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I returned to the base in a hurry. Magic cores and the broken remains of magic beasts were scattered everywhere. There weren’t any living demons or magic beasts. Further, the barriers from the statues I’d reinstalled were still going strong. However, the black clouds had cleared up unnoticed and the magic circle from which Mika’s rain fell had disappeared.

Normally, I think, Mika would have to dispel the magic circle, or some time would have to pass for it to disappear. I’m pretty sure about that.

Inside the barrier, everyone had collapsed. There were no sounds you’d expect from living beings. It was dead silent. Additionally, Behemot’s frame, which should have been visible from afar, due to his gigantic size, was nowhere to be seen. I decided to take a look at the closest person who’d collapsed.

“Are you alright? What happened here…?” I started to ask, but then I noticed something.

This person wasn’t breathing. Their skin didn’t have any color, so I tried to check their pulse, but sure enough, there was none.¹ They were dead…

But there were neither visible wounds, nor signs of a struggle to be found. They looked as if they were sleeping.
What in the world… I wonder what caused this?

It was surely something Samaeyl had done. I postponed bringing them back to life for now and hurried to Mika’s side. I didn’t want to imagine it, but… Because Mika’s magic circle had disappeared and I couldn’t get in contact with her at all, Samaeyl’s move might have also…

I finally arrived in front of the north gate where I’d been at the start with the king and Mika. The king had collapsed. Same for the minister and the archbishop. I couldn’t see the knight commander, but since he’d left the barrier and fought at the front line, it couldn’t be helped.

A person’s length from the king, Mika was lying face-down. I felt absolutely no magic power.

“Mika…!”

I rushed to her side and embraced her tightly. It was different from all the other times I’d embraced her. I didn’t feel the warmth of a person² and her face looked bloodless. Mika had never showed a complexion like this, even when she had been in a bad state. And she was heavy.

I had heard about the body of a dead person feeling heavier than it normally would, and it was precisely like that. Furthermore, Mika’s head didn’t defy gravity and wobbled around.

Her pallid face, her closed eyes and mouth; she looked like she was sleeping, but… she wasn’t breathing, just like the soldier from before. Whether I held her tight, called out to her, or shook her shoulders, there was no reaction.

Heh-heh-heh… It’s good that I was the one to survive. If it’s me… then I can bring Mika and all those people here back to life. Even supposing all the inhabitants of the royal capital have died, it won’t be a problem at all.

Samaeyl is an idiot… I don’t know what she was holding on to, but in any case, they’ll all come back to life. In the end, it’ll be a complete victory without any victims on the humans’ side. The only things that got destroyed were the barriers of the five statues I’d created at the beginning.

But… I don’t want to experience this feeling a second time.

Even knowing I could revive her, seeing Mika whose body had grown cold hit my heart.

Honestly, that’s something that traumatizes you for life. Mika felt like this on the other side, didn’t she? For two weeks after I’d died.
Wait, you can’t resurrect people on earth in the first place. No doubt, she felt even more hopeless. Likely because of that, Mika was so eager to be with me, ever since coming to this world.

…That said, these kinds of musing are not important now, I should revive Mika and everyone, so we can return to normal, shouldn’t I? I promised Karua, Ruin and the others that we’d go train, so… There’re also still tons of things I want to do together with Mika.

I took out an Amrita Potion from the Magic Pouch and was about to make Mika drink it.

It was at that moment. Smoke wafted up around me.

Come to think of it, I didn’t defeat Mephistophales, did I?

“…Everyone… has died, haven’t they?” Mephistophales called out to me.
“You’re right… But I’ll revive them, you know?”

When I replied so, Mephistophales’ clown face looked like he was feeling sorry for me.³ It was almost like this was more natural than his constant grin. It made him appear human.

“Miss Alim… While it’s unfortunate, you cannot bring the people who died back to life, you see?”

What is he saying? Even if I didn’t know about Amrita Potions, Legend Potions can also revive someone. Doesn’t he know that?

“Not at all, that’s not the case, you know? You can bring dead people back to life. There are these things called Legend Potions, right?”
“…Lady Samaeyl… no, the demon god has the power of “Absolute Death”… Legend Potions are… ineffective, you see.”

I see, that’s pretty scary. But if I use Amritas, it doesn’t matter. That’s what I feel Item Master is telling me.⁴

“I… see.”
“Indeed, but this is what you caused… It was a bad idea to make the demon god go all out, you see? If only you’d sealed her normally, it wouldn’t have come to this.”

Even if he tells me something like that. I mean, that assessment might be wrong, too. It was likely Samayel’s goal to eradicate the humans from the Mephilad family. So, she probably took advantage of the situation and killed them.

“Huh…”
“…There are many things I want to tell you. Though it’s under these circumstances, but… won’t you go along with me?” he said, while taking out a white handkerchief and holding it out to me.
“Why… a handkerchief?”
“Erm… If you would wipe away your tears. Your eyes are quite red.”

I see, I must have cried without noticing. I didn’t realize.

I took it cautiously. It didn’t seem like a trap.

“So…? What did you come to tell me?” I bluntly asked Mephistophales, having wiped off the tears for now.
“I have a favor to ask, you see… Just one.”

TL notes:
Alim takes a trip to trauma town. Seriously, just imagining that scene is pretty nightmarish. On the bright side, he might be better now at emphasizing with how Mika feels.

1. The original uses 宮 (“shrine”, “palace”, “prince/princess”) in the place that (most likely) describes that there is no pulse. This is probably a typo, though I’m not sure what the correct kanji would have been.
2. It’s been, at best, a few minutes since she died. Does a corpse cool down that fast?
3. The original is more like “…with what looked like a combination of feeling sorry for me and seeing me as someone to be pitied”. This seemed somewhat redundant, so I shortened it.
4. Since Samaeyl could only be injured by divine grade items, it stands to reason that divine grade restoratives would counter her Absolute Death.