Inheritance

Azu and Kazusa waited a while for the Skeleton to speak again.

Kazusa's breathing had grown slightly ragged.

The pain from her injuries must have been getting to her. Azu dampened a spare cloth with water and placed it on Kazusa's forehead.

In a space with no clock, time was impossible to gauge.

After what felt like both forever and no time at all, the Skeleton's awareness returned to them.

"Good. That was a good story. I stayed here under the pretense of keeping a promise to the Ash King, but… times do change, I suppose."

The Skeleton looked at the Apostle of the Creator King.

The girl lay there still, unchanged.

"Will this long stagnation finally end? But the Ash King alone won't be enough… It'll only repeat."

The Skeleton looked at Azu.

From his perspective, the girl before him was only marginally better than an average warrior.

In strength, magic, and skill alike.

He couldn't fathom this girl playing any part in the great currents of history.

Even if she got swept up in them somewhere, she'd die in the blink of an eye…

Just as the Skeleton reached that thought, the Apostle of the Creator King's finger twitched.

"What—"

The Apostle sat up and looked first at the Skeleton.

"Kiyo? You've… lost some weight."

"Impossible. You haven't moved in all these ages—"

"I haven't come back to life. It's just… a certain soul is nearby, so I've stirred a little."

With that, the Apostle of the Creator King rose to her feet.

The Skeleton, now addressed as Kiyo, was frozen solid by the sheer impossibility of it.

She had a human form, but was more beautiful than any human could be.

Yet from the edges of her body, she was slowly beginning to dissolve into motes of light.

"Waking up just to face this. Not much time."

The Apostle of the Creator King studied her own hands.

The body that had seemed solid moments ago was faintly translucent.

Watching this girl vanish from the world before her eyes, Azu felt it.

"I heard the whole story too. The Ash King… even in death, he couldn't rest. Stubborn as ever. But that's exactly why he made it in time."

The Apostle of the Creator King looked at Azu.

"Azu."

"Y-Yes."

"I am an Apostle of the Creator King. Fourth in rank, and the last of the Apostles. My name is Justitia. I was entrusted with guarding the King's domain in his absence, yet I am the one who lost."

Justitia spoke with commanding dignity.

Even as her very existence was fading, the power she emanated rivaled or surpassed the Skeleton standing frozen behind her.

If someone this overwhelming had been forced to take a mutual kill, just how terrifying must the Apostle of the Sun God have been?

The only version Azu had seen was its Undead incarnation, and it had been the Ash King who'd faced it, not her. She couldn't even begin to imagine that level of power.

"You bear no destiny, and yet you came here. You possess no remarkable power, you are simply human, but you survived and overcame. Revolutions are not always born from the strong."

Justitia grasped Azu's chin with her right hand and peered into her eyes.

Azu couldn't look away from the beautiful rainbow hues of Justitia's irises.

They seemed inorganic, and yet deep within those eyes, she sensed a will.

"Did you know? The Ash King was a weak man, just like you. In the beginning, even the weakest monsters frightened him."

"That man? Hard to believe."

Kiyo had finally snapped out of his frozen state.

"It's the truth. I've known the Ash King since I delivered him at birth."

"Ah, so his devotion to you was partly imprinting."

"Who knows. What is certain is that the Ash King fought for the Ash King's own justice. Of his own will. You know that as well as I do. Azu, what will you become?"

"I… want to become stronger. To protect my place in this world."

"I see. I'd have liked to train you myself, but… there's no time. I'll leave you just one thing."

Azu and Justitia held each other's gaze at close range.

Through their locked eyes, Justitia passed something to Azu.

Something Azu couldn't perceive.

She caught glimpses of Justitia's memories, but those faded too.

There was no pain. No discomfort.

Only the faintest sensation of something settling into her, and even that dissolved with time.

"It's meaningless to you as you are now. But when you surpass your fate, it will have meaning."

That must have been the last of her strength.

Justitia's body crumbled into light.

"My King. Was I… of any use?"

The right hand that had held Azu's chin vanished, and the beautiful girl was gone.

"She's gone… She said a soul was nearby, but…"

Azu stood dazed for a moment, then collapsed as though her strings had been cut.

Kazusa, half-conscious, tried to catch her, but the two of them toppled over together.

"… What was passed on? I can't see that anything's changed. Well, no matter."

Kiyo scooped up both girls and carried them to another room in the temple.

A few bedrolls lay there.

He laid the girls down and draped sheets over them.

After checking Kazusa's condition, he dug out several dried herbs from a medicine box on the shelf and crammed them into her mouth.

Kazusa choked, but Kiyo didn't care.

"Deal with it. It'll bring the fever down."

Kazusa managed to swallow the herbs, and Kiyo tipped water into her mouth.

Before long, her breathing settled into a peaceful rhythm.

"Good grief, what am I even doing…"

Despite his grumbling, Kiyo's face, skeletal as it was, looked unmistakably lighter now that his long, self-imposed vigil had come to an end.

"Where's the Ash King these days, I wonder. Maybe I'll pay a visit to his castle."