Tatakau Shisho

Volume 9, Prologue: The Demon Lord and Memories of Bygone?Days

The Beasts of the Final Chapter were calling. They called towards the far, far horizon.

These were the shouts of annihilation. The Beasts’ voices were filled not with the words of curses but rather a strong murderous intent. They would allow no human to live. They wouldn’t even let them struggle or fight. They wouldn’t allow anything and everything, even be it their breathing or their heart beating.

Their cries contained this will.

A wind as lukewarm as blood blew around. Pitch-dark rainclouds covered the skies. They were the wind and clouds invited by the Beasts of the Final Chapter. They have brought forth a spectacle suitable for the end of humankind.

In the royal capital situated at the center of a plain in western Meliot, people were running around. They all lost control when faced with fear. An amount of Beasts that was a thousand, ten thousand or even more times the number of people who lived in the capital came to kill them. There was no way anyone could’ve kept their sanity.

They ran toward the anti-Beast trenches prepared at the edges of the kingdom. This was the people’s last resort made for this day. They dug holes deep underground, stockpiled food, water, fuel and medicine, and shut the entrance with a thick wooden door. If they were to run inside they might be able to survive a bit longer. Everyone rushed towards the anti-Beast trenches to survive.

However, the Beasts of the Final Chapter were howling as if to mock these humans.

Just what did they think they would defend against by running there? There was no way they thought it would protect them against the Beasts, right?

They thought that such a meager door would able to protect against them – against the strongest weapon dispatched by the Future Overseer Orntorra, against the ruin of mankind?

Or have they thought of welcoming the destruction of mankind in such a cave?

All the people felt as if such words were being carried by the wind.

“Someone! Someone! Has anyone seen my mother?!”

A girl proceeded in the opposite direction from the people running toward the anti-Beast trenches. She was looking for her mother. She had lost both feet in an accident several years ago. She wouldn’t be able to reach the trenches by herself. And yet her daughter couldn’t see her anywhere.

The girl bumped into a running man, falling to the ground. The man kept running ahead without even looking back. Everyone was doing their best protecting their own lives. No one would notice a collapsed girl.

A wheelbarrow carrying a sack of wheat ran through the road. The man running it paid no heed to the girl as well. The moment when her frail body was about to be caught up in the creaking wheels, it floated in the air.

“…Ruruta?”

The girl muttered. And she looked at the sky. There was a shining figure there.

“Ruruta…”

The man pushing the wheelbarrow muttered after her. People looked up to the sky one after the other. They all focused their eyes on the lone man shining within the dark clouds.

And they raised great cheers.

“Ruruta!”

“Ruruta!”

“Ruruta! Ruruta! Ruruta Coozancoona! Ruruta Coozancoona!”

Everyone shouted as if they forgot all other things except these words. They looked to the sky as if even forgetting to run away. They couldn’t stop shouting. They couldn’t stop looking. The being there was more close to them than a mother was to her baby. The spectacle there was so beautiful they could think they were born for it.

“Do not be afraid.”

The person floating in the heavens – Ruruta Coozancoona – said. It was a calm voice yet it drowned out both the shouts of the populace as well as the cries of the Beasts of the Final Chapter, reaching everyone in the capital.

“Calm down and slowly evacuate to a safe place. There is still time. In order for you to be able to evacuate safely, please think carefully about what you should do step by step.”

However, everyone became calm even without waiting for Ruruta’s words. They all thought: Yes, since Ruruta’s here there is nothing to fear.

His long, transparent hair was flowing in the wind. The loincloth covering his lower half fluttered. His supple upper body was exposed to the crowd. It was the usual figure of Ruruta Coozancoona.

In his right hand he held a rod-shaped weapon covered in a black fog. It was the Memorial Weapon known as Dark Club Gmork. Below his feet was flying boat shining in all colors of the rainbow. It was the Memorial Weapon Colorful Sand Battleship Graógramán. The ivy pattern on his left shoulder was the Rhythmic Barrier Uyulála. The Ever-Laughing Magic Blade Schlamuffen and Ever-Crying Magic Blade Acharai were tied to his loincloth.

Ruruta possessed five out of the eight remaining Memorial Weapons in the world.

It was the first time anyone saw the figure of the fully-armed Ruruta. His majestic appearance was divine to the extent one couldn’t believe he was a human anymore.

“I will go. I will defeat the Beasts of the Final Chapter. I will save this world.

I don’t know whether or not I’ll win. Neither me, the Gods nor anyone else can tell.”

People stopped breathing and listened to his words.

“But believe in me. Everything starts with belief. I will win and save the world. I will never let the future be lost. Believe in me, everyone. Your belief will become my power.

Shout!”

Ruruta raised his index finger to the heavens.

“Ruruta does not fear anything!”

Following his voice, the people shouted to the sky.

“Ruruta does not fear anything!”

The words continued.

“Ruruta never gives up!”

“Ruruta never gives up!”

“Ruruta never runs away, will not die, and will never be defeated!”

“Ruruta never runs away! He will not die! He will never be defeated!”

The people shouted to drown the cries of the Beasts coming from afar. To transform their belief in Ruruta to his power.

“Ruruta is going! Let us meet again! In the new, Godless era!”

The Colorful Sand Battleship Graógramán at his feet started moving. Ruruta flew away faster than any arrow, leaving an afterimage behind.

Only about ten minutes passed since then.

From the distant horizon came great flashes of light which burned the crowd’s eyes. Immediately afterwards, they could hear explosive sounds that rocked all the way down to their bellies.

The battle began.

The battle of the absolute weapon meant to destroy the world – the Beasts of the Final Chapter, against the only possibility of saving the world – the hero Ruruta Coozancoona.

This happened long, long ago.

Ruruta recalled the far past. This happened long ago and far away. Why did I recall this now? He was thinking while overlooking the surface.

On January 12, 1927, the townscape of Past God Bantorra Island spread beneath his vision.

The town flourished to the extent it couldn’t be compared with the royal capital of days old. For being so rich and safe, the people living there would seem like they came from another world when compared to that time period. This was the town the people have established for 1927 years.

Ruruta was standing alone on the giant needle protruding from the ground. Even now at his feet, in the middle of that needle, Hamyuts’s corpse was still dripping blood.

People were collapsed on the ground. Both Armed Librarians, normal librarians and the civilians who didn’t know anything were collapsed. They were deprived of their vitality and their wills to live, leaving them in a deep sleep they would never awake from.

The Beasts of the Final Chapter raised their voiceless cries, bringing a “tearless ending” to the whole world.

“It’s the same as that day.”

Ruruta muttered. Yes, the world was about to be destroyed just like 1927 years ago. The power of the Beasts was trying to cover the world.

There was only one difference.

Once, during the time of the first apocalypse, Ruruta fought in order to save the world. But now he was the one trying to destroy it.

“That period of time was… good.”

Ruruta muttered. His voice was like that of an old man recalling his youth on his deathbed.

Yes, during that day Ruruta was boiling. He grinded his teeth, his pupils were burning and he wrung out every bit of physical and mental power in his disposal to fight the Beasts of the Final Chapter. He put his soul at stake wishing to save the world and to protect people. He thought that his life didn’t matter as long as he could do it.

But time has passed. His emotions from that day will never return again.

“To think I would attempt to destroy the world… fufu, fufufu…”

Ruruta laughed listlessly. If he could tell his past self about the present what would he think? If he were to tell the hero trying to protect the world that he was going to destroy it 1927 years later, what would he say?

“…I wonder why.”

The surface was calm and nothing could be heard except for the voices of the Beasts. Ruruta muttered while overlooking it.

“I wonder why it has become like this.”

Even if he asked there was no answer. Not even Lascall Othello appeared now. The question reached no one’s ears and disappeared.