I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 2 Read online

  “Yes, I understand.”

  “Right, Sir Rekka!”

  “Okay.”

  At least they were saying what I wanted to hear, even if they had no intentions of following through...

  “Are you all set, then? Let’s get a move on.”

  Bah started to chant a complicated spell.

  ▽

  When we passed through the door to the other side...

  “...Huh?”

  We were back in the same temple.

  “Bah, what’s going on here?”

  “On the other side of the seal is a fake Earth made by God. You could call it an artificial parallel world, maybe? But since it’s not real, there’s no life and nothing grows. Also, this version of the temple will be aboveground.”

  Um, so basically, it was a clever duplicate of the world we knew?

  Just as Bah had said, when we left the (fake) temple, we were on the surface, not in Jizu Village. And it is a place I knew quite well.

  “This is where our town is, isn’t it? There’re no buildings, so it feels kind of strange.”

  “Right?”

  Only when Satsuki spoke up did I finally realize...

  There were no signs of life here. No people. No houses. No stores or roads... There was water and soil, but I couldn’t see trees or anything green. There was light coming down from the sky, but nothing that looked like a sun.

  “Well, as you can see, it’s like our world, but in a very unusual way. The biggest difference is that time passes quite slowly.”

  “Huh. It’s similar, but different... It’s kind of bizarre.”

  And there was no noise, either.

  It had never dawned on me before that a lack of life created a lack of sound... Although, I guess maybe it’s weird to talk about “creating” an absence of something.

  “I’d go crazy in three days in a place like this.”

  “Same.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I know I would.”

  And Leviathan was stuck in a place like this, huh?

  “Wait, where is Leviathan? If it was trying to break the seal, shouldn’t we have run into it right when we came through?”

  “Maybe it decided to be cautious when we opened the door. It could be watching us, so you should transform, Rekka.”

  “Ugh... Fine.”

  Bah had a point, so I resolved that I had no choice but to raise my bracelet... even though I was really dreading it. This wasn’t the time or place for me to be thinking selfishly, so I quickly transformed.

  “Jeez, why do I have to say the spell, too? Kururun, Kururun, Kururinpyon! Kurukurupah, become an explosive magical girl!”

  I recited the transforming incantation that Bah had given me as I waved my arm with the bracelet on it in a circle, and then followed it up with a victory twirl. I stuck out my tongue too for good measure.

  And just as I was thinking I would rather be dead, my body was wreathed in a strange light.

  “Bwahha!”

  “Pfft! Heeheehee!”

  “S-Sir Rekka, what is tha—bwahaha!”

  By the time my transformation was complete, the girls were already in stitches.

  I’ll say it again. I really just wanted to die. Seriously.

  At least transforming into a magical girl made me physically stronger, so I wouldn’t be slowing down Bah this way.

  Bahamut, “The Perfect Beast,” would be handling the majority of the fight. Realistically, it’s not like anyone but him could beat Leviathan, “The Strongest Beast.” I was just here as backup.

  “So, yeah, Bah, I’m counting on you... Huh?”

  Bah was gone.

  “Hey, what’s going on? Where’d Bah go?”

  “Huh? I-I don’t know!”

  The three of them were so engrossed with my transformation that they hadn’t seen what happened to Bah.

  We called out for him, but all we got back was silence.

  “R, where’s Bah?” I whispered.

  “I was watching your hilarious transformation sequence, so I don’t know.”

  “Crap...”

  Bah was a key player in this story. There was no way I could win without him.

  The girls and I split up to search around the nearby rocks and things, but he was nowhere to be found.

  “What do we do, Rekka?” Tetra asked me in a scared voice, but I couldn’t answer.

  “...”

  As I looked down in panic... Everything suddenly grew dark. An enormous shadow loomed over us.

  “Satsuki! Harissa! Run!”

  “!!”

  “Huh? Wah! Wah!”

  Satsuki responded by grabbing Harissa and jumping. She must have used some kind of levitation magic, because a single leap was all it took to get them out of the way.

  “Oh, Rekka...”

  “Uh-oh!”

  Tetra hadn’t picked up on what was happening yet, so I grabbed her and jumped, too. Thanks to my considerably improved physical abilities, I was able to get a good distance away, though in a different direction than Satsuki.

  And while I was in the air, “It” came down from the sky.

  It felt like a whole skyscraper had fallen down, but it was even more massive than that. It was a gargantuan, white snake that left a gaping crater in the ground where it landed.

  “Leviathan!”

  It was closer to a dragon than a snake, but it wasn’t any kind of dragon I’d ever seen. It had horns and wings, and its tail spread out like a fan. Its long, winding body was covered in a wavelike pattern. On top of its head was some strange, floating thing that looked like a pair of golden headphones. It truly did look like a monster from the age of gods. It was straight out of a fairy tale.

  Damn it! Were we supposed to fight this thing ourselves? Why did Bah have to disappear at a time like this? I was furious and clueless, but I needed to deal with the obstacle in front of me first... no matter how big it was.

  “Tetra, you stay here!”

  “Rekka!”

  She screamed, but I hid her behind a rock and headed toward Leviathan.

  “Huh? Hmm...” R tilted her head in confusion as I ran.

  “R, what’s wrong?”

  “Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s my imagination.”

  “What the hell?” Why was this girl from the future always saying weird stuff at the most important times?

  “Satsuki! Harissa!” I screamed their names.

  “Rekka!”

  “Sir Rekka!”

  They heard me and answered. Evidently they’d been looking for me, too.

  They were both covered with dirt and dust, but not visibly injured. I was relieved.

  “Rekka, what do we do?”

  “To be honest, I’ve got no idea... but we’ll try and work something out.” I really didn’t have any idea, but this wasn’t the time to run away. “If I can’t stop it, you two take Tetra and get back to our world from the temple!”

  “No way! I’m helping you.”

  “Me, too!”

  Come on! Why couldn’t they just listen to me for once?

  “Good grief! Damn it... Then just don’t get close to the monster! Got it?” I shouted and kept going.

  But the stupid skirt made it hard to run! I clenched my fist in annoyance at the whole magical girl outfit.

  And then Leviathan looked down at me with a head that was probably bigger than my house.

  “You... were with ‘him,’ weren’t you? Are you on ‘his’ side?”

  Him? Who was it talking about? I didn’t have time to think about it.

  The explosive magic Bah had given me was extremely powerful. But would it work on such a huge monster? Just as I tried to use my stick to find out...

  My transformation abruptly ended.

  “Huh? What?”

  My enhanced physical abilities apparently went with it. I fell forward, hitting my chin on the ground so hard that I saw stars.

  “...Jeez. You really are just an average human, Re
kka Namidare.”

  As I lay on the ground like an idiot, I suddenly saw Bah, the creepy-cute fairy who’d disappeared until a moment ago. He was holding my transformation bracelet in his stubby hands and playing with it.

  “Bah... Why?”

  “You see, at first I thought you were just being cagey and hiding your powers, so I put you in a situation where you had no choice but to use them... But I’m very disappointed, Rekka Namidare. You really don’t have any more strength than other humans, do you?”

  “Huh?” What was he talking about?

  “Basically, he hid himself deliberately to test you.” R saw my confusion and was nice enough to give me an explanation.

  But I still didn’t understand. If he wanted to see my power, he could’ve just fought alongside me. The girls and I almost got squished back there!

  And then I remembered the chill I’d felt in the Hall of Sealing. I realized that was right after I’d told Bah that I wasn’t special.

  Had this been his plan ever since then...?

  “...Bahamut. I never expected that you’d come to me.”

  I could hear Leviathan’s hateful voice from above.

  My body tensed up, but the Monster’s eyes were fixed on Bah, not me.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time to get my revenge on you,” the Monster hissed.

  “Oh, yeah? Then I guess I kept you waiting a while.”

  Leviathan’s voice was seething with rage, but Bah seemed like he was having fun. He had a huge grin across his face like a giant gash.

  “When I heard the seal was breaking, I got a little worried. I figured you’d regained most of your power. But seeing you in your current form, I feel a lot better. You’ve only got less than a percent of your power back, don’t you?

  Less than a percent? And it was still this big?

  Bah ignored my shock and laughed gleefully.

  “Well, I’m curious how you managed to get back any power at all inside here where there’s no food... but did you really plan to break through that old seal and fight me when you’re still so weak? That’s suicide.”

  “I decided I would atone for the mistake of unleashing you myself. No matter how much stronger you are, I will defeat you,” the white snake said.

  “Hahaha! Boy, do I feel stupid for going to all this trouble! I guess I’ll just show you the difference in our power after all these ages.” Bah laughed, and then turned to me with a grin. “So, Rekka Namidare, I’m taking back the power I lent you. I think I can handle Leviathan myself.”

  Bah tossed the bracelet into his mouth and ate it with a crunching noise. Suddenly his body began to change.

  First, he grew to my height, but he was about three times wider. Then his limbs grew long, and five clawed fingers appeared on each hand. His nose, ears, and tusks grew, too.

  He wasn’t a little fairy anymore. He was more like... a demon.

  “Gufwah!”

  He put his hand on his protruding stomach, and snapped his long trunk at Leviathan, who was flying toward him to attack.

  And then there was an explosion.

  “Gyaaaooooh!” The giant snake writhed, and Leviathan screamed.

  “Gufwah! Gufwah! Gufwah!” Each time his trunk moved, another series of explosions wracked Leviathan’s body.

  Blood poured out like waterfalls, and the stench of burning meat seared my nose.

  Leviathan was blown back by the explosions, yet even covered in blood, it kept charging forward.

  But it was hopeless.

  Pillars of water appeared around Leviathan, then swarmed at Bah from all directions as if they had a will of their own.

  But that didn’t work, either.

  Leviathan’s desperate charges and pillars of water were all knocked away by Bah.

  He hadn’t budged since the start of the fight. He just stayed put and kept attacking.

  I had thought this was exactly how I wanted to see things go down...

  But for some reason, it was horrifying.

  “Gaah... gyah... guh...”

  At last, Leviathan was sapped of strength and could no longer lift its hulking body. As I watched in shock, the snake itself appeared to be collapsing.

  “Oh, looks like it can’t maintain this form anymore.”

  “...What do you mean?”

  “Leviathan’s body, like mine, changes based on the amount of energy stored within it. So the more power we lose, the more difficult it is to maintain a certain form. I would guess that only the core is left now.”

  “So it’s kind of like a balloon, huh?”

  If the air (or energy) inside was what was causing it to swell up, as the air left, it was only natural that it would shrink. Then all that would be left was the deflated rubber. The rubber, in this case, would be the “core” that Bah was talking about.

  “Well, something like that. Okay, time to find the core and destroy it.” Bah grinned and vanished.

  I went to get Satsuki and the other girls, then ran after him.

  When we arrived, we saw what clearly looked like a human girl lying at his feet.

  “Bah! Who is that?”

  “Hm? Oh, this is Leviathan’s core.”

  “It is...?”

  It was true that I’d been told that there was nobody here in this artificial world but the Monster Who Defied God. So no matter what she looked like, she had to be Leviathan.

  In other words, even in human form, this was The Monster Who Defied God. The Strongest Beast that had once leveled the surface of the earth...

  Which meant I had no choice but to watch as Bah finished her...

  “Hmm...? I thought so.” R’s voice was oddly soft as she circled my head, staring at Leviathan.

  I was unusually interested in what she had to say for once.

  “Hey, what’s going on? What do you mean?” It was possible that the other girls might hear me, so I whispered as softly as I could.

  “Nothing. It just looks like that girl is a heroine.”

  “...Huh?”

  “The girl lying on the ground there. She’s a heroine. At first I thought it had to be some mistake, but I guess it isn’t.”

  “Huh?! Bah, hold it!” When I heard what she said, I yelled and started to run. I placed myself between Leviathan and Bah to protect her.

  “Oh? What’s this about?”

  “Well, uh...”

  He narrowed his eyes into a piercing gaze directed right at me, and I broke into a cold sweat.

  “Rekka! What’s going on?” Tetra and the girls were astonished at my sudden action.

  To be honest, I couldn’t explain it. Was it just because Leviathan was in human form? Or was it because she was a heroine? It was probably both.

  But... it was also true that something didn’t feel right about how Bah was behaving.

  The way he’d reacted when he learned I didn’t have any power. The way his attacks seemed to be about maximizing his opponent’s suffering. And the peculiar nature of his conversation with Leviathan.

  Bah had told us from the start that he wanted revenge, but Leviathan was the only one who’d said anything about revenge once we got here.

  It was like the opposite of what we expected.

  And just as I was about to ask...

  “...Yup. Forget it.”

  His attitude suddenly changed.

  “Rekka Namidare, I’m done with you. Die, please.”

  The next words out of his mouth were a death sentence.

  “What?!”

  “Good riddance, you useless boy.” Bah’s trunk turned towards me.

  Oh, crap! He was going to blow me up!

  I tensed up, waiting for the worst.

  “Rekka!”

  And just at the same moment my field of vision was overwhelmed with flames from the explosion, I saw Satsuki block them with some kind of invisible barrier.

  “Well, well. You can block that, huh?” Bah looked impressed.

  “Running and protecting myself are the two thin
gs I’m good at!” Satsuki yelled.

  Just as Bah laughed and tried to attack us again, Harissa returned with Tetra. And then...

  “Ealim Nekram!” Harissa chanted a spell.

  “Hmm? They disappeared?” Bah looked around in confusion.

  It was as if he’d lost sight of us... Was this Harissa’s invisibility magic?! I’d never had it used on me before, but evidently the effects were mitigated for people under the same spell. The four of us, plus Leviathan, could still see one another.

  Satsuki waved her hand as if to say “grab on to me.”

  Harissa and Tetra latched onto her arms. I put the unmoving Leviathan on my back and then put my hand on Satsuki’s shoulder.

  Next thing I knew, we started to float in the air.

  Satsuki tried to head for the temple, but she grimaced when we heard Bah mutter, “Hmm, I guess I can just wait them out at the entrance.”

  For the time being, we headed in the opposite direction just to get away from him.

  Chapter 4: The “Monster Who Defied God” and the “Beast”

  Satsuki set us down well away from the temple, probably around where Nozomiya would be if this were the surface.

  “We should be far enough away, I think.”

  “Just in case, I’ll leave the invisibility spell up.”

  “Yeah, thanks. To both of you.”

  When Bah attacked me, I was sure I was a goner. Without their help, I probably would’ve been.

  Man, I was really useless when it came down to it, wasn’t I?

  I’d lost the bracelet to Bah, along with any chance of resolving the two stories.

  “I guess we’re back to where we started...”

  I felt a great burden weighing on my shoulders again.

  I’d hoped with a sidekick like Bah along this time that things might be easy, but my hopes had been betrayed. In more ways than one, too.

  And now I had a new heroine to take care of.

  We all looked at the red-haired girl sitting a good distance away from us.

  Her body was covered in injuries and the tight-fitting combat outfit she wore was in tatters, but the light in her eyes was as strong as ever.

  “...” She brought herself to one knee and glared at us. We’d been working with Bah until a moment ago, so it made sense that she would be wary of us.

  But if she really was a heroine, I needed to help her story, too. And for that, the first thing I needed to do was...