"O-Ooohhhh!"

A massive explosion erupted out of nowhere.

I was so shocked by the effect—even though I was the one who did it—that my legs nearly gave out... Actually, everyone was stunned.

If that had been a real, physical explosion, none of us would have made it out in one piece; it was a terrifyingly powerful magic. Since it was purely an attack magic, no matter how spectacular it looked, it was harmless to allies. Man, I owed Mugen-san a huge debt of gratitude for this.

The glowing fireball turned into black smoke, billowing up toward the sky. Eventually, the smoke cleared, and—

"Did we get him!?"

An explosion of that magnitude should have been enough. If it were a human, they'd be finished in one hit. Even if it didn't kill him, it should have dealt massive damage.

But—

"You're kidding me..."

"I told you, Goshujin-sama. Magic doesn't work on him. Even the Great Magic of the Spirit Civilization era is the same... though it was a marvelous spell, and I was quite surprised."

The Guardian was still alive. He wasn't even knocked down. He stood there like a stone statue. His armor was covered in soot, and he'd surely taken damage, but he immediately began moving again as if nothing had happened.

Shello-san and Hetty-san instantly moved in to cover. Even an explosion like that was far from a killing blow. It had been mostly resisted; it seemed it had only dealt slightly more damage than one of Ai-chan's lasers.

The giant sword swung by the Guardian scraped against Shello-san's greatsword, sending sparks flying. The steel blade, swung down from almost directly overhead, carried an incredible weight. Even Shello-san couldn't block it head-on; he could only deflect the impact to steer the trajectory away.

The diverted giant sword carved a trench into the earth. There was no time to feel depressed. If it didn't work, I had to accept it and move on.

Hetty-san used a golem as a stepping stone to leap at the Guardian, her blade licking across its neck guard. Shello-san's heavy sword pierced the Guardian's gauntlet. Marina's hammer assaulted its torso, followed closely by Rebecca-san's glowing holy sword.

I joined the attack as well, but the enemy refused to fall. Its stamina—its HP—was likely off the charts. It was the same as with the Bear. Against an enemy that refused to go down, there was no choice but a war of attrition.

The Guardian suddenly stepped forward with a heavy thump and lowered its center of gravity. A signal that it was triggering a sword skill. It only used them occasionally, but it tended to unleash them when we were bunched up.

The timing was terrible.

Rebecca-san was right in the middle of an attack animation. Monsters rarely flinch; they often continue their actions even while taking hits.

"Rebecca-san! Get back!" I screamed.

Naturally, she was already trying to evade, but because she was mid-swing, she was a split-second too late. The Guardian's consecutive strikes lashed out like a gale.

"REBECCAAAA!!"

Shello-san, who was closest, threw his body between Rebecca-san and the Guardian.

A violent, metallic screech of steel clashing against steel rang out.

Shello-san managed to parry the flurry, but the heavy, fast strikes caused his posture to waver. His stance was broken by the second hit, and by the third, his sword was swatted aside.

"SHELLO-SAN!!"

Rebecca-san, protected by her father, had already disengaged, but she stood frozen, unable to look away from the scene as if her eyes were glued to it.

With the fourth strike, the massive sword caught Shello-san's body. He was sliced upward and sent flying, his body tumbling through the air before slamming into the ground over a dozen meters away.

Blood sprayed, and he bounced several times before coming to a rest, motionless.

A direct hit. Only the spreading pool of blood began to stain the earth.

Everyone was speechless—

Shello-san often said to "be cold-blooded during combat," but he was a father first. In his daughter's moment of peril, his body must have moved on its own.

『Diana-sama! Hurry!』

Snapping back to her senses at Etoile's scream, Diana grabbed a Spirit Stone and ran. She moved to cast healing magic on the fallen Shello-san, but then—she suddenly stopped.

We resumed our attacks on the Guardian, stealing glances at the scene. Today, things like this had happened several times; even I had been severely injured three times. I didn't realize it because the memory of the pain was erased, but I'd definitely broken bones.

We needed Shello-san back immediately, or the front line would collapse.

"Diana! Hurry! Revive Shello-san, quick!"

At my urge, Diana looked down and slowly shook her head.

Shello-san lying still... Diana shaking her head...

I understood instantly. I couldn't help but understand.

"A-Are you serious...?"

The others, even while fighting, seemed to immediately grasp the meaning of Diana shaking her head.

But they were warriors; they wouldn't stop fighting just because of that. However, the shock was undeniable. We couldn't let the front line break.

『...Etowa, release the info. Tell everyone.』

『Understood, Boss!』

I sent the order to Etowa via walkie-talkie.

I had only told Etowa about that particular secret. Etowa had been shocked but had managed to keep it hidden.

Etowa grabbed the mic and shouted:

『Everyone, stay calm! Registered Clan members can be resurrected at the Temple even if they die! Shello-san can be revived too, so please keep fighting to hold the line! This is a fact the Boss heard directly from the Spirits!』

Everyone's faces were masks of pure shock.

It made sense.

Being told you can come back to life right after someone dies isn't easy to swallow. They might have thought it was just a low-effort lie to comfort them.

But at this point, anything went. For the record, I'd actually asked the Clan Spirit and confirmed it, so it was a fact. I hadn't tested it by dying myself, of course, but it was certain.

And naturally, Shello-san was a Clan member. In fact, everyone here was a Clan member.

After a moment, Shello-san's body dissolved into particles of light and vanished. Something impossible for a normal human.

By now, he was probably waking up in the Temple, shouting, "W-What's going on!?"

* * *

With the loss of Shello-san, who had been the pillar both mentally and tactically, the battle grew even more grueling.

As the only man left, I took over the role of tank, but the Guardian's sword flashes were so intense that I could barely manage to parry them.

Priestess-chan's defensive barriers were actually a bad match for a tanking style that relied on hair-breadth dodges and parries; if you tried to deflect an attack, the barrier would often get hit first and shatter. They were best suited for kamikaze-style all-out attacks.

"Ugh!"

I managed to parry yet another strike. Marina, Rebecca-san, and Hetty-san continued their assault in the opening, but the Guardian showed incredible toughness, with no sign of falling.

We were burning through Spirit Stones at a rate of one every few minutes. If we ran out, we'd be whittled down and eventually wiped out.

Before that—

We had to finish it before that—

The Guardian unleashed a sword flurry from its unique stance. This time, we dodged it with room to spare. During a brief moment of distance, the Priestess-chan called out to me.

"Jirou-san, a report just came in... they defeated the Wyvern at the eastern spot..."

"Wait, what? They couldn't just stall it?"

"It seems they thought they could kill it, so they did."

"Why..."

Killing the Wyvern wasn't the problem in itself. But after the Wyvern comes Rakshasa. That one is easy if you have golems, but a nightmare for humans to fight normally. The less-skilled groups wouldn't be able to kill it.

The other spots had over a hundred warriors, but they were little more than a disorganized mob. Maybe the southern spot handled by the former mercenaries would be fine, but...

"Why did they defeat it!? They were told the next monster would be even more dangerous!"

"It seems... they thought they had its pattern figured and could do it. And with their numbers, they swarmed and defeated it."

"Damn it..."

What a bunch of meddlers.

A Wyvern is easy to stall because it's clumsy on land, but against Rakshasa, who moves freely on the ground, there was no way for them to hold him back. Zombie tactics with Spirit Stones would be meaningless...

"...And twenty people have already been killed."

"No good..."

Those fools... Haven't they been living with the Hitotsuzuki in this world for ages? Why couldn't they just do as they were told! Twenty people dead...!

"Jirou-san, you shouldn't blame yourself. If anything, the casualties are only this low because of you."

Priestess-chan's words of comfort sounded distant to me.

Those twenty people weren't coming back. It wasn't my responsibility, but people had died. Meanwhile, we were fighting without fear of death because we were Clan members.

I should have made every single participant a Clan member... It was too late for that now.

"Goshujin-sama."

Diana, who had appeared beside me without me noticing, was staring straight at me. Her expression was dead serious.

"Goshujin-sama. I tried to say this earlier, but... I personally think it's inappropriate to say this during a battle... but this is the only way nodesu."

"Do you have... a secret plan?"

If there was a secret plan, I wanted in.

We were already sinking into a quagmire of attrition. We were in a battle where we didn't know if the Boss would die first or if our MP would run out—a fight with no light at the end of the tunnel.

"It's not exactly a 'secret plan,' but it is a way to definitely break this deadlock nodesu."

"Really? If you had something like that, you should have said so ear—"

I stopped mid-sentence as I realized what Diana was about to say.

Diana didn't have many cards to play to begin with. Only brute-force spirit magic using Spirit Stones, and the special spirit power within her own body.

I met Diana's serious gaze head-on.

The moment had come.

The battle was at a stalemate. I asked Shamash-san to summon golems to stall the Guardian while I stepped away to face Diana.

"Diana, what is this secret plan?"

"Yes. Goshujin-sama... I need you to swear 'Eternal Love' to me."

"'Eternal love' huh..."

"Yes... You said you would marry me. You should understand what it means to marry an elf by now."

"Of course, I understand that."

"And so... swearing that 'eternal love' to one another... That is, in fact, the completion condition for my Special Guidance."

I already knew that. I just hadn't told her that I knew.

"...If this Guidance of mine is fulfilled, I'll be able to use all forms of spirit magic. Once that happens, a monster like that won't stand a chance."

I saw. It made sense. If she fulfilled her Guidance, the shackles of the spirit patterns covering her entire body would be removed, and she would finally be free.

But...

"Is this okay? At a time like this?"

"I have been swearing eternal love to you from the very beginning! You're just too dense nodesu!"

"Dense... Yeah, maybe I am."

I had noticed Diana's feelings. I had just been fumbling around because of everything else going on. And I had already decided on my answer regarding "eternal love."

"Diana."

"...Yes."

I grabbed both of her shoulders. Our eyes met and locked.

"Do you know what it means to swear eternal love to you?"

"...It means we'll be together forever."

"No... I'll die long before you. You're an elf, and I'm a human."

"...Are you not going to swear eternal love to me? If you do, Master, you will be able to live as long as I do, forever."

Diana said something terrifyingly casually. To her, that was what eternal love meant—or so it seemed.

"Being able to live forever, Diana... that means you can't die."

"Do you want to die, Goshujin-sama?"

"I don't want to die. But getting old and dying naturally—completing your life—that's the normal way to live. Living for eternity is... distorted."

"Distorted..."

I liked Diana. But living for eternity with just the two of us wasn't what I wanted. To believe that love would last forever just because you lived forever was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Even Mugen-san had said as much—that he could keep going only because he knew he could die one day. That's why we couldn't live for eternity together.

"That 'Special Guidance'... I actually have one too."

"Eh? R-Really!?"

"Yeah. But that means I should be allowed to state my wish, too. Your wish, and my wish. There can be an answer that satisfies both, right?"

"W-Well, I suppose so, but..."

If the Special Guidance was something that granted a wish, then surely it would listen to my side of the story as well. I didn't know if the non-human god controlling this world possessed that kind of flexibility, though.

"Diana. I love you."

"Eh... eh! R-really?"

"Really. I've liked you from the very beginning. Living together, there were so many times I almost made a move on you."

"W-Wha... You should have!"

"Everyone else was there... Well, putting that aside."

"Y-Yes."

"Diana. I swear my 'eternal love' to you."

"I... I swear my 'eternal love' to you too!"

As those words left our lips, Diana's golden spirit power swelled up and erupted from her body. It was powerful enough to dye the gray sky a brilliant gold.

Everyone else mid-battle paused to stare, wondering what on earth was happening.

I'd heard from Selene-san that the "Special Guidance" was the highest form of magic in this world.

In her eyes, it was a magic to be eternally bound to the one you love... but was that really it?

Would an immortal High Elf making their partner immortal really be called the greatest magic in this magical world?

I had read the story of "Kaguya" on the tablet Mugen-san showed me. What was the cause of the breakthrough in Kaguya's AI? What was the single wish that Kaguya continued to hold onto?

The answer wasn't in the literal meaning of the words. It wasn't just about "living forever with the one you love."

"T-Then, the kiss of the vow—"

Wrapped in golden light, Diana closed her eyes.

Without me noticing, the sound of clashing blades had stopped, and the world was enveloped in a silence that felt as if time itself had frozen.

Before me stood a High Elf, her platinum-blonde hair swaying within a veil of radiant light, her eyes closed, her entire body adorned with spirit patterns.

"Diana..."

The kiss of the vow. But before that, one thing.

"Diana, tell me. What is your true wish? Tell me the real wish you put into this 'Guidance'."

"Eh?"

Diana opened her eyes and tilted her head.

"U-Um... why...? Do I absolutely have to say it...?"

"You have to."

"Uuuu... I think I told you before, but when I was little, there was a picture book at my house about a Great Mage of Phantasms and a High Elf... It was a story about the two of them being together, and I truly admired it. So I thought, 'Someday, I want to be with a strong boy who has a Unique Job'... Ehe."

Diana said this with her ears turning bright red. It really was a Guidance for husband-hunting... No, that didn't matter right now.

"Yeah. But there's something else, isn't there? A wish from the bottom of your heart. Something like... the very first thing you wished for after you were born."

"The first thing...? Why are you asking such difficult things...?"

"Well... okay. Then why is the 'Special Guidance' a quest to find a partner?"

"Eh... ah. Finding a partner... N-Now that you mention it, you're right... As far as I've heard, the purpose of the Special Guidance is to find a life partner—"

Just a little more. I was almost at the answer.

"Then there must be a moment when you decide to do it."

"Um..."

According to Selene-san, the Special Guidance isn't something anyone tells you to do; it just starts on its own when you reach a certain age.

It's not like people around you say, "It's about time for your Special Guidance, isn't it? What kind of person do you want to marry?" either. From the moment they are old enough to understand things, the idea of finding a partner is strongly present in their minds.

I wanted to know the trigger.

"...I think the reason I desired eternity was after I saw the 'Commemorative Photo' in my family's mansion."

"A commemorative photo?"

"Yes. A very, very old photo. A boy and girl who were adventurers. A photo with a High Elf girl in the middle. I remember feeling like I wanted to cry the moment I saw it... a feeling I can't quite describe. It's the kind of photo that makes you want to make something eternal that isn't supposed to be."

Diana looked as though she were about to cry. The photo in Diana's home. That meant...

"The girl... wasn't she a Turk?"

"E-Eh? In the photo... yes. She might have been a Turk. She was holding a large spear and smiling faintly. My heart always flutters when I see that photo—"

"That's it."

To be precise, she was a Dark Elf, but that didn't matter here.

The photo in Diana's home was likely taken by "Kaguya", her master (the male player), and the female player who was said to have died. I had seen it on Mugen-san's tablet when I looked into Kaguya's story.

I didn't know how it ended up in Diana's house, but I was certain. Selene-san had said she'd seen it too.

Kaguya's true wish.

The single wish she had held onto all this time.

And the wish she tried to redo by creating something like the "Special Guidance" here in Emes-Palette.

Perhaps it was slightly different from Diana's own wish. But I was certain. I was certain this was the answer.

"Diana. I swear my eternal love to you, but that doesn't mean the two of us will live for eternity."

"Eh...?"

"I love you as a woman. So, let's live together, and let's die together. Let's have children... and complete our lives as humans. Even if our physical forms are gone, our love is eternal!"

"G-Goshujin-sama...!"

I exchanged a kiss with Diana.

Kaguya's wish.

The one true wish born amidst life and death.

As an artificial lifeform, it was something incredibly simple and natural.

Two people torn apart by life and death, yet touching the love they had sworn to each other—and the ego born from that sought one thing above all else.

That wish was:

——I want to be human.

The entire area was enveloped in a shimmering, radiant gold. The Guardian, who had been rampaging until now, stopped moving and fell silent. Everyone else looked around, confused by what was happening.

Warm, dazzling golden particles rose and converged at a single point. Then, the light gradually took the shape of a person.

Long white hair, white horns. A divine figure with four white wings trembling slightly.

What appears when a Guidance is fulfilled? It goes without saying. A Spirit. Then, what happens when a Special Guidance is fulfilled?

"...Thank you, Jirou Ayase. Through your love, destiny has been bound."

The Spirit looked at Diana and me with compassionate golden eyes and spoke. Even though no one there had ever seen her before, everyone knew instantly who she was.

"I have been watching over you all this time, but for the rest of you... it is nice to meet you. I am the 'Spirit Le Baraka'. The god who presides over the destiny of this world."

When a Guidance is fulfilled, a Spirit appears. So, when a Special Guidance is fulfilled?

One of the three pillar gods who rule this world.

The advent of the Great Spirit, Le Baraka.