My Friend, My Friend

Previous Table of Contents

--Voldagadda.
--Oh, Voldagadda.

Gideon roars from the bottom of his gut.
At his mortal enemy. At his old friend. With his whole heart poured into it.

"I wanted to be like you! I wanted to live like you!"

A life where I could hold someone, which will never return.
I should have realized that back then, truly.

"The one thing that was truly precious. You kept your eyes only on that, sought only that, and just kept moving forward! You were so dazzling! I, who was always lost, longed for your way of being until it made me want to cry! That feeling hasn't changed even now! My friend! My, friend!"

The executioner's sword weaves a tapestry of slashes, forming a "plane" of nothingness.
The writhing crimson chains rush into it--and freeze.
They become unable to move a muscle.
Touching the space where time has stopped, they are trapped in an absolute eternity.

"Voldagadda, the way you live is beautiful! Enough to burn into my eyes! The world surely cannot withstand your intensity! Then I shall change too! Just like when I was once among the living! I will look only at the happiness I love so much that I wish time would stop! If you intend to kill, then I shall absolutely protect!"

Because I thought that was the minimum courtesy for facing him.
A eulogy and tribute dedicated to the noble and exalted King of Slaughter.
But--the crimson blade that had been locked with the <|Curse Singer|> pulls back, approaching Gideon from a different angle. The giant god's physical strength is no longer behind it, but the <|World Eater|> can move autonomously.

"Is THat sO, <Iron Mask>... I thINk it'S gooD... I don'T knoW whaT it iS... buT I knoW thaT yoU'rE seriouS!!"

It stretches, writhes, and conveys the orders of the God of Slaughter. It cuts the wind at the speed of lightning, and the atmosphere screams.
The dark-colored blade flashes repeatedly, continuing to catch the violent power of the slaughter scythe. The <|Curse Singer|> harbors a darkness so blinding it dazzles the eyes within its authority of shock absorption.

"It'S a gooD thinG!! LivinG seriouSly!!"
"Ah... ah, that's right!!"

Turning countless, infinite, immeasurable thoughts into murderous intent, the two converse using slashes as their language.
Whatever the result, this was undoubtedly the final opportunity.
Because both of them were certain of the end of this strange |Bond| (Killing Intent) cultivated during this turmoil.

●

Finn could only bite his lip and watch.
Because the offensive and defensive battle was on a completely different dimension.
Finn cannot visually track Agos's slashes. He can only infer the trajectory of the final remaining strike after the fact, based on Sojuro's heat-haze-like movements.

--That is why. Finn, you... you alone, stay close to the good people who are perishing. Become a gentle warrior who can hold their hands and whisper to them that they are not alone until the very end. Do not be bound by military regulations, logic, or entanglements; continue to be the last hope for the sake of the tomorrow of those without fangs.

--Live, Finn. For your own sake. Duties are meaningless now. They don't exist. So, please. Run away. You must not challenge the Cainites to battle. Run, run, and if you keep running, perhaps somewhere in the world, there might be a place not submerged in the contamination of the Cainites.

The words of the two, their kindness and their sorrow, are burning in his chest.
Inheriting the thoughts of his father and his mother equally.
That is why Finn noticed that one of his eyes and one of his arms were radiating heat.

"Finn-kun"

Touma is looking at him with a gaze that has a mysterious capacity for acceptance.

"That feeling is surely something precious. Living for justice. Living for oneself. You must still sublate these two guidelines, which contradict each other in many situations. Not by compromising and settling, but by utilizing both, allowing each to elevate the other. That kind of integration is necessary."
"Like the Numinous, you mean?"

The boy with the serene eyes slowly shook his head.

"I think you lack the obsession to awaken to the Numinous. However, you might be able to reach a microcosm. The integration to be performed is not between 'self and the outside world,' but between 'two beliefs within oneself.' You must awaken as a new life while twisting those two feelings together into a double helix."
"Two... feelings..."

The two of them, who kept reaching out to Finn while desperately suppressing the uncontrollable something within their hearts.
The question of which salvation was correct—that is meaningless. It is a question that could never have an answer.
Rather, it must be an enlightenment in which both are incorporated as essential elements.
—That is.

"...One does not pray to be saved. Praying is the salvation itself."

Words once spoken by a great person during a service.

[To be continued]