The carriage raced madly through the ruined city.

Perhaps word of the first crystal's destruction had spread, for enemies began blocking their path more frequently. But the carriage never stopped. Leaving the reins to Levian, Yuto drove them back with every weapon at his disposal.

"Out of my way!"

Yuto tore through the battlefield, unleashing one Void Skill after another. Normally, concern over his aether consumption would have kept him from fighting this way, but now he had the potions Levian had brought.

After they destroyed the second crystal, the enemies changed. Undead with purple smoke coiling around stark white bones appeared: skeletons created by raising the bodies of the dead.

Whose corpses had they turned into skeletons? The answer was obvious. Most of the city's people had died in the catastrophe five years ago. Nowhere else on the continent could have held so many bodies.

How dare they. How dare they.

Yuto's face twisted with grief and rage. They might have been soulless corpses, but seeing the bodies of Belkain's people used like that by evil magic filled him with a fury that threatened to drive him mad.

"Aaaaah!"

BOOOM!

Void Touch smashed into the skeletons with all his strength. The fallen bones rattled as they tried to rise again, but Void Touch hammered down and pulverized them.

"Yuto! Stop!"

Flokiro shouted, gripping Yuto's shoulder hard to restrain him.

"Calm down!"

He knew this was no situation in which to remain calm. Flokiro felt every bit as furious as Yuto. But he could not let emotion rob him of his reason as it had Yuto.

His role was to protect Yuto. If Yuto were in danger, Flokiro would fly into a frenzy too, but he could not afford to do that now.

"Hah... Hah..."

Meeting Flokiro's eyes, Yuto steadied his breathing. Yes, he had to calm down. There were still crystals in the city, and enemies he had to kill awaited him in the royal castle. Clutching his aching chest, he struggled desperately to rein in his emotions.

"How's your aether?" Flokiro asked with a sigh of relief.

"I can still fight."

He did not need a potion yet. They still had no idea how numerous or powerful the enemies in the royal castle were, so it was best to conserve their potions as much as possible.

BOOOM!

The third crystal shattered.

"Th-the crystals... There are ten in all."

This time, they had gained something beyond destroying a crystal. A man Yuto had captured before he could flee trembled as he answered his questions.

"Please... Please, just spare my life. I told you everything..."

Naturally, Yuto showed him no mercy. Mercy was for those who had some humanity left. Why offer it to men who inflicted pain on the restless dead instead of mourning them? Yuto slit the man's throat with his dagger, then climbed back onto the carriage.

"Seven still left..."

Levian sounded exhausted. Today alone, she had seen dozens of corpses. She had yet to kill anyone herself, but by now she had no choice but to grow accustomed to the sight of bodies.

The dove detected the next crystal and took flight. The carriage set off again.

* * *

Resistance in the city grew fiercer. Undead raised by the Black Mages, along with the orcs and criminals working for them, erected barricades at every turn to block the carriage.

CRUNCH!

Yuto's spear pierced an orc's heart, and Void Touch crushed the undead. Flokiro became a tireless cannonball of flame, smashing through the barricades. Pale-faced, Levian wielded her staff and deflected arrows aimed at Yuto and the carriage with a wall of wind.

"Yuto! Crossbowmen on the rooftop to the left!"

At Levian's warning, Yuto immediately turned his head.

"Flokiro, take the roof. Levian! The crystal straight ahead!"

Yuto met the charging wave of enemies with Void Touch, clearing a path. Levian chanted through trembling lips. A beam of aether shot from the tip of her staff and struck the fourth crystal head-on.

BOOOM!

The crystal collapsed, releasing the restless spirits, and the concentration of negative aether around them visibly thinned. But Yuto's strength—no, everyone's strength—was dwindling with it.

Yuto was drenched in his enemies' blood and his own sweat, and his ragged breathing hung heavy in the mist.

When they destroyed the seventh crystal, Yuto nearly fell to his knees.

"Hah... Hah..."

His vision swam. The Void's power was immense, but it placed an equally immense strain on his mind and body. This was the first time he had fought with his Void Skills so relentlessly. Less than half a day had passed since they entered the city, yet in that short time, he had killed over a hundred humans and orcs.

"Ugh..."

Levian was just as exhausted. She clamped a hand over her mouth atop the carriage. Casting so many different spells in succession had left her aether-sick, and as her aether dwindled, her whole body hurt as though it were being wrung dry.

Flokiro slumped almost flat on the driver's seat, his dull coat hanging limp. Even the Iron Horses were panting.

They needed rest. Urgent though their task was, they had no choice. If they kept fighting in this condition, something would go wrong. Reaching that conclusion, Yuto stopped the carriage beside a nearby ruined building.

"We'll rest for a bit."

Three crystals remained.

With trembling hands, Yuto tied the Iron Horses' reins. A knot he would normally have secured with ease slipped loose several times. His physical exhaustion was bad enough, but the toll on his mind was severe.

The Void aether flowing through his body was reacting sensitively to the polluted aether of this land. Every time he wrung more strength from his body, already pushed to its limits, he felt as though part of his soul were being scraped away. Worse still, everywhere he set foot in Belkain, memories of the past clung to him like ghosts. All of it gave him a terrible headache.

"Let's go inside. It's dangerous out here."

Levian whispered hoarsely. Utterly spent herself, she leaned against the carriage, struggling to catch her breath. Her robe had long since lost its original color beneath stains of dust and blood.

The three headed into the nearby building. At first, their exhaustion-blurred eyes failed to recognize it, but the enormous clock hand lying on the ground revealed that it had once been a clock tower. Yuto pressed a hand to his head as memories surfaced unbidden.

The bells that had rung throughout the city whenever the hands reached noon. The ruined clock tower could no longer make that sound, but its great peals from the past pounded through Yuto's head.

"Ngh..."

Yuto clutched his hair and groaned at the searing headache. His legs gave way beneath him, and Flokiro and Levian hurriedly caught him around the waist.

Supported by his companions, Yuto took shelter beneath the clock tower, in the ruins of a stone building with barely two walls left standing. Even as he staggered along, he spread a thin layer of aether around the building to serve as a surveillance net.

"Whew..."

As soon as she sat down, Levian covered her mouth and groaned. Maintaining the dove while casting spell after spell had left her face utterly bloodless.

Suppressing his headache, Yuto took out a water bottle and handed it to her. Then he reached over and gently rested a hand on her back. He knew no healing magic, but he made his own aether resonate with hers, hoping to soothe even a little of the turbulence caused by her aether sickness.

"Th... thank you."

Levian forced a smile as she looked at him. Streaks of dried blood spread across his cheeks, and his clothes were torn in places, exposing the flesh beneath.

"Kyuu..."

Flokiro crawled over limply and burrowed into Yuto's arms. His body, normally blazing hot, felt merely lukewarm now. Yuto quietly stroked his rough fur and checked his condition. His paws were scraped all over from racing through the ruins and smashing barricades without rest.

"I'm sorry. I pushed you too hard."

Flokiro shook his head at Yuto's quiet apology. Having lived through the past together, he understood Yuto's feelings. He also felt every bit as angry himself. If they stopped now, the city's restless spirits would remain trapped in those loathsome crystals, suffering still greater pain.

In the silence that settled over the ruins, the sobs of restless spirits beyond the mist grew clearer.

"There are still... three left."

Levian spoke heavily after taking a sip of water.

"They've had time to prepare properly by now. The forces around the last three crystals will probably be on a completely different scale from anything we've faced so far."

Yuto spoke with his eyes closed. His heart throbbed unpleasantly. He felt as though he could hear negative aether flowing into the royal castle.

By now, their enemies would have realized that Yuto's party were no mere visitors. To them, Yuto was unmistakably an intruder and an enemy who had come to destroy their 'factory.'

"I'll have to drink the potion."

Yuto took out the bottle of aether potion Levian had given him. A pungent fragrance assailed his nose when he uncapped it. He drank half in one gulp, then handed the rest to Levian.

"You drink some too. From the next area onward, we may have to leave the carriage and go on foot."

"All right..."

A faint spark of life returned to Levian's eyes after she drank the potion. But her fingertips still trembled slightly. It was not fear or exhaustion, but the stress of having seen so many corpses.

Yet Levian was a strong woman. She chewed her lip, then took several herbs from the pouch at her waist. They were herbs that calmed the mind. She divided them in two and handed half to Yuto.

He accepted them without protest. Though for different reasons from Levian, he too was under tremendous stress in this city. After they shared and chewed the herbs, and he had also drunk a potion to relieve fatigue, Yuto spoke.

"We'll rest for one hour. In an hour... we'll destroy every remaining crystal and head for the royal castle."

As he spoke, he glared out into the thick mist.

Far away, beyond the fog, he could see Belkain's royal castle. There, gaping like the maw of a colossal monster, an unknown number of Black Mages would be waiting for him.

'Perhaps... it's more than just Black Mages.'

In the world before his regression, Dark Star had been wiped out by the Kingdom of Ristal.

Ristal was Shiro's kingdom. Yuto could not help wondering about the connection between Shiro and Dark Star. As he remembered it, Shiro, still a prince at the time, had played a major role in Dark Star's destruction. Indeed, their leader had been executed in the square because Shiro had personally captured her.

'In this world, Belkain's ruins are being preserved because Ristal insisted on it.'

Ristal had argued that Belkain's ruins must not be indiscriminately plundered. Yet the city now swarmed with Black Mages, orcs, and criminals even worse than those pampered nobles, all exploiting its restless spirits. Faced with that contradiction, Yuto could not help thinking of Shiro.

'Dark Star was useless before my regression... but now they're useful? Is that why you're using them?'

Like me?

Yuto bit his lip, disgust welling deep in his chest.