind that.
You probably want to know what just happened here."
Even though I was barely keeping up what she was saying, I unconsciously nodded.
"Well basically...
It seems like this world's god has declared a war on me."
And then she said another outrageous thing.
"That bastard...
He kept rolling the time in this world back.
I kept my memories and the location of my body in the world...
But it doesn't seem like that was the case for you guys..."
And that was what made my eyes open wide.
Going back in time while keeping her memories?
That sounds almost exactly like...
"But I managed to find a way to counter it.
For a few moments, I could disable his powers.
And in that time, I needed to quickly get to you guys."
Finally, a sliver of sense started to emerge from her ramblings.
Although...
"Is that... why the armies disappeared?
Why can we remember going back in time now, though?"
With me finally saying something, she made a light smile before replying.
"That's right.
I made you guys into my apostles.
In other words, I shared a bit of my power with you and connected us."
Apostles...
So is that what I felt inside me?
This is... the power of a god?
"Why...?"
Are we somehow important to her?
Why would she go through that just to make us keep our memories?
"Why?
Well..."
She squinted her eyes while glancing at each one of us.
"Technically, I only need you, Reiza.
But these two will be glad to be here as well..."
...
"What did you do... to me?"
When everyone followed the source of that voice with their eyes, they found Miranda standing there.
She was in a fighting stance and her face was covered in sweat drops.
"I just removed that parasite thing from your soul...
Don't tell me there is still some left?
I thought I did it properly..."
"Para...site...?"
Miranda made a few steps back.
"Hmm... no, it's gone.
What is your problem then?"
Miranda clenched her teeth.
Her sharp gaze pierced the girl before her.
"What do you want from me?
Why are you acting so friendly?"
Reacting to that, Ema scratched her head as her eyes squinted.
"It's such a pain that you don't remember anything..."
After a long resigning sigh, she continued.
"The human demon war is needed in order to kill off large amounts of people.
The souls of the fallen are then sacrificed to make the lands fertile and prosperous."
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Both Miranda and Dan had their mouths open in shock.
And I couldn't hide my surprise either.
That was the true reason for the war...?
"H-how do you know that?
Are you-"
The sound of bewilderment could be heard in Miranda's voice.
"You told me!
Right before that jerk turned back time!"
...
Then, Ema's expression turned serious.
"But, you know...
That's just blasphemy.
Souls can't be sacrificed for something stupid as that.
They need to go on and reincarnate.
The cycle cannot be broken."
She then turned around and looked at me and Dan.
"That's why...
I'm going to meet this world's god and...
'have a word with him'."
That last part was filled with an amount of bloodlust I haven't ever felt before.
Even I couldn't help but shudder.
"And that's why I need you Reiza."
She pointed at me.
"This world has multiple layers and you know how to move from one to another."
Multiple layers...?
What is she talking about?
...
The alpha plane?
"And you two are coming with us.
I'm sure you have a thing or two to tell that god."
...
Not just them...
I have a vendetta against him...
And now that there is another god, who is his enemy...
This is the chance I have been waiting for...
Of course, I will join her.
There is no need to even ask.
This is my ticket out of this endless cage.
...
And thus, I somehow joined a party with the hero, the demon lord and a god-in-the-making.
What an odd situation...
...
Unfortunately, we couldn't just go straight to that god and fight him.
Even if I could move between the planes, I was pretty much a beginner when it came to that.
In other words, I had to practice it over and over...
As I did that, however, we weren't simply idly standing still.
We were slowly moving toward a person I really wanted to meet.
"Your uncle?
Yeah, he seemed way more surprised to see me than you did."
Uncle Renar...
Surprisingly, he was still at the same place according to the database.
I thought the god would have rolled back the time more, but that didn't happen.
According to what Ema told me, he is safe.
And not only that...
The humans are taking care of him?
That's really bizarre...
...
Speaking of bizarre...
"So you finally believe it's me?"
"Yes, it's you, can we move on now?"
The hero and the demon lord are step-siblings...
That still sounds so strange.
It's scenario straight out of one of the fictitious stories I read in the temple's library...
Did the god do that on purpose?
What a cruel joke...
...
But still...
It's hard to believe she is that Will...
Sure, she showed me the same magic Will could use.
And sure, she remembers all of the things Will would...
But she is just so different from him...
...
I should just stop thinking about it.
Just like that, we kept going in the capital's direction.
We had no idea what was waiting for us there.
|= A couple days later =|
It was all so sudden...
Not me, not Dan, not Miranda and not even Ema saw this coming.
There was no warning...
"Are you the new friends?"
A friendly looking smile hiding an unimaginable terror.
That's what I saw when we encountered 'it'.
Seeing the silver hair and white dress, I couldn't not recognize it.
It was the void slime.
Why is it here?
I made a step back.
Dan and Miranda also did.
The only one who didn't was Ema.
"...what the hell is that?
That's almost like Nil..."
Instead, she started mumbling something while staring at it.
"Hey..."
The slime's mouth curved downwards.
"Are you the new friends?"
Danger.
I needed to do something right away.
But what?
We can't escape it.
It's too fast for-
"Sure, let's be friends."
Before I could think of something, Ema answered in my stead.
I looked at her, completely baffled.
But she had a grin on her face.
I didn't know what she was thinking.
"Yay!
My first friends!"
And the thing celebrated.
Just like the last time I met it.
It was the same pattern.
'She must be a strong monster, right?'
A voice suddenly resounded in my head.
It was telepathy Ema showed us earlier.
Unfortunately, I can't send messages back with it.
So instead, I nodded my head.
'That god probably sent her after us.
But we can make use of it instead.'
Make use of it she says...
Is that even possible...?
"Oh!
Now that we are all friends...
Let's play!"
The pattern continued.
It was exactly the same as my first meeting with it.
It's only a matter of time until we are all doomed.
I grabbed Ema's shoulder and looked at her.
It was my attempt to tell her it wasn't a good idea.
But instead of understanding, she brushed off my hand and walked forward.
"Sure!
What do you want to play?"
I had a really bad feeling about it.
This can't end well.
"Umm...
What about...
Hide and seek?"
Ema kept walking with a smile on her face.
"Good idea!
Then let's start.
You go hide and-"
The slime interrupted her by pointing her at.
"You hide first!"
And then Ema vanished without a trace.
We were all stunned.
The slime then pointed at us and opened its mouth...
"And you guys seek!"
----------------------------------------
Bonus:
"Haha...
Who knew that thing would end up being useful?"
What the hell did you do?
"I just told her there was a group of people willing to be her friends.
It was so simple..."
I thought you hated her...
You even called her your only mistake.
"Hey, even a broken sword can be used to fight.
If it's useful, I will use it."
...
You seem really proud that she ended up being useful, don't you?
"I never doubted there will be a day where my biggest mistake becomes my greatest success!"
You are such a hypocrite.