My youth story cannot be a knight war

Hikigaya spoke calmly, addressing the other soul currently sleeping within him, even though he knew the other couldn't possibly hear him.

"There are still things that should be done, but they haven't been completed yet..."

He put down his hand and looked up at the girl who was leaning against the wall in front of him, sleeping with her head tilted.

At some point, pure white snow slowly drifted down from outside the ruined classroom. One of the snowflakes landed on Hikigaya Komachi's tender cheek. The cold temperature made the girl frown subconsciously even though she was unconscious.

A hand burning in flames stroked her cheek, and its fingertips gently wiped away the fallen snow. Her frown slowly relaxed.

His pupils reflected his sister's sleeping face. Hikigaya lowered his hand, and a warm light rippled in the depths of his black eyes.

Only when he saw this face could he feel that there was a part of his heart that was still beating tenaciously and had not been completely swallowed by the cold and darkness.

Perhaps there has been no sunshine in his world for a long time. No matter how fierce the fire burning on his body is, it can only make his enemies suffer, but cannot illuminate Hikigaya's own true heart.

But in his heart, there was something that was always shining instead of the sun. With this not-so-bright light, he could treat this endless darkness as day and stride forward in the long white night.

Hikigaya never longed for true light, he only longed for the simplest and most honest wish.

——Even if this wish is the root of the evil that created this hell.

"Komachi."

he said softly.

"Stay alive and take good care of yourself."

-

A white light lit up, illuminating Hikigaya Komachi's cheeks and Hikigaya Hachiman's back.

"—"

Bathed in this light, Hikigaya's expression seemed to change instantly, and a light different from before flashed in his eyes.

He slowly turned his head, his pupils illuminated by the white light.

For the first time, Hikigaya felt like he saw what he had been searching for in the darkness.

That is--

The hope of breaking "fate".

34. The story we started (Light of 21240)

“No, no, no, no…”

Looking at the man who fell down and never stood up again, Zaimokuza Yoshiki spoke incoherently. He put down the seriously injured and unconscious Kousaka Kyosuke in his arms and crawled forward using his hands and feet. At this moment, the only person in his eyes was the man with the same hair color as his.

He stretched out his hand tremblingly and gently turned the fallen "Zaimokuza Yoshiki" over. Looking at the belt worn around his waist, the spiritual stone of which was now in an extremely dark color, Zaimokuza's expression was extremely stiff.

Since the first time he saw it, he had never seen the spirit stone of this belt turn into this color. It was dull and dead, like the ashes left after burning wood, without any vitality or light.

Following the identification method he learned from TV dramas, Zaimokuza stretched out two trembling fingers and placed them under the other person's nostrils, feeling for any breath being exhaled.

No, all I could feel on my fingertips was the whistling of the cold air from high altitude.

"..."

With his lips trembling and holding onto a last glimmer of hope, Zaimokuza lowered his fingers and pressed them against the carotid artery in his neck.

Even the slightest sound was enough. Zaimokuza had never prayed like this in his life, hoping that someone could survive.

But no, there was still nothing. The feeling of pressing on the arterial skin was like pressing on a part of a well-made wax membrane, soft and smooth.

But there was no echo of life or temperature. It was as cold as jelly just taken out of the refrigerator.

The last glimmer of hope in his heart was shattered at this moment. No matter how unwilling he was, Zaimokuza had no choice but to face the reality.

——"Zaimokuza Yoshiteru" is dead.

What is death?

It is a farewell forever, a smile that I will never see again, words that I will never hear again.

"Hey, stop lying to me, okay?"

The moment the tears overflowed from the corners of her eyes, they condensed into ice crystals and shattered under the extremely low temperature. The ice crystals flowed down, dotted on the quiet face like falling stars.

Zaimokuza completely forgot that he was standing in front of the most terrifying monster in the world. He reached out and tightly grasped the collar of the fallen "Zaimokuza Yoshiki", leaned down, buried his head in the other's chest, and spoke with a choked and trembling voice.

"How cunning! You're the only one who spoke to me, but I haven't said a word to you..."

He didn't feel the slightest pulsation on the chest where his forehead was pressed, only the blood that had begun to solidify in the extreme cold after being soaked. It was like being pressed against a layer of ice chips, and the icy feeling froze him to the bone marrow. His hands, which were clutching his clothes, began to tremble even more.

"Hurry up and get up! Didn't you say you wanted to protect everyone's smile? Is this the ending of the story you created?"

"Didn't you... say you wanted to show your Hachiman? Such a beautiful story..."

The warmth of the tears began to melt the layer of ice under close contact, and the spreading blood stained Zaimokuza's face. It was not until this moment that he truly realized what kind of pain the man in front of him had been enduring in order to protect everyone's smile.

All along, Zaimokuza had mostly seen the glorious victories won by the man with the same name as him after battles, and the smiles of the people who were protected, but he had never thought deeply about whether he could also feel pain.

Because he never told anyone about his pain, but just endured all the pain with a smile, and continued to fight silently to protect the smiles of others.

And at the end of this endless holy war, this man who never gave up finally fell before the dawn, and his smile was completely stained with his own blood.

It's unacceptable. Zaimokuza simply cannot accept this result.

Aren't heroes supposed to be glorious and glorious? Aren't they supposed to defeat all evil and be victorious in every battle?

“——Wake up!!!”

Listening to Zaimokuza's cries, Daguba, who had unknowingly turned back into human form, did not react at all. He stood there in a daze, his eyes fixed on the man's face covered with blood and hair.

As a pseudo-god who transcends the ultimate life form, his naked eyes are more accurate than the most advanced detection instruments of mankind today. With the elemental vision beyond cognition, Daguba clearly sees the current state of "Yoshiki Zaimokuza".

He was like a broken water bottle. The energy stored in his body had been completely lost. At the same time, his organs had completely failed, and the strengthened nerve groups throughout his body had completely withered.

Even the white elemental light that represented "spirit" had dissipated completely at this moment, and now all that was before him was a corpse whose physiological functions had not yet completely ceased.

The opponent is dead, and he won. In this fateful battle that has continued from the ancient times to the present, it was Daguba who won in the end.

But He did not feel any joy in His heart. He looked at the man who had fallen in front of him and Zaimokuza who was crying on him, then slowly raised his head and looked at the sky.

The purple flame illuminated His face, which was as white as a girl's, but it only illuminated a sense of loss and confusion. Even the angel of destruction who brought destruction to the world, the ultimate evil, would feel confused because of the passing of a life.

"Why? KUUGA?"

Daguba didn't understand, he couldn't understand it at all. He was so excited when he saw "Zaimokuza Yoshiki" stand up again and punch him, and the joy was beyond words.

As a warrior who dedicated his life and everything to the joy of battle, Daguba could not understand what "Yoshiteru Zaimokuza" did.

Why? He had clearly been told that if he called upon the "Ultimate Darkness" that was so close, he would be bathed in that power and become even stronger, powerful enough to rival his current self.

Then, having become stronger, he would be able to stand up and fight himself again. This would surely be a battle far beyond anything he had fought before.

Isn't this exactly his purpose? Didn't he come here just to fight me? Why would he abandon this powerful force that was within his reach?

Even if you fight to the death, are you unwilling to become stronger and fight yourself again?

It is incomprehensible. Daguba simply cannot understand the completely contradictory thoughts and actions of "Yoshiki Zaimokuza".

Because He never fought for anything. From the moment Daguba was born until the moment he knew the world, he had always been fighting for himself and for the sake of fighting.

Daguba was born to be an absolutely strong person, and therefore he walked on a path where he could not recognize his own loneliness. In the Gurongi clan, whose existence had already deviated from the right path, it was impossible for anyone to tell him whether this way of survival was problematic.

For Him, fighting is the reason and meaning of everything. Everything else has no value. The so-called belief, will, and others, Daguba has never recognized these concepts, because these have nothing to do with fighting.

Daguba and Zaimokuza Yoshiteru may have some similarities, that is, both of them are extremely pure beings, and their hearts have never been tainted by evil.

But the latter who chooses what to fight for and the former who only fights for themselves are completely separated from this point. The two are similar in nature yet very different, living in two worlds that have never been connected, and the distance between these two worlds is farther than the end of the universe defined physically, and it is impossible for them to understand each other.

They are destined to be natural enemies, rivals that have existed since the moment they were born, spanning a vast period of time.

And in this fateful battle with his old enemy, Daguba won, won to the end, won and lost everything.

Winning is like losing the whole world.

For the first time, Daguba did not feel happy about the victory in the battle. He held the clothes on his left chest tightly with his right hand, as if he wanted to feel whether his heart was still beating.

Because He felt that His entire existence had become empty, and He had lost interest in the meaning of everything.

The reason for the birth of the Gurongi clan, and the clan's lifelong pursuit of "ultimate darkness", all lost their meaning at this moment.

Daguba suddenly realized how terrible a thing he had done, because from now on, perhaps no one would ever be able to make him feel the pure joy of battle like the man lying in front of him.

It was a battle that was different from any other battle he had ever had. Only a special opponent could bring this kind of excitement to him. No other being could do it.

Perhaps ever since he met that figure in the ancient times and tasted the bitterness of defeat in battle for the first time in his life, Daguba's pursuit was no longer pure combat as before, but a simple and persistent fight with this figure and its successors.

But now, he killed this successor with his own hands, and destroyed the belt that connected them together. There might still be strong people appearing in the future world, but the enemy that made him feel excited would never appear again.

This feeling is like having half of your body peeled off alive.

But why... did I realize this only now?

For the first time since its birth, Daguba had a vague understanding of what "loneliness" means.

It was a very cold feeling, so cold that Daguba felt a little uncomfortable and disgusted, just like the snow falling in front of him.

The heartless false god looked up and felt the loneliness brought by the budding human heart. The warrior who died in battle exhausted in front of him fell silently, and the son of man lay in front of the warrior and cried. Countless snowflakes fell on the three people and the desolate tower, giving this scene a sense of sacredness and loneliness like a religious painting.

The snow was endless and fell slowly, like a white comb, smoothing out and burying the blood and sorrow left by the battle.

"?"

At a certain moment, Daguba suddenly opened his eyes slightly, and his clear pupils reflected a different light in the snow.

It was a drop of white light, the same color as the snow. It avoided the gaze of the distracted Daguba with its weak "invisibility" effect and fell on the colorless belt around the waist of "Zaimokuza Yoshiki".

Then, this speck of light merged into the dead gray spirit stone in the faint light that bloomed.

"Ugh?"

A different light shone before his eyes, and Zaimokuza, with tears streaming down his face, looked up to see the light appear again.

At some point, the snow curtain was seeped with the same specks of light as before. These rays of light fell together in layers, each one extremely weak, but when gathered together, their brilliance was like the stars in the sky of the universe, illuminating the original darkness of the world.

He stretched out his hand blankly, trying to catch a drop of light that was falling in front of his eyes, but this drop seemed to have its own consciousness. It drew a curved trajectory in the air that was completely inconsistent with physics, bypassed Daguba's palm and continued to fall.

"—"

In Daguba's eyes, which were opening wider and wider, the faint light gathered into a sea, causing the newborn light to bloom again.

……

"This, this is-"

Pure blue light shone on the pages of the book "Control of All Living Things". Looking at this light, Xu Guoliang couldn't help but open his eyes wide.

What surprised him was not the light, but the meaning of the light.

It was almost completely full, far larger than before, and it was the light of faith belonging to all living beings in this world.

"What's going on? I clearly remember that the light curtain has never been opened since it collapsed!?"

Feeling the surge of light by controlling the book, Xu Guoliang was shocked beyond words, and also questioned the source of this almost materialized power of faith.

The only way to obtain the power of faith is to absorb it by controlling the light screen opened by the book. Those light screens have the ability to play future images and also absorb the power of faith generated in the hearts of everyone in front of the light screen.

There was no other way, and Xu Guoliang was sure that he had used all the power of faith he had previously gained to strengthen himself, otherwise he would not be able to withstand even half the pressure of the coming of the "Ultimate Darkness" for half the time he was facing now.

In that situation, he simply didn't have the energy left to open a new light curtain to replenish it. The power of faith he had already obtained had already been exhausted just now, and it was impossible for such a huge amount of energy to remain.

Where did all this energy come from? Xu Guoliang closed his eyes and activated the control book to investigate.

——"Come on, don't lose!"

——"Stand up! Mr. Zaimokuza!"

——"Please! Defeat that damned Zero! Please!"

——"Big brother, please don't lose..."

He heard countless people's shouts and saw countless people waving their arms or clothes, shouting and roaring excitedly.

And all the people who were "seen" looked up in the same direction, at the distant sky.

Above the sky, a scene was reflected under the clouds. It was a boundless black tower. White snow poured down and hit the crying boy who was hugging the white-haired man.

The boy's body was shimmering with illusory colors, flickering brightly and dimly...

"That is……!"