Chapter 76

The Character’s Image Takes On a Life of its Own (I have 23 hours of work left to do for an individual project. The deadline is in 7 days.

The Character’s Image Takes On a Life of its Own

(I have 23 hours of work left to do for an individual project. The deadline is in 7 days. haha)

(author: Maybe it’s Kirito)

A torrent of light that burst upward from the ground along with a dazzling flash of light made even the warriors fighting in the air unable to take their eyes from it.

"Mea!?"

『……Ugh.』

Akatsuki En, who had been engaged in fierce combat with Hod, immediately realized that this strange phenomenon was occurring where Mea was and withdrew from the battlefield and headed toward her at full speed.

Following him, Hod reacted slightly slower and took flight.

"That’s…!"

『She's in a Burst state… Mea’s confused emotions must have caused the power of her supernatural ability to run wild.』

"Mea is over there… Damn it!"

The reason she became so confused that she fell into a Burst state was clear without having to say it.

The cruel truth told by Keter, her creator*. It was impossible to measure just how shocking it must have been for her. (tl note: creator here can also mean “biological parent”)

Excessive stress could cause supernatural abilities to run wild. This was a supernatural ability incident that half-baked* supernatural ability users often bring about. (tl note: “to force something despite being incomplete/immature”)

However…

『To think Mea's potential was to this extent… Her tremendous power surpasses ours.』

"That’s… Mea's true power…?"

Mea’s power in her Burst state was an order of magnitude higher than the one Rikidou Chouta had discharged in the arena.

The immense light being emitted from Mea's body continuously grew like sunlight, transforming her into a cocoon of light.

Before long, two pairs of wings emerged from within the cocoon. At the same time, with a roar that resembled a scream, a golden dragon appeared.

The light that had blown violently from Mea’s body had taken the form of a dragon.

Its overwhelming majesty was like that of the God of Fairy World, “Holy Dragon Ein Sof.”

"…Wait for me. I'll save you now!"

『...』

As time passed, the dragon of light that had appeared continued to grow in size. Mea’s power in her burst state grew endlessly like it was nonsense.

In the blink of an eye, the golden dragon that exceeded 40 meters in size had a divine appearance, but if it acted violently, its threat might surpass even that of Adyeshach.

The moment Akatsuki En saw Mea who had transformed into a monster, he moved before he could even think.

『To be so preoccupied with a single lass that you expose your back in front of this Hod… Is that how humans are?』

En had abandoned his battle with Hod, heading toward Mea without looking aside, his back unguarded. If Hod felt like it, he could shoot him down right away.

However, En wanted to believe in him.

That Hod would understand. He believed Hod would understand him.

After all, when Mea had fallen alone into this world, it was Hod who had acknowledged her.

"Human or holy beast doesn't matter! I just want to protect what’s precious to me! Isn’t that the same for all of you?"

『…Yes, it is.』

Race didn’t matter. They didn’t act emotionally because they’re humans.

He goes to protect her because she’s precious. He wants to save her because she’s precious. That was all.

That was the unchanged reason for both humans and holy beasts, En asked that question while recalling all the holy beasts he had seen in Fairy World.

And so, he pleaded.

“Mea is our precious companion… My little sister! She’s not some tool!”

Writhing as if in suffering, the dragon of light roared, radiating golden brilliance.

The rampaging her seemed to perceive everyone approaching as an enemy and haphazardly scattered violent flashes of light from her mouth.

Its power was just as it appeared, just coming in contact with it was enough to hollow out the ground.

One flash of light was directly aimed toward En as he headed toward her.

"──!"

There wasn’t even time to blink.

Gasping, En braced himself for the impact, but… the flash of light never pierced his body.

A knight in orange armor had intervened, blocking the attack with a large shield.

"Hod, you…"

『Dive into her. That dragon is merely the power of her supernatural ability taking shape into that form, it has no substance. Therefore, if you dive into that light, you should find Mea there.』

"I see…!"

『Hurry… If she keeps diverging her power like this, not only this town but that girl will be in danger too.』

Disobeying the King’s command, Archangel of Glory Hod had decided to assist En of his own will.

It’s not that En hadn't expected that decision, but he was still surprised. Then, a grateful smile appeared on his face.

That’s right… Even an archangel could understand his feelings. This showed the fact that resolving the conflict between humans and holy beasts through dialogue was not in the least impossible.

That was the future that child—Mea had wished for.

“I appreciate it, but are you sure about this?"

『Hm… In this noble world, is there such a thing as a life born merely to die? Even if it means turning my blade toward the King… correcting the King’s errors is also a proof of loyalty to Ein Sof. It just took time to determine the truth.』

Therefore, this is not a betrayal, Hod declared.

It had been said that each of the Ten Archangels of Sefirot acted according to their own sense of justice, and this proved that to be true.

He flapped his eight wings and surged ahead, using his prided large shield to ward off the dragon's flashes of light coming at En.

『I, Hod, will be your guide* into the heart of the dragon! Wait for an opportunity and dive in!』 (tl note: actual term is “pilot,” someone who instructs crew members on proper navigation and maneuvering)

“Aah!”

As soon as he gave the command, Hod shot forward at the speed of a bullet, charging into the dragon of light’s line of fire.

Despite being fully wrapped in heavy-looking armor, his speed as he flew through the air surpassed En’s.

While their combat capabilities were evenly matched, when it came to flight, unlike En and the others who could only fly in their Fairy Burst state, angels, who were born with their own wings, were slightly superior.

With Hod in the lead, handling the dangerous attacks, his reliableness that lived up to his armor could be felt.

However, the closer they got, the fiercer the attacks of the dragon of light—the rampaging Mea—became.

Warding off several flashes of light with his large shield were his limit.

But if even several blows could draw the dragon’s aggression, then En could take action.

Not missing the gap in the dragon’s attacks, En unleashed the power stored in his wings of blue flames like a jet propulsion system, accelerating in one breath and flying off.

『Ugh… Go! Akatsuki En!』

"OOOOHHH!!"

Hod, who had been sent flying by the dragon of light’s flash of light, called out En’s name, who stepped forward as if to take his place, seeing En’s destination with his own eyes.

Dashing through the path that Hod had carved out, En became an arrow of blue flames and dived into the shining dragon of light’s chest—the source of its power.

Akatsuki En pressed on.

To save his precious companion.

To rescue his only sister, who became frightened of her own existence, he invaded into the dragon of light—.

—It was a world of pure white all around.

Since it was the source of power capable of materializing a dragon of light the same size as Adyeshach, I assumed the inside would have a dazzling light so bright that I wouldn’t even be able to take a straight look at it, but… when I actually dove in, a relatively gentle space for the eyes spread out, which made me feel 90% relieved and 10% disappointed.

And where I am is the place where Mea-chan is.

In other words, inside the dragon of light.

Man, that really surprised me.

The risk that her mental state might make her enter a Burst state during battle had constantly been in my mind, but I never expected it would cause such a flashy phenomenon.

Seriously… What do you mean a giant kaiju-sized dragon of light appears when she goes into a Burst state? …And on top of that, its silhouette kind of resembled the Holy Dragon Ein Sof, and it was blatantly giving off an ominous vibe.

Even though it was also a Burst state, it was on a scale that made Arisu-chan’s and Chouta’s look adorable.

The cool Eight-chan quickly noticed something abnormal in Mea-chan and temporarily left her match with Keter to others to rush over with “Teleportation.” I didn’t make it in time, though.

That said, it was fortunate I was still able to easily get into the dragon of light.

Man, this ability sure is handy. It’s an indispensable ability for any RTA strategy. Not that I’m a speedrunner.

Still, its flaw is that it’s too convenient, which makes it dull.

Just look at the protagonist of the original work who stormed in here a moment ago, the fiery development of “the protagonist breaks through obstacles and rushes to the heroine’s side.” In my case, everything ended up being cut. No valleys so no mountains*, that’s the sorrow of cheat original protagonists. (tl note: means “no ups and downs”)

…Well, not that I care about that right now, and in the first place, I’m not the protagonist, I’m an original protagonist.

As the cool and mysterious Eight-chan, I’ll leave those passionate moments to the protagonist of the original work.

The right person in the right place division of roles between the protagonists of the original work and original protagonists is important after all.

“Eight...? You’re here too... I see, you came using Teleportation.”

“Yep, that’s right.”

“...That’s sneaky.”

“Fufu, not really.”

As I had teleported ahead and invaded inside the dragon of light, En stared at me with a gaze that seemed to be looking at something absurd.

From his perspective, he had barely managed to break through with thanks to Hod’s fiery assist, only for an original protagonist to nonchalantly take a roundabout path.

Hmm… I wonder if I was a bit frank in my way of asserting dominance. I didn’t do it on purpose, of course. But this mysterious and stylish play isn’t bad in its own way, so I’ll consider it a good thing. It’s a staple for a mysterious character to arrive before the protagonist and wait wherever they go.

Still, I wasn’t expecting this space to be the inside of the dragon of light… pure white and empty.

It’s like a stylish inner psychological world.

…Wait. I have a feeling I’ve seen something like this recently.

Ah, that. It’s similar to where I was sent to when I touched the Wisdom of Kabbalah, the world where the goddess-like Charon-sama was. That place was also this pure white and dreary, and empty. Except the TV and other necessities she summoned from nowhere.

It was an empty space, but there was a foothold, and when I released my Charon Form, my feet landed on the pure white surface without falling.

Standing beside En, who had also released his wing of blue flames, we walked forward, calling out Mea-chan’s name.

“This is, the inside of that dragon of light? It’s calm, and there’s nothing here.”

“It’s the same as the eye of a storm. Even a raging power is unexpectedly gentle if you go straight to its source.”

“Is that how it is?”

“That goes for everything. The hearts of humans and holy beasts and even the emptiness of the abyss… they might unexpectedly all end up being pure white, you know?”

“...”

I wouldn’t know, though. It's probably something like that.

…Well, when it came to Arisu-chan or Chouta, it was somewhere where the power of their supernatural abilities were so violent to extent that they got injured or frozen, so I don’t know what the truth actually is.

The reason why Mea-chan’s Burst state feels different in nature from theirs is probably because she’s a half-angel-like existence.

After all, she was an existence born with power directly gifted to her by the King of the Ten Archangels of Sefirot. What I’ve seen in other people's burst states probably can’t serve as a reference.

…No, even so, it really is strange. What is this space?

Thinking sensibly, a mysterious space that easily exceeds a kilometer in size forming inside an approximately 40-meter dragon of light is obviously strange.

This is like—

“Maybe we’ve ended up diving into that child’s heart.”

"This place, is inside Mea’s heart…?"

Earlier, I described this place as some kind of stylish spiritual world, but maybe I actually hit the bingo.

A supernatural ability user's supernatural ability is closely connected to their "heart." I think the theory that Mea's supernatural ability, which had been expanded with her burst state, physically manifested her own imagined landscape* is not entirely far-fetched. A brilliant deduction from Phantom Thief Eight-chan. (tl note: in art, imagined landscapes are the representations of the artist's deepest unconsciousness)

But let’s suppose this pure white and empty space is Mea’s inner psychological world.

If I think of it like that, her heart is…

"…So lonely…"

Toward the words I muttered while looking around, En responded in agreement.

"…Yeah. If this place is reflecting her heart, then nothing could be lonelier than this."

Supernatural abilities represent the "heart" that a person possesses.

If that’s the case, this signifies that there’s nothing in Mea-chan’s heart. That’s far too cruel.

It would mean affirming that the girl named Mea is exactly as Keter said: like a hollow existence, as fleeting as a dream (Mugen).

Or perhaps that’s what she thought of herself inside her heart… After thinking that far, I had a thought.

"But that’s not the case."

"Aah, there’s no way that’s true."

Oh, so En had the same thought after all.

I couldn't help but smile, and we looked at each other. The sullen expression I saw at that moment was so amusing it made me smile again.

"Fufu, we’re pretty like-minded"

"…You think so?"

A hollow existence with no heart—even if Mea saw herself that way, we had no intention of acknowledging it whatsoever.

For us who had watched her cry and laugh just like anyone else, it was an utterly unacceptable story.

“You can hear me, right!? Mea!”

Hyaa!? D-don't just shout out of nowhere, En! My ears are ringing…!

Seriously… If you're going to shout, at least give me a heads-up. I understand your intention, though.

If this white world is Mea-chan’s inner psychological world, then she probably won't be here no matter how much we search.

No, maybe we don’t even need to see her in the first place.

If this place is inside her heart, then our words should come across directly. En must have had this in mind when he looked up and called out in a loud voice.

"Your heart isn’t empty! You have family and friends! There are people waiting for you to come back! So you're not alone! You're a splendid person with so many connections! You can cry, laugh, and be considerate and kind to others! That’s the Mea we know! That’s the girl named Mitsui Mea!"

…Not bad. He basically said everything I wanted to say. Keep going.

But this situation… A normal person would’ve been surprised at his eccentric behaviour of suddenly letting out a cry. Good thing I’m an understanding original protagonist, huh.

I wanted to make a dig about it, but I read the mood and kept quiet for now.. I’m an original protagonist who can respect the protagonist of the original work’s turn.

It would be great if this would peacefully settle things like with Arisu-chan and Chouta, but… well, who knows how this will turn out.

Just in case, I carried my Phantom Thief Notebook and pen in my hand, keeping an eye on the course of events.

It was a feeling I didn’t know why I had, but… I had a premonition that the time to fill up every page of this notebook had finally come.

(author: This past week, I was studying SAO up to Ordinal Scale for the movie, so this update was late (the excuse this time).

It was my first time watching it, but for some reason, Kirito-kun is having a hard time being treated like the representative of strongest cheat harem protagonists… He’s not as pretentious as people say, and he gets battered every time, so why does he have this reputational damage*? …It has to be because of that sentence structure. (tl note: “damage caused to people and organizations that are not actually involved due to inappropriate reporting of an incident or accident”)

By the way, I’m a Yuuki fan. (sukijikatari*)) (tl note: A slang term used to describe the act of talking about one's own life while discussing the main topic.)

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