Tatakau Shisho

“HAAA!”

The voice of someone who shouldn’t be there echoed. The kick of someone who shouldn’t be there blew Blade-Haired Lion away.

There shouldn’t have been anyone left inside the Imaginary Entrails. The souls of the Books Ruruta had Eaten were defeated by him. Even the remnants were killed by the Beasts. Even Hamyuts was no longer in any position to fight.

And yet, someone who shouldn’t be there used their palm to divert Lancer’s thrust, spinning their body to then hit with a backhand blow. Cutting in at the area around Elephant Soldier’s legs, they broke through and hit its shoulder and back.

Someone who shouldn’t be there held Ruruta and shouted.

“Watch out!”

Turning their back to the leaning forward Jail King Snake, that someone lifted Ruruta and jumped. They barely avoided being crushed and rolled on the sand to escape.

“…Wh-”

Nieniu raised a voice of surprise for the first time.

Swarthy skin with dark-brown long hair… Hemp clothes covering a slender body along with straw rope wrapped around both arms… That girl stood up while lending Ruruta her shoulder.

“Armed Librarian trainee Noloty Malche is here!”

Taking Ruruta with her, Noloty ran on the sand. She ran, leapt, rolled, and shouted at Ruruta.

“Calling you Ruruta-san is fine, right!”

“…How are you…”

Nieniu shouted. Ruruta was also puzzled. She was the trainee girl killed by Kachua’s plan during the fight with the Indulging God Cult. Her Book should have been stored inside Bantorra Library. He had never Eaten it. It shouldn’t be inside this world.

“Wah, w-we’re surrounded!”

Noloty shouted. They were encircled by Cavarlymen. At that moment an explosive gale rushed to them.

Although it could only look like a storm it was a person. That man moved in a speed that the current Ruruta couldn’t follow with his eyes. He ran around him as if drawing a pentagram in one broad stroke. Everything that touched him was torn apart.

Ruruta recalled a warrior from the Library in the past. He was a warrior that possessed the ability to gain overwhelming speed only when charging toward his enemy. Since he was surrounded by enemies on all sides, he could boast in incredible speed.

Blowing away all enemies around, he stopped. He was a warrior who wore a stupid, old-fashioned helmet and wielded a pike that hid a long gun’s barrel within it.

“Armed Librarian Vizac Ziglass! Being in an inferior position brings out the best in me!”

“How… why are you here…”

Ruruta muttered while he was supported by Noloty and protected by Vizac. Books he supposedly had never Eaten… Reinforcements that couldn’t have appeared… It was far more convincing to think of them as illusions.

The Beasts didn’t cease their attacks. Jail King Snake, Starving Mantis, Rending War Turtle – the Beasts that came from the bottom layers of the Labyrinth couldn’t be completely killed off by Vizac’s attacks.

At that moment, a human figure sprung out of a Jail King Snake. As if a parasite consumed its host from within. The figure then further jumped inside Starving Mantis and disappeared. A few seconds later, it once again appeared from within the collapsed Mantis and leapt inside Rending War Turtle.

His upper body was bare. He held short swords in both hands. He was a man with sharp eyes like a falcon.

“Feekiee Quinn. I will handle the big game. You take care of the riffraff, Vizac and that lass.”

His ability allowed him to swim inside solid material as if it was liquid. He was a warrior once famous for specializing in exploring the Labyrinth. The Armed Librarian that was defeated by Mokkania.

Just like he said, he started easily crushing the high-level Beasts.

“What, Noloty! Did you die too?”

“It’s been a long time, Vizac-san! Huh? Have you died? Or rather, did I die? More importantly, where are we?!”

“I died. And we’re inside Imaginary Entrails. It’s simple.”

Putting the puzzled Ruruta aside, the Armed Librarians greeted each other happily for some reason.

“You brat there!”

While scattering apart the Beasts with his spear, Vizac spoke to Ruruta. Although Vizac himself seemed much more of a brat to him.

“How nice for you to be protected by a girl!”

Right, he couldn’t allow himself to be just protected by Noloty. Borrowing her shoulders, Ruruta wielded his knife and drove the Beasts off.

He had no time to be confused. He had to advance before thinking.

“…Why are the Armed Librarians here…”

Nieniu’s voice echoed from the distant theater. Being confused was obvious. Both for Nieniu and for Ruruta.

While observing them using her Sensory Threads, Hamyuts chuckled. She sat on a sand dune, barely supporting her body.

Hamyuts had sustained injuries that made fighting impossible. Both of her legs were stomped by a Starving Mantis and her abdomen was pierced by a Lancer. Her right shoulder had been bitten by an Iron-Fanged Mouse so she couldn’t properly swing her sling. And yet she managed to escape. If she died everything would be over. As long as she was alive then perhaps she could be of some use. She refused the temptation of her Suicidal Wish and kept escaping.

Nieniu didn’t pay her any attention.

“You’ve done well, you guys.”

Hamyuts praised the three people. Noloty prioritized saving the person in front of her before understanding the situation. If not then she probably wouldn’t have made it in time. One could only say it was as expected from her.

Vizac and Feekiee also started fighting without being confused at the abnormal situation. Having received Mirepoc’s Soul Sharing even inside the Imaginary Entrails, they immediately realized what to do.

The beloved Armed Librarians. And from them three people who were excellent warriors. There was no mistake about that.

“…This cannot be…”

Nieniu’s attention turned to Hamyuts.

“So you finally noticed, you dumb woman.”

Hamyuts smiled. Her hair was swaying. It had a color of darkness even deeper than black.

“They’re fighting. And yet I can’t do anything but watch them.”

“…Is this your doing?”

The dark-colored hair swayed. Hamyuts’s inborn ability, Book-Feeding, was activated.

Inside of Bantorra Library’s Fourth Sealed Labyrinth…

One of the Books stored on the shelves silently gave off a dim light. It was the Book of the Armed Librarian known as Casma. During one of the battles against the Indulging God Cult, the Allow Bay Naval incident, he received the attacks of the human bombs and lost his life.

The Book burst and became small grains of light. It then flew up towards the surface. The grains of light were absorbed one after another into Nieniu’s body.

Even in the Second Sealed Labyrinth and Third Sealed Labyrinth the Books of Armed Librarians all turned into grains of light and entered Nieniu. As if saying none of them could miss the fight.

Casma appeared in the middle of the surrounding Beasts of the Final Chapter without any warning. Just as Hamyuts did a few hours ago.

“Now, this is a battlefield. Please fight, Casma.”

Casma was confused at this unknown battlefield. He promptly finished judging the situation and started using his Magic to assist Vizac and Feekiee.

As expected of an Armed Librarian, thought Hamyuts.

“…How are you able to call your comrades here? No, there is no need to ask that.”

Nieniu glared at Hamyuts. Hamyuts showed off her confidence with a smile. 𝙛𝔯𝒆e𝔀e𝗯𝓷𝗼𝘃e𝚕.𝒄𝗼𝗺

Until a little while ago Hamyuts only watched Ruruta fighting from behind without doing anything. She, who was wounded and unable to fight, thought about her comrades. If only Vizac was here… If only Noloty was here… She couldn’t do anything but think like that.

However, there wasn’t any sense in asking for the impossible. And if she really was the Acting Director she had the obligation to fight until the very end.

Hamyuts prayed. She wanted the power to call forth her dead comrades to this place.

Her darkness-colored hair symbolized her possession of Book-Feeding. It was the ability to make a Book-Eater forcibly Eat any Book. That was the only power left in her.

“Now, come… all of my beloved fools!”

The Book-Feeding ability had been activated for the first time in history. Its powers were unknown. There was no actual proof she could only Feed her own Book.

“From the day we receive the name of an Armed Librarian we shall be bound by bonds that will never be severed! Our souls will, from this day forth, become one!”

What she muttered was the speech meant to ready her mind the day she became an Armed Librarian. The words she thought of as complete rubbish when she heard them.

Hamyuts now believed these words. She believed that all Armed Librarians were connected by bonds that would never be severed and that their souls were one.

“No matter where we live or where we die, our souls shall be one forevermore!”

Armed Librarians had only one soul. And so their Books were the same as hers. If the bond between Armed Librarians was true, her Book-Feeding ability should also affect her comrades’ Books.

Hamyuts believed that bond to be true. Because she believed it she activated her Book-Feeding ability and because it was the truth it succeeded.

“Only at the very end I was able to realize. They were my comrades.”

How could I think of myself as the Acting Director, she laughed at herself. I’ve noticed something so simple only now.

“…Kill that person.”

From the Beasts of the Final Chapter that surrounded Ruruta, several dozen came rushing toward Hamyuts.

The Armed Librarians appeared around Ruruta one after another. Those who had lost their lives during the battle against the Cult and even those who died by other means before. All Armed Librarians Hamyuts knew that turned into Books gathered around Ruruta.

“Protect Ruruta! He’s that bloody brat over there!”

The situation was conveyed to them by Vizac’s instructions and Mirepoc’s Soul Sharing. Although perplexed, they all immediately joined the battle.

There were no cowards among them. That was why these warriors died.

Yet the Beasts were far too numerous. No matter how many Armed Librarians were there it was a drop in the bucket.

“Feekiee! Can’t you defeat them faster!”

“That’s my line! Why are you taking your time with small fries!”

Assembled around Ruruta, the Armed Librarians desperately kept the defensive battle. Although these comrades were finally called in, they diminished in numbers one after the other.

Unless Ruruta reached Nieniu they could never win. However, protecting him took all of their efforts so they couldn’t proceed even a single step.

“I have to… keep going…”

Ruruta muttered while using the violet-colored light to scatter the Beasts. However, no matter how many of them they defeated no path was opened.

“…At this rate… but how should we…”

Noloty said while supporting Ruruta. Although she had considerably grown, she wasn’t strong enough to find a breakthrough.

Feekiee chopped off a Starving Mantis’s neck from inside its body. Exiting with a leap, he looked around him. He checked the location of the theater and muttered without thinking.

“Have we advanced only this much?”

Feekiee gritted his teeth. They were desperately trying to advance. However, Nieniu’s theater was distant. This time a Jail King Snake approached Ruruta and Noloty.

“Watch out!”

He jumped at that point. Activating his Diving ability, he invaded inside the Jail King Snake. Several seconds later, he jumped out of it and went to finish off another enemy.

“Curses! This is how you break through the front!”

Vizac attempted a reckless charge straight ahead.

“Don’t go Vizac-san!”

Even Vizac’s prided incredible speed rush was able to be obstructed by the much too numerous enemies. Casma raised a defensive barrier to rescue him from being surrounded.

The crowded enemies grew denser the more one approached Nieniu.

Beasts appeared one after another from her feet. There was no longer any place to stand in the theater.

It was useless like this. Both Ruruta and all the Armed Librarians realized this.

What they needed was a warrior at the Acting Director level. No, someone above that.

“Is that monster not here?”

One of the Armed Librarians said while looking around. He was a warrior who died before Hamyuts became the Acting Director.

“…Since she’s not here does that mean she hasn’t died?”

Standing atop a Jail King Snake’s severed neck, Feekiee muttered.

“…Why is she not here?”

Hony opened his mouth.

While in an overwhelmingly inferior position, the Armed Librarians awaited that person. They looked for the one who was extoled as the strongest in history.

“…Every second is a waste. Kill them immediately.”

Without minding either Mirepoc or Ruruta, Nieniu only glared at Hamyuts. She looked at her as the highest priority enemy to defeat.

“Shit, why isn’t she coming?”

Making the earth tremble, several dozen Beasts pursued Hamyuts. She no longer had any strength to fight.

“Before I die, just one more person… even one more…”

Hamyuts desperately kept summoning Armed Librarians using her Book-Feeding ability.

It was the first use of that ability in history. Even she couldn’t fully control it. Earlier she managed to target and call Noloty, Vizac and Feekiee. However, she had actually tried to call five warriors there in the first place. Two were missing. Furthermore, the one person she wanted to summon the most hadn’t arrived yet.

“…Kh, even one more person!”

She now started randomly calling out all the Armed Librarians in her memories. She no longer had anyone to call now.

“…This is the end, Hamyuts-san.”

Along with Nieniu’s voice the Beasts approached in front of her eyes. It was doubtful whether she could even support her own body. Was this the end? Hamyuts unconsciously closed her eyes.

At that moment, she could hear a man’s voice.

“I won’t let you.”

Next she heard the voices of Beasts being felled. And Hamyuts’s body was held up by someone. These reliable arms made her suddenly recall Makia holding her up when she was little.

“…Who are you?”

When she opened her eyes Hamyuts was shocked. It was a person completely outside her imagination.

She never thought of calling him; she had destroyed his Book by her hands after all.

He wore an old-fashioned copper-colored uniform and his hair was light green. Around him fluttered Dancing Blades controlled by telekinesis.

Volken Macmani protected Hamyuts.

“No way, how could you…”

He had once tried to expose Hamyuts’s crimes, was defeated and disposed of. Hamyuts couldn’t allow even his Book to exist.

“Hamyuts! Don’t stop your ability!”

Volken ran while shouting. His Dancing Blades ripped the rushing Beasts. For him, who was praised as a future Acting Director, this amount of enemies was nothing.

“Why are… you protecting… me?”

She couldn’t help but ask. For Hamyuts it happened two years ago, but for him, who was turned into a Book and summoned there, it was just now.

Volken didn’t reply. Instead he asked a question.

“…Is Olivia Littolet safe?”

Is he still worried about people even at this situation, Hamyuts smiled wryly.

“She’s doing great. I’ve had a drink with her the other day.”

“Glad to hear that.”

Volken invoked his inborn ability to create illusions. His body split and the Beasts lost sight of their attack target. He easily slipped running between their ranks.

“Hamyuts. I hate you. I will never forgive you. You make me seethe with anger.

But that is my personal grudge.”

“…”

“I will never fight for my own sake. I decided to always wield my Dancing Blades for the sake of someone else.

Now that I can’t believe in anything, that is my only pride. And if I lose even that I will have nothing left.”

“What a misfortunate man you are.”

Hamyuts laughed and Volken then shouted.

“Don’t idle around, Hamyuts Meseta! Call the Armed Librarians! Use your Sensory Threads to convey the situation! Do everything that you can!”

“Haha, don’t order me, boy.”

Hamyuts’s dark-colored hair swayed and Volken’s light green hair shone. While freely using their powers, they ran toward Nieniu.

Volken appeared next to Ruruta and the rest who were engaged in a defensive battle.

“Head towards the right! Defenses are thin there! Vizac-san! Create a breakthrough!”

That Volken disappeared the moment he received the horn attack of a Rhino. It was one of his illusions. There was no way to distinguish between real and fake except by touch.

“What, had you died?”

Vizac widened his eyes.

“…So you didn’t betray us?”

Noloty and the other warriors who died during the Deep Blue Curse Rebellion were surprised all the same.

“What are you doing! Vizac-san! Charge ahead to the right!”

Another Volken, perhaps an illusion, came to issue orders. Vizac rushed. There certainly weren’t a lot of high-level Beasts in that direction.

“Casma-san! Use your sticky threads ahead! Support Vizac-san! Hony, escort him during that!”

“Right, Volken!”

“Roger!”

The Magician Casma started reciting chants while Hony took on the approaching Cavalryman and Rhino.

The illusory Volken kept issuing orders. Everyone followed his orders despite him being almost the youngest. The Armed Librarians’ movements, which were scattered, gradually gathered together.

“A path has opened! Charge!”

At that moment, a large amount of illusory Rurutas were produced. At the same time even Noloty who was protecting him split into the same amount.

The Armed Librarian group raised a battle cry and charged along with the illusory Rurutas. Since the Beasts couldn’t distinguish the real Ruruta, they weren’t able to make a concentrated attack. The distance to Nieniu, which seemed endlessly distant, was being shortened.

Volken secured his position at the tail of the Armed Librarians and supported them with his illusions and Dancing Blades.

“Tell us the situation Hamyuts!”

Volken shouted and Hamyuts responded.

“The strongest flock is at 12:50 o’clock, distance 80! Hony strayed from the company! He’s at 4:20 o’clock, 20 meters!”

Hamyuts grasped the situation with her Sensory Threads and conveyed it to Volken.

“Mairun! Save Hony-san! Feekiee-san! Go to the right ahead!”

Hearing Hamyuts’s reports, Volken dispatched his illusions to issue orders. They had such good coordination that one wouldn’t think they’d once fought to the death.

That was probably how they should’ve been. They should’ve fought with their shoulders side by side.

“Enemy is preparing for a simultaneous attack! Starting from 11:30 to 2:00 o’clock!”

“Ruruta! Attack them!”

Volken shouted. Even Ruruta who was out of breath received Noloty’s support and wielded Colio’s knife. The violet-colored light emitted from it annihilated the droves of enemies.

Ruruta and the Armed Librarians all pushed on as if they were one organism. They pushed on toward Nieniu. However, even so the wall of Beasts was thick.

They couldn’t reach it with cooperation alone. Without an overwhelming power they wouldn’t be able to reach Nieniu.

At that moment, Hamyuts snickered.

“She’s finally here.”

Vizac and the other Armed Librarians created a slight opening. Ruruta tried running there. However, one of his legs couldn’t move as he wanted it to. He no longer had any stamina or mental power.

“…U…gh…”

Noloty held up Ruruta as he collapsed.

“Noloty! Stay with him! Don’t leave him!”

Volken’s illusion ordered. Noloty peeked at Ruruta. He was so injured it was weird for him to still be alive. He could also barely see.

“Can you hold, Ruruta-san?”

She didn’t ask him if he was fine. It was obvious that he wasn’t.

“…I’ll hold out, I can’t die, at a place like this.”

“I will support you, so please rest.”

Noloty wrapped her arm around his shoulders, supported him and ran.

“Vizac! Don’t tell me you’re at your limits!”

Feekiee shouted. He wasn’t uninjured as well. He was undertaking the strongest Beasts all by himself.

“Be more respectful! I’m your senior!”

The power of Vizac’s charge was also declining. His helmet was blown away and the tip of his spear had broken.

“Keep going you geezer!”

A swordsman who appeared to be in his early twenties who was the closest to Nieniu shouted.

“You youngsters should withdraw!”

An axe-wielding man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties shouted back. They were the previous generations of Acting Directors. Hamyuts had also called the Acting Directors she could remember the name and face of. However, while they could support the frontlines, they weren’t enough to break through.

In front of them an exceptionally large Jail King Snake raised its six heads. The exact moment the Acting Directors attempted to launch a simultaneous attack, time stopped.

“How unsightly!”

A girl’s voice roared inside the Imaginary Entrails. Hundreds of Beasts of the Final Chapter ceased their movements. No, they didn’t stop – they were moving very slowly. Their flow of time was being slowed down.

A single figure danced in air, landing atop the head of the Jail King Snake whose movements were sealed.

“This is so pitiful I might cry. You poor mongrels. You should look into a mirror and feel ashamed at your disgraceful behavior.”

She was a breathtakingly beautiful woman. Her body was wrapped by a lavish crimson-colored dress, with boorish iron armor equipped only on both hands and legs. Her long, blonde hair was decorated by vivid black roses. The roses were secured in place by a sapphire hair clip. The girl looked down at all the Armed Librarians and spoke.

“…Huh? Who’s that?”

Noloty mumbled.

“Nieniu or whoever you are…” 𝑓𝔯𝑒e𝘸e𝘣𝓷𝘰ѵe𝚕.c૦𝙢

The girl turned the weapon she held in both hands to Nieniu. If it had to be classified, it would be an iron club. However, it was longer than five meters and thick enough that even a large adult would require both hands to hold it. It was a lump of metal more fit to be used as construction material rather than as a weapon, but the girl wielded it lightly.

“Challenging someone as great as me to a fight is foolish to the extreme. Wanting to destroy the world… how utterly absurd.”

While wielding the club, the girl jumped towards the Beasts whose movements were stopped.

“Resolve yourself! This Ireia Kitty will consecrate you with her iron hammer!”

Ireia swung her club. The Beasts, having had the flow of their time distorted, were blown away like leaves.

“Why are you the only one to turn young again!!!”

Vizac Shouted, but she didn’t even turn toward him. Ireia, who on her golden day was heralded as the strongest, turned into a tornado.

“We can do it… like this.”

Noloty muttered while supporting Ruruta.

“Ha, you monster. Now that’s a face I didn’t want to see again.”

Said an Acting Director that knew her when she was young while emitting cold sweat.

“Hear ye, those who are afar! Gaze upon me, those who are near! Grovel down in front of Ireia Kitty!”

Ireia pushed forward while raising loud laughter. As if saying that even Nieniu who wanted to destroy the world was inferior to her.

The tide turned along with Ireia’s appearance. The club that crushed everything it touched and Ireia’s power that controlled the flow of time of anything she gaze upon were creating a path.

“So there was a person like that… I’ve heard the rumors though.”

Volken was perplexed at seeing Ireia’s figure. Hamyuts in his arms suddenly leaked a laugh.

“What’s funny?”

“…It’s so weird.”

“What is?”

“The fact we’re fighting now.”

Volken tilted his head but didn’t ask further.

What a weird situation. In the outside world Mirepoc had inherited the power of Chacoly and was fighting using it. Inside the Imaginary Entrails Hamyuts had summoned the souls of dead Armed Librarians to fight.

Hamyuts Meseta and Chacoly Cocot. They were both originally tools created by Makia in order to kill Ruruta. And yet now both of them were now fighting in order to protect Ruruta and worked together to grant his wish. Who could have ever imagined this would happen?

The moment she thought this, Hamyuts heard a voice in her head.

‘Say, Hammy. Are you thinking how weird this is?’

The Chacoly living inside Mirepoc spoke to her.

‘Yeah. I never even tried thinking about both of us fighting together.’

‘Chacoly’s the same. If daddy could see us he would probably fall in shock.

But she doesn’t think it’s weird.’

‘Really?’

‘Tools can only do what they were made for… But isn’t that wrong? Both for Hammy and for Chacoly.’

‘…That’s true.’

‘Chacoly and you are human.’

Hamyuts smiled. Yes, they were human. Ruruta, Colio, Hamyuts and Chacoly were all human.

They were not Meats. Nor bombs. Nor tools. Nor gods nor demons. Merely human.

“Hamyuts! What are you doing, tell me the situation!”

She heard Volken’s voice.

“…So rude.”

Along with this small objection, Hamyuts returned her attention to the battlefield.