Chapter 217
Luca had a dream.
A truly horrific dream.
In his dream, he fought devils. The devils there were far stronger and more brutal than any he knew now.
Countless friends fell victim to the devils' schemes, meeting gruesome ends.
He and his companions had no choice but to press forward, using the bodies of their fallen as stepping stones.
After untold sacrifice, he finally reached the end.
There, he sacrificed himself to successfully seal away all the devils.
But that was as far as it went.
His strength was exhausted, and he eventually collapsed on the spot, crumbling into a handful of ashes.
"......."
Luca opened his eyes.
It was a familiar ceiling—the academy dormitory, his room.
'... Was it just a dream?'
Strangely, the dream felt incredibly vivid.
As if he had personally experienced someone's memories.
But the room was eerily silent.
As if there was no one else nearby.
"You're awake, master."
"... Whistle?"
Just then, Whistle quietly called him. Luca looked down at him with a puzzled expression.
Whistle's mood was a little different from usual.
"Quite a lot has happened while you were asleep, master."
"How long... have I been asleep?"
At Luca's question, Whistle paused before replying.
"A month."
"... A month."
Learning he had slept far longer than expected, Luca twisted his lips.
'What happened in that month...?'
Luca forced himself to search his memories.
The last thing he could recall was forcibly using the sun's power to save Herote. He flinched.
"Is Herote alive?"
"That mage is alive. She's trying to use magic again."
"I... see..."
Luca breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad his efforts had not been in vain.
"More importantly, master. This is your mindscape. It's not reality yet."
"My mindscape... I see."
No wonder it was so quiet; he was still inside his own mindscape. Suddenly, he became curious.
"Whistle, could you always enter another person's mindscape?"
"Master and I are connected."
"... Me?"
Luca realized his manner of speech had changed.
The moment he noticed, Whistle suddenly disappeared into a cloud that had appeared out of nowhere.
When the cloud cleared, he had a different appearance.
"That form...!"
A tall woman in traditional Eastern immortal garb—a familiar appearance.
She was surely Whistle's original master.
When he had seen her in the dream, her appearance had been obscured by mosaic-like noise, but now it was clear—a graceful Eastern beauty worthy of an artist's portrait.
With that appearance, Whistle wore a pained expression.
"The moment you transcended thanks to that mage, I also regained all my strength through harmonization with you, master. And with it, all of my memories returned, too."
She had regained her memories.
It was a statement that carried many thoughts. Luca was silent for a moment, then spoke.
"The things I went through in my dream, were those your memories?"
"... Yes."
They were tragic memories. Horrific, quite unlike what Luca had experienced.
Luca had saved all his friends—but Whistle had not.
All her companions died, and even her master died.
In the end, she sacrificed herself alongside the gods to restrain the devils and entered reincarnation.
"If I'd known what those memories were, I wouldn't have tried to regain them."
"......"
Whistle wore a bitter expression. Luca looked at her and spoke calmly.
"I was only able to defeat the devils now thanks to you. And the present you exists because of the sacrifices of your past self and your friends. So, those memories aren't all horrible."
At that, Whistle gave a wry smile.
"Even in situations like this, master still thinks of others."
"... I'm just stating facts."
Seeing him answer gruffly, Whistle chuckled softly and then returned to her bluebird form.
"Is there anything more you want to know about the past?"
"Not particularly. I basically saw it all."
Since Luca had seen Whistle's memories in his dream, he more or less knew what had happened.
'So it really was Whistle that was the fifth great soul the protagonist never managed to get in the end.'
He had partly suspected it when Waypoint had said she was a companion.
The devil invasion.
To resist the invasion, Whistle's first master received a fragment from the true Skybird and created Whistle from it.
"In that case, master, I'll let you out of here now."
"You'll let me out?"
It sounded strange.
This was, after all, Luca's own mindscape—a space he could enter and leave at will, as he wished.
"When you pushed your consciousness past its limits, master, you almost died. Because of that, I, being in the middle of harmonization with you, had no choice but to take over this place. I closed it off so you wouldn't disappear—think of it as your consciousness being in a vegetative state."
"I see."
"As a side effect, I got trapped here too. Forcing my way out would collapse your mindscape, so I'll stay here a bit longer."
So saying, Whistle sat by the window where he always sat, gazing at Luca.
"And there's still the matter of preparing to take down the last remaining Three Great Devils."
"... The last of the Three Great Devils?"
Luca gave her a puzzled look. Whistle let out a soft, high-pitched *pii-* and fluttered her wings.
"You'd better go out and hear the rest yourself."
"Wa—..."
Pop!
Just like that, Luca vanished from the mindscape.
Left alone, Whistle flew back up and perched on the bed where Luca had been lying.
As she felt the lingering warmth he left behind, she closed her eyes and murmured,
"Then, master... I'm counting on you until the very end."
Tears streamed down Whistle's cheeks.
* * *
Luca opened his eyes again. Once more, a familiar ceiling—it was still the academy dormitory, his own room.
'Surely this isn't another dream?'
He thought that while he tried to rise, but stopped.
Bella was sleeping, leaning against his bed.
"......"
Luca gazed at her with a faint smile, then flinched.
Someone else was sitting beside her.
"You..."
"You're awake."
Luca looked at him with a sour expression.
"Luca Traverse...?"
He could sense it was Luca Traverse. But—
"What's with that look...?"
Simply put, it felt like Wylde's body with Luca's head stuck on top.
Of course, it wasn't literally that, but he had grown bigger and taller, and his face seemed a little more mature.
"From now on, call me Willow."
"... Willow?!"
Knowing what the name Willow meant, Luca stared in shock. Willow sighed, then spoke coolly.
"A lot happened while you were sleeping. First..."
He explained that he obtained a new body using Luca's knowledge, that he defeated Wylde, and that he overcame the Devil of Power using the name Willow.
"So you even defeated the Devil of Power...?"
Luca blinked, shocked at the news. Willow still spoke coolly.
"Many other things happened, but that's all I'll say. The rest, you'll have to hear from the others."
"What else could have happened in just a month...?"
Luca wore a reluctant expression, then flinched.
Suddenly, a flurry of notifications popped up.
[You have received the reward for subjugating the Devil of Wisdom, Agreas.]
[The special application 'Call-GOD' has been created.]
[All hints derived from the Devil of Wisdom, Agreas, have been deleted.]
...
[Herote Marcato's likability has increased.]
[The application 'Skybird's Growth Diary' has been deleted.]
"?!"
The sudden flood of notifications made Luca dizzy. He grabbed his phone to check what had happened.
'Looks like I received tokens as a reward for subjugating Agreas. As for Call-GOD—'
[Call-GOD]
― An application that allows you to call GOD.
― Requires a fixed number of tokens per second of call time.
― Has fewer restrictions than Chat-GOD.
It seemed to be the call version of Chat-GOD.
'Fewer restrictions, huh...'
So thinking, Luca fiddled with his phone. Just then, Willow spoke brusquely.
"That's important, but aren't you curious what happened during that month?"
"I am, but... Did you request that body yourself?"
Luca Traverse had always disliked his small frame.
It seemed that complex had manifested in Willow's current appearance.
Luca wondered if he had asked for that specific form.
"My original body was female, so I did hope for it to change to a male one."
"F-fe—female body?!"
"Don't interrupt. Anyway, that's what I wanted, but actually choosing this appearance..."
Willow glanced at Bella, who was sleeping.
"It was this one."
"... Bella?"
When Willow returned, half-destroyed, he said to Strethel,
― Now that it's come to this, I'd like a brand new body.
― I can do that. But I can't make anything great right now.
― That's fine. But let this one decide the form.
Willow then looked to Bella.
― Me?!
― It's fine. How should I look?
― Are you sure about this, master?
To her question, Willow answered coolly,
― You always chose my clothes when I went out. This isn't much different.
― It's a little different, but... Got it! But you can't complain about it later!
And that's how he got his new body.
Having got the general idea, Luca nodded.
"Fair enough. It's only right that the one using it decides."
"... What's that supposed to mean?"
Willow shot him a glare, but Luca just shrugged.
"Anyway, I am curious about what happened, but it'd be weird to call everyone when they're probably sleeping in their own rooms right now."
"Who knows."
Willow gave a wry smile, then stood and walked toward the door. Grabbing the handle, he said,
"It's probably better to set their minds at ease, even a second sooner."
Creak.
"!"
When he opened the door, he saw Ottbo, Milia, and Isella dozing off in chairs in the common room.
"Good timing. Ottbo Gress came every day, but the other two only came once every three or four days."
Willow turned to look at Luca.
"Kryphi Mosto, Herote Marcato, and even Pasmo Thier also sometimes came and slept here, waiting for you to wake up."
"......"
"A month is longer than you'd think."
With those words, Willow retreated in the background.
Luca fell silent for a moment, then heaved a deep sigh before gently nudging the sleeping Bella.
"Mm... What is it, Willow...!"
Bella woke, rubbing her eyes, then stopped when she met Luca's gaze.
Her eyes welled up with tears as she hugged him tightly.
"Master! You're awake!"
"... Yeah."
Luca whispered with a faint smile,
"Sorry I'm late."
Luca had returned.
* * *
"Hm... I can't believe it. Both Agreas and Vandello have fallen."
In the Demonz' hideout, the Devil of Life looked shocked as even the trace of Vandello vanished.
"Hm... There are more strong ones than I expected. What was Agreas thinking?"
Tilting his head, the Devil of Life then clapped his hands with a smile.
"Alright. I'd better take measures to prevent the humans from coming together. If I die, that really will be a problem."
"......"
"So do your best to help me, friend."
Something was writhing at his feet.
It was Menteoga, the leader of Demonz. He was covered in something sticky and foul-smelling, like melting tar, and was struggling.
Looking down at him, the Devil of Life beamed.
"Well, let the human hunt begin."