I rose from the ground clutching my head, the searing pain of the moment before still not leaving me. As sight slowly returned to my eyes, I looked around at my environs and started to piece the situation together in my mind.
I no longer felt four conflicting identities: I was Shin Nomimoto, son to Kandai and Genmitsu, fiancé of Amai Sugi. The other three people that had blended to one in that moment were around me, each in a similar position to myself.
Whatever the Director had done, we had survived, but had also burned the last of the power keeping us as one. In other words, we had likely just about escaped with our lives.
“Son of a… is everyone okay?” Asked Saki, getting to her feet while still clutching her head.
“I’m alright… just about…” I replied, raising myself to my knees but not to my feet.
“My head feels like it’s being hit with a mallet…” said Mai, sitting up with her eyes closed.
“I-I can’t see very well…” said Nao, blinking rapidly as if something was stuck in her eyes.
I looked towards the area that the Director had been stood in the moment before the explosion. Not a trace left but a blackened floor. He must have absorbed enough magic to render himself ash and soot. All because he couldn’t accept losing. How pathetic.
“Saki… what the hell was all that?” Asked Mai, an obvious question considering the confusing situation that had only just come to an end.
“That… was 「Collective Consciousness」, my level 3 ability,” said Saki, though her tone indicated she was only just figuring this out herself. “I can combine everyone’s soul and body into one, giving us access to all of our powers at once, but it’s taxing. Honestly, I feel pretty exhausted.”
It was no surprise she’d be tired. Her body had been in control of the powers and minds of all four of us at once. Were she not in such good shape, it likely would have been too much for her. I was still counting my lucky stars that we had gotten out alive in the first place.
After giving the pain a moment to subside, the rest of us got to our feet and reconvened in the middle of the arena. Two of our trials had been completed, but we were all tired and sick of fighting, so it felt like somewhat of a hollow victory. After all, we still had one more trial left before we could even meet Baal Zebul.
Besides, I had one other issue on my mind.
“It’s not our fault he decided to kill himself, hon. You can’t beat yourself up over it,” said Mai as she watched me stare at the black mark on the floor that had once been the Director.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I’m not exactly torn up about his death. Hell, in a way I’m relieved the prick’s dead. It’s just… I’m so sick of this pointless bloodshed. This is a stupid war, every life lost to it is a life wasted by the whims of a coward who won’t even leave his own palace.”
“I get it, it’s pretty awful watching people die like this,” said Saki, “but I think the war changed very little in this case. I think his fate was sealed the second he decided to become a demon.”
“That man was no true demon.” The voice that cut through the rest was that of Maxwell, who had strolled over to escort us to our next trial. “He followed Master Baal out of fanaticism, admiration and respect. These are concepts no demon can understand. Those of us following The Lord Below simply do his bidding due to fear and self preservation.”
“But he was practically transformed into a demon form. And he cared about nothing but his own ambitions. Surely you’re not telling me he was still human deep down?” I asked.
“I said nothing of the sort. What you speak is true: he abandoned his humanity. But he never truly understood demonhood. He died too human to be considered a demon, and too demonic to be considered a human. A pitiful, spiteful excuse for a man with nowhere to belong. That is all he was in his final hours.”
Too human to be a demon, too demon to be a human. I guess the Director died without ever reaching that ideal: he never fully shed his humanity.
I begrudged this fact none, but it was a harrowing reminder that dreams could come to an end in an instant in these circumstances.
What a pathetic existence he was.
“Are the four of you ready for your third and final trial?” Asked Maxwell, “I understand that you are in quite the hurry.”
“Haaaah… dammit, we really don’t have a choice on this. Take us to the next chamber,” said Saki, though she seemed taken with fatigue. Her regular powers used very little magic power, so she was likely unused to the feeling of magic exhaustion. We could only hope she’d be in good enough condition for the final trial.
Maxwell opened the door the same way as before, and presented us with four different smaller doors, none specifying where they lead.
“This trial is rather unique, and thus I must ask the four of you to split up and take one door each.”
“Split up? I don’t like the sound of that,” said Saki.
“I’m afraid it is required for the trial. Each of you has an assigned door, though the assignments may only make sense to the four of you. I cannot make heads nor tails of them.” Maxwell cleared his throat, before reading off the instructions from a piece of half-rotten parchment paper. “The examiners request the following: the first door is to be taken by the musclebrained leader. The second must be occupied by the snivelling coward. The third will be entered by the idiotic genius, and the fourth must be traversed by the reckless liar. Only once the correct members are in place will the trial begin.”
Despite the rude epithets, it was easy to tell who was who. But the idea of the examiner knowing such details about us… I feared for what knowledge they may have. Or even for who they may be.
Regardless, I stepped up to the fourth door, and my teammates did the same to theirs.
“Are you three ready?” Asked Saki.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied.
“If I’m not, you’ll know,” added Mai.
“I-I’m scared, but I think I’m ready…” said Sunao.
And with that, the four of us opened our individual doors and stepped through.
On the other side of the door was a smaller arena than those we had used before, though it was adorned with more decorations, including a corner with gargoyles.
And there in the centre of the arena stood someone I had wanted to see again for quite a while.
“It’s good to see you again, Kei.”
“We both know that name is fake, Shin. Call me Kagami.”