"Sorry, am I late?"
"Hah, hah... You're late...!"
I could feel eyes staring blankly at me, but there was no time to waste, so I ignored them and went to join up. The face I hadn’t seen in a while was drenched in sweat.
...Just because you have talent doesn’t mean it’s all good. Look at her, suffering like this.
The past me who had envied her for being far more talented than I was now seemed like a fool.
If having talent just meant ending up in places like this where you never knew if you’d live or die, then maybe it was better to have no talent at all.
Though, for some reason, I was here too now.
"You okay?"
"No...! I think I’m gonna die...!"
"Guess you’re fine then. They say if you’re really at your limit, you can’t even talk."
I passed along the advice I’d always heard from the investigator while getting beaten up, and she gave me a look like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
I met Amelia’s gaze without flinching.
Because I’d experienced it firsthand.
I’d learned that when you’re truly on the verge of death, you can’t think of anything at all.
"...Fine. We don’t have time to argue. Hurry up and help. Can’t you see he’s about to die?!"
"Nah, he’ll be fine for a little longer."
"What?! He’s practically dying over there! Isn’t he your teammate?!"
"He’s just being dramatic."
"Kyaaaaaaaah! Save meeeeeee!"
Seeing the snake bitch—who’d spent every day acting like a bug’s prey—screaming and running away made her think it was really dangerous, but it wasn’t.
If he were *actually* about to die, he wouldn’t even be screaming.
It’s nice to see him being useful for once.
He’s probably regretting coming here, thinking it was a waste of time.
His expression made that obvious.
Well, it didn’t really bother me. If I bought him some of his favorite snacks later, he’d get over it.
"...Really? Then I guess it’s okay to take a break."
"You’re not actually gonna lie down here, are you?"
"What? You said it was fine."
"No... never mind."
Yeah, that’s just how she was.
I hadn’t been at the Academy for long, but this woman’s personality had been infamous from the start.
It was always so amusing to watch men who approached her with some noble lady fantasy get their hopes crushed.
"By the way, what were you talking about so seriously just now?"
"Nothing important."
"Nothing important? You were talking for that long in this situation?"
It really wasn’t anything.
I just snapped the leader out of his daze after he’d gotten beaten up so badly he wasn’t thinking straight.
He was going on about his life and feeling guilty over nothing.
Pretty ridiculous, if you ask me.
But I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I explained it outright, so I waved my hand to signal I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Fortunately, she didn’t press further.
"...So? Thanks for coming, but do you have any idea how to take down that monster?"
"Hmm. Not really."
"What?!"
"We only came because the investigator called us. He suddenly told us to sneak in here—we were pretty shocked ourselves."
The situation was absurd beyond belief.
Wasn’t it something like, “Hurry over because something dangerous might happen”?
And yet here they were, shoving him into a place like this before anything had even happened, as if they were about to borrow a criminal’s hand.
…Not that he, the one who actually came, was in any position to talk.
"Investigator? Ah. Teacher. Where are you right now?"
"I'm here."
"Ah, hello."
"It's been a while."
When had she even arrived?
The surroundings were slightly blurred, but he’d assumed it was just dust in the air.
Turns out it was her ability.
"There’s no way to capture that thing. We’re just holding it in place."
"What?!"
"When Yu Siwoo suddenly said a few days ago that we needed to bring in a free-handed superhuman, I wondered what was going on…"
As expected, her ability was impressive.
Maybe it was because she said it so casually, as if the fact that there was no solution to this crisis was no big deal.
Amelia was flustered.
"Y-you can’t capture it?! With this many people here?!"
"Of course not. What can we do if our attacks don’t work?"
As she spoke, Hayul pointed toward where Spira was fighting.
People screamed as they ran, but the monster’s jagged rock spikes kept emerging from the ground, exploiting every gap. Yet it moved as if none of the attacks had any effect—like a tank facing down infantry.
"I tried pouring a little water into its lungs, but… it breathed just fine. Maybe it has gills or something."
"…If it has gills, can we even call it human?"
"No. It seems we can’t. That’s why it can move like that."
The monster, wearing the skin of a human, charged in a straight line toward Spira without a thought, then—when it failed to hit her as she slithered away like a snake and burrowed into the ground—slammed its body into the wall.
"I don’t know why, but it seems to have an absurd number of abilities. The processing speed is overloaded. It’s all spec and no substance, basically."
"…Now that you mention it, its movements have been too simplistic."
"Too many abilities can be worse than having none. Its proficiency with them seems low, so for now, we can hold out."
True.
If it were human, it would have tried different methods after realizing one approach didn’t work.
But this monster just kept repeating the same attack endlessly.
As if its intelligence had regressed.
"It’s like a demonic beast."
"We should call it a demonic beast. It’s a stretch to call it human…"
"Just what the hell do you have to go through to end up like that?"
"…Ah."
At Hayul’s grumbling, Amelia suddenly gasped, as if something had clicked, and shot upright from where she’d been lying.
"The blast furnace!"
"…The blast furnace?"
"I heard the Weaver Men targeted it when they attacked the Academy! I heard it was lost, but maybe…!"
"Now that you mention it, two of the Weaver Men’s executives went missing."
"One is over there. So then…."
That thing over there, half-human, half-monster—was that the last one?
How the hell is that bitch supposed to recognize her old comrade if she can’t even tell?
…No, that’s not it.
It’d be hard to imagine that thing was ever a comrade.
"It does look like someone melted a bunch of creatures in a crucible and then let it harden."
"Right?!"
Crucible, crucible.
Now that he mentioned it, all those abilities made sense.
If it was a fusion of countless lives…
Then yeah, that would explain it.
"…So if we destroy the crucible, that should solve it."
"But how do we know where it is? I don’t see anything that looks like one."
"The heart."
A low voice echoed out.
We turned our heads at the sound, and Yu Siwoo was already standing beside us.
"…The heart?"
"Yeah. The crucible’s inside the body. Where the heart is."
"How do you—"
know that?
I swallowed the rest of my words.
This guy had some kind of intuition or ability, didn’t he?
Did he know that much too?
Intuition was the sixth sense, wasn’t it? Or was it not even a sense at this point?
"But even so, we need to retreat first."
"What? Why?! If we take it down now—!"
"Forgot already? The main force is in danger too."
"…Ah."
He meant that swarm of spiders.
They seemed to be holding the line somehow, but from what I could see, casualties were piling up.
"To take that thing down, we need one big hit. Not a bunch of small attacks."
"But what if no one in the main force can—"
"It’s fine even if they can’t. We don’t need someone to land the big hit—just someone to help make it possible."
"…Dorothy."
The other three nodded, leaving me as the only one out of the loop.
She must be one of their group.
She’s important, right?
I decided to assume that for now.
"…Speaking of which, where’d Arte go?"
"Sent her ahead. She’s needed for healing, and without any fibers, she can’t really help here."
"That’s risky."
"She’ll be fine."
His absolute confidence made us stop asking.
We figured it was that damn intuition or whatever ability he had.
There was no other reason he’d be that sure.
"…Alright. Let’s say we help the main force first. But we can’t all go."
Amelia glanced at Spira, whose voice was getting fainter by the second, and spoke.
"It looks like its intelligence has dropped, so it’s probably just going after whatever it sees…"
"Which means it’ll chase us relentlessly."
"Exactly."
…Someone has to stay behind.
We realized the harsh truth: to save the others, we’d have to abandon one of our own.
"Judging by how you look, you’re not even tired. But helping the main force won’t be over quickly either. And the distance isn’t short."
"I’ll stay. I have a way to survive even if I’m attacked…"
"You were using fire earlier, right? You could probably evaporate the fog in no time."
"…"
"I’ll stay. I’m super fast, so it’ll be hard for them to catch me."
"No."
In the place where everyone insisted they would be the one to stay, the boy quietly declared,
"I’ll stay. You all go first."
"Hey! I clearly—!"
"You might be fast, but you have to move a lot every time you dodge. You’ll get tired quickly."
"…Ugh."
"Compared to that, I don’t need to move as much, so I’ll be fine."
"But—!"
Amelia couldn’t continue. She realized words wouldn’t get through to him anymore.
"You said it yourself last time. Can someone who abandons their friends and runs away really aim to be a hero?"
"Y-Yes! That’s why I—!"
"That’s why *I’ll* stay."
The boy who had once dreamed of being a hero took a step forward.
"If anyone other than me stays here, they’ll all die. I know it."
Yu Siwoo knew.
An ability that could no longer be called mere intuition. An ability whose true nature even he didn’t fully grasp… but thanks to it, he knew.
The only one who could stay here and survive was him.
"So, I’m staying."
It would definitely be agonizing.
If things went wrong, he might even die.
This wasn’t a matter of enduring for just an hour or two.
He might have to keep that monster company all day long.
If he let his guard down even for a second, he could lose his life.
And yet, the boy chose to stay.
"Hurry up and go."
Because if that thing caused someone’s death, the girl he loved would be heartbroken.
Because the girl who had finally begun to see the world as it truly was might close her heart again.
That was why Yu Siwoo chose to stay.
"Just make sure you come back quickly. If I get muscle cramps, I’ll be out of commission for a while."
"…Got it. You *have* to stay alive."
"Don’t worry."
As Amelia swiftly gathered the nearly lifeless woman and fled, the monster’s gaze naturally shifted to Yu Siwoo.
Its human form, visible just moments ago, was gradually fading away.
If left alone, it would eventually transform into a horrifying monster.
His expression twisted in pity.
The only way to save that person, who was losing their sense of self, was to put them out of their misery.
"…Alright, let’s give it my best shot."
The boy who had once dreamed of being a hero—no.
The young man who *had* become a hero took a step forward.
Toward a happy ending where everyone could be happy.