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“Hold on, I need to get my thoughts straight.”
“Okay, but can you give me the spirit first? I want to send it to God as soon as possible.”

At Fini’s request, Michihisa handed the spirit to the girl named Lullus, who stood next to him. Lullus received the spirit with great care and brought it to Fini. Then, the moment Fini touched the spirit, it disappeared.

“Well, my work here is done. I want to get to the next one as soon as possible, so I’ll quickly answer any questions you might have. First of all, your bodies. Did you know that the stronger you get, the more your lifespan is reduced?”
“We do. The hero summoning was fiddled with.”
“Oh my. You’ve done quite a good job researching things. Well, this is pretty much how things stand. If you survive until the world collapses, you will be sent to God. There, you will have a choice of what to do. You can either go back to Japan, go to another world, or go to the newly created one. However, it probably wouldn’t matter much, given that your lifespan is decreasing. So, I went out of my way and asked God to do something about that.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It felt as though we were slowly finding a reason to continue living. As long as we remained alive, we’d be able to go back to Japan. I couldn’t begin to explain how amazing that was.

But I couldn’t help thinking… The way Fini put it, although we could survive, no one else in this world would. We’d become indebted to so many people in this world during our time here.

There was the young lady, of course, but also the lord, the headmaster of the school, and so many others. We couldn’t help them as things stood. Even if we survived, it still felt like we would be leaving them to die.

It would feel the same way as when Toriyama died.

But deep down, I knew it was beyond our control. If it had just been us, we would’ve died along with the world. But thanks to Fini, that was no longer the case.

I wasn’t saying that everyone needed to go with us… But there was at least one possible way to help those who had been part of our journey. And that way was for us to beg Fini, who was standing right in front of us. But that wouldn’t work. It couldn’t.

“I’m grateful that you saved us. But some people have helped us on our journey, so if possible…”
“Michihisa, no!”

I somehow stopped myself from shouting. Michihisa looked at me in surprise, and while I tried to collect myself, Fini burst out laughing.

“I see, I see. So you want to help not only yourselves but also those who have helped you. Help freely. I will not stop you. But do you think you can depend on me for that?”
“No, we won’t. Besides, we can’t. Fini… Toriyama, you said you asked God to do it. Truth be told, you could’ve just left us to die, just as we had done to you. But you gave us a choice. That alone is a luxury. We can’t ask for more than that.”

We wanted to help them, but the same was not true for Toriyama. And there was no way we could claim to be innocent, not when we were the ones who simply watched Toriyama die. It wouldn’t be right for us to say that we had to save others just because they were still alive.

I understood how Michihisa felt, but I couldn’t accept that kind of selfishness. Even more so after Toriyama had already died once. There was no way he could come back from that and pretend it had never happened.

“For the most part, the collapse of this world is the fault of the people of this world. This is their punishment for ignoring God’s word and breaking a promise to the heroes of the past. I am not a human anymore, so I don’t care who dies and who lives. But as for you, I am only doing what I can to help you, as a friend from home and as a legacy of my life as Toriyama.”
“We get it. Thank you, Toriyama.”
“So, if you want to do something about it, ask God.”

I was on the verge of tears, probably because my emotions had been running high all day, and Toriyama’s words confused me even more. Today has been one hell of a day. Also, what did Toriyama mean when he said we could ask God?

“My role is to retrieve the spirits, but I have made a promise that for every spirit I retrieve, I will be granted a wish. This time, since you’re the ones who retrieved the spirit, I will grant you that right.”
“Is that okay?”
“It’s not like I have a ton of wishes that I need to fulfill. I consider it a good trade given that I was able to shorten the time I needed to spend collecting the spirit.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“But I can’t say whether God will grant you your wish. It was the people of this world who brought about its collapse by going against God’s will. I will not interfere any further.”

When Toriyama said that, he fell somewhat silent. Then, after a few moments, he suddenly produced something square.

“Your wish is to save the people of this world, correct? I’ll say this just in case, but you can’t wish for the world to be saved.”
“Michihisa, is that alright with you?”

When I asked, Michihisa silently nodded. For some reason, he had stopped speaking a while ago. I told myself I’d ask him about it later.

“As for the method of saving, it will be the same deal that you have. That is, if they survive until the world collapses, they can go to God and decide what to do after that.”
“And what is this dice-looking thing?”

I couldn’t hide my curiosity about the square object Toriyama had just created. The timing of his creating it seemed too deliberate to be a coincidence. I could think of one possibility for what it meant, but I wanted to believe I was wrong.

“Oh, this? God said that he’ll save as many people as the number you roll on this dice¹.”
“I knew it…”

Unfortunately, my bad feeling came true.

1. Robinxen: God is a D&D fan.

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