The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  Louie was lying on the ground, and the warm thing was covering him.

  It had a familiar, nostalgic texture and smell.

  What was this, again...?

  He worked his hazy mind, trying his best to remember, and it didn’t take long for him to reach a conclusion.

  “Groaoh...”

  “Ah!” The thing covering him made a single sound, which was more than enough for Louie to realize what it was.

  The haziness over his mind suddenly cleared, and he quickly rubbed his eyes to get the soot out of them, then open them and look at the thing.

  “Gringham...” he uttered the name of a family member that was supposed to be gone.

  The lion-like monster covered Louie, using his own body to protect the boy’s life from Monochrome’s beams. They were raining down on him in large numbers, yet Gringham shielded Louie without voicing any pain.

  The only reason Louie had survived despite being targeted by the UBM was because his dear family was here to protect him.

  It was an event many would think impossible.

  Sure, one of the game’s laws made it so that the monsters stored in a Master’s Jewel would be released if the Master wasn’t online for half a Dendro year, but who could’ve imagined it happening here and now?

  Then there was the fact that a released — freed — monster had returned to where it used to live with its Master instead of going back to the wild like they normally did.

  Lastly, the idea that an untamed creature would risk its life to protect a person was simply absurd.

  All of those seemed like things that could never occur.

  And yet, they had actually happened and aligned to save Louie’s life.

  The only word fit to describe this event was “miracle,” and the only word fit to explain it was a “bond.”

  Shijima had disappeared from Infinite Dendrogram half a year ago, taking his Embryo and mount, Juno and Gringham, along with him. However, their disappearance hadn’t been nearly enough to sever the familial bonds between these two.

  “Grin...gham...” the boy shed tears as he called out the name of his family member. His face was a mess, and he cried like he’d found a priceless treasure he thought was lost.

  “Grooaoh...” Gringham responded with a mild roar.

  The beams from above were burning his back and causing him great pain, but he wanted to be the same Gringham Louie had always known, so he acted like it was nothing.

  Two members of a family, once separated, were now reunited.

  “Ｋ ｙ Ａ Ｈ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ!”

  Alas, despite Gringham saving Louie, the situation hadn’t improved.

  Monochrome laughed again, as though ridiculing the large “torch” that wasn’t avoiding any attacks and was just letting itself get burned.

  If the laughter could become words, they would be, “I want both the big and small torches to burn and show me their despair.”

  “Grrrrr...” the Aries Leo growled.

  He didn’t have any way of dealing with the monster trying to take Louie’s life. Though strong, Gringham was but a land creature.

  His claws and fangs were meant to be used on the ground, and they could never reach the skies. Being an animal prevented him from ever defeating Monochrome.

  All he could do in this situation was to use his elephantine frame to cover Louie and protect him using his HP.

  Again — Gringham couldn’t win against the UBM, and that wouldn’t change even if his owner, Shijima, was here.

  They had no cards to play here. Gringham would eventually die and become particles of light, and then the beams would burn Louie.

  They could only wait for their deaths, and only a miracle could save them now.

  Thus, despite already having wrought a miracle, Gringham pled for more.

  Ah, please... You can use my life if you have to... I beg you... Anyone... Give me a miracle that could protect my little family...

  As if picking away at his plea, Monochrome fired another beam at Gringham’s back. The energy used in it was greater than in the previous ones, which immensely increased its penetrating power.

  It was enough to pierce through Gringham’s large frame and burn Louie.

  “GROOAAAOHH...!” he roared as he felt the energy from above and sensed that the incoming attack was incomparable to the ones before.

  He braced himself in the hopes that the beam would stop with just him, but it was thoroughly meaningless.

  A shield of flesh simply wasn’t enough to stop this particular beam. Both Gringham and Louie would die.

  However, right before it hit...

  “Lend me your back for a sec.”

  ...a certain man said those words and jumped up on Gringham.

  He then held the black shield in his hands towards the sky and stopped the devastating beam.

  Unable to penetrate the shield, it scattered and rained on the surrounding buildings, either setting them aflame or downright melting them.

  However, the heat from the beam increased the temperature of the shield the man was holding, leaving him scorched.

  Though burned by both heat conduction and radiation, he continued holding the shield up to protect both Gringham and Louie.

  Eventually, the beam stopped.

  After protecting their lives, there was an interval in which Monochrome didn’t fire anything, likely because it was charging another powerful beam.

  The man used this opportunity to talk. “Do you hear me, Monochrome?!”

  The UBM’s laughter was still reaching his ears, but the man didn’t know if his voice reached Monochrome.

  “Your eyes look down on us all, but do they even see?” he continued regardless, presenting the monster with a question that came from his heart... and a declaration just as passionate. “There’s nothing here for you to break.”

  Perhaps he was talking about the exact place he was in, the burning village, the miracle wrought by a certain family, or all of them at the same time.

  “I won’t let you take another life.”

  The pleasant time at Torne had ended with the advent of the tragedy above. It had brought pain to many and was endangering Louie’s and Gringham’s lives at this very moment.

  The man claimed that he would put an end to that — that nothing would be lost now.

  This man, Ray Starling, took a deep breath and gave his whole heart into the words he said next.

  “Come, monster! This is the shield of miracles!”

  They were the same words Louie had mentioned when talking about Shijima.

  When Louie and Farica had been attacked by an inescapable despair, the man had spoken them before braving the horde of monsters in order to save the mother and child.

  He had no doubt been a miracle worker, and Ray thought it seemed right to start his battle against Monochrome by borrowing those words.

  Just like Shijima before him, he was determined to destroy the sky-nesting despair before it could take Louie’s life.

  That declaration was the trigger that started the final fight between Ray Starling the Unbreakable and Monochrome, the Void of the Black Sky.

  Chapter Seven: Soar High, Shooting Star

  The Tale of a Star

  Monochrome didn’t know its own origin. It wasn’t even aware if it had been birthed by nature or created by someone’s hand.

  The name above its head was something it was never conscious of, either.

  The world called this monster the “Void of the Black Sky, Monochrome,” but the creature never considered itself any such thing.

  To it, the world was made up of only “this” (itself) and “everything else,” so coding things with names was simply unnecessary. All that was important was the fact that it had a set of powers, and it was complete with nothing more than that.

  As a being that gained all the energy necessary for its activities by merely absorbing light, Monochrome had no reason to do anything. And thus, ever since its
appearance, it had done absolutely nothing. There was no necessity to do anything, so it didn’t even think about doing anything.

  In fact, it didn’t think at all — nothing ever made its mind or heart budge.

  That was its existence long before it was dubbed the “Void of the Black Sky, Monochrome.”

  It merely floated high up in the sky and did nearly nothing but “exist” — just “being there,” so to speak. It ate all the light it needed to survive, and radiated any excesses come nighttime.

  Those looking up at the sky would see it as just another star. All that made it different from the rest was the fact that it was slightly brighter than most and that it wasn’t fixed.

  That was extent of its existence, presence, and effect on the world.

  It would have been entirely possible for it to mindlessly float in the sky as a faux-star for aeons and beyond, but somewhere along the line, it became Monochrome.

  The thing that caused the change inside it was a light it saw on the surface several hundreds of years ago: a fire burning throughout a city-state below.

  Monochrome — or, rather, what it was before it got the name — looked down upon the scorching flames of war.

  Man killed fellow man. Many were hurt, their homes were burned, and their lives were extinguished as the air became dense with anguish and despair.

  But despite the horror, someone was looking at the scene while laughing with pure glee.

  The commander of the invaders cackled loudly as the enemy nation burned to the ground.

  A display of emotion so intense was something that the plant-like creature up in the sky wasn’t familiar with, and looking down at the scene made something within it — something that had been dormant all this time — suddenly stir.

  Heart, mind, core — there was no telling what it actually was, but the fact remained that it was moved, and it had no idea why.

  Regardless, it was the first change the creature had ever experienced since the beginning of its plain, almost rock-like existence. Due to that, it didn’t find it important whether the horrible scene’s effect on it was positive or not.

  It only cared that the presence of despair caused it to change, like it caused change to those in pain and those who laughed.

  That realization was so fresh and unknown to it that it quickly took it upon itself to bring new despair.

  It had already known that focusing its excess light allowed it to fire a heat beam that could reach the surface, and that was exactly what it did.

  Mimicking those fighting in the war below, it used its own power to hurt and burn, starting with the one who laughed at others’ despair.

  The result?

  The person anguished — showed despair.

  “...Kya... ha.”

  Watching the sight, the creature felt its core stir once more. Even its voice function, never used before, began to play a sound.

  “ＫｙＡ...ｈａ...Ｈａ.”

  It fired more beams, creating even more people who drowned in anguish and despair, and they died without even realizing what was happening to them.

  As the suffering grew, the creature felt something be born within its core, which had once been akin to rock.

  “Ｋ ｙ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ!”

  Eventually, its voice function began releasing a loud laughter.

  Pure and innocent, it laughed like an infant it had once heard while looking down at the world, making its joy known far and wide. It found pleasure in its changes and reassessed its consciousness.

  Let’s burn more and more. Those are “torches.” When they burn, they light up this heart.

  Somewhere down the line, it was given the name “Void of the Black Sky, Monochrome,” but it didn’t care about that in the least. Monochrome simply continued floating in the sky and burning animals to see them despair.

  Every now and then, there would be those who’d challenge the creature, but they would all end up burned to death before they could even reach it.

  Monochrome realized that its core was stirred the most when the determined faces of those who struggled against it became overcome with despair, and due to that, the entity eventually decided to stay in one place.

  If “this” stays here and waits, “this” will get to see torches with determined faces show despair, right?

  With that thought, it began nesting in the sky above the place that would come to be called “Torne Village.”

  That eventually led to it being hit by a meteor and getting buried underground for 300 years, but those centuries would do nothing to change its nature and modus operandi.

  Monochrome continued to stay in place and wait for determined “torches” to challenge it, and it didn’t take long for its wish to come true.

  After all, right now, right below it, there was a man who was struggling against it with more determination than anyone ever had before.

  ◇◆◇

  Torne Village

  That man, Ray, was using Nemesis in her third form to defend against Monochrome’s beams.

  The shield prevented all direct attacks, but part of the heat they carried reached Ray’s hand by conduction and left it hideously burned.

  Even so, he did not yield or even consider letting go of his shield. He merely spammed his healing magic while intently listening to Nemesis’s words.

  “27,210... 30,635...”

  They were nothing but numerical values. Nemesis voiced a greater number with every beam that came. It was much like her usual damage counter, but there were a few differences.

  Ray assumed the damage already accumulated was more than enough to defeat Monochrome, but even so, he continued taking the attacks.

  Even when reduced by the shield and Paladin’s Aegis, the raining beams still dealt more damage than Ray healed with his magic and BR Armor’s Bloody Regeneration, but the difference wasn’t particularly great, so Ray’s HP was being scorched away only gradually.

  “Mister Ray!” Louie cried, looking at him, still protected by Gringham.

  Ray was no longer on the beast’s back, for Monochrome had already switched its focus away from Gringham over to the Master fighting it. That was clear because the beams weren’t raining down on the unshielded parts of the beast, but instead following after Ray.

  Thus, he’d jumped off Gringham and faced the rain all by himself.

  At this point, the beast was damaged so badly that he could barely move, but even so, he continued protecting his dear Louie, who was looking at Ray as he struggled against Monochrome and its beams.

  “Ｋ ｙ ａ Ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ!” the entity laughed.

  Its field of vision captured countless things on the surface.

  It saw the armored “torch” running towards the windmill.

  It saw the many torches hiding at the shelter built against it.

  It saw the beast torch and the little boy torch it was protecting.

  It saw the men and women torches hiding within the dark.

  It saw a few torches preparing to attack it again from the surface.

  It saw the mohawk torch preparing to take to the sky, only to be stopped by another torch.

  But none of those torches mattered to it anymore.

  Monochrome was now interested in and cared about only one torch: the one that was directing the strongest feelings towards it.

  Indeed, that torch had captivated it, and that was something that had never happened before.

  Until now, the creature had never paid much attention to torches separately. To Monochrome, the world was just “this” (itself) and “everything else,” where the latter were mere torches that burned in anguish and despair, and thus never had to be differentiated in any way.

  This torch was on the verge of being the only exception. From the surface, it looked up at Monochrome with not a hint of fear or despair — only pure rage.

  The creature gazed back at the torch that was Ray Starling, and pon
dered.

  Yes. That’s him. He’s the one who came closest to “this.” What’s different about him?

  It recognized the man as one of those who’d tried to approach it not too long ago, and despite having been brought down once, the man still looked at Monochrome with a challenging expression, which the creature found highly peculiar.

  All of those struggling against it in the past had had something they wholeheartedly relied on. Some had been skilled with the sword, some had had excellent archery skills, while some had fought alongside dragons.

  Oftentimes, upon realizing that their favored arts, tricks, and beasts had no effect, their daring expressions would change into those of despair, and those faces were the ones that shook Monochrome’s core more than anything else.

  Ray, however, was still struggling. His heart hadn’t yielded after failing to reach it by flight, after having his flesh seared by its beams, and even after having seemingly no moves he could play against it. He just didn’t break.

  Thus, he made Monochrome think, Then let’s go all-out.

  This would be its first time using its full power since its appearance hundreds of years ago.

  It converted light into MP, changed the MP into beam energy, and continuously gathered it within itself.

  After repeat converting and charging, Monochrome eventually had the maximum amount of energy it could sustain, and condensed it all in its crystalline body, rather than the tips of its tentacles.

  The crack on the crystal began leaking waves of energy that evaporated the surrounding clouds and created a space of clear sky around the creature.

  Monochrome’s body began to shine so brightly that it was hard to believe how dark it had been just moments ago.

  It was preparing to unleash its trump card — not just a powerful-yet-nameless beam, but a uniquely-titled skill.

  The creature spoke its name: “ＳＨＩＮＩＮＧ ＤＥＳＰＡＩＲ!”

  For reasons unknown, the pronunciation of the word “despair” was unlike that of Earth’s, being closer to “disappear.”

  Nevertheless, the text was honest — the skill was most definitely a light that could end all hope, carrying energy incomparable to all the beams that came before.