Prologue
Prologue
Ten years had passed since the Jave, humanity’s natural predators, had first appeared.
***
“Hero, are you gonna die?” I asked.
An oversized moon shone down upon us. We were surrounded by fires and rubble and so many bodies.
The Hero put his hand on my head, smiling awkwardly. “You’re going to live,” he said.
“Just me…?”
“Yes. We, at least, have to…”
“But… But everyone else is dead…”
Blood and guts were littered all around us. Some were the remains of people gobbled up by the tentacle monsters, and some were bits of the tentacle monsters left after the Hero had arrived and torn them apart.
“That’s why you need to live,” the Hero said. “For all those who didn’t.”
“You’re not coming with me?”
“Sorry. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
The Hero looked up at the giant moon hanging overhead in broad daylight. It was pitch black, glowing around the edges. It was also a door leading to the world on the other side, a demonic moon which spit out an endless stream of the tentacle monsters that came to eat us.
A Gate…
To their nest.
“I’ve got to go avenge everyone.”
“Take me with you!” I cried.
“I can’t do that.”
“They… They’re all dead! Please! I want to die with them! I want to go where they are!”
“I’m sorry…” he apologized, like it hurt to say. The Hero put something in my hands and said, “Division Maneuver, activate.”
Instantly, I was surrounded by a cocoon of pale light. I began floating. He was going to send me away, all alone.
“Hero!”
“This is my gift to you. Get out of this place.”
“Wait, please! Don’t leave me alone!”
“Goodbye. Be well.”
The cocoon of light around me rose toward the sky, floating away from the imperial capital.
“Hero! Hero! Herooo!”
I yelled until my voice grew hoarse, but my cries didn’t reach him. The massive black moon grew further and further away.
The Hero never looked my way.
***
There once was a man named Suzuka Hachishiki. He was a Maneuver Cavalleria, Squad Leader of the Suzuka Squad, First Mobile Unit of the Imperial Air Force/City Defense Corps.
Colloquially, he was known as “the Hero”—the man who had killed, slaughtered, and massacred his way through the monsters from another world.
His parents had been killed by the Jave. An orphanage took him in, but the Jave killed the nuns and all his friends there as well. Those monsters had even slaughtered his comrades in the army. In retaliation, he led missions that were tantamount to vengeance-fueled suicide, but he survived, saving the lives of many in the process and earning himself the name of “Hero”.
His life was war. He was a demon who existed only to slaughter the Jave.
Now, Hachishiki was adrift in darkness. He was bleeding everywhere, on the verge of blacking out, moments from death.
After saving the girl, he’d plunged into the Gate over the capital, fought his way through mankind’s mortal enemies to the Jave Queen, and…
…they’d destroyed each other.
Worth it, he thought.
He’d thrown everything he had at her. Even then, he’d been unable to win. The only option remaining to him was to use a skill that sent his magic into overdrive, turning him into a lethal storm. This skill was part of the Shichisei Kenbu, which Hachishiki practiced.
Certain of victory, the enemy queen had been just about to swallow Hachishiki whole…and took the full brunt of his attack. When he saw the Queen’s flesh dissolving, he knew her body had only been held together with magic.
Yet, at the same time…
What…?
Fear sent a chill down his spine. He wasn’t afraid of his approaching death. No, he’d made contact with the Queen’s magic. As the Queen’s body dissolved, her soul melting away, it had briefly mingled with Hachishiki’s own magic.
What…is this…?!
In that magic, he sensed a terrifying degree of hatred for humanity. They’d devoured all the humans on their own world, but that hadn’t satisfied them. Driven by a dark, murky, bottomless well of rage, the Jave had blown a huge amount of magic opening a Gate so they could come to this world and exterminate mankind here.
And that wasn’t all…
They’re… They’re coming back…?!
The Queen had fled.
Hachishiki knew she had opened a Gate back to the Jave home world and flung the Core, her heart, back through it. The time would come—in less than twenty years, perhaps—when the Queen’s wounds would heal, and she would return to our world.
This was bad.
He was going to die here. That was inescapable. His sight had gone, and his consciousness was fading. He had no way of warning anyone.
Please, Master! he prayed to his former mentor. Raise strong Cavalleria, warriors every bit as strong as I was, so that, one day, when the Queen returns, they can…they can…
Oh…
Hachishiki’s thoughts grew scattered, his very being fading into the dark.
“Hero, are you gonna die?”
Where had he heard that?
Right. That girl he’d saved. It seemed like such a long time ago… Did she get away safely? He hoped she would grow up to be strong.
Hachishiki lost consciousness. It felt the same as his eyelids closing just before falling asleep in a darkened room.
Thus, the Hero perished…
Ten years had passed since the Jave, humanity’s natural predators, had first appeared.
***
“Hero, are you gonna die?” I asked.
An oversized moon shone down upon us. We were surrounded by fires and rubble and so many bodies.
The Hero put his hand on my head, smiling awkwardly. “You’re going to live,” he said.
“Just me…?”
“Yes. We, at least, have to…”
“But… But everyone else is dead…”
Blood and guts were littered all around us. Some were the remains of people gobbled up by the tentacle monsters, and some were bits of the tentacle monsters left after the Hero had arrived and torn them apart.
“That’s why you need to live,” the Hero said. “For all those who didn’t.”
“You’re not coming with me?”
“Sorry. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
The Hero looked up at the giant moon hanging overhead in broad daylight. It was pitch black, glowing around the edges. It was also a door leading to the world on the other side, a demonic moon which spit out an endless stream of the tentacle monsters that came to eat us.
A Gate…
To their nest.
“I’ve got to go avenge everyone.”
“Take me with you!” I cried.
“I can’t do that.”
“They… They’re all dead! Please! I want to die with them! I want to go where they are!”
“I’m sorry…” he apologized, like it hurt to say. The Hero put something in my hands and said, “Division Maneuver, activate.”
Instantly, I was surrounded by a cocoon of pale light. I began floating. He was going to send me away, all alone.
“Hero!”
“This is my gift to you. Get out of this place.”
“Wait, please! Don’t leave me alone!”
“Goodbye. Be well.”
The cocoon of light around me rose toward the sky, floating away from the imperial capital.
“Hero! Hero! Herooo!”
I yelled until my voice grew hoarse, but my cries didn’t reach him. The massive black moon grew further and further away.
The Hero never looked my way.
***
There once was a man named Suzuka Hachishiki. He was a Maneuver Cavalleria, Squad Leader of the Suzuka Squad, First Mobile Unit of the Imperial Air Force/City Defense Corps.
Colloquially, he was known as “the Hero”—the man who had killed, slaughtered, and massacred his way through the monsters from another world.
His parents had been killed by the Jave. An orphanage took him in, but the Jave killed the nuns and all his friends there as well. Those monsters had even slaughtered his comrades in the army. In retaliation, he led missions that were tantamount to vengeance-fueled suicide, but he survived, saving the lives of many in the process and earning himself the name of “Hero”.
His life was war. He was a demon who existed only to slaughter the Jave.
Now, Hachishiki was adrift in darkness. He was bleeding everywhere, on the verge of blacking out, moments from death.
After saving the girl, he’d plunged into the Gate over the capital, fought his way through mankind’s mortal enemies to the Jave Queen, and…
…they’d destroyed each other.
Worth it, he thought.
He’d thrown everything he had at her. Even then, he’d been unable to win. The only option remaining to him was to use a skill that sent his magic into overdrive, turning him into a lethal storm. This skill was part of the Shichisei Kenbu, which Hachishiki practiced.
Certain of victory, the enemy queen had been just about to swallow Hachishiki whole…and took the full brunt of his attack. When he saw the Queen’s flesh dissolving, he knew her body had only been held together with magic.
Yet, at the same time…
What…?
Fear sent a chill down his spine. He wasn’t afraid of his approaching death. No, he’d made contact with the Queen’s magic. As the Queen’s body dissolved, her soul melting away, it had briefly mingled with Hachishiki’s own magic.
What…is this…?!
In that magic, he sensed a terrifying degree of hatred for humanity. They’d devoured all the humans on their own world, but that hadn’t satisfied them. Driven by a dark, murky, bottomless well of rage, the Jave had blown a huge amount of magic opening a Gate so they could come to this world and exterminate mankind here.
And that wasn’t all…
They’re… They’re coming back…?!
The Queen had fled.
Hachishiki knew she had opened a Gate back to the Jave home world and flung the Core, her heart, back through it. The time would come—in less than twenty years, perhaps—when the Queen’s wounds would heal, and she would return to our world.
This was bad.
He was going to die here. That was inescapable. His sight had gone, and his consciousness was fading. He had no way of warning anyone.
Please, Master! he prayed to his former mentor. Raise strong Cavalleria, warriors every bit as strong as I was, so that, one day, when the Queen returns, they can…they can…
Oh…
Hachishiki’s thoughts grew scattered, his very being fading into the dark.
“Hero, are you gonna die?”
Where had he heard that?
Right. That girl he’d saved. It seemed like such a long time ago… Did she get away safely? He hoped she would grow up to be strong.
Hachishiki lost consciousness. It felt the same as his eyelids closing just before falling asleep in a darkened room.
Thus, the Hero perished…
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